by HELEN HARDT
“I’ve cast a spell on the potion,” the priestess assured us. “It should do what it is meant to do. But you can make it stronger.”
“How?” Erin asked.
“Your belief. It will shield you if you believe it will.”
“Okay,” Erin said. “I believe it.”
The priestess shook her head. “Words aren’t enough, I’m afraid. But you will believe, and you will believe soon. There is one more thing that will make it even more potent.”
“What?” Erin asked.
“He knows.” She stared at me.
“How would I know?”
“Think about what you have in your possession. What will make every potion or spell or charm stronger.”
Erin grabbed my forearm. “Your father. His remains.”
“Vampire ashes are a powerful shield,” the priestess said. “Add a pinch to the potion. You will see results.”
We stopped at a café for a quick snack. A plate of beignets later, Erin excused herself to go to the bathroom.
I checked my phone for texts and smiled when a shadow passed me and a body sat down across from me.
“That didn’t take long,” I said to Erin, still looking at my phone.
“I didn’t realize you’d missed me.”
The voice was not Erin’s.
Chapter Nine
Erin
“Erin!”
I turned away from the mirror where I was reapplying my lipstick.
The blond head bobbing toward me through the restroom door belonged to Dale, one of the nurses who worked the night shift at the ER with me.
“Hi, Dale.” I smiled.
“What are you doing here? We heard you had a family emergency and were headed back to Ohio.”
“Oh.” I cleared my throat. Just what I didn’t need. Where was Dante when I needed him? Obviously he wouldn’t be in the ladies’ room. “I leave…soon. I couldn’t get a flight until morning.”
“Is everything okay?”
“As well as can be expected. Everyone is hanging in there.”
“I hope it’s nothing too horrible. I heard your leave was open-ended.”
“Yes, for now. I hope I won’t be gone for too long.”
“Is your new boyfriend going with you?” She smiled. “I hear he’s really hot.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Renee told me she saw him in the ER with you last night after you came out of Dory’s office.”
“He’s…uh…not going with me. He has business here.”
“What’s his name?”
Really? She thought I had some kind of family emergency, and she was worried about gossiping about my new boyfriend? “Look, Dale. I’m in kind of a hurry. And I’m really worried about…you know.”
She clasped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, God. Of course! You must think I’m an unfeeling boob. I’m sorry, Erin.”
I smiled. “It’s okay. I’m sure everything will turn out okay. I’m just glad I was able to get the time off to be with my family. I have to run.”
I whisked out of the bathroom and didn’t look back as I headed back to the table Dante and I were sharing.
I stopped abruptly, my toes jamming against the tips of my shoes.
Seated at our table, across from Dante, was none other than—
“Abe Lincoln,” I said.
“Erin. Hi. What are you doing here?”
I grabbed Dante’s arm. “I could ask you the same thing. But I need to talk to Dante privately for a minute.” I pulled him into a stand and away from the table.
“I need your help. A blond woman wearing jeans and a pink scrub shirt is going to come out of the bathroom in a minute. Can you glamour her? Make her forget she saw me here today?”
“I can try. Why?”
“She’s one of the nurses in the ER. I’m supposed to be on leave for a family emergency, remember? I told Dory my flight was this morning.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“And what’s Abe doing here?”
“He said he’s looking for you.”
“Sheesh. Okay. If you can take care of the nurse, I’ll take care of Abe.”
He nodded and walked toward the restrooms. I went back to the table and sat down in Dante’s seat across from Abe.
“Erin.”
“That’s my name. What do you want, Abe?” I eyed him. He was healing nicely from the beating he’d taken from the vampires.
“I need to talk to you. I was going to come to the hospital tonight, but then I saw your vampire friend sitting here.”
“Shh!” I looked around. “Don’t say the V-word so loudly.”
“Sure. Sorry.”
“What do you want?”
“You need to get out of town, Erin.”
Funny. Everyone at the hospital thought I was doing just that. “Why?”
“They won’t wait much longer. They’re after you. If they can’t have you, they’re going to take the next best thing.”
“What’s that?”
“They know about your brother. They know he’s a detective who works nights. They’re going to sniff him out.”
My heart jumped. Jay. Shit. And River had taken leave from work and wasn’t there to protect him. My mind raced furiously. “Wouldn’t they have noticed him by now? Like you said, he works nights, when the vampires come out.”
“He’s a male.”
“So?”
“You’re a female.”
“Your vision seems to work just fine, Abe. Can you get to the point, please?”
“They’re more attracted to female scents, but they’ll take your brother if they have to. Erin, they think by threatening your brother, they’ll get you to come to them.”
I eyed his neck. Sure enough. Brand-new puncture wounds. “When was the last time you saw them?”
“Last night.”
“You fed them.”
“Well…sure. A guy’s got to eat.”
“Jesus, Abe. You’re nuts. You know that? How did you end up on the street anyway? You can’t be more than twenty-five or so.”
