“Good evening, my minions,” he said, looking us over. “Tonight we’re going to talk evasive maneuvers. Escaping from enemies in hand-to-hand combat, as opposed to trying to get out of House patrol duty on the basis of ‘fang ache.’” He actually used air quotes. He also looked directly at me, because I’d been the one who’d tried the excuse.
Vampires had quick healing abilities, which explained why I’d been freezing my petite ass off on patrol a few minutes after the attempt.
“Now, it’s crucial to remember that evasive maneuvers—getting out of a grapple, breaking a hold—are all about physics. Using your opponent’s body weight and weak spots to your advantage.”
“And if that fails, just knee him in the grapes,” Kelley muttered. I bit back a chortle, but not very well. Ethan didn’t seem to mind.
“A time-tested strategy,” Luc said. “And if an enemy’s attacked you, he’s given up any complaint about the sanctity of his grapes.”
“Grape sanctity,” Merit whispered. “Sounds like the name of the world’s worst sacramental wine.”
“The human body has various and sundry pressure points,” Luc said, raising his hand to gesture, but pausing in midmotion, his eyes on the door.
We all glanced back and saw a girl in the doorway.
She wore jeans, a Loyola sweatshirt, and had a dark gray messenger bag slung diagonally across her body. She was tall and sturdily built, with long blond hair, pale coloring, no makeup—and absolutely no need for it.
I was so surprised to see a human in the doorway that it took a moment to peg her as family.
Human family.
“Ray?” I stood up and jogged to the door, my mind reeling.
Ray hugged me fiercely, enough to make me worry about whatever brought her here. “Aunt Lindsey. Thank God.”
I wasn’t actually her aunt; I’d been a vampire much too long for that. She was my great-great-niece—my sister’s great-granddaughter. I’d kept an eye on my sister’s family as they’d spilled across the country from our hometown in Iowa, including Ray, who was now a student at Loyola, on the north side of Chicago.
I pulled back just enough to get a glimpse of her face. Even if I hadn’t been empathic, it wasn’t difficult to catch the concern there. “What’s wrong?”
She seemed to suddenly realize she was in a room of vampires who were watching her curiously. “Could we talk somewhere?”
“Of course.” I glanced back at the group, planning to tell Luc I was stepping out. But they were already surrounding us like paparazzi around a starlet.
“Who’s this?” Luc asked, hands on his hips.
“This is Ray—,” I began.
“Rachel, actually,” she interrupted, apology in her eyes. “I prefer Rachel these days.” There was pink in her cheeks, but her shoulders were square. Whether Ray or Rachel, she was definitely my niece.
“Rachel is a relative,” I explained. “One of my sister’s descendants. What are you doing here?”
“I’ve got a problem, Aunt Linds. And I think you’re the only one who can help.”
—
With apologies to the training group, Luc, Rachel, and I reconvened next door in the Operations Room. Rachel sat in a chair at one end of the large conference table, the messenger bag in her lap. I sat beside her, and Luc edged a hip onto the table across from us.
“Any niece of Lindsey’s is a niece of mine,” he said.
“Great-great-great-niece,” I clarified.
“That just makes you sound older,” Rachel said with a grin. It was my sister’s grin, or the hint of it that had managed to make its way through the generations. The look clutched at my heart, filled me with longing.
“So why haven’t we met you before?” Luc asked.
“I try to keep the family out of our drama,” I said, smiling conspiratorially at her. “It’s like a vampire soap opera around here. The Young and the Fanged.”
“That’s kind of the thing,” she said, tracing a nervous finger across the tabletop. “Something happened, and I’m not really sure what to do about it. And I think it falls in your territory.”
“Start at the beginning,” I suggested.
She nodded, fidgeted in her seat. “So you know I share a house near campus with my friends Emily and Georgia, right?”
“Right,” I said, although I wasn’t sure I remembered Emily and Georgia. Like most girls her age, she had a fluid roommate situation. But that wasn’t the point, so I nodded.
“I just finished a really massive lab project. I didn’t even leave campus for twenty-four hours. I got back home last night, and when I did, I found this.”