Making the drive to the brood’s safe house with a lap full of angry giant cat tested my patience and got on my last nerve. At the rate Emerick postured, mostly hissing at the vampires in the back if they stared at me for longer than two seconds, he’d jump out of his fur. As it was, I had to keep my arms wrapped around the cantankerous feline in the hope I might be able to keep him from adding to the general trauma of the evening.
The last thing I needed was Emerick getting into a fight with three vampires in need of more blood.
The brood’s safehouse proved to be a townhouse at the end of a row, and several of the security guards from the estate waited outside for our arrival. They swarmed the Civic and helped the vampires out of the back. I cracked open the window and asked the more senior of the lobby guards, a vampire almost as old as Emerick, “Abe, do we have a harness and leash for this asshole? He spent the entire drive hissing at those poor vampires.”
“Alas, you will have to figure out how to contain him without the help of a harness or leash. He’d just transform and escape your clutches anyway. But we dream of that day.”
Emerick sighed and opened his mouth, pressing his teeth to my arm.
“I’m not buying into that ploy, sir.”
“Are you aware you have blood all over your face and your nose seems to be rather severely broken?”
“Once I put this asshole in a cage, someone can fix my nose.”
“You can’t cage him, Pepper,” Ben said, killing the car’s engine and opening his door. “But Giovanni is here, and he can fix your nose. It’s been long enough that he’ll probably have to break it again, though. But I’m sure your favorite dessert won’t mind tending to your every need once it’s set.”
Emerick hissed, wiggled free of my hold, and jumped onto Ben’s lap before escaping the car.
“He’s going to change back to human to make sure Giovanni isn’t going to do more than fix my broken my nose, isn’t he?”
Ben snickered. “That didn’t take you long to figure out. You also need more blood, as you gave more than I like. I hadn’t thought I’d need more than one bottle of the Wagyu, but then I saw how much you were giving and realized my error. But you’re so used to running close to empty you probably haven’t noticed the loss.”
“The Wagyu you brought helped.”
“The bottle wouldn’t have replaced everything you donated. At least we don’t have to dance around Emerick’s other shape anymore. He had wanted to surprise you, but he seems to have forgotten you can handle yourself.”
“Can you explain that for me? When he showed up, Luca basically groveled. Of course, when faced with an angry giant cat, the thought crossed my mind maybe if I beg the kitty not to eat me, he might listen.”
Ben laughed. “Yeah. When you called me because Emerick had showed himself, I realized we may have made an error. Being surprised by a large predator could have caused an issue. Then again, he would have just taken you over if needed. Luca knows who Emerick is and was in enough control of his mind to understand if he didn’t grovel, he would have gotten shredded. That Emerick knew Luca had been kidnapped saved them all, really. If he hadn’t known the vampire, he would have asked questions of the corpses, I’m sure. He can be unreasonable at times.”
Emerick, unreasonable? I joined the other vampire in laughing. “That’s quite the understatement, Ben.”
“Beyond your nose, you’re not hurt?”
“Why are you asking me this now?”
Ben pointed at the townhouse, where the angry giant cat prowled through the opened door.
Right. “Sorry. I’m an idiot tonight, apparently. I’m fine. I’m planning on concocting how I sprained my pride severely, and I might jerk him around on it because I can.” It wouldn’t teach Emerick anything, but I expected we’d both enjoy the odd dance between us.
“Your pride wasn’t severely sprained?”
“Didn’t even get a twinge. I took out two in one hit, and that is worthy of praise. I didn’t even kill them. In my opinion, I did a damned good job. Everybody survived. Frankly, I deserve breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert for that.”
“I see you’re hungry, right on schedule. I am not arguing with you, but he’s going to be offended regarding your nose.”
I pointed at my face. “I could leave it broken. As long as it doesn’t impair my ability to breathe, I don’t care. It’s not like I spend a lot of time staring at myself in the mirror. My father worried more about my face than I ever will. I have proven I do not need my face or an intact nose to catch a man.”
Ben shot me a dark look and scowled. “Please don’t leave your nose broken.”
I grinned, ignoring how my nose hurt. The stress of making sure Emerick didn’t climb into the back and bother the traumatized vampires had done a good job of distracting me from my throbbing face. Determined to pretend I hadn’t lost a third of the brawl, I got out of the car and waited for Ben. “Honestly, I won’t because I’m sure it will hurt more that way.”
