“Oh, honey…” I grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight. “I feel the same way for you. But the point is we both made it through. And now that Corbin’s got you under his protection, you’ll never have to go through anything like that again. So…” I cleared my throat and looked around. “How are they treating you so far? Besides the palatial digs, that is?”
Taylor gave a little half-laugh—a far cry from the joyful little giggle I remembered from our roommate days, but still better than sobbing.
“Oh, you know…it’s not so bad. They even gave me refreshments.” She nodded at a half-empty bag of blood lying to one side of the sad, flat pillow.
“About that,” I said. “Corbin says he’ll find you a willing donor—someone willing to, uh, pay the Crimson Debt?”
Taylor went pale. “A willing donor would be nice but I don’t want anyone paying the Debt for me,” she said quickly.
“It wouldn’t be a human, I’m sure,” I said, trying to reassure her.
“I don’t care who it is.” She looked down. “I don’t want that—sex and blood at the same time, I mean. I don’t think…” She sighed. “Addison, I don’t honestly think I’ll ever want to have sex again. Not after…” She shook her head. “You know.”
“I know.” I squeezed her hand sympathetically. The broken look in her beautiful eyes made me so angry I wanted to scream. “God damn it,” I said in a low voice. “Roderick, that evil fuck. Vamps are so screwed up—they’re all bowing and scraping to him when what he really needs is a bullet right in the chest. I’d be glad to put it there, too.”
“Don’t talk like that, Addison,” Taylor implored. “It’s not safe. Besides, I’ve heard it takes more than just bullets to kill the really old ones.”
“I guarantee if I put enough hollow points in that empty, rotten cavity he calls a heart he’ll die,” I said furiously.
“No, he won’t,” she said. “Seriously, once a vamp reaches six stars, they’re practically indestructible. So please, Addison, don’t try going Dirty Harry on him. You’ll just get yourself killed.”
“Well, as long as I take him down with me, maybe I don’t care,” I grumbled, but decided to let the matter drop. I squeezed her hand again. “I’d invite you back to my place but I don’t have any bagged blood on hand if you feel peckish. And I don’t think…” I sighed. “I don’t think I can feed you anymore until after this whole thing with evil fuck Roderick is over and Corbin and I part ways.”
“I understand,” Taylor said quickly. “Most vamps are picky like that. Me taking blood from you while you’re with Corbin would be like…well, it would be like you were cheating on him, like he said in the car.”
“Yes, so I understand.” I sighed. “He’s going to have to get over the idea of owning me really quick, though. As soon as this is all over, we’re going back to the usual status quo.”
Taylor gave me a wan smile. “What, you mean him harassing you and you writing him as many citations as possible?”
“Exactly,” I said grumpily, although honestly, the idea of going back to our old relationship seemed a little strange now that Corbin had seen me naked. Ugh, now that was going to be a fun fact to consider the next time I came to inspect Under the Fang.
“Addison,” Taylor said quietly. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe Corbin really cares for you?”
“What? Don’t be silly.” I frowned. “I’m just a conquest to him—it’s a feather in his cap to be able to say that a non-glam Auditor is his consort. It’s like…like a mobster showing off his girlfriend who also just happens to be a cop or a judge.”
“Maybe not.” Taylor looked thoughtful. “I’ve heard rumors about Corbin.”
“Such as?” I raised an eyebrow and made a go on signal with one hand.
“Well, he’s not nearly the playboy he makes himself out to be for one thing,” Taylor said. “He’s almost never with anyone—he mostly keeps to himself except to feed occasionally. And he never pays the Crimson Debt or lets anyone else pay it for him.”
“Meaning he doesn’t feed on anyone during sex or let them feed on him?” I said.
She nodded. “Honestly, I don’t think he has that much sex at all. Not even glam-sex.”
“Oh come on, Taylor—he’s a vampire,” I objected. “Sex and blood, that’s what they’re all about—that’s what they do.”
