Xander loved the look on her face. Raw, unguarded, a mix of desire and surprise that caused her cheeks to flush and her body to yield beneath him. Her lips were parted as if for kisses, her eyes large enough, he saw himself reflected in their depths. She appeared sweet and alluring in that vulnerable moment. She’d almost crossed the threshold where she was his; he felt her body start to arch under the sensations.
Drinking blood was a necessity, and he took his pleasure from it and the bodies of the women in his bed.
Drinking her blood was a different kind of experience. With his teeth in her neck, he’d been granted partial access to her he was otherwise denied. He wasn’t able to hear her thoughts, but he felt what she did. Her emotions were crisp and clear. Yet the idea he had to be inside her to feel her was intoxicating. Erotic. That level of intimacy wasn’t something he ever experienced with others. He heard the thoughts of others but never experienced their emotions, aside from the pain of hurting the innocent.
These emotions were different. They were her, as if he’d been given access to her at the deepest levels. Why did he find the connection appealing? He preferred his solitary life.
He was growing more uneasy, despite the pleasure of her blood. She enticed him in a way he wasn’t expecting and lived through handling the gem at his neck. The key to absolute power had been in her hands, as docile as it was in his.
It wasn’t a good sign.
Her guardedness returned too soon. Her shapely, feminine body went rigid beneath his.
“Get off me,” she whispered.
“When Laurencio says we’re done.”
“We’re done!”
“Good effects with the blood. It’s getting messy. Clean it up?” Laurencio called.
Xander licked his fangs and lips clean, enjoying her taste while she stared at him with far too much emotion for him to determine what she’d do: freak out or melt. Already, he wanted another sip of her, enough to tide him over until he was able to make a meal out of her.
“I quit,” she hissed.
“No, you don’t.” He ducked his head to kiss away the ensnaring blood that dripped onto her cheek. He savored the wayward drops. “You want something from me.”
“Not anymore!”
He’d guessed right. She didn’t have the patience or interest to be a real personal assistant. Gerry was doing a good job of playing along, but Jessi was too outspoken, too unpolished. Unyielding, even with his attempts to breach her mind and influence her. He was manipulating Laurencio and Toni like puppets, but Jessi was beyond him. He was able to count the number of people beyond his ability to manipulate on one hand: the Gods. Even them, he was able to read, if he was willing to expend the effort needed to do so.
None of them were able to move in stealth mode, like Jessi-the-Natural lying breathless and furious beneath him. She stirred his intense curiosity, like only the unknown could.
A surrender from someone like this was the kind of challenge he needed. She’d responded to him when his fangs were in her neck, and his power was in direct contact with her, but she still hadn’t broken down into a mewling mess like every other woman did when first he touched them. Jessi wasn’t just prey; she was sentient prey, someone for him to win her mind in addition to overpowering.
She stirred more than his interest. For the first time since landing in the human world, he had the intense urge to track, hunt and bring down something capable of eluding him. He felt need. He never experienced this sensation with women. Desire and hunger, yes, but never the compulsion to be inside a particular woman. It was almost as arresting as her sweet scent and the shocked look on her face that made him want to laugh.
If only the Black God wasn’t using her somehow …
“Excellent!” Laurencio said. “I think we’re done.”
Jessi pulled at her arms again and squirmed beneath him. Xander smiled, enjoying the sensation of her wriggling body beneath him. He held her for a few seconds longer to emphasize that he only let her go because he wanted to. He waited for her flush, then released her and sat up, straddling her again.
“You are such an asshole,” she exclaimed, voice trembling. Her hand went to her neck, where the two punctures were healed. “I can’t believe you bit me!”
Xander laughed.
“He really bit you?” Gerry asked, nearing.
The Guardian irritated Xander, more so because Jessi had smiled and laughed with him earlier. Gerry knew his place, though his gaze was sharp right now. Xander shook his head at the questioning look the Guardian gave him, the silent inquiry as to whether he tried to turn her.
Jessi pulled her legs out from between Xander’s thighs and stood, refusing to look at him.
“I’m throwing out all your precious coffee,” she said and marched away.
He watched her, admiring her body. Toni crossed his vision. She was five minutes from throwing herself at his feet. He was hungry after the stimulation of Jessi’s refusal to bend to his will.
No, he was starving. He hadn’t felt this alive since long before the Schism, when a certain Original Human bound his magic.
Jessi wasn’t about to cave to his appetite, but Toni was almost begging. Xander stood and swept her up into his arms. She melted.
“Jessi, have lunch with Gerry today,” he said without looking up.
Jessi didn’t acknowledge him at all.
