Phaze Fantasies Volume 4 Read online

  "Do that again,” he murmured. It wasn't quite begging, but his need was undeniable, and Tala granted the request without hesitation.

  This time, Ryan's groan was almost a growl. “The things you do..."

  "There's more.” Tala scratched her nails across his nape, seeking out his mouth again. “But I think I shall surprise you."

  The husky promise made his strokes intensify, harder, longer. He felt his orgasm begin to curl deep in his gut, his balls tightening, and he wrapped her closer to him in desperate need of the contact. Ryan didn't quicken even as he screamed her name, and though his strokes became increasingly erratic, she arched under him with her second orgasm, a wordless cry spilling from her lips as her lashes fluttered shut.

  The world erupted then. Inside, out, everywhere, with his cock jerking as he slammed into her one final time. His mouth went crashing back against hers, and Tala returned his shaken kiss with a matching fervor, smoothing her palms down his back.

  They stayed like that for minutes on end, neither seemingly willing to break the connection that bound them. It was temporary—Ryan knew that—but in the time he was swallowing her down, in the space of the circle of their arms, it felt like more. It felt like hope, a fragile bird springing free of the nest to soar higher than anyone anticipated. He didn't want to let that go. In a world with so much death, and especially in the aftermath of their ordeal at the terminal, he needed that as much as he needed to breathe.

  When he finally rose from the bed to dispose of the condom, Tala sank back into the pillows and watched him with heavy-lidded eyes. “Are you taking me back to my hotel now?” she asked quietly.

  Ryan stopped halfway to the bathroom. The possibility hadn't occurred to him. “Do you want me to?"

  Her walls were slowly coming back. They were almost visible as she erected them again. “I don't want to impose."

  "It's not imposing. And that doesn't tell me whether you want me to or not."

  It took a moment for her to reply. “I'd like to stay."

  Ryan smiled and resumed his path. “Then you're staying."

  He stripped the sticky condom off his cock and tossed it into the trash, washing his hands afterward. His reflection was a little startling. It wasn't that his hair was in disarray or that his face was still slightly shiny from her drying juices. It was the sated gleam in his hazel eyes that made him pause. There had been a few women over the years since Jeannie, but nothing permanent or long-lasting. His world wasn't conducive to it. It was more than his erratic schedule or the secrets he was forced to keep. It was the danger of losing someone he cared about again, someone who couldn't protect herself. He couldn't go through it again.

  His gaze strayed to the slightly ajar door.

  Tala could protect herself. Tala knew all the secrets already. Tala was someone he could love if he allowed himself the chance.

  Hell, he was half there already. He'd been in awe of Tala Mamola since he'd first laid eyes on her. And he'd never wanted a woman more.

  His step was slower as he returned to the bedroom, but the smile on his face faded when he saw she was no longer lying down. Instead, Tala sat at the desk, his laptop open in front of her, eyes intent on the screen.

  "What're you doing?” he asked, coming up behind her.

  "I saw your computer. I was wondering if there would be anything online about what happened tonight."

  That possibility hadn't occurred to Ryan, and he felt a little foolish for getting wrapped up in his lust instead of focusing on the problem at hand. “Let me.” Gently, he pushed her out of the chair, switching places with her, and backed out of the news site she'd accessed. His fingers flew over the keyboard. “I know a few back doors. The media coverage is usually compromised in some way, so I always go straight to the source."

  It took a few minutes, but he finally got into Grand Central Station's internal network. Most of it was extraneous, details about schedules, information on personnel and events, the occasional engineering request. A look at the server showed little activity as well, and a scan of what few e-mails were being bandied back and forth only said that the staff had far too much free time on their hands in the midnight shift.

  "They don't even realize anything happened,” Tala commented from over his shoulder. “How can they be so blind?"

  "They're so blind, because we make the world so they can be,” Ryan replied. He left the laptop open and logged in as he turned to look at her; he'd long ago fixed the security levels on his computer to make it next to impossible for anybody to trace a hacking back to him. “We'll check it again in the morning, but we should really get some rest now.” He dared to reach up and stroke her cheek, pleased when she didn't pull away. “Do you need any painkillers or something to help you sleep?"

