I wondered about Loretta. I remembered the woman from the photograph Chaser had in his wallet and couldn’t picture the man he was now with a sweet-looking woman like her.

  “What was she like?”

  He tensed, but didn’t pull away. “You really want to know?”

  I couldn’t imagine what he’d felt when he saw Loretta die. I knew he was worried about the effect shooting Marini had on me, but it was different. The man was my father, but I never loved him—not since I was that innocent little girl whose mother tried to shield her from the brutal reality of her life. Besides, I’d come to terms with his betrayal a long time ago. What Chaser went through was different; he genuinely loved his wife.

  I didn’t know if I was being stupid or not, but I was still jealous of a woman who’d died a hundred years ago. At least a little bit. She still haunted his dreams.

  “I suppose I don’t.”

  “It’s not a competition, Sloane.”

  “Wherever there’s a roof, you seem to find it,” I said, ignoring his statement. “Why’s that?”

  “I like high places,” he replied with a shrug.

  “You can see the stars better up here at night.”

  Chaser glanced up to where the moon hung, a white wisp against the blue sky. “It’s a perspective thing.”

  “Perspective would be helping me prepare before heading into one of the many layers of Hell,” I quipped. “As much as I love our fighting and these deep, meaningful conversations you loathe so much, I need to be able to protect myself. I still don’t know the breadth of my abilities when I’m not a wolf, and I need to understand that part of me. What if we’re separated like we were on the train?”

  “It’s my job to protect you.”

  “Nuh-uh, it was your job. Now it’s our spiritual right to protect one another.”

  Chaser snorted, his lips quirking.

  “Besides, it’ll give us something to keep our minds off the avalanche of shit hurtling towards us.”

  “Well, when you say it like that…”

  He rose from the lawn chair and held out his hand. I grasped it, and he pulled me upright before kicking away the chairs.

  “We’ll be okay up here?” I asked, shielding my eyes from the sun.

  “No one can see much of anything,” Chaser replied, clearing away some of the ruined furniture. “I haven’t seen a single person come up here.” He pointed towards the main office. “I overheard the bloke at the desk saying the place is only at a quarter capacity. We’re good.”

  “You’re good at ‘overhearing.’” It helped he had supernatural abilities.

  “Surveillance,” he corrected. “We don’t want to draw too much unwanted attention.”

  “Brilliant,” I drawled. “I don’t want anyone seeing me get my arse kicked, so that’s perfect.”

  “With vampires, you only have a second to react,” he began. “A fight is about gaining control and dominating, even if it’s just about getting away and not—”

  “Killing?”

  “Yeah, that.” He pursed his lips before he continued, “Aim for the parts of the body where you can do the most damage while anticipating his or her moves.”

  “Sounds easy when you put it like that,” I said.

  “It takes a lot of practice. Whatever you do, don’t step any closer than you have to. Here,” he said, wrapping his fingers around my wrist. “When you go for the upper half of the body, use your hand. Your palm goes up to crack the nose, and the outer edge can strike the neck. Or a fist to the throat.” He pressed his fist under the curve of my ribcage, putting light pressure beneath my lungs. “With enough force, you can push the air out of your attacker’s lungs…even a vampire’s.”

  His pointers made sense. I thought about some of the situations I’d found myself in, and an image came back to me of the night I’d first met Chaser. I’d intended to pack up and leave rather than be dragged back to Fortitude, but unfortunately, the Hollow Men had found me first.

  “Do you remember that night at the Sailor’s Arms?” I asked. “When…” I gestured, my hands waving in the air. “You know…”

  “I know.”

  “How would I get out of that?”

  “Bent over with a knife at your throat?” He raised his eyebrows. “With a lot of trouble.”

  I glanced away. “So, I was screwed…”

  “Sometimes, you’ve got to take a hit to get out of a situation.”

  “You think I should’ve let him…” I choked and felt like giving him a black eye.

