I could hear Valdez snapping and barking and looked over to see the man he'd attacked sprawled on the concrete. He was bleeding and unconscious but still breathing. Valdez looked ready to finish him.
"Stop. Don't kill him. I want to know who these guys are. How they knew I was vampire."
"No mystery there. Check out the SUV over there, Blondie. When you knocked Sam into it, a black film fell down." Valdez backed up, but never took his eyes off the man in front of him.
They'd come in a WD company vehicle. They'd been sent by my old nemesis, vampire hunter Brent Westwood. He'd made his billions in computers and the SUV had the logo of Westwood Digital, one of his companies. Westwood figured vampires were less than human and stalking and killing them a public service. I was surprised they'd made the feeble attempt to disguise the logo. No need to be secretive about it. A vampire sure couldn't go to local authorities and complain or press charges, now could she?
"I'll bet he thought I'd be weak from that stuff he's been selling me and I'd be an easy get." Because he hates vampires and me in particular, Westwood had taken over the company where I'd ordered my synthetic blood and sent me a substitute that had left me pretty much powerless. Fortunately, I'd figured out what was wrong and switched brands, but I'd let Westwood think I was still drinking his weak swill.
"So he sent his thugs to pick you up. I bet he didn't want either one of them to off you but wanted to do the honors himself."
"Sure, he always was a hands-on vamp hunter." I saw the man I'd laid out start to stir and jumped on top of him before Valdez could do it. "Listen, a-hole. Tell your boss that Glory St. Clair is not going to die tonight or ever. That if he sends any more of his people after me, they'll be shipped back to him in tiny gift boxes, piece by piece." I snarled and showed my fangs. The guy under me stiffened in horror. I hadn't survived this long without picking up a few intimidation skills. Fortunately, I hadn't had to trot them out in a while.
"Your buddy over there needs to go to the emergency room. Tell them he got tangled up in barbed wire while putting up fence on his ranch."
"But they'll see the dog bites."
"Then he ran into a pack of rabid coyotes on the back forty. He'll have to take some shots, but don't you dare blame pit bulls. We like dogs around here." I glanced at Valdez. "And don't come back. If Westwood is smart, he'll stay the hell away from Austin. You got all that?"
The man nodded frantically.
"And get this. You can wrap your throat." I picked up his wrist. "But I can still drain you here." I glanced down. "Or maybe I'd just rip off your dick and take your blood down there. Believe me, it wouldn't be a pleasure for you." The man was wild-eyed and bucked under me. "But you're not my type." I bit into his wrist, drew enough blood to scare the hell out him, then spit it on the ground.
"You do exactly as I just said with your injured friend or I w ill come after you. I've got your taste now. I can find you wherever you go. And my friend here has your buddy's blood on his tongue. You disappoint us and you won't live another twenty-four hours. Now give me those squirt guns, holsters too." I stood and wiped my hands on my shorts. I waited until I had both guns and holsters in front of me, then watched the man scramble to drag his cohort into the SUV. He practically popped a wheelie tearing out of there.
"Good job, Blondie. You okay? He got you with that stake and you're bleeding. How do you feel? " I lifted up Ray's T-shirt, which now had a jagged tear in it. "It's already healing. Don't worry about it. Did you see me go after that guy? Can I kick butt or what? Hah!" The scrape did hurt. Vamps have almost an allergy to wood when they're poked like that. But when it's not a stake through the heart, no big deal. And I was pumped. I grabbed my new toys and carried them toward the house.
"Yeah, you were awesome. Now wait here while I make sure the pair of paparazzi who're trying to make it down the hill with the video of both of us kicking butt don't send it to YouTube or MTV." Valdez pushed me toward the door until I was standing under the front porch light.
"You're kidding me."
"Don't I wish. Go get Brittany. She needs to help me with this one and you need to get inside and take care of Ray." Valdez bounded off down the hill.
I ran inside, whispered in Brittany's ear, then hurried upstairs to check on Ray, only stopping to throw the water guns in a hall closet before I opened the bedroom door. He was propped up in bed with a laptop.
"You'll never believe" We both said it at the same time, though actually Ray whispered it.
"Okay, you first." I stopped beside the bed.
Ray grabbed my T-shirt. "Hole. Blood. And you're wet. What the hell?"
"A little attack. Water cannons. Funny and, uh, okay, a little scary, but I handled it." I can't say I wasn't pleased by the worry lines on Ray's handsome face.He shook his head, then set the laptop aside. He pulled me down next to him. "Tell me." So I gave him a summary, highlighting my bravery, awesome intimidation skills, not to mention kung fu or whatever you call those fighting moves.
