10. Rose

ROSE

The cooler door popped open, and this time I was ready. I swung a heavy braid of garlic bulbs at my captor like a medieval mace and chain, minus the spiky bits. I missed him entirely and he stared at me like I was the crazy one.

“Your paramour is here, no doubt to rescue you. Are you sure you want to become his personal blood bank?”

Not this again.

I had to think fast. If James was actually here, my best chance of survival was to outwit El Creepo until he could get to me. I let him drag me out, but I knew exactly what I was looking for this time. I’d heard the kitchen starting to get busy, and nothing would throw a crazy kidnapper off his game like a good old-fashioned food fight.

I quickly grabbed a tray of spaghetti and meatballs as he led me past the line of prepared food, then hurled it at the other people back here who did not belong in a kitchen. Although, honestly, who were these chefs and cooks that none of them even blinked twice when a women dressed only in lingerie was dragged out of their walk-in cooler?

The spaghetti crashed against one dude’s face, and that sent the rest of the baddies running in every direction. I guess they didn’t like pasta. I felt a small surge of triumph as they dashed past me, their faces twisted in confusion.

Or was that fear? I mean, lots of people unjustly feared carbs, but...

James erupted into the kitchen, and damn, he was scary as all get out. Were his eyes red? Wait... were those fangs?

Clearly the garlic I’d been surrounded with was hallucinatory, and El Creepo’s talk of vampires had gone to my head. Fine. Okay, whatever. I’d read my fair share of vampire romances and could play the part of the badass heroine.

I twisted out of El Creepo’s grasp and dove for whatever Italian food was within my reach. A pot of boiling pasta, yep. As long as that wasn’t holy water it was bubbling away in. I snagged a kitchen towel and snapped it at the nearest cook. “Run, dummies. That’s a vampire, and he’s gonna eat you up for dinner.”

That totally wasn’t how that worked. But I was working on the fly here. I grabbed the pot handle and gave the whole thing a toss toward wear El Creepo had been standing. Damn. He was gone. The water and pasta went flying, deterring anyone else from crossing my path. Good.

“James, over here.” I grabbed a baguette with a lovely crispy crust to use as a bat and swing my way through the guys who hadn’t run away like scaredy cats and were attacking James.

Good God. They literally held out crosses, and some of them had stakes. What a side show.

I couldn’t see James, but I heard a lot of yelps and grunts and groans, none of which had his rich timbre to them. So, while it seemed like they were pushing him back out into the dining room, he was holding his own. That meant their focus was totally on him and not me.

This was my chance to get to his side so we could escape.?I hit the guy closest to me over the head, cracking my baguette, and then slammed those crunchy sharp edges into his back.

“Ouch, lady. Watch where you’re poking that thing. We’re trying to save you.” He turned on me and scowled.

“Wrong. You’re trying to hurt my—” Uh oh. I’d almost called James my boyfriend. He wasn’t my lover either, although after all this excitement, I was so jumping his bones. After the drugs wore off, of course. Safe, sane, and consensual. “My vampire.”

I smacked the guy in the face with my trusty but broken baguette and sprinted toward the cafe doors.

As I made my way through the blood-splattered restaurant, I spotted James taking the high ground on a table. His eyes focused in on me and then he turned into a friggin bat.

A. Big. Ass. Vampire. Bat.

Okay, to be fair, I didn’t know if it was a vampire bat. Didn’t they eat fruit or something? Damn, these were some good garlic drugs.

Because of the whole bat situation, I was?noticeably?distracted, and accidentally dropped my baguette and stopped running to watch the James Vond Vampire Bat flying over everyone’s head. But that gave some baddie a chance to grab me.

“Let go of me,” I cried, struggling against the guy’s too tight grip. To my surprise, he suddenly released me, his eyes wide with shock, and then his head fell off. Like, plop, oops, you lost your head. It even rolled a couple feet across the floor and went under a table. If I didn’t know I was hallucinating all of this, I’d probably scream, or throw up, or both.

A second later, I felt someone else’s arms wrapping around me from behind, gently but protectively.

“James,” I breathed, relief flooding through me.

“Rose, are you all right?”His voice was deeper and darker than I remembered, and there was concern evident in his voice. But it was definitely my James.

“All the others are d-d-dead, aren’t they?” I stammered and I think that meant shock was about to set in. “You should know now, before I go all catatonic on you, I’ve been drugged and am currently hallucinating that you’re a vampire and the bad guys were vampire hunters with crosses and stakes and probably cooking their pasta in holy water.”

James held me tighter and kissed the top of my head. “Right. We’ve got some things to talk about. But first, let’s get the fuck out of here and someplace safe.”

“Yes, please. Hopefully someplace with a shower, because I reek of garlic and if I never eat Italian food ever again it will be too soon.” I was never eating Italian ever again. Although, anything with garlic sounded like a horrible idea. Maybe Scandinavian food? I didn’t remember there being garlic in Swedish meatballs.

James laughed. “You do indeed smell of garlic. A sort of garlicky chocolate cake.”

