Wren.
“Are you two okay back there?” Zac yelled over his shoulder. He drove like a maniac on a tiny gravel road not meant for anything with wheels.
“If you can call okay feeling like I’m in a rock tumbler, sure.” I held on to the only semi-steady thing in the van –Ashe, who had wedged himself against the back corner and the wheel well.
It didn’t have the cushy upholstery of a minivan, just an empty cargo space. But it lacked any windows except those in the front. Depending on which way Zac turned the van, sunlight randomly invaded the interior through a couple of bullet holes in the windshield and the rear doors. Every time it shone through, it managed to hit skin that had already been burned. The tops of my ears were blistered, as were my hands. I could tell my face had sustained a mega sunburn as well, though I couldn’t bring myself to touch it.
Smoke still rose from poor Ashe’s back. His hands had blisters that were already clearing up before my eyes. He could heal quicker than I could, apparently.
Ashe sat up a bit and took off his stolen guard’s shirt. Pity he still had his original one on under it, but at least it got me a few millimeters closer to his skin. Then he grabbed a folded up windshield sunshade that stuck out from under a black garbage bag full of stuffed animals of all things. I grabbed a purple duck that had fallen out during our wild ride and snuggled it beneath my chin as I nestled closer into Ashe’s embrace.
With a soft smile, he unfolded the sunshade and draped it over us. “That should keep the sun off you, until we get to wherever we’re going. So…where are we going?”
I ventured a look up into Ashe’s copper eyes, which were filled with worry and wonder and something deeper that sent fire to my core. It was a much more pleasant feeling than the fire crawling across my skin as it struggled to heal itself.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted.
“You look so much like—”
“My mother?”
“Bronwen was your mom?” He swallowed hard and averted his eyes, as though seeing her in me struck a bad nerve.
“Yeah. Did you know her?”
He shook his head. “I saw her a few times on VTV. That’s all.”
“VTV?”
Zac made another sharp turn, jarring us against the wall of the van.
“Hey! Take it easy!” Ashe held me tighter, which squeezed my ribs like a hungry boa constrictor, but hey, I wasn’t about to complain. I was concentrating on how well his hard angles fit against my curves. And his scent – it was intoxicating, like fresh cut cedar.
“I know what I’m doing, thanks,” Zac yelled back. Now that we’d rescued Ashe, which I’d have to remind Zac was his idea, he was acting like a dick about it. Almost as though he was jealous.
I sat up and peered out the windshield. He was taking us deep into a wooded area. The thick canopy blocked the sunlight, thankfully. Was that why he was taking us farther into the boonies?
“Don’t worry about the sun,” I said to Zac. “We can stay covered up well enough.”
“I’m not worried about the sun. More worried about the chopper. I think I can lose them in here. We’ll be able to circle back into town so we can ditch the van in a parking garage. You two can hide in here while I go rent another one.”
“What about Birdie?” I asked. “We can’t just leave her there. My whole damn life is in that car.”
“We’ll get you somewhere safe, then I’ll make sure you get your car back safe and sound.”
“I hope you know where you’re going,” Ashe said.
“GPS is my friend.”
I laughed. “If you get us lost in a nest of horny inbred rednecks, I’ll offer you up first.”
He narrowed his eyes at me in the rearview mirror.
Now that we weren’t being shaken until our fangs rattled, Ashe helped me sit up with my back against the wheel well, facing him. “You’re not healing very quickly, Wren. When’s the last time you ate?”
I sneaked a peek at the rearview mirror, where amusement flashed in Zac’s eyes. “Well, I snacked on a guard at the prison and before that…um, a rat.”
“A rat? Are you on some kind of weight-loss diet? You don’t need to be, trust me.”
“Um, thanks, I guess. But no, that’s just what I eat sometimes.”
“Whatever floats your boat. What kind of DBDs do you like? I know a good place with great-tasting ABs and a few Os, but they’re kind of expensive.”
I blinked at him, realizing I must seem like a total idiot for not knowing all those acronyms. Maybe I’d heard them before and had forgotten? Maybe the sun had melted my brain so part of it had leaked from my ears. There were so many questions swirling in my head, I didn’t know where to start.
“You don’t know what DBDs are, do you?” Ashe asked.
I shook my head.
He gently bit his thumb, lifted my hand, and streaked his blood across the blistered skin. It bubbled and soaked in. The blisters shrank and disappeared, leaving my skin smooth again.
