Fading Darkness (Bloodmarked #1) (29 page)

He gave me a half-smile and sighed, actually
looking a little tired. “Fine. I suppose it would be better to keep you close
by in case you decide to get yourself into any more life-threatening
situations.”

I smiled in response to his submission. This
was clearly a man who was used to getting his way and not letting anyone stand
in the way of what he wants. There was something so wild and animalistic about
him that was evident in his fighting, but when he looked at me, that harshness
and savageness seemed to soften. Knowing I held that kind of power over a
creature so strong and so fierce gave me an odd mixture of feelings I still
didn’t fully understand. Although I still hated to admit it, I was beginning to
actually believe he wasn’t out to hurt me. But the reasons behind him being on
my side were also still unclear to me, so a part of me still wanted to keep my
guards up.

“What are we waiting for then?” I asked.

He smiled and began to lead the way, taking
my hand behind him. The warmth and gentleness of the gesture reminded me of how
he held me close the other night. I couldn’t let those thoughts distract me
tonight though. I needed to focus.

We ended up about a mile away in a dark
parking garage. We entered onto the fourth level, and he pulled me into the darkest
corner behind a minivan.

“What are we doing h-?” I started to ask
when he cut me off with a look and that shushing gesture with his index finger
to his lips.

“I got a tip that a local ancient has a
meeting here tonight with his supplier. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was too
scared to come out of his highly secure home though,” he said in a low hushed
tone.

That really didn’t mean anything to me, but
I wondered what could possibly scare a powerful ancient vampire who was
stronger than any others into cowering in his own home. For now, that was all I
had to go on, but later, I was going to get my answers. Maybe I should have
been writing all my questions for Gavin down.

I nodded a vague response in reply to show
him I would be quiet at the moment, but the look I gave him conveyed my
questions, and he shot me a sideways smile in return, followed by an eye roll.
He knew he was in for a long interrogation.

We waited only minutes in silence before we
heard the arrival of a car followed by another. Sounds of doors opening and
closing echoed through the giant garage, and I peeked out around the minivan
under Gavin’s head to get a better view of this all-important ancient guy.

The view I had was slightly obscured by the
nearest support pillar, but when he stepped forward toward the other vampire,
who was clearly just the messenger wearing only jeans and a hooded jacket and
only looking down like he was unworthy in this vampire’s presence, I saw his
face.

The ancient vampire looked more like the
Nosfuratu
version of vampires. He looked like he might have been about 30 to 35 when he
turned, but it was almost as if the millennia had aged him more because he had
a much paler sunken face. He was bald with elf-like ears that almost made me
laugh at the resemblance to the old Hollywood version of what a vampire was.
When his hands were exposed under his designer suit they appeared bony and
gnarled. He was like a walking skeleton.

Then, there were a few low, mumbled words
spoken between the two, and the messenger held out what looked like a cigar
box. With an unexpected flash of motion the box wound up in the ancient’s hands
within the blink of an eye. In fact, I did blink and barely caught the
exchange. Although he looked small and frail, this guy was fast and not to be
underestimated. He opened the box and I thought I glimpsed a syringe.

Wait
.

I was witnessing a drug deal. That was what
Gavin meant by supplier? I had assumed it was a blood supplier, but he was
buying drugs, and I had a good idea of what that drug was. Shit. There was
already another drug lab in operation. Then, the ancient spoke in a more
boisterous tone.

“I trust there will be no more delays in the
future?” he said.

The other vamp replied, “He apologizes for
the wait, but the problem has been dealt with and it won’t happen again.”

I backed up so that I could better look at
Gavin, and he turned in response to look back at me. I gave him a meaningful
glance to tell him I knew the
problem
was me. He confirmed that
suspicion with a nod and turned his attention back at the dealing. I crept up
behind him pulling at his shoulders to get him to shrink down so I could see.
He did, and we continued to watch.

The messenger vamp said, “You have a donor?
If not, we can send you one?”

