CHAPTER SEVEN || COLE
Having reassured myself that Eli was now home without incident, I decided the best thing to do was bow out gracefully. I was growing hungry again, which meant I wouldn’t be safe around him until I had fed.
Besides, I had done enough to alarm him for one evening, hadn’t I?
I could tell, however, by the way he looked at me—his lips slightly parted and his eyes never quite leaving mine—that he was intrigued as well. Or, perhaps, something more than intrigued.
Good.
“It’s late,” I said abruptly, faking a yawn. I pulled the keys from the ignition and handed them to the doctor. “And you and your vehicle are now safely home. Therefore, I can leave in good conscience.”
With that, I opened the driver’s-side door and climbed out.
“Wait—what?” Eli’s eyes widened and his jaw fell open. He opened his door, jumped out, and made it around the car, stepping directly into my personal space. “After all that? Now you’re leaving?”
I detected a note of alarm in his voice that a regular person probably wouldn’t have heard. He sucked in a stuttering breath and then let it out. But I didn’t miss the way he crossed his arms over his chest, like he was hugging himself.
“For how long?”
With anyone else, my first instinct likely would have been to mock him. To toy with him a bit. To make sure he understood that he was nothing to me but a plaything. But somehow, when I met his eyes, I found all my amusement draining away, and I couldn’t make myself do that.
Only honesty was left behind.
“Not long,” I promised him. “I need to eat. And you need to sleep.”
He scowled back at me, like he was going to argue. But then he yawned again.
“I could make us something,” he offered. “I’m not much of a cook, but I can make pasta. Boiling water is definitely within my skill set.”
I favored him with a smile. “Perhaps later.”
“You’re coming back, then?” He seemed to need reassurance. “I’m going to see you again?”
“Of course. I told you, we have unfinished business.”
His dark eyes locked with mine. And they were warm and endless. “Do you promise?”
I felt a flicker of something stir in my breast—a spark of something that hadn’t been there before.
Because Eli suddenly looked outrageously vulnerable.
Fragile. And it occurred to me for the very first time that he might need me.
That it wasn’t merely my own curiosity at stake in this situation.
And, for some reason, that mattered far more than it should have.
“Yes,” I whispered. “I promise.”
His eyes slid closed, and I could see the relief there. He nodded. “Good.”
But by the time he opened his eyes, I was already gone.
* * *
I found a suitable feeding partner only a few blocks away from my home.
He was twenty-something and dressed in black club clothing that was more net than cloth, his body smeared with glitter, smelling of sweat and alcohol.
He only stumbled a bit, but he was clearly intoxicated—probably on his way home from an after-party.
Or, given that it was nearly dawn, an after-after-party.
Perfect.
“Hello, handsome,” I said, appearing in front of him.
His survival instincts were better than most. He took one look at me and his whole expression went wide with fear. Then, without missing a beat, he turned and tried to run the other way.
I moved at top speed. He didn’t get very far before he had to stop dead—or else run directly into me.
He let out a startled gasp, backing away from me. His eyes were so wide that I could see the whites all the way around the pupil. “Who the fuck are you, man?”
I ignored the inane question. Instead, I fixed him with my gaze and let the power in my voice roll over him. “That doesn’t matter. You’re safe. You don’t want to run away.”
The fear drained out of his face all at once. I felt a flash of relief. At least my hypnotic abilities were still working on most people, even if they didn’t work on Eli for some unknown reason.
“What’s your name?” I asked him. Then my eyebrows slammed together and I frowned at myself. Odd. I hadn’t usually cared about that sort of thing before.
“Todd,” he replied.
“Okay, Todd. Here’s the situation. I’m a vampire, and I need some of your blood. The bite won’t hurt. You won’t feel any pain at all.”
Todd’s eyes went unfocused. “No pain?”
“No pain,” I agreed. I took a step forward and tilted his head to the side, exposing his jugular. But then I hesitated. It seemed oddly… intimate. Wrong, somehow, to feed from him there. I added, “Todd, please give me your wrist.”
Todd obeyed immediately, holding it up. “Are you going to kill me?”
His tone was neutral, completely flat, but the fact that he was able to even ask the question meant he had a strong will.
“Have you ever taken an innocent person’s life away from them, Todd?”
“No.”
“Then I will let you live, I promise. I’ll even walk you home after I’m done.”