If Xander didn’t feed now, he was going to go on a rampage and slaughter half the apartment building to slake his hunger. While appealing, it would ruin his chances to figure out what Jessi was hiding. Not to mention, Ingrid wouldn’t approve. Xander was enjoying his newfound status too much to sacrifice it now, especially when he had a line of women ready to please him. If Toni wasn’t enough to distract him, all he had to do was walk outside his door for another snack.
***
Jessi’s hands shook from the fire in her blood. She was about to have a break down. Standing in the kitchen, she snatched a pen from her purse and hastily scribbled a note. She left it on the iPad and paused to reread it.
I quit. Don’t call me. I’m not coming back. Ever.
It was pretty clear.
“What’re you doing?” Gerry asked, watching her.
“Quitting!”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but don’t quit out of emotion,” Gerry said. “We’ll go to lunch and talk about it.”
“Talk about what? The fact he bit me?” she demanded. Furious and freaked out, she grabbed her purse and strode out the front door, just as Xander came into sight through the glass doors from the direction of the beach. Toni’s body was all but molded around his midsection.
Jessi grabbed Gerry’s arm and slammed the front door behind them, marching through the hallway in a combination of disgust and envy.
“Lunch and talk?” Gerry prodded.
“Fine. We’ll go to lunch and then I’m going home,” she told Gerry. “You won’t talk me out of quitting.”
“Fair enough. We’ll talk it out.”
She gave him a sidelong look as they waited for the valet. She wasn’t going back. She was serious. Trapped between Jonny and Xander. There was no way in hell she wasn’t packing up the kids and leaving.
Gerry smiled in encouragement. She reached for her purse and dug around for her phone, intent on telling the cousins to pack. She pulled out one phone, the one assigned to her by Ingrid. Hers was …
…sitting on the counter next to the iPad.
“Dammit!” she muttered. “Wait here. I gotta get my phone.”
“Sure.”
Jessi hurried into the apartment building. She was pretty certain Xander would be too occupied with Toni to notice her. Just in case, she waited a full two minutes outside his condo before typing in the code. The last thing she wanted was to see him again. Ever.
The condo was silent. Cat sat at the top of the stairs, as if waiting for her. Jessi hesitated once more then ascended.
“Quiet, kitty,” she murmured to the small creature.
An odd thought crossed her mind. She stopped at the top of the stairs and lifted the cat. Its eyes were the same color red as Xander’s. Was it a vampire, too?
“Forget something?”
She jumped and faced him. Xander stood near the railing overlooking the first floor, her phone in his hand. In his other: the sticky note on which she’d written her hasty resignation.
Jessi set the cat down, uncertain if she was scared or furious. She crossed to him cautiously and held out her hand for the phone.
She wanted to run, but her phone was her lifeline. He held it out, and she took a few steps back.
His fangs were out.
“I’m not coming back.”
“I got the point,” he said and crumpled the note. “You’ll be back.”
“No, I won’t. Whatever sick game or alternate reality this is, I’m not playing anymore!”
“I didn’t hurt you.”
“You bit me. On what planet is that acceptable?”
“I gave you advance warning.”
“Are you for real?” she demanded. “What is wrong with you vampires? You go around biting people and think it’s okay?”
He tilted his head to the side in a signal she now knew was one of interest.
“If you ever come near me again, Xander, I swear I’ll … whatever. Just … I’m quitting!” She turned to leave.
“Vampires. Plural. You’ve run into another one.”
“None of your damn business.”
“It is.” He took her arm.
She whirled and slapped him. He released her.
“Back. Off. Xander,” she ordered. “You even turned your cat into a vampire, didn’t you? Who does that?”
“For future reference, I consider a slap foreplay.”
“Unbelievable! You can’t be decent for two seconds, can you?”
She stormed out, shaking as much from the day as how much she wanted to stay the minute he touched her. Jessi strode to her waiting car and threw herself into the driver’s seat. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. Psycho or vampire, she was calling Jonny when she got home and telling him there had to be a better way to do this.
“You’re really upset,” Gerry said as he sank into the passenger seat.
She forced a smile. “Just never worked for someone like that before.”
“They’ve all got egos. Some of them don’t know the difference between who they play on TV and who they are in real life,” he said. “It’s just the way this place is.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not going to deal with it.”
His gaze was concerned. She found herself relaxing as they drove away from Xander’s. Gerry was the opposite of the crazy vampire: warm, sunny, smiling, good. She liked that about Gerry while wondering if he was able to make her blood burn as Xander had. She touched her neck absently. How had he not severed an artery or killed her with those four inch incisors?
“I have a feeling she’ll be there all night,” Gerry said with a sigh. “We can go someplace good to eat. There’s an awesome taco shack an hour away.”
