“Yeah, maybe.” Jared shrugged. “Yeah, he must have been.”
But there’s something in his voice that made me think that he doesn’t believe that.
I met Eddie’s eyes. I knew that he’d heard the same stories that I had. Stories of vampire priests. Those who fought the demon by becoming the demon, ultimately sacrificing themselves for the greater good, but taking out their vampiricbrethren in the course. Surely some of those, if that was true and not just a rumor, would have succumbed to the powers of the vampire, sacrificing their duty to eradicate the creatures in order to become one themselves.
The thought made me shiver. I hadn’t dealt with many vampires in my career. As Jared said, compared to the demons who infiltrate society, they’re a rare breed.
“—your strength?”
I’d lost the thread of the conversation, but caught on quickly when Jared said, “Yeah. Like I said, I don’t do the human blood thing, so I’m not as strong. But I’m also not a whack job. I consider it a win-win.”
“Why are you in high school anyway?”
“What else am I going to do? I have to grow up, at least as far as I can. I mean I can pass for twenty-two or twenty-three, but after that I have to move and start all over again.”
“Move?” Allie asked. “Where did you move from?”
“Yeah. I buy fake documents. I have a parent on paper who’s just never around. That way I can deal with all of the banking stuff. Most of the time I’m twenty-one. It’s just easier that way. I’m only seventeen on paper now because I wanted to go to Coronado High. And I moved here from Vegas. A lot of vampires in Vegas. And not all of them are whack jobs.”
“You moved last year?”
“Yeah, a few months before the end of the last school year. I came in as a sophomore.”
“Why?” That time, I asked the question.
“I got word that I might be needed. That there was work to be done. Lots of demons.”
“Got word from whom?” I asked.
He looked me dead in the eye. “I got word.”
I considered pushing the point, but decided not to. Trust takes time after all, and I understood why he might not trustme yet, just as I didn’t completely trust him. “You didn’t bother reducing the demon population while we were all in Rome.”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t want to risk getting staked. I needed to be able to keep an eye on Allie,” he added, his eyes going straight to hers.
Her brows rose. “So you’re just here to babysit me?”
He shrugged. “I want to fight demons. I want to help. You can call and ask, but I’m not one of the bad guys.”
“Call and ask? Who?” Allie looked baffled, but I already knew. Somehow, some way, he had a connection withForza. And I’d lay odds that it wasn’t Father Corletti who was his contact, but Father Donnelly.
“Why didn’t you say something before?” Allie asked after Jared confirmed my suspicion. “Like last school year?”
He poked at his cinnamon roll, still not having taken a bite. “I don’t know. All of this maybe? I mean, your mom’s a demon hunter. You’re what? A demon hunter in training?”
“I—” Allie began.
“Her job is to kill me,” he interrupted, pointing to me. “There’s a demon inside me, after all.”
Allie looked at me, her eyes full of pain and fear. “That’s your job? That’s what it boils down to?”
“Oh, baby, no,” I said, knowing the question wasn’t about Jared at all. “That’s not what my job means at all.”
CHAPTER 14
