Wolf Ties (A Rue Darrow Novel Book 2) (2 page)

“I am not here for her,” Death said, a little late! He removed a sheet of paper from his long black coat and studied it. The action appeared too normal, and I kept my gaze locked on him. After some moments, he glanced up. “I’m early.”

A step sounded in the hall, and the door opened once again to admit a nurse. Just before she spotted me, however, Death’s cloak stretched from him to me, and I found myself invisible to the human’s detection.

“Oh dear, Mrs. Villar, you’re awake,” the nurse said. “I’m sorry to do this a this time of night, but we have to move you out of this private room and move you into one where you will share with another patient.

Georgia moaned, sounding groggy. She struggled to raise her head and scan the room. I marveled how her gaze passed right over Death and me. “Where did my friend go?”

“What are you talking about, Mrs. Villar? Maybe you were dreaming. There’s no one here.”

The nurse wheeled Georgia and her bed out the door to be replaced by an elderly man, so small and frail in his own bed. I glanced at Death, who hadn’t stirred from his spot or spoken since he admitted he was early. He took one step in the old man’s direction, and the alarm on the monitors hooked up to the old man sounded.

The old man sat up and glanced back at his body, still lying on the bed. “I don’t want to go,” he whined. “A little longer, one more drink.”

A portal opened behind Death. I had seen that portal before, and nothing could convince me that particular one led to paradise. Death gestured to the opening, and the old man’s spirit was propelled forward. In seconds and without discussion or sympathy, he was gone.

The portal closed. Death looked at me.

“I’m right,” I said. “You’re the same one I met in the past, aren’t you?”

“I am, and I have a schedule to keep.”

Just like that, the nonsocial creature disappeared, taking his cloaking of my presence with him.

“What are you doing here?” the nurse demanded. “We have an emergency, and visiting hours are over!”

I considered giving an excuse, but why bother? One last glance at the man’s still body, I knew they would never revive him. He was gone to another place, to his reward for whatever life he had lived. As I strode down the hall toward the exit, I wondered if the man was someone important since the nurses had made sure he was given a private room even if it disturbed another patient. Ah well, all the money and position in the world meant nothing when Death came to collect your soul.

Except, of course, if you were a vampire like me.

Chapter Two

“The night is almost as beautiful as you are, Rue.”

I just managed to keep my eyes from rolling. Not that I didn’t agree I was cute. My appearance had nothing whatsoever to do with me. When I looked into the mirror, I liked the face that stared back at me. At first the changes jarred me, but eventually I came to accept myself. As each day passed, I became more used to standing out because of my looks, not to mention the otherworldly draw that was a part of my makeup.

Silvano, one of my fellow vampires, and a slightly older yet distinguished man, probably wasn’t affected by the draw so much as the physical appearance.

“Thank you, Silvano, but you sound like a lover. I thought this wasn’t going to be a date but you giving me pointers for my growth.”

He frowned. “Can’t it be an enjoyable time between friends?”

“Friends aren’t in the habit of flirting with each other.” I lied because my friend Nathan asked me out and flirted every time I saw him. Part of Nathan’s charm was his unwillingness to give up and how he had proven he would always look out for me. I liked him a lot, but I wasn’t sure I should admit it to him.

“Your mind is elsewhere, Rue.” Silvano sounded petulant, and I hid a smile. I had learned he could speak into my mind and maybe read it, but he had assured me he wouldn’t. Since spending time with him, I knew when someone was in my head even if I couldn’t stop them. So far, Silvano kept to his promise. He must have noticed the distracted look on my face.

“Yes, sorry, you were saying?”

He studied my face as we walked. Silvano had been making subtle suggestions over the past couple of weeks that I should join his coven. So far, I had resisted. Before I knew what I was getting myself into, I wanted to learn all I could. Not just about vampires but all nonhumans and about the world I lived in, the one hidden from me all the years I was human.

A breeze stirred my hair, and I raised a hand to brush it from my face. I sensed a change in Silvano as he watched. On the other side of the road, another man appeared and was gone just as quickly. He hadn’t moved off, although I couldn’t detect him by any stretch of my senses. Instincts told me so, but I was sure Silvano did feel the man. He was no doubt one of Silvano’s group.

“Have you learned to take wine yet?” Silvano asked.

I hated him knowing my secret, that I still couldn’t stomach anything other than blood, but he had assured me most new vampires had this problem. I would “grow out of it,” he said, but I hadn’t yet.

“No.”

