Hunt Me (5 page)

Nicole, first. Make sure she wasn’t going to
attack him. Then she’d figured out the next step.

Although she had an idea. She couldn’t wipe
his mind, but there had to be somebody who could. He’d thought
she’d kidnapped a lawyer—well, she hadn’t. She suspected she might
be getting ready to kidnap a cop.

“I can’t believe you put him in the
trunk
.”

It was hours later, nearing dawn and she’d
heard this ten times already. Sighing, she shot Nicole a look as
she hit her blinker. “Babydoll, I didn’t have a choice. He saw us.
He knows too much for me to just let him go merrily off. I wasn’t
able to wipe his mind, either.”

“But you put him in the
trunk
,” Nicole
repeated. “He’s a
cop
and you kidnapped him and he’s my
boyfriend and…”

Dakota sighed. “Nicole. I didn’t have a
choice. Unless I decided to stick
you
in the trunk, because
you can’t be that close to him yet. Even though you fed, you don’t
need to be around him.” She made herself smile as she glanced over.
“Besides, you’ve been through enough. You don’t need to ride in the
trunk.”

“And he does? Damn it, he’s got to be so
worried. You should have let me talk to him.”

“I will.”

“You will?” Nicole stared at her. “When?”

“Soon.” She took the turn. “The school is ten
minutes away. There will be somebody there who’ll know how to fix
this.”

She hoped.

She’d knocked him out.

Taken his phone.

Restrained him.

Oh…and let’s not forget…Dakota was a fucking
vampire
. At least he was pretty sure she was, even though he
hadn’t seen her fangs.

When she opened the trunk and his eyes
adjusted, the only thing he could think was…
I should have known.
I just should have known
—not about this insane shit, but that
she hadn’t hurt Nicole. He still didn’t know what in the hell was
going on, but…

“Come on,” she said quietly once he was out
of the trunk. “I’ll get you out of those cuffs. We’ll talk. Figure
out…something.”

Figure out
something
…?

As she pulled the gag out of his mouth, he
narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Drew, baby…” She shook her head and rested a
hand on his cheek. “You really should have just left. Screw that.
You should have just stayed
away
.”

Yeah. He was figuring that out fast.

His skin crawled as he looked around.
Everywhere, he saw people looking at them. And almost all of them
moved with that odd, easy grace that Dakota had. Dakota…or Bo.
Similar, but not the same.

Fuck, just how much trouble was he in?

“Calm down, sugar. Nobody will hurt you
here.”

He glanced at her. “Yeah? Somehow I’m not
reassured.”

A sad smile curled her lips. “I guess
not.”

“I tried.”

Dakota flinched as Malachi came into the
other room and sank into a chair. He pinned her with a dark blue
stared and she immediately looked down. He freaked her out in the
worst way. “Tried?” she asked.

“Yes. I tried. He has a natural resistance,
so it’s not just you. I can do it, but it would damage his
mind.”

“No—” She jerked her gaze up, staring at him.
Looking past him, she stared through the one-way mirror to where
Drew had been placed. Like a prisoner, she realized. “You
can’t.”

He was in there with Nicole now, talking to
her, but they weren’t alone. Kelsey, the witch who ran Excelsior
was in there, along with Shawn Lenning, one of the vamp instructors
who stayed at Excelsior. The two of them could control her if the
hunger returned. Shaking her head, she looked back at Malachi. “You
can’t. He didn’t mess up—
I
did.”

“Dakota…” Malachi gave her a gentle smile.
“Screw-ups happen. Something about his mind feels…well, strange. I
think he’s probably got a bit of psychic skill and that’s why he’s
resisting so easily. Your biggest fuck-up was in not calling for
help when things went to shit.”

Rising, he turned to the window. “I’ve enough
on my hands now—dealing with a stubborn mortal cop and breaking his
mind isn’t high on my list. But we can’t let him leave here if he’s
going to talk.” Over his shoulder, he looked at her. “You know
that.”

As he slipped out of the room, she
swallowed.

“So…”

Nicole tucked her chin against her chest,
staring at the table like it held something fascinating.

