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“Also, I smoked two vamps at a condo in Bay St. Louis. They were feeding on the vics we tracked. I snatched their wallets before we left, in case you want them.”
“Yeah, good call.”
“I’ll hold this vamp ’til sundown if you want him. Otherwise, I’m cutting him loose at dawn and he can fend for himself. Supposed to be 80 and sunny. Just sayin’.”
He snorted a laugh. “I’ll be there in thirty.”
“Hey, Viper,” Psycho said.
“We’re gonna need some more… hypnotherapy.”
“No problem.” He ended the call.
“We should just put a vamp on the payroll for that shit,” Shep said, looking at me.
“I mean, it’s not a bad idea, but I get the feeling the Nighthawks like doing it for free. It keeps their entire species out of the funny papers.”
He leaned in and pulled me closer, flush with his body, and kissed my nose. “You make me smile every single day. You’re smart and beautiful and brave and bold. You did fantastic tonight.”
My heart sang at the compliment, and I beamed up at him, my cheeks flushing. “Why are you so good to me?”
“Because you’re amazing.” He brushed some hair back from my forehead.
I looked at the tables inside the bar. The two drugged girls were coming to nicely with sodas, coffee, and some delicious spaghetti Cutter had made. They were lucid enough to make phone calls to their families and were grateful for the toiletries to get cleaned up. They also had only been missing a week or so. I was relieved that after the Nighthawks got done with them, that they’d only need time to heal from the abduction and wouldn’t have the extra trauma of knowing vampires were real. They were so young and I hoped they would be more cautious when going to nightclubs—or they’d avoid them altogether. Like I planned to do for the rest of my natural fucking life.
I left Shep to do whatever he was doing and sat down with the girls.
Alicia looked at me. “You said this happened to you? How did you get through it?”
I reached over and squeezed her hand. “You’re stronger than you know. There are a lot of bad people out there, but you know what? For every bad person there are a hundred good people. Don’t let this experience leave you jaded. Help those in need. But first, help yourself.”
She nodded, a wisdom belying her youth shining from her warm brown eyes.
I looked at Miranda. “That goes for you too, sweetie.”
Miranda dipped her fork into the spaghetti, twirling the noodles. “Were they… vampires?” she asked meekly.
I looked at Alicia. “No, they were pretending. Sick cosplay stuff. Fangs and contact lenses.”
“Sure seemed real. I could hear them swallowing my blood.” Alicia shuddered.
“Don’t let this shit get to you. They were just sick weirdos, okay?” I was glad they hadn’t seen the two turn to ash or that would have been a lot harder to explain.
“Thank you for rescuing us. My daddy is so excited to see me. He said he thought”—Miranda hiccupped a sound of emotion—“he thought I was dead but said he never stopped looking for me.”
“You’re lucky to have him. Never take him for granted, girlie.” I smiled at her.
“I won’t. I promise.”
Just then, the door opened and Viper, Phoenix, and another vamp I could only assume was Face by how ridiculously gorgeous and model-like he looked—holding an electronic tablet like Wizard always did—walked through the front door of Rumble.
Vamps must be able to sense each other, because the one in the cage suddenly found some energy and began rattling the cage bars. “Hey! Get me out of here.”
Viper looked at him, then at Shep, who was now at my side with his hand on my hip. “This him, obviously?”
Shep replied, “Yep. But we’d appreciate you taking care of that before we cut him loose.” He indicated the table of girls.
Viper nodded at Phoenix.
