Chapter Sixteen
Becca parked in the loading zone across from the ER entrance and waited while Jody went inside to question the staff. For the first ten minutes, she watched the slow trickle of people passing in and out of the big sliding glass doors and tried not to think about what she’d just experienced at Nocturne. She’d thought she had known what to expect in the Vampire club, but she was beginning to realize there was a lot humans didn’t know about the Praetern species. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how few details of their social orders the Praeterns had revealed. In her research she’d found plenty of information on Praetern business and commercial ventures, but nothing on matters of health, sex, or procreation. Maybe they thought humans would accept them more readily if they minimized their differences and emphasized their importance in the economic strata. Maybe they were right.
She hadn’t been surprised by the fluid sexuality of the Vampires, but she’d been caught off guard by her own reactions. She’d always considered herself pretty adventurous, even though she’d never really gotten into multiple partners and had been exclusive with women since her teens, so she couldn’t quite figure out why she got so turned on watching Jody with the human couple. Even harder to understand was why she kept imagining holding Jody in her arms while Jody fed from the blonde and climaxed in the grip of blood thrall. Becca shivered and rubbed her arms. Agitated, aroused, confused, she yanked open the car door and climbed out. She checked her watch. Fifteen minutes had passed. She paced beside her vintage Camaro. She’d give the Vampire five more minutes and then she was going in after her.
“I don’t know why I agreed to stay out here anyhow. Dictatorial Vampire,” Becca muttered, reaching the end of her car and whipping around to start back the other way. She collided with a stone wall and stared into the amused coal black eyes of the Vampire in question.
Becca’s breasts flattened against Jody’s chest and her nipples hardened instantly. Becca sucked in a breath. “Where did you come from?” Jody skimmed her hands down Becca’s arms and moved her back an inch. Her eyes flickered with pinpoints of crimson, like sparks drifting into the night sky. “The ER.”
“I’ve been watching the door. You weren’t there a second ago.”
“Human vision relies on detecting light displacement. If the dispersion is too rapid, nothing registers.” Jody lightly clasped Becca’s upper arms and massaged Becca’s biceps with her thumbs. Becca’s body was warm. She’d felt the heat against her chest through the thin silk of Becca’s blouse. She savored Becca’s scent, aware of the bloodlust stirring but doing nothing to temper it. Indulging herself by toying with a human who wasn’t prepared to host was a dangerous game to play, because sex and blood were inextricably bound in the Vampire psyche.
Especially hers. The older or stronger the Vampire, the greater the blending of the two. Jody was a pre-animate, but her father was one of the most powerful Vampires in existence and her lineage was ancient.
Even living, her drives were strong and her power to enthrall nearly as strong as a risen Vampire’s. The great arteries in Becca’s neck bounded with excitement, with life. Jody’s incisors slid from their sheaths.
Becca was captivated by the flames dancing in Jody’s eyes. She leaned into her, her breasts and belly and thighs cleaving to Jody’s slender frame. Jody’s full lips parted and Becca saw a hint of fangs hidden behind them. Jody Gates gave the phrase playing with fire a whole new meaning.
“They’re not always so visible,” Becca said, drawing her fingertip over Jody’s lower lip. The thought that she had excited Jody excited her. She liked feeling a little reckless. “Let me see.”
“Careful what you wish for,” Jody murmured.
“I told you not to enthrall me.”
“I’m not.”
“How do I know you’re not doing something to me right now?” Becca whispered. “How do I know anything I feel with you is real?”
Jody’s eyes blanked, the flat black of an endless well. Suddenly she was a foot away, not touching Becca. Becca hadn’t seen her move.
“You don’t,” Jody said. “Haven’t you heard you should never trust a Vampire?”
“Did you learn anything inside?” Becca asked abruptly, pretending she didn’t miss the feel of that lithe body against hers. She resented being so effortlessly turned on and as easily rejected. The Vampire wasn’t interested in her, only her blood.
Jody laughed. “Back to business, huh?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. It’s always been just business.” Annoyed at Becca’s cool tone and determined to maintain control over the case they seemed to be sharing, Jody said, “Come to breakfast with me. I’ll fill you in.”
“Breakfast? You mean food?” Becca said before she could stop herself.
“I eat food.” Jody’s gaze dropped to Becca’s mouth. “I’ll feed later.”Feeling churlish at the idea of Jody seeking more sex, Becca said disdainfully, “The blonde wasn’t enough?”
“I have a healthy appetite for some things.” Jody turned and started toward the street. “Coming?”
Becca caught up to her and fell into step. The sun was already bright at six a.m. Jody put on sunglasses, turned the collar up on her white shirt, and put her hands in her pants pockets. Becca glanced at her worriedly. “How long can you…”
“Be in the sun?” Jody asked.
“Yes.”
“After five or ten minutes of summer sunlight I’ll start to burn—” Becca gasped. The corner of Jody’s mouth twitched. “Sunburn—not conflagration. I’d have to be staked out in direct light for an hour or more before cellular breakdown would begin. After two hours, combustion.”
“And you still walk around out here after sunrise? That’s crazy,” Becca said, her heart skittering painfully in her chest. “What if you get in an accident and can’t reach shelter!”
“I’ll have millennia to live by starlight alone,” Jody said quietly. “I’ll take what time I have in the sun.”
Becca thought she detected a note of sadness, but she knew that couldn’t be true. Gates didn’t seem capable of that emotion. She saw the detective reach for the diner door to hold it open for her and got to it first. She walked in ahead of Jody and intentionally picked a booth across from the windows, but out of the sunlight. As soon as the waitress poured their coffee and left, she removed her recorder from her bag.
“Off the record,” Jody said.
“That wasn’t our deal.”
“Our deal was I would give you something when I had something.” Jody sipped her coffee, enjoying the way Becca’s jaw tightened and her skin flushed a richer shade of mocha. Most humans were afraid of challenging her. In fact most would do anything to avoid engaging with her at all. Becca was an intriguing change. “I don’t have anything yet except conjecture.”
Becca closed her fist around her recorder and leaned across the table until only an inch separated them. “Don’t play games with me, Vampire. I’m not some brainless twit who’s dying to offer up my blood so you can get off.”
“Are you sure?” Jody said, her voice low and seductive. “Because you certainly seemed to enjoy it earlier this morning.”
“Just business, remember?” Becca couldn’t remember now what she’d found so attractive about this controlling, infuriating Vampire, or why on earth she cared if the arrogant fool wanted to tempt fate and walk around in the sun. “I kept my end of the bargain. Or did I make a mistake trusting you to keep your word?”