Bitten 2 (35 page)

Reaching the bottom, I was forced to lean against the wall while waiting for the world to stop spinning and the white sparkles in my vision to subside. Alyssa had assured me that I hadn’t suffered a concussion during the vamp’s attack, but I wasn’t so sure. Once I was recovered from the exertion of going down the stairs, I decided to go in search of Tillman and the others. Maybe if I asked nicely enough, Juliet would make me a sandwich, too.

I was halfway down the hallway towards the kitchen when I spotted the back of Alyssa’s head up ahead and knew that she’d lay into me if she caught me up and moving without any help. Having a doctor as a friend was useful at times, especially when I seemed to attract every weirdo under the sun, but it had its drawbacks too. Deciding that I wasn’t up to handling a lecture from her, I ducked through the closest doorway, and almost immediately backpedaled out of the room to face down the angry succubus instead.

Caught up in my own problems, I’d forgotten why I was here in the first place, but when forced to face the broken figure of Vanessa surrounded by friends and family it all came rushing back. It didn’t look as though she’d moved from her position on the couch, but at some point someone had replaced her glass of whiskey with a cup of black coffee. Just as before, my entrance brought all conversation in the room to a halt, exacerbating my feelings of being unwelcome. Unsure of what to do or say, I froze in the doorway.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” Vanessa demanded, her tear streaked face contorted with anger and grief. I understood her anger at the situation and her need to lash out at someone, anyone, and couldn’t fault her for choosing me as the convenient outlet for her rage. Who was I other than an unwelcome stranger bearing witness to her grief?

“Um... nothing. Sorry,” I said, backing out of the room.

“Sorry? You’re sorry?” she hissed. “Your ‘sorry’ won’t bring back their father or my husband. Fuck you and your ‘sorry’!”

“I didn’t mean to...”

“Get out!”

Stumbling in my haste to get away, I almost fell flat on my face. Only Tillman’s hand on my elbow kept me from face planting for the second time that evening, though the strain on my injured shoulder made me cry out, and I prayed that I didn’t pass out again, or puke on the brown and green geometric rug in the hallway.

“You okay?” Tillman asked, seeming to forget that he hated my guts.

“I need to get out of here. Can you give me a ride to Asylum?”

“Why the hell do you want to go there?”

“I don’t. What I
want
to do is go home, but to do that I need my car, and that’s at Asylum.”

“Oh no you don’t, missy,” Alyssa interrupted, emerging from the kitchen to pin me in place with a glare. “We still don’t know why you reacted so strongly to that bite. You can barely stand as it is, and there’s no way I’m unleashing you on a bunch of unwitting motorists.”

“I feel fine,” I protested, which wasn’t a lie as long as I ignored the pounding in my head and the way the room swirled around me.

Her pinched look left no doubt that she wasn’t buying it for a second, and glancing at Tillman I found a similar expression of disbelief on his face.

“You’re staying with me,” Alyssa said in a tone that left little room for argument. “Agent, would you be kind enough to give Riley a ride to my house?”

Tillman didn’t look at all happy at the notion of spending more time with me, but he had the sense not to disagree with the fae. She could be quite intimidating when she wanted to be. Still, he made no effort to sound keen on the idea when he replied with a terse, “Sure.”

“That’s decided then. I’ll get Vanessa settled with a sedative and then head home. I trust Agent Tillman can keep an eye on you until then.”

“Fine,” I grumbled, too tired to argue with her.

* * *

The ride to Alyssa’s house was the most awkward forty minutes of my life, which was saying a lot given the prior events of the day—I could barely breathe through the tension clouding the air. Looking as uncomfortable as I felt, Tillman had spent the entire drive grinding his teeth and gripping the steering wheel tight enough to make the faux leather creak beneath his fingers. When we pulled up to the curb in front of the duplex, I thanked my guardian angel that he hadn’t decided to drive us off a bridge just to spite me.

Eager to get out of the car, and as far away as possible from his cloud of malcontent, my hand was already on the handle when I glanced up at the house to see a wrinkled face staring out through the gap between the drapes in the living room.

“Gah!”

“What’s wrong?” Tillman asked, forgetting for the moment that he was supposed to be pissed off at me, his instinct to protect taking over and prompting him to reach for the gun at his hip.

“Ah... nothing,” I said, eyeing Alyssa’s creepy housemate staring at us with gleaming black eyes. “Would you mind if we waited out here, though?”

Damn, that thing is creepy.

“Sure. Whatever,” he replied, sounding like a scorned teenager as he dropped his hand away from his gun.

From the corner of my eye I watched him unbuckle his seatbelt and shift positions, but he remained ramrod straight, staring out of the windshield.

Rubbing a hand over my face, wishing it would help ease the headache blooming behind my eyes, I sighed. “I
am
sorry, you know.”

“So you’ve said,” he replied, his lips barely moving.

“And I’ll keep saying it until you believe me.”

Some of the stiffness went out of him as he shifted in his seat to face me. “I
do
believe you.”

Stunned to silence, it took me a moment to find my voice. “Then why are you giving me such a hard time?”

“Just because I believe you, it doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you. You
humiliated
me.”

“I...” I floundered, struggling to find the words to express the depth of my regret. “I’m such an asshole.”

“Yeah, you kinda are,” he said, making me cringe. “But you’re also brave and a lot stronger than you think.” He was the second person to say that in the past few days though I struggled to see it myself. Consumed with my own thoughts I almost didn’t hear the words that followed. “To be honest, I’m kinda jealous.”

“Is someone giving you shit? Is that why you look like you’ve been living at the gym?” I asked, gesturing to the muscular shoulders that strained the seams of his suit jacket. When he didn’t answer, but instead looked away guiltily while the tips of his ears flushed crimson, I felt myself grow hot with anger.

