CHAPTER 22

“This is stupid!” Evan hisses as we stand outside the tattoo shop. “You want to go strolling down the street side by side with a vampire, knowing the creature is targeting them? Why not stay at a distance?”

“Because this thing is fast. If it doesn’t see me as a threat, it’ll go for Gloria first, and while she’s down, I’ll take care of it.”

“Is that why you look like Rachel instead of Emma?”

I nod. I look like a bubbly, happy, tatted-up artist with rainbow hair. Not a supernatural entity who can kill a primordial evil and a Fallen Angel. Granted, I don’t want to take on another Fallen Angel, but I know I can survive it if I have to.

“Stay here and man the radio, then,” Dan grumbles, which earns him a withering glare from Evan. I swear I’m about done with their jealousy. Tonight is not the night for this.

“Enough.” I take a deep breath. “You both need to suck it up and stop complaining.”

“Chèr?”

Cass pokes his head in and raises an eyebrow. “The Hunters are here.”

I hate that his accent becomes nonexistent around people he doesn’t know. He said people look at him like he’s stupid, which my brother is not. He’s one of the smartest people I know. We even convinced him to let Papa pay for his education. He’s taking classes at Tulane now, along with Mary, Eric, and Ethan. Now, that was an argument and a half, but I won it.

Kudos to me.

“You two stop your bickering before they come in. We don’t need them to have even less confidence in us than they already do.” I nod to Cass, and he opens the door and walks inside, followed by half a dozen men and women all blacked out. They look around curiously before their gaze lands on me.

“I’m glamoured.”

“I assumed.” The oldest of them steps forward and holds out his hand. “I’m Stanley Milton from upstate New York. You would be Emma Crane.”

I shake his hand firmly, shocked he’d offer. “Just call me Mattie. I grew up as Mattie Hathaway, and it’s still the name I answer to the most. Very few people call me Emma.”

“I heard you grew up in foster care. I did as well and have taken in a few Hunter orphans through the years. I ain’t judging you by your father’s last name. Cass here says you’re your own person and as kind a soul as we’ll ever meet.”

“I am kind to a point. Unless you try to hurt the people I care about. Then I’m even more ruthless than my papa.”

He grins. “Noted. Now, what is our plan?”

“Well, we have no way of knowing its pattern, as there are no witnesses to the attacks, so we sent out a call through the supernatural community for everyone to stay inside tonight. There isn’t a vamp in the city who will be out of doors tonight. We’re going to give the creature only one target, and that’s the one we’ll be watching.”

“If it has no choice but to target a victim of our choosing, we can better control the situation. Sound plan.”

“I do want to try to reason with it before we kill it. The creature may have no choice in what it’s doing, and I really want to know who is responsible for it.”

“You think you can?” Stanley’s gray eyes zero in on me.

“Don’t know until I try.”

“I would introduce you, but I saw a town car pull up just as we came in. I’m assuming that’s tonight’s bait?”

“Yes. Our very own Master of the City, Gloria Monroe.”

Several of the Hunters mutter, and Stanley shoots them a glare. “Well, good thing we’re all full up on dead man’s blood.”

“Evan, you, Dan, and Blade are going to be following us at a far enough distance that it won’t see you. Cass, you and the Hunters will set up as you see fit. Just don’t get close to us until the creature is in sight. I want you all on the lookout to see if the person who’s commanding the creature is out and watching it. We will need to take care of them as well. Papa, you are manning communications.”

Zeke starts handing out Bluetooth headsets. “I will be giving comms to everyone, so if someone sees something, please let me know so I can reiterate it to the group.”

No one looks happy that he’s here, but hey, we need all the help we can get to catch this thing.

“Rach, Arson sent the club out. Where do you want them?”

I smile at Blade, relieved to have people I trust watching our backs tonight. “I want them looking for the Army or anyone who doesn’t belong. Just warn them if magic is involved, they could get seriously hurt.”

“It’s what we do, sugar. We’ll be fine.”

I don’t doubt it.

“Arson did say to remind you he’ll call the favor in eventually.”

“And I’ll repay it.”

Blade nods. I leave everyone to get into place and walk out the door, but Dan catches me right before I step off the sidewalk.

“Hey.” He looks down, and the worry is plain on his face. “You sure about this? We can just go home.”

“And more people will die. I can’t just go home, as much as I might want to.”

He sighs. “I know, but I felt like I had to give you the option.”

Smiling, I push up and kiss him. “It’ll be fine, Officer Dan.”

“It’s never fine, Squirt.”

“But we still always end up okay.”

“Stay safe.” He kisses me again and then goes back inside to wrangle Blade and Evan.

Yawning, I go over to the town car and knock on the window. It rolls down to reveal a very angry Gloria. She’s dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.

“I hope you have on running shoes.”

“I do,” she snaps and gets out of the car. “Why you demanded I come, I don’t know.”

“Because it’s your city. You should never ask someone to do what you’re not willing to. Any good leader knows that. It’s what creates a loyal following. If you’re a crap leader who uses fear all the time to cow people, those people will eventually rise up and overthrow you. History teaches us that. You more than anyone should understand that simple lesson.”

“And those who use love and kindness to rule get beaten down and betrayed.”

