by Lisa Olsen
In the end I went with a pair of jeans and the vintage black sweater with the black pearls on it. I felt pretty in it, but decently covered, not tempting at all, I hoped. Then again, I had no idea where his tastes lay. Being as old as dirt, maybe he thought all women in long pants were an abomination? Fat chance I’d get that lucky though.
Bridget wasn’t around and I had nothing to distract myself with, so I got to the coffee shop early, my list of questions neatly folded in my back pocket. I’d just sat down in a comfy chair by the window when my phone rang, and I’ll admit, part of me hoped it would be Jakob calling to cancel. Instead Hanna’s picture flashed across the screen, and I seized upon the distraction.
“Hey An,” Hanna voice sounded distorted, like she was driving, and I hoped she used her bluetooth.
“Hi, what are you up to on a Friday night?” Not too much I guessed since she called me.
“I’m in your neck of the woods again, and wanted to see what you’re up to.”
“You are? You should’ve told me you were coming.” I could’ve wiggled out of my plans already.
“I’m sorry, it was more like a spur of the moment kind of thing. Otherwise I would have left work a lot earlier and avoided the Friday commute, but apparently I have masochistic tendencies. I figure I’m either going to have plans or be in serious need of chocolate depending on how things go.”
She sounded a little down instead of her usual level of snarkiness. “What do you mean?”
“It’s just… you remember that guy I told you about, Spencer?”
“Yes, I remember,” I murmured, mentally preparing myself to seriously kick his can if he hadn’t broken things off with her yet.
“He sort of disappeared off the face of the Earth.”
“Oh? I thought you had a date with him the last time we talked.”
“We did, but he sent me a text saying he couldn’t make it. Then I got a Dear Jane voicemail in the middle of the night and he hasn’t answered any of my calls since.”
“I’m sorry,” I winced. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
“See, that’s what I thought too, but you know, the whole thing is kinda weird.”
“Weird how?”
“I tried to track him down after he didn’t pick up, and those companies he said he worked for never heard of him before.”
“Huh, that is weird,” I said carefully. If there’s one thing my sister loves, it’s a good mystery. She devoured crime procedurals by the score in books, TV and movies, and I could tell it definitely piqued her curiosity. “It’s a good thing he broke things off then, it sounds like he’s a phony baloney.” The silence on the line made my sisterly senses tingle. “Hanna? Where are you right now?”
“Down by Sixth and Mission in SoMa.”
“What are you doing down there, are you nuts?” For a petite blonde alone at night, it was a recipe for disaster.
“I’m going to swing by his apartment, if this really is his apartment.”
“Do not get out of your car. Keep on driving. In fact, come and meet me for coffee, right now.” I’d rather have her meet Jakob than get mugged or worse on her insane quest for closure.
“Don’t be dramatic, I’ll be fine. I just want him to tell me to my face why he suddenly changed his mind.”
“Hanna please, listen to me, the guy is a jerk, why are you wasting your time on him?”
“He wasn’t a jerk, he was… where is that stupid address…?”
“Alright, call me when you’re done talking to him, okay? You can come over and I’ll help you make a voodoo doll of the guy and you can stick thumbtacks in his head.” That way I could bug out after one cup of cocoa.
“It won’t be his head I’m sticking them in if he blows me off again. There it is. Jesus, it looks abandoned.” I heard her get out of the car a few seconds later, apparently parking wasn’t too hard to find in such a sketchy neighborhood.
“It’s probably a phony address like the rest of the information he gave you,” I replied, glad for once of the web of lies the Order surrounded themselves with. The last thing I wanted was an emotional reunion between the pair. Still, sending her on a wild goose chase in a bad part of town was a pretty crappy thing to do, but maybe Mason hadn’t known her well enough to realize Hanna didn’t let things go so easily. “Do you want me to stay on the line with you while you go up there?” I got nothing but silence, and I looked at my phone to make sure we were still connected. “Hanna?”
