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 lips 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?”
He dropped the vampire and whirled toward her. Blood dripped from his mouth.
She’d wondered if he were fully human. Thought perhaps he might be a hybrid. Or a demon. Maybe a shifter.
In the end, she’d been leaning toward him being a charmer, like Pak.
But she’d never thought he was a vampire.
Not a vamp. Not him.
He licked his lips. Licking the blood away.
“You’re a fucking vampire.” What had Ian said? Shit, stupid, he’d said—He’s with you, Dee. Standing so close.
Simon had been with her from the beginning, sneaking under her skin. Getting too close.
The perfect setup.
She’d trusted him. Vampire. No, no—
“Easy.” Simon held up his hands. “I’m on your side, Dee.”
No, he wasn’t. He knew the vamp he’d just attacked. “You’ve been setting me up.”
“No. I swear, I’ve been trying to help you.”
Cigarettes and old smoke burned her nose. Ian had come to join the party. “It’s time,” he called out and Dee didn’t glance his way. Fucking crazy Ian. He’d been insane since he and Brian shot up on that bad batch years ago and—
“It’s time, bitch,” another voice growled and Dee’s gaze shot to her left. The woman—the one in the skin-tight dress and the spike heels, the woman with blood soaking her neck and a weird, trembling smile on her lips—that crazy chick lunged at her.
And sank a knife into Dee’s chest.
“No!”
Dee’s knees gave way and she hit the ground, hard. The bloodstained bitch stared down at her, that stupid grin still on her face. “They said you wouldn’t fear me. What? Didn’t you think a human could kill, too?”
Dee’s fingers fumbled with the hilt of the knife. Fire pulsed from her heart.
Her heart…slowing, slowing…
“Dee!” Simon shoved the bitch out of the way. He grabbed Dee’s shoulders, his fingers biting into her flesh. “Oh, shit, babe, hold on!”
She blinked and tried to focus on his face. What big teeth you have. “Vam…pire…” A croak. She tried to jerk free from him. Weapon. She needed her weapon.
Dark spots danced before her eyes.
“I won’t hurt you! I won’t! I swear, I’d never—”
Vampires lied.
Everyone lied. Even the victims. No, the victims didn’t just lie. They stabbed you in the fucking heart.
Laughter. The bitch’s laughter.
Dee’s fingers curled around the hilt.
“Dying! We’re dying tonight…” Ian’s stupid singsong voice. “Death’s here. Standing right here…”
“Dee…”
“Thanks for telling us where to find her.” The bitch was talking again and Dee blinked, sure she was speaking to Simon. He set me up? Why?
She’d…trusted him.
And been so damn blind.
Ian laughed. Loud. Deep. Crazy. “Doesn’t matter what I said, nothing could have changed. Nothing ever changes. Death is coming…for you, too…”
Ian had told the woman where to find her? I dreamed about us last night.
Ice numbed her body, gentled the fire in her chest.
“You’ll be all right.” Simon. His fingers were still on her flesh, but she could barely feel them now. No, she couldn’t feel much, but she could still see—him. Fangs out and gleaming. Eyes—pitch black. A vampire’s eyes.
She wrenched the knife out of her chest. The fire roared to life again and her heart—
Dying.
“Dee, babe, no—”
She fumbled. The knife slipped from her fingers. “Bastard,” she whispered. “Why…didn’t I…see y-you?” She’d been too weak with him, from the beginning. Needed him, wanted him—
Cared.
So dumb. She should have known better.
“You won’t die. I won’t let you!” His bared fangs came toward her throat.
“No,” a breath, because that was all she had.
“We die tonight!” Ian yelled. “Tonight! Brian, are you waiting for me?”
“We’re getting the hell out of here,” Simon growled and then he grabbed her, jerking her up against his chest.
Vampire. Dee tried to shove against him. Failed. Her hands just weren’t working right now.
“You’re not going any damn place, bastard.”
Dee’s head fell back against Simon’s shoulder as he turned to face the mouth of the alley. The exit that was blocked by easily half a dozen vampires.
Trap.
The human had been the willing bait. Lure. Should have known.
Stupid fucking rookie mistake. But she’d been so busy watching Simon, that she hadn’t seen the threat screaming in the shadows.
