Hunting Karoly (13 page)

As a result, I’d barely chopped the garlic and onions before Sam and Ellie appeared in the kitchen with a bottle of sparkly white and I remembered I hadn’t even opened the expensive red to let it breathe in time for the meal. For a moment I stared at them in indecision.

Sam was a short, likeable man, a sensitive, with freckles, open and amiable. Ellie, on the other hand, was an astonishingly beautiful blonde and probably the sexiest woman I had ever met. I had seen her move objects just with her mind. She was also a voracious man eater, entirely uninhibited about her sexual appetites and until recently I had hated her guts. Then it came to me watching her hunting action one evening, that she just had the looks, charm and confidence to do well what I had been doing with very few standards all my adult life. And when I looked closer, I saw some traces of a rather touching vulnerability in her restless quest for mates. Just like me, she was looking for the love that never materialized. On either side.

“What?” she said, now in some amusement. Taking a chance, I switched on the gas, splattered some olive oil in a frying pan and threw in my chopped onions. That done, I hurried a tolerant Sam and Ellie back down the hall to my room where Zack, Don and Jess already waited for us. Falling back into old student ways, everyone sat around the floor, where we would also eat, picnic style.

While they joked, I pointed them at the glasses and the nibbles I’d haphazardly prepared earlier and rummaged for the corkscrew.

Opening the expensive red, I put it on the top bookshelf out of the way for later—this was not a gulping wine—and gratefully accepted a glass of Sam’s bubbles. I would have then run straight back to the kitchen, only Jess’ question about the poltergeist fed me a great opportunity for a funny line and I couldn’t resist telling the comic version of the day’s events. Only then, with the laughter of friends ringing in my ears did I bolt down the hall back to the kitchen.

I knew from the smell that it was much too late. I knew too that the smoke alarm was about to blare. If it hadn’t been placed dangerously high up above the drafty window, it would have gone off already.

Seizing the burning onions off the gas, I reached for the stepstool and climbed up to grab the alarm off the wall. Then, holding it high into the draft and away from the smoke, I picked off its back and spanged out the battery, which flew out of my hand to land with a clunk in the frying pan.

“Bugger!” I said with feeling, pausing to follow the battery with my eyes. That was when I saw him sitting on the worktop, one leg idly swinging under his kilt.

In his hand he held the spatula with which he’d obviously been poking my burned onions, but his eyes were on my legs, slowly rising up over my hips and waist to my breast. Stunned as I was, I could still feel my body burning under his gaze as if he was touching me.

When he finally came to my dropped jaw, he smiled and I remembered to shut my mouth with a snap. His eyes met mine.

“Hello.”

Still clutching the smoke alarm, I let my arms fall to my sides and almost overbalanced.

He did the blur thing to drop the spatula and catch me, but since I didn’t actually fall, I was able to fend him off with both hands held out warningly in front of me.

“How the hell did you get in here?” I demanded.

“Come down and I’ll tell you,” he invited, holding up his arms.

He was still beautiful with his deep-set, green, gleaming eyes and his fine, strong-boned face, his full, sensual lips that could kiss like…

“Get away from me,” I said coldly.

His hands fell back to his sides. A wary look came over his face, but he did step back and let me clamber down unmolested. As I turned to face him, I was shaking again, which I hoped he didn’t notice.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I came to see you, of course.”

“Why?”

His eyebrow lifted. “I had this idea you might be pleased. Especially after our recent—talks.”

I spun away from him and began to fish the smoke alarm battery out of the frying pan with the spatula. “I can’t imagine where you got such a profoundly stupid notion.”

“From you, of course. We had fun together in Glasgow.”

“No.
You
had fun.” I threw the battery and the spatula into the bin together. “And then you betrayed me.”

He frowned. “I gave you the chance to be a hero to your friends. And you took it. Twice.”

“You drank from me!”

