Fanged Desire (Leyore Coven #3)

Chapter 15

Hunter

Dylan was unusually chatty that evening. The vampire you could always count on to be stoic and grumbly was, talking , full-on rambling, like there wasn’t a filter between her brain and her mouth.

It was strange and somewhat jarring, but if Jordan and Skye were anything to go on, a happy, blissful marriage will do that to a person. The Dylan I knew before Amara was guarded, quiet, and moody as hell. The Dylan I knew now was still moody, but… lighter. She laughed more, her sharp edges softened up a bit, and she was always down to talk about her wife. It was a night and day difference, and I was currently bearing the brunt of it.

And damn if that didn’t spark some kind of yearning in me.

Seeing her happy, really happy, with Amara made something twist deep in my chest. A familiar ache. It wasn’t jealousy, exactly, but it was close. I’d told myself I didn’t need that kind of connection – hell, it was better that way. Less messy. But watching Dylan find it and thrive? It left a sour taste in my mouth. Maybe I did want something like that. Or, at the very least, it made me realize how much I missed it.

Or maybe I was just thinking too much about Addison.

I kept trying to tell myself that the kiss with her was just... attraction. Physical. Something I could shake off if I gave it enough time or, better yet, got it out of my system entirely in a night of passion on the glitter-slicked floor of Micere. It was just that – physical. Not to mention the scent of her blood, that decadent aroma that had my fangs aching to sink into her throat.

But who was I kidding? Every time I thought about her, her lips, the heat between us, the way she melted into my touch, it felt like a thread pulling me deeper, getting me tangled – cutting off air.

Dylan nudged me with her elbow, bringing me back to reality. “Are you even listening?”

“Sure,” I muttered, though I hadn’t caught a word she said.

The pale vamp rolled her eyes. “Well, we’re done here, right? Memory wiped? Cashier won’t be blabbing about her little vampire sighting…”

“Yeah.” I rifled through my pockets and hauled out a crumpled pack of cigarettes, only to pause and stare at the box. “Yeah, we’re done.”

I’d promised Addison I’d quit – not that a humble cigarette could do much damage to vampire lungs anyway. But you promised, asshole. I pocketed the box with a disgruntled sigh.

Dylan and I stood outside the jewelry store, the ‘closed’ sign flipped to face the street.

Earlier, two Leyore vampires had decided that Pam's Jeweler was the perfect place to have a snarling contest over God-knows-what, and the poor young cashier had been an unfortunate witness. It wasn’t a difficult job to handle – I’d wiped the woman’s mind, a quick and clean job. Another day in the life, and so on.

The woman clearly wanted to forget what she’d witnessed, she’d been shaking like a leaf when Dylan and I arrived. But even so, these jobs always left a bitter taste on my tongue. We had to keep vampire sightings under control, the safety and security of the entire Leyore coven depended on it. But prying into people’s minds was not as easy as it had once been. I hadn’t given it much thought, entering a mind and rearranging memories, not until Selene, at least.

“Hunter… Hunter .” Dylan waved a hand in front of my nose, snapping me back to reality, and I gave her a scowl for her efforts.

The vampire only shrugged, unfazed, and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “Jordan and Sky want us to swing by their place. You coming?”

I was tempted to pass, but Dylan was already heading toward the car, and Addison wasn’t dancing that day, so I had nothing better to do but follow. When we arrived at Jordan’s apartment the redhead greeted us at the door, long locks in disarray and beaming in a way that made me wonder if she’d ever stop glowing after she and Sky tied the knot.

“Come in, come in,” Jordan chanted, dragging us both inside by the shirt collar.

Sky appeared moments later, one of the terrible twins balanced on her hip. “Perfect timing. Hunter, Dylan – the monsters are in need of some playmates. And Jordan and I need a breather.”

Dylan gave me a look of sheer horror, something that was definitely reflected in my own expression.

“I thought we were here for a debriefing. I have to be somewhere–” I made a desperate plea before, somehow, one of the twins was shoved into my arms before I could escape.

Dylan wasn’t far behind, holding the other like it might explode. “Yeah. Look, Jordan, I love these two but I’m not a good babysitter. You should’ve called Amara.”

Sky settled on the sofa nearby, rolling her neck and sighing as she sank into the pillows. “Sorry for the ambush, but we’re beat. Ursula’s been busy at college lately. She usually babysits these two when Jordan and I need a break.”

I stared down at the squirming toddler in my arms, stiff as a board, feeling completely out of my depth. When she started twisting and kicking, I resorted to holding the kid like a handbag, one arm supporting it awkwardly under the armpits, while Dylan had hers tucked under one arm like a football.

Jordan snickered from the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of not-quite wine and offering another to Sky. “Maybe Dylan is right. You two are awful at this.”

“Noted,” I muttered, adjusting my grip as the kid wriggled, giggling like the whole thing was a very entertaining game.

“Don’t drop it,” Dylan warned me, as if she wasn’t holding hers like she was about to chuck it downfield.

“Is this Hazel or Hilda?” I set the squirming monster down and she immediately zoomed across the living room, diving into the sofa cushions like a cannonball and chattering at the top of her lungs.

“ I’m Hilda!” Dylan’s football yelled at me before twisting out of her shackles and wrapping her tiny arms around Dylan’s leg. “Aunty Sky said you’re going to play with us.”

“ Aunty Sky is sorely mistaken.” Dylan lifted the kid off her leg the way you’d pick up a dirty rag, plopping her on the sofa alongside her sister.

They weren’t static for long, bouncing off the sofa and running circles around a stricken-looking Dylan while Jordan and Sky toasted their wine glasses at the havoc they wrought.

The twin torment continued for a few minutes, and Dylan and I were roped into an intense game of I Spy when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I shifted Hazel – no, Hilda – off my lap and pulled out my phone, grateful for the excuse to leave the hurricane occurring in the living room.

Dylan shot me a look of utter betrayal as I excused myself, and it was only when I noticed the caller that I reconsidered leaving my vampiric companion to her cruel fate.

Addison was calling. Addison who I hadn’t spoken to since we made out on the sofa at Micere. Addison who had occupied every inch of my mind, every hour, of every day.

I answered quickly. “Hey.”

“I think I’ve got something.” The woman wasted no time with pleasantries, her voice bubbly with excitement. “I was catching up with a colleague from the hospital, and he told me something strange. A patient went missing a few months ago – came in with a broken wrist, and poof , gone from his hospital bed. No one saw him leave.”

That got my attention. I pressed my cell to my chest and shot a quick look over my shoulder at Jordan. The redhead was curled up on the sofa alongside Sky, oblivious to my treachery as I slipped into the corridor. “People leave hospitals all the time.”

“This is different,” Addison insisted. “He had a visitor – a tall, beautiful woman wearing sunglasses. The police never found her, it was like she vanished right along with him. Doesn’t that sound familiar?”

It did. A little too familiar. I shifted the cell to my other ear, slipping into the bathroom and shouldering the door closed behind me. “You want to look into it?”

I already knew the answer.

“Yeah.” Addison said it breathlessly, already rearing to get going. “Are you free to meet up?”

I leaned over the sink and stared at my reflection in the mirror. The right thing to do would be to put the phone down and rescue my poor friend from an hour of babysitting. Keep the Leyore coven safe and Jordan’s business ventures along with it. But, as Maxine so often reminded me, I was never very good at following the rules.

“Absolutely. Be there in twenty.”

Again, there was that familiar, dangerous flutter in my chest. I knew I was in trouble – but hell, trouble never looked as good as Doctor Addison Moore.