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  With every step they took, she felt an increased anxiety, an instinctive warning to turn and run. Instead she took Luca’s hand. He wrapped his fingers around her hand, holding her close. The heat and strength of his grip offered comfort, and safety.

  They were still well away from the mansion when he stopped, studying, listening. From here they couldn’t see anything of the house except a piece of the roof. Tall, old trees surrounded the house on all sides, shielding it, protecting it from prying eyes. That might have been one of the reasons this particular house had been selected.

  Tugging on her hand, Luca led her to a wrought-iron gate leading to the house next door to the mansion. The gate was locked, but he waved his hand and the gate popped open. Just like that.

  She’d have to tell him later that he’d make a great thief, if he wanted to change careers. That thought made her wonder about what sorts of jobs he’d held in the past however long he’d been alive. For all she knew he’d been a thief at one time or another. The possibilities were truly endless. When they were safely away from here, she was going to find out how old he was; no more running from it. Yes, she might feel completely inadequate after she found out, but knowing was better than guessing.

  It was dark in the neighbor’s garden—or what had once been a garden. The land was untended, littered with dry, dead plants and tall grass. Did being so close to the vampires next door cause the vegetation to wither, or were the neighbors just too cheap to hire a gardener? This was a bad location for a garden, even Chloe knew that. The surrounding tall trees would block the sun. And why hadn’t the neighborhood association done something about this neglected lawn?

  The house was dark; either everyone there was asleep, or else they’d bolted long ago, listening to their instincts to get far, far away.

  Luca released her hand. She missed the touch but kept quiet. He moved silently toward the well-lit house on the other side of the tall wrought-iron fence. How close did he intend to get? What could the two of them do against an unknown number of vampires?

  He moved into the shadows, and she lost sight of him. She stood there, abruptly terrified, then she felt him reach for her with his mind and she knew what to do. Closing her eyes, she focused on him and could feel him plainly, see him as well as if he were standing beside her. He wasn’t that far away, anyway. He was beside the fence; he’d stopped, too, and now that she was okay he closed his eyes, took a slow, even breath, and went entirely still.

  Chloe hugged her arms, finding the warm night suddenly chilly. If she moved closer to Luca she’d make all kinds of noise; being around him made her feel clumsy, all because she was human. She also knew she needed to stop thinking, because her mental chatter might distract him.

  She calmed herself, blanking her mind, leaving only a small thread of connection so he’d know she was all right. She couldn’t have said how she knew to do that, she just did it. As she did, her senses seemed to open up more, the night becoming full of noises she had never heard before. She felt something inside her go still and quiet, and in that quiet screamed the voice from her dreams:

  “Run!”

  The warning was too late. She knew it, felt them coming, and instead of running, which would have separated her from Luca, she leapt toward him, closing the distance between them faster than she’d thought possible. With the suddenness that still surprised her, even though it shouldn’t have, three vampires seemed to lunge out of the sky to surround her and Luca; the fence was behind them, the three vampires—two men and a very tall woman—in front of them. They had nowhere to go. At least, Chloe didn’t. Luca could fly, she thought. He could get out of here. He was a blood born, he was probably faster and stronger than these three. “Go,” she whispered to him in her mind. She didn’t know if the bond between them extended to actual words, so she wished him gone as hard as she could wish. He would fight for her, one against three, and he’d be killed—all for nothing, because then they’d kill her, too. Better that Luca lived, than that neither of them did.

  He didn’t budge, and she felt a distinct blast of anger at her because she’d tried to make him go.

  He didn’t seem surprised by the presence of the three vampires. He said calmly, “I’m here to see Sorin. He’s expecting me.”

  The big female ignored Luca and nodded to a large, unattractive, massively fanged vampire who didn’t appear to Chloe to be of the same species as Luca. He looked more animal than man. “Kill the conduit,” the female said, and the ugly monster sprang, surprisingly agile for one who looked like nothing more than a lumbering beast.

  Luca threw himself between the pouncing vampire and Chloe, hitting the attacker in midair, the impact sending them both flying away from Chloe. He had only a bare second of surprise before the other two acted, so he didn’t waste that second. Grabbing the ugly vampire by his head and twisting hard, he ripped the vampire’s head off and tossed it aside, all before they hit the ground. The two pieces of vampire quickly went to dust that was caught in the night breeze.

  Luca rolled to his feet, turned, and saw the female change positions so Chloe was between them. The female had a Teutonic look, a strength in both features and body that few women had, vampire or not. The other male was young and apparently inexperienced, because he stood back with a slight expression of panic on his face. That expression said it all: this was more than he’d bargained for. But he moved to a position that triangulated Chloe between him and the female, then he looked at the other vampire for direction.

  She ignored him, and took a different approach. She smiled, looked Chloe in the eye, and whispered, “Stand still for me, dear.” She reached out a hand.

  Chloe backed away and glanced toward Luca with terror in her eyes. The young one, threatening at the moment or not, stood between Chloe and the only reasonable escape route, not that Luca expected her to take it. She wouldn’t leave him, any more than he’d have been able to leave her.

  Then she looked back at the big female and said, “Fuck you.”

  The vampire actually jerked in surprise, then recovered and leapt, lips pulled back, fangs prominent, hand drawn up as if to swipe down with great force. Her nails were long, curved, more claws than fingernails. She was all teeth and claws, as if she fully intended to take a big chunk, and a long drink, out of her target.

  That flash of surprise cost her precious time. Luca collided with her in midair, too, taking her down. She was stronger than the male, and a smarter fighter. She did her best to give him a good fight; her nails ripped his cheek as she tried to get his head in her grip. In the night, her eyes glowed blood red. She was old, old and experienced, but she wasn’t as old as Luca, or as powerful. He broke her hold, flipped over her head so he landed behind her, and removed her head as he had the other’s. For a moment it was a messy, bloody, unpleasant sight, and then with a final scream from the detached head, she went to dust.

  He whirled on the remaining vampire, and froze. While he’d been dealing with the female vampire, the young one had seized Chloe. He had Chloe in a common choke hold, his wide, terrified gaze fastened on Luca.

  “You don’t understand,” the young rebel said, his voice high and quick. “She’s a conduit. They’re going to mess up everything if we don’t take care of them. You can get another human. There’re a lot of them, prettier than this one.”

  “How did you know we were here?”

  The young vampire was surprised into answering. “Jonas. He knew where you were.”

  Jonas. Dammit! He wasn’t surprised that Jonas was there—not only had Ahron mentioned it during their rambling conversation, but when they’d arrived Luca had searched for, and found, Jonas’s essence in the mansion. It did surprise him that Jonas would have sicced the hounds on him; they’d worked together a lot in the past, and if they weren’t exactly friends, they’d at least been friendly. Jonas was the most talented remote tracker Luca knew. Changing hotels and cars wasn’t going to do them a damn bit of good if Jonas told Sorin their every move.

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