Aedan didn’t know what to say. He was saved by the buzz of the timer on the stove. He got up and pulled out the mozzarella sticks. He dumped them on a plate and grabbed the plastic tub of marinara sauce Katy must have set out. “Anything I can do?” he asked, turning off the oven.
She looked up and smiled. “I’m glad you’re home, Aedan.”
He picked up the plate. He’d take it to the kids on his way upstairs. “Me too.”
She held his gaze, and her focus narrowed. Even though he’d been careful to keep her from reading his thoughts, she was obviously aware something was going on with him. Something bad. Very bad. “How about you?” she probed. “Anything I can do for you?”
He halted in the door, snack plate in hand. He exhaled. “Not tonight.”
“When you’re ready,” she called after him.
Dallas glanced at the clock on the nightstand. The red numerals glowed 3:25. She groaned and closed her eyes, willing herself to lie still so she wouldn’t disturb her daughter. The single bed was really too small for the two of them. It was childish, climbing into Kenzie’s bed with her, pulling her daughter’s Batman sheet over her head as if she were the ten-year-old.
But Dallas was scared. The ginger in the bar tonight had scared her. Who was he? What was he that he could have memories of so many people? Why had he come into her bar tonight? Had he been looking for her?
That was stupid, of course. Who would be looking for her? She was being paranoid. People accusing you of being a witch in New England, even in the twenty-first century, could make you paranoid. Especially if maybe you very possibly were a witch. It was just coincidence, the guy wandering into her bar. Had to be.
Dallas tightened her arm around Kenzie’s sleeping form and breathed in the scent of her sweet blond hair. Kenzie didn’t smell the same as she had when she was first born; the baby scent was gone. But there was still something very reassuring, very primal, in the scent of one’s own child. It brought out Dallas’s need to protect the little girl, no matter what she had to do. It was why she’d brought her here in the first place. Dallas had taken every bit of insurance money she’d gotten and put it into the bar.
Was Kenzie in danger, here in Delaware? Was the ginger a threat to Dallas, and therefore, to Kenzie? Did Dallas need to flee Delaware the way she had fled Rhode Island?
She was paranoid.
She’d not gotten an impression from the ginger that he was a danger to her. At least not physically. All those people in his head had just startled her, was all. She hadn’t been expecting it. She hadn’t expected to feel such an immediate and strong attraction to him, either. What the hell was she thinking?
It had been a very long time since Dallas had felt that kind of sexual attraction to a man. She hadn’t slept with anyone since John’s death.
John. The bastard. How could he have done that to her? To Kenzie. Not that the marriage would have lasted . . . But it was such a coward’s way out. Suicide by overdose.
She snuggled closer to Kenzie, closing her eyes. Her thoughts drifted back to the ginger. He was not a problem. She wouldn’t let him be a problem. She was in control of her life and Kenzie’s, no one else but her. She didn’t know what the ginger’s deal was, possessing all those people’s memories. But it wasn’t her problem. It was his.
Kenzie sighed in her sleep and snuggled closer to Dallas. Dallas could finally feel herself drifting off to sleep.
She’d probably never see the ginger again, she thought, her mind beginning to drift into sweet oblivion. If she did see him, she’d make it clear she didn’t want anything to do with him or his crazy memories.
She couldn’t get involved, no matter how curious she was.
Aedan didn’t really like coffee, but he was on his second cup. He was waiting for Mark in a booth in the old-fashioned diner that was a landmark in Clare Point, to locals and tourists alike. Fortunately, it was still early in the year for the tourists who would flock to the quaint little beach town, the way they did every year. It was after Easter, but before summer break for students. This morning, there wasn’t a single person in the diner who wasn’t a vampire. The idea made Aedan smile. It was good to be home.
He made eye contact with a pretty, red-haired teenager at the cash register and smiled. She smiled back. After she paid for her cup and whatever was in the brown bag, she approached his booth.
“Good to have you home, Aedan.” Kaleigh slid onto the bench seat across from him.
