Predatory

“We’ll meet up near Eternal Rest. They’ll all come in their own cars. They’ll park a few blocks away and wait for Zareb to give instructions.”



“Cars?” She smiled. “I’m disappointed. I thought vampires would have a sexier way of getting around than that. I know you don’t do the dematerializing thing, but how about flying? Do vampires fly?”



“No.” Ethan knew she was trying to sound calm, but he could hear her quickened heartbeat, sense her tension. “If we could do all the things myths say we can do, we’d have conquered the world centuries ago. We have preternatural speed and strength, enhanced senses, and our own specific gifts. And if you belong to my bloodline, you have the Second One.”



She remained silent for a few minutes, and Ethan was hopeful that she’d run out of questions. She hadn’t.



“I was in the shower when you explained things to Zareb. So how did you end up in that glass coffin? And please tell me what a binder is?”



He kept his attention on the road. He didn’t want to repeat the story, but she had a right to know. “I was in Jersey when they caught me.” He wouldn’t go into details about the chase, about how the hell they even found him. “They shot me up with something to keep me weak until they got back to Eternal Rest. Then they took my clothes and dumped me into the coffin. I was still too weak to do anything when the binder came in with his freaking headstone.” Where had they found someone like him?



“They? Who are ‘they’?”



“I don’t know. Some kind of hunters.” Human, but not human. And they’d brought beasts with them. His mind skittered away from thoughts of the beasts.



“So explain ‘binder.’”



Ethan could feel her gaze on him, but he didn’t turn to glance at her. He couldn’t take the chance that she’d see his face. “A binding spell bends someone to your will, makes them do what you want them to do.” He shook his head. “But I’ve never seen or felt anything like this. Tony brought in his headstone, set it next to me, and suddenly I couldn’t move a muscle. I was like that for days.” He’d fought, tried to at least twitch. Nothing. He was a mind trapped in a useless body. He’d never admit how terrified he was. “I don’t know where Garrity found someone that powerful.”



Cassie nodded. “The etching on the tombstone showed you wrapped in chains and a lock on the coffin. So he made you feel exactly what his drawing depicted.”



“I don’t know why they wanted me, or why they put me in a glass coffin. I need answers.” He hoped he would get those answers tonight.



Even though Ethan suspected that Cassie had more questions, she stayed silent for the rest of the drive. He parked her car three blocks from the funeral home. His car was still in Jersey. At least he hoped it was.



Once out of the car, Ethan moved close to her. Her emotions touched him—fear, sorrow, anger, determination. He’d tried to stay clear of the feelings of others in the past. Nothing good came from allowing yourself to be sucked into the maelstrom of human emotions. Involvement made you careless, vulnerable.



He recognized the risks. But this time he couldn’t resist. Ethan wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Whatever goes down when we get there, Zareb will want me to go in first because I have the big guns tonight. He’ll follow me in. He’ll choose a few others to go in with us. The rest will stay outside to deal with guards or anyone trying to flee.”



“What about me?” Her expression said that if they planned to tuck her safely behind some tree, they could just forget about it.



“I want you between Zareb and me. It’ll be the safest place. You know what I can do. And Zareb is old enough to remember the pharaohs. Hell, he might’ve been one. He has crazy survival skills.”



She nodded, her whole body tense.



He couldn’t help himself, Ethan reached over with his free hand and slid his fingers along her clenched jaw. “I’m here.” Stupid words. They’d mean nothing to her.



She drew a deep shuddering breath and relaxed into him. “Thanks.”



And that one word made him feel . . . good. No matter what they’d find when they reached Garrity’s, or how much the Second One’s need for violence pushed at him, right now, with her human warmth pressed against his side, he was content. Not a word anyone would use to describe him.



Ethan stilled as he felt the familiar touch in his mind. Zareb could get into his brain without Ethan even knowing he was there, but his maker always announced his presence as a courtesy.



