Page 2 of Forsworn By The Vampire
I knew what she meant, and still my mind immediately went there. A low growl rose in my chest, but I bit it off before she could hear it. My nostrils flared, searching for more of her scent. Mmmm...there it was. Earthy and sweet and full of spice, just as I remembered. It made my mouth water.
"If you have something to say, say it. Otherwise get the hell out of my way."
"Jamal," I told her.
"What?"
"My name is Jamal."
She lifted one dark eyebrow, as if to say, "And?"
"Does Lizzy know you were in her shop?"
"Good gods, vampire, drop it already, will you? You've got nothing on me."
I fought the smirk at her refusal to call me by my name. "Then why won't you tell me what you were doing there?"
"What wereyoudoing there?" she asked me.
"What?"
"Turnaround is fair play, right? You tell me what you were doing there and I'll tell you why I was there."
"I was getting Wiggles' medication that Lizzy accidentally left there when she locked up earlier today." Crossing my arms over my chest, I waited for her reciprocate.
The rain started to come down harder, and she gave the sky a dirty look and then pulled her hood down farther over her face. "It was nice chatting with you, Jamal," she dragged my name out, "but I gotta go." She took a step toward me, so close I could feel her body heat through the raincoat she was wearing. I stared down into her hazel eyes, moss green with streaks of golden brown, then dipped down to her ruby red lips, watching as her tongue wet her the bottom one, adding to the sheen of her lipstick. "If I stay here with you any longer," she purred, "I'm going to be completely drenched." She looked up at me, the corners of her mouth turning up into a feline smile.
I stood there, unable to move, my heart pounding and my cock hard as she walked around me and crossed the border into The Garden District.
Chapter 2
Angel
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
What the hell was that vampire doing snooping around The Quarter at two in the morning? Shouldn't he be taking advantage of some innocent woman in the back of their club or feeding on her angry husband or something?
Taking a deep breath, I glanced back over my shoulder. I knew he wasn't following me anymore, but I could still feel the weight of his stare on my back. Or maybe some small part of me who liked to live dangerously was just hoping he would ignore the spelled border...
But no, there he stood, looking like some kind of goddamn biker magazine ad with the collar of his black, leather jacket up around his neck, the rain glistening on his dark brown skin like tiny diamonds, perfectly illuminated by the streetlight above him.
I'd never noticed how light his eyes are before. More topaz than brown.
With a huff of impatience aimed more at myself than at him, I whipped my head back around and kept walking.
Fucking vampires. Always sticking their noses in our business. And now I was on his radar, and something about the way he was watching me told me I wouldn't be coming off of it anytime soon.
I shoved down the panic that was bubbling up inside of me. There was no way he knew what I was really doing at Lizzy's shop. He had nothing on me.
Still, I opened my chakras and sent out a pulse of magic, testing the wards placed around The Garden District where I lived. The spell wasn't made to keep the vampires out, but it did let us know whenever one came into our neighborhood. Our relationship with our supernatural neighbors was much less strained these days since two of our own mated with two of theirs, but it still didn't hurt to be cautious.
I didn't breathe easy again until I was about two blocks from my apartment. Maybe "easy" wasn't the right word. But at least I didn't feel like my heart was about to explode from my chest, something I'd immediately hid behind a quick spell so the vampire wouldn't hear it. He knew better than to think I was scared of him, so he would correctly assume that I was hiding something. And he was already suspicious enough.
As I got to the front door of my apartment, I glanced back one more time, listening for anything from the boundary spell that would tell me it had been crossed.
But all was still and silent. Slipping inside, I took the stairs up to the third floor and went directly to my place.
The door was flung open before I could insert my key all the way into the lock. "Where the fuck have you been, Angel?"
