The Hidden (The Hidden Trilogy) (45 page)

Walking over to her, I held out my hand. She took it and I pulled her up, my body pressing against hers as I brushed the back of my hand along her cheek. “I hate to eat and run, but I don’t really have a choice.”

She tilted her head towards my hand and smiled. “What do you mean?”

I almost felt bad for her.
Almost
. It’s hard to feel bad when you don’t have complex emotions. Things like remorse and compassion were lost on me.

I kissed her jaw and neck, whispering, “I’ll show you.” Her hormones surged as her pulse beat louder. The vein in her neck throbbed with every beat of her heart, and I smelled the dopamine surge in her blood. Inhaling the sweet scent, I brought my lips down, right over the vein…and bit.

Her flesh tore off easily, tasting salty and coppery. It was delicious, and slid down my throat like melted butter. She gasped and tried to push me away, but I had her locked in my arms. She wasn’t going anywhere. Adrenaline spiked her blood in a quick rush, and her struggling made the blood flow out of her wound faster. It dripped down her neck, soaking the front of her dress. I licked it off, savoring the taste before I took another bite.

Her struggling slowly faded until she went limp in my arms. I picked her up and carried her into the bathroom, where I put her in the tub, since I had a tendency to be a messy eater.

Plus, blood stains were a
bitch
to get out of the carpet.

Chapter Sixty-Six

Sunday, August 16th

Dallas, TX

“Checking in?”

I nodded and set my bag down, reaching for my wallet in the breast pocket of my suit. “Reservation for Northam.”

The pudgy little man behind the counter started typing, his short, fat fingers ticking away on the keyboard as he frowned at the computer screen. He paused as his eyes roamed over the monitor, then shook his head minutely before resuming his search.

He sure was taking his sweet-ass time. I was already irritated, stressed, and tired from my travels–not a good combination for something as lethal as me.

My eyes locked on the gold wedding band cutting into his plump skin. I bet he tasted good. The fat ones always did. Their muscles were so tender they practically melted in your mouth…

I licked my lips as my stomach clenched, saliva pooling in my mouth from anticipation. I needed to get out of here.
Now
.

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m not seeing your reservation in the system. Perhaps it’s under a different name?”

My teeth ground together as I took a deep breath and exhaled. I fixed him with a cold stare and said, in the calmest voice I could manage, “It’s under Northam. Check it again.”

He swallowed and looked back to the computer screen, his heart rate increasing. I tapped my credit card on the countertop as the seconds passed. He glanced up at my impatient tapping, then returned his gaze to the screen as sweat sprouted on his upper lip.

He finally smiled and relaxed his shoulders, exhaling a shaky breath. “Ah, here it is. Gabriel Northam.” His eyebrows shot up. “Oh. I see you’re in a villa for three nights, correct?”

“
Yes
,” I muttered, rolling my neck from side to side to relieve my tense muscles. It didn’t help, though. I was still ten different shades of pissed off and I just wanted to find a human female I could pound into for a couple hours. I
really
needed to relieve some tension–it had been almost a
week
since I’d had sex, which was just ridiculous.

But no, I was “on the clock,” as Michael would say.

The man handed me my room key and apologized profusely for the mix up, even going so far as to offer sending up complimentary strawberries and champagne. I declined the offer and tucked the key in my pocket, then picked up my luggage, turning in time to see a leggy brunette strut through the hotel’s lobby. My cock twitched at the sight of her ass in her tight black skirt, her shapely bare legs accentuated by her sky-high stilettos…

I imagined fucking her at the edge of the bed, her legs wrapped around my waist, the heels of her shoes digging into my backside as she screamed out in pleasure, writhing underneath me–

Fuck it. I couldn’t do my job right if I didn’t unwind a little. I’d be worthless and inept. I
needed
to have sex in order to do my job properly.

I was the king of rationalization, wasn’t I?

Two hours later, my hips slammed into the brunette’s ass as my cock stilled inside her, my whole body tensing with the force of my orgasm. I collapsed on top of her back, slick with sweat, and pulled out from her warm, wet tightness.

