The Renegade Hunter (31 page)

Jo stared at him silently for a moment and then straightened her shoulders and turned to continue to collect her jeans.

"Then I'll have to ask others in your lives at that time. She must have talked to someone else. I'll find out what it was."

"Dammit, Jo. Get in bed. You-What the hell!" Nicholas cursed and grabbed up the sheet she'd just dropped to don her jeans. He quickly held it up, blocking Mortimer's view of her as he snapped,

"Put those down and get into bed. You're still going through the turning."

"I feel fine," she assured him, tugging the jeans on and doing them up before glancing around for her T-shirt. Spotting it on the floor on the other side of the room, Jo started to move around the bed, but paused when Nicholas shifted to block her. Frowning, she perched her hands on her hips and snapped, "Move."

"No. I love you, Jo."

Jo's face softened and she reached out to touch his cheek. "And I love you.

That's why I have to do this," she added,

turning and climbing onto the bed to walk over it.

Cursing, Nicholas hurried to follow, the sheet held out, trying to block her from Mortimer's view.

"Goddammit, Mortimer. Get out of here," he said with frustration as Jo leaped off the other side of the bed a step in front of the sheet he was trying so desperately to hide her with.

"You're kidding, right? I'm not missing this," Mortimer said with amusement, and then grunted.

Jo glanced over to see him doubled over, clutching his stomach and Sam glaring at him, rubbing her fist.

Grimacing as he straightened, Mortimer muttered, "I meant the argument.

Not seeing Jo naked, babe. She's not you."

"Oh." Sam bit her lip and moved closer, her expression turning apologetic.

"I'm sorry, honey. Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. You got quite a punch there though, sweetie."

"You're just being kind," Sam murmured, leaning up to kiss him. "You probably didn't even feel that."

Shaking her head, Jo bent to pick up the T-shirt. She grimaced when she saw the blood on it, but it was all she had, so she tugged it on.

"Jo, please," Nicholas said quietly, tossing the sheet aside as she tucked the top into her jeans. Taking her arm, he turned her toward him and clasped her face in his hands. "Please just get back into bed... Don't take these precious hours away from me. I traded my life to be sure you'd be all right and for the promise of one last night with you."

Jo peered into his tortured face. He looked so sad and desperate she could have wept, and she almost weakened, but then she leaned up to kiss him gently. Before he could deepen the kiss, she pulled back.

"I'm all right," she assured him, and then stepped around him and headed for the door, adding, "and I'm trading that night for a lifetime."

"Jo, wait."

Jo glanced over her shoulder to see Sam chasing after her, but the hallway was empty other than the two men stationed outside the door. She was surprised Nicholas wasn't trying to stop her, but glad as well. It had been hard as hell to walk away from him once. Jo wasn't sure she could do it again.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked, reaching her side and matching her stride as Jo started down the stairs.

"I need to talk to anyone and everyone who knew Annie."

"Who's Annie?" Sam asked.

"Nicholas's first wife. I think this all has to do with her."

"What does?" Sam asked. "That woman he killed fifty years ago?"

"He didn't kill her," Jo snapped, pausing halfway down the stairs to turn on her furiously.

"Okay." Sam held up her hands soothingly. "Don't bite my head off. Just tell me what's happening and I'll do what I can to help you."

"I would never bite you," Jo assured her quietly, but found herself staring at Sam's throat and noting the way the vein was visible when she turned her head a certain way. Frowning, Jo said, "I think I can hear your blood rushing in your veins."

Sam's eyes widened and then grew wary, and she suggested, "Maybe you should have some blood while you explain things to me. Mortimer said you'd need a lot of it for a while."

Jo tore her gaze away from Sam's throat, forcing herself to look her in the eyes as she admitted, "I don't know how to-I mean I'm not sure I could drink-"

"It's okay." Sam patted her arm and then urged her to continue down the stairs. "We'll take this slowly."

"I don't have time to go slowly," Jo said unhappily. "If I don't find out what happened all those years ago they'll stake and

bake Nicholas... But I'm sure he didn't kill that woman, Sam."

"Okay. We'll sort it out then," Sam assured her as they stepped off the stairs.

"Blood first though."

