by HELEN HARDT
“Shit. All right. We’ll figure it out, baby. Nothing will happen to him. I promise.”
Dante would never lie to me, but I feared he was making a promise he might not be able to keep. Emotion coiled in my belly. How was I supposed to—
I whipped my head around when Abe abruptly stood.
“I have to go.”
“Why?”
He nodded toward a man who walked into the small café. “Get her out of here,” he said to Dante, and then he fled.
Dante parted his lips to reveal his fangs. “It’s one of them,” he said under his breath.
My legs itched to run.
“Stay put,” Dante growled. “I’ll take care of this.”
“No!” I grabbed his arm. “Let’s just leave. Please.”
“You expect me to let him go without letting him know in no uncertain terms that you are mine? I can’t do that, Erin. I cannot.”
Chapter Ten
Dante
My gums tingled as my fangs sharpened into precise points. The man had no scent. I couldn’t be sure, given I couldn’t scent anyone but Erin, but my whole body told me this was a vampire.
A vampire who wanted my woman.
I stalked toward him. He was clean-shaven, apparently not the leader Erin had seen in her dream.
No, he was no alpha. He was a follower. His stance made that clear.
He stood near the entrance, waiting for a host to seat him. I approached him, my blood boiling.
“Let’s step outside for a minute, friend,” I said in a timbre so low no one else could possibly hear.
But he heard.
Yes, he was a vampire. He’d heard me.
“I’m pretty sure I’m not your friend,” he said.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’ll fucking pulverize you right here if I have to.”
He showed me his fangs quickly so no one else would notice.
I had to stop myself from laughing. They were nothing compared to mine. I pushed him through the café quickly and outside the back door into the alleyway.
“What the fuck?” He oofed as I plowed him into the brick wall.
“You stay the fuck away from my woman,” I said.
“Who the fuck are you? And who the fuck is your woman?”
“The one you’ve been after. You and that hairy monster leader of yours. Stay away, or I’ll kill each one of you with my bare hands.”
“Is she…?” He inhaled. “She’s not here.”
The potion! It must have worked. Surely he would have smelled Erin as soon as he came near the café.
“No, she’s not. And you stay the hell away from her.”
“How do you even know—”
I growled, baring my teeth.
He cringed. “What the fuck?”
I cocked my head as a few homeless people walked by, their gazes riveted to the sparse remnants of food scattered here and throughout the stoned alleyway.
“Who are you? I’ve never seen— Oh, shit.”
“What? You’ve never seen what?”
“You’re the one. You’re the one she talks about. Fuck me!”
I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the brick of the building.
“Fuck,” he said, his voice hoarse because I was putting pressure on his throat. “I can’t believe you even exist.”
“You tell me what you’re talking about, or your life ends right here, asshole.”
“Think again.”
The voice had come from behind me. I turned, releasing my hold and letting the vamp crumple to the ground.
The bearded one. Dark-blue eyes. He stood nearly as tall as I did but was wider through the shoulders.
I growled, showing my teeth.
He jarred slightly but covered himself. Only another vampire with an acute sense of sight would have noticed.
I noticed.
My teeth had frightened him.
My father had said my teeth were longer and sharper than his, and that his and his brother’s were the most formidable Jack Hebert had ever seen.
I bared them once more.
This time he didn’t react. But he didn’t bare his own. He looked at the ground. “You okay, Giles?”
“Yeah. Fine. He says she’s his woman. The one we want.”
The bearded one smiled, and I could almost see the slime oozing from his lips. “Yeah? Then you can take us to her.”
I snarled.
“Decker, no. He’s the one. The one she talks about.”
“For fuck’s sake, Giles. You get hit on the head or something? She’s nuts. We all know that.”
“I swear to God, Deck. Didn’t you see his fucking teeth?”
The one called Decker had seen my teeth. And he’d freaked, though only for a millisecond.
I whipped around and grabbed Decker by the throat, slamming him into the wall. “Start talking, shithead. What do you want with my woman? And why the fuck did you bury my father in St. Louis Cemetery?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. Let me go, or I’ll tear you up.”
“I’d like to see you try. I’m pretty sure I have the upper hand here, ass—”
Bonk!
An ache sprang up on the back of my head, and I dropped to my knees. Rage swelled inside me, and I growled as my teeth grew even longer and sharper.
“Good shot, Giles,” Decker said.
I let out a huff of air when Decker landed a kick to my cheek.
No pain. Only rage as I jumped back into a stand. I would win. I always won. Losing was not an option.
Fight or die in the arena.
Adrenaline surged in my gut like a deluge of electricity, and I punched Decker square in his jaw.
He grunted, slamming back against the brick wall. I turned and swung my leg, taking Giles down with a roundhouse kick to the kidney.
I turned back, but I wasn’t quick enough. Decker swept my legs, and I fell to the ground.
“Fuck!” The combination of dirt and asphalt dug into my left cheek.
