Accidentally Dead Page 21

  Bizarre and probably a question she didn’t want the answer to.

  And he still wanted to meet. He’d listed a time and a location then hung up. She checked her calls received, and the number came up unknown. Looking at her watch, Nina decided she just might have enough time to chew Greg a new one and make her meeting back in Hackensack with the creepy guy.

  If she managed her time wisely.

  Whether it was wise or not, she didn’t allow herself to ponder for long. He might be her ticket back to mortality, and some things weren’t achieved without great risk. For now, she’d set aside her anxiety and focus on Greg.

  Her eyes narrowed with another rush of angry thoughts. But before she went pushing her way in, she needed to gather her thoughts. Nina had two things in mind and two things only. The third, their blistering sexual encounter, would go unmentioned if she could help it. She’d show him she knew how to fuck and run, too.

  Sooooooo she had to demand that he take back his money and pressure him to tell her where Lisanne was, because if he didn’t, she had a kooky vampire to meet. Not much freaked her out, but his odd smile and unwavering pleasant demeanor did.

  That alone made her angrier. Dude was weird, and that she had to go to these lengths, potentially risking her life by meeting some stranger on so little information to get anything she could find on Lisanne, made her want to throw down with Greg.

  Her fist clenched, tight with rage, and she pounded on the door, calling his name and making as much ruckus as she could muster. The hell she’d let him pay her rent and think that’d make her forget she had no job because of this whacked lifestyle.

  The hell.

  The sudden rustle of the bushes, subtle to a human ear, she supposed, alerted her to use her nose. It was like her antennae and her antennae smelled human. Only this time, she was sure it wasn’t just some human down the road or in the house next door. This human was so close she could hear his blood coursing through his veins.

  Her head whipped around, and Nina found herself staring at an elderly gentleman. He wore a bathrobe, crushed velvet and royal blue with an F monogrammed on the lapel. He had a thick head of white hair, and something he toyed with in his age-spotted hand. The wrinkles of time lined his face in a zig-zagging pattern, well worn and hard earned.

  Nina waited for him to speak, but his silence grew heavier while she waited. Maybe he was looking for his cat? The elderly at the senior citizen home Wanda volunteered at loved her cat, Menusha.

  The odd look in his eyes and his eerily calm face sent a warning signal out to her. Senility? Dementia? Alzheimer’s? Was he lost? Her immediate instinct was to help him. It had to be maybe thirty degrees, and his brown, slip-on slippers couldn’t be warm enough in this weather. Suddenly, beating the shit out of Greg took a backseat to helping this stranger. “Are you okay? Can I help you find something?”

  His weathered voice was cautious. “Are you just like him?”

  Nina ventured closer. “Him? You mean Greg?” She thumbed a finger over her shoulder.

  His right leg limped, as he drew nearer to her, holding his one hand behind his back.

  Nina grew unsettled. While her senses were becoming keener, she still couldn’t pinpoint what he was feeling. “Who are you?”

  “Jim. I’m Jim Finch. The neighbor.”

  “Hi, Jim. I’m Nina. Care to explain what you mean?”

  “I said are you like him?”

  The term like was relative here. “Like who? Greg?”

  “Like the devil,” he spat with clear venomous disdain.

  Two things happened at once: Jim hurled something in her direction, yelling shallowly, and a big arm snaked out from behind Greg’s door to drag her inside just before it hit the door with a watery splat. Disoriented, Nina fought against the arm that held her. “You must be Nina,” the possessor of said arm whispered low.

  Jim Finch pounded on the door, yelling he knew what Greg was, and he wasn’t going to let this go on. Something about Neighborhood Watches, patrolling the streets of Long Island to keep out the riffraff and devil worshippers.

  Devil worship?

  Nina spun around to see who’d grabbed her and found a tall, sandy-haired man dressed casually in pleated trousers and a dark, pullover sweater. Her eyes grew instantly skeptical. Another vampire who had the bone structure of a Calvin Klein male model?

  “It’s okay, Nina. I’m Clayton. Or Clay to a woman as lovely as yourself.”

  “Well, Clay, who was that, and who are you?”

