IM02 - Hunters & Prey (21 page)

“I’ll protect her,” I mumbled, “If you guys won’t.”

Peeking around the corner, I watched Drew greet his mate with a loving kiss, acting as if we had not just had this unpleasant conversation.

A loud succession of pounding fists drummed against the front door. The sudden sound startled me, breaking my smoldering thoughts.

The pounding continued. Rozaline strolled out of her bedroom, her brow furrowed. “Were we expecting company?”

Another bedroom door opened behind me. “No,” Lysander growled, and stalked past me. “Damn him. I should have known.”

I followed him out to the foyer.

Lysander ripped the door open, almost pulling it off the hinges. “You!” he barked the word.

Only one person would have elicited that kind of a response. Everyone in the house was up and crowding the foyer behind me. My memory flashed back to an earlier meeting with Santino. I remembered him saying he knew I was close to home. I shuddered, thinking of how easy it would have been for him to attack us. Lysander had always warned me about keeping a low profile so our home could remain inconspicuous. I guessed we hadn’t been inconspicuous enough.

In a flash, Lysander whipped Santino through the doorway and threw him hard on the tile floor at our feet. “How dare you come here!” He gripped his hands tight around Santino’s neck.

“Take your hands off me before I remove them,” Santino choked out the words. He threw himself sideways, breaking Lysander’s hold and knocking him off balance.

Before Lysander had time to grab him again, Santino jumped, cocked back, and threw a punch.

I stifled a gasp, and my eyes grew wide upon hearing the impact of Santino’s fist with Lysander’s jaw.

Lysander grunted and turned his head, but remained standing and unmoved from his spot.

Fallon tensed at my side. She grabbed hold of my arm. “It’ll be okay,” I whispered. “These two have fought before.”

Lysander took a step closer to Santino, raising himself to his full height, and leaned in close, leaving only a fraction of an inch between their faces. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t end you right here and now.”

The two men stood equal in height and stature. Neither one had the advantage of mass over the other.

Santino narrowed his eyes and matched Lysander’s menacing posture. They appeared ready to rip each other apart as they postured before striking their next blows. “I think you have it backward, old friend.” He pushed Lysander with a quick thrust of his arms.

Lysander teetered back, off balance, thumping into the wall, and let out a groaning breath of air. Bouncing back quickly, he dove at Santino’s chest with a roar.

Fallon and I jumped out of the way as the two men tumbled to the ground together, a mass of flailing arms and snarls.

Nicholas lunged forward, but Rozaline held out a hand to stop him. “Lysander has this under control,” she whispered.

A growl rumbled in Nicholas’ chest. I turned to look at him. I could see the eagerness in his eyes. He wanted to be in the fray. His lip curled into a sneer. He balled up his fists, but made no further attempt to assist.

Lysander slammed Santino’s head into the ground. The force of the impact cracked the tile floor. He looked up, hatred painted across his face, flames dancing in his eyes. “Get me a knife. I’m ending this now,” he shouted at us while holding his palm over Santino’s mouth.

Drew, who stood closest to the kitchen, nodded and walked away.

Santino flailed his arms out, raking Lysander’s face with each swipe of his sharp nails. He thrust his hips up and twisted sideways.

Lysander appeared to lose balance. He leaned over, preventing a fall with his outstretched hand.

“Watch out,” I yelled as Santino wriggled out from under him and delivered a sharp kick into Lysander’s hip, knocking him sideways.

Santino jumped to his feet, fist raised and ready for action. “I came here in truce, but if this is how you want to handle things, so be it.”

Lysander wiped a streak of blood from his cheek. “We agreed to meet elsewhere. How long have you been stalking around my home?” He stood, raising himself back to full height and started side-stepping slowly, putting himself between us and Santino.

Santino’s muscles tensed. His mouth ticked at the corner, and his eyes darted to Drew, who was returning with a large butcher knife. “After the events of the last evening, it would be foolish to show up at your little café again. The human barista might remember,” Santino said slowly, as if choosing each word carefully. “This place seemed more fitting for our chat.”

