FANGED

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"Perfect," I grouched as rain beat down on my head and Fang walked up to me. "Just flipping perfect." I turned to him, giving him my patented you are so dead look and putting my hands on my hips. "What a lovely home you have, Fang. I haven't seen anything this impressive since the Shining." The sarcasm dripped off my tongue heavier than the rain dripped off my nose and I tossed him another look that was full of stakes, silver bullets and holy water.

Courtanya, who was the smartest one of the bunch for deciding to remain in the car, leaned out the window and crooked her finger up and down. "Redrum. Redrum. Redrum," she said in a deep, raspy voice, giggling like she belonged here.

"That's it!" I threw my hands up in the air and headed for Gizmo. "I'm out of here."

These vampires knew about as much about pop culture as I knew about calculous, but for some cosmic reason, Bubbles knew the one line in the ONE movie that freaked me out so bad when I was a kid, I lived under my bed for almost a solid year. I didn't need Sylvia Browne predicting it was a huge sign from beyond telling me I needed to get my drenched butt out of there before somebody or something pulled out an axe.

"Hold up, Red."

I barely had my hand on the door handle when Fang stopped me. Of course, like that wasn't at all predictable. What wasn't so predictable, was the way his touch warmed me even though I was so cold I was pretty sure Chilly Willy could use my pootang as an igloo.

"Save it, Fang," I warned him as I yanked my hand away from his as the entire contents of the Arctic Ocean continued to dump on our heads. Immediately the heat disappeared and I could feel my lips turning blue...all of them. "There is no way you are going to get me stay in there." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder with one hand and tried to pry my hair off my face with the other. My new dripping wet hooker look wasn't improving my mood, nor was the fact Fang's eyes were suddenly superglued to my breasts. My nipples to be exact, which were about to slice through my leather bustier like two dueling Benihana chef knives. I could probably skewer some shrimp shish kebab with those suckers.

"It's not what it looks like," he said, wiping his own soaked locks out of his face. And lord help me, I ogled his titties too.

"No?" I turned and sarcastically looked at the looming building behind us as lightening silhouetted it against the night sky. "I don't know what it looks like to you, but to me it looks a lot like oh hell no."

"Remember the cabin?"

"Yesssssss," I drew out the S for two reasons. One...I had no idea where he was going with this and two...it was fun to be able to pronounce an S again.

"The cabin was all an illusion."

"So?"

He blew out a frustrated breath. "Work with me, Red. The cabin was a cover for what laid underneath it. Remember? Nice underground penthouse?" He pointed towards the asylum. "The same goes here. This façade is to keep the humans out by playing to their superstitions and fears. I guarantee you there is nothing for you to worry about inside." He gently pried my hand off the handle and brought it to his lips, skimming them over my knuckles. "And it's a hell of a lot dryer."

"Dryer?" As soon as his lips hit my skin, I forgot my own damn name. Let alone what we had been talking about. Seriously, around him I needed to start taking notes.

"Yes...dryer, moya solnishka," he murmured huskily. His icy eyes glowed with an intense heat and I gulped as his strong arms curled around my waist and pulled me to his rock-hard chest. The tank top he was wearing was plastered against it, contouring to every sculpted inch of him and did little to hide anything from my fingertips which traced each carved line reverently.