Taurus. A man jumped out from behind the column, waving a knife and shouting for her bag. He slashed at her, and when she raised her arm, he cut her several times. She dropped the bag. He grabbed it and ran. Terrified, she made it inside the car and then passed out.
Eleisha opened her eyes and reached to Philip.
“Give me your knife.”
He was staring at her in confusion, as if he wasn’t sure what was happening, but he reached down into his boot and pulled out the hunting knife he always carried. Eleisha took it and leaned all the way over the seat, making a few shallow cuts in Trudy’s arm, hoping to cover the mess Philip had made. Then she handed the blade back to him.
“Get her bag from the floor,” she said. “Hurry.”
She was out of the car before he was, but he followed quickly, slamming the door and carrying Trudy’s bag. Eleisha headed for the stairs.
He followed.
Either no one had heard Trudy screaming or no one cared, but Eleisha didn’t even start to relax until they were back up Western Avenue again, moving farther away from the market.
Then Philip stepped in front of her, wiping the blood from his mouth onto his black sleeve. He didn’t touch her, but he wouldn’t let her pass.
“You’re angry,” he said.
Was she angry? She didn’t think so. She wasn’t sure what she felt. He shouldn’t be having this much trouble. The fact that they didn’t have to kill anymore shifted the entire balance of their existence. Why couldn’t he see that?
She shook her head.
“Then what is wrong?” he asked. “You are different tonight, even before . . . before that in the car. So quiet and no fun at all.” When agitated, he had more trouble with English.
But Philip always said she was no fun if she didn’t do exactly what he wanted. She was used to that.
Tonight he could somehow sense more. And he was right. She’d had something on her mind for weeks now . . . something she had not told him or Wade.
“Let’s just get a taxi and go back to the house,” she said. “We can talk there.”
“No.” He didn’t move. “Tell me you are not angry.”
He could be such a child sometimes. He looked ten years older than her. He was thirty years older, and he’d recently passed the two-century mark. Yet he often made her feel like the grown-up.
Still, she understood him. Philip hated being alone more than anything, and he’d spent one hundred and eighty-three years of his undead existence alone. Now that he had companionship, he feared losing it.
She reached out to take the bag from him, tossing it into a Dumpster.
“I’m not angry,” she said. “But you need to try harder.”
He had to learn to control his blood lust while focusing his telepathy at the same time.
His expression melted into relief. “Is that all? Yes, yes, I will try harder.” Then, as if forgetting the entire event in the parking garage had taken place, he turned and sidestepped so she could walk beside him.
“Did you rent a new movie for tonight?” he asked. “With guns and explosions?”
“No, I want to talk to you and Wade about something.”
“About what?”
“Let’s just go to the house.”
Wade often felt at odds, rattling around the house by himself as if he had nothing better to do than wait for Eleisha and Philip to come back.
Unfortunately . . . he didn’t have anything better to do.
Not quite three months ago, he’d enjoyed an orderly life, one he’d worked hard to create. He had a posh loft in Portland, Oregon, a career as a police psychologist, and the respect of his peers.
Now he had no job, no home of his own, and he was living in Seattle with two vampires.
What the hell happened to his life?
But he already knew the answer.
Eleisha.
Wade had always been a little out of the ordinary. For one, he’d been born telepathic, so he’d never expected a completely normal life . . . but this?
He wandered from the kitchen and into the living room, glancing at the television and the small pile of Philip’s DVDs on the floor. Eleisha never watched TV of her own accord. Yet for someone who’d been around since the early 1800s, she was surprisingly well-adjusted to the modern world. Philip, however, was not, and sometimes, Wade regretted having taught him to use the DVD player. Philip had developed a fascination with action movies—especially anything by John Woo with Chow