“Maybe something more tame?” I asked. “I’m not in the mood for a dancefloor.”
“Rack ‘Em Jack’s it is,” Joss said.
As we crossed the wide front porch to hit the driveway, Gabriel asked me to ride with him.
“If you want to blow off some steam tonight, I don’t blame you. But let me drive you.”
He was right. A few shots of whiskey were likely to slide down and hit the spot, so I wouldn’t need to drive. And I was more comfortable leaving my truck at HQ than in the bar parking lot overnight.
“Yeah, sure. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Settling into the passenger seat of the Chevelle at sundown felt like a night on watch, but I wasn’t armed to the teeth. Granted, I was still packing heat and a couple of silver daggers under my jacket. Wearing layers was one definite advantage of the late season.
Jack’s was fairly busy, but that was to be expected on a Friday night with no football game and after folks had been cooped up with their families for a couple of days. We were able to get a table in no time, though, and the bar was quick about getting us a pitcher of Shiner Bock and four frosty mugs.
“I’m just going to have the one, so I’ll buy this round,” Gabe said.
We set up at the pub table next to the pool table we had chosen, filling our mugs with ice cold amber. I scanned the crowd and recognized many of the faces from around town, but if any of them realized who we were, they said nothing.
“Who’s gonna start?” I asked before I took a sip, then looked at my partner. “You and me?”
“Actually, there’s something I wanna ask you, Rem,” Dylan said.
Jocelyn slid off her chair and nodded Gabriel toward the racked balls. “We’ll warm up the table, but you’ll have to break.”
She didn’t pause to find out what it was my brother wanted to ask, so she must have either known or was in on the plan. There was no lingering curiosity before turning her attention to the game.
I swallowed another mouthful of Shiner and gave my attention to Dylan. “What is it you wanna ask?”
“Well… What would you think of us buying your house?” Before I could answer in the affirmative, he plowed on as though he had selling points ready in case I said no. “Now that Joss and I are planning for the future, we’re thinking long term and we’ve both saved for a good down payment. I know you don’t want just anybody living in the house you shared with Dom, so I’m hoping if it’s us, you won’t mind.”
He knew why I had hang-ups about putting the house on the open market—we had talked about them when I first offered it up to him to live in rent-free after he had moved back to Dove Creek. But to sell the home I had loved so much to him and Jocelyn was the perfect solution.
“Mind? Dyl, I’d be thrilled if the two of you wanted to make that house your first home. I’m happy to sell it to you.”
He grinned ear to ear. “Awesome. We looked up the fair market value, and that’s what we’re prepared to pay. I know you, and I don’t want you to make us some kind of stupid good deal just because I’m your brother.”
“We’ll talk more about that later,” I laughed. “But if we call the bank on Monday, I’ll bet we can close on the paperwork by Christmas.”
Joss noticed our smiling faces and sidled up to Dylan, slipping an arm around him and giving him a peck on the cheek. “I told you she’d say yes.”
“I was still nervous. Buying a house is a big deal.”
Gabriel wrapped up his turn on the table and came to find out what was happening. “What did I miss?”
“We’re going to be homeowners,” Jocelyn told him with a smile.
“Something else to celebrate, then,” Gabe said, raising his glass. “Congratulations.”
“To Jocelyn and Dylan,” I added, toasting them.
We all drank from our mugs, and while I had thought I’d need a few drinks to help drown my sorrows, I found that happy news and the good vibes around me lifted my mood far more. The truth was, I felt better than I should have. But I recalled looking at my wedding album the night before… While it was unfair to compare Creed to my late husband, I felt deep in my heart that something had been missing.
Gabriel interrupted my reverie when he set his glass on the table. “Not to rain on the parade, but I won,” he grinned.
I looked over at the pool table. While Joss had come to talk to Dylan and me, he had disappeared every ball with a stripe on it into pockets.
I slid off the tall pub chair and snagged a cue from the rack on the wall. “Let’s cut that winning streak to one, shall we?” I smiled back. “Your break.”
My partner racked the balls and got ready to break, and I looked around at the crowd again. It was thinning out as the night wore on, but there were still plenty of folks milling about. I glanced toward the jukebox as an unlikely sight caught my eye… a head of dark, wavy hair and broad shoulders disappearing toward the door. It couldn’t have been…
Gabe was lining up his shot when I made up my mind to investigate. “Hey, I’m just gonna run to the ladies’ real quick,” I lied. “Don’t sneak any extra shots while I’m gone.”
I made a break for it, sidestepping and ‘excuse me’-ing my way through the throng. When I got to the main door, Creed was nowhere to be found. If he had been there at all.
Pushing through the entrance, I looked both ways on the sidewalk in front of the building. Nothing still. And he wasn’t that fast.
I cursed under my breath, irritated with myself for jumping and running, when all I had seen was the back of some guy’s head. Taking a moment to collect myself, I sucked in a few breaths of the chilly air but didn’t get to do much collecting before I sensed someone too close to my personal space.
“Hey sweetheart, can you spare a smoke?”
I bristled at the use of the patronizing endearment, though my indignation gave way to high alert the moment I looked over my shoulder.
