Bit the Jackpot (Vegas Vampires #2)(55)
Author: Erin McCarthy

The bellman took them and headed for the front door with the other plastic bags. "Can you get the pet supplies out while I put these on the cart?"

"Sure.Absolutely." Seamus opened the hall closet and pulled out the crates, the leashes. In the kitchen he gathered bowls and cat and dog food. Fritz danced around behind him, playing with a rag rope. "But she can’t have this dog. He stays with me until she comes and gets him herself."

"The dog isn’t on the list." The bellman deposited the crates on the luggage rack in the hall and came back for the food. "But the drapes are."

"The drapes?"Seamus ran a hand through his hair, appalled.

"Yes. I’m sorry, sir. You know women just get a little, well, emotional when you have a fight." The bellman shifted back and forth uneasily.

"Isn’t that thetruth. " Seamus clapped the poor guy on the shoulder. "Sorry you got stuck with this detail." Then he shoved a dining room chair over to the windows and lifted the curtain rod down. "She can take these ugly-ass things.Won’t break my heart. They look like the circus puked on my windows."

The bellman let out a snort.

"Do me a favor. Grab all that pink crap off my desk, too. She can take her pencil holder and mail slots and organize the hell out of her new pink room."

"There’s stuff in these organizers," the bellman said as he picked over the desk.

"Just dump it all out and get rid of anything pink." Seamus moved on to the second window. "What’s her new room number anyway?"

"Sorry, sir, I was told not to say."

Seamus made a rude sound. What, did she think he was going to come after her? Stalk her? Please. He was way too proud to come begging after her. He stared at the stripe in the drape, the pattern blurring together as his heart splintered into a thousand pieces, his skin feeling like a denizen of wasps were stinging simultaneously. He wanted to beg. He wanted her back. He wanted her drapes.

He was fondling the silk material when Ethan walked into the room.

"What the hell happened, Seamus?"

"I have no idea. What about you?"

"Alexis isn’t speaking to me. She went to Brittany ‘s with an overnight bag."

"Shit." They stared at each other, confused and hapless. Seamus climbed off the chair. "Let’s get drunk."

"That is a beautiful idea."

The idea seemed decidedly less brilliant twelve hours later when Seamus was tied up alongside Ethan on the rooftop of the Venetian, alcohol buzz wearing off.

"So," he said to Ethan, staring up at the sky ablaze with the orange afteraffects of a sunset, hishead pounding and his lower back aching. "Maybe confronting Donatelli dead drunk wasn’t the best idea we’ve ever had."

"I don’t think so," Ethan agreed. "And I have to say I wasn’t aware how much tolerance for liquor I’ve lost in the last eighty years. If I had known, I might have stopped at nine gin and bloody tonics. The tenth was the one that did me in."

Seamus’smouth was thick and thirsty. He shifted, trying to get his wrists out from under his back, but was unsuccessful. "When I was a mortal lad, I could drink my age in ale.Age sixteen, sixteen mugs of ale.Got me quite a bit of attention."

"I didn’t know that about you. Seems astonishing that after nearly four hundred years there is actually still something I don’t know about you."

"There’s something else you don’t know." Seamus gave up trying to get comfortable and lay still on the hard poured concrete. "Since the night I turned her, I’ve been feeding Cara myself." He wasn’t sure why he told Ethan, other than maybe he needed someone to understand, to recognize that he hadn’t meant to be a sick bastard. He’d just wanted to please Cara. And keep her with him.

"Ah. And she found out that isn’t the usual way of things?"

"Yes."

"Why were you?" Ethan didn’t sound judgmental, just curious.

"At first, she didn’t want to feed, so I didn’t want her to starve. She wasn’t ready for cold, bagged blood. Then, she got so much pleasure from feeding from me, and I admit, I enjoyed it well, it didn’t seem like a big deal. It felt right, not wrong." Seamus closed his eyes. "The bottom line is I didn’t have a good reason. I just wanted to. I wanted her, that’s all."

"I could see the temptation. But you should have given her a choice."

"I know. And now she’s never going to speak to me again." He groaned. "I’ve screwed everything up and now I’ve dragged you down with me."

"No, I dragged myself down with you. I pissed Alexis off all on my own." Ethan gave a snort. "I bet Donatelli is downstairs just laughing his scrawny ass off. We must have sounded like absolute idiots down there."

Seamus could only imagine because truthfully he didn’t remember a whole lot after the seventh shot in the fourth bar. Then it was a blank until they were being shackled with industrial-strength chains and Donatelli was threatening them."Totalidiots. Do you think he meant it about leaving us out here to starve while the sun drains us of our strength?"

"Oh, yes. He meant it."

"You don’t sound worried. Have you called Alexis?" Seamus had already tried to mentally contact Cara. She had him completely blocked out.

"No. I’m too drunk still. I can’t focus." Ethan laughed. "I can’t feel my feet."

"And that’s funny?"

"Yes."

Seamus managed to move his foot far enough to kick Ethan. "Feel that?"

"Yes, you ass**le."

Seamus grinned at him. "Well, if I have to starve and be drained of my energy by the sun, I’m honored to do it with you, Carrick."

"We’re not going to die. It would take three weeks for me to starve. I am a Master Vampire. I do not die easily."

" Ooohh.Bad ass."

"Fuck off, Fox. I’m trying to die with dignity."

Seamus laughed so hard he made his gut ache. "Maybe I am still drunk."

"And maybe you’re ugly, too."

That cracked them both up all over again.

"Try to call Cara," Ethan suggested when they could breathe.

"Doesn’t work.She’s got her Call Block on for me."

"Who else do you have a mental connection with? You’re less drunk than me. You should be able to contact someone."

"I don’t make it a habit of mentally hooking up with people. The only person I talk to that way is Cara." Seamus rolled up on his side. His arse was going numb. "When we get out of here, I’m going to apologize to Cara. I’m going to make this right. I love her, man. I want to marry her and move back toIreland . She can be a country vet."