“I’m sure Giovanni will do his best to limit your discomfort when he sets your nose.”
“Locking Emerick in a cage would be safer for everyone involved.”
“I think not,” Emerick stated from the doorway, and he adjusted the cuff of his suit.
Damn. He must have transformed with his clothing intact somehow, as it was impossible for a man to get in a suit within five minutes. I would peel his secret magic out of him somehow, especially if it meant I could find some dark, quiet place to sleep through the day as a cat.
I headed over, faced off with him, and put my hands on my hips. “The nose doesn’t count.”
Emerick raised a brow, reached for me, and the next thing I knew, the bastard had me on the floor, pain radiated from the center of my face, and he somehow managed to dodge having my blood drip on him. Ben and his handkerchief had something to do with that.
Fucking vampires and their unnatural swiftness and strength. “You could have warned me,” I complained. Scowling hurt, but I did it anyway.
“I thought you were going to let Giovanni do it,” Ben said, and he pressed his handkerchief to my face, applying pressure to my nose. “Did you grab tape before you came to the door?”
Emerick dipped a hand into his pocket, pulled out some medical tape, and applied it to my face. “As long as you don’t toy with it, that should keep it in place.”
“I do not understand how some tape applied to my skin keeps my nose from moving.” Talking hurt, but I refused to be deterred. “How’d I get on the ground?”
“You blacked out for a moment, and I took control to make sure you did not harm yourself further.”
“Nose doesn’t count.”
“I won’t count it. We went in expecting miscreants and got a far more dire situation. You took the first two out with great finesse, but I see we will need to work on your transitions when fighting multiple opponents. We’ll also need to work on your base strength. Male vampires tend to be stronger than female vampires, but the difference in your strength compared to Luca’s is a problem. As your legs are surely as broken as your nose right now, I will carry you to the couch, where you will be forced to rest upon my person until I am satisfied you have received sufficient blood.”
I narrowed my eyes, debating what I thought about the situation. “What kind of blood?”
The type of blood served depended on if I went willingly or put up a fight.
“Two bottles of Wagyu and a few minutes with your favorite dessert should suffice.”
I made a show of checking both of my legs and wiggling my toes to confirm I hadn’t actually hurt myself on the way to the ground. Good humor beat the other ways of venting, so I prepared myself for the inevitable. As long as I refused to be embarrassed by being carried, I would be fine.
I could walk. I was choosing to enjoy having a handsome servant in a suit do the walking for me. When framed that way, what was pride? I would get some tolerable blood for dinner and the best blood for dessert, and I’d already earned my keep.
Once I assuaged my pride, I nodded. “I am prepared to be carried and forced to rest for a while.”
Ben snickered. “Were you aware that you made absolutely no effort to control your expressions, Pepper? We could see the wheels turning as you debated that. Do we want to know what you were thinking when that look of pure satisfaction erased all signs of being annoyed?”
Well, damn. My face had betrayed me. “I get dessert, and I earned it properly. This is a cause for some real satisfaction, Ben.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re all right with it, because there are limits to our master’s ability to tolerate independence, I believe.”
“If she truly wishes to walk, she can, but this is more pleasant for everyone involved.”
“I can walk, I’m just choosing not to,” I confirmed. “Is my nose going to be okay?”
“Just don’t play with it for the rest of the night. You’ll be fine by tomorrow, especially with the influx of fresh blood,” Emerick replied. “You’ll have to take the business of resting quite seriously. Ben will handle talking with the rescues. Once they’re fed and cleaned, we’ll have an audience with them, assuming Ben believes they can handle it. We try to make sure victims are treated with care. Ben, text me the names of the brood masters when you get them. I’ll call Weston about Luca and get him on the move. Notify me when Luca can be sent home.”
“He’s better off than the other two, but we’ll probably have him for a few nights, perhaps longer.”
“Why can’t you send him home right away?” I asked.
Emerick worked his arms under me and picked me up, shifting me in his arms to his satisfaction before heading into the townhouse. A hallway led from the entry, and the first door to the left opened to a sitting room with a loveseat and two armchairs. With a wicked smirk, he dumped me onto the loveseat.
