Dare to Bleed (Emily Sullivan Series) (13 page)

“
Someone called in sick. They needed an extra body so Harold volunteered.”

“
Ok, sorry to bother you,” I said and turned and briskly left. I felt like the biggest loser. The one night I needed a place to hide out, and Harold wasn’t even at home.

It only took me three tries to get the car backed up and back on the road. I was learning that I could go forward with few problems or grinds but backwards was a pain in the rear for me. I decided I really needed some sleep, no matter what it took. I reluctantly drove over to Vicky’s’ house and knocked on the door. I almost laughed when her mother answered. She would never make fun of me again now that I knew she still lived with her mother.

“
Hi, Ms. Kenner. I am so sorry to wake you, is Vicky home?” I asked.

“
Honey, you didn’t wake me. I have a disease, so I don’t sleep at night. My doctor calls it insomnia, I call it men. Please come in.” She was a big woman, with short, crazy looking black hair. She had a few greys mixed in. She was wearing red lipstick that was smudged. I couldn’t understand why she was wearing any lipstick at all at this time of night.

They had a plain home, pictures of Vicky scattered the wall. She was an only child. Her mom looked like an older Vicky except much nicer. I couldn’t see where Vicky had learned her awful ways. “I’m sorry to barge in like this in the middle of the night, but I had a pipe bust and I needed a place to stay. I was wondering if I could stay here tonight,” I boldly asked, praying Vicky wasn’t home. I had a chance with her mom here.

“
Of course, honey! Vicky isn’t here tonight. She’s staying at some boy’s house tonight. You’re welcome to stay in her room.” She was such a sweet women I didn’t know where she went wrong with her daughter.

“
Thank you so much.”

She showed me to the room and said good night. Vicky and I were friends until the first grade. She kissed Nick Roberts on the playground one day in front of the entire class. This wouldn’t have been such a bad thing except he was my boyfriend at the time. Before that we actually liked each other, I had spent the night at her house before. I thought she had bought the house when her mom moved. That was the story she told people so they didn’t know she still lived with her mother. I went to the bathroom to clean up before bed and grabbed a comforter from the hall closet on my way back. There was no way in hell I was sleeping in the same sheets Vicky slept in. I threw the blanket on top of the entire bed and crawled on top.

I fell asleep fairly quickly and slept hard. I woke the next morning at six am, thanked Vicky’s mom for letting me crash and left. I was afraid I would see Ezra leaned up against his car when I opened the front door. I peeked out, surprisingly enough no Ezra. Maybe my luck was turning around. I got in the car and glanced at my phone. Twenty missed calls, a new record. I decided to talk to Ezra to burn some time since I still had an hour before I had to meet Damon. The phone rang three times and I thought he wouldn’t answer.

“
What?” he finally snapped, maybe I woke him up.

“
What are you doing?” I asked nonchalantly.

“
I don’t have time for your games, Emily. Where are you?”

“
Seriously, you haven’t found me yet? This is too easy,” I answered, smiling. There had to be a catch, there was no way I was outsmarting four supernatural dudes with big bad powers.

“
Ezra, do you already know where I am?” I looked around for any cars hanging out that looked like they were filled with too much testosterone.

“
Emily, if I knew where you were at, you would be dead,” he said and I was hoping he was joking.

“
Touché,” I answered. “So where are you at?”

“
I am at home, waiting for your return.”

“
Bullshit. Where are you for real?” I asked, growing tired of his shenanigans. I heard a beep and looked down to see Damon calling.

“
Oops, got to go.” And I hung up. “Hello, Damon.”

“
I’m ready,” he said and I had a thought of Ezra lying on the bed as he said that. I shook my head to clear the thoughts.

“
Ok, its go time, where do you want to meet?” I asked, still feeling courage seeping through my pores. I am not usually a courageous person so I wasn’t sure where this bravery was coming from. I guess having a bunch of hot body guards around twenty-four/seven was growing on me.

“
I’ll text you the address, you had better come alone,” he warned.

