Guarding Valentina [Paladin Protection Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (11 page)

“Reaction to what, the car? I’m pissed, sure. But it’s just a thing. You were right. Paladin will buy me a new one.”

“Not the car, luv.”

There was a discordant note in his voice now, and a sick feeling washed over her as she asked, “What the hell is going on out there?”

He kissed her again, his gaze never wavering from the window. He drifted a line of kisses from her mouth to her ear and whispered to her. “When I let you go, you can turn around. But you are not to give him any reaction. Show him the best game face you’ve got.”

Icy tendrils of dread were clutching at her heart and squeezing hard enough it hurt. “All right.”

She took a deep breath and let all the animation drain away from her face. She saw the look of approval in Aedan’s eyes as he eased up his hold on her and then finally let her go. She withdrew from his embrace and turned, the dagger held firmly in her hand.

It was a good thing he’d warned her because even with all her years as a soldier, it wasn’t easy to stay unresponsive to the horrific tableau that was laid out across her front yard.

Words had been painted in blood across her front window, and through the blood-smeared glass she could make out a figure propped up against the windshield of her destroyed car. Her heart slammed in her throat as she read the gruesome message Christoph had left her on the window.

You can’t protect them all.

Aedan rested his hand on her shoulder, and that was the only part of her body that felt warm. The rest of her was ice cold as she stood there in silence. Before she let herself look more closely at the body, she took a moment to double-check her mental shields and rein in the emotions that roiled just under the surface. When she was ready, she just walked up to the window and peered through one of the still-clean sections of glass. She could see Christoph as he lounged on the twisted remains of her car. He had a broad smile on his pale face and his blond hair gleamed almost white in the harsh lights of the street lamps. He raised a hand to wave at her in greeting, his body casually stretched out beside the figure of a woman, and she swore under her breath as recognition struck her. Her grip on the knife shifted instinctively as she briefly considered going outside and tearing his head off with her bare hands.

“Whatever you’re thinking, you can forget it, Val. He’s too strong for you, and she’s already gone. There’s nothing you can do to help her.” Aedan’s words were more heavily accented than normal, and part of her mind noted that his accent was stronger when he was angry.

“How do you know that she’s gone?” She let her gaze move from Christoph to the body sprawled in a disturbingly casual pose on the hood of the vehicle. It was like a grotesque parody of a pin-up picture, the model draped over the hood of some expensive car.

“I can’t get any kind of reading from her. I never sensed her presence at all. Whoever she is, he killed her before he brought her here.”

“Her name was Ingrid.”

“So she’s from Paladin then?”

“She was in payroll, nothing to do with Division S at all really.” Val scrubbed a hand over her eyes, the weight of yet another death resting firmly on her shoulders. “She has—
had
a raging crush on Jake, our resident computer wizard.” She reached up and pressed a hand to the chill surface of the glass and then had to stifle a scream as Christoph appeared in front of her, his body language mirroring her own, his hand mated to hers on the other side of the glass. He’d traveled so fast she hadn’t seen him move at all.

“She wasn’t as sweet to taste as you were,” he crooned through the glass. “Won’t you let me have another taste?”

“Fuck off!” Val snarled, and Christoph’s response was a malevolent smile that made her blood run cold.

“I’d rather fuck you, sweet Valentina. And I will, one day soon.”

“That’s never going to happen,” Aedan vowed as he joined her at the window and she felt him reach his arm around her, dragging her back.

“Ah, the dhampir steps out of the shadows at last. Whatever are you doing with the likes of
him
, Valentina? He’s worse than I am.”

“Aedan has a pulse, and he doesn’t go around killing off my coworkers. Even if he was a serial killer, that would still make him better than you.”

Christoph laughed and stepped back from the glass to make a bow. “At least I don’t pretend to be other than I am. That one was born bad, my dear. Just the way the Brethren likes them. It makes it easier to turn them into killers if they already have blood on their hands.”

The vampire blew her a kiss through the glass, and her stomach turned as she saw the smudges of blood on his fingertips where they’d touched his mouth.

