Hunter by Night (4 page)

“Untrustworthy. Biologically inferior.”

Tyra sniffed. “Until recently, we all thought my mother was human. You never thought I was inferior.”

Oh, fucking hell. All at once, Lee’s skin itched everywhere. “Half human or half wizard, you always had your vampire side. Are we done with this insanity? What the fuck are you even doing here?” he whispered low and harsh.

She chuckled. “Thad wants you to take Lexi back to the estate so she can pick up Isabel’s things, and he wants you to make sure things are secure there. Also, Xander and Flay have run across some suspicious goings-on out in Humanlandia. They’re coming over soon to give a full report, if you want to be back for the powwow.”

Lee nodded, staring down the hall while Anton handed Lexi a cup of coffee. The girl nodded at something he said, while he placed a hand on her shoulder. Lee took another slow, deep breath.

Tyra held up a slip of paper. “I have a list.”

He snatched the paper from Tyra’s fingers. “Great.” With Tyra to guard the door, Lee shoved forward, his eyes rooted on Alexia. He tried not to take in the fullness of her lips or the tick of her pulse and the flush of her cheeks when she noticed his approach.

He failed.

Theresa paced the waiting area outside of phlebotomy at St. Anne’s vampire hospital. Eamon Junior, her six-month-old, slept against her chest. Overhead, some speaker she couldn’t see announced something, called a name she couldn’t quite understand. Every time the address system roared to life, her nerves jangled. She was afraid this would be the time they’d announce it was his turn to get his blood drawn and she’d miss the call. A vampire covered in burns was wheeled past in the hall, surrounded by a gaggle of staff in white coats and colored scrubs. Probably attacked by wizards, probably urgent.

Her eyes burned but she held back the tears. Yes, others had urgent needs, but she was here with a starving infant who needed his blood drawn. If she and Eamon hadn’t already been forced to wait through the entire day after the baby’s checkup, she’d simply go home to the royal estate and tell her son’s pediatrician that the old windbag could put his growth charts in his pipe and smoke them. She didn’t want to have to bring her child back to go through this torture all over again.

She glanced at the clock, large and luminous against a green-and-white wall. Eight in the evening. How was it possible that they had been here for more than fifteen hours? The balls of her feet begged for mercy, but she didn’t dare sit. Movement kept the baby calm and asleep, and she’d been told strictly not to feed him until they could draw his blood.
Not
feed
a
six-month-old baby
. Didn’t these monsters know what they were asking?

What a nightmare.

“Theresa?” A large hand gripped her elbow.

At her startled jerk the baby jolted awake, arms flung out wide in a T. He wailed in her arms with his mouth open wide. His budding fangs peeked through inflamed gums.

“Damn.” Theresa bounced and patted, uttering shushing noises into her son’s ear. God bless the mother who’d given her that
Happiest Baby on the Block
DVD.

Little Eamon, poor thing, shoved a balled-up hand into his mouth. Fat tears rolled down his face. At least he wasn’t screaming.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake him.” The kind, green eyes of Xander, one of the king’s fighters, smiled down at her. He’d watched over her and the baby for a time, after her mate had been killed in a wizard attack.

Theresa shook off her surprise and bounced with baby Eamon, humming to him once more. She’d been using her power to induce sleep when needed. After using it all day, though, she struggled to stay upright. The baby snuggled against her again, awake and hiccupping, but quiet. He stared at Xander with his wide, wet, black eyes.

“Wow, he’s gotten so big. May I?” Xander reached out before Theresa could think much about it and calculate the probability that Eamon would cry again at being handed to a stranger. But he didn’t cry. He stayed wide-eyed and staring as the large vampire held him up and then pulled him to his dark T-shirt-clad chest.

“That’s amazing,” she said. “He’s been crying practically all day. I wouldn’t expect him to take to a stranger so easily.”

“But I’m not a stranger,” Xander murmured as he touched his finger to Eamon’s nose. His eyes crinkled at the corners, and his cheeks dimpled when he smiled. “I don’t suppose you remember me, little guy. I held you a few times when you were just born. You were so small and fragile, I was practically afraid to pick you up.” He lifted Eamon and gave him a light pretend toss, eliciting a giggle from the baby. “You’ve gotten heavier now, huh?”

Oh, God. Inside, it was all Theresa could do not to burst into tears. After the night and day she and Eamon had gone through, pacing the brightly lit halls with her hungry child that she’d been told not to feed, feeling so alone and helpless… She fought to keep herself together in front of him.

Xander stopped jiggling the baby and turned to her. “What’s wrong, Theresa?” Who would have thought such a powerful vampire, with his rough hands and tattoos and six feet of muscle, could speak in such a gentle whisper?