“Good to be home.” He frowned. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”
She grabbed a straw off the table and stabbed it into her cup. “Everyone in this town thinks they’re my mother.”
“Actually, everyone in this town thinks you’re his or her mother.”
Kaleigh was their wisewoman; at nearly eighteen, she was just beginning to grow into the huge responsibility she had made for herself over the centuries. But she was still a teen and had to be given certain allowances. She also had to be protected. As a full-grown vampire, her gifts would be greater, stronger than those of any other individual in the sept, but she was still growing into the role.
“I had a dental appointment, for your information.” She grinned broadly, showing him shiny, polished teeth.
“So now you’re on your way to school.”
She rolled her eyes and took another sip of her drink.
“You’ll be graduating high school. Will you be headed to college in the fall?” he asked, changing the subject to something she might deem more pleasant. “I know you were debating about what to do. Stay here or go away.” He was quiet for a moment. He knew she was thinking, but he took care not to butt into her thoughts. “I know you feel a responsibility to everyone here, but I think college would be good for you, ultimately good for the sept.”
“Were you always such a nice guy?” She sat back on the bench. “Because you always seem like the nicest guy.”
He looked down into his coffee mug. “I’m not always a nice guy. I’ve done some terrible things in my lives, Kaleigh. Things I’m not proud of.”
She gave a wave as if she could dismiss them all with a minor gesture. “Haven’t we all?”
“You always been so wise?” he asked.
She laughed. “Apparently.” She grabbed her cup. “So what are you going to do while you’re home? Dating anyone? You really need a nice girl, Aedan. Preferably not human, though.” She wrinkled her cute, freckled nose. “Poor Liam, he fell for a human, and you heard what happened to him.”
He did know what had happened to Liam. He’d been home over the winter for a few days and had gotten a little mixed up in Liam’s problems. Liam was back in Paris now. They were on the same team. But Aedan didn’t feel right talking about Liam’s personal life, not with Kaleigh. Not with anyone. “I don’t do HFs.” Vampire-speak for human females.
She nodded like a cartoon wisewoman. “That’s what everyone says.” She sucked on her straw, adding thoughtfully, “If I wasn’t mated for life, I might try a human. Just to see what they’re like.”
He chuckled and took a sip of coffee. “Trouble. That’s what they’re like.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mark enter the diner.
Kaleigh glanced in the same direction, then back at Aedan. “Something up?” She went on before he could respond. “Because from the look on Mark’s face, I would guess something’s up in po-po land.”
“When’s the next General Council meeting?”
“Monday.”
He could feel her mind probing his for information. She was good. Very good. He didn’t let her in. “You should probably be there. We may have a situation.”
“Hey, Kaleigh.” Mark approached the booth. He was wearing khakis and an oxford shirt, sans tie. It was his official detective uniform when he could get away with it.
“You want me to leave?” she asked both men. She looked hopeful. “Or stay and give counsel?”
“Leave,” they said in unison.
She snatched up her bag and cup as
she slid off the bench. “I don’t get a lot of respect from you people. You’d think I’d get some respect, me being your wisewoman and all.”
“Go to school, Kaleigh,” Aedan said.
She waved and walked away. “See you Monday night.”
Mark slid into her seat, and Maryann, the owner of the diner, immediately appeared with a white coffee mug and filled it with coffee. She took their order and was gone a minute later. She was usually a great talker, but this morning she must have sensed that no one was looking for idle chitchat.
“You talk to the hospital this morning?” Aedan asked when Maryann was gone.
“Teesha’s right femur and left forearm were operated on last night. She ended up with pins in both. What the hell does he do to them that he can shatter bones?” Mark poured a healthy dose of sugar into his coffee. “He’s got to be awfully strong. Superhuman strong.”
