Chapter 1
RENO
Tia Esperanza’s car was in my driveway when I got home, and I wasn’t proud of how much swearing came out of my mouth as I pulled in next to it. And of course she’d already gone inside.
I hauled myself out of my SUV, feeling every one of my forty-six years as I stood up.
All-night stakeouts were no fun, especially when the person you were following didn’t leave their lover’s apartment until late morning.
I leaned across the driver’s seat and grabbed my backpack.
After I got rid of Tia—in the gentlest, kindest way possible—ate something and slept, I’d write up the results of my investigation and send the report and photos to my client. Unlucky bastard.
I pulled open the door, and the unmistakable smell of tamales hit me. “Tia?”
“In the kitchen!” She said something else I couldn’t make out, and then I heard laughter. Fuck. All three of them were here. Too bad I hadn’t slept last night; I might’ve had a vision to warn me they were coming.
My phone chimed with a text, and the muscles in my back tightened with irritation. It could wait, along with the others I’d missed while I was driving. If a situation was urgent, they’d call.
I dropped my backpack on the couch as I walked through the living room. When I could see the kitchen island, I stopped cold. Tia and her two best friends, Rosita and Soledad, were all frowning at me, shaking their heads and tsking.
Normally I would’ve gone over and kissed their cheeks, but I’d learned at a young age to stay out of reach when elderly women were pissed at me. Especially when they were holding kitchen utensils. “What are those looks for? And why are you cooking here? Is something wrong with your stove?”
They were in the middle of the assembly stage, which meant they’d been here for at least an hour, maybe more if the chicken and shredded pork I could see hadn’t already been cooked before they arrived. It was barely 11:00 a.m.
Tia snorted. “There’s nothing wrong with my stove.” She pointed a damp, droopy corn husk in my direction. “But you’re in big trouble.”
I frowned. “Did I forget to do something?” It wasn’t her birthday.
She threw up her hands, the corn husk flapping in the air. “Yes! You forgot to tell me you were nesting!” Rosita and Soledad exchanged disappointed head shakes.
My mouth dropped open, and I blinked. “Huh? I’m not nesting.” No way. Even if I’d wanted one, I was too old to have a mate dumped on me.
She threw the corn husk onto the counter, where it landed with a pronounced thwack, then she pointed toward the door on the far side of the living room. “You told me you’d rearranged your office. You added another desk and two bookcases.”
I rubbed my forehead, wishing I’d slept before this conversation. “I rearranged the office to add a table, yes. I wanted room to spread out evidence or photos.”
She held up her right hand, her pointer finger aimed toward the ceiling. “The office.” She extended another finger and gestured with her left hand toward the living room. “A new coffee table. With storage inside. Empty.”
It was more of an ottoman, but whatever. “Yes? I haven’t gotten around to filling it yet.” I didn’t know what would go into it, but it’d been on sale, and more storage was always a good thing.
Tia glared at me and extended a third finger. “You put furniture in the attic.”
I folded my arms and glared back. “It was finished out to be a guest suite when I bought this place. I finally got around to making it into a real one.”
“For who? You already have a guest room.”
I gave her a disbelieving stare. “You know how things are right now, especially this close to the border. People might need a place to stay out of sight.”
Tia grudgingly acknowledged this but still extended a fourth finger. “Fine. But how do you explain your bedroom?”
I felt my face flush. I should’ve known she’d go through the entire house. “I was updating the other rooms, and I had enough extra budget to do my bedroom.”
The three of them exchanged raised eyebrows before facing me again. Soledad tapped her chin. “Mijo, you bought a larger bed, you painted the walls that soft blue, and the new bedding is gorgeous.”
I ground my teeth together and didn’t respond.
She glanced at the others and went on. “The overall impression the room gives off is... romantic.”
I breathed slowly in through my nose and out through my mouth. “It’s my bedroom. It’s supposed to be soothing and restful. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not nesting.” I stared at the tamales-in-progress, and understanding struck. “You’re making tamales for my nonexistent mate?”
Tia lifted her chin. “Nonexistent only because you haven’t met them yet. That new refrigerator you think we didn’t notice in your garage needs filling. You can deny it all you want, but I know nesting when I see it.”
I stifled a sigh. “Okay, well, you do what you need to do. I’ve been up all night working, so I’m headed to bed.”
