Hunter by Night (24 page)

She shook her head. “Okay, so for the rest, I just need to what? Supervise?”

“Pretty much. I’ve been bringing the guys coffee and donuts to be nice. Check in with Ted a lot to make sure they’re on schedule. Gonna start getting really cold in a few months. We need this place to be ready as soon as possible. Walls, rooms, electricity, running water. We need a kitchen. I figure you could probably handle ordering furniture and linens and whatnot once they say we’re ready to start moving that stuff in.”

“I could do that, yeah.” Sounded easy, in fact. Except for the fact that she kind of couldn’t see clearly.
What’s going on?

“Really, if anything else comes up, all you gotta do is call me or Ty. We can come in to help if necessary, but this way we’re available to help out at the mansion with the fallout of that nasty fight, and you’ve got something to fill your daytime hours other than lying around in your room and listening to sad music or sneaking out the back door.”

She blinked to clear her blurry vision and shot Anton a look that she hoped told him to get bent.

He shot one right back.

She couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Thanks, Anton.”

“No sweat.” He threw an arm around her shoulder.

Anton turned away from her. “All right. Let me show you the plans. I know you won’t really be able to read them, but it may still help just to have them for reference.”

“Com…” She turned to follow. The room swam. “Oh, jeez.” She reached to brace her weight on a folding table she was so sure had been right next to her, but her hand met with a whole lot of nothing.

“Lexi?”

The concrete floor smacked her in the face. Hard. “Oh fuck.” She reached for Anton’s outstretched hand. “That was embarrassing. I don’t know if it’s the fumes in here or the fact that I haven’t eaten much lately. I just got, I dunno, really disoriented.”
Like
I’d been on the Tilt-A-Whirl a dozen times. Whatever.
The whole running-through-the-woods, stay-or-go roller coaster with Lee had put her stomach through the wringer. Her appetite had been completely MIA for days.

“Here.” Anton handed her a chocolate-mint protein bar. “These are great when I forget to eat. They’ve got protein and the mint helps when you’re queasy. Calms my stomach when I forget to eat. Try one.”

He knelt beside her, trying to help her up. “Lexi, are you okay? What’s going on?”

She shivered again. Everything hurt. “I’m really cold. It’s like seventy-five out, right?” It wasn’t that late in the year yet. Still August. Her favorite month because of the moderate temperature heading into fall. How could she be so cold?

Shouting nearby. Her hands slid from underneath her. The hard concrete under her head.

“Hey,” she mumbled. “Hey…” Nobody seemed to hear her. “Guys, I can’t see anything.”

Lee.
She wanted Lee. He was going to be so upset.

“Have we heard from Xander?”

Lee held his phone as they all gathered in the king’s office. Tyra, Siddoh, and Flay formed a semicircle around him.

Flay’s head popped up, directing his answer toward Thad’s voice, growling and tired from the speakerphone. “Not since he headed back into DC to get Theresa and the baby. I think he needed time to heal.”

All at once, agony exploded through Lee’s skull. The phone fell from his hand. From far away on the floor, Thad’s voice asked if everything was all right.

“Jesus… no.”

He looked up to Tyra as he swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. “Tyra, call Anton. Please.”

Without a word, she put her phone to her ear. After a pause, she said, “Nothing yet.” Her concerned face betrayed the calm in her voice.

“Tyra.” Thad’s voice was tinny and far away for some reason. “Do you know where they are?”

“He and Alexia went down to the work site.”

Lee retrieved the phone from the floor. “You have to go. You’re the only one here who can be out in daylight. Something’s wrong.” Even as he said it, something dark and sharp raced through his veins. He sucked in a breath and rode out the pain. He wouldn’t lose his shit now, not with all these waiting eyes on him.

“Tyra,” Thad warned from the other end of Lee’s phone. “You have no backup.”

“Thad.”
Breathe
in… Breathe out…
“With all due respect, she can go in cloaked. If it’s a nest, she returns immediately.”

“Following orders and just reporting in is not her strong suit,” Thad warned.

“Thad…” Tyra’s fingers dug into the back of a chair. Wherever Alexia was, Tyra’s mate was also. Not hurt, not yet. Lee presumed Tyra would have sensed Anton’s distress, would be acting with more anxiety.

Dammit, the dark pain and not knowing had frozen Lee’s bones.

Flay stood. “I’ll go.” They all looked up. “I have human blood. If we’re going from indoors to indoors, a little sun filtered through a window won’t hurt me much.” Tyra gaped at him. Hell, everyone did. “What? My human blood is a coupla generations removed, but I can take a little sun. Anyway, I was patrolling downtown when the big UV bomb happened. I’m due. Come on.”

Lee nodded to them both. He looked to Siddoh, who gave his agreement. Thank fuck. Right now, Lee couldn’t count on himself to be objective. He held up the phone. “Thad?”

“Be careful, guys.”

The clock on the wall told them that the little hand had only passed noon. Hours. Fucking hours. This time of year, it wouldn’t be dark enough for him to leave until maybe eight at night. He squeezed his eyes shut. “Yeah. Be careful, guys. And thank you.” His breath left his lungs and would not return.

