It was his more intimate effect on her that knocked her off kilter.
“Be careful, Vashti. And watchful for traps. His authority is stil being established, and he’l be chal enged often. I don’t want you caught in the crosshairs. No one wants to see what I’d do if something happened to you.”
She caught his hand and squeezed, grateful for him and his faith in her, something that must have been hard to maintain in the years since Charron died.
Opening the office door, she strode out into an eerily quiet warehouse. Not a soul moved in the cavernous space and while it might have been possible that Elijah was in one of the offices, she knew right away he was gone. She felt the void, and her stomach knotted, a reaction that set off her temper. She wasn’t mad that he’d left—it didn’t take a genius to figure out what must have unfolded while she was distracted—but it infuriated her that it rocked her to find him gone. It stung that he had been able to leave without a fight after she’d struggled with just the thought of it.
Grabbing a set of car keys off the wal rack, Vash was halfway to the door when it opened and the next busload of lycans poured in, brought to her courtesy of Salem, who’d headed out before dawn to pick them up.
“Fuckin’ A.” She was trapped until she and Salem could get the new teams squared away. Elijah had plugged in his suggestions for team compositions that morning, which would save her time, but there was no way she’d catch him before his flight left the ground.
Her anger simmering, she hung the keys back up and got to work.
CHAPTER 13
Elijah knew something was off the moment he turned his rental vehicle onto a residential street in a suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of Shreveport, Louisiana. Although it was early evening, he thought there were too many cars in evidence, especial y considering how few lights were on in the homes. When he unfolded from the economy sedan, his sense of unease deepened.
It was too quiet. Almost deathly so. No birds chirping, no dogs barking, no television sets or radios. With his hearing, he should be hearing toilets flushing, people chatting, dinner simmering.
Rol ing his shoulders back, he repeated what Lindsay had said when they’d first arrived in Hurricane, Utah, moments before they’d found a nest of wraiths: “This place crawls.”
“Shit.” Raze looked at him over the roof of the car. “I was hoping it was just me.”
“Bound to catch a snag at some point.”
“Thought we’d already done that,” Raze groused.
Elijah grinned. They’d hit the ground running, renting a car at the airport and heading immediately to the home of the vampire who’d first cal ed in a concern to Syre. That visit had introduced them to a very pretty male vamp who went by the name of Minolo. The leggy blond had buzzed them into his UV-blocked apartment and proceeded to serve lemon cookies and tea in floral cups with saucers. Minolo had taken an instant shine to Raze, and over the hour they’d stayed to conduct the interview, the vamp had flirted and fluttered his mascara-coated lashes at Vashti’s captain with warm invitation.
“Not interested,” Raze had growled final y.
“I can fix that, sugar,” the blond shot back with a saucy wink.
Elijah had stepped in then, just to avoid bloodshed, redirecting Minolo’s attention to the reason they’d come. They’d learned it was an interview conducted by the local authorities that first roused Minolo’s suspicions. He’d waylaid the investigation into the disappearance of a former lover with a bit of vampire mind compulsion; then he’d started digging around on his own. Minolo was the gossip center of the area’s vampire community, and it hadn’t taken more than a couple of days to ascertain that several vampires he was familiar with were no longer being seen around town.
Elijah and Raze’s subsequent five-hour canvas of the city had turned up enough information to let them know there was definitely a problem in Shreveport. They’d worked their way outward from Minolo’s residence in an ever-widening circle, interviewing the neighbors of vamps gone missing.
Most of the minions they’d inquired after worked nights, so their neighbors had scant opportunity to observe their comings and goings. In those cases, he and Raze would appear to drive away, only to return shortly after to enter those residences on the sly. They checked out the interiors and found empty homes, which led to a grim conclusion—there were too many minions whose whereabouts were unaccounted for in the bright light of day.
But the subdivision they’d just driven into was by far the most concerning.
“We’l need backup,” Elijah said. “At the very least, the two minions we’ve got coming in on the red-eye to take the nightshift, but ideal y more than that. I’d say a team of a dozen or more.”
“Want to reconnoiter? We’ve got a bit of daylight now.”
“Won’t help. We had daylight in Vegas and three of us.”
Raze rubbed a hand over his shaved head. “I hate walking away. Makes me feel like a pu**y.”
“I don’t like it either, but it’s best. Trust me.” Elijah got back into the car. “We’l hit up the tech team to access the layout of this subdivision and we’l get a plan in place for tomorrow.”
“Fuck.” Raze took another look around. “Al right.”
Elijah didn’t discount how easily the vamp had ceded to the advice of a lycan. Whether that was because he was banging Raze’s commanding officer or because of his own merits, he couldn’t say, but he’d take it for now. Eventual y they would al trust him. Because he’d earn it.
They headed back to the motel, changed into jeans and T-shirts, and decided to make dinner easy by hitting up the adjacent restaurant on foot.
They’d chosen to stay in a rural area, far from the city. Pine forest surrounded the uninspired motel they were bedding down in, which Elijah found soothing, something his mood needed after hitting a road bump with Vash. Every minute that passed brought him closer to their inevitable confrontation. He was ready for it now, on edge because of a fruitless hunt and the aggravation of separation.