Vampire.
It was no secret what he was up to… Woman alone outside the pool hall, likely tipsy. Keep her alone, get her around to the back of the building. Bite.
Boy, was he in for a surprise.
He was too close—inside my defensible zone. To back him off, I played my part in the charade. I reached into my half-zipped jacket like I would if I were going in for a pack of cigarettes and retrieved the crucifix I wore. When I turned, I held it out and bought myself a few paces’ worth of space.
When the vampire realized what he had gotten himself into, he bared his fangs and lunged forward. I reached behind me for my gun, but the bloodsucker was quick as a flash. He clocked me one in the jaw so hard it snapped my head around and I lost my footing. I stopped my face from its collision course with the concrete by landing on my hands and cushioning my descent.
My vision went blurry for a few seconds, but I held on to consciousness. Fighting my body’s desire to stay down, I knew I was toast if I didn’t find the strength to fight back. As far as my backup was concerned, I was in the restroom.
I swore to myself I’d never lie again, not even the little fibs like the one I had told Gabe.
Popping myself back onto my feet before the vamp could get in any ground and pound, I summoned the Holy Light. The practice I had done in the armory came back to me, and I created an orb of light almost as a reflex.
“No, not you…” the bloodsucker said.
He hadn’t recognized me by looks, but he had obviously been warned about there being a light-wielder. Taking a step back, he shook his head.
I cast the light away from me, right at the heart of the vampire. The idea had been to stop him in his tracks, but he… disintegrated.
The front door to Jack’s swung open from the inside at the same time the demon’s host body imploded in a cloud of bright sparks and dark ash. I gasped as the crimson energy streaked away to Perdition, and Gabriel stopped short in surprise.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” I said. “I mean, I didn’t expect i
t to… you know.”
My partner looked in both directions from the door, then out across the parking lot, doing a visual check of our surroundings before turning his attention back to what I had done.
“Damn,” he murmured, watching the ash settle. His gaze shifted to me, and curiosity was replaced by concern. “Are you okay?”
I put my hand to my jaw, pressing my fingertips gingerly where the vampire had hit me. The bone didn’t seem to be broken, but I’d be left with some nasty bruising.
“Yeah, I think so.”
My partner came closer, giving one more glance to the dusty leftovers of the demon before checking out my face.
“What were you doing out here?” he asked. “I thought you were in the ladies’ room, otherwise I would’ve come sooner.”
“I was on my way there when I thought I saw somebody I knew.”
Not one hundred percent false, but he still eyed me with skepticism.
“Do you want to call it a night? I can take you home, if you’re ready.”
“Yeah, let’s get out of here. But I’d rather just go to HQ… I don’t really want to be home alone right now.”
“Of course, whatever you want. We should go tell Joss and Dylan.”
We went back inside to the table and gave them a brief rehash of what had gone down outside. Dylan suggested making a sweep of the area to make sure there weren’t any other bloodsuckers around.
“I’d be willing to bet he was a loner,” I said. “He was trying to get some unsuspecting person alone, to feed.”
“I’ll text Hugo. Let them know you killed one here and ask them to keep an eye out in this area,” Gabe said. “The four of us have been watching the crowd all night, so in here is all clear. Any others outside would have made themselves scarce after what Remi did to that one.”
“I’m sorry to cut things short, when we were just getting started,” I told Jocelyn and Dylan.
“Don’t apologize,” Joss said. “I’m already getting tired anyway, and you need to go get some ice on that.”
With a confirmation from Hugo that he and Aric would check out the area around Rack ‘Em Jack’s for any more vamp activity, we left the bar. After I got into the passenger seat, I touched my jaw again and felt where it was already swelling.
“You should let Meredith look at that,” Gabriel said.
“I will. But I’ll just put an ice pack on it tonight and wait until morning to call her.”
We pulled up at HQ, and Gabe walked me inside. Garret gave us a nod and went back to punching something into his keyboard, and Casey rose from the couch to greet us.
“Hey, I figured y’all were out for the night. What’re you—? Oh. What the heck happened, Remi?” he asked, looking at my face. “Bar fight?” he asked with a wicked grin.
“That might’ve been better,” I smiled. “I got decked by a vampire outside Jack’s.”
“Tell me you got him back.”
“She fried him like an egg,” Gabe said. “There was nothing left when I went to help.”
“Damnnnn,” Casey said, sounding impressed. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Neither did I.”
Going to the kitchen to find one of the Blue Ice packs Gabriel had put back a few nights before, I found Stacey re-stocking the fridge with sodas.
“Hey, I usually do that when I’m on backup,” I said. “It keeps me awake when I get bored.”
“Same,” she agreed. “Not that I’m not bored… Just needed to move around. I can’t sit still for as long as Garret can, and being here helping him is the only way my mom will let me be involved.”
“Not trying to undermine your mom, but aren’t you old enough to decide for yourself?”
“Technically, yes, but seeing as I still live at home…”
I understood all too well the need to balance what you wanted with what was necessary.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m pushing thirty and my mom still gives me hell about hunting. So yeah, it never ends.”