“Taco shack?” she said, looking him over critically. He was well-dressed and perfectly presented, not the kind to dine at what she envisioned a taco shack to be.
He grinned.
Jessi smiled in response. Being with someone who seemed normal helped her relax, though she wasn’t able to forget he had something to do with Xander.
They drove an hour away, Gerry filling the time with engaging chatter. She couldn’t take her mind off Xander, especially since she began to think he’d taken her disinterest in him as a dare. Her body settled, and she recalled the look on his face with a mix of excitement and dread.
He’d been intrigued. Something told her that the interest of a man … creature like him was not a good thing. Not that it mattered. When she didn’t return, he’d find a new plaything.
Hopefully.
As she calmed, she began to realize a different obstacle to her plan of never seeing Xander again: Jonny. He wasn’t going to take her news well. Jessi thought hard of some way to keep Jonny off her back long enough for her to make a break for it with the kids.
Even this plan began to fizzle when she returned home a few hours later. The goon that bruised her arm was lingering outside her building, along with two more. They nodded to her when she got out of the car but didn’t approach.
Jessi hurried inside, heart pounding, not at ease until all four locks of her apartment door were securely in place. She leaned against the door to her three bedroom apartment. She hadn’t thought it so cramped, but it was, compared to Xander’s spacious, airy condo. Jessi shook her head and went to the tiny kitchen. Music blared from the rooms of both cousins, as it did every afternoon when they were studying before dinner. She didn’t feel ready to face them yet.
She pulled Jonny’s number from the fridge but hesitated, still not certain what to tell him.
Xander made her uneasy. Jonny scared her. He seemed like a normal teenager, harmless with a name like Jonny. But being anywhere near him was like sticking her hand in a light socket. He radiated a weird sort of energy.
She fished the cell out of her purse and frowned. It was the one Ingrid left her, not her own. Irritated she was too flustered to leave it, Jessi searched until she found hers. She set the spare on the counter then called Jonny.
“Hey.”
“Hi, Jonny. This is Jessi.”
“Yeah, I know.”
She rolled her eyes. The punk had an attitude. “Listen, there was an …issue today at Xander’s.”
“He figured out why you were there.”
“No, he didn’t.”
There was a pause.
“You still there?” she asked.
“I’ll be right over.” He hung up.
That’s not good. Jessi started towards Brandon’s to tell him to pack or hide.
A knock at her door stopped her. She crossed to it and peered through the peep hole, surprised to see Jonny’s caramel features and black eyes. The teen didn’t appear happy.
She opened the door. Jonny entered, his odd energy crackling around him. It filled the apartment and made the hair on her arms stand on end.
“I hope I didn’t make this sound urgent or anything,” she said.
“I was in the neighborhood.”
Her gut sank. Was he watching her to make sure she did what he wanted? Her kids were home. How did she quit when he was able to hurt them?
He flung himself down into the oversized chair and lifted his boots onto the ottoman. His piercing gaze made her feel slightly ill. He seemed much older than his nineteen-year-old appearance.
“Um, I know you said Xander is different, but…” she shook her head. “He’s a lot more than that.”
“Hmmm.”
“Why do I have a feeling you already knew that.”
“You had a job. It doesn’t matter what Xander is,” Jonny replied.
“I know. I, uh, think we need a different approach.”
“Like what?” There was a dangerous note in the teen’s voice.
“Like he never takes off the necklace.”
“Your problem to solve, not mine.”
“Well …” Her eyes went towards the hallway where the kids were. Her heart was pounding fast and hard. “I’m wondering if I couldn’t use a distraction.”
Jessi waited, uncertain why the troubled look on the crazy teen’s face still got to her, even knowing what she did about him. He seemed lost for a second then focused on her once more, the uncertainty fading.
“The idea has merit. Remove him from his comfort zone. It’s something he taught me.” Jonny shook his head. “I can use his lesson against him.”
“Um, right.”
“Find out his schedule tomorrow and tell me what day,” he directed her. “I’ll blow up his condo.”
“My god! Nothing that bad.”
“It’ll destroy his comfort zone.”
“I don’t know … I mean, I’m not sure I can do this.” Not that she’d miss the right angle hell that made her edgy, but blowing up someone’s home?
“Why not?”
“Jonny, he bit me. Like, seriously, bit me,” she said and showed him the two small scars.
Interest crossed the youth’s face. He rose and approached her, followed by the intensity of a storm cloud. She instinctively retreated, but he took her arm to stop her and tilted her chin.
“He did,” he confirmed. “He’s a vampire. It’s what he does. You’re lucky he let you live.”
She stared up at him.
“Jessi, let me get one thing straight. You and I both know what’s at stake here,” he started. His grip on her arm tightened. There was a strange glow in his gaze, a dangerous one that made her reconsider calling him.
