Beth Chase leaned close to the canvas to add a dot of gold highlight to one painted brown eye. Stepping back, she tilted her head and studied the portrait she’d been working on for the past two weeks.
Her sister sat in a spill of white lace and seed pearls, her tall, handsome groom standing behind her in a dark and elegant suit. Valerie’s big gray eyes glowed with happiness, and Cade looked downright besotted as he gazed down at her.
Beth decided she’d caught both likenesses pretty well. Except… the painting still needed something.
An idea struck, inspiring a wicked grin. She dropped her brush in the jar of turpentine and chose a sable one that was even finer. Humming under her breath, Beth leaned forward and added a tiny, delicate shape between the groom’s smiling lips -- the barest hint of a fang. Not enough for a casual observer to notice, but her brother-in-law would spot it immediately.
And Cade McKinnon, Texas Ranger-turned-vampire, would probably laugh his ass off.
What better gift for the couple’s fifth wedding anniversary?
Her portable phone rang from amid the litter of paint tubes and brushes on her art table, jolting Beth from her artistic haze. She gave it a wary glance and picked up, hoping it wasn’t Joaquin Ramirez again. She really wasn’t up to another fight. “Hello?”
“What’s wrong?” Val’s creamy Atlanta drawl rang with instant alarm.
Beth winced. She’d set off her sister’s Mommy alarm. “Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that -- I know that tone. Something’s bothering you.”
Oh, hell, might as well come clean. Besides, she might need the help. “I’ve got an ex- boyfriend who’s pushing a little hard.”
“Are you saying you’re being stalked?” Val’s voice took on that God help anybody who threatens my baby sister tone. “What’s going on? What’s he been doing?”
Now she was beginning to feel like an idiot. “Look, it’s not that big a deal, really. I broke it off with this guy, and he’s not happy about it. I can handle it.”
The line clicked as Cade picked up the other phone. “You want me to come to Atlanta and have a word with him?”
It was a tempting thought. Five minutes with Cade and his psychic powers, and Joaquin would forget he even knew Beth.
On the other hand, she hated the idea of turning to her vampire relatives to solve her problems. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m a big girl now. I can take care of myself.”
“We didn’t say you couldn’t, babe,” Val said. “But back when I was a reporter --”
“You wrote a story about a stalker who ended up killing his ex.” No matter what the topic of conversation, Val had usually written a story about it.
“Not a story -- more like ten or fifteen. This kind of thing is nothing to screw around with.”
“Look, Beth, just humor us,” Cade said. “Tell us about this guy.”
Well, Joaquin had gotten a little scary lately. “Not much to tell.” Brooding, she rubbed at a spot of wet Cadmium Red on her jeans. “I met him at my gallery showing last month. He seemed charming enough at first -- tall, good looking, had this kind of Antonio Banderas thing going…”
“Let me guess -- he’s married,” Val said.
“I wish. I could just call his wife and have her drop-kick his ass. Anyway, after we went out a few times, I started getting the feeling there was something nasty under all that charm.” Needing to move, she began to pace her studio restlessly. “So a couple of days ago, I told him to get lost.”
“Good,” Val said. “When you get a psychic impression that strong, you need to listen to it.”
Beth frowned. She’d never been comfortable with the idea she might share her sister’s mental abilities. “I don’t know about the psychic impression thing, but he definitely creeped me out.”
“Are you sure this guy isn’t a vampire?” Cade was beginning to sound seriously worried.
“Joaquin?” Oh, now there was a nasty thought. She shook her head. “Can’t be. We went out five or six times, and he never gave any indication he was anything more than just a guy. A really creepy guy, but still…”
“If he is a vampire, who knows what kind of game he’s playing?” Cade said. “You’re Kith, Beth. That makes you damn rare. There are vamps who’d go to any length to get their hands on a Kith female.” Few people could survive being infected by the virus that caused vampirism. Vamps called those who could the Kith, as in “kith and kin.”
Reluctantly, Beth considered the idea. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen him during the day. That might be coincidence, though.”
“Or it might not.” There was a long, chilly pause. “I think I should come to Atlanta.”
She sighed. “Maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea. I…” The doorbell rang, cutting her off. “Hold on a minute, there’s somebody at the door.”
“Beth…”
Carrying the phone, Beth walked out of her studio and down the hall to the apartment’s front door. Automatically, she checked the peephole. “Oh, hell.”
It was Ramirez, tall and elegant in a charcoal Seville Row suit, his gleaming dark hair flawlessly styled. She automatically checked the deadbolt. It was locked. Good. “Joaquin, go away or I’m calling the cops,” she called through the closed door. “I’ve told you I’m not interested.”
“The problem is, my dove,” he purred back in that thick Castilian accent, “I am.”
“Too bad.” Lifting the phone again, she turned to move away. “I’ve got to call the cops. Joaquin is at the --”
The door exploded inward with a crash. She whirled as Ramirez shouldered through its broken remains.
“What are you doing?” Beth glared at him, too furious and astonished to be afraid. “Get the hell out!”
“I don’t think so, my dove.” He looked more cruel than handsome now, his hawkish face stark with hunger and feral anticipation. Then he smiled, and her blood chilled.
He had fangs.
She whirled, but Ramirez grabbed her before she could take another step. His grip sent pain lancing through her arms. She dropped the phone and went for his eyes with her nails.
He hit her, a stunning backhand slap that snapped her head back on her shoulders. As her consciousness fell away, she heard Cade roaring her name over Val’s frantic voice. “Beth? Beth, what’s happening? Be --”