Tempted in the Night (33 page)

"How do you know that's where he is?" Jess asked Harris as they rode in the taxi back to the Winslow mansion. "Is he all right?"

Harris shot a look at the driver before answering her. "Lucy saw men carrying a body in. Diablo sensed it was John, but since John didn't seem distressed, he didn't try to do anything to stop the men."

Jess tried to control her fear. She felt sick to her stomach, but this time, it wasn't the drugs making her ill.

"You need to focus on the facts," Harris told her. "That man in the alley is still alive and you learned a lesson.
Time to move on.
As for John, I'm worried about him, too, but I think he's still alive, at least."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Because Diablo might not know the difference between being asleep and being unconscious, but he knows the difference between being alive and dead. If John was dead, Diablo would know and he would have conveyed that to Lucy who would have shared it with me. So, I feel reasonably certain that John's alive, but unconscious. We just need to get to him before all of
that changes
."

They continued to ride in silence while Jess fought her instinctive wariness at being in such close quarters with Harris. To take her mind off of it, she replayed the last couple of hours in her head. "It never occurred to me that Brody would hire
hu
—" She stopped and lowered her voice so the driver wouldn't hear.
"Humans to kidnap me during the day."

"I should have warned you and John. I've seen it done before, and Brody certainly had the money to pull it off, but the humans he hired to take you are really the least of our worries."

Something in his voice broke through all Jess's thoughts and brought her to full attention. "What do you mean?"

"From what I picked up from Lucy, John was being carried in by more than one vampire. It would seem that Brody has found help."

The second time John regained consciousness, he felt stronger, though he was still in pain.

He kept his eyes closed, just in case he was being watched, and tried to get as much information about where he was from what he could hear and feel.

He was lying on something cold, hard, and damp, maybe a slab of stone or something similar. The air around him was moist and smelled of earth and mildew. He knew it was night because despite the dull ache saturating his body, there wasn't the fatigue he felt when the sun was up. That meant either only a couple of hours had passed since he'd rescued Jess or an entire day had passed and it was now the next night. He couldn't tell which it was.

He didn't know how long he lay there, listening. He was tempted to open his eyes and get up, try to escape, but some instinct held him back. Time passed slowly. Eventually, he heard voices echoing off the walls, growing louder as they drew nearer.

"Any problems?"

Brody.

"Nah," a second voice said. "Your plan worked as expected. We waited until they left the room and then, just like you told us, made enough noise so that they headed out into the street instead of the alley. Once they came out the front of the building, we followed them into the crowd until we could inject him. There were so many
people,
he never knew what hit him. Just dropped right there."

"And the woman?"
Brody asked.

"She kept on going. I don't think she knew he wasn't behind her."

"Excellent. I'll deal with her later. You brought
Boehler's
body back as instructed?"

"Yeah.
We laid him out on the crypt in the inner chamber."

"And you're quite certain he's dead?"

"Sure thing.
There was enough poison in that syringe to kill two humans."

That explained the way he felt, John thought. Brody had somehow hired humans to work for him and they'd tried to kill him. In fact, they thought they
had
killed him, which might be the only bit of luck going his way. Brody didn't know he'd become a changeling. Hell, Brody probably didn't even know what a changeling was, but he was about to find out.

Harris paid the driver and waited until the cab was headed back down the driveway before turning around. "Is there a problem?" he asked Jessica, because she was staring at him so intensely.

She shook herself. "I'm sorry. It just seems strange to see a vampire doing something as mundane as paying for a cab ride. I didn't even know you had money."

He grimaced. "After tonight, I'm about broke."

She looked contrite.
"My fault."

He shrugged. "Whatever. I've got to go."

"Wait," she said after he'd taken only a couple of steps. "You're going to the cemetery, aren't you?" She didn't wait for him to answer, but hurried on. "I'm going with you."

"No."

Her eyes lit up with anger.
"Fine.
Then I'll go by myself." She ran up the steps of the house and Harris hoped she'd changed her mind.

He waited to see if she'd come back outside. About the time he thought she might actually stay inside, the door opened. When she came out, he saw she was carrying a .44
mag
in one hand and wore what appeared to be night goggles on her face.

