Page 15 of Patrick’s Seduction (Scanguards Vampires #19)

15

T he address on Cameron’s driver’s license was a third-floor walkup in a large Victorian home in the Marina district of San Francisco that had been converted into three units. The doorbell didn’t show a name but only the flat’s number, which wasn’t unusual. Lots of people didn’t want their name on the door.

Patrick stepped back from the entrance door and looked up at the building. There was no light in the top unit, indicating that Cameron wasn’t home. It was way too early for him to be asleep already—or still, if he was a vampire. The sun had set a short while ago. If he wasn’t home, this was a good occasion to check out his place. But he had to be prepared just in case Cameron was in his flat.

Patrick returned to his car, retrieved a clipboard, and took a padded envelope from his trunk. Quickly, he used a Sharpie to write Cameron’s address on it and put a fake name as the recipient, before returning to the entrance door. He was ready to pretend he had a package that needed a signature so he could draw Cameron out, and see for himself if he was a vampire or not. His aura would give him away. It was the way supernatural creatures recognized each other. However, it was invisible to humans.

Patrick rang the doorbell and waited. He heard no sounds from upstairs, and after thirty seconds, he rang the doorbell again. But there was no reply. Looking over his shoulder, he quickly assessed his surroundings. It was a quiet street, and only a few cars drove by. There were no pedestrians. He took his lockpicks from the inside pocket of his windbreaker and went to work.

Everybody who trained at Scanguards learned essential skills, and picking a lock was one of them. He had no trouble opening the entrance door that led into the short hallway with a door to the first-floor apartment. Stairs led to the other floors. He hurried up to the third floor and listened at the door. But no sounds came from the flat. Again, he used his lockpicks and made short work of the lock.

He eased the door open quietly and squeezed inside. The place was comfortably furnished, definitely not on the cheap side. The touch was decidedly masculine with clean lines and dark tones. He kept his eye open for any mail, but found none lying around. There were several houseplants in the living room. Patrick pressed his finger into the soil and noticed that it was moist. Somebody definitely lived here and had recently watered the plants.

He marched into the kitchen. A glance into the trash bin revealed an empty wine bottle and wrappers of junk food. He opened the refrigerator, and found it relatively bare, except for a couple of steaks in the meat drawer, several beers, white wine, and a few condiments. No bottled blood. This ruled out Cameron being a pure-blooded vampire. But he could still be a vampire hybrid, since hybrids could eat human food in addition to blood. The lack of bottled blood in Cameron’s fridge could mean that he preferred to hunt for blood and drank directly from a live human.

Patrick opened the kitchen drawers and looked through them for anything confirming that Cameron still lived here, but found nothing in the kitchen. The living room proved to be more fruitful. Underneath a manual for a speaker system, he found a packing slip showing Cameron’s full name. The packing slip was recent. He’d received the speaker system only a week earlier. This confirmed that this was indeed Cameron’s flat. So why had he told Fallon that he lived in Marin County?

What did he have to hide? Was he living with somebody? Patrick went into the bedroom and found only clothes for a man. There were no toiletries or makeup for a woman, and only one toothbrush. Cameron lived alone.

Patrick glanced at his watch. He’d already spent enough time here. It was best to leave, before Cameron caught him snooping around. As he left the flat and made his way down, he heard voices from downstairs. Doors were opened and closed; footsteps echoed in the hallway. His pulse hitched, but he forced himself to remain calm, while holding on to the clipboard and the padded envelope. He had his excuse ready. If Cameron had just entered the building, he was ready to pretend that he had an urgent delivery, which required a signature.

The sound of the footfalls came closer, then stopped suddenly. He heard the sound of a key being inserted into a lock. Moments later, a door was opened, then closed a few seconds later. The resident on the second floor had come home. Relieved, Patrick rushed downstairs and left the house unseen.

Outside, he looked at the trash cans that were lined up to one side of the house. He grabbed two of them and rolled them in front of the garage. Done with this task, he got back into his car. It was parked on the other side of the street with a clear view of the entrance door to the three-unit Victorian.

The first step was done. He’d confirmed that Cameron lived here. But it didn’t tell him whether he was a supernatural creature or not. To determine that, he would need to see the man with his own eyes. Therefore, he had to wait for him to come home. However, there was no guarantee when and if he would return home tonight.

Patrick pulled a burner phone from his glove box and typed in Cameron’s cell number that Fallon had provided him with. He let it ring. On the second ring, it was answered.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Gallagher?” Patrick said, changing his voice a little to sound older and less polished. “I’m George, the plumber for your neighbor, you know, the one below you. Sorry to disturb you, but…”

“Yeah, what is it?” Cameron asked impatiently.