Turning to Ben, he said, “I have been wanting to do that all week.”
Rather than bounce on the cushions as expected, the loveseat ate me, and I sank into its sinfully soft embrace. Laughing, I got situated, discovering the whole piece of furniture was some sort of elaborate beanbag lie disguised as something elegant and from some distant past. “If two people sit on this, what will happen? Will we disappear entirely?”
Emerick waited until I managed to sit up before he thumped down beside me. “Not quite, but I have found fun and comfortable things with easily washed covers make the best pieces for a safehouse. Ben likely hopes we will be tempted into a nap, although we will thwart him for at least an hour while we make sure our rescues are stable.”
“I have learned harboring such hopes leads to disappointment. I’ll be back in a few minutes with some blood. Try not to assault your favorite dessert until you have the main meal.”
“It’s just a little assault. It’s his fault he’s delicious. He shouldn’t have gone out of his way to be so tasty if he didn’t want me snacking on him.”
Ben left the room laughing.
“It is good you’re becoming more relaxed. Make yourself comfortable, as I’ll need to do a lot of talking on the phone to settle this issue.”
“Do you think the teens will be all right?”
“I hope so. Considering their state after you got the vampires staked, they will probably be fine unless the humans really screw up their care.”
“I was warned they were prejudiced against preternaturals.” It took a little work to figure out how to conquer the beanbag enough I could make myself comfortable, stretching out and crossing my ankles on the far arm of the loveseat while I made good use of Emerick’s lap. “Better ask Ben to bring a straw, because I am not moving.”
Emerick chuckled. “I see we’re going to have to get one of these for your office, although I will have some concerns we might lose you to it. At least it will be easy to locate my wayward wife. I will dig in her beanbag couch to see if it consumed her once again.”
“It’s true. I’ll be researching, and then next thing everyone knows, I will have been eaten by my couch. And it’ll be so comfortable I won’t be able to call for help. I’ll be forced to research in perfect comfort, where I will inevitably catch a nap and nothing will get done. That couch is a really bad idea.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to actually sleep with the amount of coffee you tend to consume once you start working? I have learned to time my work so I can provide for you. I have found everyone is more productive if I mystically arrive with your next cup of coffee every thirty-three minutes. I am still studying if your coffee consumption changes the flavor of your blood.”
As part of my quest to ensure we became a bonded pair, I’d been requiring Emerick to steal sips every night, usually midway through one of my working binges, which involved dedicated focus on my work without being aware of someone bringing me coffee. Once, I’d been so focused he’d taken a bite out of me without me cluing in he’d been behind me, watching.
For an hour.
“Just because you bit me that one time during my research,” I muttered.
“It was a marvel to behold, this is true. You had no idea I was there, but when you realized I was the one doing the biting, you were quite pleased to be my dessert.”
“It’s not my fault your bites are even more relaxing than a bubble bath. Are you sure bonded vampires nip in bed? Do you know what your nips do? Induce nap time. That’s the wrong use of the bed.”
“I am sure I can handle that situation when we are registered as a bonded pair.”
“You should have just licked the blood off my nose rather than wasting it on Ben’s handkerchief.”
Ben entered the room carrying two bottles of blood along with a long, curly straw. “Alas, this is the only type of straw we keep here, and we usually use them for copious amounts of alcohol rather than blood, but it should do the trick.”
Damned vampires and their good hearing. “I’m too comfortable to sit up,” I said in my defense.
“You are not the first or the last to use a party straw to drink blood while trapped in the loving arms of that couch,” Ben assured me. “I’ve fallen victim to it a time or two when on watch duty here. Emerick, are we going to rotate her through the safehouses to get a feel for it?”
“We’ll rotate through together. We won’t notify anyone of our schedule to mitigate the risks and run security exercises at the same time. It’ll be generally good for the brood.” Emerick wiggled under me, leaned back, and sighed his contentment. “I should not be enjoying this so much.”
“Well, you did get to watch your wife non-fatally stake two vampires at the same time and tussle with another hunter. And yes, in his prime, Luca is a fugitive hunter, Pepper. Bloodlust of the level they suffered erases their humanity. He wasn’t all there, and you’ll find him to be a different vampire tomorrow.”
I remembered the consuming need for blood, but I had been able to fight it. “Does that make me different, too?”
