Yet he wanted her to see him for reasons that baffled. Of course, asking her to believe he was a vampire was out there, even for the smartest and most open-minded of humans.
After shuffling down the stairs, he headed out to his truck—he did have the appointment with the nuns—and smiled to himself. Zen would have a much longer walk than she anticipated.
* * *
He was following her, so Zenia picked up her pace, determined to make it to town before he could stop and once again offer her help. She didn’t need help from a wacked crazy who believed himself a vampire. What role-playing nightmare had he gotten lost in? Didn’t boys generally give up that stuff when they left their teens?
But it was a long walk. And he must be driving five miles an hour. Superobvious follow. Yet when his truck pulled in front of her to make a right turn, and his passenger-side window rolled down, it took all her strength not to rush up to the truck door and see what the handsome man had to say.
Arms crossed and posture stiff, Zenia stood at the road’s gravel edge. The sun was high and she guessed it would be a hot one today. She wondered if her skin burned easily. She didn’t want to make the long trek into town on foot. But she had reached her limit with trusting this guy. Handsome did not win over crazy. Usually.
Maybe?
Blade leaned across the seat and called, “Tangle Lake is in the other direction!”
Zenia steeled herself against turning and looking back the way she’d walked. “I knew that,” she said.
He tilted his head, as if to ask, “Really?”
“Fine.” She marched toward the truck. “You win.”
He popped the door lock open and she stepped up inside, setting her backpack on the floor. The tin circle poked out of the unzipped top.
“What’s that?” he asked with an urgency that again alerted her that this guy wasn’t all there in the head.
She tugged the pack onto her lap and pushed the circle inside, zipping it securely. “It’s mine. Now, would you mind giving me a ride to the big cock? Or whatever it is you called it? And I recall you had mentioned something about helping a couple of nuns. You must have an appointment to get to, so the sooner you drive me into town, the faster we can both be done with each other.”
“The big cock it is.” Blade shifted into gear. He drove a few miles before turning the radio down to a whisper. “It’s called The Red Rooster Inn.”
“Whatever,” she managed with as little interest as possible.
“I gave Beckett Severo a call while I was following you down the road. He’s my sister’s husband. Owns an auto-body shop. He has a sweet little Mini Cooper he can let me buy cheap. He’s going to wash it and give the interior a good cleaning, then he’ll call me when it’s ready. Work for you?”
“What color is it?” she asked, only because she suddenly felt as if he was making all the decisions for her, and she needed to wrangle some control.
“Red?”
“Like a demon’s eyes?”
“Yes, like a demon’s eyes. Believe me, Zen. I’m not making this stuff up.”
“Really? I want to believe you, but...” She sighed and tilted her head against the window. All out of argument. And so desperate for some small grace. “All right. Let me try out belief for a minute. You’re a vampire? With fangs?”
“Got the fangs. I need warm blood to survive. Every few weeks. Though I prefer it more often.”
He winked at her and it was all she could do not to drop her jaw in horror. He’d just confessed to drinking blood! And the truck was going the speed limit. If she opened the door and jumped now, could she get up and walk away as easily as she had after the bus incident?
But deep within, Zenia felt this man meant only good toward her. If he had a strange belief about his origins then she should allow him that. But that allowance should be countered with a healthy dose of caution on her part.
The giant red iron rooster swept by on her right as Blade pulled into the inn’s parking lot. Zen wanted to dash out of the truck and run as far away as possible. She wasn’t about to stay where he knew where to find her.
And yet. It was his kind eyes. And he had given her a huge roll of cash. And made arrangements for her to use a car. Balancing his crazy with his kindness was actually leveling out the scale.
So Zenia said something that surprised herself. “Come in with me.”
“Why?”
“We need to talk.”
He winced.
Yeah, so she’d just given him a standard girlfriend line. Poor guy. But she needed to get on the same page with him.
“I don’t believe you’re so lacking in curiosity that you can simply drive away, are you?”
He considered the subtle challenge. Twisting the key in the ignition, the truck settled to quiet.
After checking in, Zen filed down the narrow hallway with Blade in tow. Her room was small and fashioned with timber furnishings that sported green-and-red-plaid fabric on the chair and bedspread. Sure was a lot of plaid in this neck of the woods, she noted. She tossed the backpack on the bed, directed Blade to make them coffee and excused herself to the bathroom.
The blue-and-yellow dress was loud. She did need to pick up some new things. Something a little less crazy cat lady and a bit more sensual. Because she knew she was attractive, and Blade’s admiring gaze hadn’t gone unnoticed. Nor had his attractiveness gone unnoticed.
She wondered if he would flinch if she tried to touch his soft hair. She sensed that would be his first reaction. And then she wanted to test that theory because pushing him to his unknown boundaries felt important to her. To see if he could stand up to any challenge.
Because if pushed maybe he’d reveal his lies. That perhaps he clung to the fantasy of being a strange creature for reasons that helped him survive in this world. Or maybe it was simply that he watched too many movies. Believed women would go for the brooding vampire act. Ugh.
She tilted her head aside, her reflection tracing a finger down her neck. A vampire. Did he want to bite her? What would that feel like? Orgasmic, her knowledge provided on a whisper. And what was orgasmic? Had she ever had the experience of sex?
She didn’t know. And that frustrated immensely.
She hadn’t learned anything about herself out in the field yesterday. And maybe she had. Demons had been after her? Incredulous. She should have stopped to say goodbye to the old lady.
Why was he making up such an elaborate ruse? For what reason the lie? No, he was being truthful. And to test that theory she’d have to see proof.
“Fangs,” she muttered.
And once he had to confess to a lack of such telling signs of vampirism, then she could move forward. Both of them could.
Nodding once, she turned off the bathroom light and found Blade waiting with two cups of coffee in hand.
“Dark?” she asked.
“As black as I could get it.”
She glanced to the backpack. It was unopened. He hadn’t snooped. Not that she had anything to hide. Just a bunch of stolen charity clothing and that weird tin circle. And her roll of cash. His cash. Yet she didn’t feel as if she owed him for that generous gift. Was it because she couldn’t recall if she was the sort of person who had guilt?
Sitting on the bed, she shuffled closer toward the head by the pillows when Blade sat not three feet from her. Inviting him in may have been a stupid idea. She’d hoped it a means to allow him to confess. Did the victim invite the serial killer in so easily?
“I need some proof,” she said. “That you are what you say you are.”
