Prime Vampires - I Hunger For You Part 7

Chapter Nine.

"You made her forgeteverything about last night?"

Colin did not take kindly to Alec Reynard's tone. "That's not what I said," he replied.

He sat back in the small booth and took a sip of beer. They were in a bar in downtown Los Angeles that catered to customers of a supernatural nature, so there was no need to moderate their voices. It was the middle of the afternoon, the place was nearly empty, and the two vampires had met for an information exchange.

Colin would have preferred to be watching over Mia, but it was judged that she was safe in the daylight. They also kept telling him it wasn't his job, and Alec had demanded a briefing on Colin's activities after Tony left.

Alec looked concerned at Colin's answer. "What exactlydid you do?"

"I just rearranged her memories."

The older vampire shook his head. "I'm not sure that's a good idea."

Colin didn't want his cousin's advice, but part of Prime training was to at least listen to the so-called wisdom of one's elders, especially Primes of one's own clan. He and Alec were both Reynard Clan, though from different lines and houses. Besides, Alec was buying the beer.

Colin took another sip from his cold bottle of Corona and grudgingly asked, "Why not?"

"I tried messing with Domini's mind and memories when we first met. I thought it would be best if she forgot any weird stuff she encountered." He shook his head. "It didn't take."

"This will take, and I was very careful."

Though maybe he had been in a bit of a hurry. Touching Mia's mind was as arousing as touching her body. He hadn't gone deeply into her subconscious, just far enough in to overlay and rearrange memories. Then he'd gotten out of her head and house before giving in to the temptation to rouse the sleeping woman and have s.e.x with her again.

"Besides, Mia's not like Domini," Colin pointed out. "Domini was born to be one of us. Mia is merely human."

"Merely?" Sarcasm was thick in Alec's voice.

"Don't start with me." Colin cut off the lecture he knew was coming. "I took my vows. I take of mortals' bodies and blood, but they are not my kind. I care for Mia, but she's-"

"Not your kind? You racist pig."

"You can be as p.i.s.sed off as you want, but I made my choice the first time I attended a Convocation of the Clans. I don't remember what serious stuff the Matri and elders met about, but I do remember the partying, and what it was like to be surrounded by all those beautiful, mysterious, sensual Clan women. Bonding with a mortal woman is fine for other Primes, but it is not for me," Colin told his cousin.

"You're saying that you think bonding with a mortal woman is second best?" Alec sounded dangerously annoyed. Colin ignored Alec's politically correct att.i.tude. "I'm saying that I wantour life, to live withinour culture, to bond with a Clan female, to be the father of her house."

Alec was thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged off his annoyance. "Okay. I agree that's not a bad life to aspire to."

"It's what all of us really want and need, no matter how much time we spend among mortal kind. It's nature's joke on us that there are more Primes than there are females, so not all Primes can have a vampire mate. In the old days, we Primes could at least fight each other to the death over mating rights to our women. It cut the male population, and it was good for the gene pool."

Alec laughed. "I'm glad the Matri Council outlawed that practice centuries ago. Though I certainly don't mind a nice first-blood fight over a woman-or I didn't, until I found my bondmate."

"That kind of combat's one h.e.l.l of an aphrodisiac." Colin finished his beer. "I thought Flare was quite impressed when I blooded Kiril at the Convocation last year."

"Did she sleep with you?"

"No."

"Then my sister wasn't impressed. Don't tell me you want to bond with Flare. She's restless and bad-tempered and mean."

"You only think that because she's your sister. She's hot. Very, very hot. Our women are pure fire, compared to fragile mortal women."

Except for Mia.

Colin pushed the thought of her out of his head, though his body grew taut with memories. He made himself think about vampire women.

"I don't know which one I want yet. Maybe Flare, maybe Maja, or Chaviva-there's a dozen or so to choose from. I've got years before I need to make up my mind, before the bonding urge strikes between me and a Clan woman. In the meantime-"

Colin smiled lecherously and held his arms wide, taking in the whole city. "So many mortal women, so very much time."