“I’ll come visit you again soon. For now, I have business elsewhere.” He turned his head to sneer at Aedan. “You can’t save her. You can’t save any of them.”

“I’m going to kill you, vampire,” Aedan declared , and Val caught the gleam of his sword reflecting in the glass.

“Not tonight you’re not,” Christoph mocked Aedan, and then he simply disappeared. Between one heartbeat and the next, Christoph vanished, leaving them alone once more. Val turned and ran for the door, intent on getting to Ingrid. She needed to know if the other woman was truly dead, or if she’d suffered. Her promise to stay inside was forgotten until she slammed into Aedan’s body as he rushed past her to put himself between her and the door.

“No!” he told her, and the arms wrapped around her were like bands of steel.

“Let me go damn it! He’s gone! I need to go out there!”

“He’s not gone, Val. He’s waiting for you to do something stupid like go out there! I’m not going to give him the chance to hurt you, so forget it!”

She screamed in frustration and lashed out at the only target she had, Aedan. “She’s dead because of me, so don’t you dare call going out there
stupid
! It’s the least I can do for the poor girl after getting her killed! And you! What else have you been keeping secret from me? What did he mean you have blood on your hands already?”

She glowered at him, their gazes locked as he restrained her. With a howl of fury, she stomped down on his foot and twisted, risking bruises as she tore herself free of his grip and staggered backward to put a few feet between them. Her eyes flicked to the doorway behind him, and he moved to intercept her, growling her name.

She feinted to the left and then dropped her shoulders and lunged to the right. Part of her knew it was pointless, but she needed to try. She had to vent some of the pain and anger she was feeling. If she couldn’t get her hands on Christoph, she’d settle for the man who’d been keeping secrets from her.

Aedan caught her in his arms again, using her momentum against her as he swung her around and slammed her into the nearest wall. Her lungs emptied with a whoosh as his body pressed hard against hers, crushing her against the plaster.

“Stop fighting me!” he ordered her as his hands grabbed hers and he wrenched away the knife she’d still been holding. It fell to the floor with a clatter and spun off down the hall. His fingers gripped her wrists, and he drew her arms up over her head, his body still pinning her to the wall.

“No! You’re the vampire hunter here, so why is that bastard still alive? I mean dead…undead. Whatever he is, he’s still running around killing people I know! If you’d done your job before, Nick and Ingrid would still be alive!” She tried to pull her hands free of his grip, but he was too strong. As his breath warmed her cheek, she turned her face away. She was too angry to even to look at him.

“Are you finished now?”

“No.” She whipped her head around and smashed her forehead into his cheek hard enough she was seeing stars. It worked, though, and she felt his grip loosen as he swore. Val threw her entire weight against his hold and slid free, dropping her arms and then straightening them as hard as she could, pushing him back against the far wall of the hallway.

She made it three steps closer to the door before he caught her again. He grabbed her and spun her around, his shoulder meeting her midsection. As her abused stomach muscles protested, he stood up and locked an arm over the back of her thighs, leaving her upper body dangling upside-down across his back.

“Put me down!” She couldn’t see anything but the taut curve of his ass just below her head, and she reached down and smacked it as hard as she could.

He completely ignored her blow and headed back into the living room, stopping when they were dead center in the middle of the space.

Without a word, he dropped one shoulder and eased her back onto her feet, turning her around so she was facing the window, her back to him. “Now tell me again why you were going outside.”

She stared at the hood of her mangled car. Ingrid’s body was gone. The bastard had taken it with him. “I was…” She trailed off, knowing Aedan had been right to stop her. “He took her?”

“He didn’t want me interfering in another vampire’s creation. If he has the body, there’s no way to stop it from happening.”

“Oh god. So Ingrid…”

“Will be a vampire the next time we cross paths.” Aedan finished her sentence for her.

Val’s heart ached with guilt, and she hung her head. Christoph had won this round. “Is he gone now?”

There was only a brief pause before Aedan nodded. “He’s gone.”

Before she could say anything more, she felt a stinging blow to her ass and Aedan’s voice was in her ear. “That’s for disobeying me and breaking your promise to stay inside.” His hand came down again, and she tried not to jump as he spanked the other cheek. “And that is for the swat you gave me in the hallway.” He smacked her ass a third time, and she snarled in protest.

