Ellowyn Found: An MM Vampire Trilogy Omnibus Edition Books 1 - 3 Page 22

  He turned and ran. Surprisingly, he made it down the block and around the corner, but here the street was busier, more people on the sidewalks, dodging sideways, slowing him down. He bolted into the street and tires squealed. Somehow he found the other sidewalk and made it halfway across the parking lot of a strip mall before pain exploded in his leg, and he tumbled onto his hands and knees and fell flat on his stomach. A weight landed on top of him and his arms bent back. He groaned at the click of the cuffs and said, “Check my pocket. I tol’ you I’m a cop.”

  “‘Course you are.”

  The cop pulled him up. His stomach somersaulted, the contents spewing out onto the asphalt.

  “You asshole,” he muttered, retching from the stench.

  “Lucky for you, you didn’t do that in my car.”

  The cop walked him back the way they’d come. He found Otto’s ID and rolled his eyes. “I’m still taking you in.”

  He shrugged, leaning painfully into the corner of the car, trying to control his stomach through every bump and turn. They put him in an empty cell, and he fell asleep on the cot. It was still dark when he awoke to the sound of the cell door sliding open. A face he didn’t recognize peered in.

  “C’mon. Get up. Your ride’s here.”

  “I don’t have a ride.”

  “Tell that to your prince.”

  His prince?

  Otto stood and walked out into the night.

  36

  A Midnight Snack

  Otto froze halfway into the limo.

  Rune smiled at him. “Hop in.”

  The other vampire, Uriah, stood behind him, holding onto the door. Otto grunted his surprise—he hadn’t expected Jessa, let alone Rune—and slid onto the opposite seat. The door clomped shut behind him.

  “Um… Thanks.”

  “Better me than Zev. Zev doesn’t appreciate human antics.”

  Frankly, Zev had been a lot less scary than Rune, but Otto didn’t argue. He rubbed his face and blew out a breath. “Well, thanks anyway.”

  “I wanted to talk away from the castle.”

  Away from Jessa, most likely. Well, that was fine by Otto. He cleared his throat and rubbed at those tan spots on his T-shirt. “What about?”

  But Rune didn’t answer. He swiveled on his seat and gazed through the partition. “Pull over for a minute. Check to see if we have a fresh shirt in the trunk.”

  Uriah said nothing, but the car eased to the side of the street.

  Rune sat forward again. “We get in some nasty places. I usually keep an extra set of clothes.”

  “You?…”

  “Draw maps.”

  “Right.”

  Rune smiled over white teeth. No fangs in sight right now, but Otto didn’t trust the burn in the vampire’s eyes. The car rocked as Uriah got out and slammed the door. A moment later the lid went up. “How do you get your jobs?” Otto asked.

  “Usually the Council. Universities sometimes. Areas I surveyed only a few years ago have already changed. New valleys and lakes, higher mountains, diverted rivers. My people lived in the same cities for thousands of years. This is fascinating to me. What fascinates you, Otto Jones?”

  Jessa.

  “Justice.”

  Rune’s smile broadened. “An idealist. Or a man with an agenda.”

  Somewhat sober now, Otto’s eyes sharpened on Rune’s face. “You don’t believe in justice?”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  Before Otto asked what Rune meant by that the door opened, and Uriah held out a shirt. It was a simple blue chambray, but it was clean and didn’t stink. Otto yanked his T-shirt over his head and pulled on Rune’s.

  “Uriah,” said Rune.

  “Yes?”

  “Find us a place to eat.”

  Otto’s fingers froze on his buttons. “You don’t—”

  Rune waved a hand at him. “It’s four in the morning. I need fuel too.”

  “You don’t sleep during the day either?”

  “Usually I do, but I have a job coming up, and I do what I do in the light.”

  “And your art?”

  “At night. My heart is its truest self in the dark.”

  Otto laughed, the sound a low chuff. So was his. “I never liked vampires… until Jessa.”

  “Jessa is both human and vampire. Which do you like?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Why did you reject him?”

  Jesus. First Mal, now Rune. “Protective much?” he muttered.

  “Enough you ought to worry,” Rune said quietly.