“
I stole Ezra’s car. I’m as much of a criminal as you are. Plus, now he probably will kill us both if he gets the chance.”

He hung up on me. I waited a few minutes in silence till I finally got the text. I punched the address into my phone and waited for the directions to load. It was only ten minutes away. I got the car out of the driveway on the first try. The house we were meeting at was just down the street from my mom’s house. I pulled in next to a black Range rover. I turned the car off and took a deep breath. It was finally hitting me that I would finally be face to hood with Damon. The mystery man would be revealed, and I wouldn’t have anyone to protect me against him. I felt myself hyperventilating and had to get out of the car quickly.

Chapter Fourteen

I wasn’t sure if it was nerves or bad luck but I tripped getting out of the car. I gracefully fell flat on my face. I rolled over and lay on my back for a minute, just staring at the sky. After I decided I was being a big baby, I got up, brushed myself off and started walking to the door. Was I supposed to knock or should I ring the doorbell? Should I smile when he answered and wait to be invited in? I thought seriously for a moment about kicking down the door and going in loaded, but the problem with that is I had no weapon. Plus, this dude was a vampire, and it seemed impossible to sneak up on a mind reader.

With my luck, I’d kick the door and nothing would happen. That would be embarrassing, to kick and kick until I gave up and used the doorknob. I was just about to knock when the door swung open, kind of like it does in a scary movie before someone gets killed. And this is the part of the movie where I yell at the person not to go into the house. Then they go in and die and I say ‘told you so, idiot.’ I was about to be the dead idiot. I had to keep thinking of Kimmy as I pushed open the door. I walked in and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

“
Shut and lock the door.” I recognized the voice as Damon’s. I did as I was told, feeling like I was shutting the air out of the home. I started feeling a panic attack coming but pushed the thoughts aside.

“
Where is Kimmy?” My voice, along with my legs, weren’t working very well. I tried to take a step into the room and almost fell from weak knees. The house was small and older, the same floor plan as my mom’s house. I walked farther into the room. A dark figure walked closer to me in a hood. He stopped about five feet away. I still couldn’t make out his face.

He pulled his hood back, and I swear I almost laughed. He was a freaking teenager. He was short, about my height, with that shaggy Justin Bieber haircut and brown eyes. He had a chubby baby face, with an amazing light complexion. I stood waiting for him to do the twitchy head jerk to get his hair out of his face. He was wearing skinny jeans, looking very emo, which I thought was odd for a vampire.

“
You’re so young.” I stated the obvious out loud. He rolled his eyes and it was such a teenager move. I wanted so badly to grab him by his ears and pull him around.

“
Please stop thinking,” he said, grabbing his head.

“
That’s impossible,” I whispered.

“
I’m almost four hundred years old, I’m not a teenager,” he yelled.

“
Look, I really don’t give a shit about your age issues. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. Now can I please see Kimmy?” I didn’t have time for this kid.

“
I could rip you limb from limb and eat you, don’t talk to me like that,” he threatened. I knew it was true, but just looking into his young face, I couldn’t imagine it happening, so the threat didn’t scare me like it should have.

“
Hey, don’t get your whitey tighteys in a bunch, I’m just saying Ezra will be in town looking for his precious car soon and if he finds it here and finds us, we’re both dead. Let’s get this over with. What do you want me to do?” Some stupid teenager didn’t scare me.

Now, the hunky vampire who made my libido melt from just one look scared the bejeezus out of me.

I guess he took the hint and walked out of the room. He came back in, carrying a big book and dragging someone behind him. She stumbled to stand up and fell back on the floor. As soon as I saw her face, I wanted to throw up. Literally throw up. That idiot teenage teeny bopper hadn’t kidnapped my best friend. Oh no, he couldn’t even get a good kidnapping right. Instead of seeing Kimmy laying on the floor, it was none other than stupid Vicky. Her hands and feet were bound by rope and like usual she was wearing spandex and four inch heels.

