Angel's Blood (Guild Hunter 1)

"Hey!" Ransom took offense. "I'll have you know I'm a certified biker dude."

Sara ignored him to fix Elena with a gimlet eye. "Ellie, my darling, please explain to me why the office has been flooded with calls about, and I quote"-she crooked her fingers in the air-"a vicious vampire on the loose, a crazy knife-wielding maniac, and oh, this one's my favorite-an assassin carrying a gun!"

"I can explain."

Sara folded her arms and tapped one fashionably clad foot. "Explain why you flashed not only a knife but a gun? I hope to God you didn't actually use either of them without authorization because if the VPA gets ahold of it, we're screwed."

Elena rubbed the back of her neck. "Exigent circumstances. He was trying to make me his bed buddy. I declined. He gave chase."

Ransom choked back what sounded suspiciously like a laugh. "Why did you say no? It's been a dry spell of what, forever?"

She threw him a dirty look before returning her gaze to Sara. "You know I'd never have considered using the gun otherwise."

Sara held up a hand. "How, exactly, did you 'decline' his offer?"

"By slitting his throat."

The silence in the garage was broken only by the sound of water drip-dripping somewhere in the distance. Sara just stared. So did Ransom. Then the idiot male started laughing hysterically. He laughed so hard he fell off the bike and onto the scarred concrete of the garage floor. Even that didn't stop him.

Elena would've kicked him, except he'd probably use the chance to pull her down with him. "Shut up before I do the same to you."

He tried to stop laughing. Failed. "Jesus, Ellie. You are awesome!"

"What you are," Sara muttered, "is a magnet for trouble."

"I-" Elena started to defend herself.

Sara held up her hand again and started counting off on her fingers. "Because of you, I have messages on my phone from the governor and the freaking President of the United States of America." Down went one finger. "Because of you, half of New York now thinks there's a wild vampire on the loose." Another finger. "Because of you, I got three more gray hairs!"

Elena grinned at the last. "I love you, too."

Shaking her head, Sara finally bridged the distance between them and hugged her with ferocious strength. After this many years of friendship, they had the height thing figured out. Elena bent, Sara tiptoed, and they met in the middle. Breaking apart, they looked at each other. "Are you in trouble, Ellie?"

Elena bit her lower lip and glanced from Ransom's suddenly sober face to Sara's. "Sort of. Raphael and I had a slight . . . disagreement." She wasn't sure why she wasn't serving him up on a platter. Maybe it was because she was terrified of what he'd do to her friends-hunters or not, they were no match for an archangel. Or maybe it was something far more dangerous. "And Dmitri apparently thinks that makes me fair game."

"The vampire?" Sara clarified. "Raphael's security chief?"

"Yep." She shoved a hand through her hair. "You guys are not going to believe this-when I cut his throat, he got off on it. He thinks I'm the hottest thing since blood on a stick."

"There's no such thing as blood on a stick." Of course, that was Ransom.

"Exactly!" She threw up her hands. "I'm not into weird vampire shit either!"

"Okay, this isn't as bad as I thought," Sara muttered. "Do you think he'll lay a complaint with the VPA?"

Elena thought back to the air kiss. "No. He's having too much fun."

"Good for the Guild, not so good for you." Sara tapped her foot again. "Right, you'll go to ground in the Cellars until you can contact Raphael and get him to rein in Dmitri. In the meantime, Ransom will deal with lover boy-"

"No," Elena interrupted.

Ransom stood, brushing off the seat of his pants. "You don't think I can handle him?" There was an edge to his tone.

"Don't be so male," she snapped. "He has the scent thing happening." And Ransom was hunter-born. Not as strong as Elena, but strong enough to be vulnerable.

Another silence. Sara glanced from Elena to Ransom. "Okay, new plan, I'll get Hilda to deal with Mr. Vamp if he turns up."

Hilda was human. She could also bench-press a car and was one of the few individuals immune to any and all vampiric powers.

"Fuck." Ransom turned and gave them his back as he spit out a string of curses that would've stripped the paint off the walls had they actually been painted to begin with. "Since I'm useless here, I'm going to get drunk."

Elena put a hand on the stiff muscle of his shoulder. "You're not useless. You're a hunky bite of sex and I'm not sure if Dmitri swings both ways. Cut me some slack for wanting to protect my friend. You'd do the same if the tables were turned."

"You're not the one who got scent-ambushed and woke up na**d with bites all over his f**king body."

She hadn't actually expected him to bring up the incident. He never had before. Maybe this Nyree was even better for him than she'd thought. "True," she murmured. "Yeah, it's better you don't go to Nyree in this mood. You might hurt her. Go get drunk."

He hissed out a breath.

"She's probably out anyway." Elena mouthed "shut up" at Sara when it looked like her best friend was going to intervene. "Since she's mad at you, she probably took some time off-what did you say she did?"

"Librarian."

Ransom was dating a librarian? "I bet she took the chance to put on a sexy little-"

Ransom moved so fast she barely managed to jump out of the way as he peeled out of the garage. She dusted off her hands. "My work here is done." And good thing, too, because she hadn't been sure where she was going with the sexily dressed librarian.

"He serious about her?" Sara's tone was astonished. "As in, he wants her for more than boinking?"

"Yep." She put her thumbs in the belt loops of her jeans and rocked back. "I don't like the Cellars."

"Tough titties." Sara was pure Guild Director at that moment. "I'm not losing my best hunter-and don't you dare tell Ransom I said that-to a lust-crazed vampire. Get in the elevator."

Elena got in with Sara, then pulled off the panel that hid an auxiliary keypad. Inputting the code to the secret hideaway that existed in some form in every Guild building, she replaced the panel. "Is it true that in L.A. they've got the hidey-holes in the elevator shaft?"