Temptation Calls Page 8

  Healing being one of the wondrous gifts that came with their nocturnal existence.

  But he wouldn’t have been able to heal if Mr. Mad Scientist had continued with the wounds he seemed to love inflicting. Plus, Blake couldn’t leave Meghan alone to suffer at the hands of the lunatic who’d taken them.

  So he’d betrayed Esperanza, and then Samantha, but with a reason. Diego—the strongest of them all—was bound to come after his lover and the woman who’d been his best friend for nearly a century. With Diego in the mix, maybe they could escape their captor and the pair of goons he kept around to assist him. Humans one and all only…

  There was something about the old man that wasn’t quite right. As if he wasn’t totally human.

  It wasn’t like the clean hum of power that came from another vampire. It was more like the snap and crackle of static—erratic and untrustworthy.

  Whatever it was, it made Blake wonder if the good doctor wasn’t what he seemed. He certainly lacked humanity, otherwise he wouldn’t be torturing and maiming them like science experiments.

  As the sounds grew closer, Meghan trembled. He took hold of her hand. “Don’t let him see that you’re afraid.”

  She gripped his hand tightly as their captor came into view, two of his goons dragging a lifeless Esperanza. Tasers in hand, they opened the door of the cell, tossed Esperanza inside, and then immediately locked the cell once again.

  “You lied to me, Blake. I don’t like liars.” The old scientist took one of the Tasers from his minion. With a dismissive wave of his hand, he said to them, “Go wait for me in my office.”

  “I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t lie.”

  “You said she would be stronger.” The scientist motioned to Esperanza, who lay sprawled on the cement floor.

  Fear snapped to life in Blake’s gut. Esperanza was too pale. Too still. Maybe he was too far away, or maybe she was too weak, but he couldn’t feel her power. He didn’t understand how that could be unless…

  “She’s much older than Meghan and me. She should be stronger.”

  “Feed her, Blake. Like you did with Meghan because I’m not done with her yet.”

  Blake wanted to refuse, but the old man picked up the Taser, making it clear what the punishment would be if Blake didn’t comply.

  Behind him, Meghan stood up straighter. “We’re not afraid of you.”

  Edward Sloan was impressed with the way the young blond vampire had finally decided to stand up to him. He admired her spirit. But as much as he admired it, he wouldn’t hesitate to destroy her, if it meant finding the missing pieces of the puzzle, the one that would be a cure for his illness. Luckily, some of the pieces were standing right here.

  Soon he would have answers. He had to. The mutated cells in his body were barely under control. Only regular transfusions, which he required more and more often, were of any use.

  The vampires would yield the cure. So he needed Esperanza up and about, since Blake and Meghan weren’t up to further experimentation yet.

  “Feed her.” He once again motioned to Esperanza’s still body.

  As Blake inched toward Esperanza, the lean muscles of his body rippled. He was a magnificent animal.

  Edward had watched the two vampires over the last week or so. He’d been entranced by the caring Blake had shown and Meghan’s reaction to it. It was a pity he couldn’t keep them as lab rats to see just how things were between vampires. How they mated and whether they bore others of their kind.

  Edward drew closer to the cell, intent on watching Blake feed the older vampire. But Blake paused and laid his hand on her body. “She’s gone. You’ve killed her.”

  “That’s not possible,” Edward replied. “You said she would be—”

  The young vampire launched himself at the bars of the cell, grabbing Edward. “You bastard. You killed her.”

  Edward pulled the trigger on the Taser. Blake’s body recoiled as electricity surged through him, but he still held onto Edward, all the time screaming and cursing.

  Edward struggled and called out for his assistants, who came running. One man fired off another Taser blast, which did little more than the first. The second man, seeing that the Taser wasn’t working, grabbed the cattle prod and shoved it onto Blake’s midsection.

  Blake jerked back and finally started to lose his grip. A second jab had him dropping to his knees. When the guard went for a third prod, Edward stopped him. “We can’t afford to lose this one yet.”

  As Blake held onto the cell bars for support, Edward placed a well-heeled shoe on Blake’s chest and shoved harshly, sending the vampire sprawling back onto the floor. He lay there, his body jerking from the Taser’s electricity. Large reddish burn marks were rising on his body.

  Meghan moved to Blake’s side. “Leave him and go to the woman. Feed her,” Edward commanded, his tone cold and brooking no disagreement.

  Meghan shot Blake a woeful glance before proceeding to Esperanza’s side. With a fingernail, she sliced open the middle of her forearm. Blood flowed freely and Meghan slipped her uninjured arm beneath the woman’s shoulders. Gently, like a mother urging her newborn infant to suckle, Meghan held her bloodied arm to Esperanza’s mouth. Over and over again she let the blood drip into it, until it was apparent to all that the other vampire wasn’t responding. She was gone.