Staring at it, I recalled a day when I was maybe five or six. My mother and I were staying at a motel somewhere in Texas and had just watched 'Interview with the Vampire' the night before on TV. The scene where Brad Pitt as Louis watches the sun rise for the last time as a human really stuck with me. I probably didn’t understand that he wasn’t a vampire, and he looked so warm and handsome in the golden glow of morning.
We had gone to bed before sunup as usual, the heavy drapes pulled across the window to keep out the daylight as we slept. I woke up and saw the light peeking from the edges of the curtains, thinking that maybe I could see the sunrise just like Louis did. So I crept out of bed and crawled under the curtain. I did indeed see the beautiful orange and pink glow of sunrise as it silhouetted the Adult XXX Emporium sign across the road. For about two seconds, I was mesmerized, until the sun popped fully over the sign. My face immediately heated to what felt like two thousand degrees.
I screamed. My mother was there in a flash. She grabbed me and bounded into the space between the two double beds. I was crying so hard, I didn’t understand what she was doing, but now I remembered her biting her thumb and rubbing it over my skin. I had always assumed she was just drying my tears. But the burn subsided quickly. That’s when she told me the only sunrises we could see were on TV, that being in the sun for longer than a few seconds could be deadly to us. I’d managed to avoid the sun fairly well since then…until today.
Ashe repeated the process on my other hand and was applying his blood to my forehead when I snapped back into reality. His blood smelled like him times five, with the distinct twang of old, dead blood like I’d smelled in Hotel Enigma. I took his hand and flipped his wrist over, then brought it to my lips.
I felt him tense up, like he might yank his hand away, but instead, he watched me with a steely intensity as I gently bit down and sucked up some of his cold, thick blood. It tasted even better than it smelled, not like food really, but more like a blood-flavored medicine. The effects were immediate. I could feel my skin tingle and stretch as the remaining blisters faded away.
I sucked again, swallowed more. All my senses fired at once. My eyes read Ashe’s cool blue temperature signature, along with the reddish purple of a slightly warmer area in his crotch. My ears picked up on the tha-thump, tha-thump of Zac’s heart.
“Wren, that’s enough.” Ashe slowly pulled his wrist away.
I jerked it back to my mouth, bit down, and sucked. I needed more. Lots more.
“I said, that’s enough!” He withdrew forcefully that time, darting to the other side of the van. He wrapped the fingers of his other hand tight around his wrist, staring at me as though he was caged with a starving lion.
“What’s going on back there?” Zac asked. “Wren, you okay?”
Wren, not Melody. He must’ve overheard me when I told Ashe.
I drew my knees to my chest and covered my face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what the shit came over me.”
“It’s fine. We’re all fine,” Ashe said. “Wren’s just tired and needs a decent meal. I suggest we find a suitable place for her to eat so she won’t have to chew off that chin dimple of yours. Uh, what’s your name anyway?”
I’d failed to introduce the two of them, my human guide and vampire insta-boyfriend. A minor infraction compared to me trying to feast on Ashe and my cluelessness about my own kind.
“Palmer. Zac Palmer.”
Was it just my imagination, or had Zac lowered his voice and applied a British accent?
Ashe must have noticed, too, considering the way he imitated Zac. “A real life James Bond in our midst, eh? Must be our bloody fucking jolly good luck. How’s about a spot of tea, govna?”
I lifted my head. “That was a terrible impression.”
“Hey, he started it,” Ashe said, tilting his head toward Zac. “But at least you’re smiling now.”
He was right. I was smiling. For a moment, it felt oddly comfortable here in the midst of these two guys who I didn’t even know forty-eight hours ago. The feeling was even stronger with Ashe, like I’d known him my whole life, even though I didn’t know him from Vampire Adam.
Zac consulted his phone screen again. “Stay down. I’m pulling out onto the bypass. The sun might be a little bright.”
Ashe gestured me back to him, so I scooted up close. He turned me so I sat with my back facing him, right up against his chest between his legs. He held the sunshade over us like a tent. There didn’t seem to be any hesitation on his part, even though I’d attempted to juice him like a lime a minute ago.
Fatigue and the comforting closeness of his body made my eyelids heavy. I sank back onto his shoulder. He turned his face so he supported my lolling head. His cheek rested against my forehead.
I closed my eyes, felt his lips part, felt their soft coolness press against my skin. His hardening dick pressed into my lower back. Desire throbbed where my legs converged. I thought I had to be dreaming. I’d never felt this level of need for anyone before.