Jo remained silent as Sam led her to the kitchen, but her eyes widened when Sam opened the refrigerator door to reveal it was filled half with food and half with bags of blood. "That wasn't here the night of the party."

"No. Mortimer moved it out to the garage the night you guys stayed over.

We didn't want you and Alex opening the

fridge in search of orange juice and freaking when you found this instead,"

Sam admitted wryly as she took out a bag.

"We moved it back the next day."

"Hmm," Jo murmured as Sam closed the door and turned to her. When she offered her the bag, Jo hesitated and then said, "A glass maybe?"

"I don't know," Sam said with a grimace. "The men all just pop it to their fangs."

Jo immediately ran her tongue around her mouth, but grimaced. "No fangs yet. Maybe it takes a couple of days for them to show up. Nicholas said I was still turning."

"They aren't out all the time," Sam said with a faint smile.

Jo nodded. Nicholas didn't always have fangs. In fact, she'd seen his only once, when he'd shown them to her to convince her he was a vampire. Sighing, she asked, "Well, how do they bring them on then?"

"The smell of blood will do it if you're hungry enough," Bricker announced, bringing their attention to the fact that he had followed them and was now standing in the doorway. Straightening when they glanced to him, he lifted his finger to his mouth as he crossed the room. Jo thought he was biting a nail or something, but when he reached her, he withdrew his finger and she saw a flash of his fangs. She then glanced down to the finger he was holding out, her eyes widening as she saw the bead of blood on the tip.

Bricker had bitten his finger, Jo realized as he moved the digit closer. The faint scent of blood reached her nostrils, and she couldn't help but inhale it more deeply. Much to her surprise, there was an immediate shifting in her mouth. Reaching up, Jo felt her teeth with both fingers and tongue, her eyes going wide as she felt the pointy fangs now protruding from

her upper jaw.

"There we go," Bricker said with satisfaction as he took the bag of blood from Sam. "Open up."

When Jo opened her mouth, he popped the bag to her teeth, grabbing the back of her head as he did to keep her from instinctively jerking away. Once she'd relaxed and reached to hold the bag, he released her and stepped away, saying, "There, now just relax and let your teeth do all the work."

Jo relaxed, surprised at how quickly the bag emptied, but the moment she pulled away the empty bag, Bricker was handing her another.

"Your body is still turning," he explained as she reluctantly took the bag.

"You'll need a lot of blood for the next little while. Otherwise you won't recognize the symptoms of hunger and might end up biting the nearest mortal."

"That would be me," Sam muttered.

"Yes." Bricker grinned at her, but then turned back to Jo and said, "I'd recommend four bags now, and another three before dawn."

Jo sighed, but popped the bag to her still-extended teeth. She actually felt a little better after the first bag. She'd been feeling dried out and a little slow in the thinking area since waking, but the one bag had eased some of that. Jo needed all her faculties if she wanted to save Nicholas.

The phone rang as Jo waited for this second bag to empty.

Sam started to move to answer it, but paused when the ringing stopped before she could reach it.

"Mortimer must have grabbed it," she said with a shrug, turning back.

"Here you go."

Jo glanced around as Bricker held out a third bag and then glanced down with surprise to see that the second bag was empty. She tore it away and traded the empty bag for the fresh one and slapped that to her teeth as well. It seemed to go just as quickly as the first two, and Jo had just traded it for the fourth bag when they heard the front door open.

Bricker moved to the kitchen door to look up the hall, and she saw the surprise cross his face.

"Thomas," he said, and disappeared from view as he started up the hall, but they heard him say, "What are you doing here?"

They also heard someone answer, "Bastien said Nicholas is back on the radar and I wanted to know how he is and how close you are to catching him. Bastien wouldn't answer any questions though and said I'd have to come out and ask Mortimer myself."

Thomas. Nicholas's brother, Jo realized and unthinkingly ripped the half-empty bag from her teeth, and then cursed when blood squirted everywhere. She tossed the bag in the sink, but didn't bother about the mess she'd made and hurried up the hall toward the two men in the entry.

Apparently Sam wasn't too concerned about the mess either, because she was hard on her heels.

"I thought you were in England with your life mate," Bricker was saying, a worried frown on his face.

