The Way You Bite(7)

With a shrug of defeat, she zipped the mini-makeup case.

…

“Waiting in this parking lot will get us killed,” Eric griped. “Hell, we’ll be lucky if a nosy pet owner doesn’t call the police on us for loitering.”

“Keep bitching and I might kill you myself,” Lexan mumbled. “Get in the car.”

“It’s dark. No one can see me.” Eric rolled his eyes without a hint of fear at the threat. He jerked on a T-shirt and hopped into the SUV driver’s seat. Between the stress of getting security in place for this Stateside visit and several subverted assassination attempts, he looked beat. The captain of his Elite Guard would never admit weakness, though. Not until he lay dead.

They both watched a yuppie couple try to entice two morbidly obese pugs to walk toward the hospital by using treats. The dogs refused, necessitating they be carried, which wasn’t easy given their heft.

“She’ll leave the hospital soon. Patience.” Lexan blew out a sigh. He wasn’t sure if he added the last for himself or Eric. Everything about meeting Velvet Scarpa had him wound tight.

“Damn it. If I’d known we were here to see a fucking Scarpa, I wouldn’t have allowed it.”

“Allowed?” He locked gazes with Eric.

Eric dropped his head in submission. “Poor word choice, sir.” He cleared his throat. “Why are we waiting for her to leave? Are we following her?”

“I want her to know we’re still around and that we will be talking later. We stay here until she leaves.” Lexan removed the gold chain he’d left in the glove box and fastened it around his neck. His fingers automatically caressed the small gold ring that dangled from the intricate links, the only remnant of his mother, who’d died as a vampire’s slave centuries ago. Vampires had stolen too much from him—his parents, his brother, and too many friends. The ring reminded him to be strong for his species. He must never forget those who were lost, and the vampires who killed them.

“It helps if you tell me the full plan.”

Lexan didn’t have a plan, only the need to see her again.

“All right. Keep the plan to yourself, then. The Squad might find us here.” Eric checked a handgun, performing a quick slide to chamber a round before holstering. “We can take them, if they show up.” He grinned. “I’m up for wiping out a few undertrained vamps.”

“You can tell half the team to head out. The Squad will be at the wedding, not here.”

Eric texted. One SUV pulled out and left.

Lexan looked two cars over and met TC’s gray gaze. The guy lounged against the driver’s side door of his SUV, flipping one of his beloved jambiya short curved daggers into the air before shoving it back into his pocket. The wolf refused firearms, a habit ingrained into him during his three decades in Yemen. He’d been forced into assassin training after his mother sold him to a wolf extremist sect. Hand-to-hand combat was TC’s hometown.

Lexan thought to TC, “Get in the car. Stop drawing attention to yourself.”

TC’s head slow-swiveled a scan of the parking lot. He ran a hand over the bristle on his shaved head, nodded, and disappeared behind the tinted glass of the SUV.

Eric flipped through screens on his cell phone. “She’s not what I expected.”

“She is different.” Lexan fixed an impassive look on his face to hide his internal chaos, which had detonated the moment she entered the exam room and still gripped his mind. He’d wanted her, but not for a solitary night like his rare encounters of the past half century. This fascination was driven by a need to know everything about her: what’d she like, how’d she taste, what noises she’d make when she came, how many males had she been with… No more. He blamed his anomalous reaction on going too long without sex. Years.

Eric eyed him suspiciously. “You should’ve seen your face when your woman-magic didn’t work on her. I don’t recall ever meeting a female who could say no to you. That alone was worth the absurdity of this trip.”

Her resistance to his innate enthrallment made her different…intriguing.

He didn’t need her to be interesting. He just had to teach her how to handle shifting from vampire to wolf, and then drop her off in a country that wasn’t in the middle of the wolf hate zone, which had to be far away from Scarpas and DiFalcos. Too bad she had no clue she was about to grow fur. “Did you obtain her historical information?”

“Don’t you mean background check? That’s what they call it these days.” Eric smiled smugly with a gotcha-speaking-like-an-old-guy-again grin.

Lexan glared. This game Eric waged to see how often he could catch him using dated terminology wore thin.

Eric scanned his cell phone. “Public record says Velvet Scarpa did undergrad at Princeton. Then she got an MD from UNC Chapel Hill and graduated in the top ten of her class. Started an internship at Carolinas Premier Hospital. That’s here in Charlotte. Abruptly quit to do veterinary school at UC Davis.”

“Why’d she run to the West Coast for vet school? Wonder what made her flee the family coop, and then return.” Lexan ran a finger along his lips and gazed at the hospital’s side door.

“Maybe the temptation to bite humans was too much as an MD.” Eric turned his way. “I hope she’s worth all this.”