Page 82 of Visions in Blood
“Get in.”Bella made a motion with her hand to speed it up.
I didn’t ask.I flung open the door and turned toward the approaching vamps as Ginger dove into the back.They were close enough to see the glow of their eyes and, without a second thought, I jumped in behind her.The car took off before the door slammed shut.I turned around to look out the back.The vamps stared at us speeding away.
“Why didn’t you run?”My ragged voice competed with the air I was sucking in.
“I wasn’t going to leave you.I called for backup while I was waiting to clear my tab.”She was breathing hard, too, but her eyes shined with satisfaction that she’d outsmarted my false bravado.
I glanced to the rearview mirror where Bella’s gaze met mine.“Why didn’t you show up in the alley?”
I caught the lift of her shoulder and the crinkle of a smile at the corner of her eyes.“It sounded like a solid plan.Hiding in the club would have probably worked, but I was close enough.”
“What if something had gone wrong?”
That shrug again.“Then Sergi and Simone would have been disappointed that your training hadn’t been good enough.”
I stared at her.So did Ginger.And though I still sucked in air like a three-pack-a-day smoker—I laughed.
Then Ginger laughed.Then Bella.
The laughter filled the car, and I rested my head against the soft leather of the sedan.
Ginger grabbed my hand.“God, I feel alive.”
I could only shake my head.
When Bella pulled to a stop in front of the mansion, I waited until Ginger got out and reached the steps before asking, “I suppose you have to tell Devon?”
“I have to tell him you had a tail.You were leaving but spotted two vampires crossing the street.I’ll also have to tell them you and Ginger sneaked out the back and that you defended an attack by a third vampire before I arrived.He ran off before I could detain him.”
She held my stare.Had she been fabricating an alternate story on the drive home?She knew I hadn’t come out the back.Had known that I’d originally come from the front before circling around.Bella had been our tail all evening, and I’d never been the wiser.So, why hadn’t she called me on it?Of all of Devon’s inner circle, Bella was the rebel of the group, almost an outsider.And here she was, giving me the benefit of the doubt for a reason I couldn’t explain, and she obviously wasn’t going to share.I gave her a slight nod before I opened the car door.
Ginger waited for me on the top step.I raced up and grabbed her arm to pull her inside, and we stormed up the stairs to our rooms.
Ginger hugged me in the hall in front of her door.“That was the most fun I’ve had for some time.”
I stepped back and gave her a stern look that I couldn’t hold and just smiled.“Is it us, or is it the company we’re keeping that makes us live on the edge?”
“I can’t even believe you’re asking that.”
Her smile was mischievous as she entered her room and waved goodnight.
I stripped off clothes as I made my way across my room to the bathroom.After I peed and brushed my teeth, I crawled into bed and pulled my knees to my chest.The rush of the evening faded as I relived the highlights of the evening.
I’d get a lecture in the morning as soon as Devon heard about it, but that wasn’t what bothered me.Who were the vamps, and how had they found us?
ChapterThirty-One
Early the following morning,Devon glared at his tablet after reading Bella’s report from the previous evening.He wasn’t sure whether to put her on probation for the obvious gaps in the report or race upstairs and pin Cressa against the wall for her foolishness.
He couldn’t stop the heat that rose in him when he considered the two times he’d actually done just that.When his beast had risen to the surface.He’d smelled her fear, her anger, and something more delicious—her attraction to him.Even with his burning fear for her, and the force required to keep the beast at bay, he knew exactly where a third encounter would likely end.The both of them tangled in the sheets of her bed.
He blew out a frustrated sigh, keeping his expression bored, knowing Lucas watched him.He could put Bella on probation for letting the evening get away from her, but it would be a knee-jerk reaction the rest of his guards would know was more personal than professional.Besides, Bella wasn’t the only one of his guards that had grown protective of Cressa.Holy hell, they all had.Even Simone.The one who was the least to cave to any human, to show any amount of concern or, god forbid, friendship.Yet, there it was.The more Simone denied it, the more he knew it was true.
He tossed the tablet on the desk.Cressa had gotten home just a few short hours ago.He didn’t have the energy to deal with facing a badly woken Cressa.Not when she wouldn’t back down from what she’d done.Christ.Fended off a vampire by herself.He just couldn’t understand why the two of them felt the need to run.Maybe Ginger had been too frightened, considering her last run-in with vampires.
“Is everything all right?”Lucas asked.
He rubbed his face.“We had a difficult enough mission ahead of us.Everything intricately planned over the last two years.In my need to help Lyra, I hadn’t given any consideration to the chaos a dreamwalker might bring.Let alone its impact on her.”