“This is our home. Our sanctuary.” The words rumbled from Lysander’s throat.

“There was no time to call ahead.” Santino’s eyes roamed the faces of my clan members looking at him, taking particular interest in Drew, who was tapping the knife lightly in his hand.

Santino loosened his fist and held his hands palm out in surrender. “I’ve come here alone and unarmed. I meant for us to have a truce. We need each other. You need my knowledge to help you destroy Quentin’s operation, and I need your numbers to help me do it.”

Nicholas’s voice was a low rumbling growl. “How do we know you’re not sending us unwittingly into a trap?”

“I’ve no doubt that death is a possibility,” Santino rasped.

Nicholas’s eyes narrowed; the sneer never left his face.

Santino matched the cold stare. He spoke through his teeth. “We could all die.”

“There is no ‘we.’ There is us and you.” Nicholas folded his arms across his chest.

Lysander’s jaw tightened and he locked eyes with Santino. An ominous silence filled the room as the two stared at each other.

Santino cleared his throat, breaking the silence. “Perhaps I have been too, what is the term, black and white, in my hunt. I see the human is still alive.” He turned, looking in my direction, and gave me a slight nod.

Fallon took a deep breath behind me.

“That fact alone,” Santino continued, “says quite a bit to me about your particular clan. I have labored under the impression that all of… our kind are monsters.”

A pained expression crossed his face as he referred to “our kind.” It must have taken him a lot to admit that.

“I see now that there are those out there who do not kill indiscriminately.” Santino continued. “We may never be friends, but in this case, I think we would do well to be allies.”

“You are in no position to offer us anything,” Nicholas snapped.

Lysander’s eyes met mine for an instant before he turned to Santino. “He did bring Alyssa back to me.”

“Yeah. He helped Fallon and me escape, as well as saving us from one of those things,” I added. “That has to be worth something.”

Santino lowered his hands to his side and allowed his shoulders to relax. If I wasn’t mistaken, I could have sworn I saw the hint of a smile quirking up the corner of his lips.

Nicholas shook his head and huffed. “Alyssa, you are always in need of some kind of saving. It is getting rather tiresome.”

Rozaline grabbed ahold of Nicholas’ shoulder. “Really, Honey. That’s enough.”

“My point is this.” He pointed a finger at Santino while looking straight at Lysander. “That is not enough to calm my fears about this man being in our home.”

“I understand your concern, old friend,” Lysander said solemnly. “But the damage has already been done. He is here now. Let us at least hear his proposition. If we, as a group, feel it is not in our best interest to aid him”—he shot Santino a cold sneer—“we can dispose of him and continue with our original plans.”

“Agreed. Let’s hear what he has to say,” Rozaline said. She squeezed Nicholas’s shoulder.

He glared at Santino. “If I must.”

“Don’t think I am happy about this either,” Santino said gruffly. “But it seems a necessary evil.”

Lysander extended his arm, gesturing to the living room. “Go. Have a seat and let us discuss this … truce.”

The rest of the group walked behind Santino into the living room. Nicholas stayed behind with Lysander in the foyer. I hung back, staying close to Lysander, hoping to hear what was being said. Nicholas and Lysander spoke in low voices.

Nicholas’ hand covered his face, muffling his words, but I could still hear everything he said. “I do not wish to go against you, but I do not like this man here in our home. He could have led Quentin straight to us. This could all be an elaborate trap.”

“I know your intentions are good, old friend, but as I said before, the damage is done. We are already mixed into this deadly game. He holds information that we may need to defeat our enemies—Santino included. Do not think that I am, in any way, trusting of this man. Let us glean what information we can and prepare for battle.”

“Agreed; but for safety’s sake, we do not stay here for daylight sleep. I suggest we go back to a hotel, someplace highly populated, for our rest today. Our home has been compromised.”

