by Jenna Black
Carolyn thought she saw her point hit home, but then Hannah ruined it by opening her mouth.
“All right, kiddies, enough of this shit. Let’s all establish that there’s no such thing as vampires and Gray has, for whatever sick reasons of his own, decided to play a bizarre practical joke.”
Gray’s eyes hardened again, and he fixed Hannah with a steely stare. The look in his eyes made Carolyn shiver with superstitious dread, but true to form, Hannah seemed unaffected.
“Oh, don’t give me that bad-boy, I’m-gonna-kill-you look!” Hannah said, digging the hole deeper. “Your face just isn’t made for it. You—”
Gray crossed the distance between them so fast Carolyn barely saw him move. He grabbed Hannah by the collar of her coat, lifted her off her feet, and pinned her against the wall at eye level. Hannah managed only a squeak of protest. Her feet scrabbled for purchase, and her fingers clawed uselessly at Gray’s hands.
“Don’t bait me, Hannah,” Gray growled in a furious undertone. “You’re playing with fire.”
Even from across the room, Carolyn could see the glint of his bared fangs. Hannah’s face went completely white and her mouth dropped open.
“Put her down, Gray!” Carolyn shouted, finally finding her voice.
He ignored her, leaning in to Hannah, glaring at her, tonguing the fangs he displayed so prominently. A faint whimper escaped Hannah’s lips. Carolyn grabbed his arm, trying to loosen his grip, but it was like trying to bend steel. “Stop it!” she said. Gray just shrugged her off.
“Have we reached an understanding, Hannah?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Hannah said, her voice barely a whisper.
Gray lowered her feet to the floor, but maintained his grip on her coat. Her knees buckled, and she would have fallen if not for his hold. He helped her slide down the wall into a sitting position. Her face was still bloodless white.
“You bastard!” Carolyn cried, punching him in the arm. She’d never seen Hannah cowed in her entire life.
Anger flickered in his eyes for an instant, then faded. “I didn’t hurt her,” he said. “Which is more than I can say for her.” He held up his hands, displaying the gouges her fingernails had made all along his wrists. He squatted in front of Hannah, meeting her eyes, and his voice gentled. “I’m the least dangerous of my kind. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating us. Ever.”
Hannah shuddered, but at least a little color returned to her cheeks. “This has to be some kind of bizarre dream, doesn’t it?”
Gray sighed heavily. “If only it were.” He stood and offered Hannah a hand up. She eyed him warily for a long moment, then accepted his hand.
By the time he’d guided her to the sofa, she looked almost herself again. And, Carolyn noticed, the scratches on his wrists were well on their way to healing.
“Was that really necessary?” Carolyn asked, sitting next to Hannah and putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“No,” Gray said, “but I seem to have acquired a temper since my transition.” He turned to Hannah. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. But at least everything is out in the open.”
Hannah gently shrugged off Carolyn’s hand. “Yeah, it’s out in the open that you’ve got Carolyn mixed up in shit with vampires. I thought you’d done a thorough number on her three years ago, but obviously—”
Gray held up a hand for silence. To Carolyn’s astonishment, Hannah obeyed, perhaps still cowed by his show of temper. “I can’t change what’s happened. I don’t know why Carolyn was dragged into this, but she has been, and my only concern is to make sure she’s safe.”
“And the best way to make sure I’m safe,” Carolyn said, “is to catch whoever’s behind all this. So, I’ve sent off the fingerprints on the envelope for analysis, and Hannah and I would like to ask you a few questions.”
Gray’s face darkened. “Leave it alone, Carolyn. There are others looking into this.”
“You mean like Jules? The guy who thinks you murdered his girlfriend? Somehow, I don’t think he’s going to be much help.”
“He’s not—” Gray’s voice was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. He looked back and forth between the two women. “Did you call in reinforcements?”
“No,” Hannah and Carolyn said together.
Gray heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Great. I just love being Mr. Popularity.”
Still grumbling under his breath, Gray stomped to the door. Carolyn stood, putting her hand on the butt of her Glock as foreboding prickled her skin. Maybe Hannah felt it too, for she pasted her back against the wall by the door in preparation for launching an ambush.
