Doubting she’d get lucky, Adair knocked. A wrinkly faced woman with a gray bun swung open the door. “DoorDash?”
She shook her head. “Um, no.”
Mrs. Sanderson moved to slam the door in her face.
“Wait. Mrs. Sanderson? Do you recall a man named Bennett that lived in 712, about fifteen years ago?”
“What’s it to you?”
“Long story.”
“Well in that case.” The woman gestured with melodramatic sarcasm, then waved her hand in front of her face like she was brushing away a fly from her face. “Actually, I wouldn’t be much help anyway. Bennett moved away probably ten years ago, but I remember him like it was yesterday. Handsome one, always a smile for me, used to help me cart my groceries up the stairs when the elevator would break. Strong as an ox, that one.”
“That’s him.”
“Aren’t you a little young to be tracking down some guy? He’d be quite a bit older than you.”
Adair smiled softly. While she may be stuck in the body of the foolish twenty-three-year-old she had been, she felt every one of her five and a half centuries. And Bennett wouldn’t have aged more than two or three years since he’d lived here, and wouldn’t age much more than that over the next two or three centuries. “You really don’t know where I could find him?”
“Used to be a girl in 708 that was a police officer. Real pretty thing. They dated for a short while around the time he moved out. I recall she said he’d been looking at places in the Industrial District.”
“Okay, bye.” Adair didn’t bother with final farewells, silently cheering at her good fortune.
She flew down the stairs and hopped back into her car and took off.Okay, think. Bennett wouldn’t be easy to take down. And it would take a lot of vampires. Someplace in the Industrial District would be an ideal place for a large-scale paranormal ambush.
Turning, she left Belltown. Up and down the streets, she checked every alley, every face. Her stomach growled as she realized she hadn’t eaten all day, and her stomach had been too testy to eat before confirming what she had suspected: Calloway was in town, he was pissed, and he had a plan.
What if Bennett was burnt to a crisp somewhere, or surrounded by bodies he’d drained? And when he realized what he’d done? He’d never forgive himself.
If his humanity was too buried and the vampire side took over? Fighting the demon inside had seemed impossible, until she’d seen how her brother had mastered it. She’d never be able to take him alone.
After crossing back and forth over the broad tracks, passing homeless encampments, in and out of vacant parking lots, she clenched the steering wheel, vibrating with frustration. As the sun set behind her, she found a warehouse with a buckled roof and its bay door teetering off the track.
No one had taped it off; something was up.
As the sun had yet to make its final descent, she drove straight inside and slammed on the brakes. Blown away by the state of the building, she struggled to take in the widespread destruction. Inhaling deeply, she caught the scent of dozens of vampires. All dead.
No. More subtle, but fresher, alive… Blayk.
Fuck. Clenching her jaw, she took sharp breaths as she realized the extent of things. Sonra. Calloway. Blayk. The old gang was back together again… and they’d brought her back into the fold.
No sign of him now. No bodies. The ground was wet with icy patches that had frozen in the shadows of the unseasonably cold night.
Crumbled concrete and steel rebar littered the ground. She glanced up and saw the gray glow of daylight teasing through the cracks in the roof where two of the support pillars had collapsed.
A glint of steel under a pile of rubble caught her eye. Stalking closer, her heels clicking with each step, she reached and grasped her hand around the hilt of Bennett’s sword.
Whatever had happened to him, he still smelled like nothing. Enough demon hunter remained to leave him undetectable. But judging by the destruction… he wasn’t the same.
Shit. Back to square one.
She jumped in the car and took off.
Chapter5
Bennett eased the foul-smelling blanket from over his head. Although darkness penetrated the alley, dawn threatened on the horizon. Not a soul in sight.
He rubbed his hands over his face and took a long inhale. Rising to his feet, he searched for signs of Blayk or any of the others. Not a trace of vampire on the air.
