Chapter 1

“Hey, babe. What are you doing tonight?” Emily’s voice was too loud in Julian Ryder’s ear. He turned down the volume of his phone and kind of wished he’d ignored this call the way he’d ignored the first two.

“Walking to the train station.” He didn’t bother injecting any enthusiasm into his voice. He was tired after a long day.

“Oh. I thought you’d be home already.” Her pout was almost audible.

So had he, but he’d been caught up at the hospital and had no time to get home and get changed before he was supposed to be at his father’s place. If it had been any other get-together, he’d have begged off that he was too tired after a twelve-hour shift and that he just wanted to go for a swim and go to bed. Even if he had been free, he didn’t want to be spending the evening with Emily.

“Sorry.” But he didn’t really mean it. He was not being a good boyfriend.

“I know. I’ll meet you at home with some takeout.”

He blew out a breath, as the train he’d hoped to catch sped away. Fifteen minutes until the next one. He really needed to buy a car for days like this. He’d had a feeling in his gut that the train was a bad idea and he’d ignored it. There’d been a cab out front of the hospital waiting for a fare and he’d paused for a moment before walking by.

Right now that same feeling was warning him that Emily was getting far too clingy and needy. It was fun when they met up for a few hours once or twice a week, no commitments, no strings. Every so often she’d start expecting more, and he’d pull back until things settled down. She’d told him that she didn’t want a relationship. And yet when she’d learned he was a doctor, she’d started to expect more.

“Nah, I’m having dinner with Dad.” Who he’d text to get picked up from the train station so that he wasn’t walking twenty minutes in the dark and running even later for the meeting.

“Oh.”

Silence.

Julian could hear her thinking. He went down the escalator to wait for the train that was heading in the wrong direction to home.

“We’ve been dating for six months and I still haven’t met your family.”

He did not need this today. He was too tired to even bother breaking up with her. In part because he knew that in less than a week they’d be back together. He knew it wasn’t a healthy relationship—it wasn’t really a relationship—but it was better than being single.

Maybe.

Except on days like today.

“Emily.” He breathed in and exhaled to keep the frustration out of his voice. He couldn’t take her to a meeting with other Albah, and he didn’t want to introduce her to his father and brother. That wasn’t the kind of relationship they had. She seemed to have forgotten that. “We’ll catch up tomorrow or something.”

“Yeah…or something. You make me feel like the other woman.”

He was not going to bite, and he didn’t want an argument. However, continuing this conversation was just as draining. He briefly considered hanging up or dropping his phone, but he needed it working, not in pieces. “I’m not married.”

“Only to your job and your family.”

“My family is important to me.” More than she could ever realize. Emily didn’t know about his mother, or his brother…or even his older half-brother. There was something about her that made him keep them separate. The more she pressed, the more he was determined that she wouldn’t meet them.

“And what about me?” she pleaded. It was the tone she used when she was trying to be cute. If he’d been ten years younger, he would’ve fallen for it.

A train pulled into the station with a gust of wind and a squealing of brakes. Not his train, but she wouldn’t know that. “Got to go. I’ll call you later.”

He hung up, fully expecting to get a slew of text messages for the rest of the evening. Emily had fallen into his lap within four weeks of him moving back to Perth. He really should’ve remembered that if it seemed too good to be true, then it probably was.

* * * *

Emily slipped her phone into her pocket. He hadn’t been lying about leaving the hospital late. She’d watched him walk out the door. She’d spent a lot of time watching him and not enough doing anything. The times they were together they got as close as two people could, yet Julian had managed to keep the rest of his life completely apart from her. She was pretty sure that no one even knew they were dating.

She sat in her car without starting it. They weren’t really dating and she shouldn’t be feeling pissed that he’d blown her off. He was a mark, not her lover.

He was her kill to get her full membership to the Guardians of Adam.

She closed her eyes and leaned over the steering wheel. So why hadn’t she done it already? She should’ve done it months ago when they first met.

She’d known that he was Albah from the curl of his ears. But he was also attractive, educated, and nothing like the egotistical magic-using maniacs her mother had told tales about. She should’ve questioned him and killed him two weeks ago while the undead horror was alive and killing. Now the Albanex had vanished and she knew a Guardian hadn’t killed it. The Albah were probably protecting it. Hiding and feeding it.

She shuddered.

How could Julian, a well-respected doctor and burns specialist, participate in something like that? Yet it was in his blood to become an undead, blood-drinking Albanex. She needed to find out where his father lived—which was harder than it should have been. She’d tried.

There was a tap on her window. Her heart stopped and she almost died.

What a Guardian she was, jumping at a security guard doing his rounds. She opened her window a crack. “Yes?”

“Just checking you’re all right, miss.” The security guard looked concerned.

Emily softened her features as though she’d seen a dying relative and sniffed. “Yeah. Just gathering myself before I drive home.”

“Never wise to linger in the car park. Better safe than sorry.” He smiled. He looked as though he couldn’t run down a thief even if the thief was carrying a box full of donuts and a coffee to wash them down.

Emily nodded and obediently started her car. When he didn’t move away, she pulled out of the bay. She needed to get home. It was late, but no doubt her mother would want a status update.

No change. Nothing to report.

The only excuse she could give for why the Albah was still alive was that he could lead them to more…and hopefully the Albanex.

She paid for her parking and headed out of the city. She’d go to Julian’s place and wait to see if he came home tonight at all. That twinge in her chest was not jealousy.

He didn’t have another lover.

He barely had time for her.

She knew the real reason Julian was still alive was because she did fancy him just the tiniest bit. And he saved people. Maybe he wasn’t like the other Albah.

But all Albah could become Albanex. Albanex were the vampires that humans thought existed only in myth. Albah were more like the elves or witches, harmless until they did the magic that would make them drink blood and live forever. The Guardians should’ve wiped them all out 200 years ago instead of calling for a truce; then she wouldn’t be in this position.

Doctor Julian Ryder, for all his good work, was still only one magic ritual away from becoming an undead monster.