“I have to wake Linus.” As far as I was concerned, the luggage could wait. “I can’t leave him out here.”
The wards solidified as I hit the lower step, and I bounced off them before my foot touched the ground.
“Woolly,” I sighed, leaning against the railing. “He’ll get a crick in his neck.”
“I thought I heard someone.” Amelie skidded into the foyer with a wide grin. “You’re home early.”
“Dirty pool,” I chided the old house, certain she had called for Amelie to lure me in without a fuss.
Amelie tackled me, almost knocking me back out onto the porch, and wrapped her arms around my waist. Over our heads the crystals in the chandelier tinkled merrily at our reunion, and the door snicked closed.
With my eyes shut tight, Amelie a familiar comfort in my arms, it was easy to forget what she had done.
Pretending nothing had changed, that things were as they always had been between us, was so much easier than holding on to the betrayal, the guilt, and the fear. But vigilance had kept me alive this long. A clean slate wasn’t given, it was earned, and Ame still had a long way to go until she won forgiveness.
“I was gone forty-eight hours,” I grunted, unable to resist slumping against her, allowing my old friend to support me for a change. “You couldn’t have been that bored.”
“Boaz told me what happened.” Hurt throbbed beneath her words, and I tensed, forgetting which what she meant. “He said there was trouble at the Faraday?”
“You could say that.” I let her drag me down onto the couch with her. “The Master is tired of waiting for a chance to make his move.” I sank into the plush cushions, so much comfier than the ones on Linus’s couch, and groaned with the simple pleasure of being in my own place, among my own things. “Turns out there’s a bounty on my head.”
“A bounty?” Amelie clung tighter. “How do we get it removed?”
“Other than surrendering me?” I tipped my head back. “No clue.”
“You’re home now.” She exhaled with relief at that. “You’re safe.”
Home.
Safe.
Two of my favorite words.
“What have I missed?” I smiled at Amelie, who vibrated with pent-up energy in need of an outlet. “Any more attacks?” I did a mental check with Woolly, who swelled with pride over her pristine wards. “Any more fainting spells?”
“No and no.” She curled up beside me, resting her elbow on a fraying cushion, and propped her chin on her palm. “Do you think those incidents were related to the bounty? Do you think hunters are responsible?”
“Seems likely.” I hadn’t had a spare moment to consider a connection until now. “They must have decided it was easier plucking me off the street than stealing me from behind the wards.”
Our trip to Atlanta might have failed on some fronts, but it had lured my enemies away from my home.
“Vampires with a direct line to the Master, or to Volkov, would have heard the news first. They could have learned how he weakened your wards last time too. Some of the dumber ones might have hoped you didn’t bother patching them yet. They might have been willing to gamble even if it gave them away.”
Enough money would tempt all kinds. Not only vampires. “Mary Alice implied there are a lot of zeroes attached.”
Amelie’s forehead wrinkled. “Who?”
“Linus’s boss at the Mad Tatter.” I grunted out his name as I remembered where I’d left him. “It’s her van we borrowed to get home.” Shoving against the squishy pillows sucking me down, I hauled myself back on my feet. “Speaking of Linus, he’s still buckled in. Poor guy slept the whole way home.”
The locks snicked into place on the front door before I got close enough to touch the knob.
“Come on,” I groaned. “I can’t leave him out there all night.”
“I wish I could help.” Amelie released a sigh. “I’d kill to walk barefoot in the grass right about now.”
A reflexive cringe hiked my shoulders up around my ears before I forced my muscles to relax.
“Poor word choice.” She drew her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
Forcing my body into calm lines, I noticed our missing guest. “What about Odette?”
With any luck, Oscar, who was also absent, was recharging his batteries and not playing in the forbidden basement.
“She left about an hour ago.” Tension strained her voice at the mention of the seer, but I was at a loss as to what could have happened between them. “One minute she was repotting the herb garden she planted for you in the kitchen, and the next her eyes glazed over.” Head down, Amelie flexed her toes like she could imagine the tickle of grass blades between them. Or like she didn’t want to meet my eyes. “When she snapped to, she muttered about being allergic to dogs and called Woolly a halfway house for broken dreamers.”
“That sounds about right.” I pressed my hand flush against the smooth door. Not so long ago, I’d had to beg her to let me out for work each night. I didn’t want to go back to that, for both our sakes. “Woolly, I’m just going to the van. It’s parked right in the driveway. I’ll take Cletus with me, and Linus is already out there. It’s going to be fine. I’ll shake him, wake him, then come back to fill you in on my weekend.”
And drum up some goodwill for our new security team while I was at it.
Maybe she would agree that every ghost boy needed a dog or three?
The overhead lights dimmed as she pouted about not getting her way, but she turned the first lock. Sure, snails have moved faster, but she was working with me. That’s what counted.
In the time it took the Apollo 11 to get Neil Armstrong ready to walk on the moon, Woolly finished unlocking the door and opened it a crack for me. Huffing to wedge it wider, I sucked in my stomach and squeezed out onto the porch. From there, I tread the stairs gingerly, pausing with one foot above the ground to test the wards. When I didn’t stub my toe on hardened air again, I took a leap of faith, holding my breath in case Woolly clung at the last moment. Much to my surprise, she behaved and allowed me out of her protective sphere.
The music of her wards changed from bright and energetic to a dirge, and I smothered a laugh under my breath. Woolly was such a drama llama. Sheesh.
Back at the van, I spotted Linus, still sleeping, and my gut started twisting with a sense of wrongness.
I rapped on his window with my knuckles, but he didn’t stir. So I popped the locks, opened the door, and rested my hand on his shoulder. I half expected him to startle awake, for his tattered cloak to burst into existence, but he kept dozing.
“Linus?” I gave him a shake. “We’re home. Well, I’m home. In Savannah. At Woolly.” Nothing. “Wakey-wakey.”
Warning tingles speared down my spine, and I sucked in a breath to scream, but it was too late.
A wide palm that smelled like old pennies slapped over my mouth, while a muscular arm snaked around my waist, cinching my upper arms flush with my sides. The vampire yanked me back against his hard chest with a husky chuckle in his throat as he drawled, “Remember me?”
The familiar voice, the taunt, caused my heart to jackrabbit.
My stalkerpire, the first vampire to attempt to bring me into the Master’s fold, had returned.
All this time I had hoped—prayed—he was killed in the estate massacre.
“Volkov should have controlled you when he had the chance. A Last Seed’s ability to mesmerize necromancers is a mercy.” His breath skated across my throat, far too close to tender skin. “He could have convinced you that you were a happy couple until you started believing the lie without his influence.” The tips of his fangs raked my neck. “Now you’re going to be wide awake for what happens next.”