A low rumble of pleasure escaped him. “Youkeep looking at me like that and we won’t make it back to theroom.”
“Promise?”
“Tease,” he muttered.
“Oh, I plan to do much more than just teaseyou.”
Paige laughed when a low growl escaped him;he grabbed hold of her hand and hurriedly led her from the alcove.Keeping her against his side, he entered the rush of the crowdagain.
CHAPTER 24
Paige’s foot tapped as she watched the floorslighting up above the elevator doors. She stood against Ian’s side,taking solace in the overwhelming strength emanating from his bodywhile she fought the urge to tear his clothes off. They may nothave found her father, but she planned to keep herself pleasantlydistracted from the reality of him lingering out there.
In her mind, she mentally planned exactlywhat she was going to do to him. He’d always taken the lead, buttonight she would keep him at her mercy. As soon as they got backto their room, she was calling room service and ordering somestrawberries, whip cream, and champagne.
Her heart began to beat faster; she bit onher bottom lip as her hands dug into his side. Ian’s amusementtickled her mind, she noticed the others had all become focused onthe doors. Of course, she realized, as vampires they would be ableto sense and smell her heightened desire. A blush crept up hercheeks, but she found she didn’t care what they knew. All shewanted was out of this elevator.
The doorsfinallyopened with a dingand the others disembarked with a goodbye and a wave. The doorsslid closed again, and the elevator continued its smooth, upwardascent. “I can’t wait to get back to the room,” she murmured.
Ian released a small laugh and kissed thetop of her head. “And what do you intend to do there?”
The wicked smile she shot him almost madehim hit the stop button on the elevator, but he’d sensed herthoughts, and there was no way he was going to put an end toanything she had planned for the night. He was so ensnared by thescent of her burgeoning lust that he didn’t pick up on anotheraroma until the elevator came to a stop. Before the doors slidopen, he knew something was wrong as the fetid odor of a landfillwashed over him. He sprang forward to try and stop the doors fromopening, but it was already too late.
Paige didn’t have a chance to take a stepforward before Ian grabbed hold of her arm and pushed her behindhim. Thrown off by his rough treatment of her, she barely had timeto recover before her back was slammed into the wall of theelevator. Her spine screamed in protest as it was shovedunmercifully into the metal railing running around the interior ofthe elevator.
The rough jostling caused her glasses tofall off. They crunched beneath Ian’s feet as he adjusted his feetand swung his arm up in a rapid uppercut. Whoever Ian hit, he didso with so much force that the thunderous crack of bone echoedthrough the confining space. The person shot through the air like abullet and smashed off the top of the elevator. The roof thrustupward with a piercing screech of metal that left a concave dent inthe ceiling. Bits of metal, paint and debris floated down aroundthem, briefly filling the air and blocking out the hotel wall theopen elevator doors had revealed.
It wasn’t until whomever it was plummetedaway from the ceiling and smashed into the floor that Paigerealized it was a man and a vampire. The man remained splayed facedown on the ground, knocked unconscious by Ian’s punch. Ian bent,grabbed the unconscious vampire by the back of his shirt, andheaved him out the door with enough force to crack the wall acrossfrom them. Plaster rained down on the man’s unconscious form whenhe slumped to the floor.
Paige couldn’t stop herself from gawkingwhen she realized Ian had hit him violently enough to tear half ofhis head from his neck. It flopped to the side to reveal part ofhis spine, the muscles, and ligaments severed by the blow. Paigedidn’t know if it had been enough to kill the vampire, but heremained unmoving as blood poured from the grotesquemutilation.
She felt far more powerful as a vampire thanshe had as a human, still, there was no way she could nearly,literally,knock someone’s head off with one punch.
“Stay here!” Ian shouted at her.
Before she could respond, he vanished outthe closing elevator doors. He moved so fast, he never set off thesensor that would have stopped them from shutting. She gawked afterhim, too stunned to move for a second. And then she realized he hadvanished into that hall, where more vampires were probably waitingfor him.
“Ian!” she screamed and raced forward. Shecrashed up against the closed doors, leaving a dent in them as theelevator began to ascend once more.
Her blood pressure rose, heat burned in hercheeks as a scream of frustration burned her throat. Her fingerstwitched as she fought the urge to claw the metal doors open. Shehad no idea what prying them open would get her, other than aglimpse of the concrete wall shaft and possibly stuck in betweenfloors while Ian dealt with whatever was going on below. The staticlaced, distorted elevator music playing from the dented speakerabove her, made her teeth grate as she fought the urge to rip herhair out and smash herself against the door again.
A loud bang resonated beneath her. Theentire elevator shaft shook, causing the car to lurch beneath herfeet. Her stomach plummeted; her breath caught in her chest as shewaited for the snapping sound of the cable that would precede thefloor falling out from beneath her feet.
The walls around her made a groaning noisethat caused her heart to leap into her throat. Immortal or not,plummeting thirty floors to the ground below was not her idea of agood time. She glanced at the floor beneath her, wishingimmortality had also come with some x-ray vision. What had causedthat bang? Where was Ian?
Heart hammering, she reached out for Ian’smind. His bloodlust beat against her, but so did his pain. A screamtore from her, when she realized he’d been injured. Knowing it wasuseless, she still flung herself at the horrible doors blocking herway. The sounds coming from her were anything but human; she feltlike a Tasmanian Devil on a rampage as she clawed at the doors. Shedidn’t care if it was a concrete wall across from her, she’d tearit apart with her bare hands if she had to.
Then, with a peaceful sounding dingcompletely out place with this situation, the doors opened toreveal the hushed hallway beyond. She stepped into the peacefulTwilight Zone of this floor, while below chaos and death reignedsupreme. It all seemed so strange that she half expected someone tohand her a cup of tea.
She didn’t bother trying to go down in theelevator again, but fled down the hall. She barreled past astartled woman who had as much clothes on as a newborn, and wasjerking at the knob of her locked hotel room. Paige kept her headturned away from the woman as she banged into the stairwell doorand flung it open.
The heavy metal door smashed against thewall, shattering plaster and twisting the door’s hinges. She leaptdown the first flight of stairs without touching a single step. Herfeet hit the floor; her forward momentum caused her to slam off thewall and bounce toward the next stairwell. Grabbing hold of thebanister, she took another staggering step before regaining herbalance.
Terror for Ian drove her to preternaturalspeeds she’d never imagined attaining. She leapt over the banisterand landed noiselessly on the landing below. Stumbling to the door,she fumbled at the knob as another resounding crash shook thebuilding. Screams of frightened humans echoed down the hallway.Ian’s agony lanced through her skull, temporarily blinding her withthe white light exploding in her head that accompanied it.Unwilling to be deterred, she flung the door open and bounded intothe hallway.
She came to an abrupt halt when she spottedthe disarray and destruction everywhere. Across from her, theelevator doors had caved in to the point she could see across theshaft to the concrete wall on the other side. Blood smeared thesilver doors that repeatedly dinged as if they were opening andclosing. The body of a headless vampire was propped against thedoors, she recognized the bloodstained blue shirt of the man whohad first rushed them. Having his head hanging half off must nothave been enough to kill him, but Ian had finished the job. She hadno idea where his head was, but she had a feeling if she lookeddown the elevator shaft she would find it.
A door down the hall cracked open, an eyepressed against the slit. “Run,” the woman whispered beforeslamming the door closed again. The locks of the woman’s roomsliding into place echoed in the hall.
