Don't Blackmail the Vampire (15 page)

It was only six o’clock in the morning. Alice must be sleeping, and likely Noah wanted to keep it that way. It was in his nature to protect—nearly as much as it was in the nature of their oldest brother, Alex. Noah was probably trying to keep Alice out of the investigation as much as he could. Charles wondered how Alice felt about that. Knowing her, she probably wasn’t happy about it.

Rachel would feel the same way.

His chest tightened painfully at the thought. Fuck. He could barely breathe around the pain of her rejection. But he’d be damned if he didn’t get through this with Noah. At least after this, his brother might be more inclined to trust him, to have faith in his judgment. It felt like a pointless consolation prize after losing Rachel, but he’d feel differently in a few days. A few weeks. Maybe.

The change in weather was startling, but since he’d come straight from the airport to Noah’s house, it had barely registered that he was still wearing his coat in the warm California air. Vampires weren’t, in general, as affected by temperature as humans, but it suddenly hit him that he was too warm. The second Noah closed the office door behind them, he took off his jacket and tossed it on one of the armchairs recently added to the room. Noah wasn’t one for decorating much beyond the basics, so they were no doubt Alice’s doing.

“Did you reread the threats?” Charles asked.

“Of course I did.” Noah restacked a pile of papers that had already been stacked just fine to Charles’s eye.

“And?”

Noah sighed and ran a hand over his hair. “You’re right. Looking at them as warnings…it fits.”

“It’s no wonder we’ve been chasing ghosts.” Not that he minded. Sure, he would have loved to help Noah take down some asshole, but it was better that there wasn’t someone out there intent on hurting Alice.

“Nice job figuring that out. I owe you one.”

Charles shrugged, nonchalant even though he knew he was about to light a match over a ready-to-explode vampire. “I didn’t figure it out. Rachel did.”

Noah didn’t explode loudly—probably still worried about waking Alice—but his expression shifted to something dangerous. “You showed that email to someone?” His words were carefully measured, low and slow. But Charles didn’t miss the anger.

“Yes. But we can trust her.” He still believed that was true—at least with their secrets. His heart was another story. “And you’re ignoring the part where she solved this for you.”

“How long have you known this…Rachel?”

Charles grimaced. “A few days.”

Noah’s hands fisted and un-fisted, over and over. A good ten seconds passed before he spoke again. “A few days,” he echoed.

“It’s not as if I could make her forget I was a vampire after she came across me feeding.”

Noah’s eyes widened slightly. “She resisted your power?”

“Shrugged it off like it was nothing. Have you ever come across a human like that?”

“Not really. I’ve heard of people training themselves to resist us purposefully, but I’ve never run across one. Sure, humans who are fully aware of who and what we are can be difficult to control mentally—it’s like forewarned is forearmed, even though it seems to be an unconscious resistance.” Noah shook his head. “It could simply be a rare genetic trait, to be resistant to us. I will discuss it with Alex. He’ll know more.”

“I almost think it’s pure stubbornness on her part.”

A hint of a smile touched Noah’s mouth. “Perhaps.”

Charles heard the small noise—a soft shuffling—the same moment Noah’s face wrinkled with irritation.

“You’re good,” Noah said, raising his voice, “but not good enough to sneak up on vampires, my dear.”

An audible sigh, then the door opened. “One of these days, I’ll get you.”

“I’m sure you will.” Noah smiled at Alice. And she smiled back, lighting the whole room with her presence. “But not while you’re still a human.”

Noah walked around the desk to give her a quick kiss, and Charles suddenly felt like he shouldn’t be here, witnessing this very personal moment. Something twisted in his chest, and he swallowed hard, staring down at the stack of papers Noah had nervously messed with.

“So, tell me,” Alice demanded.

Charles glanced back at the couple, romantic moment safely over if Alice’s tone was any indication. Her steely gaze was locked on Noah.

“You should really let us take care of this,” he said, although there was no insistence in his tone. He already knew he’d lost.

