Caught in Darkness (18 page)

Closing the lid on his laptop with
his free hand, Seth pushed to his feet and replied, “I’m actually not busy
right now. Do you want me to come over?”

There was a beat of silence and he
hoped it was because she was surprised he was free, but then she said, “Yeah,
sure. I guess I’ll see you shortly.”

“
Mhmm
,”
Seth hummed, nodding his head though the gesture was pointless. He disconnected
a second later, already striding toward his door. He had no idea what she could
need to talk to him about, but he hoped it wasn’t bad news. The only question
is,
what constitutes ‘bad news?’

She let him in with a smile when
she opened the door and it took a physical effort not to wrap his arms around
her and kiss her until she understood exactly how sorry he was. But she’d
called him over for a reason, and chances were it wasn’t to tell him to stuff
his stupid idea of keeping her at arms’ length.
Although he
certainly wouldn’t mind hearing her say that.

Instead he merely inclined his head
with a faint upward curving of his own lips, stepped inside, and asked, “What
is it you wanted to talk about?”

Veronica released a heavy breath
after shutting the door behind him and it became clear that she was struggling
beneath some invisible burden that hadn’t been there the last time he’d seen
her. She moved around him, gesturing toward the living room, and said, “I think
you should sit for this. I know I still need to sit for this.”

His concern for what her
‘non-emergency’ might be was doing a fabulous job of clearing his head and Seth
followed quietly. Had she had another narrow escape with Richards or one of the
Wilson brothers? She didn’t smell like vampire, but he supposed it could have
been hours earlier and she could have showered since then.

Once they were sitting, on opposite
ends of the couch and at angles so that they could see each other, Veronica
began subconsciously wringing her hands and said, “I don’t really know where to
start, so bear with me, okay?”

Frowning, Seth reached over and
covered her hands with his, instantly stilling them. “First,” he said, “tell me
that you’re okay.”

Another, softer, breath escaped and
she slowly nodded. “I am. Or, I’m not hurt. I’m just confused and sort of
freaked out.”

Seth nodded, understanding the
difference, and released her hands in order to lean back. “Tell me.”

“It might be easier if you have a
little history first,” Veronica began carefully. “Before my parents got
married, according to the story I was told, my father had a huge falling out
with his father and they essentially disowned each other. My father took my
mother’s maiden name when they got married, and when I came along and started
asking about my ‘other grandparents’ Dad just told me that he didn’t have any
other family anymore. I accepted all of this, of course, and it all became a
moot point when my father was murdered when I was nine.”

Here she paused, sucked in a
breath, closed her eyes for a beat, and released the breath before continuing. “This
is all relevant because I learned today that my paternal family is still alive.
I met my uncle, Dennis, this afternoon. Mom made us all dinner. He says he
wants to get to know us and that he always regretted losing touch with Dad. But…there’s
a giant punch-line here that I don’t know how to say or handle.”

When she fell silent again, eyes
focused on the floor and hands tight in her lap, Seth offered, “Treat it like a
Band-Aid. Just say it out loud, and from there we’ll work on ‘handling’
whatever it is.” He had yet to figure out why this was something she thought
he’d want to know—other than the fact that it pertained to her, and she had no
idea how much that alone was coming to matter to him.

Veronica looked up again, confusion
and something far too similar to fear clouding her eyes as she said, “Dennis is
that Slayer who tried to kill me yesterday. And, apparently, my Dad used to be
a Slayer, too.”

That had not even entered his mind.
He knew his eyes had widened with her words, but it was unavoidable. The very
idea of Veronica possessing Slayer heritage floored him. It took several
seconds before he could process that her uncle had tried to kill her, and then
his eyes narrowed again. “Then why the hell would he try to kill you?”

It was obvious his curse caught her
off-guard, because she
hesitated
a beat before
replying, “If I can believe him, he says he didn’t know who I was. I still
haven’t decided how much I believe, but…some of what he was saying made a
twisted kind of sense. Like the weird feeling I got when Richards broke in.” She
swallowed, chewed her lip for a second, and asked, “Have you ever heard of the
Claypool family?”

