Chapter 8
Chapter eight
Ethan
“You’re a what?”
There was no freaking way this skinny, adorable, perky woman was a Van Helsing in disguise. Not possible.
He’d been thinking maybe she worked for a rival pharmaceutical company and was going to offer him a new job.
It would make sense to send a hottie to entice him, even though he was rarely swayed by a pretty face and was still bound by a strict NDA with VieTek.
But he was a fairly well known entity in the pharmaceutical research world, being one of the few expert botanists who willingly worked in corporate America, so any smart company might see it as an opportunity to seize his vulnerable moment and lock him under a new contract.
Hell, he might have even believed she was a vampire herself showing up to finish the job.
It would have made sense too, given how preternaturally beautiful she was.
But a vampire wouldn’t have the pain he’d seen in her eyes.
And they wouldn’t have Tressa’s all-too-human nervous ticks—the way she picked at her cuticles or how she went all guppy-mouthed when she found herself in an unexpected situation.
No, there was no way she was a soulless demon. Still, it made more sense than the excuse she had gone with.
“I am a vampire hunter,” she repeated with more confidence and a little defensiveness creeping into her voice. “You don’t believe me?”
Ethan laughed and tucked his hands behind his head. “Sweetheart, it’s not a matter of me believing you. Even if you are some kind of Buffy wannabe, it doesn’t mean you could actually take down a real vampire.”
She arched an eyebrow, but he just shook his head.
“I’ve seen one, remember? Up close and personal when it was tearing my throat out. And I was helpless. Completely unable to do anything but die a painful death. There’s no way you’re a hunter. Sorry, not to be a dick, but no.”
“Well, fuck you too, Ethan,” she shot back, all pretenses of little miss sunshine washed away by the venom soaking her voice. She stood up and stalked over to the side of his bed. “What kind of sexist, antiquated, bullshit response is that?”
As much as he wanted to shout back that it was a logic-based response and there was no need to get pissy, the fire in her eyes was doing something to a certain part of his anatomy.
She might be all ‘look on the bright side’ with everyone else, but there was fight in her.
She was a woman who’d been through some shit and came out swinging.
Maybe…
“Okay, say I believe you,” he offered, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “I mean, you’ve certainly got the attitude for it, after all. But what are you doing here, then? If you’re a hunter, why aren’t you out there, you know, hunting?”
She huffed and took a step back, but only a small one. “I was sent to check on you,” she replied stiffly, appearing only slightly mollified by his retraction. “My, um, organization that hunts vampires has been monitoring your progress after the attack. In case you woke up.”
“Your organization?” He narrowed his eyes on her. “You belong to an organization that hunts vampires?”
She retrieved the chair she’d been sitting in and dragged it closer to Ethan’s bed. “That’s what I said. Did the attack damage your hearing?” She dropped into her seat and studied him carefully.
“My hearing is just fine,” he snapped. “But what you’re saying sounds like the plot of a bad movie. Next you’ll tell me the government knows all about vampires, and it’s a huge conspiracy to cover it up.”
Tressa looked thoughtful for a second, tapping a slender finger on the arm of the chair. “No, I don’t believe any of the world governments are aware of the existence of vamps. If they are, they’re keeping it to themselves. We have a guy who monitors that kind of thing.”
He blinked. “You have a guy?”
“Of course we do. How else would we keep track of everything?”
Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose, wishing he had another latte. Or seven. Three-month coma fatigue was not something cured by a single shot of espresso even when he wasn’t struggling to wrap his brain around a substantial change to his world order.
“You’re telling me you have a tech guy who spends his time in front of a large bank of computers and is somehow the best hacker ever?”
Tressa shrugged. “I won’t tell him you said that, but yes. Baylin is pretty skilled with a keyboard.”
“Okay, but you see how that’s not helping with the whole bad movie plot, right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, Cora would love you.”
“Who’s Cora?”
Tressa waved a hand. “Never mind. Cheesy film plot or not, it’s true. There’s a whole group of us who hunt vampires. They’re… They’re my family.”
Something about the way Tressa said “family” hit Ethan like an elbow to the solar plexus.
“That sounds nice, I guess,” he replied quietly. “Kind of like a whole Supernatural thing. The family business, yeah?”
Tressa cocked her head. “You make a lot of TV references for a scientist.”
“Now who’s being judgmental?”
“I… You’re right.”
And there was the fish mouth again.
“Sorry,” she said sheepishly.
Ethan laughed. “It’s fine. I tend to hit the gym late at night. Re-runs are the only thing playing to keep me entertained on the treadmill.”
“Fair enough.”
“Yup.”
They stared awkwardly at each other for a moment.
“So, you’re really a hunter?” he asked, trying to make his brain accept the notion.
His mind was currently warring between disbelief that she was telling the truth and disbelief that he’d gotten so lucky.
It had only started to dawn on him that he had no skills or connections to aid him with tracking down the monster.
And then suddenly the answer to his dilemma walked into his hospital room wearing a tiny skirt and a heart-stopping smile?
Maybe the universe was finally offering him a break.
For once.
She grinned. “I really am. We call them rogues, though. The ones that murder humans are rogues.”
He scoffed. “Right, like there are good vampires running around not ripping out throats?”
“Actually,” Tressa began.
“Save it,” Ethan said, waving a hand through the air to cut her off. “I don’t really care if your organization has some whole ‘they’re not all bad’ ideology. I’m only interested in one. And it is definitely bad.”
“It?”
“Yeah,” he said, pushing his glasses back up on his nose.
“The vampire. Or rogue, whatever you call them. The creature who killed my best friend. I’m going to find her, and I’m going to stake the bitch.
” He paused and pursed his lips for a second, running his eyes up and down her petite frame. “So, you in?”