Relentless (Vampire Awakenings #11) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,2

muttered. “Did you start pursuing your profession because of your sister?”

“Yes.”

“You came highly recommended.”

“I’m glad to hear it, and I will do everything I can to find Julie.”

“I’ll get Julie’s diary for you,” Mrs. Abbott said and rose from her chair.

Dante stayed where he was while he listened to her climb the steps to the second and then the third floor. He’d come highly recommended to her because he’d gained a reputation, and a well-deserved one, of bringing home missing people that others couldn’t find.

That was partly because his vampire senses had honed his instincts and enabled him to see and learn more while hunting for a lost loved one than a human would see. But it was mainly because of how determined he was to give people the answers and peace denied his family.

In the few cases he had where he didn’t bring someone home, he at least discovered what became of them. He hated those cases the most. He despised having family members staring expectantly at him and being the one who destroyed their hope.

He brought more home then he lost, but the ones he lost haunted him the most.

After he became a vampire, he quit the police force and went underground. He rented his apartment under a fake name, didn’t have any credit cards, and his bank accounts were all under his fake name too. Even his clients knew him as Dan Vares instead of Dante Alvarez. The real him ceased existing to the outside world shortly after he stopped existing as a human.

Under normal circumstances, he probably would have left the city to avoid running into anyone he knew, but he couldn’t leave without knowing what became of Maya. So, instead, he avoided all the old locations where he used to hang out.

Over the years, he’d run into a couple of his old buddies, but it had only been ten years since he was changed, so it wasn’t a complete shock for them to see him. He could change their memories about seeing him, but what if someone spotted him and he didn’t know it? That could get really interesting or ugly.

But he still wasn’t leaving without his answers. He’d never believed Maya took off as some people suggested. She never would have done that. They had their problems over the years, but his family was extremely close. She would never hurt their parents in such a way, and she wouldn’t have left him.

He may have been her annoying little brother at times, but they were also best friends. They were only fourteen months apart, so they’d grown up extremely close. There were times they tried to kill each other, tormented each other, and vowed never to speak again.

But those times were always short-lived, and an hour later, they’d be playing together again. They walked to school together every day, and as they got older, he rode in the passenger seat of her beat-up Chevy pickup everywhere she went.

He could clearly recall her in the driver seat, with the sun spilling over her chocolate-colored hair and shining in her onyx eyes. At the top of her lungs, she would belt out the lyrics to some new pop song while dancing in her seat. More into hard rock and alternative music, he always rolled his eyes at her, but somehow, he’d find himself singing along.

No, he didn’t believe Maya had taken off, but he didn’t believe she was alive either. Still, he would bring her home so he could bury her with their parents, who both passed less than three years after Maya vanished. Before they died, he promised them he would bring her home, and he had to know who took her from them.

Thoughts of his dead family caused him to lift a hand to his necklace. The old, brass locket with the compass rose on the front was once his mother’s, and it was supposed to be Maya’s. Instead, the locket housed a photo of his parents and one of Maya, and it was his.

He turned his attention to the sun streaming across the hardwood floors as it shone through the window. The lulling rumble of the passing cars and the songs of the birds caused his mind to wander to the woman he saw at Adler’s piano bar two weeks ago. But then, every chance they got, his thoughts returned to her.

The haunting melody of her voice, the sweet, cherry scent of her, and her striking beauty had woven a spell around him that