Page 57 of Vanessa’s Bravery

The sound of a key scraping against a lock drifted to Patrick’s ears. He whirled around and drew the door to the garage closed, then he pressed himself against the wall next to the door, several brooms and cleaning mops hanging from hooks on the wall hiding him partially. Ethan pressed himself to the wall on the other side of the door, where he would be hidden from view once the door was opened.

The entrance door opened, then slammed shut. The man entering grumbled something unintelligible. Footsteps came closer, then retreated toward the back of the house. Patrick exchanged a look with Ethan, when the sound of footfalls became louder again. A moment later, the door was opened loudly, and the man flipped a light switch in the garage. Patrick remained hidden until he could see the aura of the person. There was no doubt: he was a vampire.

Patrick pushed himself away from the wall, his silver knife at the ready. The rogue whipped his head in his direction, his eyes flaring red, his fangs instantly descending to full length, ready to attack.

“Don’t even try it,” Patrick said calmly. “You’ll lose.”

The rogue growled. “Fuck you!”

The vampire lunged, but was instantly jerked back by the silver chain Ethan had slung over his head and around his neck in less than a second. A painful cry issued from the captive, who—stupid as he was—reached for the chain with both hands, trying to pull it off him. Instead of achieving his intended goal, his fingers and palms burned from the acidic metal, and he cried out like a wounded animal.

“Gotcha,” Ethan said from behind the rogue. Forcefully, he tugged on the chain, and his captive fell on his ass.

“Well done,” Patrick praised his colleague. “Though I would have liked to use my knife on him.” He stepped over the vampire and looked down on him. “But unlike you, I don’t hurt people who can’t defend themselves.” He spit in the guy’s face. “Killing your own mother. That’s low, man. You’re gonna pay for that.”

Patrick met Ethan’s gaze. “Let’s put him in the trunk. They’ll be happy to see him at HQ.” He tapped on his iWatch to connect to the communications system and brought his wrist closer to his mouth. “This is unit 12. We’ve got our guy. Alive.”

Benjamin’s voice came from the watch a second later. “That makes you officially number one. See you back at HQ. The interrogation room is ready for you.”

Patrick grinned at his colleague. “I love my job.”

27

With Cole by her side, Vanessa watched as the elevator doors opened, and Ethan and Patrick stepped out with their captive in tow. They weren’t the only ones who’d been waiting for them ever since their unit had reported that they’d captured one of the rogues alive. Her father, as well as Samson, Amaury, and Zane were waiting too. The other teams hadn’t come back yet.

The rogue vampire, who’d been identified as Mike Harris, groaned in pain. Vanessa knew instantly why. Ethan was holding on to a silver chain wrapped around the captive’s neck. In addition, his hands were shackled with silver handcuffs behind his back. His eyes were glaring red, and his fangs extended.

“Well done,” Samson praised, nodding at the two hybrids. “Bring him straight into the interrogation room.”

As Harris, flanked by Ethan and Patrick, walked past her, the bastard’s nostrils suddenly quivered, and he lunged toward Cole, the only human in the corridor.

Vanessa instantly jumped in front of Cole to protect him.

“Vanessa!” Cole snatched her and pulled her into his chest, turning sideways in the same moment to shield her from the vampire.

It turned out it wasn’t necessary, because Ethan jerked Harris back by the silver chain around his neck, eliciting painful screams from his captive.

“You touch anybody here,” Ethan hissed, “and I’ll kill you slowly and painfully.”

“Easy, son,” Gabriel cautioned.

Ethan met Gabriel’s gaze. “He butchered his own mother and left her body rotting in the kitchen. He deserves no mercy.”

Horrified, Vanessa sucked in a breath, while the others let out suppressed curses. She felt Cole pull her closer to him. When she’d jumped in front of him, he’d instantly tried to protect her, and that thought made guilt churn up inside her. She still hadn’t told him that she was a vampire and wasn’t the one who needed protection from the rogue, because she could defend herself.

“Agreed,” Samson said.

Behind him, Zane, the bald vampire who was their go-to guy when torture was warranted, grunted his approval.

“But first, we need to find out what he knows,” Gabriel said, pointing to a door at the end of the corridor, where the interrogation room was located.

As Patrick and Ethan pulled the resisting rogue along the corridor, Cole took her hand and made a step in the same direction, but Vanessa didn’t move. She knew she couldn’t take him there, because during the interrogation it would quickly become evident that the rogue’s captors were also vampires. This wasn’t how she wanted him to find out.

“Sorry, Cole,” Gabriel said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You and Vanessa can’t go in there.”

“But—”

“It’s not your job,” Gabriel insisted. “It’s mine.”