Embrace the Heat (5 page)

Mark slipped an arm around her shoulder.
Since he was a foot taller than her, it brought attention to her
size even more. “That actually makes her even sexier to me.”

Layla elbowed him and laughed. After waking
up turned on, she kind of wished she was interested in Mark. Aside
from the fact that they’d been friends for more than ten years, he
was more than a little attractive. Mark’s hazel eyes were rimmed
with thick dark lashes, and his mouth was full and sensual. He had
mocha colored skin and rippling muscles. Layla had always loved his
long dark hair. When they’d been younger, she’d watched him sneak
to the edge of the island to get salt water to twist it. Now it was
locked in place and hit his shoulders. At one time she’d found him
attractive enough to experiment with, but sadly that was no longer
the case. Too bad, he’d probably be a good distraction.

Layla’s irritability grew as she climbed into
the backseat of the jeep with Mark. Shelby was driving and a new
vampire trainee was in the passenger seat. Layla couldn’t even
remember the trainee’s name.

“Stop being pissed off at me about this,”
Shelby said. “I’m not the one who made the rotation schedule.”

“Are you telling me you think us poor weak
humans should get to go out alone, or do you agree with Connor?”
Layla asked. This was an old argument, and Layla had no idea why
she was so mad about it today.

Vampires went out on patrol in groups of two.
Humans went out in groups of two humans and one vampire. No humans
were ever allowed out alone, and they usually got sent to the least
dangerous places. Essentially, they went out on patrol to keep
Raven happy, but the vampires didn’t seem to value their
contribution. They were children to be coddled.

“You haven’t complained about this in a
couple of months. What has you so pissy today?” Shelby asked.

“Probably that time of the month,” Mark
muttered, and the young male vampire in the front snickered
quietly.

“Did your switch get stuck in the stupid
position today?” Shelby asked Mark.

“This is why he doesn’t have a woman,” Layla
pointed out.

“You wound me,” he said in mock offense. “You
know, I have no idea why you don’t have a man, Tinker Bell.”

“Don’t call me that,” Layla said through her
teeth.

“That’s right, you prefer Pixie,” Mark
said.

Layla reached over and smacked him lightly in
the back of the head. “How did I end up with such annoying
friends?”

They drove to a spot about five miles from
the human settlement at Camp Parks. It was a long drive, but as
part of the vampire training program, trainees had to be
familiarized with the territory they were responsible for. Camp
Parks was still technically in Connor’s territory even though not a
lot happened out that way. The people living there tolerated the
vampires patrolling but didn’t want to associate with them. Layla
suspected Camp Parks only allowed the patrols because they didn’t
think they were strong enough to defend themselves against the
vampires. Layla had run into some of the humans from that
settlement, and they always looked at her with disdain. Not that
she could blame them. Seven months ago she would have looked down
on humans who willingly worked with vampires too.

Layla’s nose caught the faint scent of death
as soon as they stepped out of the jeep. Mark was helping Shelby
change the battery so they wouldn’t have to do it when they
left.

“Do you smell that?” Layla asked.

Mark looked up after sliding the new battery
in and inhaled. “The pine trees?” he asked.

The young vampire inhaled and then made an
ugly face. “It stinks, like blood and something else.”

Shelby was instantly on alert. “What you
smell, Peter is turned vampires.” Then she studied Layla. “I had no
idea you had such a good nose. Most humans don’t catch that.”

Layla shrugged. She’d noticed that turned
vampires had a distinctive rotting odor before, but they usually
had to be close enough that Mark could smell them too. While turned
and born vampires were the result of the same virus, the Moon
virus, there were a lot of differences between the two. Layla had
always found the term ‘born vampire’ strange since many of them
were not actually born that way and had been turned themselves. The
two types of vampires had very little in common. Turned vampires
were undead, and they tended to be the mindless killers that Layla
had once believed all vampires to be. They would do anything for
blood. Born vampires were still alive and while they needed blood,
they didn’t slaughter humans to get it. In their case, the virus
didn’t react the same. Layla had been told this could be due to
cancer or HIV, but the mutation also occurred in pregnant women and
their unborn babies. More than a century after the initial outbreak
of the Moon virus, there were still large Moon virus outbreaks
resulting in turned vampires.