“I thought I heard something behind me, hold on,” she whispered.
I waited, ears straining to hear what might be happening on the other end of the phone, but the noise from the coffee shop threw me off. “Hanna?” I prompted when she didn’t come back on the line. The sounds were muffled, as if she had the phone tucked against her body, but I heard voices, female voices. Easing a little, I figured maybe some homeless woman asked her for spare change.
Suddenly the phone fell with a clatter, and I heard a strangled cry of pain; a cry that sounded suspiciously like my sister. “Hanna? Can you hear me?” I picked up a crash, like someone knocking over a garbage can, and then a woman’s throaty laughter. “Hanna!” I yelled, loud enough to cause all eyes to swing to me in the coffee shop. God only knew what could be happening to her in a crummy part of town like that.
I had to find her.
I had to help her.
Chapter Seventeen
Throwing open the glass door to the coffee shop, I ran smack into the middle of a broad chest, startled when he caught hold of my arms to keep me from running off. “Having second thoughts already?” Jakob asked with a wry twist of the lips.
“I can’t play with you right now.” I tore myself free from his grasp. “My sister’s in trouble.”
To his credit, Jakob instantly dropped the playful banter, his expression mirroring mine. “How can I help?”
“I don’t know, I was on the phone with her and now it sounds like… like she’s being attacked or something. I have to get to her, do you have a car?”
“I can get you there faster than any car, where are we bound?” I gave him the cross streets, not knowing if he even knew where they were, and he picked up my hand, tugging me away from the picture windows of the coffee shop. “Hold tight to me, petal, we travel fast.”
I knew vampires could move fast. I’d seen Bishop cross a room in a blink of an eye and I myself knew I could run faster than most cars. But as Jakob wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close, I felt my head spin at the sudden burst of speed. It was all I could do to cling to him for dear life as he sped us through the city streets far faster than the human eye could track.
With a lurch, he set me gently on my feet at the corner of Sixth and Mission. “We are here, where is your sister?” Blinking away the moisture gathered at the corners of my eyes, I looked around for any sign of her white Jetta, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m not sure. She mentioned passing this intersection just before she pulled over, but I don’t know the address she was going to,” I admitted miserably. “Hanna!” I yelled, striking out in one direction at random, but he caught hold of my arm.
“I will find her,” he pledged, eyes closing. I stared at him for a moment, unsure what he was doing, but I couldn’t stand idly by while she was hurt or worse. I started down the street again, looking on both sides for her car and down every side street for any sign of her. Barely ten seconds passed when Jakob brushed by me.
“This way,” he called out, loping ahead with easy grace and turning the corner to the right. Putting on my own burst of speed, I caught up with him easily, just as he came upon Mason cradling my sister’s broken body, his face crumpled in anguish.
“Let her go and back away,” Jakob glowered, all traces of his gentle banter gone, the planes of his face hard and unforgiving.
“Fuck you,” Mason growled, making no move to let go of Hanna whatsoever, and I barely made it in time to keep Jakob from grabbing Mason and pitching him down the
length of the alley.
“No, wait!” I cried out, catching hold of Jakob’s raised arm. “It’s not him, I know him. He’d never hurt Hanna. Oh my God, what happened to her? She’s not…?” I fell to the ground beside them, taking in her battered body, the bruises forming on one side of her face, the unnatural way her arm bent at the wrist. Her neck was covered in blood, but for once, I didn’t feel the slightest touch of hunger.
“She’s alive, but she’s messed up bad.” Mason’s voice sounded hollow, in shock. “I healed the wound on her neck, but she’s bleeding on the inside, I can tell. We have to get her inside.”
“Inside?” I looked around at the abandoned buildings surrounding us. “We have to get her to the hospital. I’ll call an ambulance,” I insisted. Where was my phone?
“He’s right, no hospital is needed.” Jakob plucked the phone from my fingers the moment I fished it out of my pocket. “We can repair her easily enough. You have a sanctuary nearby?”
