Hunting Season (Aurora Sky (7 page)

“I'll be right down.”

I paused the music and headed downstairs.

Noel had plates and napkins set out on the kitchen beside a pizza box. Her back was to me as she rummaged through the fridge.

“Wine cooler?” she asked.

“No, thanks.”

The blood had satiated me quite nicely. I wasn't even hungry, but the pizza smelled good, and I could use some normalcy to end the day. Noel had missed all the action.

I grabbed a plate and slice of pie. “How'd it go with Henry and Zeke?”

Noel put two pieces of pizza on her plate. She took it to the table and rested her elbows on the surface.

“I'm exhausted,” she said.

“That bad?” I bit off a piece.

Noel lifted one of her slices, took a bite, chewed and swallowed. “It was like trying to convince a three-year-old to bathe.”

I wrinkled my nose. Henry bathing was not the visual I wanted to have while eating.

“But he ran it by Richard and got the green light. Henry refused to invite anyone until we came up with an appropriate theme. Friday night is going to be a tribute to Marcus. Everyone is to dress in black.”

I snorted. “Won't be a problem for Fane.”

Noel put her pizza down and frowned. “Unfortunately I won't be able to attend.”

Not that I'd been thrilled about Noel and Fane teaming up together at the palace, but what the hell? Noel had as much motivation as me to get Dante and Gavin back. She knew what Jared looked like. This was our mess, and I didn't like leaving it all on Fane, especially with Valerie on the loose.

“Why not?”

“I phoned Melcher after school to tell him about the party at the palace and let him know I heard Giselle had been invited.”

I sat up straighter. “Did he buy it?”

Noel shrugged. “It's a tribute party. The palace was the last fête Marcus and Andre ever attended. It's possible Giselle might want to speak with some of the last vampires to spend time with her father.” Noel shrugged again.

“Okay,” I said. “That's great, but why can't you go?”

“Melcher said he wants me back on the eastside Friday night.”

I groaned. “Melcher and his missions. Well, I guess you'll have an alibi, too. I just don't like this. Does Fane know?”

“I tried to call him, but he didn't pick up.”

My fingers curled into my palms. “He was here earlier. He taught me to drive the Jeep, then came in to talk. Shortly after, Valerie came by, smashed Fane's windshield, and threw a rock through our front window.”

“Holy shit,” Noel said, craning her neck around to the hall as though she'd missed the broken window.

“It was replaced a couple hours ago,” I said.

Noel's head snapped back around. “I thought she was still in the hospital.”

“Apparently not.”

“You actually saw her?”

“On the security cam.” I tapped my fingers against the table. “Fane got a call from Joss after that and left.”

“Shit,” Noel said. “What's the deal? She's with Gavin now.”

“Before Giselle stabbed her Saturday morning, she came by and found me here with Fane. She made threats.”

Noel's eyes expanded. “Oh, crap. Are you going to report her to Melcher?”

“And tell him what exactly? That I was entertaining a vampire at the time?” I shook my head. “That would put me in even deeper shit.”

Noel sighed. “I suppose you're right.” She lifted the wine cooler to her lips and drank down a third in one go before returning to her pizza. Between chews she said, “I take it you won't be inviting her over for any more sleepovers?”

I screwed up my face. “Never again.”

“Good.” Noel reached under the table, leaning to one side as she dug into her pocket. She set a small baggie filled with white powder on the table. “Or you could invite her over for happy hour and slip this into her drink.” Noel's teeth flashed white when she grinned.

I leaned forward. “What is that?”

“Ground up sleeping pills,” Noel said.

“Where did you get that?”

“From Henry. I figured it wouldn't hurt to have some on hand with all the unwanted company we've had coming through.”

Noel stood and snatched the bag from the table, retreating into the kitchen. I turned and watched her open the cupboard by the sink. She pulled out a tea tin and popped open the lid.

“I'll stash it in here,” Noel said. “In front of the bottle of chloroform Daren and Reece scrounged up for us.”

Noel closed the cupboard and helped herself to a third slice of pizza. She rejoined me at the table. “Now that we've established that the no vampires allowed rule doesn't apply in our house, I think we should instate a no
psychotic
vampires allowed rule.”

I snorted. “Deal.”

“I can't believe she actually threw a rock through our window. Who does that? Oh, right, Valerie.” Noel pulled her hair over one shoulder and pushed it back a second later. “Fane and Joss might want to find some place to hole up until this blows over.”

I snorted. “Maybe Zeke has an extra room.”

Noel didn't break into even a small smile at my joke. She held one slim hand over her neck. “They should check into a motel or something, at least for a while—until Valerie has a chance to cool off.”

“I don't think Valerie is the kind of person who ever cools off,” I said.

