Edge of Night

by Crystal Jordan

“No, I’m a Normal.” She took a sip of red wine. “My aunt and uncle and cousin are all wolves though.”

  The girl’s lower lip jutted. “We don’t like werewolves.”

  All movement, all discussion stopped as the entire Cavalli clan watched the exchange. A woman sitting beside the girl—presumably her mother—hissed, “Allie, that was rude.”

  Erin focused on Allie. “Really? Why don’t you like werewolves?”

  Her little brow scrunched. “Because they’re animals.”

  “Huh.” Erin arched her eyebrows in mock surprise. “My family isn’t. Have you ever met a werewolf?”

  “Nuh-uh. But Giovani said you shouldn’t be dating Luca because you’re a wolf.”

  “I’m dating Luca because I like him. I don’t care what kind of magic he has or doesn’t have.” She gave bony-assed Giovani a pointed look. “Anyone who bases datability solely on species is being a narrow-minded racist jerk.”

  “Amen,” said a blond man sitting on her right. He grabbed a wine bottle and topped off her glass. “Been telling Gio that for years.”

  Luca grinned, lifted her hand and brushed his lips over her knuckles. “And I’m dating Erin because I like her. She’s as wise as she is beautiful, and that’s no small feat.”

  “Are you gonna get married?” Allie’s eyes widened with excitement and she bounced in her seat.

  Her mother mouthed I’m sorry to Erin and Luca before turning a quelling glance on her child. “That is enough questions for one meal, bambina. If you’re done with your dinner, you can go play outside.”

  The blond man leaned around her to look at Luca. “Good pick.”

  “I’m glad you think so.” He twined his fingers with Erin’s. “If you have a moment after dinner, I need your help with something.”

  “That sounds ominous.” The other man’s smile was too sharp to be nice, and there was some silent communication going on that Erin didn’t catch. Maybe it was telepathy, but she noticed the blond man had slight points to his ears. An elf among the vampires? He wouldn’t be able to send telepathic thoughts, and she’d thought vampires didn’t mix with any other Magickal race. How very interesting.

  Luca and Erin managed to corner his cousin’s husband in the library after dinner. The fact that Stella had married an elf was a scandal the family tried to cover up, but the two were a good match. Even his father had admitted it. That Nick had been trying to avoid them was patently obvious, but Luca knew the man’s scent, so there was no way he’d escape him for long.

  “Nick.”

  The blond winced, putting down the book he’d been reading. “The answer is no.”

  Erin closed the door to the library, her gaze flicking back and forth between the two men. “Was there a question?”

  Luca leaned against the chair across from the elf. “Nick is the psychometrist I was telling you about.”

  He crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing. “No, Luca. No.”

  “I can’t force you to use your powers,” Luca replied lightly. “But Erin’s being stalked. She’s in danger and I need your help.”

  “Fuck.” Nick’s head fell back against his chair. He closed his eyes as if he was in pain.

  “You know I wouldn’t come to you unless it was important.” Luca pressed whatever advantage he could get. That Erin had made a favorable impression on the elf at dinner was a very good sign. Nick hated his psychometry—had been forced to use it as a child when the local cops had discovered just how gifted the elf was. Traumatized didn’t even begin to describe him. Still, Luca would twist anyone’s arm he had to if it meant keeping Erin safe. Maybe putting the elf in this position made him a heartless bastard, but he’d been called worse.

  Nick sighed. “I know. Please tell me you don’t want me to read a severed hand again.”

  “Again?” Erin echoed.

  Luca waved dismissively. “It was a bizarre case, and the only other time I’ve come to him.”

  “Yeah, well.” Nick cocked an eyebrow. “Other people in law enforcement try to convince me to help. I’m not interested.”

  Luca dipped one shoulder in a shrug. “I’ve never give your name out to any of them, or even mentioned I know someone with psychometric abilities.”

  “Thanks for that,” the elf returned dryly.

  “You’re welcome.” Luca motioned to the door. “I have the item I need read in my trunk. I wanted to handle it as little as possible, even in a sealed bag.”

  Heaving a sigh, Nick pushed to his feet. “Not exactly normal police procedure. You’re not going to drag me down to your headquarters this time?”