“Somewhat,” Ben admitted. “Drink your blood and relax. I’ll come back as soon as I have some solid information on our rescues. Luca has consumed five bottles and is sleeping deeply. Giovanni is tending to him now, but at first look, he should recover without impairment. He seems to have been starved just long enough to start the bloodlust before being released. The other two are in worse shape.”
“Is there any chance they’ll die?” I asked, my eyes widening at the thought.
“No, but they’ll have a longer recovery. We’re going to have a complication dealing with your stakes. Both of them are clutching them like a lifeline.”
“It’s taming the bloodlust,” Emerick stated. “After they drank enough of my blood through Pepper, I was able to check on them. The stakes are suppressing the bloodlust and radiating something comforting, making them cling to it. Let them hold the stakes for as long as they need. It’ll make breaking the bloodlust easier to handle. I want you to contact a woodcarver specialized in figurines to give Pepper lessons. If her carving can be implemented on something other than weapons, it would be useful—and offer us a gentle way to help vampires.”
“Like the cuffs you used on me?” I asked.
“Yes, precisely. I prefer cuffing to staking whenever possible. Pendants and charms would be potentially useful. If your carvings do more than merely kill, we could do a great deal for other vampires in a kinder way.”
“I’m willing to try.”
Ben handed over the first of the bottles, and while loath to sit up, I did it anyway, opting to drink the blood properly rather than use the straw. “Goes down faster this way so I can get to the good stuff.”
“I will go back to tending the rescues. Expect a few hours for the first update. Right now, they’re struggling to handle drinking blood from the bottle.”
“They are? But they had no problems earlier.”
“I am why,” Emerick admitted. “I took over when you had given them enough blood. It didn’t take as much as normal because of their poor conditions. Take your time, Ben. If we can’t identify them until tomorrow night, that is fine. Assign them a guard and offer blood during the day. I dislike using the basement, but that would be for the best until we are certain they’re sane.”
Damn. “How bad is it for them, really?”
“Right now, they’re mad from the need to drink. The blood we’ve given has helped. Luca is in the best shape, but a lot of that is due to which stake you gave him. It does much of the work, although he was healthier than the others. They are no longer at risk of death, but it will be testy for a few hours until the bloodlust calms.”
“Can Luca’s brood master help?” I asked.
“No. If anything, it could create a dangerous situation. While the Picknard brood is strong enough, the brood master, Weston, is a younger vampire, and the younger ones have trouble resisting resonating bloodlust.”
“Resonating bloodlust? You mean he or others in his brood might succumb to this bloodlust because Luca is suffering from it?”
I had so much left to learn about vampires, and I worried I wouldn’t have enough time to figure everything else out before I made a critical error.
“Precisely. I am old enough where I can ignore the pull. It also helps I’m feeding more than most vampires right now.”
Ben placed the other bottles nearby before saying, “Typically, this would be a very dangerous situation, but you are impervious to bloodlust from the looks of it, and Emerick is experienced, so he’s very unlikely to succumb to it. I would not have tried it. I would have staked one to their final death and tried to save two, because the third would have meant we all would have fallen. Three may cause me to suffer from bloodlust.”
The insanity of my second life amazed me—and made me wonder about both of the vampires, who handled the situation as though it was no different from milk being spilled on the floor. “What do you mean I’m impervious?”
“You drank down many crazed miscreants, many of whom were long gone to bloodlust and hunting anyone who moved. Most vampires won’t risk drinking blood from such a vampire, as it could result in the same madness spreading,” Ben explained. “You also had no reaction to how they drank. You treated them like you did every other vampire you’ve hunted. How were you, Emerick?”
“I was not bothered, but my master taught me at a young age to resist helpless prey, fresh blood, and the crazed. We will have to test her bloodlust risk later, but for now, we will assume three is Pepper’s limit.” Emerick waited until I’d emptied my first bottle before plucking it out of my hand and reaching over the side of the couch to set it on the floor. “You best flee, Ben. After three bottles and a round with my wrist, she’s going to pass out, and I’m going to be yawning through my conversation with Picknard.”
“I’ll bring a bottle back for you. Which type?”
“Whatever the lowest grade we have. Leave the better bloods for the rescues. She tends to only want a little after a large feeding, but she takes her time about it. I’ll take my sips before sunrise.”