For the space of several heartbeats, neither of us moved or spoke. The only sound was my own quickened breathing. My shields were down, but I didn’t care. I wanted him to feel all my fury, all my hurt. The gold flecks in his eyes narrowed, almost vanished as his gaze moved around my face, searching for answers. A faint frown lingered on his brow.

At last, his tempting lips parted. “So? You liked it.”

A moment longer, I stared at him. Rage such as I’d never known flooded my being with heat, as if the blood in my veins boiled with fury, because he couldn’t see what he’d done, what it meant it me.

And because he was right. That too.

My voice tight and unsteady, I uttered, “Are you completely amoral?”

“Of course I am. I’m a vampire.”

Well, it was a stupid question, but that didn’t stop my fist clenching or my arm drawing back purposefully. I meant to hit him full in his handsome, impossible face. Then, just as I was about to let fly, I saw in his eyes that he would let me, as he had let me stab him, and abruptly the anger drained away. My fist unclenched and he smiled, understanding this if nothing else.

He took a step nearer me. “Jenny…”

The kitchen door burst open.

“Jenny, where do you keep your glasses, because Ellie just broke one and… Hello!” It was Zack, bounding in to be brought up short by the splendid vision of Karoly. He grinned. “You’ve just
got
to be a relative of Jenny’s! Fresh doon from bonnie Scotland! Ock aye!”

In spite of everything, I cringed, though it was automatic now and I had long ago learned to annoy him just as much by imitating him.

“The noo,” I said dryly. “You forgot ‘the noo’. The glasses are in that cupboard under the window.”

“Thanks. Zack Conway,” he added, sticking out his hand to the vampire. “And any relative of Jenny’s is welcome!” Which, considering it was my room and my kitchen was extremely generous of him.

Then, to my horror, I realized that Karoly was going to take his hand. A strangled protest choked in my throat. Their hands clasped briefly.

Zack said, “Cold night?” and, annoyingly, I wanted to laugh.

It was hysteria, of course, and it wasn’t helped by the thought that it was not above the vampire to reply, “No, It’s just I’ve been dead for five hundred years.”

As their hands parted again, I realized with fresh horror that Zack was waiting to learn my relative’s identity. And that Karoly’s mouth was opening to speak.

“Oh shit,” I said before I could prevent it, and when they both glanced at me in surprise, I added hastily, “This is Charlie, my cousin. He doesn’t speak or hear. But he lip reads.”

“Pleased to meet you,” said Zack, a little more clearly than necessary. “Staying for dinner, Charlie?”

“No!” I said in horror as the vampire nodded.

I glared at him and Zack laughed. “Never piss off a woman in the kitchen. Come on back and meet the others, get a glass of wine.”

At this, I opened my mouth to forbid it absolutely. But before I could speak, a sudden heavy weight pressed on my foot and I looked down to see Karoly’s tatty trainer firmly standing on it. Before I could express my outrage or even push him off, it lifted again. I felt his hand on my shoulder, igniting the spark of awareness as his cool touch always did.

The shock of it kept me quiet for long enough to see him do the same to Zack, then firmly push us both toward the door. When we looked back at him in surprise—open-mouthed in my case—he let me go to grab the frying pan, making stirring motions over my charred onions, now clustered unhappily around the empty space once occupied by the smoke alarm battery.

“Burned them, Jen?” Zack grinned.

“Caramelized,” I corrected with dignity. My mind was not on Zack or the onions. It was on Karoly, who undoubtedly meant us to leave the kitchen with the understanding that he would do the cooking.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said feebly. He met my eyes, smiling into them with devastating effect while he shook his head. I was flooded with the memory of sex with him on that balcony, the unique feel of his cold shaft pumping its extraordinary pleasures of fire and ice inside me. I wanted it again, very badly. It didn’t matter that he’d betrayed me, that he was, moreover, evil and undead. I wanted him now with a need so sharp my legs nearly buckled. Between them, I was soaked, hot and tingly, with an ache that spread like fire through my entire body.

Something in his eyes changed. Something about the curve of his lips grew more sensual, more—hungry. I realized that he could feel my desire, that it was feeding his.

