Vampire in Geek's Clothing (Psy-Vamp Book 6) (16 page)

The incessant buzzing of his phone was not a welcome
interruption, and Isaiah was tempted to ignore it. He was currently wrapped
around Phoenix’s body, lying on the bed in the guestroom. His pants and phone
were on the other side of the room, and he knew he had to get up. Too much was
going on to pretend he hadn’t heard his phone. Climbing out of bed, he padded
across the room.

Grabbing the phone from his pants, Isaiah was annoyed to see
the text was from Justin. It had been one hell of a day. For that reason, he
was seriously considering ignoring his brother and hiding in the guestroom for
the night.

“Who is the text from?” Phoenix asked sleepily.

“Justin,” he admitted. “He’s pushing to do that blood work
and exam now so he can try to come up with a treatment plan. My guess is he
came up with an idea already, and that’s why he’s in his office. When he gets
like this, it’s hard for him to let things go.”

“He’s a little obsessive,” she deduced.

“That’s one way of putting it. Of course, that’s part of
what makes him such a good doctor. He’s very determined to find solutions to
problems.”

“Like your need for blood,” she said.

“Exactly,” he agreed. “Justin barely slept for a year when
he decided he could find a supplement to take the place of human blood. Now,
he’s determined to find a way to treat your anxiety. I’m pretty sure he was
banging on my bedroom door before he sent the text message.”

“He really planned to wake us up for something that could
wait until morning?”

Isaiah chuckled. “From his point of view, this can’t wait.
We can always sleep in this room overnight. It’s possible he’ll start searching
the house room by room. Caitlin might even get tired of dealing with him when
he’s in this kind of mood and remind him that there’s a tracking device on my
phone. Of course, I’m not sure he knows how to access that part of my security
program.”

With a resigned sigh, Phoenix gathered her clothes. “I
suppose we’d better meet with him before he goes all creepy stalker on us.”

After texting Justin to tell him they were going to stop by
the kitchen for coffee first, they both started to dress. His phone vibrated
just as he was slipping into his pants, meaning Justin was in fully-obsessed
mode and had been holding his phone, waiting for a reply. Isaiah cringed when
he saw his brother’s reply.

“What’s wrong?” Phoenix asked when she caught his reaction.

“Justin made coffee,” he replied apologetically.

“Good,” she said. “I’m going to need some coffee to stay
awake.”

“You won’t say that when you taste it,” he warned. “Even
when we still had the good espresso machine, Justin couldn’t make a decent cup
of coffee.”

“What happened to the espresso machine?” she asked.

“I helped my cousin, Willow, steal it,” he admitted. “Don’t
tell anyone. It’s still bugging Justin that it just disappeared, which is kind
of funny since he doesn’t drink coffee.”

“You definitely have to tell me the rest of this story
later. As curious as I am to see how far Justin would go to find us, we should
get this over with and get some sleep since we’re going to look for the local
hunters tomorrow night.”

While Phoenix was obviously trying to keep her tone light,
Isaiah could tell she was nervous about the meeting with the hunters, not that
he blamed her.

“You don’t have to go tomorrow,” he reminded her and put his
hands up in surrender when she glared at him. “Fine, I get that you don’t want
us to take care of this for you, but you can’t blame me for wishing you wouldn’t
go.”

“I don’t blame you,” she assured him. “I actually wish
you
wouldn’t go. If you tell me where they hang out, I can find them on my own.”

He opened the door and didn’t respond until they were
walking down the hall to Justin’s office. “If I told you where the club is,
you’d try to sneak out on your own.”

Her guilty blush was answer enough.

“That’s why we haven’t told you where we’re going,” he
explained.

“I figured as much,” she said with a sigh.

As expected, Justin was moving around the office like he’d
just had too much caffeine. This was how Justin got when his mind was working
through a problem. He’d be full of energy until he figured out how to treat
Phoenix’s anxiety, and Isaiah had no doubt his brother would come up with an
effective treatment plan.

“Sorry if he woke you,” Caitlin called out from the far
corner of the room where she was sprawled out on the sofa, looking like she
could barely keep her eyes open. “I told him you’d rather do this in the
morning.”

Isaiah shrugged. “You know how he gets.”

“Yeah, and I’d complain if the sex wasn’t so fantastic when
he’s like this,” Caitlin admitted.