“What is this?” I asked groggily, tilting my head to allow his lips to settle onto my temple.
“This what?” he whispered.
“This thing between us?”
His gentle kisses migrated to the top of my ear, their gentle suction drawing a quiet groan from me.
“I don’t know for sure.” His whisper caressed my face. I let my head fall farther to the side so his lips could play along my neck. “But if my suspicions are right, we won’t be alone for long.”
I didn’t understand what he meant, but I didn’t really give a fuck, with his lips resting at the corner of my mouth.
“All I know is,” he said, “if I don’t kiss you right now, I might go insane.”
You know those parts in movies where the hero and heroine are about to share their first kiss? The parts where your eyes go wide and you’re sitting on the edge of a saggy motel bed ready to cheer because they’re finally getting together?
Yeah, well, that didn’t happen here.
What happened was Zac slammed on the brakes and screamed, “Mother fucking alligators!”
Our bodies smashed against the wheel well. Ashe’s head plunged into mine like two coconuts colliding.
“Sorry!” Zac called over his shoulder. “I didn’t hit it. Probably should have.”
I peeked at the rearview mirror. He was looking right at me, but quickly averted his eyes and put the van in reverse, which jerked our bodies in the other direction.
“Hey! We may be undead, but we’re still alive back here,” Ashe said, wincing as he sat up and rubbed his head.
“Huh?”
“You know what I mean. Any sign of the helicopter?”
“It turned east. We’re heading west, so we should be able to avoid it.”
Ashe sniffed the air. “I smell barbeque and cigars. Where are we?”
“We’re about five miles from Rent-a-Van.”
“If you see a little shack off the road called Edna’s Itchen, can we stop there first?” Ashe asked.
“Itching? That sounds contagious.” I ran my fingers through my hair and scooted back to the other side of the van.
The cool feel from his lips still lingered on my face. If I didn’t keep my distance, I wasn’t sure what I might do. I wanted to bite him and fuck him at the same time. Was this normal vampire attraction? If so, it’s probably a good thing that I hadn’t encountered any others until now.
Ashe’s shoulders sank a bit as his eyes followed me with a longing look. He shook his head and scrubbed a hand over his face. “It used to be Edna’s Kitchen, but the K got swept away in a tornado about ten years ago. She never bothered putting it back, so Edna’s Itchen it is. She hated the locals calling it that at first, but it stuck like any good nickname and actually helped draw in customers.”
“I really don’t feel like eating a greasy piece of fried chicken,” I said with a grimace.
“You’re in luck. She has something just perfect for you.” He grinned and slipped into his bad British accent. “Palmer, Zac Palmer can have the greasy chicken.”
Zac chuckled. “I like mine extra greasy. I see it up ahead. Where can we park? There’s really no shade there in the parking lot.”
“Drive around back. Special parking.”
I crouched and crept behind the front passenger seat, peeking out carefully in case the sun decided to reflect off a bad chrome bumper. Zac pulled off the road, where sure enough, a wood-sided building sat with a sagging roof and white block letters above the door that read Edna’s itchen. The front parking lot was full of cars and over-compensating dually pickups. He drove around on a narrow, paved drive to the back of the restaurant. There was a temporary storage facility with several units. Zac pulled up to a drive-up keypad on a white painted steel post.
Ashe joined me, crouching behind the passenger seat. “Key in this code – 80085.”
“Okay.” Zac sounded skeptical. “Wait a minute, doesn’t that spell boobs on a calculator?”
“Yeah, so?” Ashe grinned at me.
Zac rolled his eyes. His right hand rested on his holstered gun while he typed the code in with his left. I sincerely hoped Ashe wasn’t leading us into some vampire ambush, where the main course would be Zac. I didn’t have the strength to protect him.
The overhead door lifted, and inside lay an empty storage space.
“Drive on in,” Ashe said.
“If this is a trap, I’m killing you first.”
“Why would I want to kill strangers who sprung me from jail? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.” Ashe glanced at me and chuckled.
“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” I said.
Zac drove the van into the storage unit. As soon as the rear bumper cleared, the door lowered, effectively plunging the once bright interior into darkness. Zac killed the engine but left the key on so he had the advantage of the parking lights.
Gun drawn, he slowly got out of the van, prepared for an ambush. Ashe didn’t seem to have any reservations about the situation. He sprang to the back of the van, opened the double doors, and hopped out, turning to offer his hand to help me down.