“If you think I’m going to rush dessert, you’re mistaken.”
Ben left and returned a moment later with a bottle for Emerick before heading off to deal with the rescued vampires.
“Is it fine if I sleep this off?”
“It is. While you drink, I’ll call Picknard.” Emerick retrieved his phone from his inner suit pocket and turned his attention to the screen. Ben had put the straw on top of one of the bottles, and without him to witness my childishness, I snagged it, popped the cork onto the nearby coffee table, and opted to take my time with the Wagyu rather than guzzle it.
Emerick chuckled, rested one of his arms on me, and connected the call with his free hand, holding the phone to his ear. “Hello, Weston. It’s Emerick. I’ve news regarding Luca. Before you worry, he is in one of my safehouses, although it will be a few days before I bring him to your home. He is being tended to by Giovanni. My wife was on a hunt and found him in a state of bloodlust. He’d been released with two other vampires who were also swayed by bloodlust. No, no, there were no fatalities. Luca was not staked. My presence was enough to cut through the thirst enough he remembered himself. The other two were staked, but they will recover. My wife’s quite skilled, and she controls when she kills, I assure you. They came to minimal harm, and she helped break the bloodlust with some assistance on my part. I did take control of Luca for a short period of time. He was in a state where it would have been dangerous not to.”
I made myself comfortable on Emerick and the loveseat, careful not to spill any of the Wagyu.
“We haven’t questioned him yet. He is not in a very talkative state, although he did speak a little. We’ll need to. There were two teenagers who were attacked. My wife rescued them, but the police have been involved. A necessity, unfortunately. I’ll do what I can to smooth things over for your vampire. Considering no one should die from the incident, it should be a trivial matter.”
I would need to learn what Emerick considered to be trivial.
For him, smoothing over feathers after two teens had been violently attacked might be trivial, but for everyone else, it would be an invitation to be staked or tossed into prison for life. Perhaps trivial in his mind meant possible. For most, possible and trivial meant two entirely different things.
I’d tumbled into a whole new world with an interesting man, one destined to vex me most steps of the way.
“Ah, no worries, Weston. My wife’s fine and came to no real harm during the scuffle. She decided to break her nose on Luca’s hand for reasons I cannot fathom, but I have learned not to question the strange ways of women. She’s having her breakfast right now, and her nose shall be precisely as it was this morning soon enough. Outside of that small incident, Luca was no problem to rein in. I do not believe he was imprisoned for as long as the two vampires released with him, and he had enough of a mind about him to use some common sense. Not much, but some. They were hunting in a pack, driven by instinct and starvation, so some violence is to be expected. A more delicate question for you. Would you like my brood to handle the questioning and legalities? It might be for the best, as my wife is of good standing with law enforcement right now. She does not kill innocent vampires or victims, and she has quickly developed a good reputation for having sufficient proof of wrongdoing. As she could not find sufficient proof of wrongdoing and had noticed their odd behavior, it will be considered. She loves nothing more than staking miscreants and escorting them to their final death—and she loves nothing more than securing justice for the wronged. Even those with a dislike of preternaturals tend to hesitate when she will not strike.”
I wondered what game Emerick played, as I had done some serious thinking about going for the kill, ultimately allowing the stakes to decide the fate of the vampires who’d attacked the teens. I would need to ask how I’d managed to gain that sort of reputation despite only having surfaced for a short time before dropping off the radar again.
I still wondered about what Emerick had done to remove traitors from his midst while I had gone into hiding with a bunch of bats.
As soon as possible, I needed to have Emerick teach me the trick of becoming a cat, because a cat had many more sleeping options during the day than a leather-clad vampire with more stakes than sense.
“I will make certain Luca is fully calmed before returning him to your brood. If you require help settling him, I’ll bring the wife over, and we’ll have dinner with you. She has a calming influence. In this situation, perhaps common ground also applies. I suspect whoever did this wishes to undermine preternaturals in the area. They would be wise to cease their activities. My wife now knows there are preternaturals being held hostage and victimized, and she does not handle such things well or with grace.”
As I couldn’t argue with him, I kept on sipping my blood while listening to one side of the conversation.
