Matters of the Blood (21 page)

I shook my head, even though he wasn't looking at me. “No. Marty, to his eternal shame, was human."

Adam turned and strode back to the couch, crouching in front of me so his face was even with mine. His eyes glittered in the dark. “You swear he was human?"

"Completely,” I said. “He was some sort of throwback. The family disowned him."

His sigh proved to me that he did have breath in him. I felt the current of air brush my cheek. To my embarrassment, I could feel my body reacting to his presence. I grasped the blanket closer to me, as if to keep the barrier.

"So your cousin was a human playing at death,” he said. “Didn't he know how dangerous that was?"

"Evidently not,” I retorted. “Whatever he was doing, it obviously got him killed."

Adam rocked back on his heels, his hands resting on his knees. For a brief moment, I flashed on Carlton in nearly the same position when he'd made the pass at me at the mortuary.

Adam reached out and touched my cheek with the tips of his fingers. “You've changed my world tonight, Keira Kelly,” he said. “In more ways than one.” A smiled curled his lips as he leaned in toward me.

"Stop.” I put a hand up. “Wait. I'm not so sure..."

I let the words trail off as I saw the heat in Adam's gaze mirroring the fire that I knew was in mine. Damn.

Whatever had gone between us, whatever the psychic merge had been, had created a link that hadn't been completely broken. My hand dropped as I leaned forward, a hungry fish to a shiny lure, my eyes captured by his, my lips already aching for the taste of his mouth on mine.

"Adam, are you ready?"

Andrea's voice fell between us, cutting off the connection like a razor through paper.

Adam pulled away, with visible effort.

"Damn it,” he whispered. “I'll be there momentarily, Andrea."

She looked at me, then at Adam, shrugged and left as silently as she had arrived.

"Sorry. Duty calls."

"Duty?” I asked, as I tried to dismiss the whirl of emotions clouding my thinking.

"I need to meet with my security staff, take care of some internal business,” Adam replied. “That's where I was headed when I saw you at the loading dock."

I nodded and fumbled around looking for my boots. I needed to leave right now. Go home, clear my head, process everything I'd learned.

Adam touched my cheek, a tender smile on his face. “Go on home, Keira. I'll take care of my business and then see you later for dinner?"

Dinner. I'd actually forgotten.

"What time is it?"

"Only seven. Would you meet me here at nine?"

"So, what's with the wine and the chocolates?” I asked, inclining my head toward the coffee table as I pulled my right boot on.

"Nothing,” he said. “At least—not yet."

I turned to look accusingly at Adam. “You were going to set me up."

The soft sound of his laugh sent a tingle shivering up my spine. “Let's just say I was planning to optimize a situation."

"Optimize?"

His grin grew wider. I felt myself flushing.

"I asked you over for dinner at the restaurant. There's no rule that you couldn't have an appetizer here ... or come back for dessert,” he answered with a come-hither smile that sent a shiver up my spine.

Damn. Well, maybe a couple of hours at home, a hot shower—no, make it a cold one—and a little distance would let me deal with him on a more reasonable level. Besides, I needed to keep in contact with him if I were to find out more about Marty's death. I couldn't just go barging around the place trying to dig out vampires who might know something ... pun intended. Adam was my best chance of finding out.

"Fine,” I said, “I'll be back at nine ... and it better be damned good."

He laughed quietly, his voice dropping into the seductive tones that matched his smile. “I promise, I'm always very good."

That's precisely what I was afraid of.

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As I turned up the road that led to my house, I pulled out my phone and dialed Carlton's mobile number. I didn't know if he'd known about the Albrights having been caught trespassing at the Wild Moon. Even though other things might be personal matters, this could put our sheriff on the path to arresting those two clowns. Hell, they may have been the ones to kill Marty. Just because he'd had fang marks, didn't mean that's what had killed him. Delusional? I didn't know. I preferred to think of it as keeping my options open.

The rings gave way to voice mail as I pulled into my driveway. I didn't know if Carlton's phone had service that reached to Houston, but if he wasn't already back he should be fairly soon. Even if he'd left when the banks closed, it only took a few hours to drive home.

