Cain's Identity(17)

“Get her!” Abel ordered Baltimore with a motion of his head, while he glanced around the living room they’d entered. The little houses in the Quarter were all like this: the front door led directly into the living area without a foyer or hallway as a buffer. From there one room led into another without the benefit of a hallway.
The furniture in the small place was surprisingly new and luxurious, the decorations tasteful. Despite the fact that the windows sported shutters on the outside, the inside was hung with dark red velvet curtains, a sign that whoever spent time here didn’t like sunlight to penetrate the interior.
Abel turned his head to the door which led to the back of the house when he heard Baltimore return with the struggling human. He ran his eyes over her.
Her skin was the color of milk chocolate, her eyes a mix of blue and grey, attesting to her mixed heritage. A Creole beauty for sure. And who wouldn’t want this luscious woman in his bed, feel her plump lips around his cock, her elegant hands on his skin? Abel saw her appeal immediately. And even though there were no marks on her graceful neck or that beautiful cleavage her dress revealed, he instinctively knew she’d felt the fangs of a vampire in her flesh before. Many times in fact.
Abel inhaled. The scent of her blood sent a thrill through his body.
“A veritable love nest you and John have got yourselves here,” he finally addressed her.
At the name of her lover, the woman flinched.
“Oh, you thought I wouldn’t find out, did you?” He paused and narrowed his eyes. “Is that what John told you? That you’d be safe? That nobody would ever find out that he was keeping a human lover?” Abel chuckled. “How naive of him.”
He motioned to Baltimore, who followed his unspoken command and tossed her on the leather couch. She scrambled quickly to sit upright, fear coloring her pretty eyes.
“What do you want?”
“Ah, the human speaks,” Abel said. “Do you have a name?”
She swallowed. “Nicolette.”
Abel stepped closer. With every step he made, Nicolette shrank farther back into the sofa cushions. He could firmly smell the fear that oozed from her pores. It made his fangs itch, and he saw no reason to prevent them from elongating. When he was less than a foot away from her, he stopped.
“Here’s what you’re going to do now, Nicolette. You’ll answer the question I ask you without trying to lie to me. Because if you lie, I’ll know, and then I won’t have any choice but to have Baltimore punish you for it. Do you understand?”
Visibly intimidated, she nodded.
“Where is your lover? Where is John?”
“I don’t know.”
Abel pounced, gripping her shoulders with both hands and pressing her against the back of the sofa. “Try again,” he gritted from between clenched teeth, drowning out her shriek with his booming words.
“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me.”
Abel narrowed his eyes and peeled his lips back from his gums, revealing his long, sharp fangs, letting her guess what he was going to do to her if she didn’t comply.
“Please! He didn’t tell me.” Tears formed in her eyes. “He said he had to leave for a few days.”
“To do what?” he ground out.
A sob tore from her throat. “He didn’t want to tell me. He said he couldn’t.”
Abel tilted his head to the side, eyeing her with suspicion. “Now, you wouldn’t be lying to me, would you?”
“No! It’s the truth. He said he’d be back soon.”
He exchanged a look with Baltimore, pondering Nicolette’s words. What was John up to? Clearly something he didn’t want anybody to know about, something he couldn’t even trust his lover with. As if he were afraid that somebody could torture the information out of her.
“Fine,” he finally said. “I believe you.”
A sigh of relief rolled over the human’s lips.
Abel chuckled as he looked back at her. “But it changes nothing about your fate.” He reveled in the panic that returned to Nicolette’s eyes, the shudder that wracked her body, and the smell of fear that leaked from her pores. “Let’s go on a little trip.”
He released her and straightened, addressing Baltimore. “Take her and lock her up.”
His guard nodded and approached amidst the woman’s protests.
“No, please! No!”
Abel ignored her. Instead his eyes fell on a cell phone that lay on the coffee table. He snatched it. “And then let’s find out how much John loves you.”
And he hoped that John didn’t simply see Nicolette as a momentary distraction, but actually had feelings for her. Feelings that would provide Abel with leverage.