Oddly enough, the only mortal image that came to mind was Mia, and he didn't feel as enthusiastic about many future decades of casual mating as he should.

He changed the subject. "I checked out the lead at the Van Trier airport yesterday, before all h.e.l.l broke loose with the Mia incident."

Alec leaned eagerly forward across the table. "Did you find out anything? Are we any closer to this Patron? I'd like to know a name instead of having to use this pretentious Patron c.r.a.p."

Colin grinned. "Yeah. We Primes are the only ones allowed pretentious t.i.tles."

"We've earned that right over thousands of years of tradition. This Patron is just some creep trying to live off of us. And he's willing to kill to do it, both our kindand mortals. I hate that it's taking so long to track him down."

"You don't have to remind me," Colin said. "I was there, at his Arizona lab facility. I'm the one who let him get away," he added, angry at himself.

"Did you find anything useful at the airport?"

"I got an address for a law firm that leased hangar s.p.a.ce for a Gulfstream for a client. The lease was for two years, but the plane hasn't flown in or out of Van Trier for a while. Since we have the Patron's Gulfstream hidden away in Arizona,it also hasn't been flown out of Van Trier." "Sounds like it could be the same one."

"I need to check out this law firm. Or maybe it would be better for someone else to follow this lead. I'm not a detective; my job's to hunt the Patron when we discover who he is. And Mia-"

Colin's head came up sharply, words lost as all his sense focused on Mia. She was-somewhere.

Somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. Doing something she shouldn't be doing. With someone else. With a male.

Colin growled deep in his throat and left the bar, totally intent on finding Mia.

As she sat on a bench on a shaded sidewalk in Santa Monica and gazed at the one-story, hacienda-style apartment complex across the street, Mia wasn't sure what to do next.

Oh, she knew what she had to do; it was finding the right approach that was giving her trouble. Marching up to the door and ringing the bell, rather than calling first, had seemed like a good idea until she got here. But now she wondered if the direct approach was the correct one.

She now knew that Tony's full name was Anthony Crowe. He was a retired homicide detective with LAPD, with a brilliant service record and lots of commendations. He owned the renovated 1930s building, where he had resided for twenty years.

Though the man she remembered didn't look old enough to be retired. She hadn't noticed any gray in his black hair or beard. Of course it had been dark, and her memories still wove in and out of two very different scenarios, unless she concentrated hard enough to get a headache.

Maybe he'd been seriously injured in the line of duty and forced to retire early. There was always a nagging worry in the back of her mind that something awful would happen to Colin, though he naturally thought he was indestructible. She guessed that Colin knew Tony from the police connection.

Mia reminded herself sternly that she hadn't tracked down Tony Crowe to discuss Colin Foxe- Foxe. Foxe and-Crowe.

What an interesting coincidence that both men had animal names. And hadn't her great-grand-father said that vampires ran in packs and used animal names? Though the only group he'd mentioned specifically called themselves the Snakes.

How charming.

Crowe and Foxe were relatively common names, though, and crows and foxes were fairly harmless creatures. Her revved-up nerves were creating connections out of simple coincidences.

She'd been sitting on this bench for a good half hour, stalling like this. She didn't know why approaching Crowe was harder for her than finding her grandfather.

Except, maybe, for the insidious voice in her head that kept telling her there were things she shouldn't know, shadows she could not explore, secrets meant to be kept.

That voice sounded a lot like Colin's, and it was beginning to p.i.s.s her off.

The voice only grew stronger as she forced herself to rise and cross the street. A low stucco wall with a decorative iron gate separated a gardened courtyard from the sidewalk. The gate wasn't locked, so Mia went inside. A small tiled fountain bubbled in the center of the courtyard. Mia paused as a pair of startled doves took flight off the rim of the fountain, then marched up to a dark, carved wooden door and rang the doorbell.

