Page 63 of Blood Magic

“Hey,” I said, leaning over to give him a thorough scratching. “You keeping Zach company, buddy?”

“I made a fresh pot of coffee,” Zach said.

“Thanks. Did you have breakfast?”

He nodded. “Lucy dropped off a bag of burgers on her break. I ate them all. Sorry.”

I laughed. “Your appetite is as monstrous as mine.” I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down at the table to begin going through my messages and voicemails. “I’ll ask my assistant to take you shopping. We’ll get you set up with a phone and some clothes and whatever else you might need for the next few weeks. Once you get on your feet and beat your problem, you can go get your life back.” I tilted my head. “What did you do before Axton?”

He set his cup down, almost too carefully. “I grew up in a family well acquainted with the supernaturals. We’re vampire hunters.”

“I knew there was something about you,” I said. “You know how to fight. Where do you and your family hunt?”

“California.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Then you were kept busy. How did you end up so far from home?”

He shrugged. “Why do monster hunters always end up so far from home? I was tracking a rogue vampire who was in the process of turning someone I cared about.”

He shut down, his eyes empty, his face blank, and I knew there was much more to that story than he was going to tell me. “What happened to her?”

“I took her from him and ended her misery.” He might’ve seen something in my eyes, because anger flashed through his. “I didn’t kill her—he did. I just made sure she stayed dead.”

I nodded. “I’m not judging, Zach. I’d have done the same thing if a vampire turned one of my people.” Maybe. “So you tracked him here and Axton took you?”

“Eventually. They set me up, and I wasn’t careful enough. I killed six of his vampires before he trapped me.” His smile was grim. “He enjoyed the fuck out of torturing me for that.”

“Why didn’t he turn you?”

A shiver raked his body. “Axton didn’t want to turn me because I wouldn’t have suffered enough as a vampire. But as I got closer to dying, he was going to turn me. He’d become invested in me.”

“He began to care about you?”

He curled his lip. “Axton doesn’t know how to care. He’s a vampire. They don’t have the capacity for human emotion.” He took a drink of coffee to calm himself. “He became obsessed. He couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t break me.”

I tapped my phone. “Do you want to contact your family?”

“No.”

I nodded. “I’m going to return some calls and then head into work. You want to come?” I really didn’t want to leave him in my house alone. I didn’t think he’d be drawn to Axton, not yet, but leaving him would have been sort of like leaving an infant alone all day. He was too emotionally wounded to be alone.

I returned Max’s ten calls as I headed to my bedroom to grab a few items for the kill kit stashed in my car. I hadn’t said anything to Zach, but Axton had been given three days before his punishment began. I didn’t think he was going to go easy, and I didn’t think he was going to let Zach go without at least trying to kill him. Obsessed men would rather kill the object of their obsession than let them go.

But I was sure Zach already knew that.

I packed a kill kit for him, as well, tossing in a belt, extra stakes, two blades, vials of holy water, and a silver cross, as well as a few incidentals. After he’d gotten some decent clothes, he could buckle on the belt and choose items from the kill kit to fill it. Weapons and his own kit were important in helping him begin to heal. Axton was coming for him, and he’d need to be ready, just as I was.

Because Axton was going to come for me, as well.