“Agreed.”

“You can stop eavesdropping now, Alyssa,” Nicholas said, pushing past me as he walked into the living room.

Lysander squeezed my shoulder. “Come, let’s go see how much of an ally he will be.”

CHAPTER 15

*****

L
ysander and I sat together on the loveseat in the living room. The air was thick with nervous energy. I gulped back a lump in my throat and silently prayed this meeting would go well. Lysander’s hand came to rest on my knee. It was probably meant as a soothing gesture, but the effect was lost on me.

The others had claimed spots on the large leather couch, leaving Fallon to sit in the only space remaining, next to Santino, on the other loveseat. He whispered something to her that I didn’t quite catch. She gasped and covered her mouth. Tears formed in her eyes, threatening to run down her face.

I shot a menacing glance at Santino, who sat stiffly next to Fallon. “What did you say to her? Why is she crying?”

Santino ignored my angry stare and turned his head toward Fallon. “I don’t see why you are so upset. The barista is alive.”

“How could you?” She pointed a shaky hand at him. “He burned it down, Lyssa! Copioh. It’s gone. Destroyed.”

I understood now her sadness. She loved Copioh as much as I did. It was more than just some coffee shop. Now, apparently, it was gone.

“Fire?” I spoke through gritted teeth, glaring at Santino, hoping he could feel my anger. “That’s how you cleaned up the mess from last night?”

Santino seemed unaffected; perhaps he just didn’t care at all. Neither his actions nor our emotional outburst registered any emotion on his blank face.

“Fire cleans a lot of trouble away,” he said.

I had no words. I didn’t know what to say. The Café. Copioh. It had been a home for most of my life—my mortal life. Even if I hadn’t been able to return as a vampire, I was still happy it was there, filled with my friends. This was like losing one of them—an old welcoming friend. A tear welled in the corner of my eye. I wiped it away quickly with the back of my hand. I wouldn’t let him see me cry. Besides, there was too much else going on for me to start bawling over my old home. We had bigger issues to deal with.

Tension hung thickly in the air. Friend, enemy, or something else, no one wanted Santino here, and it showed plainly on each of the scowling faces in the room.

“Santino,” Lysander said calmly. “Tell us again what it is Quentin is trying to accomplish with these abominations he’s creating.”

“Vampires are hard to control. I’m sure you all are aware of how strong the bloodlust is for a young one.”

Lysander turned to me. “No, not really, I’ve never had a problem with that.”

I smiled at his subtle compliment.

“What I am speaking of is the need to kill human beings for food,” Santino said angrily. “Our organization cannot condone the death of a human to feed a monster such as ourselves.”

“That’s an interesting observation,” Drew chimed in. A small smile pulled at the edge of his lips. “What exactly do
you
eat, Santino?”

Santino puffed out his chest and raised his head proudly. “I drink the blood of animals: cows, chickens, and pigs.”

“You’re forgetting to add vampires to that list,” Nicholas added smugly.

Santino’s chest deflated a little, but the haughty expression didn’t leave his face. “Well, yes. That is part of my reward for destroying monsters. Animal blood alone cannot sustain me the way human blood would. It’s a compensation that works to the organization’s advantage.”

“Have you no respect for what you are?” Nicholas snapped, baring his teeth in a predatory, threatening sneer.

Fallon edged sideways in her seat, leaning closer to Crystal, who sat on the couch next to her.

“I have the utmost respect for what I am able to accomplish with this … affliction. You forget that I was brought into this life for the sole purpose of ending yours. It’s a fitting treat that I can savor the blood of my enemies while bringing justice to the world.”

The next moment was a blur. The coffee table in the center of the sitting space flew toward the wall, the thick glass cracked as it landed. When I looked back, all four men in the house had shifted positions. Nicholas had lunged forward, his teeth bared and ready to strike. Lysander must have caught him before he could attack Santino. I didn’t even have time to feel the breeze left in his wake.