Hunter by Night (18 page)

Her fingers clenched. “Okay, you know what? I can see that something is going on with you, and I wanna be a friend here because you’ve been one for me so many times. But I don’t know what the right questions are. Can you help me a little? You look like someone backed over your grandmother and your puppy. Or your grandmother backed over your puppy.”

Something. Anything. She didn’t even care that her joke was lame or that desperation strained her voice. She hardly even cared at that moment that Lee might never speak to her again. She’d never seen Siddoh looking so desolate. She wanted to help her friend.

Siddoh’s fist thumped the door. The painted wood rattled the frame, and Alexia flinched without meaning to. “I killed my uncle.”

Somehow, her eyes stayed inside of her head. “Oh my God. Siddoh…”

His head hit back against the door. “I didn’t—There was no choice. He let Isabel’s dog out at dawn. Intentionally endangered the queen’s life. The baby. The punishment is death.”

Oh, Siddoh.
Her body turned to lead. “But Lee could have—”

“No. I suspect my uncle relied on my relationship with him for leniency, which could not happen. I needed to be the one. Sometimes you need to step up and take charge.”

God. Sometimes you did, but holy… Her eyes burned as she pulled him into a hug. “I wish I knew what to say.”

He hugged back hard, but pulled away fast. He rubbed his eyes. They were red but dry. If he was anything like her, it might take a decade for what had happened to really come out. If he ever let it out. “There’s nothing to say. It’s just fucking awful.”

The sharp pain of her nails in her palm was nothing compared to what lay inside her, sick and burning. She’d run away from her family because she blamed them for what had happened to her, because she didn’t trust them anymore. She couldn’t imagine having to kill one of them, though. Siddoh obviously had done what he did with good reason, but that didn’t keep it from being awful.

One more reason she didn’t belong in this world. It would never be something with which she could truly identify. And Lee was so angry and bitter. She didn’t want to let what had happened to her make her bitter. Even more bitter, anyway.

She looked into Siddoh’s hopeless eyes. On the other hand, Isabel would be bringing the baby soon… and Alexia couldn’t just leave someone who had become like a brother to her when he was hurting. She couldn’t go right away anymore, anyway. Not since Lee had hijacked her priestess whateveryacallit.

“Okay,” Alexia said. She threw an arm around Siddoh’s waist that barely went halfway and steered him to the bed. “Sit down. I may not have any answers, but I know how to distract you for a little while…”

Eamon’s head was bleeding, and Theresa’s nerves and energy had left her. Using her power to such an extreme had drained her to the point of shaking. She’d pricked her thumb to give the blood to her son so he could heal, but he only cried and refused the offering. The final straw. “Come on, honey. It’ll make you feel better.” She barely believed her own words.

Eamon turned his head and wailed louder. Panic streaked through Theresa’s veins. Heaven forbid he’d been exposed to that spell. That virus. Whatever it was. “Sweetie, Mama needs you to take this blood.” She dabbed some on his lips, hoping that would help. Babies only needed a little.

Eamon cried more, but then he seemed to settle. He licked his lips. Little baby eyes fluttered as if they might consider a nap. But the feeding didn’t stay down. “Oh, Eamon, no,” she whispered. Each time she hoped—prayed—that this would be the time the thing that was meant to nourish him didn’t make him ill.

Xander came out of the bathroom, freshly showered and dressed. “What’s wrong? Did he get sick?”

“He…” She stood and held Eamon away from her. “I need to find a clean shirt. He spit up again.”

“I’ll hold him while you change.” Xander held out his arms.

“He might do it again. You just got clean.”

Xander smiled. “We’ll be fine.”

Theresa nodded and handed her child to Xander, grateful for a moment of peace. She waited until she’d closed the bedroom door behind her before she allowed herself to cry. She didn’t grant herself much time for sorrow, ripping open the packages of T-shirts they’d stopped to grab on their way. She would not wallow. This could be a fluke. It could get better.

But a baby spitting up its own mother’s blood certainly was not good.

“Oh God, please…” Theresa fell to her knees in the darkened bedroom and let her head rest on the bed’s fluffy white duvet. From beyond the door, the sounds of Xander humming to Eamon reminded her of those men she’d just killed in the park. Her chest heaved. She could try to pretend she’d only used her power to make them sleep, but that would be wrong. She could try to be sorry for what she’d done, but that would also be wrong. Her child had been in danger.

Freezing cold to her core, she swiped the tears from her face and returned to the suite’s living room. Surrounded by the white noise of her fear, it took a moment to realize that everything had fallen quiet. She looked around to find Xander on the couch with Eamon cradled in the crook of his arm. “He stopped crying.”

“Shh.” Xander lifted one long index finger. “I think he’s tired.”