“That won’t be necessary. Here is your
payment, and I deducted a tenth of the cost for the tardiness,” he said,
handing the other vampire an envelope.

“Yes, sir, thank you,” said the messenger,
nervously. It was like he was meeting a celebrity or something. He seemed
awestruck. It made me let out a breath of a laugh at the ridiculousness of it
all.

Gavin ducked down into a crouch pulling me
down with him by the arm. We were behind the hood of the car, but he gave me a
warning look to be quiet as he listened for movement. For unnecessary emphasis,
he wrapped his hand around my mouth as he slowly rose to see what was going on.
I rose too with the grip he had on me and we saw the two vampires looking back
at each other nodding. It appeared the deal was done.

With nothing more to say, the ancient
vampire flashed out of sight, and I heard the sound of a car door open and
close. The other vamp left the same way, and I looked back at Gavin, who had
finally released his grip on my mouth once the cars were long gone. I wanted to
ask so many questions, but there were just too many to choose from. He laughed
at my speechlessness and grabbed my hand pulling me up.

“Come on. We’ll go back to my place, and
I’ll answer all those questions, or as many as I can.”

“I want to go back to my place first so I
can shower,” I said, realizing I didn’t even know how long it had been since I
showered. Suddenly, I felt gross and grew self-conscious. I backed away from
him in the most subtle way I could so he couldn’t smell me.

He laughed again, and said, “You don’t
stink. Trust me. But if you want to shower, you can use mine,” he suggested, a
little too suggestively, or was that in my own imagination. Why is it that the
idea of showering with him came so easily, and it didn’t repulse me the way it
should have. In fact it was just the opposite.

What the hell is wrong with you, Luce?
Get it together!

“No way. There will be no showering at your
place. I have my own. I don’t need to shower with you.
In yours!
I
mean,” I corrected myself.

“Well, I wasn’t suggesting that I join you,
but it is a two-person shower,” he trailed off with a sly grin, leaving the
innuendo hanging in the now thin air between us. As he spoke, he had moved
closer to meet my gaze at eye level. He was just a breath away. Crazy things
were happening in the pit of my stomach.

“I could really do without the flirting,
tonight,” I said firmly, pulling away from his annoying magnetism.

“Hey, it’s your fault. I wasn’t the one with
sex on the mind, but since you brought it up…” he said, advancing on me again.

“Ugh, you are such a guy,” I said throwing
my hands up to block him while trying to hide the smile on my face. “And I’m
showering in my own shower, thank you very much,” I demanded.

“You’re not going back to your apartment.
You can’t.” Before I could argue, he added, “Did you already forget the part about
the police looking for you? They’re monitoring your apartment and questioning
your neighbors and boss. Oh, you can’t go back to work either.”

“What?!” I knew he was telling the truth,
and it made sense, but I was pissed at the idea of being forced out of my own
home and my job.

“It would appear that they had set you up
that night. They wanted you out of the picture so they set you up for those
murders to keep you in hiding from the police, so in turn it keeps you out of
their way. You burned down their lab and they took a piece of your freedom,” he
explained.

As I processed every word, I realized how
simple but how brilliant their plan was, and the fact that I fell for it pissed
me off even more. And on top of that, it led to several deaths and almost got
me killed. It seemed like Gavin really was my only ally.

“Fine,” I spat. “I’ll go back to your place,
but I’m going to need my things.” I was used to a more meager form of living,
but I wasn’t ready to live in just the clothes on my back every single day.

“All of your clothes are in my guest room.
You have everything you need there,” Gavin explained.

I had to take a deep calming breath to fight
the urge to hit him for doing all that behind my back. I went from being a
fugitive, to being homeless and jobless, to moving in with a vampire who I had
mixed emotions about, all in a few hours. On top of that, I went from hating
all vampires completely, to working with one, to needing the protection of one,
to relying on that particular one for pretty much everything now.