  Jim’s relentless pounding on the door reverberated through the high-ceilinged entryway, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to know who this Clay was and what he might be able to tell her.

  “I’m a friend of Greg’s, and I have to say, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Greg’s told me a lot about your, er, situation.”

  Greg had friends? Friends he talked to about her? Interesting. Her suspicion piqued. “So are you a part of Greg’s clan?”

  His smile was slow, seductive. “I am, indeed.”

  Aha! Maybe he knew where Lisanne was. Nina cornered him, her eyes narrowing, while Clay looked down at her with amusement. “So then maybe you can tell me where I can find this—”

  “Nina?” Greg screamed down the stairs to the front door and gave it a good pounding with a heavy fist. “Knock it off, Jim, and go home to Ruth right now,” he hollered.

  “You’re the devil!” Jim bellowed from behind the door, his voice agitated with a high-pitched fervor.

  “Go home, Jim,” Greg yelled back, pulling open the door and staring down Jim Finch. “Go home right now. It’s freezing out, and Ruth will be concerned if she wakes and finds you gone. What would I say to her if she found you on my doorstep frozen like an ice pop? I’d never be able to live with myself.” Greg kept his tone even, humorous, and light, but with a hint of authority to it that brooked no discussion.

  Jim backed away, a very real terror clearly in his eyes. His white hair whipped violently in the wind, as he shivered. His hands shook when he pointed an accusatory finger at Greg. “I know what you are. I know!” he bellowed before he stumbled backward and took off across Greg’s lawn.

  Greg turned to Nina, his face in full scowl, his eyes blazing fire. “Do you see what you’ve done, Nina? Didn’t I tell you we have to look out for ourselves? That you can’t be too careful?”

  Fury rose from the pit of her belly. She stuck her neck out, circling it in a threatening manner. “Oh, like I knew he thought you were the devil, you shit! I thought he was some old, senile guy who’d lost his way home. This is your fault, Dracula. If you’d told me your neighbors thought you were the devil, you know, sort of a heads-up, I would have been more careful!”

  Clayton’s laughter filled Greg’s entryway, rich and resounding. “Wow. You two’re something to watch in person. I’ve only heard about these infamous fights from Svetlanna. To witness it is like watching Ultimate Fighting without the sweaty, grunting men, and Nina’s much prettier. And on that note, I think I’ll let you two hash it out—I’m outta here.”

  He took Nina’s limp hand and kissed the back of it. “Nina, you’re all Greg told me and more.” Then his eyes turned to Greg. “My friend, I wish you the skill to battle this fierce she-warrior. Call me, and we’ll hit the green. I found a great place in Florida that’s primarily deserted at night but for the chipmunks. Until then, later.” His back turned on them both, and then he was gone in an instant.

  “She-warrior?”

  Greg’s nostrils flared. “Clay was turned back in the times of Vikings.”

  She waved a hand at him, not interested in anything other than clearing this shit up and going back home. Sometimes the information he fed her was just too much. Seeing a guy who was once a Viking, walking and talking, was a lot to take in, even on a girl’s best day. “Whatever. I don’t care anymore. You and me, we got a beef.”

  His anger seemed to evaporate, replaced with a mocking smile. “No. Way. Really? I’d have never been able
to tell from the way you were pounding on the door, punkin. Speaking of the door…do you have any clue what you just avoided?”

  “An old, delusional man?”

  “Holy water.”

  “What?”

  “Holy water, you pigheaded, impulsive, anger management-needing fool! Jim had holy water, that’s what he threw at you. Do you have any idea what that could have done to you and your ‘I don’t want to be a vampire’ backside?”

  Nina was stunned. So stunned she couldn’t even cowgirl up enough to defend herself and her anger management-needing ass.

  Greg took hold of her upper arms, glowering down at her. Hookay, he was truly pissed. “It could have killed you, Nina. Your wish to not be a vampire just might have come true tonight, because you just can’t keep your big mouth shut. Jim Finch suspects we’re demons. He isn’t far off the paranormal mark, and anyone who comes here—especially making as much of a racket as you did—is subject to his suspicions.”