“So.” Drew, on the other hand, was staring at
her bowed head. This was surreal. He was sitting in a room with a
woman he’d been dating…and she was a vampire. In another room, just
down the hall, the woman he was in love with? Another vampire.
Surreal.

“That’s Dakota.”

Now it was
his
turn to study the
table. Yeah. Pretty damn fascinating. “Shit, Nic.”

She laughed softly. “Hey, Drew. Stop looking
like you kicked my puppy…or me.”

Shooting her a glance, he pushed back from
the table and started to pace. “I wasn’t very fair to you,” he said
softly.

“Stop.” Nic sighed, slipping him a sidelong
glance. “You weren’t unfair. I knew you were seeing somebody. I
knew you cared about her. I also knew you liked me…I just kept
hoping in the end, I could make you like me
more
.”

She snorted. “Now if I’d met Dakota earlier?
Seen how you look at her?” She shook her head. “You and me, we
might have had a chance, if you hadn’t met her. But as it is? Nah.
We’re friends. Hopefully we can stay that way.”

He had his own misgivings about that but he
wasn’t going to say anything. “You think you’re going to be
okay?”

“Yeah.” A smile curled her lips. “It’s going
to take some adjusting, but I’ll be fine. What about you?”

That was something he couldn’t answer.

The way they kept looking at him was driving
him nuts.

The big guy, his bald head as smooth as
polished quartz, shot him a narrow look before focusing back on
Dakota. She had her back to him and her shoulders were slumped.

If he tried hard enough, he could hear
them.

He didn’t want to, though. He didn’t want to
think about the insane shit going on. Nicole seemed okay and that
was the main thing, now that he knew Dakota hadn’t hurt her. He
didn’t want to…

“—fuck up, you fix it. How you think you can
fix this, kiddo?”

Dakota groaned and dropped her head into her
hands. “I don’t know, Shawn. I just don’t know.”

“Well. You need to think fast or you’ll be
the one paying for it. This is serious, D.C. People will die if
word of us gets out—what were you
thinking
—?”

Closing his eyes, Drew turned away and
started to pace. Damn it, he didn’t know what to do. Nobody seemed
to want to hurt him—not even that big, red-haired bastard who’d
come in on them earlier. Although
something
had hurt—he’d
felt something in his head, like somebody was pushing on it.

But nobody had done anything to him—nobody
had even looked at his neck. Well, except Nicole.

Still, he didn’t see them letting him leave
here, knowing what he knew. He could try telling them he wouldn’t
say anything. And he wouldn’t—it would be a danger to both Dakota
and Nicole. He couldn’t risk that. But nobody here was likely to
believe him and why should they?

Damn it, he was fucked.

And worse…so was Dakota.

You’ll be the one paying for it.

What had that meant?

Was she in trouble now?

Blood roared in his ears. And as he stared at
the floor…once more images begin to flicker through his mind,
rolling like a silent filmstrip, completely and utterly
fascinating.

Nicole had told him what she’d gone
through—somebody had attacked her. Dakota had found her, but she’d
lost too much blood. The only way to save her had been by making
her a vampire. It hadn’t been fun, either. Bad fevers, like she’d
been sick. Seizures. Dakota had been forced to restrain her. Like
what he’d been seeing in his head. It was insane…so screwed up. But
all of this was insane. All of it. Maybe this was what he needed to
do. How things were supposed to happen.

They had taken his service revolver, his
phone. But there was one other thing. Feeling oddly disconnected,
he reached into his back pocket. The knife wasn’t good for much of
anything except cutting open boxes and the like—he used it as a
letter open more often than anything else.

He figured it would open a vein, too. If it
saved Dakota…

The smell of blood was something any vampire
would recognize. Spinning around, Dakota stared at Drew’s back. He
was still standing, but he wouldn’t for long—not considering the
amount of blood—

“Drew!”

She lunged for him.

“Mother fuck…” Shawn whispered behind her. He
was faster than she was, and he reached Drew just as the other man
started to sway.

They were on the floor now, kneeling amidst
his blood. As Shawn gripped Drew’s wrists, easily cutting off the
flow of blood, she cupped Drew’s face. Okay…he would be okay. He
was pale, but that was okay. He hadn’t lost that much…

“Damn it, Drew, I told you that nobody would
hurt you.” She stared at him, her heart tripping a bit in her
chest. “What are you trying to do?”

