“What is it?” Gabriel said loudly.
“There have been more disappearances since last night,” one man said. “Violet has gone again. A woman from the new bakery, and a waitress, and a woman who tends bar at Passage Point north of Langley.”
Passage Point was one of those places people stayed away from unless they were looking for action, the kind of action that could be more than many were ready to risk.
Sally murmured, “I was afraid of this. I’ve been waiting for it.”
Leigh swallowed, watching Gabriel’s face. “Is Molly okay?”
He looked over her head. “Molly’s decided she needs a break. She’s in Seattle thinking things through.” He finished on a note of finality that didn’t invite further questions. “At least we know Rose is all right, even if she has run off to Alaska. That’s something.”
Niles and Dr. Saul kept a definite distance between them but stared at each other. She sensed they were wary of each other. Blue disappeared, and a moment later Sean entered the bar in his place.
Sean cleared his throat. “We don’t see Cody Willet in here very often,” he said to Niles, who followed the direction of Sean’s stare to a nondescript gray-haired man standing a little apart from the group of regulars.
“Yeah,” was all Niles commented.
The phone on the bar rang and Gabriel hurried to pick it up.
Sean joined them with another man Leigh would make a bet was a member of the werehound team. This one also had an awesome physique. His face was that of a Scandinavian, open, light blue eyes, regular features, but his hair was a very dark blond and curly all the way past the collar of his crew-necked sweater. He stood like a panther ready to pounce.
Niles held a hand toward Leigh. It was an invitation and the ultimate opportunity to declare herself or deny him. She glanced at Sally, who smiled, rolling in her lips as if she was trying not to laugh.
“You are a puzzle,” Leigh whispered, but she went to stand near Niles. She did not take his hand.
She hadn’t been prepared for the deep intensity of his gaze, or the inward dip at the corners of his mouth that turned into a soft smile.
Leigh realized the one reaction missing, the one that would have sent her running: triumph. But she felt a flash of triumph herself. She had shown that she was not afraid of Niles. Her stomach dipped. Could she overcome that fear or was she only pretending to herself?
“Meet Innes,” Niles said to Leigh, indicating the man with light blue eyes. “He is a close friend.”
When she offered him her hand, Innes hesitated before shaking it. His reaction could only be described as wary.
They nodded at each other but Leigh got no smile from the man.
Gabriel hung up the phone and rejoined them. “Lenny from Passage Point.” He let out a loud breath. “No one’s gone missing. They all took off in Violet’s van. Girls’ sleepover at some B&B in Port Townsend. They’ll be back by tonight. You folks should have checked with Lenny first—he gave his girl the time off and Violet and the woman who owns the bakery can go where they like, when they like.”
Leigh saw Sally frown before she hurried off toward the kitchen.
“Finish your breakfast,” Leigh told Niles, giving his plate a fleeting glance. A raw egg filled a well in the middle of what looked like a mound of raw ground beef. “What’s that?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.
“Steak tartare,” Gabriel said. “Niles has elevated tastes. It’s his favorite start to the day. Puts hair on your chest, right, Niles?”
Niles nodded, not looking too amused by the comment.
The phone rang again and since Leigh was closer she told Gabriel, “I’ll get it. I hope there’s hot coffee somewhere. Sally used that to lure me out here.”
By the time she picked up the phone a large cinnamon roll dripping frosting and smelling like ambrosia was plopped down on the bar by a smiling Sally, along with a huge mug of coffee with the thick cream Leigh favored still spinning like whipped butter-colored marshmallow on the top.
“Gabriel’s Place,” Leigh said.
“Hey, there, sis. It’s Gib.”
“How are you?” she asked stiffly.
“I’ll be better when you tell me you aren’t mad at me for being a boor.”
Leigh thought about Jan and said, “I’m not mad at you, Gib. I am a bit busy now, though.”
“I tried your home number. You’re at work early.”