“How about we visit a restaurant anyway?” he suggested. “There’s a place on Saint Louis Street. This time of night there may be fewer guests, and you can open your mind to accept their thoughts.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Accept? You make it sound like they’re offering them.”

“Humans offer a lot more than they realize just by their nature.” He spoke the words as if he were relaying the time.

“It’s not their fault.”

“Do you defend them?”

I shrugged. “I don’t need to defend their existence. They are what they are, just as we’re something else.”

“I agree. Humans serve their purpose.”

“I don’t remember saying that.”

Before he responded, a police siren cut through the air, and we both stopped walking. Soon a squad car turned the corner. The line of traffic ahead of it parted to get out of the way. Rather than continue on, the car rolled to a stop and double-parked alongside us. By then I already knew Violet drove the vehicle.

She cut the siren and climbed out of the car dressed in her usual uniform. Her gaze sought mine and then slid to Silvano, and her jaw tightened. I sensed an increase in her ire just at the sight of him. “I need to speak to you, Rue.”

“Sure.” I waited for the werewolf cop to reach me. “Is there a problem?”

Violet ignored me and scowled at Silvano. “Why are you with
him
?”

My eyebrows rose. “Why shouldn’t I be?”

Silvano stood with his hands linked behind his back in an obvious effort to appear calm. He was anything but. From the moment Violet appeared, he’d gone tense, and the dislike between the two could have illuminated a whole city with its energy.

“Are you insinuating I’m not good company to keep?” Silvano asked Violet.

“Not
good
period,” Violet shot back. “It’s just a matter of time before we catch you on the crimes you’re committing.”

“And then what?” Silvano didn’t appear worried. “Will you haul me before a judge to convict me? A human judge and jury?”

“You still have to abide by the laws!”

Silvano laughed, a cold sound that echoed on the night, and he raked Violet from head to foot. “Laws made by humans don’t interest me. Just because you choose to rub shoulders with them, pretending to be a policeman is no concern of mine.”

“Pretending!” She growled low in her throat and stepped closer to him. “We’ll see who’s pretending when you’re behind bars.”

He gazed at her shaking his head. “You actually believe that. They cannot govern us. Can’t you see?”

“They far outnumber us,” she shot back, “and you’d be better off realizing all your stupid activities won’t stay under cover of darkness for long. I’m going to see to that, and tell me. Which one of us can survive in the day?”

Silvano ground his teeth. “They have one use, and even you can’t deny that.”

I bristled because I knew what he meant. Humans were for food, and while the werewolves didn’t eat humans during a full moon, it wasn’t impossible either. Or so I had heard. Silvano’s sentiments, though true in a way, offended me. I accepted the fact that all nonhumans didn’t see the world as I did, but this was still one more reason I hesitated to join Silvano’s coven.

Violet scoffed. “This isn’t about them having what you need to survive, and you know it.”

“You’re a hypocrite, officer,” Silvano bit out. “You throw aside your laws whenever it suits you.”

“To keep
our
secret. I’ve never deliberately broken the law like you.”

Silvano shrugged. “Whatever lets you sleep at night.”

Violet swore. I glanced around to see that we were gathering a small crowd. So far, Silvano and Violet’s conversation was too low for humans to hear, but her anger increased the more she argued with Silvano. The contest of wills had to end.

“You two need to stop this,” I said. “We’re gathering attention. Was there a reason you found us, Violet, or did you just want to take this opportunity to bully Silvano?”

Both of them objected to my choice of words, which I found amusing, but they backed off from each other. Violet turned to me. “I need to talk to you, Rue—alone. Come with me.”

I wouldn’t hold my breath if I had any for a “please” at this point, so I agreed. “Silvano, can we pick our conversation up some other time? I’m sorry. This sounds serious.”

“Of course. I’m always at your service. All you have to do is call me, and I’ll be there for you.” The sweet words came across as sour after what he had said earlier, but I did my best not to condemn him. After all, I had done some things I wasn’t particularly proud of, and I was sure there were many more in my future. My actions aside, I wondered what Silvano was involved in that the police couldn’t pin on him. Well, it was not my business, and I didn’t want to police nonhumans. Someone else could have the job, thank you very much.

Violet led the way to her squad car, and I hesitated before climbing into the passenger side. Since becoming a vampire, I preferred my travel to be perpetuated with my own feet. Not that I feared cars now. They just felt so confining.

Violet flipped the switch on the siren and peeled out into traffic. I winced and covered my ears, groaning, “Why?”

“It’s less likely Silvano will hear us,” she said as she sped down the street.

