Page 67

Wolfe

W olfe slipped around to the back of the tiny yellow house (thank the heavens he’d found more acceptable real estate than this in this drab town), careful to keep his steps quiet enough even enhanced vampire senses wouldn’t pick them up.

Protect our mate.

Wolfe didn’t bother responding to his beast. He’d seen the couple—a punk-looking kid and his seemingly older companion, a casually elegant man with silver at his temples and a leather jacket Wolfe would like to see on Eric’s broad shoulders—making their way up to the front door.

The slight metallic scent on the wind had given them up as vampires.

They weren’t from the den; that was sure enough. Wolfe would have recognized them. But that didn’t stop him cursing himself for leaving Eric unattended. Here he’d been trying to be thoughtful .

Eric would need companionship, when his lack of aging forced them to move along.

He would also, most likely—as the wounds left from his parents slowly healed—need a softer touch than Wolfe’s current method of blunt logic in the face of insecurities, if Wolfe wanted to keep him content in the long run.

And that was exactly what Wolfe wanted. Eric content. Always and forever.

It had been barely a day, and Wolfe was already addicted to the new, soft sweetness pulsing down their bond. He thought he might do anything to keep that feeling coming, including the indignity of allowing Eric the space to bond with new friends at dinner.

But it was this exact sentimentality that got people into trouble. Eric was currently in a strange home, undefended. Johann and his ilk may have been more moral than most of their kind, but Wolfe had no doubt the others in the house would protect their mates first and foremost.

Which left Wolfe skulking along to the house’s back door, intent on having the upper hand in surprise if not in numbers. As far as he was concerned, it was two against one. Eric had no business fighting, and Wolfe wasn’t yet sure if he could count on any of the others.

And if a single hair on Eric’s head was harmed, Wolfe would kill everyone in that room.

He vowed it to himself just as he opened the back door in time to catch the boisterous, “What’s up bitches? Whose head are we ripping off today?”

Wolfe went for the leather-clad man behind the green-haired instigator. He had the look of a killer about him; best to incapacitate him first.

Wolfe had him in a headlock in an instant, mindful to keep his arm around his throat, where the stranger’s fangs couldn’t catch him.

The man growled fiercely, clawing at Wolfe’s arm with both hands. “Poutain de—!”

Wolfe used the wall as leverage to keep the man still, but his eyes were already on Eric. He was there, on the couch between Johann and the mobster, spine straight with alarm but otherwise in no sign of distress. “Wolfe!” he cried out, relief and what might be concern pulsing through the bond.

Notably, however, no one else was reacting. At least, not in a way that implied they’d be joining any sort of fight. The green-haired vampire had—rather than come to his companion’s aid—pulled out his phone with a wide grin, as if to photograph the moment.

Wolfe stood there, facing the living room, snarling head under one arm, his muscles tensing with the effort of keeping him still. “Would someone please tell me whether I’m holding friend or foe?” he asked mildly.

“Friend,” said Danny and Johann, while at the same time—

“Foe,” from Soren and Gabe.

Roman was chuckling into his glass of wine, slouched comfortably in his armchair. “Why, Lucien, I do believe you’ve lost your touch, letting someone creep up on you from behind like that.”

Lucien snarled anew. “Roman, I swear to God.”

“Jamie, is it?” Soren drawled to the green-haired punk. “I’ll need you to send me that photo. I’m going to have it framed.”

Danny stood up from his seat on the arm of Roman’s chair.

“Okay, so let’s all chill out, maybe?” he soothed.

“You’re getting Ferdy worked up.” He pointed to the corner of the room, where his heeler mutt was—despite his owner’s words—curled up on a dog bed, his ears not even twitching at the commotion.

“Jamie and Luc are friends, I promise. Wolfe, you can release Lucien now.”

Wolfe looked down at the seething vampire, whose fangs were out. “I’m a bit concerned he’s going to bite.”

The green-haired one—Jamie, presumably—laughed, bright and easy. “Oh, don’t worry, he’s relatively tame these days. Aren’t you, monster?”

Lucien narrowed his black eyes. “You’re asking for trouble, ma fleur. Big trouble.”

Jamie only winked at him. “Lucky me.”

Not wishing to be a vehicle for the strange couple’s flirting, Wolfe released Lucien from his hold, effortlessly dodging the fist the irritated vampire threw his way.

He stayed as close as he dared, not yet ready to consider them free of threat.

He took the opportunity to soak in the sight of his mate, who was now looking a charming mix of befuddled and relieved.

Meanwhile Soren rose from his seat and sidled up, although he stayed noticeably far enough way that Lucien couldn’t swipe at him, studying the companion instead.

“The infamous Jamie.” Soren made a big show of taking him in, his eyes traveling over the artificially colored hair, the multiple earrings, the all-black outfit.

He grinned, slow and wide. “Finally, someone else with a sense of style.”

Jamie tilted his chin at the still-snarling Lucien. “I think Luc’s got great style.”

“Luc doesn’t count.” Soren huffed. “We don’t speak of him.”

Jamie’s brows rose. “Except he’s right here, newly freed from this dapper fucker’s headlock.”

