Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

Tessa laughed.

Shaking his head, Sean clasped his hands before him in a pleading position. “I’m going to study with Melanie after my hunt tonight. If I promise to bring you a pie from the network’s kitchen, will you forgive me?”

Chris Reordon liked to keep network employees happy and always outfitted the cafeteria’s kitchens with the best chefs. “Only if you don’t eat it on your way home.”

“Yes!” Grinning triumphantly, Sean turned to Tessa. “Speaking of hunting, I was just about to leave. Would you like to join me?”

Surprise lit her pretty features. “Really? You want to hunt together?”

“Sure. It’ll give us a chance to get to know each other better and show there are no hard feelings.”

Nicole bit back a protest. Sean knew her gift was filling her with foreboding tonight. This was not a good time to mix things up.

“I haven’t started hunting vampires yet,” Tessa confessed.

His smile faded. “Did Seth want you to wait?”

“No. I think he’s worried I might feel conflicted about it since I used to hunt with vampires under Gershom’s command.”

Nicole studied her. “Do you?” If Tessa intended to interfere in Sean’s hunt instead of aiding in it…

Tessa bit her lip. “A little. But it isn’t because of Gershom. It’s because of the vampires at network headquarters. They’re good guys and are fighting with every fiber of their being to beat the madness.” She shrugged. “I just don’t want to kill any vampire who might be worth saving like they are.”

“None of us do,” Sean told her, his voice reassuring. “Cliff’s long battle with the growing insanity—the way he clung to honor year after year despite the voices roaring in his head—touched all of us.” Cliff was one of Sean’s best friends. “But when you’re out hunting, it’s easy to tell who’s fighting the madness and who’s reveling in it. And I always keep an eye out for others like Cliff.”

Drawing in a deep breath, she nodded. “Okay.”

“So you’ll hunt with me?”

“Yes,” she agreed with a tentative smile.

“Good.” He motioned to her. “You’re going to need weapons.”

“I don’t have any. Reordon thought it best not to arm anyone living on sublevel five because we often leave our doors open, and he doesn’t want to tempt the vampires.”

“I suppose that’s best. The last thing you need when a vampire experiences a psychotic break is for a plethora of weapons to be at his disposal.”

Nicole knew that was only part of it. Some of Gershom’s immortals had not embraced their new reality with enthusiasm. A few still struggled to accept the Immortal Guardians as the good guys, something that contributed heavily to the weapons ban.

“Come on.” Sean guided Tessa up the hallway. “You can use some of mine.”

Nicole retrieved the rifle and followed them, ostensibly to return it to the armory.

“Nicole, do you have a coat she can borrow?”

“Sure.” Though she had spares, Nicole chose the coat she always wore while shadowing Sean. “This should fit her.” Their clashes with Gershom had driven Reordon to add tracking devices to the hem of every coat the network provided Immortal Guardians and their Seconds with. If anyone went missing again and Seth couldn’t find them, the network wanted an alternate method of locating them.

Nicole didn’t think most immortals were aware of that.

When Sean reached for the coat, she ignored him and held it up for Tessa to slip into.

Tessa smiled as she donned it. “Thank you. It fits perfectly.”

Returning her smile, Nicole bantered with Sean while she armed Tessa with the usual array of blades. Even vampires who had long since succumbed to insanity retained enough of a desire for self-preservation to know they should avoid using firearms that would draw unwanted attention. The last thing they needed was a mob of well-armed human vampire hunters chasing them when they already had to elude Immortal Guardians.

Once Tessa was armed to Sean’s satisfaction, the two left in Tessa’s car.

Nicole smiled and waved as they backed out of the driveway.

After the car left her sight, however, her friendly smile vanished. As soon as she closed the door, she returned to the armory and removed her shoulder holsters. A few quick tugs released the Velcro closures on her vest.

What the hell was Sean thinking? He knew Nicole had a bad feeling tonight.

After removing the vest, she set it aside.

Was Tessa showing up the same night a coincidence?

Perhaps. But Nicole didn’t like coincidences.

She donned a stab-proof vest the network had provided after her run-in with Tessa. No daggers hurled at her tonight would pierce her flesh, even if thrown with preternatural strength. Over that, she added her shoulder holster, already outfitted with Glocks bearing suppressors. Grabbing a spare coat she hadn’t used before, Nicole drew her fingers along the bottom hem until she found the tracker, then pressed and held it to activate it as Chris had instructed. A beep sounded.

Shrugging it on, she turned to the multitude of weapons displayed on one wall. Since Krysta, Étienne, and their Second, Cam, often dropped by, Nicole kept the room stocked with enough weaponry and ammo to outfit all of them and then some, so there were plenty of blades for her to slip into the loops and pockets hidden inside her coat. After those, she added a hip-holstered tranquilizer gun. Only one drug in existence could knock out vampires and immortals. And the network had designed a tranq gun that could shoot multiple darts bearing it.