by Lee, Rachel
“Garner told us.”
“Two days. That means he’s hoping to form the circle tomorrow night. Does he know how to get in touch with you, Yvonne?”
“I haven’t changed my cell phone number. I don’t know if he knows my address.”
“I suspect he does.” Jude waved a hand. “Chloe identified those things we found in your apartment. Two were designed to exercise influence over you. The other was more like an identifier, a beacon. My guess is that Tommy somehow got in there and placed them, maybe as you were in the process of moving in.”
Yvonne wanted to protest, but as she recalled the day of her move-in, the way the door to her apartment had stood open for a few hours as the movers carried things in, and the number of times she had run downstairs to check on something, she knew it was possible. It was equally possible, as she had thought a few days ago, that Tommy could have wheedled a key from one of the movers. “I think you’re right. There was plenty of time that day for him to slip in, plenty of time when the door was open. What surprises me is that he could have managed it without me seeing him at all.”
“It didn’t have to be him. He could have gotten one of the movers to do it, even slipped the stuff in with your belongings. Lots of ways around that. Regardless, he had your place marked at least from the moment you moved in.”
“I think I want to kill him,” Creed remarked so quietly the words were all the more chilling.
“It may come to that,” Jude said bluntly. “People who are willing to go to these lengths to satisfy their desires are seldom to be trusted again. With any luck, though, we can scare him enough that he never wants to fool with the dark arts again.”
“I guess I should call him,” Yvonne said quietly. Her insides fluttered nervously, and she hoped it didn’t show. “That’s what he’d be expecting, since he put things in my apartment to influence me.”
Jude looked at Creed. Creed nodded slowly. “We talked about it. She wants to do this.”
“It would be a great help,” Jude agreed. “Chances are, he’ll set up a meeting. And it’ll either happen there, or he’ll take her to a place.”
“Far more reliable,” Creed said heavily, “than hoping Garner can track it down in the time we have left.”
Yvonne’s hands clenched and she closed her eyes for a moment.
“You don’t have to do this,” Creed said.
“Yes. Yes I do. Whatever happens, if I survive, I’d like to be able to live with myself when it’s over.”
Rising, she walked down the hall to the empty bedroom where she had stored her suitcase and her purse. Her legs felt shaky, almost rubbery, and she wondered if she dreaded talking to Tommy that much. Or if she was dreading something else more.
One way or another, this had to end, and end quickly. She couldn’t live in fear indefinitely. Even less could she stand being with Creed only because he felt he had to protect her. Yes, she hoped he wanted more from her, but if not, it needed to end now.
Because with each passing hour she was coming to care more for him. And right now, that was beginning to scare her as much as anything.
Back out in the living room, she sat near Creed and punched in Tommy’s phone number. “He won’t answer the first time I call,” she warned them.
“Why not?” Creed asked.
“He never does. I think it’s an ego thing. He likes making people wait. So I just don’t leave messages, because that annoys him.”
Creed smiled crookedly. “Interesting dynamic.”
Yvonne disconnected and screwed up her nose. “The thing I wound up hating most, as much as him cheating on me, was when I realized I was becoming just as petty as he was.”
Creed reached out and touched her cheek with cool fingertips. “You’re not the petty type.”
“I used to think so. Now I’m not so sure.” She put her phone on the end table. “I need to make him wait about half an hour.”
“Hell,” Jude said. “How old is he? Six?”
Any other time, she might have smiled at the description. Right now, however, she was too nervous. Almost unconsciously her fingers strayed to the tiny scabs that Creed had left behind when he drank from her. Hidden by her shirt, no one else could see them, but she felt them.
And a shiver of shock ran through her. What was she doing? Falling in love with a vampire? Part of her mind rebelled instantly, screaming that such beings didn’t exist. Yet she knew for a fact they did. She’d had too much experience of what they could do to doubt it. And yet some corner of her mind still wanted to dive into denial. And not just about vampires. About everything else, too, from Asmodai, and demons to ancient necklaces and…
Good God, how had she become involved in all this insanity?
And worse, how had she come to believe it wasn’t insanity? Everything she knew about the world shrieked this couldn’t be. Yet here she was, sitting with two vampires and proposing to make a date with a demon.
Startling her, her phone rang. With a hand that suddenly wanted to tremble, she reached for it and looked. “Tommy,” she said.
“I guess,” Creed drawled, “he’s a little too concerned to make you wait a half hour.”
That scared her. That, as much as anything anyone had suspected or said, told her Tommy was in this up to his neck. That he was conceivably willing to make her part of a deal with a demon. That’s what he thought of her.
And no matter how much her rational mind might strike out at the thought that all this was real, she knew one thing for certain: Tommy thought it was real. And he was willing to trade her like a piece of goods.