She panted underneath me, her heart racing. “That was
amazing
.”

I climbed off the bed, heading for the bathroom, my still-hard cock bobbing along the way. I grabbed some tissue and removed the condom, wiping myself down in the process.

I fucking hated condoms. They dulled everything, and I didn’t even need to use them with humans, but they were
everywhere
these days. Sometimes the girls I fucked would let me go bareback, but more often than not, they required me to use one, and I didn’t have the patience to explain why that wasn’t necessary. I’d rather spend that time balls deep inside them than arguing.

I tossed the balled-up tissue in the trash and came back in the bedroom, seeing her sprawled out on my bed, still naked. I picked up my gray boxer briefs from the floor and started to put them back on. “Listen, I’ve got an early morning, so…”

Her face fell, but she recovered quickly. “Yeah, me too.” She got up and gathered her clothes, dressing in the bathroom. She came back out clutching her heels and handed me a piece of paper. “Just in case you want to get together again.”

I looked down to see her phone number scribbled on the small scrap of paper. “Thanks,” I said, feigning a smile.

I walked her to the door and said goodnight, turning when she reached up to kiss me, so she got my cheek instead of my lips. Shutting the door, I crumpled up the slip of paper, throwing it in the trash on my way to bed.

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Monday, August 17
th

Emily’s house was a two-story mini-mansion, much like the rest of the houses in the affluent Dallas neighborhood. I parked in the street, two houses down, and left the engine running as cold air blasted out from the vents. It was unconscionable of them to make me go to Texas in the summer. Especially considering I couldn’t sweat.

Scowling, I picked up my phone and called Michael. He answered after the first ring.

“Are you in Dallas?”

My head tilted back against the headrest. “Yeah, I got in last night.” I dug the heel of my palm into my eye socket as I stifled a yawn. It was also unconscionable to make me take on a
day
mission. For Christ’s sake, this was the middle of the night for me–even if the glaring sun said otherwise.

“Good,” Michael said. “The boss will be glad to hear that. Have you gone to the address we’ve given you?”

“Yeah, I’m sitting outside her house now. Hey, why are there two humans living with her?” I’d scented only
one
Feeder in her neighborhood, which I assumed was Emily. Everyone else was human, including the male and female I smelled inside her house.

“We’ll get to that in a minute. I presume you’re being
inconspicuous
in your reconnaissance?”

I rolled my eyes at his ludicrous question. “No, I’m lurking right in front of her house. In fact, I’m parked in her driveway.”

He exhaled a sharp breath, but didn’t say anything.

“If you didn’t trust me with this, then why did you send me?” I asked. “Surely there was someone else you could’ve sent.”

“Consider it a promotion.”

The
last
thing I wanted was a promotion. I wanted to be done with these people, not indebted to them even further.

Two years ago, I made an enemy out of an older, more powerful Feeder. He’d taken a shine to a human and took her on as a concubine. I knew this, and may or may not have fucked her and killed her anyway…

Needless to say, he wanted my head on a platter (along with my balls as well), despite my numerous claims that
she
came onto
me
. Which she totally did.

The only reason I was still alive today? My uncle. He had a lot of pull and somehow managed to get the guy to back off, but it came with a price: I had to take this demeaning job. At the time, he said it’d build character and that I needed to stop fucking every skirt that walked by, and yada yada yada…

I was over five-hundred years old, goddamn it. I didn’t
need
any more character. But he’d threatened to turn me over if I didn’t cooperate, and after five-hundred years, I’d become a little attached to my head and balls, so I did.

Later, I found out the truth. My uncle owed
the boss
a favor and pawned me out to fulfill his debt. And two years later, here I was, still paying it.

“A promotion. Gee, thanks,” I muttered. “Now tell me what the hell I’m doing in Dallas and why this girl is so important.”

“Vivienne d’Aubigne.”

I frowned. “What about her? She’s dead.”

