Stakeout (Aurora Sky (4 page)

Report to base after school.

I dropped my phone back inside my vinyl
coffin.

“Hey, freak. Did you get lost on your way to
the corner of Fourth and F?”

I had no doubt Miss Bitchy Voice was
addressing me. Cool. Hadn’t heard that one before. Should have gone
with the striped stockings. I looked up. A cheerleader with a high
swinging ponytail stood five feet away, assessing me. At least she
only had one friend by her side rather than a whole posse of
pom-pom pussy.

I shook my bangs out of my eyes. “Actually
I’m meeting your boyfriend after school. He says you’re more frigid
than an Eskimo’s tit.”

The bitch’s companion leaned forward, her
cheeks filling with air, and laughed. I interrupted Prissy Pom-Pom
before she could respond. “Here’s some free advice. Put more pep
into his pecker and maybe he’ll be faithful for more than a week.”
I started to pivot, stopped, and turned suddenly, stepping toward
the girls.

They leaned back, eyes expanding.

“Call me a freak again, and I’ll cut
you.”

I turned and walked away from them, smiling
to myself once they were behind my back.

Fucking cheerleader. Her skirt was at least
six inches shorter than mine and she didn’t have on any tights.
Talk about calling the kettle black. She looked like she’d wandered
off the set of a boarding school porno.

I walked into film class, happy to find
another familiar face even if it was bent over an open
textbook.

I took a seat beside my colleague and friend
Aurora Sky and said, “Hey.”

She looked up. “Hi.”

This was only Aurora’s second week at West
High, but unlike me she came by choice... if you called avoiding
the sight of your old flame rekindling the fire with his old flame
a choice.

It was for the best no matter how decent of
an undead guy Fane Donado was. A vampire hunter couldn’t go around
dating potential targets.

An informant was another matter altogether.
We didn’t have poisoned blood. One accidental taste of Aurora’s
blood, and a vamp would go into an epileptic fit. There were
certain vampires Melcher didn’t want harmed because of their
connections with the undead community. Fane, Marcus, Gavin, and
Henry were among those on the safe list. I hope it stayed that way.
I’d taken a big risk telling Fane about Aurora and me a couple
weeks ago. It was either that or let her die when she’d been
kidnapped by the vampire Renard.

Maybe I trusted him because Fane once stepped
in when a vampire was hassling Whitney. My friends and I had all
agreed afterwards that Fane belonged to a class of vampires we
dubbed “gentlemen,” even if he had hideous taste in women,
specifically the redhead he’d been dating at the time: Valerie
Ward.

I wondered if Fane found the taste of
Valerie’s blood off.

I tapped my fingers on my desktop.

“Earth to Noel,” Aurora said.

I blinked my eyes back into focus. “Sorry,” I
said. “My mind drifted.” Funny thing was Aurora used to be the
spacey one, not me. She’d become Miss Studious since starting at
West. I don’t know; if it were me, a narrow escape from vengeful
vampires out to maim and kill wouldn’t put homework and studying
high on my list.

“Never mind. I probably don’t want to know,”
Aurora said.

That I’d been thinking about Valerie and
Fane. “Probably not.”

Mrs. Campbell walked in, which meant the bell
would ring any second.

“You should have lunch with Gavin, Henry, and
me sometime,” I said. Right before we left Denali High, Aurora had
eaten lunch with Whitney, Hope, and me. Apparently her skipping
days were over, but everyone needed to eat.

“Yeah, thanks, but lunch hour is when I get a
head start on homework.” Aurora’s forehead wrinkled when she
frowned. “I need all the time I can get, especially when I have
Melcher calling me in after school.” Aurora huffed and closed her
book.

“You, too?” I asked.

Aurora turned her head sharply to look at me
as the bell rang.

“At least we can carpool,” I said before Mrs.
Campbell began roll call.

Agent Crist narrowed her eyes the moment Aurora and
I walked inside the agents’ office after school. I don’t know why
she had to look at us like that. I suppose it had something to do
with not wanting to get close to operatives who might not survive
their next mission. That’s something I could understand. I had a
tendency to distance myself emotionally from my friends Whitney and
Hope. I tried to steer them toward friendly vampires, but I
couldn’t monitor their activities around the clock.

Valerie sat in a chair by the far wall
inspecting her nails while Dante, one of Melcher’s male vampire
hunters, leaned against the wall fiddling with a bear claw hanging
on a leather cord around his neck.

I took the seat beside Aurora in front of
Agent Crist’s desk. The last time the agents called us all in
together, it’d been because Valerie suspected Aurora of being a
vampire. It was when my own suspicions were confirmed that my new
friend was, in fact, a hunter, saved and called to duty after her
horrific car accident last November. Lucky for Aurora, she had AB
negative blood—otherwise she would have ended up at the morgue.

“Listen up, everyone,” Agent Melcher said. I
turned my attention to him. “We have a situation. Two nights ago, a
pizza delivery boy went missing from Midnight Pie. He was found
near Westchester Lagoon yesterday morning by a jogger.”

