by Amy Boyles
George scowled. “I thought he’d stopped doing that.”
Phillip shrugged. “So did I.”
“Who?” I said.
“Darn it all,” George said. “If he gets caught—”
“Who?” I repeated.
“I know,” Phillip said to George.
“Guys,” Dex said loudly. “Would you answer my—Andie?”
The hairs on the back of my neck saluted the air when Dex almost called me his wife. I looked at Phillip. “Do you know who’s been breaking into businesses?”
Phillip nodded. “Yes, we do.”
I shot George a look. “You do?”
Phillip scratched the back of his head. “It’s our cousin, Antonio. A rogue werewolf. He’s the one who’s been breaking into businesses.”
TWELVE
I narrowed my eyes. “How do you know Antonio’s been breaking into businesses?”
Phillip sighed. “He told me. Says he’s looking for something he lost.”
“What’s that?” Dex said.
Phillip scratched a spot on his shoulder with such ferocity I thought he might start biting at it. “No idea.”
“The townspeople are going to notice,” I said.
George scoffed. “Why do you care about them? From what I understand, they know all about you and aren’t exactly making life easy.”
Whether or not he meant it as an insult didn’t matter. My magic flared on my fingertips instinctively, as if I was preparing for a fight.
Dex slid his hand into mine. I jerked. I glanced back at him, but he wasn’t looking at me. Instead he was watching the brothers.
I knew what he was saying without saying it. Calm down.
It’s what he would do whenever I got worked up when we were hunting. He’d touch me, remind me that he had my back.
His fingers squeezed mine. I swallowed an egg of emotion in the back of my throat. His touch was surprisingly warm. It sent a swirl of heat rising through me.
I jerked my hand from his. Dex never flinched. Not once.
Dex eyed George. “Let’s leave the hunter’s personal life out of this. We’re trying to figure out who killed Cal, because plenty more people had a reason to than Andie. Tell us more about Antonio.”
Phillip fingered his collarbone. “I don’t know what he’s looking for, but I can tell you the places he thinks where it could be located.”
I arched a brow. “We’ll take it.”
Phillip pawed his scalp. “Listen, I’ve got an appointment to keep. George, can you fill them in?”
George’s mouth twisted into a smirk. “Sure thing. You go on.”
Phillip the Flea-bitten left, and George gave us a short list of places that included both Chloe’s witchy store and the salon.
“How do you know this?” I said.
George swiped a hand over his mouth. “Antonio told us about it.”
“But you don’t know what he’s looking for.”
“No idea.”
Dex and I left. So many pieces to this puzzle, but none of them fit together.
Dex opened the door, and I slid in. I waited for him to join me before I started going over all of it. “Do you know Antonio?”
“Never heard of him.”
“But you know all the supers in town.”
Dex tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Every one.”
I clicked my tongue. “So maybe he’s an out-of-towner? Maybe he’s just visiting?”
I glanced at the names of the businesses that George had given me. There were five of them. “Okay, he’s already hit Witch’s Cauldron and the hair salon. Looks like all that’s left for him to go after is the antique dealer, a clothing store and the sandwich shop. That’s so strange. What could he be looking for in any of those places?”
Dex shook his head. “I don’t know.” He flashed me a devilish smile. “But how about we find out?” He turned down the road and headed back through town. “So, which store is the closest to the two that’ve already been hit?”
I thought about that. “The clothing store.”
“Then let’s start there.”
I directed him on where to go, and Dex swung into a parking spot. “Okay, if you were a werewolf, what’s the most important thing you would need?”
I narrowed my eyes. This was a game Dex and I used to play when we hunted. We would put ourselves in the vampire’s shoes and try to figure it out.
I pursed my lips. “I wouldn’t want to be a werewolf,” I joked. “That’s the one thing I would want.”
Dex tipped his head back. The light of a streetlamp broke through the window, highlighting one side of his face, almost making him glow.
“I think the werewolf wants a sandwich.”
“What?”
He smiled. “I’m starving. Come on. Want to grab a bite to eat?”
I scoffed. Was this Dex’s way of trying to have a date with me?
Dex shook his head. He smiled, making his handsome features appear even more handsome. “No, I’m not trying to date you. I know what you’re thinking. I know you, you forget. I just want some food—and before you make a smart remark about wanting blood, I’m hankering for human food.”
I was about to make a smart remark about him requiring blood, but I let it drop.
“I’m kind of a social outcast. Nobody wants me in this town. I had a run-in at the grocery store today that proved it.”
Dex thumbed his jawline. “I’ll take care of it.” He winked at me. “If I promise no one will bother you, will you have a bite?”
My stomach growled right on cue. I mean, what was the worst that could happen? He gives me a fry and I gain a few ounces, but lose my dignity along the way?
Perhaps I was overthinking this.
I unbuckled my seat belt. “Okay, let’s get some food.”
“Great. ’Cause I could use a hamburger.”
Dex jumped out and opened my door for me. He led me toward the Joint, a local burger hangout. He walked beside me, staying close, but not so close that we touched. It was a comfortable distance, and we fell in step with each other easily.