And Fane wasn't the type to be intimidated. Somehow, that worried me more.

Once Noel cleared out of the dining room to start on homework upstairs, I tried calling Fane, expecting to hear my name on his lips at any second. But he didn't answer.

This was the first time I'd heard his voice message—he'd always picked up before.

“Hello, this is Death,” Fane said in greeting. “I'm not in right now, but if you leave your name and number, I'll get right with you.”

Beep!

If I weren't so anxious, I would have laughed.

I hesitated before saying, “Hi, it's me. Is everything okay?”

I hung up and stared at my phone for two minutes, sure it would ring. But it didn't.

Now what the hell had happened? Could we not get through one damn day without a new catastrophe knocking us over?

I walked upstairs. Noel sat with her back to me at the desk inside the office. Even after clearing the air, I wasn't sure I wanted to move my desk back in. I liked having my own private domain to study and sleep.

I knocked on the open door.

Noel's head remained bent over the desk. I picked up the faint sound of music playing from her ear buds.

I knocked louder. Nothing.

“Noel!” I shouted.

She gave a start and whipped around. Only when she saw it was me did her shoulders relax. She took out the ear buds.

“Fane's not answering my call, either,” I said.

Noel frowned. “Want me to drive you to his place? Make sure everything's all right?”

I considered it a moment. “If he wanted me to know what was going on, he would have called.”

“Are you sure?” Noel asked.

“Yeah, thanks. I'll try him again in the morning.”

I kinda did want to go check on him, but he didn't seem like he wanted me around when he left. I was touched that Noel had offered to drive me without a moment's hesitation. Technically I should be able to drive myself, but I wasn't keen to do my first solo drive in the dark.

He was fine. This was Fane Donado we were talking about. Joss was probably having an existential crisis or something that required Fane talking him off the ledge. That was all. Nothing to worry about. Maybe it was something as silly as Joss spilling tea on a book that would have paid a month's rent. Who knew? I didn't. If it had been something I needed to worry about, Fane would have said something.

I needed to stop stressing over it and try to finish at least one assignment.

I took a detour to the bathroom to brush my teeth first. I put toothpaste onto my brush, but didn't stick it inside my mouth. Instead, I stared at my pearly whites in the mirror. Vampire teeth, no fangs. Nevertheless, they were teeth that had bitten a boy and drank blood.

I paused only a second longer before brushing them so hard my gums bled—making me brush them more rigorously still.

Pajamas on, I set my phone on my nightstand and crawled under the covers. I turned off the bedside lamp. My phone lit up a moment later, ringing. Fane's name displayed over the screen.

Thank goodness!

“I was worried,” I cried into the phone.

“I'm sorry I didn't call sooner,” Fane said.

I sat up straight.

“Fane, what happened?”

He took a deep breath. “Valerie came by my place and broke out every window with Joss inside.”

My gut twisted.

“Oh my god. Is he okay?”

“Shaken up, but fine otherwise.”

“Did she throw rocks?”

“Yes.”

The line went silent. Fane sounded more angry than sad.

“Fane, I'm sorry. If I hadn't asked you over…”

“I'm the one who dated her,” Fane said, voice hardening. “This is entirely on me.”

My back straightened. “This isn't on you or me. It's the agency's fault. The agency did this to us.”

Fane sighed. “And this is only the beginning.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Like you said, we can stop them. Starting with Jared. He's Melcher's right hand.”

“We'll be ready for him,” Fane said. “I only hope Noel made a convincing case to your boss and that Valerie stays out of it.”

My heart sunk down to the covers.

With Valerie once more operational, Melcher might assign her back to the lodge, or worse, the palace. She could throw a great big wrench into our plans.

“Maybe I could talk to her,” I said. “She has as much motivation to take down Jared as I. and as for the trade, Giselle still has her boyfriend.”

“Do not get her involved,” Fane said.

I bristled at his command.

“But if I sent her a text…”

“Aurora, you need to stay as far away from her as possible.”

Even though I knew he was right—Valerie was beyond reasoning with—I didn't appreciate his tone. Fane wasn't Melcher. He couldn't order me around. I didn't have a choice in the matter if she and I were put on assignment together. Wouldn't it be better if we were on the same page?

“She could screw everything up,” I cried into the phone.

“And you can bet that if she knew what we were up to, she'd screw it up worse,” Fane said.

I inhaled and held it to the count of five before releasing slowly. I knew he was right; I just found the whole thing frustrating. Why did Valerie have to be such a psychotic bitch? We could have teamed up. If only she'd listened to reason when I tried to explain what happened with Fane at the tasting. It was as though she expected any guy who ever dated her never to care about another woman again. What a prima donna.

“Okay,” I said. “The less people who know about our plan, the better. We need to be on our toes—you especially.”