Twice as Hot (15 page)

“I
didn’t take your woman,” the strong man growled. “No reason to react like
this.”

Rome
gave another of those ear-piercing roars, sharp teeth flashing white.

Okay,
okay, okay. I had to concentrate. I hated doing things like this, worrying I’d
somehow think them into actually happening, but sometimes it was the only way
to work my emotions in the direction I needed them. To jump-start things, I
closed my eyes and pictured Lexis walking down the aisle to marry Rome. That
brought anger, not fear, melting the ice. Scratch that.

I
drummed up an image of Tanner, warring with the boys. Every day he trained in
self-defense and combat, but he wouldn’t stand a chance against Tobin. A
tendril of fear swept through me, cool but not cold.

In
my mind, I threw Sherridan into the fight. Pretty, don’t-like-to-sweat
Sherridan, and my fear increased. I would have considered my own torture again,
but my fear for the others was greater. Quite simply, they were my everything.

Next
I planted my dad. Weak as his heart was, he wouldn’t survive any kind of
physical fight—especially not one where I could hear grunting, groaning and
bones snapping. Once more, my fear increased and finally, blessedly I achieved
the glacial temperature I desired. My blood thickened and my palms iced over, a
crystallized ball forming in the center.

“Rome,”
I shouted, eyelids popping open. “Duck.”

The
large cat dove out of the way, and I tossed the ice ball with a shaky arm. My
aim was true. The ball slammed into Tobin’s chest, frost instantly spreading
and coating his entire body. He’d been in the process of swinging his massive
fist at Rome’s head, but froze in place just before contact.

At
that point, everything seemed to still.

Agents
had gathered around the area, I noted, each staring down at us, silent. They
hadn’t jumped into the mix, either too afraid the volatile cat would come at
them next or afraid they would hit and kill Rome while trying to slay Tobin.
Tanner and Lexis, I noticed, were both absent. Shit. My fear increased, though
I no longer needed it, and another ice ball formed in my hand. Were they okay?

Rome
remained on the ground, fur slowly falling from him, naked sun-kissed skin
taking its place. Panting, I stood and lumbered to him, keeping the ice ball
cradled safely against my chest. Were I to drop it, the ground would be covered
in seconds. I fell to his side and stroked his hair with my free hand. Bruises
were already developing on his chest and legs, but his eyes were open and he
was breathing.

Just
as relief drifted through me, the ice around Tobin began to crack. He was
fighting his way free, I realized.

Everyone
reacted at once.

With
Rome out of the way and Tobin an easy mark, a lightning bolt sailed, a throwing
star embedded and that thick smoke billowed. A gunshot even rang out, cracking
the ice and leaving a gaping hole. Blood trickled from it, but I wasn’t taking
any chances. I tossed the second ball of ice at him. Once again, frost spread.

Everyone
waited, time seemingly suspended, but the second layer held firm and kept the
beast in place.

“Rome!”
Lexis shouted, suddenly pushing her way into the room. Blood dripped from her
temple and onto her shirt as she knelt in front of him.

Tanner
limped in behind her. He, too, was bleeding. But he was alive, and that was all
that mattered. He searched the room until he found me. “You good?”

I
nodded, incapable of speech at the moment. My chin was trembling too violently.

“What
the hell happened? And why is everyone standing around?” John’s voice rang with
authority, kicking everyone into motion. Scanning the room, I found him looming
in the middle of a giant hole in the wall. “Get that scrim locked in the
freezer so he remains immobilized, and get Jamison, Bradshaw and the Masterses
to medical. Now!”

Several
agents rushed to the block of ice and hauled it out together. Several more
helped Rome and me to our feet. Our eyes were locked together during it all.
Whatever thoughts drifted through his mind, I might never know. Lexis elbowed
one of the agents out of the way and stepped in front of me, winding an arm
around Rome’s waist and finally blocking him from my view.

“I
don’t want
to do this,” I grumbled. Again.

“Don’t
care,” John told me. “You used your powers, and I want to test your blood
against the blood samples taken when you hadn’t.”