“Well, there’s water coming down from your flat. I knocked on your door… well, you need to do something… the water, it’s still running. The damage is getting worse…”

“Fuck!” Cameron cursed.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Gallagher, but if you can’t turn it off, it’ll cause structural damage. The condo insurance won’t cover it, if we don’t stop it. We’ll have to break down the door—”

“Don’t you dare break down my door,” Cameron thundered. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

Cameron disconnected the call, and Patrick removed the SIM card from the phone, broke it in half, and tossed it in the cup holder to be disposed of later. The dark Scanguards SUV he was driving tonight had tinted windows, making it impossible to see inside. He could wait for Cameron here without being seen. Patrick cast a last look at Cameron’s driver’s license photo that he’d sent to his cell phone earlier to make sure he’d recognize him. After a long look at the jerk, he put it back in his pocket and waited.

He’d never liked waiting much. Stakeouts definitely weren’t high on his list of favorite things about his job, because they felt so passive. And he didn’t like being passive. He loved being proactive. Therefore, he was glad that his ruse had worked on Cameron. Nobody thought too long about it when getting a phone call about water damage in their home. He’d counted on it, because had Cameron thought about it for a few moments, he would have realized that if it had really been a plumber who’d called him, said plumber could easily have shut off the water to the entire building, thus stopping any further damage. There would be no need for Cameron to rush home.

Patrick leaned back and kept a close eye on every car that passed and the few pedestrians that walked down the sidewalk when his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and answered the call.

“Nicholas?”

“Got some news about the wolf.”

“Shoot!” he said, while keeping his eyes peeled on the street so he wouldn’t miss Cameron.

“I spoke to my contact at Yellowstone Park. She laughed when I asked her if a wolf could be trained like a dog. My ear is still ringing.”

“So that’s a no?”

“A hard no. Of all the species that humans have tried to train, the wolves have turned out to be the least capable of submitting to any commands. So, there’s no way that a wolf was used by a human to attack our vic.”

Patrick rubbed his neck. “Guess that theory was too good to be true. Thanks for checking it out anyway. I’ll check in with Sebastian shortly to see if any of the other leads panned out.”

“I can save you that call. I’m in the command center, and Sebastian just filled me in. Thomas and Eddie are still working on the traffic cams and the security cams of the houses around the entrance to the Presidio.”

“And?”

“No matches in our database of known vampires so far. But Ethan and Damian checked in.”

“They spoke to the jewelers who’re attending the convention?”

“Apparently our dead guy was popular. No enemies, nothing suspicious. That’s a dead end. And none of the other jewelers was staying at the Drisco Hotel. He was the only one. Supposedly, he chose the hotel because it has a great view over the bay.”

“Thanks, Nicholas. I’ll be at HQ soon. Just gotta check something out.”

“See you, bro.”

Patrick disconnected the call and put his phone back into the cup holder, when a swanky sportscar shot around the corner. As the car slowed when it reached the three-unit Victorian, the gate to the garage was already lifting. The sportscar screeched to a halt. The driver had realized that the trash cans were preventing him from driving into the garage—exactly as they were meant to do.

The engine of the sportscar was still running, when the driver’s side door was opened, and a tall man exited the car. He rushed to the trashcans and pushed them aside just enough so his path was clear. When he turned back to his car, Patrick could finally see his face.

This was Cameron Gallagher. No doubt about it.

But that wasn’t the only thing he realized instantly. He identified his aura, and it sent a shockwave through his entire body. He felt ice coursing through his veins, chilling him to the bone. Fallon had been right about being afraid of Cameron. Seeing him now confirmed his greatest fears. Cameron was dangerous, more dangerous than he’d feared.

While Cameron drove into his garage, the gate closing behind his car, Patrick tapped on Lydia’s number and put the call on hands-free. He maneuvered out of his parking spot, and drove off, not waiting for Cameron to come back out of the house, most likely utterly pissed off, when he found out that there was no water running, no plumber, and no water damage. There was no time to be lost now to get Fallon to a safe place.

“Hey,” Lydia said, answering the phone.

“Lydia, can you talk without Fallon hearing what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

“Have Fallon pack a bag for a few days. She needs to move out of her place. We have to bring her to a safe house. Now.” His heart was thundering in his chest, and he felt perspiration collecting on his nape.

“What happened?”

“I saw Cameron Gallagher. He’s not a vampire or a vampire hybrid.”

“Well, then why are you concerned?”

“Lydia, don’t react to what I’m telling you now, or Fallon will become worried. She can’t know about this.”

“Alright. I’ll listen.”

“Cameron Gallagher is a werewolf.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. Only the sharp intake of a breath reached his ears. A few seconds passed, before Lydia answered, “I’ll get her packing. What’s your ETA?”

“I’m fifteen minutes out.”

“We’ll be ready.”