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“Havana? You let your people go to the vampire bar?” I was shocked.
“Not into the bar, no. ” Jameson sighed. “Everyone here is human except for Fagan and a few other half-fae. It would be far too risky to send them in. They would be under the thrall before they passed the coat check. ”
Smart man. He was a better leader than I’d expected.
“But we do often send people out to patrol nearby in case a vampire should go out alone and attempt to feed. ”
Jesus. I could only imagine some vampire, with his enthralled feed for the night, no intention of taking any lives, brought to the final death by the Scooby Gang here. It made me a little sad. These people needed proper training and real knowledge about vampires. I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t want to add to the damage caused by my previous outburst, but under the surface I was seething.
“I was patrolling the other night,” Nolan explained. He apparently had already done the damage by telling me about their presence outside Havana, because neither Noriko nor Jameson stopped him this time. “I didn’t find no solo vamps, but I heard two of them talking. They were saying something ’bout a ‘half-breed lover’? I didn’t know what that meant. ” He shrugged. “But they said something like ‘he never was good at keeping secrets. ’”
That stung. I’d always known Holden dealt with a lot of flack for being my warden, primarily because I was a difficult charge to keep in line, but more so because the other vampires didn’t trust me. He suffered for being my friend. The secrets the vampires mentioned were just a singular Secret.
I tried to look unmoved by his words, but I couldn’t mask the pain in my eyes, so I lowered them. Thank goodness no one at the table was a werewolf, because I didn’t want any of them to mistake the action for submissiveness. They’d have walked
all over me after that, deserved or not.
“I appreciate your time,” I said, when the tone of my voice wasn’t at risk of giving me away.
Without a doubt in my mind, I now believed Holden had been framed because of me. I’d gone from being unsure of whether or not I could trust him, to feeling guilty for his current situation. It wasn’t to say that whatever he was accused of was related to me directly, because there was little they could pin on him there. No, he was on the run now because other vampires believed he was guilty, thanks to his relationship with me.
I rose from the table, as did Jameson and Nolan. Only Noriko remained seated, her dark eyes never looking away from my face. She hadn’t missed the pain. I extended a hand to Jameson, as both a farewell and a peace offering.
“I’m sorry,” I continued. “For not being more supportive of the work you do. ” I wanted to lecture them on the differences between types of vampires a little more, but some people will never see a vampire as anything other than evil. Maybe they were the smart ones.
“I don’t know if we were of any help. ” His voice had lost its former edge. We had reached an understanding, it seemed. He looked me in the eyes, and his handshake was firm and dry. Jameson saw me as an equal. While I would have rather he viewed me as his superior, at least in this field, I would accept equality. A twenty-two-year-old girl wasn’t going to get anything better from a fifty-something man, and I was lucky to get that.
Once I dropped his hand, I did something I bet none of them expected. I turned to Nolan, and instead of shaking his hand, I pulled him in for a hug. The purpose was twofold, but I was counting on them only understanding half of it.
As expected, Nolan didn’t fight the hug. He let me embrace him and pushed the gesture further by placing a hand on my lower back, as Lucas was so fond of doing, and pulling me closer. I had wanted to know what a hug in those arms felt like, and found my answer. It was solid and comforting, and though I was testing him, I couldn’t help but enjoy it a little.
The point, as Jameson and Noriko would understand it, was that I’d proven how ineffectual Nolan was as a fighter. He hadn’t resisted my invasion into his space. He didn’t try to go for my gun to disarm me, and he’d willingly allowed me into his defensive zone. Foolish boy.
But my purpose was more sinister than they could have anticipated. While I was close to him, I nuzzled my face as close to his neck as I could, given how tall he was, and I took a big whiff. With so many different smells clouding the air in the bar I wanted to be certain I could recognize Nolan’s specific scent again. That he had let me get so close to his neck only proved how unprepared he was for the work he was doing.
Nolan, the would-be vampire slayer, had let a hungry half-vampire press herself right up to his jugular. Another hour or two without eating and the temptation would have proven too much for me. As it was, breathing in the luscious, musky smell of him, my fangs extended with anticipation. I clamped my mouth shut and stepped back. Patting Nolan on the cheek, I gave him a sad, tight smile, and shared a look with Jameson to be sure he understood what I’d just shown him.
His white, sweat-dappled face assured me the point had been made.
I didn’t say anything else, because I couldn’t risk flashing fang at them. Once they were exposed, I needed to feed. If I was in better control, I could calm myself down enough to retract them, but I wasn’t going to get that lucky tonight. The monster was out, and it called for blood.
Instead, I nodded curtly to everyone and took my exit. They let me leave without further comment.
In the alley, I was once again alone with Fagan, who had relaxed his doorman attitude a little now that he knew I wasn’t a potential threat to Bramley.
“Get what you needed?” he asked me, his deep voice filling the dark alley.
I looked up at the night sky, admiring the low, three-quarter moon. “Not yet,” I confessed, keeping my lips tight and gritting my teeth together. “But I have a plan. ”
Chapter Fifteen
The twenty-four-hour Starbucks on the corner of West 52nd and 8th was hardly spectacular to look at. Like several other New York outposts of the chain, the exterior was painted brown to give the white letters a little extra pop. If you made it through the doors and onto the other side, the back interior wall had a long mirror along the top half, allowing the light from the two windowed walls to reflect farther into the room. There was a row of banquette seating for several two-person tables. These tables were almost always occupied by one person and a laptop, the new New York power couple.
I walked through the doors at least once a week, but I almost never made it inside.
This particular Starbucks was special for one reason—it served as a gateway to a separate reality from the human world. The realm on the other side of the door was only accessible to someone of the paranormal persuasion who was in genuine need. However, it was forbidden for werewolves or wereanimals of any kind to enter.
Because time functioned differently there, wereanimals couldn’t count on their control to work as it should. Without the ebb and flow of the moon, they might shift unexpectedly, which would be disastrous. A werewolf who shifts against its will is not only angry, it is a force with which there is no reckoning.