“Most of them maybe. But if what I’ve heard is right, Corbin mostly keeps to himself.”
“But why?” I asked, frowning. “I mean, it’s not for lack of willing partners, I’m sure.” He got under my skin like a bad rash but there was no denying Corbin was gorgeous.
“I don’t know why, exactly.” Taylor shrugged. “They say he had someone once—a human—but he lost her. Now he mostly keeps to himself out of respect for her memory.”
I thought of what he’d told me, about having a human female he loved enough to be gentle with once and how she’d “died anyway.”
“Why didn’t he just bond her to him?” I asked. Vamps can bond any human they want, which greatly increases the human’s lifespan, sometimes even enough to match the vamp’s. It makes them a little more durable too, though under the law they’re still not supposed to have sex with the vamp that bonds them.
“I don’t know.” Taylor shook her head. “But I do know you’re pretty much the only girl he’s shown an interest in. I mean, he does a lot of casual flirting, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” I nodded. Nobody was better at eye-fucking than Corbin.
“But none of it amounts to anything. I mean, I’ve never heard of him taking anyone into one of his daylight resting places the way he took you. Not vampire, not human—no one,” Taylor emphasized.
I shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, well… Look, Taylor, I should really get going. I have to be back here tomorrow night to play the dutiful little consort during Celeste’s trial.”
“Okay.” She sighed and smiled at me. “Thanks for rescuing me, roomie.”
“You’re welcome, roomie.” My throat was suddenly tight. “I just wish…I wish I could have done it sooner.”
Taylor shook her head. “Don’t beat yourself up over that. If you hadn’t come…Never mind.” She gave me a trembling smile and swiped at the bloody tears that were gathered in her eyes. “You’re the best friend a girl could have, Addison. I love you.”
“I love you too, hon.” I gathered her in my arms and didn’t protest a bit over her bone-crushing hug. I felt her shoulders shaking with sobs and I stroked her hair helplessly, wishing there was something—anything—I could do to heal her.
But there was nothing I could do or say to take away the pain of what had been done to her, nothing to erase the awful violation from her mind. All I could do was hold her and let her cry and swear to myself if I ever got a chance, I would put a magazine full of hollow points into Roderick myself.
Chapter Nine
“Okay, I’m here. What’s the plan?” I tried to sound casual and unworried as I strolled into Corbin’s office but the forbidding look in his silver-blue eyes took the wind out of my sails.
“You are late.” He glanced at the antique clock on the wall of his office. “Fifteen minutes late to be exact.” Today he was wearing a tailored charcoal suit with a crisp white shirt that made him look like a high-powered executive. He looked so good, sitting there behind his desk, that I felt grubby in my rumpled navy blue jacket and slacks.
I shrugged. “Sorry. I had an execution that ran over.”
Corbin frowned. “You come from executing one of my kind and act like it means nothing? Tell me, Addison, how would you feel if I said something like that to you? ‘Sorry I couldn’t be on time, I was draining some human dry and it took longer than I thought.’”
I shifted uncomfortably. “This is different. The vamp who died—he was a serial murderer/rapist. He S and F-ed twenty women to death before they caught him—not all of them human, I might add.”
Corbin raised an eyebrow at me. “S and F-ed?”
br />
“It stands for sucked and fucked.” I coughed. “I know it doesn’t sound nice but it’s a whole hell of a lot nicer than describing what his victims looked like when he was finished with them.”
“Ah, yes…” Corbin sighed wearily. “The lovely sights you get to see at your job.”
I shrugged again. “It’s part of my work.”
He crossed his arms over his broad chest and frowned. “A part which keeps you under the impression that all vampires are like the one you executed today.”
“Well, aren’t they?” I challenged him. “At least, inside, where it counts?”
Corbin looked at me steadily for a long moment, his silver-blue eyes unreadable. I stared back, unwilling to back down. At last, long after the silence had gone past uncomfortable and entered the realm of downright painful, he spoke.
