the pavement and grass. If the gruesome scene disturbed her, she let no hint of it show. “We’ll have this cleaned up for you in a jiffy.”
“Thank you,” Bastien said.
Cliff couldn’t help but notice the uneasy sidelong glances the men slid his way and tried to take a page from Bastien’s book. When mercenaries had shot Melanie and nearly killed her, Bastien had flown into a rage and left a bloodbath in his wake. One that had required the network to send a cleanup crew bus. And Bastien hadn’t given two shits about the network employees’ responses when he had helped them tidy up the mess by leaping from rooftop to rooftop and hurling mercenary bodies at that bus.
“Do you know if anything was caught on video?” Tami asked.
Bastien shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. No surveillance cameras were aimed our way while we fought, but the vamps attacked the men before we arrived, so you might want to double-check.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you need any help with the victims?”
“No, sir. We’ll take it from here.”
The second woman knelt beside the unconscious males and set her large purse on the ground. As Cliff watched, she began to remove first aid supplies from it, check the men’s vitals, and tend their wounds with an efficiency that reminded him of Melanie.
Bastien turned away and walked with him back to the car. Once there, he drew a cell phone from an inner pocket of his coat and handed it to Cliff. “If you come upon vampires who are harming mortals, text me and wait until I arrive to confront them.”
“Unless they’re killing the mortals.”
“Unless they’re killing the mortals,” Bastien agreed, “and they don’t outnumber you too badly.” Leaning into the back seat, he grabbed the duffel bag and drew it out. “How are the voices?”
“Lower.”
“But still there?”
“Yeah.”
He glanced at his watch. “We’re coming up on the top of the hour. Why don’t you meet me in four hours instead of two? You don’t have to track down other vampires the whole time. Go for a run or… hell, I don’t know. Go see a movie.” Delving into another pocket, he withdrew his wallet and handed Cliff a lump of folded bills.
Cliff grinned as he pocketed them. “Gee thanks, dad.”
Bastien laughed. “Are movie theaters even open this late?”
“I doubt it.” Anything that wasn’t either a twenty-four-hour superstore or gas station tended to close before midnight.
He shrugged. “Well, whatever you think might help clear your head.” He passed him the duffel. “Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Cliff looped the strap over his shoulder. “Is there anything you wouldn’t do?”
“Hmm. Good point. Have fun then.”
“You, too.” Grinning, he raced away.
Though Cliff wanted to shoot straight to Emma’s house, he needed to fulfill his obligations to Bastien and the Immortal Guardians first.
With that in mind, he headed to NCCU to see if he could accidentally run into some other vampires.
He did find—in record time—two out hunting and watched them for a bit before approaching them. Neither one harmed the victims they chose beyond drinking from them, something he thought promising. Unfortunately, they weren’t interested in making friends or engaging in small talk. The first was good. They didn’t seem to be part of whatever new vampire army was amassing. But the second made it impossible for him to try to win them over to the Immortal Guardians’ side.
Tonight anyway. Maybe he could find them another night and try again.
Having performed his duties, Cliff sped to Emma’s quaint country home.
Excitement and nerves battled inside him. Would she really be happy to see him again? She had said she would, but…
Last night seemed like a dream.
The voices, dampened by his violent clash with the sadistic vampires earlier, tried to resume their constant diatribe.
Cliff ignored them as he skidded to a halt on her neatly mown lawn.
Lights inside brightened the windows, but blinds kept him from peering within.
He glanced down at his blood-soaked clothing, then at the bag Bastien had given him. Dropping to one knee, he set the bag on the ground, unzipped it, and rifled through it. Clean clothes, clean boots, and—yes!—scentless hand wipes.
It took Cliff mere seconds to doff his hunting garb and wipe the blood from his exposed skin. He couldn’t imagine what Emma would think if she were to look out and see him standing bare-ass naked in her front yard but considered it worth the risk. It suddenly felt incredibly important that he come to her tonight as clean and gore-free as a