“Yeah, right,” she said, pinching him playfully. The woman was kind at heart; she could hold a hard look on someone she loved for only so long.

Noah turned to look at Charles.

“You know that Charles has been spy—err, tracking Brent?”

She nodded, her mouth turning down somberly, and Noah winced.

“He’s been in Colorado on a ski vacation.”

“You followed him to Colorado?” she asked.

Charles nodded. “I’ve…” What? How could he explain his relationship with Rachel when he wasn’t even entirely sure what it was? He only knew it was over, and that hurt like hell. “I made friends with someone there. I trusted her, so I shared the so-called threats with her. I thought maybe a fresh pair of eyes would help.” And he’d wanted to show her a gesture of trust, since he’d betrayed hers. She might not realize it, but he’d taken a leap there. Not only letting her see the threats, but telling her about his world. About his place in it. “And she knows Brent better than I do, so I thought she might see something that would implicate him.”

“Who is this friend?” Alice asked.

“Her name is Rachel.”

She started. “Kristen’s little sister?”

He suppressed a cringe—barely—at the reminder of Rachel’s age. Sure, she wasn’t a kid by human standards, but it was strangely surreal to be reminded that she was even younger than Alice. But only by a couple of years, and Noah had a heck of a lot more than that on him. Totally evened out. “Yes.”

A thoughtful nod. “I can see why you’d trust her. She’s far more…grounded than Kristen. Quiet. Shy.”

“Shy?” He tapped a finger on the back of the armchair. Quiet, maybe. Thoughtful, certainly. But shy? She’d never missed an opportunity to tell him exactly what she thought. “If you say so.”

Alice raised an eyebrow at that, so he quickly continued before she could ask more personal questions. “Anyway, she—rightly, I think—pointed out that taken as a whole, the threats look a lot more like warnings.”

Noah walked to his desk and opened a drawer. He pulled a paper out and then handed it to Alice. “With that in mind, can you think of anyone we should be investigating when you read these?”

Paper in hand, she scanned the list, her eyes crinkled with thought. “I don’t know. I mean, there are a few people who might want to protect me.”

“Cindy?” Noah murmured.

She laughed and glanced up at him. “My sister loves you. Besides, this could be someone unbalanced who I don’t even know that well. Don’t crazy stalker types build up relationships in their heads sometimes?”

“Whoever is making these threats knows you’re living with a vampire.”

“I still have my own house.”

“Alice—”

She waved the paper at him, apparently tired of the argument that brewed beneath the surface. “I know, I know. But Cindy wouldn’t do this. She’s more direct—you know that.”

Noah frowned, but didn’t argue.

“Besides,” she added, “Cindy and I noticed you were a vampire before you told me. If we saw through your clever sun allergy, who knows who else on the cruise ship might have, too?”

“So much for your sneakiness,” Charles muttered. “Have you updated that with the latest text?”

Noah shot him a glare but otherwise ignored the jab. “Not yet.”

Charles pulled up the latest message and handed Alice his cell phone.

“Why haven’t I seen this?” she asked Noah.

“It came in on your cell. You were already asleep, and you know I’ve been monitoring all the lines for threats.”

“So, you weren’t exactly sneaky on the cruise ship?” Charles asked, not bothering to keep the amusement from his voice.

“I was very sneaky. As sneaky as a vampire on a sun-filled cruise ship could be.” He turned to Alice. “You probably wouldn’t have guessed I was one if you hadn’t already known about vampires.”

Charles jerked in surprise. Noah had told him about the cruise—the highlights, anyway. But he hadn’t known that little tidbit. That very
important
tidbit.

But Alice wasn’t listening. Her eyes were locked on Charles’s cell phone. “Oh, my God. Hospital corners.” Alice clutched the paper and the phone to her chest, her eyes like saucers. “I know who it is. I know who’s been sending me warnings.”

Chapter Twelve

R
achel glared at her cell phone screen. Screw it. She was done waiting. And while she might not be brave enough to confront the vampire—or even her own feelings for him—she wasn’t going to let her sister cut her out of her life. Not without a fight.

