Eternal Hearts

by Jennifer Turner

  Drake thought about the action for a second, reconsidered the thought for a moment, and then decided he didn’t really care about the consequences. “You know what, Dad? No. I’m not gonna watch my mouth this time. Because you obviously know something about what’s going on with Toni…and you’re either just really fucking late to the party…or you knew all along and decided not to tell me – which I think is absolute bullshit!”

  “Drake, there are a lot of things I know about that I’ve decided not to tell you.” He leaned against the wall and folded his scarred arms over his chest. “And when it comes to what’s going on right now, I still feel the same way. I know it’ll probably piss you off, but I’m sorry…there are just some things in this world I don’t want you to be a part of. And I’ve made it very clear to the parties involved that I expect it to stay that way.”

  Drake let out a spiteful laugh. “Oh, so you’re completely comfortable with me following in your footsteps as an assassin, but you won’t let me in on whatever’s happening to my girlfriend? Yeah, that makes a lot of fucking sense to me.”

  “It doesn’t have to make sense to you.”

  “I hate it when you say that.”

  “Look, Toni doesn’t need your help right now. She just got reunited with her older brother, thanks to Clint, and she even has a sword forged by Molenyar in case something goes wrong. I think even through the red haze probably clouding your vision right now that you’d agree she’s in pretty good shape and doesn’t need you attached to her side.”

  Drake frowned. He could definitely agree with her having a Molenyar blade, considering he wasn’t even allowed to have one and he knew the guy. But the rest was still up for debate. “So she finally found her brother, which I’m really, really happy for her about because I know how much she wanted to see him again. And now I’m even more pissed because I missed the reunion. But what good is having a human at her side gonna do?”

  “Her brother’s not human, he’s a vampire, Drake. And what’s even better about it all is that you’ve known him for a few years now – you just didn’t realize it.”

  Drake fisted his hands. “What? What do you mean I know him?”

  “Dominic Tutoro. He’s the guy in L.A. who modified your car.”

  Drake’s mouth fell open. “No shit? I never knew his last name. Oh, damn. He’s a mean little bastard, too. Isn’t he the one always running around the shop with a torque wrench, threatening to send everyone to meet Jesus?”

  “That’s him, which is exactly why I said Toni doesn’t need your help right now. She’s in good hands.”

  Drake blew out a breath. Well, at least she had some more than competent back up with her, as long as whoever or whatever she was facing wasn’t out of Dominic’s league. “You’re really not gonna tell me what’s going on, are you?”

  “No, I’m not.” He narrowed his eyes on Drake. “You fed from her, didn’t you?”

  Drake nodded. “I did. Don’t tell me you have a problem with that now, too.”

  “It depends, was there any kind of backlash after you did it?”

  Drake arched a brow. “What do you mean by backlash?”

  “Did your instincts kick in and do anything crazy, like tell you to kill her or force you to do anything you wouldn’t usually do to her?”

  Drake shook his head. “No. Nothing like that happened. The only thing I felt afterwards was…really happy.”

  “And both sides of you feel the same?”

  Drake nodded again. “Yeah. I love her…all of me loves her.”

  “Then I don’t have a problem with it at all.” A smile slowly crept across his weathered face. “I can’t wait to meet her, Drake. She sounds like a hell of a girl.”

  “She is. I think you’ll really like her.”

  “I’m sure I will,” he said as he pushed away from the wall. “Try to get some rest. You need it. And try even harder not to worry about Toni. No matter what you think, she’ll be fine.”

  Drake rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s a lot easier said than done.”

  “You’re full of her blood, Drake.” He turned and began walking back down the dark hallway. “If something happens and she really needs you, trust me…you’ll know.”

  Chapter 21

  Toni stepped into her hotel room and smiled at Dominic, who sat at the table studying the contents of the investigation folder again. She still wasn’t used to seeing him, but she was more than just a little excited to have him back.

