Bait

Chapter Eleven

I watched Tane walk away as I coughed and sputtered in the river. On-lookers began to gather and point at the silly woman in the river. No one offered to help. They just stood and waited for me to drown.

I didn’t lose my purse to the dark waters; it remained grasped in my fingers. Lights from the A38 reflected off a small white rectangle of paper that floated by my face. Staying afloat occupied my mind, not flotsam, until I realized Tane’s card was not clutched in my hand any longer. I did a frantic search of the immediate area for it.

The river’s gentle current pulled it away from me, my only tie to contacting Tane. I paddled, like a dog, to catch it in my grip but something brushed my leg and a startled cry echoed over the river.

It came from me.

The dark water held secrets I didn’t care to know. I envisioned fish, eels, and two-headed monsters. It increased the efficiency of my strokes and I caught the damn card.

My heart, ready to explode, pounded against my ribs as I raced to the small pier. The sensation of being chased by those dark secrets fueled my speed. I pulled myself out of the black water to collapse panting on the dock.

I hate vampires.

When my heart calmed and my lungs no longer billowed, I stood to assess my situation. This small pier connected to the main one but I’d have to pass a guardhouse at the only exit. The street wasn’t too far from there.

I sighed when I looked down at myself. One more dress ruined. At this rate, I’d be returning home with empty suitcases. Yet, I still managed to keep a shoe, not that it mattered. I slipped it off and flung it over my shoulder, back into the river to join its sister.

Carefully, I opened the delicate, wet card Tane had given me. The phone number appeared faded but still present. At least I didn’t lose my handbag. I placed the soft paper in between my credit cards, then made my way to the exit.

The short, round guard at the booth opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out as I drew closer. He rolled his eyes and waved me though the gate, apparently more concerned with those breaking in than breaking out.

I smiled my gratitude and took the stairs that led to the street.

The first taxi driver took one look at my dripping hair and hem, shook his head, and pressed the gas pedal. I waved a second one to stop soon after and got a similar response.

I shook my fist at the retreating vehicle. “Paranoid money-grubbing fascists who eat children.” Just like my grandma taught me.

The rendezvous point with Colby was a mile away. How would I explain my being half drowned? I tripped and fell overboard? He already distrusted me, this would make it worse. I couldn’t blame him, I was about to lie my ass off to him.

I passed a gas station and spotted a pink pay phone. A desperate idea emerged. I made my way over to it and dialed a number.

“Hello?”

“The gigs a bust, Colby. Rurik won’t show up and I’m going to bed.”

“Your signal disappeared. My men should be there looking for you.” His tone told me more than his words. He was pissed.

“Someone spilled their drink on it.” Kind of the truth if you considered the river drinkable.

“You barely arrived. What makes you think he won’t show. My source seemed certain he’d be there.”

“Trust me.” I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to jump up and down while I spilled the beans. I wanted his men to whisk me away back to America so I could hide in my apartment with a week’s worth of DVDs and chocolate chip cookies. “I’ve been following him to clubs all over Budapest. This place won’t be to his taste.” I couldn’t risk the team’s life so I’d do what Tane wanted. Not like Colby told me much.

He didn’t respond.

“I’ll catch a cab and talk to you tomorrow.”

“Fine.”

“Colby, I wouldn’t listen to that source anymore.” Tane never said I couldn’t hint.

He grunted and hung up.

I leaned my forehead against the booth. It would be a long walk to the Rudas but I could use the time to think. Tane told me so much, my head spun with the possibilities. He hired Colby to execute Rurik. I assumed he provided the pictures but he never mentioned the crime tonight. This smelled bad.

He wanted me to snitch on Colby’s movements. It didn’t bother me so much since Colby kept me in the dark. After my appearing to bail out tonight, I’d be lucky if I ever heard from him again.

The drug was my problem. Why the interest in something like a Roofy? To get it, I’d have to find Rurik on my own. Even if I could steal the drug from him, should I entrust it to Tane?

