Kathy Love - I Only Have Fangs For You

Then she recalled that Sebastian lived with his brother, Rhys. She knew of him from Dr. Fowler, the scientist whose foundation had proved the truth about preternatural beings. Rhys had become a believer in Fowler's teachings. She knew he could be trusted. In fact, maybe getting to know him and his mate would be a way to put a stop to his brother's biting ways. They must disapprove of his behavior, too.

Sebastian led her through a small kitchen to a spacious living room. This room also had dark hardwood floors and was decorated in a deep plum color with oversized gray furniture and heavy wooden end tables. The walls were lined with shelves full of books, and a gray marble fireplace created the focal point of the room.

Wilhelmina was surprised. It was hardly the place where she would have expected the infamous Sebastian Young to spend his time. She pictured a place of seduction. Not coziness and warmth.

This had to be his brother's influence. She concentrated, trying to sense other presences in the apartment. She couldn't detect any.

"Doesn't your brother live with you?" she asked.

"Rhys lives in the apartment above this. I used to live up there too, but once he married his wife, Jane, I thought I should give them their space. I had this place built about six months ago."

He'd had the apartment built like this for himself? She gaped around. Where were the mirrored ceilings? Not that a vampire would likely have mirrors. But where was the shag carpeting? The low, colored, recessed lighting? The piped-in porn music?

Then the realization that she was alone with him hit her. A shiver ran down her spine. Cozy or not, what if he did bring her up here to do something nefarious? Surely, he was furious about the flooded backroom. Surely, he was going to chastise her in some way.

She stepped back from him, her eyes on the door. If she remained calm, she could likely make it back to the hallway and the elevator before he caught her. She glanced at him, noting his long legs and lean muscles. Maybe she could. Maybe.

But rather than approach her with a villainous glint in his intense golden eyes, he strode away from her and opened another heavy wooden door on the other side of the room.

"Here's the bathroom, if you'd like to dry off."

Although there didn't seem to be anything menacing about his offer, she still regarded him uneasily.

He flipped on the light and pushed the door wide. "See, it's a bathroom. Really."

She nodded, feeling a little foolish, then slowly crossed the room. The bathroom was also large with a separate shower and whirlpool bathtub. But that was the only decadent luxury in the room. The décor was gray marble, both functional and stylish.

He crossed to a closet near the shower. She stood near the bathroom door, watching him. He pulled out a towel, then he strolled toward her.

Ha! Here we go. Now he was going to suggest she undress or something equally rude and offensive. She shivered, another tingle shimmying over her flesh.

He simply held the plain white towel out to her.

"Here you go. And help yourself to anything you want."

He grabbed a towel for himself and headed toward the door.

"Wait," she said more sharply than she intended, her voice echoing off the tile. He paused and turned back to her, arching an eyebrow.

"Aren't-aren't you going to fire me?" she asked, her voice now much softer, and irritatingly to herself, a little shaky.

Sebastian shook his head. "No. Accidents happen." He offered her another smile and left the room.

Wilhelmina remained motionless, the towel held loosely in her hand. She couldn't believe it. He wasn't going to fire her. Her plans for him and Carfax Abbey weren't thwarted.

She wondered why she didn't feel more pleased.

"Oh my God! What happened?"

Wilhelmina stepped into her apartment and dropped her purse on the floor. She brushed her still damp hair from her face, and toed off her wet shoes before answering her roommate, Lizzie.

Lizzie sat on the sofa, a huge platter of nachos balanced on her lap. Her long legs curled under her, her glossy amber hair loose around her shoulders. As usual, she looked lovely, making Wilhelmina all the more aware of her drowned-rat impersonation.

"Well," she stated, "I set off a sprinkler."

Lizzie set the nachos on the coffee table and leaned forward, excitement lighting her pale blue eyes. "You did?" Then she paused. "Wait, a sprinkler?"

Wilhelmina nodded and held up a single finger.

"Why? What happened?"

Wilhelmina flopped into a chair that took up a majority of one corner of the small room. She ignored the fact that her dress was dampening the chenille cushions.

"Apparently when you light a fire under a sprinkler only that sprinkler goes off, not all of them."

"Well, they all go off in the movies."

"I know," Wilhelmina agreed, still disgruntled about the whole fiasco and her trust in cinematic truth. "And, unfortunately, it gets worse."

Lizzie paused, a nacho dripping with cheese and meat halfway to her mouth.

"Not only did I set off only the one sprinkler, but I slipped and fell into the water. In front of him."

"Oh no." But Wilhelmina couldn't help noticing that Lizzie didn't seem surprised.

Then Lizzie's pale eyes lit up. "Super-Fang's back?"

Wilhelmina frowned at the nickname Lizzie had given Sebastian. Granted she didn't know his real name or the name of the club. Only registered members knew that information. Which, given how dangerous Sebastian was, seemed a little self-defeating. Not to mention Lizzie could probably hold her own with the vampire. Still, she had the feeling her roommate wasn't taking Wilhelmina's mission seriously.

"Yes, he returned to deal with the police investigation on the accusation that Carfax Abbey was serving minors."

"That was a good one," Lizzie said. "I thought that one would work."

Wilhelmina nodded. So had she. She sighed. "So all my sabotage attempts have managed to do so far is lure the nefarious vampire back to his club to witness me falling in the small flood I created." She sighed. "That ought to stop his evil ways."

Lizzie shook her head, giving her a sympathetic smile. She popped the nacho into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

Wilhelmina watched her, wishing she could drown her sorrows with a little binge-eating.

"Well, it sounds like you made a good attempt," Lizzie said as she munched another nacho, and then she uncurled from the sofa, her impossibly long legs elegant even in jeans. "And he didn't fire you."

She picked up the platter and headed toward the kitchen before she spun back to her. "He didn't fire you, did he?"

"No," Wilhelmina said, still unsure how she felt about that surprising fact.

"That's good, right?" Lizzie gave her an encouraging smile and disappeared into the kitchen. Wilhelmina closed her eyes and let her head fall against the back of the chair.

She appreciated Lizzie's support especially since she knew her new roommate thought that Wilhelmina's involvement with the Society was a bit out there. But her sympathetic smiles only managed to make Wilhelmina feel more like a failure.

She knew Lizzie was only being supportive because she was a friend. She never asked for many details, although she had tried to help with sabotage ideas. Lizzie seemed to like the idea of that, even though Lizzie thought most of the work the Society of Preternaturals did was silly. She wasn't for the integration of preternatural creatures. She wanted a cure for them. That was where her energy was focused. Her research.

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.