Destiny Divided (25 page)

Book 2 – Available Now!

Marcelo elbowed his way through the crowded bar, growing more irritated with each step. Music assaulted his ears
and vibrated painfully through his skull. He choked on the thick scent of tobacco, alcohol, and sex – not good sex, but cheap, dirty sex. At least there were plenty of shadows for a vampire to fade into.

While walking to the counter
, he’d been bumped twice by drunk adolescents. One particularly rowdy juvenile spilled his drink on Marcelo’s boots. He loved these boots. His queen owed him for this “small favor.” The next drunk frat boy that got within a foot of Marcelo would be growled at, fiercely.

One bold woman offered to buy him a drink.
Interesting. It didn’t happen often though he’d been called terrifyingly handsome by several women over the centuries. But he wasn’t there to drink or pick up a quick fuck. He was there to fine one very specific woman.

He turned on his phone and studied the picture his queen had sent of her sister one more time, although he’d
already committed it to memory.

Erin Bolton. His hunt had landed him at a small li
beral arts college in Albany, New York.

He chuckled
, remembering the look on the students’ faces when he’d demanded to know Erin’s whereabouts. Sometimes it was good to be a vampire
.

Hunting the girl had been the easy part. The next step would require a certain amount of fines
se a battle-scarred vampire did not possess. He had to convince Erin to trust him, and then escort her to the Underworld.

He stared out into the sea of faces.

At the other end of the packed room, two young men pushed a laughing woman onto a table.

“No!” she yelled between giggles. “I can’t dance in front of all these people!”

Cheers erupted as the men shoved her into the middle of the table. Clearly drunk, she kneeled on top, laughing as she batted their hands away.

“Get her another shot!” someone yelled.

One appeared on the table beside her and she knocked it back in seconds.

After grimacing while she swallowed, she stood up. “Okay, okay. Just one song.”

Marcelo shook his head in disapproval. Date rape bait.

His mind drifted to the conversation he’d had with Sage, the
new Queen of the Underworld.

“Five days,”
she’d said,
“and I’ll meet you by the portal in Wales. Oh, and be gentle with her. She’s timid.”

Then what the hell was
she doing in a bar like this?

With an aggravated sigh, he scanned the crowd for her again. More nois
e came from the table where the girl was singing about putting a dime in a jukebox and loving rock and roll.

He rolled his eyes. He remembe
red when music used to be good.

His gaze made its way up the girl’s body.
Might as well get a good look since she insisted on displaying herself.

Just above her brown
cowboy boots, her slender calves changed to shapely thighs. Her short denim shorts were ripped up on the bottom and cut off at the perfect spot just below where the thigh met the buttocks. Her shirt was an almost see-through white, billowy blouse covered with a brown leather vest. On top of her head was a matching brown cowboy hat. This girl, whoever she was, had sexy down to a science. No wonder the men were drooling over her.

H
oney-colored hair flowed down her back in loose curls as she shook all the right parts at all the right times. Her hair wisped wildly around her sweaty face. She threw her cowboy hat to a tall boy cheering loudly in the back then spun around giving Marcelo a full view of her face. Big brown eyes looked out into the crowd – eyes that looked oddly familiar.

Bloody hell!

He flipped to the photo on his phone again then held up his phone next to the girl dancing provocatively on the bar table. It was the same girl though the phone displayed a more innocent version with a bright smile.

The sister he’d been sent to retr
ieve was drunk and dancing half-naked on a table. And Sage had called her timid?

He took several determined s
teps forward, eager to finish this inconvenient side trip. Before he made it halfway through the crowd, one distinctive word echoed above the noise around him.

“Fight!”

Oh fuck.

A glass bottle broke then the crowd turned vicious. Alcohol did that to hormonal adolescents, which was why he hated it – alcohol
and
adolescents.

A
nyone who dared bump into Marcelo was thrown aside, but he feared for the girl. He’d made a promise to Sage to protect her sister, a job he took seriously.

When he looked up at Erin, still on the table, it was just in time to see a beer bottle launched straight into her head. Shock filled her eyes as
she staggered backwards.

He
shoved his way toward the table and caught her when she tumbled off the ledge then cradled her against his chest. Up close, the girl was smaller than he’d thought. She weighed close to nothing.

With her hanging limply in his arms, h
e strode to the exit. The crowd parted when he slapped on his get-the-fuck-out-of-my-way face. He’d expected someone to fight him, or at least question him – he was a dangerous-looking man carrying away a beautiful woman – but no one approached him. Was this woman here alone? Dressed like bait? Drunk with no one to watch over her?

He was irritated before but now he was downright fuming. He’d never been so glad to step out into the warm summer air. It wasn’t exactly fresh air, but it was enough to soothe his anger. The last thing he needed was for the human to wake up and see fangs poking out from under his lips.

After he checked over both shoulders to be sure he wasn’t followed, he turned down an empty alley. In his world, one didn’t stay alive for long without being paranoid. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his intended location, a hotel room he’d reserved several blocks from where they stood.

Nothing happened. Puzzled, he tried again.

Still nothing. He stood in the piss and garbage filled alley, holding the unconscious girl in his arms, confused and growing angrier by the second. He’d never been unable to traverse before.