“Hello,” she said, trying to unclench her teeth.
“Vonnie,” he said, almost but not quite sounding as he had long ago when he’d actually pretended to love her. “Man, it’s good to hear your voice!”
At least that wasn’t a lie, she thought with an unusually bitter reaction. He was probably as relieved as hell to hear from her if what they all suspected was true.
“You miss me?” he asked. The wheedling tone was familiar, too. Once she had thought it was cute.
It took her a moment, but she managed to say, “I thought we should talk. I left in a hurry. Maybe we can sort some stuff out.”
“I’d like that,” he said. “I’d really like that. I know I was a bastard doing what I did with Ellen. Jeez, Vonnie…”
Her mouth soured at the sound of the fake apology. “Look, save it,” she said. “I just think we need to settle some stuff, okay?”
“I agree.” And too quickly. Her stomach felt as if it flipped.
“So how about Arne’s?” she suggested, mentioning a place he liked to have a few beers.
“No, I don’t go there much anymore. I have a better idea. There’s this new club on Forty-Ninth, called The Far Place. Been there?”
“No.” She didn’t go clubbing anymore. She hadn’t before Tommy, and she didn’t after Tommy.
“You’ll like it,” he said, wheedling again. “I think it’s more your type of place. Quieter. Anyway, how about tomorrow night? I have a show first, so it would have to be about midnight. Can you make it?”
She wanted to tell him to shove it all into some dark hole. Instead she swallowed hard and looked from Creed to Jude. “Tomorrow night?”
“Yeah,” Tommy said. “I can’t wait to see you.”
Both Jude and Creed nodded agreement.
“All right,” Yvonne said. “Tomorrow night. Midnight. But you’d better not be late.”
“I won’t be,” Tommy hastened to say. “I’ve only got one set tomorrow. I’ll be there.”
When she hung up, she realized she was shaking internally, as if every nerve ending in her body were trying to crawl out of her.
“The Far Place,” she said.
“We heard,” Creed answered.
Shock shook her again. They’d heard? Then she realized that their speed and strength probably weren’t the only supernatural things about them. Hyper acute hearing, too. She should have guessed
.
Creed watched her with concern. She had changed in the time between her call to Tommy and his return call. Not much had shown on her face, but he didn’t need her face to speak to him. He could smell the transformation in her, the building stress, the doubts, the sudden fears, even the temblor of shock.
The problem was, he couldn’t tell what had caused the emotional storm. Given her determination to see this out, to deal with Tommy, he wondered if her reactions had anything to do with that at all, or if it was something else.
Something like him.
He had thought her acceptance of him was too ready, too easy. Although he had awakened the other evening smelling the remnants of her consternation and had assumed that she had been working her way through the whole thing over again. It hadn’t surprised him. He had even assumed she would have to go through it a time or two again.
Just as he assumed that as soon as this mess was settled she would probably want nothing more to do with him. And he’d been very careful to make sure she could still leave when all this was over, that she wouldn’t be so tied to him by desire that she couldn’t make any other decision.
Maybe the worst thing of all was realizing that right now he could have cast all his scruples to the wind, could have taken her to that place that would have made her his forever whether she knew what she was getting into or not. Whether she wanted it or not. Because right now he almost sensed her slipping away and he didn’t want to lose her.
She had given him an acceptance he had never thought he would know again except from his own kind. For that alone he would have wanted to keep her around.
But there was more, much more that called to him, nameless things without definition, making her more than just another tempting morsel that had crossed his path.
A deep sense of foreboding caused him concern. He turned inward, briefly, avoiding thoughts of all the danger Yvonne would face tomorrow night, given what they believed was going to happen. For a few moments, just a brief space, he allowed himself to look at places he’d shut off years ago.
And he didn’t like what he found.
“Creed?”
Jude’s voice called him back from the abyss.
“We need to figure out how we’re going to handle this.”
“I know. Luc should be here soon, right?”
“Right. But we still need a plan. And it might involve Yvonne taking a huge risk.”
In an instant, Creed was on his feet, crouched and snarling. “No!”
The change was instantaneous, not a single thought preceded it. Awareness of danger to Yvonne cast him immediately into the most primitive side of his nature. Even as he caught himself in the act, he saw an expression very like understanding and knowledge on Jude’s face. And shock on Yvonne’s.
He tried to straighten, but his body had flooded with feral hormones, turning him into a savage hunter. Even as he struggled to return to the civilized veneer he wore most of the time, even as he realized that Jude had not threatened Yvonne himself, he needed to let out the fury that possessed him. And even in the depths of this place he tried to avoid at all costs, he was surprised by his own reaction. It had been different when Luc had kidnapped Yvonne. Then such a reaction was justified.