“I doubt he will care one way or another.” My head spun. The sound from inside the car was a million times worse than being outside it. How could she bear it? “As long as what you tell me has nothing to do with vampires or his business, Silvano will ignore what you say.”

Violet flipped the siren off, and I collapsed against the back of the seat. The ringing in my ears subsided and with it the pain. I glanced at her and noted how she gripped the steering wheel and her tight mouth. I had the feeling it wasn’t the noise that bothered her.

“Doesn’t the noise hurt you?” I asked.

She glanced at me and then focused on the road again. “I’m used to it. Plus I wear ear plugs.”

I peered into her ear and spotted the flesh colored bud. “All the time?”

“On duty, yes.” She hesitated. “When I first started, it took everything in me not to howl.”

I snorted, and she blushed. “Truly? Wait, that’s right. Dogs howl when they hear the fire truck sirens. I remember it from when I was a girl.”

Violet sneered at me. “You speak like an older woman sometimes.”

There was no love lost between us any more than her and Silvano. “I’m older than I look.”

“No, you’re not. I can tell you’re new.”

I shrugged. I had no need to tell her this body I was in wasn’t my original body. I might look twenty-eight and not yet a year old in vampire years, but I had been on the earth longer. Besides, my way of speaking was the product of being a southern girl from North Carolina, which I was proud of. I didn’t need to defend myself to this werewolf.

Now I’m beginning to sound like Silvano.

“Where’s your partner tonight, Violet?”

She glared at me, probably recalling the last time I had seen the woman. At that time, Violet had allowed me to drink her partner’s blood to save me. She would have preferred to let me rot.

“None of your business. Look, it doesn’t matter. There’s been a murder.”

I stiffened. In that moment, the only reason I could think the police would seek me out to tell me about a murder was if they thought I was responsible. Violet showed no signs of arresting me. Then another thought occurred to me. She might have come to tell me someone I knew had been killed. If my blood were not already cold, it would have run that way now.

“N-not Nathan?” I whispered.

Violet eyed me in silence.

“Tell me now,” I demanded.

Her hands squeaked on the steering wheel. “Nathan isn’t dead, but he is in trouble.”

“How so?”

“Do you know Dalton?”

“Yes, his roommate. I met him once or twice when I stopped by their apartment.” Dalton seemed to live for women, and even I being one of the undead wasn’t out of his scope. When Nathan introduced us, the werewolf had turned on the charm so strong, I found myself drowning in it. I supposed there were women who would melt if they were the focus of his attention. After all, Dalton was similar to Nathan, very tall, muscular, and having an inner beast under tight control added a sense of danger. Unlike Nathan, who was sweetly helpless to his darker nature, Dalton knew what he was and used it to full advantage. The result turned me off more than it attracted me, so I had rebuffed him to Nathan’s great relief and amusement.

“You seem pretty close to Nathan,” Violet said.

“Is that the issue here?”

She took a corner at too sharp an angle. I thought we might have risen onto two wheels, and for some reason I had a flashback to another time when I had been in an accident with a friend. Someone had tried to run us off the road. Back then I was helpless. Now I was not.

Violet regained control of the car and herself. “Sorry. I’m just worried.
Really
, worried.”

“Why?”

“Because Nathan is accused of murdering Dalton, and I might not be able to help him.”

“That’s ridiculous! Nathan would never kill anyone.”

Violet made a noise of disgust. “Guess you aren’t as close to him as you think you are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I knew what it sounded like to me. Nathan had killed someone in his past. Therefore, it was entirely possible he could do so again. When I met Nathan, I had first read his advertisement to be a tracker. The ad claimed he had never eaten anyone. Later, he had said as much to me. When Violet didn’t respond right away, I asked, “Do you believe Nathan killed Dalton?”

She sighed. “Honestly? I don’t know. Right now he’s in a rage, and we can’t get him to calm down.”

“Where is he?”

“In a holding cell.”

I glared at her. “You arrested Nathan? Do you have evidence against him? I thought you were his friend.”

“Calm down, vampire!”

“I
am
calm.” Narrowing my eyes at her, I curled my fingers into my palms. Recently, when I poised for attack, without my intention, my fingernails grew long and pointed. When it first happened, it freaked me out. I had touched the tip of one in curiosity and sliced straight through my flesh. Bill, who had been training me in fighting at the time, had informed me my fingernails were as sharp as knives and as hard as a steel blade. I wasn’t sure I believed it or wanted to. Right now, in Violet’s squad car, it happened again. I was ready to fight on Nathan’s behalf.