Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

“Sean, Tessa,” he continued, “fill everyone in on what happened last week.”

Sean described their confrontation with the five vampires who attacked Becca and her friends. Tessa let him do most of the talking, only stepping in long enough to relate her brief conversation with Reed before his escape.

Marcus frowned. “Was this a coincidence, or was Becca targeted?”

Chris rested an elbow on the table. “That’s what we wanted to find out. I had my guys review security footage covering that area in the two weeks leading up to the attack, and they found nothing to indicate that Reed had been hanging around Becca’s residence hall, stalking her.”

Cliff spoke. “As a vampire, he wouldn’t have to hang around the building to stalk her. His enhanced eyesight would enable him to watch her from long distances.”

Chris nodded. “That was my thought, too. I had them check the rest of Duke’s security footage. There are over 1,300 cameras on that campus, so it took a while. And they did catch sight of Reed. Twice. But it was nowhere near her dorm and late enough that she was already inside, asleep.”

“Nicole,” Seth said.

She sat up straighter. “Yes?”

“Tell us what happened last night.”

As succinctly as possible, she cataloged the night’s events… leaving out the heated kiss she and Sean had shared, of course.

Roland scowled at Sean. Or maybe he had already been scowling and she hadn’t noticed. That seemed to be the surly immortal’s go-to expression whenever he wasn’t looking at his wife, Michael, or Adira. “You didn’t see or hear him coming?”

Sean shifted uneasily. “I didn’t. I was pretending I was about to leave and telling Becca and Nicole goodnight.”

Heat crept into Nicole’s cheeks. Damn her tendency to blush! “There was also a party raging in the distance,” she added. “The music was pretty loud.” A lame excuse.

Roland arched a brow.

“Even though I didn’t hear him,” Sean said, “he wouldn’t have escaped this time. I was instantly on his heels, so he couldn’t halt without confronting me. And once he did—if I couldn’t find a way to safely extricate Becca—Nicole would’ve tranqed him.”

She nodded. “Sean piggybacked me.”

“Instead,” Chris inserted with obvious displeasure, “Nick killed him.”

A hush descended as all eyes went to the French immortal.

Unrepentant, Nick crossed his arms over his chest.

Beside him, Kayla remained tightlipped and looked as if she would tear into anyone who fussed at him.

Marcus cleared his throat. “I would’ve done the same.”

When Adira heard her father’s voice, she grinned up at him.

He winked and sent her a smile, then she returned to her joyful scribbling.

“I would have, too,” Roland added.

“And I,” Bastien said.

Chris loosed an exasperated sigh. “It doesn’t surprise me that you would, Bastien. You kill everyone.” A comment that inspired laughs all around. Bastien was notorious for his violent nature. “Look, I understand what motivated Nick, but we needed the information Reed could’ve given us. He knew Nick’s full name, which indicates that Becca was likely targeted because of her association with him. Reed probably wanted to use her as bait to ensnare Nick.”

“For what purpose?” Nick demanded. “I don’t know him.”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Chris explained patiently. “And thanks to you, we’re out of leads. This operation should never have been executed without consulting me first. Sean and Nicole are new enough not to have realized that. But Nick, you’ve been an immortal for hundreds of years and should’ve known better.”

Nicole had to admit she felt relieved at being given an out. She would have to ensure she didn’t repeat the mistake in the future.

When Nick and Chris launched into a heated argument, Seth held up a hand.

Silence fell.

He looked at Chris. “Where do you believe we should go from here?”

Chris leaned back in his chair. “If Reed was acting alone, then his death should end it. But if he worked with someone else or with a group of someone elses—we don’t know if those other two vampires he hunted with the first time were in on it—then we need to get to the bottom of this. The cleanup crew checked his phone and found nothing to suggest that Reed was being tracked. Does anyone know if he was wearing a wire that night? My guys didn’t find one.”

Sean glanced at Nicole.

She shrugged. “I didn’t see anything.”

“I didn’t either,” Sean said.

Nick sighed. “He wasn’t. I would’ve felt it when I was pummeling him.”

“Then, if we’re lucky,” Chris said, “no one knows what happened to him, which provides us with an opportunity.”

Nick nodded. “I’ll continue to pose as Becca—”

“Hell no!” Chris and Becca both shouted, then looked at each other in surprise.

Chris addressed Nick first. “No way. Not you. You’re too close to this, and I can’t risk you killing our next lead.”

Aidan, a nearly three-thousand-year-old Celtic immortal, spoke up. “I could do it. But I’d have to spend time with Becca first to get her mannerisms down.”