He let himself morph into a patch of darkness near the back porch. The shadows calmed him, making it easier for him to concentrate. Lately, it was the only time he truly felt as if he belonged inside his own skin. The counselor would say he was just avoiding dealing with what he needed to, that it amounted to hiding from his problems. Which was why he hadn’t told her about it.
The night air felt especially cool and refreshing. Seemed he was always hot lately. The sound of crickets chirping in the bushes had a calming effect on him, too. He took a deep breath and let the various scents fill his lungs.
“I’m counting the scent markers of at least five Darkbloods. Two of them are not quite as strong as the others, which leads me to believe that they were the ones who arrived on scene first.”
“Exactly. The scent structure has broken down slightly, which means it’s older.”
“The trail leads out there.” He pointed to the woods behind the house. “I’m thinking that they circled the perimeter, then headed out in that direction.”
“That must’ve been when Jackson spotted them from inside and took off after them.”
Without waiting for Lily, he jogged across the yard and into the trees. She was right behind him when he reached a small patch next to some blackberry bushes. To a human, it would just look like a sandy shovelful of dirt. But to a vampire, it was unmistakable. As soon as a light breeze kicked up, the remains would be carried away like dust.
“They were both staked right here.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Lily said, bending down to examine the ash. “Jacks sure didn’t waste much time. What else?”
He surveyed the underbrush. “Based on the broken branches and disturbed earth there and there,” he said, pointing, “it was quite a scuffle. And given those blood splatters, Jackson didn’t come out unscathed, either.” Which didn’t really surprise him. The Guardian was a strong fighter, but he lacked Lily’s finesse. Dom’s, too, for that matter. Jackson was a shark in a cage, a bull in a china shop. Anyone who got in his way would be toast, and it sure as hell wouldn’t be pretty.
Lily was shaking her head as the sound of crickets started up again since they first had entered the woods.
No? Not Jackson’s blood? Stooping to examine it more closely, he lifted a leaf frond. It had all the same scent markers the Guardian had. “Am I wrong?”
“It’s not that. It’s his all right. I’m just thinking about how Jackson told me the injury was no big deal, but that’s a hell of a lot of blood to be no big deal.”
Kip agreed. That was definitely a major energy-depleting amount of blood to lose. At least he’d still had the strength to kill the two DBs.
Then suddenly, because the memory was never very far from the surface of his thoughts, he was transported back into that shabby cabin in the woods, where he’d been chained to a chair for days. The foul stench of Darkblood breath was as vivid now as it ever was. The bloodstain on the floor beneath him had grown wider and wider with every drip. It was like watching his energy and willpower slip out of his system and not being able to do a damn thing to stop it.
He could still hear the sound of the two girls whimpering just out of his reach. He’d tried not to look at them, but their smell was everywhere. In the air, on his skin, on the chains, in his hair, in his mouth.
Despite all the treatment he’d gone through since then—the conditioning, the desensitization—he could still taste the Sweet lingering on the back of his tongue as if it were yesterday when he killed that girl.
Lily knocked him on the arm, jerking him from this nightmare he called a memory or what his counselor would call an overloaded sensory flashback. Apparently, those who were gifted enough to qualify for Tracker school were more susceptible to reliving events because of their acute senses.
“Damn, you’re good, Kip. I’m impressed. What else you got?”
Despite himself, he did feel good at the compliment. “Before Jackson’s scent is mingled with theirs, they had been to the far side of the house.”
He continued to track the scent from its origin and Lily followed. It went around the garage and stopped near a maple tree in the side yard. “They waited here for a short time. Probably trying to decide when to make their move.”
She nodded as she looked around. “That’d be my guess, as well.”
He sniffed the air again. “Then two more showed up later. Their scents are mainly concentrated here in the driveway. One was charcoaled here—” he pointed to the pavement “—and I’m not sure about the other one. His scent is mingled with Jackson’s and the two females’, and it heads off in that direction.” With a tilt of his head, he indicated down the road.
“Jackson told me they had a hitchhiker on the back of their car for a few blocks, so that makes sense.” Lily pulled out a pouch of scent crystals and started to reach inside, when Kip stopped her.
“Wait. There were more.”
“Seriously?” She cocked her head and sniffed. “God, you’re right. There are two other completely different signatures. There were so many of them that I didn’t separate them out. Nice work.”
The trail led to the open garage door. Just inside on the ground was a torn-off side mirror.
“That’s odd,” he said. “Rather than following Jackson and the two females, it would appear they went into the house.”
“Jackson didn’t mention a break-in. Said he saw them outside and gave chase.” Lily sniffed the air inside the garage. “But you’re absolutely right, Kip. Come on. Let’s go see if we can figure out what they were after.”
“Hold on. Let me go check something out first.” He followed the trail from the house to a spot on the curb three houses down, then he jogged back to Lily.
“They’d been waiting in a vehicle down there, probably hoping their goons were successful in bringing them a sweetblood.”
