“Trust me.” Baltimore lengthened his stride and turned into the cobblestone alley.

They’d reached the northeast end of the Quarter where few tourists ventured and few hotels were located. Little houses, split up into multiple apartments, lined the street. His faithful guard steered him to one of the houses then stopped in front of the entrance door.

“In there.”

“How many?”

“She’s alone.”

Abel nodded. “What are we waiting for then?”

With one forceful move, Baltimore kicked the flimsy door in so that it splintered at the hinges. His guard had never understood the concept of subtlety.

From inside, Abel heard a surprised gasp coming from one of the rooms in the back. The smell of a human filled his nostrils, while his ears perceived her footsteps as she ran toward the back door in an attempt to flee. Her actions only fueled his hunting instinct.

Stupid human!

No wonder humans were inferior to vampires. They didn’t know the first thing about survival. Though this specimen still had her instinct of fleeing rather than fighting him, she should know better and bow before him instead.

“Get her!” Abel ordered Baltimore with a motion of his head, while he glanced around the living room they’d entered. The little houses in the Quarter were all like this: the front door led directly into the living area without a foyer or hallway as a buffer. From there one room led into another without the benefit of a hallway.

The furniture in the small place was surprisingly new and luxurious, the decorations tasteful. Despite the fact that the windows sported shutters on the outside, the inside was hung with dark red velvet curtains, a sign that whoever spent time here didn’t like sunlight to penetrate the interior.

Abel turned his head to the door which led to the back of the house when he heard Baltimore return with the struggling human. He ran his eyes over her.

Her skin was the color of milk chocolate, her eyes a mix of blue and grey, attesting to her mixed heritage. A Creole beauty for sure. And who wouldn’t want this luscious woman in his bed, feel her plump lips around his cock, her elegant hands on his skin? Abel saw her appeal immediately. And even though there were no marks on her graceful neck or that beautiful cleavage her dress revealed, he instinctively knew she’d felt the fangs of a vampire in her flesh before. Many times in fact.

Abel inhaled. The scent of her blood sent a thrill through his body.

“A veritable love nest you and John have got yourselves here,” he finally addressed her.

At the name of her lover, the woman flinched.

“Oh, you thought I wouldn’t find out, did you?” He paused and narrowed his eyes. “Is that what John told you? That you’d be safe? That nobody would ever find out that he was keeping a human lover?” Abel chuckled. “How naive of him.”

He motioned to Baltimore, who followed his unspoken command and tossed her on the leather couch. She scrambled quickly to sit upright, fear coloring her pretty eyes.

“What do you want?”

“Ah, the human speaks,” Abel said. “Do you have a name?”

She swallowed. “Nicolette.”

Abel stepped closer. With every step he made, Nicolette shrank farther back into the sofa cushions. He could firmly smell the fear that oozed from her pores. It made his fangs itch, and he saw no reason to prevent them from elongating. When he was less than a foot away from her, he stopped.

“Here’s what you’re going to do now, Nicolette. You’ll answer the question I ask you without trying to lie to me. Because if you lie, I’ll know, and then I won’t have any choice but to have Baltimore punish you for it. Do you understand?”

Visibly intimidated, she nodded.

“Where is your lover? Where is John?”

“I don’t know.”

Abel pounced, gripping her shoulders with both hands and pressing her against the back of the sofa. “Try again,” he gritted from between clenched teeth, drowning out her shriek with his booming words.

“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me.”

Abel narrowed his eyes and peeled his lips back from his gums, revealing his long, sharp fangs, letting her guess what he was going to do to her if she didn’t comply.

“Please! He didn’t tell me.” Tears formed in her eyes. “He said he had to leave for a few days.”

“To do what?” he ground out.

A sob tore from her throat. “He didn’t want to tell me. He said he couldn’t.”

Abel tilted his head to the side, eyeing her with suspicion. “Now, you wouldn’t be lying to me, would you?”