Heather noted how worried Jean-Luc looked. "What's wrong?"
"There's been some trouble." He dragged a hand through his black curls. "You remember my friend Roman Draganesti from New York?"
Heather swallowed hard, recalling the handsome man, his wife, Shanna, and their adorable baby.
"What happened?"
"They go to Mass every Sunday night at Romatech. Roman had a chapel built there, and Mass always starts at eleven. We think the bomb must have gone off early, thank God."
"The bomb?"
"Oui. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. But if the bomb had gone off when the chapel was full…" Jean-Luc grimaced, and his voice choked. "We could have lost them all."
Heather cringed at the thought of that lovely family getting killed. "Who would do such a thing?"
She jolted with a sudden thought. "Was it Louie? Is he targeting all your friends?"
"We know who did it, and it wasn't Lui," Emma explained as she joined them. "It's been a terrible night."
"Aye." Angus MacKay strode toward them. "In one night, there have been four bombings. The first one hit Zoltan Czakvar's home in Budapest. He lost two cov—friends."
"That's terrible!" Heather wondered who this Zoltan guy was. And Budapest? Were these guys a secret clique of immortals?
"Jean-Luc's chateau in France was also hit," Angus continued. "No one was injured, but I hear the damage was extensive."
"You have a chateau?" Heather asked Jean-Luc.
He shrugged. "Only half of one now."
Scowling, Angus wrapped an arm around Emma's shoulders. "Then our castle in Scotland was hit."
"At least no one was killed." Emma gave him an encouraging look. "And we can always rebuild."
"Aye." Angus continued to scowl. "From what I can tell, Casimir has targeted everyone who came to rescue Emma and me in the Ukraine."
"Who's Casimir?" Heather asked. She wasn't sure, but she thought Louie had mentioned that name the night he'd attacked Jean-Luc.
"He's the one paying Lui to kill me." Jean-Luc confirmed her suspicions. "Though I wager Lui wouldn't mind doing it for free."
Heather shook her head. "I don't understand. Y'all seem like really nice guys. Why do these creeps want to kill you?"
Jean-Luc, Angus, and Emma exchanged looks.
"Are you sure Roman and his family are all right?" Jean-Luc changed the subject.
"They're fine," Angus answered. "Connor wants to take them into hiding. Roman balked at first, claiming it was cowardly, but he finally listened to reason. We canna let anything happen to Shanna or Constantine."
Jean-Luc nodded. "Where will they go?"
"Connor refuses to tell anyone. I agreed. Emma and I will be going to Eastern Europe to hunt for Casimir. If we're captured…well, we doona want to know more than necessary."
Heather grimaced. This sounded like war.
A fierce look came over Emma's face. "We need to take care of Casimir once and for all."
"I'll go with you." Jean-Luc grasped his cane with both hands.
"Nay. Ye belong here." Angus glanced at Heather.
She stiffened. "We can take care of ourselves."
Jean-Luc's gaze wandered over her, Bethany, and Fidelia. "Non, Angus is right. I must stay here."
"Casimir and Lui already know ye're in Texas," Angus warned him. "So ye're verra vulnerable.
Since Connor is leaving with Roman tonight, I had a few men I could spare." He motioned to the group next to Robby. "Ian, Phineas, and Phil—they're here to help ye out."
"Merci." Jean-Luc touched Heather's shoulder. "We have plenty of guards now. You and your family will be safe."
"Thank you." With a shudder, Heather wondered what would happen next.
"Heather!" The yell from the distance caught her attention. Billy was striding toward her, his face grim.
Something unintelligible crackled on his walkie-talkie, and he turned down the volume. "Heather, I have some bad news. Someone set your house on fire."
CHAPTER 12
Damn that Lui! Jean-Luc had no doubt the bastard was behind this. The horrified look on Heather's face tormented him as he rode to her burning house. He'd wanted to drive Heather there, but the sheriff had insisted she go with him. So Jean-Luc sat in the front passenger seat of his BMW while Robby drove. He'd been to her house only twice, yet he was feeling a loss.
Heather had to be feeling it a thousand times more.
Her suffering hurt him much more than his own half-destroyed chateau in France. He'd bought it thirty years ago, so he could pretend he had roots going back to an old noble family. But the truth was, he'd never had a family, and a cold pile of stone had not produced the feelings of warmth and comfort he'd craved.
As they drove through the small business section of Schnitzelberg, Jean-Luc noticed a few old buildings were boarded up. "These places could have stone cellars."
"Aye," Robby answered. "We should check them later."
"Ye think Lui could be hiding in one of them?" Ian asked from the backseat of the BMW. "Angus told us a wee bit about Lui."
"Yeah, what a bad dude," Phineas MacKinney added. "Been killin' all your old ladies, huh?"
Jean-Luc shifted in his seat to look behind him. He'd known Ian for centuries. The Vamp might look fifteen, but he was much older. Angus had transformed him at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542. Seated next to Ian was a tall black man with the unlikely surname of MacKinney.
"I don't believe we've met. I'm Jean-Luc Echarpe."
"The name is Phineas, but you can call me Dr. Phang."
"Thank you for coming." He turned to the third man in the backseat. "You're one of Roman's daytime guards."
Phil nodded. "With Roman and Connor gone, there's no one left for me to guard during the day."
The mortal smiled. "But someone's got to watch over you guys."
"You're cool, brother," Phineas announced.
Jean-Luc agreed. A trustworthy mortal was hard to find. The Malcontents viewed mortals as inferior cattle and enjoyed feeding off them and killing them. The Vamps had fed off mortals, too, before Roman's invention of synthetic blood, but they had never been killers. In fact, they tried to protect mortals from the Malcontents. They'd killed hundreds of Malcontents in the Great Vampire War of 1710.
But now, the Malcontent leader, Casimir, was transforming thieves and murderers to swell the ranks of his foul army. Their mission—wipe the good Vamps off the planet and terrorize the mortal world.
Angus had been the Vamp general in 1710, with Jean-Luc as second in command. Angus was always looking for good Vamps to recruit. Finding trustworthy mortals was even trickier. Only a few mortals were willing to risk their lives to protect Vamps. Phil was one of those few.
"Thank you for coming," Jean-Luc told him.
"Not a problem. But I'm going back on a plane." He cast Ian a wary look. "I really don't like hitching a ride when you're teleporting. I just know I'm going to re-materialize someday with my head on backwards."
Ian chuckled. "Angus always checks under his kilt to make sure he dinna lose anything important."
Robby cleared his throat as he turned onto Heather's street. "Do ye think Lui set this fire?"
"Yes." Jean-Luc gripped the brass handle of his cane. "When he attacked two nights ago, he heard me call Heather by name. She was relatively safe until he figured out her last name and where she lives. This fire is his way of announcing that he now knows everything."
"Why didn't he attack her at the fair?" Phil asked.
"He enjoys playing cat and mouse. He'll stretch this out to torture me." Guilt flooded Jean-Luc when he spotted the fire truck in front of Heather's house.
A crowd of people had gathered in the street. The sheriff's car, parked across the street, illuminated the scene with flashing lights. Heather had been so stricken by the news, she hadn't protested at all when Billy dragged her off to his car.