Zack tensed as his thoughts strayed into that familiar, now-unwelcome territory. When he was a kid, he hadn’t firmly believed everything his family had said about supernaturals, but after he’d made a mistake in Detroit, he’d tried to keep their philosophies. Nothing he did earned his mother’s trust, and the rest of his family remained unimpressed. He’d dropped out of college and dedicated himself to research and training, but he wasn’t allowed on another hunt.
The family, his mother in particular, was never going to accept him as a hunter unless he proved himself. An email came in while his family was out on a hunt, and he figured it was his best shot to reclaim his dignity and become part of the hunter legacy. After all, he was the son of a Gladwell and a Wright. Fighting evil was in his blood.
The email had led to a hunt, which resulted in discovering Roger sleeping in a coffin. Zack had hesitated because, well, Roger was extremely hot. He wasn’t proud that he’d slipped, but he held no guilt over not “finishing the job.” At first, he’d been all right with his decision because Roger offered a bigger prize. Seamus was an infamous bastard that both Zack’s familial heritages wanted to destroy. The closest anyone had come was in the early 1800’s, and a whole branch of the family had died in the attempt.
Pretending to be a pet would get Zack closer than anyone else had ever been. He’d wanted to explain that to his brother, Cal. Once Cal had seen the bite marks on Zack, he’d decided that Roger needed to be put down.
ZacklikedRoger. Like,reallyliked him, even then. Roger wanted him to open his eyes instead of viewing the world in the demanding black-and-white way his family had taught him. And Roger saw worth in him that his family never had. With that little bit of support, Zack had done what he always did: take in data and make conclusions. Vampires weren’t a monolith any more than humans were. Rogerwasn’tevil.
So when Cal demanded Zack kill Roger and come back to the family, Zack had told him no. In the fight, Zack had seen Cal attempting to stake Roger in the back. Zack had pushed Roger out of the way and taken the blow.
For a second, Cal seemed like he was sorry to drive a stake deep into Zack’s left shoulder.
Clearly, that regret hadn’t lasted. By the time Zack woke from his surgery, his family had disconnected his phone and changed the passwords on the emails and the financials he’d been managing when his parents were on the road. Since he’d left his laptop at home, they’d accessed his social media accounts, and what they didn’t change, they closed down. He’d been helping the family with every waking breath, and suddenly, he was just … out. Discarded. Abandoned.Deleted.
Zack rolled his sore shoulder and tossed his towel back onto the chair. “Please, master. I would like to try again.”
“My love and I have put a great investment into your health.” Josefina slid her phone into a jacket pocket. “If I break you just before you leave, we’ll have wasted a fortune.”
Nell’s mansion had three floors, a dozen guest rooms, two kitchens, a room for video games, and another for old-school games like billiards. There was a workout room, more bathrooms than Zack had had a chance to count, a huge library he was barely allowed to be in, and other areas he hadn’t been permitted to investigate.
Her property included massive gardens and the additional building Zack and Josefina were in. A portion of the greenery was between the main house and the event hall, while the rest of it butted up against the lake that was in the middle of Taliville. Pixies lived in the gardens, and their tiny lights gave the area an enchanted feeling.
The event hall was for entertaining guests and separate from the main house so that vampires wouldn’t have to be invited into her home. The largest room of it was the ballroom, where they practiced formal dances. Chandelier light gleamed off the polished wooden floor, highlighting the amber lurking in the natural material. Grand pillars around the center supported the thirty-foot ceiling.
Besides the physical signs of wealth, Nell employed a massive staff to upkeep the property. She essentially ran the town of Taliville, making investments and keeping employment steady. The other vampires of her coven contributed, and other supernaturals had businesses in the small town. She ruled over the fifth-largest territory among the American covens. What she and Josefina had spent on him, both in finances and effort, would only be a blip for the immortal.
But I make a useful pawn. Zack had had a conversation with Nell on his second night in Taliville. She had tested his resolve in the face of danger and then hinted at why she wanted Roger to succeed.
Seamus was consolidating power. In the last three decades, his coven had gone from over a hundred vampires to over four hundred. His territory extended from the Canadian border in the north to the tip of Kentucky, from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the Mississippi River in the west. A smattering of small, inconsequential territories separated Seamus’s domain from Nell’s. If he continued, he’d threaten Nell’s domain.
Nell wanted them to take out the threat before open war happened. Her investment in them would return a huge bounty, and part of that bothered Zack. Beingusedslid under his skin and festered, but the best he could do for now was learn etiquette and train for the inevitable fight.
Adopting a serious tone, Zack nodded in deference to Josefina. Softly, he said, “I only want to make the most of that investment, master.”
Josefina snapped her fingers.
Quickly, Zack slipped into the most common pet pose he’d have to adopt in public. He stood with his feet slightly apart, his head bowed and to the side, one wrist behind his back and his right hand loose at his side. His gaze remained on the floor, watching a spot not more than a few inches in front of his feet.
Every ounce of hunter training in him activated mental alerts as Josefina walked a slow circle around him. Her heels echoed in the otherwise silent room. An itch started between Zack’s shoulder blades.
Instead of listening to the part of him that sounded far too much like Cal and did nothing but tell him he was an embarrassment, Zack focused outward with his other senses. Vampires had a subtle but distinct odor. Hunter lore called it devil’s rot, but Roger called it the scent of the grave. Using his hearing, he could trace her movements.
However, he’d been practicing another tactic. The magic that sustained vampires made them cool to the touch. The older a vampire was, the greater the chill affected their aura as well as their body. One benefit of wearing so little around vampires was that Zack could stay aware of where a vampire was without overtly watching them.
Josefina was over a century old, and the air around her had a chill, like putting a hand on cool metal. Between the cold and the click of her heels, Zack followed her movements.
“There’s a good boy,” Josefina said.
Zack clenched his jaw. He couldn’t react to her patronizing tone. Shouldn’t say anything.She’s trying to do me a favor. They’re going to say worse shit in Chicago.
She’s making you an easy meal, idiot, his internal voice that sounded like Cal said.
“Thank you, master,” Zack replied quietly. “May we please continue the lesson?”
“No.”
A flash of anger rushed through Zack. The only answer anyone seemed to give him lately was “no.”