"We travel back and forth a lot on the company jet. It's only seven hours,"

Thomas answered, glancing curiously to Jo

and Sam as they stopped behind Bricker. Raising his eyebrows in question, he said, "Hello?"

"You're Nicholas's brother, Thomas?" Jo asked grimly, which made his eyebrows rise even further. They drew down in anger though when she added, "The brother who didn't doubt for a minute that he was guilty of murder and who won't even acknowledge he ever existed?"

Turning to Bricker, Thomas asked, "Who the hell is she?"

"Nobody," Bricker said at once, taking his arm and trying to urge him toward the door. "You really shouldn't be here, Thomas. Let us deal with-"

"I'm not going anywhere until I find out what the hell's going on with Nicholas," Thomas said grimly, shaking off his hand.

"Oh, like you care," Jo said with disgust. "You and everyone else who were supposed to love him turned your backs on Nicholas fifty years ago."

Thomas stared at her with amazement and then turned to Bricker again.

"Who is she? And why the hell is she barking at me like an annoying Chihuahua?"

"More like a German shepherd I'd say, and her bite is worse than her bark,"

Nicholas said wearily. They all turned to see

him standing at the top of the stairs, peering down at Jo affectionately. And then he frowned and said, "Speaking of which, where is Charlie?"

Jo's eyes widened incredulously as she realized she'd not thought to wonder that herself. She turned to Sam.

"He's at Anders's place," Sam whispered.

Jo's eyes widened even further at this news, but before she could ask why, Thomas had pushed past her to reach the bottom of the stairs, his voice shocked as he said, "Nicholas? They caught you?"

Jo scowled at the suggestion. "Of course they didn't. He's too smart for that.

Nicholas turned himself in... to save me,"

she added bitterly, and when Thomas glanced to her in surprise, asked,

"Does that sound like the actions of a man who'd kill a completely innocent pregnant woman he didn't even know?"

Thomas scowled at her. "No, but then I never thought he did it."

"Then why have you refused to acknowledge his existence all these years?"

she snapped.

"I haven't," Thomas said at once, and then frowned. "Who are you?"

"My life mate, Jo Willan," Nicholas announced, moving down the stairs with Mortimer and Anders on his heels.

Thomas turned to Jo with amazement. "You're my brother's life mate."

Jo scowled at him and then glanced to Nicholas as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He slid his arm around her and kissed her on the nose. Smiling sadly, he turned to his brother and explained.

"I was told you won't talk about me

anymore. I thought it meant you too believed I was guilty."

"I won't talk about you because it upsets the women," Thomas said dryly. "It made Aunt Marguerite and Lissianna sad, and you know how close Jeanne Louise was to Annie. She burst into tears every time your name or Annie's was mentioned after what happened. It was just easier to not mention you in front of them, and then it was easier not to have to explain the whole mess to others. But I never believed you had killed that woman... at least not without good reason. I don't care how messed up you were after Annie's death, you just wouldn't do it. But you weren't around to ask and-"

"Wait a minute," Jo said, interrupting him. "Jeanne Louise was close to Annie?"

"Yes." Thomas glanced to her curiously. "She was always over there visiting with her."

"Always over there pestering us, you mean," Nicholas said with wry affection. "And usually at the worst possible times. I was always throwing her out."

Thomas smiled faintly. "Jeanne Louise was over there all the time when you were off hunting rogues too. She and Annie would shop together and stuff. She even slept over when you were gone for days so Annie wouldn't be alone. They were like Siamese twins when you weren't around."

"They were?" Nicholas asked with surprise.

"She might know what Annie wanted to tell you then," Jo said, turning to Nicholas with excitement. "We have to talk to her."

Nicholas hesitated, but then frowned and shook his head. "She would have told me if she knew anything."

"Not if she didn't know it was important," Jo pointed out, and then turned to Thomas. "Where can I find Jeanne Louise?"

"She's at Aunt Marguerite's with my wife, Inez," Thomas said slowly. "The ladies wanted a girly day with Inez, so I dropped her there and went to see Bastien, who," he added dryly, glancing back to Nicholas, "brought up the fact that Nicholas had made a reappearance. Then he wouldn't answer any of my questions except to say that if I wanted to know anything I should come to talk to Mortimer at the house."