“Fine, let’s go. Wait,” I said stopping in
my tracks. He gave me a speculative look. “How long was I asleep?”

He cracked another one of those half smiles
and replied, “2 days.”

Holy shit.

Since he was all I had, I went with him,
reluctantly.

†

After a much needed shower, I felt considerably
better and even more refreshed than waking up from a two-day coma. I still
couldn’t believe how out of it I was. Although Gavin had offered his master
suit shower that was ginormous and had eight shower heads, I opted for the
guest bath, which was connected to the guest room where all my stuff had been
waiting for me when we got back, just like Gavin had said. All the bedding had
been brought back to this room from my own bed at my apartment, so I felt more
at home in this room. It was much smaller than Gavin’s but was still much more
than I was used to.

Once fully dressed in an old t-shirt and
sweats, I went out to the main living area where Gavin sat in his usual spot
reading. I couldn’t tell what it was he was reading, but the size of the book
suggested I probably would have no idea what it was, so I didn’t bother asking.

He heard me coming and put the book down
without marking his page, not that vampires needed any help remembering
something like that, but not marking the page suggested he had no intention of
picking up where he left off, which made me think he had probably already read
it. I started to wonder what else he’s read over the many years he’s been
around and the knowledge he must have gained over that long period of time. He
broke my thoughts by speaking up.

“Well, are you going to sit or not? I
imagine you have a lot of questions,” he said.

I was standing behind the couch with my
hands on the back angled toward where he sat off to the side. I moved around to
take my usual seat. I settled in easily to the softness of the cushions, and
the warmth of the fire blanketed me as I curled up by the arm of the couch.

I turned toward him then, and the sight of
him made me catch my breath. It was as if the warmth of the fire radiated off
of him. It lit his chiseled features with an amber glow that made him look
almost god-like. His threadbare white t-shirt revealed all of the perfectness
underneath. After what felt like a very long moment, I remembered I wanted to
say something. “Well, start talking. I want to know everything.”

“Everything? Can you be a little more specific?
You may have all night and day, but I have a bedtime that’s rapidly
approaching.”

“Well, why don’t you start with what you
have been doing for the past few weeks? Let’s catch up a bit, shall we?”

“I’ve been tracking leads on this drug,
trying to follow its path, but whoever is behind it has made it virtually
impossible to follow.”

“I thought you said you were going to track
down ancients for information.”

“I tried, but it’s like every ancient vampire
in town packed up and left. They have all seemed to disappear, which is not a
good sign.”

“Is that why you were surprised that the one
we saw earlier showed up?”

He nodded and responded, “If every ancient
in town is leaving, then there’s a good reason for it. Obviously, something bad
is coming, but I have a feeling it’s worse than that. It’s not like an ancient
to be spooked by anything. They’ve had centuries longer to establish their
territory, so it’s not likely they would just leave without a fight.”

“You think they’re being killed,” I said,
guessing where he was going with this.

He nodded again, “Yes. Which is just as bad
as if they had left. I don’t know what could be strong enough to take down one
of them.”

I thought about the Nosfuratu ancient in the
parking garage and how fast he was. The thought of something taking him down
made me shutter. “Could it be assassins?”

He shook his head. “Not likely. The First
don’t send the assassins unless a vampire has committed a major crime against
our kind. If the local ancients had been suspected of something, the assassins
would have made an example of them. It would be much more public among the
underground community.”

I shuttered a second time thinking about
what they might do to make an example out of me when they catch up to me. With
all the shivering, Gavin must have thought I was cold because he grabbed the
throw on the back of his chair and tossed it over me.

He then sat down on the edge of his chair
with his hands folded and his elbows resting on his knees. It was a way to get
closer to me to observe my thoughts, even though I was almost convinced he
could hear most of them. He reached out and grabbed my hand, and I realized I
had been absentmindedly playing with the charm bracelet. It was a nervous
reaction, but his hand stopped it, sending waves of calming through me. I
instantly relaxed from his touch, but he was still studying my face.