The regret from her last conversation with Charles was already drowning her, more so with each passing day. He’d said he
loved
her. She just wasn’t sure what to do about it—if anything. But she had to do something constructive, so she decided to tackle her other problem.

There was only one place she knew where she could corner Kristen where she wouldn’t be able to ignore her. The only place she couldn’t easily run from, or simply refuse to answer her door.

After grabbing her keys, she headed to her sister’s office.

Nine days since she and Kristen had left Colorado, on the same flight but across the aisle from each other. Practically in different zip codes when factoring in Kristen’s noise-canceling headphones, which she’d used liberally on the flight, not to mention before and after.

Kristen ran her own boutique interior design company with one of her college friends, and luckily for Rachel, it was in its own small building off the main drag. A tiny house that had been converted for commercial use years before Kristen leased it, the building exuded the pricey charm she was trying to convey to her clients.

Rachel parked out front and marched up to the door, knowing that if she paused for more than a few seconds, she’d lose her nerve.

The office was silent, save for the creaking of a chair in one of the back offices.

“Be right with you,” Kristen called.

Good. They were alone. This would be easier that way. Not that she wouldn’t have kicked Heidi out of her own office if it had been necessary. They were going to have this out today, if she had any say in it.

Kristen’s polite smile faded when she saw her, and a guarded hurt took over. It was the hurt that killed her and sucked at her resolve.

She looked good otherwise. If she’d been up the last week crying, it didn’t show on her face. Her makeup was perfectly applied and she appeared well rested. Of course, Kristen was something of an expert at looking good, and if she’d wanted to cover up sleepless, crying-filled nights, she probably could have.

“Hi,” Rachel managed, guilt tearing at her gut. This was a terrible idea. Why had she thought she had the right to come here and push herself onto her sister, when she wasn’t sure she’d given her enough time to heal?

Because the silence of her apartment had been oppressive. Because she felt like she was going crazy. Neither a good enough reason.

Kristen stared at her for a few moments, arms crossing in front of her. “All right,” she said finally. “You might as well come back.” Then she pivoted on her high-heel-covered toe and walked back to her office.

Rachel shut the door behind her, just in case Heidi or a client decided now was a good time to come into the office. When she turned back to her sister, Kristen was standing at her window, arms again crossed.

“What you did was pretty shitty.”

She forced herself to breathe. Starting this conversation off by crying wouldn’t exactly be productive. “I know. But I can’t regret it.”

Kristen turned around to face her, outrage lacing her expression.

“I’m so sorry I hurt you,” she added before Kristen could interrupt. “So sorry—you have to know that. But he was such…” She shook her head. Any words she could come up with to explain how she saw Brent weren’t likely to cool Kristen down.

“An asshole?” her sister offered.

She jerked her head up and stared at her sister.

Kristen toyed with a brass paperweight on her desk. “I know that’s exactly what he was. But—” She took a haggard breath. “I should be thanking you. I know that in my head, but I can’t yet.”

“I don’t expect you to thank me.” The urge to run to her sister and hug her was fierce, but she waited. This wasn’t about her—her feelings. This was about her sister.

“I should have left him months ago, when I caught him trying to get Alice back. I should never have forgiven him that. Or, more accurately, I shouldn’t have stomached his lies about it, his excuses. I knew they weren’t true. But I had to make it work, you know? After what I did to Alice.”

Shock ricocheted through her, but she stayed quiet. If she’d known that her sister had caught Brent in a compromising position, would she have schemed to break them up? She wasn’t sure.

“Actually, I shouldn’t have gotten involved with him to start with. I shouldn’t have believed his lies back then either—that he was leaving her. That they didn’t love each other. I knew in my heart that she loved him, at least. I just pretended that I didn’t. Lied to myself.” She shook her head, still staring down at the paperweight she toyed with. A tear escaped her cheek, and she wiped it away with her other hand. “It was like, after I lost Alice, I had to make sure it meant something. If I didn’t make it work with Brent…”

Unable to stay where she was, Rachel stepped to her sister’s side and then reached out to squeeze her shoulder softly.

