Chapter 164
Elliott spent about an hour running interference after the hunt was over. There was a lot to go back and clean up, and he still wasn’t sure he’d caught everyone. Now that the Internet was a popular place to post pictures and stories, Christian was even busier than before, monitoring activity and taking down posts from people who were on to them. Every time a story leaked that Elliott “should’ve” caught with his interference, the tech guy was sure to let him know. He might be immortal, but he wasn’t a god, and at the end of the day, with all the cameras and other surveillance equipment out there in the world these days, he was going to miss something from time to time.
He had questioned why Christian was even there, but ever since he invented this tiny piece of equipment called the Intelligence Assistance Communicator a couple of years ago, the tech guy seemed to go everywhere with Aaron, adjusting the computer chips and making sure they all worked properly. He was also responsible for installing all of them. It had been one of the most uncomfortable experiences of Elliott’s life, sitting in that chair, letting Christian cut a small incision in his eyeball and drop a computer chip inside of his eye. But once it was over, the results had been astounding, and he almost would’ve thought Christian was some sort of a genius if he didn’t know better.
Now, they could all talk to each other through their brains. They could pull up each other’s visuals, record footage and share it, look up information, basically anything a computer could do--he had it all right there in his eyeball. Sometimes it was annoying, like when someone forgot to turn it off before going to the bathroom, but it definitely made coordinating hunts a lot more efficient. Since Vampires had telepathy, they’d always been a step ahead of them when it came to communicating. Now, they were even-steven—maybe a little ahead. And that made Christian worth having around—almost.
All thoughts of the annoying Guardian flew right out of Elliott’s mind, along with every other thought he might’ve had, when he looked up and saw her. His heart began to pound, his stomach tightened, and something told him, from that moment on, his life would never be the same.
Long strawberry blonde hair cascaded down her back, and her eyes were green like the leaves in the spring. She had a smattering of freckles across her nose and a body that announced she was a young college girl. Dressed in tight black faux leather pants and a silver shirt with black trim, with a pair of Doc Martins, she was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen in his whole life. And she was staring at him, too.
Elliott set his glass down and closed the gap between them, not caring that some other asshole was chatting her up. “Hi,” he said locking eyes with her.
“Uh, hi,” she stammered, clearly taken by surprise. “How’s it going?”
“Great. Now. How are you?” He knew the grin on his face was sappy, but he didn’t care. He felt the connection with this girl instantaneously, and he knew more than anything in the world he needed to know her.
“I’m fine,” she said. Turning to the other guy who had been talking to her, she said, “I’ll talk to you later,” and turned her attention to the burly man with the dark curly hair who’d just demanded her attention. “Are you here alone?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m just in town on business. You?”
“Well, my friend is here somewhere. She was talking to a guy.” She looked around. “I think they went somewhere together. She’ll be back. I think.”
“Why don’t I buy you a drink while we wait?”
Her eyes widened slightly, like she wasn’t sure whether or not it was a good idea, but then her face relaxed. “Okay, yeah. Sure.”
Elliott led her to an empty table where they’d have a little more privacy, signaling for the waitress as he went. She ordered a Sour Apple Pucker, which he did his best not to crinkle his nose at, and he ordered another whiskey.
“So, what’s your name?” he asked as they waited for their drinks. A 311 song came on, and once again he tried not to cringe. What was with the music these days?
“Oh, I love this song,” she said, looking up like it was coming out of the sky. “My name is Amanda. What’s yours?”
“Elliott,” he replied, ignoring her comment about the song. “You from around here?”
“I go to school at the University of Tulsa. My friend Sarah and I come here sometimes on the weekends. She likes one of the bellhops, and a lot of times she’ll wait in here for his shift to end. Then, they’ll sneak into one of the empty rooms and do it before we head back to campus. I guess that’s where they are now.” Her cheeks turned a little pink when she mentioned the sexual activity, but when her drink arrived, she hid it behind her first sip.
“And you just wait out here?”
“Yeah. Usually I can get some guy to buy me a drink or two.” She took another sip. “I mean… not that….”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll be some guy if it means I get to talk to you.”
She blushed again. “So what do you do?”
“I work for a security company,” he replied quickly. It was his standard cover up story.
“Oh, that’s cool. So you’re here on business?” He nodded. “Where do you live?”
“Kansas City.”
“That’s kinda far away.”
He shrugged. “It depends on how fast you drive.”
She giggled, and it was the cutest thing he’d ever heard in his whole life. She finished her drink and he ordered another one, not even caring that the idea that she was drinking Jolly Rancher juice made his stomach slightly queasy. “What are you studying?” he asked.
“Actually, I’m pre-med,” she replied.
“Get out of town! That’s amazing. I have a really good friend who’s a doctor. That shit’s hard. Good for you.”
She beamed, clearly proud of her chosen profession. “Thank you,” she said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s totally worth it to me. I’ll finish up my undergraduate next year, and then the real work begins.”
“I am very impressed, Miss Amanda,” he said with a large smile he was completely unwilling to attribute to the booze. “You know, you have a habit of turning a little pink when someone gives you a compliment.”
“I guess that depends on who it is giving the compliment,” she said, still a few shades closer to red than her normal skin tone. “I mean… when it’s a handsome stranger….”
Elliott liked the sound of that, and he hadn’t even done a single thing to manipulate her thinking.
They continued to chat for an hour or so before Amanda reached across the table and took his hand. The next thing he knew, she was sitting next to him in the booth, and he couldn’t keep his lips off of hers. Things were moving fast, but that was okay with him. Like a moth to a candle’s flame, his heart had homed in on her, and for once in his life, nothing else seemed to matter.
“You know, I have a room upstairs,” he whispered quietly into her ear. “We don’t even have to look for an empty one.”
Her melodic giggle rang out one more time as she stroked his chest. “Lead the way.”
He didn’t need to be told twice.
