“You’re at a very dangerous time of your life, my friend,” Eli said with surprising gentleness. “Many vampires have … strong reactions when the last of the people they knew as mortals die. It can cause something of a vampire mid-life crisis, as it were.”
Jules couldn’t help a little bark of laughter. “Should I go out and buy a red sports car?”
The corners of Eli’s eyes crinkled slightly. “The red might clash with your hair. I’d advise black.”
This time the laugh came more naturally. That Eli would tease him about his vanity relieved him to no end. Yes, he’d fucked up tonight. But Eli could forgive him for it.
“Mortals in mid-life crisis can do stupid things,” Eli continued, “like destroying their marriages by looking for something better. Something that doesn’t exist.”
“And what kind of stupid things do vampires do?”
“Indulge in pointless revenge quests. Alienate the only friends they have by behaving like assholes. The worst of them can go rogue and start killing, but I know you wouldn’t do that.”
Jules winced, remembering how mindless he’d been in his rage. He’d hit Carolyn, for Christ’s sake! He couldn’t stand Gray, but he liked Carolyn. Not that he’d done it on purpose, but if he’d been in his right mind it never would have happened. He glanced at Eli.
“Why didn’t you stop me when I went after Drake?” Keeping the Guardians from fighting with each other was usually part of Eli’s job description. Vampires tended to grate on each others’ nerves on some primal level, which made cooperation something of a challenge. If it weren’t for Eli, the Guardians would have gone their separate ways—or killed each other—long ago.
“I wanted to see if you would stop yourself. You can’t always rely on me to control your temper for you.”
Jules forced a deep breath. He couldn’t deny that Eli had a point. “I still don’t understand why you won’t send a task force to Baltimore. I understand why you won’t send me, but—”
“Why Baltimore?”
Jules blinked in confusion. “Uh, because Ian is there, killing people, and we’re supposedly dedicated to stopping people like him.”
Eli shrugged. “Why not New York, then? I guarantee you there are Killers in New York. It’s far too good a hiding place for Killers not to take advantage of it. I’m sure there’s a bigger population there than in Baltimore. Or what about D.C.? Boston?” He shook his head. “There are too few of us. If we start taking on the world, we’ll be destroyed.”
“I’m not asking you to take on the world! Just Baltimore.”
“Just so you can personally get your revenge. It’s not a good enough reason, especially when the circumstances are so suspicious. It’s not impossible for other vampires to band together against us, especially if they institute a divide-and-conquer strategy.” He shook his head once more. “No, Jules. I can’t risk it. I’m sorry.”
Jules felt his temper rising again and ruthlessly tamped it back down. This was obviously an argument he couldn’t win.
He didn’t know how he was going to swallow the bitter pill of Ian alive and well and killing in Baltimore. But somehow he was going to have to. Because only the worst kind of idiot would defy Eli’s direct orders and single-handedly take on a mature Killer on his home turf.
2
AT THREE O’CLOCK IN the morning, Jules decided it was pointless to lie to himself any longer. Whatever had awakened inside him when he’d first seen Ian’s picture in the paper was not about to go back to sleep. No matter what Eli ordered.
He sighed heavily as he folded a cashmere sweater into his suitcase. Eli did not tolerate rebellion. At the turn of the last century, he’d let a Guardian leave the organization. A century of living outside Eli’s calming influence had turned Archer Montgomery, a former Guardian, into the Broad Street Banger. Eli wouldn’t chance something like that happening again. If Jules made it out of Philly alive, he knew he could never come back.
The thought of never coming back made Jules’s throat ache, and he cursed Ian for the millionth time for so thoroughly destroying his life. He was giving up everything that made his immortal life feel worthwhile by defying Eli’s orders. And yet, he had enough self-awareness to realize he had no choice. Tonight’s explosion of temper wasn’t his first, and it wouldn’t be his last, as long as Ian lived. He’d rather damn himself in his quest for vengeance than risk killing one of his fellow Guardians in a fit of rage. Only Eli and Drake were powerful enough to subdue him if his control lapsed again, and he couldn’t count on them being there next time it did.
