Page 18 of Bonded By Blood
Garvin lowered the tray and inclined his head. “Normally it is, ma’am,” he said. “But you’d asked me to switch to tomorrow for this week.”
Right, I forgot. Brianna sipped at her drink to hide her embarrassed smile. “So I did,” she said after a moment. “You know the rule, Garvin.” She raised her glass a bit to indicate the drink within. “Now that you’ve donated, go rest up. Get some food in you.”
“Of course, ma’am,” he said. With a short, final bow, Garvin turned and made his exit through the door he’d come in from.
Brianna sipped at the blood some more and frowned. She felt guilty, having asked Garvin to switch his off-day. It would mess up the entire schedule for the following week. That was selfish of me. She’d have to go and check her employee’s schedules, see if she could work something out to get Garvin—and whoever he might have had to coordinate with—back on track. It wasn’t fair of her to request so much from him, even if he was her favorite.
****
“I hear you’re staying well-fed.” There was a faint layer of amusement in the other male’s voice that carried over the line.
Tobias leaned back against the wall, keeping his cellphone to his ear. “The menu around here is pretty good,” he said. “There’s plenty to share if you’re interested.”
The older man chuckled. “I am toying with the idea. But the timing’s not quite right.”
There was a beat of silence and Tobias frowned. “Then why the call?” He didn’t like being checked up on.
The amusement in the other man’s voice disappeared. “I thought I said to start slow. What’s slow about four bodies in one week?”
Tobias glared at the wall across from him, but he kept the irritation in his voice to a minimum. “The plan got a little messed up. They have Troy.” That damn idiot.
Another pause.
“They have Troy?” The question was obviously rhetorical. “How did you escape?”
“We weren’t together when it happened,” Tobias replied. “He got impulsive. I don’t know why. Hell, I don’t even know if he’s dead or not.”
“Probably not,” the other man said. “The First Family’s surely trying to beat every secret he’s ever been privy to out of him. They won’t kill him until they have you.”
Tobias dragged in a breath. He’d suspected as much. “Then you understand why I decided to up the ante.”
“Yes, yes,” the man on the other end of the line assured him. “But it doesn’t seem to have gotten you anywhere, does it?”
The question gave Tobias pause. He hadn’t expected to gain anything aside from the satisfaction of having pissed off the First Family, but put like that, the man had a point. “What’re you getting at?”
A darker, deadlier note slipped into the other man’s voice when he spoke again. “It’s time to step up your game, Tobias.”
****
Still nothing, huh? Joe clicked off the television with a sigh. He didn’t know what he’d expected. No more bodies had been found since the fourth, the day before, but that was hardly cause for relief. The media had dubbed Sacramento’s latest serial killer ‘The Mauler’ because of the mutilated way he left his victims. Joe assumed, though Brianna hadn’t confirmed, that the killer was Tobias Wilson. And from what he knew of Tobias Wilson, the nickname wasn’t especially inappropriate.
Not that it mattered what they called him. From everything Joe had heard two years previously, the vampire had been killing a lot longer than a week. The way he remembered the story, Whitney had been chasing him for at least a couple of years before she’d met Adam—before the fiasco that led to the scar on Joe’s neck. All of which meant Joe probably shouldn’t take a trip out to see his wolf friends for a little while. The last thing he wanted was to dredge up those bad memories and dump that kind of stress on a pregnant woman. Or Adam, for that matter.
As he sat back on his couch and lifted his phone to check his various accounts, it occurred to Joe he didn’t have a lot of human friends. Something which wasn’t typically a problem, until this strange circumstance where he found himself unexpectedly bored and without anyone to call up last-minute. It didn’t take him long to remember everything he didn’t care for on social media, but before he could settle on a replacement activity his doorbell rang.
Joe sat upright and turned his head in the direction of the foyer, which he could only barely make out from the living room. Who would drop in on a Saturday? His first thought, his hope, was that it was Brianna. They had plans to meet up again Sunday, but maybe she’d been bored, too? Doubtful. Even if she was, she probably had a dozen alternatives to driving all the way out to his house a day early. He glanced at the clock as he exited the room. Well, a night early. That made it stranger, though. It was nearly seven o’clock.
Who dropped by unannounced on a Saturday night?
It’s probably nothing. His house was a little out of the way, but it wasn’t like his driveway was gated. Maybe someone’s car had broken down nearby. Things like that did happen in real life. He shook his head at himself, tucked his phone in his pocket, and pulled the door halfway open.
A mix of instant regret and dread immediately flooded him as his gaze landed on an unfamiliar vampire standing on his doorstep. Shorter than him by several inches, with thick brown hair and a lean build, the facial resemblance to Troy Wilson was too obvious for this man to be anyone other than Tobias. Shit. What the hell was Tobias Wilson doing at his door?
He didn’t actually need to ask that question.
A dark smirk lifted the vampire’s lips. His fangs glinted in the twilight. “You’re the human who’s friends with those werewolves, aren’t you?”
Joe swallowed heavily. Was it better or worse that he was leading with that, and not with a question about his relationship with Brianna? In the end he doubted it mattered. He narrowed his eyes at the vampire. “I am. And I know who you are, too. What do you think you’ll gain by threatening me?”