“Would you believe me if I said I was just in the neighborhood?”
“Not likely.”
“All right,” she said with an airy wave of her hand. “I’m spying on you.”
“Worried about me?”
“No, about Sheree, actually. I know the mood you were in earlier.”
“And you thought I’d rip her throat out?” He laughed softly. “Why would you care?”
“I’ve grown rather fond of her these last few days.”
“Yeah, me, too.” Derek shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “She let me drink from her tonight.”
“You fed on her?” Mara exclaimed.
“No! No, it wasn’t like that. She knew I needed to feed and she offered, but the thing is, after a swallow or two, the hunger left me. Nothing like that’s ever happened before.”
“Interesting, but not unheard of. So, you’re going to stay with her?”
“For a while.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“Probably not, but . . . all I know is that I need her in ways I don’t understand. It’s like she’s a missing part of me. I know, that sounds sappy as hell, but . . .”
“Believe it or not, I understand. It’s how I feel about Logan. The hardest thing I ever did was admit that I needed him,” she said, smiling. “Chauvinist that he is, he’s never let me forget it, which would be unbearable, except that he needs me, too.”
“Yeah.”
Mara glanced at the house. “Are you thinking of spending the day here?”
“No. I’ll be home before dawn.”
“All right. I’ll relieve you then.”
“Thanks, Ma.”
With a shake of her head, she vanished into the darkness.
Derek lingered in the shadows, enjoying the quiet of the night. Opening his vampire senses, he listened to the slow, steady beat of Sheree’s heart, smiled when she sighed in her sleep. His mind brushed hers. She was dreaming of him.
Leaning against a tree, he felt himself relax—really relax—for the first time in months. And he owed it to Sheree. He had never expected her to accept what he was.
He lifted his head as a new scent was carried to him by the night wind.
Hunters! There was no mistaking that smell. Or the smell of vampires!
Dissolving into mist, he drifted down the street. Hovering in the air, he watched in amazement as the two old ladies he had seen in the Den fought a trio of well-armed hunters. The hunters, all big men in their prime, towered over the two vampires. Had life and death not hung in the balance, Derek might have found the battle highly amusing.
He had no intention of interfering until the fight turned against the vampires. Chiding himself for being a fool, he materialized behind the nearest hunter and choked him out.
The shortest of the hunters quickly realized they were now outnumbered. Yelling at his remaining companion to follow him, he hightailed it down the street.
The third hunter wasn’t ready to call off the fight until both of the women launched themselves at him, driving him to the ground. He looked up at Derek, seeking help he quickly realized wouldn’t be forthcoming.
Derek let his eyes go red. “What are you doing here?” he growled.
“What the hell do you think?”
“Who are you after?”
“Any vampire I can find!” He struggled against the two holding him down, swore when he realized that they were a lot stronger than they looked.
“What’s your name?”
“Go to hell, bloodsucker!”
“After you.”
Fear shadowed the hunter’s eyes for the first time. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know if you let me go.”
A faint scuffle warned Derek that the first hunter had regained consciousness. He turned in time to deflect the knife aimed at his back. The blade scraped along his forearm. It stung like hell. Grabbing the man by his arm, Derek threw him down the street. There was a sickening thud when the hunter skidded, headfirst, into a brick wall. The coppery scent of blood rose in the air.
The red-haired vampire looked up at Derek. “Are you through questioning him?”
Derek stared at the hunter. “Depends on whether he has any answers for me.”
The hunter cleared his throat. “What do you want to know?”
“Who are you? Why are you here? Did someone send you?”
“My name’s Ashby. I was hunting vampires when I came across these two in the Den.” The fact that he found it hard to believe the two old ladies were vampires, or that they had taken him down, was evident in his voice. “I followed them here.”
“You weren’t after me?”
Ashby shook his head.
“You’re lying,” Derek said. “Who sent you?”
Ashby shook his head again, harder this time, as if that would convince them he was telling the truth.
Derek glanced at the red-haired vampire, who sank her fangs into the hunter’s neck.
The hunter let out a shriek. “McDonald’s after Mara! Word on the street says she’s willing to lay down a lot of credits for information regarding Mara’s whereabouts.”
The redhead reared back. Delicately wiping a bit of blood from the corner of her mouth, she looked at the other woman, then at the hunter. “Lou McDonald?”
The hunter nodded.
The white-haired vampire shook her head. “I would have thought she’d be retired by now.”
“Who’s McDonald?” Derek asked.
“Only one of the most dangerous slayers in the world.”
Derek grunted softly. And then he stared at the two old women, wondering why he hadn’t put two and two together sooner. He didn’t know the redhead’s name, but there was a connection between them that he didn’t understand. “Which one are you?” he asked. “Edna or Pearl?”
“We never meant you any harm,” the redhead said. “It was purely research.”
“Be quiet, dear,” the other woman said.
“Hush, Pearl.” The redhead smiled at Derek. “I’m Edna. I only drank from you so I could find you again.”
“Why would you care where I was or what happened to me?”
“Because of the werewolf gene, of course,” she replied, as if he wasn’t too bright. “Didn’t your mother tell you about it?”
“Yeah, she told me. You’re lucky she wants you alive, or you’d be history now.”
Edna swallowed hard, thinking that, at the moment, Derek looked even more dangerous than his infamous mother.