Page 10 of Don't Bite the Botanist
“Not important,” he replied quickly. “Look, I’ll get into the site. It’s just a matter of time. If I can hack the Vampire Ruling Coalition’s database, which by the way has a stronger firewall than the U.S. military, I think I can break into the cloud storage for a pharmaceutical company.”
Tressa laughed, garnering her another look from the couple that now appeared more annoyed than grieving. Maybe they should thank her for the distraction.
“I don’t know,” she told Baylin as she climbed out of the chair and headed for an empty hallway. “The Ruling Coalition is only protecting knowledge that could mean life or death. Pharmaceutical companies are protecting their wallets. Pretty sure it won’t be easy.”
Baylin snorted. “Yeah, well, I welcome the challenge. But in the meantime, if you want to try seducing Ethan into revealing what he was working on, I fully support that.”
“I’m not going to seduce him,” she argued. Then a grin spread across her face. “Well, at least not for information. But no seductionof any kind will be happening until after I get something to drink. I’m not sure I could restrain myself right now, and I won’t traumatize him even further.”
Tressa ran her tongue along the spot in her gums where her fangs would descend. She was starting to develop an ache that told her it was well past time to feed, and if she didn’t get blood soon, that couple in the lobby was going to be pissed at her for more than a minor disruption.
“Yeah, you have a big enough hill to climb,” Baylin agreed. “Did you bring an extra bag with you?”
Tressa cursed her lack of preparedness. Saiden would be so ashamed of her, and of course Baylin would enjoy telling his brother all about her fuckup. “No, I didn’t think I’d be here this long,” she replied. “I’m just going to compel whoever is on security at the hospital’s blood bank to let me inside for a minute. They won’t miss one little bag, and I’m sure I can encourage a few people around here to make an extra donation. I just need you to clear the camera footage when I’m done.”
“NowthatI can do in my sleep.”
“You sleep?” Tressa joked as she absently scanned a directory to locate the hospital’s blood storage.
“I do,” he replied dryly. “It’s my second favorite thing to do in my bed.”
Tressa fought the urge to shudder. While none of the cadre members that Marquin had brought together were actually related, they’d basically become a family over the past hundred years. “Gross, Bay. I don’t need to hear about your sex life.”
“You brought it up.”
“No, I didn’t.” She sighed as she found the room number she was looking for and spun on her toes. “Whatever. Can you just update everyone on what I’ve told you? I’m going to attempt to get Ethan tocome home with me, but it could take a while, so let Marquin know I might be unavailable for a bit.”
“Will do, Tress,” he replied.
“Thank you, Baylicious,” she sang, her cheerful attitude returning when she used the silly nickname she’d coined for him. It was less fun than the hundred or so she’d come up with for Saiden, but it still always made her smile.
Choose happiness, she reminded herself. Those two words had become her mantra ever since she became a vampire, and she had a feeling she was going to need the reminder more than ever in the next few days.
Tressa hung up to the sound of Baylin laughing. He was the only one who took her love of teasing in stride. Not that anything bothered her cousin. He was nothing if not eternally entertained by the antics of their cadre. Still, it worried her sometimes. How he spent his entire life holed up in front of a computer. How was he ever going to find his mate if the only women he ever met were online?
Tressa shook off those potentially depressing thoughts and headed off toward the elevators that would take her down to the blood bank. She’d worry about Baylin’s love life another time.
Right after she sorted out her own.
Despite sinking her fangs into a pilfered blood bag and sating the majority of her thirst, Tressa still had a shit evening.
She should have rented a nearby hotel room to get some sleepuntil she could talk to Ethan again, but the tug of the mating bond wouldn’t let her stray too far from his side even if she wanted to. She couldn’t stop thinking about him lying helpless in a hospital bed. The vampire who took a chunk out of his neck clearly wasn’t your average chaotic maim and murder rogue, so what if they had targeted Ethan specifically? What if they were monitoring him just like Baylin was and needed to finish the job now that he’d woken up?
Ever since Saiden’s encounter with the unhinged rogue, Bianca, the entire cadre had been a little on edge, wondering if there were more vampires out there with some larger nefarious plan.
A thousand horrific scenarios had raced through her mind, and in the end, the only way she could get even a few fitful hours of sleep was by crashing in that damned waiting area around the corner from his room. The hard hospital chair could give the rack a run for its money as the worst torture device ever, yet it was still less painful than being away from him. At least a dozen times, she considered compelling the nurse on duty to let her sleep in his room, but she was supposed to be a counselor, not a stalker, and she had no idea how she would explain her presence if he woke up in the night.
Which was why she needed an hour in the bathroom to make herself presentable before knocking on Ethan’s door the next day. Her mate would inevitably get to experience her first thing in the morning messiness at some point, but they had an eternity for that. No need to rush into exposing him to her morning breath.
Tressa pushed open the door to his room, and a delightful shiver ran down her spine as Ethan’s delicious scent washed over her.
“Good morning,” she said, trying to keep her peppy persona dialed down to medium since most people tended to give her a nasty glare when she had the energy of a cracked-out squirrel before 9 a.m.
Ethan hit the remote control for his TV to silence the news reportthat had been airing and watched her enter with a mixture of curiosity and amusement on his face.
“Didn’t I say no to the whole counseling thing?” he asked, leaning back against his propped-up pillows.
“You did,” she replied, ignoring the sharp edge to his tone. “But I come bearing gifts in hopes of bribing you into reconsidering.” She thrust out the overpriced latte she’d gotten from the hospital café.
