Save the Last Vamp for Me (18 page)

“Oh, thanks.” She’d said “this morning”, so I hadn’t slept more than the day away. I saw my purse and phone on the kitchen table. “Has anyone called? Is Logan downstairs?”

Terra moved back and gave me a critical look. “You still look tired. No calls yet, and no, Logan’s not downstairs. I can make coffee if you want?”

“Please.” I sat down at the kitchen table while she hurried to start some coffee. My head ached, so I dropped it into my hands, elbows resting on the table. I flat didn’t know what to do. Call and nag the searchers? Really helpful, Cordi. “Where is Logan?”

“He took most of the clan and went to help look for Sunny,” Terra said, carefully measuring out coffee.

Which left her less guarded than she should be, with Mega Douche out and about. I didn’t know whether to be upset or pleased that Logan would do that for my mom. “Do you have any ibuprofen or aspirin?”

“No, but I’ll send someone to pick some up.” Terra finished setting up the coffeemaker, hit the brew button, and went to crack open the front door. “Teague, Discord needs some ibuprofen.”

“All right,” I heard the lion shifter reply. She shut the door and turned around, only to stand there looking at me.

“Um, anything else I can do?”

Come up with a location for my mom? Kate hadn’t had any luck at that. I leaned back and managed a smile. “No, but thanks.”

Terra returned the smile. “Okay, coffee will be ready soon. I think Tansy’s about your size, so you can take a shower while I grab some clean clothes for you.”

Over forty-eight hours in the same clothes. Right. I pulled up the neck of my shirt for a sniff and winced. “That would be totally awesome.”

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S
howered and freshly clothed, I left Terra’s bathroom. She’d been busy; toast, coffee, and the requested painkiller waited for me on the kitchen table. Her anxious smile sent me straight to the table to sit down. “Thank you.”

“I didn’t burn anything this time.”

“It looks great.” I leaned to sniff the wonderful coffee perfume while opening the bottle of ibuprofen. Ten minutes later, I’d polished off a second cup and four pieces of toast. My phone rang, and my buttery fingertips smeared the screen as I grabbed and answered it. “Hello?”

“You’re up, good,” Logan said. “I have good and bad news. We found out where Merriven was holed up, and now we know he has Sunny, because we found a few of her hairs there.”

Tears welled at the information, and I couldn’t stop them from escaping. My voice shook. “Okay.”

“We’re trying to track them. Kate’s still working with the map.”

I swallowed hard, gazing across the table at Terra’s worried face. “I’ll be there soon.”

“Do me a favor first. Take Terra and Teague somewhere safe. Have her tell the others to come with you. Okay?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I trust your judgment on where safe is.”

“Okay.” I hoped David wouldn’t mind another pair of surprise guests. The Blue Orb was the safest place I knew of, with Jo and him, plus their familiars, there. Broad daylight and a steady flow of foot traffic in the area didn’t hurt. “I really appreciate this.”

“This is what friends do. See you soon.” He ended the call.

I passed on his plan to Terra, who nodded and went to the front door. “I need everyone on the first floor in five minutes, and they need to be ready to leave.”

“Why?” Teague didn’t like the idea of moving once she explained. “I know this building.”

“I’ll make sure you’re given a tour,” I called out, stuffing my phone in my purse. Terra shut the door before he could protest more.

She went to her room, returning in a few seconds with a backpack. “Logan taught me to be prepared.”

“Good deal.” After I slung my purse strap over my head and shoved an arm through it, we left the apartment.

Down the stairs we went, and I slowed as we made the last turn on the stairwell to find six people waiting. Terra took charge. “You’re all going with Discord to meet Logan and help find her mother.”

A tall, black-haired woman with high cheekbones and thin lips stepped to the front of the small group. “And leave you with only the lion as guard?”

“No. Discord’s going to take us somewhere safe first.”

The woman frowned, sharpening the angles of her face even more, and focused her pale brown eyes on me. “So you’re the psychic the Protector is willing to risk our Queen for.”

Before I could respond, Terra spoke. “This is Danielle, and those two are her cousins, Ted and Rob. You know Alanna and Soames, and the last is Gabriel.”

“Hi.” Danielle’s cousins were also tall. Ted was built on rangy lines, but Rob was a solid, barrel-chested slab of meat from the neck down.

Alanna decided to jump in. “Danielle, are you saying the three of you aren’t capable of guarding our Queen?”

The other woman looked down her nose at the petite brunette. “If there were a concentrated attack here, with so few of us?”

“Enough.” Terra’s frosty tone drew everyone’s attention to her. “Don’t question Logan’s decisions. Discord is in charge until you meet up with Logan. Alanna, assist her. Is everyone clear?”

Even I nodded, impressed by the note of command in her voice. Not that I didn’t feel some sympathy for Danielle’s point. Logan really shouldn’t have left Terra with only seven people. Of course, I wasn’t the boss of him.

“Good.” Terra looked at me. “We’re ready when you are.”

“Now is good.” I held out my hands to her and Teague. As soon as they both gripped mine, I teleported us to David’s kitchen.

