Sin Eater (32 page)

She couldn’t see him in her dream. For all she knew it was the doctor.

Or Voro.

Struck by inspiration, he leaned forward, licking his lips as he came closer to her skin. He could feel its warmth, even in his ether form. Essum took one nipple in his mouth …

And he was actually able to feel it and taste it as he sucked at it, her skin puckering and responding in his mouth. The woman moaned, arching her back, and he had to stumble backwards.

If he’d been solid he would have planted right on his ass.

What the hell … he was just a ghost here … wasn’t he?

Essum turned his attention back to the sleeping woman, just in time to see her open her eyes. And look right at him.

He vanished right out of there, popping back into the hallway, trying to set his head right. That couldn’t happen. That just didn’t happen … but she was a
frustro
, wasn’t she? And not his
frustro
. Was she more tuned in?

Well no shit. He’d told Voro as much when he told him she could influence other humans somewhat, pick up on things that most humans didn’t. She could … she could feel him? She must have felt the kiss before … he’d assumed he’d just scared her
into thinking he’d actually touched her in some way.

Essum thought about paying Voro another visit, but he had to settle down first. Not a
great idea to face off with a Sin Eater when you were frazzled.

Iola rubbed her eyes, rolling back on to her side and smiling as Vinnie came into focus. What with the raunchy dream she’d just had …

She frowned. It hadn’t been Vinnie, though. It had been that guy form the hospital that had vanished from plain sight … kinda like he just did.

She rubbed her eyes harder. What was with her? Seeing things, getting herself all freaked out … or horny, as it turned out.

She settled back against Vinnie, who mumbled something as she came back in contact with him. It must have been the fact that she finally got fantastically laid, making all these weird things fire in her brain. Drawing strange conclusions and outcomes that didn’t make sense.

But as she closed her eyes, that feeling came back, the sight of him staring down at her in complete shock with those unnerving eyes … and the feeling that he was working her hard from behind … she moaned as the feeling came back, her eyes flying open to make it stop.

The sound woke Vinnie, making him crack one eyelid open as he smiled and gathered her up in a tight squeeze.

“I was hoping it wasn’t just a dream,” he muttered sleepily, letting his eyes close again.

Iola blinked a few times to straighten herself out, glad to have Vinnie in her grasp, warm and real and
understandable
.

“Not a dream,” she said, trying to match his tone. “
Very
real.”

“Tell me about it. I’m still exhausted.”

“Well we can keep sleeping.”

He kissed the top of her head and nodded off again, but Iola was still scared to close her eyes.

Jasper recognized the black Challenger parked at the motel, and his mind told him which room she was staying in.

His hands were sweating, and he was fighting the urge to turn and run. But another part of him had steely resolve, making his back straighter as he climbed the stairs to the upper corridor that ran across the front of the motel. He was headed for the room at the very end, and with each step, he was making up his mind.

He was going to do what Essum asked, simple as that. The guy would make sure
nothing bad would come of it, just like he kept helping Charlie escape jail. In return, Essum would become some kind of fucking all-powerful ghost or some shit, and Jasper would be rewarded. He couldn’t think anything other than that would happen. He was in too deep now.

At the motel door he paused, reaching inside without the aid of his ears. He picked up on Claudia’s brain, she was shaving her legs in anticipation of sex. It was in her mind, and the fact that it was with a guy gave him pause. But just for a moment. He was more scared of Essum than he was curious about her sexual preferences.

He put his hand on the door knob, concentrating on the tumblers inside, willing them to line up and allow him to turn the hunk of brass in his hand. He was rewarded with a click, and he shoved the door inward.

The bathroom door was wide open, and he sent out the message that she was not to notice the breeze that came in the door, and when she registered what sounded like a door closing, he convinced her that it was just her imagination.

He’d never really liked Claudia anyway.

Claudia wrapped herself in a towel and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a second towel around her hair and opening the bathroom door to allow some of the humidity from the small room to escape. She wiped more condensation off the mirror with the hand towel, then brushed her teeth. She was meticulous about teeth.

Once that was done she moved out to the bedroom to get dressed, pulling underwear on under the towel. Just as she was about to drop the hillbilly housecoat there was a creak behind her, and she spun around, tightening her hold on the terry-cloth wrapping.

Her brain was trying to keep up, but her body was reacting first. Her brain was still on
What the hell is Jasper doing here?
as her arm deflected the punch he was sending her.

Then her brain went to
No way I’m getting
another
broken nose, asshole
as she returned the attempted jab with a shot to his solar plexus. He lost his breath, and she used the opportunity to give him another gut shot. When he doubled over, she drove an elbow into the back of his neck.

Jasper was tougher than she’d pegged him for, though. He tackled her by the waist, taking them both to the carpet. Claudia threw elbows and fists and kicks at him, knowing they were hitting their target by how he grunted a couple of times.