  Otto gritted his teeth in annoyance. Fucking vampires. He was drowning in them. Or just drowning.

  “He’s engaged, remember?”

  “Not quite. Try better.”

  Now his fangs showed under his smiling lip.

  “I’ve let down all the people I plan to.”

  Hearing those words reverberate in his head rocked him with a rush of dizziness. It’s the booze. But it wasn’t. He didn’t know what kind of glib thing he’d meant to say, but it sure as hell wasn’t the truth. Especially not a truth he did everything in his power never to look at.

  He met Rune’s eyes fixed on him in silence. Then Rune rocked his head with a thoughtful smile.

  “A person can interpret that comment in several ways.”

  “I meant only one. Somebody attacked him.” On my fucking watch.

  “I know.” Rune’s voice fell into a lethal whisper, soft as a deadly mist. His lips were closed, but Otto knew those fangs had dropped again. Then he smiled. “You weren’t with him. You couldn’t stop it.”

  Reason annoyed him, dug under his skin like scabies. It itched and ate at his nerves. He wasn’t a kid who needed stroking. Fuck, not even his dad had ever tried to console him over anything. “I know what I’m doing.”

  “You’d better fucking know what you’re doing better than this from here on. You slept with him. Sex is nothing to vampires. Love is on a par with Santa Claus. A cute story you wish was true. Jessa loves stories. They gave him hope when we all thought he was going to die. He lives in those romances of his, the tales of our father and Dawn.” Rune laughed. “Eternal passion. Fated love. That is what Jessa lives for.” Now Rune smiled, a laugh in his eyes. “Pity it’s just a fantasy. I know he won’t get it. I wouldn’t have led him on.”

  “I was honest.”

  “Oh. That old bromide. Tell me truly you didn’t know he was lying to himself.” Otto didn’t have a chance to answer before Rune went on, waving a hand in front of him. “We all do, of course. We pretend everything’s normal while the floor rots out from under us. No point wallowing though. That means you. You feel sorry for yourself. Well, too bad. We all lost things in the war.”

  Otto somehow didn’t burst into flames, though his body was hot with rage.

  “And after,” he squeezed through gritted teeth.

  “Yes,” Rune murmured. “And after.”

  A wash of light bled into the car as Uriah turned into the parking lot of a Denny’s knockoff Otto had never been to before. Uriah shut off the engine and followed them inside though he took a seat at the counter while Otto and Rune continued to a booth. Only a few were occupied. The place was quiet, but Rune still chose a booth in back.

  “I don’t have any money,” Otto murmured.

  “I’m loaded,” said Rune with a grin. “Besides, you work for me now.”

  “I do?”

  “I can’t lock Jessa up anymore. I picked Wen for him because I didn’t have much of a choice. Marrying Jessa is an honor for the Wrythin family, and Wen can provide what Jessa needs. He’s still royal, and he’s below me. But you? You don’t treat Jessa like a drainer. I want that for him, and I think he’s safest with you.”

  “Is that my job? Watching out for Jessa?”

  “And solving the murder.”

  A waitress with short black hair and giant silver hoop earrings that grazed her shoulders appeared with a pot of coffee and two cup
s hooked on her fingers. “You ready to order?”

  “Mushroom burger,” said Rune. “Lots of mushrooms.”

  “Regular burger for me,” said Otto, pulling his cup to him.

  “No cheese?”

  “No. Wouldn’t mind some coleslaw on it though.”

  “Comin’ up.”

  The first swallow of coffee hit his gut like a cannonball but mellowed a moment later. “This murder makes no sense,” he said, smothered by a wave of grief. Nothing lit up in him, none of the old wonder as clues tumbled into a picture only he could see.

  “Maybe it was fortuitous,” said Rune. “Wrong place, wrong time. Prey and predator.”

  “Acalliona had no reason to be in that field unless he was hooking up with somebody.”

  “So Acalliona was the predator and the prey got lucky.”

  Otto snorted. “The prey was human. Like my sister. A drainer killed her.”

  Rune gave him a long stare. Maybe he already knew, though Otto hadn’t told Jessa yet. “She had no chance,” Rune said. “To get away, I mean.”

