Redemption (The Penton Vampire Legacy) (24 page)

Not only did he exude that sense of power, but once he settled, he was utterly still in a way she hadn’t seen with Aidan or Mirren. They still fidgeted like humans most of the time, but
not this guy. Either he was more vampy than they were, or they practiced acting like humans.

“Don’t you need to go...” She waved a hand in the air. “Sleep? Pass out? Whatever?”

Renz laughed, and she got another glimpse of fangs. The Penton crew was used to dealing with humans and knew how to smile without looking all fangy. She got the impression that Lorenzo didn’t get out much.

“I am very old,” he said. “And one of the benefits of age is that we are less prisoners of the night. I can’t go outside, of course, and my strength is diminished during daylight hours, but I don’t have to take a full daysleep. Besides, it’s safe enough down here.”

Krys pondered this information. Renz looked to be in his midforties, which wasn’t exactly
very old
. She’d never asked Aidan his age. It had never occurred to her that he was other than what he looked, late twenties or early thirties. That had been stupid. She should have it tattooed on her forehead:
human rules no longer apply
.

“Exactly how old are you? And why would you tell me any more than Aidan would?”

“Because he’s let himself get too close to you, whether he’ll admit it or not,” Renz said, laughing. “He gets a protective, mated-male look on his face when he speaks of you, so he’ll try to keep you as far removed from his problems as he can.”

Krys struggled to keep a composed look on her face while she digested that bit of information. Actually, Aidan had been discussing his problems openly with her, but she didn’t plan to share what she did and didn’t know.

Besides, something else he had said was more intriguing. “What, exactly, is a mated-male look?”

Renz lifted an eyebrow. “Male vampires have an instinctive reaction when they encounter a female who would make an ideal mate—it’s quite overwhelming, I’m told. Some of us never find the right one. After what happened with Aidan’s human wife and child, I expected him to remain an old bachelor like me.”

Krys wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She wanted to ask about Aidan’s wife and child—sounded as if they weren’t around anymore. As for the mated-male bit...she and Aidan shared some pretty wild chemistry, but
mating
sounded kind of permanent. Renz was obviously nuts. “You’re wrong about that. Sorry. Aidan feels guilty for taking me because it goes against what he believes in. I’m only here for a month.”

Renz’s eyes roamed the length of her body, sending goose bumps racing along her arms. She felt like a dinner steak on the butcher’s cart. “Oh, he feels guilty about taking you, but more guilty about how he’s begun to want you. Not that I blame him, but I don’t want your charms to make him lose sight of why he brought you here. He can’t afford the distraction.”

If she were smart she’d keep her mouth shut, but his arrogance was sucking all the air out of the room.

“My
charms
?” The heat rose in Krys’s face, and she sat on her hands to avoid slapping him, which, even in her anger, she recognized as a bad idea. “Look. I’m not relaxing in this underground spa using my
charms
to distract the man who
kidnapped
me. I’m the victim here, got it?” OK, so she hadn’t acted very victimlike tonight, but still.

His laughter made her fume more, and she ground her teeth as he slapped his knee in amusement.

“I see why he admires you,” he said, finally getting himself under control.

Krys narrowed her eyes and clamped her lips shut.

He gave her an approving look, not that she cared. “The vampires are loosely governed by a group called the Tribunal, of which I am a member. He’s told you this much, yes?”

She gave him her best arrogant doctor look but didn’t answer, which seemed to amuse him even more.

“Some of us are very supportive of Aidan’s little social experiment here because it might give us a blueprint for how to survive this pandemic crisis—at least until the next generation of unvaccinated humans reaches adulthood.” Renz uncrossed his legs and smoothed out his gray slacks. “Aidan’s also an old friend, and I want him to succeed.”

“And you’re telling me this why?”

“I know you aren’t here by choice, but I ask you to help Aidan where you can. What he’s doing here is important.”

