Crimson Vengeance (11 page)

He set his half-empty mug on the table. Apparently she wasn’t the only one nervous tonight. That made her feel a little better.

Little? Hell—it made her feel a whole bunch better.

“I’m confident the vampire is the one who calls herself Destiny.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t explain much. Who is this Destiny?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I wish I knew, Ivy. She surfaced sometime around 1600 and popped up in southern Italy around the turn of the seventeenth century. Though she’s been on the hunt list ever since, she’s beautiful, crafty, and elusive. We’ve only gotten close to her once before, back in the mid-1800s.”

“Don’t you and your hunters have hundreds of years of experience?”

“Yes.”

“And you haven’t even been able to get close to her?”

“No.”

“Until now.”

He shrugged and turned the beer mug between his hands. “Yes and no.”

“Well, that certainly clears things up.”

“Hey. Give me a sec.”

She wasn’t being fair. But that happened after a crappy day.

“I’m sorry. Go on.”

“All right, here it is in a nutshell. After hundreds of years, we’ve managed to stamp out all but a few remaining vampires. Now, I’m really close to Destiny and I’ll take her down. My order has been busy throughout the years, eliminating what never should have been in the first place. Things like Destiny are not meant to exist. This isn’t her time or her place.”

His voice was cold, unbending. Ivy knew hatred when she heard it, and Colin clearly hated vampires down to his very soul.

What had made him feel this deeply? What happened to make him view existence in such black-and-white terms? Ivy didn’t have the benefit of the knowledge an ancient order could provide, and perhaps she didn’t see the big picture as he did. Even so, not all vampires were evil.

“You mean people like Riah.” Her voice was low and steady as she gripped the almost-empty mug.

Her words seemed to hit home and he had the grace to look a little surprised. Across the table, he studied her face for a long moment. When he spoke again, his words were slow and measured.

“Ivy, you’ve got to cut me a little slack. I’ve spent the better part of my life chasing these things down and destroying them. Though they were once human, what they’ve become isn’t right. This,” he waved his arms as if to encompass the world, “is for the living.”

“Why, Colin? Why are you so certain they’re all bad?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he closed his eyes and Ivy wondered what was going through his mind. Opening them at last, he met her gaze once more. “Because, I’ve yet to meet a vampire who possessed a single redeeming quality. At least, in the existence they now possess. Whatever they might have been in life, they’re evil in undeath.”

“You’re wrong.”

Colin probably had very good reasons for his strong beliefs.

She couldn’t begin to imagine the things he’d seen or the evil he’d confronted through the years. It didn’t mean he was right.

Since Riah’s confession to Ivy a decade earlier, her own world had been colored something completely different. Still, none of it changed the hard facts. Riah Preston was a vampire, and Riah Preston was a good, kind person. Never once had Ivy thought of Riah as a thing, a creature or a monster. Humanity continued to exist inside her.

Colin pulled one of Ivy’s hands away from the mug, taking it into his own. It was large, strong, and warm. “Maybe,” he said softly.

She gazed back at him and tried to read his face. He needed to understand or they could never work together. “She’s not evil.”

He stroked the soft skin on the top of her hand. “Forty-eight hours ago, I’d have vehemently argued the point.”

“And now?” She didn’t pull her hand away.

He met her eyes. “Now, I’m open to the idea maybe things aren’t as cut and dried as I’ve always believed.”

It wasn’t exactly what she was hoping for. “A bit ambiguous, don’t you think?”

He shrugged and smiled. Tiny lines crinkled around his eyes and softened his face. “Old dogs, you know.”

Even the slightest hint of a smile made him very sexy. “You’re not old, not a dog, and I bet you can learn all sorts of new tricks.”

“Well.” He let go of her hand and sat back in his seat. “The way things are going, we might very well find out.”

“Maybe.” In the back of her mind she wished he still held her hand.

His voice lost its teasing quality. “So, back to our vampire.”

“Yeah,” she muttered. “The vampire.”

Colin pulled a folded map from his back pocket, sat next to Ivy, and spread it on the table. He’d used a red pen to make
X
‘s across much of the map. They appeared to be randomly spread across the East and Midwest.

