Suddenly, there was a loud thump above my head and a giggle and then the bam, bam, bam of my upstairs neighbor’s headboard banging against the wall. I let out my breath in a gasp and laughed, the sound coming out as a thin, shaky chuckle.
What a dork.
I should’ve known it was all just Tracy the Tramp entertaining her boy-toy du jour. I laughed again, a little louder this time, but my relief was cut short when a horrible coppery taste filled my mouth, jolting me a little. Frowning, I touched my tongue and looked at my fingers, startled to see blood there.
“What the hell?” I hurried into my bathroom and leaned close to the mirror, opening my mouth to get a look, but there was nothing there. No blood. No evidence of injury. Nothing. “Weird . . .”
Behind me, the door slammed shut, startling a scream from me. I whirled around and grabbed the knob to pull the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. I gripped it harder, my knuckles turning white as I strained to turn the knob, but it was like someone was on the other side, holding it shut. I rattled the door, trying to jerk it open. No go. My chest heaved with panicked breaths as the walls in the tiny bathroom seemed to be closing in, slowly squeezing the air out of the room.
Great—perfect time to become claustrophobic.
“Let me out, damn it!” I yelled, pounding on the door with my fist, trying desperately to keep it together, rein in the fear and not let it take over. I had to keep calm, use my head. I let go of the door and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “Okay, okay, okay,” I muttered. “There’s a logical explanation for all of this, Trish. There’s nothing in here with you.”
In response, the lights began to flicker, creating a strobe effect against the bright white tile. I spun around and pressed my back to the door, my eyes searching the intermittent darkness. Well, shit, there went that theory. . . .
“Knock it the hell off!” I screamed. “Leave me alone!”
The giggle came again, bouncing off the walls, the sound distorted and disorienting. The sink faucet splurted to life, spraying out water with such force it overflowed the sink to splatter the mirror and rain down over the lip of the vanity and onto the floor. Then the shower came on, the water so hot, steam began to fill the air almost immediately. I turned back toward the door, fear making me pound on the door so hard, I thought my hand would break. But I didn’t care—I just wanted out.
“Help me!” I shouted over the roaring water, my feet now damp from the overflowing sink. “Someone help me! Please!”
As if on cue, the bathroom door exploded inward, smacking me in the forehead and knocking me on my ass. I slid with the force, nailing the back of my head on the toilet. For one terrifying, dizzying moment, the world went black, but I forced myself to keep it together and shakily managed to drag myself toward the open door. My apartment tilted precariously, and my stomach lurched, but I forced down the rush of vomit and grabbed the doorjamb, pulling myself to my feet.
The moment I was upright, the faucets abruptly shut off and the strobe light ceased, plunging the bathroom into darkness. I stumbled through the open doorway, shaking so violently I was barely able to control my legs beneath me. As soon as I was through the door, I pressed my back to the wall, my chest heaving. I gulped down the bile rising to my mouth and was glad for the distraction of the burning sensation as it went back down. I shook my head. Screw this! I was taking my cat and getting the hell out.
I pushed away from the wall and all the lights I’d left on throughout the apartment blinked out at once, sending a fresh shot of fear-infused adrenaline through my veins. “Oh, God,” I moaned, dropping back against the wall. I squeezed my eyes shut for a few seconds, steeling my nerves, praying like hell that I wouldn’t see someone standing in front of me when I opened them again. I blew out a couple of quick breaths, then forced my lids open, scanning the room at a glance as my eyes adjusted to the darkness.
“Sasha,” I called, my voice little more than a strained whisper as I continued to watch for any movement. “Sasha!” I heard her answering mew coming from my bedroom and nearly wept.
I edged along the wall, creeping toward my room, and heard a soft thud as Sasha jumped down from her usual perch on the window seat, but she didn’t emerge as I expected. Then I heard her low growl and glanced around frantically, wondering what she saw that I didn’t. A single bead of sweat trickled down between my shoulder blades as if in slow motion, ratcheting up the persistent niggling of dread creeping under my skin. “Sasha, come here, baby!”
