“Yeah, the agency can provide decent housing so long as they don’t put you with a staffer.” Valerie had gotten the short end of the stick on that one. I’d felt bad for her at the time.
Behind Selene, I saw Lieutenant Pearlman marching down the corridor. Once he reached the open room he gave me a brief nod before walking up to Mandy’s desk. She sat up straighter and told Pearlman he could go inside Melcher’s office.
Selene turned away from me, watching Pearlman’s movements closely. After he’d gone inside and shut the door, she faced me.
“Did Melcher give you an assignment?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said with resignation. “Yes, he did.”
I studied her face and frowned. “You don’t sound too happy about it.”
Selene ran her hand through her hair faster this time. “How I feel is irrelevant. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
I planted a hand on my hip. “Don’t let Melcher pimp you out or anything. He’s not allowed to pull that kind of shit anymore. If he tries, talk to Fane. He’ll get it straightened out. And don’t worry about having a place to stay. Fane will make sure you have housing as long as you need.”
I didn’t think Fane would mind me volunteering his help. And I kind of owed Selene. It was my actions that led her to be homeless and contracted by Melcher. Plus, I’d always liked Selene. I didn’t want her, or any other recruit, to be taken advantage of. With the focus on finding Jared, it would be all too easy for Melcher to coerce contracted agents behind closed doors.
Selene’s eyes softened as a slight smile appeared over her lips. “I’d forgotten how sweet you were.”
I appreciated her acceptance of everything that went down, but I certainly wasn’t sweet. I’d stopped being sweet the day Melcher turned me into a vampire. That timid, straight-A virgin had died and was long gone.
“Well, anyway, if you need anything you know where to find us,” I said.
“It’s good seeing a friendly face,” Selene said.
“Yeah, we should all get together sometime soon. Have a block party now that most of us are living on base.”
“A block party,” Selene repeated with a smile. It was nice to see her perk up. I doubted she had many friends on base, if any.
“I’ll bring the blood,” I said with a laugh.
Mandy’s head shot up, and she glared at me over her desk. Oops. Did I say blood? I meant fruit punch. I batted my eyelashes innocently in Mandy’s direction.
“I eagerly await your invitation,” Selene said before turning on her heels.
She disappeared down the hallway toward the parking lot. At least Melcher wasn’t pushing her to train with Dante. I could not imagine Selene lying on a pile of sweaty mats having to fight off Dante. Hopefully Selene would find a better situation soon. The agency was so not her scene. I’d talk to Fane about inviting her over for dinner. He had a knack for talking things out and making any situation not seem so bad. He’d helped me through the worst time of my life.
Before leaving Alaska, maybe we could do more than get rid of Jared. I’d feel a lot better knowing my friends were truly taken care of and happy. At the top of my list were Noel, Dante, and Selene.
It wasn’t as if I’d never see any of them again. We were vampires. We could organize a 100-Year Agency Reunion or something.
Inside the parlor, I flicked on the overhead lights and was instantly assaulted with more fluorescent lighting. Too bad I couldn’t see in the dark. Then again, what was there really to see? Nothing had changed on the map since last night. We’d already pored through the profiles of the state’s documented hostiles, vampires Jared might try to recruit, and their last known locations. These upstanding vampires were represented on the map with red thumbtacks. Blue thumbtacks represented the “neutral” vamps from the agency’s watch list. At one time, Fane would have been one of those blue thumbtacks rather than the guy pushing them into the map.
Deciding I might as well look back over the case files of vampires living in Palmer, which included non-hostiles that Melcher had been keeping an eye on for several years, I moved to Joss’s desk.
He had the Palmer vamp case files stacked neatly on top in alphabetical order. I pulled the papers out of each one, set aside the empty folders, and lined the thin stacks on the desk’s surface, facing up.