Jasper managed to get one good shot into her jaw, right in a spot that was already bruised and sore. She renewed her subscription to stars and yellow haze and felt her strength flag for one moment, and that’s when he grabbed her arms, pinning them over her head. That’s also when Claudia knew the towel had come down, it was barely wrapped around her. She was totally naked from the waist up.

Jasper froze, looking down at her with wide eyes, breathing heavy from the fight.

She should have been asking what he was doing, but his eyes … they were freaking her out. The black was widening, knocking out the hazel colour completely. He looked almost reptilian.

“Your eyes …” she muttered illogically, since now his eyes had moved down to her naked flesh. He licked his lips.

Claudia knew the moment his motivation turned
away
from getting her under his control.  It wasn’t hard to see. His breathing changed from physical exertion to excitement, and his expression went from rage to … want.

Hell no.
She tried to free her arms from his grip, but his position and strength had her at a disadvantage. His weight was resting right over her hips, erection against her stomach, and try as she might to buck him off he wasn’t moving. He was staring at her chest with rage and lust. She needed to get out from under him immediately.

“What the hell are you doing here, Jasper?” She was trying to get his attention off her body. But it was too late.

He switched his grip so that her hands were pinned under one arm and he pressed the other across her neck. Her windpipe was still bruised from when Charlie had tried the choking route, and it didn’t take long for her to lose air and start to fade.

His mouth was on her breasts, biting at her, but she couldn’t worry about that. With just one hand holding her in place his strength was compromised. She could use this lust against him.

Luckily she was still somewhat damp from the shower, and the fight she’d already put up had her sweaty as well. She yanked one hand free, grabbed on to the back of his head by his hair and yanked hard. Clumps of his curly black locks came free, and he yowled, releasing his mouth from her skin. That definitely felt better, on a couple of levels.

Jasper put one hand to the back of his scalp instinctively
. That’s when she swung her fistful of his hair in a perfect arc, catching him across the nose. Her knuckles weren’t in a perfect fist, and it hurt like hell, but mission accomplished anyway. His nose bust open like a dam, blood gushing hot and fast. But the best part was: it hurt him good. She didn’t even know she had that kind of strength.

She gave him a forceful shove while thrusting up with her hips and rolled him off of her. By then her adrenalin was free-flowing like champagne at a rapper’s birthday party. She leapt on him, showering blows
into his face and along his jaw. She saw red everywhere, some of it rushing out of his face.

He was trying to grab at her face to push her away, but he couldn’t reach between punches.  He got hold of Damien’s chain around her neck, wrapping it around his fist and trying to use it as a leash to pull her to one side. And then …

Who knew how to explain it. He had the chain around his palm, and when he closed his mitt around the pendant … something happened. Claudia was dimly aware of a heat building up in the chain around her neck, like a current running through it. It was enough to make her pause, but not just the temperature change had her about to freak out.

There was a sizzling sound, and then Jasper let out the most god-awful shriek she’d ever heard. There was smoke rising from his fist, and he let go of the pendant like it was coated in acid. Claudia was so sure it would burn her she wanted to yank it off her own neck. But as it swung back and hit the skin between her breasts it was … warm. Just like the moment she’d put it on. What the …

He used her surprise to push her back, and she toppled over to one side. But she wasn’t worried about him raping her anymore. He was cradling his hand like it had been nearly amputated, which was somewhat comical compared to the damage she’d done to his face. He could barely see out one eye surely, and his lip was split in three places. Not to mention the broken nose.

Jasper was staring at her in shock, and above all else, total confusion. He didn’t know what had happened, either.

Claudia stayed where she was, crouched in a ball with her back against the bed, ready to spring right at him if he came at her first. But he didn’t, he looked at his hand and bolted out the door, leaving it open.

She fumbled for the towel, wrapping it back around herself with shaking hands. Someone came to the door, asking if she was okay. She just nodded, and when they asked if they should call the police she remembered mumbling something along the lines of, “I
am
a cop. I’ll be fine.”

The whole time she’d been talking Damien’s pendant was warming her right hand.

Voro was pulling on a pair of jeans and one of his Raphael-inspired T-shirts when he had to pause, completed befuddled by the sensation in his head. Was it possible for a
Sin Eater to have a panic attack? ‘Cause that’s sure what it felt like.

He couldn’t breathe. He sat on the edge of Claudia’s bed, and suddenly his vision got
very
sharp, too sharp, even. Details were precise, colours were vivid, but he still couldn’t breathe.

Just calm the fuck down
, he told himself, closing his eyes and counting the time it took him to inhale and exhale. That’s when he had the vision.

Was vision an accurate term? Who the hell knew. All he saw was a man he didn’t recognize, looking down at him in hatred, holding him against carpet, he could feel the fibres under his bare skin. But … it
wasn’t
him, this wasn’t his future. This was someone’s
right now
.

