Seth again took in the scene. Nicole and Sean stood quietly with what she imagined were looks of both guilt and dread on their faces while the vampire shriveled up in a pool of blood. Tilting his head back, Seth looked up at the structures that bracketed them, turned, and scrutinized the building on the other side of the street at the end of the alley. That one, Nicole noticed, boasted several windows.
Seth closed his eyes.
Nicole glanced up at Sean.
He shrugged.
“There was a witness,” Seth murmured.
Oh crap. “Should I call Reordon?” she asked hesitantly.
Seth opened his eyes. “No. I took care of it. The man is drunk, his mind easily manipulated. I commanded him to erase the pictures and video he captured on his phone and then buried his memories.” He strode toward them. “What happened?”
She and Sean quickly recounted the events of the night.
His face impassive, Seth studied them. “You didn’t think it strange that Nick would relax his vigil so quickly?”
Inwardly, Nicole winced. “I thought it was less that and more that he wanted to know if Becca was being targeted. Kayla, too, I’m sure.”
Sean nodded. “I thought the same. And there really was no other way to know other than to put Becca out there.”
Well, technically speaking, Nick had found a way. She just wished he would’ve clued her in first.
Seth sighed. “You had no inkling that Becca wasn’t Becca?”
“None at all,” Nicole admitted. “I didn’t even know Nick could assume the appearance of other people. I thought he only shape-shifted into animal forms.”
The elder immortal shook his head. “Most older immortal shape-shifters can assume another person’s appearance but choose not to, believing it too great a deception.”
“Well,” Sean said, “Nick was spot-on in his impersonation of her. I’m impressed as hell. He even got her voice right.”
Nicole nodded, understanding now why Becca had given all the men who’d tried to chat her up the cold shoulder.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Seth offered absently. “Nick has watched over Becca ever since she and Kayla moved in next door to him when she was a child. He knows her every mannerism, every intonation in her voice.” He shook his head. “Next time, consult me first before you launch what Reordon will no doubt deem a covert op.”
“Yes, sir,” they chorused.
Reordon would be pissed that they’d blown this opportunity. Information gathering was a huge part of his and the network’s job. And he did not like anyone interfering in that and mucking it up.
“Let me get you home.” Seth touched their shoulders.
The alley faded to black. That peculiar feeling of weightlessness engulfed Nicole. Then they stood in the foyer of Sean’s house.
“I need to speak with Chris,” Seth said, “and let him know what’s happened.”
As soon as they nodded, he teleported away.
Nicole stared up at Sean.
He looked as unsettled by the night’s events as she was. “Reed knew Nick’s name.”
She nodded. “I think that confirms he was targeting Becca. Don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“To get to Nick?”
“Looks like it.”
“How did he even know that she and Nick are related? They don’t have the same last name. And Nick and Kayla just got married a couple of months ago.”
He shook his head. “I was wondering the same thing.”
Her mind raced, trying to connect the dots. “Do you think Reed was the only one targeting her? Or is this part of some greater scheme?”
“I don’t know. There were other vampires with him the first time he attacked her, but this time he was alone.”
And Nick had slain the only man who could’ve told them if more were involved.
She sighed. “We fucked up.”
“Yeah. Big time.”
Belatedly realizing she still held the 9mm, she shoved it into her shoulder holster. “This is my fault.”
“No, it isn’t. We all agreed to this. You, me, Nick, and Kayla.”
She found a faint smile. “The only one who may not have agreed to it is Becca.”
He smiled. “I doubt she even knew about it.”
“If she had, she would’ve insisted on posing as bait herself.”
“Yeah. She’s as hardheaded as you are.”
Nicole laughed. “And you aren’t hardheaded? Remind me again… how many times did Seth have to pop in and save your ass when you refused to hunt with a partner while vampire populations were off the charts?”
His lips turned up in a sheepish grin. “Okay. We’re both hardheaded. We’re going to have to work on that in the future.”
She grimaced. “If Reordon doesn’t fire me.”
Sean snorted. “Let him try it. I’ll kick his ass.”
Nicole knew he expected her to laugh, but Reordon’s reaction was a genuine concern for her.
He sobered. “Wait. You aren’t actually worried about that, are you? About Reordon firing you?”
“A little,” she admitted. In the greater scheme of things, she was still new to the job.
“Well, don’t. Chris won’t fire you. He knows what an incredible asset you are, Nicole. You should’ve heard him singing your praises when he gave me my choice of Seconds.”
Surprise coursed through her. “Really?”
“Hell yeah. You rock. And Reordon knows it.”
Damned if that didn’t give her a major case of the warm and fuzzies. And make her blush. She’d received so few compliments in her life that she didn’t know how to accept them. “Thank you.”
He grinned knowingly.
“You know what doesn’t rock?” she asked before he could razz her about the color staining her cheeks.
“What?”
She pointed to his head. “That hair.”
Eyebrows rising, he turned his head from side to side. “What? You don’t like it?”
“The cut’s fine.” She liked the buzzed sides and would love to run her fingers across them to see if they were rough, like beard stubble, or soft. “It’s the color I don’t like. How did you bleach your hair so quickly?”
He laughed. “I didn’t. It’s some kind of fancy hair wax. Sheldon showed me how to use it.”
“Really? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with blond hair.”
“Me either. The yellow came with a set containing just about every color of the rainbow. He wanted me to go with blue, but I refused.”
She laughed. “I could totally see Sheldon with blue hair.”
Her cell phone rang.
After digging it out of her pocket, she checked the screen. Chris Reordon. Dread stole away her amusement as she took the call. “Yes?”
“It’s Reordon,” Chris said, his voice clipped. “I’m calling a meeting. Tomorrow night. David’s place. An hour after sunset.”
Nicole met Sean’s gaze. “We’ll be there.”
Sean remained silent as she ended the call.
“I’d say he seemed pissed,” she commented, “but that’s how he usually sounds.”