else.”
She turned and threaded her way through a sea of yellow-shirted camp kids. Antonio ran after her. “Hold up. Just answer me this, okay? They hired you to run errands, right?
Lauren realized they had only gone out after dark. “He doesn’t get off shift until nighttime.”
Antonio nodded, a cruel smirk pulling at his lips. “Yeah. I’m sure that’s it.” He handed her his phone. “Here. Call him up. Tell him to come meet us out here at Coney in the nice warm sun. Hey, if he shows up, I will personally go to Nathan’s and buy the hot dogs. Oh wait—he probably doesn’t eat, either.”
A sense of unease pricked at Lauren. She’d never once seen Johannes eat. Not Alex either. Not Rakim. Only the newbies. But that didn’t mean anything, did it?
She shoved his phone at him. “I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you leave me alone?”
Lauren walked the long way to the train letting the sun bake into her skin. She watched the people bobbing in the gentle surf, the bright afternoon turning the sand into little prisms, and thought about what Antonio said. Vampires. That was completely insane. On the way to the train, Lauren texted Johannes. CN U MEET ME FOR PIZZA @ 4:00? She waited for his response. It never came.
Ten
THEY WERE CROSSING Atlantic Avenue on the way to the movie theater when Johannes nudged her with his elbow. “What’s up? You’re pretty quiet.”
“It’s nothing.”
He stopped walking and turned her to face him. “Doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“It’s just … you never texted me back.”
“God. I’m so sorry, Lauren. We had this crazy long meeting with some suits today about the go-head with the building plans for the Navy Yards, and I couldn’t get away. It was so boring I wanted to hang myself.”
“Oh. Sure. Okay.”
“That is not an okay face,” he said, tilting her chin up so that she could look into those dark eyes.
Lauren forced herself to look away. “Okay. Um.” She laughed uneasily. “This is so incredibly crazy that I sort of hate myself. But you remember that first night—the guy tagging the building? Well, he left me a note today.”
Johannes’s eyes widened. “What? Are you okay?”
“Yes. Totally fine, but I met up with him, which I know was stupid, but he’s got this insane idea that you and everybody at Angelus House are … vampires.”
Johannes cocked one eyebrow in an amused fashion.
“Okay. Forget I said anything. Totally stupid.”
“Um, you think? Maybe just a little bit?” He lost his grin. “What’s creeping me out more is that he’s been watching you. Especially with all the murders going on. I wish I knew who this guy was.”
Lauren hesitated for a second, but Johannes’s hand was rubbing her back, and she found she wanted his protection after all. “His name is Antonio Rodriguez. His cousin Sabrina was in your program for a while. He said she died.”
Johannes’s face darkened. “Antonio. I should have known.”
“You know him?”
“Yeah. I do. He’s always blamed us for the loss of Sabrina. She was a tough case, kind of like your sister. Hard to save.”
Lauren flinched at the mention of Carla. “What happened?”
“Antonio happened. Sabrina was ninety days clean—she’d been through almost all her steps—and against our advice, Antonio signed her out. Two days later, they found her at the Farragut Houses. Heroin overdose.”
“He told me she was drained of blood, like those others.”
Johannes shook his head. “Heroin. If he’d let her complete the program, she might have made it.” Johannes looked right into Lauren’s eyes and she felt foolish, like a kid who’d been pranked. “Did you know he’s obsessed with vampires? I mean obsessed. He visits all these sites on the Internet, chat rooms. Sick stuff. Sabrina said he was part of a crew that used to call themselves Los Vampiros, and they would freak people out by pretending to be the undead. It was a gang thing. To prove your loyalty, you had to do something pretty hardcore.”
“How hardcore?”
“Like maybe kill somebody. I don’t like this.” He pulled her close and kissed her head. Lauren’s felt shaky. She’d spent the afternoon talking to the guy without once realizing how dangerous he might be. “Lauren, please be careful. I don’t know what Antonio’s mixed up in these days, or how far his crazy obsession has gone. If you see him again, you should call the police. Or if you don’t want to do that, you can call me. I promise to keep you safe.” He kissed her long and slow. “You really want to go see that movie?” That easy grin was back, making Lauren sweat.
She shook her head.
“Me either,” he said.
He took her back to Angelus House, leading her up to the top floors where the staff lived. She’d been up here very rarely as there wasn’t much to see except dorm rooms, and all the action happened down in the common areas. Johannes stopped before one of the doors and pushed it open. “Come on in.”
“This is your room?” Lauren wasn’t sure why she asked except that it seemed so nondescript. There were no photos, no mementos, nothing except the Angelus House insignia poster, a chest of drawers, and a twin bed beside a small table with a banker’s lamp.
“Do you trust me?” He took her face in his palms and looked into her eyes. “Because I need for you to trust me, and sometimes I feel like you don’t.”
“I do,” Lauren whispered. “It’s just—I’ve learned a lot about not trusting.”
Lauren could feel tears welling up and suddenly, Johannes was kissing her, and she didn’t care about anything else. He lay her down on the too-soft mattress, and she welcomed the weight of him as he nudged her thighs open with his own. She couldn’t escape if she wanted to, and there was a sick little thrill in that kind of surrender.
“Is this okay?” Johannes whispered, planting small kisses down her neck.
“Yes,” she moaned.
She kissed him hard, and he matched her intensity, gripping handfuls of her hair. He moved against her slowly but deliberately, and she arched to meet him.
“God. Lauren,” he moaned. “You feel so good.”
In one quick move, he yanked off his shirt exposing the Angelus tattoo in the center of his beautiful chest. Lauren reached out to touch it, and he sucked her fingers, making her shiver. He lay down beside Lauren and slid his fingers under the waistband of her cargo pants, moving down, touching her in a place that made her gasp.
“Yeah? You like that?” he purred, and Lauren could only gasp again. “I like making you feel good.” His thumb made circles, and his mouth was on her neck, kissing, sucking hard. He nicked her with his teeth and she flinched. “Sorry,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Sorry.”
He buried his face in her hair, his thumb became more insistent, the pleasure building till Lauren’s body shook and shuddered from the force of it.
“I love you,” he whispered, and Lauren had never been happier.
Eleven
LAUREN WOKE TO an empty bed. It was late for her, around two in the afternoon. She showered and dressed and headed down to the common room where the TV weatherman promised a record high of one hundred