This time his eyes only widened for
a moment before he caught it and smoothed his expression back toward neutral. He
had, in fact, heard of the Claypool family. They weren’t the most notorious of Slayer
families, but they had made a name for themselves. They were the kind of
Slayers any vampire or werewolf was better off avoiding altogether; they
weren’t exactly known for distinguishing the ‘good’ from the ‘bad.’ And the
last Seth had heard there was only one left.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Veronica
mumbled, looking somewhere between frustrated and disappointed.

Seth bit back his sigh and replied,
“I’m sorry, Veronica. The
Claypools
don’t have the
nicest of reputations in our world.”

Veronica nodded. “I can’t say I’m
surprised, especially after what happened yesterday. You did say the good
Slayers were rare.” She lifted her gaze back to his before cautiously saying,
“Can I ask…do you have any idea how many are left?”

“I haven’t exactly kept tabs on
them,” Seth hedged, unsure of how she would feel about what he would say. But
lying didn’t seem like an option he should be considering. “However, the last I
heard the elder Claypool lost a fight with a wolf, and that left one.”

She nodded again, seeming less than
surprised, and looked away. “Then I’m guessing he looked us up to see if he
could recruit me or something?”

“You probably shouldn’t rule that
possibility out,” Seth replied quietly.

“Does that…make me dangerous to
you?” Veronica asked, her voice a whisper. Her eyes drooped as she kept her
gaze on the floor. It couldn’t be more obvious how she felt about the idea.

Frowning again, Seth reached over,
grabbed her nearest wrist, and tugged her into him. The angle was awkward and
she half-collapsed against his chest, releasing a startled cry, but he pulled
her entirely into his lap and tilted her chin up with one finger until their
eyes met. “The only thing about you that’s dangerous to me is the way you make
me feel.”

Swallowing heavily, Veronica asked,
“And how, exactly, do I make you feel?”

“Desperate,” Seth rumbled as he
bowed his head and claimed her lips once more. If he had actually—even for an
instant—thought he could keep her at arms’ length he’d been an idiot. He was
arguably an idiot just for trying.

Veronica shifted, leaning into his
kiss as she wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders, and then she
slipped her tongue past his lips. He couldn’t help but growl against her as he
tightened his arms around her torso, simultaneously falling back into the
cushion behind him. Sweet was the only way he could describe the taste of her
kiss, and the way she had taken control of it this time had him wondering what
else she might do with the right opportunity.

If he didn’t stop her soon he
suspected he’d be rolling her over and devouring her in more ways than one.

She pulled back, then, breathing
heavily, and smiled a coy smile as she teased, “Desperate isn’t always a bad
thing, you know.”

“I’m aware,” he
allowed,
his voice thick and low to his own ears. She was searching his expression, he
realized. But there was one thing he didn’t want her to find—he wanted her to
hear it. “I’m sorry.”

This time her smile was soft, and
the fingers of one hand began threading his hair as she replied, “I forgive
you. The truth is
,
you brought up some good points.
Nothing that changes my mind, but good points none the less.”

“Veronica,” he began, though he
wasn’t entirely sure what was actually supposed to follow it. Not that that
mattered, since she dropped a finger over his lips to silence him.

“I’m not asking for a vow of
fidelity,” she whispered as her hand fell to his shoulder. “We both know
there’s something between us. All I’m asking is to take this chance to see what
that something is. I know you won’t be staying and I know you’ll be outliving
me by a landslide, anyway, but that doesn’t mean we’re entirely incompatible.”

She was right.
On
all counts, technically, but specifically about their respective mortalities.
He would be ‘outliving her by a landslide.’ And there weren’t words enough to
describe how utterly wrong that felt. As he sat there, Veronica curled in his
lap and absently massaging his scalp, he was hard-pressed to think of a time,
place, or situation that had ever felt more right. Losing that—losing her—was
unacceptable.