She swallowed hard, silent for a few moments until she seemed to get hold of herself again. “If I didn’t make it work with him, then it would make me the monster. It wouldn’t be a love story. I’d just be the other woman—the stupid woman who’d given up a wonderful friend for an asshole. The bitch who betrayed her best friend.”

“He lied to you. Tricked you when it first started. Told you that they were breaking up. And don’t use the b-word when you’re talking about my sister.”

Kristen ignored her little joke. “I shouldn’t have believed him. I think… I think I knew deep down that he was lying, even from the beginning.” Her posture straightened, and she met Rachel’s gaze. Her expression was hard, despite the moisture trailing down her cheeks and brightening her eyes. “I can’t fix that. There is no fixing what I did to Alice. And it kills me.”

Rachel swallowed hard. “Maybe not. But you can go forward. Make better choices.”

She jerked her head, a quick nod. “That’s all I can do. And, would it be selfish to apologize to Alice?”

“Selfish? No. But…don’t get your hopes too high.” Alice was kind and forgiving, but she was also a human being, not a saint.

“I won’t. I just don’t want her to think I’m trying to worm my way back into her life.”

“I think it’s safe to say Alice won’t assume that.” It wasn’t fair to ask right now, but she couldn’t help herself. “Any chance I can worm my way back into
your
life?”

A ghost of a smile touched Kristen’s lips. “I’m sure you can. But it’s going to involve bribery.”

“Bribery?”

“Ice cream. Time spent taking me to movies. At least a dinner or two a week.” Her smile faded. “I think we need some serious sister bonding time.”

Time to build up their trust in each other again was exactly what they needed. Rachel had nothing but time, and the thought of not having her sister in her life was like a knife to the chest. The hope that she could fix this was almost painful, she wanted it so badly. “I can do that.”

“Be sure. I have expensive taste in dinner. And I’m pretty hungry lately.”

A small laugh escaped her. “I know you’re not a cheap date.” A thought hit her. “Have you heard from Cole?”

“He’s called. Made himself available if I need a friend.”

She frowned.

“Not in a creepy way. Just…he left the door open. Had some choice things to say about Brent, too. I guess…well, he insinuated that the only reason he came with us on the ski trip was to keep an eye on me—Cole didn’t trust Brent not to do something stupid. He didn’t say it explicitly, but I think he had a hard time seeing us
not
fight, so he avoided us as much as he could instead. He’s…really sweet.” She laughed softly. “But honestly, I don’t see him ever making a move.”

“Maybe
you
should make a move.”

Kristen startled, eyes widening as if the thought had never occurred to her. Probably it hadn’t. She’d always been squarely in the being wooed category, never the wooer. Even as far back as high school. “Maybe, someday. When I’m ready.” Kristen took her arm and they locked elbows, like they had so many times when they were kids. “Speaking of making moves, have you heard from Charles? At the risk of sounding like you, I don’t know if you can trust that guy.”

She didn’t know if she could, either. But holy hell, how she wanted to, even though she’d almost certainly ruined any chance of anything happening between them. She’d expected that some of the pain of their parting would fade, and that she’d start missing him less. She’d been wrong. If anything, she missed him more acutely. Even after making up with her sister, she wanted to call him and tell him all about it.

Needing her sister to know the whole story—minus the vampire bits, which she was pretty sure that, without proof, Kristen would declare crazy—she started to talk.

…

C
harles set his feet on his coffee table and took a long drink from the container of blood he held in one hand, then with the other, he tossed his cell phone onto the couch next to him. The urge to toss it against the wall was fierce, but it would hardly improve his day to have to go buy a new one.

She hadn’t called. She hadn’t sent him a single text. But then, he hadn’t reached out either.

He was pretty damn sure he’d reached enough for one lifetime.