  “Stop wasting that blood,” Edward snapped in irritation. “Feed your boyfriend. He’s going to need all the strength he has for what I’ve got in store for him.”

  Meghan scurried over to Blake and cradled him close. The vampire woke slowly and latched on to Meghan’s arm.

  Edward could almost sense the strength flowing from one to the other. With some of their blood running in his veins, he could feel the growing heat of their bodies. Blood lust would be replaced by sexual lust. Soon, once Blake had satisfied one need, they would go to work satisfying another.

  Snapping his fingers at his two guards, who stood transfixed watching the display, he prodded them to move on. He was eager to return to his office. Once there, he’d replace some of his own contaminated blood with Esperanza’s. And while he waited for that new blood to energize his body, he could view the two lusty vampires thanks to the camera mounted in the corner of the cell.

  He grew excited thinking about that and about fetching himself the new vampire Esperanza had claimed would be strong enough for what Edward wanted. Samantha, the vampire Blake had previously mentioned.

  He only hoped his new prey would prove more interesting and long-lived than the last.

  Chapter 12

  T he phone sat in the middle of his desk and every time it rang he hoped it would be her. But three days after she’d closed the door on him, she hadn’t called.

  With two of the perps dead and the last one seemingly gone for good, there was no reason for him to go by the shelter. But he had gone each night, detouring uptown before he headed to his empty apartment.

  He hadn’t seen Samantha, though he’d sat in the car waiting like a hopeful schoolboy for any sign of her. Wishing he could find a reason to march up the steps of the shelter and knock on the door. He hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind no matter how hard he tried.

  The lady packed a wallop. That was for sure.

  The phone rang.

  He grabbed it. “Daly, here.”

  It was a detective from another precinct, asking for information on a suspect. After the phone call, Peter forced his attention back
to the case sitting on his desk—a young woman who had been killed in a carjacking after taking the wrong exit off the FDR Drive.

  But as he examined the photos of the victim, all he could see was Samantha’s jet-black hair and crystalline blue eyes. With an annoyed sigh, he closed the folder and reminded himself that he wasn’t the kind of man to sit around and wait.

  He was used to taking action when he had to and, in his book, it had definitely reached that point. He couldn’t just hope she changed her mind.

  It was time to act.

  Three days had passed and Esperanza still had not returned.

  Nor had Peter, which was just as well.

  Diego had been right to remind her that she could not forget what she was. Or what Peter was, no matter how tempting his kiss had been.

  She hadn’t seen his car in days. He hadn’t called.

  Which was how it should be—a clean, painless break. Only she missed their early morning cup of coffee—and that kiss.

  Just as she was chastising herself for thinking about him again she saw his car, parked a few doors down from the shelter. Joy welled up in her, and she quickened her pace. She’d just walk over and say hello. Surely a friendly greeting wouldn’t be enough to have her forgetting why they couldn’t be together.

  Keeping her gaze trained on his car, she failed to see the van coming down the block until it stopped next to her. Two men jumped out. With her vampire powers, two men presented little challenge. Except one of them pulled out an odd-looking gun and fired it.

  Pain seared through her, jolting her with the blast coming from the barbs that penetrated her skin. She ripped them away to defend herself when Peter joined the fray.

  He was in the midst of pulling his weapon just as the second man let loose with another odd-looking gun. Peter’s body jerked backward as the barbs connected and power leaped through his body.

  She couldn’t delay. She transformed immediately, lashing out first at the wires connected to Peter and after, at their attackers.

  One of the men raised a stick toward her, but never got to use it. She grabbed his arm and swung him into the man assaulting Peter. They went down in a heap on the sidewalk. Afraid to let up for even a moment, lest they attack with some other weapon, she brought her foot down on his arm and heard a satisfying snap, followed by his howl of pain. Peter’s assailant, seeing that she hadn’t been put down by their weapons, was already scrambling away. She grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and drove him headlong into the side of the van.

  With both men immobile, she morphed back to her human state and raced to Peter’s side. He was dazed from the weapon’s blast so she picked him up and dragged him to the steps of the shelter.

  Someone must have heard the commotion. The door flew open to reveal Sofia and a few other women from the shelter. “Should I call the police?” Sofia asked.

  “No.” If these men were the ones who had taken Samantha’s friends, the last thing she needed was to have the police involved. “Help me get Peter to my room. Lock up the shelter.”

  As she and Sofia helped Peter, he tried to make his legs move but his actions were disjointed and uncoordinated. From behind her, she heard the locks on the door slip into place and the whispered comments of the other women as they debated her instructions.

  When her gaze collided with Sofia’s she realized the other woman also doubted her judgment but would not challenge it. “Trust me,” was all she said, and Sofia nodded.