“Who is it?” I growled. “Point out the jerk giving you crap and I’ll shove their ass in the toilet, too!”

Tillman’s sudden bark of laughter didn’t erase all the tension between us, but it made a hell of a dent. Feeling as though I could relax a little, I let my head fall back against the headrest and closed my eyes. I’d spent a few hours out cold, but that didn’t come close to the full night’s sleep I needed.

Fucking vamps.

“What the hell is that?” Tillman asked, startling me out of my glorious moment of peace.

Opening my eyes, I found him staring at something beyond me with mild disgust. Following the direction of his gaze, I was unsurprised to see Marvin still watching us like a vulture circling a dying man.

“Oh, that,” I said, suppressing a shudder. “That’s Marvin.”

Raising his brows as if to say “Seriously?” he asked, “But what
is
it?”

“Alyssa says he’s a phoenix. Personally, I prefer to think that he’s something straight out of my nightmares. Oh, and he’s a creepy stalker perv.”

“Is that why you asked me to wait with you?” Tillman asked, giving me a sideways look.

“Would
you
want to be alone with that thing?”

“Well, no,” he admitted.

“Yeah. Me either.”

* * *

We’d dissolved into companionable silence when Tillman broke the quiet, rousing me from where I floated halfway between waking and dreams thanks to exhaustion and the painkillers Alyssa had supplied.

“So... what’s the deal with your friend, Juliet?” He tried to sound casually nonchalant, but there was no mistaking the schoolboy curiosity behind his question.

Grinning, I replied with a question of my own. “Why? You got a were fetish, or something?”

“No!” he spluttered, turning several shares of scarlet. “I was just asking. Forget it.”

“It’s cool. We
are
pretty irresistible,” I said with a wide smile, hoping to set him at ease, before breaking into a chuckle. When he remained quiet and continued to stare out of the windshield, I added, “I think she’s single.”

“Really?” he asked, perking up and turning wide, hopeful eyes to me.

Oh yeah, that boy’s got a serious case of fur fever.

Any additional inquiries I might have made into Tillman’s interest in Juliet were interrupted by the throaty purr of Alyssa’s car turning onto the block. I made a point of filing the newly discovered information away for further examination when all this was over.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

THE WITCHING HOUR had come and gone by the time I was safely ensconced in Alyssa’s spare bedroom, supplied with yet another pair of slinky pajamas that left little to the imagination. I was tempted to just sleep in my clothes, but thought better of sleeping in the shirt smelling of vampire, blood, and Hank. I was trying to distance myself from the hunky were, not incite more inappropriate thoughts. The wolf huffed her agreement, glad to be free of the scent of another were when I stripped off the shirt and scrunched it up into a ball.

Tillman had left a few minutes before with the promise that he would let me know if he heard from Holbrook. His demeanor had become more unsure than frosty, and although it wasn’t his previous friendliness, it was definitely a step in the right direction.

I’d just climbed into bed and was reaching for the light switch when a soft knock sounded on the door a moment before Alyssa’s smiling face peered into the room.

“I thought you might like some hot cocoa,” she said, stepping into the room carrying two mugs, thankfully without her feathered watchdog in tow.

I gratefully accepted the steaming mug, but was surprised when she sat down on the edge of the bed beside me. Setting her own mug on the night stand she withdrew a small, shiny object from the pocket of her robe.

“I brought you this too.”

I wasn’t sure what to think, looking at the charm in the shape of a golden feather hanging from a long chain. It was beautifully crafted, the detail so intricate it almost appeared to be real, and for a moment I could have sworn it felt warm in my hand.

“It’s beautiful, thank you. But you didn’t have to.” I didn’t own much jewelry, and couldn’t remember the last time I’d worn any of it.

“Don’t argue, Riley. Just promise me you’ll wear it.”

The heaviness in her voice had me nodding in agreement and slipping the chain over my head as she watched.

“If you ever find yourself in trouble, which, knowing you, is likely to be sooner rather than later, break the charm and help will come.”

It sounded like something out of a fairytale, and I was about to tell her as much until I saw the intent look on her face, her rosy cheeks pale with weariness. The seriousness reflected in her violet eyes erased any doubt I might have had at the veracity of her words, and I found myself nodding.

“Um... okay.”

Making a small noise of affirmation in the back of her throat, she retrieved her cocoa and rose to leave, bidding me a goodnight on her way out.

Well, that was weird,
I thought as the door closed with a soft sound.

Leaning back against the pillows, I lifted the golden charm from where it lay nestled between my breasts, running my fingers over the fine details. Turning it in the light from the lamp beside the bed, I watched the color of the metal shift from gold to amber and red. A wide yawn that threatened to snap my jaw in two had me abandoning my examination of the necklace and sliding down into the plush mattress in the hopes that I’d get at least a few hours of sleep.

* * *

“Did you have a chance to run the tests you wanted on my blood samples?” I asked the next morning, over breakfast. At the sink, Alyssa froze for a second.

“Oh, yeah,” she said, and I thought I saw her hand tremble when she reached for the milk jug.

“And?” I prompted, waving a piece of toast bearing a thick smear of blackberry jam at her to encourage her to cough up a few more details.

“I only had time to do some preliminary tests, but there were some... anomalies,” she replied, looking away to pour milk over her cereal.

“Anomalies? What the hell does that mean?” I asked, a sick feeling settling in the pit of my stomach, turning the toast to sawdust in my mouth. Anomalies didn’t sound like a good thing.

Bringing her bowl to the table, Alyssa sat across from me, a small crease marring the normally smooth skin between her brows.