Krysta rose and reached for a shoto sword.
Richart repeated her address. Krysta heard typing in the background.
“Here it is,” the woman with Richart said.
“Is there a satellite image of it? Or a street view?”
“The closest street view,” the woman said, “is this. A gas station a couple of miles away.”
“Thank you, my love.”
Krysta could have sworn she heard them kiss.
“Be careful,” the woman cautioned.
“Always,” he murmured. Then louder to Krysta, “One moment, please.”
“Okay.”
“What?” Sean asked, tying his laces.
“This is so weird.” She had never really thought of vampires as anything other than monsters.
A laugh came over the line. “It worked,” Richart said, with a great deal of surprise in his voice.
“What did?”
“Open your front door.”
Frowning, Krysta strode past Sean into the den and crossed to the front door.
Her hand tightening on her sword, she glanced back.
Sean stood in the doorway of her bedroom, one Ruger aimed at the door, one aimed at Étienne.
Krysta turned the lock with the hand holding the phone and opened the door. Tilting her head back, she eyed the figure standing on the front porch.
A mirror image of Étienne stared back.
“Holy crap,” she whispered. “Richart?”
The vampire’s gaze moved past her to take in her brother and the rest of their tiny abode. He drew in a deep breath, nostrils flaring, then nodded. “May I come in?”#p#分页标题#e#
Swallowing, she stepped back.
Richart nodded to Sean, who nodded back, but didn’t lower his weapons.
Krysta closed the door. “Étienne is in there.”
Richart’s boots thudded loudly on the worn wood floor as he strode toward the bedroom.
Sean eased back into the room, never shifting his aim from the two vampires.
“Sean.”
“It’s all right,” Richart said, surprising her. “I understand.” Once in the room, he leaned down over his brother and drew back the sheet. “His wounds are not healing?” All were covered by bandages.
“No.”
“Étienne, mon frère?”
No response.
“How deep are the cuts?”
“Not cuts,” she corrected. “Bullet wounds.”
He looked at her sharply, then glanced at Sean. “Your weapons have not been fired tonight.”
“It wasn’t us,” Sean confirmed. “I removed the bullets, but didn’t stitch the wounds because they weren’t bleeding. I just bandaged them instead.”
“You have my gratitude,” Richart uttered with a bow. Turning back to his brother, he peeled one of the bandages back and muttered something in French.
Krysta fervently wished she knew French.
Richart took his brother’s forearm in his hands and raised Étienne’s wrist to his lips. As he parted his own, fangs descended.
“Wait!” Krysta protested.
He met her gaze. “What?”
“He’s lost enough blood, don’t you think?”
Richart considered her for a moment, then seemed to come to some decision. “Our fangs are like needles. They siphon the blood of anyone we bite directly into our veins and, if necessary, can infuse others with our blood.”
Sean lowered his aim slightly, medical curiosity brightening his face. “Really? So you can transfuse him just by biting him?”
“Yes.” Richart bent his head and sank his fangs into his brother’s wrist.
Krysta shared a Holy Crap! look with Sean.
It didn’t take long at all, which was actually frightening. If he could infuse his brother with blood that swiftly, then he could drain a human that quickly, too.
As could Étienne.
Lowering his brother’s arm, Richart systematically removed all of Étienne’s dressings. “Thank you,” he said, “for caring for him and bandaging his wounds.”
The mortal siblings nodded.
The male even holstered his weapons.
“Why did you do it?” Richart couldn’t resist asking. They clearly weren’t Seconds or other members of the human network or they would have known Étienne wasn’t a vampire.
“He saved my life,” the woman said. “I would have died tonight if it weren’t for him.”
Ah. “A vampire attacked you?”
She shared a look with her brother. “Sssssssort of. But they weren’t—”
“More than one vampire?”
“Yes. There were six. But we took care of them.”
Tossing the bandages in a nearby rubbish bin, Richart stared at her. “You fought alongside him?”
“Yes.”
“Both of you?”
“No. Just me. My brother came later and got us out of there.”