“
Rumored
to be. Turns out she is very much alive, and we’d like to talk to her. Problem is, we don’t exactly know where she is.”

I crouched down into my seat as a car passed. “How do you know she’s alive?”

“The national news picked up a story that was brought to our attention, about a six car pile-up on Interstate Twenty in Dallas. Ten humans died in the crash, but there was one female survivor who was miraculously unscathed, despite having large chunks of her clothes burned off. There was a reporter at the site of the accident the night it happened, trying to get an interview with the woman. She refused, but cameras caught a glimpse of her license plate. The car was registered to a Diana Lowell... It was Vivienne.”

Jesus Christ. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. We sent Jean-Marc to be certain.”

Jean-Marc was the perfect choice. He had a birth defect that proved to be invaluable in the war against Healers. Born without any kind of scent glands, he didn’t smell like a human, didn’t smell like a Feeder–he didn’t smell like
anything
, which made him a very effective assassin since he always had the element of surprise. Jean-Marc was respected among Feeders and feared among Healers, but he just creeped me the fuck out. You never knew if that bastard was around if he didn’t want you to.

And Vivienne never would’ve known if he’d followed her.

“What did he find?”

“She’d already fled. Her house was scrubbed of anything personal–no computer, empty picture frames, no clothes.”

I sighed, rubbing my tired eyes. “So we’ve got nothing.”

“Not quite. Jean-Marc found a pile of papers and pictures in the fireplace. Most of it was burned beyond recognition, but there was one picture–well,
part
of a picture–that wasn’t totally ash.”

“What was the picture of?”

“It was the senior portrait of a girl who attended West Lake High School in Dallas.”

Emily, maybe? “Is it the girl you want me to follow?”

“Yes. Jean-Marc was able to track down her name and address, and we dug up everything we could find on her.”

Things just got interesting…

My brows drew together as I sat up straighter. “What’d you find?”

“She was adopted by the two humans living with her shortly after she was born. She went to human schools all her life and she’s lived at that address ever since they adopted her.”

Why…? This didn’t make sense. “Do you think she might be Vivienne’s daughter?”

“There’s a resemblance and her age matches up to Vivienne’s disappearance… It’s very likely.”

Huh, so she disappeared to have a kid. Why would she do that, though? “I don’t understand. Why would Vivienne give her child to
humans
?”

“Possibly to hide Emily from her father.”

“Who would be…?”

“Your boss, most likely. They were–
intimate
–a few weeks before she vanished.”

Oh, shit. “I bet
Mrs
. Boss wouldn’t be too happy if she found out about that, now would she?”

He laughed. “No, she really,
really
wouldn’t.”

“So what about the girl? Does she know any of this?”

“We don’t think so.”

I sighed, growing agitated as I stabbed my fingers through my hair. “I still don’t get why I’m here. Do you want Vivienne or the girl?”

“Both, but right now, the girl’s bait. We don’t think Vivienne went too far, since she appears to want to stay close to her daughter. So, we’re going to try to lure her out of hiding, which will certainly happen when she sees
you
spending time with her daughter.”

“Wait–
what
?” My skin tightened as his words sank in. This was not going to be a quick job, not by a long shot. “I’m supposed to ‘spend time’ with this girl? What the hell does that even
mean
?”

He exhaled, clearly bored with the conversation now. “Talk to her. Get to know her. Befriend her. Hell, you can date her if you want, I don’t give a shit.
Just get in there
.”

Call me crazy, but I just kind of assumed that if she was significant, I couldn’t stick my penis in her. “And how am I supposed to do that?”

“Well, you have something in common with her.” From the tone of his voice, I knew the bastard was smiling.

“I do?”

“Yes. You’re a college student at Potomac Ridge University, the school she’s starting next week in Virginia. And you just happen to be home in Dallas, visiting your family for the summer, when you bump into her…somewhere.”

So
that’s
why my rental car had Virginia plates… Damn it. My jaw clenched as I ground out, “That’s ridiculous, you know that, right?”

“What can I say? It’s a small, small world.” He sounded
giddy
.