«Man, she's gonna be pissed about not being able to fly until it heals,» Matt observed. Everyone in the room felt the seriousness of the moment. «You got anywhere you have to be tonight?» Matt asked Steel.
«What do you have in mind?»
Matt stood. «I think it's time for you to meet our allies. They'll be rising when the sun sets.»
«No way.» Steel found it hard to believe what the werecougar implied. From what he'd seen, werefolk didn't mix with vampires and vice versa.
«Way.» Matt checked his watch as he headed for the door. He spared a moment to look back at Hastings. «It's your house, so it's your call. Do we go to them or do I invite them here?»
The PI sighed as he sank back in his chair. «Much as I hate to give up this location, I think it's time we show a little good faith. Sebastian's trusted us with his home. No sense we can't show the same courtesy with a mere safe house.»
CHAPTER 10
«Where are we going?» Christy asked as they drove down the road. Sebastian was at the wheel of one of his larger cars, a luxury SUV with dark tinted windows and lots of room in back.
«First I'm going to drop you off at the vineyard so you can visit with Lissa for a bit. Then Atticus, Marc and I are heading out to a place Collin Hastings set up as a safe house. He's got someone for us to meet.»
«A new ally?» She pulled the thought from his mind, but otherwise her thoughts were still preoccupied by what had happened the night before. The confrontation with Jeff ran through her mind pretty much non-stop and each time she thought of what she'd done, she felt better. She'd stood up to the bully who'd ruled her life for so long and come out the victor. All thanks to the man sitting beside her.
«It remains to be seen if he'll prove trustworthy, but Matt said the signs are good.» Sebastian reached over and captured her hand, drawing it to his lips for a soft kiss. «He could be of great use in tracking the killer.»
«I didn't realize you were so involved in vampire politics.» She could see the survival of his people mattered a great deal to him.
«I'm afraid when it comes to injustice, I still have a bit of chivalry in my soul. It wouldn't be right to sit by while a killer roams loose. Besides which, he could be coming for one of us. I'd rather we take him out first, while we have help from our allies among the were.»
«Is it really such a big deal?»
«That Matt and I are friends?» Sebastian shrugged as he pulled up to a heavy gate that opened automatically for him. «Actually yes. But it's an even bigger deal that others of his kind are willing to work with us on this. Cross-species cooperation is the stuff of legends.»
The vineyard where Atticus and Lissa lived was gorgeous. The house was set in the midst of it all and was built on a grand scale. Lissa answered the door with a big smile and the women hugged each other in greeting. Shortly after their reunion, the men left, headed for their meeting while Christy and Lissa sat together in the spacious dining room, talking. The room opened onto a stone patio, the French doors open to let in the evening breeze.
«I wanted to visit you before now, but Atticus said you needed time. Are you okay? I mean,» Lissa hesitated, «with all this?» Her hands made circles in the air, gesturing.
«With waking up as a vampire?» Christy laughed. «It's not so bad, actually. I confronted Jeff yesterday and personally served the divorce papers.»
«You didn't!» Lissa beamed. «Oh, Chris, that's great.» Lissa's eyes were wistful as she gazed at Christy. She hadn't quite realized how much her friends cared and how much she'd missed them. «How did he react?»
«He took a swing at me.» Christy shrugged, a gleeful smile bursting forth as she remembered again what had happened next. «I knocked his feet out from under him and he fell to the floor.»
«No way!»
She smiled at Lissa's reaction. «Sensei Hiro's been teaching me some moves and with my new abilities, I'm actually pretty good.»
«Oh, sweetie.» Lissa's eyes were moist, though a smile lit her face. «I'm so happy for you.»
«And best of all-« Christy lowered her voice, «-there's Sebastian. Lissa, I've had the hots for that man since I danced with him at your wedding. I never dreamed I'd have a chance with a guy like that, but now…well, it's like a fairytale.»
Lissa's eyes glowed. «I know how you feel. It was that way when Atticus found me.»
«I still can't believe you didn't tell me. How did you manage to hide something like that?»
«Well, Jeff hardly let you out of his sight the past few months, so it wasn't all that difficult, actually. Kelly found out, but then Atticus offered her a job here at the winery, so it was okay. I mean, they don't like people to know, so Kelly working here was a good step. Otherwise she probably would have been watched, like Jena.»
«Damn, is she the only one of us who's not a vampire now?» Christy shook her head at the odd twists of fate that had visited the small group of college friends.
«Don't forget Sally,» Lissa said with a quick grin, «but yeah, you, me, Kelly, and Carly are all living on the dark side now.» She giggled and Christy laughed with her.
An hour after sunset, cars started arriving. The werefolk had shared a large dinner with Steel and he was amazed by how much food those people could consume in one sitting. They'd cleaned up and resumed their places in the living room when the first of their guests arrived.
The doorbell rang and Hastings and Matt went to answer, inviting the visitors inside. The process was repeated for each of the newcomers and Steel realized the vampires needed to be formally invited into the house. He heard them chatting in the hall before they entered the living room as a group.
They were introduced to each of the were and made their way over to Steel last. He was glad of the opportunity to study them for a few minutes before being introduced. Even so, he was unprepared for the power of them, or the impact they collectively had on his senses. He'd seen vamps before, since going to work for the AC, but never this close. Now he began to understand a bit more of their power.
In a word, they were mesmerizing. They had some kind of hypnotic mojo that made it hard to concentrate. He was pretty sure most normal folks wouldn't even notice, but he'd always been a little different. Even as a child, he'd been sensitive to currents in the air-the crackle of electricity, the scent of magic. Since being recruited by the AC, he'd received training to enhance his natural abilities. They called him a Sensitive, which meant he was able to sense the use of magic around him.
Why then, hadn't he suspected Mario? If Mario was a strong magic user, and responsible for the heinous crimes depicted in that file Steel had been shown, how could he have missed it? He was better than that. Something was seriously wrong here.
He recognized Marc LaTour even before he was introduced, from the file he'd been given by his superiors in the AC. Steel shook his hand with reserve. He'd never been this close to a vampire before, and he'd never even seen one this old.
The other men with him were introduced as Cameron, Atticus and Sebastian. Cameron had a strong feeling of magic about him that Steel had never encountered, but the other two had the same magical feel as Marc LaTour. They were definitely vampires and both had very slight accents when they spoke. He couldn't quite place Atticus's slightly Slavic tones, but he'd peg Sebastian for upper class English, if he had to guess.
Matt surprised Steel by sitting next to Sebastian on the couch. He looked comfortable with the vampire, though Steel well knew these two races of supernaturals rarely, if ever, mixed.
«Sebastian's the reason we were able to track you down, in a roundabout way,» Matt said as he sipped a cup of coffee. «He recently took in a battered woman named Christina Kinsey.»