I didn’t remember seeing chocolate cake. Tiramisu, yes. Chocolate cake, no. “Gross.”

“Come, let’s get out of here.” He eyed the front of the restaurant and then tugged me toward the back. “I need to get you somewhere safe and call this in to VIA. We’re gonna need one hell of a cleanup crew.”

The kitchen was deserted, although there was still food cooking away. James cringed and squeezed my hand tighter when we skirted past the open cooler of garlic.

“James, wait,” I whispered as we crept into dimly lit back room of the restaurant. “Do you hear that?”

“Stay behind me,”he replied, his voice low and tense. My stomach did a flip flop as his protective instincts kicked in and he moved us closer to the source of the noise.

We peeredaround a corner to find El Creepo pacing, chastising one of his minions. He had the air of a desperate man who knew he’d lost control, and it sent shivers down my spine. I pushed my lips up against James’s ear and whispered. “That’s the guy who had me kidnapped and insisted you were a vampire.”

“Then he needs to die.” James did not whisper.

Shit.

“Ah, Vond,” El Creepo said, smirking as he spotted us. “So nice of you to join our little party.”

“Time to fuckingdie for kidnapping my Soul’s Serenity, asshole.” James’s voice was crisp, calm, and oh, so deadly. “You should have stuck to hunting me and the Immortal Royals. This has nothing to do with her, and now you’ve made a personal enemy out of me.”

“Ah, but it does,”El Creepo responded, his grin widening. “You see, we received some very interesting information about you and your blood bride. And from a delightfully unlikely source.”

Blood bride? I guess it was better than whore. Someone needed to teach this guy some manners. I had the distinct feeling James was about to do exactly that.

El Creepo rubbed his hands together like he was having fun. “Would you like to play a game to find out who?”

James released my hand, and gently pushed me a step back. “No.”

Before I could even blink, James jumped the guy and was ripping El Creepo’s throat out. With his teeth... fangs? The little minion who’d been standing there wide-eyed during this whole exchange peed his pants. Literally.

James grabbed him by the throat and held him up over his head. “Who me told The Order about Rose being my Serenity?”

Aww. I was his serenity? That sounded so peaceful and lovely. Must be a British saying.

More pee dribbled onto the floor and the minion burst into tears. “Please don’t kill me. I’ll tell you everything I know. Please, please.”

James hissed at the guy. Was it weird that I was totally turned on by how utterly badass James was? “Who?”

“Another vampire. I don’t know who he was, I swear. I swear. Please.”

Ugh. More vampire shizz. When would these drugs wear off?

James growled. Like a lion or a tiger or a bear. “Rose, look away.”

Ope. I spun. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t watch him kill this guy in particular, but I was grateful James warned me when I heard a crunch and then something big and heavy flop to the ground. Twenty dead bad guys were enough for one day. Twenty-one was one too many.

Weird. Not a thing I ever thought I’d think about.

Strong arms wrapped around me once again, and this was definitely my new safe space.?I spun in his arms and laid my head against his chest, letting him hold me for one entirely too long minute.

It was over. This whole nightmare was finished, and I wanted nothing more than a shower, a greasy meal, a really good roll in the hay with this man who’d saved me, and a week-long nap. Jorge and Anna weren’t going to believe any of this.

I didn’t even believe most of it.

He released me from the bear hug we’d been giving each other, and then reached down behind my knees, put another arm behind my back, and picked me the fuck up.

“Holy crap. You can’t carry me out of here. I’m far too big, and you’ve just been fighting the world’s worst versions of Van Helsing’s progeny.”

“My sweet Rose. I will not only carry you out of here, as soon as we are at the safe house, I will also carry you to bed and ravish every square centimeter of your soft flesh. Don’t for one second think you are too big for the likes of me.”

Oh.

Swoon.

Or was that actually the shock setting in?

Nope. It was swooning, and I knew because shock does not make one’s girly bits go all tingly and throbby. “Ravish me, huh?”

He replied with a small but devastating smile. “Something I’ve had a few centuries to perfect.”

“Centuries… right,” I muttered, my head spinning, trying to shake off the effects of the drugs. My mind was so damn creative with all this vampire stuff.

Except, the thing was, now that all the excitement of the battle was over, and the adrenaline rush was quickly baselining, I didn’t feel like I was hallucinating.

Sure, James still had red eyes and pointy fangs, but where were the psychedelic trails? Where was the giant talking cockroach? Why weren’t we fearful and loathing Las Vegas? And how come I could see quite clearly, and feel every single part of my body from my fingers to my toes and especially all the parts where James had his hands?

My heart pounded, just as it had a few moments ago, as I carefully eyed James. I put a hand up to his face, cupping his jaw. His skin was cool to the touch. Too cool for having been in a fight to the death.

He continued to make his way through the back of the restaurant and found the back door that had eluded me. I couldn’t help it. I slid my thumb across his bottom lip, and then to the very tip of one of his fangs. It was sharp and punctured my skin. The tiniest bead of blood pooled, and James tipped his head back, closed his eyes, and took a long, shuddering breath.

“Rose. You shouldn’t have done that.”