“You’ve
done that before.”

He
held his ground. “The more I do it, the more I can find the consistencies and
differences.”

“You’re
a blood monger, you know that?” I was still at PSI headquarters, but I was now
sprawled out on a gurney, my beautiful dress replaced by an ugly, paper-thin,
unflattering hospital gown. I should have been alone—this was a private room,
after all—but John and his blood-testing goon refused to leave my side. I
covered the vein the goon wanted with my hand. “Enough is enough.”

“Wrong,”
John replied. “It’s never enough until I say it’s enough.”

Such
a man thing to say. “Can’t we at least do this the normal way? You know, with
needles? No offense,” I told the guy waiting to drain a pint or so out of me
with his teeth. No lie. His teeth.

“None
taken,” he said with a grin. He hadn’t removed his hand from my wrist, though.

“No,
we can’t,” John said, then prompted the goon, “Reese. Sometime today.”

Reese,
a tall man with a handsome yet innocent face and a dimpled smile, gently lifted
my hand closer and closer to his mouth. His teeth were white, straight and a
lot longer than the average human’s. And sharper. God, were they sharper.
“Don’t worry, Belle. I’ll treat you the same way I’d treat my girlfriend. If I
had one.”

There
was something so hypnotic about his voice. Something wicked and wanton that
belied the sweet purity of his face. He’d worked for the agency for several
years, and had taken my blood many times before this. He’d always been tender
with me, even the times Rome had stood over his shoulder, snapping at him to
hurry.

Rome.
Was he in a room similar to this? Maybe even the room across from mine? Was
Lexis with him? Tending to his wounds like a loving girlfriend? Bitch.

“Wait,”
I told Reese just before he started chomping. He stilled. “I’ll let him test my
blood, but you need to leave,” I said, pinning John with a fierce stare. “I
don’t want an audience. It makes me nervous. Besides, I want you to check on
Rome.” Ensuring he
did
have an audience.

John
waved a hand in dismissal. “Rome’s fine.”

“Make
sure.”
Or rather, play chaperone.
“I won’t be able to settle down until
I know for sure he’s racer-ready.”

“Belle—”

I
arched a brow at him, hoping I looked as stubborn as Rome did when he used the
expression. “This is not a negotiation. Go, before I change my mind about the
bloodletting and roast Reese alive.”

Reese
chuckled, a lock of blond hair falling onto his forehead. I liked the way his
eyes sparkled with his amusement. I mean, I might love Rome, but I wasn’t dead.

“So
feisty,” he said, and there was a ring of affection in his tone.

“One
day I’m going to start docking your pay for trying to act like the boss.” John
stomped from the sickroom, as I called it, and slammed the door shut behind
him.

“Alone
at last,” Reese said, his thumb tracing over my pulse. “I’ve been hoping for a
chance to talk to you.”

Every
muscle in my body stiffened. Oh my God, was he hitting on me? Was he my secret
admirer, perhaps? “Uh, Reese. As you know, I’m kind of engage—uh—” wrong “—I’m
kind of seeing someone.”

“Like
I could forget the way Rome used to hover. But, uh, I don’t want to date you,
and please don’t be hurt by that. You’re just too scary for me. I want to date
your friend Sherridan. I saw her yesterday, when she was looking for you, and
thought she had a nice pair of…legs.” He looked away from me, suddenly…shy?
“Does she have a boyfriend?”

Somehow,
I’d become the resident matchmaker. Ironic, considering the state of my own
love life. “She’s single. But…” I pressed my lips together. As it turned out, I
didn’t need to finish the sentence for him to understand my meaning.

His
gaze lifted, a little tortured but not offended. “You want to know if she’ll
become a vampire like me if we get hot and heavy.”

I
gave a reluctant nod.

“That
would be a big fat no.
You
haven’t, and I’ve bitten you countless
times.”

Reese
was John’s preferred method of blood testing. Said the vampire was more
reliable than any machine, his taste buds sharper than any piece of equipment,
and that he could tell anything and everything about a person’s body simply by
ingesting the life-giving fluid.