A male voice said, "Yes?" through an intercom a few moments later.

"Mr. Crowe?"

"Yes," he answered cautiously after a pause.

"My name is Caramia Luchese. You don't know me, but we met last night. You know where, and why," she added.

The door opened, and a man who was distinctly not a senior citizen, butwas Tony from last night, stood in the doorway. "Miss Luchese," he said. "I get the distinct feeling that you have no concept of leaving well enough alone." There was an amused twinkle in his eyes, but that didn't stop him from looking extremely dangerous.

"How can I leave well enough alone when it concerns me?" she answered.

"Does Colin know you're here?"

"Colin, has nothing to do with this," she answered, confused and annoyed.

"Really?" he questioned, coolly amused. He smiled, and looked her up and down in a way that made her flushed and fl.u.s.tered.

"How did you find me? And is it me you want? And would you like to come inside to explain it all?"

His voice was a rich purr, and Mia felt like Little Red Riding Hood invited into the Big Bad Wolf's den.

She gestured toward a table and chairs set on a brick patio beneath a pair of palm trees, suddenly feeling that discussing vampires out in the open might be best.

"Why don't we talk over there?"

"Sweetheart, we shouldn't be talking at all."

She didn't like the endearment from a stranger, but let it go. She also didn't like it when he took her arm and led her over to the shaded patio, then waited until she was seated before he said, "Would you like some lemonade? Cookies?"

"There's a certain smug amus.e.m.e.nt to your gallantry, Mr. Crowe," she answered, keeping her tone calm. "I don't understand that."

"Oh, it's a Prime thing." He glanced toward the street, then at his watch. Then he sat in the other chair after moving it closer to hers, though this put him directly in the bright sunlight. "We have a few minutes to get to know each other. Tell me everything you know."

She looked at him suspiciously. She wasn't sure how she expected this confrontation to go, but the man's confident amus.e.m.e.nt was unsettling. "Everything I know about what?"

"Vampires, of course. And not just the monsters that have been pursuing you. Do you know why they're after you?"

"No, I don't know-wait a minute."

She'd come to get information from him, and he was attempting to control the information, to learn from her rather than tell her anything.

"What do you know about vampire hunters?" she asked, keeping stubbornly to her own agenda. "How do I get in touch with them? Are you one?" "Vampire or hunter?"

She smiled. "Sorry, I phrased that poorly."

"Not necessarily."

"Is Colin a hunter?"

"He's definitely a predator." He gave her an a.s.sessing look. "More than he knows, I think."

Mia hated her unconscious rush to bring Colin into every conversation, especially after months of trying to do a memory dump of the man. But he'd come back into her life at the same time the vampires showed up, and she couldn't believe it was a coincidence.

"When we were attacked last night, Colin wanted me to believe that the monsters are a human cult. But he was just trying to protect me, wasn't he?"

She wasn't sure if she was going to be pleased or furious if she found out that Colin Foxe was the very thing she was looking for.

"I think he very much wants to protect your life," Crowe answered. "And that he's trying to protect himself, as well."

"How is he involved in this? How are you?"

"I'm always fine, darlin'."

Firstsweetheart, nowdarlin'. She could tell he was trying to rile her, and tried hard not to show her annoyance.

"You know what I meant."

"How am I involved with vampires, you mean, rather than the state of my health?" He leaned closer and chuckled. The sound was low and s.e.xy. "I'm involved in every way possible."

"Get away from her, Corvus."

Mia sprang to her feet at the threatening sound of Colin's voice. Tony rose as well, laughing, and turned to face Colin. Mia had to move a few steps sideways to see past Tony Crowe's broad shoulders. Colin's face was a mask of fury. Every whipcord lean muscle was taut, as though he was just barely holding himself back from attacking the other man.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Colin.

"What areyou doing here?" he demanded, but he directed most of his anger at Tony. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I was waiting to see how quickly you'd show up, Reynard."