It was also unavoidable.

“Seth?” Veronica asked, a frown
marring her face as she studied him. Clearly his expression had begun to
reflect his thoughts.

With a light shake of his head,
Seth replied, “Sorry; don’t worry about it. You’re right, anyway.”

Veronica stared at him, seemingly
thrown by his words. “I sort of thought you’d be harder to convince.”

Lips twitching, Seth leaned down
slightly and murmured, “Sorry to disappoint, then. You’re just a difficult
woman to argue with.”

She was smiling again and she
tilted her head enough for their lips to brush teasingly before she added, “One
quick question. Do I need to be on a pill?”

“No,” Seth replied gruffly, turning
his head and trailing his lips across her jaw, toward the seductive curve of
her throat. “Vampires can’t reproduce, even with each other.”

Veronica released a soft groan when
he reached her throat, her fingers tightening in his hair as her head tilted back
for him. “Good,” she breathed.

For sanity’s sake he skimmed over
her thrumming pulse-point and opted, instead, to latch his lips onto the hollow
at the base of her throat. She made a sound of appreciation that went right
through him when he sucked on the delicate flesh and he growled against her
skin. Without thought one of his hands slid lower until he was cupping her
backside through the soft fabric of her dress.

Calm, deliberate knocking on the
door startled
them
back to reality and they froze.

Seth took a couple of long, slow
breaths and lifted his head as his hand rose to the small of her back. It took
effort to extend his senses past the woman in his lap, but when he managed it
he realized that he could, in fact, hear another heartbeat on the other side of
the door. It was stable and strong—a human’s heartbeat.

“I suspect it’s for you,” he
murmured as he returned his gaze to the blonde in front of him.

Veronica was dangerously close to
pouting as she hooked her fingers in his collar and mumbled, “Maybe they’ll go
away.” She was leaning in and simultaneously tugging him closer, their lips a
hair’s breadth apart, when the knocking sounded again. Now she sighed,
releasing his collar, and slumped toward him, grumbling, “Or maybe not.” Then
she shifted, turning, and squirmed until she found her feet once more.

Seth managed, through herculean
efforts, to bite back the groan that very nearly tore from his throat at her
wiggling. He swallowed, willing his body temperature to cool, as he watched her
move reluctantly toward the door. Was it his imagination, or were her hips
swaying just a bit more than usual? Those thoughts are counterproductive, he
told himself, looking away. A quick glance at his watch reminded him that he
probably should be hitting the streets again in his seemingly-endless search.
Though that responsibility was highly unappealing at the moment.

“Oh, hey, Ali,” Veronica’s
slightly-surprised voice said from the doorway, dragging his attention back to
the situation at hand. From his angle he couldn’t see the woman who was,
apparently, at the door.

“Hey, V.” That was definitely the
voice he remembered, though. And that was also his cue to make a tactful exit,
so he pushed to his feet even as Allison continued, “I know I should’ve called
first, but I wasn’t really planning on stopping by…can I come in?”

Veronica’s hesitant, guilt-ridden
confusion was almost palpable as Seth pushed to his feet. “Of course,” she
finally said, stepping back from the doorway and holding the door open.

Allison was halfway in the door
when she finally seemed to register his presence, her eyes snapping up to his
with genuine surprise. He opted not to worry about how she’d missed his
Corvette, which was parked in the driveway behind Veronica’s car. “Oh,” Allison
began before she gathered herself and added calmly, “you’re here.”

There wasn’t half the venom in
those words that he would have
expected,
given their
only other moment of interaction, but Seth decided to simply accept that and
incline his head before replying, “I should be going, actually.” He switched
his focus to Veronica, who was watching him with concealed disappointment and
obvious understanding, and said, “It’s time to get to work. I’ll see you
later.”

Veronica had barely begun to nod
her head when Allison said, “Could you wait a moment, actually?”

Seth knew his weren’t the only eyes
that snapped over to her with blatant surprise, but he quickly schooled his
expression back to calm and asked, “Is there something you needed?”