“Save you…” He grimaced and tried to pull
away from Shawn. Dark lashes fluttered over his eyes. “They can’t
hurt you for telling me if I’m one of you, right?”

“Saving me—?” She could smack him. Kiss him.
Shake him. “Damn it, Drew. I don’t need
saving
. Nobody was
going to hurt me.”

“They…” Confusion fogged his eyes. Or maybe
that was blood loss. “But he said you’d have to pay…”

Shawn frowned. “He’s got good ears for a
mortal.”

Dakota ignored him, swallowing. “It’ll be
okay. You didn’t have to hurt yourself just to keep me out of
trouble.”

He closed his eyes. “And what if I kind of
wanted to be with you, too?”

As her heart did another one of those funny
stutters, footsteps sounded outside in the hall. “Healer’s here,
kiddo,” Shawn murmured.

“Be with me?” She shook her head. “But you
dumped me. Damn it, no. We’re not talking about this. We’ll get you
healed and then…”

“No. Because if I’m healed, I can’t be with
you…” He opened his eyes and stared at her. “Can I? Not for real.
Not for good. That’s why, Dakota. I needed more and this is my only
chance for it, isn’t it?”

He shot the vampire holding his wrists a
look. “Let me go.”

“Don’t you
dare
,” Dakota snarled. “I
mean it, Shawn.”

The black man grimaced at her. “Dakota…ah,
well. It’s kind of his choice…”

Shawn let go.

He slept.

For now.

Dakota sat at his bedside, feeling old. She’d
slept until an hour before sunset, her body forcing it on her, even
though she’d wanted to stay at his side. She was there now and she
wouldn’t leave until he opened his eyes, and fed…so she wouldn’t
feel so bad when she beat him.

Damn it, she wasn’t ever going to forget what
he’d done. She didn’t fully understand it, either. She realized he
had some disturbed, twisted sense that he’d been helping her, and
while it made some part of her heart warm a bit, she
still
wanted to beat him.

“What were you thinking?” He’d slit his
wrists. Damn it. He’d slit his damn
wrists
.

She felt sick. Sick at heart, sick in her
soul.

She needed answers. She needed...

Him
. She needed him. She’d needed him
for a very long time. Pretty much from the first night she had met
him. The night she should’ve turned around and walked away. And now
look what she had done. How badly she’d screwed up his life.

Absently, she found herself thinking about
what Shawn had said—what Drew had overheard.

You’ll be the one paying for it
… yeah.
She guessed she was. But Drew was paying, too. And he didn’t
deserve that. He didn’t deserve any of this.

None of it.

A moan came from the bed. Drew moved
restlessly, tangled in the sheets. Rising, she moved to his side.
The fever. It was coming back.

He was burning—so damn hot. Was he sick? Had
to be…couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, so
fucking
hot—why
was he so fucking hot? Why couldn’t he breathe?

What in the hell was going…?

Pain gripped him, twisted him. Tore at him
like it was going to rip him into shreds and just when he thought
it would drive him to screams, it eased. And Dakota. He heard
Dakota…

It was Dakota, right? Her hand in his, her
voice murmuring to him.

But she couldn’t be. They were over,
right?

Images flashed through his mind—crazy images
of glowing eyes, Nicole and Dakota. His mind couldn’t process it.
Maybe he wasn’t sick—he could just be going crazy.

A cool cloth stroked across his brow. And he
heard her again, that low, sexy drawl that had driven him mad from
the first, now so comforting. He didn’t understand her words, but
he didn’t have to; she was there and that was all that mattered. He
wasn’t alone. Listening to Dakota’s voice, Drew slipped back into
sleep. He just hoped she was there when he woke up.

She was there, all right. She was there. One
look at her and he knew all the crazy dreams that had haunted him
over the past hours hadn’t been crazy dreams. Not unless he really
was going crazy.

He opened his mouth to speak but he didn’t
even manage a word before gut wrenching pain ripped through his
belly. Dimly, he heard a knock at the door. But he was too busy
wondering if he was dying to worry about it. Doubling over, he
tried to breathe through the pain. Then a hand touched his
brow.