We stood there smiling at our shared joke before Stacey realized I must’ve been in there for a reason.
“Oh, did you need something? Am I in your way?”
“No, I’m just getting an ice pack from the freezer.”
Her eyes landed on my jaw, noticing it for the first time, and she sucked a breath between her teeth. “Yeah, that looks bad.”
“I’ve had worse,” I told her.
I found the ice pack I was looking for right in the front of the freezer since it hadn’t had time to get buried again. Pressing it to the swollen lump on my jaw, I winced at the cold, but it was soothing once I got used to it.
“Let me grab you a couple ibuprofen while I’m over here,” Stacey said. Since she had been going back and forth from the pantry to the fridge, she was right near where we stored the meds. “I was gonna go back in there and see if Garret needs anything.”
I accepted the tablets she fished out for me and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “Thanks. He was in there working on something when we came in.”
We left the kitchen together and located all three men at Garret’s desk, discussing the Crossroads, and went to join in.
“There are a few places that show up as hot spots when I overlay all activity—Creek Crossing, the county road in front of the Blazing T Ranch, and the east side of the lake. But really, we can’t discount anywhere because look…” He switched the view of his heat map to where we could see every pinpoint instead of just the most heavy activity. There were blips covering the map of the area in and around Dove Creek like a bad case of chicken pox.
“So we’re still shooting blind in the dark,” Gabe said.
“I’m sorry this doesn’t help more,” Garret answered.
“No, don’t be. We never would have known if you hadn’t put together the data, and we can still try the places you mentioned.”
“Is there a way to track the places where we’re checking?” I asked. “You know, systematically eliminate them so that we’re not duplicating efforts anywhere.”
“That’s a great idea,” Garret said. “I can incorporate that capability in the mapping tool. I’ve taken this week to work out the bugs, so that won’t take me long.”
Casey gave him a firm pat on the shoulder. “That’s awesome. This stuff is so far beyond me, it ain’t even funny.”
“Yeah, he’s awesome. I’m good with this tech stuff and he blows me away,” Stacey said.
Garret sat up a little straighter in his chair. “That’s not true, but… I’m happy to help.”
“Starting tomorrow night, we can pick our locations strategically, check them off the list when we’re on our routes so we’re not overworking ourselves,” Gabe said. “Will you be ready by then?” he asked Garret.
“Definitely. I’ll be ready by morning.”
Our little gathering broke up as Stacey sat down next to Garret to help him, Casey went back to whatever he had been watching on TV, and Gabe and I went to the front door.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” he asked me.
“I’m sure… It was a very weird, very busy day, but I’m gonna be fine.”
“And you’ll go rest?”
“Headed up now, mommy dearest. You’d better go get some sleep, too. We’re on tomorrow night.”
“Yes ma’am, mission understood. Call me if you need me,” he told me.
As I walked back through the sitting area, Casey caught my attention and asked if I wanted to join him.
“Nah, thanks though. I’m gonna go try to get some shuteye. But if anything goes sideways, come get me. I don’t mind,” I told him.
“Will do. Goodnight.”
“’Night.”
The upstairs of the farmhouse felt even emptier than I once thought it did without Creed in the room he had used, and even without Eden. We had filled the space for a while, and now it was back to just me occasionally using a room. But the feeling of being at ease still held me when I laid do
wn in the twin bed in the corner. I was going to have to get used to being alone again, even if it did prove to be temporary, as Creed hoped. For the time being, though, I would seek out the comfort that the heart of the Amasai provided.
Chapter 13
The nights had grown shorter and colder. In the weeks since Creed left, I had gotten used to living in a quiet apartment again. There were times it was too quiet, but I had also begun to wonder if I wanted to hold open the space he had left in my life.
I hadn’t heard a word from him. After that first night of imagining I had glimpsed him in Rack ’Em Jack’s, there had been no sign of him. When I had tried to call his number a couple weeks before, it was no longer in service.
It left me to speculate what had happened to him. But I also thought maybe he had simply wanted to go back to his ways of traveling and never landing in one place for too long, and had tried to spare me from an ugly break-up. Whatever the reason for radio silence, I wasn’t so sure we could just pick up where we left off if he did return.
There was enough to distract me in our search for the Crossroads and keeping the hellhounds at bay that I didn’t ruminate on it too much. We had eliminated the busiest of the areas Garret had located on the map, and were going through all the other pinpoints a few at a time each night so we didn’t overwork ourselves.
The longest night of the year came cold and clear, though in years past we hadn’t known it to be a night of additional oddity or danger. Still, it was eerie to know that in the middle of it, we would be the farthest away from daylight we ever were.
Gabriel and I were on duty that night, along with Dylan and Meredith. Aric was in the armory with us, planning to fill more silver ammunition while he was on backup.
“Let me know if y’all need anything,” he said, taking a swig of Dr. Pepper. “I’ll be in here, passing the time.”
“We will. Stay sharp,” Gabriel told him.
The four of us went back to the house to review our maps against Garret’s main Crossroads map. Chances were, we would have time to search some of the locations that hadn’t been checked yet. He updated us with a few places where Solomon had open missing persons cases.
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