Page 31 of Don't Bite the Botanist
Jake’s dead eyes, staring for eternity, pleading, accusing.
His ideas swirled down the drain in his head as he remembered his true priority. The vampire needed to die first. Then, and only then, could he allow himself to think about developing a new medication.
“Hey, Earth to Ethan,” Tressa said, waving a hand in front of his face. “Where did you go just now?”
Ethan removed his glasses and wiped them on the hem of his borrowed Linkin Park T-shirt while he composed himself enough to answer. “This plant…” he began, placing the glasses back on the bridge of his nose. “The potential it could offer the world is incredible, but Jake should be here for this. He was my partner. He was the chemist to my botanist. He kept me tethered to the world.” Ethan paused, and a small grin tugged at his lips. “Jake is the reason I have that rose tattooed on my ass.”
Tressa’s eyebrow quirked up. “Go on…”
“Let’s just say I lost a bet over how many hydrogen atoms are in the chemical formula for caffeine. In my defense, it was two in the morning and we’d been drinking.”
“Why Ethan, who knew you had such a wild side?” Tressa teased, bumping his hip with hers.
Ethan stumbled slightly but caught himself before he accidentallyfell into the Middlemist Red Camellia. Straightening up, he said, “Yeah, but that was years ago. Lately it’s been all work. The medication we were developing together had the real potential to significantly decrease fatalities from cardiovascular disease. But this”—he gestured to the Camellia—“this plant could let me develop a treatment that might eliminate them altogether.” His voice choked up. “And Jake will never be around to see it happen.”
“I’m so sorry,” Tressa whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I know what it’s like to lose people. Why don’t you tell me more about him? Or tell me about that medication you were working on.”
Ethan sighed. “There’s really nothing more to mention beyond what I’ve said, and the mechanism of action would probably just bore you.” He gave her a small smile. “Unless maybe you’re a doctor on top of being a vampire hunter?”
He was only partially teasing, but honestly, she seemed intelligent enough that he wouldn’t be surprised.
“Not quite,” Tressa said, but she didn’t seem as interested in playing as she had before. “Why don’t we continue on? There’s a lot of the garden left to see.”
Ethan drug his eyes away from her face to stare at the pink flower for another second, reminding himself that it was real and in good shape.
She laughed and tugged on his shoulder. “It’s not going anywhere, Ethan. I promise.”
Reluctantly, he let Tressa lead him deeper into the garden. An assortment of other rare plants greeted him, but he’d pretty much shot his load with the Middlemist Red Camellia. Nothing else could even come close.
His mind drifted once more to the possibilities of the exotic flower, and he vowed he would return for it.
Just as soon as he got revenge for his partner.
Chapter fifteen
Tressa
“I have to ask,” Ethan said, breaking the silence that had lingered since Tressa pulled him away from the rare plant. “How do you have all of these?Whydo you have all these? You must keep an army of gardeners to maintain them since some are very finicky. This chocolate cosmos is especially difficult to keep alive. So why go to the trouble? What do vampire hunters need with plants?”
Tressa bent down to sniff the deep burgundy flower Ethan had gestured to, allowing her vampire senses to absorb all the nuances of the smell. Lovely, but not as appealing as her mate. “I think our boss just wanted us to have something peaceful and relaxing since this is home for us,” she replied, standing up. “A happy place to escape the less pleasant aspects of our lives. ‘Flowers are the smiles of nature,’ right?”
Ethan blinked at her. “You’ve read Ralph Waldo Emerson?”
Tressa grinned, pleased he recognized the quote. “I have a lot of free time on my hands. You’d be surprised at how many books I’ve read.”
His eyes locked on hers, searching her face in a way that made her both thrilled at the intensity but also a little nervous at what hemight find. Clearing her throat, she forced herself to turn away and continued down the row of vibrant flowers, running her fingers over a few of the silky leaves.
“As I was saying, we all live here at the compound. That’s why we have things like this garden and the pool. Marquin, the one in charge of the cadre, is sort of a father figure, you might say. I think that’s why he likes to spoil us. He also has more than enough money, so I doubt maintaining this garden makes even a dent in his finances.”
Tressa glanced over her shoulder in time to see Ethan arch an eyebrow. “So, your boss is rich, generous, and a vampire hunter?” he asked. “Sounds like a paranormal Batman.”
Tressa burst out laughing. “Please, I’m begging you, when you meet him, I need you to call him that.”
Marquin would have a field day with the comparison, and it would give Tressa an unending source of fuel for teasing. She couldn’t get him to so much as blink whenever she tried out a new nickname for him, but this might be her in. She was one of the few people who knew about the comic books in Marquin’s office—the ones he hid in a secret panel behind his bottles of expensive scotch. Tressa knew everyone’s secrets, in fact, even if none of them knew hers.
Dismissing the all too familiar melancholy that tugged at her heart, she turned back to Ethan and caught him staring at her.
“Beautiful,” he murmured.