  “I took a leave of absence.” Luca met the other man’s gaze. “Stalking cases are often a gray area, where strict police procedure can’t do much other than recommend a restraining order. And that’s after you know who’s doing the stalking. Without a direct threat or attack, there’s no law against being a creepy asshole.”

  Leading the way out to his car, Luca glanced back occasionally to make sure that Erin and Nick followed. Luca smiled when Erin caught up and slipped her hand into his. It felt good there. It felt better that she’d reached for him instead of the other way around. Not for the first time, he wondered what would become of them when her stalker was caught. It was a question he couldn’t answer yet, but the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to keep her near. Indefinitely. Whether that was feasible was a different problem.

  He took out his keys and popped open the truck. Gingerly, he lifted the bag containing the rose. “No dead body parts, just a dead plant.”

  Nick scoffed. “Yeah, but the person who held it might be worse than the one who enjoyed hacking off limbs.”

  “Wow, that sounds like a barrel of laughs.” Erin’s face scrunched in disgust. “I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to get involved in that.”

  The elf shot her a grateful smile, and Luca could tell she’d notched a little higher in Nick’s estimation. Whatever it took to get him to read the rose.

  “It was a bizarre case,” Luca repeated. “With Nick’s help, we caught the guy.”

  “You’re welcome.” The elf took a deep breath. “Unseal the bag so I can reach in.”

  Using just the tips of his fingers, Luca complied. Nick took the withered stem and the card and drew them out, carefully not to let his skin brush Luca’s. The elf closed his eyes, and Luca felt a wave of magic emanating outward from the other man. Erin shivered beside him, and he watched her rub at the goose bumps on her arms.

  Nick choked, his body twitching. He turned a deep purplish red, a vein throbbing in his forehead. Spittle erupted from his lips, trailing down his chin. For all intents and purposes, the man looked like he was having a seizure while standing.

  Concern flashed across Erin’s face. “Wha—”

  Clamping a hand over her mouth, Luca shook his head. He sent a thought to her. “Don’t interrupt. He’ll tell us what he can when he’s done with the reading.”

  Questions crowded in her gaze, but she remained silent.

  “Yes, this is normal for him.” Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he eased his palm away from her mouth.

  The rose snapped in Nick’s hand, the dead petals scattering on the driveway. His eyes opened and he pushed the card and what was left of the flower back into the bag. Swiping his sleeve over his chin, his breathed easier and his color returned to its usual pale shade. “Many people touched the rose in its lifetime. I focused on the first time she touched it.” He nodded to Erin. “A female wolf had her hands on it—blonde, short.”

  “My cousin, Holly,” Erin said promptly.

  “Then you again. Then it passed through many hands. Male and female. Normal and Magickal. This was…deliberate, I think. Probably to prevent anyone from being able to sense who really had it. It would have muddied up a wolf’s tracking nose.”

  “Will it muddy a psychometrist’s touch?” Luca asked.

  “Yes and no.” The elf’s smile was grim. “They used gloves, which can also mes
s with both scientific and magical detection. A male vampire had it last. Red hair.”

  “My bodyguard.” Erin’s hands grasped her opposite elbows, hugging herself. “We saw him touch it with gloves. We need whoever had it directly before him.”

  “Another male vampire. Brown hair, blue eyed. Also gloved.” Nick swallowed. “Thankfully nothing too disturbing happened with the flower, but the card? The small tear at the top wasn’t from the trip to the trashcan, but because he almost shredded it. There was hate in that touch, rage. Jealousy. It was like a spike being driven into my temple.”

  “Asher. I knew it.” Erin expression remained calm and Luca thought she looked almost relieved. “From what he wrote on the card, I’m guessing he’s mad that I’m sleeping with Luca. Since he never accepted that I dumped him, he might see it as me cheating on him.”

  “Thanks, Nick. I’m sorry I had to ask, but we needed to know. Fingerprinting wasn’t going to help.” Luca held out his hand, and Nick shook it. The elf’s power was under wraps again, so Luca felt only a small tingle of magic.