“I know, but…” she trailed off, wincing as he squeezed her harder.
“But nothing. You want me to take it out on your cousins?”
“No.”
“No excuses, Jessi. You do whatever you have to in order to get that necklace,” he said. “You’ll call me tomorrow with his schedule.”
Pain radiated through her. She tried to pull away, but he yanked her back to him.
“Do you understand?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Your cousins’ lives are at stake. I shouldn’t be here reminding you,” he said in a sharp voice. “You are the only person who can do this, or I’d kill all three of you now.”
Jessi gasped. Jonny’s eyes were burning with something inhuman. She held her breath, the pain in her arm crippling.
“You don’t get another warning,” he whispered.
He let her go.
“Hi, Jonny.”
They turned in unison towards the speaker.
“Is something wrong?” Ashley asked, her smile fading.
“No,” Jonny said in a softer voice. “We were talking about this weekend.”
“Did you ask her?” Ashley’s face glowed. “Jessi, did he tell you?”
Jonny’s gaze was intense. “About the weekend trip? Yes, I did.”
“Yeah. Sounds fun,” Jessi forced herself to say.
“Jonny is so sweet to offer. He has a huge house in the forest. It’s got like … oh,” Ashley flushed. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you I’d been there before. Sorry, Jonny.”
“It’s okay, Ash. We’ll show her together this weekend.” The youthful vampire smiled in return, appearing to be a normal teen there to visit a friend.
Jessi almost panicked. Ashley was gazing at him, completely in love with any guy who gave her the time of day.
“Finish your homework, Ashley. I’ll start dinner in a few minutes,” Jessi managed.
Ashley grinned at Jonny and darted down the hallway.
“Sweet girl,” Jonny said.
“Stay away from her,” Jessi snapped.
“Do your job.”
Jonny turned and strode out.
Jessi watched him go, fear seizing her chest as she realized how dangerous he was. Her arm didn’t just feel bruised; it felt damaged. She flexed her hand and winced at the pain it caused. Her forearm was starting to swell, as if he’d broken or sprained it. The pain was warm.
Tears forming, Jessi sank into her couch, eyes on the photo of her and the two teens she was supposed to be taking care of. She was a horrible guardian.
“Ashley!” she called.
Her cousin hurried back, her face falling when she realized Jonny was gone.
“I don’t want you talking to that kid,” Jessi said.
“Jonny?” Ashley appeared genuinely surprised. “He’s been nice to me. He rescued me the other night.”
“Yeah, well, he’s a wacko.”
“You’re so lame.” Ashley rolled her eyes.
“Ash, I’m serious.”
“First I have to check in every other hour and now I can’t see Jonny.” Ashley’s face flushed. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Like hell I can’t!” Jessi snapped. “I’ll ground your ass for weeks if you don’t listen to me.”
“You’re never home anyway. You have no idea what I do when you’re out.”
Jessi bit her tongue, not wanting to get into a pissing match with her cousin. She drew a deep breath.
“Look, just do me a favor this week. Don’t see Jonny. We’ll see how it goes with your healing and then talk about it this weekend,” she said.
Ashley hesitated. There were still circles under her eyes and she was paler than normal.
“Okay?” Jessi prodded.
“Whatever.”
It was as close to a yes as she was going to get. Ashley stormed back to her room and slammed the door.
Jesse leaned against the wall. She had to keep it together. Wiping her face, she forced herself to breathe steadily. Jonny was right. All three of their lives were at stake. It was one stupid necklace.
Owned by a vampire much larger than this one. If she took it, what would Xander do?
Could she risk finding out?
Jessi rose. Too much was on the line for her to give up. If Xander hadn’t erased the events calendar, she’d know where he’d be so she could search his house for the necklace.
When you’re ready to talk, let me know.
Why did she have the feeling his deal involved making her Tuesday? There was no way she was sleeping with a man like that. If he threw out every woman he slept with, she’d have to save this option for a last resort, in case he fired her the morning after. If she wasn’t certain she’d be able to take the necklace out the door with her, she was screwed.
At least the offer was on the table, barring any anger he had at her slapping him today.
“I’m not to that point yet,” she told herself. She needed to figure out when he was leaving the house, so she could find the necklace and be done with the vampires.
Jessi crossed to the kitchen to start dinner for her cousins, mind on how she was going to get out of this mess, if she wasn’t able to get the necklace. Her right hand hardly worked. The pain made her nauseous.
More tears formed, but she pushed them away. She had tomorrow to try again. After all, the thought of kicking the annoying woman, Toni, out of Xander’s bed and apartment sounded really appealing.