Chapter 13
Elijah knew something was off the moment he turned his rental vehicle onto a residential street in a suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of Shreveport, Louisiana.
Although it was early evening, he thought there were too many cars, especially given how few lights were on in the homes.
When he unfolded from the economy sedan, his sense of unease deepened.
It was too quiet. Almost deathly so. No birds chirping, no dogs barking, no television sets or radios. With his hearing, he should be hearing toilets flushing, people chatting, dinner simmering.
Rolling his shoulders back, he repeated what Lindsay had said when they’d first arrived in Hurricane, Utah, moments before they’d found a nest of wraiths: “This place crawls.”
“Crap.” Raze looked at him over the roof of the car. “I was hoping it was just me.”
“Bound to catch a snag at some point.”
“Thought we’d already done that,” Raze groused.
Elijah grinned.
They’d hit the ground running, renting a car at the airport and heading immediately to the home of the vampire who’d first called in a concern to Syre.
That visit had introduced them to a very pretty male vamp who went by the name of Minolo.
The leggy blond had buzzed them into his UV-filtered apartment and served lemon cookies and tea in floral cups with saucers.
Minolo had taken an instant shine to Raze, and over the hour they’d stayed to conduct the interview, the vamp had flirted and fluttered his mascara-coated lashes at Vashti’s captain with warm invitation.
Elijah had redirected Minolo’s attention to the reason they’d come.
They’d learned that an interview conducted by the local authorities first aroused Minolo’s suspicions.
He’d waylaid the investigation into the disappearance of a former lover with a bit of vampire mind compulsion; then he’d started digging around on his own.
Minolo was the gossip center of the area’s vampire community, and it hadn’t taken more than a couple of days to ascertain that several vampires he was familiar with were no longer being seen around town.
Elijah and Raze’s subsequent five-hour canvass of the city had turned up enough information to show there was definitely a problem in Shreveport.
They’d worked their way outward from Minolo’s residence in an ever-widening circle, interviewing the neighbors of vamps gone missing.
Most of the minions they’d inquired after worked nights, so their neighbors had scant opportunity to observe their comings and goings.
In those cases, he and Raze would appear to drive away, only to return shortly after to enter those residences on the sly.
They checked out the interiors and found empty homes, which led to a grim conclusion—there were too many minions whose whereabouts were unaccounted for in the bright light of day.
But the subdivision they’d just driven into was by far the most concerning.
“We’ll need backup,” Elijah said. “At the very least, the two minions we’ve got coming in on the red-eye to take the night shift, but ideally more than that. I’d say a team of a dozen or more.”
“Want to reconnoiter? We’ve got a bit of daylight now.”
“Won’t help. We had daylight in Vegas and three of us.”
Raze rubbed a hand over his shaved head. “I hate walking away. Makes me feel like a pussy.”
“I don’t like it either, but it’s best. Trust me.” Elijah got back into the car. “We’ll hit up the tech team to access the layout of this subdivision, and we’ll get a plan in place for tomorrow.”
“Fuck.” Raze took another look around. “All right.”
Elijah didn’t discount how easily the vamp had ceded to the advice of a lycan. Whether that was because he was banging Raze’s commanding officer or because of his own merits, he couldn’t say, but he’d take it for now. Eventually they would all trust him. Because he’d earn it.
They headed back to the motel, changed into jeans and T-shirts, and decided to make dinner easy by hitting up the adjacent restaurant on foot.
They’d chosen to stay in a rural area, far from the city.
Pine forest surrounded the uninspired motel they were bedding down in, which Elijah found soothing, something his mood needed after hitting a road bump with Vash.
Every minute that passed brought him closer to their inevitable confrontation.
He was ready for it now, on edge because of a fruitless hunt and the aggravation of separation.
Settling into a booth, he ordered two of the house special and a beer.
As the waitress walked away, he and Raze leaned back to size each other up, something they’d avoided doing earlier because the job came first. Elijah took special care with his examination, having learned that Vashti rarely went anywhere without Raze or Salem—usually both—in tow.
Both vampire captains were big for their kind; the Fallen were usually slender and elegantly built, their bodies having been made for flight.
Salem was the bigger of the two, towering at a good six feet six inches and easily two hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle.
