and yelled, “We’re not playing tag, kid! We gotta talk to you!”
No response. I glanced at my human friends. “Later, gators,” I said, because I was going to do my Bionic Woman thing in a sec and they had no chance of keeping up.
But even running as fast as I could, by the time I rounded the block, the kid was nowhere to be seen.
I trudged dejectedly back to them. “That’s great. Now we get to wait for another Goddamned crime scene.”
“If she lives in the hotel, she probably knows a hundred ways to get back in. Like Eloise,” Jessica suggested. “I think she’ll be okay. She certainly gave us the slip easily enough.”
“Good point,” I said, cheering up.
“All the same, I think I’ll hang out here for a while,” Nick said. “Honey, you go up to the room and get some sleep.”
“And leave you out here in the dark by yourself?”
“Uh . . . hon, I’m a cop.”
“A human cop looking for a kid-killing vampire! Besides, the Advil worked fine. I’m not even tired.”
“Well, shit. That means I have to stay out here, too.”
Jessica and Nick both looked surprised. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Oh, like I’m really going back inside to have nasty sex with Sinclair while you two are walking around trying to prevent vamp-on-kid crime. That’d only make me the biggest jerk in the world.”
“Well—” Jessica began sweetly, but Nick cut her off.
“Seriously, Betsy. Go inside. We’ll just walk around out here for a little while and if we don’t see anything, we’ll come in. And if we do see something, we’ll call your cell.” He put a (gentle!) hand on my arm. “Really, go. It’s your honeymoon, right?”
I was completely torn. Do the right thing, and stick with my human, fragile, easily shreddable friends? Or take the olive branch Nick was so plainly offering? The pleading look on Jessica’s face made up my mind for me.
“Okay, but call me if you see or hear anything. We can jump out the window and be on the street in about three seconds.”
“Just get dressed first!” Jessica hollered at me as I went up the stairs.
Chapter 15
Too impatient to take the elevator, I bounded up the eight flights, ran down the hallway, and jammed my key card into the slot. The door obligingly beeped, I entered, then shut the door behind me and started taking off my clothes. Sinclair was already in bed, the covers turned invitingly back. His faxes were neatly piled on the desk—hey, at least he didn’t bring them to bed. This time.
“You’re flushed,” he said, surprised. “Did you feed?”
“No, I ran two blocks in about eight seconds. Nick saw a kid alone in the lobby and we were worried about her.”
“Ah. I trust you warned her.”
“Actually, we couldn’t catch her. Quick little minx. Jessica thinks she lives here and knows all the alleys and warrens, like a little rabbit. And pretty!”
“Pretty?” he asked doubtfully. (Sinclair wasn’t a fan of kids, and barely tolerated BabyJon, my ward and half-brother.)
“Oh my God, you’ve never seen a prettier kid. She’s practically got ‘bite me’ written on her forehead. So after we couldn’t find her, Nick and Jess stayed outside, just in case.” I hung my shirt on the shoe in the wall, kicked off my pumps, and stepped out of my shorts. I started to wriggle out of my bra when Sinclair held up a hand; I knew what that meant.
So I walked to the bed and let him gently remove my bra and panties, let him pull me down to him. Then I bit him, hard, on the throat and he bucked beneath me in surprise and pleasure. His cool blood trickled into my mouth like dark wine (irony: I hate wine) and my head started to swim almost immediately.
I could feel his dick pressing against my stomach, almost jerking like a live thing, and he was still spasming beneath me, so I broke off and licked his blood from my teeth.
“How about
In response he rolled me over, pounced on me, and bit me right on the jugular. Now I was the one writhing in pleasure—there was something about being taken, something that was just as fine as doing the taking—I don’t know, I can’t really describe it.
Then he plunged into me and I shrieked at the ceiling, shrieked and clawed at his back while he drank and thrust, while he filled me up and I filled him up, and I had time for a scant thought
and then my orgasm was roaring through me like a freight train, and it was times like that that I wondered why I ever bitched about being a vampire.
Sinclair shuddered above me and broke off, and I licked the bite on his neck.
“Cell phone?” he panted.
“Told . . . Jess and Nick . . . to call if . . . they ran into trouble.”
He grinned down at me and I stroked his broad back, where my scratch marks were already healing. “Then it’s a very good thing they didn’t—”
My cell phone rang.
Chapter 16
Two blks S, hurry!!!!!!!” Jess had texted, and hurry we did. Instead of dressing, we grabbed hotel robes. Instead of messing with the stairs, we broke the window and jumped out.
I managed to keep my feet, but felt the shock of the landing all the way up to my hips. Never mind. The blond kid was in trouble—or dead. I just knew it.
We got there in just a few seconds and I nearly skidded in the blood, which was as awful as it sounds, especially in bare feet.
“Oh
“Fuck,” Sinclair muttered, which was very unlike him. I was the potty mouth in the Sinclair family. But the situation certainly warranted it.
Except . . . it wasn’t her. It was a different girl, slightly older, wearing filthy clothes and with dirty hands. Her skin wasn’t quite as dark as Jessica’s, and already going dusky with death.
A homeless child? A runaway? Whoever she had been, she’d crossed paths with the wrong man—or woman—and wouldn’t ever have to worry about finding a place to stay again.
“Where is everybody?” I asked, kneeling beside the child.
“We’re the first ones on scene. I’ve called 911.”
“You guys didn’t see anything?”
“We didn’t even hear anything,” Jessica said, sounding very strained. “We just rounded the corner and there she was.”
“Oh, the poor poor thing. Look! I count at least three bite marks, the fucking greedy bastard.”
“Five,” Sinclair said distantly.
“
“Yes, that’s been my experience,” Nick said quietly.
I turned on him and snarled, “Yes, fucking A right, Nick, you’re alive, aren’t you? You’re walking around
