Page 13 of Vacation with the Vampire
“I already have,” he declared succinctly, but I saw the way his mouth quirked, showing a hint of fang and mirth. His coat might be dusty, the white of his shirt turned ivory, but his hair was a pale blonde, so shiny it looked silver. He smelled good too, when he had no right to do so: masculine, deep, warm, and enticing.
“That is not the point!” He arched a brow, unimpressed, and took my breath away with how freaking handsome he looked when he did that. “Also,” I added, because apparently my brain had decided to latch onto the least important detail, “where exactly are you planning to sleep? Because there is only one bed, and...”
We both turned our heads at the same time to gaze at the ruffled sheets of the nearby bed. My pulse spiked as I contemplated the most obvious: sharing that bed. Tangled limbs rather than tangled sheets. He really shouldn’t be so sexy after a two-century nap; at the very least, he should have the worst bed hair in existence. “I will not require rest,” Raoul said, interrupting my chaotic, and a little too lusty, thoughts.
“You won’t?” I mouthed. Blinking up at him in confusion, I made myself consider what I knew of vampires. He’d been sleeping in a freaking crypt; perhaps he would prefer a coffin over a bed.
“I have slept for two centuries,” he said dryly. “I believe I can remain awake a while longer.” Finally, he stepped away and began prowling around the room like a predator trapped in a cage, his dusty coat flapping behind him, but his stride smooth and sleek.
“Right,” I muttered. “Sure. Why didn’t I think of that?” Because at this point, I’d believe anything he said. The glowing eyes and the fangs—they were too real to deny that he was what he said he was: a vampire. “I need a minute,” I said abruptly.
I stepped around him before he could respond, grabbing a relatively clean pair of pants from the chaos on the floor and making a beeline for the bathroom. It was all a bit much for one day, and my pants were all torn up and bloody. At leastthatI could fix; putting the vampire genie back in its bottle was impossible.
I shut the door behind me with a loud snicking noise, then locked it for good measure. Raoul hadn’t protested, and I didn’t think he’d violate my privacy. He was too well-mannered for such a thing, but it felt good to be out of his sight for a moment. I leaned against the door, exhaling shakily, and wiped my tired eyes with the back of my hand. “What has happened to my life?”
The bathroom was mercifully untouched, my bag of toiletries standing exactly where I’d left it. The space was clean, bright, and shockingly normal. I clung to that as I turned on the sink, splashing water on my face and scrubbing away the grime fromthe tunnels. My reflection stared back at me, pale, wide-eyed, hair a mess, but at least my knees were whole again.
There was no sign they’d ever been injured, and my wrist did not so much as twinge as I used it. That alone should have been enough to send me spiraling again. Instead, I accepted it, because apparently that’s what today was. Either I rolled with the punches or I’d go crazy.
I changed quickly, pulling on clean pants and wincing slightly as my body reminded me that just because things were healed didn’t mean I wasn’t exhausted. I freed my compact mirror from the old pants and checked it for cracks, but the silver surface didn’t even have a scratch. The compact was empty of cosmetics, but I kept a few folded euro bills inside it in case of emergency.
My phone rang just as I was tucking the mirror into the pocket of my clean pants. I froze, uncertainty shivering through me. As pathetic as it sounded, I didn’t really have anyone who’d call me. Certainly not while abroad, though I’d paid for a plan that would work on vacation just to be on the safe side.
I dragged my phone across the counter toward me and stared as the screen lit up. Boldly across it was a name I hadn’t wanted to see again: Logan. Sure, why not add a call from my jerk of an ex to today? I stared at it for another second while my finger hovered over the answer button. I shouldn’t answer; I knew I shouldn’t answer, but my finger moved anyway. “Hello?”
“What the hell did you do?” he snarled in my ear. His voice was as familiar as breathing, and that included the furious snarl. He’d snarled a lot at me after I’d caught him cheating with his stupid secretary. That reminded me of how uncertain my futurewas, and how stupid I’d been to date someone with the kind of influence he had. A recipe for disaster.