Raze was similar to Elijah’s size of six feet three inches and a solid two hundred and twenty pounds.
But Vashti was a powerful woman, tall and leanly muscular, and a renowned expert with all weaponry. She didn’t need bodyguards. And from a resources standpoint, it didn’t seem wise for Syre to tie three of his best Fallen together.
“So what’s your story, Alpha?” Raze drawled.
While Elijah wasn’t much of a judge when it came to male attractiveness, he’d noted the number of female glances that followed the vamp when he had stepped outside to take a call.
“I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours.”
Raze snorted. “I suppose you want me to focus on my story as it relates to Vash.”
He didn’t deny it. “She carries a lot of manpower in you and Salem, but she’s strong and smart. She can take care of herself.”
“She’s still a woman.”
Elijah took a long pull on his beer and absorbed that. He knew damn well Raze and Salem had a healthy respect for Vashti or they wouldn’t be taking orders from her. Which meant the mention of her sex wasn’t gender bias.
Women were vulnerable to attack in ways men rarely were.
Syre, Raze, and Salem were all fiercely protective. And the way she’d first had sex with him…restraining him…trying to maintain total control…
“Lycans?” Elijah asked tightly, fury simmering in his blood.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
So… Raze wouldn’t discuss Vash outright, he’d only allude. Elijah respected that, even as he hungered for more information.
Raze draped his arm along the window ledge.
“You know what we were before—Watchers. After we fell, we had to figure out what to do with ourselves. We all had different areas of knowledge, and that’s where we focused our efforts.
Vashti specialized in armaments—how to create them and use them. Even as a scholar, she was a warrior.”
The note of affection in Raze’s voice tightened Elijah’s grip on his bottle. “I can see that.”
“At the time, we thought maybe we just needed to earn our way back into the Creator’s good graces.
Pay a penance of some sort. Make amends.
Vash took to hunting demons, which came in handy later on when they started fucking with us.
We were the throwaway angels, the ones they thought they’d have carte blanche to screw around with. ”
Raze exhaled audibly. “Syre wanted to take a more diplomatic approach, while Vash was more aggressive. Since she was the one in the field, her way prevailed. It’s a fuckin’ major understatement to say she wasn’t popular in the demon community.”
“Jesus…” Elijah leaned heavily into the booth back. He’d seen the leavings of demon attacks. Just the thought of that sort of damage in any relation whatsoever to Vashti made his stomach knot.
“And demons like to kick you when you’re down. The death of a mate is one of those perfect times for them.”
Teeth grinding, he bit out, “She said Syre took care of it. Is that right?”
“Yeah. He took care of it. When he was done with them, he dumped their ashes into a trash can and sent them back to their liege.”
Elijah bitterly regretted that he wouldn’t be able to exact vengeance of his own. The feeling of impotence was so sharp it was painful. “What was your specialty?”
“Triage.”
Scrubbing a hand over his face, Elijah pulled everything together and created a picture that gnawed at his gut.
“Jesus,” he said again, remembering how roughly he’d taken her in Vegas, how completely he’d dominated her.
Raze smiled at the waitress when she returned with Elijah’s food.
She smiled back, her eyes bright with interest. She asked Raze twice if he was sure she couldn’t get him anything and he replied that he was just waiting for her to go on break, if she was of the mind to share it with him. Which she was, of course.
“Sex will limber you,” Raze said to Elijah once she’d walked away. “You might want to grab a piece of ass before tomorrow, especially considering how close you came to croaking yesterday. This might be your last chance to get laid.”
“I’m touched you care, but my sex life is none of your business.”
“You like redheads, right? There’s a honey of a redhead that just walked in. You might get lucky.” Raze whistled. “Damn, you didn’t even look. Vash must have you wrapped around her little finger.”
Elijah finished chewing his first bite of an excellent rare tri-tip. “Is that supposed to make me feel like a douche? I don’t see any problem with knowing when you’ve got it good and sticking with it.”
“Just ’cuz it’s good, doesn’t mean you can’t get better.”
“Christ, man.” He popped a hush puppy into his mouth and decimated it in two bites. “You lost your wings over a woman. You can’t have forgotten what it feels like.”
A shadow passed over Raze’s features, erasing all levity. “It wasn’t like that for me. I wasn’t as noble as the others. I was banging everything that let me.”