High Stakes (5 page)

had expended a lot of energy worrying aboutBrittany 's reaction to him.Ornonreaction . She treated him more like a friend than a potential lover, and she was just as perky and cheerful with Peter and Seamus as she was with him.That lie aboutBrittany enjoying his bed—while childish and boastful—had been to provoke Alexis.

Clearly it had worked.

And he was enjoying the challenge Alexis presented far too much for a man who was supposed to be responsible and focused on business.

"I'll pass on having my eye poked out, thanks, but how lovely of you to offer." Besides, his body would just heal the damage and he didn't think Alexis was ready to see vampire restoration.

"Lovely. That's me." Alexis gave a snort, undid her hair fromit;s twist, and scraped it back into a new makeshift ponytail.

Ethan stood up. "You are rather lovely, Alexis, if one ignores the bad temper, foul mouth, and monstrous stubbornness."

She glared at him as he brushed off his pants.

There was a look in her eyes he didn't trust. "What? Are you going to hit me again?"

"I'm thinking about it."

He could hardly wait. "Let's just skip that, shall we? Look, I'm sorry that you are displeased with your sister, but I think that is for the two of you to discuss."

It was a good thing he was an experienced politician, well versed in persuasion. He'd been delivering the same rhetoric to Alexis for thirty minutes. Now if only she'd actually listen to him.

"So why vampires?" she asked."Why not werewolves or demons or druids?Shapeshiftersor wizards? Is it because vampires are supposed to be sexy?"

Yes, he based everything he did on the desire to be sexy. Good God.

Though she had a point, he supposed. He didn't imaginemor-phing into a chimp would be attractive to women. And Ethan did like attracting women.

"I guess I can see that, if you take out the whole sucking blood thing. The werewolf attraction I never got—I mean, they have fur and crawl on all fours." She bit her lip."Though my boyfriend in law school could pass for that on a bad night after drinking vodka. So what do you call your group?A family?A coven?"

"Conservatives."

She didn't seem to hear him. Retrieving her shoes, she said, "So who are you supposed to be? Angel?

Lestat?Dracula?"

Those pansies?None of them had seen battle in the Crusades. None of them had fought through a wall of human flesh to defend God and country, women and children.

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He was a bit insulted that she thought he was playacting, pretending to be a vampire. And he certainly would never pretend to be any of the men she had named.

"I'm not supposed to be anybody."

"You should go forDrac . After all, he had three wives and one true love… what more could a guy ask for? As long as you leave my sister out of it, you can vamp to your heart's content." She glanced around the room, high heels dangling from her fingertips. "Do you have a coffin?"

"Maybe," he said cautiously, not sure which answer she would prefer. He had the bizarre, primitive urge to impress her. To force her to admit she found him attractive.

"Must be nice to have so much time and money that you can just goof around.It's like war games, isn't it?Or playing paint-ball."

She had reduced nine hundred years of living to being hit in the thigh with a blue paint pellet.

"Do you like blackjack?" he asked, a bit off-kilter and fumbling to regain some control.

The question stopped her bizarre tangent.

"Huh?Blackjack?"

"Yes." He kept a supply of chips behind the bar. He grabbed a Pile and held them out to her. "Why don't you go try your hand at the tables? I'll sendBrittany to talk to you." win points by sending the sister, giving her exactly what she wanted… yes, he was very clever.

Alexis narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but she took the chips from him. Their fingers touched, and Ethan felt a wave of human emotion that shocked the smile off his face. He couldn't read her thoughts, but he could feel her loneliness passing into him through her skin.

What was even more shocking to him was how easy it was to recognize. Because the low, trembling tenor of it matched his own.

Brittanydiscussed theWestminster dog show with Seamus Fox and wondered if she had the courage to drive a stake through his heart. She really doubted it.

But the problem was, she really liked Seamus, just like she was fond of Ethan, and she hated to think that their souls were bound to rot in hell. It seemed like she should either find a way to convert them or kill them, freeing them from an eternity of damnation.

