Scorched

outside. The building was old and comfortable, clearly from the turn of the last century. The walls were covered with abstract oil paintings. A dark wooden counter with barstools stood opposite the door to Johnson Street, leaving the remaining space to a scatter of cafe tables.

A clatter caught her attention. She swiveled around on her stool. The guy who’d served her—probably the owner, from his in-charge bustle—shouldered through the kitchen door. He was carrying a rubber bin of silverware, which he stowed under the counter with a clash.

“It’s getting busy out there,” Ashe commented with a nod toward the window. Night was falling. The streets were filling up.

The guy looked up. About forty, he was wearing jeans and a Harley Davidson T-shirt that strained across his chest like a barrel. He had shaggy, dark hair and small, shrewd eyes. Almost visibly, he switched from busboy to host, putting on a smile and wiping his hands on an already-rumpled apron.

Werebear, she thought. Low threat, as long as she was polite.

“We get the after-movie crowd, mostly,” he rumbled. “You new in town?”

“Just came back. Grew up here.” Ashe leaned her chin in her hand. “This area used to be derelict. It’s really improved.”

“Coming along. Hard work pays off.”

“Looks pretty peaceful around here.”

“We feed those that want feeding and discourage the rest.” The bear gave her a narrow look. “We don’t want trouble.”

Which is great, except vamps are vamps and werewolves will happily chew your leg off if the pretzel bowl’s empty.. “Good for you. I was on the prairies when they had that big problem with the pro-human vigilantes ...”

The bear waved her words away with one huge hand. “Don’t even go there. We all get along fine. Anyone hassles anyone else in this neighborhood, and the sheriff gives them a talking to.”

She’d heard the same thing twice already that day. “Sheriff? That this guy Caravelli I keep hearing about?”

The bear leaned on the counter. “Yeah. What’s your interest?”

“I need to talk to him. Where does he hang out?” She wanted to confront him alone, away from Holly. “Why?”

Ashe took her inspiration from the radio program she’d heard on the cafe’s sound system. “I’m writing a story. I’m an independent investigative journalist.”

The bear gave a slight smile. “I’d think again if I were you.”

Ashe returned his look, carefully neutral. “What do you mean?”

“You’re no reporter. You move like a fighter.” He pushed away from the counter, folding his arms. “I know your type. You want to be a bad-ass. If you’re looking to prove something, try another city.”

“This is my city.” She kept her voice flat and gray as a steel blade.

“No.” The bear leaned across the counter, moving quickly enough to make Ashe spring off her stool. “It’s our city. You have to share it now. And I’m damned if I’m going to end up as a scatter rug because you don’t think I’m good enough to hold a business license.”

“I’m not interested in you.”

He heaved a noisy breath. “Fine. But mess with Caravelli or his woman, you’ll answer to half this town.”

“We’ll see about that,” Ashe said quietly, but the bear had turned away, pointedly giving her his back. Brave bear.

Ashe threw a five on the counter, not bothering to ask for change. No point in wasting her time with Pooh here, however much she would have liked to pick a fight. She allowed herself an angry glare at the point between the bear’s slablike shoulders.

The Caravelli fan club she’d uncovered in Fairview was definitely getting on her nerves.

So was the fact that fang-boy and Holly seemed to be glued at the hip. Move over Brangelina, here comes Hollesandro. The one thing she hadn’t heard was that Holly was his venom-addicted thrall. According to gossip, she seemed to wrap the deadly warrior around her pinkie. Could it be that Alessandro really was a vamp with a heart of gold? Chosen by his lover to live off the power of their passion?

Yeah, right. And I’m the tooth fairy. She turned to leave.

The bell over the door chimed. A young, attractive couple came in, smelling of the early evening rain. They had a fluid way of moving, almost like they walked on springs— something wild beneath the velvet and denim. The man laughed, the full-throated joy of someone just falling into lust. Werewolves.

They were beautiful. Ashe walked past them, invisible because they only had eyes for one another. She’d been in love like that. With her husband, that passion had never dimmed. Has he really been gone four whole years?

Rain greased the pavement, leaving it slick and shining. Neon signs reflected back from the wetness, smears of random color. Ashe could smell the ocean mixed with exhaust. She stopped, zipping up her jacket, wondering what to do next. It was too early to go back to the motel where she was staying.

What if Holly’s really and truly as happy as I was?

That thought led to a treacherous, slippery slope. Sure, a slayer’s job showed her the worst side of the monsters. That didn’t mean the only good monster was a dead one, but Ashe couldn’t second-guess herself in the middle of a job. That could put her six feet under. Or get her turned into the walking dead. Thinking in black and white was safer.

Moreover, she wasn’t willing to bet her sister’s life on the slim chance that Caravelli was the one vegetarian vampire in history. Ashe had already killed her parents, lost her husband, and had to send her daughter to boarding school to keep her safe from the vengeful relations of past targets. She couldn’t afford to screw up.

Ashe started walking, taking the long way back to the place where she’d left her Ducati.

If she had to get busy with a stake to keep her sister fang-free, she’d do it. Still, there was due diligence. She’d at least talk to the bloodsucker before sending him straight to hell—for Holly’s sake.

I’m not a hard-assed bitch 24/7. More like 23.75/7.

As if in answer to her thoughts, she saw Caravelli’s T-Bird parked in a puddle of streetlight.

Bingo.

Chapter 12

Mad humping disease. That’s what he had. Mac hadn’t felt the drive to own a female this way since he was a teenager. As an adult, other things came into play. Career choices. Mutual goals. Educational compatibility. Family dynamics. Certainly being the same species fit in there somewhere.

The driving, dirty, have-her-at-all-costs impulse might not exactly fade with maturity, but it got diluted. It got weighed in the balance. Cooler heads prevailed.

Then he’d met Constance and somehow all that rationality had turned to ash, just like a staked vampire. Great. Whoever said they wanted their teenage years back was lying or brain-damaged. For one thing, all that cooler-heads stuff was for safety’s sake. In a world populated with divorce lawyers and other monsters, impulse control was key.

Which only part of him cared about. The rest just wanted. It wanted Constance. Naked. It was as acute as the soul hunger, a killing thirst he simply had to slake.

Was this the demon talking? The room she’d taken him to? More of her pheromones at work? He didn’t care, and that’s what scared him.

He’d forced himself to be cautious. He’d spent the day doing research, trying to figure out how best to outwit the Castle guards. He’d kept an appointment to update his will, just in case. Mostly, he was counting on Holly to come up with anti-demon mojo—and waiting.

The Empire Hotel had been beautiful once, respectable for longer, and derelict for the past forty years. It was in the heart of Spookytown, right around the corner from the Castle door. Recently, it had reopened to serve