The Vampire...In My Dreams (18 page)

The demon’s sculptured face remained emotionless when she wrapped her arms around Joshua, who stood spellbound. Enraptured with her beauty? Or so scared he couldn’t move? I would never know the reason, I figured, nor did it truly matter as long as the demon aided us when we very much needed some kind of intervention on our behalf.

The demon sucked the water from Joshua’s body, drawing it out like streams of blue mist, pulling it into her own watery form. After several seconds, Joshua collapsed on the floor. His dehydrated skin was drawn tightly over bones, his eyes shut tight, his face emotionless. He was no longer a menace—for the moment, at least.

Marissa began to chant again. I lay my head back on the pillow, exhausted, unable to follow the words she spoke this time. I heard her say only “the Gulf of Mexico”, and I assumed she told the demon to return to her watery habitat. Just as quickly as the demon had appeared, the fluid blue figure vanished in a whirlpool spin.

Dashing to Kate, Marissa wrapped her arms around her. “Are you all right, Kate?”

“All your yelling woke me up,” Kate groused, half teasing, her words weary.

Marissa smiled and hugged her friend. Selfishly, I wished she’d embraced me in the same manner.

“What are we to do with Joshua?” Kate asked, holding her hand over the puncture wounds on her throat.

“Kill him,” I said, without a bit of hesitation.

The two girls looked at me as if I meant only to seek vengeance. Yet, for all he had done, couldn’t they see how dangerous he was to all of us?

“If he hasn’t already, he can let Lynetta in,” I explained, not appreciating that the girls wouldn’t jump to agree with me. That’s all the convincing I would have needed, if I were them, I thought. I didn’t stop there, afraid they still hadn’t gotten the point. “Not only that, but he’s targeted Kate, too. And you, Marissa. He’ll kill me once he has a chance, also.”

Marissa nodded, though I could tell she didn’t like the idea of destroying a fellow warlock she’d known for years. The part that really gave me a kick in the gut was that she’d had a crush on him. Did she still?

She looked over at me, her blue eyes wide. “No, Dominic. I only care for you.”

“I have an idea,” Kate said, leaning against Marissa for support. “My Aunt Zoe owns the Sexy Nail shop.”

Wordlessly, I stared at her, wondering if Kate had lost some of her marbles when she’d given too much blood. Now wasn’t the time to get a manicure.

Kate continued to speak, her voice still raspy, totally winded. “It’s connected to a tanning bed salon. An unlocked doorway leads from one part of the building to the other. My aunt’s friend runs the tanning salon, and they watch each other’s businesses so they both don’t have to be there all the time.”

I still wasn’t getting her drift.

Kate frowned at me, I guess perturbed because I looked so puzzled. “The tanning bed uses ultraviolet light to burn its victims,” she further explained, her voice exasperated.

Instantly getting her point, I smiled. But how were we going to get there?

“I’ll drive the car,” Marissa quickly offered.

“I have a key to the place because I give manicures sometimes to help my aunt out,” Kate said.

I shook my head, then climbed out of bed. “You can’t go alone, Marissa. I’ll go with you.”

Kate immediately focused on my boxers embossed with shiny red lips and she gave a muffled giggle.

I frowned at her.

“The water demon’s work on Joshua should last until morning, but I think moving him out of the house tonight is the only choice we have,” Marissa said, her words spoken quickly as if she wanted to get this done now, and I couldn’t have agreed more. “Kate, do you really think you’re up to coming with us?”

I felt the same way about Kate’s condition, though I wasn’t much better off.

“I feel awfully lightheaded and tired, but I don’t want to be left alone.”

After what had happened, I could definitely understand her reluctance to be left alone here. I wondered though, why Joshua hadn’t let Lynetta or the others into Marissa’s house. Did he want a go at Marissa first and figured he wouldn’t have a chance once Lynetta got a hold of her? He would have been right.

“All right. Go get dressed, and so will we. I’ll come for you in half an hour, and then we’ll go to your aunt’s nail shop,” Marissa said, all businesslike, as if we were going to the movies and the show was about to begin.

She closed and locked the door while Kate walked back to Marissa’s bedroom.

“First,” Marissa said, taking complete command, walking back to the bed, “you need to have a little dessert.”

I grinned at her, totally agreeable. “I like it when you take charge, Marissa.”