"I bred terriers for years," Seamus was saying, sipping a glass of red wine.

She knew it was really blood, even though it was bottled up as a Merlot. When she'd asked for a glass, she'd been discouraged that it didn't match the meal, and had had a Chardonnay shoved into her hand.

"Oh, I love terriers. I had a Jack Russell, but he died of cancer two years ago. Brownie was a present from my sister, Alex, for my sixteenth birthday." Alex had always tried to compensate for their lack of
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parents, and she'd madeBrittany 's birthdays special.

She hoped Alex wasn't mad at her, but she really couldn't go home. Aside from the fact that she still had dental appointments with some of the hotel and casino staff, she needed to figure out it there was some way to save the dozen people who were in Ethan's inner circle and who were all clearly vampires.

"Your appointment with me is tomorrow,"Brittany reminded Seamus. "I think it's really generous of Ethan to provide on-site dental services to his staff."

Seamus grimaced. "We can give my slot to someone else. I don't really need a cleaning."

"Afraid of the dentist?"

"No, of course not."He looked affronted, his dark eyebrows drawing together. "I'm just busy, and I think that I saw the dentist recently."

"When?In this century?"Brittanynudged his arm, and wished they would just admit to her that they were vampires, so they could discuss their salvation. But every time she had broached the subject with Ethan or Seamus that first week in the hotel, she had suddenly found herself confused and talking about something else. They were obviously controlling her thoughts—vampire trick—but in recent days she was sure she'd been successful in locking them out.

"No, probably not," he admitted with a grin.

Now that it had all come out in the reception room,Brittany didn't see why Seamus and Ethan didn't admit the truth—that they had probably both been alive when dentists and barbers were one and the same.

"How long?" she asked. "I mean, specifically."

The sudden urgent need to use the bathroom overcame her.Brittany shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Not long enough," Seamus said.

Obviously, she wasn't going to get a straight answer. She glanced around the room. There were ten or so of them dining in this private room tonight, though she was convinced she was the only one really eating. She suspected Seamus of sipping the wine and bisque and dumping the salmon in his napkin, since she hadn't actually seen a single bite go past his lips. Yet somehow it was disappearing from his plate.

"I wonder what's taking Ethan and Alex?" she asked. "I hope Alex isn't giving Kim a hard time. She can be very overprotective."

"I'm sure Ethan can handle the situation."

The pressure on her bladder overcame her good manners. "Will you excuse me for a minute, Seamus?"

"'Certainly."He stood up when she did, which always startledher a little.

Most guys in Vegas wouldn't know chivalry if it bit them in their gambling arm.

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""How old are you?" Maybe his good manners were the result of being reared in Regency England or something.

"'Thirty-seven."
Times ten
.

Brittanyheard the words as if they'd been spoken, but they hadn't. She was sure of it. Dropping her napkin to the table, shesaid., "Times ten?"

Seamus'seyes went wide. "Pardon me?"

"'Times ten.What do you mean?" She knew what he meant, she just wanted to hear him say it out loud—that he was somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred and seventy years old.

Still standing, Seamus just stared at her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Jiggling in place,Brittany decided she couldn't pursue it. She was going to wet her pants. Orcocktaül dress. Did she have abladlder infection? Good grief, things felt urgent.

"Never mind.I'll be right back."

Walking as fast as she could with a cramped abdomen, she headed toward the hall. There was a powder room down three steps to the left. She'd been in there once before. It was very small, for use with the private dining rooms, and it had the feel of a glamorous forties dressing room.

As she rounded the corner,Brittany came to a startled stop. Reclining on the sofa was a couple, the man making like a throw rug on the woman.Lots of draping and clinging and soft murmurs.

Embarrassed,Brittany hung back.

She should just leave, but the closest restroom was in the main dining room, a heck of a hike from where she was. And she really had to go, but Embrace on a Couch over there were a foot from the door she had to open. Maybe if she just sort of slid past them, they'd never even notice.

