Page 72 of Brimstone Bound
‘Her killer?’ The bellman’s eyes slid to me. ‘What do you mean?’ He almost said it like he cared.
I took Lukas’s arm and propelled him out of earshot. ‘I need to get to the DeVane Hotel. Can you drive me there?’ I paused. ‘Doyou drive?’
He grinned at me. ‘Like a demon. But I also have a driver on standby who’ll be ready at a moment’s notice.’ He registered my taut expression and his smile vanished. ‘What’s going on? Why the DeVane again?’
‘I have a hunch, that’s all.’ I didn’t want to say it aloud. Not yet. ‘I don’t need you to come into the hotel with me. In fact, it’s probably better if you don’t. I need a lift, that’s all. I’d drive myself, but I’ve had too much to drink.’
‘D’Artagnan…’
I looked away. ‘Never mind. I can walk. It’s not far.’ I sniffed. ‘And now you know where I’m going, it’ll be easy for you to follow me.’
‘It’s always easy for me to follow you,’ he murmured. ‘Besides, I’m not refusing to drive. I’m just concerned.’
‘It’s something I need to check out.’
He gazed at me. ‘And it can’t wait until morning?’
I didn’t answer.
Lukas sighed. ‘Give me a minute.’ He reached into his jacket, drew out a phone and muttered into it. Then he slid it out of sight again. ‘The car won’t be long.’
‘It must be good to be a vampire Lord.’
‘There are advantages,’ he agreed. ‘Though it doesn’t seem to intimidate you. That is … unusual.’
‘I’ve far too much going on in my life to be intimidated by a vampire. Or a Lord.’ Or by anyone who wasn’t trying to kill me.
Lukas leaned towards my ear, his breath hot against my skin. ‘Careful,’ he murmured. ‘I can still be dangerous.’
Of that, I had no doubt.
A sleek car, with paintwork as black and gleaming as Lukas’s eyes, pulled up next to us. Lukas opened the rear door. ‘After you.’
I felt the bellman’s gaze burning into my back as I climbed in. I should have been wary of accepting a lift from a vampire, even though I’d asked for it. I hadn’t stopped to think about it; that either made me a complete fool, or made Lukas my new best friend.
I double-checked the crossbow to be sure that the safety was on. The last thing I wanted was to shoot Lord Horvath in the back seat of his own car.
He gave me an amused look as he slid in next to me.
‘I don’t want to set it off by accident,’ I explained.
‘If you don’t know how to use it, you shouldn’t carry it around.’
‘You’re the one who suggested that I have a weapon. It’s not like I have set of fangs to protect myself.’
‘That’s true,’ Lukas conceded. ‘Given what we already know of you, however, you might be more immortal than I am. It’s even possible, D’Artagnan, that you can’t die at all.’
I glanced nervously at the driver. There was a privacy screen but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hear us.
‘Relax,’ Lukas said. ‘This section is soundproofed. And even if it weren’t, my vampires are loyal to a fault.’
I imagined that if I questioned the clan alphas they’d say the same about their werewolves, even though there was evidence to prove that at least one of them was a stone-cold killer. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘my immortality is not something I’d like to test again. It was probably a fluke.’
‘Mmm.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘You said your parents passed away. Are you sure they were your natural parents?’
I took a long time before answering. When I did, I was honest. ‘I’m no longer sure of anything,’ I whispered.
Lukas reached for my hand and squeezed it. For the rest of the short journey, neither of us said another word.
