Easier thought of than done, he realized as her beautiful face seemed to hover before him, the passion in her eyes fully ablaze. He kept thinking of how she’d stepped in front of him when he’d lunged for Peewee. He’d wanted to kill the man, to rip him apart and glory in watching Peewee’s blood spill from his body, but she’d calmed him, brought him back to his right mind. She seemed to have the same effect on him as his cat. And where the hell was his cat anyway?
Jake shook his head. Alley would be all right. So would Nyla. They were both tough girls. He needed to get out of jail and help protect that little boy . . . Bobby. Of all the names the kid could have, why did it have to be Bobby?
Images from the night of that long-ago attack flooded his mind, and he gritted his teeth against the pain wrenching his heart. He saw Bobby’s tear-filled eyes as Lionel grabbed him, the terror on his face as Detra opened her mouth wide, showing her fangs before she bore down on him. Niles sank his fangs in next as the bastard, whose name he still hadn’t learned but who seemed to control all the vampires there that night, looked on, his eyes gleaming with some perverse sense of pride.
The memory replayed, and Jake watched the entire scene like a movie, a horror flick he couldn’t turn off. He relived that night as though it had only been yesterday that his best friend was taken from him. He heard the old woman’s voice telling him to flee, the voice which had followed him into his adult dreams, the voice of the mysterious blind woman in the blue forest. Why hadn’t she screamed inside Bobby’s mind? Why hadn’t she saved Bobby? Why hadn’t Alley? More importantly, why hadn’t he? His young age was no excuse. He’d known something was out there that night. He’d smelled death on the air. He’d known what would happen, and he’d done nothing.
He’d felt the impending doom that night as clearly as he felt it now in this damn jail cell. There was something dark and evil hovering over Hicksville, and that something would be coming for another little boy named Bobby. But this time he wouldn’t just stand there and let it happen, and he damn sure wouldn’t run away. No more little boys were dying on his watch.
Suddenly, the fine hairs along the back of his neck rose as he sensed a subtle change in the air, and he jumped to his feet. Cocking his head to the side, he listened for the whispers of warning he’d soon hear.
Almost as though his memories had conjured them, vampires were drawing close.
PEEWEE LEANED back in his chair, propping his feet on top of his desk. He decided that all he needed was a big fat stogy to complete his smug victory pose. He’d arrested Jake, and the feeling it gave him was better than sex. Better than money. Better than being elected sheriff. It was his crowning achievement, and he had every intention of basking in its glory.
To his irritation, he only had ten brief minutes to roll around in the afterglow before his office door swung open, smacking against the opposite wall with enough force to send a hanging picture crashing to the floor.
“I hope you have a good reason storming into my office like this, girl,” he snapped at the willowy blonde standing in the doorway, not a trace of humor in his voice.
Marilee Mills fumed before him, her meager chest rising and falling beneath her red crop top. Her normally cool blue eyes speared him to his seat like two flaming daggers.
Before he could stop himself, Peewee squirmed in his chair and ran his fingers along his badge for reassurance. He was the law as long as he wore it, and nobody messed with the law. He was the one holding all the power.
“Damn you, Peewee Porter. I’ve called and called!” Marilee screeched like a banshee, and Peewee felt his courage start to wane. The young girl looked as though she might jump over his desk any minute. “Is it too much to ask you to do your job?”
With a loud sigh and a good eye roll, Peewee lowered his feet to the floor and straightened in his chair. Marilee’s grandparents, Joe and Lettie Mills, hadn’t answered their door in a couple of weeks, and Marilee had been raising hell ever since, although she knew as well as he did that the elderly couple liked to disappear from time to time on spur-of-the-moment vacations.
“Marilee, you know how your grandparents—”
“Don’t! Don’t tell me they’re away on a trip! Folks are popping up missing all over town, and you won’t even look for my grandparents! Something happened to them!”
“How many times have they up and left out of the blue before, Marilee?”
