“You were worried about me?”
“Well, yeah. So much so that I even flew over the river to check if you were hangin’ in Lady Liberty’s torch, and you know how much I hate the water.” Trixie shrugged. “You may have shitty taste in music”—she glanced around the pink and white decor of the apartment—“and pretty much everything else, but we still love ya. I was telepathing to you, trying to find out what time you were going over to Rat’s place, mostly to see if I could talk your cute blond butt into not going there. When you didn’t respond, I thought you were just being you.”
“Great minds think alike,” Sadie interjected. “I was hoping to do the same thing, and when we compared notes…”
“Y-you’ve been trying to talk to me?” Maya’s stomach clenched, and for the first time since being turned into a vampire, she thought she might actually barf. Everything Shane said came rushing into her mind, but bloodmate rose above the rest. She tried to remember the last time she telepathed with Trixie and Sadie and realized it was at the club last night—before Shane tasted her blood. If she still breathed, she’d probably have hyperventilated by now. Maya closed her eyes and waved for them to do it again. “Try now.”
Silence filled her head. The ticking of the clock in the kitchen echoed through the room like thunder. But in between each tick there was only terrifying silence. Tears pricked the back of Maya’s eyes and panic welled.
“Holy shit, you’re cut off from us,” Trixie whispered. “This is just like what happened when Olivia and Doug—”
“Shut up,” Maya shouted. She opened her eyes and pointed at her sisters. “Don’t say it. Don’t you dare say it. This is not the same thing.”
“Is it Quesada?” Sadie leaned both hands on the back of white couch and leveled a serious gaze at Maya. “Something happened with him, didn’t it?”
“No.” Maya shook her head and went to the closet to grab her black wrap. “Absolutely not.”
“If it’s not him…” Trixie grimaced and cracked her knuckles. “It’s not Rat, is it? He’s freaking gross.”
“Oh my God, no way.” Maya made a face of disgust and kept talking like her life depended on it. She worried that if she stopped, the world around her would cave in. “I’m going to work for him and that’s it. Speaking of which, I gotta get going. I’ll come see you girls when I get back, and I’m sure everything will be back to normal.”
Before she could leave, Sadie flew across the room and grabbed Maya by the arm. Letting out a sigh, Maya turned to face her fellow coven members and fought to keep from crying because deep in her gut, she knew it wasn’t just some fluke.
“Maya, you can’t run away from this.” Sadie was always the one to tell it like it is. She kept her voice gentle but her meaning was clear. She slipped her hand into Maya’s and squeezed as Trixie sidled up behind her and rested her chin on Sadie’s shoulder.
“Something happened between you and Shane. Come on, spill it. Listen, aside from the fact that the guy has been spending every free minute over the past few months buzzing around you at the bar, he chased you out of the club last night like the horny bastard you’ve turned him into.”
“Truth,” Trixie said with a wink. “He’s got it bad for you and everybody knows it. C’mon. What happened?”
Staring into the loving faces of her sisters, Maya felt her eyes fill with tears because the silence in her mind was deafening. Closing her eyes, she reached out to them again in one desperate attempt: Can you hear me now?
Isn’t that a line from a cell phone commercial?
Maya’s eyes flew open when Shane’s amused voice slipped into her mind with unsettling ease. Her sisters looked at each other and then at Maya, but before they could ask what was happening, someone knocked on the door.
“I thought it would be wise to escort you to the club.” Shane’s distinctive baritone boomed from the hallway. “I suggest you hurry up. You wouldn’t want to be late for your first day on the job, now would you?”
Maya’s jaw set and her eyes narrowed, but Trixie and Sadie looked thoroughly amused. Maya tugged the door open and prepared to give Shane a tongue-lashing, but every coherent thought was driven from her mind when she set eyes on him. He wasn’t wearing the usual sentry uniform of head-to-toe leather, and based on the catcall whistle from Trixie, it was a definite improvement.
Clad in a pair of perfectly fitting jeans, brown cowboy boots, a Ralph Lauren button-down, and a brown leather bomber jacket, he looked every inch the sexy male specimen that he was. His thick, wavy hair curled over the collar and the top two buttons of his shirt were open, revealing a dusting of chest hair. Maya swallowed and fought the sudden, sharp pang of desire the flared through her.
The man was absolutely beautiful. Vampire. Warrior. Whatever. Shane Quesada was all man.
“Well,” Sadie said through a poorly veiled smile, “at least now we know Maya will stay out of trouble.”
“Ha,” Trixie snorted. “Don’t bet on it.”
Chapter 5
Maya hadn’t said more than two words to Shane from the moment he arrived at the door of her apartment. He tried to touch her mind again, but she slammed it shut, refusing to allow him entry. She probably hoped that would piss him off, but on the contrary, her refusal to talk to him turned him on. He enjoyed a challenge because after so many years of merely existing, Shane felt like he was finally living. Maya was a fighter, and if he could show her how to harness that power, she would be able to stop fighting herself.
From the look on her face when he’d arrived, his decision to change his attire was a good one. He could have gone to the club in his usual sentry uniform, but based on past experience, he knew that wouldn’t have been a good move. If he showed up in battle gear, the wolves might perceive it as an aggressive act by the Presidium and the czars, but dressed like any other clubgoer, he’d be able to convince them more easily that he was only there for the entertainment.
The one item he kept with him from his sentry garb was the semiautomatic pistol filled with silver bullets that was tucked safely inside his jacket. On most nights, it was packed with the ultraviolet ammunition designed by Xavier, the Presidium’s resident inventor and weapons master. That ammo could turn a vamp to dust but would prove ineffective on the wolves. Not that he was looking to start a fight and break the truce, but it was prudent to be prepared.
When they rounded the next corner, the blinking purple-and-red neon sign for The Dollhouse came into view as two yellow cabs whizzed past. Like all strip clubs, there were no windows, and a large, bulky fellow named TJ stood outside the door checking IDs and taking the cover charge from eager men. TJ was a vampire, one of Rat’s coven members, and though the big brute wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, he was a good fighter. If Rat was the brains behind his operation, then TJ was definitely the brawn.
“Wait.” Maya stopped before they crossed the street and grabbed Shane by the arm. When his eyes locked with hers, she quickly removed her hand. “We need to talk before we go inside.”
Shane tilted his head and smirked. “Agreed.”
“I know Olivia has hired you to be my babysitter, and she probably told you to say you were my bodyguard, but I’m not stupid. I know you’re here to keep an eye on me more than the werewolves who may or may not show up.”
“No one said you were stupid.” He lifted one shoulder. “Stubborn, yes. Stupid, no.”