Page 38 of Forever Midnight

“Okay.”

He pauses, as if torn between coming back to me and doing what he has to do, so I wave him away.

“I’m fine. Go do what you gotta do.”

“I’ll be back quickly.”

As the door closes behind him, I drop my head onto the couch cushion. Just when I think my life can’t get any more complicated, it does.

ChapterSeventeen

MIDNIGHT

After ensuring Tru is comfortable, I hurry to the common area, summoned by Raphael. When I enter, everyone stops talking and Eros and Thorn are focused on me.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“We have a serious problem,” Eros says.

“We were casing the city looking for the Malice gang, and unfortunately, we found them being hustled into an empty warehouse on the south side by some guys we’ve never seen before,” Thorn explains. “They’ve got Vinni.”

“And?” Yves asks. “How hard could it be to infiltrate a warehouse with thugs?”

“That’s the serious problem,” Eros says, glancing at Thorn.

“They aren’t thugs,” Thorn says. “They’re vampires.”

“Vampires?” Yves pulls his head back. “Impossible. No clan would dare come onto our territory unannounced.”

“Well they did,” Eros says. “For what it’s worth, they didn’t even seem aware of us lurking. They were totally focused on the Malice guys.”

“This is war,” Raphael states, tugging black leather gloves on. “They must want a fight.”

My head spins. “If they kill Vinni, we could lose any track of the tapes.”

“Yeah, but it’s a little worse than that,” Thorn says, glancing at Eros. “We think they must have a witch on their side too. We couldn’t even get close to the building.”

Yves growls, his eyes glowing and fangs descending. “Then those fuckers do know they’re in our territory. Why else would they have a ward in place?”

He stomps off toward his unit without further discussion, but my thoughts are torn between tearing off into the night to find these vampires and hiding Tru away and pretending none of this is happening.

Yves is back mere seconds later. “Get dressed. Viv is on her way. We have some vampires to hunt.”

I hurry back to my place, adrenaline coursing through me, lighting up all my senses. Inside the apartment, it’s eerily quiet. Too quiet. I rush to the bedroom to find Tru, relieved when I see him curled up on my bed. He must be exhausted still from the healing potion Viv gave him.

I head to my closet for a quick clothing change to make sure there’s no lingering blood from the last kill. Don’t want to tip off the vamps. I move as silently as possible so as not to disturb Tru. It’s best he doesn’t wake up right now.

When I exit the closet, I would swear the energy in the room has shifted. I glance around nervously, almost afraid I’ll come face to face with Benedict, but then I shake the thought away. It’s honestly ridiculous to think that his spirit lingers, trapped in a piano, and that after all this time, he would choose to show himself to Tru.

Tru read my diary, but I can’t focus on that now. I have work to do.

Before I leave, I brush his hair from his forehead, whispering a promise to help him. I do believe our lives have intersected for a reason. I just have to figure out what it is.

Seconds later, I join my brothers as we descend the stairs in a flash. Vivienne waits for us on the sidewalk below, dressed in a body-hugging black jumpsuit, her red hair tied back, with a bag slung over her shoulder.

“Ready, boys?” she asks.

“Ready,” Yves says. “There will be bloodshed.”

---