A rustle at his feet. “I’ve never met a vampire like you,” the boy said, his heart in his eyes as he looked up from his position curled up against Janvier’s leg. “If you’re looking for a long-term donor . . .”
Janvier caught a glimpse of Ash stalking back into the bar. “You deserve a lover who will cherish you,” he told the boy, being as gentle as he was capable of being. “I’m afraid I’m rather attached to the hunter about to descend on us.”
The four looked like deer caught in the headlights as Ash zeroed in on them.
“You can’t even last five minutes!” she yelled when she got to him. Her eyes shifted to the girl wearing the jumpsuit, her smile razor sharp. “Would you like me to separate your head from your body, sweetie?”
“N-no?”
“Then I suggest you get yourself away from my man.”
Jumpsuit jumped up and so did the others, while Janvier reveled in the claim. It was drama, but it was nice to hear the words anyway. “Bébé,” he said, deliberately using the term again because it totally did not fit his hunter, would amuse her. “We have just been having a drink together.”
“Yeah,” the male said, looking at Ash in naked awe. “You can sit with us.”
Ash pointed a finger at the boy, then the blondes, then Jumpsuit. “Away. Now.”
The group hauled ass.
“You’re magnificent,” Janvier whispered. “I think my new friends would go home as happily with you as with me.”
“What now?” she murmured when he stood to place his hands on her hips, her arms still belligerently crossed.
“I seduce you into forgiving me.”
23
Janvier was starving for the taste, the feel of Ash, but as he’d told her, for him intimacy wasn’t a spectator sport. So he nuzzled at her, but didn’t speak the hot, erotic words he wanted to whisper. Instead, he began to name all the liqueurs at the bar, using his sexiest voice.
“Stop that,” she said, lips firmly set as she fought valiantly not to laugh.
He wanted her to laugh with him during sex, wanted her to play with him. “Do you think you’ve been seduced enough?”
“Did you discover her name?”
“Felicity Johnson.”
“Then, I’ve been seduced enough.”
The snow had begun to fall in earnest when they hit the street again, but there was no wind, the world a serene sheet of white. Before doing anything else, he made a call—while Ash pretended to check out the well-lit window display of the sex shop next door. His purpose was to touch base with a combat-trained Tower vampire he knew patronized a nearby dance club. Emaya didn’t miss a beat when he asked her to keep an eye on Khalil.
Janvier would’ve preferred to do it himself, but Khalil had already spotted him in the club, would be immediately suspicious if he glimpsed Janvier or Ash again. Khalil also knew Janvier as an individual, whereas he was unlikely to have run into Emaya—or to notice her if he did. The statuesque Emaya was more akin to Ash than she was to the prettily plump and submissive creatures Khalil preferred.
“Are you alone?” he asked her.
“No. Mateo is with me.”
“Good.” If Khalil was behind the murder, he’d obviously become even more sadistic as the years passed, but Emaya and Mateo had the strength to take him down should he become violent. “Stay together, keep him in your sights without alerting him, and contact me with a full report once he returns to his home.”
If Khalil was the killer, he was too smart to choose a victim who could be easily linked to him, so any woman he took home tonight was safe—from death, at least. Torture remained on the cards, but Khalil had a way of finding willing victims for that, though those volunteers didn’t always know the extent of what awaited. That grim truth at the forefront of his mind, Janvier said, “I want to know who he speaks to, what he does, anything that strikes you as unusual about his behavior.”
“Got it.”
“Even a hint of trouble, call me or the Tower.”
“Will do, but my entire combat team is out blowing off steam tonight, so we have plenty of backup nearby if we need it.”
Relaxing, Janvier waited until the other couple arrived in case Khalil slipped out in the interim. He covered the delay by teasing Ash about her apparent interest in the erotic toys on display. She laughed and, with her phone, snapped photos of the various items, before sending a couple of messages.
Not acknowledging Mateo or Emaya when they arrived, he sent a message through to the Tower alerting Dmitri to the ongoing situation. He also made a note that bloodlust appeared to be rising, but that it didn’t appear critical at this point. It may be a residue of the battle trauma. I think the vampire leaders should be contacted tomorrow so they can tamp things down. The bloodlust wasn’t hazardous yet, but give it a few more days and it could turn into carnage.
Janvier had once come into a town that was meant to be a rest stop for couriers only to find every part of the small settlement sticky with rust red, and the two resident vampires feeding like gluttons on the warm, nude corpse of the woman who’d been the lover to one. He’d executed both on the spot. It was the only way to contain the slaughter.
Dmitri’s response lit up his phone. I’ve had the same report from two other senior people in the area—we have Tower vampires scattered through the clubs keeping an eye on the temperature until I can talk to the leaders.
Satisfied that the issue was being handled, Janvier said, “We can leave now, sugar.”