  Her smile was wan, but he was just glad she smiled at all. “I'll be fine. Are you this protective of everyone?"

  Returning her smile, Ryan rose and took her hand. “Only the ones who save my life.” He pulled her to the bed and then into his arms once they were lying down. She rolled over so that they were spooning, and he buried his nose in her hair. “Sleep, Tala,” he murmured.

  He didn't know how long it took her. Ryan was out within the minute.

  * * * *

  Waking for Ryan was always a swift process. He had never been one to dawdle in bed, or hit the snooze button seven or eight times, or demand several cups of coffee before he was functional. It wasn't that he was a morning person, either. Since he'd started hunting, his sleeping patterns had shifted drastically. He simply didn't linger in that space between dreams and consciousness. He never had.

  Waking the morning after the Grand Central Station debacle wasn't any different.

  Well, except for one thing. He'd expected to wake up with Tala still warming him. Instead, Ryan was alone in the bed. And in the room.

  Pushing back the blankets, he rose from the bed and immediately went to the bathroom to check to see if Tala was there. The door stood ajar, and the air was crisp and sanitized. She hadn't even showered before she'd gone. When had she left? He remembered falling asleep with her in his arms, and he remembered a tumble of dreams about chasing her through dark corridors, but he had no recollection of when she might have stirred or slipped out of the bed. He wasn't normally such a heavy sleeper.

  A quick scan of the room told him all her clothes were gone as well. The only thing that was different was that his laptop was now closed. Maybe the light from his screensaver had been bothering her while she tried to sleep, he reasoned. Tala had obviously closed it before leaving.

  When he opened it up, however, there was a sheet of hotel stationery resting on the keyboard. Tala's script was long and angular, but it was easy enough to read her note.

  They found Katsu and the girl at Grand Central Station. Both dead. Off to check it out.

  He barely made it to the bathroom in time. Even though there was nothing in his stomach to come back up.

  When the guilty heaves had subsided, Ryan returned to the desk. Tala hadn't signed the note. He was a little disappointed that there wasn't even a greeting or mention of the night before.

  Sitting down, he looked at his browser history to see what Tala had been looking at. The internal memos going back and forth were still open, detailing how an older Japanese man and a young black girl had been found slaughtered in the back halls of the station, but as Ryan scanned through them, one question quickly arose.

  What had happened to Scott?

  The reports of the bodies told him both Katsu and Noni had been drained. The vampires had gotten to them, in spite of his and Tala's hopes otherwise. Each had been found in entirely separate portions of the station, though. One was in the restaurant of the Italian restaurant/bar, Cipriani Dolci, while the other had been discovered by the cleaning crew in the bathroom next to the Central Market Grill. The police had been called in, and a thorough search done of the premises for more bodies, but none were to be found. Not even Oliver's body had been discovered, a
nd Ryan knew for a fact that he was dead as well.

  Why had Scott abandoned Noni and Katsu? Had there been a fight? Had he fled the scene as soon as the stasis spell had been lifted?

  None of the possible answers made him feel very good about the other vampire hunter.

  Ryan knew exactly why Tala had gone out to investigate. There was no way she hadn't come to the same conclusions Ryan had, and given her acrimonious history with Scott, it was far more likely that she'd gone off in search of him. There were no more clues in his history to indicate where she would have gone, but he knew where he would start.

  Where it had all started in the first place.

  Grand Central Station.

  * * * *

  The place was a zoo.

  News teams were scattered in clutches throughout the terminal, and everywhere he looked, another policeman was taking a statement or observing the people rushing about or disappearing through doors marked Private. Ryan stood inside the entrance, wondering if he'd made a mistake about assuming Tala would come back here at some point. There were too many people. If he knew nothing else about her, he knew that Tala was a private person with a strong dislike for civilians getting in her way. Add in the fact that it was daylight and there would be no vampires lurking about, and Ryan suddenly felt very stupid considering Grand Central a reasonable place to begin. It made no sense for her to come here.