“Please tell me you do not really believe that, Addison,” he said quietly. “If that is truly how you view my kind then I have no chance of winning your heart.”
His words stirred something inside me, a flutter in my stomach, a flush in my cheeks… I didn’t know what it was exactly but for some reason I couldn’t look at him.
“Addison?” he said softly.
“Stop screwing around, Corbin,” I said roughly. “This…this thing between us is a business deal and that’s all. You know it and I know it. I’m just here to be your arm candy until that sick bastard Roderick is gone. After that, our deal is done.”
“Yes, so you keep reminding me.” He sighed. “Well, if you are going to be ‘arm candy’ as you put it, we need to sweeten your image some.”
“What?” I crossed my arms over my rumpled blouse. “You don’t like my work clothes?”
“I have never liked them,” Corbin said blandly. “Though I refrained from saying so to avoid more citations. Beauty like yours shouldn’t be hidden by such baggy, shapeless garments.”
I glared at him. “May I remind you that I work as an Auditor, not a hostess slash call girl at your club?”
“I do not employ prostitutes as you very well know,” he said evenly. “But the fact remains that I would not allow any consort of mine to clothe herself in the dowdy fashion you are dressed in right now. Roderick will know this and so you must change.”
“Excuse me? Did you just call me dowdy? I mean, seriously?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?” Corbin rose from behind his desk and was standing in front of me before I could blink. “Here.” There was another motion too fast to see and he was suddenly holding a dress in one large hand. I frowned—damn his vampire speed. “Put this on,” he said.
I took one look at the dress and shook my head. “Uh-uh, I don’t think so.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And why not, may I ask? Isn’t it modest enough for your taste?”
Actually, it was. It was a simple, flowing gown made of some silky, gauzy material with an empire waistline that looked like it would hit just above my knees. It was a little low cut but not slutty in any way and it had flirty little cap sleeves that would flatter my arms, now that Corbin had healed my scars.
“The problem is the color,” I said, looking at the dress, which was a deep, brilliant red, just a shade darker than freshly spilled blood. “Look at it, Corbin. Everyone knows redheads can’t wear red—it clashes.”
“This isn’t just red—it’s crimson.” He held it up to my skin. “I had it specially made for you, Addison. It won’t clash with your hair—it will complement it.”
“I don’t know…” I frowned. “I guess I could try it on and see.”
“By all means.” He handed me the dress.
“Where’s the bathroom?” I asked, looking around his office. “You do have one, don’t you? I mean I know vampires don’t have, uh, human functions but most places at least have one.”
“May I remind you that I have seen you naked?” he murmured.
I felt my cheeks get hot. “Which does not entitle you to a strip show now. So where’s the bathroom?”
He sighed and gestured. “Behind the bookshelf in the corner of my office.”
“Thank you.” I went into the little room and made sure the door was locked. It was a useless gesture—if Corbin had wanted to get to me, a brick wall wouldn’t have stopped him, let alone a flimsy bathroom lock. Still, it made me feel better to hear the snick when the door shut.
There was a full length mirror on the back of the door and after I got into the dress I stood in front of it to look myself over critically. Actually, it didn’t look half bad. Corbin was right about the color—it was dark enough not to clash with my hair and it gave my skin a creamy glow. The style was nothing I would have picked for myself but it fit me perfectly, hugging my small breasts and flowing down from them in a gauzy red waterfall of silky fabric that managed to look both sexy and demure at the same time.
Hanging on the same hanger that the dress had been on was a small black pocketbook with a long strap. I don’t usually carry a purse but in this case, I decided to make an exception because it was just large enough to fit my Glock inside. True, this was just supposed to be some civil trial kind of thing but with vamps, you could never tell when things might turn violent. And I would be damned if I’d spend time around a vamp Roderick’s age without some kind of protection.
There was a light rapping at the door. “Addison?” I heard Corbin say. “Are you ready to come out?”
I sighed, smoothed down my hair, and settled the small purse firmly on my shoulder. “I guess so.”
