He should go.
Over on the wall, there was a plain clock, with a white face and black numbers. The little and the big hands were black, the second hand was thin as a line and red as blood as it raced around. He watched the measure of time do its work and told himself he really did need to take off.
But God, it was going to be hard to leave her. Now… or at any time.
* * *
In the kitchen at Erika’s townhouse, Balz came in from the garage. He’d gone through all the rooms and found nothing, but a pervasive sense of unease made him wonder whether they should stay at her place or try to find something that was a better defensible position. Then again, the threat he was most worried about was metaphysical, so like any zip code, set of walls, or even fucking bunker was going to make a difference?
The good news was he wasn’t tired. At. All.
“There’s nothing here,” she said softly.
“Not that I can tell,” he said as he glanced at her.
She’d pulled on a pair of jeans and shoved her feet into some boots. Her hair was tied back as well. Meanwhile, he was still in a towel and barefoot—but he could dematerialize out if he had to. Not that he would leave her.
“You have the keys to the Honda,” he said, even though he already knew the answer.
“Yes.”
He had a brief idea that he could bunk her in at the Black Dagger Brotherhood mansion. He wasn’t using his bedroom, for fuck’s sake. But how would that work? They drive there and he’d just throw her out the car door and tell her to ask for Fritz to take her upstairs to his crib?
Besides, he had no idea what he was picking up on. He felt as though there were a thousand of some enemy outside the townhouse, but—
The subtle noise was so soft, it was almost impossible to hear over the aggression roaring in his ears, in his blood, in his body. When it repeated, though, it gave him something to track, and he turned around and looked through into the living room. He had to wait an interval before it recurred, and this time, he went over to where Erika’s purse was.
“I think it’s your phone,” he said gruffly. “On vibrate.”
Erika hustled past him and glanced around before putting her weapon down on the coffee table. “I don’t have mine on silent, though.”
Opening the bag, she went in with her hands, taking out a practical brown wallet, a packet of Kleenex, a roll of Certs. A notepad. Couple of pens. Receipts. Lipstick. And was that—
“Is that a parking ticket?” he asked.
“I had no choice. I had to get some coffee.”
“Isn’t there a professional courtesy thing?”
“No, and there shouldn’t be. If you park wrong, you should get ticketed.”
As more crap emerged out of the purse, he decided it was like a clown car for debris, and in spite of his on-alert routine, he found the mess endearing. She was so damned put together, her house so neat, her opinions so direct, her professionalism so obvious, the idea that there was some chaos under the facade made him feel like he didn’t have to be so perfect.
And good job on that, as he was far from an A+ on anyone’s grading scale.
“No, it’s not mine.” She held up an iPhone. “And I only have one—oh, wait.”
She seemed to unzip something. And then she took out a Samsung phone he recognized.
As it vibrated in her hand, she frowned. “I don’t know whose this—”
“It’s mine.” So V knew where he was. Then again, was it really that hard to guess Balz wouldn’t leave her? “That’s my phone.”
“How did it get in my purse?”
She turned the thing over to him—and the second he went in and read the text, he was glad he’d taken all those guns from the garage with them.
“What is it?” she asked.
“We need to stay here.” Shelter in place… which was V’s formal way of saying hang-wherever-the-fuck-you-were. “And I have to find out what’s going on—is there somewhere you can lock yourself in? A bathroom with no windows?”
Although like that was really going to help if there were shadows popping up all over Caldwell, particularly around vampires?
Erika stepped right up into his face. “You’ve got the wrong woman if you think I’m going to damsel-in-distress in some tub while you stomp around and get shot in the back because you’re undefended.”
Balz blinked. And then one and only one thing went through his mind.
Do not tell her you love her right now.
Even though it was his God’s honest truth—