“Yeah, I bet you say that to all the girls.”

I was amused at her comment. “Not me.”

“The more fun for me, then.” Then her brows knit in a frown. “Yeah, except for the last time when I told you not to tackle Lynetta on your own and you didn’t listen to me.”

She really had me there. I shrugged. “Remember what Kate said. It’s a guy thing.”

An elusive smile touched her lips. After climbing into bed beside me, she leaned over and kissed my mouth lightly, as if I would break.

She felt soft and cuddly, and I ran my fingers through her satiny blond hair. “I don’t understand how you can think I wouldn’t love you like I do.”

“Shh,” she said, holding her finger to my lips.

I captured her hand and sucked her finger. “Every bit of you is tasty.”

Raising her brows, she gave me a look of teasing disbelief. “You’re probably just starving.”

“I am. I told you earlier I was.”

“Yeah, and you didn’t even get a bite of pizza either.”

“Did you?”

Shaking her head, Marissa leaned down and kissed my lips. She nipped at my lower one, then sucked, stirring my blood to the nth degree.

Running my fingers over her throat, I felt the blood pulsing through her veins, beckoning to me. She stretched out her neck. “Go ahead, my prince. Bite me.”

I grinned, then tangled my tongue freely with hers. I nuzzled her cheek and moved lower, her breath becoming shallow in anticipation. My canines had extended before I even realized, and when I dipped them into her skin, she gasped slightly.

I attempted to pull back, but again, she held me tight.
“Don’t stop, Dominic. It only scares me for a minute, then the pleasure washes over me like a warm wave.”

I sucked her blood, the sweet liquid filling me with desire. I longed to make her my own in every way. My mate forever. The whole time, I stroked her arm, or her back, or raked my fingers through her gold hair. She rested underneath me, quietly, her eyes shut, her hands lying at her sides. Any movement on her part would cause her to tense and the blood withdrawal to pain her.

Finally, I pulled away, feeling stronger than ever before. I kissed her lips. She opened her eyes. “You didn’t beg me to give my blood to you.”

“I wouldn’t have, Marissa. We’re soul mates. You would have offered, and if you had not, I wouldn’t have forced you to give me your blood. You always have to be willing, or I would be no better than him.” I pointed at Joshua’s wizened figure, a crumpled heap of dried skin stretched over bones and covered in baggy clothes on the bedroom floor.

I stared at the remains, then turned to Marissa, still awed by her incredible talent. “How did you know to call up a water demon?”

“I’m not that talented. She’s my patron demon.”

I lifted a brow, not understanding. I’d never heard of such a thing.

“You might have noticed how blue my eyes are.”

I nodded. Her entrancing eyes had caught mine the first time I saw her. “Your eyes are beautiful—they enchanted me right away.”

Her brows pinched in a thoughtful frown. “You’re not an Aquarius, are you?”

“Yep, that’s me.” Though except for knowing the symbol and that my birth stone was amethyst, I didn’t really know much else about the zodiac sign, and her bringing it up like she did intrigued me.

“Hmm, I thought you were. That’s what my dad is. I imagine the fact you were born under the water-bearer sign is probably why my patron demon likes you, lucky for you. Did you know Aquarians are thought to be generous humanitarians, honest and loyal, inventive, very bright and independent?”

I puffed up my chest, appreciating the sign’s positive personality traits. Sounded just like me.

“On the darker side,” she warned, a hint of sparkle in her eyes, “they can be contrary, perverse, unpredictable, detached, and unemotional.”

“Can be are the catchwords. Certainly not me.” I smiled when her lips curved up.

She pointed to the puddle on the floor left by the demon. “Very rarely does a witch or warlock have a patron demon. I was born on a fishing boat on the Gulf. A tropical storm nearly sank our boat, and my mother, in all her fright, delivered me early. The storm passed and the swells calmed. My father held me up to the water and praised the demon for taking care of us.

“The demon rose from the water and studied my blue eyes, and they, being the same color as hers, pleased her. She whispered the chant I spoke in the room. Since then, she has been my patron demon. I called her to join me at my seventeenth birthday celebration. She spun off waterspouts and we played in their spray.” Marissa grinned at me and touched my cheek with her fingertips. “She wondered why a warlock was saying the chant also. But then she assumed we were bonded together as mates.”

