“I’m afraid so. Tell me, when did you call Ricky to meet you at the hospital?”

“When I realized that Maya wasn’t at her apartment.”

“No, I mean at what time? Check your cell phone log.” Something in Amaury’s voice compelled him to comply with the request without questioning.

“Hold on,” he told his friend and pulled the phone from his ear, pressed the menu button and navigated to the call-log screen. Next to Ricky’s name was the time. “I called him at 1:03 A.M, why?”

“What did he tell you when you called? About where he was?”

“He didn’t say. He only said he’d get there. What is this about?”

He heard Amaury exhale sharply. “Ricky was already at the hospital when you called him. He arrived before Maya.”

Gabriel’s heartbeat kicked up. “Shit. Ricky’s still on the list of vampires who don’t have an alibi for the night Maya was attacked.”

“I know. Zane just told me—and he also told me he now remembers that he had doubts about Ricky, but they somehow vanished.”

“Ricky’s gift!”

Amaury grunted. “He’s tricked us. You’d better not let Maya out of your sight right now.”

Gabriel’s body coiled with fear for his woman. “Amaury, I’m not with Maya. She’s at the house with Carl. I sent Yvette to protect her. We need to warn them about Ricky. I’ll call Maya and Carl, you call Yvette, then send every available bodyguard to the house. Send out a search for Ricky. Start at Paulette’s house in Midtown Terrace—if we’re lucky, he’s still there.”

He raced out of the lab without even glancing back at the witch and dialed Samson’s home phone. A recording answered. “You have reached a number that is out of service …”

Twenty-nine

Maya reached for the cordless phone next to the bed and punched the call button to get a line. Silence greeted her. She pulled the phone to her ear to verify, but her suspicion was right: the phone was dead. Ricky had disabled the line to the house.

She threw the useless receiver onto the bed and swiveled. Her eyes scanned the room in record speed—the vampire speed she was grateful for now. Her gaze zeroed in on her handbag. Two large strides and she was there, pulling her cell phone out of it with the next move. She held down the on button for a few seconds, her heart beating into her throat as she heard steps on the stairs.

He was coming for her.

Maya silently begged that her battery hadn’t run too low in the days she hadn’t used the phone and was relieved to see the screen coming on. Good. A few more seconds and the phone was fully booted. But she could only stare at it. This couldn’t be happening, not now, not when she needed to call for help! No Service, it read.

The sound of the door opening made her lift her head, and then she saw him. Ricky stood just inside the room, the door behind him sliding shut a moment later.

“I had your service disconnected,” he drawled, his Irish lilt a little more pronounced now. “No use wasting money when you won’t need to make any more phone calls where we’re going.”

Maya froze. Her mind worked frantically to assess her chances of getting past him and out of the house, but he was blocking the door effectively and short of her knocking him over, she would come up short. Her skin prickled uncomfortably now, and she realized it was the same feeling she’d had in the hospital and also that time when she’d met Ricky in the kitchen. At the time she’d written the feeling off to her illness, the approaching fever, but had she been well, she would have been able to connect the sense of danger in the air with Ricky.

It was too late now.

“I want you to leave,” she said as calmly as she could. “Yvette will be coming soon.” Despite the suspicion she had, she needed to stall him from whatever he was planning. Her suspicion was confirmed with his next words.

“I’m afraid Yvette’s a little tied up right now.” He chuckled at his own sick joke.

“Is she dead?”

“She will be, soon. But let’s not talk about other people. Let’s talk about us.”

Gabriel would be back soon. Despite the fact that she didn’t want to talk to Ricky, she knew she had to keep him talking, but not about herself. “What did you do to her?”

He ignored her question. “You liked me at first. I know you did. Did you know that I dumped my girlfriend for you? And what thanks did I get?”

“I’m sure I didn’t ask you to do that for me. I never go after men who’re in relationships.” And for sure she wouldn’t have gone after him—just looking at him made her skin prickle with revulsion.