Chapter 50 Book 2 Tease 3
An evil sparkle flickered into his eyes as a devilish smile spread on his face. “How many times do I have to tell you a girl’s Netflix que is sacred! How did you even get in? I changed the passwo-.”My head spun over to my partner. Who suddenly was making himself busy arranging the evidence from the first aid kit onto my worktable in the corner of the room.
“Darling, as I recall, when you accused me of doing such a thing previously, you threatened to set me a blaze if I ever did such a thing again. Granted, as I recall, that was over your DVR, but one would assume hacking into your Netflix account would be viewed as the same breach of trust.” His perfect white teeth bit into his bottom lip while he ran a finger along his neatly trimmed beard giving him a roguish look. Damn zing shot through me again. “Of course, if a bloke were to somehow gain access and noticed a trend in the shows being watched, that wouldn’t be his fault now would it? If said trend was a fondness for shows starring dangerous blokes in leather jackets, who could really blame a bloke for wanting to remind the lass that she had a real life badass in her life already?” His voice was husky and full of Ireland as he stepped forward and tucked a stand of my dark hair behind my ear. I knocked his hand away with a growl.
“That’s it! Next family dinner I’m telling your grandmother we are not dating!” I snarled at Conner.
My treacherous partner blinked at me in horror. I was sure visions of his grandmother bringing home every single girl she met was dancing through his brain. “What? We have an agreement! “
“Had an agreement! Remember why I pretended to be your girlfriend at ALL those family functions?”
“Of course. You keep my grandmother off my back in exchange for me not taking sides between you and Xavier.” How could he say that like he hadn’t just stabbed me in the back was beyond me.
“Wouldn’t you consider telling him my password taking his side?” I felt so betrayed!
“No. That was to even the score since I’ve been keeping you appraised of his schedule. I do you favor, I have to do him a favor.” He spread his hands in front of him in all innocence.
“Keeping track of my schedule? Really love, that sounds a bit like stalking.” Xavier had a shoulder propped on the wall examining his fingernails. I narrowed my eyes at him before I closed them and counted to ten.
“Lucky for you, I need your help identifying a vamp. I’ll set you on fire later.” I turned and walked over to Conner. Sighing and pursing my lips, I smacked him in the back of the head. Damn traitor. I was so going to make him suffer for this. Feeling someone pierce my personal space bubble I turned with a snarl expecting Xavier. Instead, I found Tristan looking at me from under his lashes. That was a big enough problem, but, over his shoulder I could see Xavier looking at us. The look on his face was anything but friendly as he looked at the pup. Great, I had the feeling soon I’d be dealing with some testosterone poisoning. To delay the macho act, I pulled the coin out of my pocket and flipped it to Xavier. Who snatched it out of the air with the fluid grace of a vampire. He drew an abrupt breath before he even looked at it.
“Where did you find this pragma?” Running his finger over the etching, he brought it to his face and sniffed it.
“Found it in a vampire ash pile. It survived the dusting. Which as you know, means it’s got some serious mojo attached to it. “ That reminded me. Turning to Conner, I asked in my best inquisitive voice” So, what were you doing going into a dark alley with an unknown vamp? Have you acquired some death wish you failed to tell me about?”
“I was walking down the street when I noticed the vampire acting out of it. I figured he’d just fed on someone who was on something. So, being a good Samaritan, I tried to get him off the street and way from the humans. After showing him my badge, I pulled him into the alley so I could rip a portal to a safe place for him to ride out the high. “ Conner sighed and ran his right hand through his brown hair. Looking at my hardwood floors, he continued. “As soon as we stepped into the shadows he went feral. Full blown vampire. Fangs, nails, glowing skin. I threw up my arm to block his initial assault. He clawed at it. Once it started bleeding he sank his fangs in. I threw a fire ball at him and kicked him away.”
I cleared my throat and tried to shove down the anger that was trying to boil out. “Conner Echolls! Are you telling me that a vampire had his fangs in your arm and you DIDN’T turn you blood to fire?! You know that’s the best way to fight a feeding vamp! What were you thinking? Did you forget what the smell of wizard blood does to us? “ For good measure I smacked him in the back of the head again before asking “ Are you sure you don’t have a death wish I need to know about?”
“Careful love, you are going to give him a concussion.” Xavier warned while examining the coin. He glanced at me from under his lashes and gave me a cocky grin. How did I miss the guy liner earlier?
Wait a minute. “It’s been what, less than half an hour since I called you? How did you manage to get that outfit on, get here, heat up some blood, and pose on my porch?” Even at full vampire speed he couldn’t have done all that in half an hour.
The pirate wannabe gave a deep chuckle before confessing.” You got me love, I was at a costume party when I received your summons. I had hoped that you might show in your red leather jacket. “ Another chuckle. “Conner texted and suggested that us being well fed would be in everyone’s best interest.
“Can you two discuss wardrobes later?” Conner broke in agitated. “I’m still bleeding here!”
“You stopped bleeding after you got the bandage on in the alley.” I turned to face him. “Which is probably for the best since you are in a room full of predators. But, we do need to identify the vamp and figure out why he attacked you. So, why don’t you take off the bandage so Spartacus and I can get a whiff of him. ”