As she sat next to him, heat from his body wrapped around her.

She caught a hint of what? Cologne? A vampire hunter who wore cologne? A man of many surprises. She liked it—a lot.

“Here are her movements over the last year.” He pointed to a spot on the map halfway across the country. “See the pattern?”

Ivy traced the same path his finger had followed a moment before, then stopped. Her hand was a breath away from his, the heat of his skin touching hers.

Though she’d thought initially the marks were random, the pattern became clear once he pointed it out. “It’s a spiral,” she said under her breath.

“Exactly.”

Something tickled the back of Ivy’s mind, though she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. What was she missing? What was the pattern trying to tell her? Something very important was staring right at her.

“She’s heading toward Spokane,” Colin said as he tapped the big black dot that indicated it on the map.

Holy shit! All of a sudden the pieces clicked together. She grabbed Colin’s hand, her own shaking. “I know what she’s after.”

Riah destroyed the empty packet once she drained the blood. It tasted bitter and plastic. She hated it just as she hated what she was.

That she couldn’t survive without blood was the worst part.

She could never completely atone for her three centuries at Rodolphe’s side, though she kept trying. For more than two hundred years, she’d survived without a single drop of human blood, and she’d continue to do so until she no longer walked the earth. She’d made a vow the day she stepped on the soil of the New World, and she’d keep that vow whatever the cost.

As much as she hated the thirst, she also hated the memories.

The thirst, she could work around. The memories…not so much.

Most of the time she managed to keep her mind focused on the here and now instead of the past. She didn’t want to go there now either.

What happened today had nothing to do with her or Rodolphe. It was ancient history. This was new and something she didn’t quite understand. Yet.

With everything put away, Riah didn’t need to stay. The antiseptic cleaner she’d used to wipe everything down permeated the air. Nothing waited for her in the cooler that couldn’t wait until tomorrow. If anyone needed her, they’d call.

At the security office, Riah waved to Brett, who was back on duty. She wondered how his head felt. He didn’t look too bad, only the hint of a bruise on his neck. She smiled as she walked by. If she knew him as well as she thought she did, his pride hurt far more than his head. Guys like Brett, in any century, didn’t take well to being blindsided.

Outside, she ducked into her car. She liked a number of things about the twenty-first century, and one was the incredible cars. Her father had been a very wealthy man in his day and she’d had the finest carriages at her disposal. All things considered, she’d had a great deal of freedom in those days. Compared to the Jag she drove now, however, the carriage might as well have been made in the Stone Age.

She was tempted to go by Adriana’s house. Just the thought sent a rush all the way to her toes. It wasn’t fair, though, not to Adriana. Riah couldn’t give her what she wanted or deserved. In the end, she’d deliver heartache. Only a cold-hearted bitch would use someone as great as Adriana and then just leave her.

Still, as Riah waited at a red light, she closed her eyes and thought about the silky feel of Adriana’s breasts against her palms.

She breathed deeply and recalled the sweet scent of her perfume as she’d kissed Adriana’s silky smooth neck. She shivered.

“Enough,” she muttered, and opened her eyes. Time to go home—straight home.

Once there, Riah powered up her laptop. She had a desk full of reports she needed to finish. Time to concentrate on business and get caught up.

Instead, her hands lay motionless on the keyboard while she thought about the things Colin shared earlier. Only three of her kind left in the world? Certainly, large numbers of them had never existed, but no matter where she’d traveled, she’d always found another night creature such as herself.

True, she’d been alone in the Northwest for many years and until recently was forced to travel all over to collect the samples Adriana needed for her research. The nearness of the recent kills was frightening for a couple of reasons. She hated death that those who embraced the darkness caused. They fed off innocent victims without regard to the lives they destroyed. If she had the power to change their behavior, she would. It also threatened to expose her.

Since coming here, she’d lived in relative safety, and for the first time since she’d been turned, she had a sense of belonging. She hated to see one greedy vampire who couldn’t get enough human blood force her to pack up and disappear.