Ethan listened to Zareb’s message and then spoke to Cassie. He made sure he didn’t look at her as he talked. “Zareb just did some mental messaging. He’s already at Eternal Rest. Armed guards are scattered around the place. People are moving things out in a hurry. Guess they figure they might get company. He’s not going for sneaky. As soon as we get there, we’ll go in.”



“Good. I don’t think I’d survive a long wait.” She paused. “Can all vampires read minds?”



He slowed down a little as they got closer to the funeral home, his senses alive to any enemy who might be nearby. “Most can read human minds, but nonhuman minds are tougher. A maker is always able to access the minds of those he created.”



She smiled. “Well, at least you didn’t shatter all of my illusions about the children of the night.” Cassie stared into the darkness. “We must be close.”



He nodded.



She opened her purse and rested her hand on the gun inside.



Ethan leaned down until he could whisper in her ear. “I’ll keep you safe tonight. Trust me?” Stupid question. He was a vampire.



“Yes.”



He released her and beckoned her deeper into the shadows. He put his finger to his lips. They crept from building to building until they finally worked their way around to the back of Eternal Rest.



Zareb glided from the darkness. Ethan could see the silhouettes of the four other vampires who would go inside with them. He only hoped crazy Darren wasn’t one of them.



Zareb’s whisper was brief. “Ethan, Cassie, and I will go in the back door. The rest of you will go around to the front. If everyone else did their jobs, the outside guards should be gone by now.” Zareb watched the other vampires fade into the night. He avoided meeting Ethan’s gaze as he nodded at him. “Let’s go.” He didn’t even glance at Cassie. “Oh, and the door’s locked.”



Ethan turned his head away as he spoke to her. “Don’t hesitate to kill.” He took his place in front of her and faced the back door. “And whatever you do, don’t look at my face.”



He pulled the hoodie from his head, took off his glasses and shoved them into a pocket, then lifted his foot and kicked in the door.



Chapter Six



No plan? Just kick down the door and wing it? Where was the damn plan? Cassie’s heart was beating so fast she thought it might explode from her chest. That would pretty much put a kink in their covert action. Covert? Hah.



She gripped her gun as she wondered how Zareb would even know if his outside vampires had gotten rid of all the guards. No sounds of a struggle, no screams, no grunts or triumphant whoops. Cassie didn’t want to think about fanged shadows moving silently through the night.



Then she remembered what Ethan had said about a vampire’s power to read thoughts. Zareb would be connected mentally to all of his children. He was probably in her mind right now too.



A soft chuckle from behind Cassie shivered up her spine.



“Why would I not be there? Your mind is a delight, Cassie.” Zareb’s whisper seemed way too close. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m in everyone else’s mind as well, even the enemy’s. My only limit is distance.”



She forced herself not to respond. Instead, she stared at Ethan’s back as he strode down the hallway. He was all power and smooth deadly grace. And even in the midst of her panic attack, his presence did weird things to her nervous system.



Zareb spoke softly. “If I’m not mistaken, four of them are heading our way right now, and they’re extremely pissed off.”



The sound of running footsteps snapped her attention back to the hallway. Four men rushed toward them, guns in one hand and swords in the other. Swords? Really? They looked human to her—no fangs when they snarled—but they moved faster than a human would. What were they?



The need for action was almost a relief. Cassie pulled her gun from her purse. But she needn’t have bothered.



Ethan waited. The men facing him slid to a stop and then just stared. They dropped their weapons. Their expressions slowly shifted from fury to something so creepy that it made Cassie shiver. They looked as though they were in some sort of ecstatic trance—eyes half closed, mouths twisted in grotesque travesties of smiles. They stayed frozen like that while she held her breath. Then they simply collapsed. She exhaled. She recognized death in their loose-limbed sprawl.



Don’t shake, don’t shake. Whatever those men had seen in their last moments had killed them. For the first time, the Second One became real.