Jules closed his bulging suitcase and yanked the zipper, practically pulling it off in his agitation. He got down on his hands and knees and pulled another suitcase out from under his bed. If he was never coming back, he might as well take as much luggage as he could carry.
The doorbell rang just as he stood up with the second suitcase in hand. He started. Had Eli guessed his intentions and sent a party of Guardians to stop him—which would likely mean a death sentence?
No, he thought as he slowly descended the narrow staircase to the first floor of his house. Eli was capable of ruthlessness when necessary, but it was a subtle ruthlessness. For instance, everyone knew Eli had killed Tim Carter, a Guardian who’d rebelled against him during the Banger case last year. But Eli had never said a word about it to anyone. It was as if Carter had never existed. Jules had nerved himself up to ask Eli about it once, but the Founder’s only answer had been a long, silent stare.
Jules reached out with his senses as he approached the door and discovered that, as he’d expected, there was no party of vampires on his doorstep. All he sensed was a single mortal presence. His brows drew together as he leaned toward the peephole. What mortal would be coming to his house at three in the morning?
“Come on, Jules, open up already. It’s cold out here.”
Standing on his doorstep was the last person he’d expect to see at a time like this. He threw the door open and stood aside to let Carolyn come in out of the cold. A brief psychic survey reassured him that Gray wasn’t lurking nearby.
“Brr,” Carolyn said, tucking her hands under her arms and hunching in on herself. She wore a warm-looking—if not particularly flattering—puffy coat, but no hat and no scarf and no gloves. No wonder she was cold.
She turned to face him in his foyer. The cold had reddened her cheeks and chapped her lips, but what caught his eye and made guilt kick him in the gut was the bruise darkening on her chin.
He forced himself to meet her eyes. “I’m very sorry about what happened,” he said, wincing involuntarily as he remembered the feel of his elbow making contact. “I—”
She held up both hands. “Don’t worry about it. It was an accident.” She flashed him a rueful smile. “I was a cop for eight years. This is hardly the first bruise I’ve gotten in the line of duty.”
He grimaced and gestured her into the living room, wishing he could offer her something to drink to ward off the chill. But the only thing he had in the house was milk and blood, and he felt quite certain she wouldn’t want any of that.
Carolyn opened her coat, but didn’t take it off. Then she sat on his butter-yellow leather sofa and looked up at him inquiringly. He was too edgy to want to sit, but he could hardly stand here looming over her, so he lowered himself onto an arm chair
“So, what brings you to this part of town?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Just coming to see if you were all right.”
“Me?” He wondered if there were anything she could have said that would have taken him aback more. “You’re the one with the battle scars.”
Her smile was warm and sweet. “I think yours are internal and harder to treat.” The smile faded and she leaned forward, peering at his face intently. “How’s your back?”
He stretched tentatively, but felt no twinge of lingering pain. Luckily for him, Eli hadn’t hit him hard enough to break anything, and bruises healed in a manner of minutes. “It’s fine.”
/>
Her forehead furrowed. “What happened in there exactly?”
He wished he knew. “Eli’s one scary dude. Even I didn’t know he could do that.”
“Makes you wonder what else he can do that we don’t know about.”
“I suggest you don’t think about it. That’s what I’ve decided to do.”
She smiled faintly. “So, you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. Really. Thanks for caring enough to check on me. You’re a really nice person.” A lump formed in his throat. He had to shut up immediately, before he said something else that sounded suspiciously like a goodbye.
“You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you Jules?”
He hoped he managed to keep his expression bland and unconcerned. “You mean like take off for Baltimore?” He grinned at her, trying for his usual easy sarcasm, not at all sure he was pulling it off. “Only an idiot would do something like that
She pushed a lock of blonde hair out of her face. He could hear the crackle of static as she did, and when she took her hand away, several stray strands floated with their electrical charge. Amazing how she still managed to look so pretty with her cold-reddened skin, a bruise on her chin, and her hair standing on end. She was way too good for the likes of Gray James!
