“Finally, someplace we can talk.”The voice wasn’t Alex’s.
The lights came on, and the man pushed the hood from his shaved head.A vampire.Without a doubt.His fangs were fully extended, and his eyes were red-rimmed with the need for blood.There was a large tattoo of an ankh on the side of his neck.
“Who are you?”Silas asked.
The man raised his hands, palms out.He was unarmed.Of course, with superhuman speed and razor-sharp teeth, he was absolutely lethal anyway.The bite of a shifted werewolf was deadly to vamps, but any other time of the month, vampires were stronger and faster.Meredith’s finger twitched on the trigger.
“I have a message for you from Alex,” the vamp said to Silas, ignoring her.
“Where is Alex?”Silas asked.
“Alex warns you to stop looking for him.Laina was only the beginning.If you don’t stop, everyone you love will die a slow and painful death.”
“Where is he?Who’s helping him?”Silas took a step forward, aiming at the vamp’s head.
The vampire shivered violently.“Everyone helps him,” he mumbled.“We have to.All of us.”He took a step back, avoiding one of the cocktail tables.There was nowhere for him to go.No way out but the door he came in through.
“Who, vampires?Why?Why are you helping him?”
“Just stay away from him or Laina dies and Jason is next.”The vamp reached inside the zipper of his hoodie.
“Hands in the air!”Meredith yelled.
But the threat went unheeded.The vamp pulled a stake from inside his sweatshirt and thrust it into his own heart.Meredith’s gun discharged, although she hadn’t consciously pulled the trigger.The bullet passed through the vampire’s stake-holding hand, but it was too late.
The stake retracted into the vamp’s chest cavity, his body shaking around it, vibrating harder and faster until one arm and then the other dropped and shattered on the floor.The vamp’s legs followed, crumbling to dust and causing the head and torso to collapse.A shower of sparks sprayed forth as the remaining pieces of the vampire decomposed into ash right in front of her.
She stepped forward, her gun still trained on the pile of soot even though not a single bone remained.She kicked the gray dust with the toe of her boot.
“Fucking bastard.Some guys would rather implode than tell the honest truth.”Meredith groaned.“Can the dragon fae amulet control minds?”
“Not that I know of.And this wasn’t just any mind.Vampire minds are far more resistant to fae magic than human ones.”
“You saw that symbol on his neck, right?You think that’s some kind of spell marker or sigil?Maybe there’s more than fae magic involved.”
“I don’t know.But I’m sure of one thing,” Silas said.
“Yeah?”
“We’re getting closer.Alex wouldn’t have sacrificed one of his pawns to warn me off”—Silas pointed at the mound of dust—“unless he felt threatened.Which confirms what we suspected before—he’s vulnerable and we’re close.”
Silas could barely keephis eyes open.By the time he’d confirmed, with Meredith’s help, that the small bedroom at Copper Herald’s had been completely cleaned out while they were chasing the vampire, a soul-sapping exhaustion had settled over him.Alexhadbeen staying there.The vampire was a decoy.And now both were gone.
The hollow gong of defeat accompanied him through his front door.Even the wag of Maggie’s stubby tail didn’t serve to lighten his mood.He locked up and flopped onto his bed, fully clothed.What if he wasn’t strong enough to catch Alex?Or cunning enough?The pack was counting on their alpha.Worse, Laina might pay for his ineptitude with her life.
He closed his eyes and groaned.He could use a drink, but he was old enough to know that this type of self-loathing didn’t mix well with alcohol.He wasn’t above drowning his sorrows, but he understood when he was flirting with dependence.He had no intention of going down that road.Too many people were counting on him.Or maybe he was too tired to lift a bottle even if he had one.He closed his eyes and let himself slip away.
Too soon, bright sunlight filtered through the cracks beneath his lids and warmed his face.Morning already?He rubbed his eyes and opened them slowly.The light was blinding, his view of the room coming together from the edges as his vision adjusted.And then she was there.Soleil, blinking at him from the center of the glow, her hair down in loose waves around her golden shoulders.
“I’m sorry to wake you,” she said softly.“I heard about Laina and needed to see for myself that you were okay.”
He pushed himself up on an elbow, shading his eyes with one cupped hand.
Her light dimmed.“Better?”
“Better.”He hadn’t told Soleil a thing about the case in days.He still trusted her, but after what Logan had said about her date with a demon, he’d decided to be careful.She might be benevolent, but the wrong secret passed between her and one of her lovers could ruin him.
“How is she?”