Tonya, Jo, and Angelique jumped or squeaked as we appeared. Jo recovered first, tucking strands of her dark auburn hair behind her ear. “More guests. We’re going to run out of room, Cordi.”

“Sorry. I promised Logan I’d bring them somewhere safe, and this is it.”

She grinned. “That it is. You should see some of the surprises David’s come up with. I pity the vamp who tries breaking in here.”

“Any news?” Tonya’s shoulders slumped when I shook my head.

“None except they found out that Merriven has my mom.”

Angelique shivered, hugging herself. “I’m so sorry.”

“She’s not dead.” I hoped. He’d taken her for a reason, and the only ones I could think of all pointed toward revenge against me. I’d killed his fledgling, and revealed his continued existence to Derrick, and through him, the rest of the vampire council. He had to have taken Mom to use her as a bargaining chip. Of course, that didn’t mean he hadn’t hurt her, but I shoved that thought away. “We’ll find her. I gotta go. Later.”

I teleported back to the clan’s apartment building. Danielle was scowling, Alanna smiling, and the four men were looking everywhere but at either of them. Not having time to find out what was going on, I just held my hands out. “We’re teleporting.”

Once everyone joined hands, that’s exactly what we did.

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e appeared just before the steps up to Derrick’s front door. Not exactly where I’d intended to arrive, but it worked. Wondering if my teleportation ability was wonky because of stress, I checked things out. The antique-attired footmen weren’t on duty. Instead, two vamps dressed in jeans, dark button-up shirts, and black sports coats were. I hadn’t seen them before, but to my surprise, that didn’t turn out to be a problem.

“Miss Jones, welcome. Our master is in the library with others, and is expecting you.” While the one on the right spoke, the other opened the front doors.

“Thank you.” We trooped inside, instantly having to dodge vampires rushing about, and walked down to the library. The doors were open so we could hear voices inside.

Derrick, Kate, Logan, and a few others were gathered on and around the sofas and coffee table, looking at a map.

“What’s going on?” My question turned heads. Logan left the group to greet us, or maybe just me, because he put his arm around my shoulders before pressing his cheek to mine.

“We’re marking out new search areas to assign. How are you holding up?”

“Okay.”

He took me at my word. “Good. Come have a seat, we’ll fill you in.”

I didn’t really have a choice, since he started walking with his arm still around me. Once I’d dropped onto the sofa next to Kate, Logan perched on the armrest next to me. Those who’d come with me found places to stand, and I noticed Danielle, flanked by her cousins, glaring at me over Derrick’s head. Her problem with me would just have to wait.

“We’ve now searched roughly half of the Barrows.” Derrick pointed at the map, indicating the area someone had shaded with a pencil. “We currently have teams searching here.”

They were working a strip straight across the map, right along the edge of the shaded section. “Teams consist of four, with one of my more telepathically talented people included in each. They’re scanning, as well as mentally shouting your mother’s name and listening for a response.”

I leaned forward, nodding, and he continued. “This is where we discovered Merriven had been hiding. It’s an empty manse.”

“Stone and I personally covered every inch of the place,” Logan said, patting my back.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t exactly been grateful for all the help Derrick and his dhampyr son were extending. Saying “Thank you” didn’t seem like enough, especially after my meltdown that morning. But it was all I could do right then. I met Derrick’s eyes. “I really appreciate all that you’re doing. I know my mom will too.”

All the vampire did was smile and say, “Family is one of the most important benefits one can have.”

Logan cleared his throat, and Derrick’s smile faded as the vampire glanced at him. “We’re covering ground pretty quickly. By tomorrow evening, we’ll have searched the entire Barrows.”

I took a breath. What if we didn’t find them? That was the million-dollar question. If they weren’t in the Barrows, where did we begin looking next? Letting the breath out, I decided to focus on one thing at a time. “I’ll go out with a team.”

Kate opened her hand to reveal her locator crystal. “I’ll keep trying with this.”

“You haven’t had any luck at all?” When she solemnly shook her head, I bit my lip. “Where’s Percy and my hound?”

I didn’t say Leglin’s name, in case he was in the middle of something. Kate closed her fingers around the crystal. “They’re out searching too. Mr. Whitehaven is on one of the teams as well.”

To her, I didn’t say “thank you”. I leaned enough to kiss her on the cheek. She swatted my knee, her lips curving ever so briefly. “Go on, Jones, and make yourself useful.”

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M
y arrival with six more volunteers necessitated some reorganization. We left the library to Kate, joining the vampire hustle going on in the main hall. I leaned against a wall between a painting and a suit of armor, closing my eyes. All the concentration I had went toward one question: Where was my mom?

Which of my more passive abilities responded didn’t truly matter, as long as one did with a good clue. My tracking ability would be best, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and I was definitely begging.

To absolutely no avail, and gradually, the sensation of being stared at opened my eyes.

Logan smiled, but the way his attention was instantly on Derrick and their conversation made it unlikely he’d been staring. Probably had just glanced my way. I turned my head, scanning the crowd, and found the source of the staring. Danielle stood thirty or so feet away, her eyebrows pinched together over the bridge of her nose, and her lips turned down at their corners.