The man was petting the woman's hair, tilting her head up. Her eyes were closed in ecstasy andBrittany found herself staring way longer than was appropriate. It should have been tacky and base, getting it on splayed out in front of the ladies' room, but instead they looked sensual, even arousing to her. There was something artistic and worshipful about the way he touched his lover.

Until he swabbed her arm with an alcohol pad.

What the hell?

He murmured to the woman, running his lips over hers even as he inserted a syringe into a vein near her elbow, and slowly drew blood into a vial.

Oh, God, she was watching a serial killer.Brittany panicked, frozen against the wall. What should she do? If she screamed, he'd kill her, too. She hadn't brought her purse and there was no one hanging around. Maybe she should just run for help.

Slowly, slowly, she took a step back so she could flee without him noticing.

The man, who was dressed in a suit of all things, reached into his pocket, pulled on some latex gloves,
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set the vial into a lab tray, and started to dip little strips into it, like they used at the gynecologist to test her urine.

What the… ?

Freaking out.She was freaking out. She wished Alex were with her. Alex would kick the guy, break his nose, haul the poor woman out, and demand attention from someone in about two seconds.Brittany was a wimp. She couldn't think, didn't know what to do.

The woman groaned, but her eyes still didn't open.

He shushed her with a soft little sound,then kissed her again, moving down her neck. Then he bit her.

Bit.Her.Oh,ick , she was watching a vampire feed. He was sucking the woman's flesh, drawing her body up toward him, andBrittany felt her legs start to give way.

Knowing they were bloodsucking demons was one thing in
theory
to see it was another. She made a sound of horror before she could stop herself.

His head snapped up. There was blood, a wet crimson stain, smeared on his pale lips.

Eew.Eew,eew ,eew .Brittanyfelt her face go hot. "I… I…"

"Leave," he said, in a deep, rich voice, with an accent she didn't recognize. "You never saw me."

That whole vampire mind control thing again. It was starting to bugBrittany . Like she was just going to leave this poor victim bleeding on a hotel couch.

"No. Not until I see that she's okay."

"Pardon?"He looked flummoxed.

He was also French, or maybe French-Canadian, given the way he rolled off his "o" sound.

"Is she okay? Are you a good vampire or a bad one? I've never seen you with Ethan. Does he know you're here?"

Instead of answering her, he peeled off his gloves inside out, inserted the strips and the vial into the fingers of the latex, and tucked the whole neat package back into his pocket. He put his hand out toward her. "Leave."

"Stop that. I'm not leaving. I can help you." Sympathy overcame her fear. How awful it must be to face eternity, soulless and lusting for blood. It must be like fighting a drug or alcohol addiction.

He tilted his head, stared at her with brilliant green-gray eyes. "It's nothing like drug addiction. Now tell me who you are and why I can smell vampire all over you."

She smelled like vampire? That was kind of gross. She should shower again before she went to bed.

"Um… I'm BrittanyBaldizzi ."The confused and frightened. "Why did you test her blood?"

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"I cannot talk to you." He shook his head, smoothing his hand over the woman's forehead. "You belong to Carrick."

"What do you mean?" she asked, inching toward the woman, afraid he was going to crush her skull. She wasn't sure how she could protect her, or even if the woman was still alive, but she had to do something.

But he leaned back over, murmured into the woman's ear, and disappeared. Suddenly, he was just gone, andBrittany let out a shriek.

"What?" The woman sat up and stared at her in confusion. "What's the matter?"

"I'm sorry… I was just going to the restroom and I saw you… and him…" She was practically incoherent.

"Oh!" The woman flushed, but gave a sly smile. "Is that why he ran off? He's trying to be discreet. No matter. I'll hook up with him later."

"Did he, uh, hurt you?"Brittany asked, rubbing her sweaty palms on her dress.

"Hurts sogood ." The blonde ran a hand through her tousled hair, and tugged at the bodice of her dress.

Leaning on the wall, she sighed with satisfaction. "That was a first for me. I've never come just from a man kissing me before."