“I see,” he says and when I think he’ll ask for more details about Eli, instead he says, “Are you here with him?”
“We met at the hotel. He actually lives in a residence in the hotel.” I realize then that I’m incredibly interested in what his apartment is like. I’m simply interested in all things Eli, to the point of him all but consuming me.
My mind is back on that moment when I’d touched his face, and there is this strange, unfamiliar, but oh-so-familiar image in my head. Me with him, eating dinner and laughing, only it’s not me, and I’m very confused.
“Ivy?”
I blink Jacob back into view. “Yes?”
“Your ice cream is dripping.”
“Oh gosh, thanks.” I lick the ice cream dripping down my cone, aware of Jacob watching me a bit too closely. “I can’t waste this,” I add awkwardly. “It’s too good.”
“Agreed,” he says but he’s moved on. “I got the impression tonight you were with Eli, but you only just met?”
He’s pushing. Too much. I don’t like it. “We’re getting to know each other,” I say. “And I’m interested in seeing where that goes.” Now that I have my ice cream under control, I add, “I’m committed to seeing where that will go, Jacob. I’m kind of a one-cart horse.” I laugh. “Sorry. Bad joke. My father’s joke.”
“Maybe I can change your mind,” he says. “I’m a determined guy. Some even think that’s how I got to be a success.”
“The timing is wrong, Jacob,” I say, not about to lead him on. I stand up. “I should get back. I have to try and get a few more words on the page tonight.”
I walk to a trashcan that is barely out of reach and rather regretfully toss the rest of my ice cream. Jacob does the same with his. “Let me walk you back. I know it’s chilly, but I need to walk off these calories. How about you?”
“A walk would be nice,” I say, and I mean it. I need to get rid of all my pent-up energy that is actually sexual frustration if I’m being honest with myself. I haven’t had sex in a really long time—like maybe two years—and Eli—well, Eli makes me want to change that, rather quickly.
Oh yes, I think, feeling warm all over. A chilly walk is just what this girl needs right now.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Eli
I reach the hotel in record time, but as I enter the lobby, I know immediately she’s not there. I draw in a breath and allow myself to reach for her. She’s not even close. Damn it to hell. I’m back at the front door, where a tall, bulky doorman nicknamed Alf for his bushy beard and hair, is in attendance. I walk right past him and head east. I told her not to walk the city alone at night. The minute I round the corner, out of the view of the staff, I’m running at full, ramped-up vampire speed. Cam wasn’t wrong. Marcus was here for a reason and that reason was Ivy.
He was protecting her, through me.
And I’m damn sure not letting her leave this world again, not without me.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ivy
Jacob and I head outside for our walk back to the hotel and the initial shock of the chill sends a shiver down my spine, but the truth is, I welcome the cold as much as I do the heat of Eli’s presence in my life. Lately, I’ve been stale. Systematically, my writing too has been really stale—thus the trip to Denver—and right now, in this moment, I know why. I’m stale. I’m emotionless. My father didn’t teach me to live in solitude to avoid feeling things. He taught me to be comfortable with myself. Those are two different things. I have gone from one extreme to the other. Looking for comfort in another and looking for comfort in myself.
Eli makes me feel alive.
“The good thing about being friends,” Jacob says, “just friends, is that I can ask you geeky questions about your books and it won’t matter. I’m not trying to be the cool guy who wants to win your heart.”
“Geeky questions?” I laugh, as we leave the main Union Station area, and head down a less active street that is still bustling, just not quite as much as the hotel area. “What geeky questions?”
“To start, in book three of your series, why did Jet go to Donna’s house? It was a death sentence.”
He really does read my books. I’m surprised. “Donna was the woman he loved. And men do stupid things for the women they love.”
“And women don’t for the men they love?”
“Well, yes, of course. It works both ways.”
For the next few streets, we talk about my books, and I blink to realize we’re now in a pretty deserted area. “Do you really know how to shoot the vast collection of guns your characters own?”
“I do,” I say. “My father was a Nashville detective for twenty years and a PI for another twenty.” There’s a flash of something in my peripheral vision and I halt, glancing left and right down a deserted street.
“What’s wrong?” Jacob asks.
“I thought I saw something,” I reply. “You didn’t?”
“No. Something? Like what?”
“I don’t know.” We both glance around us, and for reasons I can’t explain, I look up. There’s a man standing on top of a restaurant roof watching us. I can’t make out his features, but his hair is dark and long, his clothes just as dark, his coat flowing. He’s like something out of a horror movie, I swear.
We’re close to the hotel and I motion Jacob forward. “Let’s get out of here.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Eli
A female’s scream—Ivy’s scream—pierces the air. I launch myself in the direction of her voice. Moments later, I’m a mile away, standing on a side street where Ivy leans over a man—Jacob, she’s with Jacob, who’s bleeding out, his throat ripped open. A werewolf stands seven feet tall, blood dripping from his fangs as he snarls above them, his eyes glowing the red of a virus-infected wolf. I place myself in between Ivy and it, and Ivy screams, “Eli, no!” The wolf growls and comes at me.
My teeth extend, weapons I will need for this battle, and I punch him in the throat. He howls in pain, but wraps himself around me, slicing his claws down my back. I grimace with the pain but drive him into a wall. He shoves me backward and I fly into a concrete post. He leaps laterally, and in an instant, he’s fleeing. I can feel the gaping wounds on my back even before Ivy is at my side.
My teeth retract, and I turn to her, grabbing her arms. “Are you okay?”
“You need help,” she gasps. “You need help. My phone. I need my phone.” She tries to turn away from me, and I hold onto her. “I have to call for help. Jacob—Jacob is dead and you need help.”
The help I need is her blood before that wolf returns. I don’t hesitate. There isn’t time, not when I have to be right and strong to protect her. Not when I know Marcus was here to tell me it’s now or never with Ivy. Maybe she won’t come back again, after this lifetime. I pull her to me and look down at her. “You won’t feel this,” I say, and when she blinks, I lean in, biting her neck and drinking.
She sucks in a breath and sinks against me. The sweetness of her blood pours through me, and I growl with the intensity of my wounds healing, but I only take just enough, and no more. I pull back and seal the wound without offering her the bond of my blood, pull back and order, “I need you to look at me, Ivy.”