“Of course. Call me back if you have any questions, and I will have Luca contact you as soon as he can handle the conversation. Right now, he is in a more sensitive state, so we’re focused on feeding him and making certain his body will heal from his ordeal. Have a good night.” Emerick hung up the phone, and then he chuckled. “Well, that is one happy brood master. He knew his offspring had not perished, but he had lost hope of recovery. It is fortunate we were the ones to find him. Other vampires would not have been so considerate or cautious. I am surprised you did not take your normal route with them.”
“I trusted the stakes to decide,” I confessed. “I knew I needed to rescue the kids, but something seemed weird about the whole thing.”
“Yes. You’ve never seen a truly starved vampire on the verge of final death. Another night or two without feeding and they would have perished. They were far weaker than the miscreants you are accustomed to fighting—they feed with higher frequency, so they are still strong. They hunted in a pack, which is a survival instinct, although they did not hunt efficiently as a pack. While you were malnourished, you fed frequently enough you suffered in other ways. Your mind was still intact. Theirs were not. Luca recovers the quickest, but that’s due to the influence of your stake. It suppresses the beast within.”
That was a good way to put it. Once I thirsted, I became a beast on the hunt for my next meal, aware I would end another’s life. Hunting miscreants had assuaged my guilt, although I hadn’t learned just how justified their ends were until meeting Emerick.
Life without the sole focus of hunting and staking my maker had changed me. Other futures enticed me, futures where I might find purpose or even joy if I allowed them to come to pass. No, if I chose to pursue them. The decision to make myself into something other than a hunting vampire on the streets mattered even more than the Lowrance brood’s willingness to take me in despite my associations with one of their enemies.
They transformed me from a weakness into a strength, and they saw value in me.
And, in turn, they taught me that value when the demons within whispered dark things and sought to convince me otherwise.
One day, I hoped those demons would fall silent, never to bother me again.
“Is that really my reputation?” I asked, struggling to come to terms with how not hunting vampires might hold so much sway.
“Ah, the Silent Stalker. The vexation of many a New York brood. A vampire, believed to be male, swooping into my hunting grounds and plucking profitable bounties off my board! Not acceptable. No trace, no evidence, not until months of these unexpected bounty slayings had gone by, removing dangerous threats from New York streets, all without claiming a single penny. You did truly vex me, especially at first, as I had been organizing our hunters to deal with those miscreants. I’d made such nice plans for the bounty money, too.”
I snorted my amusement over my vexations of his person before taking another sip of the Wagyu. “How cruel of me, stealing all that bounty money right out from under your nose.”
“Then for the Silent Stalker to be a lonely female abandoned on the streets by an irresponsible and cruel maker? So much vexation, so little time. But yes, your reputation truly is as such. You established it early, and when a body showed up with your typical kill method, closer care was taken to identify the vampire, learn why you’d made the kill, and evaluate the situation. You led law enforcement to closing several unsolved mysteries, did you know?”
While I remembered how my stakes had ended the lives of numerous nasty characters, Carnegie included, I hadn’t realized my work had done that much good. “Really?”
“Vampires still leave DNA evidence, especially the careless miscreants you often hunted, so the bodies often became the resolution to those mysteries. Knowing who had committed the crimes won’t bring back the dead, but the closure is important for those left behind.” Emerick stretched out his legs and returned his phone to his pocket. “I see you are not trying to guzzle the Wagyu down so it can’t rise up against you tonight.”
I regarded the bottle of blood with interest. “Maybe I’m getting used to it? I must be getting used to it. I’m hungry, though, so maybe that matters.”
“And I shall attend to your culinary needs soon enough. Is there anything you’d like in particular?”
I considered all the various options, debating what I might ask for. Understanding he would fulfill any request didn’t help. If anything, the luxurious choices lacked appeal in the same way they often lacked to provide comfort. The first thing to pop into my head might land me in hot water—or at least earn a laugh or two. “A hot turkey or chicken sandwich would be nice.” Then, realizing how insane the request sounded, I added, “It’s like being wrapped in a warm hug, but with food. With mashed potatoes and lots of gravy.”
Gravy that wouldn’t be spiked with blood, if our understanding of the situation proved to be correct.
Emerick lifted his arm and checked his watch. “Chicken can be done for certain, and it might be possible to do a turkey. I’ll find out. If you wish to have the food equivalent of a warm hug, then the food equivalent of a warm hug you shall have.”