“Dead?” Aurora asked.

Valerie huffed. “Of course, dead! Did you
forget to take your brain pills again?”

Melcher cleared his throat. “A vampire, or
more likely several, drained everything they could out of the boy
before dumping him.”

“How many puncture wounds on the body?” Dante
asked.

“No bite marks,” Melcher said. “They wouldn’t
want to draw that kind of attention to themselves. They used
knives. I’d say they most likely slit the boy’s throat first,
stabbed him in several key arteries, and then slit his wrists.”

I focused on the edge of Agent Crist’s desk.
I didn’t look up until Melcher was halfway through his next
speech.

“I’m putting you into teams of two.”

“No problem,” Dante interjected. “Sky and I
have got this.”

Melcher frowned at Dante. “I’m putting you
and Aurora on probation.”

“What? Why?” Dante asked.

“You got an informant and a boy killed,”
Crist said impatiently.

Melcher laced his fingers, resting them on
his desktop. “And you left Aurora alone on her first mission.”

“A successful mission. She killed Patrick and
Ivo.”

“Beginner’s luck,” Valerie said under her
breath.

Melcher’s brows lowered, meeting his lashes.
He didn’t take his eyes off Dante.

“You also came this close to getting Aurora
killed when Renard came looking for her in town.” Melcher cleared
his throat. “Dante, I’m pairing you with Noel. Aurora, you’re with
Valerie.”

My heart gave a tiny leap after hearing my
name. I glanced from Aurora to Valerie. They both immediately
scowled.

“I expect all of you to work together
professionally,” Melcher said. No one spoke up. “Good.”

I didn’t care who I worked with. I preferred
working alone as an informant. In fact, I’d never worked with
anyone. I hoped this didn’t become a reoccurring event.

“Now that that’s settled, we’ll go over your
instructions.”

Agent Crist pulled a drawer open on her desk.
She stood, holding a stack of thin blue and white pamphlets. She
came around her desk and handed me a small stack. While she moved
around the room, I looked at the cover.

JESUS LOVES YOU!

An oval in the center depicted the typical
Jesus caricature: Caucasian man with shoulder-length brown hair,
wearing a white robe. This picture showed him blessing a baby.

“I don’t think we can pray the vampires
away,” Dante said, chuckling as Crist handed him some
pamphlets.

She frowned in response.

Once Crist reseated herself, Melcher resumed
talking. “We have five residential addresses. They all ordered
pizza delivery from the victim’s employer, and they all called in a
complaint when they never received their order. We believe one of
the addresses is a vamp house. You will use the pamphlets Crist
handed out as an excuse to knock on each door and get a feel for
each resident. Trust your instincts. If you feel you’ve come upon a
person of suspicion, insist on entering the premises and
investigate. Dante and Noel, I’m giving you three of the
addresses.”

Dante gave a whoop.

Melcher stood and leaned over his desk to
hand Dante a sheet of paper. “Aurora and Valerie, you get the
remaining two.”

Valerie had already stepped up to Melcher’s
desk to take the list before Melcher finished speaking. Aurora
remained seated, arms folded across her chest.

“If it turns out that one of your addresses
houses vampires, I want my hunters to position themselves for
feeding. Your duty, your
only
duty
tonight, is to do the poisoning,” Melcher said looking between
Dante and Aurora. “After which I want you to step aside and let
your partner go in for the kill.”

“No way,” Dante said. “I’m all about follow
up.”

“You’re lucky we’re sending you back in the
field at all,” Agent Crist said.

“One more thing,” Melcher said. “I don’t want
either you or Aurora carrying a weapon.”

“What if our partner chokes?” Dante
demanded.

“I won’t choke,” Valerie said.

“Neither will I,” I said quickly. Thanks a
lot, Dante. It was one thing to think it, but to say it in front of
everyone—not cool.

“Dante,” Melcher said patiently. “Your blood
is your weapon and both my informants are highly trained.”

Damn straight. Being short gave me better
access when doing a move I called “The Nut Cruncher.” Maybe Dante
needed a demo.

“No weapons, no killing. Roger that,” Dante
said. “When do we get started?”

“Immediately,” Melcher said.

I lifted off my seat. No time like the
present. It beat going back to the apartment.

Valerie bumped into me on the way out of the
office. “Excuse you,” I said.

“Good luck, Noel,” Valerie said. “You’re
going to need all the prayers you can get seeing as the vamps
gutted the last informant who worked with Dante.”

“I’ll be fine, but thanks for your concern.”
Bitch. Why did someone like Valerie Ward have to share the same
blood type with me? Nature fucked up on that one.

Aurora joined my side, glaring at Valerie’s
back. “And I have to work with her.”

Now that would royally suck.

Valerie spun on her heel. “Are you coming or
what?”

“What does it look like?” Aurora shot
back.

Dante joined us in the hall, calling out,
“Did somebody order a dead vampire, hold the anchovies?”