In
the beginning, I’d worried that exposure to my blood would make Reese turn out
like me. I think perhaps John had hoped for such a thing—two powerful
element-wielders for the price of one—and that was the real reason he’d had
Reese perform the tests on me. But the agent had never sickened like I had when
first infected. He’d never shot uncontrollable fire beams out of his eyes or
accidentally frozen PSI headquarters so that the entire operation had to be
moved. And as unstable as the powers were at first, he would have done
something.

“Yeah,”
I said, “but we weren’t caught up in passion. What if she bites you back? What
if—?”

“Wouldn’t
matter. I’m not a virus. No one can catch what I’ve got. Besides, I would never
allow anything bad to happen to her. Or you,” he added fiercely. “I hope you
know that.”

I
settled more deeply against the bed pad. Unlike Cody, Reese didn’t strike me as
a player, therefore he might just be acceptable. “Before I give you my seal of
approval, I have some questions for you.” While I admired his zeal, the BF in
me needed to know more. “Have you ever cheated on a girl?”

“No,”
he said, and this time he
was
offended.

I
wished Tanner, my lie detector, were here. How was Tanner, anyway? He’d been
bleeding, but on his feet, yet John had insisted on a CAT scan. “Are you
looking for a long-term relationship or just a friend with benefits?” Either way,
Reese was a much better choice than Cody, I decided. To my knowledge, he didn’t
have a river of broken hearts running behind him.

Reese
eyed me for a long, silent moment. “Are you her dad or something, and I just
didn’t know it?”

“Think
of me as her guardian angel. Her very powerful, fry-you-like-battered-shrimp
guardian angel. So answer the question before I give you an
eight-hundred-degree suntan.”

He
rolled his eyes but said, “I’m looking for a date. To get to know her, see if
we’re compatible. Anything that happens afterward is private, suntan or not. If
you’d like, we could even make it a double date. Sherridan and me, you and
Cody. I, uh, hear you two are a couple now. That true?”

“No,
it’s not true,” I grumbled. Exactly how had such a rumor gotten around so
quickly? I studied him.
You can trust me not to hurt you,
those green
eyes said. But could I? I no longer trusted my instincts when it came to men.
Damn, but I wished I’d paid more attention to office gossip. I might have
learned why Reese and his girlfriend, someone he’d been with for over a year,
had broken things off last month. A sigh slipped from me. “Feel free to ask her
out,” I said, “but know that if you make her cry, I really will ash you.”

He
shuddered, though there was an amused glint in his eyes. “First time I’ve ever
been issued a threat like that and known it could actually happen.” His gaze
flicked to my wrist. “So…are you ready?”

Reluctantly
I nodded.

Slowly
he raised my hand to his mouth. His warm tongue laved my pulse point, massaging
the skin. Nothing sexual about it, but I found myself wondering if he perhaps
lingered a little too long. Then I tensed slightly, expecting the coming sting.
It arrived a second later, his sharp teeth sinking into my vein, his mouth
giving a gentle suction.

“How’d
you become a vampire, anyway?” I asked, though I knew he couldn’t talk with a
mouth full of, well, me. “Experiments, I bet. Blink once if I’m right, twice if
I’m wrong.”

He
blinked once.

That’s
how Rome had acquired his abilities. That’s how I had acquired
my
ability. Tanner and Lexis were the only legitimate superheroes in the bunch
(though I hated to think of Lexis as either super or heroic), having been born
with their gifts.

Even
Rome’s daughter, who could mist through walls and come out the other side, was
the product of science. Lexis hadn’t known she was pregnant when she’d signed
up to “enhance” her already powerful intuition.

“Enjoying
yourself?” a hard voice suddenly asked.

My
attention whipped to the now-open door, where Rome towered like an ancient god,
glaring over at me. He’d dressed in another black T-shirt and matching pants.
Between him and Tanner, can you blame me for having decorated our house in the
brightest possible color scheme? His hair was combed, his face clean. Always a
supernaturally fast healer, he had no injuries that I could see.