* * *
Tessa glanced out the window. She, Jilly, and Bailey had spent the morning giving each other manicures and pedicures, then passed a couple of hours playing canasta, trying to pretend that everything was all right.
But Jilly constantly glanced at the clock and checked her phone for messages.
Bailey prowled through the house from time to time, checking doors and windows.
Tessa couldn’t help fretting because Andrei hadn’t called or come over. She told herself there was nothing to worry about. Katerina couldn’t enter the condo uninvited. Andrei and Luke could—she hoped—take care of themselves.
In an effort to distract herself and the others, Tessa put the latest Hemsworth DVD into the player but, for once, even Thor couldn’t take her mind off her worries.
When the movie was over, Tessa went to the window.
It would be dark in an hour or two.
And there was still no word from Luke.
Or Andrei.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Luke found the vampire he was looking for sleeping under the desk in the office of a gas station that had been out of business for several years. Someone—the vampire, perhaps—had tacked black cloth over the broken windows.
Heart pounding with anticipation and trepidation, Luke stared at the creature. At rest, it looked pretty much like any other human male, except that its skin was papery dry and fish-belly white and there was dried blood caked on its lips.
Luke pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket and snapped a photo. He refused to consider the fact that his victim had once been human, that he’d likely had a family, people who loved him. Maybe someone he loved. Whether he had been turned by choice or by force, it didn’t matter. He was a monster now, a killer.
Luke frowned as a little voice in the back of his head whispered that he, too, was a killer. “But not of innocents,” he muttered, hoping to ease his conscience.
Jaw clenched, he pulled a stake from the back pocket of his jeans. He hesitated a moment. Vampires, at least the young ones, were trapped in the deathlike sleep of their kind from dawn to dusk. Was it truly like death? Were they able to feel pain?
Thrusting the disquieting thought aside, he drove the stake into the vampire’s heart. It slid in, as smooth as a hot knife through butter. There was very little blood.
With the deed done, Luke took a second photo of the creature, focusing on the stake and the vampire’s face as proof that he had destroyed it.
Blowing out a sigh, he tore the black cloth from the windows.
The vampire turned to ash the minute the sun’s light touched him.
Vampire hunting might be dangerous as hell, Luke mused, tucking his phone into the back pocket of his jeans, but, thanks to the town’s generous bounty, he was making money.
He was heading for his car when he felt it, a shift in the atmosphere that caused the hairs on his arms to stand at attention.
He had felt that same sensation before, a warning that a vampire was nearby. And since it was daylight, it had to be one of the old ones. Adrenaline spiked through him as he ran to his car, jerked open the door, and slid behind the wheel. Thank goodness for keyless ignitions, he thought, as he hit the start button and stomped on the gas.
He felt a surge of relief. Damn, that had been close.
He didn’t slow down until he pulled into a condo parking place.
He had just switched off the ignition when someone ripped the driver’s-side door off its hinges and he found himself staring into a pair of hell-red eyes.
Acting instinctively, he grabbed the stake on the passenger seat and lunged out of the car, his stake angling for her chest.
But she was too fast for him. The stake missed her heart and sank into her belly instead.
She let out a horrific shriek and vanished from his sight.
Legs trembling, his clothes spattered with dark red vampire blood, Luke scrambled up the stairs to Tessa’s apartment.
She opened the door immediately. “Merciful heavens!” she exclaimed. “What happened?”
He darted past her and slammed the door. “I think I just had a close encounter with Katerina.”
Tessa felt the blood drain from her face. “She’s here?”
“Not anymore.”
“Did I hear Luke?” Jilly ran out of the kitchen, only to come to an abrupt halt when she saw the blood splattered across his shirtfront. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, honey. It’s not my blood.”
He’d barely finished speaking when she threw herself into his arms.
He hugged her tightly.
Tessa gave them a few moments before asking, “Luke, have you seen Andrei?”
“No, I thought he’d be here.”
Tessa shook her head. Where could he be?
* * *
Andrei wiped his hands on the sides of his jeans. He had spent the day trailing Katerina from town to town, disposing of the bodies she had left in her wake. Only one kill had been made in Cutter’s Corner, for which he was grateful. The last thing they needed were a lot of bodies drained of blood and a lot of hysterical citizens.