Free Caught in Darkness by Rose Wulf Page A

is good to keep on hand, if you can catch
him unawares, but the best way to keep him away from you is me.”
    “You?”
    “Very few things can hurt or stall
a vampire,” Seth explained, “and they’re almost entirely physical. Without the
right tools you couldn’t win a fight against him.”
    Feeling slightly defeated, Veronica
slumped against the arm of the couch (which was behind her) and sighed. “I’m
going to feel guilty about taking up your time just to watch my back.”
    “Then we’re in luck,” Seth replied,
his eyes grinning at her. “I’m in town specifically to track down and detain a
group of traitors in the local Family—traitors that, as fate would have it, you
managed to identify. So if you happen to lead me to Richards or the Wilsons
then you’re actually helping me.”
    “Seriously?” Veronica asked before she could stop herself. And then, to make it worse, she
grinned and teased, “Do I get a cut of your pay for the work?”
    He chuckled and returned, “I did
pay for your lunch.”
    She released a breath, not really
having the energy to continue the teasing, and in the moment of silence that
passed another thought occurred to her. “If you’re looking for Richards…should
you be going back out? He might still be at my house.”
    The humor fled from Seth’s face at
her words, reality clearly returning to him as well. She could see the
hesitance in his eyes as he said, “Probably. But I would have to leave you
alone—are you all right with that?”
    It was her turn to hesitate at his
words. Obviously he was right, and she would feel horrendously guilty for
making him lose out on the possibility of capturing one of his targets for her
sake, but could she deal with being alone in the meantime? It was a good
question. Suck it up, Veronica. This is bigger than you. She could handle it,
even if it wasn’t her first choice, so she nodded. “I can handle it. Go, get
him and end all this.”
    Seth nodded, accepting her words,
and pushed to his feet. “You can stay here. You’ll be safe. And I’ll be back as
soon as I can.”
    “Okay,” she replied with a nod of
her own. She watched him start toward the door, walking past her in the
process, and had to curl her hands into fists just to keep from reaching out
for him anyway. Only she wasn’t about to stop him—she wanted to kiss him. She
didn’t care what he was or that it might be very strange to kiss a man with
fangs, she still wanted to kiss him. The urge had struck her earlier, and been
rather difficult to ignore for a long minute, but after he’d come running to
her rescue and opened up to her like he had she found herself more attracted to
him than ever.
    But she resisted, fists staying
firmly in her lap, and watched as he reached the door, only barely remembering
to give him her address. He nodded and stepped through, telling her to keep the
door locked until his return. Not that she needed to be told.
    The faint roar of the Corvette
backing out of the drive resonated in her ears until she couldn’t hear it at
all. And then she was alone, left to think about everything that had happened
and everything she’d just learned.
     
    She cringed at the sight of her
reflection in the bathroom mirror. After sitting on the couch for a while,
replaying their conversation over and over again in her mind, Veronica had decided
it was time to do a damage check. It hadn’t taken her too long to find a
bathroom, and in the meanwhile she’d allowed herself to note with a strange
type of amusement that he’d rented a place (or did he own it?) with a rather
small kitchen. Not that she supposed he needed one. And now she was wishing she
could do something about her bruises.
    There was a nasty, and rather
obvious, set of fingermark bruises on her neck from where Richards had choked
her. She was going to need a scarf and makeup to hide those, because there was
no arguing that they might be something other than what they were. Beneath
that, on the