Ravenous

by Forrest, V. K.

  “I’m not stupid, Liam.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her he knew she wasn’t stupid. In fact, she was pretty damn smart. It was one of the things he liked about her. He kept his mouth shut.

  They didn’t have to wait long for the white panel van to appear on the street. Liam stood at one of the benches and watched the vehicle park. He reached into the waistband of his jeans to check the position of his pistol. He could feel Mai standing behind him, close to the fountain. He could hear her breathing.

  The snow around them gave the whole place the surreal look of a postcard. The beautiful village of Clare Point in winter—wish you were here. It didn’t seem like a spot that might erupt in gunfire at any moment, a street where ugly red stains could suddenly dye the snow crimson . . . where a sweet girl, a savvy senior citizen, and a nervy little rat terrier could end up dead in the blink of an eye.

  There was an old man in a black wool overcoat and bowler hat in the passenger seat. He was a thinner, much older version of the photos Liam had seen online. The Weasel’s face was nothing memorable; he was just another elderly Italian man. The driver was fairly young, a big guy with a flattop haircut.

  The Weasel waited for the driver to get out of the van and open the door for him. The Weasel got out slowly. He had a cane.

  The driver then opened the back door of the paneled van. From this vantage point, Liam couldn’t tell how many were inside. Just as the driver reached in to help someone—Corrato, Liam assumed—he spotted movement to his left. He turned his head to see Jim Kahill dressed in a hat and coat, walking his greyhound.

  Shit, Liam thought. He glanced at the van, then back at Jim. Turn around, he telepathed. I’ll explain later.

  But Jim and the dog kept walking right toward them, as if he hadn’t heard him.

  Liam returned his attention to the Weasel, who was now walking toward them. He was maybe forty feet away, taking his time walking down the sidewalk that led to the fountain that someone had shoveled. Corrato appeared from behind the van and Liam heard Mai inhale sharply. But she didn’t move.

  Prince growled. Mai hushed him.

  The driver had his arm around Corrato. The old man, his left hand heavily bandaged, was walking under his own power, but barely. Even at this distance, Liam could see bruises on his face.

  “Why’d you have to do that?” Liam demanded, unable to help himself. He motioned toward Corrato, speaking to the Weasel. “You didn’t have to hit him.”

  “He wasn’t cooperating. At first.” The Weasel’s eyes were such a pale blue that they almost looked white.

  Liam felt his muscles tense and his fangs vibrate ever so gently. Anytime he was in the presence of evil, this happened. It was a natural thing to him, wanting to kill bastards like the Weasel. And it didn’t matter that he had the Glock; his instinct was still to attack. To bite. To rip out the enemy’s jugular, to savor the taste of hot blood, and let him bleed to death in the snow.

  Liam flexed his fingers, willing his heart rate to slow. Jim and the dog were walking right toward them. There was nothing he could do to stop them at this point; he would have to just let them pass.

  The Weasel stopped on the sidewalk, watching the man and his dog walk by. Liam met the mob boss’s gaze. If Jim noticed anything strange going on, he didn’t say anything. But how Jim could not notice, Liam didn’t understand. The Weasel and his men didn’t know that no strangers came to Clare Point this time of year. They didn’t know they were the only humans in town besides Mai and her father. But Jim knew.

  “You got ’em?” the Weasel asked when Jim was a short distance away.

  Liam held the old man’s gaze as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the prescription bottle with the diamonds in it. Corrato and the driver had almost reached them.

  The Weasel held out a gloved hand.

  Liam held the plastic bottle tightly in his hand. “Let him go to his daughter first.”

  The Weasel hesitated for a second, then turned to his driver and nodded. The driver let go of Corrato’s arm and Corrato made an exaggerated motion, jerking his arm away. He tottered toward Liam. Mai stayed put, as she’d been told.

  The dog began to bark.

  “I left my crossword puzzles in the van,” Corrato said as he walked past Liam. “Four of ’em.”

  The old man was babbling. Liam just wished he would hurry the hell up. He didn’t like Mai out here, vulnerable like this. Whatever happened to Corrato here, he’d brought it on himself, but Mai was innocent.

