Page 14 of Silent Stalker
FOUR
I’m not buying into that ploy, sir.
Makingthe drive to the brood’s safe house with a lap full of angry giant cat tested my patience and got on my last nerve. At the rate Emerick postured, mostly hissing at the vampires in the back if they stared at me for longer than two seconds, he’d jump out of his fur. As it was, I had to keep my arms wrapped around the cantankerous feline in the hope I might be able to keep him from adding to the general trauma of the evening.
The last thing I needed was Emerick getting into a fight with three vampires in need of more blood.
The brood’s safehouse proved to be a townhouse at the end of a row, and several of the security guards from the estate waited outside for our arrival. They swarmed the Civic and helped the vampires out of the back. I cracked open the window and asked the more senior of the lobby guards, a vampire almost as old as Emerick, “Abe, do we have a harness and leash for this asshole? He spent the entire drive hissing at those poor vampires.”
“Alas, you will have to figure out how to contain him without the help of a harness or leash. He’d just transform and escape your clutches anyway. But we dream of that day.”
Emerick sighed and opened his mouth, pressing his teeth to my arm.
“I’m not buying into that ploy, sir.”
“Are you aware you have blood all over your face and your nose seems to be rather severely broken?”
“Once I put this asshole in a cage, someone can fix my nose.”
“You can’t cage him, Pepper,” Ben said, killing the car’s engine and opening his door. “But Giovanni is here, and he can fix your nose. It’s been long enough that he’ll probably have to break it again, though. But I’m sure your favorite dessert won’t mind tending to your every need once it’s set.”
Emerick hissed, wiggled free of my hold, and jumped onto Ben’s lap before escaping the car.
“He’s going to change back to human to make sure Giovanni isn’t going to do more than fix my broken nose, isn’t he?”
Ben snickered. “That didn’t take you long to figure out. You also need more blood, as you gave more than I like. I hadn’t thought I’d need more than one bottle of the Wagyu, but then I saw how much you were giving and realized my error. But you’re so used to running close to empty you probably haven’t noticed the loss.”
“The Wagyu you brought helped.”
“The bottle wouldn’t have replaced everything you donated. At least we don’t have to dance around Emerick’s other shape anymore. He had wanted to surprise you, but he seems to have forgotten you can handle yourself.”
“Can you explain that for me? When he showed up, Luca basically groveled. Of course, when faced with an angry giant cat, the thought crossed my mind maybe if I beg the kitty not to eat me, he might listen.”
Ben laughed. “Yeah. When you called me because Emerick had showed himself, I realized we may have made an error. Being surprised by a large predator could have caused an issue. Then again, he would have just taken you over if needed. Luca knows who Emerick is and was in enough control of his mind to understand if he didn’t grovel, he would have gotten shredded. That Emerick knew Luca had been kidnapped saved them all, really. If he hadn’t known the vampire, he would have asked questions of the corpses, I’m sure. He can be unreasonable at times.”
Emerick, unreasonable? I joined the other vampire in laughing. “That’s quite the understatement, Ben.”
“Beyond your nose, you’re not hurt?”
“Why are you asking me this now?”
Ben pointed at the townhouse, where the angry giant cat prowled through the opened door.
Right. “Sorry. I’m an idiot tonight, apparently. I’m fine. I’m planning on concocting how I sprained my pride severely, and I might jerk him around on it because I can.” It wouldn’t teach Emerick anything, but I expected we’d both enjoy the odd dance between us.
“Your pride wasn’t severely sprained?”
“Didn’t even get a twinge. I took out two in one hit, and that is worthy of praise. I didn’t even kill them. In my opinion, I did a damned good job. Everybody survived. Frankly, I deserve breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert for that.”
“I see you’re hungry, right on schedule. I am not arguing with you, but he’s going to be offended regarding your nose.”
I pointed at my face. “I could leave it broken. As long as it doesn’t impair my ability to breathe, I don’t care. It’s not like I spend a lot of time staring at myself in the mirror. My father worried more about my face than I ever will. I have proven I do not need my face or an intact nose to catch a man.”
Ben shot me a dark look and scowled. “Please don’t leave your nose broken.”
I grinned, ignoring how my nose hurt. The stress of making sure Emerick didn’t climb into the back and bother the traumatized vampires had done a good job of distracting me from my throbbing face. Determined to pretend I hadn’t lost a third of the brawl, I got out of the car and waited for Ben. “Honestly, I won’t because I’m sure it will hurt more that way.”
“I’m sure Giovanni will do his best to limit your discomfort when he sets your nose.”
