Exiting the blackout booth, Vivek headed immediately to his computers. She expected an explosion when he detected the unauthorized call, but he just sighed and shook his head before turning his chair to face her. "Why do you even bother, Ellie?"
That shook her, far more than anything else he could've done. Her legs folded and she collapsed into a chair. "They're family."
"They rejected you because you didn't fit the mold." His mouth twisted. "Believe me, I know all about that."
"I know, Vivek." His family had institutionalized him after the accident. "But I can't leave Beth vulnerable when there's a chance I can protect her."
"You know she'd hang you out to dry if it ever came to it?" His tone was as bitter as darkest coffee. "She's married to a vampire-he comes first."
Elena couldn't disagree, not with Harrison's words still ringing in her ears. Her family wanted to turn her in to a high-level vampire. Forget about what that vampire-and more importantly, his sire-might do to her. "That's who they are," she whispered, "but that's not who I am."
"Why not?" Vivek shifted his chair back around to face the computer. "Why bother? It's not like they'll ever love you."
Elena had no answer to that, so she left. But the words burrowed into her skull, and dug in. Painful. Clawing.
"Hey, Ellie!"
She jerked up her head to see another hunter lounging in the doorway to one of the sleep rooms. Tall, slender, with long, straight black hair and snapping brown eyes, Ashwini was one hell of a tracker. She was also all kinds of crazy. Which was why Elena liked her. "Hey, yourself," she said, glad for the chance to get her mind off things, if only for a few minutes. "I thought you were in Europe."
"Was. Got back a couple of days ago."
"You were already in the country when you called Sara?" God, had that been only yesterday?
Ashwini nodded. "Hunt took an unexpected turn."
"Yeah?" she said, forcing her thoughts back to the here and now.
"Damn Cajun."
"Uh-oh."
"I finally get within a block of him and all of a sudden, he's come to an 'understanding' with the angel who put out the track." Her eyes narrowed. "One of these days, I'm going to turn him into gator-bait."
Elena grinned. "Then where would the rest of us get our entertainment?"
"Fuck you." Said with a grin before she yawned, lifted up her arms, and stretched, sinuous as a cat. "I like sleeping down here."
"What, you like the ambience?" She rolled her eyes. "How was Europe anyway?"
"Sucked. I was in Uram's territory."
Elena's nape pricked. This wasn't coincidence-Ash was a little bit spooky in her prescience. "How's the situation there?"
The other hunter shrugged, the movement lithe and unconsciously graceful. According to the Guild rumor mill, she'd been a trained dancer with a prestigious company before deciding to take up hunting. Ransom had once asked her to perform. It had taken two weeks for his black eyes to fade.
"Uram's fallen off the grid," she now said. "The locals are scared of their own shadows-they think he's spying on them."
Elena caught the glint in the other hunter's eye. "But you don't think so?"
"Something's hinky. No one's seen his assistant, Robert Syles, for a while either. And Bobby likes the TV cameras." Ashwini shrugged. "My guess is that they're doing some hunting of their own. Maybe angels. We'll hear about it soon enough." Another yawn.
"You'd better get back to sleep."
"Nah, I'm all recharged now. But I do have to shower-got to head out again in an hour." She turned. "Oh, hey, El, one other thing I picked up-seems like they found more than a few decapitated bodies around the time Uram went AWOL. It looks like the poor buggers were his servants. Must've been some temper tantrum. Lucky we don't have to hunt these bastards."
Elena nodded, feeling weak. "Yeah, lucky."
Raphael stood outside the nondescript little house in a suburb of New Jersey, silently applauding the Guild Director's cleverness. The woman had left her beautifully restored brownstone for this little wooden house surrounded by a hundred other such houses. Her home looked utterly ordinary except that he knew it was a fortress. He also knew that the director and her husband, both extremely experienced hunters, were taking turns at keeping an eye out for vampires, weapons close at hand.