“How did you—Oh.” Her eyes followed Xander’s pointer finger. The pinkie finger on that same hand rested in Eamon’s tiny mouth. “Well, that’s…” Adorable. Heartwarming.
Going
to
break
my
heart
when
this
is
all
over.

Xander grinned. “I did this once right after he was first born. You were getting checked by the doctor and he got hungry. It helped him go back to sleep. I thought such a thing might work again.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe I can be good for something other than firing a gun.” Xander’s words, said in a light tone, did not match the scowl on his face.

“Are you…” She sat slowly on the other end of the sofa. One hand clasped the other to keep them both still. “… are you angry with me? Am I going to be in trouble? I know I should have let you be the one to handle the situation. I acted without thinking.”

“I’m only worried about you.” He shifted carefully, gentle with Eamon. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I remember my first kill, though. That can be difficult to process.”

She scooted forward. “Here, I can take him.”

Xander frowned. “Okay, sure. I think he’s—ow!” Xander raised an eyebrow. “I was about to say I think he’s out, but the little bugger just nipped me.”

“Here.” Theresa held out her arms. “I should take him. He might get sick again.”

“Wait.” Xander sat up straighter, watching with interest. “He’s sucking on my finger. That’s good, right?”

“But…” Her throat clogged. “It makes him sick.” She looked around for a hand towel, in case of the worst.

“Are you sure?” Xander smiled down at Eamon in the dark. “He’s got a good hold on me. He seems… yeah. Look. The cut on his head is healing, I think.”

No. Could he really… Hope fluttered in her chest. “Are you sure?” She dropped to her knees by his side without thinking. “He’s really drinking?”

Xander pulled the finger from Eamon’s mouth and the squalling started immediately. “I think he wants more.” He chuckled.

Theresa couldn’t stop the tears. “He’s really drinking.” She put her hand to her chest. “I’d been…”
Panicked. Terrified. About to vomit myself so many times I’d almost given up on eating.
She shook her head. “It’s the worst thing, you know. As a mother. To have the very thing that’s supposed to sustain your child, from your own body, and to be told it might be the thing that makes him ill. That you can’t take care of him.” She kept her gaze firmly fixed on her son in Xander’s lap, suckling peacefully on that pinkie, eyelids drifting toward sleep. So unbelievable.

Gratitude mixed with anger and fear. Her own blood made her son ill, but someone else’s could heal him? The unfairness burned through her.

“Theresa.”

She looked up. Xander’s green eyes shone brightly in the dim light. “One way or another, this will all be okay. I’ll be here to help any way I can.”

Not
if
you
leave
us. Not if you get killed.
But she only said, “I just can’t believe he’s taking your blood. You must really be something special.”

Xander smiled, managing to pull his hand free of Eamon who had finally dropped off to sleep. He hooked his index finger around hers. “I like to think I am.” He seemed to search her face. “And so is his mother.”

***

Alexia and Siddoh settled on her bed to watch
Dirty
Dancing
. No, it wouldn’t fix what ate away at Siddoh. Nothing could.

But for the moment? Passion. Angst. Catchy music. Patrick Swayze in his prime. These things would help more than getting hammered. She knew of whence she spoke.

Johnny and Baby practiced their moves together in the summer heat, and she and Siddoh both sighed a little. Best movie ever. Damn, Alexia loved hanging out with this big teddy bear of a vampire. They had fun together. She’d miss doing this sort of thing with Siddoh if she were gone. When.

“Shit, this guy is smooth. I need to learn to cha-cha. Maybe I’d get laid more.”

She threw a handful of popcorn at Siddoh’s severely shorn head. “You look so serious with that haircut. And how is it you don’t get laid with all those tattoos and muscles? You’re hot.”

He waggled his brows. “You offering?”

She rolled her eyes. “Right. You’re also a smart-ass.” They flirted all the time. He really did look great, and she’d seen the female staff around the estate swoon behind his back when he wasn’t aware. She’d always thought she must be missing something not to have been swept up by his mojo. They’d bumped and swayed together on the dance floor at clubs. Hell, once they even fell asleep together in his bed after he’d had a really intense feeding and she’d been unable to last until the end of watching
Troy
. She could get her cuddle on with the guy, no problem. But there had been no chemistry. More than friends had never been in the cards for her and Siddoh.

He grunted and shook his head without her having to say anything. “Yeah, yeah. I know.”

“I’m not the right type for you, anyway. You’re looking in all the wrong places. Otherwise you’d be mated by now. You’re like… old, for crying out loud.”

That surprised something like a laugh out of him. “Says the girl who’s hot for a seven-hundred-year-old vampire. That guy’s practically got one foot on the Council of Elders and the other on a banana peel, for crying out loud. Anyway, what type of female do you think I’m looking for?”