With that, Tyra grabbed Flay, and both faded from view. They took a huge risk in simply going to look for information. Tyra would take a power hit, teleporting cloaked with another large body. For the sake of Flay’s vampire side, Lee hoped they didn’t have to step out into the sunshine. If they got downtown and had to fight… Fuck.

Siddoh, still ragged from the night prior, finally spoke up: “So what’s the worst-case-scenario plan here?”

“Worst-case scenario, we don’t need a plan because they’re dead.” Just saying the words made Lee’s world spin, but it needed to be out there. God damn, he was freezing. Shivering without control freezing.

“Thank fuck I haven’t got you guys on speaker over here,” Thad said. “If Isabel heard you, she’d lose her mind.”

Lee gripped his own forehead. “I’m being realistic, Thad.”

“I know. Let’s assume you’re going to get her back. How?”

“Worst case, we have the windowless vans. We load up in the back stalker-style like when we took you and Isabel to the hospital. We’ll put Brayden and Blood Service on standby.” The question was always who to drive in these situations. They’d pasted obscenely illegal tint film over the windows, but it wasn’t sufficient to protect a vampire’s sensitive skin. Still, if Lee had to, he’d drive the damn thing himself or go up in flames trying. “Depending on what Tyra says when she reports back—”

Siddoh’s phone rang. “That was fast.” He answered. After a few monosyllabic responses and a terse, “Call us when you know more,” the asshole hung up again.

Lee’s fingers stiffened. “Status?”

Siddoh took a slow breath. “Tyra says that Anton handled the situation remarkably well under the circumstances.”

What fucking circumstances? “That tells me exactly dick. What happened?
Where
is
she, and when can she get the hell back home?
”

Siddoh grimaced. “I don’t have all of that information, which is why I said, ‘Call back when you know more.’” He leaned forward. “She got sick, reasons unknown, and passed out at the construction site. Anton tried to heal her, but an ambulance had to be called. She’s being taken to a human hospital. Tyra thinks it’s County Hospital. That’s all I’ve got.”

Lee eased back into his chair. The searing pain returned in force to his chest. A human hospital. No way to get to her. No choice but to wait. They could try to drive down there, but he risked storming into a human hospital covered in brutal sunburn, freaking out the staff and doing more harm than good.

All his power and experience as a fighter, and he could do nothing to save her now. Like the day he’d lost his family.

I
knew
something
like
this
would
happen.
In a matter of days, Lee had given in to love, and now some karmic “fuck you” had come along and knocked his newly built house down. He kicked an empty chair, hardly appeased when the carpet cushioned its fall. Now was not the time to come unglued.

“Okay.”
Breathe
in… Breathe out…
“Let’s get back to strategy. She’s in good hands. Tyra and Flay are keeping an eye out.” His eyes burned. He could not afford to shed tears. Not yet. Thad was right. Alexia would be fine. Lee would accept no other option. “If we get word that she’s in trouble, we roll out in the vans. As long as she’s stable, safest thing is to wait.” Fuck, just saying it burned. “The second night falls, I’m out the door.”

Lee went on autopilot, making suggestions and nodding or dismissing others with a wave of his hand. Inside his chest the painful ache, the slow, sludgy
glug, glug
of his heart trudged along. This was the first time he’d experienced such pain since the night Alexia had given him her blood.

He struggled to sit still. If Alexia didn’t make it, Lee wouldn’t survive. And not only because he needed her blood to heal his heart.

He needed Alexia to heal
his
soul
, too.

***

The night chilled Siddoh’s new skin. The promise of fall not too far away and the eerie aftermath of battle hung over what had always seemed a safe enclave. Siddoh’s skin still held a strange hypersensitivity, and the only thing that had him willing to wear clothes and weapons was that without it all, his boys might retreat in protest.

His burns had healed nicely. Whatever Ivy might have said about “therapeutic” doses be damned; she’d given him a decent amount of blood. His gratitude toward her did indeed warm him. However, his current mission was a real kick you in the crotch kind of a thing. Particularly if Ivy happened to be visiting her dying father’s house.

He nodded to the guard at the door. “How are we doing tonight?”

“Hanging in there,” the vampire said. “No visitors this evening.”

Siddoh was surprised. He’d have expected Ivy to be over here the second the sun dropped out of the sky, given the reports that the elder circled the drain. Then again, last night had been exhausting for everybody. Ivy might be catching up on rest after giving blood to those who’d been injured.

All in all, the situation was best for Siddoh, who needed to have a talk with Ivy’s father. Doing so without his daughter present would be the best, least emotional thing for all involved.

“Good,” Siddoh said. “I need a word.” Or two. Thousand.

Through the foyer and past Elder Grayson’s doily-covered sofa, Siddoh paused at the door to Elder Grayson’s bedroom.
So
let’s recap. Thad gone. Lee gone. Tyra gone. Once again, Siddoh, you’ve found yourself in charge. Let’s not turn this into a habit.

