Bloodfever

“Why don’t you go get it yourself?” What did he do all day?

“I’m busy tomorrow.”

“So, go get it tonight.”

“She won’t have it until morning.”

“Then have her send it by courier.”

“Who’s the employer here, Ms. Lane?”

“Who’s the OOP detector?”

“Is there some reason you don’t want to go to the university?”

“No.” I was in no mood to talk about dreamy-eyed guys and dates I could never have.

“Then what, Ms. Lane, is your problem?”

“Shouldn’t I be afraid the Lord Master might get me while I’m out and about?”

“Were you worrying about that tonight when you were letting Derek O’Bannion shove his tongue down your throat?”

I stiffened. “He was walking into the Dark Zone, Barrons.”

“So? One less problem for us.”

I shook my head. “I’m not you, Barrons. I’m not dead inside.”

His smile was ten shades of ice. “So what did you do? Run after him and offer yourself on a silver platter to get him to turn around?”

Pretty much. And then I’d had to spend the next three and a half hours in a downtown club, dancing and flirting with him, and trying to keep his hands off me, while Inspector Jayne watched from a corner table. Trying to use up so much of his time that he would be disinclined to go back and search the Dark Zone tonight. Eventually trying to beg off nicely, and failing.

Like his brother, Derek O’Bannion was used to getting his way, and if he didn’t, he pushed harder. In my blind determination to avert culpability in another death, I’d forgotten he was related to the man who’d brutally murdered twenty-seven people in a single night to get what he wanted.

By eleven-thirty, I’d had as much as I could take. With each drink he tossed back, he’d sprouted more hands and a worse attitude. I hadn’t been able to extricate myself gracefully so, in a fit of desperation, I’d excused myself for the bathroom, and tried to sneak out a side door. I’d figured I would call him tomorrow, pretend I’d gotten sick, and if he asked me out again, evade, procrastinate, and lie. I really hadn’t wanted another O’Bannion pissed off at me in this city. One had been bad enough.

He’d caught me outside the bathroom, shoved me into a wall, and kissed me so brutally that I hadn’t been able to breathe. Flattened between his body and a brick wall, I’d grown light-headed from lack of oxygen. My mouth still felt swollen, bruised. I’d seen the excitement in his eyes and known he was a man turned on by a woman’s helplessness. I’d remembered his brother’s restaurant, the carefully coiffed and tightly controlled women, how the waiters were forbidden to serve a woman a meal or a drink unless a man ordered for them. O’Bannions were not nice men.

When I’d finally wrested myself free, I’d made a scene, loudly accusing him of forcing his attentions on me when I’d already told him a dozen times I wasn’t interested. If he’d been anyone else, the bouncers would have tossed him out of the club, but in Dublin, nobody tosses an O’Bannion. They’d thrown me out instead. The tape-to-my-derriere inspector had watched it all through narrowed eyes, arms folded, without lifting a finger to help me.

I made another enemy in this city tonight, as if I didn’t already have enough.

Still, I’d accomplished my goal and it hadn’t been an easy one to tackle.

When I’d looked out the window and seen Derek O’Bannion heading straight for his deadly rendezvous with the Shades I’d wanted nothing more than to flip the sign, lock the door, curl up with a good book, and pretend nothing was out there, and nothing bad was about to happen. But it seems I’ve got this set of scales inside me that I never used to have, or at least I wasn’t aware of, and I can’t shake the feeling that if I don’t try to keep them balanced, I’ll lose something I won’t be able to get back.

So I’d forced myself out of the bookstore and into the rapidly deepening dusk. I’d rolled my eyes at the inspector, and ground my teeth against the oppressive sense of dread that cloaked me every time I saw that terrifying black specter, watching, waiting. I’d notched my chin higher and made myself walk straight past it like it didn’t even exist—and as far as I could tell, it didn’t, because Jayne had ignored it and O’Bannion sure hadn’t looked at it on the way back, but then again, I’d tugged my camisole down to reveal a shocking amount of cleavage to tempt him to turn around. I’d done for one O’Bannion what I’d failed to do for the other, and the scales inside me had leveled a little.