She shook her head. “We’re fine. I’ve been waiting for him to have some blood drawn.” She glanced at the clock. Eight-thirty. Back over to the lab door. The tech had been gone forever. She didn’t even know whom to ask at this point… “They said they needed to find someone who has experience with small babies.”

“No.” He gripped her arm, gentle but insistent. “I know it’s been awhile since we’ve talked, and I don’t want to pry where it’s not my business, but…” He leaned close to her ear. “I can feel something bad. I’ve never been that good with female emotions, I have to be honest with you, but I can sense in my blood you’re upset. We’re still friends, right? What’s wrong?”

Theresa shivered. She had given him blood as a favor when he’d looked after her and Eamon, and that hadn’t been for several months. “You can still feel—”

“We’re on you right now. And Eamon.” He smiled quickly down at the baby and cuddled him. God, he was good with babies. “What’s wrong with him?”

Her knees just didn’t want to hold anymore, and finally she could sit, so she did. “I don’t know. I’m still hoping for nothing. He’s not gaining weight to the doctor’s satisfaction. His baby fangs came in early so I started transitioning him to blood but he’s not growing well. They think maybe he might have globusemia.”

Xander’s green eyes got wide. “Blood allergy?”

“I know,” she said. She’d sobbed for so long alone in her home after getting the call about the diagnosis. Saying the word again now brought fresh tears and a lump to her throat. “It’s so rare. I’m praying they’re wrong.”

Usually a young vampire started out getting blood from a guardian until they reached the age of consent and were allowed to feed from another of their own kind. Occasionally, a parent’s own blood could be incompatible. The doctors had told her a true inability to digest all blood was rare, but vampire babies with an allergy to the one thing they needed to survive died quickly. The not knowing these past weeks had left Theresa raw and wrung out. “They want to double-check.”

“Okay.” Xander nodded, sitting with Eamon on the seat beside Theresa. “So this may all be fine.”

She nodded. “I’m trying not to worry, but there’s been little else to do all day.” She gestured to a corner table scattered with magazines. “I even read
Field
and
Stream
.” She tried to laugh at her poor joke but choked on the words.

Eamon cried out and chewed his tiny fist again. She tugged his arm, afraid he’d bite himself with his new fangs, but the gnawing seemed to calm him, so when he insisted, she let him continue.

Xander frowned. “He seems hungry.”

Her chest tightened. “They won’t let me feed him. The test has to be done while fasting for the results to be accurate. We’ve waited so long that he’s starving. Usually he eats every four hours. I’m about to give up and take him home.”

“No.” He hooked an arm around her shoulder, bringing them both to standing. “No, you need answers. And this is ridiculous. He’s only a baby. They can’t leave a widow of the king’s military just waiting around. Did you tell them you’re a fighter’s widow?”

Horrifying. “What? No. I would never use Eamon’s death as some sort of bargaining chip.” She hadn’t even thought to. That just seemed wrong.

“Fine. I will.”

“Xander—”

“Theresa, this is to help your son.” He strode across the room to a blond vampire at a coffee machine. “Flay. Can you handle meeting with Thad and Lee?”

Oh God, they were going to see the king? “Xander, I’m so sorry. You’ve got more important things to take care of. We’ll be fine.”

“They’ve kept a hungry child waiting. It’s not fine.” His arm was heavy and warm around her shoulders. “Flay, this is Eamon’s widow, Theresa. They’ve left her waiting to get her son’s blood tested all day, and the kid’s starving because he can’t eat before the test. I’m going to see if I can’t help get this handled.”

Lord. Her throat clogged with gratitude. She didn’t like to think herself helpless, but Xander was large and loud and unfettered by a squalling baby. Maybe there was something more he could accomplish.

Flay bowed slightly. “Of course. I’m so sorry for your loss, ma’am.”

More tears pressed behind her eyes unexpectedly. “Thank you.” It was so hard to respond when people said they were sorry. What was she to say?
Thanks? It’s okay? No biggie?
No answer was right. But she didn’t want to be ungrateful.

Flay nodded to Xander. “We’re early anyway. If you’re not back in time, I’ll let the king and Commander Goram know why you’ve been detained.”

Xander pulled her away, heading down the hall past the lab door. “Come on. Not sure why, but nobody’s in the lab. We’ll check the information desk, and if we have to, we can go to the emergency department. Any doctor in the ER can draw blood.”

She hadn’t even thought of trying the emergency department. Did she have the worst problem-solving skills, or what?
I’m sorry, Eamon. Your mother is stupid.

Xander shook his head, as if in response to her thoughts. “When you fight, you get injured frequently and eventually learn to ask the right questions.”

“I kept worrying if we went somewhere, or if I gave in and fed him, that would be when they called us for the test finally, and I’d miss the window.”