But just to hear Jude say she might have to put herself in danger?
The hammering in his head nearly drowned out rational thought, but not quite. Not quite, thank goodness. The wiser voice hammered at him, telling him he was overreacting.
“Creed,” Jude said quietly. “We won’t if we don’t have to. I understand. Believe me, I understand.”
If anyone did, it must be Jude, because Creed himself did not fully understand his reaction. It seemed to have blown up out of nowhere, really.
With effort, he uncoiled himself one muscle at a time. He didn’t want to look at Yvonne now, didn’t want to see the horror or revulsion in her face. Didn’t want to know what she really thought of him behind her politeness and kindness. Or what she must think now that she had seen this.
But then, startling him almost into another crouch, he felt a hand on his forearm. Battering down an instinctive reaction, he turned his head and saw Yvonne. She was touching him, and her face no longer reflected shock, but instead the most unexpected kindness.
“It’s okay, Creed,” she said softly. “Please, it’s okay. No one here is going to hurt me. You know that.”
Then, even though he must have looked every inch like a panther poised to spring and claw, she stepped closer and slipped her arms around him, standing within the potentially fatal circle his arms made as if she didn’t fear him at all.
Her intoxicating scent reached him, filled him, carrying with it none of the fear he had sensed on her before. None of the aromas that drew him so powerfully and tried to rip away his civilized veneer.
“Shh,” she said softly, and leaned into him, kissing him. The touch was a blessing.
“You should run,” he said hoarsely. “While you still can, run.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be.”
“But I’m not.”
Jude spoke, his voice an amused drawl. “Where have I heard that before?”
But Creed ignored him. He allowed Yvonne’s aphrodisiacal scent to carry him to a different place, a place where he could put his arms around her gently and hold her close. He pressed his face into her hair and inhaled her as if she were salvation.
He could have stayed that way forever.
Jude eventually cleared his throat, interrupting the moment. “Sorry, people, but we have some planning to do. And Luc will be here soon.”
Creed straightened, releasing Yvonne slowly, looking deep into her eyes. He read something there, though he wasn’t quite sure what. It did, however, seem to him that she’d made a decision. Wondering what that decision was put him on tenterhooks, but he would just have to endure it. Now was not the time.
“How about a sheet of paper and a pencil?” Jude asked. Then he pulled out his phone and punched a number. “Garner. I need you to scope out The Far Place. Yes, tonight. I need to know if a ritual could be performed somewhere in the building, and I need to know now.”
Jude disconnected before Garner could argue. Creed returned from his desk with a thin stack of paper and some pencils. “Thanks,” Jude said, taking them. He placed them on the table and leaned over them.
“Okay,” he said, as if momentous things hadn’t just been happening around him, “here’s the deal. We won’t know for sure if the ritual is to be performed at the club. If Garner finds a suitable place, we can probably plan on it, but we still need to be aware that Tommy might intend to take her elsewhere.”
Creed nodded, swallowing an instinctive growl. Now that the moment was nearly at hand, he was discovering just how close his vampire nature was to the surface. He didn’t like it. All it did was make him unpleasantly aware that he’d been living a self-delusion for nearly a century.
There was a knock at the terrace door and he swung around quickly, seeing Luc out there. Muttering under his breath, he went to let the other vampire in.
“You started without me,” Luc complained as he saw the papers on the table.
“Oh, shut the hell up,” Creed said irritably. “We haven’t started anything. We just got some information. You haven’t missed a damn thing.”
Luc arched a brow, but for once didn’t say anything. Apparently his desire to get at Asmodai overrode anything else.
Jude made an impatient noise. “Let’s just get to it, Luc, shall we?”
“Of course, mon ami.”
Creed looked at Yvonne and noticed she had backed away a bit, from Luc. Her gaze retained the memory of how the other vampire had threatened her. And now she was supposed to trust him.
Creed wanted to tear something to pieces. Instead he went to stand close to Yvonne, his presence a sign of protection. Luc smiled almost scornfully.
“Okay,” Jude said. “Here’s how the pentagram will be laid out
. And here’s what we have to do. And at all costs, we can never let Yvonne out of our sight. Got it?”
Luc and Creed both nodded. Yvonne let out a shaky little sigh.
Creed reached for and clutched her hand, certain of one thing and one thing only: He would die to protect her.
Chapter 12
“Are you ready?”
Creed’s question seemed to echo through Yvonne as if she had become a cavernous space inside. “Yes.” As ready as she could be. Creed had spent hours reading a book Jude had given him, the Roman Ritual for Exorcism. She knew he had tucked bottles of holy water in his pockets.