  “I’m talking about the knife.” He strode towards me and curled his hand around the back of my neck, then tugged me forwards. “Know where your veins are. This one…” he traced a line down what I supposed was my jugular, “you protect. You’ll bleed out in seconds if it gets cut. If you tilt your head the other way slightly, you just get a knick, but you gain ground on your attacker.”

  I nodded, swallowing hard. “Maybe we should…try something else.”

  Chaser’s eyes darkened, and I felt his free hand trail a line down my back.

  “How do you kill a vampire?”

  “A stake in the heart,” Chaser replied, letting me go. “Though anything wood will do. Bullets are most effective, as you already know.”

  “That’s the only way?”

  He nodded. “Everything else is temporary. A snapped neck heals. A vampire who’s bled out can be revived with blood. Drowning…”

  My gaze moved to the horizon, where smoke still smudged the blue. “What about fire?”

  Chaser shrugged. “That can kill us…if it’s to the point of incineration.”

  “A technicality.”

  “You can’t heal ashes.”

  I pushed away an unexpected image of Chaser burning. “What’s the fastest way to the heart?”

  “With a stake, underneath the ribcage and upwards.” He pressed his palm against my stomach. “Here…and here.” He pressed his fingers into my back, showing me. “Going through the chest is ill-advised. Too much bone in the way.”

  I rubbed the heel of my palm between my breasts. “The sternum.”

  “It’s a hard plate of bone, impossible to penetrate…unless you get lucky and hit between the ribs.”

  “A gun with wooden bullets is better?”

  “It is, but you can’t count on having one.”

  That’s why he was advising on escape manoeuvres. The best way to fight a vampire was not to fight one at all, but for us it was going to be an inevitability.

  “My werewolf abilities,” I said. “You’ve been around wolves for a century, so you know what I’m supposed to be able to do.”

  “You already do most of it,” he told me. “You just don’t believe in yourself.”

  “I believe enough.”

  Chaser snorted.

  “But—”

  “Sloane, you’re not bound by the moon. You’re strong always.”

  I sighed in frustration. “I know, but what does that mean?”

  He nodded towards the edge of the roof. “Jump and find out.”

  “What?” I blinked, not understanding what he meant.

  “Jump.”

  I looked over the edge of the roof and grimaced. He wanted me to jump down there?

  “What?” the vampire asked, rolling his eyes. “You afraid or something?”

  I jutted out my chin. “I’m not afraid. What if somebody sees?”

  “No one’s around.”

  “What if I fall?” I asked.

  He smirked and sauntered to the edge. “You’ll heal.”

  “Chaser.”

  “I’ll go first. If you fall, I’ll catch you.”

  I eyeballed him. “Promise?”

  “It would be anti-climactic if I let you die now.”

  Before I could answer, he leapt off the roof and landed at the bottom, making it look easy. He turned and spread his arms wide, waiting.

  I couldn’t believe I was entertaining this. Jumping off a roof seemed so… I couldn’t even say the word. Chaser seemed to think I could make it without breaking both ankles, but I wasn’t so sure.

  Courage, Sloane. You can do this. You turn into a wolf, for crying out loud.

  Taking a deep breath, I jumped.

  Air rushed past my face and I landed, my knees bending slightly as my boots connected with the asphalt. I’d expected a painful jarring to splinter through my legs, but I barely felt a whisper.

  Straightening, I looked at Chaser. He was leaning against the wall, smirking.

  “You didn’t even try to catch me!” I exclaimed.

  “Because I knew you’d make it.”

  “Arsehole!”

  His smirk turned into a grin. “Did you have fun?”

  My anger began to subside and my gaze moved to the roof above. Yeah, it had been fun.

  “You have the strength to do that and more…” he went on, “if you have faith in yourself.”

  “Like what?”

  “You can run faster and farther than you ever thought possible. You can jump higher than a man, heal almost any wound, see, hear, smell—”

  “But I’m not faster or stronger than a vampire.”