“He can’t be human, Mark.” Aedan was quiet for a minute. He stared into the depths of his coffee cup. “Humans don’t live for hundreds of years. They don’t live to kill in cycles for hundreds of years.” His mind drifted back over the decades, over his encounters with Jay. He’d never met him face-to-face, at least not to his knowledge. But he had seen a great deal of his work. And he knew his habits. Jay would kill for two full cycles of the moon, and then he would be gone again for fifty years. By the time he was back, somewhere in the world, Aedan would have died and been reborn. He would probably be a teenager, his gifts not yet fully developed. The sept would never give a vulnerable teenager permission to go after an enemy as formidable as Jay. So this was Aedan’s opportunity to nail the bastard, nail him, or go who knew how long before he’d have the chance again.
“So what do you think he is?” Mark asked. “He’s not vampire. That’s for sure. He’s not werewolf. He’s not zombie.” He sipped his coffee and began to add more sugar. “Maybe he is human. Not one, but different humans. You know, like one training another and then passing the task on to the next.”
“I don’t know,” Aedan said, trying not to sound irritated, even though he was. Not that he was irritated with Mark. He was irritated with himself. Angry with himself that he couldn’t catch this guy. Angry that he had let him . . . it get to Madeleine. And all the other victims since. “I don’t think he’s human. Just a feeling.”
“Then what is he?” Mark demanded.
“I don’t know.” Aedan forced his tone to remain even. “But I’m going to find out. This time, I’m going to find out.” He looked up. “So when can we talk to Teesha?”
“We’re not going to talk to Teesha. Not yet. I’m going to talk to her—when I can. I’m going to see what the police have. I’m going to talk to her when her doctors give the okay. Then I get back to you. You have to stay in the background, Aedan. You know that.”
Aedan pressed both hands to the gold Formica table. “I have to talk to her. I’ve got questions that might lead us to him before he strikes again.”
“I understand that. You’ll get to talk to her. But not today. I don’t know if I’ll get to talk to her today. The plastic surgeon wants to get her back into the OR as soon as he can. She might be facing multiple surgeries over the next few days.”
Aedan tightened his fists on the table. Slowly released them. “And in the meantime, what am I supposed to do?”
“You’re supposed to rest and let me do what I do. You’re supposed to recuperate from the last year of work. Read a book. Rent a movie. Go for a walk on the beach.”
Maryann arrived with their breakfast. Hotcakes, sausage, and hash browns for Mark, scrapple and scrambled eggs for Aedan. Aedan was excited about the scrapple. It wasn’t something he could get in Paris, or anywhere else in the world but here.
“Maybe you should get laid,” Mark suggested, reaching for the salt shaker.
Maryann smiled but didn’t comment. “Anything else, gentlemen?”
“No. Thanks.”
Get laid? Aedan thought as he picked up a forkful of fluffy eggs. That was the last thing on his mind.
At least for the most part.
Aedan had intended to stay in that night. He had dinner with Peigi and Brian, who was able to pry himself away from the TV, and several other Clare Point teens. Kaleigh was there, so he thoroughly enjoyed their company, but as the evening wore on, he became convinced he wanted a Guinness. He needed some time alone. Time to think about Teesha. And Jay.
Before he really realized what he was doing, Aedan had left Clare Point and was driving south toward Rehoboth Beach. He told himself his plan was to have a look around, maybe just cruise up and down Rehoboth Avenue, see what Teesha must have seen last night. But his car found its way to Wilmington Avenue, and before he could come up with several reasons why going into Brew was a bad idea, he was walking through the door. One beer, he told himself. Then he’d hit the street, see what he could find out. Cops didn’t always get all the answers by asking questions; it was his experience that sometimes blending in and just watching and listening got better results. His gift allowed him to do that better than most.
Again, the crowd was decent, but his barstool from the previous night was open. It was almost as if he was meant to be there. He kept his leather jacket on as he took a seat. He spotted the bartender with all the tattoos. A green and yellow mermaid on his forearm caught Aedan’s eye. He’d once known a mermaid.
He didn’t see the blonde.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked, dropping a cocktail napkin down in front of him.
