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He crowded me against a nearby Jeep, and I let him. Although it rankled to let this lowlife think he scared me, I had an image to maintain. More than my vengeance depended on it.
“I don’t want any trouble.” I made my voice small and dug my fingernails into my palms to keep from attacking.
He chuckled. “You never do.” After I cowered enough to satisfy his ego, he took a step back to size me up. “Back for the reunion,” he mocked.
Cripes. Even this deadbeat thought I’d come back for the chance to relive high school. The worst was that I had to play along. “I couldn’t miss my ten-year class reunion,” I whispered.
Martin smirked and eyed me like a rare steak. “I’m happy to give you a reunion to remember.” His fangs dropped, and he blocked my exit.
“Olivia!” Mrs. Larson speed walked across the parking lot, waving a pop star biography in the air. By the time she reached us, she was out of breath. “Be a dear and give this book I borrowed back to your mother.” She handed me the book and turned to face Martin. “I suppose this is your friend?” She took in his grease-stained blue jeans and Sturgis t-shirt with a grimace.
The book probably wasn’t even my mother’s. Busy body or not, I’d never been happier to see Mrs. Larson. “No, but I’ll be late if I don’t get going.”
Grateful for the excuse, I grabbed the book from her hand and rushed for my car. As I pulled out of the lot, I glanced in my rearview mirror, taking great pleasure in the shell-shocked look on Martin’s face as Mrs. Larson continued making small talk.
After driving across town, I parked in front of a busy grocery store where I was sure not to run into any more of Eli’s vampires. After grabbing the listening device and a spelled map from the glove compartment, I took a sip of lukewarm coffee and grimaced. I unfolded the map and recited the tracking incantation. Kinsley’s location lit up like a beacon. She was headed home.
I checked the time—a little past noon. Vamps might not be allergic to sunlight like pop culture claimed, but Eli rarely ventured out before dark. With hours to kill, I walked to my favorite café for lunch. By dessert, my listening device switched from background noise to a one-sided phone conversation.
“I found the incantation right where you said it would be.” Kinsley’s voice was threaded with excitement. “Tomorrow is the full moon, but I don’t know if I can gather all the ingredients that fast. Maybe we should wait until next month.” There was a long pause as she listened.
When she spoke again, she had the good sense to sound nervous. “But the only way to get the rattlesnake venom is to steal it from the coven’s secure vault. With the gathering tonight, it’s too risky. The place will be overrun with witches.”
Bingo. There weren’t a lot of spells that required snake venom. But I knew of one. Between the unusual ingredient and the incantation Kinsley had copied in the library, it was more than enough proof that Eli was pressuring her to make another batch of the potion.
“I know it’s important, but Eli, what if I get caught?”
I fist pumped under the table. She said his name, and I got it all on record.
Kinsley sighed. “Okay. I’ll get it somehow and meet you there by ten.” She hung up.
After paying the check, I jogged to my car to call Aleksei and make my case. Means, motive, and opportunity. It had to be enough for him to green light taking Eli out.
Chapter Four
“What more do you need?” I clenched my jaw. Despite replaying the conversation for Aleksei, he wasn’t willing to send Grif in to finish the job.
“What I need is to catch them red-handed,” Aleksei said.
I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles hurt. “And what does red-handed look like, Aleksei?” I asked, already guessing his answer. “Will a completed potion be enough to nail him?”
“You know it won’t. Eli needs to use the potion on someone to warrant a kill order.”
Most vampires were careful when they fed, taking only enough to replenish the blood magic needed to sustain them before compelling their food source to forget the encounter. But a vampire ingesting Nectar fed in a frenzy. A victim could be drained in the time it took for Grif to get to them, and we both knew it.
I closed my eyes. “Someone could die.”
“That’s the nature of the job, Liv. People die.” Aleksei’s smooth, cultured voice was devoid of emotion.
Usually, I understood Aleksei’s detachment—envied it even. Before being put in charge of the Compound, where all Shadows were trained and dispatched from, Aleksei spent years in the field. He remained tight-lipped about anything that veered into the personal, but it wasn’t hard to guess the things he’d done. Detachment was the only way to survive this kind of work, something he’d drilled into me from the day I arrived at the Compound as a sixteen-year-old sentenced to a life no longer my own.
I still struggled with it though. Maybe it was my nature as a fire elemental, or maybe it was the need for vengeance that constantly simmered beneath my skin. Whatever it was, it prevented me from achieving the kind of detachment that Aleksei and Grif mastered long ago. Since stepping foot on South Dakota soil, I hadn’t been able to marshal even a sliver of detachment, no matter how hard I reached for it.
I swallowed past the growing tightness in my throat. “What about Kinsley Johnson?”
Aleksei sighed. “It’s unlikely he’ll try the potion on his meal ticket.”
He was right. Eli would undoubtably have a test subject bound and waiting like he had the night I delivered the first batch of potion to him all those years ago. He’d use someone he deemed disposable. After all, Kinsley was worth more to Eli as a witch than as a demonstration.
