Bit the Jackpot (Vegas Vampires #2)(5)
Author: Erin McCarthy

The guy stumbled forward, groaning, losing his grip on Kelsey, who hit the dirt.

It was then that Seamus realized Ugly was back on his feet.

And there was a third one. One who was thin and moved with stealth, peeling himself out of the shadows of the building and stepping forward. When he locked eyes with him, Seamus also sawan intelligence in his face that was lacking in the other two.

Well, this was fun.

He couldn’t call for assistance because Ethan would hear him. There was no way Seamus would risk the vampire president getting involved in a back-alley fight with rogue vampires. It would be bad press.Seriously bad press.

"Cut his head off," the thin one said, handing a really big nine-inch knife to Ugly.

Let’s not and say we did. Seamus gauged how much room he had to maneuver. He was going to guess his flying skills were superior to these two. And despite his leadership role, Seamus sensed the thin one was a young vamp.

Which didn’t explain why the guy was able to say, "Come here, Kelsey," walk down the alley toward the street, and actually have Kelsey follow him.

She just stumbled to her feet, fixed her dress, and trotted off after him without one glance in Seamus’s direction.So much for loyalty.

This is what he got for his chivalry. His head cut off. That was ironic. It was the guillotine that had almost killed him the first time and changed the course of his vampire life. Now he was about to die the same way.

And he realized that probably no one would mourn him except Ethan.

If these guys didn’t kill him, he might just killhimself the thought was so damn depressing.

Ringoknew Kelsey was following him, so he walked quickly until he got to the doorway of a closed souvenir shop. Then he turned, took her hand, and pulled her into the darkness with him.

"You’re alive." It was a statement, not a question, and he took in her dark eyes, thick black hair, and vibrant red lips, the only splash of color against her alabaster skin. The cle**age-popping dress didn’t surprise him. The expression on her face did. Gone was the flirtatious smile, the ditzy wide eyes.

She looked afraid. "Who are you?" she whispered. "Why won’t you just leave me alone?"

Letting go of her hand, he rubbed his chin. This was a twist. She didn’t remember him. Just as well. He hadn’t realized his target was Kelsey.Get Fox and his girlfriend , he’d been told. And he always obeyed orders. If he didn’t, his blood supply would be cut off.

It was a job Ringo had understood as a mortal human, and one he did well as a vampire.Hired killer.

But the last time he had seen Kelsey, he had tried to protect her, had watched her get mowed down by a spray of bullets,had seen her die. But that was before he’d been turned to vampire, before he had understood who he was dealing with. Kelsey was clearly a vampire now, too. Maybe she always had been one, though it was a surprise she didn’t recognize him.

"You know who I am, Kelsey." He opened his mind to her. She’d been able to read him before, with a clarity that had bugged the hell out of him when he was mortal. He wasn’t sure why he let her in now. Why he wanted her to acknowledge that she remembered him.

Maybe because Kelsey was the last shaky link to his mortality.The only person who had known him when he was a man, before the blood lust, and before he’d become Donatelli’s f**king minion.

"You’re here to kill me," she said, stepping back onto the sidewalk, the streetlight casting a bright glow over her bare shoulders.

"No." He had been. But he couldn’t kill Kelsey now that he knew it was her. He’d kill Seamus Fox without a second thought, but he wouldn’t kill Kelsey. She represented the last time he’d done something compassionate. He may have been a human until the month before, but he’d lost his humanity years before that. Except for one brief moment when he had actually risked himself to save Kelsey.

She was shaking, her teeth rattling, and her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. He had no sense of recognition from her, just fear.

"Jesus, what the hell did they do to you?" Ringo wasn’t any good at mind reading, didn’t like picking through people’s thoughts, but he tried to probe Kelsey and got nothing but waves of panic. The Kelsey he’d known hadn’t ever been afraid. She had been ditzy, annoying,confident . It made his very vivid and cruel imagination wonder what Donatelli had done to her after his men had shot her.

Instead of answering, she crumpled to the sidewalk in a faint, startling the crap out of him so completely that he never even moved to catch her.

"What the f**k!" Did women still faint? The only time he’d seen someone drop like that was when his ex-girlfriend had tripled her diet pill dosage.

Ringoapproached Kelsey. She hadn’t passed out gracefully. A breast had popped out of her tiny dress and her face was hanging over into the gutter. Her shoe was half off and he had a clear view of some pale inner thighs and red underwear.

He couldn’t leave her there like that.

Why did this shit always happen to him? Kicking a garbage can in annoyance, he sent it shooting thirty feet across the street and through a store window. The crash of the shattering glass made him feel better. Lifting her into his arms, Ringo wished he could fly as he started walking.

She stirred long enough to ask, "Where are you taking me?"

He was probably taking them both to hell. But he just said, "Home. I’m taking you home, Kelsey."

Cara couldn’t even imagine why she had thought it was a good idea to go out into the alley wearing jeans, flip-flops, and a short satin robe. No bra. No cell phone. No purse.

She had lost her everlovin ‘ mind, and if she hadn’t been drinking bottled water only all night, she would swear she’d been drugged. It was the only explanation for why she was crouched in a corner watching Seamus Fox—if that was really his name— brawling with two fat guys in bad outfits.

And they weren’t just fighting. They were doing some freaky shit. At first it had looked like normal punches but then Seamus had gone allCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , doing moves that looked humanly impossible. He was like a blur in a black T-shirt, and at one point, she could absolutely swear he had actually risen vertically in the air.

She was too scared tomove, afraid they might see her if she tried to sneak back in the door. Clearly even though Seamus was outnumbered, she wasn’t going to be of any assistance to him. Her major talents in life were dancing naked and animal care. Somehow she didn’t think doing a hip rock or clipping his nails would help Seamus at the moment. It would be best to leave them to their beating the crap out of each other thing, but Cara had retreated too far from the door to go back in without being seen.

Cara? Seamus called to her, shattering her illusion that she hadn’t been spotted.