George Thorogood was playing over the loudspeakers.
Aedan’s gaze drifted to the swinging doors behind the bar as he murmured the lyrics to “Bad to the Bone.” He wondered if she was in the kitchen. Maybe it was her night off. That had never occurred to him on the drive over—that she might not be there.
The bartender glanced in the same direction, then back at Aedan. “Hey, buddy. You lookin’ for trouble?” His voice was quiet, but his tone was definitely threatening.
“No, no, I’m not looking for trouble,” Aedan answered, purposely keeping his own tone light. He wasn’t going to get into it with this guy. He wasn’t going to show him what kind of badass he could be. It wasn’t right to take advantage of humans that way, not unnecessarily. “Just looking for the woman who works here. Blonde. The one here last night. I . . . I need to ask her a question.” He had always been pretty good at thinking fast on his feet. “There was a girl attacked near here last night.”
“I heard.” The guy leaned on the bar. “It was on the news this morning. It’s a wonder she lived. What’s Dallas got to do with her?”
Dallas. Her name was Dallas. She looked like a Dallas. All leggy and sassy. “How about a Guinness?” Aedan met the bartender’s gaze. “And let me worry about what Dallas did or didn’t see last night.”
Chapter 3
“You think he’s a cop?” Dallas pulled a dish of bubbling hot crab dip out of the salamander and slid it onto a plate. Her short-order cook hadn’t shown up, so his cousin Miguel was trying to run the kitchen alone; she was giving him a hand when Tat didn’t need her behind the bar. They had just one waitress each evening, so there was no way the girl could help back here. Dallas was pleased the bar was busy again tonight, but if the numbers kept up, she was going to have to hire more staff right away instead of waiting until Memorial Day weekend. She’d interviewed a girl for a waitress spot and possibly to be a bartender-in-training just the evening before. The young woman had been pleasant, bright, and seemed willing to learn; maybe Dallas needed to call her before someone else recognized her potential and hired her first.
“He show you a badge?” she asked Tat, who had left his position behind the bar to duck into the kitchen. She grabbed a handful of pita chips and spread them around the plate and added a few slices of Granny Smith apple. She didn’t give him a chance to answer. “He look like a cop to you? I don’t like cops, Tat.”
“I don’t like ’em either, but I don’t know if he looks like a
cop. You saw him. You talked to him last night. He look like a cop to you last night?”
“I didn’t talk to him. I got him a beer.” She headed for the door and then stopped. “He ask for me by name?”
“I already told you. He just asked me where the blonde was. Said he needed to talk to you about that girl who was attacked last night.”
She frowned. “I don’t know anything about that. What would make him think I knew anything about that? I was here when it happened. So was he. You think it’s about something else?” She balanced the crab dip in one hand, resting the other on the kitchen door. After John had died, there had been people looking for him. People he owed money. Bad people.
“I don’t know what it’s about, only what he said.” Tat reached over her shoulder and pushed the door open. “You want me to send him away?”
Dallas thought for a minute. If he was a cop, it was better to just talk to him, right? She didn’t allow herself to think about what had happened when they had touched last night. She’d just keep her hands to herself. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Order up, Corey,” she called to the waitress. She slid the plate onto the bar top and wiped her hands on the little black apron she wore tied around her hips. She could feel the ginger watching her. He was sitting on the same barstool he’d been sitting on the previous night.
“Can you get this gentleman a Guinness?” Dallas asked Tat. She stood directly in front of the ginger and tapped the bar top with her fingertips, taking care to keep out of his reach. “I understand you’re looking for me. You a cop?”
She looked him right in the eyes, which startled Aedan for a second. He usually wasn’t one for hemming and hawing, particularly not with women, but there was something in her dark brown eyes that made him tongue-tied. “Um. No.”
She narrowed her gaze. “Is this about the liquor license? My understanding was that everything is in order. I’ve been here for four months. I just had an inspection last month.”
Voracious - (Claire Point Vampire 5) Page 3