  “Have a seat,” he said as he pulled out the chair next to him. “Let’s chat for a minute.”

  Toni slid into the chair. “So what was it you said about a party?”

  “I talked to Murdoch. There’s been another transfer. We’ve got six new wolves in the city.”

  She frowned. “Why are there more all of a sudden?”

  “I have no fuckin’ idea, but the web cam Murdoch used to get these pictures is offline now. And that means whoever the hell is doing this knows someone’s on to their ass.”

  “Did you ask him about Stryker?”

  “Yeah. He says he doesn’t know whether it’s her or not. But between you and me, I don’t think he’s got a fucking clue about what she’s up to. He pretty much said if she’s after somebody powerful in the city, he sees reasons why she’d do it, but he also sees reasons why she wouldn’t. I guess she thinks she’s a badass, but according to Murdoch, she ain’t even close. If it’s her, he doesn’t think she could pull it off.”

  “So you’re telling me we’re no better off than we were before?”

  He shook his head. “Not really, but we still have shit to do. We still gotta go down to the zoo and talk to the people there. Have you checked out this alley by Stryker’s place yet?”

  “No, I haven’t. I haven’t gone over to Stryker’s actual neighborhood yet either. I talked to some of the street people on the west side last night, but no one knew anything.”

  Dominic crumpled one of the papers in his fist then threw it back on the table. “This is gonna be a pain in the ass. Chances are the bitch covered all her tracks. I bet you fifty bucks that even if she’s got someone inside the zoo workin’ for her – they don’t know it. And even if we find the Director, either at home or in her office, nothing’s gonna change if she don’t remember what she did. When vamps have the power to pull mind tricks, it really fucks shit up.”

  Toni did her best to focus only on the positives. It wasn’t over yet. They still had leads to follow. “Let’s head over to the zoo then. We’ll see what we can find there, and then we’ll stop by Cyberz on the way back and see if anyone around there has seen the human descriptions of the wolves.”

  Dominic sneered at her. “What the fuck is Cyberz?”

  She smiled at his disgusted tone. “It’s a club Stryker owns down on Rush Street. It’s where our fight started back when…” She cleared her throat and forced her mind to stay locked on the topic at hand. “Cyberz may be a stretch, but at least it’s something. When we’re finished there we can go check out the alley.”

  “Works for me,” he said as he jumped up and kicked his chair in. “Let’s get the fuck outta here and make something happen.”

  “Are we driving separate?”

  “It’d probably be best. If there’s one thing I learned from being out in L.A., when you’re hunting, you should always have more than one vehicle. The vamps out there love blowing shit up, especially cars. It makes for a real easy way to trap somebody. And since we’ve got two dogs who like bombs, I’m thinkin’ two cars are a hell of a lot better than one.”

  Toni followed her brother out the door. “Good point.”

  ***

  Toni pulled into the parking lot of the Chicago Zoo with Dominic right behind her. She glanced over at the dashboard clock then growled. It was already 8 p.m. The zoo closed in a half an hour. She kicked her door open and slid out of the car.

  If they were going to do this, they needed to do it quickly.

  She looked over at Dominic w
hen he opened his door. “This place closes in thirty minutes. We need to get moving.”

  He kicked at a few loose stones on the ground. “Fuck. We’re gonna have to split up if we want any hope of talking to everybody here. If we don’t, we’re gonna have to go knocking on their front doors at home.”

  Toni shivered as a chill brushed across the back of her neck. She stared out over the dimly lit parking lot. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to split up. I’m not getting the greatest feeling right now. We should stay together. What if the wolves are here?”

  He gave her a hard look before shaking his head. “Fine. Let’s head over to the administrative offices. If nothing else, I should be able to scare the information out of the staff…if they actually know anything. You stick close to the building and ask the grounds crew and other workers if they’ve seen our dogs. Just stay close, okay?”

  She nodded, but she couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling. “But what if the wolves are here?”