The beep sounded and I began to speak. “Carlton, hey, it's Keira. Listen, I found something out that I think you should—Holy mother fucking hell.” I dropped the phone to the seat next to me and stared at my porch.

I got out of my car, smelling it before my brain processed the reality of what I'd seen in the flash of headlights.

The soft glow of the porch lamp lit up the thing that had once been part of a Sitka deer. There was enough of the hide left to see the telltale white spots. Most of the lips were gone and I could see there were no front teeth. Wasn't I glad I knew so much about this species? Yeah, right.

Of course, since it was only a head, there wasn't much more to see. It had obviously been dead for a while. Most of the skin and underlying muscle tissue was gone, chewed away by whichever animals and insects had gotten there first. No blood, except for what had been used to write the words on the porch next to the decomposing head.

STAY AWAY BITCH. THIS COULD BE YOU.

I stood there staring at the thing on my porch. I was fully in the thrall of rubbernecker's syndrome. The sick part of you that makes you look, even though you know it's going to be really, really bad.

Great. Abso-fucking-lutely dandy. Just what I wanted as a before-dinner appetizer. My brain tripped a switch and slid into dead calm overdrive. This was just one step beyond sanity for me today.

I jumped, crouching into a defensive stance as a shadow moved to my right. As I realized who it was, I relaxed.

"I'm not sure I like your idea of a present, bro."

Tucker came into the light, laughing, only the underlying growl giving away his discomfort.

"You think I put this here?"

I shrugged. “You've done worse."

"That I have."

"If you didn't do this. Who did?"

"That, dear sister, is a question for you. What have you been up to?"

I sighed, leaned back against the porch rail and filled him in on what I'd found out at the ranch. I even told him about Adam. Not the sharing power part, though.

"So, Mr. Mysterious is really a bloodsucker,” Tucker said with his trademark grin. “This could make things really interesting. My sister dating the undead."

"Laugh it up, Cujo,” I replied. “As if you've never dated outside the family. C'mon, let's go inside. The smell of this thing is making me sick."

I took another look as I passed the gruesome present. There wasn't much there. Most of a deer head and a good part of the neck, as if it had been either torn from the shoulders of the living animal or hacked inexpertly from the recently dead. No sign of what had killed it, there were too many rips and tears in what was left of the skin. It was far from fresh. I was sure if I concentrated hard enough and squinted, I could see maggots crawling in what was left of the flesh. I didn't squint.

Before I could open the front door, the lights of a car swung in behind me and distracted me. Bea scrambled out of her compact, already talking.

"Hey,
m'hija,
shouldn't you be pampering yourself for your date? I came over to—
Madre de Dios!
” Bea crossed herself and stepped back up against her car.

"Don't ask,” I said. “This is just gross.” My voice sounded tired.

"Come on, girlfriend,” said Bea, climbing up the steps and grabbing at my arm. “I came so I could help you get ready, but we're going to my house for the rest of the night. You need to get out of here."

"No,” I said, turning to face her. “Thanks for the offer, but I need to clean this mess off the porch before it's harder to scrub off the blood. I will not let these bastards chase me out of my own house."

"I don't want you staying here by yourself. Come on over to my place and we'll come back tomorrow morning and I'll help you."

"I won't be by myself,” I said. “Tucker's here. Besides, I doubt that whoever did this will come back. Somehow, this reeks of the Albrights."

I opened the front door and Bea scrambled to follow me. Tucker followed at a more leisurely pace.

I took a deep breath before I flipped on the inside light, halfway expecting the room to be in a shambles. Nothing. The living room looked just as I'd left it: newspapers stacked on the floor by the couch, junk mail in the trash. I dropped my backpack on the recliner as I went into the kitchen.

"How about I pour us each a big glass of wine?"

"Sure,” Bea said, perching on one of the kitchen stools. “But aren't you going to call Adam Walker and tell him you're going to be late to dinner?"

"Yeah, Keira, aren't you going to call?” Tucker smirked at me, his eyes dancing with humor. One of these days, I was just going to—aarrgh. Brothers—no matter how powerful, how supernatural, they were still all the damn same.