  Liam heard her make a sound, something between a sob and a cry of relief. He ignored her; he ignored Corrato as he hobbled past him. He focused on the two in front of him.

  “I’m glad we could do this in a civilized manner,” Liam said, slowly offering the little bottle. “In the end.”

  The Weasel accepted it, hooked his cane over his wrist, opened the bottle, and dumped it into his gloved hand. He counted. There were twenty-two. Liam knew because he had counted them. The old man nodded, carefully pouring them back into the bottle, replaced the lid, and turned to leave.

  It was over. It was done. Mai was safe; Corrato would live to have to explain to his daughter the things he had done and why.

  Behind him, Liam heard Mai’s voice, the dog barking. He felt the weight of the Glock in his waistband. The snow glimmered in the last rays of sunshine of the day. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jim, still walking away. As the Weasel walked past his driver, his voice was so soft, had it not been for Liam’s superior hearing, he’d never have heard the whispered words.

  “Kill them all.”

  Chapter 29

  “Mai! Get down,” Liam shouted, reaching for his Glock.

  The driver drew a nine-millimeter pistol from under his coat, but not before Liam was able to squeeze off the first shot, then a second.

  Everything seemed to happen at the same instant after that. The driver’s left shoulder exploded with blood and gore. Mai screamed and Corrato gave a grunt as she pushed him into the snow. The Prince of Dogs shot forward, streaking past Liam.

  Liam fired twice more. The Weasel had abandoned his cane and was running at a pretty good clip. Prince darted around the driver and went after the Weasel.

  Liam dodged left, afraid the driver would shoot Mai or her father, trying to shoot him. Liam pulled the trigger, again hitting the driver in the left shoulder, but this time it was enough to drop the goon to his knees.

  The Weasel was more than halfway to the van by then. Prince dove at his feet, snapping, and the old guy shouted with pain, trying to shake off the dog. He went down on one knee in the snow, the dog snapped at his hand, and the pill bottle tumbled to the ground.

  That was when Liam saw the other guys pouring out of the back of the paneled van. Four of them.

  Corrato had been trying to warn Liam. He hadn’t left four crossword puzzles behind in the van. He’d left four hit men.

  Shit and double shit. Liam had one pistol, only seventeen available shots, and he’d already pulled off at least six, maybe seven. In the confusion, he hadn’t counted.

  The four guys running at him fired and the ground exploded around Liam, snow and mud flying in the air. Bits of cement flew from the lip of the fountain.” Get behind the fountain!” Liam barked.

  He kicked the gun from the fallen driver’s hand and went down on one knee, trying to use the driver’s body to protect himself. The men from the van fired anyway, and Liam felt the impact of the multiple bullets as the driver was hit in the back and pitched forward.

  This was bad. It was very bad. Vampires depended on surprise attacks, not guns. They were better with their fangs than with bullets.

  As Liam tried to hold up the driver’s body, now lifeless, he spotted Jim and Sugar running toward him. As he ran, the dog on the leash morphed from a greyhound into Arlan Kahill. And Jim wasn’t Jim at all, but Aedan.

  Liam would have smiled, had the situation not been so grim.

  The line of men moved forwar
d and Aedan and Arlan darted across the snow, around behind the men with the guns, moving faster than the humans could see.

  “Prince!” Corrato cried hoarsely from behind Liam.

  “Babbo! No! Stay down!”

  Shoving the dead guy to the ground, Liam pedaled backward. Mai and Corrato were both lying facedown in the snow. He squeezed the trigger, hitting a guy square in the middle of his chest.

  Aedan struck the one closest to him, tackling him like a three-hundred-pound linebacker. He had him down in an instant, ripping out his throat with his fangs. The victim screamed in agony. In shock. With a flying leap, Arlan descended on another and the game was fair again.

  The only guy still standing stopped and then began to back up, staring, in horror, at what had befallen his comrades. Arlan and Aedan were snarling and grunting as they sank their fangs again and again into their victims.