“Let me see it.” He sounded impatient, almost like any human man would be, waiting for his date to get ready.
Only I’m not his date—I’m nothing to him but a prop, I reminded myself sternly. Slowly, I came out of the bathroom and stood in front of him with my arms spread.
“Well?”
Corbin sucked in a breath. “You look lovely. I knew that color would suit you.”
“It’s not bad,” I said grudgingly.
“It is beautiful, as are you. We need only one more thing. Here.”
Before I could ask what the one more thing was, he was suddenly kneeling in front of me with a box in his hands. He opened it, revealing black, strappy heels so high I was surprised they fit in the box. The open-toed design made me glad I’d had a pedicure recently.
“Are those Jimmy Choos?” I asked, as he took one out and reached for me.
“Manolo Blahniks,” he said absently. “Here, let me put them on you.”
“Let me sit down first, I’ll fall over,” I objected as he lifted my right foot.
“You’ll be fine. Just hold on to me.”
I was forced to do just that, holding on to his broad shoulders as he slipped first one shoe on and then the other. They had a simple yet elegant design with a single strap over the toes and another around the ankle. Corbin’s long fingers seemed like they would be too large to buckle the delicate ankle strap but he managed with no problem.
“There,” he murmured when he was done. I expected him to get up but instead he remained kneeling at my feet, looking up at me. “Perfect. Addison, you are a goddess.”
“Stop it.” I could feel my cheeks getting hot and it occurred to me that I was still holding on to his shoulders although both my feet were planted firmly on the ground. I caught a whiff of his scent—that cool fragrance that reminded me of the ocean somehow. I wanted to step away but I couldn’t.
“Why should I stop?” Corbin growled softly. “Why should I not say what I think? When was the last time a man told you how beautiful you are?”
Actually, it had been so long I couldn’t remember but I wasn’t about to tell Corbin that. Instead, I forced myself to take my hands off his shoulders and move away.
“So you expect me to walk around in these all night?” I asked gesturing down at the shoes. “I mean, I wear heels but these things are stilts.”
Corbin rose smoothly and looked down at the shoes critically. “They complement the dress perfectly. And they have the added advan
tage of making you tall enough that I can bite you without stooping too much.”
“Bite me? Wait a minute.” I took a step back, teetered, and would have fallen if Corbin hadn’t caught my arm and steadied me. “I know you said you might have to when we made the original agreement, but—”
“After the display you put on last night at Celeste’s house, I must show beyond a doubt that you are mine. Biting you and feeding on your blood in front of Roderick is the quickest way to do that.”
I could see that what he said made sense—fresh fang marks are seen as signs of dominance and ownership in the vamp community. But I still didn’t like it.
“Fine,” I said. “But you can use my arm or my wrist—not the neck.”
Corbin frowned. “None of those areas are where I need to bite you—I will be taking blood from your inner thigh. Which is where the added height from your new shoes comes into play—when I am on my knees before you, I don't want to stoop too far to get a good bite.”
“What? No!” I exclaimed, pressing my thighs together. “Why my inner thigh? Why would you need to do that?”
“Taking blood from a more intimate spot shows my ownership of you.” He cupped my shoulder in one large, warm hand. “Don’t worry, I know you’ve had pain in the past when your friend bit you but I assure you I can make it a very pleasant experience.”
“There’s no way I’d consider letting you push up my skirt and sink what amounts to two sixteen gauge needles into my inner thigh in front of a bunch of sadistic vampires a ‘pleasant experience’,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
Corbin’s eyes narrowed. “Nevertheless, you will have to submit to it. And other things as well.”
“What other things?” I was beginning to dislike this more and more. What exactly did Corbin have planned for me?
He sighed again and a look of frustration passed over his face. “You will not like this, Addison, but you must let me glamour you—at least a bit.”
“No,” I said at once. “No, absolutely not. I told you before, that’s a deal breaker. I’m not letting you into my mind.”