With a trembling hand, I pushed open the bedroom door, wishing like hell that I had a gun or a baseball bat. Of course, even as I wished it, I had a feeling neither weapon would’ve been much use against the invisible creature who had invaded my home.
As the door swung open, I darted inside and flipped on the light. Startled by my sudden movement, Sasha yowled and bolted from the room, nearly scaring the shit out of me in the process. “Damn it!” I cried as I stumbled backward, crashing into the door, the doorknob jabbing me painfully in the kidney. “Shit!”
I winced at the pain and rushed back through the doorway, only to stop dead in my tracks. The man standing in my living room reached out and pulled the chain of my desk lamp, turning on the light. I gasped at the sight of him. He’d ditched his fatigues and was now dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and black slacks that hugged his athletic physique in all the right places. For a split second I thought he might be a figment of my imagination, but then he pegged me with that intense amber gaze of his, and I knew he was real.
I was so shocked and relieved to see Nicky, I didn’t even care why he was there. Without stopping to think, I rushed to him, throwing my arms around his neck in a fierce hug, squeezing my eyes shut to hold back the tears. After a brief hesitation, his arms came around me, hugging me back, holding me as I clung to him.
“Hello, doll,” he whispered in my ear, his voice so soft and soothing, I wanted to melt into him, but then I reminded myself that he didn’t know me—no matter how well I felt I knew him.
Embarrassed by my impulsiveness, I abruptly released him and pushed away. “I’m so sorry,” I stammered, hastily wiping my eyes. “I just—”
“Forget about it,” he interrupted, tilting his head a little to one side, his lips curving into a bemused smile. “I never turn down an embrace from a beautiful woman.” His grin grew and he spread his arms wide. “In fact, anytime you want to throw yourself into my arms again, doll, you go right ahead.”
As tempting as his offer was, Sasha’s low growl started up again, and I glanced down at her, seeing her peering out from under my desk, her yellow gaze trained on the bathroom door. As fear twisted my stomach into knots, I scooped up my cat and grabbed Nicky’s hand. “We need to get out of here,” I announced, dragging him with me as I hurried toward the apartment door.
“You’re soaking wet,” he pointed out, pulling me to a stop. “You can’t go outside like that.”
I jerked out of his hold. “There’s no way in hell I’m staying here.” I hastily shoved my feet into my snow boots, my heart hammering. Sasha bared her teeth, hissing at some unseen menace. Her back claws dug into my stomach and tore at my T-shirt while her front claws did a number on my shoulder as she fought to get out of my arms, but I wasn’t about to leave her in my apartment with whatever was haunting it. I bit through the pain with a groan and grabbed my keys from the credenza just as the bathroom door slammed shut. Then my bedroom door. My desk chair tipped over with a crash. Then the coffee table upended, sending magazines and remote controls flying. I heard the cabinet doors in my kitchen burst open and then the sound of shattering glass.
“What the fuck?” Nicky mumbled, his brows drawing together in a confused frown as he instinctively moved to shield me.
“Go!” I shouted, throwing open the apartment door. “Go, now!”
As I grabbed the doorknob and slammed it shut behind me, I caught a horrifying glimpse of a ghostly face swooping toward me, its furious expression twisted with hatred and rage. I cried out as the door rattled in the frame as if someone was trying to wrench it open from the other side.
Not needing to be urged again, Nicky grabbed my hand and raced with me to the elevator. I punched the Down button over and over again, glancing over my shoulder several times during those long, agonizing seconds it took the elevator to arrive, fully expecting to be attacked again. Nicky was tense, alert, his gaze trained like a laser on my apartment door down the hall. His right hand was behind his back, tucked up under the hem of his sweater where I guessed his gun was concealed. Just as the elevator doors slid open, my apartment door burst inward and spewed a roiling mist into the hallway.