This was not going to end well for me. I could feel it.

The crunch of tires on the pavement as it pulled alongside me caught my attention. I palmed a vial of pepper spray from my handbag. It didn’t work on vampires but worked great on humans.

I looked over my shoulder as a powder-blue microcar pulled up to the curb. They built these tiny cars in the 1950’s yet some Hungarians still drove them. The driver leaned over to open the rust bucket’s passenger door.

“Rabbit, did you take a swim?”

I almost wished it was serial killer. Rurik, the last person I wanted to see, gave me his sexiest smile. I didn’t have a plan formulated yet and I needed to make a decision on his fate. “I fell off the terrace of the A38.” I grinned as I examined his small, two-passenger tin can. “I imagined you drove something more sporty and fast, like a Jag.”

He flinched. I didn’t know Rurik was capable of looking embarrassed. “My car’s getting repaired. This one belongs to a friend.”

We exchanged small lies and both of us knew it.

He twisted to glance at the oncoming traffic then back at me. “Need a ride?”

I did, but those pictures showed me a possible side of Rurik I didn’t care to meet. “You can’t expect me to believe that you just casually drove by and saw me walking.”

“Rabbit, please. Someone’s bound to notice us soon. Get in, we need to talk.”

“Then you’d better answer quick.”

He growled. “I followed Tane here, then saw him toss you in the river.”

I felt my mouth drop open. “Why would you...”

“Rabbit—” he interrupted, and gestured to the vacant car seat “—get in.”

I swallowed my questions and climbed in.

He accelerated from the curb. The little, vintage vehicle’s engine whined from the effort.

I needed an ally and I wondered if maybe he needed one too.

We drove in silence back to the Rudas. He parked the rust bucket on a side street, not trusting the valet with it.

When I tried to open my door, the hinges stuck. I pulled at the handle and heaved with all my strength.

“Stop, you might break it.” He got out and pulled it open with a metallic squeal.

I unfolded to get out of the compact vehicle. “This thing’s a death trap.”

“Not for me.” He had to put his shoulder against the door to push it closed. “I don’t think we should open this door again until I get it fixed.” He gave the microcar a sad look and patted the roof. “It’s my first car. An Alba Regia, I bought it after the second world war.”

“I thought it belonged to a friend.” I grinned to myself amused by my suave, elegant vampire’s eccentric tastes.

“And I thought you tripped into the river.” His eyebrow quirked up.

I struggled not to laugh and bit my lip with the effort. Vampire or human, deep down inside, men were the same, in love with their cars. I took his hand and tugged him towards the hotel. “Come on, no one will steal your rust bucket.”

I rolled my eyes at his behavior but it dawned on me that this was something vampires always dealt with. They could never really keep anything. Everything around them changed, aged, died but they never did. Rurik tried to explain this to me the other night when we bathed together.

Vampires knew grief well.

I flashed him a gentle smile over my shoulder and squeezed his hand. Unbelievable how easily he made me feel comfortable and at ease. I knew grief well too.

He pulled the hood from his sweatshirt over his head, leaving his face in shadows. He wore baggy jeans and faded cracked sneakers. “You look like a street thug.” A really yummy one.

He chuckled. “That’s the point. I’m in disguise.”

I gave him a silent ‘oh ’ and lead him to the hotel. Why would the Overlord of Budapest be hiding? Maybe he didn’t want to be seen with me, or worse, maybe he didn’t want anyone to identify him later. I gulped and glanced back at him.

This was it. I had to make a decision, killer or not a killer. Without the pictures I believed him innocent but that evidence probably came from Tane which made them suspect.

We arrived at the back entrance and I pivoted to face him. Our eyes met, grey storms versus blue ice. I didn’t know what I looked for but I wanted something, anything to clue me in on what I should do.

He picked at a wet strand of hair stuck on my cheek. His fingers hesitated on my skin as if enjoying the touch. “You’re freezing, let’s go warm you.”

