Page 67 of Sleeping With the Vampire

“You didn’t,” the girl teased him.

“I did!” They were laughing and the cook put a plate of something on the table and all of them dove into it, breaking off chunks of what looked like a kind of bread.

I remembered this kind of interaction from before, long ago. Even over the last few years, there had been times when I’d been able to sit comfortably with people, share good times and laugh. But this kind of ease, belonged to the world of the mortals.

If you wanted that, you needed a mortal.

I needed Izzy.

I came into the kitchen and all of the people around the table jumped up andfell silent.

Izzy looked at me.

“You ready to go?” she asked me, coming out to say goodbye.

“I am.”

She looked at me. “I’m coming with you.”

“No way!” but she silenced me, shaking the necklace in my face, which made me take a few steps back, it was that disgusting to me.

“I’m a bounty hunter, remember? This is what I do.”

“Just keep that…thing… away from me,” I said, pinching my nose.

She laughed and I smiled to myself.

Chapter 23

Izzy

Loughlin’s Vale is a ski resort further west of Castle Grey.

I’d heard of it but never been there. It was five-star luxury and to reach it, you had to come by private plane or helicopter, but we couldn’t use these as we needed the element of surprise. We flew to a few miles of the destination and from afar, I could see the lights in the mountains, from the hotel and the chalets. There wouldn’t be much skiing happening now, as it was autumn and the season wasn’t officially open yet.

We landed at a clearing in the woods, two helicopters for our men.

Ragnar and another guy went off to get the lay of the land.

We waited for them to report back and I noticed, somewhat amused, that most of the group kept a very wide distance between me and them. The necklace clearly worked.

Within the hour, Ragnar was back.

“They’re there,” he said, slightly out of breath. “There are only a few people there, no guests as far as I can tell, only hotel employees. They’re drinking up a storm.”

“Did you recognize anyone?” Lucca asked.

He was tense, I could see it in the way he stood upright, his shoulders pulled together.

“Apart from Layrr, I saw Vin and Morris,” he said. “As well as the Poccano Twins, and the Eagen clan.”

“Dawn Eagen too?” I didn’t know who these people were, but Lucca did. Before we left for the resort, there was a quick meeting.

“We want to avoid a bloodbath, if possible, I want to bring Layrr before the Council so he can face justice there. So that is our aim.”

Jock handed out reinforced cables to tie up any vampires and our group took off for the resort. Ragnar took me as Lucca was still too weak and we needed to move fast. It was a bit of a blur for me, the ride through the trees but it was exhilarating.

“Can you take off…whatever it is that stinks like that?” Ragnar begged me.

---