Nicky shoved me into the elevator, backing me into the corner, putting himself between me and the open doors, his gun now drawn as the doors creaked shut. There was a deafening crash against the closed doors just as the elevator hopped and began its descent.
My legs too weak to hold me any longer, I crumpled against the wall and would’ve ended up on the floor but for Nicky’s arm going around my waist. He stowed his gun, then wrestled Sasha away from me. “Turn her loose, doll,” he urged. “It’s all right. I got her.” It was only then I realized the cat was yowling with rage at being nearly squeezed to death in my panicked grip. With a gasp, I relinquished her to Nicky.
The next thing I knew, Nicky was half carrying me from my apartment building and shoving me into the front seat of a black Escalade. When we’d managed to put a few miles behind us, he slowed down a little and glanced over at me, his face drawn. Seeing me shivering in the passenger seat, my teeth chattering, he cranked up the heat. But it didn’t matter what temperature it was in the car. The chill in my bones had nothing to do with the cold.
Chapter Five
“You doin’ okay over there?”
I started at the sudden sound of Nicky’s voice, sending Sasha scrambling over my shoulder and into the backseat with a yowl of protest. I swallowed hard, considering his question, then nodded. “I think so.”
He glanced over at me and gave me his patented half grin. “That sounded convincing.”
I attempted a smile. “I’m a bad liar, I guess.”
“Yeah, well, I guess there are worse things to be bad at.” He waited a beat, then asked, “So, you got anywhere you want me to take you?”
I thought for a moment. Any other time I would’ve had him take me to Red’s, but she and Nate were at the hospital for the night. Besides, the last thing I wanted was for her to find out about this latest development before I knew what was going on. She had enough to worry about without adding my safety to the list. And a hotel was out of the question—I’d left in such haste, I hadn’t even grabbed my coat, which had my credit cards in the inside pocket. So I shook my head. “No, I don’t have anywhere to go,” I told him. “And I’m not going back to my apartment without Nate Grimm. Or maybe a priest.”
Nicky chuckled a little. “Got it. Well, forget about it—I got somewhere you can stay.”
We sat in silence for a few moments longer before I had to ask the question that had been burning in the back of my mind since the moment I saw him standing there in my living room like some dark knight in shining armor. “How did you know?”
He cast a quick glance my way, his brows drawn together. “Know what?”
“That I was in trouble.”
He shook his head a little. “I didn’t.”
Now it was my turn to frown. “Then why were you there?”
He shifted a little in his seat and adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “I need your help.”
My brows shot up. “So you figured breaking in to my apartment was the way to go about asking me?”
“The lights were off,” he said by way of explanation. “I thought you were asleep.”
“So . . .” I said, drawing out the word as I tried to follow his logic. “What? You thought I’d talk in my sleep or something?”
His lips twitched, but I couldn’t tell if it was from amusement or annoyance. “You do talk in your sleep—”
I jerked back a little, my eyes going wide. “How the hell do you know that?”
“—but I never get much intel that way. I just needed a look at your report from tonight.”
“My report?”
“Yeah, I needed a recap of everything that happened. I gotta give you credit, doll—you’re the best.” He sent a grin my way. “You don’t miss a thing.”
I felt a little flutter in the center of my chest at the compliment but quickly shoved it aside. “Thanks,” I said, my tone cautious, “but how do you know about my reports? Or my sleeping habits, for that matter.”
“Anytime I lose the trail of that motherfucking bloodsucker, I drop in to see what you’ve got on him,” he said with a shrug, as if breaking into and entering my apartment while I was asleep, hacking into my computer, and reading confidential reports was all in a day’s work. Of course, considering I was riding in the car with the head of the Tales’ most powerful crime syndicate, it probably was.
“You’ve been tracking Dracula,” I guessed, figuring that was the motherfucking bloodsucker he was referring to. “That’s what you’ve been doing for the past two years?”