“I know it, baby. But don’t worry—I’m going to fix it.” He scooped her up off the floor as easily as if she was a doll. “Put your face against my neck,” he ordered, his deep voice growling through her entire body. “Press against me as much as you can.”
Elise did as he said, pressing her hot cheek to the side of his throat and inhaling deeply. The warm, animalistic scent of fur and smoke and musk filled her nose and immediately she began to feel better. Or at least, slightly less wrong.
“Wait!” James sounded almost panicked as Merrick carried her out of the ladies room. “Excuse me but you can’t do that! You can’t just take her!”
“The hell I can’t,” Merrick snarled. “Get out of my way or you’ll be eating my fist for first meal.”
“Is there a problem here?”
Elise opened her eyes to see the huge biker she’d mentally dubbed Blackbeard was blocking Merrick’s way down the aisle between the rows of booths.
“Yes, absolutely there’s a problem.” James’ voice had gone shrill with outrage. “This…this Kindred is attempting to abduct my fiancé!”
“Well we can’t have that, can we boys?” Blackbeard, grinned at bikers who were watching the confrontation with interest. He looked at Merrick. “James here is a pal of mine. I can’t just let you go off with his girl.”
“She’s sick,” Merrick said shortly. “I’m taking her for treatment.”
“I can take her,” James said angrily. “Tampa General is just down the road and I’m on their board of directors. A word from me and she’ll be seen at once.”
Merrick shook his head. “Sorry, buddy but what she needs, you can’t give her. She’s got to go back to the Mother Ship.”
“I don’t believe you,” James said belligerently. “I think you’ve just formed some kind of irrational attachment to her. You have some type of Beauty and the Beast complex and you think because you found Elise after her ordeal she’s yours for the taking. Well, she’s not. Now put her down right now.”
Merrick glared at him. “Beauty and the Beast, huh? You’re fucking lucky I have my hands full, you know that?”
“James, please,” Elise said, trying to raise her voice above a whisper. “Can’t you see I’m sick? I need to go.”
“There’s nothing they can do for you up in that floating freak-show of a ship that can’t be done right here on Earth,” James said firmly. “You’d see that if you were in your right mind, darling.”
Merrick raised his eyebrows. “Did you say freak show?”
“Er, yes…” James stepped back a little but his tone remained belligerent. “I did.”
“Hey, James, you want me to bust ’im up? Teach him a little lesson about trying to take someone else’s girl?” Blackbeard cracked his knuckles menacingly.
Elise thought James looked vastly relieved. He always preferred to avoid physical violence himself, though he wasn’t above having it done for him. “As a matter of fact, yes. I think he could use a lesson,” he said, nodding decisively.
Mentally, Elise groaned. Now they would never get out of here. Her earlier estimation that Blackbeard was almost as tall as Merrick had been right and he had plenty of friends to back him up. What were they going to do? But Merrick seemed utterly calm.
“Elise, baby, can you stand for just a minute?” he asked, looking down at her.
She nodded. “I…I think so.”
“Good. I’m going to put you down and you stand behind me. This will only take a minute, I promise.”
“All right.” She nodded again and he set her gently on her feet. James tried to reach for her but she evaded his hands and held onto the back of Merrick’s thin black shirt.
“No, James, I’m sick. Leave me alone!”
“But darling—”
“There’s just gonna be two hits.” Blackbeard’s loud voice interrupted whatever he’d been about to say. Elise peeked around Merrick’s side to see the biker was swaggering forward, still talking. “Two hits, buddy,” he repeated. “Me hitting you and you hitting the fl—”
Merrick swung. It was a swift, deadly punch that landed dead center in the biker’s face and plowed through his teeth like a bowling ball knocking down pins. There was a sickening crunching sound and then Blackbeard fell first to his knees and then to his face on the sticky IHOP floor. He twitched once and then didn’t move again. A puddle of dark crimson blood began to spread outward like a growing stain.