  “I still don’t think they are, but if you see one – just turn around and walk into the building. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He draped his arm across her shoulders. “I’m your brother. As long as I’m here, nobody will touch you.”

  She smiled up at him. She wasn’t used to having someone around who was so willing to watch her back, let alone someone who cared about her other than Drake. She squared her shoulders and took a step forward. “Let’s go.”

  Toni followed Dominic to the front gates and watched as he paid for two tickets, all while grumbling something about highway robbery. As soon as they were inside, he snatched a map from the Greeter’s hand and headed straight for the offices. She tried to stay next to him while they walked, but keeping up with his long strides wasn’t nearly as easy as she thought it would be. And the way people seemed to do everything they could to get out of his path only allowed him to move faster. It was like somehow they knew if they didn’t move he would hurt them.

  She jogged to catch up with him then bumped her shoulder into his. “Why don’t you smile a little and stop scaring the hell out of everyone?”

  “I’d rather scare them. It gets me where I wanna go faster.”

  She shook her head at him. Well, he was definitely doing a good job. She looked around again, surprised, but strangely not, when she realized even grown men were jumping back off the path when they saw him coming.

  She nudged harder. “Seriously, Dom, you’re scaring people.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about them,” he said motioning to the people in front of him. “All I’m concerned with right now is finding out which idiot that works here is taking orders from one of our kind.”

  She stepped away from him but still tried to keep the pace. He was just a big ball of angry face. And the farther they walked, the more she couldn’t help but to wonder why. He’d told her about his life, but he hadn’t gone into any great detail.

  “Are you always this angry?” she asked. “Do you hate all the people who are trying to enjoy the zoo or something?”

  She slammed into Dominic’s chest and nearly fell down when he abruptly spun around to face her. “Yes, I’m usually this angry. No, I don’t hate the dumb fucks staring at the animals. And before you ask anything else, no, there wasn’t a specific event that occurred in my life that made me this way. It was a long, fucked up series of them. Now, do you wanna stay in Chicago or not?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Then let’s do what we need to do. I’ll share my life story with you another day, all right?”

  Toni wrinkled her nose. “Fine then, be a fuck.”

  He actually laughed. “I see your sarcastic streak never wore off.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What, you gonna get all brotherly on me now? Screw you, you missed your chance.” She groaned when, in a high pitched whine, he mimicked every word she’d said, like a five year old little boy. “You gotta be fucking kidding me. First you get all pissy, now you’re gonna tease me? You’re a moody bitch.”

  He growled but didn’t say anything as he kept walking towards the offices at record speed. She glanced over at him every few seconds, but not once did the scowl leave his face. He really was moody, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

  When they reached the building, he pointed back at her. “Stay here and talk to these people. I’ll be right back.” He didn’t give her a chance to respond before he turned and walked into the building.

  Toni tried really hard to shake it off when the eerie feeling she’d first had in the parking lot grew stronger, but she couldn’t. And even though none of the people walking around looked anything like the wolves, something still didn’t feel right.

  She bit the inside of her cheek as a new thought struck her. There were six new wolves that she knew nothing about. She didn’t have any pictures or descriptions of them in their human forms, which meant the guy standing little more than six feet away could be a werewolf and she wouldn’t even know it.

  She looked around again. There was no way in hell she was asking anyone out here if they’d seen the wolves. With her luck, the innocent looking father of two would turn into some huge furry beast and rip her to shreds. She pulled her coat tighter as she sat down on the bench and waited for Dominic to come out.

  How long could it take to ask someone a few questions?

  Fifteen minutes later, Toni jammed her cell phone back into her pocket and glared at the door leading to the offices. What the hell was taking him so long? She stood up and paced a short line in front of the bench then kicked at the ground.

  “So much for scaring people,” she muttered under her breath.

  “Ma’am, the Zoo will be closing in five minutes. Please start making your way to the exit.”

