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Randy’s scent, gaze, and pulse all indicated truthfulness, yet Bones hadn’t survived for over two hundred years by being too trusting. That’s why his mobile was cloning Randy’s phone even now. Soon, he’d have all of Randy MacGregor’s data, if that was even his name.
Bones’s brow rose. “And the first thing you do when you discover that ‘people like me’ exist is introduce yourself?”
“Told you I regretted that,” Randy said with a dry laugh. “But I couldn’t help it. The unusual has always fascinated me…”
Randy kept talking. Bones didn’t hear it. His attention was now focused on the tall, bald man entering the bar. His skin was light taupe, his brows dark brown, and he had a lean, wiry build and features that hovered between pleasant and plain. He looked human enough, if you didn’t notice the faint tinge of luminescence to his skin or how predatory his gaze was. When that gaze landed on Bones, the vampire’s aura rolled out in a wave that only another vampire could feel.
Swirls of energy bit into Bones, as if he’d suddenly become a feast for a swarm of mosquitoes. Power that potent marked the new arrival as an old, strong vampire, and he wanted Bones and any other vampire there to know it.
Bones rose and grabbed his coat, pausing only to say to Randy, “If you want to live, stay here.” Couldn’t have the bloke follow him and get killed from more of his dangerous curiosity.
“Lionel, right?” Bones said when he reached the vampire.
Lionel regarded Bones with an icy aqua gaze. “First you insist on meeting in person, then you use my name in public. So much for your reputation for discretion.”
Bones ignored Lionel’s scathing tone. “I might be unconventional, but my services are guaranteed. That’s why I require exclusivity on this contract.”
Lionel’s gaze raked Bones.
Bones let a small amount of his aura out, keeping the rest behind a wall of ice that hid his true strength. Lionel felt the power in that brush of aura and straightened, his scowl fading.
“That guarantee plus your reputation is why I agreed to your terms, but I’ll only grant exclusivity for two weeks. After that, this is an open contract. I need this handled quickly.”
Bones smiled. “Your price told me that. Half a million is quite the bounty to have on a human.”
“Oh, the Red Reaper isn’t human,” Lionel said in a dark tone. “If she were, I wouldn’t need to hire someone like you.”
Rage scorched Bones, yet nothing in his expression changed. Lionel was right; the “Red Reaper” wasn’t human even though she breathed and had a heartbeat.
“Intriguing,” was all Bones said. “Now, give me everything you’ve got on her.”
“Not here,” Lionel said. “Somewhere private.”
Once again, Bones smiled. “I know just the place.”
* * *
Winter-driedleaves crunched beneath them as they walked. Some of the piles were high enough that the edge of Bones’s coat swirled them as they passed. Lionel gave him a sardonic glance.
“Pale skin, ridiculously handsome, and wearing a black leather trench coat on top of all-black clothes? You’re a walking caricature of our species.”
“The coat was a gift.”
Bones’s glib tone hid a sharp inner stab at the memory of Cat’s eyes, darker than an approaching storm while her voice quavered from grief even as she teased him.“Vampires aresupposedto wear black leather, aren’t they?”
“And I have better things to do than fret about color- coordinating my clothes,” Bones added, stifling the memory.
Four blocks later, the neighborhood changed from shops and pubs to empty buildings and abandoned businesses. Urban decay in this part of Virginia had taken its toll. Bones stopped at a fenced-in structure that had once been a basketball court.
Lionel curled his lip in distaste. “This is the best you can do?”
“The nearest building’s condemned and only warehouses and train tracks are behind us, so it’s quite private.” Bones held out a hand. “Now, give me what you have on the target.”
Lionel pulled a legal-sized envelope from his coat. “This has the Red Reaper’s last known whereabouts plus pictures of her. They’re blurry, but these were the best I could find.”
Bones rifled through the pages. The pictureswereblurry, showing only a profile or partial face through a crowd. That’s why they hadn’t been scrubbed from the internet before Lionel could find them. No full face shots of the “Red Reaper” existed. Someone with impressive government reach and a constantly-running facial recognition program had made sure of that.
The focus of these pictures was police officers and an area closed off with crime scene tape, but a woman with scarlet hair was in the background. Lionel had circled her, as if Bones wouldn’t recognize the shape of her jaw, the high peaks of her cheekbones, her slim, straight nose, or those full lips…