Moments later, Gray came flying past the doorway, landing on his butt with a painful-sounding bang. Carolyn drew her Glock and braced herself, taking aim on the doorway while gesturing with her head for Hannah to move away.
Jules appeared in that doorway, his lips twisted in a mean-spirited grin until he saw the weapon aimed his direction. He held his hands up in mock surrender, the grin turning into a pseudo-charming smile. “Why didn’t you tell me you had company?” he asked, watching as Gray slowly drew himself to his feet. A bruise was already beginning to darken his jaw.
“Stay back, Jules!” Carolyn ordered. Hannah gasped softly, no doubt recognizing the name and realizing she faced another vampire. Jules turned his head toward the sound. “Don’t make eye contact with him, Hannah,” Carolyn warned.
“You may lower your weapon,” Jules said. “I promise to be on my best behavior.”
Gray snorted loudly. “That’s not saying much. But you might as well put the gun down anyway. I doubt Jules would be so crass as to kill me in front of ladies.”
Jules gave a mocking bow. “Naturally not.”
Carolyn wished she had a clue what was going on here. The two men were both bristling with hostility, but she wasn’t sure the gun was much help. Wondering if she was making a big mistake, Carolyn relaxed her stance and lowered her gun. She did not, however, holster it.
Carolyn nearly jumped a mile when another man drifted into the room from behind Jules. He’d moved so silently it almost seemed like he appeared out of nowhere. Carolyn thought of the old folklore, vampires turning into clouds of mist, and wondered if the legend had arisen because of that silent tread.
It never crossed Carolyn’s mind that the newcomer might not be a vampire. Even if his nature weren’t revealed by the company he kept or by the natural stealth of his movements, he had the aura of a predator about him. The same aura that had once seemed so foreign when she’d noticed it on Gray.
He was dressed all in black leather, skintight in some very appealing places, and Carolyn wondered if there was something about being a vampire that made one inherently good-looking. This guy could have made a cover model for Sexy Bad Boys magazine.
“Who the hell are you?” Gray asked, directing an unwelcoming look at the leather-clad stranger.
“This is Drake,” Jules said with a strangely feral smile. “You’ve heard of him, I believe?”
Carolyn glanced over at Gray and saw that he had indeed heard of Drake. And that whatever he’d heard scared the shit out of him.
Drake stepped past Jules and offered his hand for Gray to shake. Gray hesitated a moment, then shook with a wary expression on his face.
“I’d say I’m pleased to meet you,” Gray said, “but I’m not sure I am.”
Drake laughed. “I get that reaction a lot.” For all the bad-boy leather look, he had a surprisingly friendly face, with eyes almost as dark as his near-black hair. “I hate to interrupt, but Jules and I need to talk with you for a little while.” He turned to look at Hannah. Carolyn followed his gaze and saw the instant that Hannah’s eyes glazed over. Drake turned to her. Carolyn hastily lowered her gaze and raised her gun.
“Don’t you dare,” she said, fingering the trigger. A sudden, almost unbearable urge to look up struck her, and it took all her concentration to keep her eyes focused downward. “No glamour!”
“That�
�s right, Drake,” Gray said. “No glamour.”
“As if you could stop him,” Jules goaded. “You couldn’t even stand against my glamour.”
The urge to look up suddenly left Carolyn. The relief from the pressure almost caused her to look up after all, but she kept her eyes firmly focused on Drake’s big silver belt buckle, a Celtic knot that gleamed against the black leather.
“My apologies,” Drake said in a voice as smooth as chocolate. “It appears Jules hasn’t filled me in on all the details. I was under the impression I was in the presence of mortals who were … blissfully ignorant?”
“Well you were wrong,” Carolyn said. “Now let Hannah go.”
“What the … ?” Hannah said, and Carolyn sighed in relief.
Lowering her gun once more, Carolyn glanced at her bewildered friend. “You remember I was telling you about glamour? Well, you just had some first-hand experience.”
