Slayers Inc. Page 6

  "Let's get going," he told me, and grabbed his gear.

  "Where did you put the stakes?" Guns would slow a vampire down, but not kill them. I followed along behind, walking lightly in his footsteps as I concentrated on not leaving a trail.

  "I have them safe. We'll descend here," he said after a quarter of a mile and then gave me time to fish my gloves out my bag. The foliage was so dense I couldn't even see where the bridge used to be. We soon discovered it was almost impenetrable when we tied ourselves together and began to descend.

  "Watch the rope doesn't get tangled," he said. "We don't want to leave it here as evidence for someone to find."

  As if. Who would hang around on the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere? Not even vampires were that stupid.

  We worked our way down the mountain without talking. Sound could carry for miles. The insects and birds made such a racket it reminded me of a big city noise during rush hour.

  I didn't complain once, even when we were both drenched in sweat and bloodied with cuts from the sharp leaves and branches. If Coop thought I'd say something about all the strange insects we saw, I proved him wrong. At one point we came upon a pale green snake coiled around a branch. Either Coop didn't see it or he was afraid to tell me. I don't know. I considered pulling my gun to shoot it, but it left me alone, so I did likewise.

  Frankly, if I had a choice between a green snake and squawking green parrot, I'd take the snake. The parrots made such a racket they gave me a headache. And they were testy about us invading their space.

  We were about fifty feet from the canyon floor when it started to rain. It poured so hard I had to mentally think through every inch I moved to keep from falling.

  "Slow down and take your time," Coop said.

  "Like I have a choice." These weren't drops falling on us. The broad leaves that would fill and then intermittently dump their loads on us added drama only magnified by the straight down sheets of pouring water unlike any rain I'd known.

  "Are we almost there yet?" I asked after what seemed to be an hour of torture. My gear went from brutally heavy to impossible once everything I wore and carried sucked up the downpour.

  "It's not what you had in mind, is it?" he said when we eventually reached the bottom.

  I leaned over with my hands on my knees, while the rain beat the back of my head. This was a thousand times better than being in the sun, but I wasn't about to share that newsflash with him. I straightened to stare at him. "It's not the first thing to happen on this trip that's surprised me."

  "We need to keep moving. Fast. Let me know if you can't keep up." Coop didn't wait for me. Nor did he glance back, not even once.

  "Another snake," Coop said. Had he read my mind?

  When Coop eventually stopped, he unclipped the radio from his belt. "I'll see if we're close enough to reach the team."

  "You do that." I walked away to find a private tree while he tried to reach the team. A secluded tree marked "Ladies" would be good. One that didn't have a snake in residence. By the time I returned, Coop had re-clipped the radio to his waist and was tapping the side of his submachine gun impatiently.

  "Didn't you reach them?" I asked.

  "They're on their way. They told me where we could find an isolated hut a few miles north of here along a creek. We'll wait for them there."

  "How would they know that?"

  "Chevy has a lot of contacts in the area. His cousin uses the place from time to time when she visits the local tribesmen. She's a nurse and she brings them medicine and supplies."

  "And the tribesmen in the area are impervious to vampires?"

  "Like most people across the globe, the tribe hates vampires. There's no way Sandoval has any influence over them." Coop looked up into the sky. "The rain is letting up."

  "It's going to be dark soon," I said and started to walk. "When is the next full moon?"

  "Wrong direction," he called out.

  "It's too bad you didn't tell me that before last night." The emotional path I'd taken when I fucked him was far worse. And then if hit me. The reason I was so pissed had nothing to do with him being a werewolf. How in the world could I pretend I hadn't fallen in love with him? I'd been kidding myself all along. I'd fallen in love before I'd even met him. Ex-cop-turned-vampire, too-damned-tough-for-her-own-good, Jenna Bradley--in love with a werewolf who hunts vampires for a living. Just great. Of all the things that could happen, this had to be the absolute worst.

  A sound to my right elicited a knee-jerk reaction to pull my gun, drop to one knee, and chambered a round. I trained my weapon toward the sound and didn't look to see what Coop did.

