Unstoppable Force (Force of Nature Series) (25 page)

When his cell phone rang he didn’t even
pull it out to see who it was. He didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. Taking
a few more steps, he heard the voicemail chime and again ignored it. He needed
to get his head on straight before he could even consider talking.

Phil had told him to go and find
himself. The man had even offered him one of his many homes to stay in. Then
told him to go and stay in all of them. The flight plan for the jet was still
sitting on his bedside table at home. There were even two credit cards brimming
with cash on them and enough clothes in his closet to wear something new every day.

But he didn’t want to leave just yet.

He hadn’t fed yet. Oh, he thought, he’d
eaten. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t eat now that he couldn’t before. The
tastes were even richer and more plentiful, but nothing made him go all stupid
like his first dark beer had or his first taste of really dark chocolate. But
he hadn’t drunk from another person. And wasn’t sure he would ever be able to.

His phone rang again then, when it
stopped, it rang almost immediately again. He pulled it out to frown at the
number. He didn’t recognize it and answered to tell the prick to stop fucking
calling him if he didn’t answer. He had his mouth opened to do just that when
the woman on the other end laughed.

“Hello, big boy. How’s it hanging? Found
yourself a beautiful woman to spend those lonely nights with?”

He stopped walking and sat down. This
was the fourth time she’d called him in the year he’d been changed. The author
friend of Phil’s. “No. I’m still waiting for you to do that with. All those
long and wonderfully sweaty nights with just you, me, and some silk sheets.” Myles
didn’t own silk sheets, but for her, he’d go out and knit them, or whatever you
did to make them, just for her. He had to adjust his cock twice when she
laughed. It was throaty and warm. He thought of summer showers and hot, sex-filled
nights when he heard it.

“You’re so bad.” The purr he loved as
well spilled over the lines. “I have a problem with one of my books and was
wondering if you could help a poor writer’s-blocked friend.”

“Anything. Is it a sex scene you need me
to come over and act out with you? Or maybe you want me to pose for one of your
covers. Some of them are enough to steam off the words on the other side.”

She called him a charmer and laughed. “No,
what I have is a technical question. And if you help me, I’ll dedicate the book
to you. What do you say, big boy? Wanna come and play with me?”

He nearly whimpered, but he just caught
himself. Clearing his throat, he had to remember that they’d been playing this
game every time she called him. Only today, he wasn’t going to bail on her. “You
tell me where to come to and I’ll be in Phil’s plane so quickly that I’ll be
there before you can type the next sentence.” He’d never met her and was now up
and walking toward where he’d parked his car. “I can be very helpful to
beautiful women when they need me technically.”

“I’m living in Paris right now, but I’m
going home tonight. You come to my house in Ohio and we’ll collaborate on the
book.” Laughter again. “We might be able to collaborate on a few other things
while you’re here.”

He was nearly to his apartment when he
hung up. Ten minutes later, he was making his way to the airport and the
already fueled up jet. He was out of here as soon as he could manage it.

Myles had been reading her books for
months. Every time another one came out, he would devour it for vampire
information. No one knew the author was a real, live vamp, but he did. And
while he was sitting on the runway he pulled out her latest book and started to
read the next chapter.

When Al woke in a hospital bed, the
first thing she noticed was the pain. As soon as she opened her eyes, the
entire nightmare of what had happened since they got out of the car came
crashing back like a slow-moving horror movie. The stalker, her father, brother,
and Diana, the wolves hurting and killing them, everything in slow-moving
pictures. Her screams ripped from her, one right after the other until someone
came in and stabbed her with something sharp and she was drifting back into the
blackness.

The next time she woke, she used the few
seconds between reality and the nightmares to get a good grip on herself and
try to control the urge to scream again. She barely managed to hold on, and
only moaned this time. She looked around the room, and noticed that she wasn’t alone.
A woman in a hospital security uniform sat in a chair next to the bed. They
stared at each other for several seconds before she spoke to Al.

“Jak se cítíš slečno Můžu ti
něco přinést ?”

Al knew enough Czech to get her a room
and a cab before this happened, maybe. Now she understood the woman perfectly. She
wanted to know if she was alright and if she wanted anything.

“I’m fine, and no thank you. Do you know
where Diana Lake is?” She didn’t have to wonder if she was speaking correctly
to her in her own language, Al just knew that she was speaking to her, and she
understood. She was suddenly very scared.

“Ano , ano . slečno Lakeová . Já ji
dostanu .”
She said that she was going to get Diana, get her. Maybe she
wasn’t hurt after all; maybe it was a bad dream after all.

While Al waited, she looked around the
room again. It was the basic hospital room, she guessed. Pretty wallpaper with
floral prints on them. There was in addition to the chair the guard had been in,
a couch. The equipment, with the exception of the IV stand, had been pushed
back against the far wall. The television was on but muted, and closed captions
ran across the bottom of the screen. The bed was wider than the ones her mother
had been in, and the sheets where pink instead of the standard white.

Her body didn’t hurt so much anymore. Lifting
her arms up to inspect them, she noticed that other than the IV needle still in
place on the back of her hand, she didn’t have a mark on her. Gingerly running
her hand down her waist, she didn’t feel any wound there either, not even a
bandage. She reached up and touched her mouth and found her lips to be smooth
and soft, not broken and dry like they had been in the cave. Shaking now, she
pulled the tray across the bed, opened the little drawer beneath it, and
flipped up the mirror. Nothing. Not a single bruise.

Several minutes later, after the guard
had left the room, Diana burst into it, rushed to her bed, and launched herself
into her arms. Al had never been so happy to see anyone in her entire life.

“I thought you were dead. We all did. They
had to bring in this special tracker to find you. When they found you in that
cave the police actually thought you might already be dead. She said that it
would take someone very strong to survive what you probably went through. I
told her that you were the strongest person I knew and you’d be fine. And you
are.”

Al looked at Diana and thought she
wasn’t strong at all and, if given half a chance, she’d hire that tracker to
take her back to the cave and leave her there. “I wish she had left me there. What
about Dad and Jacob? Please tell me that they are alright too. That this whole
thing was just a bad dream.” She knew that they weren’t. She could still see
her father’s intestines being ripped out and eaten by that…that thing. Jacob…she
didn’t want to think about the horrors her little brother had endured before he
died. But she had little hope that any of it was a dream or, in this case, a
nightmare.

“Oh Miss Bennett, they’re both dead. I’m
so sorry. I thought you knew. They both were killed immediately.” Diana looked
away from her. She knew something, Al thought. She was hiding something from
her.

“What is it Diana? What aren’t you
telling me? There’s something else, isn’t there? What is it?” She was ready to
run, to run back to where they’d found her and hide. She knew whatever she had
to tell her, she wasn’t going to like it.

“Those animals, the ones that attacked
us, they bit you to the point of almost death. That woman, Bailey, said that
they infect people that way, with their bites. They were wolves, you see,
werewolves. And now that you’ve been bitten by them, there’s a very good
possibility that you might become a werewolf too.”

About the Author

Kathi Barton, author of the bestselling
series Force of Nature, lives in Nashport, Ohio with her husband Paul. In
addition to writing full time Kathi likes to spend time with her eight
grandkids, three children and three children-in-laws. She writes to relax and
have fun.

Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart
and Hugh Jackman brings them to life for her readers in a way that has them
coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance
with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi on line and drop her an email
if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans.
[email protected]
.

Follow
Kathi on her blog:
http://kathisbartonauthor.blogspot.com/