Hopefully, she’d find what she was looking for in one of the two bedrooms above the holly bushes. She paused beneath the window closest to the front of the house. She couldn’t see what was inside, but people were rarely silent. She listened intently, but there was nothing. Not the scrape of a foot, not a single whimper or cry. Sighing, she crept through the prickly bushes to the second bedroom and stood up just enough to see that this window, too, was sealed off tightly. It was as if they didn’t want any bit of sunlight to creep in, as if . . . She froze as a horrible thought occurred to her. What if there weren’t slaves in the house at all? What if it was nothing but vampires?

Her heartbeat kicked into panic mode as she checked her watch. Nearly 4:00 P.M., and this was December. Days were short, nights were long. She’d actually counted on the early darkness to help her slip away after her little recon. But if those were vampires in there, she had to make like the birds and get the fucking flock out of there right now.

Sid forced herself to move carefully, ignoring the old fight-or-flight instinct that was telling her to Run! Now! She kept telling herself she had time. Sunset had to be at least half an hour away, and if the vamps were at all like people, they wouldn’t jump up and be ready. Didn’t they have to pee like everyone else? Brush their teeth or something? She rolled her eyes and concentrated on the important stuff, like remembering how long she’d been lurking in the bushes, and how long since the guards had made their last switch. Glancing toward the front of the house, she considered slipping out through the front yard instead. The covered porch where the guards sat had an old railing around the open sides and more of the unruly holly bushes. It was just possible she could sneak past them and blend into the shade of the big apartment building next door. That was certainly a better alternative than risking a dash across the wide-open back yard with the guard sitting right there and nothing moving but her.

The weak winter sun was fading fast, the shadows growing deeper. And the more she thought about slinking through the front yard, the better it sounded.

She shrugged out of her hoodie, put the ball cap in her backpack, then tightened the straps until it lay flush with her back. Donning the hoodie once more, she zipped it fully and yanked the hood up over her hair, with her braid tucked inside. Then she got down on the ground and crawled along the base of the house until she reached the edge of the porch. On this side of the house there was an open lattice along the base of the porch that let her see the underside of it. It was dark in there, and it smelled wet and rotten, not like something recently dead, but maybe something long-ago dead that was taking its time to decay completely. She briefly thought about hiding in there, but realized that the noise she’d make breaking through the latticework would alert everyone to her presence. She shuddered in relief, then froze when she heard the guards talking.

“What time’s the sun go down?”

“Hell if I know. When it’s dark.”

“Do we wait ’til they come out? I ain’t sure I wanna hang around that long. What if they wake up hungry, man?”

The guard snorted. “You rather they hunt you down for not doing the job they paid you for? You don’t want these fuckers coming after you, bro. Besides, they like the women better.”

“Yeah, the women. Think they’ll share?”

“You ask too many questions. Better you sit there and shut up.”

Sid heard all of this with a mixture of fear and triumph. She shivered at the idea that some of Klemens’s old vampires were sleeping only a few feet away. But at the same time, there was a zing of vindication in discovering she’d been right about the slaves being held here.

Now, if only she could persuade the police to do something before the vamps and their captives were long gone. She sighed in frustration, then had a sudden thought. She’d seen the flash of rage in Aden’s dark eyes when she’d told him about Klemens’s slave trade. She hadn’t imagined that. He might not want her involved, but his reaction had been real.

On a whim, she pulled out her phone and dashed a quick text message off to Aden. He’d probably ignore her, but just maybe he’d be interested enough to check it out, or at least have one of his guys do a drive-by.

She tucked her phone back into her pocket and looked around. The shadows had grown much deeper in just the few minutes since the guards had started talking. The apartment building next door towered four stories over the small house, casting a long shadow this late in the afternoon. The street lights had flicked on a moment earlier, but they were dim, and it was probably no coincidence that the light closest to the vamps’ house was dark, the lens sporting a star-shaped bullet hole.

It was now or never.

Checking her gear one last time, Sid turned off her cell phone and shoved it as deep into her pocket as it would go. She drew a long breath, closed her eyes, and whispered a prayer to whatever universal forces might be listening, then rose into a bent-over crouch and made a dash for it.

She nearly made it. A few minutes sooner, and she’d have disappeared into the shadows with no one the wiser.