  “I don’t know.”

  But he did know. He’d missed any chance to save her the minute he’d let her walk away from him certain there’d be another chance to convince her to change her life.

  “My father always told us we had hidden powers, but nothing saved us. I left Mal and Jessa and Dawn to go back into Celestine,” said Rune. “I thought they were safe. By the time I got back, Dawn was dead and Jessa was injured. I believed Synelix was safe and it almost killed him. I let you humans tattoo him to keep the peace. I made the trade-offs I had to make.”

  Otto waited until the waitress set down their plates and refilled their coffee cups. His stomach knotted at the aromas of meat and mushrooms, and his fingers trembled. He ate a few fries while Rune bit into his burger.

  When Rune swallowed, Otto asked, “Why isn’t food enough for you?”

  Rune squinted, a slightly perplexed look on his face as though the question didn’t make sense to him. Maybe it didn’t. Otto wasn’t sure anybody knew the answer. “I don’t know. What would happen if you only ate seeds? Wouldn’t you die?”

  “Not right away.”

  “Neither would we. We’d get sick first.” He snagged a mushroom off his plate, turning it to and fro while smiling at it. “But we crave the blood of our other halves. Of you. We can’t live without it. You can live without us, but we are stronger and harder to kill.”

  “My sister fought. I was in the academy when it happened. I should’ve quit, but I stayed in thinking I had a better chance of finding her killer.”

  “And now?”

  Otto laughed. “I’m not in or out. Six a one, half a dozen of another. The guy who did it’s still out there. Or died in a goddamn field.”

  “Brillen wasn’t a drainer.”

  “Any vampire can drain a human.”

  Rune pushed his empty plate away and folded his arms on the table. “I broke with Qudim over the war for Jessa’s sake. We had no home to return to. Our world is here. The Adi ’el Lumi want revenge, but the King wants peace at any cost.”

  Otto frowned. “Adi ’el Lumi?”

  Rune smiled. “A sect lost in the fantasy of Ellowyn glory. They want to enslave you.”

  “Oh, nice. The good old days.”

  Rune laughed. “Qudim thought so. They revere him.”

  “Are they dangerous?”

  Rune frowned for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Ideas are always dangerous. They scattered years ago. Hate never dies though. I admire your idea of justice. It has a touch of fanaticism to it.” He leaned in against the table. “Solve your murder, Otto Jones. Keep Jessa safe. That is your job. Don’t fail me.”

  Otto stared into the burn of Rune’s eyes until Rune slid out of the booth and strode to the door.

  37

  Otto’s Surprise

  Fuck.

  Jessa glared at the reflection in his bathroom mirror. Earrings and braids and smoky eyelids. He pouted into the glass. This wasn’t a date. He hated his face anyway. Average-looking people never showed up on book covers. He wasn’t exactly ugly, but he wasn’t Rune or Mal either.

  Otto had fucked him and disappeared.

  Jessa leaned in and peered up close. His eyes weren’t even a real color. Not black, not brown, not blue, not green. A mix like his hair. Mousy brown, dirty blond, brassy red.

  You aren’t going on a date.

  He was working. This was a job. He and Otto. Whether Otto liked it or not.

  So why are you made up?

  He turned on the water, waited for it to warm, and scrubbed his face. After he dried it, he looked in the mirror again. He disappeared. So forgettable.

  With a groan, he returned to his bedroom, slipped on his jacket, and headed to the front porch where he sat on the steps for five minutes before Otto’s car appeared in the distance. He didn’t move until the car swung in a half circle and stopped in front of him.

  He got in and slammed the door.

  “You don’t have to do this.”

  He didn’t even look at Otto. Fuck him. Fuck the burn in his nose and prick in his eyes. I want him to like me. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “Jess.”

  “You can get any vampire to work with you.”

  The car idled, warm air puffing from the heater vents. A misty haze turned the day gray, and condensation formed inside the car.

  “I don’t want any vampire. I want you.”

  His stomach somersaulted, and a chill gripped him. Want me for what?

