For one moment Decker thought he must have imagined it, but then he heard a soft thud and a grunt from behind the door. He paused in the hall, staring at it for a moment, then took a couple more steps forward and stuck his head into the living room. His lips turned down in a frown when he saw the Parkers still there, sleeping soundly. It hadn't been one of them closing the closet door from inside.
Decker straightened and turned to approach the closet, thinking that it couldn't be Mortimer, Lucian, or Justin. They were all at the Parker house waiting for Leonius to show up. And Leigh, Rachel, and Etienne had headed to bed shortly after Sam had left for work. That left only-He caught a glimpse of the frayed end of rope sticking out under the door and then it disappeared, tugged inside the closet.
"Dani?" he called uncertainly, and shifted the bags of blood into one hand so that he could open the door. He'd turned the doorknob and pulled the door open a bare couple of inches when she said, "No," and the door was pulled out of his hand to slam shut.
Recognizing her voice in the short word, Decker found a smile plucking at his lips at her denial and nearly chuckled until it occurred to him that the woman was in a closet, denying it was she. That wasn't exactly sane behavior. It wasn't psychotic either, at least he hoped not, but...
Worry gnawing on his nerves, he reached for the door again. "Dani, are you all right?"
This time he got it open six inches or so before she snapped, "Go away," and yanked it closed.
Really worried now, Decker set the blood down beside the door so that he could use both hands on the knob, but Dani must have been using both of hers as well on the other side. He had to put in some real effort to turn the knob and then pull the door open. He had it nearly a foot ajar when she suddenly released her hold. Unfortunately, Decker hadn't expected that, was still pulling with all his might, and slammed himself in the head with the damned thing. Cursing, he stumbled back a step, grabbed for his head, and saw her tug the door closed again.
Sighing, he let go of his head and moved up to the door to ask wearily, "Dani, what are you doing?"
"Hiding. What does it look like?"
Decker considered that. She sounded odd, like she was crying and trying to sound angry so that he wouldn't know. He was about to ask her again if she was all right when she suddenly said, "I'm not an animal."
He blinked at those words, his head jerking back slightly at the pain evident in her voice.
"I don't want you to tie me up again," she added, and then cried almost desperately, "I'm not like Leonius. I don't even want blood. I just want-" Her words died on a gasping sob, and Decker reached for the doorknob. This time he met no resistance and found out why when he saw that Dani had backed into the corner and turned to press her face there.
Decker hesitated and then stepped inside, pulling the door closed with one hand as he reached to rub her back with the other.
Dani stiffened at his touch and cast a quick glance over her shoulder, revealing that she was indeed crying. She then turned back to the corner, her voice watery as she asked, "What are you doing in here?"
"Hiding with you."
The words made her crumble and she sagged against the wall, her shoulders shaking with soft sobs.
Aching along with her, Decker caught her shoulders and turned her unresisting body to press her against his chest. He saw the piece of rope dangling from her wrist, realized she must not have been able to remove that one since the others were gone, and almost offered to remove it. But then he decided to ignore it for now, and slid his arms around to hold her as he rocked her in that dark, airless closet. He rubbed her back and murmured reassuringly, and eventually her crying slowed and stopped. After a moment she whispered, "You hate me now."
"No," he said quietly, and she lifted her head to peer up at him.
"But I'm a no-fanger."
"No, you're not," he assured her.
Dani shook her head sadly at his denial. "Yes, I am. I'm a no-fanger, and immortals hate them."
"You're Dani," he repeated firmly. "And you are not a no-fanger, you're an edentate. Immortals don't hate edentates."
"Edentate?" she asked with confusion.
"It's what sane immortals without fangs are called," he explained. "You're an edentate, Dani. Only the insane, rogue fangless ones are called no-fangers."
"Edentate," she said slowly, but then shook her head. "But Leonius said you would hate me, and you tied me down last night like a dog. You-"
"We tied you down last night so you wouldn't hurt yourself," Decker assured her quickly. "You were biting yourself and thrashing around, Dani, it was necessary."
When she raised her head, hope in her eyes, he added, "And we don't despise any race. We hunt down and kill rogues only, both immortal and edentata alike."
When she peered at him doubtfully, he reluctantly admitted, "Unfortunately, half of the edentata who survive the turning come out no-fangers like Leonius and go rogue so, in the past, enforcers had to kill a lot of them in comparison to immortals, but not much anymore," he added. "I've only ever even heard of one no-fanger besides Leonius and his sons since becoming an enforcer sixty years ago, but I know an edentate. He works as an enforcer."
"Really?" she asked, almost eagerly.
Decker nodded, and when she leaned against him with a sigh, asked, "Are you ready to get out of here now? I fetched some blood from the kitchen to take upstairs. It's outside the door. We could go to the kitchen and-"