“Hopefully, we aren’t stumbling on a big
outbreak,” Layla murmured as she looked around.

The scent got stronger, and tension hummed
through Layla’s body. Shelby had already drawn her knives. Rustling
in the trees caught their attention, and Layla drew her eskrima
sticks.

Shelby started to take off. “Mark, come with
me,” she called out. “Layla, stay at the jeep and make sure Peter
stays safe.”

“Don’t let your guard down,” Layla said to
Peter. “The smell is still really strong.”

The wind picked up and moved the trees
around, making it hard to rely on her sense of hearing. It was also
pushing the scent around and making it hard to trace. That’s when
the attack happened. The turned vampire flew out of the woods with
a sharpened branch and a crazed look in his hazel eyes. His mind
obviously was not gone enough that he didn’t recognize the born
vampire as the biggest threat. The vampire charged Peter with the
obvious intent of stabbing him through the heart. While Peter had
gone through some training, he had no real world experience and he
had never been faced with a turned vampire. The poor kid froze.

Layla leapt in front of Peter and wasted no
time going on the attack. There was no reason to negotiate with
turned vampires. One of her sticks made contact with the vampire’s
wrist, and he snarled at her.

“I’m going to enjoy tearing you’re throat
out,” he said angrily.

“I’m going to enjoy ramming this stick
through your dead heart,” Layla said back.

He laughed and lunged at her. Layla jumped
back and nailed him in the side of the head with one of her sticks.
The important thing when fighting turned vampires was to avoid
letting them get close enough to touch her. She was weaker, so if
they got their hands on her, it was all over.

On that thought a second one grabbed her from
behind just as she was about to follow up with another hit and a
thrust to the chest of the first turned vampire. He lifted her off
of the ground and squeezed her arms so tightly that they started to
go numb. Saliva dripped onto the back of her neck. She slammed her
head backwards and heard the satisfying sound of his nose breaking.
He released his hold on her, and she dropped back to the ground
losing her balance. Peter had come out of his frightened trance and
was fighting the first turned vampire with impressive skill. Layla
spun around and slammed her eskrima stick into the heart of the one
behind her before he could recover from the shock of his broken
nose.

It only took Peter a few more minutes to
finish off his opponent. When he finally stabbed the turned vampire
in the heart, he looked much older than he had when they’d headed
out on patrol that morning.

Layla went over and put a hand on his
shoulder. “Not quite what you expected training to be like today,
huh?”

He shook his head and gave her an uneasy
smile. “You move really fast.”

She assumed he meant her reaction time. “I’ve
had a lot of experience fighting. Sparring isn’t the same thing and
can only teach you so much.”

“I just kind of thought humans would slow us
down. None of my human friends move like you.”

Mark and Shelby rejoined them and took in the
mess.

“Guess you had a little excitement of your
own,” Shelby said. “How’d our trainee do?”

Peter looked worried. He’d frozen at first,
but he’d snapped out of it, and Layla might have been killed if he
hadn’t.

“Not bad for his first day in the field,”
Layla said.

“I didn’t react when they attacked,” he
admitted. “Layla saved my life.”

“Peter killed one of them,” Layla said.

Shelby nodded. “Don’t worry, Peter. Most
people don’t see this kind of action their first day out. You did
fine. This looks to be a sizable outbreak, so Simon will need to
send out an extermination team.”

Peter caught Layla’s hand before they climbed
into the jeep. “You are human, right?”

“Why would you ask that?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s just
the way you moved.” Then he gave her that shy smile again. “Thanks
for saving me.”

After getting the message from Shelby, Simon
worked on putting together an extermination team and met Shelby’s
jeep at the training center. He watched from the entrance as
everyone climbed out of the jeep until Layla turned her back to
him. The sight of the blood soaking her blonde hair sent fear
rushing through his body. Simon ran to the jeep and scooped Layla
up in his arms.

