Lena eyed him with a look of disbelief. She gave her head a shake and shoved his chest playfully. “You don’t know when to stop. Any of you. You may not be human, but you’re not invincible.”
Kale and I shared a look, which earned us Lena’s frown. I smiled and gave her arm a pat. “No, we’re not. I know that. Even if Kale forgets sometimes.”
Which he did all too often. That vampire is a thrill seeker if I’ve ever seen one. If the chase wasn’t intense and pushed to the limit, Kale wasn’t having any fun.
We waited for Lena to get in her car and go safely on her way. We then locked up the office and left. Once I was settled on the soft leather seat of the Camaro, Kale pulled us into traffic with a chirp of the tires. I fixed him with my best deadly glare.
“You better not be using me as bait again, buster. Because, I, for one, am not about to play that role again. Especially without even being aware of it.”
He chuckled in remembrance, and I punched his upper arm without holding back. His laugh quickly turned to a series of pain-filled noises.
“Alright, I deserved that.”
“You deserve more than that.” I couldn’t help but laugh, even though a part of me held a grudge. My last experience as Kale’s bait was certainly a memorable experience for all of the wrong reasons.
“Ok, I owe you one for that. I know. Call it in whenever you feel justified in doing so, and I’ll be there to take the hit.”
He could bet his lily-white ass that he would be. I was anticipating the day.
“So, where are we going? And, what’s the deal here? You better fill me in … before you blow it, like the last time you left me in the dark.”
I gripped the door handle tightly as he zipped ahead of traffic to merge into their lane. I cursed myself for leaving my car behind. What was I thinking? As far as drivers go, I couldn’t be sure who was more frightening, Kale or Jez.
“The vampire we’re meeting is involved in a blood ring that profits from runaway youths and prostitutes. We will be posing as two potential partners interested in becoming regular buyers. Once we have the guy’s trust, we torture information out of him. I want to know who’s running the operation.” Kale was all business now, speaking matter of fact as he wove in and out of traffic.
I hate it when people lane hop. I actively had to hold my tongue against the complaint that was building.
“Ok, well that’s nothing new. We’ve dealt with crap like this before.”
A car up ahead braked suddenly, which caused the rest of us to brake in succession to avoid a collision. I gasped and dug my fingers into the seats. The leather was tougher than human flesh and posed good resistance, but I worried that I would puncture them with my sharp nails.
“We’re meeting the guy in the restaurant lounge of a hotel. Our goal is to have him invite us to his suite for a more private discussion, where we will beat some information out of him before leaving him in a pile of ash. It’ll be fun.” Kale reached to turn the volume up on the radio as the DJ ran through a list of traffic issues affecting the city.
I tried to relax as the scenery flew past. The job sounded straightforward, but I’d been doing this long enough to know that it rarely went as planned.
Chapter Five
The hotel was located on the west side of the city. It was busy due to a conference of some sort inside. That might pose a problem if we had to exit the hotel covered in vampire blood and guts, but I wasn’t going to sweat the small stuff until we reached that point.
“He isn’t here,” Kale breathed near my ear as he scoured the lounge. Other patrons gave him odd looks as they noticed his eyes.
“Alright, I’m going to order a drink then.” Without waiting for him to follow, I approached the bar.
After waiting five minutes for a handful of giggling forty-something women to place drink orders, I had a whiskey in my hand. When I turned to find Kale, I was surprised to see him sitting with a vampire that had been turned much later in life. I’d estimate his human years to have been near sixty due to the fine lines in his face and his shock of silver hair.
I hadn’t sensed his arrival, which struck me as strange. My hackles rose instantly. I took my time strolling to their table as I delicately lifted the glass to my lips for a sip. Feeling for a vibe from his energy, I wasn’t surprised to find that there was something more to it than vampire alone. What was Kale getting us into?
I put on my best artificial smile as I reached the table. Kale stood and held a hand out to me, which I accepted somewhat quizzically.
“Greg, please meet my girlfriend, Alexa. Alexa darling, this is Greg. He’s the one I told you about.” Kale flashed me a quick wink as he spoke, and I could only assume he painted the picture of us as lovers to prevent the vampire from wondering why there were two of us. My being a werewolf probably had him wondering, but hey, many of us were known to enjoy the taste of human flesh.