Claudia.

His eyes flew open as he connected the dots. He’d given her his pendant. She was wearing it, that was why he could see through her eyes. And she was fighting for her life … but where?

As long as the metal around her neck was in contact with her skin, he could flip back through her memories. He caught the name of a motel on the top of a form she’d filled out when checking in.

Voro knew where it was, but it was about a five minute drive. Come to think of it, he could likely run there in just over that.

And how do you explain that after the fact? If she’s okay, how did he explain how he knew where she was? When she called him it was from her cell phone.

Shit
.

He closed his eyes again, connecting back to Claudia, and sliding right
into her neural pathways. He sent her …
strength
, if that made sense. He used his mind to dull her pain receptors, calm her panic, and as soon as she was free of the fog of agony, and the schmuck actually let her go out of concern for his damn hair, Voro saw her toss her attacker off of her so hard he hit his head on the wall.

Claudia fell on him like a street fighter, beating him to a bloody pulp.

Voro smiled.
Atta girl
.

Then the guy’s hand grabbed the necklace, and after a moment of delayed reaction, Voro bellowed, clutching his head and falling to the floor off the edge of the bed.

What the fuck is
this
now?

It was
the Sin Eater equivalent of a dog whistle, he was sure. There was a high-pitched ringing in his ears, combined with a nasty burp of microphone feedback with a chaser of fingernails on the blackboard. It was peeling the backs off his eyelids and causing such mental distress he lost the linkup with Claudia completely.

All because that guy had touched the pendant?

The acoustic torture ended very abruptly, Voro had to assume the guy had let go. Now all he needed were about eighty Tylenol-3s and he’d be good as new, fuck you very much.

He shook his head to make sure there weren’t any more bats in the
bell tower. He seemed to be okay now, so he tried to get the feed connected to Claudia again.

He sighed in relief. She was okay, she was watching the guy run away, and someone was there to help her. A woman.

He should just wait. She would call if she needed him.

“I do
not
want to go back to work,” Vinnie mumbled in between soft kisses on her lips.

“I don’t want you to, either,” Iola replied, eyes closed against the sweet touches. “Can you just call in sick?”

“Probably not,’ he said honestly, landing a few more kisses on her.

“You might be too tired to perform surgery,” she observed. “For the sake of
anyone needing emergency surgery, you should just go back to bed with me.”

“When you put it like that …” he lifted her off the ground with another kiss, then nuzzled his nose
into her neck. “I want the smell of you with me all day.”

Iola smiled against the side of his face. “I’m going to miss you.”

He held her tight for a few more moments, then put her back down. “Okay,” he said, all business. “I really have to go.”

She pouted, but he just smiled, took another hungry look at her, and opened her door.

Probably for the best. Another moment in his arms like that and he really
wasn’t
going to be leaving her place during the morning hours whatsoever.

As he swung the door
into the hall Claudia’s door opened, and Damien stood in the frame, filling it with his large body. Iola was happy to note her heart did not speed up or trip all over itself at the sight of him this time. Then again, a starving person needed time to recover after an entire feast.

“Oh,” Damien said, looking like he was encroaching on their property or something. “I’m sorry. Good morning, Iola.”

“Good morning Damien.”

Vinnie looked from her to Damien, and Iola couldn’t read his expression. So she filled the awkward silence. “Damien, this is Vinnie Aubericus. Vinnie, this is Damien. He’s staying with Claudia for a while.”

Vinnie’s look was now leveled on Damien, so she couldn’t tell what his expression was conveying. But going by how the larger man squared his shoulders, lifted his chin and stuck out a hand stiffly, Iola had to guess it was not a friendly look.

“Nice to meet you,” Damien said in that agonizingly smooth voice of his, and after another few seconds of stand-off Vinnie finally shook his head, and returned the handshake.

“You too, Damien.” The he turned back to Iola, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her again in a way that had her lifting one foot off the ground.

When he let her go she had to blink a few times, then he was off down the hall, leaving her in her doorway with Damien looking at her … somewhat bemused.

“Possessive?” He said calmly, leaning to one side of the jamb.

She frowned, wishing she wasn’t just in a large T-shirt and not another stitch. His eyes were … studying her, even though they seemed to be right on her face. “Who?”

“Vinnie,” he pointed the direction her doctor had just taken. “You should just wear a sign that says ‘taken.’”

Iola’s frown deepened. “Excuse me?”

“Nothing. Forget I mentioned it. Hey, do you have any coffee? Claudia’s out.”

She nodded, stepping back. “I’ll get some.”

He stepped forward, crossing the hall with just a few strides. She was not thrilled that he was coming into her apartment. Not that she was frustrated because he was so forward, just frustrated that as he moved his arms swung, making his chest muscles move under his shirt, the sleeves straining against his biceps.