The rap sheets were varying degrees of thickness, most only a couple pages, depending on how much information Melcher’s informants had dug up on them over the years. Each one had a photo paper clipped to the top of the stack. It was still uncanny how much these vampires looked like normal, everyday dudes. They were mostly in their teens and twenties with a few in their early thirties and one bearded man-vamp who’d made it to his sixties before succumbing to tuberculosis in the 1920s according to his report. I stared at the photos waiting for my Spidey senses to kick in, but all I felt was an overall sinking feeling that I’d be spending another white Christmas in Alaska.
Footsteps approached from the hall. It was too soon for Fane to be back . . . and too early to deal with Joss. I’d already spent my evening with him. He always had a way of making me feel like a third wheel. He also had an annoying habit of acting as if I wasn’t in the room.
Luckily, it was Noel who walked in, rosy cheeked, and grinning. Although it was winter, she didn’t wear a coat, hat, gloves, or scarf. She was wearing jeans, though, and a navy scoop-necked tee with an ivory cami underneath and three gold necklaces hanging down. A messenger’s bag hung from her right shoulder and pressed against her hip. Ever since her lifestyle makeover (lifestyles of the young and vampire), she’d started dressing more like a normal teenage girl as opposed to a half-dead-looking goth. The irony wasn’t lost on me.
“Good morning,” Noel chirped.
“Morning,” I said. “Have a good evening?”
“Always,” Noel said, performing a little shimmy and shake.
She looked good. She had that “I drank blood straight from the vein last night” glow about her.
Noel walked over to one of the empty desks and dumped her messenger bag on top. She stretched her arms into the air then dropped them to her sides.
“Where are Fane and Joss?”
“Fane’s in a meeting with Pearlman and Melcher. Joss and the boys aren’t in yet. I think training starts at ten. You know, when there’s enough sunlight for the recruits to see what they’re shooting at.”
“Dante’s taking them to the outdoor range?”
“As far as I know.”
“Wicked.”
Rather than sit, Noel leaned over the neighboring desk and moved around the tape dispenser, stapler, and paper clip holder. I swear she was like a child with ADD. All the movement was distracting, but the most annoying thing was I had nothing to be distracted from besides photos I’d burned into my memory days before.
“Arg!” I groaned, smacking the desktop and papers scattered on top. “I can’t stand sitting around waiting for Jared to make his next move.”
Noel pushed her chair aside and took a seat on the desktop. She began swinging her legs almost instantly and snorted. “Sounds like somebody misses fieldwork.”
Gag me with a spoon. I grimaced. “Screw that. I miss having a life outside . . . this.” I waved my hand around the room. The parlor. We should have named it the dungeon.
“You could always grab a gun and join Dante and the recruits at the range if you need to let off some steam,” Noel said. She smiled slyly. “Or maybe Fane can help once he returns.”
I rolled my eyes even though the latter didn’t sound half bad. A firearm or Fane? Hmm, let me think.
“It’s so weird being around here all the time,” I said. “Anytime Melcher called me in, I couldn’t wait to get off base, and now I’m living on base. If Giselle and Jared hadn’t gone all kidnapping rogue, I’d be studying for my first round of college finals.”
Wow, did the start of semester feel like forever ago. Did my professors or classmates wonder where I’d gone? Did they remember me at all? To be fa
ir, I could barely remember any of them. My professors had probably dropped me from their courses after being absent for so long.
Noel laughed. “Your primary concern about Giselle and Jared is that they got in the way of studying?” Noel giggled so hard her legs stopped swinging, like her limbs couldn’t keep up with her laughter.
“Just making an observation,” I said. “I recall a time not long ago when you said you wanted to complete your education and go on to college. How’s that working out for you?”
Noel stopped laughing. “Well, I figure I can go back to school anytime I want so might as well take a break with everything that’s going on.”
“No more West High?” I prodded.
“Dropped out.” Noel met my eyes and looked somber one moment, amused the next. “I’m a high school dropout,” she said and promptly burst into more peals of laughter.
“Do you ever talk to Whitney or Hope anymore?”
“They were school friends, that’s all. Drug addicts. Thieves. Not the kind of company I want to keep. Know what I mean?”
