Chapter Five

Emma.

I call Ryker to let him know that Marcus Lott has left The Community's house and is headed towards Eloisa Robert's apartment complex. I'm heading out of the house to meet up with them when Everlee grabs me and pulls me into her room.

"Where are you going? Why do you smell like a French whore house?" she demands and wrinkles her delicate nose.

Everlee is the one who found me all those years ago. I was scared and alone and confused. I'd woken up a vampire, and I couldn't control the thirst. I didn't know what was happening, and I'd ran away before I did any further damage.

Everlee found me sobbing in an alleyway. At first, she just offered a few words of comfort, but when she realized what was wrong with me, she took me to The Community and helped me. Now, she's my only friend.

"Out," I say and start to move past her, ignoring her question about my smell completely.

I put on two different kinds of lotion, three different perfumes, and I lost count of the product in my hair. Everything I could think of to mask my smell against Marcus and any other vampires that may be out. I also have a small mask tucked into my purse to cover my face when the time comes.

"You can't," she insists. "Everyone is talking about you. Where you go. What you do. Why you aren't here. Why you don't feed on humans. You're drawing too much attention, and you need to lay low for a little bit. You're going to get yourself killed."

"I appreciate the heads up, Ev, but I have to go." I reach for the door handle, and she grabs my arm.

"They're saying that Mason is coming to town." She looks meaningfully into my eyes.

"Fuck." That's the best response I have right now.

Mason would definitely make a stink for me. We'd been involved for a while shortly after I became a vampire. I'd been romanticized by his power and charm. It didn't take me long to realize that he had every woman in the house equally romanticized, and he took advantage of every single one.

When I confronted him, he matter-of-factly told me that he would never change, and that I needed to be realistic. I left the country the next day to find a new Community house. I'd like to say that's the last time I saw him, but unfortunately, we ran into each other several years later, and after way too many tequila shots, I woke up in his bed again. I left that country too.

"They're saying that he is pushing to restore the hierarchy," she whispers. It doesn't matter, any vampire can hear us anywhere in the house if they choose to listen.

"Let me guess who he wants appointed as king." I roll my eyes.

"I don't know why he's coming to town, but I can guarantee that you need to keep your nose clean right now." Everlee knows my story and has always understood my need for independence and secrecy. She also knows more about The Community than I will ever care to and is a valuable friend.

"I understand your concern." I put my hands on her shoulders. "I really have to go, though. You don't understand, and I can't tell you, but please just let me go now."

"I'm worried about you, Emma." Her use of my real name gives me pause.

I don't remember the last time she used my given name. Maybe not since she first nicknamed me 'Fox'. I wouldn't have even assumed that she still remembered it.

"I don't want to see you get killed," she continues.

I give her a quick hug. "I'll see you tomorrow and we can talk, okay?"

She nods reluctantly, and I yank open the door, run out of the house, jump into my BMW and peel out. I dial Ryker on the Bluetooth.

His booming voice makes me jump. "Where the fuck are you?"

"I got held up," I say, navigating the roads, taking the turns sharply. "I'm on my way."

"Held up?" he growls. "Are you shitting me?"

"I hate that expression." I rip through traffic, ignoring stop signs and streetlights, weaving in and out of cars.

"What the fuck, Emma?" he yells. "This is your fucking op!"

"And I'm on my fucking way, Ryker." I almost miss the turn, and I swear as I take the corner on two wheels.

"Where are you?" he asks just as I'm squealing to a stop.

"I'm here." I disconnect, shut off my car, get out, walk calmly to his car and slide into the passenger seat.

He scowls at me as he begins fastening the collar around my neck.

"You smell like you rolled in eight bottles of perfume." He tilts his head. "Will that work?"

"I don't know yet." I grin. "Ask me again at the end of the night."

"Fox is in position." He says into the earpiece to Gabe and Drew.

I remember him calling me Emma when we were on the phone a few minutes ago, and I point to it in question.

"I just turned it on when you pulled up," he says, understanding my silent question.

I nod and open the door. "Turn me on," I say, gesturing to the collar.

