by HELEN HARDT
Guilt lashed out at me. Erin didn’t know all of it. She still didn’t know my sister was pregnant with her brother’s child. Still, I felt it was Emilia’s story to tell, not mine. I wasn’t sure Erin would see it the same way, though, when she ultimately found out.
I looked to River, but he was distraught, obviously thinking about Lucy.
Lucy had to be the focus right now, not Emilia and the fact that she hadn’t told Jay he was going to be a father.
“I should take a few days off,” Erin was saying. “But how can I? We’re shorthanded as it is, and now with Lucy gone…” She shook her head. “I don’t know what to do. Renee, one of the other nurses on the night shift, has already said she’s looking for another job.”
“You need to do what you think is right,” I told her. “We’ll both support you, right, Riv?”
River didn’t respond.
“Riv?”
“What? Yeah, sure.”
I wasn’t sure he knew what he was saying yes to.
“I’m not comfortable at University anymore. Not with all the disappearances. But I can’t quit. I need the money.”
“No, you don’t,” I said. “I’m going to be a rich man when my father’s estate is probated, and that will be soon. River has seen to that. Everything I have is yours.”
She smiled weakly. “You’re wonderful, Dante, but I can’t take your money. I can’t live off someone else. It’s not who I am. Besides, I love nursing. I get a lot out of it, even on the days when I’m ready to throw in the towel.”
“Who says it’s forever?” I said. “I’d love it if you quit University, at least until we find the women who’ve disappeared. You can find work somewhere else. A good nurse will always be in demand.”
“But I can’t. I can’t leave the hospital shorthanded. They’re desperate right now.”
“I understand, baby. I do. But your safety is so important to me. I haven’t been comfortable with you there for a while now. You know that. Someone there fed on you. Sure, it seems to have stopped now—” I gasped when a thought speared into my mind.
“What?”
“That resident. The one you almost—” Couldn’t even think the word. “You said he just came back, right?”
“Logan? A couple days ago, yeah.”
I’d just seen her naked. There hadn’t been any new marks on her thigh, or anywhere on her, for that matter. None but my own. “Never mind.”
“Come on, Dante. Spill it. Why are you asking me about Logan Crown?”
Crown.
I’d seen that name. Logan Crown. No, not exactly, but similar. Shit.
“Where’s your laptop, Erin?” I asked.
“Over on the sofa table.”
I grabbed it, brought it into the kitchen, and fired it up.
Damn. There it was. “Check this out. Both of you.”
Erin and River stood behind me, looking over my shoulders.
“Nocturnal Truth,” River said. “That’s the site Bill used to get information on your blood bond.”
“Yeah. And they claim to have a translation of the entire Vampyre Texts. But that’s not what concerns me at the moment. Check this out right here. The email address to contact for more information.”
Chapter Three
Erin
“Lucien Crown.” My heart sped up a little, but over what? “Same last name as Logan.”
“Right,” Dante said.
“There are a lot of Crowns out there,” River said.
“Are there? Maybe. But it’s not like Smith or Jones.”
“You think Logan is a vampire?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“How would he have gotten tied up and left in a supply closet, then? Couldn’t he have glamoured…” I stopped.
“What is it?” River asked.
“There have been instances at the hospital. Instances where things have happened and no one recalls anything. Like the disappearing patients, for example. How did they get out with not a single person seeing them? It’s a hospital. There’s always somebody around.” I shook my head. “But it still doesn’t compute. He couldn’t have been kidnapped and then returned tied up if he was a vampire. He would have glamoured whoever had him and gotten away.”
“Not necessarily,” Dante said. “Not if the person who had him was another vampire.”
“There’s an easy way to find out. We sniff him,” River said. “If he’s a vampire, he won’t have a scent.”
“I sure smelled his testosterone and adrenaline when he almost—” Dante cleared his throat. “You sniff him. I can’t smell anyone but Erin, remember?”
“Can you smell those kinds of hormones on a vampire?” I asked.
“Yeah,” River said. “But vampires don’t have a unique scent like humans and other creatures do. At least not to us.”
Logan is not a vampire. Logan is not a vampire. I repeated the mantra in my mind.
What if he was? And what if he’d been feeding on me? He hadn’t since he’d returned. Dante would have known.
This was all too much to deal with. I’d wondered why they let Logan start working in the ER again so soon after he returned. Perhaps he’d glamoured the other physicians…
Perhaps he’d glamoured me…
No. Couldn’t go there.
Logan is not a vampire.
“There’s one way to find out. Let’s find this Logan guy, and I’ll give him a good sniff.” River stood. “But before we do that, we need to find Lucy.”
“Yes.” Lucy, of course. I’d gotten so caught up in the Logan hypothesis that I hadn’t given Lucy a thought for the last several minutes. Guilt hit me like a brick. “Lucy’s way more important right now.”
“I questioned everyone at the hospital as soon as I found out,” River said. “I wasn’t on duty, but they all know me anyway. No one knew anything. No one had seen anything.”