“That doesn’t matter. They’ve never had their windows boarded up before.”
Peewee frowned at this news. “Their windows are boarded up?”
“Yes, which you would have known if you’d done your job and went out there to their house like I asked you to do.”
“Peewee! Let me out of here! They’re coming!” Jake’s bellow carried down the hall to Peewee’s office, snatching his attention from the angry blonde in front of him.
“Who was that?” Marilee asked, turning toward the direction of the cells.
“My lunatic cousin,” Peewee grumbled, wondering what the jerk was up to now. No damn way was he letting Jake out of that cell so Jake could beat the crap out of him. Locking the man in a cell was one thing. If he was forced to shoot him to protect himself . . . well, that wouldn’t go over well with the family, even if Jonah was the only one who seemed to actually like the guy.
“What’s wrong with him?” Marilee asked, her brow knit in concern as Jake continued to yell from his cell, asking to be released before they came. “What is he talking about?”
The intercom buzzed, Luanne’s voice soon following. “Uh, Peewee, that cop from Louisville is on line one, and, um, and I think your cousin is going nuts. Should we do something?”
“Yeah, ignore him,” Peewee said, pressing the button on his phone to connect with the police officer he’d been speaking with over the past few weeks while gesturing for Marilee to hold tight a moment.
“Sheriff Porter,” he announced, holding the receiver close to his ear, his good mood returning. He never tired of hearing or using his title.
“Porter, this is Rooney. I think we found some of your missing people.”
“You think you found them?” A sinking feeling filtered its way into his gut. If the people found were alive and responsive, the young cop would know for certain who they were.
“Yeah, but . . . well, we kind of lost them.”
“What do you mean? Are they alive?”
“They exploded.”
“What?” Peewee ignored the way Marilee jumped as his voice boomed through the small office, most likely reaching the cells and beyond. “Are you playing with me, boy?”
“No. I . . . I don’t know what happened. There was a report of gunshots around the cemetery, so we went to check it out. The security guards were dead, ripped to pieces. There were two bodies lying on the ground outside, decapitated. They looked just like two of the men in the pictures you sent.”
Peewee tried to swallow, but found his mouth had gone bone dry. He remembered Jake’s girlfriend telling him how she’d beheaded two of his missing townspeople and that they’d shot five others.
“Those were the only bodies found?”
“Yes, except the guards, but their bodies are gone now.”
“What do you mean by gone?”
“We had to leave the scene intact until we got all of our evidence together, you know. We had to wait for the coroner. He didn’t get there until the sun came up . . .”
“And . . .” Peewee prompted, already having a sneaking suspicion what was coming next, his mind struggling to accept it.
“As soon as the sun hit them, they went up in flames. There was this loud pop, and they just combusted. I’ve never seen anything like it. None of us have.”
“Peewee, damn you, open this cell before you get us all killed!” Jake screamed from down the hall, and the sound of clanging metal cou
ld be clearly heard. He was trying to break through the bars.
“I gotta go, Rooney,” Peewee said, wrapping up the call before quickly replacing the phone back into its base. “Marilee, I think you need to get out of here.”
“What’s going on?” Her eyes widened as he grabbed his semiautomatic from his upper right desk drawer and scooped up the ring of keys to the cells.
“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. Vampires weren’t real, he told himself as he made a shooing motion at the girl. They couldn’t be. But people didn’t just burst into flame either. “Go home and lock your doors and windows.”
He didn’t wait to see if she left. Instead, he walked out of his office, striding quickly toward the cell his raging cousin was trying to free himself from. He stopped in front of the last cell.
“Peewee! Let me out!” Jake stopped kicking at the bars and wrapped his fists around them so tightly his knuckles turned a blinding white. “They’re coming. I can’t protect anyone if I can’t reach them. Unlock the cell.”