  Maybe Otto was setting him up. The awful boyfriend who drove the heroine running to the real hero. To Wen.

  Ultimately, it was Wen he’d return to.

  “I can’t help you. I get all my ideas from books.”

  “This isn’t about the case. I have a surprise for you. I think you might like it.”

  Now Jessa looked sideways, the frown on his face setting in deeper. “Why?”

  Otto’s lips parted, but nothing emerged. He took a breath, and Jessa stared at the shadows under his eyes, the scruff on his jaw. Clean, but beat up looking.

  “I’m trying to make up with you.”

  “Like a friend?”

  “I want to be friends.”

  Not me. But he didn’t say that. He merely nodded and rubbed his sweaty palms on his knees. “Why’d you stay away?”

  “I have a lousy track record with people.”

  “Maybe because you stay away.”

  Otto snorted a laugh. “Maybe.”

  “I’m easy to please,” Jessa murmured.

  A slow smile formed on Otto’s face. “A low bar might be a good thing for me.”

  Jessa shook his head. “That’s sad.”

  “That’s me.”

  “I thought you didn’t like me.” Just saying the words sent a knife through his chest again.

  “I like you, Jess. I like you a lot. I want us to be friends.”

  Fuck friends. Except… Friends to lovers stories were Jessa’s favorites. So… “We can be friends.”

  “Good.”

  Friends had sex, right? He hoped so. He buckled his seatbelt, and Otto shifted the car into gear.

  “What’s my surprise?”

  “A surprise.”

  Jessa gusted a sigh, fogging the window beside him. The rain broke, falling in sprinkles and splats through the trees.

  “Have you been working on the case?”

  Otto shook his head. “We’ll talk about it after your surprise.”

  By the time they got into Comity, the rain had stopped, and the sun shone on the shiny wet streets. They crossed town and drove into a busy retail area where curved streets branched off the main one like the fronds on a palm branch. Otto turned at a signal light, turned again into a parking garage, and found a spot on the second floor.

  Jessa glanced around then hooked his hair behind his ears. “What’s here?”

  “Wait and see,” Otto said.

  He huffed but unbuck
led and got out of the car. They followed a family downstairs and exited onto a short street between the garage and—a movie theater!

  Jessa grabbed Otto’s arm. “Are we going to a movie?”

  “Is that okay?”

  “Yes! Oh my God. I’ve never been to a movie. We have a movie room at home, but that’s not the same. Can we get popcorn?”

  “Anything you want,” said Otto.

  The pleased look on Otto’s face made Jessa giddy, and he grabbed Otto’s arm and yanked him across the street. “Which one are we going to see?”

  Otto pointed to a poster under glass.

  Titanic.

  “It’s a ship.”

  “Trust me,” said Otto. “I think you’re going to really like this.”

  Honestly, Jessa didn’t care what movie they were going to see. He dragged Otto into the lobby and to the snack bar where Otto bought a tub of popcorn and two tall soft drinks. The popcorn was perfect—greasy and salty and delicious.

  “I forgive you for everything,” he whispered in the dark, and Otto burst out laughing. “Quiet,” he added. “I don’t want us to get kicked out.”

  Otto leaned over and whispered too, breath warm against Jessa’s face. “I have a gun. We’re safe.”

  Jessa snickered. He didn’t feel twenty-three anymore. He felt fourteen… Or ten. The world was full of things he’d never done, and a surge of excitement raced through him as music blasted in his ears. By the end of the movie he was sniffling, and when Otto pressed his lips against his temple, Jessa leaned into him. Now the music was playing again, and people were getting out of their seats and making their way up the aisles.

  Jessa sighed. “That was so sad.”

  “It’s just a movie,” Otto whispered.

  “But it was so romantic.”

  What if Jessa did that? Loved somebody so much he’d die for him. That wasn’t exactly a happy ending. Nobody died in his romances. He had no experience with the idea and didn’t particularly like it. Living for love was a lot more romantic. He was pretty sure it was harder too—and took forgiveness and kindness.

  “Thank you for doing this.”

  “Oh, it’s not over yet,” said Otto. He stood and pulled Jessa to his feet. “How about pizza?”