“What are you doing?” Layla asked in a much
too clear headed voice. With that much blood he expected her
to be in shock.

“Why didn’t you tell me Layla had a serious
head injury?” he snapped at Shelby.

Shelby looked like she was going to hurt him,
and Mark started laughing.

“None of the blood is hers,” explained the
trainee. “A turned vampire grabbed Layla from behind, and she
slammed her head into his nose.”

Simon felt like an idiot. What the hell was
he doing? He was acting like Connor would if Raven were injured. Of
course, Layla was his friend which made it okay to worry. After
setting her down, he ran a hand through his hair.

“No one was injured?” Simon asked.

“Nothing serious,” Shelby reported. “Layla
smells like undead blood, so she could use a shower soon. Other
than that, we’re all fine.”

“Good,” Simon said. “An extermination team is
ready to go. Do you have any last details?”

“Nope,” Shelby said, “I sent you everything I
had. After we clean up, the team will head out again.”

“You’re off for the rest of the day,” Simon
said. “I think our trainee has had more than enough excitement for
one day.”

Peter looked at Layla with total adoration in
his eyes, and Simon found that he suddenly wanted to feed the kid
to turned vampires. “I’ll walk you home,” Peter said to Layla.

Shelby was watching him closely, and it
looked like she was having trouble keeping a straight face. “I’ll
give the final instructions to the extermination team,” she
offered. “Peter, you’d better let Simon walk Layla home.”

Layla let out a huff. “I’m not a child. I
will walk myself home.” With that she stormed off, and Simon was
further annoyed to see Peter staring at her ass as it shook back
and forth.

Simon raced after Layla and grabbed her hand
when he finally caught up with her. “Mind telling me why you’re so
pissed off?” he asked.

Layla stopped and spun like she was getting
ready for a fight. Then she sighed and shrugged. “Actually, I’m not
really sure what’s going on with me. I’m irritable, and the fight
made me want to fight more. Mind if I join one of the training
sessions after I clean up?”

“I’d rather have you get some rest, but it’s
up to you.”

She smiled at him. “This is why I love you
more than Connor,” she said. “Con would tell me to get my ass home
and rest like he said.”

Simon laughed. “Yeah, but I’m smart enough to
know that I shouldn’t pick a fight with a cranky pixie.”

“You’re an ass,” she said. “Now let go of my
hand so I can go home and clean up. I’m in no mood to deal with
your teasing right now.”

Later Simon would wonder if he’d lost his
mind. He leaned down and spoke against her ear. “Trust me; you’d
enjoy being teased just a little. I’ve been told I’m very
talented.”

Layla shivered and tried to retrieve her
hand, but for some reason he didn’t want to let it go.

“I’ll bet I can’t find a single human who
would say that,” she said almost angrily.

Simon dropped her hand like it had burned
him. She was right. What the hell had he been thinking? “Don’t
train too long,” he said and walked away.

Sparring had done nothing to take the edge
off of Layla’s agitation, and her shower head had done nothing to
relieve the sexual tension. Even chocolate wasn’t working.

She was tempted to ignore the buzzing phone,
but Simon was still testing her to make sure she kept the damn
thing on. If she ignored it, Simon would bitch at her during the
next meeting or come over now to bitch at her about her phone being
off.

Picking up the phone, she read the
message.

ur phone bettr b on.

She typed back.

It’s on. Getting ready to go to sleep.

The reply came back quickly.

Glad 2 hear I don’t have 2 punish u.

For the hell of it, she decided to be a
brat.

Are you going to spank me if I turn my phone
off?

“Top that!” she said to no one.

maybe

She stared at his reply for a long time. This
might be going too far. Simon was kidding, but thinking about it
was getting her pretty damn turned on. Not that she really liked
the idea of spanking. She just liked the idea of Simon touching her
ass.

Another message came.

is ur phone off?

With an exasperated sigh, she replied.