He laughed softly and squeezed her fingers again. "The day you accept something without question is the day I'll stop drinking blood."
"I don't question everything, " she said, her tone haughty but a grin twitching her lips.
"You don't?" Jake said, appearing in front of them. "Since when?" His gaze raked her as he added, "Are you okay?"
"Besides some bruises and cuts, yeah, I'm fine."
Jake's gaze met Michael's. "So why in hell was Lenny trying to kill everyone?"
"I don't know yet."
"You want me to take Nik down to medical, so you can stay here and find out?"
"That would be good." He brushed another kiss across her lips, released her and stepped away. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Make sure that you are. I want to find out what is going on every bit as badly as you."
"Stop nagging the man," Jake said, as he slipped his hand under her elbow. "You're not even married yet."
"I'll start nagging you if you're not careful," she said, then glanced back and met Michael's gaze. "Be careful. I've a feeling Lenny is just the beginning of the problem."
So did he. He watched them leave before walking around the boxes to where Lenny lay. Camille was kneeling next to the young vampire, placing the last of five colored stones around his body. She made a sweeping motion with her hand, the vibrant pink of her sweater sleeve contrasting sharply against Lenny's blackened body. Energy stung the air, crawling across his skin like fireflies.
"I thought magic couldn't be performed in this room," he said.
"Can't, unless you turn the spells off, which is what I've done."
He knelt down beside her. Lenny still writhed and moaned, and his agony saturated the air. Michael felt no sympathy for him. Lenny had chosen the wrong side to play with, and he had gotten exactly what he deserved.
"There was a spell on him," she continued, sitting back on her heels. "Buried deep, so that we didn't sense it."
"It's deactivated?"
Camille nodded. "For the moment. I've got a feeling that if I try and kill it completely, I'll kill Lenny."
Michael frowned at her. "Meaning the magic is entwined in his life force?"
"It's the only way he could have gotten past all the spells." She raised the crossbow and ran her finger along the barrel. Symbols had been burned deep into the metal. "Weapons are spelled, too, which is why we didn't sense them."
"Someone has gone to a lot of trouble."
Camille's bright gaze met his. "Someone who wants you and Seline very dead."
"You've no doubt Lenny and Nadia are connected?"
"None at all. The magic that binds them has the same feel."
"Is it safe to search his mind?"
"Yes. Whether you can trust whatever information you get out of him is another matter. Seline got very little from Nadia, and what she did has proven to be lies."
He nodded and pushed a hand through the barrier of the stones. Energy crawled up his arm, sharp and unpleasant. He spread his fingers over the other vampire's face, lightly touching his burned skin. Lenny made a gargled sound in the back of his throat, his body jerking in response.
Michael ignored it and psychically plunged deep into Lenny's mind, rifling quickly and none too gently through his thoughts and memories. There was little to be found. Once he'd left work, Lenny seemed to do nothing more than go home to sleep. Life beyond that seemed nonexistent.
Frowning, Michael reached deeper. Surely there had to be memories of friends, lovers, even the enjoyment of past victims, locked away somewhere. Something—someone—that might provide a clue as to who Lenny was working for.
But Camille was right. Lenny's mind was little more than a garbled, gray wasteland, suggesting Lenny himself was operating more on automatic pilot than any real thought processes.
Michael withdrew and met Camille's grim look. "Nothing."
"As I expected."
As he'd expected. A lot of planning had gone into the attack, and whoever was behind it wouldn't be careless enough to leave vital information hanging about in a mind as weak as Lenny's. "He's still living in that Massachusetts Street apartment?"
"Yes, but I wouldn't advise you going there. It's you they want."
He smiled grimly. "Marcus is one death too many. I'm not going to let anyone else fall for me."
"It may be what they're waiting for."
"And it may be the last thing they expect." Either way, he had to take the chance. He'd learned a long time ago the best way to reveal a hunter was by allowing himself to be hunted. More often than not the thought of easy prey led the hunter into making a mistake or revealing himself.
Camille raised an eyebrow. "And what will you tell Nikki?"
"The truth." Another thing he'd learned the hard way was that when it came to Nikki, anything other than the truth often had disastrous consequences—like her stepping into the middle of the very firefight he was trying to keep her out of. When she'd set her mind on a particular course of action, stubborn didn't even begin to describe her. But as much as it annoyed him, it was also one of the many things he loved about her.
He rose, offered Camille a hand and helped her to her feet. "Are you going to brief Seline?"
"Yep, after I tend to this piece of shit." She sharply toed Lenny's thigh. "If you're going to search his place, I'd do it right away, before those behind him sense anything is wrong."
"My thinking exactly." He stepped around Camille and headed for the door.
"Watch for traps," Camille called after him. "This is far from over."
"That much I do know."
"And tell that girl of yours she passed."
He smiled. At least some good had come out of this whole mess. He took the stairs down to the fifth level and walked the length of the white corridor to the medical center. Jake was pacing the length of the small waiting room, and he looked around as Michael entered.
"She's being examined in two," he said.
Michael nodded his thanks and continued on. Nikki's gaze met his as he pushed through the door, her relief a warm sigh through his mind.
"Anything?" she asked.
He shook his head and glanced at the doctor. "What's the verdict, Mike?"
The gray-haired doctor glanced at him over horn-rimmed spectacles. "She fine. Several loose teeth she might want to see about, but other than that, just bruises and cuts."
"So there's no need to keep her in observation?"
"No," Mike said.
"No," Nikki echoed, eyes flashing dangerously.
He smiled and twined his fingers through hers, then he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. "Then we have a job to do."
She hopped off the bed and grabbed her sweater with her free hand. "What job?"
"Lenny didn't give us anything. We'll have to check his apartment."
"We meaning you, me and Jake?"
He nodded. Even if he didn't need their help, he doubted he'd keep Jake away any more than he would Nikki. "I can't cross a threshold uninvited, remember?"
She grinned and stepped close to brush a kiss across his lips. She winced even as she did it. "Oww.
That hurts."
He slid an arm around her waist, pressing her lithe body against his, drinking in the heat of her, the smell of her—sweat intermingled with cinnamon, sunshine and honey. "Then I shall have to find other places to kiss." He brushed his mouth down her long neck. Her pulse raced against his lips, an intoxicating sensation that called to the man in him rather than the vampire.
Desire flooded the link between them. With her breasts pressed so snugly against his chest, he couldn't help being aware of her arousal, just as she was no doubt aware of his. He wished they were home.
Wished he could give in to passion's flame. Hoped he had an eternity to feel this way.
But right now, they had work to do.