“
Are you kidding me?” I asked, pissed off.

He gave me confused look before pulling it out of my head.

“
I thought you guys were friends,” he replied weakly.

“
What in the world
ever
gave you that impression?” I yelled, now furious that I had ruined the chance of having the best sex of my life because of Vicky. I felt like stomping my foot and yelling ‘she ruins everything.’ I didn’t care about her. She would have killed me herself if our positions were switched.

“
You will do this spell for me,” he said through gritted his teeth.

“
Pa-lease. You have got to be joking. I ruined a fifty thousand dollar car because of you. You can find some other witch to do it.” I turned to walk out but didn’t get very far. I was shoved backwards to the wall. Vicky shrieked.

“
Maybe I should repeat myself. You will do the spell for me,” he threatened.

“
Oh yeah, and what if I don’t?” I asked. I was pushing my luck. But I was at my breaking point. A slap to my face was his reply. My head snapped to the side. It stung so bad I really wanted to grab my face or cry, but my angry washed away the pain.

“
You’re a little bitch,” I said, looking him in his eyes. Vicky gasped. I wanted to roll my eyes at her.

I had a feeling Damon was about to kill me. He had me by the throat in seconds. At that point, I got a little scared. He was fuming, holding me off the ground, which seemed impossible since he was shorter than me. It was extremely uncomfortable. No one ever tells you how much it really hurts to be strangled. I could feel my body giving out. My legs were tingling, and my heart beat loudly in my ears. I kicked my legs as hard as I could, trying to fight back. This couldn’t be my last moments, in a room with the one person I hated. I severely wanted to take a breath. My chest was throbbing with pain. I started scratching at his arm. I had to get free or I was going to die. I had increasing pressure forming in my eyeballs, making them feel as if they were about to pop out of my head. My hearing started to become muffled. I could hear Vicky yelling but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. I wanted so desperately to fall asleep.

Just as the room started closing in on me, I heard the door being kicked down, and I immediately regretted not doing it myself. In strolled the trio of super heroes. It was like a movie, the part where the good guys move in slow motion. Ezra walked in first and radiated with confidence. You could throw a rock at him and it would bounce off his impressive aura. He was wearing some wicked aviator sun glasses and took them off slowly as he stepped across the threshold. Axle followed, wearing a shirt that was one size too small for his ginormous muscles. As soon as they walked in, Damon released my throat. I instantly grabbed my neck, gasping and coughing. We stood staring in complete shock.

Ezra cracked his neck, and we both took off running for our lives. We hurdled over the couch at the same time. Unfortunately, I wasn't as graceful as the vampire and took a nasty fall. I did a ninja roll and kept going. Damon was already running out the back door. In my defense, I was still trying to catch my breath from the death grip he’d held my throat in just seconds before. I slid on the slick kitchen floor and was getting pissed off that I couldn't make a clean escape without nearly killing myself. I was running for my life. Axle pushed by me and I flew into the tiny, off-white kitchen table that was big enough to seat two.

“
Axle, you big oaf,” I croaked out as I threw myself through the door. He was already long gone. I wondered if Ezra was playing some sort of cat and mouse game, getting enjoyment from this. I didn't have to wait long to find out. I took two victorious steps out of the back door and was jerked backwards by my shirt. I was pulled into a big hard sexy chest. I was too scared to look back.

“
Ezra, if you kill me, Robert will fire you,” I tried yelling, I was slightly hoarse. I was wondering why he hadn’t killed me yet. I was more worried about my life at this moment than I ever had been with Damon. I swallowed the bile rising from my stomach and tried to slow my heart. It was about to beat right out of my chest. I slowly turned around with my hands up in retreat. I studied the ground and didn't dare take a peek into Ezra’s beautiful face. I was doomed and looking at his gorgeous face would make me regret my decisions and then I would probably start begging. I continued to stare at the ground, sweat rolling down my brow but I was not moving. The only sounds were his heaving breathing and my heart racing. The silence was beginning to become slightly uncomfortable.