"Shit, I was just there, too. Here.” I tossed Bea the opener and reached for the phone. “You open the bottle."

"You were just there?"

I shook my head at her and put a finger to my lips as the phone began to ring. He picked up almost immediately. I could hear some talking in the background, but couldn't make out any words.

"Hey there,” I said. “Sorry to bother you."

"Did you change your mind?” He sounded disappointed.

"No, I didn't change my mind. It's just that I seem to have had a visitor at my house. Someone left behind a really nasty present.” I quickly described what had happened.

There was absolute silence at the other end of the phone.

"Adam?"

"I'm here, Keira.” He voice was brusque and commanding. “Look, you wait right there. As soon as I'm finished here I'll bring dinner to you. Don't go inside, you don't know if it's safe."

"Too late,” I said, “Already inside. Adam, really, I'm fine, my friend is here and the house is okay. I'm sure it was just some sort of sick joke by the Albrights."

"You think it was them?"

"Who else?” I asked. “Unless you know something I don't."

"I'd still like to come over and bring you dinner,” he said. “The chef was already putting together a great meal. It won't be any trouble to bring it to you."

I could hear the promise under the words as his voice worked its magic. My body started to respond almost instantly, as if he were already in the room with me. Despite the frustrating anger I still felt, I blushed and glanced over at Bea, who was pretending not to listen while pouring the wine.

"Your friend can wait with you until I get there,” Adam continued. “I won't be long."

Bea put a glass of wine down in front of me. She whispered, “Things are looking up. Let him come over. He can help with the clean-up."

I made a face at her and turned away, gulping my wine. It was as if he and I were speaking intimate, suggestive words in front of strangers. But we were only talking about dinner.

I nearly capitulated, half kicking myself mentally for giving in so easily. “No, please. Don't. Let's just reschedule, okay?"

There was no sound on the other end of the phone.

"Adam?"

"If you insist, Keira,” he said. “I'll respect your wishes and reschedule dinner."

"Thank you,” I said. “Why don't we plan on dinner tomorrow night?"

"Certainly,” he said. “I'll see you."

He hung up without additional fanfare.

Well, hell's bells, after all the emotional waltzing we'd been doing, I expected a little more protest from him.

"Boyfriend not coming?” Tucker was definitely enjoying this way too much.

"No,” I said, “and he's not my boyfriend."

"Stranger things have happened,
m'hija
.” Bea joined in on the teasing.

"Great, you're both too damned funny for words,” I growled. “Now who's going to help me clean up the mess?"

"Here.” Bea reached over and put a glass of wine in my hand. “Let's drink up before we even think about that."

I did as she suggested, glaring over the rim of the glass at the two seeming co-conspirators.

Maybe after some more wine I could start seeing the humor in all of this. My new suitor, a vampire, didn't believe in werewolves or shapeshifters. My girlfriend, who was scared by the fact that vampires existed, was pushing me to date one, with my brother's help. Of course, I wasn't exactly planning to spill the beans about Adam's little secret to Bea. That was probably a little more than she could handle right now. Talk about complications.

Tucker gallantly dragged the deer head into the woods behind my house and the three of us had made a decent dent in the bottle of wine when I heard the gravel crunch under a new set of wheels. Oh, fucking hell. Now what? Probably Carlton. That would just be dandy.

A black SUV was just pulling out of the drive as I reached the front door. I caught a glimpse of pale hair on the person at the wheel: Andrea.

Adam stood at the edge of the porch, a look of disgust on his face as he stared at the bloody warning. He looked up and saw me.

His eyes held something new. Not the insides-twisting clarity that had intrigued me since we'd first met, but instead, a subtle darkness clouding the crystalline green. It was as if someone else was looking out from the inside, someone whose purpose and intent was much grimmer.

But this darkness wasn't tainted like Gideon's had been. I didn't feel contaminated. It was like a breath of shadows and night whispering behind the sea green.

"I thought I told you not to come."

He smiled at me, the darkness vanishing as if it had never been there. “I said I would respect your wishes. Tell me you don't really want me here."