But those gods she’d whispered to obviously had a twisted sense of humor, because just as she made her dash for safety, the third guard came around the corner from the back and caught her movement. He gave a wordless shout, alerting the other two guards, and suddenly she had three armed thugs coming after her.

She ran for it anyway, but the guard nearest to her position, the talkative one who’d asked all the questions, hopped directly over the porch railing and landed only a few feet away from her. Sid was fast, but he had the advantage of height and caught her in three strides. He grabbed the back of her hoodie and twisted, nearly yanking her off her feet.

“What you doin’, fucker?” he growled and hauled her back against his thick chest. Her hood fell back, revealing her braided hair, and the guard grunted. “Well, fuck me, we got us a real live girl,” he crowed and dragged her kicking and fighting back to where his buddies waited at the foot of the stairs.

“Fuck.” Sid recognized the other guard’s voice, the one who’d been the voice of reason. “This ain’t good. Where’d she come from?”

“Side of the house there. She didn’t see nothin’.” Her captor shook her, his big hand gripping her hoodie so that it dug into her throat. “You didn’t see nothin’, did you, bitch?”

“I gotta tell the boss—” the reasonable one started to say.

“Fuck that. She’s ours.”

“Let go of me, you asshole,” Sid hissed and kicked backwards, hitting him in the shin hard enough that he howled. Unfortunately, the howl was mostly anger. He shifted his grip to her hair, grabbing her braid like a rope and yanking her back against his chest.

“You’re gonna be sorry for that, bitch.”

“What’s this?”

The thug holding on to her turned sharply toward the porch, jerking Sid with him. What she saw there didn’t make her feel any better. A man stood in the open doorway. He was average height, slender, with dark hair and . . . eyes that flashed red when he stepped out into the faint light of the porch. He was a vampire, and his gaze scanned the three guards before moving to her and staying there.

“Who’s this?”

“Caught her sneaking around the back, sir,” the more reasonable thug said. “We’ll take care of—”

His words ended in an unmanly squeak of surprise as the vampire was suddenly standing right in front of them, his hand reaching for Sid. He lifted her chin to the meager light and studied her face.

“Let go of her,” he ordered quietly.

“Aw, she ain’t nothin’ but—”

Sid fell to her knees, her captor’s grip suddenly going lax as the vamp wrapped long fingers around the man’s throat and lifted him off his feet.

“That wasn’t a request, human,” the vampire said. He threw the gasping thug several feet to land choking and coughing on the hard ground.

She looked up as a hand appeared in front of her face. “Come,” he said, and mindful of his reaction to the thug’s insolence, she chose the path of least resistance and took his hand.

He pulled her effortlessly to her feet. “Jordan will pay you,” he told the others, then hustled her over to the driveway where a late model Audi sedan was parked.

Once in the car, he backed onto the street with a squeal of tires and then immediately got on his cell phone and punched a number.

“I have something that belongs to your master,” he told whoever answered, then laughed cynically. “It’s red, and he had it with him at the party the other night.” He nodded. “Ten minutes.”

“Look,” Sid started, “I don’t know who you just called, but—”

“Save it,” the vamp said tersely. “Just sit there and shut up. And be grateful about it.”

“Grateful?” Sid gave him a disbelieving look, for all the good it did, which was none, because he didn’t even glance at her, much less acknowledge her.

Sid sat in silence for a few blocks, then slanted a sideways glance at her vampire companion. Now that he had her, he seemed to be ignoring her. Taking a chance, she slipped her fingers into her pocket and withdrew her cell phone. She wasn’t sure exactly whom she’d call, but—

“Whatever you doing,” the vamp said, almost wearily, “don’t bother. It won’t—” He glanced over and amended whatever he’d been about to say. “A cell phone? Please. Who’re you going to call? Buffy?”

Sid glared back at him, refusing to admit she hadn’t had a plan to call anyone. But she’d no sooner had the thought than the vamp was pulling up in front of a familiar building. She leaned forward to scowl through the windshield as the car came to a sliding stop, but before she could voice a protest, she was swinging around as someone pulled her door open.

“Babe,” Trav said, grinning as he took her arm and half pulled, half lifted her out of the car. “You’ve been a very bad girl.”