  One of our men, Jorgé, slid around a tree with his hands raised in the air and a smile on his face. "I surrender." Since he was the only man who hadn't told me to get lost when I'd first joined them, I let him live.

  I turned back to glare at Coop.

  "I'm happy to know that at least you didn't have a load in the tube," he said. "I'd been afraid to ask."

  I checked the safety and holstered my weapon with the bullet still in the chamber. Coop rewarded me with dark brows pulled into a single tight line. I shrugged.

  "What happened to meeting you guys at a hut along the river?" I asked.

  Another of the men, Chevy, walked up to join us. "We've got trouble, Coop. Could be big."

  "You never answered me," I said to Coop. "When is the next full moon, and what the hell happens then?"

  Chapter 7

  * * *

  "This is making me nervous as hell," Chevy said. He clenched his fists in an outward display of frustration.

  Chevy and gorgeous Jorgé sat across a rickety table from Coop and me, in a ramshackle hut hidden in the middle of a rain forest. Both had deep frowns on their faces. The rest, Yam, Joe, Raul, Hawk, and Estaban were either still in the countryside or back in Santa Marta.

  "All bets are off," Coop said. "We need to regroup. I don't like being followed."

  "It's about this necklace," I told them as I fingered it under my shirt. "Sandoval wanted it years and years ago. And he still wants it, maybe more than John Wilson and I first thought."

  "Maybe that's all it is." Chevy relaxed his fist before he poured another cup of coffee and held the pot out toward Coop.

  I reached out my cup. I'd had enough caffeine, but Chevy made a good cup of coffee.

  "We'll soon find out," Coop answered. He poured a cup and knocked it over. The coffee soaked into the pitted wood and disappeared. "Joe will be at the villa in El Pajáro waiting for Jenna," he said, with a sigh that spelled exasperation. "We need to get word to him our plans have changed."

  "So I go back to Santa Marta in the morning and see if I can get word to Joe," I said. I was glad I finally had something to add to the conversation. I sniffed the air. Even with the strong smell of coffee, I could tell I needed a bath. We'd trekked nonstop for hours, only to end up in a one-room hut with a dirt floor in the middle of nowhere. Running water and modern amenities were about a century or so away.

  The sound of a burro braying told us we were about to have unscheduled company. I never saw so many guns drawn so quickly, but I think I might have been first.

  Chevy held his finger against his lips and whispered. "That could be Juanita, but why would she come here now? I told her it is important she not be connected to us."

  "Stay here," Coop told me.

  "Right," I said before I followed a step behind him.

  Coop walked outside with Chevy to find his cousin Juanita putting her burrow into the poorly fenced paddock. My limited Spanish didn't cover the agitated conversation, so I wasn't certain what she said to Chevy. The words I did understand were unsettling. When Juanita burst into tears, I wanted to head in the opposite direction.

  Instead I waited for Chevy to tell us the bad news.

  "When Juanita arrived at our cousin Manuela's house in the city, she couldn't find her. Manuela had left no word with any of her friends in Santa Marta.

  "Then J
uanita found an elderly neighbor who said two men forced Manuela into a car. The woman is old so no one would listen. Manuela doesn't know the kind of people who would abduct her. It has to be connected to me--maybe even to us."

  "Maybe we should find another place to stay," I ventured. "We can keep moving."

  "In the dark?" Coop obviously didn't care for my idea.

  "Manuela is very vocal about her views on the legalization of vampires in Colombia," Chevy told us and put his arm around Juanita. "I should've known Sandoval would come after my family."

  "Sandoval shouldn't have a clue why we're here." Coop stared at me while he spoke, as if my presence somehow caused the trouble for Chevy. "This doesn't make sense. Nothing is going right."

  "Let's get out of the open." I turned to head toward the shack.

  Once we were back inside the small room, Coop began to pace. "Jenna, you need to get on a plane and get the hell out of here. If Sandoval knows why we've come to Colombia, then there's no way we'll get close enough to kill him now."