Krys gave him a thin-lipped smile. She knew guys like this. The medical profession was rife with them. Ambitious. Self-righteous. Never did anything without an agenda. “So you’re here because you want me to think well of you? Understand the plight of the poor vampires?”

Renz laughed. “Fine, it was a poor ruse, I admit. I’m here to see who’s captivated Aidan after all these many years alone.” He slid to the end of the sofa nearest her, watching her intently and trying to capture her gaze.

Now that she knew what enthrallment was, she knew how to avoid it. No prolonged eye contact. She propelled herself toward the door, thinking that she might be able to lock herself in one of the other suites. She’d bet Aidan didn’t know this guy had stopped by for a chat.

Suddenly, he was standing between her and the door. He grasped her shoulders with strong hands as her forward
momentum propelled her into him. She flipping hated it when they moved like that.

She shoved both hands against his chest to push herself away, and then stilled as she saw his eyes turn a tawny, silvery brown. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling deeply. “You were with him tonight,” he whispered. “And yet he hasn’t bonded you to him. Such temptation.”

Krys wished she could slow her jackrabbit heart rate. She remembered a brindle pit bull their neighbor, Mr. Nelson, used to have. It had cornered her in the Nelsons’ yard one day when she’d run out of the house to escape one of her father’s tirades. “If yeh run from him, he’ll eat yeh,” the old man had told her. “Don’t throw the evil eye at him, just set still and he’ll leave yeh alone quick enough.”

Vampire. Pit bull. Same principle. She remained still as Renz inhaled her scent, trailed his lips along the curve between her neck and shoulder.

Finally, he raised his head and released his grip. She stumbled away from him and backed toward the fireplace. Just when she started feeling safe and thought she was going to survive this whole ridiculous experience, something would happen to remind her how utterly not in control she was.

Renz smiled as he opened the door to leave. “You should tell Aidan to bond you, doctor. It would protect you from wily old vampires who are up past their bedtime.”

Krys stepped into the shower, letting the hot water beat into her muscles. She’d finally managed to get to sleep well after daylight, but had been restless, afraid that Renz would return.
Now it was two p.m. and she’d just gotten up. Pretty soon she’d be keeping vampire hours
. Funny. And pathetic.

But the older vampire hadn’t come back, and she had awakened convinced of two things. First, Aidan was one of the good guys, as far as vampires were concerned. Renz? Not so much. If Aidan was putting a lot of faith in his Tribunal, he was going to get hurt. She might not know vampires, but they’d been human once, and she was a good judge of character. Renz Caias would back Aidan as long as it was convenient.

And second, despite the elder vampire’s belief that she was too busy playing the vixen to understand how serious the situation was, she knew she could help Aidan. If nothing else, she could be a sounding board, someone with a little distance who didn’t give a rat’s ass about the Tribunal and its politics.

As for the rest of Renz’s claims—all that nonsense about Aidan and mating? Sheesh. They could set the house afire with chemistry, but they weren’t ready to pick out china. Wouldn’t ever be. He drank blood, for God’s sake, and from Melissa. Wonder how Mark felt about that?

She worked sweet-smelling shampoo into her hair, then closed her eyes and stepped under the cascade of water, letting the warmth drain the tension away. Ironic. Except for the little detail about not being able to come and go as she pleased, her standard of living had really improved. She’d always had to hurry through showers at her little apartment in Americus, rushing to finish before the hot water ran out.

She also hadn’t had any more near-panic attacks. After all the years she’d spent managing them, maybe the answer all along had been to find something that scared her so badly that there was no energy left for fake fear.

She dried her hair and had just finished dressing when she heard the outer door open and footsteps enter the room. Her muscles tensed. Nobody came in during the day, and she was sure she’d locked the door.

“Dr. Harris? Krys? I knocked but you didn’t answer. It’s Mark Calvert.”

A boyish face framed by disheveled blond hair appeared through the hole in the splintered door. He looked a lot better than when she’d last seen him a couple of weeks ago—it seemed like years.

