Ripper (Hunter #1)(51)

I turned quickly as the door opened and took a deep breath. My vampire escort was here.





Chapter Nine





“They make a beautiful family,” a soft, accented voice said from the doorway. He was backlit from the blue light coming from the club and I only saw his silhouette.

I turned quickly, hoping he wouldn’t catch me crying. “Yes, they are lovely.”

One minute he was behind me and the next, he was right in front of me, his hand cupping my jaw. His thumb gently rubbed across my cheek, sweeping away the tear caught there. I should have backed away, but I was too surprised to move. Vampires are fast.

“Did Devinshea make you cry?” the vampire asked with a melodic accent. Italian, I realized as I recognized the man from last night. “He can be rude, though not usually with a woman. Should I talk to him?”

“Marcus Vorenus.” His name came out as a breathy revelation.

In the dim light of the office, I saw a smile break over the vampire’s face. It tugged his lips up and caused his dark eyes to crinkle appealingly. It took him from a gorgeous work of art to something far more dangerous. He was simply a handsome, approachable man when he smiled.

“You’re the girl from the club.” He looked me over with appreciative eyes.

“I am. Sorry about the other night.”

He stepped back and dropped his hand, wariness taking over. “You came to look for me?”

“No.” I wished I could lie to him. “I’m a private investigator. I’m here on a murder case. Mr. Quinn kind of became my new client. He said I needed an escort, so I suppose he picked you. I wasn’t stalking you or anything. I was staking the place out and you happened to be there.”

He leaned back against the desk. “An investigator? Very interesting. You must be a good investigator since you already know my name. Why don’t you tell me yours?”

“Kelsey Atwood.” I wondered if the universe was having fun kicking the shit out of me. I’d just gotten dumped by one guy out of my league. Now I stood alone in a room with another too-beautiful-for-me man and I was determined not make an idiot of myself over this one.

“Kelsey. An interesting name for an interesting girl,” the vampire said. “It used to be a surname. Old English, I believe.”

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “My mom liked the sound of it. Are you really two thousand years old?”

I would guess he wasn’t older than thirty-five. His head moved ever so slightly, an aristocratic gesture in the negative. “Not quite. If you include the twenty-two years I walked the plane as a human, I have one thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine years.”

The enormity of that number really hit me.

“Tell me, Kelsey.” His mouth turned down as he stared back at me. “Give me the first thought you had when I told you how old I am.”

“I thought that was a lot of time for regrets.”

He was in my space again, though he didn’t actually touch me. “Almost all humans have a different reaction. They say how much I must have seen and how amazing it must be to never have to die.”

“I guess it says something about me.” I wished I’d given him a less than honest answer. “I think about what you must have lost along the way. How many people you would have cared for only to have them die on you. I wondered if you shut down after a while and you don’t care anymore or if it was important enough to keep some edge of humanity so you let yourself ache. I don’t think I’d want to be immortal.”

“I do a bit of both. I choose who I ache for carefully, but I never want to be so distant that I can’t feel passion and love. It’s the only reason to walk the earth.” He didn’t touch me, but I could feel his presence. “Do you belong to the demon, little Kelsey?”

“No,” I said quietly. “He doesn’t want me now.”

“But you want him.”

All I had to do was say no and the vampire would offer himself to me. We had a strange connection, Marcus Vorenus and I, and if I hadn’t met Gray when I did I would have been all over him. But I had met Gray and, even though he’d walked out on me, it seemed too soon to consider anyone else. “Yes.”

“He is a fool.” The vampire backed up again. His face was once more pleasant, but without the emotion that lit him previously. This was Marcus Vorenus as he wanted the world to see him—cool and regal, distant. “But then aren’t we all? I thought, for a moment, that Devinshea was doing me a favor. I thought, perhaps, I was reading too much into our situation. I see he is still playing a game with me.”

The vampire sounded bitter and I hated the fact that I’d made him feel that way. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying…”

“It isn’t your fault, dear girl. You must be careful around the fertility god. He always knows what he’s doing when he puts two people in an intimate situation. He knew I would be attracted to you. He knew you’re precisely the type of female to pique my interest. He also knew that you are involved with another man. This is his way of telling me it’s time to go home, that there is nothing here for me.”

A second wave of loss hit me and I’d only just met this male. I’d been looking forward to his company, but I didn’t want to hurt him further. He seemed sad enough as it was, as though the world had turned on him. I didn’t want to add to his trouble. “I’ll ask Mr. Quinn for another escort. I’m sorry to have taken up your time. I’ll wait here for him. I’m sure he’ll be back.”