“Which they weren’t, but I wonder why they broke into the house after their target was gone. What was the point in that?”
Kip shrugged. “But you want to know what’s even stranger than that?”
“What?”
“A male in the car with them was a human.”
Lily exhaled slowly, thinking. “With their poor sense of smell, what are the chances of them locating two sweetbloods in one night?”
“This one wasn’t sweet.”
She jerked her head around. “He wasn’t?”
“Nope. Type O-pos. Most common human blood type in the world.”
JACKSON COULDN’T BE SURE how long he slept. Two hours? Ten hours? His eyes were sandpaper gritty and he wondered if he’d actually had negative sleep hours. One thing was for sure—his arm hurt like shit. He could barely move it. At least the darkness on the inside of his eyeballs felt good.
Instinctively, he eased his foot over to the other side of the bed. Nothing. He could’ve sworn there was a warm body lying next to him for at least part of the night. Or did he just dream it? It wasn’t often that he slept alone. Maybe that was the problem.
He heard the low drone of the television in the next room and wondered how long Arianna and Krystal had been awake.
Despite his arm, he managed to take a quick shower and was just leaving the bathroom when his phone rang.
“Hey, Lily.”
“Jesus, where have you been?”
“Ah, right here. Why?”
“I’ve been trying to reach you all day. I really didn’t want to have to track you down. Listen, I don’t have time to explain much, but Kip and I uncovered some disturbing information at Arianna’s house last night.”
“More disturbing than what we already knew?”
She told him about the apparent human accomplice waiting in the car down the street during the attack.
“Well, that’s
interesting, isn’t it?”
Not that it wasn’t unheard of for Darkbloods to enlist the aid of a few humans, but they hadn’t seen it up here in the Seattle area much. That sort of behavior was more commonplace in the more aggressive parts of the country. Some people were attracted to those with power and DBs had been known to take advantage of it. They got readily available blood from a live donor—assuming they didn’t kill the person first—and someone to handle their business during the daylight hours when they couldn’t go out. When Guardians found these people, they wiped their memories and sent them on their way.
“What do you think that’s all about? Do they have themselves a turn-junkie?”
In payment for their service, Darkbloods often made promises to turn these people into changelings, a process involving draining the blood and replacing it with the blood of at least two vampires. They’d get some of the advantages of being a vampire—longer life span, heightened senses—but without the strength or ability to shadow-move. They were still able to process UV light and weren’t incapacitated by it like a natural-born vampire. Despite the inherent risks of a turning, the lure of becoming a vampire could be very seductive.
“Who knows? It’s possible that the human tipped them off as to her location.”
“Yes, but it also seems rather convenient, timingwise.”
“What do you mean?”
“She told me she’s lived in that house for several years and that her sweetblood cousin moved in two months ago.”
“So?”
“That’s the same cousin who was one of the surviving sweetbloods from the Night of Wilding massacre, but the girl was not taken from her home. She was taken from downtown. Unless they interrogated her, which I doubt because they didn’t plan on having their little party broken up, they had no idea where she lived.”
“I still don’t follow you.”
“What I’m saying is that Darkbloods have had ample time to find them before this. Unless we’re talking weird timing, I’m guessing it has to do with that blog post. Someone saw it, figured out that the cousin had to be a sweetblood, and either knew or discovered Arianna’s real identity.”
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment. “You have a point, Jacks. We found out another interesting bit of information.”
“Which is…?”
“We checked her house and things were a mess, like they were looking for something. Drawers overturned in the kitchen, her office torn apart. However, they didn’t take her computer. But that’s not all. I came across her company badge.”
“And?” he prompted.
“She works for Xtark Software.”
“Xtark? You mean the company that makes Hollow Grave?” Jesus. He had to sit down. The majority shareholder was thought to be a dummy corporation set up by the Darkblood Alliance, although Guardians had never been able to prove it or make any headway within the company.
“Yep. The one and only.”
Then it was only a matter of time before Darkbloods found out that one of their employees had a relative who was a sweetblood.
“Listen,” Lily said. “Why don’t you take them up to the house for a few days? I’m here in the city for the rest of the week, but Alfonso and Zoe are there.”
“I can’t ask you do to that.”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering.”
“I don’t need to remind you that the girl is a sweetblood. She needs to be kept away from all vampires till we get things sorted out.”
“Yes, and Alfonso has had more on-the-job desensitivity training than you and me combined. And Zoe is still several years away from her Time of Change, so the cravings haven’t started for her yet. They’ll be much safer up there compared to…what…some ratty hotel?”
He couldn’t put his friend in a position like this. What if Arianna was indeed immune to mind wipes? She’d know all about Lily and her family. It was best if Jackson were the only vampire she knew. “But—”
“I’ll let Alfonso know to expect you.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
ARIANNA WOKE UP JUST AS the Caddy was coming to a stop. She didn’t realize she had even dozed off. The events of the past few days must’ve finally caught up with her.