  “Don’t make a habit of it.” Nick sighed. “If it had been for anyone other than your girlfriend, I might have said no anyway.”

  Erin’s mouth opened, no doubt to protest the girlfriend label, but Luca put his arm around her and dragged her against his side. “Thanks again. We both appreciate it.”

  “Yes. Thank you.” Her smile was weak, but she stepped on Luca’s toes as she walked back toward the house and left the men behind. “I’m going to go see if Carmela needs help in the kitchen.”

  “I’m going to check on Stella. She’s pregnant, you know.” Nick expression eased into a genuine grin.

  “No, I hadn’t heard.” Luca slapped the other man on the back. “Congratulations to you both.”

  The elf gave him a sideways glance. “You’d have heard if you hadn’t skipped dinner last week.”

  “Don’t remind me. Carmela left a message on my phone scolding me for abandoning my family.” Luca rubbed a finger across the bridge of his nose. “Guilt, the weapon of choice for Italian mothers.”

  Nick chuckled and wandered off to find his wife, which left Luca to collect the scattered flower petals, stuff them in the bag, and toss it in the trunk. He went back to the house, intent on finding Erin and heading back to her condo. They’d stayed long enough.

  “Luca,” Uncle Vito called him as he passed the library. “Join us.”

  He hesitated, but it wasn’t as if he could deny the elder vampire, so he sucked it up and went into the room. The book Nick had been reading still sat on a side table. A fire danced in the hearth, and his father and uncle sat in the wingchairs before the fireplace, each holding a glass of whiskey.

  “Let me get you a drink.” Vito stood and went to the sideboard to pour another glass of Glenfiddich.

  Salvatore’s gaze bored into Luca, and he finally let loose what he’d obviously been thinking since Luca had arrived. “She’s practically a werewolf.”

  “She’s a Normal.” Luca kept his tone mild. It never helped to incite his father.

  “In your case, I’m not sure which is the greater evil.”

  Ouch. That hit the mark, and he fought a flinch. The last thing he wanted was a dissection of his love life over the years. It would get ugly fast.

  “I like her,” Uncle Vito stated with a grin, handing the whiskey to Luca before he resumed his seat. “She has fire in her.”

  “Thank you.” Luca, still standing, walked over to stare down into the fireplace. “I like her too.”

  “Like? Ha! You’re in love with her,” his father snapped. “Anyone looking at you mooning over her at dinner could see it. The family isn’t blind.”

  He loved her. The words slammed into Luca so hard, he rocked back on his heels. Yes. Gods, yes. He loved her. A bitter laugh tried to escape him, but he swallowed it down. It didn’t seem to matter how much he’d tried to avoid it, or what excuses he gave for his ferocious need to protect her, or what safe labels he’d put on his feelings. He cared for her. Such a pale, pathetic phrase. He was so in love with her it scared the shit out of him. Having his father shove it in his face forced him to see it for what it was, but the emotion, the connection, had been there for some time.

  Closing his eyes, he brought the glass to his mouth and drank, letting the fiery liquid burn its way down his throat. The pain was welcome, a split-second distraction from the reality of his situation. He’d never thought to fall in love again after Tess, especially not so soon. But Erin had slid under his defenses with her calm, sweet warmth, her lack of any demands, until he couldn’t imagine his life without her anymore. He’d never suspected how addicting she would be until it was far too late.

  It was an addiction he never wanted to recover from.

  “She’d make a fine vampire,” Vito asserted, dragging Luca’s attention back to the present.

  Salvatore snarled at his brother. “Don’t even speak such foolishness.”

  “Why is it foolish?” Luca asked. Looking up from the flames in the hearth, he met his father’s gaze. “We turn many Normals. It keeps the bloodlines fresh. Would you truly hate a grandchild because he or she called a werewolf cousin? Will you hate Stella and Nick’s child if it turns out to be an elf? It’s a fifty-fifty shot on which one the kid will be.”

  There were no hybrids in the Magickal world. Every half-breed child had one dominant side. Vampires might claim their genes were automatically dominant, but it wasn’t true. Genetics were a crapshoot for Magickals the same way they were for humans.

