Kallie.
Stark’s already moving toward the stairwell, a blur of deadly purpose, and I’m right on his heels.
We take the stairs two at a time, Stark tracking the bloodsuckers by scent.
On the third floor landing he pauses, his eyes bleeding to red, lips curling to reveal his fangs. “Here.”
We burst through the doors and startle the shit out of two vampires, their skin tight and gray over their skulls, their eyes burning with feral hunger. Kallie is further down the hall, pushing a cart with cleaning supplies, dancing along to–what I assume–is a song blasting through her headphones.
“She doesn’t even know she’s in danger,” Stark mutters, and the disbelief in his voice echoes the knot tightening in my own gut. How can she be so careless?
The leeches’ heads swivel back and forth between the threat and their target.
It doesn’t matter.
As soon as Kallie rounds the corner and disappears from sight, Stark and I strike.
We take them down easily. Too easily, maybe, but I don’t let myself think about that.
Stark was right about her. She can’t keep walking around like that—headphones in, oblivious, smelling like that—without someone watching her back.
I catch myself.
She’s a lead.
That’s it.
Stark looks at me for a long moment, then dips his chin once.
I sheathe my dagger.
Truce. For now.
Chapter Twenty-Two
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE CRUST
For once, Mother Nature is on my side.
It’s warm tonight, warmer than it has been lately when I get off my evening shift at Hôtel Château Blanc.
Unfortunately, the weather is the only thing going right.
How I decided that tonight of all nights would be the night I forgot every shred of professional training and common sense I possess will forever remain a mystery.
One minute I was inspecting a broken shower and the next, I was making out with a guest.
A guest.
I bury my face in my hands for half a second as I walk.
What is wrong with me?
When he opened the door and I recognized him—one blue eye and one brown—from the street outside my apartment, my brain simply stopped functioning.
Completely.
There was no logic.
