“He needs to watch that tendency. It’ll get him into trouble soon.” He held the cop’s stare. “Real soon.” He unknotted his fingers.
“Christ, Dee, where’d you find him?” Tony muttered, straightening his shirt.
“In an alley, one littered with bullets.” She pushed in between the two of them. “Same place I found you a few years back.”
A grunt, then his lips started to curl, just a bit.
“Tony, we were attacked right before dawn. Some guys in ski masks found us at Simon’s house. They shot up the place.” Her hand lifted to her shoulder. To the wound Simon had all but forgotten when he’d had her in that bed. “We were lucky to get out alive.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah, that’s where we are.” She swallowed and Simon heard the soft click. “But I’ll be damned if I stay here. I’m not going to keep hiding out, waiting for the vamps to strike. We needed to rest. We needed to recover—done that.”
Simon knew where this was going. Knew, and didn’t like it.
“Now it’s time to hunt these bastards,” she said. “Because I really don’t like it when jerkoffs try to kill me, especially when I’m already down.”
“Can’t say I like it much, either,” Simon added.
Tony’s gaze snapped to him, then back to Dee. “You really think you’ll be able to find the vamps?”
A little shrug. “It’s what I do.” Her chin was up. The woman was cute when she was promising death. “I was weak before, I’m not now.”
Yeah, um, humans didn’t recover that fast from concussions and gunshots. Maybe she was feeling all good and vampire-pumped-for-killing, but the woman still wasn’t 100 percent.
Neither was he.
Not yet.
“Brass is leaning on me like a tree about to fall.” Tony blew out a hard breath. “It’s those witnesses who say they saw you fighting with the vic at Onyx. They’re nailing your coffin shut.”
Her gaze darted to Simon. “That part’s right, Tony. Lisa…met me behind the bar. She was working for the vamps.”
“A lure?” the cop asked.
“More a messenger,” Simon said. “You know, the cheery kind that comes and says You’re going to die. Beg for death. Blah. Blah.”
Tony blinked.
Dee gave a little shrug. “She pissed me off. I lost my temper.”
“That’s the problem.” Lines of worry tightened the cop’s face. “Too many folks know about that temper of yours. It’s not a leap to think you met up with the woman again, and got angry one more time, so angry you didn’t stop yourself when the stake came out. After all, it’s easy to kill, isn’t it? So easy.”
The guy sounded like he was speaking from experience. As if he could ever compare. “Give us time and we’ll prove Dee’s innocent.” The words snapped out. Not what he’d been planning. Simon rubbed his temples. The throbbing was getting worse. The sleep hadn’t been enough for him. To recover fully, he’d need so much more.
“The DA knows the score about this town,” Dee told them. “Pak told me, after Erin Jerome’s case…the DA knows.”
Erin Jerome. Simon knew the name. Erin was the assistant district attorney. She was also involved with one of the Night Watch hunters, Jude, the shifter.
“Figured the bastard knew more than he let on.” Tony ran a hand through his hair. “Too many cases that seemed to disappear before court date.”
“This one has to disappear, too.” Dee’s body vibrated with tension. “I’ll bring you a witness. I’ll bring proof that I’m innocent, and I want Clark to make this thing vanish.”
“And the vamps?”
“I’ll make them vanish.”
Big promise. Real tough to keep.
Tony stared at her. Too deep and way too long.
“Tony, give me this time. You know me.”
Too well it seemed.
A grim nod. “Forty-eight hours.”
“Tony—”
“It’s all I can do. I’m not the only one on this case and I won’t be able to hold the others back longer than that.” A muscle flexed along his jaw. “Forty-eight hours—and you bring me a vamp who’ll convince Clark you’re clear or else I’ll have to lock you up.”
She whistled. “Not giving me much time to work, are you?”
“I’m giving you all that I can.” He stepped toward her, cupped her cheek with his palm, and very nearly lost a hand. “The last thing I want is to have to take you in, but I might not have a choice.”