  Toni carefully studied groundskeeper. “Okay…just let me go get my brother from inside and we’ll leave.”

  He nodded, seemingly content with her answer, and then continued on his way. Once he was out of sight, she whipped open the office door and ran inside.

  The receptionist shot her an odd look. “Hello. May I help you?”

  “Yeah, actually…I’m looking for my brother. He’s a big guy, wearing a white tank top and leather pants. Can you tell me where he went? I can’t leave until I find him.”

  The woman’s smile spread to an almost unnatural width. “Oh, yes. He’s in a meeting with Ms. Erickson. If you’d like to have a seat, you’re more than welcome to wait for him.”

  For the second time in two days, Toni felt like she’d just stepped into the Twilight Zone. Why was the receptionist all smiley over Dominic? She nodded as she slowly backed away from the counter, then sat down and cringed when the receptionist began humming.

  As if she didn’t feel weird enough about this place already, now she just felt down-right freaked out. She glanced out the window then back to the weird woman behind the desk. Maybe Chicago had been sucked into a black hole while she’d been waiting for Dominic to come out. Maybe aliens had invaded and they’d already sucked her brain out of her body.

  Maybe she was dead and she just didn’t know it yet.

  Toni’s thoughts were broken roughly ten minutes later when she caught sight of Dominic’s large form out of the corner of her eye. She jumped to her feet and glared at him. “It’s about time. The zoo closed five minutes ago.”

  Dominic smacked his lips together then smiled. “Let’s go then.” He turned to the receptionist. “Next Friday, I’ll pick you up here at eight. Wear something you can move in.”

  “Okay, I’ll be ready,” the woman practically purred.

  Toni stared between her brother and his apparent date. What the hell? He was the one yelling about getting somewhere fast and he was in here making dates with chicks?

  She stormed through the doors and waited for him to come out.

  When he finally did, he smiled at her. “What?”

  She narrowed her eyes when she noticed a flash of something red on his fangs. “Do you have blood on your fangs?” Her ey
es widened when she realized exactly what she’d just said. “Oh my God! Put those away, you dumb ass! Why the hell are they out?”

  Dominic grabbed her hand and started dragging her back towards the parking lot at his insanely fast pace. “A man’s gotta eat.”

  She ripped her hand away from him. “You ate in there?” She couldn’t find the words to say anything else. All she could do was glare at the back of his big, stupid bald head.

  “Stop staring at me. I had the opportunity to eat so I took it. The woman’s fine. She’ll be a little woozy for an hour or so, but she’s still alive and feeling a lot better than she was before I got there.”

  Toni rolled her eyes. “Did you at least find anything out while you were in there?”

  “Yeah, Ms. Erickson is the Director for the zoo. She personally talked to an unusually tall blond woman who was wearing a purple, one piece vinyl suit about the transfer. And the tall blonde was also a representative for the Toledo Zoo.”

  Toni could barely believe her ears. “Oh, shit! So it really is Stryker behind everything? What the hell do we do now?”

  “Now we fuckin’ find proof that it’s her. Talking to the Director ain’t enough. She didn’t even know Stryker’s name, but at least we know we don’t need to look at anyone else now.”

  Toni tried to stay calm as excitement wound down her spine. The closer they got to Stryker, the closer she was staying in Chicago with her brother…and Drake. “Where do we go next?

  “Let’s go to that Cyberz place you mentioned before. We’ll see if anyone there has seen our dogs.” He turned to look at her but didn’t stop moving. “What did you find out?”

  She pressed her lips together. “I didn’t exactly talk to anyone.”

  “If you didn’t talk to anyone…then what the hell were you doing the whole time?”

  Toni snorted. “Oh please, you’re the last one who should be asking what I was doing, especially when you walk out of a building smelling like blood and crotch.”

  He laughed, loudly. “I told you, I needed to eat. She wanted me, so it was an easy meal. It’s not like you’d have done any different.”