"Why"
"Talk in my head, Ray. Save the voice for the important stuff, like singing."
"Why does this Westwood hate you so much?" Ray lifted the hem of my shirt to look at my healing wound. "Son of a bitch. That's got to hurt."
"Yeah, wood really stings. I had a run-in with Westwood before. He hates vampires, hunts them with a bow and special olivewood arrows, for sport. Collects their fangs for trophies and wears them on a necklace. Two of those fangs belonged to Jerry's best friend. Pretty sick, huh?"
"He sounds like Simon Destiny. A man who's too rich and too bored. Wish we could send him to Circe too."
"Exactly! Too bad Aggie only wants vampires. Brent Westwood would be a great catch for her." I entertained myself for a moment with the thought of a world without Simon and Westwood in it. "Anyway, we had a showdown on Halloween last year and I managed to get the best of Westwood. So he's been gunning for me ever since. Bad enough the male vamps are eluding him, but when a dumb, blond vamp puts one over on him, his ego just can't take it."
"A smart man would never, ever take you for a dumb blonde, Glory St. Clair. Don't know how this guy made billions. Maybe there was a blonde helping him. " Ray grinned and slid his hand over my wound. Ooo. Felt comforting. And sexy. Very distracting. I threw up a block. Obviously Ray had stopped pouting about what might or might not have happened between Nate and me. Sexy moves. Was he feeling competitive? Trying to see if he could win me from his buddy? I wasn't about to be the prize in a macho seduction contest.
"What did you find out on the laptop?"
"See for yourself." Ray picked up the laptop and set it on my legs. "Check this out." There was a Web page devoted to the mythological (hah!
If they only knew.) Aggie or rather her real and definitely unpronounceable name. "It claims these Sirens are usually in the Mediterranean or thereabouts. I'd love to know why Circe dragged her to our lake. Sure wish her boss the Storm God had a Web page and an e-mail account. We could clue him in on his Siren's activities. Bet he'd be none too happy to learn she's hooked up with Circe."
"That's what I was thinking. Seems we could blackmail Aggie, threaten to expose her, if we could figure out how to contact her big boss. " Ray suddenly started to cough and gasped for air. Bad news. Since even a glass of water could make him sicker, all I could do was watch and wait for him to lay back and close his eyes as his breathing became even again.
"You need to feed again. I'm up for it, but I need to shower first." I looked down at my dirty shorts and the bloodstained T-shirt.
"I'll read this stuff later. Why don't you lie back and take a nap?" I picked up the laptop and moved it to a dresser on the other side of the room.
"Maybe you shouldn't feed me. You were injured. You need your strength for yourself " Ray lay back and put his hands behind his head. He'd shucked the sweatshirt Nathan had insisted he wear earlier and was back to just boxers again. Exhibitionist. Of course he did have something worth showing off.
"Glory?"
"Uh, I'm fine, Ray. I fed from a healthy young guy outside. One waiting to scope out your friend Sienna when she arrives. I barely bled from this little cut."
"You went hunting outside? Are you crazy?" He sat up straight, his hand clutching my thigh under my shorts.
"I had Valdez with me." I kind of liked the way Ray seemed sincerely worried about me. And his hand on my thigh wasn't so bad either. I should move back, tell him to cool it. Of course I did none of the above.
"And you came back injured anyway. Maybe next time we should just order pizza and you can do the delivery boy."
"Yeah. Might work." And Valdez would be happy to scarf down the pizza afterward. "I'm fine. I hope I warned his henchmen off, but we need to be careful if Westwood is thinking of coming back to Austin. He has a way of detecting vampires. You're not immune from an attack either."
"Vampire hunters? I can't think about that now." Ray yawned and stretched, finally letting his hand slide down my leg and away from me. Those boxers gapped and I almost swallowed my tongue. " I still have a hell of a headache. Stupid. Alcohol never did this to me before. I could drink Jack all day and all night if I wanted and never feel a thing."
"This isn't before. This is after. I hope you've learned your lesson, Ray. I'm not planning to come running over here every time you have a craving for the old days and a bender." There. I guess I'd shown Ray I wasn't one of his groupies, turning to mush and willing to do whatever just because he flashed a little skin. Okay, maybe I was out of sorts because he'd just let go of me so easily. Or could he be teasing me? I gave him a narrow-eyed look.