Simon gave him a long, level look. “There’s always a choice.” Always. Might not be the right choice, and that was the problem.
Tony dropped his hand. “Guess you’re gonna be her backup?”
“Guess so.”
“Then you’d better take care of her or I’ll be coming to kick your ass.”
Doubtful.
The cop headed for the door. “Better hurry out of here,” he tossed back, “the way I figure it, two squad cars will be pulling up in about thirty minutes.”
Dick.
“You sent the uniforms after me?” A whistle. “Damn, man, you really did come to toss me in jail.”
The dick in question glanced back at Dee. “No.” A hint of sadness there. Regret. “I came to give you a chance, one I knew the others wouldn’t. And that’s why the uniforms won’t be arriving until you’re gone.” A flash of white teeth. “So move that sweet ass, Dee. Get out there and find those vamps.”
“So where the hell are we headed?” Simon asked, and tightened his fingers around the leather steering wheel. They’d been staying to the back roads, trying to fly under the radar as they headed back to the city, and the silence—thick, heavy—was getting on his last nerve.
Was Dee having regrets? Maybe seeing the old boyfriend had made her hesitate. That jerk had the worst timing.
“There aren’t any feeding rooms in Baton Rouge.”
Feeding rooms. His back teeth clenched. The places set up to look like bars but, deep inside, they were just all-you-can-eat buffets for vampires. Folks went inside and some never came back out. Others got addicted. They became controlled by the vamps, and they would do anything to go back into the rooms.
“Why aren’t there any?” he asked. “I thought those places were in damn near every city now.” Some said they were safe houses for vampires. And those some just really knew how to bullshit.
Not a safe house. More like a slaughterhouse.
Even though humans were the preferred prey in the feeding rooms, the vamps never had to worry about the humans turning on them and shouting to the authorities about the new night club that served up blood. After all, one bite, and a vampire could link with a human’s mind.
A link meant control. You didn’t turn on those who controlled you.
For the humans, it was all too easy to get hooked on the thrill of the bite.
If the vamp wanted the victim to feel pain, the bite could hurt more than a knife wound or gunshot.
The bite could also feel better than sex.
It was all up to the vampire. Pleasure or pain.
Simon slanted a quick glance at Dee’s still figure.
Almost better than sex.
“I’ve made a point of shutting down any feeding room that tries to spring up.”
Oh, yeah, he bet she had. “So where do we start then?”
He felt her eyes. Didn’t have to look, just knew those chocolate eyes were on him. “I thought you had vamp contacts in this town.”
Careful now. “Ah, the vamps I know scattered when word came down about the Born Master.”
“Why? If they weren’t linked to him, there’d be no need to flee.”
The link. The screwed family tree that connected vampires. A Born Master took a victim, and formed a psychic connection with his prey. But if the Master turned that prey into the Taken, and the new vampire took another victim, the Born Master’s connection would trickle into the new prey, and keep trickling down through every blood exchange. Like freaking tenta
cles, reaching out for minds and spirits.
A Born Master wasn’t just stronger physically than other vampires. He was like a psychic black hole, sucking in all the prey he could find.
And controlling them.
A Born Master didn’t just pick up the thoughts of those in his link. He could whisper his thoughts to them. Compel them.
Rule them. His army of helpless minions. Good, bad, everything in between. All his for the taking and for the killing.
The Taken were never truly free. Not until the Born Master who’d started their blood lineage was dead.
Never an easy feat.
“Huh. Well, if your contacts are out, then I guess we’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way.”
Simon knew he was not going to like this. “And that would be?” He braked at a Stop sign, one that had been spray painted a garish yellow. They’d reached the edge of the city. The part where the good folks never visited. Too many criminals. Too much darkness.
Too much evil.
Simon glanced at Dee. Yep, her eyes were on him. “We find the perfect prey,” she said simply. “Then wait for the vamps to take the bait. When they come up for a bite, we nail their asses.”
