“That about sums it up,” Cabo said.
“How did the three of you come together?” Asher asked.
They were a completely unlikely trio. Brie was five hundred years old, and he could sense the power wafting from her; he didn’t detect anywhere near that kind of power radiating from Zina and Cabo. He’d also bet they were turned vamps and not purebreds.
“I brought us together,” Brie said. “My visions led me to Zina seven years ago and Cabo twenty-five years ago. At first, I didn’t understand why I was brought to them, so I followed them—”
“She stalked us!” Zina called from the front.
Brie rolled her eyes. “Fine, I stalked you, but you’re alive because of it.”
“I wasn’t complaining.”
“Anyway, I followed them—” Brie shot a look toward the front of the van, but Zina didn’t correct her again. “—and got to know them from a distance. They both seemed nice. Cabo was a high school history teacher, and Zina was a bit more of a troublemaker, but she used her bad for good.”
“I stole cars and donated a portion of the money I received to a local orphanage,” Zina said. “Those poor, abandoned kids broke my heart. If it wasn’t for Grams, I would have been one of them. My parents were selfish fuckers who left me the second they realized having a kid wouldn’t get them as much money from the state as they assumed. Grams raised me, and I damn near gave her a heart attack with all my wild ways, but she loved me.”
Asher couldn’t see Zina from where he sat, but he heard the pride in her voice and the amusement. “She was a good car thief,” Brie said.
“I wasthebest, but I retired when the asshole I was doing a special order for shot me instead of paying me.”
“And I saved her,” Brie said. “I hadn’t seen her death. I see those alot, but I knew I had to save her the second it happened. I’d been drawn to her for that very reason. I’d already discovered and changed Cabo by then, and it worked out great.”
“I was walking home from work one day when a couple of guys jumped me from behind,” Cabo said. “I never saw them coming; all I felt was their blades repeatedly slicing through my flesh, into my arteries, and liver. They took my wallet, which had twenty dollars, and ran.”
“Shit,” Asher muttered.
“Yeah, it sucked,” Cabo said. “You don’t forget what it’s like to die.”
“No, you don’t,” Brie murmured.
“We’ve done our best to help her ever since,” Zina said.
“I’ve made it clear they’re free to go their way, but they choose to stay,” Brie said.
“You can’t exactly turn your back on the woman who saved your life when you learn she needs help,” Cabo said. “Besides, what else is there to do when you’re looking at an eternity on this planet? You might as well sign up for some adventure.”
“And I’ve been an adrenaline junkie my whole life, so I’m game for anything,” Zina said. “Especially if it means kicking some demon ass.”
“How many vampires have you created?” Asher asked.
The small sting of jealousy he felt over this revelation surprised him, but he kept it hidden. If he didn’t understand why he was jealous, they definitely wouldn’t understand. But it bothered him that she’d made such an intimate connection with others, far more than he believed possible.
He studied the beautiful woman sitting beside him again, but she was focused on the notebook in her lap. Unable to resist, he tucked the loose lock of hair behind her ear. She looked up at him and her mouth parted, but she didn’t stop it when his fingers briefly lingered on her cheek before falling away.
Her creamy skin was as silken to the touch as it looked. And he would never forget the feel of it beneath his fingers or the little electric current thrumming from her and into him.
“Only two,” Brie replied around the sudden dryness in her throat and mouth. His touch had not only rattled her but left her craving more. “I hope that’s all I ever create.”
Asher clasped his hands together to keep from touching her again. “So, we’re on our way to hunt down the eighth stone,” Asher said.
“We are,” Brie replied. “And only two of them have ever come easy. There’s always some complication I never foresee or something that’s nearly gotten me killed, but I’ve gotten the others, and Iwillget this one too.”
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Brie wasaware the eighth stone was near a residential neighborhood. She’d seen flashes of it in her mind. She knew the street sign and the large maples crowding the sidewalks and towering over the road as their sweeping canopies shadowed their roots breaking through the concrete. She’d seen the homes and the flowers and the perfectly manicured lawns.
She wasn’t expecting it to be so busy. Her visions hadn’t included the laughing children running or riding their bikes down the street. They hadn’t included the distant thud, thud, thud of a basketball echoing throughout the day.
