Page 40 of Addicted in Blood
I nodded.“Besides the one I told you about earlier that I’d created, there was one where I was in Devon’s head when he killed Sorrento, and then just yesterday when I was in the head of the beast when he chowed down on a dead deer.”I shivered at the memory.
“I need time to consider this.There’s food for you to take back to your room.I suggest rest.We’ll meet again in two hours.”
I barely made it to the room, took a bite of the sandwich, drained the glass of special juice, and fell onto the bed.The pounding at the door was the only thing that woke me.I didn’t know if it was one of the vamps or Colantha beating on my door.Either way, they needed a better alarm system, but I stood, feeling better than I should, and slipped into my second set of workout clothes.I kept my mind blank, not wanting to consider what Colantha held in store for my second session.
ChapterTwenty-One
After Lucasand Ginger left the office, it was too late to drive to Oasis, so Simone spent time in the training room and pool while considering how to track down Boris Gheata.Though Santiga Bay was one of the smaller hubs for vampires—not many wanted to live that close to Council members who congregated throughout the region—it was amazing how difficult it was to find one.
She joined everyone for dinner then made a quick escape to her room where she pulled out her tablet and sent messages she didn’t want to send.Vampires who owed her favors.Favors so old she’d lost count.There had been several she’d wanted to keep tucked away for when she had her own House, but Devon’s life was more important than all of them.Though if she were honest with herself, she hoped several wouldn’t respond.Perhaps another two hundred years would make it easier to stomach them.
Her luck wasn’t with her.By morning, there was only one email response.And it was from the last vampire she ever wanted to see again, even if his favor could grant her almost anything.Then he surprised her further.He was in San Francisco on a business trip and swore he had the information she sought.
She waited until noon, and when not a single additional response came, she had no choice.She’d run out of time.
She stared up at the hotel, her gut in turmoil.A cold sweat had broken out when she pulled into the parking lot across the street.She’d considered driving to the hotel’s valet but wanted a quick escape if needed.The car she took was one available to the general staff, and like all the others, was registered to an alias.She was thankful she hadn’t eaten lunch but was sorry she hadn’t called for a blood donor.
The fact she was sitting there, her emotions as raw as the young blood she’d once been, ate at her.She was better than this.She was Simone of the House Trelane.Known through most of the Houses and aristocracy as the first to Devon Trelane.She wasn’t the sniveling vampire she once was when she’d last seen Gaius.
She swallowed the bile threatening to rise as she crossed the street and entered the hotel, not pausing until she reached the bank of elevators, a car opening as she arrived.Two other people entered with her and reached their floors long before her slow ascent to the top floor.Penthouse suite.She would never have guessed it.Gaius had always preferred the dank, dark caves where he kept his young bloods.
When the doors opened and she stepped out into a large foyer, she glanced to her left and right.There was a guard at each of the two available doors.Two suites and apparently both occupied by vampires.If she knew Gaius—and assuming his habits hadn’t changed in the centuries since she’d seen him—one of the apartments would be for his current mistress.
“Tanaquil?”the guard to the right asked.
In a flash, the guard hung against the wall four inches above the floor.Simone’s right hand gripped his neck, her nails digging into this trachea.His hands grasped at hers, but he was still young, a half-breed, maybe twenty years made.
The second guard raced toward her, but when he tried to grab her arms, she yanked him to her while still holding the other vampire.She snarled as she tossed him toward the other door, smiling with satisfaction at the sound of breaking wood as he hit.She turned to the one still hanging on the wall.
“My name is Simone.It would be best you remember that, or the next time I’ll rip out your throat.”She leaned into him until she was only inches from his face.“Do you understand me?”
“I think he’s learned his lesson.”
Not changing her stance or the grip she had on the guard, she turned to the open door, her fangs fully extended.
Gaius.As breathtakingly handsome as he’d always been.His lips, not thinned in cruel anger, but full, luscious, and smiling, as if they were old friends.
“I’m afraid it’s my mistake.Old habits with the name.”
She didn’t move, her breaths coming hard as the man continued to struggle for breath.
He nodded toward his guard.“If I promise to remind them of your new name, will you release him so he can breathe?Half-breeds don’t have the stamina of a pure blood.”
She growled, wanting to scream at him that her name wasn’t new, he just never bothered using it before, preferring his own demeaning names for his creatures.But she took a step back, and like she was tossing out the trash, threw him toward the other guard, who was still shaking himself off when he toppled over again as the other guard smashed into him.
She pulled the shoulders of her crimson caftan back in place then ran a hand down it, noting his full perusal as she swept past him into the room.It was a typical penthouse suite with all the luxuries one would expect, but he’d added his own touches—his battle landscapes, the Dagger of Omar, and a sculpture of an Egyptian cat.Some things never changed, and not for the first time, she wondered how long he’d been in town and how long he’d planned on staying.He was a long way from his home in Greece.
She walked to the middle of the room then turned to face him.
“Ah, my Somalian queen, how good to see you after all this time.”
“I’m not here for your games.”
“And still as touchy as ever.”
His slow perusal, which was too reminiscent of bad memories, unnerved her, and she turned her back on him as she strolled from one sitting area to the next.She stopped to stare at the entertainment center with six individual panels, all showing a different station—from the stock market to weather to sports to a black-and-white action movie.The last two screens were the only ones with sound.They displayed nature scenes, and with the flowing river and twittering birds, the combination was meditative.That was unexpected.
“You said you had information on Boris Gheata.”Simone finally looked at him with her chin lifted, her gaze unblinking as she looked him in the eyes.Something she hadn’t done for centuries, and even then, rarely.