  Chaser’s smirk faded as he shook his head. “But you’re not easy prey, either.”

  “That’s why I want to learn to fight.” I stepped into the shade before my skin burnt. “To know where to strike.”

  “Hopefully you won’t have to strike at all.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but he shook his head. “C’mon,” Chaser said. “Let’s go inside.”

  The motel room was dark and slightly cooler than the furnace of the outside world. Taking off my sunglasses, I tossed them onto the table where they slid across the surface before coming to rest beside the revolver. I tensed, a strange melancholy coming over me.

  “You okay?” Chaser asked, closing the door and blocking out the last of the burning sunlight.

  “Yeah…just tired, I guess.” Picking up the revolver, I stroked my thumb over the mother-of-pearl. “Taking a life… It’s so final.”

  Chaser nodded, prying the gun from my grasp. “What we need to do to survive isn’t easy.”

  What was that thing Sam told me about Harley? He’d been a good man once. Well, as good as he was able to be under the circumstances. Fortitude changed him for the worse, tapping into his violent tendencies and amplifying them. What if the same thing was happening to me? This whole plan to take out my father, then King… What if I was headed down the same path? One kill had become two, and there would be more. How many people did I have to murder before I lost myself? Before I became Marini…

  “I don’t want… I don’t want to turn into Harley.” I glanced at Chaser, who narrowed his eyes.

  “You don’t want to turn into me?”

  “No, I didn’t mean… It was something Sam had told me before she left. This life turned him into a monster…”

  “She told me the same thing,” Chaser said. “Don’t worry, Sloane. I know what happened to me, and that’s why I push you to confront things. That’s why I’d prefer to take the gun out of your hands and take your place. I don’t want you to go through the things I have…especially not because of me.”

  “I know. I…” I glanced at the revolver. “It’s not who I killed. It’s the fact that I killed in the first place.”

  Chaser cupped my face and rubbed his thumb across my cheek. “I don’t want to say it’ll get easier because it won’t. Just…”

  “Just what?”

  “Just don’t do what I did. Don’t shut it out.”

  I nodded slightly, leaning into his palm.

  “Promise me.”

  “I can’t,” I whispered.

  Chaser’s intentions were noble, but I knew I was going to have to go to an even darker place before this was over. I just hoped to hell I wouldn’t lose my soul along the way.

  Chapter 5

  Chaser

  I squinted at the mobile phone screen, angling the map in different directions.

  The Halcyon Casino and Resort was the ultimate in luxury—a five-star hotel sitting above a bustling casino, home to theatres, restaurants, shopping, and high-class gambling.

  On the surface, it looked just like any other casino, which it was to the foot traffic that wandered in off the street, but I knew the vampiric vibe resonated the deeper into the building people went. I wondered if any of them came out again with their bodies and minds intact…if they came out at all.

  Sloane rolled over on the bed behind me and sighed. I felt the same way. All the talking over the past couple of days had left me emotionally exhausted. My humanity was more than intact, the frayed edges healed enough that the rush of feeling didn’t quite overwhelm me anymore—not unless I was unprepared for it.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, sitting beside me.

  “We need to get to work,” I replied. “We can’t wait for Gasket. It’s not realistic.”

  “Now who’s getting impatient.”

  “The pack could be dealing with the renegades for years,” I went on. “They could have joined a rival pack or be devising a strike on the compound. We can’t bank on their help with the Hollow Men. Besides, there are still things we can do while waiting for the heat to die down.”

  “I know,” Sloane said in agreement. “What do you have in mind?”

  “It’s been a long time since I was a part of the vampire world. Things would have changed. The best place to start is contacting some old friends from my Hollow Men days.”

  Her brow creased. “Is that smart?”

  “It’s a risk, but the Hollow Men know our faces. We can’t just walk into that casino and expect not to be picked up on the security feeds. They’ll have facial recognition, not to mention help from witches.”

