Page 67 of Night of the Vampire
Never taking her eyes from my face, she backed away from me, then turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
I couldn't let myself relax until I felt the weight of her aura leave the building. Then, I slowly lowered myself back to my chair, the adrenaline draining from my blood.
I put my elbows on the desk and rubbed my jaw with one hand. The only reason I'd gotten out of that meeting unscathed was because I'd told her Lizzy was my mate. Otherwise, there was no way Judy would have let me speak to her like that. If there was one thing the witches demanded, it was respect. And they had every right to. A witch's magic was the only real threat to us, other than the sun.
Well, and perhaps a dragon's fire. However, I had yet to ever meet one.
Taking my cell from my pocket, I called Jamal. "I need to find Lizzy," I told him when he answered. "No. No. It's not what you think. Don't fight me on this, Jamal. I just had a visit from her aunt. Yes, at the club." Briefly, I told him what the high priestess had relayed to me. "If you care about Lizzy as you claim, you'll tell me where the fuck she is." I didn't need to write down the address. It was burned into my brain as soon as he told me. "Thank you," I told him. "I'll be there to help you with Kenya as soon as I can."
Ten minutes later, I knocked on the door of the room number Jamal had given me. I knew Lizzy was inside. I could smell her. Her shampoo. Her blood. Her little dog. Her scent grew stronger as she got closer to the door and the thirst hit me hard and fast. I took a few deep breaths, calming my greedy nature.
There was a pause as she looked through the peephole, and then I heard the slide of the lock, overly loud to my sensitive ears. When she opened the door, I nearly lost my breath from the sheer beauty of her.
Christ. How could I have forgotten?
"Hi," she said. She didn't seem upset that I was there.
"I gave you some space," I told her.
A smile played around her lips. "I noticed."
"I'm done doing that."
She stared up at me for long moments, and then she stepped back, opening the door wider. "Okay."
I heard her heart speed up as I walked past her and into the room. It was one of the nicer rooms in the city, with a sitting area set apart from the bed.
"How long did you plan to stay here?" I asked as I looked around.
The closet door was open, and it was filled with clothes. New, I gathered, from the tags still hanging from half of them. The desk was set up with her laptop and a cell phone was charging beside it. It irritated me that there was a way I could have at least had some contact with her and yet she'd never bothered to let me know.
"I don't know. Until I decided whether or not I was going to stay in the city."
Once again, ice cold fear filled my soul. It caught my breath and sped up my heart until the beat of mine matched hers. But it wasn't the end of my own life I was afraid of, it was the possibility I would never see her again. I couldn't let that happen. I would not let that happen.
"What?" Worry crossed her face, but only briefly, before her eyes hardened and her jaw set into a stubborn line.
"Killian, you can't force me to stay with you. I know you think I'm your fated mate, or whatever, but I don't know what the hell that means. Not really. And I've got my own life to think about. Things that don't involve you and your weird vampire needs."
"So you would leave me? Is that it? Just disappear from my life without even telling me?"
"Killian, I barely even know you."
Oh, Acushla. That's where you're wrong. "Yes, you do, Lizzy, if you would let yourself. If you'd open yourself up to it."
"Open myself up to what exactly?"
"The inevitable," I told her. "You were created for me. There's no escaping that. If you tried to leave me, I'd follow you to the ends of the earth and beyond." The truth hit me hard as soon as I said it. "You belong with me."
Wiggles chose that moment to wake up and dig his way out of the nest of blankets he'd been sleeping on. When he spotted me there, he waddled over to greet me as fast as his arthritic legs would go. Tongue hanging out of his mouth, he pawed at my leg.
I took a breath, calming myself, and squatted down to pet him. "Hey, boy." At least someone was happy to see me. With one last good rub I stood up again.
Lizzy was watching her dog as he wandered off to check his food bowl by the dresser. Reaching into her head, I tried to decipher what she was thinking from the chaotic web of her thoughts. I didn't like what I found. "Why do you insist on fighting it?" I asked her.
"Because I have to," she told me. "I can't lose myself again like I did in New York. And I feel like if I gave in to whatever this is between us, you would"—her eyes wandered around the room as she reached for the words—"consume me completely."
The seven feet of carpet between her and I felt like a void I'd never be able to cross. Unable to stand the feeling a minute longer, I quickly closed the distance between us.
