Page 90 of Blood and Buttercups

“Who bit him?”

“I don’t know.”

Noah presses the gun to the man’s forehead. “Who bit him?”

“I don’t know!” the man practically blubbers.

Finally, the distant sound of sirens wails in the night, growing closer.

“They’re here,” Max tells the woman on the phone when several cop cars fly into the drive. “Okay, thanks.”

He hangs up, looking shell-shocked.

Blue and red lights illuminate the night, the commotion probably making every neighbor within half-a-mile press theirfaces to their windows. Several officers leap from their cars and rush forward, pistols drawn.

Once they have us surrounded, Noah lowers his weapon and steps back.

“You’re with NIHA?” an officer says to the hunter, his eyes cutting toward the entrance of the drive when an ambulance pulls in. “Do you have your identification?”

Bleeding, Noah grunts as he pulls his wallet from his back pocket and then hands the man his driver’s license and another ID.

“Were you injured?” a female officer asks me, pulling my attention from Noah.

“No,” I say numbly, trying to process the situation. I’m no longer crying, but I feel the drying tear stains, and I don’t doubt my mascara is halfway down my cheeks.

“We’re going to need you to come to the station.” She nods toward Max. “You too.”

“What about Noah?” I ask. “He was shot.”

“We’ll get him to the ER.”

Thick Neck is now cuffed and being hauled off to one of the waiting cars. Others are swarming around the dead vampire, one man warning people not to move the body. They’re putting up crime scene tape on the porch rail where Grandpa always strings Christmas lights, and my stomach lurches.

A familiar officer joins us, smiling when he sees me. “Hey, Trouble.”

I don’t remember being on close enough terms with Officer Kerrington to have earned a nickname, but I give him a weak greeting nod.

“Want me to drive you to the station?” he asks.

“I’ll drive her,” Max says. “Is that all right?”

Officer Kerrington hesitates and then nods, walking toward the body. “Give me five minutes.”

I move toward Noah, needing a moment with him, but a paramedic joins us. She nods toward Noah’s bleeding arm. “Gunshot wound?”

Noah’s eyes lock on mine, and I can tell he wants to talk to me, too. But then he sighs, nodding at the woman.

“Let’s take a look at it.” The paramedic gestures for him to follow her to the ambulance.

Officer Kerrington returns and says to me, “I got the okay to let you drive to the police station. I’ll follow you.”

“I need to talk to Noah before we go,” I tell him and Max. “Can I have a few minutes?”

When Officer Kerrington agrees, I walk toward the ambulance, feeling a little wobbly. Everything happened so quickly, and I haven’t come to terms with any of it yet.

Ethan sent thugs to collect me. He offered Noah his wildly expensive car. He’s not in the system because he goes to Mexico for healthcare. Hepaidsomeone to infect him. But when? How old is he really?

And how does this relate to Kevin’s murder?

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