  “What kind of help?”

  “Spells to detect intruders, wards to keep people in…and a thousand other things.”

  She sighed, realising our predicament. “So, we need another way in.”

  “I know a guy. It’s a long shot, but he might have some actionable information.”

  “A vampire?”

  “Yeah. I kept in touch with him for a while after Loretta died,” I explained. “I’d planned to go back in and finish King off, but other things got in the way. It’s been a long time, but I think it’s worth the risk. He wanted to see the Hollow Men dismantled as much as we do.”

  “Common enemy…” she mused. “Can you be certain he still feels the same way after a century?”

  I shrugged. “Time moves differently for vampires.”

  “I can’t even fathom a hundred years,” she said uncertainly. “I don’t like it.”

  “Like I said, it’s a long shot. The guy was flaky back then, and when he realised I wasn’t going to do anything about King, he split.”

  “So now that we’re on the hunt, he might want back in?”

  “Assuming he’s still around.”

  “Okay, so when are we going?”

  I glanced at her and narrowed my eyes. There was no way in hell I was putting Sloane in a vulnerable position. She didn’t need to be there, getting her face more known than it already was.

  “No,” I said. “You’ll stay here.”

  “What did I say about wrapping me in cotton wool?” she exclaimed. “I want to go. I need to be a part of this, Chaser.”

  “And I don’t need you to wave yourself underneath the noses of our enemy,” I replied, keeping a lid on my anger. “The same enemy who wants to sacrifice you for ultimate power.” I admired her strength, but there was this thing she had with letting it snowball into stubbornness. “Besides, I don’t trust him. There’s a chance he’ll pull a double cross the moment I show my face. Allegiances can be bought.”

  She hissed and leaned back in the chair, resting her foot in front of her. Hugging her knee, she eyed me warily. “I don’t like it.”

  “It’s a risk…”

  “A really big one. When are you going?”

  “Now,” I replied.

  “Now?”

  “If I want to catch him unawares, I need to make this a fast turnaround. The less chance he’s got to rat me out, the better.”

  Sloane sighed and her shoulders slumped.

  “We’ll only get one chance at this,” I murmured. “We’ve gotta do it right.”

  “I know. I’m just…worried about you.”

  I rested my forehead against hers and traced the curve of her lips with my thumb, studying the dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks, and breathed in her scent.

  “If you get into trouble, activate the talisman,” I told her. “I’ll pull the plug and come back.”

  She took my face in her hands. “It’s not me I’m worried about…”

  “This is what I do,” I murmured. “I’ll be fine.”

  It was a five-hour drive from Mallee to Melbourne.

  I was already missing the isolation of rural Victoria by the time I reached the city limits. The noise, the people, the smells… All of them I could do without. It was easier to deal with it all without humanity, but if I let it go again, everything I felt for Sloane would disappear.

  She’s safe, I thought. She’ll be fine until I get back.

  Monroe’s was a classic American diner that sat on the corner of a busy intersection in the south of the city, but it may as well have been in another world. Watching the building from across the street, I wasn’t surprised to find the place empty. Back in the day, it used to be bustling. There would be a row of motorcycles sitting out front, a brawl would spill out onto the footpath at least once a week—a brawl that was compelled out of the mind of law enforcement—and the bacon, eggs, and blood-laced cherry pie flowed like the information Monroe himself gathered for the highest bidder. Until the Hollow Men tightened the screws. That had a lot to do with me—back when I was a soldier under King’s thumb, unfortunately—but I wasn’t a remorseful kind of guy.

  Thirty minutes waiting in the sun was enough for me. I crossed the street and slinked down a laneway a few buildings down, then circled back towards the diner. Waiting by the bin wasn’t my idea of a good time, but Monroe would have to come out eventually.

  Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long. The back door opened, and the vampire stepped out, carrying a full garbage bag.