Hunter by Night (12 page)

Theresa approached Xander slowly. He stood still, staring out the window of the hotel suite he’d secured for them, but his body vibrated with restless energy. She remembered this sort of barely contained tension from Eamon before his passing. Something weighed on Xander’s mind that he felt he couldn’t share. Something about the fight beyond that window.

Her eye fell to a scrape on his arm. “You’re hurt.”

“I’m okay.” He kept staring out the window of their hotel suite into the dark. He smelled of rain. Night air. That small scrape on his arm should have healed already. What was he doing for blood?

As she drew close, he turned toward her. “You seem restless. I thought you would want to sleep. I’ll keep watch. Do you need me to call up for food?”

She stepped next to him, unwilling to admit her hunger. She suspected Xander denied his needs as well. “This place is lovely, but you didn’t have to go to so much trouble.” In her stress, she hadn’t paid close attention to where they were, the Intercontinental something or another. What she
had
heard was the clerk telling Xander that the hotel was booked except for the horribly expensive suites. Xander had simply nodded and asked for whatever room they could provide. With three bedrooms, a living room, and a full-sized dining area, this hotel room put Theresa’s tiny colonial home on the corner of the king’s property to shame.

He shook his head, turning back to the window. Down on the street below, headlights plodded along. Not many out tonight, but a brave few still roamed in the wake of the worst part of the storm. “We needed to go somewhere, and this place is easy. The concierge service is top-notch. We can stay through the day without having to worry about leaving for anything we need. I’ve got it covered. Everything’s fine.”

She tapped at the wound on his arm. “Do you have this covered as well? Do you need blood, Xander?”

“I told you. I’m fine.” He stepped back from the window and threw her a quick glance, appearing to keep one eye on the door. “You’re exhausted. Go. Lie down with Eamon. I’ll order you some food.”

Xander reached for the room service menus on the coffee table and held them up just as Theresa stepped backwards into the living area sofa. She’d forgotten until tonight how being around him made her skin prickle and her steps clumsy.

“Oh.” Theresa stepped toward him with her hand out. If he didn’t wish to discuss anything else, she supposed food was a safe enough topic. “Thank you. I guess I can take a look at the menu.”

“Let’s see…” He scanned quickly. “You’d like the chicken salad. Tea. Juice. Maybe the flourless chocolate cake.” They hadn’t turned on any lights but a lamp next to the sofa, and in its golden glow, his green eyes and dazzling smile seemed to assure that everything truly would be fine, in spite of the storm outside. In spite of all the enemies and other threats.

She stopped short of reaching to take the menu from his hand and laughed. “You’re very good.”

Xander returned to his careful study of the menu. “I guarded you for weeks after Eamon Junior’s birth, Theresa. I know what you like.”

Her laughter stopped. So did the rest of her. She hoped the heat suffusing her body wasn’t too obvious. “You know, I think I’m just going to check the thermostat…”

Damn. The little white box on the far wall read sixty-five degrees. Perfectly cool for a vampire. Should have been, anyway. Eamon slept under a pile of blankets in the next room, so she went ahead and dialed it down another couple of degrees. When she turned back toward Xander, he seemed to be studying her. So much for cooling off.

“You do know me fairly well,” she said quietly. “I guess I hadn’t realized. And you’re right. I am exhausted. This whole thing with Eamon’s blood test, and the storm… Not being able to go home is especially stressful.”
But
having
you
near
again
is
wonderful. I’d missed you.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Xander rose to circle the suite. He checked the bathrooms, the closets, the empty bedrooms. Everything he’d done when they first entered the room. “Well, we’re as secure as possible for now. Until I get word otherwise, here is where we’ll stay.”

It didn’t escape Theresa’s notice that he hadn’t answered her question, not exactly. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Theresa. Let me be the one to worry,” he said. “It’s my job.”

Yes, let’s stress that point clearly, Theresa. He is here because of duty.

She nodded slowly, backing toward the bedroom. “All right then. Wake me when the food comes, will you? I am pretty starved.”

“Of course.”

She turned to go then. In spite of her exhaustion, she wasn’t certain she could sleep. Nevertheless, she couldn’t think of anything further to say.