He squeezed her hand. “Well, now I’m here to help.”

“Xander? You still have my blood in you?”

He smiled slightly. “Your blood is powerful. I’ve been very lucky. Now. Down here…”

“You don’t need to do this, Xander. I heard you. You’re supposed to be going to meet with the king and Commander Goram.”

The look on his face just then melted Theresa’s heart. He placed a gentle hand on hers, the other hand resting on Eamon Junior’s fuzzy head. “
This
is important.”

***

The drive back to the estate from the hospital to get Isabel’s necessities had made for all sorts of fun and games. On a good day, Lee and Alexia managed to push each other’s “don’t make me cut you” buttons in ascending order. This time he had taken the opportunity to insult everything from her skills helping Anton navigate on the way
to
the hospital, to her desire to hit the Starbucks drive-through on the ride home… erm,
back
to
the
estate
. In return she’d insulted his hair, his wardrobe, and his need to wear SPF-one billion.

Poor Dr. Brayden had been forced to ride bitch in the backseat so he could return to check on the guys who’d been injured recently in training. The buttoned-up physician had been scarlet-cheeked and silent for the entire duration. Lexi couldn’t say she blamed him for his cheetah-out-of-hell escape when they finally returned.

At first, seeing Lee stalk stiffly down the hall to head to the estate’s training quadrant had left Alexia jiggly with relief. Now though, hours had passed. She’d packed up a few belongings for Isabel and herself, and she was alone with her dangerous thoughts in her disaster of a bedroom. So now what?

She had already showered and changed, paced the fluffy beige carpet, and actually finally wondered when Lee might return. Weren’t they supposed to get back to Isabel?

She kicked at the piles on the floor, pulled at the mangled sheets, and threw the fleece blankets on the queen bed into something resembling “made.” The piles of clothes got tossed into a large hamper by the dresser. If she didn’t straighten once in awhile, cleaning staff would creep in while she wasn’t around. Then there would be guilt. Alexia had sort of resigned herself to being messy. It just didn’t pay to organize and put things away when you might leave again with no notice. But she hated when others felt compelled to clean up her detritus.

She dropped the pile of clothes in her arms when a bizarre ripple swept through her, strong enough to make her body lurch. “What the…” If she believed in ghosts, she would have thought one passed through her middle and tugged at her insides on the way through. Since she lived with vampires, it wasn’t such a far stretch to wonder about ghosts. Still, she was pretty sure they didn’t really exist.

Okay, now she wanted Lee to come back. If nothing else, to explain what in the hell had just happened. It gave her a vague, uncomfortable impression of the “disturbance in the force” variety. Only she wasn’t cool enough, or nerdy enough, or whatever enough, to be jacked into any kind of collective consciousness.

Here, she would always be an outsider.

A gentle knock sounded. “Alexia?”

A pale, fanged female with ruby eyes and platinum hair frowned at Alexia from the other side of the door. In truth, Nessa’s crazy eyes had creeped Alexia out at first, but Lee’s ex wasn’t actually so bad once you got to know her. She was intelligent and funny. Sure, a little weird. But cool-weird, come to find out.

Alexia hated that Nessa was Lee’s ex, but they simply didn’t talk about the fact that Nessa had once screwed—and screwed over—the vampire that Lexi didn’t quite want to acknowledge she still crushed on. Alexia didn’t have a lot of friends on the estate. She’d gotten the impression Nessa didn’t, either.

She might have worried it would cause other vampires on the estate to give her a wide berth on account of Nessa’s bad succubus reputation, but many vampires already avoided Alexia. It was like she had a big, old “Don’t touch the human” sign around her neck. Especially since that embarrassing thing with Anton. One tiny touch and Lexi had wound up sprawled out on the rug like a drunk. God.
Don’t feed the bears. Don’t touch the human.

Alexia peered at the pale-skinned half succubus, nausea settling in her own gut. Nessa hardly ever looked worried, but she did now. “Is everything okay?”

“I was going to ask you the same,” Agnessa said. “I felt that shift. I came to check on you.”

“Shift.” Alexia rubbed the goose-pimpled flesh on her arms. “Yeah, what was that weirdness? Did you get a vision or anything?”

Agnessa served as Thad’s spiritual adviser. As Alexia understood things, Nessa was one of the last remaining Oracles known to vampire kind. For that reason alone, folks put up with her succubus half and her über creepiness. And Alexia liked Nessa, but she could see how it was a little creepy. Half the time she was pretty sure the scarlet-eyed lady could literally read minds. She’d come to accept that there were wacky vampire powers and whatnot that she didn’t understand, but being around Nessa occasionally gave Alexia the urge to fashion herself a really kick-ass tinfoil helmet.