“So the question becomes, are you an idiot?”
Once again he forced himself to make eye contact. Her detective instincts would go on high alert if he didn’t. “No, I’m not an idiot,” he said, looking her straight in the eye and trying to sound a hundred percent certain. If Carolyn caught wind of his plan, she’d very likely rat him out before he could get out of town. She’d think it was for his own good, but she’d be wrong.
He couldn’t tell from the look on her face whether she believed him or not, but she seemed willing to let the subject drop. “I’m glad to hear that,” she said, rising to her feet and zipping her coat once more.
“I still don’t quite get why you’re here,” he said as he walked her to the door.
“I just wanted to let you know there were no hard feelings.”
“You should have hard feelings. I should never have let my temper get the better of me like that.”
She patted his shoulder. “If it makes you feel any better,” she said with a wry grin, “Gray has enough hard feelings for both of us.”
“I’ll bet. Does he know you’re here?”
She laughed and opened the door, stepping out into the cold. “If you tell him, I’ll deny it to my dying day.” She reached out a hand. “Now let’s shake on the no-hard-feelings thing.”
Her contagious good humor momentarily lightened his heart. Instead of shaking her hand as she’d intended, he raised it to his lips and with exaggerated ceremony planted a courtly kiss on her knuckles. She rolled her eyes, extricating her hand from his.
“You’re a hopeless charmer, Jules,” she teased
He put his hand over his heart and bowed his head. “Thank you. And if you ever get tired of Gray …”
She smacked his shoulder with the back of her hand, but he thought she was secretly a little pleased with his flirting. Or maybe, he thought as he watched her walk away, she was just relieved because the flirting was more “normal” behavior for him.
Knowing his performance for Carolyn wasn’t exactly Oscar material, Jules decided he’d better leave town as soon as possible. Too bad he’d never bothered learning to drive, but it hadn’t seemed worth the trouble. It’s not like he ever went anywhere. Now he was stuck taking the train, which wasn’t running at three in the morning. But as soon as the sun set tomorrow night, he’d be on the first train out of there.
Wishing he had a little more time to plan his strategy, he hurried back to his bedroom to continue packing.
HANNAH MOORE’S OFFICE ALWAYS seemed huge and empty, now that she was going it on her own. She’d donated Carolyn’s desk to charity so she wouldn’t have to be reminded daily that her former business partner had moved on to a bizarre new career as a vampire hunter. Hannah wondered if she ought to go looking for another partner, but she wasn’t sure she could stand working with anyone other than Carolyn. She chuckled to herself as she unlocked the door and flipped the light on. Okay, so maybe it was more of a problem that no one else could stand working with her.
Her first task of the morning—as always—was to start a big pot of coffee, of which she would drink way too many cups before the morning was even halfway past. She inhaled the rich, heady scent of the freshly ground coffee as she scooped it into the basket. Then she pushed the brew button and waited impatiently for the carafe to fill.
“Extra strength, as usual?” a voice asked from behind her.
A little shriek of surprise escaped her as she whirled around to see Carolyn standing in the doorway. Hannah put a hand to her heart and glared at her best friend.
“Geez, Carolyn! You’ve been hanging around with Dracula too long. Don’t you know better than to sneak up on someone?” Hannah hated just about everything about vampires, but that quiet, sneaky way they moved was at the top of the list.
“I thought we had an agreement that you weren’t going to call Gray Dracula anymore. Or Vlad.”
Hannah sniffed and pushed her new glasses—damn, she hated those things!—back up her nose. “I forgot. So sue me.” There was a mug’s worth of coffee in the bottom of the carafe, so she stuck her mug in the stream and poured, sticking the carafe back on the warmer with only a few drops spilled. “Want a cup?”
“No thanks,” Carolyn said, holding up her hand. “It’s too close to bedtime.”
