A shirt flew past the seat and hit Evan in the head, breaking their connection. “Save it for the bedroom,” Aiden quipped. “We’re ready to get out of this backseat.”
Marissa felt her cheeks flush, which considering how wanton she’d suddenly become, seemed ridiculous. Evan tugged the shirt over his head, and used a bottle of water and a napkin to clean the blood off his neck. She turned to face the hotel, not watching. She couldn’t watch and stay in control.
Seconds later, Evan touched her arm to draw her attention back to him. The physical reaction to his touch was instant and shivers rushed over her skin, across her shoulder, fanning her chest. “Lock it,” he ordered softly when she looked at him, his voice gruff, telling her how he was feeling.
For a moment he held her stare, the connection between them, intimate—right, in a way she’d never experienced before. Not another man. Not family. She’d never known her father who had died when she’d barely been walking age. She’d loved, and lost her mother. Enjoyed friends, and even a few steady male companions, but no one that ever made her feel like Evan. Regret filled Marissa, replacing her bravado of living life she’d mentally celebrated only a few minutes before. She was going to die before she had really lived.
“You’re not going to die,” Evan said softly, and then disappeared quickly, slamming the door behind him. She blinked at the door, trying to understand how he’d known what she was thinking. Could he read her mind?
He knocked on the window and pointed at the lock. She jumped and locked it. And then it hit her. She was alone with Aiden and Troy.
Marissa inhaled and turned to the back of the large vehicle and found her gaze locked with a now recovered, but incredibly silent, and frightening, Troy. “How are you?” she asked.
“Better than you I suspect,” he said, inclining his head at her fingers on the seat. “You’re trembling.”
She knew. God, did she know. “If someone has to kill me,” she blurted, before it was too late and Evan returned. “Make sure it’s you and not Evan.”
“No one is going to kill you,” Aiden said, sitting up so that she could see him more clearly. “We’re going to kill the wolf, Marissa.”
Troy’s silver eyes bore into hers, unchanged at his brother’s comments. “Do you want to know why I have blond hair and silver eyes?”
She did, but the odd question took her off guard and a fizzle of warning flared inside her. She wasn’t going to like where this was going. “No,” she said cautiously. “Why?”
“A werewolf attacked me and pretty much ripped my throat out. When I recovered, I was different.”
Dread filled her. “Please don’t tell me that I’ve infected Evan with the virus.”
“Vampires are immune to the virus,” Aiden said. “We don’t know why the attack changed Troy. Just that it did.”
“Yes,” Troy said. “It changed me.” The way he said the statement indicated that he meant in more ways than his hair and eye color. “And the point of this story is that I know what a wolf can do more than either of my brothers. If it comes down to choosing between you or my brother—I’ll choose my brother.”
Her chest tightened and she could almost feel the wolf inside her clawing at it, trying to get out. As if it hated Troy, as if it rejected his declaration. That she knew what that part of her was thinking, feeling, terrified her. “That’s not good enough. If it comes to the midnight hour and my chances of staying human are gone—kill me. And don’t let Evan talk you out of it. The wolf in me…it’ll kill him. Don’t let it—me—kill him.” It was the first time she realized the intent of the wolf in her, but there was no question in her mind.
Evan knocked on the window and she quickly popped the locks. The door opened and she quickly turned to Evan as he slid inside. “Around back,” he said and flicked a look over his shoulder at his brothers. “Side by side adjoined rooms.”
“Excellent,” Aiden said dryly. “We can be one big happy family.”
Marissa inhaled on his comment, hoping he wasn’t going to tell Evan what she’d said, and almost certain he was. Damn, damn, damn. A few minutes later they filed into one of the dingy rooms with two double beds and orange comforters. The space was small as it was, but add in three big vampires, and it was a matchbox. She quickly headed to the second room through the adjoining doors, to find an identical room, aware Evan was following her. She could sense every move the vampire male made, every breath he drew.
She turned to face him. “I need to call my employer.”
His expression instantly darkened. “And tell them what Marissa?”
“I need my job. When this is over, I still have bills, a life.” And I’ve no one else to depend on, but me. His lips firmed his expression grim. The silence stretched immeasurably long and she couldn’t take it. “You don’t think I’ll make it back to my job, do you?”
“Do you?” Troy asked from the doorway.
The question infuriated her and she whirled on him. “I need to believe that I can beat this…this thing growing inside me. So yes, I’m going back. And I’m calling my work to make sure I have a job when I do.” She stormed towards the bed and grabbed the phone, ignoring the shake of her hand as she started to dial. She punched in the number, her gaze lifting to see Evan and Troy disappear into the other room, shutting the door behind them. She hung up the phone. She had no excuse that would last two weeks. Her boss knew she had no family who could be ill or in need of her help. Her employer was one of the best hospitals in the country, so medical wasn’t a good excuse. Temple was a small town where she could walk to work, so car trouble was also marked off the possible list of excuses. Plain and simple, she had nothing, including a job anymore.
She rubbed her arms, suddenly cold and hot, at the same time. Her knees were shaking right along with her hands now she realized. She started to pace, trying to let go of the energy that bloomed inside her, a dark and hungry energy that wanted to consume her and everything around her. Her fingers laced into her hair, stroking her scalp that was prickling with discomfort. She didn’t know what was happening to her. She stopped walking and stared at the door, trying to decide if she should go into the other room and ask for help. No. No. Troy was in there, and he might just go ahead and kill her. He wanted to. She sensed it. He hated her because he thought she was dangerous to his brother. She read that in him, smelled it in the air waving off of him.
She turned to the hotel door. The need to run overcame her, much like it had when the wolf had attacked back at her house. The need to expel energy before her wolf could claw itself out of her. That wasn’t a good idea. She knew that. Marissa forced herself to sit down on the bed, telling herself not to open the door. Not to leave the room.
Her fingernails dug into her arms, into her skin. She couldn’t look away from the door. Evan’s voice echoed through the wall, and she inhaled, telling herself he’d be back in a moment. He’d kiss her, touch her, caress her—calm her. She focused on his voice, not the door. Think about Evan. She wasn’t going to run. She wasn’t going out that door.