“Interesting plan.” His fingertips pounded a fast, hard beat on the steering wheel. “You really think it’s going to work?”
One shoulder lifted. “Figure I’ve got a fifty-fifty shot with it. If it doesn’t, then I have a witch who owes me a favor. Maybe I can get a summoning spell.”
A summoning spell? Now she was talking spooky shit. You had to be damn careful when you used dark magic. You never knew what in the hell would hitch a ride on that darkness and come traveling straight to you.
As he watched her, thinking about his own darkness, a shiver worked over Dee’s body. “Uh, Dee? You okay?”
“Fine. Just cold. Can we turn the heater up?”
Because summers in Baton Rouge were cold. Right. But he still flicked on the heater. Didn’t matter to him. “Maybe we should wait.” He sure wasn’t feeling up to kicking major vampire ass right then. Perhaps after a meal or two.
“No time.” She criss-crossed her arms and rubbed her flesh. She had on a light blouse, one of her shirts she’d found at the cabin. One that gave him a nice glimpse of her breasts. “We’ve already lost a few hours. We hunt, now and—there.”
He followed her suddenly sharp gaze. A man had stepped out of the shadows. The faint red glow of his cigarette lit the night. “Who the hell is that?”
“An informer.” She tilted her head and his stare snapped back to her and to that beautiful bared throat.
Focus.
But the drumming was back in his temples. Harder, more painful than before.
“Ian knows this city. He’ll be able to tell me the latest whispers on the vamps.”
Control. Simon sucked in a deep breath.
“I knew he’d be here.” She unhooked her belt.
“And how’d you know that?” He gritted, turning off the engine.
Dee pointed toward the hollowed-out husk of a building on the left. “Because his brother died in that fire a year ago. He comes here every Friday. He comes to remember.”
Simon narrowed his eyes and looked once more at that glowing cigarette. “Uh, yeah, how’d that fire start?”
“You don’t want to know.” She pushed open the door, then hesitated. “Ian doesn’t take too well to others. Just stay here, okay? I’ll only be a few minutes.”
Staying in the fucking car. Was that what he’d been reduced to?
But the woman was gone. Running across the street. Disappearing in and out of the shadows.
Staying in the fucking car. No. Not his style.
He was there to watch her back. Not to be left behind.
He opened his door soundlessly, then, moving slower than her, but keeping to the same shadows, he began to follow her.
The smoke from the cigarette drifted to her nostrils. Dee stepped into the faint streetlight, deliberately placing herself in Ian’s path. With Ian, you had to identify yourself fast—or he’d attack.
And sometimes, he attacked no matter what.
“Ian.” She made her voice quiet but calm. “Ian, I need your help.”
He was half-hidden by the darkness. The cigarette dangled from his fingertips. He wasn’t smoking. Hadn’t smoked in a year.
“Dee?” The tip of the cigarette bobbed and ash drifted into the night. “That you?”
Okay, he wasn’t coming at her with fists yet. A good sign. She’d told Simon to stay back because one look at him, and she knew Ian would have broken.
The guy just hadn’t been the same since the fire. Not that she blamed him. No, not at all. “Yeah, Ian, it’s me.”
He shifted his stance a bit, bringing the right side of his face more into the light. A strong, hard face. “Heard you killed a human, Dee.” He shook his head. “Bad move that.”
“I didn’t do it, Ian.”
“Humans are supposed to stick together. All those paranormal assholes out there want us gone. We have to fight ’em.”
More ash drifted away.
“I want to fight them tonight, Ian.” She had to keep Ian focused. So hard. The man already had one foot in the grave. Maybe that was how he did it because she sure as hell wasn’t sure how he found out all his information about the Other.
Ian was psychic. She’d always known that. But since the fire, it was like he was some kind of open channel to the darkness in the city.
He took a step forward, and the light drifted across him, across the ruined, twisted, and reddened flesh on the left side of his face.
Dee kept her eyes on his. “Help me, Ian.”