What he’d done instead was try to pretend that everything was normal. Fat chance of that. What he needed was something to concentrate on other than missing Rachel. So that he wasn’t closing his eyes to recall the exact shade of her eyes. Contemplating how sweet her blood tasted. Or finding himself wondering what she was doing at the exact moment he was missing her so badly he found himself reaching for his keys.

But nothing he’d tried had worked. Taking blood from another person was impossible, and the idea of even looking at another woman held no interest. Even finding out the details Noah had uncovered about Alice’s so-called threatener barely kept his thoughts from wandering.

His doorbell sounded and he grimaced. It couldn’t be the only person he wanted to see—she didn’t even have his address—which left little doubt as to who it might be. One of his brothers, perhaps. More likely Noah than Alex. Alex didn’t pay anyone a lot of visits these days. It was hard enough to get him on the phone. Maybe it was Alice coming to check on him. She was alone among his family in realizing that something was bothering him. The only one who’d picked up on his despondency since Rachel had shoved him out of her life.

Not that he blamed Noah. He’d had his hands busy trying to find the woman threatening Alice, and now that the threat had passed, he seemed eager to stare at her every waking moment. Or so it seemed to Charles.

Opening the door revealed a woman he definitely hadn’t expected to see. Not today. Maybe not ever. Irritation rolled through him at the sight of her—the sister he most definitely didn’t want to see.

Kristen.

“At least let me in. Give me five minutes. I had to call Alice for your address,” she said in lieu of a normal greeting.

“Did you suffer some awkwardness just for little ole me? That’s terrible,” he deadpanned.

The iciness in her stare was almost enough to give him pause, but he was angry enough not to back down by trying to lighten the mood. Granted, most of his anger wasn’t toward the woman in front of him, but he wasn’t entirely pleased with her either.

“No. I experienced crushing guilt with a healthy dose of horrible awkwardness
for my sister.
”

“Oh, do come in, then.”

She brushed past him, apparently missing—or more likely ignoring—the sarcasm in his voice. But she didn’t move past his foyer.

“Why are you gracing me with your presence at all? I would expect you to hate me right about now.”

She waved off his words. “Rachel told me enough of what happened, of your plan, that I don’t hate you. Can’t say I like you, but it’s not my feelings that matter here.”

“Fascinating. You’re here because…?”

“I want you to try again,” she said.

“Why should I?”
Because it still hurts you to even think about her.
He ignored the traitor in his head.

“Because…I think you care about her. I know she cares about you. Whether you’re ready to label how you both feel or not. And—” Her voice cracked. “I don’t want my little sister’s life ruined because I have horrible taste in men.”

“I think the issue goes back further than that,” he said, voice gentle. Kristen was annoying and had terrible judgment, but being harsh to her beyond their little repartee felt cruel. Cruelty wasn’t something he excelled at, because its practice didn’t interest him in the slightest. But he stopped short of reassuring her that her problems didn’t have anything to do with her sister’s decision.

She nodded, blinking rapidly. “I know that. But don’t you think that seeing me didn’t hammer the nail in the coffin? Brent wasn’t my first bad choice—just the latest. And you met her at her most guarded—when she’d confirmed beyond doubt that any man I picked out couldn’t be trusted. She doesn’t know how special she is. Why would she have felt the right to expect any better for herself?”

Anger shot through him, sudden and fierce. “I’m nothing like Brent.”

“She knows that…she just needs to feel it. She needs
time
to feel it, for it to really sink in. Can’t you see that? How could you expect something so ingrained to change so much in a week? No one can change their expectations that fast. Not when they’ve had them for so long.”

Hell. They’d had less than a week in Colorado. And only two weeks had passed since. They’d known each other for less than a month, and had spent most of that time apart. Was he expecting too much, too soon?

The answer twisted his gut.

“Please, just promise me that you’ll think about it.”

He gave her a quick nod, and some of the tension faded from her frame. He stepped back so she could leave, but he did his best not to show her his conflicting feelings. That would surely give her hope, and how much hope could he really give? No matter how much he wanted otherwise, there was no guarantee that Rachel would even give him a chance.