Marius stood, yawning. “I say we get a good night’s sleep and take a fresh look at things in the morning. With any luck, Gordon will have a lead for us to follow.”
I frowned. “I’m not sure a lead would be a good thing, considering how Gordon operates.”
The man had a habit of sharing information in fractions, keeping the whole picture to himself.
Henrik stepped to the door. “I’ll see what else I might uncover.”
We watched him go, then listened for his footsteps, though none came, as usual.
“Creepy as hell,” Bene muttered.
“Yes, but you have to admire his persistence,” Gen said. “He seems as committed to finding out what happened to Claudette as the rest of us.”
“Operative word:seems,” Marius muttered.
“Oh, come on,” she chided. “Can you not give him any credit? Maybe he actually cares.”
Bene nodded morosely. “Claudette might have had her issues, but she had a way of making you care.”
“I know what you’re saying,” Marius said more gently. “But vampires are a lot like Gordon. It’s always safe to assume they have an ulterior motive.”
“Such as?” Gen challenged.
Marius shrugged, heading to the bedroom. “Ask me in the morning.”
* * *
The night passed much as the previous one had — minus a rooftop foray with Gen, to our mutual frustration. Mina had pulled Gen into the kitchen for a private chat about their father, Gordon, and who knew what else, making a late night even later. Meanwhile, Bene shifted, stretched, and settled down to sleep in lion form, half blocking the hallway, making it hard to sneak out quietly.
Stupid lion,my beast grumbled.
That meant Gen and I had to satisfy ourselves with lying as close as possible, her on the couch, me on the floor beside her in tiger form.
“I can’t decide whether I’m in heaven or hell,” Gen whispered, gently scratching the sweet spot between my ears.
I leaned into her touch, chuffing in agreement. Just being this close made my heart swell. But wishing for more — much more — had a way of dampening that thrill.
Eventually, I fell asleep. And when I woke in the morning…
Gen leaned down to touch me and whisper, “I slept well, but I’ll scream if I don’t get to do more than scratch your head soon.”
I chuffed, telling her I felt the same way.
For better or worse, Henrik didn’t return in the morning. And, for better or worse, Gordon had no news for us.
“I hate to say it, but this feels like the calm before the storm,” Bene observed over our breakfast of croissants and coffee.
Marius nodded. “We should enjoy it while we can, because that storm is guaranteed to hit soon.”
He was right. The morning dragged by as we tried different lines of investigation, but everything sped into high gear in the afternoon, triggered by a call from Gordon.
“Note down this name and address,” he barked into my phone.
Nohello, no questions about the leads we’d been following. Not even his usualDon’t tell my goddaughterswarning.
Clearly, the warlock was desperate. A very dangerous situation, especially for us, his fall guys.
His hacker had identified Anonymous. Gordon made me repeat the name and address twice, then hollered at how long we were taking to get our asses over there.