Justin’s eyes darkened, and he turned to look at Caitlin.
“Behave, or I’ll deal with some of this energy by putting you over my knee.”

Caitlin snorted. “Not sure how that threat is any incentive
for me to behave.”

“Did you want us to come back later?” Isaiah asked.
Normally, he didn’t mind their flirting, but he was tired, and he really wanted
to be alone with Phoenix.

“No,” Justin told him. “I had enough trouble finding you
this time.”

Phoenix had just taken a sip of the coffee, and Isaiah
nearly laughed at the pained expression on her face as she struggled with
whether to swallow the retched brew or spit it out. He was all too familiar
with that feeling. Finally, she settled on swallowing. “Thank you for making
coffee.” She gave Justin a strained smile as she added copious amounts of sugar
to the undrinkable sludge his brother called coffee.

“I figured it was the fastest way to get you here,” Justin
explained.

Caitlin snorted. “He’s just punishing you for making him
work so hard to get you down here.”

Justin’s lips twitched, and Isaiah saw the humor in his
brother’s eyes.

“You’re doing an excellent job of punishing me,” Phoenix
assured him. “Next time, try something less cruel, like ripping my fingernails
out with pliers.”

Isaiah grinned. No matter how exhausted he was, he had no
intention of trying the coffee. Phoenix was apparently more addicted to her
caffeine.

“Where should we start?” Phoenix asked.

“The usual,” Justin said. “Blood and urine. Caitlin will run
it all back to my lab while I start your exam.”

“Caitlin might stab you the next time you go to sleep for
forcing her to be awake at this hour,” Caitlin muttered.

Justin raised an eyebrow. “It’s only eleven,” he pointed
out. “You’re up later than this all the time.”

“Not when I have to be at a lab at seven in the morning,”
she reminded him.

“I promise to make it up to you,” Justin assured her.

“Let’s just get this over with so we can all get some sleep,”
Isaiah pushed.

Phoenix had been forced to quit her job after Shayla’s call,
and while she felt guilty about leaving her boss on such short notice, it was
still the smart thing to do. She’d planned to stay on a little longer when
she’d only been worried about Hayden and a couple of hunters from her area
trying to track her down, but possibly being a suspect in her aunt and uncle’s
murders meant she could have hunters from all over looking for her. It felt
strange not having to rush to work in the morning.

Today, she’d slept until ten and woken up to a note from
Isaiah letting her know he had some work to do. He’d told her to text him when
she was up, which she’d done before stepping into the shower. It wasn’t really
a surprise that she’d slept so late, after Justin had kept her up most of the
night. He seemed certain he could help her with her anxiety, but Phoenix wasn’t
quite so optimistic.

Phoenix really loved most things about her little apartment.
It was clean and relatively well-maintained. The only thing she’d never enjoyed
was the short showers. She could have taken longer showers if the hot water had
lasted more than five minutes. That was probably one of the reasons she was
taking so long in the shower today. When she finally dried off and wrapped a
towel around herself, Phoenix wasn’t surprised to find Isaiah lounging on the
bed.

“How are you feeling?” Isaiah asked, giving her a sleepy
smile.

“Still a little tired,” she admitted. “I’m not sure why I’m
so tired, considering I slept this late.”

“You were up late, and the last couple of days have been
stressful,” he told her before climbing off the bed and walking toward her.
“What have you got under that towel?” he asked with a teasing grin.

She laughed at his question. “Considering how much time I’ve
spent naked around you, I think you can answer that question on your own.”

“I have a bad memory,” he insisted. “Why don’t you show me?”

“Are you trying to get in my panties?” she asked.

His gaze lowered. “Are you wearing any panties?”

“No,” she admitted.

“Good,” he told her, wrapping his arms around her waist and
leaning forward to breathe in her scent. “I’m not trying to get into your
panties. I was actually hoping to get into your pussy again. I like it in
there.”

She almost laughed at his ridiculous line. In fact, she was
pretty sure she would have laughed if his ridiculous line didn’t turn her on so
much. “Are you trying to seduce me?” she asked hopefully.

He let out a sigh. “I wish, but my brother is going to be
beating down the door to this room if I don’t get you over to his office. I
brought you some breakfast.” He pointed to the tray she hadn’t noticed on the
table. Now that he’d pointed it out, she was surprised she hadn’t caught the
scent as soon as she walked into the room. Breakfast was her favorite meal
because it always included coffee.

