“Of course not.” Darren sounded nervous as he moved farther into the shadows.
Zareb’s smile never reached his eyes. “I didn’t think so.” He looked at Cassie. “And why do you think you should come with us?” His expression gave away nothing.
She fixed her gaze on the middle of his chest. “If someone found Ethan’s home and attacked his friends, then who’s to say they don’t have a list of where all of you live? I don’t think Cat and I would do a great job of defending the old homestead.”
“I’m certain that Cat is a ferocious warrior.” Zareb’s lips tipped up in a brief smile.
Ethan relaxed a little.
“Besides, they killed my friend. I want . . .” She took a deep breath. “I need to be there to see that they’re punished.”
Zareb nodded. “I understand the hunger for vengeance.”
She corrected him. “Justice.”
He shrugged. “Call it what you will. You deserve to see them punished.”
“You’re letting her come?” Ethan narrowed his eyes. Amazing. His maker didn’t do crap like this. Stupid. Who took a human into battle anyway?
Zareb moved toward the door. “Yes.”
Ethan didn’t even try to explain away his need to protect her. “She’ll die.”
“It’s her choice.” Zareb’s expression said the decision was made.
Ethan glared as he watched his maker head for the door. “Do you still keep your weapons in the same place?”
Zareb paused. “Yes. You’re going to arm her? Excellent idea. I’ve learned that the least capable among us often perform extraordinary feats given the right incentives.” Then he left. The other vampires disappeared after him.
“And sometimes the ‘least capable’ have skills that could put your butt in the ground.” Her mumbled response was almost lost in the slamming of the door.
Ethan would have smiled, but he was too pissed to find anything funny right now. “You’d be a lot safer here.”
Her gaze challenged him. “I’ll be a lot ‘safer’ if I operate under the assumption that hiding isn’t an option until these animals are stopped. Because from what you’ve told me, they’re very good at finding people, and a false sense of security could kill me.”
Cassie was wrong. She hadn’t seen what they’d be facing.
He reached for another argument. “What do you fear the most, Cassie?” Whatever it was, he’d use it to convince her to stay away from Eternal Rest.
“Having to cook dinner for my whole family? World’s worst cook here.” Her smile was small and tight, but at least it reached her eyes.
“Right. Won’t have to cook Garrity dinner.” He searched his mind for a clue to her real fears.
Then he remembered her words when she’d seen the bodies of his neighbors: “I’ve been afraid of the dead all my life.”
“Death. You’re afraid to die.” He knew he sounded triumphant. “If you go with us, there’s a good chance it could happen.”
She ignored him.
Frustrated, he watched her pull on a borrowed jacket. If she was determined to go, he’d have to give her a weapon, for all the good it would do. Ethan turned to head down the hallway. He pulled open the door to the smallest bedroom, strode to the walk-in closet, and took the key from the hook beside the door.
“Wait.” Her voice was right behind him. “Did you just get that key off the wall? I didn’t see a key there.”
“You weren’t supposed to see it. A cloaking spell. Zareb wears many hats. Sorcerer is one of them.” He hoped he sounded as angry as he felt.
He could sense her rolling this latest bit of weirdness around in her mind. He yanked open the door and turned on the closet light.
“Wow.” Her hushed exclamation said it all.
“Wow, indeed.” He stepped inside the huge walk-in closet and studied the hundreds of weapons lining its walls. “Can you shoot a gun?” As he spoke he lifted a small handgun from the wall.
“Yes.” She reached past him and chose a different one.
He frowned. “Why not the one I picked?”
“I’ve practiced with this one.”
He watched as she chose ammunition and deftly loaded the gun. She shoved it into her purse.
Ethan studied her. “You’re different from when I first met you.”
She didn’t answer, just lifted a knife from the wall, chose a sheath, and strapped it to her thigh.
“That’s a big-ass knife.”
“That’s why I like it.” She started to turn away.
“This is the real you, isn’t it? So who was that person back in the funeral home?”
Her eyes looked flat, expressionless. “I killed the binder, didn’t I? Oh, and I still don’t know what a binder is.”
“You got lucky. Who taught you how to use a gun and knife?”
“My grandfather.”
He picked up on the slight hesitation before she said “grandfather.”
Ethan had a gut feeling. “Does your grandfather have anything to do with your fear of death?” Maybe she’d seen him die. That could be traumatic for a kid.
He needed to know, and he was prepared to stand here until she told him. Ethan didn’t have a clue why knowing was so important to him. This whole not-having-a-clue thing was getting old fast.
She met his gaze, and for a moment he thought she’d refuse to explain. But then she sighed and looked past him. “I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of dead bodies.”
“Why?”
Cassie hesitated, and he could almost hear her inner battle.
“I’d like to know.” He tried to soften his voice, but he hadn’t done soft in a lot of years. His “soft” probably sounded like an angry growl.
He told himself that she knew his secrets so it was only fair that he know hers. But that wasn’t the reason at all.
“My grandparents lived on a farm. Once a year my parents would leave me with them for a week. I loved the animals and all that space to play. My grandmother spoiled me the whole time I was there. My grandfather was a scary man once my parents had gone, though. He never touched me, but I saw how he treated his animals, how he treated Grandma. Even though she was afraid of him, she begged me not to tell my parents, because if he got mad he’d have one of his ‘spells.’ She swore he was a good man, just crotchety in his old age. I was young, so I believed her.” She still wouldn’t look at him. “When I was ten years old, my grandmother died. She’d been sick, and one afternoon my grandfather came in from working in the fields to find her dead in her bed. He told me to go into the room and say my last good-byes to her. I was frightened. I refused.”
Ethan watched her raise a shaking hand to push back a strand of hair.
“He’d always been about staying strong and controlling situations. When his dogs didn’t obey him, he tied them to a tree. When Grandma didn’t obey him . . .” She shook her head. “I don’t really know because she never told me, but I suspect it must’ve been bad for her to fear him that much. He’d taught me to hunt, to know my way around most weapons by the time I was eight. He saw my refusal to go into that room as weakness. His cure was to chain me to my grandmother’s bed, close the bedroom door, and leave me alone with her corpse for two days.”
Ethan couldn’t believe his explosion of fury. He hoped the man was still alive so he could kill him. The Second One murmured its approval.
“He released me on the third day. The first thing I did was to run all the way to the next farm and call my parents. They came and took me away. I never saw the old man again. I refused to talk about him, but a few months later Mom told me that he’d been committed and that he would never hurt me again.” She laughed softly. “It was too late, though. That particular horse had already left the barn.” Cassie finally looked directly at him. “But after what happened in the funeral home, after what they did to Felicity, you can count on me to do my part tonight.”
“Is he still alive?”
“No.” Then she walked away. “Let’s get going before your maker sends someone to see what’s keeping you.” She didn’t glance back as she walked into the living room. She stopped at the door. “Did you feed the cat?”
He almost smiled. Almost. Such an ordinary question in the midst of extraordinary events. “Yes. And Zareb took care of the litter box.” Something he’d never thought to see his maker doing. He would’ve taken a picture and loaded it onto YouTube if he hadn’t thought that Zareb would kill him.
Ethan had stopped to pull a hoodie from the closet. His change was almost complete. From this moment until the Second One retreated, Cassie couldn’t see his face. He pulled the hood far enough forward so he was hidden in shadow. On the way out, he picked up his sunglasses.
She frowned. “The Second One?”
He nodded.
Then they left. Cassie didn’t say anything until they were in her car. “No one waited for us.”