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Our conversation was cut short by approaching voices from the opposite end of the street. Through the cloak of darkness it was difficult to see who was coming our way, but if they were talking, it meant they were alive.
We moved off the street and onto the sidewalk, preparing to hunker down for a surprise attack, when a voice rang out. “If you’re going to hide, it’s smarter to do it before a vampire spots you.”
The familiar accent, just slightly British, made my stomach feel warm and wobbly. “Holden?” What the hell were they doing here?
“You’re in our grid, dummy.”
“This is ridiculous,” Keaty grumbled.
I waved forward the rest of my group, and we gathered in the street to meet the other team. “You’ve been busy,” Holden observed. “Except none of them are vampires. Detective Castilla. Tyler.” He nodded to them each in turn, and they both politely acknowledged him. Tyler and Holden had a tense history that went back years and began during a blind date I’d shared with the detective. Ever since then, and for good reason, Tyler had never completely trusted Holden. Mercedes, likewise, had her doubts about him, but she’d let her vampire hatred fade a lot since discovering I was part vamp.
“Sorry. Did he say vampire?” O’Brian asked.
“He did.” I holstered my gun, and the others followed suit, all but O’Brian who clearly hadn’t quite caught up to speed yet. It was a lot to take in in one night.
“A vampire,” he said.
I smiled at him, mustering as much patience as I could, then pointed to Holden. “Vampire.” I moved on to Desmond and Genie. “Werewolves.” Then I pointed to myself. “Both.”
“What?” Genie said, her eyes bulging. Oh, right, she hadn’t known all the details yet. Shit.
“Glad I’m not the only confused one,” the detective sergeant concluded.
“Can we all agree, for now, it’s best we take everything at face value tonight and not ask too many questions? We’re going to see a lot of weird stuff. We can’t constantly stop to be amazed by it.”
“But—” Genie wasn’t ready to let my revelation go, but I waved off her question.
“I promise when this is over, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, but right now we have bigger fish to fry.”
“Secret is absolutely correct,” Keaty said. Within our motley gang, he and O’Brian were the most out of place. Both men were over forty, though Keaty wore his age better, and both looked like accountants who had strapped on holsters. Holden, who was the only other member of our party in a suit, looked as if he’d been born wearing Armani.
Beyond my friends there were two others lurking hesitantly in the dusk. “Who did you find?”
“Considering we followed through with the plan, I brought you some wardens,” Holden said pointedly, as he waved the two newcomers forwards. He had found a male and female vampire who both appeared to be young, but the smell of their power put them closer to a hundred years or more each. She still had the youthful glow of a teenager, maybe sixteen, and had white-blonde hair cut in an edgy pixie, her bangs brushed across one eye. He was Native American, wearing jeans and a faded Ramones T-shirt. I recognized the woman, though I couldn’t place where from, and the young man was unfamiliar to me.
“Holden told you what we’re planning to do?” I asked.
The young man spoke first. “He said we were being called on by the command of a Tribunal Leader. He wasn’t specific as to why, but I didn’t ask questions.”
Good little warden, toeing the line. “What’s your name?”
“Reggie.”
“And you?” I asked the girl.
When she spoke, I remembered her immediately. So did Nolan, apparently, because he was keeping his distance from her. Her voice had a sweet, charming Southern accent to it that made me imagine sipping sweet tea on a plantation porch. “I’m Clementine.”
Of course.
Clementine’s voice also had power to it, more power than her age let on. She was only a hundred and fifty or so, but she felt much older. She was the kind of vampire who had special abilities, much like Sig, and the older she got the stronger she would become. Considering her power crawled over my skin like a swarm of wasps, I was afraid of what she might become in a few more centuries.
I’d only met Clementine once before, and Nolan had been with me that evening. She was the gatekeeper of a vampire club called Havana, and her gift had struck me as special even then.
She’d come with Holden because she wanted to, not because she’d felt compelled.
“The two of you ever dealt with a necromancer before?” I asked.
Reggie shoo
