On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3 (25 page)

“Conrad, what are you doing here?” I asked, motioning him inside and locking the door behind him.

“Man, you’re not a very sociable person are you?” He seemed a little distressed, dressed in dark blue jeans, a white tee with a cartoon character I couldn’t see, and a black leather jacket. “Don’t you ever ask how someone is?”

I folded my arms. “Cut the crap and tell me what’s going on. Did you find the vampire you mentioned earlier?”

“What makes you think something’s going on?” He was pacing in front of the front door.

“Well, you do seem to be carving a path on the floor,” Papan said. “And you’re a little jumpier than usual. So I’d also guess something’s going on.”

“It
is
about the Lamia, isn’t it?” I whispered.

He looked at me, his brow furrowed. “Why are you whispering?”

“Never mind. Just tell us what’s going on.”

Conrad stopped pacing long enough to look me over before saying, “It’s about Eb.”

“What happened?” If Maya had somehow tracked her down and planned to use her against me, I was going to kill the bitch with my bare hands.

“Chill, will you? Let me tell you what’s going on before you totally lose it.”

I took a deep breath and relaxed—barely. “Go on.”

“We’ve got a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” Papan asked, frowning.

Conrad started pacing again. “You both know Eb’s been having a hard time after what happened, right? So I introduced her to the vamp world, hoping it would show her something new, give her something else to focus on and learn about. It worked out that way the first few nights, but then I showed her something I maybe shouldn’t have, and she…got a real taste for it.”

I took a step towards him. What the hell was he talking about? “What did you do?”

“Hey, don’t go accusing me without finding out the facts.” His eyes didn’t mirror any of the anger he tried to portray.

“You just told me you shouldn’t have shown her whatever it is has gotten her into trouble, so quit playing games and tell me what’s going on.”

“Okay, okay…”

Both Papan and I waited while Conrad ran a hand through his hair, ruining the just-got-out-of-bed style he seemed to pull off so well.

“You have to understand that I didn’t go out of my way to show her this. It just happened one night while we were partying in a vamp club and had a little too much to drink.” He rubbed his goatee, looking a little devastated. “I didn’t think she would become so interested in it.”

“Just get to the point already!” I couldn’t stand the suspense.

“I think she’s addicted to bloodletting.”

I gasped—even if I didn’t know what he meant I had a pretty good idea it couldn’t be good. “What does that mean exactly?”

Papan took my hand. “It means she’s offering herself up to vampires—willingly giving them blood to feed on.”

“What? Why would she do that?”

Conrad looked me in the eye. “Bloodletting has a euphoric effect on humans, and makes you forget about everything for a while.”

“So it’s like a drug?”

He nodded.

“You’ve turned Ebony into a vampire junkie!” I extended my right fist with the intention of striking him but Papan grabbed me before I could. “Papan, let go! He deserves a whole lot more than a punch in the face.”

He slowly, but forcibly turned me around until I was facing him. “I know, but getting angry with him right now isn’t going to help Ebony. If she’s offering herself up to these vamps, she can end up dead or worse.”

I didn’t even want to think about what could be worse than death. Tears blurred my vision and I swallowed back a sob. “We have to do something. We need to help her.”
 

She was right
—
this is my fault.

“Yes, we do,” Papan said. “The sooner the better, because I once investigated a case involving a missing girl and it led me to this… By the time I found her, she was already dead.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Conrad said behind me.

I tried to take even, shallow breaths to calm down. “How long has she been doing this?”

“Long enough, but I haven’t seen her for the past few days.”

“What?” I turned on him and even Papan dropped his grip on me. “You told me she was staying at her place for a night, and led me to believe you were with her last night when you checked out the clubs. How could you let her get lost in something like this without telling me about it?”

His blue eyes hardened. “Maybe because I knew you’d totally lose it. And I was right!”

“Conrad, she’s not in her right mind at the moment!” I shouted. “How could you leave her alone? I trusted you to look after her.”

He sighed, running both hands through his hair this time. “Don’t you think I know that? I really care about Eb—it’s why I thought she could use a little down time and a chance to forget about what happened. You’re not there when she has nightmares, but I hear what she says and goes through. I’m there when she wakes up crying and can’t get back to sleep. I just wanted to help her. I didn’t think she would seek this much comfort from it.”

As angry as I was with him, I couldn’t hold him responsible for Ebony’s decisions. She was a consenting adult and if she’d chosen this self-destructive path it wasn’t his fault. Though it still didn’t change the fact I was going to kick Conrad’s ass as soon as this was over.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, you need to take us to her.”

“I’m not sure where she is—”

“That’s not important.” I didn’t care if we had to turn the whole of Sydney upside down to find her. “What does matter is that you know this nightlife better than anyone and can lead us in the right direction. I’m not leaving her there for another night. We need to find Ebony and bring her home. If she needs help, I’ll do whatever it takes to get it for her…but I refuse to let her give her life away to a bunch of bloodsuckers who are obviously taking advantage of her.”

“Sierra, what’s going on?”

I looked over my shoulder to find Willow standing there with her arms crossed and a sad look in her eyes. She had to know our easygoing night was over.
 

“I’m sorry, Willow, but I’m going to have to go out.”

“Now?”

I nodded.

“Did they find another dead girl?”

I shook my head. “No, this has nothing to do with any dead girls. I just need to help a friend.”

Oren appeared beside her and said, “Willow, why don’t you go and set up another game for us to tackle? I’m still determined to beat your score on a few of them.”

She nodded but her gaze was on me.

