Blood Hunger (An Adult Paranormal Romance) (Deathless Night Series #1) (6 page)

   
 
“Me?” she scoffed.  “Forgive me if I have a hard time believing you. I’m just a small town girl, living a very unexciting life. How could you possibly have any interest in me?”

   
 
“Because that brother I mentioned? He’s missing too. And I think he’s with your sister, and I think you can help me when we get to them.” He held up a hand as she opened her mouth to interrupt him. “Just hold on. I’ll answer your questions, but first, I need you to tell me exactly what happened the night your sister went missing. Everything. No matter how unimportant or unbelievable you think it is. You might be shocked at how little surprises me.”

   
 
He watched as her thoughts and emotions flitted across her expressive features at his words. Doubt, confusion, hope, and finally…joy.

     “I knew it!” She slammed her hands on the table again. “I knew she wasn’t dead!” A full on, dazzling smile broke out across her face, and Nik’s lungs stopped working altogether.

    
Fucking hell.
That smile lit up her entire face, her eyes sparkling with elation. He found himself unable to look away, even if he’d wanted to.

     It was like seeing the sun again after all of his hundreds of years of darkness. This slip of a female was bringing out things in him that he hadn’t felt for…a very long time.

     And he didn’t like it one damn bit.

     Sitting back and placing a hand over his heart, like that would help it start to beat again, he blinked a few times to break the connection, attempting to disguise his reaction to her with a cough before asking, “And how did you know that?”

   
 
Seeming to remember whom she was talking to, and the fact that she hadn’t decided to like him (in spite of her body’s betrayal), Emma stopped smiling and frowned at him instead.

     Squinting at him suspiciously, she answered his question with a couple of her own. “How do you know she’s with your brother? And how do you know they’re still alive?”

   
 
“Because if my brother was dead, I would feel it. Like, literally. Right here.” He put his hand back over his heart. “And correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you have a similar connection with your sister.” Nik waited for her to deny it…she didn’t. “Look, I know you don’t know me, and I know that you have absolutely no reason to trust me. But that’s exactly what I’m asking you to do.”

   
 
He leaned forward again and trapped her hazel green eyes with his so that she couldn’t look away. “Emma, please. I need you to tell me what happened that night.”

***

     Caught up in those mesmerizing eyes of his, Emma almost believed him. He certainly
sounded
sincere when he wanted to. But how could she tell him what had really happened that night, when she couldn’t bring herself to remember?

     Looking away to watch the dancers, who had gone from slow dancing to
Just Like Heaven
to fast dancing to
Piano
Man
, she gave him the same story she gave everyone else. “All I remember is being at the carnival with Keira. I remember walking through the field where everyone parked their cars; though it was pretty late so most people had already left. Ours was parked way out towards the tree line where the woods started. Next thing I remember, I was in the ER, and Keira was gone.”

   
 
Sitting back in his seat, he followed her gaze over to the dancers, who were now harassing the bartender for another drink. “You’re lying.” He sounded disappointed.

     Her eyes whipped back to his face. “What did you say?”

   
 
“You’re lying. I think you remember a whole lot more than you’re letting on.”

   
 
“How dare you?” she hissed at him. “Who the hell do you think you are, accusing me like that?”

   
 
Nik glanced over at the salt and pepper shakers, which had started to vibrate on the table.   

     “What reason would I have to lie?” she continued, completely oblivious to what she was doing. “You come waltzing in here, someone I’ve never even met, wanting me to give up all these supposed secrets you think I have, and when I don’t say what you want to hear, you accuse me of lying?!” As Emma’s voice got louder and louder, the shakers started bouncing into each other.

     “I know you’re lying, Emma,” he said distractedly as he watched them. “You totally suck at it.”

   
 
He waved a hand at her when she started sputtering. “Don’t go puffing up at me and getting your feathers all ruffled. You do. You suck. You’re a terrible liar. First of all, you couldn’t look me in the eye when you told me that well-rehearsed crap that you’ve probably been telling the authorities for years. Second, you’re getting waaaay too defensive. Only liars get so defensive. And third,
”
With this he leaned across the booth until his face was inches from hers. “I can hear your heart. You’d fail a polygraph miserably, Em.”

   
 
Emma frowned at him.
He can HEAR my heart? How in the world…? 
She listened to the noise in the room: The music, the laughter of the drunken couple, the clinking of glasses as Ned put up those he had washed. Pushing back against the seat to try and put some distance between them, she inquired sarcastically,
“
You
heard
my heart beat?” At his nod, she said, “So you
are
a dog.” She shook her head in mock regret.  “The hot ones always are.”

   
 
Instead of being offended, Nik cocked his head to the side and gave her a charming smile. “You think I’m hot?”

   
 
“I am
so
out of here.” Emma slammed down the remainder of her drink, grabbed her bag and stood up. “Don’t contact me again.” And with that, she turned and marched towards the door, determined to go home to her boring life and forget all about this fraud.

     She was stupid to think some stranger would just show up out of nowhere, after seven years, and know something about her sister that neither she nor the police had found.

     Nik caught the salt and pepper mid-air as they flew at him, set them down and slid out of the booth and followed her out, pointing at old Ned and shaking his head at him in warning that he’d better keep his happy ass right where it was.

     Although he didn’t look thrilled about it, the old bartender decided to be smart this time.

     Outside in the parking lot, Nik ordered, “Emma! Dammit, STOP!”

   
 
“Go to hell!” Keys already in hand, she beeped her car open while still a few feet away. Wrenching the door open, she started to get in. But instead of the empty space she expected between her and her seat, she slammed into six foot three inches of hard-ass muscle that was suddenly between her and her escape.

