The Way You Bite(69)

Blay coughed and massaged his neck. He lowered his head submissively. “I would let you.”





Chapter Twenty-Six


“You still alive under there?” Trace asked.

“As if you care.” Vee peeked out from under a blanket, finding herself in the backseat of a sedan.

“If I didn’t care, I would’ve left you in Canada. You were confused and didn’t know what was best for you.”

She whipped off the blanket and punched him in the shoulder. The car veered into the left-hand lane, barely missing a car.

“Hey. Driving here,” Trace grumbled.

“Don’t ever drug me again.” She cringed from the late afternoon sunlight, which hit her skin through the nontinted glass windows. After this past week, she expected to be stronger, maybe even take on more of the werewolf’s ability to walk in the day. Yet, each small touch of sunlight singed as if she was now even more sensitive than ever before.

Trace chuckled. “I can’t believe you’re still a sun wimp.” He seemed resistant to the sun’s relentless rays. Either that, or he refused to complain.

He pulled the borrowed—actually stolen—car off the interstate onto an exit she recognized as just west of Charlotte. “You slept through the whole trip and should be thanking me. We’re here.”

“I don’t want to be anywhere near here.”

“I’ve got a plan. First, I need to rest. Then, tomorrow, I’ll figure out where Carol is being kept. For now, this should be safe.” He turned into a townhouse complex. Each house had a perfectly manicured lawn and a small covered carport. Doggie pick-up bag stations were on almost every corner. He whipped around bends in the complex at a speed far above the fifteen-mile per hour limit.

“Did you meet her here? The werewolf you had an affair with?”

Trace’s cheeks flushed. “Sometimes I brought women here. It’s off the radar. I needed a place away from Dominic’s watch. If I can’t figure out tonight where they have Carol, then I’ll get her tomorrow and we’re out of here.”

“I do not want to confront Dominic or Ambrose.”

“I’d like to avoid Ambrose, if possible. He’s…unpredictable, but I may have to face Dominic. Not you. You’ll stay here. Hidden and safe.”

Trace pulled in front of a townhouse, parked and asked, “You sense anything nonhuman here? I don’t get anything.”

Her brain remained dulled from the drug, similar to when she’d woken up in Quebec. At least her throat wasn’t quite as dry. She tried to scan, but the effort hurt. More effort equaled more pain.

“I’m not getting anything, but I’m fuzzy.” Her mind whirled with escape options. Goal number one was to get Trace’s cell phone and call... Crap, she didn’t know Lexan’s number. She could call Roman, though.

Trace signaled for her to remain behind him as he unlocked a townhouse’s black front door. The porch was littered with leaves. His hand hovered above the alarm panel box. “Oh shit.”

“What’s wrong?” As she stepped into the doorway behind him, the scent of anise assaulted her nose. Hsu-Li. She seconded Trace’s “Oh shit.”

A vampire rammed Trace so hard that his head hit the wall. He slithered to the ground, stunned.

With a preternaturally fast sweep, she was off her feet, cuffs were clamped around her hands and legs, and a hood thrown over her head. So much for avoiding confrontation.

…

Her arms and ankles hurt from seesawing the cuffs in the back of a car, but it was pointless. A vamp at full power could probably break them, but she’d never been that vamp.

After being dragged down a few flights of stairs she was tossed into a cold room. She smelled Trace nearby along with the odor of disinfectant. And she smelled a werewolf.

After a long wait a door opened and shut. The revolting anise scent tickled her nose a moment before the hood was snatched off. She blinked into the brilliant room she recognized as one designed for wolf interrogation in Dominic’s basement.

Trace lay on the cold linoleum floor to her right, still out.

To her left, TC sat handcuffed into the central metal chair very much awake, watching her. The wolf broke his stoicism to smile at her so briefly that she wondered if she’d imagined it.

TC here? A fierce protective surge swept through her. Nothing could happen to Lexan’s protector. TC didn’t deserve to die because of her brother’s impulsive decision to “rescue” her. She wondered if Lexan had ordered TC to follow her. Probably. That meant Lexan might not be far behind. Her heart expanded, honored to have been safeguarded by one of his best.

Hsu-Li leered at her. His mind filled with disgusting images involving torture and sex.

The door opened. Dominic sauntered in dressed in a tuxedo, which suggested he’d been entertaining elite company. A chilling smile she associated with profound pain spread across his lips.

“Ah, Velvet, my dear, you came back to us. I knew eventually we would get you back. So, where have you and Trace been?” asked Dominic.

She sat upright to avoid being dragged into the position by her hair. The glint in Dominic’s eyes conveyed his desire to inflict pain.

She focused on her heart rate. Breaths slow and easy. But sweat broke out across her back. The room was clean and devoid of almost everything other than the chair in which they always put their wolf victim and a hose to clean up the mess.