  He raked a hand through his hair, sending her an ice-cold swish of his eyes. “I can only be grateful for his wife, Ruth, who thinks he’s bordering senile and thanks me—thanks me—for putting up with his crazy ramblings. She bakes me cookies. But here’s the thing—Jim Finch isn’t crazy, and there’s been a time or two he’s seen some things I wish he hadn’t. I’ve lived here for quite some time, and I like it, and I won’t let you jeopardize it because you have some bug up your ass. If Jim could find a way to convince just one person what he says is the truth, he could fuck us all for good, and right now, that includes you, too, mouth.”

  Nina’s stomach fell while she watched him glare down at her. She’d just done everything Marty had warned her against.

  Her bad.

  And he wasn’t done. “And did it ever occur to you that because you’re always like some bull in a china shop that you’re not just risking your own life by revealing us, but others as well? Other vampires who had nothing to do with what happened between us.”

  Hellafino. No, it hadn’t. Shit, shit, shit. It wasn’t just Greg she’d risked either, it was Svetlanna, too, and like it or not, she dug Svetlanna. Remorse and guilt had just become close bedfellows. “You’re right.”

  “I’m what?”

  There was no hesitation in her reply. No snide remark, no sarcasm dripping from her words like ice cream melting on a hot July day. “I said you’re right. It was foolish and impulsive of me, and if anything happened to Svetlanna, I’d be very upset.”

  He eyed her with clear suspicion. “Did you just say I was right? I know I have supersonic hearing and all, but just confirm that for me one more time.”

  Nina nodded her head, letting her hands slide into the pockets of her jeans. “I did. You’re right and even if you’d turned out to be a fuckwit who wanted me to be his vampire slave for eternity so I could carry out your evil plan to take over the world, Svetlanna probably wouldn’t be a part of that, and I would never want to see anything happen to her, just because I want to slap the shit out of you.” There. The truth in a nutshell.

  His chest rumbled with laughter as he gathered her up in his arms and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Well, thanks, Brain. You had me worried you were some imposter.”

  That was the second time today someone had said that to her. Had she changed that much? Become that soft? Peeshaw. Despite admitting to her egregious error, she had a mission to complete, and it didn’t entail being this close to him.

  No matter how it made her now failed intestines twist into a flock of butterflies. Nina squirmed out of his arms, shoving aside the enticing rub of her breasts against his chest. She backed away from him, refusing to let herself be sucked in. “I have a bone to pick, and that’s why I was so angry. Not only does it take me a hundred years to get here to pick it with you, it takes many forms of disgustingly filthy buses and trains to do it. So surely you can see my upset.”

  “A bone, huh? How many more bones do we have to pick?”

  Nina didn’t waste any time—she went right for his proverbial throat. “Why did you pay my rent—for a year? A year, Greg. That’s just crazy.”

  “Wasn’t it you who said I’d ruined your life? Prevented you from working because your qualifications require a day job? Wasn’t it you who staunchly refused to come here as a part of the clan? Yep. That was you, and I just didn’t think I could live with myself if I was the one responsible for you having to bunk at the local homeless shelter and work the midnight shift, slinging burgers in some diner off the turnpike.”

  Guilt. He felt guilty, and he thought paying her rent would absolve him of the catastrophic event he’d created. “How about we call it like it is and not candy coat it. It was guilt. You were paying me off to ease your guilt and shut me up.”

  “To shut you up for whom, Nina? Are you still on the ‘join my evil clan’ kick?”

  Good question—one she hadn’t given thought to for a couple of days. She was only in the business of flinging insults at the moment. Whether they had any truth to them was neither here nor there right now. Moving right along. “How can you possibly afford to pay my rent for a year? It’s almost nine hundred dollars a month.”

  He nodded vaguely. “Money isn’t much of a concern for me.”

  “Well, duh. You live in a castle, but castles have to be expensive.”

