It was a very tiny portion of his brain, but it was telling him that he had pretty much dragged Inez into the alley and attacked her. While he knew it was true and had even realized it as he’d done it, Thomas hadn’t been able to help himself. A shock of excitement had gone through him the moment he’d taken her arm to steer her out of the path of the drunk and rowdy group moving toward them, and that was just from touching her elbow.
He’d feared that would happen. That’s why he’d avoided touching her since the light brush of her arm against his on the tram. He’d known it would simply ramp up the need swirling through his body like a tornado. However, he might have resisted then, but when she’d stumbled and they crashed into the wall, their bodies briefly pressing together, he’d been lost, overwhelmed by the sudden surge of desire inside him.
A flash fire had gone through him, bursting to life at every point where their bodies had met and Thomas had attacked her. There was no other description for it and he knew it. He’d jumped her like a slavering animal, forcing himself on her despite her struggles. It was only when she’d said his name and pulled at his hair that he’d regained any sense at all and then it had only been enough for him to drag her farther into the shadows and shift to a lower gear, switching from taking what he wanted to a determined coaxing. But it had been determined. He would have taken her right there against the dark alley wall if not for Herb’s phone call. Only the fact that she was wearing slacks instead of a skirt had slowed him down, and only the ring of the phone—a piercing reminder of the need to find Aunt Marguerite—had made him stop.
“Thomas? Did you get that?”
Blinking, Thomas forced himself to look away from Inez and concentrate on the voice on the other end of the phone.
“Herb. No, I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” he asked.
“I said you were right. She appears to be on the move. The coordinates are different this time. Are you ready for them?”
“Yes,” he assured him, forcing himself to attention. “Go ahead.”
He had Herb repeat them twice to make sure he had them fixed in his memory and then thanked him and signed off. Thomas closed the phone with a sigh and slipped it in his back pocket, then quickly straightened his own clothes before retrieving the folded map in his other back pocket and heading for the light at the mouth of the alley.
As he’d expected, Inez quickly fell into step beside him. Trying to concentrate on what he had to do, Thomas found it difficult not to yell at her to go back to the hotel and leave him in peace. The only reason he managed to control that urge was because he wanted her there with him as much as he wanted her gone. He was trying to fight the effects of the Sweet Ecstasy, but they were fighting him right back.
“What are the new coordinates?” Inez asked as he stopped on the lit path and opened the map.
Thomas peered at the tentative smile she was offering and shook his head slightly, amazed that she wasn’t railing at him for what he’d just done. The woman was very forgiving, but obviously had no idea how precarious his control—and therefore her position—was. If she did, he was sure she’d be heading for the airport and the first plane back to England, or at least back to the hotel to lock herself in her room. Not that a locked door was likely to stop him if he lost control completely.#p#分页标题#e#
Turning his gaze back to the map, Thomas glanced over it, finding the new coordinates and comparing them to where they presently were, then glanced around as he quickly refolded the map.
“This way.” Back to avoiding touching her, he led the way up the street as he slid the street map back into his pocket. They were headed back the way they’d come, and he frowned as he wondered if they’d somehow passed Marguerite on their way out without his noticing her, or if she’d already moved to where she now was before he’d headed out. That was more likely. He couldn’t imagine Marguerite would have had any reason to be at the first spot. He just couldn’t imagine her stopping in at a prostitute’s windowed room.
Unless it was to feed, Thomas thought suddenly, realizing that without knowing where she was, Bastien had no way to send her blood. It wouldn’t be that big a problem for her over here. As Bastien had said, the council in Europe had some different laws than those in North America. Biting mortals was allowed over here, although most immortals he knew tended to prefer the safety offered by bagged blood. They simply didn’t want to give up the choice of fresh, warm blood from the source on occasion.