“I have to. Not just because of the elixir,” he said, “though I’m gonna take it with me if it even exists. I’ve gotta find out what that’s about. Who would go to the trouble of setting us up? Why?”
“See? You don’t know that it’s just for you,” she pointed out. “Nightwalkers hate slayers.”
Which just went to prove that he didn’t act anything like the dangerous paranormal race.
“Exactly. If it’s for you, that’s even more of a reason for me to go by myself.”
“Ha. No. I’m going with you.”
“Tabby, you can’t—”
Standing on the tips of her toes, Tabby pressed her pointer finger against his lips, effectively silencing him. “Listen to me. Okay?”
“Tabby.” Adam tried to speak around her finger. The word came out garbled and he sighed when she just stuck up her middle finger next, using two to keep his lips together.
“Hush, you.”
He huffed.
“‘Atta boy, champ. Now listen. Some wise”—when Adam raised his eyebrows at the compliment, Tabby chuckled—“wise and incredibly sexy guy I know told me once that it’s always a good idea to take back-up if you can. Let me go with you. I’ll be your back-up.”
Adam waited for her to pull her hand away from his face so that he could answer. As soon as she did, he said, “I distinctly remember you telling me I had to stay behind when you went out and fought a feral wolf shifter.”
“Well, we can’t all be as smart as you,” she teased. “But, seriously. If you go, I go. We’re doing this together.”
“Yeah. Alright.”
“I mean it, Adam. I— hang on. Did you say ‘yes’?”
“I did?”
“You did.” He so did, though she could hardly believe it, and there was no way she was going to let him take it back now. Still… “I thought I’d have to do a lot more convincing to get you to agree.” Hang on. Tabby squinted. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch,” her Nightwalker told her, reaching out to snag her by the wrist, careful as always to avoid scratching her. “Though I won’t stop you if you want to try to convince me. That sounded pretty good.”
He used his strength to tug her closer, her heart warming as she lay her head on his chest before wrapping her arms around his middle. She might not know exactly how she felt about him, but she knew that there was nowhere else she’d rather be than in his embrace.
Still, she slapped his back playfully, then rubbed him soothingly as if taking the sting out of her hit. “Later. First we have to figure out what we’re going to do.”
Reluctantly, Adam let her go. “Well, now that I know I have back-up, I think I might have an idea.”
“Lay it on me.”
“We might have to cross some lines,” he said. “Casing the place during the day while the Nightwalkers are sleeping, get the blueprints so we know what to expect, use your connections to get an idea of how big of a trap we’re walking into… that’s just the beginning. If it’s a nest instead of just one vampire, we could both end up throwing our lives away. Well, I’d probably just die again, but I’m more worried about you. Either way, it’s not going to be fun. Or easy.”
That’s just what she wanted to hear.
“Adam, baby, you had me at crossing some lines.”
A week later, on the night Adam was set to meet the mysterious female, Tabby was in position.
Everything had gone according to plan so far. They drove Adam’s car into Woodbridge for one last time the night before, staking out the building from a distance so that they knew what they were getting into. After spending the last week setting up for the meet, she was relieved to go a night early since she spent the ones leading up to it keeping an eye out for her uncle or Eddie.
But neither one of them had come screaming down to pluck her out of Grayson and now? It was too late.
Operation Get the Damn Elixir was underway.
It was surprisingly easy to sneak into the vents which only cemented her suspicion that this was a trap. Since the only way that Adam agreed to let her tag along was this ridiculously crazy plan, she was actually kind of glad that she was inside with half an hour to spare before midnight.