Riah sighed and gazed down at her unmoving fingers. It was silly to sit here and just stare at the computer. She powered it down,

pushed away from the desk, and went to her bedroom. From the back of a drawer, she pulled out an old, thin leather-bound book.

How many years had it been since she last opened it? Five? Twenty-five? A hundred?

She took it back to her office and began to leaf through the pages. Some entries were simply names. Some had addresses, some addresses and telephone numbers. All the names were familiar and she could recall every face.

Riah took a deep breath and picked up her phone. For a full minute, she simply stared at the handset and listened to the buzz of the dial tone. It was silly to be afraid. These were friends. With trembling fingers, she started with the latest name and telephone number entered into the book.

Two hours later, Riah trembled as she set the book on the desk.

It couldn’t be. She was tempted to pick up the phone and start over again. Dumb idea. Just wishing something would turn out different didn’t make it so. She walked away, her legs shaking.

At the large picture window in the living room, she stared into the night. Stars dotted the dark sky in a canopy of twinkling lights while the moon hung large and bright. Behind her, classical music, Chopin, played low and beautiful. The air carried the faint scent of cinnamon from the candle she lit before she hunkered down at her computer. All around her, things were lovely and peaceful. Her own special sanctuary. Yet inside, she felt cold as ice.

During the last two hours, Riah had made twenty-seven calls.

And twenty-seven times she received the same news. Dead. Dead.

Dead.

Every vampire in her leather-bound book was dead.

What was it about this place that made people want to live here? Destiny couldn’t imagine one good reason. She stood on the gravel shoulder of I-90 gazing at Sprague Lake, a small body of fresh water in the middle of the flat, brown landscape. In the darkness, it was a blob in the center of nothing. To say it was unattractive was being incredibly nice, as far as she was concerned.

No matter. She wouldn’t be here long enough to ask, let alone try and understand. She had places to go and people to kill.

Shifting from foot to foot, she looked around. She was very hungry and didn’t think she’d make it without a snack. All she needed was a bit of patience. Her plan was simple, and since she’d done it a million times, she knew it would work.

She fluffed her blond hair, adjusted her breasts so they looked nice and plump in her tight top, and waited. The gods were with her tonight. In the eastbound lane of I-90 red and blue lights flashed in the grill of a black-and-white Washington State Patrol cruiser.

Perfect.

The trooper who got out made her tingle all over, even go a little wet. She did like her men tall, strong, and handsome, and this guy was all three. It was gonna be a hat trick for girlfriend tonight.

“Is there a problem, ma’am?” The trooper adjusted his hat as he climbed out of the cruiser, one hand holding a flashlight, the other resting on the butt of the gun at his belt. His blond hair was short and his eyes were almost as green as hers. His voice was deep and rich. A real man.

She batted her eyes and smiled. “My car just stopped and I don’t know why.” She didn’t miss the way his gaze drifted to her exposed cleavage. Never failed. Though she had a great ass, her factory-model boobs were her best feature.

“Did you call for help?”

“I feel so stupid, my cell battery is dead.” She held the phone out for him to see.

“I’ll phone for a tow.”

“Thank you.” She put a hand to her breast. “I really appreciate your help.”

“No problem, ma’am.” He turned and started back in the direction of his car.

Just the move she’d waited for. With fangs bared, Destiny was a flash of lightning. She wrapped an arm around his head and yanked it back, exposing his long expanse of white neck. His hat fell to the pavement and rolled into the dry grass and tumbleweeds of the shoulder. Strong, he put up an impressive struggle. His sad luck…Destiny was stronger.

She sank her fangs into his neck and sighed as warm blood flowed down her throat. When his struggles ceased, she let go.

He slid to the ground in a heap of blue uniform and white flesh.

He wasn’t quite dead yet, his breath still coming in tiny gasps. He sounded a little like a goldfish out of the bowl.

What a shame she didn’t have more time. He was a fine specimen, as far as men went. She preferred something a little different, but they could be fun now and again. Riding a thick, hard cock until a big, tough man screamed for release could be quite empowering. Alas, not tonight. Time was growing short and they were alongside the freeway—not exactly the best place for a little fuck and suck. Those games would have to wait for another man, another night.