“I usually am.” She captured a little frosting from the bun and licked it off her finger. Talking to Gib was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Did a real estate guy contact you about the property up there?”
Her thoughts raced. “Why do you ask?”
“Because we got a call from someone looking for you. He said he’d left a rough appraisal at that place where you’re working. They were supposed to give it to you but he hasn’t heard anything.”
Yes, she had the paper and it was stuffed in her coat pocket. She had forgotten all about it. “It’s around somewhere,” she said. “I’ll take a look at it. Thanks for reminding me. Gotta go, Gib. Be good.”
She hung up and drank some coffee to give herself time to settle down. Why would John Valley call Gib? How would the real estate agent know anything about her relatives or where to find them? She didn’t like him.
With the coffee in one hand and the cinnamon roll in the other, she started back to the group, only to have the phone ring again.
Balancing the plate on top of the mug, she picked up the phone once more, said, “Gabriel’s Place,” and listened to silence.
The line was not dead. She could sense someone also listening.
“Gabriel’s Place,” she repeated, grateful for the noise in the place that stopped others from looking at her to see what was going on.
“Is this Leigh Kelly?” a man asked.
“Yes.” The skin on her face tightened.
“You shouldn’t be here on Whidbey. It’s not your fault and you must leave.”
The plate almost slid off the mug. She set them down without disaster and said, “Who is this, please?”
For seconds she listened to what sounded like wind blowing hard wherever the caller was. “You’ve been tricked,” the nondescript male voice said. “You’re being set up. Listen to me carefully.”
“I don’t think I want to.”
“Yes you do. I’m on your side. Nobody else around here wants the best for you. They want to use you.”
She turned her back on the room. “Say what you have to say. Fast.”
“I think you know what Niles Latimer is.”
Leigh’s breath caught sharply.
“Yes,” the man said. “Of course you do. If you want to live, go to the police and tell them everything about him, then leave. I will come for you later.”
“Good-bye.”
“You don’t want to do that. You need me and I will be there for you—always. We shall be one and rule together.”
Leigh looked in the mirror over the bar. Everything seemed distorted. She sought about in her memory for what felt familiar. Something was very familiar.
The hollow sound of this man. She had heard it before.
“If you stay without my protection—” the voice said. “—Once you’ve served your purpose, they’ll get rid of you.”
chapter TWENTY-EIGHT
DR. SAUL VANDOREN’S FACE showed no emotion. His stillness didn’t fool Niles. Tightly harnessed, a potentially disastrous confrontation was only a careless word away.
“We can’t talk here,” the doctor said, almost under his breath.
Niles gave him a quizzical stare. Saul was a maverick vampire, an apparently honorable man, who, like Niles, preferred his humanness over what he had been somehow forced to become. The entire pack chose to accept Saul, although they kept their distance. They had become agitated when Saul ran a blood test on Innes, but since there had been no ramifications, no attempt to use the knowledge he must have gained against the hou
nds, it was never mentioned.
“Our feelings about each other are irrelevant; we have mutual business,” Saul said. “It is not my wish—I detest dissent—but we’re forced to work on the same side against a common enemy.”
Sean and Innes moved closer to Niles so that all three of them faced Saul.
Innes said, “We don’t take orders from you, blood eater.”
Saul laughed his deep, hollow laugh that faded so quickly it might have been imagined. “I see we remain on two sides.”
“You can’t expect instant acceptance,” Niles said. “We have to understand why you want a coalition with us. Outside?”
The doctor turned on his heel at once and walked out with the three werehounds behind him. Innes and Sean didn’t look happy but Niles urged them on, knowing they were experiencing their own disturbing reactions to the vampire.
As Niles left the building he caught Sally watching them. She gave a short nod and a smile that suggested approval. He wished he knew what favor she would exact from him in exchange for her finding Leigh.
This was looking bad, Niles decided, in ways only he was considering at the moment.
