Shadows of Fire (9 page)

“Feel free to make yourself
comfortable,” Reese muttered. “And no, he didn’t.”

“Cabernet. Not my favorite, but
it’ll do.”

It was a two-hundred dollar
bottle of wine Reese was saving for a special occasion. After his morning with
Alex, he’d hoped they would be sharing it over a candlelight meal. There was no
sense mentioning that fact to the cocky vampire. “Listen, if he doesn’t show in
the next half hour or so, we’ll just have to reschedule. I’ve got plans.”
Needing his space, Reese walked to his bedroom. He had no idea what had
prompted the kid in the living room to join RISEN. Everything about this
assignment seemed to piss Ronan off.
Whatever
. RISEN had thought they
needed eyes out in the community so they’d sent in the young vamp. The guy
displayed his egotistical attitude as obviously as his high-end clothes and
annoying accent. Reese had to work with him, but no one said he had to make
friends with him. He grabbed his jeans from the end of the bed, shucking off
the towel at his waist.

“Would those plans happen to be
with one, Alexandra Flanagan?” Ronan leaned casually in the doorway, sipping
his wine. “I wouldn’t mind a little piece of—”

In a single heartbeat, Reese was
in Ronan’s face, sending the wine glass crashing against the wall and wrapping his
hand around the vampire’s throat. “Don’t say another word. Don’t even breathe
her name.” Reese’s fingernails dug into the tender flesh as the scent of Ronan’s
anger and confusion filled the air around them. “As a matter of fact, if I
ever
find you alone with Alex again, I won’t be responsible for my actions. You feel
me asshole?”

“A little bonding time, boys?”
Josh’s voice broke through Reese’s fury.

“Just clearing up a little
misunderstanding.” Reese pushed Ronan out of his face, unaware, until that
moment, just how worried he was for Alex. No matter how annoying he found the
kid, it was no excuse for his explosive outburst. “Sorry, man. I—”

Ronan waved him off. “Forget it.
I was out of line.”

“How about you boys kiss and make
up? We’ve got some real work to do.” Josh’s half-cocked grin and raised eyebrow
implied humor Reese didn’t feel. “I’ve got some information that may blow our
whole investigation out of the water.” Josh smacked a pamphlet on his palm.

Reese quickly pulled on jeans and
tamped down his frustration, following them into the kitchen. He pushed aside
his personal life and refocused on their assignment. “I hope you’ve got the
silver bullet. I’m ready to take down this bastard.” Reese clapped his hands
and rubbed them together in anticipation. Any new information would be better
than stumbling blindly forward as they’d been doing for the last year.

Josh eyed him warily. “Just keep
an open mind.”

“Don’t I always?” Reese asked.

Ronan let out a snort.

“I don’t know what I walked in
on, but I need you both to let that go and pay attention.” Josh unfolded a
state map on the cracked Formica table. Portions of the map had been marked with
colored circles and numbers. “Hope came up with—”

“Hope?” The name came from Reese
and Ronan in stereo.

“She’s human.” Ronan’s
indignation rode tight on his words. “You shouldn’t be involving her. How the
hell can she help?”

“She’s a reporter,” Josh said,
the low growl contradicting his calm tone.

Guess Reese wasn’t the only one
who thought the asshole vamp overstepped when it came to their women.

“As I was saying, Hope started
cross referencing fires and reported deaths. Every fire in the last two years
is highlighted in yellow. The number in that circle indicates how many died. If
they were vamps, they’re also highlighted with blue.”

“Hope knows about vamps?” Ronan asked.

“What I’ve chosen to tell or not
tell Hope about our world is not what we’re concerned about.” Josh’s words came
out stilted through clenched teeth. “It’s what she’s pieced together that’s
important.”

Reese knew his roommate had been
struggling for the last couple of months with his deepening feelings for Hope
and his need to share the truth with her. He’d known Josh long enough not to
question difficult decisions. In light of what was happening, Reese had to
wonder if telling her about their immortals would put her life in danger.