"What the hell?"

"I'm not a complete idiot—despite tonight's earlier incident. I'm going to that cemetery to rescue John, but I'm not going unarmed—or blind."

She came down the porch steps and walked past him, still holding the gun in one hand and shoving extra bullets into her pocket with the other.

"I would think that you, of all people, would know that a gun isn't going to do you much good against a vampire."

"This isn't an ordinary gun," she informed him sweetly, not bothering to look at him as she spoke. "Or, to be more precise, the bullets are not ordinary bullets."

They were crossing the long open pasture that lay between the Winslow mansion and the cemetery. There was enough of a moon out that to Harris, it seemed to be almost as bright as day; not that he'd had occasion to feel the sun on his face in a long time.

"And what's so special about these bullets?"

She jumped when he spoke, letting on that she still wasn't entirely comfortable in his presence. "These are hollow points that I've filled with a deadly vampire toxin."

He wasn't feeling exactly comfortable around her, either.
Vampire toxin
?
Part of him felt ill that she had something that actually might kill a vampire; another part worried that, given their situation, what she had might not work.

"Do you even know how to shoot that?" he asked her, pointing to the gun. "The .44
mag's
got enough kick to knock you on your as—throw off your aim," he quickly amended.

She didn't bother to look at him when she said, "Oh, I'll manage, thanks."

Well
, he thought.
That was reassuring
—
not
. "So, you mind me asking what's in those
bullets?
" A thought suddenly occurred to him. "It's not Holy Water, is it, because, I've got to tell you, if it is, it's not going to work."

"Really?"
She turned to look at him. "Someone already try that on you?"

"No. If you must know, I went to church the other night. So, you can scratch that off your list of things that will kill vampires."

"Interesting."
She sounded distracted and Harris imagined she was making mental notes for future reference. He hoped she lived long enough to have a future. When he saw the cemetery up ahead, he moved in front of her, forcing her to stop.

"Get out of my way, Harris."

"You shouldn't go in there. Give me the gun. I don't even care what's in the bullets. If you say they work, that's good enough for me, but let me go in alone. I promise that I'll find John."

He waited for her answer and noticed that she was staring at the ground instead of him. He thought back over what he'd said and tried to remember at what point she'd stopped looking at him. "You
have
tested the bullets, haven't you?"

She looked up, angry. "No, not technically, but I know they'll work."

"Oh, hell no.
We are not testing new ammunition in the heat of battle. You're not going any farther, and don't even bother trying to change my mind. John doesn't have time for us to argue." He walked off, leaving her fuming where she stood.

"You want me to test the bullets?" she asked in a cold tone of voice. "Fine, I'll test them."

He turned around and saw her aiming the gun directly at him. The fact that he could move faster than she could follow him with her eyes never occurred to him. He stood there, frozen, as she pulled the trigger.

The kick from the gun literally knocked Jess off her feet. She'd never fired a gun before and it was nothing like she'd expected.

Scrambling to get up, she saw Harris standing there, an expression of shock and horror etched across his face. It was almost enough to make her laugh, but she knew he wouldn't appreciate it. But the sight behind him did make her smile.

"It worked," she said triumphantly, running past Harris, who still hadn't moved, to where the vampire she'd shot lay motionless. Afraid to get too close, she stood there, studying the vampire's chest for signs of breathing. There were none.

Her shot had missed the heart, which she'd been aiming for, and entered the lower abdomen, but in her mind, that was an even better test of the toxin. If it could enter the body at any site and still kill, then that was good.

She didn't hear Harris approach, but sensed when he stood beside her.

"Please tell me you were aiming for that vampire all along," he said softly.

"Of course," she replied. "What were you thinking? That I'd shoot you? Don't be ridiculous. I need your help to rescue John. I can't do it all by myself."

He nodded.
"Of course.
And let me just say that I appreciate you needing my help."

She ignored him and watched as he bent over the body to check for signs of life. "It would appear that your bullets do, in fact, work. Congratulations on a successful field test." He pulled a dagger out from somewhere beneath the dark jacket he wore and stabbed the vampire through the heart as an added precaution. "Also," he added, standing again, "nice shot. How long have you been shooting guns?"