Page 27 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal (Kennedy Rain #4)

Half an hour into our drive, my cell phone rang.

“Do not answer that!” Deagan shouted from the trunk.

“Why?” I checked the phone. Jared was calling, and my battery was already back up to fifteen percent.

“We do not need to speak to his lordship at the moment.”

“He’s been worried about you.”

“Jared does not worry. He merely wants a report.”

I stared at the back seat via the rearview mirror. “You don’t want him to know where we’re going.”

“Correct!” he said with the energy of a game show host telling a contestant they’d won the grand prize.

Shaking my head, I silenced the call. It was probably better I didn’t talk to Jared. He’d hear the road noise and know I’d left The Rain. The last thing I needed was for him to send someone to look for me.

“I will make my grand appearance later tonight,” Deagan said.

A few minutes passed before Deagan spoke again. “You came to my rescue.”

“Not just me. Christian and Melissa did most of the work.”

“Melissa,” he said.

“Christian’s sister.” I couldn’t remember if they’d met.

“Ah, Crusco’s vampire. She entered the compound with you?”

“Yeah. She wanted to help.”

“You are telling me two humans and a fledgling vampire walked into Arcuro’s compound… and you were able to walk out?”

“Basically? I manufactured a diversion. Most of the vampires were gone.”

“Ever surprising you are, Ms. Rain. That is why you had to come with me.”

“And you needed a driver,” I muttered.

“Touché.” A bump followed by a curse and then a shuffling sound came from the back. “It is quite stuffy back here.”

“At least there’s only one of you this time,” I said.

He chuckled. “There is that.”

I just shook my head, smiling as I slowed the car. “I’m turning in to the neighborhood now.”

“Wonderful! Take a left at the first stop sign. The house number is 5104. A keypad is attached to the garage.” He gave me the code to open it.

I followed his instructions, pulled into the garage, and turned off the engine. The sunlight disappeared as the door lowered back into place. It wasn’t completely dark, but Deagan could easily avoid the few beams of light that managed to make it in.

Deagan used the trunk’s interior latch to open it. He tossed off his blankets, climbed out, then brushed off and adjusted his clothing.

Then brushed off and adjusted it again. Were his hands shaking?

He cleared his throat. “This way.”

The garage was empty, completely bare except for my car and the keypad that matched the one outside. Deagan walked to the latter, entered a number, then grabbed the doorknob.

It didn’t budge.

Frowning, he entered another number. Again, the door stayed locked. “I would swear…” He faded off. Was he staring at my shoulder? The wall beside me?

I sighed. “Can you break in?”

He didn’t respond.

“Deagan?”

His focus shifted an inch to look at me.

No. Not at me. My neck.

“Deagan,” I said more forcefully this time.

His gaze shot to my face, fixated there for too many seconds until, finally, he shook his head like he was trying to remove an image from his mind. “My apologies. It’s worse when I’m standing.”

“What’s worse?”

He gave me a sheepish smile. “I need to feed.”

I forced my feet to remain in place and kept my breathing slow and easy. No need to trigger him. “I’m not volunteering for that.”

“Of course not,” he said quickly. “I will make a call.” He turned back to the keypad muttering, “As soon as we get inside.”

I should stay outside until he got his fix. I did not need to be bitten by a vampire tonight.

The garage door—the large metal door that had closed behind my car—clanged. Deagan and I both whirled toward it, saw it lift a couple of inches.

“Did you do that?” I asked.

“No.” Deagan’s lips pulled back to reveal sharp fangs.

The door ground another two inches up. The band of sunlight below it thickened and began to cut into the dark garage.

“Behind me,” Deagan ordered at the same time I snapped, “Figure out the code!”

The door moved up again, and my heart rate spiked. Someone was on the other side, manually lifting it to reveal leather boots and the bottom of black pants.

“Kennedy,” Deagan snapped.

“The code!” I slung the words at him as I darted to the back of my car. Deagan was Aged, but he hadn’t fully recovered from his time in captivity. He wouldn’t last ten seconds in the sunlight.

The garage door rose again.

Wrenching open the trunk, I grabbed an armful of blankets, intending to chuck them at Deagan, but the intruder was already ducking inside. I flung them at the woman instead, reached toward the chaos bracelet on my wrist, and—

“Thordis?”

Dark eyebrows arched over green eyes that flicked from me to the blankets, then back to me again. “Blankets? Really? Were you planning to tuck me in until I surrender?”

“What?” My adrenaline-addled brain tried to make sense of her words.

“Were you planning to tuck—”

“I heard you,” I said. “Why… What are you doing here?”

“Following you.” Her voice flattened. So did her expression. “I was ordered to.”

“By who? Phedre?” Deagan and I hadn’t exactly gone out of our way to avoid people, but we hadn’t called attention to ourselves either.

“Of course Phedre,” Thordis snarled. Where had the slightly crazy, overly eager-to-maim version of her gone?

“Couple’s quarrel?” Deagan asked, peeking out from underneath a blanket at the very back of the garage.