“Hey.” Reese laid a hand on
Josh’s forearm, unfazed when the man growled at him. It seemed both of them
were a little short tempered when it came to the woman they loved. “What douche
bag meant to say was …” he swept his hand over the map, “cut to the chase. We’d
like to know what the hell you’re getting at.”

Tension eased from Josh’s
shoulders. He inhaled, reining in his temper. “The thing is, we’ve done this a
number of times over the last year, but I never noticed a pattern. The fires in
the beginning were all vampires.” Josh pointed to a dozen sites, varying
distances from South Kenton. “But in the last six to nine months, they’ve been
a two-to-one mix of vamp and human.”

“What made the rogue change his
MO?” Reese wondered aloud.

“Well, it’s the last piece of
information that may give us that clue,” Josh said. “This is where
Hope
…” he looked at Ronan as he emphasized her name, “took it in a direction we haven’t.
See these circles?” Josh traced several of the colored rings at the fire sites.
“She used different colors to indicate the victim’s connection to different
people. What do you see?” He gave them a moment to process the information.

“A whole lot of red mixed in with
the other colors,” Ronan said.

Reese couldn’t believe it had
been that easy. “Yes, we got ‘em.”  He punched Josh in the shoulder. He wanted
nothing more than to finish this case and bring the SOB vampire to justice.
Killing vamps was bad enough, but when it spilled over into the human
population, well, that just pissed Reese off.

“Not so fast, Reese,” said Josh.

“What, he’s right. Unless the red
circle isn’t a vampire,” Ronan said hesitantly. “Then we’ve gotten nowhere”

“Oh, no, she’s definitely a
vampire,” Josh responded.

“
She
?” In the half century
Reese had been with RISEN, there’d been only one other female rogue. “Doesn’t
matter her gender. What’s been done breaks all codes. We bring her in and let
the tribunal decide her fate.”

“With that number killed, the
woman should be beheaded and burned.”

Both he and Josh looked at Ronan.
What he said was true, but no one, least of all another vampire, wanted to see
one of their own punished that way.

Josh held his palm out, pumping
the air in an attempt to slow Ronan’s judgment. “Let’s not be so hasty until
you know all the facts.” There was something Josh hadn’t told them.

“Are you kidding me?” Ronan
stomped away and began pacing the small kitchen. “‘Tis our
job
to bring
this rogue vampire down. Humans? Vamps? This … this …
thing
has no
conscience. She’s left a wake of murder and destruction through two counties.”
He waved at the map. “How many more have to die before we stop her? Are you two
seriously going soft because it’s a female?”

“Enough.” Reese knew
instinctively he didn’t want to hear the last bombshell Josh was going to drop,
but he had no desire to listen to Ronan’s criticism of the vampire tribunal.
Nothing was worse than taking down one of your own—even if they had been doing
the same. “What don’t we know, Josh.?”

“Those red circles?” He paused, his
gaze locking on Reese’s. “Are all associated with Alex.”

Silence fell over the room like a
thick blanket smothering him. No one moved. Time hung suspended.

It was Ronan’s condescending laugh
that finally broke the spell of disbelief. “Oh, now that’s rich. The irony of
the savior being the slayer …” He stopped to catch his breath. “Seriously, who
would’ve predicted our villain was sweet innocent—”

“Shut up, Ronan. Shut. The. Fuck.
Up.” Josh’s words came out through clenched teeth.

Reese fought through the fog of
confusion. “Alex Flanagan?
My
Alex Flanagan?” He’d known his undercover
work would eventually tear them apart, he just never could not have imagined it
would take her life.
His timing definitely sucked.

“Yes, Alexandra Flanagan, you
idiot.” Ronan stormed back to the table. “Stop thinking with your dick and look
at the facts.” He pounded a finger on one of the highlighted circles. “How’s
this person related to Alex?”

Josh slapped his hand away. “Back
off, Nason.”

“No, he’s right.” Reese knew
there had to be another explanation, but without understanding everything, he
wouldn’t be able to get to the bottom of it. “Tell us, who they are.”