  Liam heard the van start up. The Weasel had reached it. Running toward the road again, Liam took aim and fired at the guy still firing at him. It was a clean shot and the punk flew backward under the impact. Liam couldn’t let the Weasel get away. If he did, Mai and her father would never be safe. Someday, when they least expected it, another van would pull up and then not even a tough little dog and a pride of vampires could save them.

  The van pulled away from the curb, slid on the icy road, and shot forward.

  Liam was torn between running after the Weasel and going to Mai. But there was no way he was going to catch up with the van, not now. “Mai, you okay?” he shouted over his shoulder. Then to Arlan and Aedan, “Enough!”

  Aedan stood up, backed off, and wiped his mouth with his coat sleeve. Arlan did the same.

  “Mai!”

  “I’m . . . we’re okay!”

  Reaching the guy who had tried to run, Liam kicked away the gun that had fallen in the snow. Not that it mattered. He was already dead.

  Prince ran a circle around them both, then darted in the direction of Arlan and Aedan. He plopped himself down in the snow and studied one and then the other carefully.

  Panting hard, Liam walked back toward Mai. In the distance, he heard a police siren. People were beginning to come out of their houses to see what the commotion was. He spotted Peigi’s car as she slammed on her brakes and threw open the car door.

  Liam walked slowly toward Mai and her father.

  “Oh, God, who . . . who are they?” she moaned.

  “Who?” he panted.

  Mai sat up in the snow, still holding her father in her arms, trying to see past Liam. Her face was covered in wet snow, her eyes glazed with shock. “Those men. They came from nowhere. The ones who helped you.”

  “It’s okay,” he soothed, still trying to catch his breath. He tucked his gun back in the waistband of his jeans. He helped them both to their feet and walked them around to the other side of the fountain, blocking her view of the bloody carnage in the snow.

  Corrato didn’t seem interested in the dead men or how they had gotten that way. “Where’s Prince?” he asked. “Anyone seen my dog?”

  On the other side of the fountain, Liam took Mai’s arm. “Mai, this is vital. When you were on the ground, when there was gunfire, did your father see anything?”

  Her lips were pressed tightly together. She shook her head. She was shaking all over.

  “What do you think you saw?” he asked, afraid of the answer. If she had seen too much, her memory would have to be erased. It wasn’t difficult to do, but he would hate to do it if he didn’t have to. The thought of marring her beautiful neck, of leaving it anything but pristine, actually brought him physical discomfort. He had refrained from biting her for three weeks, the short three weeks he had known her. He didn’t want to have to do it now.

  She glanced in the direction of the dead men, though she could no longer see them. “I . . . I don’t know.” She seemed afraid, but not of him. “It all happened so quickly. Did . . . did they have knives? There was so much blood. Who are they? Government agents?” She gazed earnestly at them. “Do those men work with you? For you?”

  So she hadn’t seen the morph, or the attack with fangs. Somehow, thank God, she had missed it in the fray. That was good. It was excellent. Liam hugged her with one arm. His other was bleeding. He had been hit, though when, he couldn’t say.

  “You’re hurt,” Mai murmured.

  “I’m fine.”

  “My dog.” Corrato turned slowly in a circle in the snow, holding his bandaged hand against his body. “Prince!”

  The dog came flying around the fountain. Corrato bent down and Prince practically flew into his arms.

  Mai stared at her father and the dog for a second. “I’m so glad you’re alive, Babbo, but why?” she said, her words becoming more forceful as she went on. “We found the crossword book in the bank lockbox. Why did you do it? Why did you get involved in those terrible things?”

  “Mai,” Liam said gently. “Maybe this isn’t the time.”

  “I have to know.” She practically shouted her last words. This was a side of her Liam had never seen before.

  Corrato regarded her for a moment. “I didn’t kill anyone, if that’s what you think,” he said, sounding remarkably cognizant, considering everything he’d been through over the last few days. He hugged his dog. “I didn’t do much. A few things here and there, mostly launder money.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “But why?”

  “Why? How do you think I could afford the house, the cars, your private high school, then college tuition? I was only an electrician, Mai. You deserved better than I could give you.” His lower lip trembled. “Maybe if I could have given your mother those things, she wouldn’t have left us.”

  She closed her eyes. “Oh, Babbo.”

