Skin Trade(160)

“If you had simply told me that he was cut with blades-Randy, I mean-I would have told you about Todd.”

“I know, but it’s hard to know who to trust. I need his address.”

They exchanged a look, then Phoebe got a notepad by the telephone and wrote it down for me. “May Goddess forgive me if he did these terrible murders.”

I holstered the Browning and took the paper from her with my left hand. “I can’t hide where I got the information from.”

“They’ll investigate us all!” Kate yelled, and took a step toward me. Her anger was just suddenly so there, so close, so…

I felt the door behind me opening, and moved so Edward could come through. “You guys all right in here?”

I shook my head, then nodded. “We have a crazy witch who raised a demon with blades for hands. The last time they saw it, it was inside the summoning circle. We need to see if it’s still there.”

“If it’s still there, then he didn’t do it,” Kate said.

I gave her a look, and then had to look away, but sight wasn’t what was sending her anger toward me like some sweet scent. My stomach clenched again, and I eased around the edge of the open door. “Just because it’s in the circle now doesn’t mean he didn’t let it out and put it back,” I said.

“You’ll ruin our reputation. You’ll ruin everything we’ve built; every good thing my mother has done will be lost in the news that one of our coven members raised a murdering demon!” Kate was yelling again and advancing on me.

I couldn’t let her touch me because I wanted to feed. I wanted to suck all that anger off her. “I’ve got the address, and I need some air.”

Edward gave me a look.

“It would be wicked of me to stay inside right now,” I said softly.

“Go,” he said, equally softly, then turned to calm the enraged girl and her sad mother.

Michael was being kept out of the kitchen by Olaf and Bernardo. No one was in handcuffs, yet.

I said as I walked past them all, “You should have told us about Bering and the demon.” I handed the piece of paper to Bernardo as I moved past.

He took it and said, “What is it?”

“The address to a demon with claws for hands.”

“Anita,” Olaf called.

I shook my head and was at the door. I felt the wards like a physical presence, almost like warm water or some thick bubble that clung to me as I moved. But it was designed to keep things out, not in, and I slid out of that warm, protective barrier to find the cool, desert night, and Wicked leaning against our car.





57




WICKED PUSHED AWAY from the car, almost coming to attention. Every inch of height was suddenly there, making the broad shoulders look even more impressive. He had a tan trench coat on over a suit of similar color. His blond hair was silvered with moonlight, the edges of it trailing over the shoulders of the coat. His face was almost painfully masculine, the moonlight and streetlights cutting the high cheekbones and dimpled chin into angles and planes, sharper and even more masculine than I knew was true. His eyes were blue and gray; in this light they were silver and gray. Those eyes widened as he felt me coming for him.

It didn’t matter that he’d never been food before; it didn’t matter that we’d never had sex. All my good intentions were gone by the time I crossed the yard and hit the sidewalk.

I heard the sound the key made to unlock the doors of the car, and glanced back enough to see Edward on the porch. He’d unlocked the car. Always practical, my Edward.

I turned back to the vampire, and he spoke in a voice that was already rough with the edge of my hunger. “Anita, what’s wrong?”

I wanted to simply fall upon him like some beast. It was as if all the hungers I carried through the vampire marks, and my own magic, had surfaced in one huge swirling, drowning need.

I looked at that tall, handsome body and thought food. I thought flesh and I thought blood-and, only distantly, sex. I closed my eyes and tried to crawl into something resembling control. If I touched him like this, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to try to fuck him or take a bite out of him-a real one.

The thought of sinking teeth into flesh until that hot, red liquid burst into my mouth… But vampire was cold food for that. The wind blew against my back, and I could scent Edward still on the porch. That was warmer. I started to turn around and stopped in midmotion.

I whispered, “Wicked.”

“I’m here.”

“Something’s wrong.”

“I feel your hunger. If you were a vampire, I’d take you to hunt now.”

“Help me feed.”

“Can you turn the bloodlust into the ardeur?”