  “I’m going to tell you a little something about my castle, Nina. I’ve lived a very long time, and in that time, I’ve invested wisely. Not only have I invested wisely, like in Svetlanna’s pet project, Fango, but I’ve acquired some skills along the way. Skills that take time and effort, but are well worth it. Like this castle. Do you really think anyone would let me build a castle in Long Island in the suburbs? This”—he swept his hand over the room—“is all an illusion. Sort of like mass hypnosis, if you will. I can influence people to believe whatever I want them to, if I choose. I’m just careful about what and how I go about influencing those around me. This house was selfish on my part, and it isn’t hurting anyone. I just missed my childhood home. And before you get all excited, thinking you’re going to take over the world with these new powers, this particular kind of magic is learned and comes with a responsibility to those around you. It should also prove to you that I can make you do things you don’t necessarily want to do with my power of suggestion. I just don’t.” He gave her a crooked smirk. “And I don’t, because I live for a good challenge.”

  “Okay, David Copperfield, now I know you’re nuts.”

  He hooked his thumbs in the loops of his jeans and shrugged his shoulders. “Call me what you will, but if I ceased to exist, so would my castle. Many of the things I’ve acquired over the years are simply things I’ve created in my imagination. If my immortality ended, so would a lot of my stuff. I have to believe we were given this whatever you want to call it because to live in the human world and survive, make a living and do all the things you once called normal, wouldn’t be easy. So whatever-whomever, in some misguided way, was looking out for those of us who’re immortal. I call it compensation. I might not be able to have a beer, but I can have a castle.”

  “Got any more skills I should know about, Oh Great and Powerful Oz?”

  He winked one delicious eye. “I think I’ve covered them all.”

  Nothing was real anymore. Nothing, and as she descended further into this quagmire of vampire-ness, she decided reality hadn’t been so bad. She’d been broke and always living on the financial edge, but she didn’t have to drink blood and learn how to fly. Though admittedly, a nice little house in north Jersey by the shore might not be a bad gig.

  Nina twisted the ends of her hair with nervous fingers. “I don’t think I can take many more surprises—so let’s just address the issues at hand before I begin to question everything around me while I not so quietly lose my mind. Do you know what your paying my rent did to my reputation?”

  His eyes suddenly held understanding. “Uh, no, but I’m feeling secure I’ll hear about it.”

  “My frickin’ landlor
d thinks I’m hooking for cash! Like I’m a kept woman. Me, of all the people in the world. Do you have any idea how embarrassed I was when Unmesh came to my door tonight?”

  Greg cracked a smile, then snorted, and then began to laugh—hard. The gurgle in his throat turned into the laugh of a hyena. “Sss-ooo-rrr-yyy. I-I-Iiiiiiiiii…”

  “You what? Think it’s impossible someone thought I could make money hawking my wares?”

  He doubled over, putting his hands on his thighs to support himself, while he laughed hysterically at her. Rubbing his shoulder over his eyes, Greg gathered his wits and said, “You can’t have it both ways, honey. Either you’re insulted to be considered a lady of the evening, or you’re insulted because I find that particular accusation damned funny.” He began another raucous round of laughter.

  Nina nudged him in the shoulder, pulling her fingers away quickly to avoid the feel of his flesh beneath her greedy hands. “It isn’t funny. I might not have much, but my reputation is important to me. I won’t have some shitheads in my building talking to that gossip Unmesh and thinking I’m sleeping with you for rent money. I won’t. I don’t do drugs, and I don’t sleep around.”

  Greg’s sudden seriousness caught her off guard, as he stood back up and ran a finger down her nose. “Honey, I know you don’t sleep around, and I’d be happy to make up some story for this Un guy if you want. My intention wasn’t to make you look bought. I was just trying to help. Sure, I feel guilt over what I did to you, but not enough to insult you, and shutting you up is the last thing I’d want to do.”

  Warmth she shouldn’t be feeling crept upward to her chest. Oh, no. He wasn’t going to influence her anymore with his crap. How he had the ability to make her waffle on something she was dead set on just twenty minutes ago baffled her. Didn’t he just admit to being able to influence those around him? No more swaying of the convictions. “You did it to get me off your back about wanting to be a human again because you think it’s crazy, and I don’t need you to stock my refrigerator with blood. What was that anyway? The vampire equivalent of wining and dining me so you could say thanks for letting me get in your drawers? I agreed to the terms of our schtupping—no strings and no little thank you presents required, thank you very much.”