  “Hey, you guys! You okay?”

  Liam looked up to see Kaleigh running toward them. “Arlan said I couldn’t come ’til it was over. He made me wait in his truck.” She reached Mai and threw her arms around her. “Thank God you’re okay. I was so scared when I heard the gunfire.” She glanced at Liam and made a face. “Eww, you’re bleeding.”

  Realizing what she’d just said—before the part about him bleeding—Liam grabbed Kaleigh’s arm. Wait a minute. Arlan made you stay in the truck? he telepathed. You sent Arlan and Aedan here?

  Kaleigh gave him her best “you’re an idiot” face. I couldn’t let you go up against them alone. What if they tried to double-cross you? Which obviously they did.

  “But how the hell did you know when or where we were going to make the exchange?” Liam demanded, looking at Mai, not even realizing he had spoken out loud.

  “I didn’t tell her,” Mai said. “I would never have put her in danger that way.”

  I’m telepathic, you dummy.

  Liam met Kaleigh’s gaze again. You were able to read my thoughts from a distance?

  From my house! Cool, huh? Kaleigh grinned.

  He started to open his mouth, then closed it. He’d address this with Kaleigh later. Right now, he had to get these two out of here, before the entire sept descended on them. “Arlan’s truck close by?”

  Kaleigh nodded.

  He put one arm around Mai and the other around Corrato. “Get them back to the apartment. Let no one in. The Weasel got away.”

  “Oh my God!” Kaleigh covered her mouth with her hand. “What are you going to do? He’ll come after them!”

  He took a deep breath, thinking about all the incriminating evidence back at his place written inside the pages of the crossword puzzle book. And there was no telling how much more Corrato knew.

  Mai gazed into Liam’s eyes.

  “It’s okay,” he assured her, kissing her wet cheek. “I have an idea how to end this. How to guarantee you’ll be safe forever. And I know the person who can do it.”

  As Kaleigh led Mai and Corrato away, he walked around the fountain, through the snow, past the dead bodies, and dialed Fia. People called his name, but he ignored them. Fia answered just as he picked up the prescription bottle o
ut of the snow.

  Late that night, Liam stood on the curb in front of his shop. Kaleigh stood beside him, holding the rat terrier. Fia waited in the car, but she kept it running. She couldn’t tell him where she was taking them, of course, but he trusted her.

  “We have to go, Liam,” Fia said gently.

  He leaned in the window. “You’ve got the diamonds?” he whispered.

  “All twenty-one of them. They’ll eventually be returned to the original insurer.”

  “And the Swiss bank accounts?”

  “Already seized. But turning in that money will go a long way. That was probably Corrato’s ticket into the witness protection program as much as the information he has for us.” She offered a grim smile. She knew how hard this was for him, to let Mai go like this, to just let her disappear. She also knew not to bring it up. “Talk to you soon?”

  Liam nodded, stepping back from the window. “Mr. Ricci.” He offered his hand.

  “I told you. Call me Corrato.” He looked down at the snowy sidewalk. “Or whatever my new name will be.” He looked up again. “I didn’t mean to make such a mess of my life or my daughter’s.” His wedding ring shone on his right hand. “I’m not a bad man. I just made some bad decisions.”

  Liam thought about the Gaudet brothers. “We all have, sir.” He squeezed his hand. “You take care.”

  “Good-bye, Mr. Ricci.” Kaleigh hugged him tightly, her eyes teary. “Take good care of Prince,” she said, passing the dog into his arms.

  “You kidding? The Prince of Dogs takes care of me.”

  As Corrato got into the backseat of the unmarked sedan, Kaleigh hugged Mai. “Take care of yourself. I hope Fia finds you a great life.”

  Mai smiled through her tears as she hugged the teen. “You take care, too, and I meant what I said. I don’t care what your boyfriend says, you have the right to decide.”

  “Oh, that?” Kaleigh laughed, wiping at her eyes. “Old news. I told him I wasn’t ready and he said okay and we went for ice cream.” She shrugged. “All that teen angst for nothing.” She looked at Liam. “I’ll let you be alone.” She gave Mai another quick hug and then backed away.