I nodded.
Noel huffed. “It’s not like they were there for me when I really needed them. Fane was.”
I slid the Palmer profiles toward the center of the desk and shuffled them into one pile.
“Fane’s such a great guy,” Noel gushed.
“Yeah, he is.” I was glad I could have a conversation about Fane with Noel without wanting to rip out her tongue. For Noel, Fane was more of a big brother type. Kind of like how I’d thought of Dante at first. Lately, Dante felt more like an annoying cousin. But it didn’t matter what he felt like; he was family.
“Now Dante just needs to find someone,” Noel said, as though thinking along the same lines.
I scooted my seat around to face Noel. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. Maybe you could encourage him. You know, be his wingman on the weekends or something. If he doesn’t get some action soon I’m afraid the next pie he takes home won’t be making it to his mouth. He’ll be on top of the table with it American Pie style, if you know what I mean.” My eyebrows jumped. I envisioned Dante, rather than Jason Biggs, spread eagle on a tabletop humping a warm, crusty apple pie. The image was so vivid I began laughing.
Noel couldn’t hold it back either. She laughed so hard tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. Her petite frame shook. As soon as she could speak, she said, “I think you underestimate the power of Dante’s stomach.”
“I guess his reputation proceeds him,” I said.
“You forget, I was on stakeout with him,” Noel said. “That boy likes to eat.”
“No argument there,” I said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a dam about to burst. He was practically dry humping one of the recruits yesterday afternoon.”
Noel smirked. “Which one?”
“Ashley.”
Noel nodded. “The informant who worked Fairbanks. She seems cool. Well, at least today she’ll be armed, not that I want any harm to come to Dante. He’s like family.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Which is why you should help the guy out. Can’t you set him up or drag him along to a party or club or something? I know he has a hard-on for the job, but he really needs to get off base once in a while.”
Noel sighed and kicked out her foot. “I can try, but it seems like he’s going through a phase—one that doesn’t involve one-night stands or clubbing. I actually think what he needs is something serious. Someone to ground him. I know he acts tough, but his world’s been turned upside down. He found out he’s a vampire, and you know how he feels about them. He was kidnapped and kept in a basement. He was on the run. I think we all need to cut him some slack.”
He’d also been shot and nearly bled out before Fane got us all to base where agency medics rushed in to perform surgery on Dante and give him a blood transfusion. It hadn’t taken him long to bounce back. He’d been back on his feet the next day, acting like it had never happened. I think Dante was eager to forget that vamps had taken him down and Fane helped rescue him.
“What about you?” I asked Noel. “You seem like you’re doing fine.”
Noel grinned and resumed swinging her legs. “This is the best I’ve ever felt, like I’m finally who I was always meant to be.”
“Don’t need anyone to ground you?” I asked in a teasing tone.
“God, no,” Noel said. “I’m enjoying the single life far too much.”
“What about Gavin?” I asked. “What happened after you freed him?” All I knew was that Noel had received the message about his location and set him loose. We hadn’t seen much of each other since my return, but I thought she would have mentioned him by now.
Noel flipped her hair over her shoulder. “He ran off like a scared little pansy ass. He said he was leaving the state and never coming back . . . at least not for another hundred years.” Noel rolled her eyes.
“No forwarding address?” I joked.
Noel snorted “Yeah, right. I can’t believe I used to have the biggest crush on him.”
“That’s when you thought you were human,” I said.
Finding out I was undead had changed everything. It hadn’t changed my feelings for Fane, but it had made me feel more like equals. It also made me feel like we could understand each other better. Blood cravings weren’t something a mere mortal could ever comprehend.
“It feels like ages ago,” Noel said. “Back when I was just little old me and he was Mr. Extraordinary, Uber Cool Vampire. Bleh!”
“Even back then you were Miss Badass Secret Informant,” I was quick to say. Noel had never been an ordinary teenage girl. She’d had mood swings, same as the rest of us, but she’d always been fearless—a force to be reckoned with despite her size.