  "No one knows my connection to Juanita," Chevy said. "Manuela yes, but not Juanita. I think you're safe here, but I need to find Manuela."

  I put my hand on Chevy's arm. "I'm not worried about my safety. I don't want to see anyone else hurt. Especially if it's because of my obsession with killing Sandoval."

  Chevy nodded. "Manuela will never talk if she's fallen into Sandoval's hands." He made the sign of the cross. "Frankly, I would be quicker to spill my guts than Manuela. Sandoval has no reason to think I've come back here."

  "Hold it," I demanded and had the urge to kick something. "Is this an immaterial little item you forgot to mention to me? Why would anyone care if you returned to Colombia?"

  Neither answered me, and the tension grew thick. "Don't screw this up, guys," I warned. "I want the truth. All of it."

  "Many years ago, Carlos Sandoval murdered my older brother. I was only ten," Chevy said. "Afterward, I came to live with an uncle in the States. I still have many people here in Colombia--aunts, uncles, cousins and especially my mother. I promised my family one day I would return to kill him. This is how I came to work for Slayers Inc."

  What could I say after that? "I'm sorry." Seemed lame. "Carlos Sandoval and his son are evil. However, I'm not about to get on a plane and allow them to continue their evil reign of terror if I can help it."

  Chevy crossed himself again. I wondered if it meant big trouble. "Juanita says we should stay here. She is convinced Manuela would not lead them to us, and nobody in the city knows where she stays out here. I won't be leaving Colombia until I'm certain Manuela is safe and Sandoval is dead."

  Coop ran a hand through his thick ponytail and pulled half of it free. "That settles it. We'll stay here tonight and try to hook up with Joe in the morning. He'll be wondering where we are, but he's a big boy. He can handle it. Any further thoughts, Jenna?"

  "I don't believe in coincidences. I think Chevy's missing cousin should be our first priority. I don't want anyone else to suffer so I can get Rosa's killers."

  Chevy stepped forward. "I'll leave for Santa Marta right away and see what I can find out about her disappearance."

  Juanita stood at his words and nodded to him. I could see the relief on her face.

  "Jenna and I are safe here," Coop said. "Take Jorgé and head for Santa Marta. We'll meet up as planned tomorrow afternoon. I'll leave it to you to get hold of the rest of the team and warn them about what's happening."

  Coop and I would be alone again?

  At night? In the dark?

  With a bed?

  He'd never come clean with me about the full moon.

  Everyone wasted little time departing, while I tried to make myself invisible. Coop locked the door the door behind them. Like that would stop a vampire.

  Coop took a step toward me and stared too long. When he turned toward the bed in the corner of the room, I jumped inside. "Maybe you should think about turning in."

  "Good idea," I whispered because my voice failed me.

  It was so quiet I could hear his breathing.

  I went over to the bed and sat down. I wanted to ask where he'd sleep, but I kept my mouth shut. The single bed was bunk-size, and I didn't think I'd be getting much sleep anyway.

  "You're not the kind of woman a man can forget after he's made love to you." Coop spoke while he had his back to me and poured another cup of coffee.

  His words may have gone in my ears, but they didn't linger there. They headed to my nether regions and created all kinds of hellish havoc.

  What do you say after a man declares something like that?

  I didn't know how to respond.

  If it was just up to me, I might tell him to get lost after fucking me before he told me was a werewolf. However, my hormones wouldn't allow that. I think one of those little buggers had a large caliber gun.

  My mouth opened on its own. "I say, forget me tomorrow. Would that be soon enough?"

  Coop turned to stare me down. Holy macaroni! I hooked my fingers along the bottom of the well-worn and splintering bedrail to keep from throwing myself at him.

  Finally he spoke. "Sounds good to me."

  I wanted to scream for him to move. He just stood there and made me squirm. Something had to give.

  "Jenna? Are you sure?" Coop leaned back against the wall and eased his hand into his pocket to slip out a foil wrapper he then held up.

  I nodded. "Lucky you thought to pack that."

  He grinned at me and the heavy, shriveled heart I'd lugged with me all day flooded with relief. It would be so much easier if I just didn't want him. Not much chance of that.