“Yeah, my place is right across the street.” Mason carefully rose to his feet with Hanna in his arms. She looked almost like a sleeping child next to his huge mass, her features softer and younger in repose. We followed him up to his loft on the top floor of the abandoned building. From the street it was impossible to tell anyone lived there at all, but inside the blacked out windows hid a modern bachelor pad with all the finest finishes money could buy.
Polished concrete floors spanned the length of the apartment, and sleek, modern furniture filled the space in black leather and chrome. A giant flat screen TV dominated one wall and I saw enough video and audio equipment to blow an entire year’s tuition on. The kitchen was decorated like a fifties diner with red vinyl stools mounted before the long breakfast bar topped with black Formica. A large gym and sparring area filled an entire corner of the space, the walls covered with an array of bladed weapons. Japanese shoji screens partitioned off the bedroom at the opposite end of the apartment. It was to the bedroom that Mason led us, laying Hanna gently down on the huge bed set low to the ground.
“She needs blood,” Jakob murmured, reaching down to lay a hand to her forehead.
“But… you won’t turn her, right?” I frowned, prepared to launch a heck of a fight if either one of them had that in mind. “Is she that badly hurt?”
Jakob was silent, his head canted to one side, listening for something. “The pup was right, she bleeds internally, but it isn’t bad. Mostly she has broken bones, she should live.”
“Who are you calling a pup?” Mason scowled, only to blanch at a single look from Jakob. “I can do it,” Mason raised his wrist to his lips only to have Jakob block his movement.
“My blood is stronger, and if she turns, I am not subject to your laws. Would you doom her to execution?”
“I thought you said she wouldn’t turn,” I piped up and Jakob dropped me a quick wink.
“Be at peace, älskling, all will be well.” With a snick, his fangs extended and Jakob bit into his own flesh. The air filled with the tang of his blood, sharper and spiced with something I couldn’t quite place. Jakob placed his wrist at Hanna’s lips, leaning down to whisper words at her ear in a forgotten language. Even though we’d all thought her to be unconscious, she dutifully swallowed his powerful blood.
I felt Mason bristle at my side, watching the two of them share that intimacy and I had to admit, I didn’t enjoy watching Jakob’s face as my sister’s mouth pulled at his wrist. After a few moments, Mason leaned forward, pulling Hanna’s wrist straight with a practiced movement, and Hanna whimpered against Jakob’s wrist at the jolt of pain.
“I don’t want her wrist to heal crooked,” he muttered, grabbing an ace bandage from a bedside table and winding it around her wrist.
Feeling pretty useless, I turned away, trying not to think about how Jakob must have gotten me to drink his blood. Deciding they had things well in hand, I left the room, in search of something to drink, anything to block the intoxicating scent of Jakob’s Ellri blood. Mason came out to join me a few seconds later. Heading straight for the kitchen, he pulled down a bottle of Jack and two glasses.
I’m not normally much of a drinker, but I accepted the glass and took a healthy swallow, immediately gasping at the burn.
“Is that who I think it is?” Mason asked, knocking back the hard liquor and refilling his glass.
“Yep.”
“Holy shit, they do exist.”
“Well of course they do, where do you think I came from?” I took a smaller sip and it burned just as bad going down. “Do you know what he said to her while he was… you know?”
“Beats the fuck out of me, I don’t speak Viking.”
“Mason, who did that to her?”
“I don’t know, I heard a scream and I came to check it out. I saw her being fed on in the alley and then I saw it was Hanna, and…” His hand slid over his face as if he wished he could wipe away the memory.
“How could you not have seen who it was?”
“I don’t know. I saw Hanna all hurt and broken like that and I pulled her off and I didn’t even think about pursuing her, I just… I lost it. I’m sorry.”
“Wait, it was definitely a her?” That confirmed the muffled female voice I’d heard at any rate. “What color hair did she have?”
“Dark… I think.”