“We are. Though at the time, I thought you needed my help.”

Marissa chuckled. “Always.”

Someone knocked on the door. “Are you guys decent yet?” Kate called out, her voice still sounding groggy.

“Just a minute!” Marissa yelled back in a panicked tone.

“Yeah, just as I suspected. I almost fell asleep waiting for you guys,” Kate grumbled.

As soon as Marissa and I were dressed, I lifted Joshua off the floor. Luckily, Marissa’s blood had rejuvenated me, and Joshua weighed no more than skin and bones. We hurried down the stairs, past the living room and into the kitchen.

Before we reached the door to the garage through the kitchen, we heard a key in the front door lock. As it twisted, metal grinding against metal, all of us froze.

Marissa grabbed my arm, and Kate seized the other as if I could protect all of us. I stood in the middle of the two girls holding the mummified-looking form of Joshua, wondering who was breaking into Marissa’s house—with a key—and what we were to do next.

Chapter 18

MARISSA

Would a vampire seek to enter my parents’ home using a key? Mom and Dad weren’t due to come home until Friday. No way could it be them.

“Shit,” my mother said, totally unlike her. I knew something was really wrong for her to be swearing, on top of being home from their vacation two days early. I guessed they’d gotten a taxi to drive them home or I’d hear my aunt’s chatty voice about now. The situation was as strange a scenario as me standing next to one weary, but live vampire, carrying one half-dead vampire, who stood beside my blood-drained, extremely weakened girlfriend.

Something clanked against the tile entryway floor. But, as if Medusa had turned her gaze upon us and changed us all into stone statues, none of us could move. Thank God my mother couldn’t see us from where she stood.

“Damn,” my father groaned, his voice huskier than normal and full of pain. Then he rushed down the hall, slamming the door to the downstairs half bath.

“Make it to the toilet this time, will you, dear?” my mother called after him. “Damn tainted food. Ruin a good vacation every time,” she mumbled. Then the front door banged shut and the lock clicked.

Finally breaking free of the spell, I wheeled around and opened the door to the garage for Kate and Dominic, who still cradled the wizened-up form of Joshua in his arms. We all hurried out to the Ford Taurus, then I poked the opener to the garage door and cringed when the metal groaned, creaking its displeasure all the way.

“Jeez, I hope they don’t hear us leaving,” I whispered, then turned to Kate who opted to sit in the front seat with me while Dominic sat in back with Joshua. “Did you shut my bedroom door?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No need to.”

My heart took a dive. “My mother will look in on me and find I’m not there. If the door’s shut, she’ll assume I’m tucked away in bed like I should be at this hour and won’t bother to disturb me. Then when she discovers I’m not there, they’ll find the car gone and call the police.”

“Wait for me,” Dominic said.

Before I could object, he vanished, and the moisture in my throat evaporated, too. I couldn’t help worrying that Mom would catch him. What a disaster. The scenario would be slightly different then, but the final result the same. A call to the police.

After a few minutes of trying to control my rapid heartbeat, I gave a jump when Dominic finally reappeared in the backseat of the car. “Bedroom door is locked. If they try it, they’ll think you’re sleeping soundly.”

Then a new worry began to nag at me. “What about the guest bedroom?”

Dominic stared at me, his look blank.

I bit back a curse, knowing any second we could get caught, knowing, too, there was no talking our way out of this one. My parents would never leave me home alone again, though I couldn’t blame them. “The door is always shut, but I’m afraid if she looks in, she’ll see there’s a puddle of water on the carpet and the bed is a mess—if the open door doesn’t create enough intrigue.”

“Be back in a jif.”

Hoping he wouldn’t get caught, I took a deep, settling breath. It was bad enough Kate and I wouldn’t be home, the car would be gone, and we had a wizened-up form of Joshua in the backseat, but if my parents caught sight of a gorgeous guy popping in and out of the bedrooms…

I rubbed my temple. The anxiety pooled into my brain, giving me one splitting headache. Or maybe some of it was from Dominic’s feeding off me. I turned to Kate. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and leaned her head back against the headrest. “I was half asleep when he pounced on me. I feel no remorse for having to do what we have to with him. He hurt me, Marissa. Does it hurt with you and Dominic?”