His ability to traverse – or teleport – to any place he’d previously been
was the only reason he’d agreed to perform this “small favor” in the first place. Traveling the mortal way held no appeal, especially toting a very breakable, easily killable, drunk-on-her-ass human.

After trying three more times, he gave up with an e
xhausted sigh. He and the queen would be having a talk soon.

Still no one questioned him as h
e carried Erin the four blocks to the hotel though he received plenty of odd stares. In the room, he gently laid the girl on the bed.

Scrubbing a hand over his unshaven face
, he stared at the body stretched out before him.

Now wha
t? Should he undress her to make her more comfortable for bed? Someone ought to smack him for that thought. If she woke up in a hotel room next to a stranger with nothing on but a bra and panties, she would surely have a fit. As it was, he expected some sort of panic when she awoke. Hopefully, she had more sense than her sister and wouldn’t try anything foolish like attempting to fight him.

He brushed her hair away from her face to inspect the wound at her temple. He’d need to get ice when she awoke, but it didn’t look like a serious injury. Most likely
, she was passed out more from being drunk than from getting hit.

Erin’s hair felt
silky like Natalia’s. The small reminder made his heart heavy. How he missed her. But the similarities stopped there. Natalia had pale porcelain skin. Erin’s was a shade darker, almost matching her honey-colored hair. Her long lashes spread delicately over her skin.

She was so fragile. So human. So mortal. Yet she’d ventured out, barely dressed, to a rowdy bar with no one
to look after her? So foolish!

He growled with an odd sense of protectiveness. It wasn’t his place but he wasn’t sure he could stop himself from giving her a stern lecture about her
disregard for safety once she woke.

Leaning closer, he studied the t
ips of her fingernails. They’d been chewed off. A nail biter. Nasty habit.

His gaze moved down her body and rested on her
boots. Best take them off
.
It might be more comfortable for her to sleep, but more importantly, it would keep her from running. He tossed the boots under the bed.

How long would she remain unconscious? He wanted to feed but wouldn’t risk leaving her alone. He suppressed the urge to shake her awake, command her to stay put, then go in search of a
woman to feed from. But he knew from experience, human women did not like being ordered around by men. His queen had taught him that when she’d tried to kill him only a few months ago. And all because he’d forced her to drink blood and steal the throne from her twisted father. Women were so temperamental.

With that in mind, he
settled himself onto the bed and plotted the next place he would resume his hunt for Natalia.

Two hours later, the body next to his began to stir. A soft moan broke free from her lips.

When her eyelids fluttered open, he sat up straight and peered down at her. “Be careful. You were hit hard. I’ll get some ice as soon as –”

Her eyes widened into pools of terror.

“Be calm, female. I mean you no harm.” He put his hands up in a non-threatening gesture.

Before he could reassure her with an explanation about Sage, she flew off the bed and bolte
d into the bathroom then slammed and locked the door.

He was glad he’d grabbed her boots. She was a runner.

Chuckling a bit about the lock, he walked to the bathroom door. A steel door couldn’t stop him from getting through it. Not unless it was silver. Still, the last thing he wanted to do was scare her further.

He knocked. “Come
out of there. We need to talk.”

No answer.

Feeling a flicker of frustration, he barely stopped himself from twisting the doorknob and barging in. But she needed reassurance, not a brute showing of strength.

“Your sister, Sage, sent me to see you to safety.”

Still no response.

“Please, open the door. I will not hurt you.” He could hear her heart
racing from the other side.

T
here was a chance she could have a concussion so rather than waiting until it was too late, he took a deep breath and twisted the doorknob, breaking through the lock. If she was scared and mad, so be it. Safety came first.

As soon as he stepped a foot through the bathroom door, a glass vase whizzed towards his head. He barely dodged it before it thudded onto the carpeted bedroom floor
.

Oh for fuck’s sake.

Erin stood in the corner, a bottle of sample shampoo clenched in her fist.

He gave her his sternest expression. “Don’t do that again.”

She dropped the bottle and started gasping, dragging air into her lungs as if it were suddenly difficult. Her body slumped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Mierda!
She was hyperventilating. He rushed to her side and knelt on the bathroom floor. She flinched away from him.

“What’s the matter?” he demanded
.

Her wide eyes darted around the room as if she were searching for invisible threats.

No, not looking for threats.
He
was the threat. She was looking for an escape.

With a deep breath
, he softened his voice and tried to tone down the feral look in his eyes. “I’m sorry I scared you. But I am not going to hurt you. You can trust me.”

Her
shallow breathing continued. She looked like she was going to faint any second. At least she’d be easier to deal with.

“Will you not s
peak to me?” he asked her.

She didn’t respond.

“Do you need medical care? Should I take you to the hospital?”

S
he shook her head furiously.

“
Then calm down so we can talk.”

A tear slid down one cheek as she covered her mouth with trembling hands.

“Aw, hell. Don’t cry.”

“Go…away,” she said between gasping breaths. “Or…my boyfriend…will…kill you.”

He bit back a roar of laughter and pressed his lips into a grim line instead. “I’m sorry,
querida
. I can’t go away. Sage sent me to protect you. I’ll bring you to her as soon as possible but we need to get a few things straightened out first.”

She continued to hyperventilate so he did the only thing he could think of – h
e dialed Sage’s number then thrust the phone into Erin’s shaking hands.