Right before we walked inside, I felt a swoosh of magic emanate from him and blanket the building.
“What’d you do?” I said suspiciously.
Dex clicked his tongue. His blue eyes sparkled with amusement. “You’re pretty smart, so smart I figured you were one step ahead of me. Haven’t you figured it out?”
“You’re really annoying.”
He smiled. “And I’m not even trying. But seriously, I made sure no one’s going to bother you.”
He opened the door. Heat from the electric air swooshed out into the cool night. We stepped inside, and I waited for people to turn and stare, for someone to ask me to leave. But the chilly reception I’d been getting had vanished. In fact, the hostess was painfully nice in a sorority-girl sort of way, and the other patrons barely seemed to notice us.
“Thank you,” I said gratefully.
“You’re welcome,” he said.
Dex ordered a hamburger with a fried egg on top, guacamole, and a vanilla milkshake. I ordered a salad.
“Hungry much?”
He peeled off his jacket. “Haven’t eaten all day. I usually don’t get hungry until late, like now. But when the hunger strikes, I’m ravenous.”
The words came out with a twinkle in his eyes, and I couldn’t help but think that Dex meant he wanted more than food.
I cleared my throat and pulled my hair over one shoulder, teasing the ends of it. We sat in silence for a few minutes until I said, “So what’d you do to the room?”
The food came out at lightning speed, and Dex sat back. He pushed his fries toward me. “Want one?”
“No thanks, I’m perfectly happy with my salad.” As I stared into the plate of bitter greens, goat cheese and candied pecans, I couldn’t help but be more than a little jealous of his plate of deep-fried food.
Dex chuckled. “That salad might look pretty, but I doubt i
t’s going to taste as good as this.” He bit into his burger and moaned dramatically.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’ll take a French fry.” I bit into it, and it was pretty darn good. “So. Tell me. What’d you do?”
Dex cocked his head back and forth. “I just made everyone happy.”
I frowned. “Happy. Like the song?”
Dex studied the other folks in the room. To me it was a trademark Dex look. Jaw slightly tightened, blue eyes zeroing in on the crowd, sizing folks up one by one and taking notes of the surroundings so that if anything happened, he knew exactly which way to run.
He dragged his gaze back to me. “Yep. Made them happy. So happy they don’t care that you’re in here.”
“Think you can do that to the rest of the town? I’m looking at my last Thanksgiving here. Heck, probably my last holiday here.”
Dex sucked a dollop of guacamole from his thumb. “It won’t be your last holiday in town. It’ll blow over. People forget.”
I bristled. “They don’t forget. You know that. People are mean, cruel to those that are different.”
Dex’s eyes widened. “And how is that any different than how you’ve been to the new folks here?”
I jabbed my fork at him. “What are you talking about? They’re trying to change things, take over. Get us all persecuted.”
Dex shook his head. “They want the same things you do, Andie. They want acceptance for who they are. Who they truly are.”
I stabbed a bit of lettuce. “People don’t want the truth. They want candy canes and lollipops. They don’t want to know that the person who’s covered with hair is really a nice person deep down. They see the exterior and go from there.”
Dex leaned forward. “Don’t you think that’s a problem?”
I shrugged. “I think that’s what the world is like. No matter what. It won’t change. Our kind will be marginalized.”
He flexed his fingers. “You realize that Cal, though what he did was wrong, was fighting for a chance at acceptance. To be who he really was without all the stigma attached to it.”
“And what was that? A turkey-eating dog? A man that scared women and children? The Dex I knew would never have said that was okay.”
“I’m not saying it’s okay.” His expression darkened. He stared at his plate of food. “When I was with other vampires, I saw things the way they do. I’m only trying for a simpler, happier world. I thought that’s what you’d want.”
I shook my head. “You and I both know that isn’t possible. We hunted, but as quick as anything we would have been the hunted. You used to know that.”
Dex scratched the tip of his ear—an ear that looked good enough to nibble on. Stop that. I was not supposed to be having heated, stimulating conversation with my undead husband in a way that made me think about gnawing on his skin.
He swiped a paper napkin over his mouth. “I’ve changed, Andie. Now that I’m on the other side, I see how it is. I’ve taken time to get to know people and have discovered we all want the same things.”
I quirked a brow. “Even vamps?”
Dex nodded. “Even vamps. The work you and I did to eradicate the worst of them worked for the most part. Sure, there will always be clusters of bad ones, but those of us who submit to the reach of the tribunal abide by the law. We don’t take human life. We don’t make new vampires. Simple and easy.”
“So then how do you feed?”
Dex grimaced. “Had to ask me, didn’t you?”
“You should’ve known it was coming.”
He studied me as if wanting to watch the play-by-play of my reaction as he explained. “There’s a supply of donors that the tribunal uses. Well-paid donors who give pints. They’re shipped all over.”
“So you’ve never bitten anyone?”
“No comment.”
I couldn’t read his expression. He’d masked it from me. That was so frustrating. Dex could do that, put on his perfect poker face and I’d never know what was going on.
I decided to call his bluff. “So you bit a woman, I take it?”