“Ah, so this is still yesterday for you.” Doing daytime investigation work for the Guardians while spending quality time with Gray at night, Carolyn had adopted a bizarre sleep schedule that Hannah still hadn’t quite figured out.
“Something like that,” her friend laughed, taking a seat on the couch that served as a waiting room.
Cupping her hands around her coffee mug, Hannah joined her. And that was when she got a good look at the side of her face. Hannah thunked her mug down on the coffee table, heedless of the coffee that spilled over the edge and dampened the Sports Illustrated beneath it.
“If Gray did that to you, there’s nowhere on this earth he can run that I won’t find him.” She hadn’t liked Gray when he was mortal—in her opinion, he’d been way too much of a stick-in-the-mud for Carolyn—and she didn’t like him any better as a vampire. He wasn’t a stick-in-the-mud anymore, but he’d morphed into a testosterone-laden alpha male. The kind of guy who was guaranteed to rub Hannah the wrong way.
Carolyn waved off her concern. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t Gray.”
“Then who was it?”
“Don’t worry about it, Hannah. That’s not what I’m here to talk about.”
Hannah bit her tongue. She’d always felt this overwhelming urge to protect her friend, but she was trying to learn to back off. There was something about Carolyn’s petiteness, her fragile, china-doll looks that made Hannah want to mother her. Only Carolyn didn’t need mothering. Despite her delicate looks, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. And now that Gray was back in her life, filling the great emotional void he’d left when he’d jilted her … Hannah had to admit she kind of missed being needed.
She picked up her coffee cup, ignoring the drips that ran down its side, and took a gratifying sip. From the seriousness of Carolyn’s expression, she guessed she’d need the caffeine. “So, what’s going on? Another vamp invasion?” Usually, Hannah resisted asking about Carolyn’s vampire-hunting job. When at all possible, she’d rather pretend that vampires were just a myth. Hey, what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her, right?
“No, nothing like that.” Carolyn rubbed her hands together in a gesture that looked suspiciously nervous.
Uh-oh. This didn’t look good at all. “Come on, honey. Out with it.” She couldn’t help harboring a secret hope that Carolyn had decided to dump Gray. And all the rest of the Guardians, for that matter. Yes, Gray unden
iably made her happy, and Hannah was correspondingly happy for her. But unlike Carolyn, who was living very much in the now, Hannah couldn’t help peeking into the future.
What would happen when Carolyn aged, and Gray didn’t? Gray had broken her heart once—would he do it again?
“Okay,” Carolyn said. “This is going to sound kind of weird.”
Hannah groaned. “Man, if you think it’s weird, I’m in big trouble!”
Her friend grinned at that. “You’ve got a point there. But seriously. It’s about Jules.”
Definitely not something Hannah’d been expecting. “Jules? You mean Mr. I’m-prettier-than-you-are?”
Carolyn stifled a laugh. “You know anyone else named Jules? Yes, him.”
Hannah hadn’t set eyes on any vamp but Gray since last year’s excitement. And that was just the way she wanted things. Actually, if she could have skipped Gray, too, life would have been just about perfect. “So, what about him? Did he break a nail?”
“Hannah,” Carolyn said reproachfully.
“Hey, I can’t help it. First impressions die hard.” And Jules made quite a first impression! His wardrobe must cost more than the gross national product of several small countries. And he probably spent hours in front of a mirror to get his hair just so—the casually wind-blown look that he no doubt thought was sexy.
Okay, so maybe it was kinda sexy, but his obvious pride in his appearance ruined the effect.
“Okay, go on. What about Jules?”
Carolyn bit her lip. “I think he’s in trouble.”
Frowning, Hannah listened as Carolyn told her about the outburst at Eli’s. She had to admit, she kind of agreed with Jules. There was something downright wrong about letting this Squires guy just keep killing people with impunity. Still, it wasn’t like there was anything anyone could do about it if the Great and Powerful Oz put his foot down.
“Okay, so Jules is going off the deep end. So what?”
“So I think he’s going to run off to Baltimore after this guy without Eli’s permission.”