     Emma let out a little shriek, jumping back and hitting the inside of the car door with her hip. “Ow!” Rubbing the sore spot, she glared up at Nik’s unsmiling face. “How the hell did you do that? I didn’t even hear you coming…” She snapped her mouth shut. “Know what? I don’t want to know. Get out of the way, Nik.”

   
 
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Emma.” Putting his left hand up on the door window, he effectively caged her in. “Look, can we go back to your house?”

   
 
“What? NO! We most certainly can NOT go back to my house! I don’t even
like
you! Now get out of my way before I scream. I want to go home! ALONE!” She couldn’t believe that just a short time ago she was longing for more excitement in her life.

     Nik rolled his eyes. “I’m not trying to get in your pants, Emma.”

   
 
She huffed indignantly as his eyes roamed down over her breasts.

     “Not that it hasn’t crossed my mind,” he clarified. “But trust me, if I wanted to fuck you, you’d already be flat on your back and screaming my name.”

   
 
She could not
believe
the arrogance of this guy. Although, on second thought, maybe she could. With a face and body like his, she was sure he had women falling all over themselves vying for his attention all the time. She doubted they’d care much about what an ass he actually was.

     Emma opened her mouth to retort, but she was too shocked to think of a thing to say, so she just stood there with her mouth hanging open.

     “Close your mouth, Emma, you’re gonna get flies in there.”

   
 
The bastard grinned as she snapped her mouth shut and then immediately opened it again to sputter at him anew.

     Unable to coherently say anything that would properly communicate her complete disdain for this man, she shut her mouth with an audible click. Clenching her jaw together so hard it made her teeth hurt, she gave him one last, hateful look, then ducked under his arm, shoving her keys back into her bag as she stomped away again. Walking home was preferable to standing here arguing with this lug head. Thank God she’d worn her sneakers. She’d come get her car early tomorrow morning.

     She heard her car door slam, and then his boots jogging across the pavement as Nik swiftly caught up to her.

     “Emma, I’m sorry.”

   
 
She didn’t respond, but kept walking, turning left on the main road and heading towards her house.

     She didn’t hear him following her. Had he let her go? Somehow, she couldn’t imagine him giving up that easily.

     After a few minutes, she glanced back to see he had stopped on the side of the road, obviously hoping that she would do the same. She didn’t. Screw him.

     He tried again to get her to stop and listen to him. “Really, I am sorry. I don’t know what gets into me sometimes.”

   
 
She increased her pace.

     “Hey, how about we stop all this silly bickering, and go back to your house so we can talk privately? I swear I’ll behave myself.”

   
 
She continued to ignore him. She just wanted to get home. Get home and forget this gorgeous man who came out of nowhere, making promises she wasn’t sure she wanted him to keep.

     Nik heaved a sigh as he watched her walk away. She was proving to be more of a challenge than he’d anticipated. Somehow, he’d let himself get the impression that she was but a meek little thing.

     However, he now knew he’d grossly underestimated her. Unfortunately, for her, that only piqued his interest more.

     He set out after her again, the enticing sway of her hips a lure he couldn’t resist, making him hard all over again. What the hell was wrong with him? He hadn’t been this intrigued by a human female since Eliana.

     Eliana.

     God, he’d loved her all those years ago. But, it hadn’t been enough to keep him from killing her, had it?

     Nik stopped walking again, pain washing over him at the memory. What would Emma think of him if she knew?

     Why did he even care?

     Suddenly, he heard her footsteps approaching, instead of receding, and Nik’s head snapped up. The sympathetic expression on her face surprising him.

     Why was she looking at him like that? Did he look that pathetic? Was that
pity
on her face? Wtf? Embarrassed, he scrubbed at his face with his hands.

     “So,” he had to clear his throat before continuing,  “Yeah, we should really get off this road and go talk. What do you say?” Trying to look as harmless as he could, he shoved his hands into his front pockets as he waited for her to decide what she wanted to do.

     He again watched as conflicting emotions crossed her face while she decided whether or not to trust him. Little did she know that she was coming with him tonight, whether she wanted to or not.

***

     Emma didn’t know what it was that made her stop and turn around, and now she wished she hadn’t. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have seen the pain and sadness overwhelm his usual cockiness. She wouldn’t have wondered what caused it. And she would never have felt the need to go to him, and offer what comfort she could.

     A sound in the brush a few feet away whipped Emma’s head around, her heart hammering in her chest.

    
What the hell am I doing?

     She was walking home down a little used, back road, in the dark, surrounded by dense forest. There were no streetlights, no light of any kind. The moon wasn’t even out.

     She looked left in the direction of her car, then right in the direction of her house. Finally, she looked back at Nik, and deciding he was the lesser of evils, for now, she told him, “Alright.” Her desperate yearning for something,
anything
, he could tell her about her sister overshadowing her normally cautious nature.

     “Ok? We’ll go talk?” At her tentative nod, he glanced around.

     Gesturing to a fallen log just off the road, he told her, “If you give me your keys, I can run up and get your car real quick while you wait here, and come back and pick you up.”

   
 
“No!”

   
 
A surprised eyebrow lifted at her outburst.

     Emma took a deep breath to calm herself, explaining, “I’d just rather stay with you.” 

   
 
He turned around to lead the way without another word, though she thought she saw a glimmer of male satisfaction flash briefly across his face. Not wanting him to get even more full of himself, she clarified, “I don’t like the dark is all.”

   
 
She didn’t see the softening of his gaze, or hear his barely whispered, “I know.”