Blood Bound

Adam.

"Tomorrow will be fine, Mrs. Ha

She looked around as if bewildered by the question. Then relaxed and smiled. "Oh that was Joe. He told me I'd better change my route if I wanted to keep visiting him."

I smiled at her. When she'd been alive, she'd talked about John this and Peter that. I never had been sure if she really had boyfriends, or just liked to pretend that she had.

She leaned forward confidentially. "We women always have to change for our men, don't we.»

Startled I stared at her. That was it exactly. I felt as though Adam was changing who I was.

She saw that her words had hit home and nodded happily. "But they're worth it, God love them. They're worth it."

She puttered off in her usual shuffle-shuffle step that covered a surprising amount of ground.

CHAPTER 10

"No, sir, she's not-" Gabriel looked up as I walked into the shop. "Wait. She's here."

I took the phone, thinking it might be Tony or Elizaveta. "This is Mercy."

"This is John Beckworth, I'm calling from Virginia. I'm sorry, I forgot how much earlier you are than we."

The voice was familiar, but the name was wrong. "Mr. Black?" I asked.

"Yes," he sounded a little sheepish. "It's Beckworth, actually. I just got off the phone with a Bran Cornick. He suggested that there is some trouble in the Tri-Cities."

"Yes, we have something of a… situation here." Either Adam had called Bran yesterday, or Darryl had remembered the Blacks/ Beckworths and talked to him this morning.

"So Mr. Cornick said. He suggested that we fly to Montana early next week." He paused. "He seemed less intense than Adam Hauptman."

That was Bran, quiet and calm until he ripped out your throat.

"Are you calling to make sure he's safe?" I asked.

"Yes. He wasn't on the list of men you gave me."

"If I had a daughter, I'd have no qualms leaving her with Bran," I said sincerely, ignoring the question of why Bran's name wasn't on the list. "He'll take good care of you and your family."

"He talked to Kara, my daughter," he said, and there was a world of relief in his voice. "I don't know what he said, but I haven't seen her this happy in years."

"Good."

"Ms. Thompson, if there is ever anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to call."

I started to automatically refuse, but then I stopped. "Are you really a reporter?"

He laughed. "Yes, but I don't cover celebrity sex lives. I'm an investigative journalist."

"You have ways of finding out about people?"

"Yes." He sounded intrigued.

"I need as much information as you can get on a man named Cory Littleton. He has a website. Fancies himself a magician. It would be particularly helpful if you could find out if he owns property in the Tri-Cities." That was a long shot, but I knew that Warren had checked out all the hotels and rentals. If Littleton was here, he had some place to stay.

He read the name back to me again. "I'll get what I can. It may take a few days."

"Be careful," I said. "He's dangerous. You don't want him to know you're looking."

"Is this co

"That's right."

"Tell me how to contact you-probably an e-mail address would be best."

I gave him what he needed, and thanked him. Hanging up the phone, I noticed Gabriel's eyes on me.

"Trouble?" he asked.

Maybe I should have worked harder to keep Gabriel out of my world. But he had a good head on his shoulders, and he wasn't stupid. I'd decided it was easier to tell him what I could-and safer than if he went looking.

"Yes. Bad trouble."

"That phone call last night?"

"That's part of it. Warren 's hurt badly. Samuel and Adam are missing."

"What is it?"

I shrugged. "That I can't tell you." The vampires didn't like people talking about them.

"Is he a werewolf?"

"No, not a werewolf."

"A vampire like Stefan?"

I stared at him.

"What? I'm not supposed to figure it out?" He shook his head reprovingly. "Your mysterious customer who drives the funky bus painted up like the Mystery Machine and only shows up after dark? Dracula he isn't, but where there's werewolves, there certainly ought to be vampires."

I laughed, I couldn't help it. "Fine. Yes." Then I told him seriously, "Don't let anyone else know you know anything about vampires, especially not Stefan." Then I remembered that wouldn't be a problem. I swallowed around the lump in my throat and continued seriously. "It's not safe for you or your family. They'll leave you alone as long as they don't know you believe in them."

He pulled his collar aside to show me a cross. "My mother makes me wear this. It was my father's."

"That'll help," I told him. "But pretending ignorance will help more. I'm expecting a couple of phone calls. One from Tony and the other from Elizaveta Arkadyevna, you'll know her by her Russian accent." I'd intended to close the shop for the day, but I didn't have anything to do until Tony or Elizaveta called me back. If it had taken two weeks for Stefan and Warren to find the sorcerer, I was unlikely to find him by driving up and down streets at random. There are over 200,000 people living in the Tri-Cities. It isn't Seattle, but it's not Two Dot, Montana, either.

I couldn't concentrate on my work. It took me twice as long to replace a power steering pump as it should have, because I kept stopping to check my phone.

Finally, I broke down and called Zee again-but there was no answer on his phone. Elizaveta still wasn't answering her phone either, nor was Tony.

I started on the next car. I'd only been working on it for a few minutes when Zee walked in. From the scowl on his face, he was upset about something. I finished tightening the alternator belt on the ‘70 Beetle and scrubbed up. When I had most of the grease off my hands I leaned a hip on a bench and said, "What's up.»

"Only a fool deals with vampires," he said, his face closed up into a forbidding visage of disapproval.

" Littleton ripped Warren to bits, Zee," I told him. "It probably killed Stefan-and Samuel and Adam are missing."

"I did not know about the Alpha and Samuel." His face softened a little. "That is bad, Liebchen. But to take direction from the vampire's mistress is not smart."

"I'm being careful."

He snorted. "Careful? I saw your trailer."

"So did I," I said ruefully. "I was there when it happened. Littleton must have found out that Marsilia asked me to find him."

"You obviously found him last night-not that it did you any good."

I shrugged. He was right, but I couldn't just sit around and wait for Darryl to call and tell me they'd found Samuel and Adam dead. " Marsilia seems to think I can deal with him."

"You believe her?"

"Uncle Mike did."

That took him aback; he pursed his lips. "What else did Uncle Mike say to you?"

The stuff about heroes was too embarrassing, so I told him what Uncle Mike had told me about the effect of demons on werewolves.

"Uncle Mike visited me this morning," Zee told me.

"Then we both went out and visited some other friends." He hefted a backpack at me.

I caught it and unzipped the bag. Inside was a sharpened stake as long as my forearm and the knife Zee had loaned me the first time I'd visited the seethe. It was very good at slicing through things-things a knife had no business cutting at all, like chains for example.

"I got the stake from a fae who has an affinity for trees and growing things," he said. "It's made from the wood of a rowan tree, a wood of the light. She said that this would find its way to the heart of a vampire."

"I appreciate your trouble," I said, skirting around an outright "thank you."