  Peter was a heavy burden, almost entirely dead weight. It took all of their strength to get him to her room at the back of the first floor and gently onto the bed.

  Sofia examined him, hands on her hips. “What did they use? He went down like a rock.”

  “Some kind of stun gun.” She removed his shoes, and then with Sofia’s help, took off his suit jacket, revealing the gun he hadn’t been able to draw. To be on the safe side, they removed the gun and holster and she placed them in the drawer of her nightstand. “Would you get me a bowl with some ice water and a towel?”

  Leslie, one of the other women in the shelter, stood by the door anxiously watching Samantha remove Peter’s tie. “They’re gone. But we got the license plate number,” she said.

  Samantha took the note as Sofia left to get the water. “I’ll make sure the detective gets this as soon as he’s able to make sense of it.”

  Leslie laid a hand on her arm. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  Samantha met her gaze and then looked beyond her, to the other two women gathered in the hallway. This would be traumatic for them, having suffered through varied attacks in their lives. She was just thankful the children weren’t awake to witness it as well.

  “No, I’m not.”

  To a woman, they all looked away, as if they knew it was a lie, but were afraid to say more. Except for Sofia, who as she returned to the room said, “If you’re in trouble, you can count on us, you know. You’re not alone anymore.”

  Sofia’s words brought untold comfort. She gave each of the other women a hug. “Go get some rest. I’ll take care of the detective.”

  Sofia laid the small ceramic bowl with the ice water on the nightstand and stood looking down at Peter. “I don’t trust cops, you know. But this guy…I think you can trust him, Samantha.” She looked over her shoulder and repeated her earlier comment. “You’re not alone. You’ve got us and you’ve got him, even though you might not want him.”

  The problem was that she did want him. But having him was fraught with too many complications.

  After she urged Sofia out the door, Samantha dampened the towel and brought it to Peter’s face, trying to rouse him. Over and over again, she passed it over his forehead and across his cheeks. Little by little, he regained his sensibilities.

  “What happened?” He brought a hand to his forehead, as if to steady himself, and tried to rise.

  Samantha placed her hand in the middle of his chest and pushed him back onto the bed. “Someone tried to grab me and you stopped them.” She couldn’t have him thinking she had somehow disarmed and escaped two men on her own. That would create too much suspicion.

  Peter lay back against the pillows. “What did they hit me with? A Mack truck?”

  “A stun gun.” She moved her hand to his side, where she had seen the gun’s barbs strike home. He winced and pulled his shirt out of his pants to reveal two nasty-looking marks.

  “Shit. I have to call this in.” He once again made to rise, but she easily restrained him.

  “You’re weak and you need to rest. The guys are long gone, but we got the license plate number for you. When you’re better,” she added and was surprised when he grinned and flopped back onto the pillows.

  “I won’t argue with you ’cause I feel like shit and ’cause I like it when you get all empowered.”

  His comment dragged a smile to her face, despite the severity of what had just happened. “Get some rest. I’ll be right back.” She needed to call Diego and warn him.

  Diego was upset, understandably so. “Someone knows where our lairs are. Now we are no longer safe even there.”

  “Watch yourself tonight, Diego. We’ll talk in the morning about what to do next.” She looked back toward the closed door to her room, wondering how she would explain it all to Peter.

  There was a pause on the other end of the phone line before Diego said, “He’s still there, isn’t he?”

  “Yes.”

  “In your room
. In your bed. That is like playing with a loaded gun, amiga.”

  Closing her eyes, she rubbed at her forehead. “I know what I’m doing, Diego.”

  “I hope so,” he said and hung up.

  She returned to her bedroom. Peter was still there. In her room. In her bed. No man had ever been in that bed before. But in her heart, she knew Peter wasn’t just any man.

  He was kind and gentle. Honorable. Incredibly handsome.

  Her awareness of the last surprised her. She had her share of handsome men in her life. Ricardo. Diego. Even Blake. Stunning men who turned heads wherever they went.

  But not one of them moved her like Peter did. Not one of them made her want to forget that she had sworn off men because of the pain they caused. Especially this one, whose every day was filled with the kind of violence she didn’t want in her life. Who, like her, was capable of savagery—perhaps even against her, if he saw her demon emerge. He was definitely not the man she needed in her undead life.

  Moving back to the bed, she watched him sleep. Admired the straight line of his nose, the perfect squareness of his jaw, the just right cleft in his chin. She admired those lips that knew how to kiss so well and the tanned skin and shaggy thick head of sun-streaked hair that screamed of beach and surf, of days spent in the sun. In the light.

  His life was in the light. He deserved what human life could offer him. She’d seen the gentle way he played with the children, his patience as he explained a homework problem. She’d seen his kindness as he helped the women in the shelter with one thing or another. And she’d seen his bravery as he’d come to her rescue.