I realize what I've said, and at the same time he smiles wide and opens his mouth to retort. I hold up my hand to stop him and shake my head.

"You're no fun." He winks and leans forward to turn on the collar. He puts an earpiece in my ear so they can hear me if I need, but the less I talk, the better.

I nod. We both get out of the car and shut the doors. I wince as the doors sound like explosions in my ears.

We walk casually down the street, not drawing attention to ourselves. I can hear people everywhere. I focus my attention until I find Marcus's voice. I can hear him talking to a woman, presumably Eloisa. He's complaining about her not showering after work, apparently she works at a diner and smells like fried food. She makes excuses about being busy, but doesn't offer to shower now. There are no other voices.

I point to my ear, point to the apartment building and nod.

Ryker turns away from me and whispers, "He's there."

We walk into the building and up the stairs to the fourth floor. Gabe and Drew descend the stairs from above and meet us. We exit the stairwell and match our footsteps so we sound like one or two people. Drew puts on a smile and knocks on the door to her apartment. I pull the mask out of my purse and put it on.

"Who is it?" Eloisa says.

I hear Marcus move into the bedroom, but he doesn't close the door.

"Hi. I'm Chet. I just moved in upstairs. I was about to make supper, and realized I forgot to buy milk. Do you suppose I can borrow a cup?" Drew manages to keep a straight face through that line of bullshit, and I'm impressed that he's not sweating with those lies.

"Hold on," Eloisa says. I can hear her move into the kitchen.

"Who is it?" Marcus asks.

"A neighbor," she says, opening the fridge. "He just needs a cup of milk."

"You've got to be kidding me," he groans. "I'm getting cock blocked by some idiot making supper."

"You're not getting cockblocked." She sighs. "This will just take a minute." She pours the milk, returns the carton to the fridge and closes it.

I nod to the guys to signal that she's coming, and I mouth 'bedroom'.

The locks turn and Eloise opens the door. Drew grabs her arm and pulls her out into the hallway, covering her mouth with his other hand. She lets out a shriek as I bolt in, leaving Gabe and Ryker behind me.

Marcus hears the commotion and comes out to investigate, spots us and then turns to run away. I lunge and tackle him around the midsection.

"What the fuck?" he yells as I land on top of him.

He thrashes wildly, and I knee him in the groin, he grunts and doubles over, so I knee him in the face.

Ryker wraps an arm around my stomach and lifts me easily, and Gabe punches Marcus in the face twice before he passes out. Ryker's smiling at me, trying to hold back a laugh, as he sets me on my feet.

"You never saw us. You don't know anything." Drew is saying to Eloisa in the entryway. "Do not make us come back here. Do you understand?"

Eloise whimpers in response.

"And find yourself a new boyfriend," Drew adds. "You can do so much better than this loser."

Ryker and Drew lift up Marcus by the arms, and throw one of his arms around each of their shoulders. Just two buddies helping their drunk friend. We exit the apartment and take the elevator down. I pull off my mask.

"What if he wakes up?" Ryker asks me, as he reaches for my neck to turn off the collar.

"Punch him again," I encourage, which gets me a chuckle and a head shake.

We load Marcus's unconscious body into Gabe's SUV and all head to their offices in our separate cars. We park in the underground, go in through the service entrance in the back, and enter a room I didn't get to see on the tour.

Drew and Ryker chain Marcus to a chair in the middle of the room, and then leave him there to wake up. The room next door has a two-way mirror for us to watch him.

We all pull up chairs and sit to watch the show, but Marcus is out cold, and it gets boring fast.

"Anyone bring snacks?" Ryker asks, breaking the silence.

"Apparently Jenny has M&Ms in her desk," Drew offers, and I laugh.

"Plain or peanut?" Gabe speaks up.

Drew looks at me, and I help him out. "The pretzel ones."

Gabe shakes his head. "Let's order a pizza."

"I'm on it." Drew grabs his phone to put in the order. "Fox, what about you? I mean, can I get you anything? I don't know what you..."

"I'm fine." I cut him off to stop this from being more awkward than it already is.