***

Lee paced the hospital hallway, angry and restless like a wounded animal. Itching to smash every single cheery watercolor painting from the high-gloss wall. Oh yes, he could admit he was cranked up. Big time.

He’d conferred briefly with Thad and had finally managed a quick call back to Siddoh. Extremely quick. The phone situation remained spotty. He could only gather that tensions ran high over at the estate. Siddoh’s most annoying trait was being laid back to a disturbing degree. He’d never known the male’s voice to hold so much strain.

The queen and the baby had come through surgery, thank fuck. Lee was grateful they hadn’t needed to put the baby in the VNICU. Such a thing would have only placed further strain on the king and queen.

Selfishly, he was equally grateful they were not yet being allowed visitors. He’d managed to stave off an important part of the birth: the Oracle ritual. As the royal seer, Agnessa would need to be brought to bless the baby. Spending time with his former mate gave Lee the urge to stab someone in the stomach. Yes, with a salad fork.

Now Alexia had disappeared from the hospital. In a bitter stroke of luck, Isabel’s need for emergency surgery had rendered the frustrating little human’s position as the birth assistant null and void. Otherwise, Lee could have had an even bigger mess in explaining her sudden disappearance to the queen. But hell, if Lee didn’t find that woman before Isabel was allowed to have visitors, he’d kill her once she was located. The queen was going to want her best friend.

And Lee wanted Alexia back.

He stopped dead in the hallway when he spotted her. Alexia and Flay came toward him from down the hall, holding coffee cups and with plastic bags slung over their arms. Talking. Laughing. Not a care in the godforsaken world. Fuck the salad fork. He would strangle her.

“Lexi.” He charged forward, his boots pushing across the speckled tile floor with a squeak.

She paused and put a hand on Flay’s arm, like he might do something to defend her.
Think
again, sweetheart. He works for me.

“May I ask what the two of you were doing?”

Flay held up his cup. “Food, sir. Alexia was unable to acquire any in the cafeteria downstairs so I escorted her to the 7-Eleven.”

Lee focused on Alexia. “What the hell’s wrong with the food downstairs?”

She wrinkled her nose at him and sipped from her coffee. For fuck’s sake, a cup of coffee in one hand and a drink made of sugar and artificial dyes in the other? And yet back at home—at the estate—she filled herself with organic vegetables and raw honey. He would never claim to understand this woman.

“Aside from the fact that it all smelled as bad as it probably tasted, they wouldn’t let me buy anything. When I tried, they accused me of stealing.”

Lee looked from Alexia to Flay and back again. “I don’t understand.” He might not like humans, but he wouldn’t be discriminatory toward one without cause.

Are
you
sure, Lee?
The acid twist of Alexia’s anger and disappointment soured in his veins, but the strength of his own fury won. “You left unannounced. I didn’t have a clue where you were. There’s no power out there. Enemies, both yours and mine, are
every-fucking-where
. We call that a security risk.”

She took a defensive stance. Feet planted, arms crossed over her sparkly T-shirt, which seemed to have shrunk a size since drying. Even in his frustration he noticed the way it hugged the curve of her breasts, the hourglass at her waist. “Tyra knew I went to get something to eat.”

“You told her the cafeteria. I got finished checking there an hour ago. How the hell long does it take to walk a couple of blocks and pick up some junk food?”

Flay stepped forward. Guarding her. Guarding Alexia from Lee. Jesus, he was no danger to Alexia. He’d just had his mouth on her skin. His hands on her—

“Sir, security manhandled and insulted her. We took a time-out to cool off and talk privately, since the rain had lifted. The power’s back on down the block, and she never left my side. Perfectly safe.” Flay’s face was so fucking earnest. Damned kid had blond hair and freckles. Freckles. “I’d never let any harm come to her, I swear.”

With his knuckles jammed into his hips, Lee stared up at the tile ceiling. Maybe Flay only intended to be helpful, but the young vampire had a legendary fascination with humans. Everybody knew. Lee wouldn’t put it past him to cozy up to Alexia for less than honorable intentions.

Lee should have been the one protecting Alexia. Instead, when she had been in need of help, Lee had been getting lectured by Dr. Mohawk.