  It also made no sense for Scott to emerge unscathed from the entire incident. He needed to stop thinking about Tala—as hard as that was—and focus on the problem at hand.

  Ryan walked around the edge of the terminal, eyes hopping from cop to cop until he found one he liked the look of. He approached with his most unassuming manner, hanging back until the burly policeman noticed him hovering at his elbow.

  "Can I help you?” the cop asked. There was a weary edge to his voice that testified to how long he'd been around. If not one of the first called on to the scene, definitely one who'd come toward the end of a shift. He'd be easier to manipulate with his senses dulled.

  Ryan pulled out his wallet. “I heard about what happened here on the news this morning,” he said. “And now I'm all worried."

  "About what?"

  He pulled out the picture he wanted. Using the hotel's business center, Ryan had printed up a photo he'd found of Scott and trimmed it down to make it look like it lived in his billfold. He'd even bent down one of the corners to age its appearance.

  "My friend was supposed to arrive last night, but I never heard from him,” he lied. “I've tried calling his cell, calling our friends, but all I found out was that he was on the train when it left. I think something might have happened to him."

  The cop took the picture and squinted as he looked at it. “This is your friend?” he said.

  His suspicious tone made Ryan frown. “Yeah. Why?"

  "His wife's already shown up looking for him."

  Ryan froze, though he kept his features neutral. “His wife?"

  "Yeah. Pretty girl. Asian, I think.” He passed the photo back. “Her picture was better than yours. But there's no reason to worry. Your friend was here being questioned. Last I saw, the two of them were heading up to one of the restaurants to grab something to eat."

  It had to be Tala. And she had found Scott.

  Ryan's gaze strayed to the upper level as he slipped the photo back into his wallet. “How long ago?"

  "Thirty minutes or so."

  That meant they could still be there.

  Thanking the officer, Ryan headed toward the escalator, trying to keep his pace slow so that he didn't look too eager. He wanted answers, damn it. The fact that Scott had been here for the police to interrogate—and not be seen as a witness or an injured party—made his skin crawl in warning. Something was going on, and he had to trust that Tala had found out what they wanted in order to shed some light on the situation. People they cared about were dead. Those deaths needed to mean something.

  He was halfway up the escalator when he saw the couple approach the escalator going down. In the light of day, they made a striking pair, both dark-haired, both in prime physical condition. But the grim set of Tala's mouth and the tight grip of Scott's hand on her elbow told anybody who was paying attention that these weren't lovebirds. Scott was practically dragging Tala onto the escalator. It had to be her fear of creating a scene that was stopping her from trying to get away.

  Ryan caught Tala's eye the moment before Scott saw him. Scott halted, dragging Tala flush to his body, and immediately reversed direction, tearing her away from Ryan's scrutiny. It didn't matter. He'd already seen the panic in her eyes.

  Stepping around the elderly man standing in front of him, Ryan took the escalator two steps at a time, weaving between the people riding it in order to reach the top as soon as possible. Scott and Tala were out of sight, but as soon as he was off, Ryan veered in the direction they'd disappeared, quickening his step to just shy of a run. The people he passed stared, heads turning to follow him as he bolted around the corner of the balcony.

  When he saw Scott yanking open a service door, Ryan called out Tala's name. It grabbed their attention, and in the split second Scott looked in his direction, Tala elbowed Scott in the ribs, twisting out of his hold. He tried to snatch her back, but the people milling about were now watching the disturbance. Curious glances turned from Tala to Ryan. With a snarl, Scott let her go and vanished through the door.

  Ryan caught Tala's upper arms as she rushed toward him. “What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

  "Scott set us up. The vampires cornered them last night, and he made a deal with them, in exchange for being allowed to walk free afterward.” Her eyes were blazing, and she tugged at Ryan's hold. “We can't let him get away. We have to stop him."