“Don’t worry, Willow, I’ll be back soon.” I really wanted to say
“I’ll be back in time to tuck you in for the night”
as I’d been doing every night since she got here, but I didn’t want to embarrass her or make her feel like a baby. “Make sure Oren doesn’t beat any of your scores.”

Willow nodded and her face broke out into a rueful smile before she headed back into the kitchen. Oren stepped into the darkened hallway.

“What’s going on now?” The friendly face he’d shown Willow was replaced by a serious stare, hardening his light blue eyes.

Yeah, there was always something bad going on around here. I tried to laugh but it came out as a derisive snort. “Looks like Ebony got mixed up with some vampires and is letting them take blood from her.”

“What can I do?”

“I hate to do this to you again, but staying with Willow would be the best thing you can do to help.”

He nodded. “Of course I will. Every moment I spend with the girl gets me a little closer to telling her the truth about who I really am. But what do you intend to do?”

“We’re going to find Ebony and get her out of there.” Wherever that happened to be…

“Sierra, it won’t be easy,” Oren said with a firm shake of his head. “When vampires set their sights on a donor, they rarely release them.”

“She doesn’t belong to them. Besides, I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. Nothing ever is.” I exhaled. “I just want to make sure we get her out before it’s too late. I’m not going to let her forfeit her life just because she thinks she’s ready to.” I could understand her being down and in a dark place at the moment, but I wasn’t going to let her give her blood and life away to some greedy vampires.

“I agree. You can’t let her get lost in that world. I’ll wait here, and I’ll see what I can do to help ease Ebony back from however far she’s let herself go.”

“Thanks, Oren.”

“Yeah, thanks, old man,” Conrad added.

“Okay, let’s get outta here then.” I took a step but Oren called my name so I paused. “Yeah?”

“You might want to grab those silver spikes I gave you, and maybe some holy water.”

“Don’t worry about the water,” Conrad interrupted. “I’ve got plenty, but the spikes sound like a good idea.” He opened his jacket to flash a bandolier filled with spikes similar to mine and a bunch of wooden stakes in between.

“You better keep all that silver away from me,” Papan said with a low growl.

“Relax, Wolf, I only use these on vamps. I’ve got no quarrel with werewolves.”

I headed up to my bedroom, leaving the guys behind to continue their conversation or argument—whatever it turned into. All I wanted to do right now was equip myself with weapons that would help get Ebony out of whatever mess she was in.

A few minutes later, I was ready. I’d tucked some spikes inside my jeans and a few in my jacket. I’d also changed into a sleeveless, high-neck tank top and secured my silver dagger inside my boot. I raced downstairs and back to the hallway as quickly as I could.

Conrad was handing Papan a bunch of small bottles I assumed were filled with holy water.

“Where’d you get those?” I asked.

“You can fill them at any church, but I get my supply from Father Luke.”

“Really?” I knew the helpful priest. He was an exorcist and often pointed me in the direction of hauntings.

“Yeah, Father’s really in the know-how. Here, catch.” He threw one bottle after another at me, until I had about ten.

I struggled to pop them into the pockets of my denim jacket.

“
Now
you can go,” Oren called, leaning against the doorway. “Be careful out there, okay? You’ve never gone up against vampires before.”

“I’m not going up against anyone. I just want to get Ebony back.”

“Vampires don’t give back what they believe is theirs,” Oren said.

“He’s right. If I couldn’t find her last night, someone’s already claimed her as theirs.” A muscle twitched in Conrad’s jaw. “C’mon, I’m getting pissed off just talking about it.”

“
I’m getting pissed off wondering how you could let this happen!”
was what I wanted to say, but held my tongue. I couldn’t waste any energy arguing with Vamp Boy right now, especially since I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Oren might be annoying at pointing out the obvious, but he was right. I’d never even seen a vampire, yet was now prepared to go against one—or more—if it meant getting Eb out of trouble.

Conrad turned towards the front door, unlocked and opened it. A gust of cool air rushed inside, making my skin cold.

Papan took my hand after I’d grabbed my keys. I decided to leave my phone, because the last thing I needed was to get a call in the middle of whatever we were about to face. Besides, I didn’t want to deal with Gareth right now. I couldn’t handle another problem. Why couldn’t life push one bad thing in my path after I sorted the one before it, instead of shoving everything in my way?

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Papan asked, tugging on my hand to stop me before I could follow Conrad.

I nodded, meeting his eyes. “You know, I—we—have no choice.” The last time I tried to leave him out of my plan to save Ebony, he’d gotten upset with me. “She’s my friend. She might not think she needs me at the moment but that’s not going to stop me. I won’t let her be consumed by the hopelessness I helped her get into.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Papan whispered. “None of this is your fault, but I’m going to do whatever I can to help.”

Conrad poked his head back in and said, “He’s right, y’know? It’s not your fault, but I appreciate your help.”

I waved at Oren as he approached. “See you later.”

Papan and I stepped out onto the porch, but didn’t move until Oren closed and locked the door behind us. I didn’t even take a deep breath until I was satisfied he and Willow were safe behind closed doors.

“Who’s that new chick in your house?” Conrad asked.

“That’s my sister,” I answered, heading for my whale of a car.

Chapter Ten

Conrad punched the scrawny vampire in the stomach hard enough to make him groan and fall to his knees on the filthy pavement. The vampire hunter wasn’t done yet—he kicked him in the ribs, sending the vampire headfirst into the concrete.
 

I was spending way too much time in back alley nowadays and it had to stop.

“Maybe you should give him a chance to talk,” Papan suggested, moving a little closer to me. “If you beat him to death, we won’t find out anything.”