A smile broke out over Noel’s lips. She twirled a piece of hair around her finger playfully. “Yeah, I’ve always been pretty badass at this undercover agency stuff.”
I laughed.
She stopped twirling her hair and dropped her arm to her side. “That’s why I’m putting my career first for the time being. Besides, I’m young, both in human and vampire terms. I should play the field. Sample the goods.”
My nose wrinkled. “Sample the goods?” I repeated.
Noel giggled. She covered her mouth and stifled her laughter before answering. “You know what I mean.”
Yeah, I knew exactly what she meant. I’d seen it firsthand with Fane’s old human friends from Denali High School, Daren and Reece. Noel had sampled their blood. So had I. Drinking Daren’s blood had marked my awakening—metaphorically speaking. I had to admit, there was something thrilling about biting into the boy versus a blood bag.
“So that’s your plan?” I asked. “To be a player?” Poor Joss. I’d been right. He didn’t stand a chance with Noel. Maybe in a century or two she’d be ready to settle down. Even then, I couldn’t see Noel and Joss together. They were about as mismatched as they came. Ebony and ivory.
Herbal tea. That’s what Noel had once called Scott Stevens. Boring. There was no one more herbal tea than Joss. He literally lived off the drink, which made him the most irregular vampire I’d ever encountered.
“That’s the plan,” Noel confirmed, “at least until I find a man with more backbone.” She slid off the desk and leaned her hip against the edge, facing me. “At least you got your happy ending with Fane.”
“I won’t have my happy ending until Jared is dead,” I replied, my fingernails biting into my palms.
“And Valerie,” Noel said. “Two for the price of one.” She chuckled and slapped her thigh. When she straightened up, she clutched her stomach and made a face. “Are they really together?”
“According to Jared,” I said, “and I’m inclined to believe him.”
Noel wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue. “Eww, gross. I suppose they deserve each other. Soulmates from hell. Then again, Valerie will fuck anything with fangs: Jared, Gavin, Fane, and who knows who else.”
I winced. “Yes, thank yo
u for that reminder.”
“Hey, she screwed both our men. At least you stole your guy from her. Having it happen the other way around sucks extra large.”
“Well, looks to me like you’ve gotten over it.”
Noel flipped her hair back and smiled. “I have.”
“So, got any upcoming missions, or are you just living the good life?” I asked, suddenly feeling irked by Noel’s joy de vivre. Aside from her psycho dad tracking her down, the girl seemed to be surrounded by a protective shield when it came to assignments. I’d never seen so much as a bruise on Noel. She’d been bitten as part of the job, but she’d admitted to enjoying it.
“Both,” she said in answer to my question. “I made all kinds of local connections while you and Dante were AWOL. I hang with them regularly and get whatever buzz I can from around the state. No mention of vampire hunters or recruitment into an avenging army, but I did sniff out a vamp who’d been holding three women captive for over a year and feeding off them. The vamp’s dead and the women freed,” Noel announced proudly. She rubbed her chin for a moment and stared off thoughtfully. “They’ll probably be pretty fucked up for a while, though.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Shit, I forgot how sick some of these psychos are.”
“Yeah, well, someone’s got to keep an eye on the underworld.”
A smidgeon of guilt coursed through me, but Noel’s tone was more matter of fact than accusatory.
I agreed with Noel, but I also felt the underworld needed to be policed by agents who got satisfaction out of the work. In my case, missions had been nothing short of nightmares from hell. Sure, there was gratification in stopping the real nasties and knowing lives had been saved in the process. But I was no hero. Not when that meant blood and death.
I knew what I wanted.
I wanted love and romance.
I wanted to spend time with my family and friends.
I wanted travel and adventure.
I wanted Fane.
I wanted my happy ending.
4
All I Want For Christmas
My phone alarm jolted me awake the next morning. Winter solstice was fast approaching. The darkness made morning look like night. It really messed with a person’s mind. Ironically, the lack of light made it harder to get a restful night’s sleep.
True North (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 6) Page 4