He let her go as she leaned on the corner of the wall, steadying herself. Lore’s apology had been automatic. At some time in the past, manners had been drilled into him. That made her feel just a little bit better. Too bad that innate sense of etiquette didn’t extend to, say, not handcuffing a girl on first acquaintance.
Is it anything more than you deserve?
Now she could hear the police sirens again. Rack lights splashed on the thin drapes, showing the first squad cars had arrived. But who had called? Lore hadn’t had time. Perhaps another neighbor had found Michelle while investigating the sound of their scuffle? Or maybe the killer himself had called, anxious for his fifteen minutes of fame?
Lore had gotten her away from the crime scene just in time. She was safe from the law. But really, how safe was that? Talia looked around, sick with anxiety.
She saw at a glance the layout of Lore’s place was the exact image of Michelle’s. Corner suite, even the same color of paint—except these walls weren’t splattered with gore. Remembering what lay upstairs sent a hot, queasy wave through her. Lore took her arm again, pulling her to the left.
“Hey! Take it easy. You’re leaving a bruise,” she snapped, summoning some attitude, but her words were faint.
“Vampires heal.” But he let go, instead poking the gun in her ribs. “That way.”
Lore propelled Talia into a dark room and flipped on the overhead light. Oh, Lord, it’s his bedroom.
He wasn’t Mr. Tidy. The queen-sized bed was made, its navy comforter dark against a brass bed frame, but clothes, magazines, and other junk littered the floor in the basic single male decorating scheme. Her heel caught on a wadded-up sock.
“Onto the bed,” he ordered.
Onto the bed? Not bloody likely!
Forgetting the gun, Talia twisted away to face him. A furious tingling crept up her limbs, the shock of just too much emotion. She was either going to throw up or slug him the moment her hands were free. “What kind of male fantasy bullshit is this?”
“Fantasy?” His heavy-browed scowl fragmented, drifting into embarrassment.
Something inside her snapped. All of a sudden, Talia’s nerve was back. So what if she was in handcuffs? She’d give him the fight of his life. “You sick bastard.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” He gave her a shove that made her sit with a bounce on the soft mattress. “I don’t do dead people.”
Her arms pinned behind her, Talia struggled to stay upright. The mattress was one of those poofy pillow-top things. “Then what are we doing here?”
“This is my private territory. No one comes here unless they’re invited.”
Anger stabbed through her. “Your personal den of iniquity, huh?”
“More like the one place I can get some peace and quiet. Or used to be. Now there’s a vampire in my bed.”
“I’m not in it yet, bud.”
His expression dripped irony. “I always forget the chocolates and flowers.” Lore holstered the gun and pulled a handcuff key from his jeans pocket.
“That’s more like it.” Talia turned so he could reach her wrists.
She felt his fingers working with deft efficiency. Her right wrist came free. She flexed her arm, making sure it still bent in all the right places. Then she felt him moving her left arm and heard a metallic snick.
“Hey!” she yelled, squirming around to see what he’d done. He’d fastened the empty half of the cuffs to the heavy brass post framing the headboard. Now she was chained to his bed. Oh, gag me!
He stepped back, his expression hard. “You may as well get comfortable.”
Her stomach plunged. “This is my prison cell?”
“As I said, the crypt was already booked.”
Oh, shit! She gave the cuffs a jerk because, well, it was mandatory in the shackled prisoner handbook. Metal grated on metal, the silver of the cuffs biting into the skin of her left wrist. She took in a breath that rattled with fear, but she forced her voice to steadiness. “You don’t have the fur-lined model, huh? Those would be a bit more comfy.”
His eyes narrowed. “Not my thing. Bondage is a bit too much like my day job.”
The words felt oddly like a joke she wasn’t getting. Maybe it was something cultural. He had an odd, halting way of speaking—no accent, but she was willing to bet that English wasn’t his first language.
Talia clenched her fist to hide the fact her fingers were shaking. “What exactly is your day job? Village executioner?”
“I am the Alpha of the hellhounds.”
Lore folded his arms. Even through the storm of emotion, Talia couldn’t avoid noticing how the gesture showed off his arms and chest. All he needed were buckskin and a rifle and he could have been a brawny version of Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans.
Then what he said soaked in. “Hellhound?”
“We are half demons.”
“Isn’t that like being a little bit pregnant?”
Lore gave a sudden, evil grin. He leaned against the brass rail of the footboard, looming over Talia. No one got to be Alpha just because he was a nice guy. If Lore really was the top dog, there was a savage streak to match the wild-man looks. “It means that if you do break out of here, there is nowhere you can hide. I can track the ghost of a ghost, and the whole pack will be hunting you right along with me.”
Talia set her jaw, refusing to give in to a sudden wave of terror. “Why?”
Lore’s grin faded as he took a step away from the bed. “I told you. I’m not certain whether you’re innocent or guilty. I’m the acting sheriff in Fairview. Right now you’re my responsibility.”
“So you’re the self-appointed detective on my case, is that it?”
“Be happy that I care whether or not you’re guilty.”
The handcuffs interfered with her sense of gratitude. “I didn’t kill Michelle.” Her voice cracked, and she gulped down a rising tide of grief. She was in danger. She had to keep her head straight. Don’t you deserve to die?
“Were they trying to kill you?”
“Maybe.”
“Who?”
“I honestly don’t know.” She looked away, hiding the tears that spilled out from under her eyelashes. Oh, God, Michelle.
“No possibilities?”
There were, but none that she’d admit to. Talia shrugged as much as the handcuffs would allow. “No names come to mind.”
“That’s the difference between you and me.”
“What?” She tried to glare, but her eyes were too wet to make it convincing.
“Hellhounds can’t lie.”
“Huh?”
“We’re incapable of telling an untruth. You are not.”
“Are you saying I’m a liar?”
Lore looked unimpressed. “You’re on the run. I found you with a bloody corpse. You use a knife with considerable skill. You’re something more than you’re saying.”
He turned and opened a drawer in a tall dresser. From where she was chained, Talia couldn’t see what was in the drawer, but heard the scrape of metal on wood. When Lore turned back, he had another set of silver handcuffs in his hand.
Talia scrambled backward, squeezing herself into the corner where the bed met the wall. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Extra insurance.”
She jerked at the chain with frustration. “Damn you, leave me alone!”
“It was your choice, me or the police.”
Lore reached over her, his big body stretching easily over the wide mattress. Talia shrank against the pillows as his face came too close to hers. She could smell that burnt chemical scent on his clothes again. Beneath it was the musky scent of man—except it wasn’t. It was richer. Darker. Hellhound. The hair on her neck ruffled. Must be the demon blood, because Mrs. McCready’s cockapoo never smelled that good.