“What happened last night?” Peewee hesitated with the key halfway to the lock. He saw the fear in Jake’s eyes, knew the man truly did believe he sensed something, but still he couldn’t fully accept that all the monsters he’d heard about as a child were real. They couldn’t be real. There was no such thing as a vampire. Was there?
“Dammit, we told you what happened last night. Now let me out while there’s still time!”
“Two of my townspeople were found beheaded this morning, and they burned up when the sun hit them. What did you do to them?” Jake had to have done something. It was all a ruse. Vampires were not real. Jacob Porter was insane.
“The newly turned are highly combustible,” Jake growled, shaking the iron bars holding him captive. “Now get me the hell out of here before you meet some vampires face-to-face!” Then Jake went still, all the air seeming to leave his body in a rush as he tipped his head to the side, his eyes glazing over with a cold hardness. The eyes of a killer. “They’re here.”
A chill ran through Peewee’s body, and the keys shook in his suddenly trembling hand. A scream ripped through the air and he jerked, dropping the keys to the floor. Luanne! They’d got Luanne, and they’d be coming for him next!
“Open the fucking door!” Jake screamed, yanking on the bars as though trying to rip them from the floor.
Peewee bent down to retrieve the key ring, his hands and legs trembling. A shadow fell over the floor before him and he knew before looking up that he’d royally screwed up.
“Stay the hell away from my cousin!” Jake yelled. “I’m the only one allowed to hurt him, you bloodsucking bastard!”
With a hard gulp which hurt all the way down, Peewee straightened up, his tear-filled gaze falling on the man before him. It was Billy Ray Dobbs, a man he’d known for years, but not the same man at all. Insanity blazed in his darker than normal eyes, and evil seemed to radiate from his body.
“We’ve been sent for you, Peewee,” Billy Ray said, his grin menacing.
“Me?” he squeaked. “Why?”
“Because there’s a new sheriff in town.”
As another female scream sounded from down the hall, Billy Ray picked Peewee up by his shirt front. He could hear Jake yelling, but couldn’t make out the words. They didn’t matter. He was going to die. Jake had been telling the truth all along, and he was going to die at the hands of the very monsters he’d thought were Jake’s imaginary enemies.
“I’ll be damned,” he managed to say before he felt his body connect with the bars of Jake’s cell, then he didn’t feel anything except the urine pooling beneath him on the floor as he faded into darkness.
“JAKE’S IN DANGER!” Nyla came to a dead stop along the path toward the house she and Seta were heading toward, icy cold fear holding her in its grip.
“What’s happened?” Seta asked, standing before her. “What do you sense?”
“He’s under attack, and he’s trapped.” Her head snapped up to meet the Spanish beauty’s eyes. “I have to save him!”
“No! You protect the woman and child. I’ll go to Jacob.”
“No! He needs my help.”
“So do the innocent mortals in that house! They won’t trust me, but they’ll trust you. Help them.”
Nyla shook her head, turning away. Jake’s life meant more to her than anyone else’s on earth. Even hers. She was going to him.
As she turned to head for Jake, Seta asked, “What will happen to Jacob if another little boy dies?”
Nyla halted, guilt washing over her in a tidal wave. “But Jake needs me.”
“He’s a slayer. He can handle himself against a pack of vampires, but even so, I’ll go to him just to make sure. You protect the boy. Jake would never forgive himself if something happened to that child because you were protecting him.”
“I know.”
“So it is settled.”
Nyla turned to face the vampire-witch, but she was gone.
“I hate when she does that,” she muttered, letting out a deep breath. She had to believe Jake would be all right. Seta was right. He was a slayer. Still, to the best of her knowledge he was locked in a cell, and she was sure Peewee hadn’t let him keep his weapons with him. She ached to run back to the car and race off to fight at his side, but Seta was right. The abduction or death of another little boy named Bobby would be Jake’s undoing. And since he couldn’t be in two places at one time, she’d have to guard this particular fort while he battled at another.