Leigh had answered two telephone calls and gone straight back to her office without another glance in his direction. But her expression was anything but calm.
When she had come to stand beside him a little earlier, he had started to hope, but he had been too optimistic. He should have known when she ignored his attempt to hold her hand that she was only testing what it felt like to be anywhere near him.
Her decision had not been what he wanted it to be.
With his gliding walk, Saul covered ground quickly and entered the forest, pushing branches aside as he went. He bent low to avoid an arch of brambles.
“Of course,” Niles said in a low voice, pulling Sean and Innes to a stop. “He was the vampire with Sally. On the night when Brande’s wolves lay in wait. I see it now, in his manner and stature. In his way of moving. Saul was the one who took Rose’s body away that night.”
Sean stared at Saul’s profile as he bent down. “Why didn’t we figure that one out? Damn, I wish we knew what all these people really want. Sally has never mentioned a liaison between the two of them, yet he helped her that night. You heard the story they’ve set up about Rose going to Alaska?”
“I heard it,” Niles said.
Innes muttered, “They could be setting us up right now.”
“Yes,” Niles agreed. “We will need all our skills—natural and learned.”
“Too bad we can’t shoot all of them,” Innes said, apparently hankering to use his special operations training.
“That won’t work here.” Niles gave him a half smile and carried on after Saul.
“Dr. Saul the vampire is Sally’s good buddy,” Sean murmured. “They could assume we know. But this feels like standing on a bridge collapsing into quicksand. We’d better hurry.”
“We could take him,” Innes said. “One less vampire isn’t much but I would take it.”
He made a growling sound and Niles slapped a hand on his shoulder. “Save it. Whatever happens, do not make the mistake of revealing that we are stronger as men than as hounds—we may have to make use of that secret advantage one day, but not for anything we can deal with otherwise.”
They caught up with Saul in a cramped clearing.
“What about Leigh?” Sean said to Niles.
“I haven’t forgotten her. Campion is out back of Gabriel’s,” Niles told him, referring to another member of their team. In truth he had to be cautious not to concentrate on Leigh to the exclusion of everything else. “Sally’s there. Go and watch in case Leigh comes into the parking lot. If she does and she wants to see me, send her here.”
“That’s irrational,” Innes said. “She isn’t even—”
“I decide what she is,” Niles retorted. “She is mine and there’s no point in trying to shield her. Her life depends on the decisions she makes.”
The quiet lowering of Innes’s eyes acknowledged that Niles made final decisions for them. A stirring burned deep in Niles, a shock he absorbed quietly and not without triumph. He longed to lie with Leigh.
Sean was already making his way back through the trees.
“What is it with the Deseron woman?” Saul asked. “Why do you bend rules for her? You would allow her to join us here on team business? You do not establish her position as inferior to you?”
Niles gave himself a second to make sure he didn’t look surprised at Saul calling her Deseron. “I don’t owe you those answers but as my chosen mate she is not inferior to me.” He hated the way the hair on the back of his neck prickled when he was near Saul or any like him. “How do you know what she is? She may not even be exactly what was meant by Deseron. Her kind were supposed to be gone.”
Saul smiled. “Another theory suggests the first Deseron lived—and were abandoned—in Belgium where some remain. Others were and are in New Orleans.” He shrugged. “Who knows. But evidently your woman is close enough to being a Deseron for you to think she’ll be of use to you.”
“Don’t discuss Leigh.” Hearing Saul call her “of use” shamed Niles.
Saul’s dark eyes took on a knowing gleam. “Fair enough. I understand. Do you understand how much danger she’s in? No, I’m sure you don’t. There was a meeting at Colin’s house. The gathering would have shocked you.”
Niles’s face took on a look of stony calm.
“If there is something I need to know, tell me.” Niles stepped closer to Saul.
Saul didn’t retreat. “It’s delicate. Your woman is not the only one to be protected.”
Niles wanted to take him by the throat.
