Eli’s dark eyes rose in my memory. What would he think of what I was doing? But I already knew. He would be repulsed. Heartbroken.
A fresh surge of pain tore through me, sharper than before. My chest felt strange—hot, heavier than it ought to have been. I wiped my burning eyes and shoved the thoughts of Eli away before they could do me in.
Instead, I followed the killer’s scent down the street. It abruptly vanished in an alleyway behind a store that sold automotive parts. That probably meant the killer had gotten into a vehicle.
There were two security cameras on either corner of the building. Assuming they were operational, one or both would have caught the face of the killer—and their vehicle. Perhaps even a license plate, which could lead me right to their front door.
“Gotcha,” I whispered. But I didn’t feel the cold, predatory triumph I always had.
Instead, I merely felt… resignation. Whoever had done this to Joseph had to die. They couldn’t be allowed to do it to anyone else. But there was no dark, sharp-edged glee in that knowledge.
I tried to force it, but the smile died on my lips as quickly as it had come. The hunt—usually the best part, aside from the actual killing—felt empty. Just as hollow asIhad been before I met Eli.
“Stop it,” I said to myself. I didn’t care that I sounded like a madman. No one else was around to hear it.
Given that it was the middle of the night, the automotive business was closed. I could easily break in, but I’d no doubt set off alarms in the process. The alarm company would likely call the police and the store manager. They’d come to inspect the damage and file a report. And then, with a hefty dose of hypnotism, they’d be more than happy to help me find the footage I needed.
But that would take hours. Apart from not being subtle, it was a lot of effort. Far easier to come back tomorrow morning and hypnotize the manager on duty into handing over the footage from the night of the killing.
I could certainly wait a few more hours. After all, I was a patient monster.
It didn’t occur to me until I’d gotten back into my vehicle and started driving that there was another reason for my delay. A much better—and far more terrifying—reason. Because deep down, I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to do this anymore.
CHAPTER NINETEEN || ELI
Stalking a vampire is insane behavior. I was deeply aware of this fact as I sat in my car and watched Nicolas walk into Chuck’s Car Parts, a little mom-and-pop automotive store near the University of Southern California campus. After he entered, I circled the block, then parked halfway down the street. Oddly, though the door had opened easily when Nicolas walked in, another customer tried to enter a few minutes later and found it locked.
I had spent most of the night in my car. I considered driving away and never coming back. But I couldn’t leave Sam. And as much as I rationally wanted to, I knew I couldn’t leave Nicolas either.
Not yet.
Not until I saw it with my own eyes. I needed to see the monster Nicolas told me he was—to accept, truly accept—that I had fallen in love with a lie. Otherwise, there was no way in hell I’d ever be able to stay away from him. I was in too deep.
With that in mind, I drove back to our street just before sunrise, parked halfway down the block, and waited for hours until I saw Nicolas emerge from his home with a stony expression and climb into his silver Mercedes.
And then I followed him.
As I sat there outside the automotive store and waited, questions swirled in my mind, but I had no answers.
Was Nicolas feeding on someone in there? Was he killing? After all, he said he had killed too many people to count.
Was he adding to the tally right now?
The thought turned my stomach, and I sucked in a deep, steadying breath.
When that didn’t work, I fished another antacid from the large bottle I kept stashed in my glove box and popped it into my mouth.
I needed to keep it together.
Or, no.
What I needed was to really believe him—to believe that he was a murderer. Because he enjoyed it.
My life depended on my ability to do that.
Because I was already too curious about him: this supernatural creature who had just dropped into my otherwise normal world, who made my heart stutter, who made me feel impossibly safe in his presence—despite that he was apparently a cold-blooded killer.
Who had let me fall in love with him.
