A Kiss of Blood (Vamp City #2)(34)

“Are you finished with your cereal? Aidan, where’s your vitamin? Did you eat your vitamin?”

A little girl piped up. “He fed it to the roses.”

“Aidan . . . did you put your vitamin in Mommy’s rose vase again? Son . . .”

Quinn smiled, meeting Neo’s gaze, a hundred questions on her tongue. Neo escorted her back through the path of boxes until they could talk quietly without being overheard.

“I hear them regularly when I’m in here. We all do. Since you can travel out through sunbeams, I was wondering if you can find a way through there. If you can, it would save us untold efforts in getting slaves out through the Boundary Circle though I imagine Aidan’s mother would have a heart attack.”

“Let me see if I can find anything.” Quinn retraced her steps, following the sound of the television show, but though she searched, she could see no sign of the break and no way to breach it. And she should be able to, even inside.

“No go,” she whispered, shaking her head.

Neo shrugged. “It was worth a try.” He smiled. “That kid entertains me. You should hear the places Aidan’s stashed his green beans.”

They started back, but had gone only a few yards when the floor began to shake suddenly and violently. The boxes stacked high on either side of them began to wobble and rock. And they began to fall.

Neo grabbed her, curving around her as cans of food rained down on top of them. One can clipped her on the elbow, another on the foot, smarting. Finally, after more than a dozen seconds, the quaking stopped.

Neo pulled back, looking down at her without letting her go. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. “A sunbeam.”

“Yes.”

And Arturo was out there, somewhere.

“Mommy?” The voice of the little girl—Aidan’s sister? She didn’t sound scared, but annoyed. “Mommy! Aidan dumped rice in the fish bowl.”

Neo’s eyes lit with laughter. “That kid’s got a food fetish.”

Quinn laughed quietly, meeting Neo’s warm gaze. She liked this vampire.

He tensed suddenly, releasing her slowly. She straightened and turned to find the source of Neo’s tension. Arturo stood in the path, his eyes hard as flint.

He was jealous and he had no right to be. And no reason.

“Vampire,” she said coolly, and started toward him. “Neo just saved me from being crushed by cans of food. How’s Cristoff?”

As she started to brush past him, he took her arm lightly, but possessivley, his eyes shifting toward Neo, a warning in their depths. “We’ll discuss it later. It is time we left for Tarellia’s.”

Men and their pissing contests.

“Release me, Vampire,” she said quietly as they headed back to the hallway.

Instead, his grip on her arm turned to a light caress. “I heard the crash, tesoro mio. I feared you would be injured.”

He’d come to save the day and found another male had done so already.

Her pique with him dissipated and she turned to him with a sigh. “Thank you for coming to my rescue, Vampire, even if it wasn’t needed.”

His eyes warmed. His cool hand slid down her arm, his fingers sliding between hers.

Oh, Vampire, what am I going to do with you?

She gripped his hand in return.





Chapter Ten

As they reached the main room, Arturo turned Quinn to face him. “Your glamour has worn off.” He released her hand to touch her hair, his fingers lifting a lock and letting it slide through his fingers. “Micah will have to repair your glamour before we leave. I shall let him know.” He looked unhappy, but she sensed his mood had little to do with her glamour. Or finding her with Neo, for that matter. And everything to do with Cristoff.

“You haven’t told me how your visit went this morning.”

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were filled with shadows and she knew her instincts were right. “He is not the man I knew.”

“What does he think happened to me?”

“He believes what I have told him—that Ivan took you into D.C. and that I am looking for you and will return you to him as I did before.” He lifted a lock of her hair again, then dropped it, pinning her with a gaze that glowed with fervor. “He will never get near you again.”

Neo caught up with them, and Arturo glanced up, his jaw hardening. “We will leave in an hour, cara mia. Get some breakfast if you have not already done so.”

Moments later, she rapped softly on Zack’s door. When he didn’t answer, she opened the door to find him still sound asleep. “Zack.”

Her brother blinked, his eyes opening slowly. “What’s the matter? What time is it?”

“We’re in Vamp City. Time doesn’t matter, but breakfast is going to be gone if you don’t get out there soon.”

To her amused relief, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and shoved himself to his feet without hesitation. “Where?”

“The same place as last night.” But when he would have brushed past her to escape the room, she blocked his way. “Hold on a minute.”

She pressed her hand to his forehead, beneath his mop of red curls. He felt hot to the touch. Definitely feverish. Fear curled in her stomach. “How do you feel?”