Page 108

“I’m stubborn that way,” Colin said in his even monotone, staring out at her coldly from under Fox’s hold.

“I bet you are.” She winked at him, and then it was Dane who was growling.

They were in her hotel room, some lavish suite she’d clearly been in for at least a few days.

Maybe it had been stupid to follow her to another location, but she’d mentioned getting out of the heat and Colin had jumped on the suggestion like a life raft.

And at least she wasn’t feral—she didn’t have that sour scent of rot, only the faint metallic tinge of their kind.

Still, she was in their territory uninvited, and that made her, if not an enemy, at the very least a person of interest.

“I’ve been staying on the outskirts deliberately, you know,” Serena told them, as if reading Dane’s mind.

She took a seat in one of the room’s dainty little chairs, crossing her long legs.

She was wearing nothing but her bathing suit and some sheer cover-up thing.

Dane supposed if he were into women, he might find the sight tempting.

She was beautiful, with her sleek dark hair and sharp brown eyes. “I’m not trying to step on any toes.”

“Then why the fuck are you here?” Fox asked, belligerent as always.

This was why Dane was the people person.

There was a long pause before Serena answered, her crossed leg bouncing as she considered them. “I’m looking for someone,” she finally said.

“So are we.”

Serena arched a manicured brow. “What a coincidence.”

Dane didn’t believe in coincidences. “The creep we’re looking for likes to turn kids.”

Her reaction was so faint he almost didn’t catch it. But it was there, in the brief tightening of her features.

“You know him,” Dane said, already sure of the answer.

Serena stayed quiet.

“You’re protecting him?” he accused, hot anger already building in his veins.

But apparently he wasn’t the only one. All at once, Serena’s icy facade cracked, her eyes blackening, her teeth lengthening. Her vampire face had come to play, and it looked furious as hell. “As if I would ever .”

She was young, then, to be so uncontrolled. Younger than them, for sure. She’d probably only been a vampire a decade. Maybe less.

“Then why not tell us?” Colin asked.

Dane glanced at him, but their human didn’t seem fazed in the slightest by the volatile predator that had just appeared in front of them.

“I doubt you’re looking for him just to give him a friendly hello.” Serena bared her teeth in a parody of a smile. “And I want to kill him myself.”

Bold fucking words. And if they were true, then the three of them had an ally. Dane sat in one of the chairs across from her, glad that Fox and Colin remained standing, well away from her. He leaned in, hands clasped between his knees. “Maybe you should tell us how you know him.”

It wasn’t really a suggestion.

Serena stared at him for a long moment, and then her face was human again, her eyes back to their rich brown.

She blew out a breath. “He was my husband. Back when we were…you know—” She waved a hand at Colin in demonstration.

“Human. He went out with friends one night, and when he came home three days later, he was turned. And then he turned me.” A vein pulsed in her forehead.

“ Without my permission. He claimed he loved me too much to leave me behind.”

“And you didn’t love him enough to want that?” Colin asked quietly. Ever curious, their human.

Her dark eyes flashed. “To give up my life ?” she hissed. “Who was he to demand that? I killed people in the beginning, you know, fresh and untethered.” She looked away from them, her fingers clenched tightly around the arms of her chair. “I wanted a family. Instead I became a monster.”

An ugly picture was beginning to form. “The kids…,” Dane murmured. “He’s doing that for you?”

“He told me he’s trying to make up for it.

” She met his gaze evenly. “I didn’t know at first, I swear.

We haven’t even been in the same city for years.

He knows I hate him, and he’s a fucking coward at heart.

But he called some months ago. Told me he’d found the perfect child.

He kept saying, ‘He looks just like us.’”

“And you don’t want that?”

She rose from her chair in a fluid motion and began pacing in front of them.

Dane couldn’t tell if she was truly frantic or just tired of their scrutiny.

“I wanted to care for a child, not destroy one. He’s trying to make up for his mistake by ruining more lives.

He’s stupid, and he’s selfish.” She turned away from them.

“We didn’t have some great eternal love.

We probably would have divorced in a decade. He’s insane.”

“And he’s here?” Fox asked. He’d pulled Colin back with him against the wall, clearly wanting even more distance between them and the angry stranger. “In Tucson?”

Serena waved an agitated hand at them from behind her back. “I tracked him near here, but I’m not positive. He could have left already. I think he’s avoiding me until he has a child in his grasp. He thinks it will soften me.”

Dane thought about that cold laugh, the speed at which the mention of her husband had her transforming. He couldn’t really imagine her softening for anything.

She whirled to face them, all the distress smoothed from her features. “I don’t care who finds him,” she told them coolly. “But I want to be the one to kill him. I’m owed that much.”

Dane supposed she was. She’d had her humanity stolen, her chance at the life she’d wanted snatched from her grasp.

Vampires couldn’t have children, and any human child turned was more likely to end up feral than anything else.

And while he’d never had the desire to procreate himself, Dane could imagine something of the pain.

He and Fox had once yearned for loving parents more than anything.

They knew a little about wanting without any hope of fulfillment. They knew about having love to give and nowhere to put it.

At least, they’d used to.

He stood. “We’re not the only ones with a stake in this, but I’m pretty sure we can work together.” He looked to Fox, who nodded. “And I don’t think anyone will mind letting you land the killing blow.”

They exchanged information then, and the three of them said their goodbyes to their new ally. She started rummaging through the minibar before they’d even left the room. There wasn’t enough liquor in there to make a vampire tipsy, but maybe it was more about the act of drinking than the result.

It couldn’t have been easy, baring her pain to them like that.

Right at the door, Colin turned back to Serena. “The first kid he turned. His name is Riley. I hear he’s doing well.”

She stared at him for a long moment, her expression unreadable. “Thank you for telling me.”

They left.