Мишель Роуэн - Tall, Dark & Fangsome

He raised an eyebrow. “You do?”

“Well, I have an instructional DVD on yoga. Haven’t had a chance to watch it with all the drama going on lately, but I’m looking forward to it.”

“We must find a solution in three days. You cannot sire him.”

Thierry had a black-and-white attitude about pretty much everything. He drew his lines in the sand in permanent ink—and how he felt about Gideon was one of those lines. To him, Gideon was 100 percent evil incarnate. Couldn’t say I blamed him much for that impression. After all, Gideon was the leader of the hunters. They didn’t exactly make our lives a Technicolor musical production number. And Gideon, from everything I’d heard about him, had no problem getting his hands dirty when it came to slaying. He was exactly like Buffy—that is, if she was a six-foot-five billionaire playboy with hellfire scars from slaying a demon. And a tendency to kill things that weren’t actually evil.

So, really, not like Buffy at all.

“I need to get back inside,” I said, “and try to act like everything’s normal—”

Another kiss managed to easily push my words and thoughts away. Thierry could kiss. Six hundred years of practice would make someone an expert, after all. I’d prefer not to give a lot of thought to how many women may have come before me. We both had our romantic histories. His was simply a little longer than mine, that’s all.

By about 650 years.

My heart felt heavy when we parted. This whole situation seriously sucked. Just when I found a man I could be completely crazy about—despite our many differences—and one who loved me in return, we couldn’t be together except for stolen moments like this.

“You shouldn’t try to see me again till this is all over.” I tried to ignore the lump in my throat. “I’m afraid he’s going to find out.”

“Perhaps you should have taken Amy up on the blind date she arranged for you.”

I eyed him. “So Gideon’s not the only one spying on me?”

He smiled. “If you had someone new in your life, or I in mine, Gideon would have no suspicions about us, would he?”

“Good point. But are you trying to say you want to see other people? Because I’m in the mood to kick some ass tonight and it might be yours.”

Amusement slid behind his gaze. “I’m talking about appearances, nothing more. In fact, I think it’s a very good idea.”

“You want me to start dating somebody else?”

“Desperate times call for drastic measures. And speaking of that—” He was quiet for a moment. “You need to know something important.”

That sounded ominous. “What?”

“I contacted the Red Devil. He’s in the city right now. I thought we could use his help.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

He nodded gravely.

The Red Devil in a nutshell was this: a vampire vigilante who had been around for a thousand years, give or take a century or two. He saved innocent vamps from slaughter at the hands of hunters. He wore a mask so nobody knew who he was, and, in fact, most thought he was only a legend. Legend or not, he’d disappeared a hundred years ago and hadn’t been seen since.

Gideon Chase, wearing a scarf over his scarred face to hide his true identity, had convinced me he was the Red Devil—in fact, he’d saved my life when I’d been staked so he could gain my confidence. But the real Red Devil was now in Toronto? Stop the presses.

“Who is he?” I asked.

“His identity is secret.”

“So you don’t know who he is? How did you contact him?”

“We have a mutual connection.”

“Who?”

“I can’t say.”

“You can trust me.”

“I know,” he said. But he didn’t go into any further detail.

I pushed my frustration at his vague answers away. Or tried to, anyhow. “What’s he doing here? Or is that a secret as well?”

“I wanted him to assess the situation with Gideon. I thought it also important for him to keep an eye on you and he has agreed to this.”

I felt stunned. “Are you trying to tell me that the Red Devil is my shiny new bodyguard?”

“He promises to be very discreet. You won’t even know he’s around.”

I leaned back against the cold wall behind me and tried to process this info. The legendary, reclusive Red Devil was my bodyguard? And Thierry was acting as if this was a completely normal decision?

“You trust this guy?” I asked.

“Implicitly.”

He sounded pretty certain about it. But how could he trust somebody who’d been off the map for a century? Somebody who’d just pop up thanks to a well-timed phone call?

“Where is he right now?”

“Close. It’s best you know as little as possible, Sarah. It’s safer that way.”

“For him or for me?”

“Definitely both.” He hooked a finger under my gold chain. He knew what it was and what it did. When I didn’t have it and was acting all murderous and deadly and seductive, he’d done everything in his power to find a solution. Although truthfully, I think he kind of liked the seductive part.

“If I learn anything new I will contact you as soon as I can,” he said.

“Same here.” The fresh guilt at not telling him about my strange new job as Gideon’s assistant ate at me. It was on the tip of my tongue but I didn’t want to worry him more than he already was. “I love you, Thierry.”

He touched my face softly and slid his thumb over my bottom lip. “I love you, too.”

And, with a last kiss, he was gone.

Well, he didn’t just disappear, but he could walk really fast. I watched his dark form move away into the shadows.

Then I slowly trudged back around the side of the building until I’d nearly reached the front doors. A woman was being unceremoniously kicked out of the club by the big, brawny bouncer.

“Go home and don’t come back,” he advised her harshly. “We don’t want you here.”

She hurled a couple of choice expletives at him and turned her back, stomping away down the dark street in a short red minidress and silver stilettos.

“Nice girl,” I said.

“Fledgling vamp caught her sire cheating on her,” the bouncer explained. “She’d only been turned a few nights ago. She made a scene and nearly bit the chick the guy was with tonight.” He swept his gaze over me. “You’re the Slayer of Slayers, aren’t you?”

Oh, brother. Just what I needed. A fanboy.

I shook my head. “You know, I actually get that all the time. We’re both brunettes and there is a fleeting resemblance. I saw her once, but she’s kind of ugly. Probably from all that slayer slaying.”

“If you say so.” The bouncer shrugged. “You coming back in, or what?”

“Yeah.” I glanced over in the direction of the jilted fledgling and I noticed two men a block up step out from a dark alley and begin to silently trail after the oblivious vampiress.

“Hey, check that out. Do you think those are hunters?”

He followed my line of sight. “Could be.”

I looked at him. “Don’t you want to do something about it? She’s a helpless fledgling out on her own. They’ll kill her.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“Go save her?”

He laughed. “Not going to happen. I don’t think they saw where she came from, and I’m not getting a stake through my chest tonight for trying to save some worthless bitch.”

“Oh, that’s really charming.”

He smiled thinly at me. “For fifteen bucks an hour I don’t have to be charming. Why don’t you go save her?”

I narrowed my gaze at him. “Maybe I will.”

“Good luck with that.” He turned around and slipped back inside the club. The door closed heavily behind him leaving me out in the cold night alone.

I scanned the street again. No one was around. It wasn’t that long ago that I was the hapless fledgling who wandered dark and lonely places I shouldn’t go.