Always go for the nose, especially if you’re fighting another vampire. Blood will clog his sinuses, and the injury will bring tears to his eyes. You’ll take out his sense of smell and sight with one punch, and the pain will bring him to his knees.
Bill had taught me that one when I was a kid.
I’d never had to use it.
Or had I?
Fight or die in the arena.
I scrambled up quickly, thrusting my fist into Decker’s chin with an uppercut, and then I punched him square in the nose.
“Fucking bastard!” Blood spurted from his nostrils as he yelled out, his fangs dripping saliva and blood. He crumpled to the ground.
One down.
I turned back to Giles, who had taken a boxing stance. I thrust my leg outward in a circular motion, using an inside crescent kick to take him down. I jumped on top of him, knife-handed his neck, and then punched his nose.
He covered his nose with his hands as the blood erupted. “Damn you!”
I inhaled.
Rusted iron mixed with tarnished silver.
Vampire blood.
Most vamps thought our blood had no aroma, but they were mistaken. I’d come to know its light scent well. I’d been forced to ingest it for ten years.
Everything about it disgusted me.
I stood, rubbing the dirt off my jeans. Giles and Decker weren’t unconscious, but they were in pain. Big broken nose pain. Still, they wouldn’t stay down for long.
“Stay away from me, and stay away from my woman.”
“You don’t know what you’re dealing with, man,” Giles said. “She’s dangerous.”
Walk away, Dante. Just fucking walk away.
But I couldn’t resist. I had to know.
“Who is dangerous?”
Chapter Eleven
Erin
“Dante!”
I ran toward him, Abe following me.
<
br /> “No, Erin!” Abe shouted.
“Shit, Erin, get out of here! There are two of them,” Dante said.
The vamps didn’t make any move toward me. Perhaps Bea’s remedy really was working.
Both men were down, their noses clearly broken. I didn’t have to be a nurse to see that. “What have you done?”
“Get out of here!” Dante yelled again.
Even if Bea’s remedy wasn’t working, they couldn’t possibly smell with their noses full of mucus and blood. Or maybe they could. I knew precious little about the vampire sense of smell. I knew precious little about vampire everything, other than that I was in love with one of them.
“You two get out of here,” Abe Lincoln said. “I’ll take care of things here.”
The bearded one—God, from my dream—rose slowly. “I’m not done with you yet, vampire.” He bared his teeth.
“Just go,” Abe said again.
“You haven’t seen the last of us,” the other one said.
I grabbed Dante’s arm, my nerves jumping like wasps on the attack. “Listen to him. Please. It’s the one from my dream. Let’s just go. Look at you. And you have court tomorrow.”
That finally got him. “Shit,” he said.
“Come on. I’ll help you get cleaned up.”
Back home, I cleaned Dante’s scrapes and applied some antibacterial ointment and antiseptic.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry. What were you thinking, taking on two at once?”
“I’d have taken on more than that to protect you.”
“They didn’t come after me,” I said.
“No. Which means the potion works, and I can still smell you. Thank God. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t. Your scent. It’s like home to me. Comfort and joy and sex and arousal and sustenance and nourishment and love. All wrapped up together in an indescribable fragrance.”
I couldn’t help smiling. “Do you think they smell all of that?”
“No. They just smell the scent your blood makes. Scents like yours are irresistible to vampires. It’s a product of your ancestry.”
“Oh. Right.”
With all the commotion, I’d nearly forgotten that I was part vampire. That most likely my maternal grandmother had been a vampire. Yeah, I was angry about that. Angry that he hadn’t told me sooner. But was it really anger? “Do you think my mother knew? About her mother, I mean.”
“Probably not.”
“What about my grandfather?”
“It’s possible. I don’t know, Erin. Is he still alive?”
“Unfortunately, no. He passed away before I came to New Orleans. I guess I’ll never know.”
“Not from him. No. It’s always possible that your mother knows something.”
My mother. Sharlene Jackson Hamilton. She was fair-skinned like Jay and me. Blue-eyed like Jay. Dark-haired like both of us. I sighed. She worked as a night cashier, hadn’t gone to college but was incredibly intelligent. I’d always wondered why she never did anything more with her life. Maybe she couldn’t tolerate daylight well and didn’t want to go to a university. But she was an honest and hard-working woman. No fault to be found there.
She couldn’t possibly know about her mother. Heck, she’d never even known her mother. My grandmother had died giving birth to her only child.
I sighed again. “We need to get some sleep.”
“It’s early yet.”
“I know. But we were both up all night. And you have court first thing in the morning. Have you called your sister?”
“Crap.” Dante rose. “I’ll be right back.”
I turned my arm and regarded the white skin of my inner wrist. I brought it to my nose and inhaled.
The basil overpowered the calendula, giving my skin a fresh, minty scent. I wouldn’t have cared if it smelled like garbage as long as it kept those rogue vampires away, but I was glad the scent was pleasant.
My brother’s image popped into my mind. I had to get to him and somehow convince him to start wearing this mixture on his skin.
How was I supposed to do that?