  He didn't disagree, but something about her tone made him pause. “So we'll tell the police. He's human. We don't have any authority over him."

  "He killed Katsu and the girl!"

  "No, vampires did that."

  "He might as well have done it himself."

  "I'm not saying you're wrong—"

  Tala gaped at him as if he was a stranger. “I can't believe this doesn't make you angry,” she said. “He's getting away now, even as we stand here and argue about this. Is that what you want? You'd let a murderer walk?"

  His teeth clicked as his jaw clamped shut. No, it most definitely wasn't what he wanted. But he could tell from the look in her eyes that she was ready to do it herself if Ryan didn't come with her.

  "Fine,” he said. He let her go and headed for the door. “But we're only catching him and turning him in. I don't kill people, Tala. And neither do you."

  Thankfully, she didn't argue, rushing past him to reach the door first. She pulled it open wide enough for him to follow her through without having to wait and hold it for him, and took off down the hallway, the irregular rhythm of her feet against the floor the only indication that she was favoring one leg over the other. Her ankle was still bothering her, Ryan realized as he took chase. And yet, she continued on.

  She simply amazed him.

  He followed her around the corner and promptly ran into Scott's broad chest. Powerful hands clamped around his shoulders, whirling Ryan around and shoving him face-first into the wall. He took the brunt of the impact with his head, making stars dance behind his eyes, but as he blinked them away, he saw Tala standing a few feet away, unmoving, watching them both.

  "I'm sorry,” she said.

  His ears were ringing, and air was becoming precious as Scott pressed his heavy forearm against the back of his neck. “Don't just stand there,” Ryan rasped. He tried to lash back, but the hard wall of the other man's body was almost as immovable as a vampire's.

  Scott laughed. “God, you really are that naïve, aren't you?” The cold whisper of metal filled Ryan's ear, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Scott open a switchblade that had to be six inches long. “She sold you out, asshole. To save her own skin.” He snorted. “I don't ev
en know why I have to bother with you. You're a fucking joke."

  Tala's wide eyes jumped from Ryan to Scott. “You could still let him go,” she said. If nothing else, the urgent tone of her voice sounded genuine. “You don't have to do this."

  "And have the vamps after my ass instead? No, thank you.” He used the blade to point at her. “And you better shut the fuck up before I change my mind about letting you go. Unlike some people, I try to honor my promises."

  Tala paled, and her nostrils flared. “You don't have any honor. Otherwise, you would never have let them slaughter Katsu and the girl."

  "And the way I see it, it's better to have at least one vampire hunter still standing at the end of this nightmare than none. Or does your grand family tradition tell you to throw yourself to the dogs when the going gets tough? I could never keep track of all the bullshit you used to spout at me."

  Ryan didn't know why Tala was engaging Scott in an argument, but he was grateful for the temporary reprieve. Every second counted. He just had to bide his time and wait for Scott's guard to lower enough to make a break for it. And try not to think about the implications of Scott's testimony about letting her off the hook.

  "Let him go,” Tala repeated. She took a step forward, but when she put her weight on her injured ankle, she winced and visibly faltered. Both men looked down at her feet as she leaned against the wall, edging closer like a wounded animal. “Don't damn yourself entirely, Scott."

  "You shouldn't have traded your safety for his, then.” Scott shook his head, and the pressure on the back of Ryan's neck increased until spots began to dance in front of his eyes. “Don't worry. I'll make it quick."

  With his vision darkening around the edges, he wasn't entirely sure what he saw first. There was a flash of light catching off the blade in the corner of his eye. There was the flex of Scott's muscles as he braced even harder against Ryan. But then there was the blur of Tala's injured foot, lashing out within a hair's breadth of Ryan's ribs.

  Scott's cry of pain was followed instantly by the disappearance of his arm against Ryan's neck. Ryan crumpled, twisting and crawling out of the way when Tala flew past. He looked back in time to see her pick up the knife she'd kicked out of Scott's hand, but before Scott could wrest it away from her, she rolled and slashed across the back of his thigh.