Then, standing right there in the shadows between the streetlights, I bit into his wrist. I drank only what I needed—only a few mouthfuls. Not enough to harm him. I was tempted to drink more, but he was an innocent man. He was good for feeding upon, but not for killing.
After I was done, I drew a single drop of my own blood by pressing the pad of my thumb against one of my fangs. I smeared the blood over his bite wound. It closed at once, like magic.
“All done,” I announced. I locked eyes with him again and pushed with my will. “I’ll walk you home, and once you’re through your front door, you’ll forget all about me and what just happened.”
Todd nodded slowly. Then he frowned at me, though his expression was still mostly glazed from the vampiric hypnosis. “That didn’t feel like much of anything. I thought it would hurt.”
“Wonderful.” Then I paused. “How are you feeling?”
My own question startled me. Had I ever asked anyone that before?
It was just making nice to soothe him, I told myself. I didn’t actually care how he felt.
Did I?
“Mostly okay.” He shot me a shy look, some of the hypnosis seeming to wear off. “You said you’d walk me home?”
“Yes, of course,” I replied, feeling shaken. “After all, there are dangerous creatures roaming these streets.”
* * *
“Damn it, Cole,” Harris said an hour later, just as I settled down into bed. His voice sounded small and far away through the phone’s speaker. “I need you!”
“Calm down, detective. You know it embarrasses both of us when you gush like this. I know that I’m delightful, but—”
“There’s been a fucking murder. Asshole.”
“This is Los Angeles. There are murders all the time. Why are you calling me?”
“It was a vampire,” Harris said flatly.
I went silent for a long moment. That was unlikely, wasn’t it?
The sorts of vampires who murdered their victims on a regular basis weren’t the sort who lasted long in big cities.
They tended to hunt in rural areas, in out-of-the-way places.
In cities, even ones without much of a vampire presence, there’s always a king or queen.
They tend to frown upon murder—mostly because it makes life messy and inconvenient for them.
“Are you certain?”
“The victim has two fucking holes in his neck, Cole. And all his blood has been drained out of his body. What do you think?”
Unease tightened through me. “I’m on my way.”
* * *
The body had been dumped in a public park a few blocks off Sunset Strip. Less than a mile from my home. Was that a coincidence—or a message?
“You got here quick,” Harris remarked when I showed up less than five minutes later.
I didn’t bother showing any of the forensic workers or officers credentials.
Months back, I had hypnotized everyone on the police force to always welcome my presence at crime scenes—and never question why.
I ducked under the yellow tape and joined Harris.
He was crouched next to the victim, a bearded man in his late thirties wearing a leather jacket and jeans. Though appearances could be deceiving, he looked like he’d been a nice enough guy.
I felt a flicker of… something.
Pity?
Impossible. People lived and they died. We were all just flesh in the end—circle of life and all that. I hadn’t felt pity for anyone in eight centuries.
Still, it unsettled me, seeing the man’s body splayed out on the ground. He’d fallen at a strange angle, his right arm bent beneath his back. The position would have been intolerably uncomfortable. Even dying, he would have moved—which meant he’d been dead before he hit the ground.
I reached forward to rotate the man’s torso, to lay him out as though he could have been sleeping. But halfway through the motion, I froze.
What was I doing?
Harris noticed, his gaze snapping up to meet mine. “Did you know this man, Cole?”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve never seen him before.”
He let out a breath that hissed between his teeth. “Fuck. I was kind of hoping he was one of yours.”
“He’s not.”
“Definitely a vampire that did this, though, right?” Harris asked, gesturing to the man’s neck.
There were two puncture wounds on the side of his throat, right over the carotid artery. They were crusted with dried blood—but not nearly as much as there should have been. Most of the blood in this man’s body had likely been gone before he hit the ground.
I rocked back onto my heels. My unease deepened, though I wasn’t sure why.
“It was a vampire. Yes.”
Harris studied my face and frowned. “Any idea why the vamp would have picked this guy?”
“Nothing that will help you,” I said, pushing myself to my feet.
“It could be that the vampire’s particular about their victims and only kills men who wear leather jackets.
Or maybe it was opportunistic—the guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time and found himself face to face with a hungry vampire. Or it could be anything else.”
“Okay. And how do I fight a vampire, Cole?”
I shot him a dark look, one brow arched. “You’re really asking me that?”