Thordis gave him a killing glare.

He cleared his throat. “How did you open the door? The keypad ensures it stays locked.”

“That keypad?” She jabbed her finger toward the half-open door. A plastic frame lay broken on the ground, three severed wires exposed to the sun.

Deagan muttered something under his breath, then focused on the keypad beside the locked door to the house. Giving it a glare that rivaled Thordis’s previous one, he gripped the frame, ripped it from the wall, then tossed it to the ground.

His narrowed eyes made it look like he hoped the door wouldn’t budge when he turned the knob. It did. Still muttering, Deagan pushed the door open. It scraped and squeaked, indicating it was as heavy as the doors of a decoy house.

Thordis and I followed Deagan inside. We entered a bright, gleaming kitchen that could have been the big reveal in a home makeover.

The white granite counters were bare except for a shiny black toaster and picture-perfect utensil holder with wooden spoons.

Every light in sight happened to be on, brightening every surface and piece of furniture in the attached living room.

Deagan either had a high electric bill for an unoccupied house or the system was set to activate when anyone entered. Either way, it was remarkably modern.

Thordis whistled. “This doesn’t look like you, vampire.”

He stopped mid-step. “Why is that?”

“It’s not very Deagan-ish,” I replied.

He turned to take in the place. The open-concept kitchen, the white leather couch set, and the sturdy coffee table.

A single remote sat on the latter’s surface, ready to turn on the TV, and a floor lamp with a neutral shade occupied a corner.

This could have been a typical upper-middle-class home except for the distressed wooden panels occupying the space where windows should have been.

Deagan swept his hand through the air in a motion that said see. “It’s perfectly normal.”

“Exactly,” Thordis and I said at the same time. I snort-laughed. Thordis smiled widely.

Deagan rolled his eyes, then headed to a counter beside the refrigerator. I watched his hands as he opened a drawer. He hid it well, but they were still shaking.

He shifted through whatever was in the drawer—probably typical junk drawer things like scissors, broken pencils, dead batteries, and random cords.

“What are you looking for?” Thordis asked.

“Phone,” he said.

“Do you want to borrow mine?” I asked.

He paused his search and looked at me. At my neck again? I couldn’t tell, but Thordis’s posture changed as if she sensed a threat.

Deagan shook away whatever he’d been thinking or feeling. “I need my contacts.”

“You need blood,” Thordis stated.

“I will call someone.” He started to resume his search. Paused. “Unless…?”

My neck tingled when he cocked his head, and I felt a flush beginning to heat my body. I started to tell him to keep his fangs to himself. Then I realized he wasn’t actually looking at me.

That Valkyrie-crazy spark returned to Thordis’s eyes. “Only if I get more than blood.”

“Done!” Deagan shut the drawer with a flourish.

The energy in the room pulsed when he held out his hand.

Thordis strode toward him, hips swaying.

My mind was still processing the fact that she was volunteering for this when Deagan slid one arm around her waist. He lifted his other hand to her neck, letting his knuckles lightly graze her skin.

She tilted her head, giving him easy access to her blood.

The room heated—I heated—as his mouth descended.

“Hey!” I said. “Get a room!”

Deagan paused. Closed his mouth. Seemed to remember that I was there and I was human. “Ah, yes. Of course. We’ll just be a minute.”

“More than a minute!” Thordis grabbed a handful of his coat and yanked him toward a hallway.

“Careful with the embroidery, wild one.”

“What happened to this being an emergency?” I called out.

My question was met with the thunk of a door shutting.

Jaw clenched, I collapsed onto the couch and tried to extinguish my reaction to his magic.

At least I wasn’t battling the pheromones of two vampires.

Deagan had come to Jared’s aid after I’d conned Arcuro into releasing him.

That exchange of blood had been potent, and it had taken me by surprise.

When I didn’t have a chance to prepare for a paranorm’s magic, it was much more difficult to resist it.

And with one specific paranorm, it was difficult to resist even when I braced for it.

I shot up from the couch before Blake could invade my thoughts again. I thought about going outside for fresh air, but I didn’t want to attract attention from the neighboring homeowners. They probably already had questions about this seemingly unoccupied house.

I just needed to move and to not think about sex.

While I was filling a glass full of water from the fridge, my phone vibrated.

You better be on the way.

It was Carrie.

I chewed on my bottom lip. Her apartment was only twenty minutes away, and I wouldn’t have to stay long. It would be efficient if I helped with whatever Deagan’s maybe emergency might be, made it to the bank and electric company, and then also fulfilled my promise to Carrie.

A rhythmic thumping began behind the wall across from me. I glared at it. Maybe I should go run my errands now.

I wouldn’t tempt fate that much.

Grinding my teeth, I dropped down on the couch and grabbed the TV remote. I was beginning to regret my decision to take Deagan’s “emergency” seriously. His definition of urgent was probably a wardrobe crisis.

I scrolled until I found an over-the-top action film, then turned the volume up high to drown out Deagan and Thordis.