Hannah shook her head. “Wow. Creepy.”
Jules laughed. Carolyn was beginning to understand why Gray disliked him so much.
“Okay,” Gray said, “now that the introductions are over, you two want to tell me what you’re doing here?”
Jules opened his mouth to reply, but Drake silenced him with a hand on his arm. “Please, let me. You and Gray have enough of an adversarial relationship as it is.” Jules visibly swallowed his annoyance, and Drake motioned to the chairs and sofas. “Why don’t we all sit down.”
Knowing from experience that the chairs were miserably uncomfortable, Carolyn took a seat on the sofa beside Gray. She gestured for Hannah to join her, though the sofa was small and cramped with three people. Her entire leg was in contact with Gray’s, and a hint of his cologne teased her nostrils. He shifted to give her a little more room, but it didn’t really help. Their shoulders rubbed awkwardly. It would have been more comfortable if Gray put his arm around her, but he refrained.
Jules and Drake sat in the hard-as-a-rock wingback chairs.
Jules slouched casually, but Carolyn thought it had to be an affectation of some sort. The chairs were designed to keep their occupants’ backs rigidly straight, and that casual slouch no doubt made him even more uncomfortable. Drake sat on the edge of the chair, making no attempt to lean back.
“Before I get to the point,” he said, “tell me how much the ladies know.”
“Too much,” Gray said, then went on to explain about the threatening note he’d received. A silence descended when he’d finished, and Drake looked thoughtful.
“He could have written that note himself,” Jules said. “Personally, I don’t think it’s much of an alibi.”
Beside her, Carolyn felt Gray stiffen, and she figured he was going to rise to Jules’s bait. Again. She poked her elbow into his side, drawing an irritated sidelong glance. But he kept his mouth shut.
“I’ll agree the alibi is not airtight,” Drake said, and Gray stiffened again. “And what about last night?”
Gray looked confused. “What about it?”
“Where did you go? And can someone confirm your whereabouts?”
“I didn’t go anywhere!”
Jules snorted loudly. “Don’t play this game! It’s not like you didn’t know you were being watched.”
“Yes, I knew I was being watched. And I didn’t go anywhere. I was home all night.”
Jules shot out of his chair, his eyes glittering. Gray would have met the challenge head-on if Carolyn hadn’t grabbed his arm. He tried to jerk his arm out of her grip, but she held tight. He could break that grip if he really wanted to, of course.
“Sit down, Jules,” Drake said. “You’re not helping the situation.”
To Carolyn’s surprise, Jules obeyed, though his body language screamed resentment.
“Jules and Thomas are under the impression that you left your house around one in the morning,” Drake continued.
“Bullshit!”
Drake patted the air in a calming gesture. “I know you and Jules have your troubles, but even if he were making this up, he has another witness. Do you believe Thomas Freeman has any reason to make up such a story?”
“I don’t even know Thomas Freeman.”
“Exactly my point.”
“So you want to drop this ‘I was home all night’ crap?” Jules growled.
“Perhaps he was,” Drake said, before Gray could go for Jules’s throat.
Jules gave Drake a look of open-mouthed amazement. “Just what the hell are you implying?”
“That if someone wants to use Gray as the scapegoat for the killings, it would be most inconvenient for that someone if Gray were under constant surveillance.”
“You think they used a decoy,” Carolyn said.
“I think it’s possible.”
Jules shook his head. “No. That’s just too far-fetched! Why should we look for a complicated answer to a simple question?”
“Did you actually see Gray leave the house?” Carolyn asked on a hunch.
“I was in the coffee shop, so no,” Jules admitted, but he was conceding nothing. “Thomas saw him, though.”
“Did he? Or did he just see someone?”
“He saw a vampire!” Jules snapped. “When you see a vampire leaving a house inhabited by a vampire, you can be damned sure it’s the occupant who’s leaving.”
“But the killer’s a vampire too,” Carolyn protested.
“How do you know that?”
Geez, men could be exasperating. “Women with slashed throats, drained of blood? When you’ve swallowed the notion that vampires exist, it’s pretty obvious, don’t you think?”