  "And all you thought to pack was guns."

  "I've been sleep deprived," I told him.

  "You still are. We're only going to use one of these tonight instead of half a box."

  "Okay," I squeaked, before I remembered I didn't like women who squeak. "Then you better let me handle that. We wouldn't want it to get lost." I held my hand out, palm up.

  He took a few steps nearer, tossed it to me and then started to take his clothes off.

  "I like this part," I told him.

  "The part where I take off my boots?" He took his time. I had my shoes, socks and pants off before his second boot hit the floor.

  "The other part," I told him.

  "My shirt?"

  "Not your shirt."

  "My pants?" he asked. It was infuriating how slow the man could be.

  "Closer, but no cigar," I said and waggled my eyebrows.

  Coop grinned. "I see what you want.

  He lowered his hands to the snap of his jeans and flicked. "This?"

  Commando! "Oh yes, that's exactly what I want," I panted. "What do you want?"

  "I like the part where you sing the Halleluiah Chorus."

  "I never!"

  "Wanna bet?"

  I could look at his cock forever and never tire of it. Like candy. When I licked my lips, he groaned. "Want to come closer with that?

  He walked up to where I sat, and I was eye to eye with his beautiful cock. A pearl of cum seeped out. Perfect. I captured it with my tongue. This gave me power...lots and lots of it. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the touch of his cock to my mouth, I intended to make him never forget it. The slightly salty taste thrilled me and the musky scent of him made me wet.

  I took hold with both hands and laved his swollen head, then moved down to wiggle the tag of skin under his cap with flicks of my tongue. He moaned. I loved being responsible for his pleasure.

  Low hand on the totem got the pleasure of caressing his balls. He threaded his hands into my hair and rocked on his heels. I took this as a cue to get serious and surrounded him with my big mouth. While I sucked, I did a jerk-off motion with my hand on his cock and continued to fondle his balls.

  When I began to work him further into my mouth, his balls seized tight. I tried to coax them back down, and for a moment or two I did it. Then he went off.

  * * * *

  "Jen
na's still sleeping," Coop told Chevy.

  "Tomorrow morning then?" Coop gave Chevy a nod. "Tell Joe to book a flight out of Santa Marta. Better have him book two seats. We'll put Joe on the plane with her. We can always handcuff her to the seat if we have to."

  I'd been about to come down to the river and say hello to Chevy. I pulled back behind the tree where I could hear them and not be seen.

  When would I learn to stop being so trusting?

  I actually woke up this morning thinking things had changed between Coop and me. The man was like a relationship vampire, shutting himself in an emotional coffin in daylight.

  Chevy handed Coop a set of keys. "Green light at midnight?"

  "Affirmative."

  I watched them give each other the "sign." I'd seen the men greet each other at the compound with a series of macho thumps on their broad chests. Fist pounds which represented belonging to their secret club.

  If I had a gun, I'd shoot both of them. Wait a minute. I did have a gun.

  My first bullet whizzed over their heads and into the tree behind them with a dull thunk. Both of them hit the ground with their weapons drawn. However, I'd expected that.

  "Target practice," I called out before I stepped out into the clearing and waved my gun at them. "Just trying out my new silencer."

  "I should go," Chevy said, after he stood and brushed the dried grass off his pants.

  "No, stay," I said. "Do you think it's possible to print a two-inch group on the tree right behind you?"

  "That's definitely my cue to leave." Chevy started to move toward a motorcycle. "I'll keep you posted, boss."

  "Thank you," I called to him. "You did mean me, didn't you?"

  "It's been my experience men react to women better when they aren't being shot at," Coop said.

  "Imagine that. All this time I didn't have a clue about what a real man wants. I thought we planned to be at the beachside villa in El Pajáro, but our plans have changed. Now we're headed back to Santa Marta first thing this morning to meet the team."

  "Plans change," Coop said. "I thought we'd do a little shopping first. Replace some of the stuff we lost along with Jeep. I'm sure you'd like to buy some clothes."