“What?” I asked, with not nearly as much snap in my tone as I would have liked. Logan the jerk didn’t deserve a moment of my time, but hewason the board of the chain of stores I managed. He hadn’t tried to get me fired yet; I was really good at what I did, and hewasmostly a silver-spoon trust fund kid. He would pull those strings, though, if he felt slighted enough.
“Your bag, Susie,” Logan said, not furious now but sounding tired and annoyed. “Don’t play dumb. The carry-on. You took it.” A sigh followed that vividly made me picture him sitting in his office, pinching his brow with those big, capable hands.
I straightened slowly as the words sank in. “Of course I did. That’s my bag.” See, I knew there was a reason they’d slashed up the carry-on, why that strange blonde on the plane had tried to take it. This all tied back to him—but why? What did he have to do with it?
“Bullshit,” he shot back. “You’ve always been like this! Stubborn, selfish! All you had to do was let the bitch take the bag.” Let the bitch take the bag, he couldn’t have been more dismissive when he said that. It proved it had been a setup from the start.
“Oh, we’re not doing this right now,” I said, anger flaring. It was dangerous, playing with my future, but I couldn’t hold back that anger. Thanks to him, my hotel room had been ransacked, and he had the guts to blame me?
“Where is it?” he demanded. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve…” The door behind me opened, and my attentionwas yanked from my phone and Logan’s tirade. I knew I’d locked it—I was absolutely sure of it—and yet Raoul stepped inside as if it had never been closed at all.
“How did you get in?” I asked, startled, my voice cutting through Logan’s furious words. Raoul didn’t answer, his dark eyes lighting up like molten gold. I held up my hand as if I intended to block him. He ignored it and stepped closer, way too close.
My breath hitched as he leaned in, his shoulder brushing mine, his presence suddenly overwhelming in the small space. His lips hovered near my ear, and then, in a voice low and cold enough to send a shiver straight down my spine, he said, “It is considered exceedingly poor form to address a lady in such a manner.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. “…Who the hell is that?” Logan demanded. I could picture his confusion and his fury. He would not expect me to have moved on with my life, to have another guy so soon. His ego would not allow it.
Raoul’s gaze flicked to the phone, his expression darkening. “End this,” he said quietly to me. “Before I am compelled to destroy that device.” I muffled a laugh and yanked the phone away from him.
“Okay, I got it! No destroying,” I said quickly, fumbling slightly and nearly dropping the device. With a demonstrative flick of my thumb, I tapped the screen, ending the call.
Silence fell, the kind that was charged, laden. Not because some random thief had ransacked my room, but because Logan had intruded on the thing brewing between me and my vampire. Now my vampire was on a warpath; I could feel it. Raoulstraightened, though his attention remained fixed on me, and the gold in his eyes faded to normal brown. “Explain,” he said.
I hesitated, because this was a pathetic story and I hadn’t told anyone about it yet. Not even my family—definitely not my friends, as far as they were friends. Then I sighed and gave in; it was only fair I shared some of my secrets with him, wasn’t it?
“He’s my ex,” I said. “We broke up two weeks ago because I found him cheating on me with his secretary in my apartment. In my bed.” There, I’d said it, let it out. I felt surprisingly light after having done so. I had nothing to be ashamed of; this was on Logan, not me.
Raoul’s expression shifted. It was subtle, but there. No glowing gold, but I knew he was furious anyway. Furious on my behalf. “And now,” I added, frowning, “he’s calling about my bag. Which makes zero sense, and...” I gestured vaguely toward the other room, “...clearly someone else was looking for it too.”
The coincidence sat heavy in the air, too heavy to be anything but related. Logan had done something to my carry-on, and now people I didn’t know were after it. Raoul looked dangerous again, like he was ready to haul Logan through my phone and punch his lights out, but in the most sophisticated manner possible. Not out of control, but it teetered on that edge.