We go over the plan again and theorize if this is going to work. Drew goes to meet the pizza guy outside and comes back with three large pizzas.

A supreme for Gabe, pepperoni and jalapeños for Drew, and all meat for Ryker. I want to say something about Ryker's choice being iron rich, but I don't think he'd appreciate my dry vampire humor, especially after he told me it was creepy when I told Archie that he smelled anemic.

"Can you eat real food?" Drew asks me after swallowing a huge bite of pizza.

"Dude." Ryker gives him a look, but I wave away his concerns.

"No. It makes us sick." I smile. "I really miss food sometimes. That pizza smells incredible."

"What else do you miss?" Ryker asks. His eyes narrow in on me, and it suddenly feels like we're the only people in the room. What is it about him that makes me lose all sense?

I'd give anything to be able to stand up, crawl onto his lap and kiss him right now. He looks entirely too sexy in jeans and a plain t-shirt. It's not even that I just want to go home with him and fuck him, either. I realize that I want to get to know him. I want to learn everything about him.

There's no way I can go down that road, though. The gossip is already running rampant, and with Mason coming to town, I need to be careful.

I blink and notice that all three of them are watching me curiously. I almost forgot what Ryker had asked. What do I miss?

"Friends." I shrug, minimizing the tragedy of what I've lost. I didn't have a family so at least that was one less thing for me to lose. "I miss feeling normal, doing normal things."

"But you can still drink alcohol," Drew puts in, reminding me of his presence.

"Yes, but we have to be careful about mixed drinks. Different vampires react differently to sodas and the fruity additives." I smile at a memory. "My friend, Everlee tried a rum and coke, and she had gas for a week."

"Brutal," Drew groans, and we all laugh. Drew thinks about this for a minute. "Do vampires shit?"

"Seriously, dude." Ryker throws a piece of crust at him.

Drew catches it and eats it.

"When we drink blood, it feeds our cardiovascular systems directly," I explain. "Our gastrointestinal systems have no function. Except after drinking alcohol, then we have to pee. But for the most part, all unladylike bodily functions are gone."

"You know a lot of medical terms," Gabe observes seriously.

I swallow and nod, looking away. "I also speak multiple languages, can quote Shakespeare, manage my own stock portfolio and have many other talents. I've had plenty of time to be an avid student of many subjects."

"How do you have a stock portfolio?" Drew latches onto one thing I've said.

It's times like this I wish I could read minds, so I'd know how his functioned, it's very scattered. I also wish I knew what Ryker was thinking right now. His eyes watch me intently. Gabe is watching me too, but his eyes are more clinical and less intense.

"I use dummy names and corporations. All legal, of course." I watch Ryker chew his pizza in silence. His eyes don't leave mine.

"Are you rich?" Drew continues.

"Did you see my BMW?" I smile.

"I assumed it was a Community car." Drew takes a big bite.

"You assumed wrong. I paid cash. I could have bought ten more." I pause to consider my words. "I only stay at the houses for appearances and the connections."

"Why?" Drew probes further, but Gabe jumps up as Marcus starts to stir.

"Showtime," Gabe says and signals for quiet.

The room Marcus is in is reinforced steel, so I'm not worried about him hearing me until now, when Gabe turns the microphone on. The machine distorts his voice and blasts it into the room where Marcus is sitting chained to the chair.

"Marcus Lott. We've been watching you."

Marcus jumps and pulls at the chains, looking around the room wildly. "Why? What do you want?"

"We know you met with Toshi Sato," Gabe says into the microphone.

"So?" Marcus tilts his head in question. "Was I not supposed to? I didn't know The Community would object. You could have just told me."

I frown, he thinks this was orchestrated by The Community? In some ways, that works in our favor, but I've never heard of The Community doing stuff like this, and it raises the question if he has.

"You will tell us everything you know about Toshi Sato," Gabe says, going straight for the prize.

"Sure, whatever, man. Listen, I don't give a shit about Sato, okay?" Marcus stares at the glass. "I'm only in this for me. Ask anyone. I'm a selfish bastard. I tell you what I know, and you let me go, okay?"

"Start talking."