“No, he isn’t. Because if he was”—Soren’s grin widened impossibly—“I’d have to be tearing his head off for attacking my mate and then running off like a coward.”

That prompted another growl from Luc, but Jamie’s hand on his arm stopped it short.

“So he’s not here,” Soren concluded pointedly.

Jamie nodded slowly, his own smile dimming. “Cool beans, I guess I’ll just take Mr. Invisible here to a nearby hotel and let you all fend for yourselves.”

Soren ignored the threat, reaching a hand out to Jamie’s jewelry. “Where are those earrings from? They’re gorgeous.”

Jamie cocked a brow. “I’d tell you, but then I’d be breaking your rule. They were a gift. From a certain non someone.”

Soren waited him out, clearly hoping for an answer anyway, then threw his hands up in frustration. “Fine! You can both exist! But I’m not talking to him.”

Jamie smiled easily again. “That’s cool. He’s more fun when he’s pissed off anyway.”

“Says you,” Soren grumbled, slinking back to place himself on Gabe’s lap.

Satisfied that no skirmishes were on the horizon, Wolfe hastened over to Eric’s side. He cupped his mate’s face in both hands, ignoring Johann’s enthusiastic wave of greeting.

“You are unharmed.” It was more a statement than a question, but he felt it worth saying out loud.

“Uh.” Eric’s cheeks flushed a darling pink. “Yeah.”

“Good.” Wolfe cleared his throat, which was unusually dry, then tried it again. “Good.”

He sat on the arm of the couch, his hand firmly on Eric’s shoulder, ready to whisk him away should things in the house get any more tense, while Danny made formal introductions for all those who hadn’t met before.

Alexei, generally quiet in a group setting, spoke up. He pointed to Lucien and Jamie. “So it’s the two of you who’ve been raiding the blood banks? Mystery solved?”

“Psh, no,” Jamie said. “We just got here. We were on a road trip, hunting a particularly slippery serial killer.”

“Delicious,” Lucien murmured, wrapping one arm around his mate’s hip.

“And I had one of my helpful visions,” Jamie continued. “Except it was kind of confusing. Like, a vampire in Hyde Park. But he was young. Like, really young.” He shifted in place, clearly disturbed. “A child.”

Wolfe felt Eric tense under his hold.

“Oh my God.” Danny looked horrified. “Can that happen? Does that happen?”

Roman shrugged, looking to Lucien, who did the same. “We haven’t heard of it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

“It can,” Johann piped up, sounding sad. “It’s really frowned upon though. Like, very taboo.”

Danny made a strangled noise. “And they just stay a kid forever?”

“No, they age into their adult bodies, then stop there. But I’ve heard it can mess with their head a bit.

It’s like their brains develop with their inner beasties already inside.

I think it usually leaves them at least half-feral.

And sometimes there are other side effects, like mutism, or feeding from animals.

And they can be really hard to control. But it’s hard to find people willing to put them down, for obvious reasons. ”

Wolfe had never heard of a child vampire in the den. He caught Johann’s eye. “How do you know all that?”

Johann shrugged. “I just listened a lot, in the den.”

“And you saw one in Hyde Park?” Danny asked Jamie.

“Yeah, I recognized some of the streets. I’ve been here before, once or twice. My buddy Colin lives up here.”

Johann straightened up, eager. “My manager Colin?”

Jamie grinned at him. “You working at DBC, little guy?” At Johann’s enthusiastic nod, he laughed. “Rad. Colin’s chill. We grew up together. He’s a Tucson baby.”

“Super-duper chill,” Johann agreed. “Does he know you’re a vampire?”

“No.” Jamie frowned. “Why would he? Wait—does he know you’re a vampire?”

Wolfe pinched the bridge of his nose. “As lovely as this six degrees of separation is, if there is a child vampire here, it needs to be controlled. Likely, from the sound of it, eliminated.”

He felt a pulse of pure distress coming from Eric and looked down to see his mate frowning up at him. “We can’t kill a kid,” Eric protested.

“I could,” Wolfe said. And he would. From what Johann had told them, a child vampire was too unstable, too unpredictable, to be allowed. For the protection of the whole, to prevent exposure, it would need to be put down.

At Eric’s deepening frown, Wolfe tried to reassure him. “Darling, he’s already dead. Whoever turned him saw to that.”

But Eric was shaking his head, trying to slide out from under Wolfe’s hold. It was surprisingly painful, his rejection of Wolfe’s touch. It left Wolfe’s stomach feeling cramped in a way with which he was unfamiliar.

Danny cleared his throat. “We’ll figure something else out. We’ll come up with another option.”

Wolfe folded his hands in his lap, allowing Eric’s retreat, unsettled and uncomfortably on edge.

It was risky to wait. True, the child was starting with blood banks and hospitals, which pointed to a certain natural intelligence. But what if he moved on to people? What if he went too far and started draining Hyde Park’s citizens dry?

Then there would be all sorts of trouble, including the risk of exposure.

Exposure meant danger. For himself, for his mate.

It couldn’t be borne. He’d have to make plans of his own. But Wolfe was willing to let these other vampires talk in circles in the meantime.

Hopefully it would give Eric time to settle, to return to that soft, sweet state.

Time for him to return to Wolfe’s touch.