“The vampires are coming for you, Sandra Dee.” His voice had hollowed and taken on that empty tone that came with his visions. “Inching ever closer. Closer than you know…”
Simon caught the scent in the air. Blood. Fresh blood. He jerked to a halt, his nostrils flaring. Dee stood about ten feet away from him, whispering to the bastard in the shadows.
But the blood scent was coming from the left. Drifting from the mouth of that alley. Garbage and decay—and sweet human blood.
He hesitated, his gaze on that yawning opening.
“Help…” The faintest of whispers.
Simon closed his eyes. An attack. Right there, so close.
Close enough for the blood to tempt him.
Dee had been right. This was the perfect place to hunt. But not for them.
These hunting grounds belonged to the vampires.
“Help…m—” A choked gurgle. A death cry.
Shit.
Simon ran for the alley’s entrance.
Dee’s head snapped up at the thunder of footsteps. Simon. She spun around and saw him run into an alley. Where the hell was he going?
Ian grabbed her hand, the hard flesh of his burnt fingers and palm scraping against her. “Coming from the inside, Sandra Dee. The thing you fear will take you tonight.”
And just like that, the odd chill she’d felt in the car was back. “You telling me I’m going to die, Ian?”
His muddy gaze drifted back to the burnt house. “Saw the fire, you know. Dreamed it.”
Ian always had his dreams. Dreams that had sent him to the edge of sanity and beyond. “I know about your dreams.” Everyone knew, human and supernatural.
“Told Brian it wasn’t safe. Told him to leave.”
Brian. Ian’s twin. Addicted to crack and eaten away by cancer.
“But then I felt the fire start, and I had to go to him. I knew—I knew he hadn’t left.”
He’d walked into the flames for his brother. Faced death.
And still Brian had been taken by the flames.
But Ian hadn’t died. Not fully.
“I saw Death that night.” He turned away, so that only the perfect side of his face remained. “I see him now. He’s with you. Standing so close.”
This wasn’t the tip she’d wanted.
His l
ips rose in a humorless curl. “Don’t worry, Sandra Dee. You won’t be alone. I’ll be right there with you. Every minute.”
She rocked back. Shook her head. “I’m not dying tonight.”
But that lop-sided smile didn’t fade. “We both are,” he whispered. “I dreamed about us last night. Sweet, beautiful dreams full of blood and screams.”
A scream pierced the thick silence of the night, and Dee ran for the alley, Simon’s name on her lips.
I’m not dying tonight.
Simon grabbed the vamp and threw him against the wall. The scent of blood flooded his nostrils and the hunger he’d tried so hard to fight bubbled to the surface.
Weak. Just need to feed once more.
No! Dee was too close.
He spared the screaming woman a glance. Blood trickled down her throat. “Get the hell out of here,” he snarled. If the woman had sense, she would already be running.
He opened his mouth and bared his own fangs. “Get. Out.”
But at the sight, the redhead just screamed louder.
And another vampire jumped him.
Dee ran fast, her heart slamming into her ribs. She caught sight of Simon, fighting with another man, both of them spinning and thrashing on the ground as—
Simon’s attacker opened his mouth and sank his fangs into Simon’s shoulder.
“No!” The scream burst from her.
Simon threw the vampire off him, sending the guy hurtling a good ten feet into the air. What—how in hell had he done that?
Some woman was screaming in a continuous howl, the sound piercing Dee’s ears as the chick huddled near a Dumpster.
The vamp rose. “You think you can attack me? Chase, I’ll fucking cut your heart out, you don’t be—”
Simon ran straight for him. Tackled the bastard. “You won’t do a damn thing to me!”
And then he sank his teeth into the vampire’s throat.
Sank his fangs into the vampire’s throat.
Dee froze, every muscle in her body hardening. No, please, Christ, no, this couldn’t be happening.
The screaming snapped off, the silence rough and jolting. Dee wrenched out her stake. Realized her palms were soaked with sweat when she nearly lost her weapon. “Simon?”