Midnight Curse

There was also the problem of Eli’s loyalty to the pack. In a life-and-death situation, I knew he’d choose me first, but in a hundred small ways, he had to take them into account. They were a constant drain on his time and attention, for one thing, and everything Eli did had to be run past Will, which meant I had to be very careful about what I told him. If I didn’t want Will to know something, I couldn’t tell my boyfriend about it without putting him in a terrible position. Most of the time there was no reason why Will couldn’t know what I was doing, of course, but having to report to someone, even by proxy, chafed me.

And then there was the quiet tension that always simmered beneath Eli and me because being close to me gave him humanity. He was, in a way, dependent on me. And that was sort of my own fault. Years ago I had managed to cure him of his werewolf magic, but it had landed me in a lot of trouble, since nulls weren’t supposed to be able to do that. To keep me safe, Eli had accepted a second werewolf curse. Which wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t put him in the position of needing to do so to save my life . . .

It was complicated.

Molly was studying me. “How did you leave it?” she asked quietly. “After Jack’s reception, I mean.”

I chewed on my lip for a moment. “We decided to put a pin in it,” I said finally. “Since then, I’ve . . .”

“Been on your best behavior?” she suggested.

I wrinkled my nose at the wording, but she was right. I nodded.

“I’m sorry that I asked you to lie to him tonight,” she said earnestly. “I thought he might need to say something to Will.”

“I know.” I didn’t need to say, “He probably would have.” We both already knew.

I’d seen plenty of LA storage facilities from the freeway, but they were always dingy beige buildings with lights missing in the signs. The Hollywood Storage Center was something else. It was an attractive stucco building with beautiful landscaping and a surprisingly tasteful sign, surrounded by blooming flowers. Through the glass windows we could see a big open reception area with one wall taken up by security camera monitors. The floors were a beautiful glowing hardwood, setting off the lifelike statue of Marilyn Monroe off to one side. The place was classier than a storage center had any right to be.

“Nice digs,” I said, turning off the van. Shadow’s enormous upper body was thrust between the seats again, her tail wagging a little with curiosity.

“Lots of vampires keep containers here,” Molly said, her voice subdued. “I have a large one with some things from the house, but I also keep a safety deposit box.”

“Do you guys own it?” I asked, meaning the vampires.

“No, but we keep careful tabs on the family that does. They’re small and local, which makes it easy to press them when we need to. And of course, we’ve got someone on the inside.”

Molly started to open the door, but I grabbed her arm. “Molls, you can’t say anything about . . . tonight.”

“I know.”

“And you can’t let Frederic know that anything’s wrong.”

She blinked a few times, nodding to herself. “Right. I can do that.”

Without another word, she got out and marched determinedly toward the entrance. I sighed and looked at Shadow, who was now watching my face intently. “You have to stay, girl,” I told her. I avoided her betrayed expression and followed Molly.

A disproportionate percentage of LA residents are good-looking, but the Asian man behind the counter was next-level handsome. He was around thirty, with a low ponytail and a tight black T-shirt that outlined muscles I could probably have counted, given a bright light and a couple of beers. I figured him for night security, but as we entered through the glass doors I extended my radius wide enough to reach him. His face went stricken, and I felt the familiar sensation of another vampire in my radius. He doubled over just a bit, reaching for something underneath the counter.

“He’s turning off the cameras,” Molly murmured to me.

“That’s Frederic?” I whispered.

She flashed me a smile. “Not what you were picturing?”

“Is it racist if I say he doesn’t look like a Frederic?”

“Not really,” Frederic called, in a voice that suggested he’d heard this a lot. I blushed. Vampires couldn’t use super-hearing around me, so this was a good old-fashioned case of me talking too loud. “My father was German; Mom was Japanese,” he added, still looking me over with great curiosity.

To cover my embarrassment, I stuck out my hand, over the counter. “Scarlett Bernard.”

He raised an eyebrow, his eyes flashing between Molly and me, but he accepted the handshake cautiously, as if tasting a foreign food. His expression was openly uncomfortable. A lot of vampires got that way around me. They were used to easily containing whatever emotions they felt, and forgot how to keep their thoughts off their faces. Frederic seemed more unsettled about it than most, though.

He dropped my hand quickly and looked toward Molly. “What brings you here?” His head tilted slightly toward me, and the unspoken words were obvious: with her. Oh yeah, being a null was fun.

“Just need a couple of things from the safety deposit box,” she said with a brittle smile.

My attention was caught by the security monitors behind Frederic. There were more than a dozen, showing empty hallways and corridors in black and white. Three of the screens had gone dark; those had to be connected to the cameras covering the lobby. But there was another monitor in the bottom right, and this one was in color. It was showing a commercial for laundry detergent. “Can I get the second key?” Molly asked.

Frederic blinked hard but didn’t move. “That’s your reserve, right? Are you running from something?” he blurted, then looked shocked, like he hadn’t intended to say that.

The first red flag popped up in my head, and I took an instinctive step backward, looking around. There was no movement, no other cars pulling in. Frederic’s hands were resting on the counter, nonthreatening. Why did I suddenly feel watched? Automatically, I let my radius flare out, checking for other people. Nothing registered. I allowed it to resume its normal size.

“Nah, Scarlett just needs to borrow some cash,” Molly said, more or less calmly. She held out a key on a small leather thong. Her hand was trembling a little. “Can I get the other key? Or do you want to walk us back there?”

On the bottom monitor, the laundry detergent ad was over, and a woman from the local news appeared at her desk. The tiny screen over her shoulder was filled by a USC logo. “Molly—” I began.

But it was too late. I felt the new vampire hit my radius, like a cool stone dropping into an aquarium of water. Only this one was powerful. So powerful that I recognized who it was before I could finish turning around.

A tallish, elegantly dressed man in a dark overcoat stepped through the door we had just entered. With every step he took into my radius, his face clouded over with a little more fury.

I swallowed, trying to work up enough saliva to speak. “Hi, Dashiell.”

Chapter 6

Ignoring me, the cardinal vampire of LA County strode forward with gritted teeth. He seized Molly around her upper arm, hard enough for the fabric of her dress to sink into deep wrinkles. Molly winced. Dashiell may have been human in my radius, but he was still a strong, relatively large man. And she was currently a small woman of about twenty.

“How did you find us?” I blurted, but he cut me off with a wave.

“Do not speak,” he snarled, throwing me a glare. “You, I will deal with later.” A chill tingled up my back.

“Dashiell,” Molly began in a desperate voice, but he was so angry that he shook her, jostling her into silence. I winced, and one hand automatically drifted toward my knife pocket. Dashiell didn’t notice, but Molly did. Her eyes widened and she shook her head slightly. I froze, watching helplessly as Dashiell began dragging her toward the front door.

Stupidly, I turned to look at Frederic, but he’d vanished into the hallway behind the monitors. What a coward. Behind me, I felt Dashiell and Molly pop out of my radius. I spun around again.

“She didn’t do it, Dashiell!” I yelled just before he pushed open the glass door.