“The university fire was a
student of hers.” Josh moved his finger around the map. “This fire killed her
hairdresser. This one was a cashier at Ricker’s Market in town.”

“That’s a stretch. All three of
us could be suspect there,” Reese said.

“That’s true. But the cashier was
a vampire and a regular at the tavern.”

“Go on.” A cold knot of dread
coiled tight in Reese’s gut as he listened to Josh explain Alex’s connection to
all but a handful of the fires.

“So that’s it? Case closed.”
Ronan straightened the cuffs of his shirt. “Once it’s reported and the tribunal
takes Alex in, do they transfer us right away to the next case or—”

Josh’s left hook took Ronan down
before the arrogant asshole had seen the flash of movement. If the impact
hadn’t kept him on the floor, Josh’s knee in his chest and grip on his throat
was certainly doing the trick. “This is a fellow vampire and a
friend
. Our
job
is to gather solid evidence before taking it to the tribunal. You
aren’t going to breathe a fucking word of this to anyone. Got it?” His grip
tightened imperceptibly. “Nod if you understand.”

Ronan’s features contorted into
rage as he reluctantly dipped his chin.

“Good.” Josh ground his knee into
Ronan’s gut as he pushed himself up. “Your only job right now is to keep your
head down and stay the fuck out of our way.”

“Whatever, asshole.” Ronan got up
from the floor and straightened his coat. “I didn’t join RISEN to take shit
from you two.”

Reese stepped in front of him.
“Why did you join RISEN?”

“To protect the vampire
population.” His lips pursed in a tight line. “Isn’t that why we’re all
undercover?” He elbowed his way past Reese. “I won’t report her to RISEN … yet.
But
trust
me, when I find the proverbial smoking gun, Alex is going to
wish like hell she hadn’t crossed paths with Ronan Nason.”

Reese stared at Ronan’s back as
he stormed out of the cabin. “Think he’ll steer clear of her?” He turned back
to Josh’s tired expression.

“Yeah. He’s too green to go
forward on his own.”

“And this?” Reese swept his hand
over the map, wondering what the hell they were going to do. “Is Nason right?
Is my personal involvement blinding me to the facts?”

“Depends on how bad you have it
for her.”

“Let’s just say after today, you
can rip up that IOU.” Reese’s whole world had been dropped in a blender and put
on
pulverize to shit
.

“You certainly picked a lousy time
to get over your fear of commitment.”

“Ya think?”

“Dude, the whole situation just
sucks.” Josh raked his fingers through his hair. “I’d like to think someone is
setting her up for some reason.”

“Is that what you honestly
believe?”

“What I
know
is that Alex
has been working to perfect a nutritional supplement so vamps don’t have to
drink human blood. She’s got the protection of Glenn and the blessing of the
tribunal. What I
believe
doesn’t matter.”

“But …” Reese dragged the word
slowly over his tongue.

“Since I’m a betting man, I’d
wager my left nut she’s mired in this whole thing up to that nice rack of hers.”

* * * *

“… and a veggie burger, lettuce,
tomato, hold the mayo, but add avocados and extra pickles.” The young woman
looked at Alex and smiled. “And could I have unsweetened iced tea with lemon?”

“Fries?” Alex wrote the order on
her pad, fighting through the double vision blurring the words. The young
couple at the table bantered back and forth about potatoes and fry oil, until Alex
regretted making the suggestion. “How about I just bring you a sample platter
of our fries and onion rings, on the house?” She gathered their menus and
hurried into the kitchen before they could change their minds.

Thank goodness the lunch rush was
over and only a few late afternoon stragglers had stopped by the tavern. Alex’s
morning queasiness had become full blown cramping and the headache that had
tapped at her temples, now left her head throbbing in a vise grip of pain. She
counted the minutes until Katie would arrive and relieve her.

“Order for table four,” she
mumbled, laying her slip on the stainless steel counter with the others.

Chris caught her wrist, stopping
her escape. “Hey, you okay?”