“It’s a fine balance.” I put in my Bluetooth headset and hand her one as well. “We’re using these to communicate.”

She takes it but doesn’t put it in. I shrug. It’s on her if she doesn’t want to be able to see what’s coming.

“So, what is your plan, Emma Crane?”

“Richards-Crane,” I remind her. “And my plan is simple. We just start walking. We’re going to be focusing on the industrial district. Most of those places are already closed, so there will be fewer people out.”

“Why didn’t we wait until later? I would think the wee hours of the morning would be better suited to our purpose.”

I catch the hint of her accent when she says wee hours, but it’s very faint. She did tell me she came from the Scottish Highlands, and it’s apparent today. I doubt she even realized she slipped. That’s how off balance this whole thing has her. I doubt she thought the Council would order her to be the bait. She has to be very suspicious of my motives in demanding her presence. I would be.

“As I explained to the Hunters inside, we don’t know anything about its hunting pattern since there were no witnesses to the attack outside of Mari’s ghost. She only saw it through the haze of pain and fear. Her account isn’t as accurate as I’d like it to be. It’s better to start early and take intervals of rest as needed. The park right before we hit industrial is nice enough. We can go sit there when we start to get tired.”

“I don’t get tired.”

“Well, I do. So, when I get tired, we’ll go rest on one of the park benches.”

“Squirt, you ready?” I jump when Dan’s voice whispers in my ear. Stupid Bluetooth.

I tap the little button to talk. “Yes, just explaining to our unwilling guest what the plan is. We’re heading out now.”

Gloria falls into step beside me as I start walking. The streets are still buzzing with life as we wander down them. More and more of the homeless are coming out as night descends. Gloria stares at them, her face unreadable, as we pass.

“How did you become a vampire?” I ask after a while. This not talking is getting on my nerves. I need to keep my brain occupied so I don’t worry about Squishy.

“Why do you care?”

“Curiosity.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

“I’m not a cat, just your average demonic living reaper.”

“You are far from average, Emma Crane.”

“True, I am a Crane.”

She laughs. “It’s rare I hear that level of arrogance from a woman.”

“It’s not arrogance. It’s simple fact.”

Papa chuckles in my ear. Thought he’d like that.

“So, don’t want to share how you became what you are?”

“I was twenty-six when I died. I’d just lost my entire family to a sickness and went out into the snowy winter’s night, hoping the kiss of the cold would take me with it so I didn’t have to live when they all died. It’s tragic, but common enough. A vampire found me half-frozen and turned me. She said I’d thank her for it later, and I suppose I have to since I am where I am today. My sire was a cold woman, but I did learn quite a bit from her.”

“Those who have no patience for ineptitude are the best teachers.”

“I never said I was inept.”

“Didn’t need to.”

She glares at me, and I just grin back at her.

Silence falls for long moments as we finally reach the industrial district. It’s much quieter here, as the warehouses that hold much of the city’s trade traffic are closed for the night. Only a few are still open, and light spills out from their loading zones as trucks pull in and out. I stop for a moment and look around, letting my senses out to see if there are any ghosts in the area who might want to talk to me.

“What is that?” Gloria shivers and looks around.

“You feel that?”

She nods.

“It’s my reaping ability. It speaks to the dead. If you can feel it, then I suppose you’re more dead than most.”

“I did die. We all do in order to become a vampire.”

“Some retain their souls, so not quite as dead as others.”

“I’ve only met two in my existence who kept their soul. I killed them both.”

“Why?”

“Because if you want to be top of the food chain, you take out those who could kill you first. Or those who will hinder your efforts in doing the things you need to do to survive and gain more power.”

“And a vampire with a soul is a threat?”

“Of course. They’re still tied to the living. They have emotions and feelings that make things messy. Make them question what we do to survive. I can’t have that.”

“Do you mean the killing?”

“We don’t need to kill to survive. We just need to drink the blood of the living. Most of us don’t drain our food to the point of death. It would bring too much attention to our kind.”

“I think that goal’s out the window. You’re one of the most hunted species in the supernatural world.”

“Thanks to books and movies, that has lessened. They see vampirism as a romantic state of being. We’re ‘sparkly.’” She shudders at the thought. “As much as I detest that misconception, I value it as well. Humans are much more easily seduced and look upon us as heroes and heroines in today’s world, as opposed to creatures of the night that need to be hunted, staked, and burned.”

“Are you against the killing of humans for food?”

“Yes. I don’t want the attention that brings to my city.”

“Then why was Crush allowed? They were killing people.”

“No, they weren’t. They were feeding, but they weren’t killing. If they had been, they would have been dead by my hand.”

“And Mari? She was turned against her will.”

“Turning is not killing. It’s bringing a new child into the fold.”

“Against her will?”

“Do you think I had a choice when I was turned? None of us do. Our sires see something in us and turn us. Tis the truth of the matter.”

“And that makes it right? Just because you were turned against your will?”

She shrugs. “I don’t expect you to understand. You are but a babe yourself. You’re human and think with human emotions. I am not. My thinking is precise, cold, and logical. That is the truth of it.”

We fall into silence as we walk, and it leaves me time to ponder what she said. I don’t agree with it, but I can understand her perspective. To a point.

Sighing, I put those thoughts aside and keep walking.