I Only Have Fangs for You(9)

But until, or even if, a cure was found, Wilhelmina felt that she had to help mortals any way she could. Even if it meant sabotaging one preternatural hotspot at a time.

Wilhelmina shivered, even though her bloodless skin didn’t register the coldness of her damp clothing as it would have if she were human. But she’d been shivering since she’d gotten wet, since she’d...

An image of Carfax Abbey’s owner appeared behind her closed lids. In some ways, he’d been exactly what she imagined, and in others... in others, he’d been very different. Like his unexpected reaction to the water damage. He’d handled the whole debacle with an easygoing amusement that she hadn’t expected in an arrogant, dissolute, and wicked vampire. He’d even helped mop up the water himself. Although he had still looked every inch the decadent vampire doing it.

That was another reaction she hadn’t anticipated—her fascination with his physical appearance. She’d encountered many beautiful vampires in her existence, and she’d been fully prepared for Sebastian’s good looks. Or at least she’d thought so. And still she’d found herself watching him throughout the remainder of her shift, which he’d actually cut short, sending her home because she didn’t have any other dry clothes to put on. She hadn’t expected that from the infamous vampire either. Consideration.

She opened her eyes. She couldn’t let his laid-back manner fool her. That was part of his charm, part of his lure, used to disguise the monster underneath.

“So what about the club owner?” Lizzie called from the kitchen. “Was he all that the Society had made him out to be?”

Wilhelmina frowned. Sometimes she really hated Lizzie’s animalistic ability to guess her train of thought. Wilhelmina didn’t want anyone picking up the feelings stirring inside her at the moment. Surprising notions about how intriguing she’d found the owner.

No, no, no! She only found him interesting because he was her opponent, her nemesis. She was wise to study him. And she was equally as wise to remember that he was beautiful and mesmerizing in just the same way a flame was to a moth.

Let’s face it, the moth never made out well in that attraction. She knew that firsthand.

“Well?” Lizzie asked again as she re-entered the room, a large glass of iced tea in one hand and three packages of Twinkies in the other.

Wilhelmina shook her head. If Lizzie were human, she’d weigh three hundred pounds. But then, if she were human, she wouldn’t have an enormous appetite. Lycanthropes really could pack it away.

Lizzie sank onto the sofa and arched a dark brow at Wilhelmina. “So? What was Super-Fang like?”

Wilhelmina frowned, another image of Sebastian appearing in her head. His golden eyes and lopsided smile.

“Dangerous. Very, very dangerous.”

Lizzie nodded as she took a large bite of her snack cake. “So what’s the next plan of attack?”

Wilhelmina sighed, and for just a moment, she considered putting an end to this crazy idea. But she couldn’t let herself do that. She believed in what she was doing. She just needed to remain determined. She would see Carfax Abbey closed down. Unfortunately, she’d used her two best plans, and they’d both failed.

“I don’t know,” she finally admitted.

“What about the idea to empty all the vodka and gin bottles and fill them with water?”

Wilhelmina winced. Had she actually thought that would stop the club’s business?

“No. That won’t work.”

“You could also replace all the whiskey and bourbon with tea,” Lizzie said, raising the glass of amber-colored liquid to demonstrate before taking a sip.

“I don’t think that would do much, except cost him some money.”

“Probably not,” Lizzie agreed, then she smiled slyly. “But it would be sort of fun.”

“What if I put something in the beer that would make the human patrons sick?” Wilhelmina suggested.

Lizzie shook her head. “No. Food poisoning is a dicey proposition. Humans are fragile, and you wouldn’t want to mortally injure the ones you’re trying to save.”

Wilhelmina nodded. That was true.

They both fell silent as they considered other possibilities.

“You know,” Lizzie finally said, “I’d just go into the club before it’s opened and burn the place to the ground. That would certainly stop him.”

Wilhelmina shook her head. Lizzie had been right when she’d said that Wilhelmina didn’t want to hurt anyone. She didn’t. She wanted to stop what happened at the club, but she didn’t want to do anything that would truly hurt someone. She wasn’t a radical who believed that sometimes violence was the means to an end. Although some of the members of the Society did feel that way. She just wanted mortals to be safe from sadistic, self-serving vampires. She wished there had been someone out there who’d done the same for her.