He fixed his stare on Flay. “Report to Tyra. Find out if Anton is ready to go back on patrol. You’ve got a couple of hours left before dawn, and you need to cover what ground you can in that time. If she’s had a chance to finish questioning that washed-out recruit, do me the favor of escorting him home.”

Flay nodded and made himself vanish.

Lee focused then on Alexia, who was doing her usual arms crossed, chin up, go-ahead-and-try-me stance. Her hair had dried in sexy, disheveled waves. Dammit, when she stood that way, her challenging glare got him hard instantly. She had no idea. “I need to make a trip back to the estate,” he said. “I want you to come with me.”

“You do.” Irritated glare. “Well, gee, after your verbal assault, that sounds mighty tempting.”

“If I have you by my side, I don’t have to worry about you.”

His heart hammered fast and hard again, tension climbing in his chest. This time the squeeze wasn’t simply his medical bullshit. He couldn’t pretend otherwise. He hated that Alexia had leaned on someone other than him. Again.

Anton. Siddoh. Flay. For so long, Lee had insisted he wanted her
not
to need him, but tonight had been one proverbial slap in the face after another. That protective look from Flay…

Not knowing where she’d gone just now had been the final, bone-chilling straw. If something had happened to Alexia, Lee wouldn’t have been there. Not fast enough.

Alexia shifted her feet, planting them wide. Her glare of mistrust plunged a cold knife into Lee’s stomach. Hot and heavy, Lee’s guts spilled onto the floor.

Okay, no.
This
was the final straw.

Lee pointed to an empty room, the one they’d used before when he’d fed from her. They needed to resolve this, and he refused to use the hallway for a public showdown. “In there. Now.” His fingers clenched and released, fighting the urge to grab hold of her and make her go. “We will not discuss this in full view of everyone. Please.”

With an angry glare, she finally went. Once the door shut behind them, he urged her into one of the large chairs. He knelt on the floor to make eye contact.
Forced
her
to make eye contact, one knuckle under her chin. “Lexi, I’m not trying to be a hard-ass. I had no idea where the fuck you’d gone. I need to keep you safe.”

She squared her shoulders and leaned forward, extending the long column of her gorgeous neck. The full moon through the rain-spattered window gave a liquid glow to her deep brown eyes. “Right. Your job. Your job is about protecting Thad and protecting Isabel. In the long run, I’m incidental. You’ve as much as said so in the past. You only protect me because I’m important to the queen. And sooner or later I’m going to be gone anyway, because I’m a basic, boring human. So let’s just stop pretending like you honestly give a shit.”

God damn. The pain on her face and the venom of her words reached into his chest like a claw and yanked his heart out clean. Better than any enemy ever could.

He’d spent so much energy on pushing her away. Because he was a dick. Because no matter what either of them might want, a human and a vampire together could not work over the long centuries that should span a vampire’s lifetime. Sure as hell not if he faced death’s door. But those words had been said in defense many months ago. After everything that had happened to them tonight, did she honestly still think she held no meaning for him?

Lee’s fingers dug into her arms. His vision blurred. “For fuck’s sake…
you
matter
. If I didn’t give a shit, you wouldn’t drive me so fucking crazy.”

Her eyes widened. “I make you crazy?”

“Completely, certifiably insane.” The next thing Lee knew for sure, his lips, his body, his aching cock all slammed against her. Their chests rose and fell fast, in sync.

Had it been only a question of desire, he could have withstood desire. Maybe he could have also withstood jealousy. Piled on top of those foreign things he hadn’t felt in so long, was the passion of Alexia’s giving intention when she’d offered her blood. When he’d finally dropped his guard and allowed her to seek help on his behalf. And dear God, the white-hot knife that had gone through him when she resisted his protection.

Alexia’s moment of mistrust toward Lee had ripped through his veins like shards of shrapnel. Her rejection should not have burned so forcefully, but it had.

He’d never known much of the vampire-human blood tie, but this avalanche of emotion, his own and the ones that swirled within him thanks to her blood, threatened to knock him down. He wanted to wrap around her, to bury himself inside her forever. To make promises he should not make.