going around the far corner of the building. The tail end of her cloak billowing out behind her.
Boone closed his eyes, intending to pull his dematerialize-in-a-pinch trick—except then he realized he had a movie theater’s worth of human eyeballs focusing on him. Not exactly the kind of PR stunt the vampire race needed: Surprise! We really do exist!
Cursing a blue streak, he took off on foot and tried to follow her prints in the snow. There was no way of isolating which were hers, however, and her scent had dissipated into the night.
The female was no doubt gunning for some privacy so she could ghost out of here. And if she did that, he was never going to catch her.
Boone rounded the corner of the building and slowed his roll to a walk . . . which then petered out to a standstill. There were no security lights on the exterior flank of the old building. None on the warehouse next door. And the illumination from the distant streetlights only carved out a narrow visual slice down the space between the structures. Even with the reflective quality of the snow cover and a set of supercharged vampire retinas, there was a lot that he couldn’t see.
“Goddamn it—”
The soft click of a gun safety being taken off duty ripped his head around.
Staring into the dense shadows, his nostrils flared as he caught her scent on the cold breeze.
Yes . . . he thought. There you are.
“You can trust me,” he said into the darkness. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
* * *
I’m not going to give you a chance to hurt me, Helania thought as she kept her nine-millimeter trained on the vampire who’d tracked her outside the club.
The dark-haired male was standing in the dim glow of streetlamps that were a good block and a half away, but there was more than enough light to assess him. And damn . . . he was downright enormous, with heavy shoulders, a barrel chest, and long, powerful legs. All that socalled real estate was covered in black leather, the jacket he had on open in spite of the cold, his hands bare of gloves.
His deep-set, pale eyes were trained right where she was standing in the darkness.
You’re too good-looking to be a killer, she thought to herself.
But come on, like only hump-ugly males killed people?
Still, she was shocked at how handsome his face was: Strong, even features, as well as a pair of lips that made her think of things that should be last on her cognitive list given the circumstances of their acquaintance, as it were.
“I just want to ask you a couple of questions.” He flashed his palms at her and slowly raised them up like he was on a TV cop show. “My name’s Boone. And you can lower that gun.”
Maybe he could see her, although she doubted it. She was very far back from the glow he was standing in. How had he found her? Oh, wait—he’d probably heard her taking the safety off.
And was that an aristocratic infliction to his words?
“Can you tell me what you were doing down in that corridor just now?” he asked.
“It’s not restricted access. Anyone can go there.”
There was a pause. “It’s you. You were the one who called us.”
Helania felt her heart rate double. Which was saying something considering how fast her pulse had been to begin with. But yes, she had called the Brotherhood’s emergency number. Yes, she had reported what she had walked in on last night. And yes, she had gone down to the lower level just now to find out what he and the other male he’d come with were doing.
Two large males enter the club and ignore all the sex opportunities? While they make a beeline for the back where the stairwell was?
Who the hell else could they be?
“You’re a Brother?” she asked.
“I’m a trainee. But I came with one and I’ve been put on this case.” He lowered his hands. “I swear, I just want to ask you about what you saw last night. That’s the only reason I followed you out here. You haven’t returned our calls, and I was worried I’d lose you.”
Helania stared down the barrel of her gun at him. For a split second, an image of her sister came to mind and she teared up. Was this the mistake Isobel had made? Letting her guard down around a male she thought she was safe with . . . only to