“You hate me,” Saul said. “It’s natural. But we are not so different, you and I. We lost our mortality to save our lives. And although it was long ago for me, it’s not so long that I forget how it feels to… love.”
Niles was quiet. He didn’t want to feel a kinship with a blood eater but he felt it nonetheless.
“Boss.” Sean’s communication came urgently to Niles. “Leigh’s coming your way. She wouldn’t go back inside Gabriel’s and wait. She says she has a right to know what’s going on.”
Niles and Innes looked at each other and Innes, who had obviously heard Sean, communicated, “She will cause trouble.”
“No.” Niles could already hear her light tread and he spoke aloud so Saul would hear. “As my marked mate Leigh is part of what we have to deal with and possibly the answer to some of our problems.” What he felt when he thought about her had little to do with anything but his wanting her. “She does have a right to be beside me.”
“Is this wise?” Saul asked. “Allowing the woman to see us together like this?”
“I am responsible for Leigh.”
She came, Sean holding her hand and leading the way. Niles smiled at Sean, grateful for his comforting her even though he didn’t approve of what was happening.
Occasional flakes of snow found their way through the dense branches overhead and it might all have been beautiful if an aura of approaching horror hadn’t sobered each of them.
“I need to tell you a few things,” Saul said to Niles. “You might want to step away from—”
“No,” Niles said, determined now.
Leigh left Sean, smiling up at him, and came to Niles. She held out her hand in the same offer he had made her earlier and he folded her small, cool fingers into his warm grasp. He wanted to yell, to rejoice. The acceptance in her upturned face held more love than if she’d told him how she felt. Her gold-blond hair fell back and even in the gloom of the little forest glade her brown eyes were bright and clear.
Niles kissed her lips softly and she reached up to slide her arms around his neck. If only he could carry her away and forget all this.
It was the utter silence that stopped them. They separated, all but their grip on each other’s hand. Sean and Innes were examining the trees. Saul watched Niles and Leigh, a slight smile on his
lips.
“At the meeting, Brande and Tarhazian sparred,” he said without preamble. “Each wanted the other to give up power. They referred to sharing, but it was obvious each desires to have ultimate control.”
Saul laughed before Niles could. “You can imagine how much progress either of them made with those ideas,” Saul said.
“Foolishness,” Saul continued, turning his face toward Leigh. “Brande is leader of the werewolf pack, Tarhazian is the Supreme Fae who commands armies of the unmentionable inhabitants of her realm—and the veil that separates humans from the reality of what we know exists. This meeting was in Colin’s house. I understand you’ve been there.”
She gave a little gasp and Niles narrowed his eyes, unimpressed with Saul’s attempt to shock her.
“I’m surprised you were included in the gathering,” Niles said. “I thought you were considered a maverick.”
“I was not there, but I have my sources. Tarhazian made a deal. She will forgive some of those with whom she is angry if they provide… fresh subjects for the use of them all.”
Leigh’s fingers squeezed Niles’s and she folded her other hand over the top. Perhaps this was too much, too soon for her—but he would only make things worse if he suddenly said she couldn’t be there.
“Do I have to tell you what Tarhazian meant?” Saul asked. “Humans will be taken to the scourge.”
Niles frowned. “Who? Who will take humans and deliver them to the scourge—that is the vampire community,” he added to Leigh. “Who would feed innocents to vampires?”
The harsh lines of Saul’s face made it obvious that he didn’t like this any more than Niles did. “There will always be those whose appetites overcome any scruples.”
Sean and Innes kept quiet, allowing him to speak for their group, but agitation emanated from them.
“Will you take part in this?” Niles said, taking a step toward him. Saul raised his hands as if to attack.
“Niles,” Innes said urgently.
But Niles had already taken Saul by the shoulders and spun him around. He held him in a lock.
Rather than fight back, Saul said, “How interesting. I would not have expected such power from you without the benefit of a change. Would you care to explain that?”
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