Dante returned. “Emilia’s meeting us at the courthouse in the morning. She’ll come straight from work. Good thing we’re first on the docket.”
“Yeah, definitely. In her condition, she needs her rest.” I twisted my lips. “Dante?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“The potion seems to be working.”
“Yeah. Thank God.”
“But I want to make it as strong as we can. I hate to ask you this, but—”
“It’s okay.” He grabbed his father’s urn that was sitting on the coffee table. “Let’s add some.”
I took the tiniest pinch of the urn’s contents and added it to the brown glass bottle. I repeated with each of the five bottles the priestess had given me. “We need to tell Jay. Or at least get him to start wearing this potion like I am.”
“I know, baby.”
“But how?”
He shook his head. “I wish I knew.”
“He’s home now. Probably in bed. He’s safe there, right?”
Dante nodded. “I wouldn’t have left you alone here as often as I have if I didn’t believe you were safe. Those vamps don’t normally come out during the day.”
“Why were they out today, then?”
“I don’t know. But we’ll find out. Neither of them will be bothering your brother or anyone else for the rest of the day, though. I saw to that.”
“That was only two of them. What about the others? There were four in my dream.”
“The one called Decker is their leader. They won’t move without him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because of how the other, Giles, acted. Decker’s definitely the alpha of that crew. And he’s the one we need to focus on. He knows me now, and he knows I mean business.” Dante looked away for a moment, as if he were thinking.
“What is it?” I asked.
“He knows me,” Dante said again. “Almost as if he recognized me. In fact, the other one, Giles, said I was the one she talked about. But how? I never saw anyone except… At least I don’t think I did.”
“Except what, Dante? What are you trying to say?”
“God, this is so hard, Erin. I don’t want to be weak. I don’t want to…”
“Baby.” I caressed his back. “It’s okay. Tell me.”
“I only saw three people the whole time I was in captivity. The female vampire who took me and her two human goons.”
“Are you sure they were human?”
“Oh, yeah. They had the scent. They smelled like rotten fish.”
“Yuck.” I scrunched up my nose.
“Not at first. They had normal human smells. I think my brain played tricks on me. I grew to hate them so much that they began to smell completely repulsive.”
“What did they look like?”
“I couldn’t tell you. They were always masked.”
“Could you recognize them by smell?”
“Normally, yes. Probably. But I can’t smell anyone but you, baby. Not since I first encountered you in the blood bank.”
“Right.” I shrugged. “We have to get to Jay. Right away. This can’t wait. I won’t take the chance that the other two aren’t out looking for him.”
Dante nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twelve
Dante
We stopped off to get River before we headed to Jay’s place. He lived in an apartment not too far from River’s pad. Erin called him to make sure he was up.
“What did you tell him?” I asked.
“Just said we needed to talk, and that it was really important.”
“Great. You probably freaked him out.”
“No. I said we’re all okay. Mom and Dad are okay. You know.”
“The good thing is that the potion Bea suggested seems to work,” River said. “I can’t smell you at all.”
A very slight growl emerged from my throat. A ha
ppy growl. River could no longer smell Erin.
“We added some of my dad’s ashes to intensify it, though it seemed to work before then, with the two thugs.”
“I’m not sure my brother is going to want to go around smelling minty fresh.” Erin smiled.
We got out of the car, and Erin led us to Jay’s apartment. She let out a whoosh of a breath before knocking on the door three times.
Jay opened the door wearing nothing but lounge pants. His dark hair was mussed, and he was rubbing one eye. “Yeah, hey, Erin, River. Come on in. You want some coffee or something?”
“No thanks,” Erin said. “Let’s sit. We need to talk.”
“Sure. Whatever. I’m exhausted, though. Work has been a pain since you took that leave of absence, Riv. What’s going on, anyway?”
I resolved to stay quiet and let Erin and River explain everything. They both knew Jay better than I did, even though I’d be uncle to his child.
Of course, he didn’t know about that yet, and neither did Erin.
Not telling Erin anything made my stomach queasy. I’d talk to my sister tomorrow, after court. She had to tell Jay. This had gone on long enough.
Erin fingered the small brown bottle of elixir made with basil and calendula oils and herbs. And the ashes of my father.
“What’s that?” Jay asked.
“It’s…fragrance. I got it in the Quarter.”
“Oh?” He inhaled. “I smell mint.”
“You smell basil,” she said. “It’s a main ingredient in the fragrance. I’m wearing it.”
“Smells nice.”
“Good,” she continued, “because I want you to wear it. Apply it once a day to four pulse points.”
“Huh? No offense, Sis, but I think minty fresh is more of a girl thing.”
“But it’s important that you—”
“Fuck!” Jay jerked backward against the couch where he sat.
River had bared his fangs.
“What the fu—”
“Jay, it’s okay.” Erin turned to River. “What the hell? You couldn’t have been a tad more subtle?”
“We don’t have time, Erin,” River said. “I’m sorry, man, but this is who I am. I know it’s hard to believe, but—”