Mark whistled and gave her a lopsided smile, running his hand around the jagged wood. “Did you do this?”

Krys raised an eyebrow. “Not me. That would be the work of your lord and master.”

The smile faded, and Mark’s expression grew guarded. “I know Aidan told you about everything. He didn’t mention turning the door into kindling. Maybe you can tell me about it on our way to the clinic. We’ve had a couple of people injured.”

Krys followed him into the outer room. “What happened? It’s still daytime, so I assume these are human injuries?” She hoped so. She’d had about all the vampire blood-draining she could handle.

He nodded. “A couple of volunteer firefighters—just minor injuries, but I thought you should look at them. We burned the mill village. Flattened the whole thing.” He paused and added, “Rat infestation.”

She felt a surge of triumph. Rats, indeed. Aidan had listened to her and had ordered the humans to burn the village to try to flush out his brother. “And you’re actually trusting me to go to the clinic alone?”

He looked sheepish. “Well, I’ll be there.”

“To guard me?” She grinned at his discomfort.

He shrugged. “Yeah. Sorry. But when Aidan is down for the day, I’m in charge.”

She followed him through the hallway toward the stairwell. She wanted to ask what they’d decided to do about Lucy’s dead fam, but figured that Mark wouldn’t tell her. He was the business manager, not the undertaker.

When he reached up to extract the ladder, though, light flashed off the steel grip of a gun in a shoulder holster under his jacket. Maybe he handled more kinds of business than she thought.

She just couldn’t understand why the humans stayed here, and this might be her only chance to find out. “So when Aidan’s asleep...out...whatever, you’re in charge. And the rest of the time, you’re a blood donor? What’s in it for you?”

Mark didn’t respond. They climbed the ladder from the subbasement into the storage room below the clinic and began weaving their way through the maze of crates.

“You know where I was when I met Aidan?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “I was dodging the cops and hanging out at a homeless shelter in Atlanta, strung out on heroin. That was what I turned to when I couldn’t find the painkillers I’d been hooked on after a back injury.”

Krys followed him in silence for a couple of heartbeats, thinking about the track marks she’d seen on his arms that first night. “Why were the cops after you?”

“Burglary, petty stuff. I’d just graduated to my first robbery. Anything to get money.”

Krys stared at his back as he lugged a crate underneath the fold-down door—he had to expend a lot more energy than Hannah had—and climbed up to unlock it, holding on to his
stomach. He was probably still sore from the attack. She had trouble reconciling the image of the man he described with the healthy one in front of her.

“Where does Aidan fit in?”

“He’s friends with Hank, the night manager at the shelter. Hank doesn’t know what Aidan is, of course. Just that he has a good track record rehabbing hopeless causes like me. Drugs, alcohol, some minor mental-health problems. The vamps can keep us out of it through detox, and then they make sure we have a lot of counseling. No one comes to Penton till they’re clean. No one comes against their will. And no one stays here if they relapse.”

Mark pulled down the ladder into the clinic office and turned back to Krys. “Aidan saved me. I’d be dead in some back alley if not for him, or so screwed up I might as well be dead. He kept me enthralled until that shit was out of my system, helped get my head on straight, and then gave me the choice of starting over in Penton or going back to Atlanta. I decided to come here, and never regretted it.”

He climbed out of view into the dark tunnel. Krys paused for a moment, and then followed him up to the clinic office. She blinked at the sunlight visible through the blinds, and stopped short.

Mark had already reached the door into the hall, and turned to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

She couldn’t stop tears from welling up, and wiped them away impatiently. “It’s just...I haven’t seen sunlight in a while.”

He winced. “It made Aidan sick to bring you here like this. No one knows about it except the lieutenants, me and Melissa, and Mirren’s fams, since you were there for the drain-and-fill last week. Most people think you just moved here and are getting settled in before you start seeing patients.”