Page 62 of Soulmates
“Oh, a vampire.” The dagger disappears into a pocket. “Some of us haveinvisibilia. It’s not all that common, and it’s a huge energy drain, so even those with the gift don’t use it very often.”
“I called for a cleanup crew for the troll.”
“Yeah, nice work.”
I holster my pistol. “I also called for some backup. It’s gotta be midnight by now, and if whoever has David is hiring trolls and superpowered vampires, we need the help.”
“Agreed.”
He mutters something, but when I ask what he’s said, he shrugs. “Let’s just find David, okay?”
“Okay.” Standing this close to him, the soft curve of his lower lip draws my attention. As much as I want to kiss him, I’ve just agreed to help him find his lover. Tamping down my own desire, I start sorting through our priorities for the search.
OXO
The car’s engine clicks, little sparks of tension in the silence. Trajan’s behind the wheel, and there aren’t many things quieter than a vampire. We’re staking out the weres’ training center from a darkened corner of the parking lot across the street. To our left is an auto repair place, though the generally seedy air suggests they spend more time parting out vehicles than repairing them.
The building under surveillance is at the end of the road in the gray zone between suburban and rural, surrounded by the kind of straggling understory that grows whenever there’s no one to maintain the landscape. At night, the trees aren’t much more than a shadowy smudge.
“That shrubbery’s conveniently located, don’t you think?” I shift in my seat, trying to find a position that doesn’t put pressure on my knee. “For a bunch of weres, I mean.”
Trajan huffs a laugh. “Wolves tend to stand out on a city street.”
I smile, deliberately keeping my gaze on the building. We’re at the last of the likeliest sites. I’d set the tracer off as soon as we parked, so now it’s just a matter of patience till it comes back around. I shift again, left hip to right. I want an ice pack and a couple of Percocets. Or a hot bath and a shot of scotch. Something.
“I think he’s close.”
Trajan just answered my unspoken question and distracted me in one move. He’d tasted David’s blood, and while sharing blood creates a bond, it’s less specific than an actual DNA trace. “Good.” I drag my protesting brain to the problem of David without looking at Trajan. His vampire super-vision will show him all the secrets in my face.
I’m too aware of him, the way he holds himself so still, the sloppy spill of hair across his brow. So many things to say, so many explanations I’d rehearsed and discarded and picked up again. In all my lifetimes—and there have been several—he’s the first who made me want to stay.
The soft chime of my phone drags me out of my meandering thoughts. I answer, surprised to see Randolph Collins’s name displayed on the screen.
“I got a call.” The force of the alpha’s personality vibrates through the phone. “They said if I don’t step down as alpha within four hours, they’ll kill him.”
Damn it.“Did you recognize who called you?”
His first response is a muffled curse. “Not…well…they used some kind of voice distortion, so no, I didn’t.” He pauses, and I give him time to think. “I can guess who it might be.”
“The person who benefits if you step aside?”
He gives a frustrated snort. “Yeah.”
“I think we’re close to David, and if I’m right, we’ll have him out well before the deadline.” I can’t really promise more than that. “And by the way, when we checked out one of your storage facilities, there was some activity. Four weres on two legs, one on four, loading a pickup with boxes.”
“Shit.”
“It didn’t look like an official operation. Any guesses what they might have been after?”
“Best I can do is tell you what’s missing.”
I’m not surprised. The senior Collins tells me he’ll be back in touch, and I hang up knowing he’ll be running the list of his real friends and loyalists.
“Dear Dad.” I toss the phone into the center console.
“I heard.”
Vampire.“We’ve got four hours, maybe less.”