“Why didn’t any of us think of this before?” Dante said. “Someone is glamouring people at the hospital. If it’s not Logan, it’s someone else. There’s a vampire there, somewhere. Or a human who knows how to glamour.”
“That’s not possible,” River said. “Glamouring requires vampire blood. Humans can hypnotize, but it’s not exactly the same thing.”
I cleared my throat. “You said glamouring requires vampire blood. Does that mean anyone with vampire blood can glamour?”
“I don’t know,” River said. “Why?”
“Apparently I have vampire blood.”
“Most people with vamp blood don’t even know they have it,” Dante said. “For all intents and purposes, they’re human.”
“He’s right. I didn’t mean to be literal. Only full-blooded vamps can glamour. At least as far as I know.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure why I felt disappointed. I had no desire to glamour anyone.
“Are you working tonight, Erin?” River asked.
“I’m supposed to.”
“Is this Dr. Crown working as well?”
“Probably. Like I said, we’re shorthanded all the way around.”
“Good. I’ll come by and check him out tonight while I’m investigating Lucy’s disappearance.” He shoved his hand through his short hair. “God.”
“Riv, are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat once more. “Like I said. We only had one date.”
I didn’t buy it. River was visibly upset. Had he fallen in love with Lucy? “I’ll go to work tonight so I’m there when you see Logan. Plus, I want to ask my own questions about Lucy. But then…” I sighed.
“What, baby?”
“I hate leaving them shorthanded. I truly do. But I have time off coming. I’m going to take it. I’m going to help you guys figure out what’s going on, where these patients have been going.”
“Actually,” River said. “You might be able to help us more if you stay at the hospital for now. You can be our eyes and ears there.”
“Not if someone glamours me, I
can’t.”
“She has a point, Riv,” Dante said. “And I can’t stomach the idea of anyone glamouring her.”
“Believe me. I’ve been watching all of these disappearances. I even went to talk to Cynthia North when she was returned. I haven’t been able to find out anything by being in the hospital.”
“But you have access to the records if you’re there,” River said.
“Doesn’t do me any good if the records don’t exist. All it takes is knowledge of all our backups and archives, and then a glamour, a delete, and poof, no more records.”
“Another good point, Riv. Plus, I don’t want her anywhere near any of this. I want her safe.”
“If I honestly thought I’d be more good to you at work, I’d stay in a heartbeat. I’ve already told you how much I hate leaving them in a bind. But this has gotten personal now. Lucy is gone. We need to find her. We need to solve this mystery once and for all.”
Chapter Four
Dante
My father had been noticeably absent since I’d kicked him out of Erin’s place.
My self-control had taken a beating when Erin’s rage and testosterone had inflamed me with lust.
Shit. My father. We still had to take his ashes to Bea, as well.
In that instant, he appeared.
Erin nearly lost her footing. “Julian. You’ve got to stop doing that.”
“Sorry. I’m not sure there’s a subtle entry available for my kind.”
“You can’t kind of fade in, or something?” she said.
He laughed. “This isn’t Hollywood. It doesn’t work that way.”
I felt conspicuous. The last time I’d seen my father’s ghost, I’d been in a lust-fueled rage, ready to take Erin violently and forcibly.
“Dad,” I said quietly.
“It’s over, Dante,” he said. “Life—no pun intended—is too short to rehash things that don’t ultimately matter. I take it you two are all right?” He nodded to Erin.
“We’re fine. Dante would never hurt me. I know that.”
“I know that as well. If I thought otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten rid of me quite so easily.” He turned to River. “I heard about Lucy. What do you know so far?”
“Nothing. I questioned everyone I saw at the hospital, but no one knows anything.”
“A vampire might be behind this, Dad. Someone who’s capable of glamouring a large group of people at one time. Is that possible?”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing, but elders may be able to do it. The glamouring power gets stronger with age.”
River sighed. “I guess we go to Bill. Or to the Texts.”
“Speaking of the Texts,” my father said, “I was able to expedite the probate hearing on my will. You’re my personal representative, Dante. You’ll need to appear in court tomorrow. Everything else has been taken care of.”
“What about the filing? The documents?” I asked.
“Taken care of.”
I nodded. Glamouring did come in handy, though I still didn’t like it. I regarded my father—the man who’d taught me never to glamour unless it was a life or death situation. Emilia and I getting our father’s money was hardly life or death, but the rogue vamps after Erin? Lucy’s disappearance? Those could very well be life or death situations, and my father’s money would make it easier for River and me to investigate.
“Riv, I hate to ask you this, but—”
“Yeah. I’ll do it.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”
“You want me to take a leave of absence from work until we figure all of this out. I’ll do it. I’ll use my glamour. I don’t like it, but this is important enough.”
“I agree,” my father said solemnly.
“That’s not what I was going to say. I was going to ask if Lucy said anything to you that might be a clue. You know, the last time you saw her before she disappeared.”
“No. Believe me. I’ve gone over and over every conversation with her in my head. She slept most of the time. She was recovering from surgery.”
