Hearing me, Constance gave me a real smile, shifting to look behind her at Joni before turning back to me. “One of the ways. Pike, let her find her own way out,” she said over her shoulder as she began to walk away. “If she doesn’t leave, I’ll bleed Zack’s bodyguard dry.”
Double damn. I stood there, helpless, as Nash joined her entourage, two vampires as large as himself bracketing him.
“Not bad,” Pike said, and I started, almost having forgotten he was there. “Not good, either, but not bad,” he continued, his smile mocking. “Did you mean to make Zack a bargaining chip or was it an accident?”
“Do you always carry jewelry to keep her from assaulting her own people?” I said, feeling ill. Pike’s stress was well hidden, but after living with Ivy for so long, I knew the tells. “Try not to hurt whoever you spend that bloodlust on.”
Pike’s smile vanished. Eyes empty of emotion, he tapped his finger against his nose before turning away, steps long as he caught up to Constance’s group. His arm went over the shoulders of a blond man at the rear, and after a moment, the man dropped back, probably to see us to the surface.
Edden sighed. Jenks had parked it on his shoulder, and the FIB captain dabbed at the sweat on his face. “Wow, that was intense. I don’t know how you do it, Rachel. No one got bitten.” Edden’s eyes flicked from our escort back to me. “I suppose that’s good.”
“So far, anyway,” I muttered, steps slow as we retraced our path to the elevators. I didn’t like leaving Nash behind, but he knew the risk. He’d asked for it. And who was I to stop him from protecting what he thought worth risking his life for? Besides, after I made a tracking charm, Jenks and I would find and rescue both him and Zack. Once we had them, I’d be free to talk to Constance on a more even footing.
She didn’t deserve Cincy. Because for all her death grip on Cincinnati’s vampires, Constance was not only troll-shit crazy, she was afraid.
CHAPTER
11
The sanctuary had gotten warm, the not entirely unpleasant scent of wet dog rising. No surprise as three Weres had just trotted through on the way to my bathroom. It was nearing sundown, noisy now as the displaced pixies had ventured in from the garden in search of Jenks to settle something or other—and they were investigating. Everything.
“This should help,” I said as I sat cross-legged on the floor and shuffled through my purse for a finger stick. A beaten and bruised Were sat on three layers of blankets as a makeshift cot, his back propped up against the old church wall and his long legs stretched out before him. His name was Garrett, and he’d been the one who had distracted an entire floor of I.S. vampires for me. I was grateful that David had found him. An uninvoked pain amulet hung around his neck. It seemed far too little for what he’d done. “You sure you don’t want a healing charm?”
Garrett grinned through his obvious pain. He was as scruffy as David was polished, clearly low on the pecking order, but his heart was larger than life. “No, I want the scars,” he said proudly.
“Okay . . .” But there were more bruises than potential scars. If there was one thing vampires were good at, it was inflecting pain without leaving permanent damage. Their special skill. I was just glad they’d retained enough professionalism to keep from breaking his skin other than a busted lip. Beaten up was bad enough. Beaten up and bound to a nameless vampire was life-altering.
My eyes flicked up to David standing at the foot of the “cot,” Rex in his arms and his duster brushing the floor. Seeing his smile, I snapped open the finger stick, pricked my pinky, and smeared a drop of blood on the amulet. Immediately Garrett’s expression eased and the pain he’d been trying to hide vanished in the scent of redwood.
David had found him in the gutter where the I.S. had left him. His three roommates, all bachelors, were the Weres in my bathroom tidying up. They’d been evicted two days ago and still hadn’t found a place.
“You and your roomies can stay here until you find something, okay?” I said as I gave his knee a light pat and stood. “I don’t want you furring it under a bridge anymore.”
Garrett looked up, his breath now going in and out without pain. “Did you get in to do what you had to do?” he asked as he gingerly felt his ribs.
I glanced at David, my thoughts on Zack. “Most of it. We’re doing the rest come sunup.”
“Then it was worth it.” Garrett carefully eased himself down, stretching until he went beyond what the amulet could cover and winced. His three roomies came out together, noisy and cheerful after having used my bathroom to change back to two legs. David seamlessly insinuated himself into their group, crouching down to talk to Garrett and his friends about their next move. They’d be okay now that they had a place to catch their breath.
And yet, as I smiled and backed up, I wished I had more to give him than a place to sleep on the floor and a hot meal. Though dinner is starting to smell really good, I thought as I breathed deep and looked at the back wall as if I could see through it to the garden.
Garrett and his friends weren’t the only refugees to have shown up on my doorstep while I’d been talking to Constance. Three emotionally drunk vampires who had once been part of Piscary’s inner circle were outside grilling steaks for everyone. I had no idea where the meat, potatoes, and baked beans had come from. Actually, I didn’t know where the beat-up grill had come from, either, and I was pretty sure the makeshift connection of solder and pipe to the broken gas line wasn’t code. The contractor’s paint-spotted boom box outside was loud with “Sexy Thang,” and the tiny fridge was full of stuff. Two more coolers were tucked under Kisten’s pool table, a faded taped sign saying Take one now, leave one later. My small church was starting to look, sound, and smell like a frat house six weeks before exams—meaning everyone was partying except me.
David rose from the small group, his eyes fixed to mine. Smiling cat in arms, he ambled over, duster shifting about his ankles.
“Thanks for finding Garrett,” I said, liking how they all clustered about the beat-up man to bolster his mood. “They’re all welcome to stay until the city serves me a warrant to vacate. I feel responsible for what he did. A pain amulet hardly seems enough.”
David said nothing, amusement quirking the corners of his mouth as he peered at me from between Rex’s ears.
“I didn’t ask him to do it,” I added defensively, and David silently petted the content cat. “Damn it, David, say something,” I demanded, and he chuckled.
“Get used to it?” he offered.
“I’m not getting used to that.” Flustered, I went to the coolers, digging until I found a Coke amid the beers.
“And maybe do something about Constance,” he added.