No way did I cause him sufficient hurt to make him run. He wanted me enough to return to hunt me after being discouraged by gunfire. I struggled to my feet and shuffled to the corner of the building. Peeking around it, I drew a shaky breath of relief. I stiffened and spun to look behind me. The alley was deserted.
Never releasing my watchful vigilance on the area around me, I wiped the eyeball gore from my thumbs onto my ruined dress. It made my skin crawl. My mouth became dry and nausea rolled my stomach. Where did he go?
I checked around the corner again but the Danube Promenade looked empty of monsters.
He was gone.
Chapter Five
The night clerk at my hotel gave me the fish eye as I walked up to the counter and confessed I’d lost my key at a party.
He handed me the replacement, taking in my torn dress and bare feet. “Must have been some party.” I’d walked like this for six blocks down the Danube Promenade waiting for fang face to jump me again.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, you could say that.” I took the elevator to the seventh floor.
Rurik astounded me. I flip-flopped between hatred and lust. At the club I would have staked him myself, but at the party... I fanned myself. He set me on fire. I never thought I’d meet another man who could do that. Then again, Rurik wasn’t a man.
The doors opened onto my floor and I stepped out. Rurik rescued me, sure Colby provided a distraction, but Rurik could have left me stuck behind the couch with a mob of angry vampires between my Calvary and me. It should make no difference to him if I survived the attack at the party. Or did it? He’d come back for me.
I was too tired to think straight. Beautiful and heroic, didn’t change the fact that he’d done something bad enough to merit Colby’s hire. I opened my room door. The only thing I wanted to do was sprawl on top of my big soft bed and lapse into a coma. My stench overcame me in the closed quarters. The coma could wait until I showered.
A sliding glass door across from my bed overlooked the Danube River and the city’s skyline. The need for fresh air drew me out onto the balcony and I admired the night view. A breeze brushed against my wet dress and cleared some of the smell from the hotel room. Whatever Colby paid for the room, this sight made it worth every penny.
The Buda Castle spread itself on the hillside across the river. It shone golden against the night sky, reflecting the spotlights that surrounded it, and was probably the largest Gothic palace in Europe. The city extended around its hill with a combination of medieval and modern architecture, all lit up for their nightly display. The rich lights danced on the gentle currents of the Danube River.
I leaned against the doorframe and watched the ripples of the water warp the reflections. The soft wind made me shiver and I wished for a certain set of strong arms for warmth. Loneliness overwhelmed me. It hadn’t always been this way, but it felt so achingly long ago, it may as well have been a lifetime. I saw no point in dwelling on it. Despair would just hook its claws into me and drag me back under its gray misty clouds.
Wishing wouldn’t bring my husand back, nothing would.
I would call Colby again, but first, I needed to wash my hands of the dirt and vampire gore that still clung to them. Hopefully, the liquid-soaked dress didn’t short my tracking device and they knew I made it back to the hotel. I would hate for them to cruise the streets searching for me.
My reflection in the bathroom mirror appeared pitiful. No wonder the night clerk gawked. I looked as if I’d been wrestling in trash, instead of hiding in it. A piece of potato peel hung from my hair and my lower lip split from being backhanded. I picked the peel out of my hair and tossed it into the commode. A hysterical giggle bubbled up. I clamped my hands over my mouth before it got out of control. What a mess.
The hot water ran over my hands, and all the little cuts I acquired in my adventures, screamed at the same time.
I hopped up and down from the stinging as I scrubbed with lots and lots of soap, getting every bit of contaminated gunk off me, then started on my face. Amazing how a little soap and water can rejuvenate someone. The split on my lip began bleeding from the scrub. I looked up at the mirror again to examine it.
My gaze met a pair of cool, blue eyes.
I gasped and my heart raced. “You!”
Rurik leaned against the bathroom’s doorway and watched me. He moved with unnerving quietness. Somewhere between shoving me out the window and his arrival here, he’d lost his dress jacket. I appeared to have done more fighting than he did, not one of his hairs looked out of place.
I spun to point my finger at him. “How did you get in here?” Then marched up to him, planted my hands on his chest and pushed. “How dare you!” A bulldozer wouldn’t have moved him.
His eyes widened at my unexpected assault and he raised his hands in a vain attempt to placate me.
I put my shoulders into the effort to move him out of my room.
He laughed as he backed out of the bathroom of his own free will. His hands reached to touch me but I slapped at them and knocked them away.
“Are you laughing at me?” I slapped his hands again and again, until he captured my wrists gently in his hands. I tried to pull away. “Stop it!”
He sported a huge stupid grin. “You’re such an interesting woman, Rabbit. And what a vision.” He choked on a chuckle, unable to contain himself.
I was supposed to be safe. I’d fought for my life and finally reached my room. My face and hands were clean, my shower waited, then my soft, cozy bed. He wasn’t supposed to be here. I was supposed to be ... safe.
Tears welled up in my eyes. I tried to blink them away but they trickled out. He held my wrists so I couldn’t wipe them away. Instead, I looked down at my grubby feet and tried to focus on what was left of my pedicure.
I wished he would leave me alone. His presence made my loneliness sharper, closer to the surface than I’d allowed it to be in almost a year.
The dam broke loose and the tears flowed in steady dismal streams. Pressure built in my chest. It ached to breathe. A big sob escaped.
“Rabbit?” He knelt down to look up at my face as I tried to hide my tears.
I turned away but it didn’t do any good.
He released my wrists to wipe away the tears spilling down my cheeks with his thumbs. “Please don’t cry.”
I’m sure it was an ugly thing to witness. Heat spread across my cheeks as I got blotchy, my nose ran, and a fat, split lip didn’t help. He pulled me down into his arms and pressed me against his chest. He felt solid as I sat on his lap and leaned on his shoulder to sob my heart out. Once I started, it became hard to stop. I hated it.
“I’m sorry,” he chanted between my sobs, his voice soft and concerned. We sat on the carpet in the middle of my room as his hand stroked my hair and he rocked me in his arms.
When every pent up tear had poured from me, I pulled away to use the hem of my destroyed dress as a handkerchief.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry.” He set me on the floor with tender care and walked back into the bathroom.
I heard the water run. A few seconds later, he returned with a wet face cloth. He knelt in front of me and washed my tear streaked face. My temper cooled with each refreshing, gentle swipe. He was so careful with it, as thought unfamiliar with the act. His smile was gone. It surprised me, to find myself yearning for his touch. He kept glancing at my mouth as he washed my face.
He took my breath away, full soft lips contrasted with the hard lines of his jaw, the sensitive disquiet of his expression softening the edges. His face lowered to mine slowly, coming to within a hair’s breadth of my lips. Our eyes met and he hesitated.
Who could blame him after my recent impersonation of a psycho? This man who kneeled in front of me, sweetly concerned, did not seem like a monster. I wanted to kiss him but my thoughts and desires warred with each other.