“I grew up on the street, Erin. And I don’t do drugs.”
I flashed back to the first time I’d met Abe in the ER. I’d been convinced he’d been on something when he started talking about vampires, but his labs had come back clean. He was telling the truth. “I know you don’t.”
“Thank you for believing—”
Dante sat down next to me. “All taken care of. I think.”
“Thank you.” I squeezed his forearm.
“Can you protect Erin?” Abe asked suddenly.
“With my life,” Dante said.
“Good. What about her brother?”
“Huh?”
“He says the vamps are going to go after Jay if they can’t have me,” I said. “And with River…”
“Shit. All right. We’ll figure it out, baby. Nothing will happen to him. I promise.”
Dante would never lie to me, but I feared he was making a promise he might not be able to keep. Emotion coiled in my belly. How was I supposed to—
I whipped my head around when Abe abruptly stood.
“I have to go.”
“Why?”
He nodded toward a man who walked into the small café. “Get her out of here,” he said to Dante, and then he fled.
Dante parted his lips to reveal his fangs. “It’s one of them,” he said under his breath.
My legs itched to run.
“Stay put,” Dante growled. “I’ll take care of this.”
“No!” I grabbed his arm. “Let’s just leave. Please.”
“You expect me to let him go without letting him know in no uncertain terms that you are mine? I can’t do that, Erin. I cannot.”
Chapter Ten
Dante
My gums tingled as my fangs sharpened into precise points. The man had no scent. I couldn’t be sure, given I couldn’t scent anyone but Erin, but my whole body told me this was a vampire.
A vampire who wanted my woman.
I stalked toward him. He was clean-shaven, apparently not the leader Erin had seen in her dream.
No, he was no alpha. He was a follower. His stance made that clear.
He stood near the entrance, waiting for a host to seat him. I approached him, my blood boiling.
“Let’s step outside for a minute, friend,” I said in a timbre so low no one else could possibly hear.
But he heard.
Yes, he was a vampire. He’d heard me.
“I’m pretty sure I’m not your friend,” he said.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’ll fucking pulverize you right here if I have to.”
He showed me his fangs quickly so no one else would notice.
I had to stop myself from laughing. They were nothing compared to mine. I pushed him through the café quickly and outside the back door into the alleyway.
“What the fuck?” He oofed as I plowed him into the brick wall.
“You stay the fuck away from my woman,” I said.
“Who the fuck are you? And who the fuck is your woman?”
“The one you’ve been after. You and that hairy monster leader of yours. Stay away, or I’ll kill each one of you with my bare hands.”
“Is she…?” He inhaled. “She’s not here.”
The potion! It must have worked. Surely he would have smelled Erin as soon as he came near the café.
“No, she’s not. And you stay the hell away from her.”
“How do you even know—”
I growled, baring my teeth.
He cringed. “What the fuck?”
I cocked my head as a few homeless people walked by, their gazes riveted to the sparse remnants of food scattered here and throughout the stoned alleyway.
“Who are you? I’ve never seen— Oh, shit.”
“What? You’ve never seen what?”
“You’re the one. You’re the one she talks about. Fuck me!”
I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the brick of the building.
“Fuck,” he said, his voice hoarse because I was putting pressure on his throat. “I can’t believe you even exist.”
“You tell me what you’re talking about, or your life ends right here, asshole.”
“Think again.”
The voice had come from behind me. I turned, releasing my hold and letting the vamp crumple to the ground.
The bearded one. Dark-blue eyes. He stood nearly as tall as I did but was wider through the shoulders.
I growled, showing my teeth.
He jarred slightly but covered himself. Only another vampire with an acute sense of sight would have noticed.
I noticed.
My teeth had frightened him.
My father had said my teeth were longer and sharper than his, and that his and his brother’s were the most formidable Jack Hebert had ever seen.
I bared them once more.
This time he didn’t react. But he didn’t bare his own. He looked at the ground. “You okay, Giles?”
“Yeah. Fine. He says she’s his woman. The one we want.”
The bearded one smiled, and I could almost see the slime oozing from his lips. “Yeah? Then you can take us to her.”
I snarled.
“Decker, no. He’s the one. The one she talks about.”
“For fuck’s sake, Giles. You get hit on the head or something? She’s nuts. We all know that.”
“I swear to God, Deck. Didn’t you see his fucking teeth?”
The one called Decker had seen my teeth. And he’d freaked, though only for a millisecond.
I whipped around and grabbed Decker by the throat, slamming him into the wall. “Start talking, shithead. What do you want with my woman? And why the fuck did you bury my father in St. Louis Cemetery?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. Let me go, or I’ll tear you up.”
“I’d like to see you try. I’m pretty sure I have the upper hand here, ass—”
Bonk!
An ache sprang up on the back of my head, and I dropped to my knees. Rage swelled inside me, and I growled as my teeth grew even longer and sharper.
“Good shot, Giles,” Decker said.
I let out a huff of air when Decker landed a kick to my cheek.