I took it gladly. My head was swimming from hunger, fatigue, and probably a concussion from Zac’s reckless driving. When my feet hit the concrete floor, I wobbled. Ashe steadied me with his strong hands and body. If I hadn’t been ready to chew my own arm off from hunger, I’d have asked Zac to give us a couple minutes in the back of the van. Not exactly romantic, and I had no idea why I felt this way, except that I knew Ashe wanted it as much as I did.
With this level of horniness, I could only assume that vampire life involved prison breaks, bloodletting, and orgies twenty-four seven.
“So, what now?” Zac asked, circling the van like a caged beast. He slid a narrow-eyed warning glare at Ashe as he passed us.
“You just leave that to me,” Ashe said.
Holding my hand, he led me to the rear corner of the storage unit and typed a number into another keypad beside a door with a wire glass window. The lock disengaged. Ashe opened the door, and we entered a stairwell illuminated with dim fluorescent lights.
I hesitated. The last time I’d seen a stairway like this, I’d had to fight off a herd of vampires.
Ashe drew me close and stroked my cheek. “It’s okay, I promise.”
The aroma of smoky barbeque wafted up the stairwell. “Tell me they’re not barbequing vampires down there.”
“You like yours rare or well done?”
My eyes went wide.
He laughed and squeezed my hand. “I’m kidding. Come on. Zac can come, too, if that makes you feel better, but he probably won’t find the menu to his liking.”
****
At the bottom of the stairs was a small wood-paneled hallway. A coat rack stood right at the bottom that held miscellaneous ball caps, a white apron streaked with dried blood, and a crooked umbrella. Open Sysco boxes sat on the worn linoleum floor, one of which was half full of disposable plastic cups like you’d find in any bathroom. Another held napkins.
We walked down the hallway past stainless steel shelves containing peanut oil, lard, and industrial-sized cans of green beans. Below that were bottles of rubbing alcohol, boxes of sterile gauze, and large bottles of raspberry-flavored liquid iron supplements.
It looked like a typical basement storage area of any ratty diner except for the medical supplies and iron supplements. Surely they didn’t add that to the food, or maybe they did. I was quickly discovering how little I knew about both the human and vampire world. My mother had sheltered me to protect me, but in the process had not told me much about our kind or humankind, and after her death, my sole focus had been revenge and surviving long enough to make that happen.
Ashe strode confidently through the place, holding my hand. Zac followed so close behind me, I could feel his warmth radiating on my back. He still held his gun in front of him with both hands, pointing it at the floor.
My mind reeled. How much could I really trust either of them? A sinking feeling chilled my already cold blood as Ashe led us through a set of swinging doors. What if they already knew each other and had teamed up to capture me?
Stupid, thy name is Wren. They had made sure I would be too hungry and exhausted to fight back. I was completely trapped. Nowhere to run, because I had no idea how to get out except for the way we came. Even weakened, though, my speed would far surpass Zac’s. I just had to knock him down, take out Ashe, and get out of the line of fire and back up the stairs…
“Well, if it ain’t Ashe Jensen!”
A woman’s loud voice snapped me out of forming my escape plan. I blinked and realized we had entered what looked like a dingy basement diner, with battery-powered lamps and black tablecloths on a dozen or so round tables. The woman standing in front of us was plump with a head of gray hair pulled back into a bun. She wore a flowered dress and a red, ruffled apron.
She could have easily masqueraded as Mrs. Claus, except she didn’t hold a plate of cookies for Santa. Instead she wore blue latex gloves and carried a tray, on which lay a bloody scalpel and a couple of bloody gauze pads.
The smell of blood hit me hard, and my fangs emerged, though I tried to keep my mouth closed to hide them.
“Where you been, darlin’? Haven’t seen you in ages. And who’s this pretty little thing?” She smiled at me and then peered behind me at Zac, who had just holstered his gun. “We don’t allow weapons in here.”
“It’s okay, Edna,” Ashe said. “They’re with me. This is Wren, and the human is Zac.”
“You a DBD, Zac? I’ll have to see your paperwork.”
“No, just a regular human. Wren’s bodyguard.”
With one eyebrow arched, I slid him a look. He shrugged.
“Well, we got plenty of human food upstairs.” She focused on me again. “You look really familiar, though I can’t place the name.”
I tore my eyes from the bloody gauze and focused on Edna’s grandmotherly face. “My mother was—”
Ashe squeezed my hand firmly, which I took for a shut-up signal. “Long story, best left for after lunch,” he said.