“Just tell me you have coffee.”

Based on Isaiah’s apologetic look, there was no coffee.
“That’s okay,” she assured him. “We’ll run by the kitchen before we meet
Justin.”

“No coffee,” he told her. “I brought you hot chocolate. If
you don’t like that, we have some herbal tea.”

“You’re out of coffee!” she exclaimed. “Don’t you have some
in your emergency supplies? And herbal tea? Herbal tea has no caffeine in it.
How can you even suggest something like that?”

He chuckled. “We’re not out of coffee, but Justin has been
up all night working on a plan to deal with your anxiety. That plan involves
cutting out caffeine.”

Phoenix had her first urge to kill a vampire. “I hate
Justin,” she grumbled. “Stupid quack doctor has no idea what he’s talking
about. Caffeine is good for me. It’s a naturally occurring substance.”

“You don’t really believe caffeine is good for you, do you?”
he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She let out a sigh, but continued to glare at the offending
mug on her tray. “Can’t we just cut back slowly? We’ll cut out one cup a week.”

He shook his head. “I already asked about that. Justin said
the caffeine has to go immediately.”

“But my last cup of coffee was one that Justin made,” she
whined. “That seems like cruel and unusual punishment. Just one
good
cup
before I stop.”

“I’ll get you some decaf later,” he promised.

“Decaf!” she gasped. “The other hunters were right. Vampires
are sick and cruel.”

Isaiah chuckled and placed a kiss on the top of her head.
“Eat. Then we’ll go see what Justin has in mind before he crashes.”

“Is he going to be okay to go out tonight?” she asked.

“Sure,” Isaiah replied. “We don’t need to leave until seven,
so he can grab a few hours of sleep before we go. Justin doesn’t sleep much.”

Phoenix nodded and ate her breakfast, wondering if Justin
really had found a solution to her anxiety problem, or if he was just torturing
her with the caffeine ban.

They found Justin seated behind his desk, looking pleased
but tired.

“How are you doing this morning?” Justin asked her with a
pleasant smile.

“I’d be better if I had coffee.” Her pout probably looked
childish, but she didn’t care. “You are a sick bastard.”

Justin smirked at her. “I’ve been called worse.”

“Did Caitlin make it for her lab this morning?” she asked to
try to distract herself from her annoyance at the lack of coffee.

Justin shook his head. “I didn’t want to argue with her
about it, but she’s not attending classes until we deal with the threat to you.
Caitlin is registered at school as Caitlin Draksel. We have to assume that
since your cousin killed Andrei, he knows you have a connection to us.”

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“It’s not your fault,” Isaiah assured her.

“He’s right,” Justin said. “We’ve dealt with our share of
psychos in the last few years, and we’ll deal with this one, too.”

“I just feel bad because this psycho is my relative,” she
admitted.

“Some of the psychos we’ve dealt with have been our family,
so we aren’t in any position to judge you,” Justin insisted. “Now, let’s talk
about your anxiety.”

Phoenix nodded but said nothing.

“I noticed last night that caffeine made matters worse, and
that’s why I cut you off. I also called Sofia, and she put me in touch with a
breeder doctor in the New England area. I was surprised that the doctor was
willing to talk to me.”

“What did you tell the doctor when she asked why you needed
advice on treating a hunter?” Phoenix asked.

Justin shrugged. “Actually, she told me she’d rather not
know who I was helping because it might obligate her to tell the hunters about
our conversation. Anyway, she’s had some success treating anxiety in breeders,
but she’s never treated a hunter for it.”

“There are some differences between hunters and breeders,”
Phoenix began. “Differences that go beyond the ability to have children or
sense vampires.”

“That’s what she said, but it was a good place to start,”
Justin replied before pointing to a tray with two syringes on it. “If this
works, I can get these made into a pill form, but I don’t want to waste the
effort until we’ve tested it.”

“So, I’m a guinea pig?” she asked. “What’s the risk to me?”

“If the dosage isn’t right, the sedative part could knock
you out,” Justin explained.

“Is it safe?” Isaiah asked.

“I wouldn’t be willing to try it on your woman if I thought
there might be a risk to her,” Justin huffed.

Swallowing hard, Phoenix stared at the needles. “Let’s see
if this works,” she finally said.