The house was close enough to see. Reluctantly, she pressed on, stepping carefully. She had no idea if anyone from Peewee’s task force was guarding the perimeter. If there was, she didn’t want to alert them to her presence. This whole night would go a lot smoother if she could get into the house without being seen.
She heard a scuffle to her right as she neared the house, and she jerked her head to the side, holding her breath as she listened. Footsteps. Dammit! She willed her body to dissolve into mist, shifting into cat form seconds before Bubba Lee stepped out of the trees to stand before her.
“Where’d you come from?” he asked without dislodging the cigarette in his mouth. He seemed to study her for a moment before lifting his shotgun to his shoulder, training it on her. The crazy hick was going to shoot her!
Nyla dissolved into mist as the bullet was fired, sliding her way behind him where she shifted into panther form. With a growl deep enough to send vibrations through the earth beneath them, she jumped on his back and knocked him to the ground. He looked behind him and screamed like a girl, his eyes widening until they looked as if they would pop right out of his face.
Nyla growled at him as he struggled to scoot away, then grabbed his shotgun in her mouth, flinging it into the woods. Go fetch, you mutt, she thought to herself before turning and racing toward the house, shifting into cat form before she reached the porch.
She pattered around to the back of the house and looked around. Petie Joe was sleeping in his truck in front of the motel, Bubba Lee was looking for his gun, and she was sure Peewee was back at the jail with Jake. That left Billy Bob unaccounted for. Assuring herself that Billy Bob wasn’t close enough to see her, she shifted back to human form and rapped hard on the back door, announcing who she was at the same time. If Billy Bob was in the house, she’d just have to deal with him.
A moment later, the door swung open, and Maybelline looked at her with tear-filled eyes. “Oh, thank goodness you came back. We’ve been just terrified.”
“Apparently not terrified enough,” Nyla commented. “Is it just my imagination, or did I not hear you unlock the door?”
“Billy Bob and Bubba Lee said to keep it unlocked so they could come in and out if they needed to.”
“Idiots,” Nyla muttered, stepping into the kitchen and locking the door behind her. “Are the othe
r doors locked?”
“Yes.”
“Windows?”
“Yes. Actually, they’re painted shut.”
“Unfortunately, that won’t stop them from breaking, but it’s a start. Where’s Bobby?”
“Watching his programs,” Maybelline said, pointing toward the living room. Nyla made a quick study of the kitchen, noting the huge mess, but rooms usually were a mess after an abduction took place in a home, and headed for the living room.
Bobby half-sat, half-lay on the couch, covered in a raggedy blue afghan, watching television and simultaneously chewing his nails down to the quick. Nyla reached behind her, touching her sword. Jake’s sword. It wasn’t the same weapon she was used to, but its presence was just as comforting.
“Do you think he’ll come back tonight?” Maybelline whispered behind her.
“If he wants Bobby,” Nyla answered, then turned to face the woman. “What exactly happened during his last visit?”
“He came in here, acting strange, like he was hopped up on drugs, but . . . worse, you know? Judd Jr. put up a fight, but he couldn’t hold him off.” The small woman cried soundlessly, and Nyla was sure she’d used up all the heavy sobs her body could make. “Then Bobby got the rifle and shot him. That’s when he took off with Judd Jr.”
“Bobby shot his father?”
Maybelline nodded, wiping tears from her cheeks on the collar of her taffy-pink robe. “It didn’t kill him, but it chased him away. I swear he moved so fast, it was like he flew away or something. I went to the door, and there was nothin’ out there. He was gone, with my boy. Can you get my boy back?”
Nyla avoided the woman’s gaze, not wanting to see the desperate hope she knew was there. Hearing it in the mother’s voice was heart-wrenching enough.
“I don’t think so,” she answered honestly, “but I’ll make damn sure no one takes Bobby.”
Not this time, she added silently, looking at the small tawny-headed boy on the couch, but remembering a twelve-year-old kid with darker, curlier hair and a best friend who had loved him like a brother.
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