I nodded and opened the door. My gut instincts won over my rational thoughts. We climbed the stairs. Once we entered my room I tossed my hand purse on the night table. “Okay, spill it. What do you want?” A shiver shook me and made my last words tremble. My cold, wet clothes clung to me and sucked any remaining heat.

He wandered around my bed and plucked the blanket from it. “Take your clothes off and wrap up before you catch your death.”

I reached behind me to undo my zipper.

“Whoa.” He spun to face away.

“What? It’s not like you haven’t seen it before.”

He chuckled. “No, and I wouldn’t mind seeing you again but we’ve important things to discuss. If we start out like this, I can guarantee you there will be no talking. And I promised you I’d wait until you were ready. Are you?”

I slipped out of my sopping dress and took the blanket from Rurik’s out stretched hand to wrap around me. “No.”

He sat on the edge on the unmade bed, with a slight heave; he was up against the headboard, his feet crossed at the ankle. He patted the space next to him.

I shook my head. “I’ll take the chair.”

“Why were you at the A38 with Tane?” I could feel him watch me cross the room to sit in the chair. A tinge of jealousy colored his voice. “One vampire in your life isn’t enough? Or does his power draw you? The power hungry are always drawn to him.”

“Tane frightens me, not attracts me. Anyway, I don’t think I meet his crazed, knife wielding tastes.”

“Eric accompanied him? He usually doesn’t like to share his master.” Rurik’s smile grew.

“They surprised me. I didn’t expect them.”

“Who were you expecting?”

“You.” I looked at my blanket bundled lap, unable to make eye contact. The comment wasn’t suppose to come out so personal but it did. We needed to change the subject before things went where they couldn’t go. “Why were you following Tane?”

He stared at me for a moment longer before he sighed. “I think you’re keeping secrets.”

I sat straighter in my chair and crossed my arms. “Ditto.” A manila envelope sat next to me on the desk. The temptation to pull out those horrid pictures and throw them in his face almost overcame me. It would reveal me as a potential threat though. Even if I believed he wouldn’t kill me, it would be difficult to ever wipe their memory away.

The only reason Rurik didn’t get introduced to Colby tonight was a niggle of suspicion created by Tane. He and Dragos didn’t strike me as humanitarians. Hiring Colby’s mercenaries to take out a rival seemed more plausible. Unfortunately, the pictures told a different story.

Rurik’s gaze bore into me. “My compound was attacked this afternoon. They specifically looked for my place of rest. They destroyed it, and my home.”

My heart thumped and I tried to control the sudden rush of adrenaline, but I may as well have tried to control a wild horse. Was it Colby? “How did you survive the attack in the middle of daylight hours?”

A small smile touched his lips. “I’m not without resources, Rabbit.” He held up the hand that bore the Overlord’s ring and tapped it. “Someone informed me there would be an attempt.”

That ruled out Colby, since no one knew what he planned to do until the last minute.

“My people have been evacuating the city in small numbers since Dragos ’ arrival. A few have volunteered to stay and keep up pretenses. Most think the attack on the party was after Dragos but I know better. I think someone hired a slayer to kill me and he found my kiss.” Rurik moved so fast, when he wrapped his fingers around my wrists I felt the sensation before I saw him do it.

I jumped in my chair but his eyes held me so I poured what concentration I could muster into my mental shields.

“Tell me, Rabbit, what were you doing with our charming Tane tonight? Is your grief so easily forgotten?” His grip tightened. “Did he catch your eye at the party?” He pulled me close, pressing my hands against his chest. “Why did your heart speed up when I told you of today’s attack?” His eyes began to dilate, absorbing his irises.

Curse his hearing! “T-Tane lured me there.” My voice shook, I couldn’t help it, but the fury it ignited helped me control the fear and come up with a plausible story. “I thought you sent me a ticket for the A38 jazz concert.”

Rurik’s grip loosened and he released me. He heard my words through the rage that boiled in his face.

“Tane wants to use me. He heard what happened between us at the bathhouse.” I rubbed my wrists where he’d gripped them. There would be bruises in the morning.