“It makes sense, Jules,” Drake interjected before tempers flared any higher. “The killer knows the Guardians are hunting him. He knows they’ve eliminated every vampire who’s tried to set up shop in Philly. What better way to keep himself safe than to throw suspicion on someone else? And how hard would it have been to pull off last night’s little diversion? Especially if he knows about the bad blood between the two of you.”
Jules looked like he’d just swallowed sour milk, but he refrained from comment.
“All right,” Carolyn said, “if we’ve now agreed it’s possible someone is trying to frame Gray, what do we do about it?”
Jules smiled one of those charming smiles of his, but there was a hard glint to his eyes. “Well, right now the surveillance on Gray is occupying two Guardians every night.”
Gray scowled. “It’s not my fault you guys are wasting your time chasing red herrings.”
“We can’t afford the manpower,” Jules continued, looking absurdly pleased with the thought.
Carolyn didn’t know where this was going, but she was beginning to think it sucked. She folded her arms across her chest, tucking one hand subtly under her jacket toward the Glock. Drake noticed the motion and smiled at her, shaking his head. She made the mistake of meeting his eyes.
GRAY WAS AMAZED HIS temper wasn’t boiling over anymore. He stood in the cluttered, dusty basement and watched as Drake jiggled the trap door, trying to see if he could open it after Jules had jammed it from the other side.
“It’s good,” Drake called, and Jules acknowledged his words with a thump on the other side of the door. Drake stood up, dusting off his hands and facing Gray. “I understand this is unpleasant, but your life will be much improved if you’re removed from suspicion.”
Gray snorted. “In other words, this is for my own good?”
Drake lifted one shoulder in a hint of a shrug. “Maybe so. Keep in mind what’s at stake here. Think of how many mortals have already died. Whatever your personal troubles with Jules, he is the oldest and most powerful of the Guardians save Eli. They need his full attention on the case, and as long as he’s fixated on you, they won’t have it.”
“You don’t think I’m the killer, do you?” Gray asked.
Drake shook his head. “You’re just an easy scapegoat. As am I.” He grinned, although the hardness in his eyes denied any hint of humor. “We independent operators must
stick together.”
Gray bit his tongue to keep himself from making any caustic comments. This wasn’t exactly his idea of “sticking together.”
“What about Carolyn? If you don’t think I’m the killer, then you don’t think I fabricated that letter. She’s in danger, and with me locked in my basement I won’t be able to help her.”
“I don’t believe she’s in danger. That note was no doubt meant to draw you out of your house so you could be blamed for the death of Jules’s … companion.”
Gray clenched his teeth and stared at the ceiling. Up in his living room, Hannah and Carolyn sat like statues, their minds blank. Drake might be right about the purpose of that note, but that didn’t mean Carolyn was safe.
“You don’t know Carolyn,” he said. “She’ll investigate the killings in her own way.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you,” Drake said, smiling with genuine amusement this time. “If the entire society of Guardians and myself have been stymied, I sincerely doubt your mortal friend will have any greater success.”
Gray rubbed his eyes and shook his head. He remembered when he’d first shown himself to Carolyn, remembered thinking he could just disappear from her life once more. Hard to believe he himself had once underestimated her so badly. Now Drake was making the same mistake, and damned if Gray could find a way to convince him of it. He swallowed his frustration as best he could. “Before you and Jules head out, can you give me a few minutes alone with Carolyn?” Drake gave him a penetrating look. Gray refused to look away, despite the threat of glamour. “Let me talk to her and it will reduce the chances that she’ll come to the house by day and free me.”
Drake laughed. “So now you want to remain in your basement?”
“Of course not! But if that’s what it takes to get Jules’s head out of his ass … I don’t want people dying because of me. I do have a conscience, you know.”
Drake’s smile faded. “I know. And so do I. But we’ve both killed, and if our Broad Street Banger continues his reign of terror, you and I will bear the brunt of the Guardians’ wrath. So it isn’t just for the good of mortals that we must endeavor to eliminate the Banger as soon as possible.”