“Not a lot of DBDs to choose from right now. We don’t get many diners down here this time of day. But there’s always an oddball or two.” She winked at Ashe then scanned us from head to toe. “Y’all look plumb awful.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“What happened?”
“Edna…”
“Sorry, I know better than to ask questions. Anyway, I have showers and a couple of rooms y’all can snooze in. Now what will it be? I got a nice O neg here right now.”
“I don’t know. Sounds pricey,” Ashe said, rubbing his chin like he was trying to decide between a sirloin and filet mignon.
“Lunch special. Half off.”
“Sounds good. Let’s get Wren a sample.”
Edna nodded and called out to a woman seated across the room who was sipping a drink and flipping through a magazine. “Harriet, lunch special and a sample, please. Table six.”
Harriet was tall and muscular, with bright red hair and pale skin turned nearly brown from freckles. She wore jean shorts, flip flops, and a long-sleeved plaid flannel shirt with a tank top underneath, all a size too small. She tossed the magazine on the table and put down her drink – it looked purplish like the iron supplement in the back hallway, and smelled like fake raspberry too.
Edna ushered us to a table, where Ashe and I sat close to each other. Zac sat on the edge of his seat at a nearby table, his chair facing us, still looking around with those intense dark eyes as though Dracula might emerge at any moment.
Harriet sat opposite us at our table, smiled, and nodded at me and Ashe in turn. “I assume your girlfriend here’s getting the sample.”
“Yes, please,” Ashe said. “If that’s okay with you, Wren?”
I nodded, not certain what I was okay with, but if it involved a fresh meal of blood, I was totally down with that.
Edna returned to the table carrying a tray. On the tray sat an empty clear plastic cup, along with a clean scalpel and gauze pads, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Harriet removed her flannel shirt and draped it over the back of her chair. Edna soaked a gauze pad with alcohol and wiped Harriet’s wrist. Then she held the woman’s wrist over the cup and made a small slice across an artery with the scalpel. Fresh, bright-red blood flowed from the wound. Edna set the scalpel on the tray and flipped Harriet’s wrist upside down. Blood poured into the cup. Steam condensed on the inside of the cup as the blood level rose.
All this time, Harriet was casually looking off in the distance as though it didn’t bother her in the least.
My mouth watered as I watched the hot blood pour into the cup. I could hear Harriet’s pulse, calm and steady, saw how the tiny area of skin at her wrist above the cut rose and fell with every heartbeat. I didn’t know how long I could control the urge to sink my fangs into her arm.
“You got your papers, ma’am?” Harriet asked.
“What?” I forced my eyes to leave the visual feast of her fresh blood and met Harriet’s calm gaze.
“Your papers. You can drink from prepackaged, but you need papers to get a meal from the source.”
Ashe put his hand on my thigh as if to calm me down, but it sent electrical pulses straight to my core. At least it was enough to snap me out of beast mode for a moment. I turned to meet his copper-eyed gaze. His eyes were even more beautiful in this light. I wouldn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable staring right into those gems while he fucked me.
“Wren, papers mean you’re free of communicable diseases. Have you got anything like that?”
I shook my head, mesmerized by the way his lips slid over his slightly emerged fangs as he spoke.
“Your doctor could print them for you.”
“What doctor?” I blinked, averting my gaze to somewhere less dangerous, like Zac’s crotch. Shit, no. Uh, where to look? There, by a door across the room – a framed quote from Marilyn Monroe: Dogs never bite me, just humans. Weirdly appropriate, but better.
“You don’t have a doctor?”
I slumped in the seat, laughing sarcastically. “Oh, sure, I’ve had lots of them. They’re delicious.”
He squeezed his eyes shut with a half smile. “Seriously, Wren?”
I sat up straight and rested my hand on his thigh. His whole body tensed. Good. Served him right. “Yeah, seriously. I don’t even know what a DBD is.”
Edna answered without looking up from the bloodletting. “Designated Blood Donor.”
“Yeah, okay, whatever. None of this – the DBDs, the prison, my mother being a queen of something. I don’t know shit from shinola.”
Edna and Harriet both snapped to attention, wide-eyed.
“It’s from an old movie,” I added. “'The Jerk.' Steve Martin. No?” Apparently my area of expertise lay in old music, movies, and TV shows. Yeah, that’d be a real help.
Ashe squeezed my thigh, glancing at them before he held me in a cold copper stare. “Listen, I know you want answers, and you will get them, but not here, not now. Priorities first. We get you fed, rested, and somewhere we’ll both be safe. Just be patient.”