“Did you get any rest?” Jackson whispered, even though he didn’t need to. Krystal had her headphones in and was still sound asleep.
“Yeah, a little.” She noticed he’d covered her with his leather jacket at some point during the drive. She started to pull it off to hand to him, but he shook his head.
“Keep it. It’s cold outside. I’ll go talk to Alfonso. Make sure everything’s set up for the two of you.” He held out his hand. “Keys.”
“Oh, yeah.”
At a rest stop, she’d insisted on unfastening the handcuffs and he returned a few minutes later, looking slightly better. She didn’t ask him where he’d been and she didn’t argue with him when he said he’d drive, although she did cuff him to the door again and pocket the key. However, as the three of them walked to the entrance of a large Spanish-style house, it looked as if he was in pain.
“Where are we?” Krystal asked.
“Some friends of Jackson’s. They’ve got a daughter and apparently she’s really excited to meet you.”
Krystal’s eyes lit up.
Jackson introduced them to a tall blond man wearing a tool belt and a young girl who looked to be about ten or eleven years old.
“Welcome to Casa en las Colinas,” Alfonso said, extending his hand. They were lightly callused, his Carhartts well-worn and faded. He must be doing a home-improvement project. As if reading her thoughts, he added, “Don’t mind the mess. Trying to get the house finished before the wedding this summer.”
“What a beautiful place to get married,” Arianna said, looking around the entryway. “Thanks for taking us in.”
“My pleasure.”
Zoe was already tugging on Krystal’s arm. “Let me show you my room. My dad just finished making a bed for me. It’s got a canopy, just like a castle bed, with carved dragons and…”
Krystal threw a wide-eyed smile over her shoulder that said she was both flattered and a little overwhelmed. Arianna laughed. She remembered babysitting girls Zoe’s age when she was a teenager. They couldn’t wait for you to come over and show you every last thing in their room. You were a captive audience, their playmate slave.
She couldn’t get over how regular they looked…like a typical human father and daughter. Not what she would’ve expected. But then, she’d never really thought about how vampires lived when they only existed in her imagination.
She gave Jackson a sidelong look and noticed the pained expression on his face. When Alfonso turned around to say something, Jackson quickly hid the grimace, replacing it instead with that smile of his and macho swagger. He may think he could hide it from his friend, but he wasn’t fooling her.
The top of the stairs opened up to a long hallway leading to the left and the right.
“Down there is the family wing,” Alfonso said, pointing. “Lily and I have our quarters there, and where the hallway zigs, you’ll find Zoe’s room. Krystal can stay there or, if you think she’d be more comfortable near you, I can do that, too, though not all the rooms in this part of the house are finished yet.”
“Are you doing all the work yourself?” she asked. That would explain the tool belt.
“Just the finish carpentry. Keeps me out of trouble, right, Jackson?”
The two men laughed.
“But you two are staying down in this wing of the estate,” Alfonso continued.
Arianna’s cheeks heated up. He wasn’t assuming they were a couple, was he? She slanted a glance in Jackson’s direction, but his expression was blank. Images of what it would be
like to sleep with him filled her thoughts. Was he a confident, demanding lover who took what he wanted and assumed it was what his partner wanted, as well? She had to imagine he was and for some reason, the thought excited her.
Alfonso opened the first door, breaking the spell. “Arianna, here’s your room.”
She relaxed. Okay, they had separate rooms. The little thrill inside that had caused the butterflies to flutter in her stomach was gone.
Without being overly masculine or feminine, the large room wasn’t vanilla, either, with dark, intricately carved moldings framing the warm blue walls. Vintage artwork with turn-of-the-century scenes hung everywhere. Ladies with parasols, men on large-wheeled bicycles, families picnicking. Luxurious pillows covered the four-poster bed, which was probably an antique. Behind it, wallpaper with strange, brocade-looking silhouettes caught her attention. It was the only wall that was papered. Vintage also?
Her curiosity was piqued, so she stepped closer to examine it. Although it was so subtle she could have missed it entirely, the dark blue shapes were actually men and women in various sexual positions. Man on top. Woman on top. Woman on all fours with man behind her. Man with head buried between woman’s legs. It was like the Kama Sutra depicted on the wall. Arianna’s cheeks heated and she tore her gaze away. Zoe must not be allowed in here, or her parents would be subject to some awfully uncomfortable questions. But then again, a casual glance would only reveal a busy brocade pattern.
“And just through there, on the other side of the bathroom, is where you’ll be staying, Jackson,” Alfonso was saying. “Lily wasn’t sure if you guys were bringing toiletries with you or not…she said you left in a hurry…so I made sure the drawers were stocked with various items you may need. If there are things you’re missing, let me know. If we don’t have it in the house, I’ll head to the store later.”
Jackson looked confused. “We’re sharing a bathroom?”
“Like I said, not all the rooms are finished. If you’d rather sleep on the sofa downstairs…”
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