I ignored their clucks of dismay over my job and left the kitchen. I trudged up the stairs to the bedroom. Hopefully the three meddlers would be gone by the time I woke up.
Standing in the middle of a two-lane rural road, I faced a mailbox next to a driveway entrance.
The sun was halfway down toward the horizon.
It might’ve been morning, but the quality of the light made me think afternoon.
The mailbox sported metallic stickers that spelled out “1018”.
The driveway led to a large two-story house.
The yard was overgrown, and the place would’ve appeared abandoned except for a dusty white van parked in front.
It was too far away for me to make out the license plate.
I was moving, whizzing past the house, a decrepit barn, and a couple of corrals on the verge of falling down before I stopped at a thick forest of trees and shrubs. Just far enough inside the foliage to be hidden, a man holding a cell phone crouched on the ground and stared toward the house.
The man’s face was a blur, so he wasn’t someone I’d met or seen a photo of. He was white, skinny, and his auburn hair was tied up in a bun. He was wearing a small daypack with the handle of what was probably a machete sticking out of the top.
A twig snapping had the man whirling around. He rose up, his forearm blocking a knife thrust from a big white guy with black hair. Fuck, I hated knife fights.
Auburn Hair twisted away and moved back until he had enough room to reach over his shoulder to pull out his machete. Except it wasn’t a machete. It was what I’d only recently learned was a mek’leth. A fucking Klingon sword.
Which meant this guy was Simon, and he was a vampire. And if he was fighting the other guy, that one was a vampire too.
I woke up with a gasp. Quickly I grabbed my phone, and, ignoring the twelve texts that had come in since I’d been home, I opened the notes app. Activating voice-to-text, I dictated everything I remembered about the vision.
Based on the position of the sun through the window, I had roughly an hour to get to Simon if my vision was happening today.
A quick look at Google Maps told me there were hundreds of addresses in my area using the numbers 1018. Shit, that would’ve been too easy.
I put the phone on speaker and dialed Cal. He was the closest thing to a computer expert I knew. He didn’t answer. Fuck. I pulled up my texts and sent Emergency please call. He was probably working, but he’d step away to help with this.
I threw on a t-shirt and jeans, along with boots suitable for tromping through the woods. As I was opening my gun safe, Cal called.
“Hey, thanks for getting back to me. I had a vision. That friendly vampire, Simon? He’s found at least one of the other vampires, and they’re going to fight. I need help finding the location.”
Cal cursed. “And of course he didn’t call us when he tracked them down. Okay, no worries. Let me get to my computer. Do you know when it’ll happen?”
“My best guess is in about an hour.”
He put me on speaker. “What’s your vision radius?”
“A hundred miles or so.” Hopefully it wouldn’t be that far away, though, because I’d never make it in time.
I described the house for Cal as I strapped on my shoulder and ankle holsters.
I threw on a long-sleeved shirt, leaving it unbuttoned to disguise the outline of my gun.
Then I put together a change of clothes for Simon, since knife fights were never clean.
My stuff would be too large for him, but at least he’d be able to be seen in public.
Downstairs, Tia and the others were gone, but they’d left a plate of tamales in the fridge for me, bless them. I scarfed down the food in between emptying my backpack and reloading it with a first aid kit, the clothes for Simon, and some bottles of water.
All the while Cal was silent, only the occasional click of his keyboard letting me know he was still on the line. Just as I ran out of things to do, he said, “Okay, I’m sending you five map pins. Let me know if any of these are the house you saw.”
It was the third pin. Fifty-three miles away, so I’d be cutting it close. Cal said he’d send the location to the Hunters, in case any were in the area, and he’d text Simon that I was on the way. I thanked him and hung up as I got into my car.
As soon as I was on the road, I called Tucker.
“Well, if it isn’t Veronica Mars.”
“Yeah, yeah. Hey, are you off duty right now? I could use some backup.” Tucker had not only been my best friend since elementary school, but he’d been my former partner on the police force, both before and after we’d made detective.
Even more pertinent to today’s fuckery, he was an enormous cougar shifter.
“Shit, sorry, but I’m on duty. What’re you headin’ into? Can it wait? I’m off in four hours.”
“Fuck. No, unfortunately it can’t wait. I had a vision. Remember those vampires everyone was talking about? Turns out they’re in our backyard.”
“Shiiiit.”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“Let me see if Ma’s available. I can send her to meet you.”