“She’s hungry. Be patient with her,” Zac said.
Ashe sat back in his chair, removed his hand from my thigh, and held up both hands in brief surrender. “Sorry.”
“Okay, hon. Try this.” Edna set the cup of fresh blood in front of me. She held gauze over Harriet’s wrist.
Ashe wiped his thumb with alcohol and bit the tip of it. Edna removed the gauze from Harriet’s wrist as Ashe smeared his blood onto the wound. It closed almost immediately.
Edna quickly wiped the leftover blood from Harriet’s skin then looked at me. “Drink it before it gets cold, hon.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I snatched up the blood and drank it down, savoring the rich, hot, iron-filled goodness as it slid down my throat and eased my growling stomach. I slammed down the cup and wiped my mouth with a napkin.
“Well?” Ashe asked.
“That was amazing. Can I have more? Please?”
“Of course, hon. I’ve got a whole pint in the kitchen back there. I’ll warm it up for you and bring it out.” Ashe started to protest, but Edna smiled. “It’s on the house. Poor girl’s starving.”
Zac groaned and stood from his chair. “I don’t think I can watch any more of this.”
Edna chuckled. “Okay, then come with me. I’ll point you to the diner upstairs.”
Edna took Harriet’s other wrist and quickly wiped it with alcohol before hurrying to another room with a swinging door, which I assumed was the vampire kitchen. Zac followed her, glancing back at me and Ashe with a frown before he slipped through the door.
Ashe scooted closer to Harriet, picked up her wrist and brought it to his mouth. Her eyes widened slightly as his fangs emerged. He pierced her skin, slowly sinking the sharp tips deeper into her flesh until his lips were seated fully over her artery. Her breath hitched. She made a fist and tightened it, then loosened it in the rhythm of a slow, steady heartbeat.
I watched his chin and Adam’s apple moving up and down, heard the gentle slurping as a tiny stream escaped the corner of his mouth. I wiped it from her arm before it dripped on him and licked my finger. He raised his gaze to mine, his mouth curving briefly into a smile. Yellow light from the table lamp flickered like dancing flames in his copper eyes.
Harriet closed her eyes and let out a quiet moan. Her body gravitated closer to him. She gripped the hem of her shirt as though she had to resist touching him.
I was getting wet just watching Ashe have lunch. I’d never been so turned on by eating before. I mean, who gets turned on by rats and dying homeless people? I made a mental note to find a vampire phone book and get a vampire doctor appointment ASAP.
Edna emerged from the kitchen with a blood donor bag shaped like a juice pouch with a straw in one end. “Here ya’ go, hon. Drink up.”
“Thank you.” I took the pouch from her and sipped. It was good, but like the equivalent of a frozen pizza compared to a homemade one. I sat back in my chair and watched my insta-boyfriend drink blood from a willing human in an oddly sensual dining experience.
****
Harriet’s shift ended, so she left just as Zac reemerged from the kitchen. He looked more satisfied and smelled more like barbeque than body odor.
“How was it?” we asked each other at the same time.
I laughed. “Good, and yours?”
“Extra greasy, but nothing some Tums can’t handle.”
Now that we were all full, I could finally take account of how bad we looked and smelled. But I had so many things to ask now that my brain wasn’t fogged over with hunger.
“How about a shower and a good nap?” Ashe asked as though reading my mind. “We can talk more tonight.”
“Okay.”
Zac cleared his throat. “I’ll ditch the van and come back with your car. I think we should get on the road as soon as the sun sets, so that’ll be about….” He consulted his mobile phone. “Eight-thirty. You have plenty of time to rest up and whatever.”
He grimaced at the word whatever as though imagining Ashe and me in the throes of passion.
“Okay, be careful out there,” I said.
“Sure. Be careful in here, too.” He tossed Ashe a cold glare and left the way we had entered.
Surely the detective wasn’t jealous. I found that quite hilarious. Like I was the Bella for their Edward and Jacob testosterone competition. I’d always thought such a triangle was ridiculous, but I could understand the ego trip. If they decided to brawl over me, I’d insist they do it without teeth or weapons. And without clothes. With lots of oil.
As soon as Zac’s footsteps faded down the hall, Ashe stood and ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. “So…what now?”
“So…” I slowly stood, wondering the same thing. Shower and sleep were a given, but a lot could happen in a few hours. “I think you owe me a kiss."