Page 49 of Vampire's Choice
“After I finish the blood, I’ll do the same. In case I detect something they can’t.” As Dollar looked undecided, Ruth pushed. “That’s my job. Right? Let me do my job.”
“That’s my job if I say it’s your job. Right?” When his gaze hardened on her, she swallowed back a kneejerk retort. “I have to assume you know your own limits, Ruth. A security team member who doesn’t becomes the weakest link in a crisis. Understand?”
“I do.”
“All right, then. Once you finish the blood, check the perimeter.”
“Thank you. Seriously, Dollar, in the vampire world this is just Tuesday night. That’s why we have accelerated healing and a high threshold for violence and stress.”
“Like comic book characters,” Clara said.
“Yeah, but are we the ones with lots of sex and pretty people, or the gritty, life sucks and then you die kind?” Zee asked wryly. “You know, the perpetually tortured and broody hero?”
“Ooh, those are usually the sexiest ones. Can we be both?” Clara asked.
Ruth chuckled, but her mind went back to Merc, her broody, sexy incubus. Please be all right.
CHAPTER TEN
The blood would keep her going, but she knew her exhaustion would catch up and pass it well before dawn. Sooner than she’d like, she’d be forced to seek sleep and full recuperation inside the portal’s shelter. She was determined to make it through closing on her first show night, though.
It wasn’t just pride. They were down two major team members, Marcellus and Merc. Dollar needed all hands on deck. While no one thought a follow-up attack was going to happen tonight, there were other things to watch out for.
Like the trio of boys who’d decided they were running away to the Circus and hidden in a large crate. Because her senses told her she was dealing with human children, she hadn’t descended on them in full attack mode. Her normal ability to scare the bejesus out of a mortal worked just fine.
Under her stern gaze, the boys stammered out that they’d intended to hide there, living on the food supplies they’d brought, until the Circus packed up. Once they were in another town, they’d emerge and wheedle their way into being a new sideshow offering.
They had a juggling act, incorporating decent boy band dancing and singing. Ruth made them show her, and accepted a snack-sized Almond Joy from their “supplies” before she sent them home. She told them to graduate high school, then come back and apply for a job.
The incident lightened her mood and distracted her from far more sobering aspects of the evening. And the uncertainty about Merc.
Where the hell were he and Marcellus?
She’d only had a moment to tell Marcellus what was going on. But surely if he’d needed more info to help Merc, he would have been back to get that. Right?
When at last she heard from Dollar that Marcellus had returned and was at Clara’s tent, she headed in that direction. Before she’d made it halfway there, she saw Merc. He stood at the entrance to the acrobat tent she’d visited earlier in the evening.
His eyes were back to normal, but they were like a snake’s gaze, forbidding in its emotional opaqueness. His wings were at a tight half mast, joints looming over his shoulders, the feathers ruffling in the light breeze. His shirt was gone, and he wore only black jeans. No shoes.
All Fae were associated with an element. Catriona, as a tree spirit, was earth. While incubi weren’t Fae, with their overwhelming sexuality, she expected they were associated with the earth as well. And possibly fire.
Hellfire.
Perhaps that was why Merc preferred bare sole contact with the earth, no matter the terrain or weather.
He disappeared into the tent, a clear invitation. She followed, pausing at the entrance. It was empty, since all the acrobats participated in the main show. Merc prowled around the large ball Sarita had balanced upon earlier. He glanced up as a trapeze twitched from the air currents.
“Are you okay?” Ruth asked.
He turned toward her. She wondered if he was masking any lingering effects from the hallucinogen, like fatigue. But maybe it didn’t have that effect on an incubus or an angel. Or a combination of both.
“Yes. Are you?”
“Good to go. That’s why I’m patrolling.” She pulled the radio from her belt. “Dollar, can I get a few minutes off duty? Merc is back and I want to check on him.”
“Yeah, we’re covered. Marcellus is with Clara, same reason. Your juveniles have been perp-walked to a responding mother’s car.”
She pressed her lips against a smile. “Glad that threat has been contained.” When she clicked off, Merc was still looking at her. She couldn’t tell if he was curious about the exchange, but she explained it to him.