Dex cleared his throat. “I don’t want the rest of my fries. You game?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back. “Stop changing the subject. Oh no, now I want the whole story. Who’d you bite?”
“No one, Andie.”
“Now I know that’s a lie. You just said no comment. So it’s someone. Who? Tell me now or I’ll hate you for the rest of my life.”
The words came out before I could take them back. It was something I always used to say to him in a joking way. It was our game. He’d irritate me, I’d say I’d hate him forever and then he’d eventually tell me what I wanted to know. What came in between, though—
Dex smiled. “You know what comes next, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “I’m not kissing you.”
Dex shrugged. “Maybe not in here. But you will.”
“Awfully cocky of you.”
“I’m an awfully cocky guy. You should try me out sometime.”
“I have before.”
He smiled. “Things are different now.”
I raised my hands in a stop gesture. I did not need any innuendos or out-uendos. I didn’t need any of that. “Quit it. Right now. Back to the subject.”
He lowered his head briefly and then snapped his neck up, leveling his gaze on me. “When I went over that cliff with the lord vampire, I hit the rocks in the rushing water hard. So hard it ripped me to shreds. I was dying, Andie. Dying. The only thing I could think was that I’d never see you again and you’d never know what happened to me.”
My heart ripped hearing the sadness in his voice.
“Somehow I managed to crawl onto the bank. The lord found me and offered me the choice of life. I knew I didn’t have long, that the internal damage was extensive, and all I could think about was you. I rejected his offer at first, but then I took it.”
Holy crap. Dex was offered the choice? Like, that was a serious moral code. If offered the choice, every hunter on earth would take the offer to “die.” No one wanted to be a vamp. There was nothing glamorous about hiding during the day and drinking blood.
Dex laughed bitterly. “I think the lord thought it was funny turning a hunter into one his kind. That gave him a certain amount of power over me.” He waved a hand dismissively. “Anyway, one of his other vampires taught me how to bite.”
So many questions swirled in my head, but I folded my arms and focused on the most obvious. “Was it a woman?”
Dex shook his head. “Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Are you jealous?”
I smirked. “Of course I’m not jealous. What you do in your undead life has nothing to do with me. After all, the vow was ’till death do us part,’ and it did part us.”
“So you’re jealous.”
I raised my nose to the ceiling. “I’m not jealous.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” He paused. “Yes, it was a woman, but nothing happened.”
“I knew it was a woman,” I said tartly.
“Feel better now that you know?”
“Yes.” No. In fact, I almost felt worse.
Dex wiped his mouth with a napkin. “You ready to go hunting?”
Oh, the words I used to love to hear from him. It sent a shiver down my spine. But did I want him to know how much it excited me?
Of course not. “Sure. Let’s prowl. And while you’re at it, you can tell me exactly who you bit.” A thought occurred to me then. “I’ve never asked you—”
“Because this is the longest we’ve spoken since I came here.”
I ignored the barb. “What I was going to say is, I’ve never asked you what happened to the lord vampire? And how did you do magic?”
Dex dropped the napkin on the table. “I tell you what. Let’s do something else first.” I started to protest. He shook his head and smiled. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but there’s something I want to do fir
st.”
I pinched my brows together. “What’s that?”
Dex smiled. A slice of fang peeked out from his mouth. “Catch a werewolf.”
THIRTEEN
Cold air sliced through my jacket as we walked outside. The heels of my boots clacked on the concrete. They made a hollow sound, amplifying that Dex and I were all alone.
“You didn’t exactly dress for hunting,” he murmured.
“I didn’t exactly know we’d be doing this.”
“Doesn’t mean you had to dress like a sex-kitten witch.”
I nearly laughed but managed to stop myself. “Oh? Is the red lipstick too much?”
His gaze grazed up my legs. “You could say that.”
I ignored the look of hunger in his eyes and clapped my hands together. “So. What’s your plan?”
He cracked his knuckles. The sounds sent a shiver up my spine. “The plan is—he’s hit the salon and the witch’s store. What’s the layout look like?”
I pointed toward the shops.
Dex eyed the street. He grazed the back of his hand over his check. “Right between Chloe's and the salon is the men’s clothing store. That’s where we’re going to set up shop.”
“Got a gut feeling?”
He nodded. “I’ve got a feeling that goes all the way to my toes.”
Our gazes locked. A blanket of pregnant tension rose between us. The air electrified and I felt a tug pulling me to him.
Dex looked away. “Come on, let’s set up a trap.”
“What if there’s an alarm?”
Dex shrugged. “I’ll call the owner. Give me five minutes and I’ll have us inside.”
Dex was true to his word. Within five, we were inside and I was slinking past racks of suits.
“Okay, what’s the plan?” I said.
Dex raised his arms. Threads of magic streamed from his fingertips like spun silk. I watched, breathless, as the lines wove together until they created what looked like a magical cage. Dex motioned for it to rise to the ceiling, which it did. He then secured it with a tether of power.
“Wow,” I said. “I’ve never seen magic like that. Not in all my life. How’d you do that?”
Dex crossed to me. A surge of energy surrounded him like a halo. I felt the power sink into me. It was like the heat from a fire—warm yet powerful.