“Think, Mason, you’re a trained investigator. What did she look like?”
Mason jammed the heels of his hands against his eyes, thinking back hard. “Dark hair, either black or dark brown, falling at least past her shoulders. Caucasian. Taller than Hanna, but who isn’t.”
“That fits about half the female population of San Francisco. How was she dressed?”
“I have no idea, I saw her from behind. A skirt or dress, I think. Oh, she wore heels, high ones.”
“So a brunette vampire in heels decided to beat the crap out of my sister before eating her. Why would she do that? Why not one or the other?” I couldn’t help but feel like it had something to do with me. What were the odds my own sister would get hit by a random vampire attack?
“I wish like hell I knew,” Mason poured another drink. “I’m gonna find that bitch though, whoever she was, and repay her with interest.”
“How are you going to find her?”
“I’ll sweep the alley for leads to start with. If that doesn’t pan out, I’ll canvas the area, see if anyone saw anything,” he shrugged.
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“I will find her,” Jakob declared, closing the delicate privacy screen behind him and I swallowed in relief that he was done.
“Is she better?”
“She’ll survive. I gave her enough to heal the worst of it, she’ll still suffer some aches and pains for a while yet. She should stay in bed for a few days.”
“She can stay here, my security’s top notch,” Mason volunteered. Opening a cabinet in the kitchen, he started strapping on weapons. “I’m gonna head out there before the trail gets too cold.”
“Stay, take care of your woman,” Jakob said a bit more kindly. “I’ll find who did this, I give you my solemn pledge.” The men stared at each other for long seconds before Mason looked to me for permission and I nodded gently.
“Here’s my number, call me if you need anything at all.” Mason handed over a card similar to the one Bishop had first given me. “Thanks man, I owe you one.”
“I protect what is mine.” Jakob accepted the card, tucking it away without looking at it. “That extends to any you love as well,” he smiled at me. A little stunned by the declaration and the power of his smile, I gave him a goofy smile in return before I snapped out of it.
“Thanks for doing this, Jake.”
“Jake?” He raised a single brow and I shrugged, drawing him closer to the door.
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted it known you’re around town. After all, you haven’t really stepped up to claim me.”
“I thought you didn’t want to be claimed?”
“I don’
t. Fine, I’ll tell him your real name then.” I turned to leave, and he caught hold of my arm.”
“Jake is acceptable, for now. I’ll contact you later with what I find. Goodnight, petal,” he touched my cheek softly.
“Goodnight then, Jake. Sorry about our coffee date.” The strangest thing is… I really was sorry. When he wasn’t trying to lure me away from my regular life or send me sexy dreams, Jakob wasn’t that bad of a guy. I turned back to speak to Mason, finding him conspicuously absent. I could see his large form huddled next to the bed through the shoji screen, and I looked in to see him sitting by Hanna’s side, her tiny hand dwarfed in his. Had I made things better or worse in splitting them up?
Hanna stirred, taking in her surroundings in confusion. A lazy smile stretched her lips as she noticed Mason. “Hey, long time no see, stranger.”
“Nobody’s stranger than me, kitten,” he grinned, brushing the hair away from her face gently.
“It must have been one hell of a reunion,” she groaned, shifting slightly in the bed to get more comfortable. “Why do I feel like I got hit by a truck?”
“That’s what happens when you cross without looking both ways. I thought your mama would’ve taught you that,” he scolded her lightly.
Hanna noticed me standing there, her eyes narrowing as if it caused her pain to think. “What are you doing here, An? This is your place, right Spencer?”
“I called her after your little accident. She wanted to pack you off in the ambulance, but I told her she didn’t know how tough you are,” Mason winked.
“He made it sound like you were bleeding out your eyeballs, I wouldn’t have come all the way down here if I’d known it was just a few scrapes and bruises.” I fought to keep my voice light, knowing she could usually spot a lie a mile away. “You are okay, right Hanna?”