“Of course he knows, I told him.”

I startled. “Why?”

“He’s been my friend for centuries.”

“Your friend wants me to spy on you.”

Rurik sat on the floor at my feet. He stared at the ring on his finger in silence. “Why would he want that? I hide nothing from him.”

“Tane said a bunch of terrible things to you at the party. What kind of friend is that?”

Twisting the piece of jewelry around his pinky he didn’t even look at me when he answered. “A secret one. If you didn’t notice, Dragos barely tolerates my presence. It places Tane in an awkward situation.”

I went to the other side of the room. Not that the distance really made a difference if he attacked but I needed the space. I thought my lack of friends pathetic but next to Rurik I was Miss Popularity. My wrists ached and my skin itched from the dried river water.

He still didn’t look at me. His shoulders slumped while he lost himself in thoughts. The Overlord of Budapest, confident playboy deflated and vulnerable on my hotel room floor. I needed to decide whether to trust him or not. Things were over my head and I was drowning. It looked like he was too.

The role of judge and jury weighed heavily on my shoulders. “Look, I’m going to take a quick shower and change. Then we’ll talk some more.”

He looked up with sad eyes and nodded.

When I returned, he had taken off his hoodie while I showered. The tight white t-shirt clung to his shoulders and outlined the muscles of his torso. It didn’t leave much to the imagination.

I needed to grab reins of my libido. The urge to rush over and run my hands over his chest grew. His loose jeans hung at his hips and I remembered what they hid. One small tug and they’d slide to his ankles. I should have taken a cold shower.

“Can you forgive me?” His eyes pleaded.

“You need to stop grabbing and scaring me like that. It doesn’t help build trust.”

He came to stand next to me. His fingers hooked into the belt loops of my jeans to draw me in closer. “After I followed Tane, I wanted to find you and ask for your help.” He bent down to rest his forehead against mine. “But then I saw you together. I couldn’t think rationally.”

“He threw me into the river.”

Rurik chuckled. “Yes, well, you can be infuriating.” He lifted my chin to press his soft, full lips to mine. Whatever I wanted to say evaporated. This tender kiss did not resemble the previous heated one we’d shared yet it still provoked a tidal wave of carnal desires. The feel of his mouth slowly exploring mine, not demanding more than I gave, curled my toes. Something vulnerable unfurled in my chest and my loneliness called out to him.

I couldn’t resist fulfilling my desires anymore and ran my hands over his well-developed chest. Hard plains of muscles met my hands with only a thin layer of soft cotton between.

He pulled away from the kiss but kept me pressed against him. “The night’s still young. What do you want to do with it?” The heat in his eyes told me exactly how he wanted to spend it.

I wanted to agree with him and push him on the bed to live out each of my fantasies. Earlier today, I kicked myself for flaking out last night. How many second chances would I get?

If we started this, I needed to finish it. There hadn’t been enough time for me to reflect on my attraction to Rurik. He was the first person to arouse these inclinations in me since Laurent died. Not just physical cravings either. I liked Rurik. He made me at ease with myself, he’d taken care of me, and, I mentally kicked myself in the ass, he possibly killed a bunch of people.

We weren’t going to do anything until I had my answers. I stepped back.

A flash of disappointment skipped over his face. He pulled a chair closer while I sat on the edge of the bed. “You never told me why you are visiting Budapest, Rabbit.”

Colby made me memorize my cover story until I could recite it without a flinch. “I’ve been sent to investigate Budapest nightlife. I work for a travel company that wants to invest in a singles tour trip here.”

The awe in his face made the lie priceless. “They pay you to do this?”

I laughed. “Yes and it’s usually fun. But getting abducted, then Dragos, now Tane. Well, you can understand I’m anxious to leave even though I haven’t seen a single tourist attraction.” The bitterness in my voice came from reality. I really did want to see the city and its history. How many times would I get to visit Eastern Europe?

“Then let me take you somewhere special tonight.”