“And you weren’t in the hospital when she disappeared?”
“No. I left her room for a while to return a few phone calls. I didn’t want to disturb her. And yes, I know it’s a big red flag that I just happened to be out of her room when she disappeared. Whoever took her must know what I am. If it’s a vamp using glamour, he’d know he couldn’t glamour me.”
“Precisely,” my father said. “It seems pretty obvious that we’re dealing with a vampire.”
“What if the vampire was older and had more glamouring power?” Erin said. “Could he glamour a younger vampire?”
“No,” my father said. “Glamouring doesn’t work against other vampires. At least not that I’ve ever heard.”
“Do you think it could be the same vampires who are after me?” Erin asked.
“We don’t have any way of knowing,” I said. “But it could be the same one who’s been feeding from you.” Just the thought had my fangs itching to descend.
“Control it, Dante,” my father said.
“What if I don’t want to control it? Someone is taking what’s mine.”
“Easy,” Erin said. “Trust me when I say I don’t like it any more than you do. It’s happening to me, after all. But it hasn’t happened lately. We can be glad of that.”
Her voice offered me solace. Not her words, but her voice. The sweetness of it.
And that’s when I knew.
Erin.
Erin was the key to my self-control.
How had I not realized it before?
Was this part of the blood bond?
Had the fact that I’d been taken and hadn’t learned self-control contributed to the forming of the bond?
So many questions.
Learn to ask the questions.
No! Not now. Not in my head.
“Good, son. That’s it. You can learn control.”
I nodded. My father was mistaken if he thought his words had had any effect on my teeth retracting.
It was all Erin.
“You still have something to do,” my father said.
“I know. Bea. The ashes.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m going too,” Erin said.
“No. Absolutely not. We had to run like hell out of there the last time. I can’t have you in danger.”
“What makes you think you can control me?” she demanded, hands on her hips.
I couldn’t help laughing aloud. She was the key to my self-control. But control over her? In bed, yes. Anywhere else? Not in the slightest. I loved her all the more for it.
“Baby, I have to know you’re safe.”
“Dante, I’m not safe as long as those vamps are out there. You know why I want to see Bea.”
“Yes.” To see if Bea had a potion or something that could mask Erin’s scent. It was for Erin’s own good. But if I couldn’t smell her fragrance…
“We’ve been through this before, Dante,” my father said. “Erin is not her scent.”
“I know, Dad. And I know her safety is paramount.”
“She may not be able to help me anyway,” Erin said, “but I have to try.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“We’ll all go.” River patted his shoulder. “I’m armed. No vamp will get near Erin if I’m there.”
“Thanks, Riv,” I said. “You want to go tomorrow?”
“I want to go now,” Erin said. “We’re running out of time. Lucy’s gone, and we need to get to the bottom of all of this as soon as we can. We need to get her back, Dante. Please.”
“So you’ve forgiven your friend for keeping a secret from you?” my father said.
Erin nodded. “She’s still the same person, right? I can’t let anything happen to her. She’s been a great friend to me. I’m scared silly for her.”
“We’ll find her, baby,” I said, hoping I was telling her the truth. I couldn’t bear to see Erin so upset. I’d move he
aven and earth for her if I could.
She sniffled. “We will. We have to. Let’s go now to see Bea. Do you have your father’s ashes?”
I patted the pocket of my jeans. “Right here. I’ve got to tell you, Dad. It feels pretty weird carrying part of you around in my pocket.”
“We’ve been through this, Dante. Those ashes aren’t me. They never really were.”
“Back again so soon?” Bea cackled. “And you’ve brought everyone with you, I see.”
I fished out the bag of ashes and handed it to her. “From my father. Thank you for your help with the shield.”
She snatched the sealed pouch. “You’re quite welcome. I do what I can.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “We appreciate it more than you know.”
Erin cleared her throat. “Bea? I need a favor.”
“Got any more vampire ashes?”
“No, but I have money.”
She sighed. “What do you need?”
“Evidently, my smell is irresistible to a gang of vampires. Do you have something that could mask my scent?”
Bea inhaled. “I don’t smell anything.”
“You’re not a vampire,” River said. “Trust me. Her fragrance is like vampire crack.”
“You might try some calendula and basil,” she said, “though I can’t guarantee anything.”
“You don’t have the answer?”
“I’m afraid not, dearie. Not being a vampire myself, I have no need of such things.”
“Why calendula and basil?” Erin asked.
Bea cackled. “Those are common herbs to cover a grow.”
“A grow?”
“A grow of cannabis. Marijuana.”
That got River’s attention. “Are you growing somewhere? That’s illegal in this state.”
Bea waved her hands. “Where would I be growing cannabis? In the concrete here? Would I be living under a bridge if I had a thriving pot business?”
“That’s convenient, isn’t it?” River said. “You’ve got built-in excuses already.”
Bea ignored him. “Go to any herbalist or magick shop. Have them mix you a tincture of calendula and basil. Wear it on your wrists and behind your ears. Let me know if it has the desired effect.”