Anton and Tyra had guarded Alexia all day, and Thad maintained a holding pattern at the hospital. Understandably, the king hesitated to bring the queen and his child home until a clear green light could be given. As soon as the sun had dipped out of sight, Lee had left smoke trails in his hurry to get to County Hospital. God willing, Lexi would be fine. Siddoh did care for that little human, and he wanted her to be all right. And damned if he’d ever seen Lee twisted up over any female before.

Siddoh pushed quietly into the room where Ivy’s father lay asleep and open-mouthed against a pile of pillows. A television on the low dresser by the door played the History Channel at low volume. Something about Nazis and medical testing.

Siddoh gagged. He couldn’t watch that shit, not even after centuries of witnessing all manner of violence between vampires and their enemies. He couldn’t understand the atrocities humans committed against their own kind. Then again, he could not understand his uncle’s actions either.

The chair by the bed creaked when he sat down. “Elder Grayson.”

The old vampire’s eyes eased open.

“Still in there, sir?”

The elder’s head moved slowly, his braid of gray hair coiled next to him on the pillow. “Only resting. How may I help you?”

In spite of everything, Siddoh kind of appreciated that the old vampire seemed to have a spark of life left. “Earlier this week, my uncle disabled the energetic shields that surrounded the perimeter of the estate in an effort to make the king look foolish. He intentionally endangered the queen. I need to know what information you have. How many members of the Council were in on the plan.”

These were not questions; they were commands. In deference to the dying elder’s condition, Siddoh laid them out as quietly as he could manage while making it very clear that an answer was required. When the old vampire seemed to hesitate, Siddoh said, “At this point, Elder, there is nothing to be gained by taking it to your grave. Dare you continue to shame your daughter with your deceit?”

The elder vampire closed his eyes against the questions.

Siddoh leaned forward. “I think,” he said slowly, “that you are decent deep down. You care for your daughter, you care for your race. I suspect that somebody convinced the Council that our king is weak and that the best thing for our race is for the Council to take over.”

The elder swallowed. “So many of us have died. Thaddeus Senior was young and progressive in his ways. His son even more so.”

Siddoh rubbed at his chin, a thing he did when he was thinking, but immediately regretted the friction on his sensitive skin. “So was this going to be a committee leading the vampires? Or was someone in particular to be at the helm?” He had his suspicions, but he needed to hear an answer.

Elder Grayson blinked and shook his head. “Your uncle approached me. I agreed with his plan.”

The old male licked his dry lips, and Siddoh handed over a glass of water from the bedside table. “You sure you don’t want to rethink having some blood, old man?” Word from Siddoh’s last status update was that Elder Grayson would no longer take blood.

He shook his head. “My time is up. My family resides in the afterlife. My place is with them.”

“Everything set to go except for farming out your youngest daughter?” Siddoh’s anger rose inexplicably in his throat as he stared at a framed photo over the bed. Elder Grayson sat in the living room of that very same home with his departed mate and three younger females. Ivy, clearly the youngest, smiled broadly and innocently on the far right. Pre-tattoo, probably?

“Our kind thrives on tradition,” the elder said. “Ivy will need family of her own when I’m gone.” The elder seemed to sink into the bed. “She’s innocent. Sheltered.”

Siddoh thought of the scars and that snake tattoo, and wondered.

The old male gave a dry cough. “Her power hasn’t fully developed yet. When it does, she’ll be a danger to herself.” He paused for breath. “I lost her sisters at such a young age. Her mother and I grew to love each other. I just hoped…”

A thump in the outer room drew their attention. “Father?”

Siddoh stood but turned back to the elder. “My earlier question, sir. Who would lead the Council if the king is overthrown?” Even if run by committee, there would be a chairperson. Somebody.

“Not sure…” He was looking tired now. “Seemed to be your uncle’s plan.”

Siddoh’s stomach turned as he headed for the outer room to check Ivy. In all of this, Siddoh had the vague suspicion that a puzzle piece was missing. His uncle’s daughter being killed by a human had been tragic, but the old male had been on the slow road to death as far as everyone knew. Then again, he hadn’t seemed so tragically ill in the interrogation shed, and all roads seemed to lead back there.

In the outer room, everything remained dark and quiet. “Ivy?”

Her long, dark hair framed her face when she lifted her head from her seat at the dining table. Red-rimmed eyes looked at him as she grabbed a napkin to blow her nose. “You were right.”

He smiled and crossed his arms. “Now, that hardly ever happens.” He sat as gently as he could in the chair across from her. “What was I right about?”

“Dr. Brayden.” Sniffle. Blow. Sniffle. “Since my father’s ill, I went to him myself about a mating arrangement. He respectfully declined.”

Siddoh put his hand over hers. “I didn’t mean to be cruel, Ivy.” A quick pat, and he pulled his hand back. He was usually so at ease with females, flirtatious practically out of habit, but something about Ivy made him twitchy. “Brayden’s always kept to himself. It doesn’t surprise me that an arrangement like that wouldn’t be his thing. I think he’s one of those mated to his job types.”

Apparently Siddoh’s words didn’t help, because she dropped her head back down to the plastic, oval place mat on the table, crying again. Was it only the hurt of rejection or something heavier?