Abruptly, I tugged my eyes free.

“You can make spaghetti Bolognese?” I demanded, coughing to disguise the unsteadiness of my voice. For answer, he simply placed his hand in the small of my back and pushed.

Zack laughed, grabbing my hand and leading me through the door. “Don’t turn down an offer like that,” he advised, grinning over my head at Karoly.

I refused to look at him again, but as we walked out I let my hand remain in Zack’s, in the rather useless hope that it would annoy the vampire.

Vaguely, I was aware of Zack’s questions about my “cousin”, but I answered them on autopilot with no clear recollection afterward of what I’d said. It was almost a relief to push open the door of my room. The place was still full of his presence despite the number of people now diluting it with their noise and laughter. The wine had clearly been flowing.

“How’s dinner, Jen?” Ellie asked. “Want a hand?”

“She doesn’t need any more hands,” Zack answered for me. I was beginning to be irritated by that. “She’s brought her cousin down from the frozen north to do her dirty work and now she’s off the hook!”

“Cousin, eh?” said Ellie, handing me a glass and splashing wine into it. “Male or female?”

“Male,” said Zack. “And the most gorgeous of that gender you’re ever likely to see in a skirt. Or trousers, come to that. Makes me wish I were gay.”

“Bring him on!” Ellie commanded with enthusiasm.

“Also he’s mute,” Zack informed her, “so he’s unlikely to answer you back.”

That was when the unlikely thought crossed my mind that Zack was trying to sic her on to my “cousin” out of jealousy, because he sensed something between us. Zack was an empath, after all. It was the jealousy that surprised me, so much so that a moment later, I was sure I’d imagined it.

I sank on to the floor, my back against the bed, trying to pull my brain out of its debilitating numbness. Was he really going to walk in here, to a room full of trained psychics, any one of whom might possibly recognize him and all of whom knew precisely how to kill him? Did he plan to amuse himself by drinking from some or all of them? Killing them? Killing
me
?

Of course, I should give him up to them, right now. I knew that. He was just too unpredictable, too dangerous.

But I had chosen my path in Glasgow and I could not change it. Despite everything I held against him, there was
something
…

And he
had
helped me immeasurably with the poltergeist.

To my horror, the bedroom door was opening. I knew who it was before I saw him. And when I
did
see him…well, he was a gorgeous creature, Zack was right. Somehow too his outlandish costume didn’t make anyone laugh, just admire. He was a strong, handsome man in a kilt, the plaid pinned across his chest only emphasizing his magnificence. As for his face, he looked like a corrupt angel, a beautiful, sensual being…bearing a tray of hors d’oeuvres which he had, presumably, flung together from my haphazard food cupboard.

After the initial stunned silence, he was welcomed with noisy enthusiasm. Smiling slightly, he moved forward, picking his way through those sprawling on the floor, to lay his tray down in the middle of them. I scanned their faces anxiously for signs of disquiet, of any kind of recognition, but all I saw was Ellie, leaning back to get a better view up his kilt as he bent down. Sniggering, Jess jerked her upright.

A sharp bolt of jealousy hit me squarely in the chest. Ellie would take him. Ellie could take anyone away from me any day of the week and even though I refused to have him I couldn’t prevent the flood of misery at her getting him instead… Oh God, what was I thinking of? He was a
vampire
, whose prime interest was blood. He could
kill
Ellie!

Karoly straightened, spreading his hands to indicate we should eat. Thank God he was sticking to my inspired lie and keeping his aristocratic Magyar mouth shut.

“Join us for a bit,” Ellie invited, making space for him on the side away from Jess. No point in unnecessary competition. I had often arranged matters that way myself in pursuit of some unsatisfactory man.

The vampire only smiled, shrugging, indicating he had to return to the kitchen. As he turned, his eyes met mine for one gleaming instant and I knew how amused he was at serving his elegantly presented food to a room full of young psychic operatives who had sworn to eliminate him and all his kind.