“I don’t know, but look at me. Look at Tyra. Bitchy, stubborn, and willful. I think you’re attracted to women you know won’t work for you. I think deep down what you really want is a nice, traditional girl who will cook you dinner and rub your shoulders every night, but you’re afraid that saying so would be bad for your image as the resident ne’er-do-well. What was your mother like?”

He barked a laugh and tossed a handful of popcorn into his mouth. On television Johnny and Baby danced at the Sheldrake. “Trying to put those psych lessons to work, Lexi? Interesting thought, though. Weird. But interesting. By the way, my mother and I haven’t spoken in a century.”

Ouch. She tapped her head. “Ah. See? Mull it over.”

He grunted and crossed his ankles on the bed.

Banging on Alexia’s door interrupted their conversation. It hit the far wall with a hard slam. Again with the slamming.

“Jesus, Lee. Are you trying to break the thing?” Alexia glared, not that the stubborn ass gave a damn.

Like that, Siddoh rose to his feet.

Lee nodded his head. “Siddoh, check in with the patrols. The grounds and the surrounding area look clear, but I’d like to verify.”

“Understood.” All business now, Siddoh straightened and nodded to her before leaving the room. No trace of his former sadness or concern remained. There wouldn’t be any. Siddoh was all fun and games until a job needed to be done. He pulled the somehow-still-hanging-on-its-hinges door shut behind him without a backward glance.

Lee stood at the foot of her bed with his chest rising and falling, wearing an expression she couldn’t read for anything. Was he pissed? That was a safe guess. But Lord knew she was just as likely to tick him off by breathing as if she personally danced right up and kerthwacked him in the junk drawer.

Damn it, though, he was so frigging handsome. Rain still dotted his short hair, and under his jacket, his clothing clung tight to his muscles. Lean. Hard… and she knew now what the whole package looked like.

God, if only that alone could be enough reason to stay.

He stalked up close. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

She held out the large ceramic bowl she’d shared with Siddoh only minutes earlier. “Popcorn?” On the screen, Johnny and Baby argued in Johnny’s room. How fucktacularly appropriate.

He grabbed the bowl and clunked it onto the dresser. “That’s hardly a reasonable response.”

She huffed and sat back down on the bed. “Well, shit, Lee, I don’t know what would be reasonable, since you keep blasting in here right and left with an apparent attempt to remove my door from the frame. I really don’t have a clue what you’re asking. Am I out of my fucking mind in general? I don’t think so, but it depends on one’s perspective. I’m the only human living on an estate full of vampires so perhaps I maybe, possibly, just might have a screw or two loose. Can you be more specific?”

He pressed forward. He stopped short of grabbing, but the flex of his fingers and the darkness on his face told her that he wanted to. “You can’t do it, Lexi. I’m sorry. You can’t have Agnessa wipe your mind. You cannot leave.” His voice had dropped to a whisper on that last sentence. She wasn’t sure she had ever heard him whisper before a few nights ago. She hadn’t known Lee could be soft in any way at all.

She was so busy tripping over the gravelly quiet of his words and his breath skating past her ear, because she’d drawn up to her full height and he’d stooped low, that she nearly let what he’d actually said slip right by her. “Wait. What? What the hell do you mean I can’t go?” She pushed at his chest. “What did Agnessa say to you?”

She veered around him, and his arm shot out, closing a hand around her wrist. She tried to swallow, but sharp fragments of a major freak-out made doing so impossible. “You have no right to make me stay. Agnessa said she could—”

“Agnessa cannot be trusted.” The hand that held her wrist eased its grip, let go, and found the small of her back. He pulled her close, and very weirdly, the wet warmth of his clothes was a comfort. Familiar, after their little unplanned wilderness bonding experience out in the woods. After the hospital. “She also left out a very important detail. Whether deliberately or because she wasn’t paying attention, I can’t be certain.”

“What are you talking about?”

Lee’s other hand slid along her shoulder, that broad thumb stroking her throat. “I drank from you. You drank from me. Enough at this point that you feel me within your veins. You would continue to feel me if you went away.”

A shiver started from the crown of her head and chased its way down her spine.

“Now for me, I can eventually drink from someone else maybe. Wash you out of my system,” he said.

Now, why did that make her itch to warm up her bitch-slapping hand?

“You, though? Let’s say you go back to the human world. Forget about vampires. Never consume blood again. I will always be there. You’ll feel me inside you. You won’t know what it is, but I’ll be there. When I’m angry. Hungry…”

Another shiver. Intense. Whether intentional or not, his hand flattened across her back. His hold on her tightened and she resisted the urge to lean forward. Against the heat of his skin.

“Lexi, I’m serious. You’ll go insane.”