  Salvatore glanced aside. “I would never hate a child of Cavalli blood, but our society isn’t ready for a wolf-vampire pairing.”

  “Maybe you’re right.” Luca raised his glass to eye level, watching the firelight play through the amber liquid. By not meeting either man’s gaze he didn’t have to admit how important their reaction was to what he said. These men had the power to influence how the family and the Conclave would see a match between Erin and him. A match he desperately wanted, perhaps more than he had ever wanted anything in his entire life. “But our society just might be ready for a vampire-vampire pairing with connections to the wolf pack. Times are changing.”

  Vito chuckled and his brother gave him an annoyed look, which only seemed to amuse Vito more. “Your own relationship choices haven’t gone so well lately either, Sal. Let the boy figure it out for himself. I would support him with this Normal woman. Who knows? It might open some…interesting doors between the pack and the Conclave. The Cavallis could be very influential in that case, perhaps raise our profile in the Conclave and the All-Magickal Council.”

  “Our influence has taken a few hits lately,” Salvatore retorted. “We would be better served by remaining conservative instead of sticking our necks out further.”

  “My investigation of Dillon Hammond’s death has caused trouble for the family?” Luca had been laying low with Erin, so his intel on the inner workings of the Conclave was outdated.

  Salvatore’s smile was mirthless. “After the information got out about the Hammonds illegally keeping sheep and murdering their own bloodline, we lost more influence because I’d been courting Elinor than we did for you investigating her son.”

  “Which might have turned out differently if she hadn’t killed herself.” He met his father’s gaze squarely. “I’m sorry for what happened, Papá. I know you were thinking about putting some distance between you, but even a waning relationship can be hard to lose, especially under such circumstances.”

  Salvatore cleared his throat. “Thank you. It isn’t like losing your mother but it’s…more difficult than I would have expected.”

  Reaching over to clasp his brother’s shoulder, Vito said, “Mi dispiace.”

  With a nod, Salvatore accepted the condolences. He took a breath and frowned at his son. “Your leave of absence has not gone unnoticed. Some feel it’s damning, as if you felt some guilt or responsibility for her death.”

  “People will have
to think whatever they want. I took a leave of absence because Erin is being stalked and—”

  “We know that.” Salvatore swirled his whiskey around in his glass, his voice heavy with disapproval. “But we also know she hired that assassin, Gregor, to take care of the problem.”

  “You’ve hired Gregor to do some of your dirty work before too, Father.” Luca shifted to settle back against the mantel. “I assume you want me to go back to work and let Gregor handle it, but I won’t. You already know that. You would do the same if it were Mother.”

  Vito’s chortle echoed inside his glass as he took a sip. “The boy has you there, Sal.”

  “Besides,” Luca said lightly, “one would think with all the years you’d been complaining about my work, you’d be pleased to see me step back from it for a little while.”

  “And doing something just as dangerous? Hardly.” His father glared. “It isn’t as if stalkers haven’t killed their victims before…or their victims’ bodyguards.”

  “I’m well aware—”

  His father slapped the arm of his chair. “But you’re not aware of your own safety. Be careful for once in your life. You are too reckless with yourself. This woman, she had better be worth it.”

  Luca saw the tirade for what it was—his father’s fear, perhaps mingled with some of that ever-lingering disappointment that Luca wasn’t interested in making a career of politics. It was an old argument, where neither of them would change their minds. So he addressed the part that mattered. “She is. She’s worth anything. Everything. I love her.”

  There, he’d said it. Out loud where others could hear it. The Earth didn’t shift on its axis, the sun didn’t go supernova. Everything stayed right with the universe, even though Luca Cavalli was in love with another Normal.

  Now he just needed to tell her and pray she could feel the same way someday. That part was the one he’d never quite managed to get right.

  The scent of lush tropical flowers filled Erin’s nose. Carmela had shooed her out into the immense solarium, and she’d found a hidden patio surrounded by massive ferns. There was a gurgling stream that ran along one side of the patio and she curled up on a padded lounger to watch the water flow past. It was a nice break from the awkward tension of dinner. She liked several members of Luca’s family, but others were just as snobby and standoffish as her most prejudiced wolf relative would claim of vampires.