No pain. Only rage as I jumped back into a stand. I would win. I always won. Losing was not an option.
Fight or die in the arena.
Adrenaline surged in my gut like a deluge of electricity, and I punched Decker square in his jaw.
He grunted, slamming back against the brick wall. I turned and swung my leg, taking Giles down with a roundhouse kick to the kidney.
I turned back, but I wasn’t quick enough. Decker swept my legs, and I fell to the ground.
“Fuck!” The combination of dirt and asphalt dug into my left cheek.
Always go for the nose, especially if you’re fighting another vampire. Blood will clog his sinuses, and the injury will bring tears to his eyes. You’ll take out his sense of smell and sight with one punch, and the pain will bring him to his knees.
Bill had taught me that one when I was a kid.
I’d never had to use it.
Or had I?
Fight or die in the arena.
I scrambled up quickly, thrusting my fist into Decker’s chin with an uppercut, and then I punched him square in the nose.
“Fucking bastard!” Blood spurted from his nostrils as he yelled out, his fangs dripping saliva and blood. He crumpled to the ground.
One down.
I turned back to Giles, who had taken a boxing stance. I thrust my leg outward in a circular motion, using an inside crescent kick to take him down. I jumped on top of him, knife-handed his neck, and then punched his nose.
He covered his nose with his hands as the blood erupted. “Damn you!”
I inhaled.
Rusted iron mixed with tarnished silver.
Vampire blood.
Most vamps thought our blood had no aroma, but they were mistaken. I’d come to know its light scent well. I’d been forced to ingest it for ten years.
Everything about it disgusted me.
I stood, rubbing the dirt off my jeans. Giles and Decker weren’t unconscious, but they were in pain. Big broken nose pain. Still, they wouldn’t stay down for long.
“Stay away from me, and stay away from my woman.”
“You don’t know what you’re dealing with, man,” Giles said. “She’s dangerous.”
Walk away, Dante. Just fucking walk away.
But I couldn’t resist. I had to know.
“Who is dangerous?”
Chapter Eleven
Erin
“Dante!”
I ran toward him, Abe following me.
“No, Erin!” Abe shouted.
“Shit, Erin, get out of here! There are two of them,” Dante said.
The vamps didn’t make any move toward me. Perhaps Bea’s remedy really was working.
Both men were down, their noses clearly broken. I didn’t have to be a nurse to see that. “What have you done?”
“Get out of here!” Dante yelled again.
Even if Bea’s remedy wasn’t working, they couldn’t possibly smell with their noses full of mucus and blood. Or maybe they could. I knew precious little about the vampire sense of smell. I knew precious little about vampire everything, other than that I was in love with one of them.
“You two get out of here,” Abe Lincoln said. “I’ll take care of things here.”
The bearded one—God, from my dream—rose slowly. “I’m not done with you yet, vampire.” He bared his teeth.
“Just go,” Abe said again.
“You haven’t seen the last of us,” the other one said.
I grabbed Dante’s arm, my nerves jumping like wasps on the attack. “Listen to him. Please. It’s the one from my dream. Let’s just go. Look at you. And you have court
tomorrow.”
That finally got him. “Shit,” he said.
“Come on. I’ll help you get cleaned up.”
Back home, I cleaned Dante’s scrapes and applied some antibacterial ointment and antiseptic.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry. What were you thinking, taking on two at once?”
“I’d have taken on more than that to protect you.”
“They didn’t come after me,” I said.
“No. Which means the potion works, and I can still smell you. Thank God. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t. Your scent. It’s like home to me. Comfort and joy and sex and arousal and sustenance and nourishment and love. All wrapped up together in an indescribable fragrance.”
I couldn’t help smiling. “Do you think they smell all of that?”
“No. They just smell the scent your blood makes. Scents like yours are irresistible to vampires. It’s a product of your ancestry.”
“Oh. Right.”
With all the commotion, I’d nearly forgotten that I was part vampire. That most likely my maternal grandmother had been a vampire. Yeah, I was angry about that. Angry that he hadn’t told me sooner. But was it really anger? “Do you think my mother knew? About her mother, I mean.”
“Probably not.”
“What about my grandfather?”
“It’s possible. I don’t know, Erin. Is he still alive?”
“Unfortunately, no. He passed away before I came to New Orleans. I guess I’ll never know.”
“Not from him. No. It’s always possible that your mother knows something.”
My mother. Sharlene Jackson Hamilton. She was fair-skinned like Jay and me. Blue-eyed like Jay. Dark-haired like both of us. I sighed. She worked as a night cashier, hadn’t gone to college but was incredibly intelligent. I’d always wondered why she never did anything more with her life. Maybe she couldn’t tolerate daylight well and didn’t want to go to a university. But she was an honest and hard-working woman. No fault to be found there.
She couldn’t possibly know about her mother. Heck, she’d never even known her mother. My grandmother had died giving birth to her only child.
I sighed again. “We need to get some sleep.”