“What was that for?”

“That was to distract you from feeling guilty over things that aren’t your fault. I need you thinking straight, Val. Christoph likes to play head games. Don’t let him get to you.” She felt his fingers stroke over the curve of her ass, and then he turned her around so she was facing him. “I need you to stay alive, luv. So next time I tell you not to do something, don’t argue.” He bent his head, and his mouth crashed down on hers, almost bruising her with his intensity. Her heart rate soared as she opened her mouth and sucked on his lower lip. She felt his hands curl around her shoulders, and he slanted his lips over hers.

The sound of tearing fabric filled the room, and she realized he’d ripped yet another of her shirts. She tore her mouth from his, raking her teeth over his lower lip as she twisted away from him. “Will you stop doing that? I don’t have an infinite wardrobe!”

“Not a good time to be making demands of me,” he warned her as he finished tearing the shirt off of her, leaving her upper body bared to his gaze.

“My house, my rules! And you still owe me some answers.”

“Not right now,” he told her as he cupped her breasts.

“Yes, right now,” she snapped and swatted his fingers away.

“No.”

“Yes, damn it!”

He let go of her and ran a distracted hand through his hair as his breath hissed out over his teeth. “What do you want to know, Val? Am I a saint? Fuck no. Neither are you. We’re both soldiers. We’re just from different wars. Can I read minds? Sometimes, and not very well at that. Have I read your mind? No. Did I try? Yes. It’s what I do. It’s who I am.” He prowled back and forth across the living room floor, and she could almost see the agitation rolling off of him in waves.

She crossed her arms across her bare chest and asked, “Did you know he was coming here to hunt us down?”

He stopped midstride and stared at her. “You think I flew across the Atlantic to sit back and watch him kill your people?”

“I don’t know anymore. You’ve been lying to me, and he said you’ve got blood on your hands!” She pointed out the window, aware she was yelling now and well past caring. “Someone I knew was killed, and her body was laid out on the hood of my wrecked car like some sick kind of show-and-tell, and I’m having a very bad fucking day! So how about you tell me everything I need to know about you, that bastard vampire outside, and what the hell is happening to me. I just wanted to help people, Aedan. Now I’m getting them
killed
!”

“Now is probably a really bad time to tell you that you’re fucking sexy when you’re pissed, huh?” He flashed her a quick grin and made his way back to her side, curving his arms around her and drawing her against his chest. “I’m sorry. We’re both having a really bad night.”

Val dropped her head to his shoulder and let out a long, slow breath. “I should call Sin and let him know what’s going on. Then you and I are going to have a talk.” She poked a finger into his chest. “And you are right. Now is not the time to discuss my sex appeal. You were supposed to be intimidated by that display, not turned on.”

He laughed, a low, rumbling vibration that welled up from deep inside him. “It takes more than that to intimidate me. I thought it was kind of adorable.” He hugged her too him for a long minute and then murmured, “Call Sin if you must. But make sure none of them come here or step foot outside for any reason. They’ll just make themselves into a target.”

“Right.” She rolled her eyes at him to convey her opinion of his harping before stepping out of his embrace. “This is not my first rodeo, Aedan. I do know what I’m doing.”

“Sorry, force of habit. Most people in this situation aren’t like you. They’ve usually lost their minds by now.”

“Thanks.” She snagged the cordless phone from its cradle and dialed Sinjin’s cell number. He answered it on the first ring.

“Heath here. You okay, Val?”

“Mostly. Christoph came by. He got one of ours, Sin.”

“I know.” He sighed tiredly and then his tone sharpened. “How’d he get her there so fast though? She was only taken a few minutes ago.”

“That’s not possible. He left a while ago, and he had Ingrid’s body with him.”

“Ingrid?” She heard a muttered string of curses from Sin’s end. “Ingrid went home hours ago. He got two of them, Val. Denise is gone, too.”

“How the hell did he get to Denise? She was supposed to be safe at Paladin!”