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  Relief swept over her knowing that the other victims would be safe.

  “She, um,” Caroline blinked and realized that three pairs of very intent, very not human eyes were staring at her. Darien’s were still full vampire, and Greg’s glowed golden. Point’s were somehow more terrifying, though also the most human, grey with green and brown flecks that somehow managed to make her feel like she’d really let him down. It was the most effective disappointed parent stare she’d gotten in a long time.

  This was going to be a long evening.

  14

  “Thank you thank you thank you!” Shelly said. She was currently wrapped around Caroline in a crushing hug in the doorway of the hospital room where Janine was recovering. Darien hovered close behind her in the hallway.

  None of the victims were in bad shape, thankfully. Their captors wanted to keep the ‘merchandise’ salable, apparently, so while they hadn’t had lavish meals or luxurious accommodations they had been treated with relative decency. Two captives to a small cell in a remodeled barn, with beds and, according to the reports, boring and uninspired but otherwise adequate meals.

  Still, it seemed that several of the first victims had lost some weight and they were all under observation for a few more days just in case.

  “You’re more than welcome,” Caroline patted Shelly’s back and smiled. “Hey, mind if we come in for a minute?”

  “Oh man, of course! Janine? This is the girl I was telling you about, Caroline?” Shelly pulled Caroline into the room, and Darien fallowed behind her, grinning.

  “I know who Caroline is, Shel. I’m in the same classes with her as you are, remember?” Janine said. Caroline could hear the amusement and the affection in her voice as she answered, even though she was rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

  “How are you feeling, Janine?” Caroline asked.

  “Better now that I’m out of that barn. I’m behind on my classes, now, though!” She grimaced at the idea.

  “Well, you’ll be pleased to know that the professors of the kidnapped students have agreed to a modified grade criteria for you. You’ll have an extra paper to write to summarize the material you missed, but you won’t be responsible for any of the work. Assuming you want to finish the semester, that is. You also have the option of taking the rest of this semester off and starting over in the spring if you need to. Nobody expects you to wave off the trauma of being kidnapped and almost sold at auction,” Darien said.

  Janine shook her head. “I have a lot of catching up to do. I know I only missed a little over two weeks, but that’s not too much. If it had been a full month, over all my classes? Well… then I would consider retaking them. Still, it will be a lot of work.”

  “I’ll help, Jen, you know I will,” Shelly bounced into the chair next to the bed. It was so good to see her smiling again that Caroline couldn’t stop smiling herself. She felt Darien slide along the wall behind her to the other chair and heard it scrape against the floor.

  “Here,” he murmured as he nudged it into place beside Shelly. Caroline huffed softly to herself and sat.

  “So we just wanted to let you know that your statement should be enough. The ringleader of this little criminal enterprise had more than enough damning evidence on his computer to take him down for the rest of his natural life,” Darien said. He had taken up a position right behind Caroline and while it probably looked relaxed and friendly, she knew that he was in full bodyguard mode.

  That was the other side of the fallout from all this. Caroline had to move into Darien’s apartment until the blood bond wore off a bit, or risk having him stand guard outside her dorm room door. His family hadn’t been able to explain why this time the bond was so much stronger. Couples who partook in vampire bites described the bond as intense, certainly, but no vampire that Darien or his family knew ever mentioned it gaining in strength, but then most of them avoided it entirely so they had no experience to draw from.

  The best guess anyone had was that last time most of the energy gained from the blood had gone to healing Darien’s wounds, and this time there was no such outlet. Either way, it became clear even before they left the scene the other night that Darien was going a little overboard in indulging his protective instincts. Eventually Point and Ollie had to take him aside while Greg stood guard over her in order have a conversation with the vampire about appropriate behavior and the need to bring his human face back to the foreground before they left the scene.

  “I’m glad I don’t have to go through it too much,” Janine said. Her shoulders slumped and a slight shiver ran over her frame. Shelly reached over and took her friend’s hand.

  “I know how scary that was,” Caroline said. “Believe me, I am fully aware of how scary it is to get kidnapped. But your statement is helping to put some really terrible people away for a very long time, and because Shelly came to me we not only stopped this human trafficking ring, but we also dug out a whole department of dirty cops,” Caroline said. “Stonehaven is going to be a lot safer now, thanks to you two.”

  “That’s so crazy, that the police were working with these guys!” Shelly said, the outrage in her voice clear for anyone to hear.

  Caroline and Darien stuck around for a little while longer, chatting with the girls. It was clear how much more relaxed and happy they were, now that they were reunited. Janine’s family seemed thrilled that the girls were together as well, content to let Shelly come and go from Janine’s room whenever she wanted. It was nice to see a happy ending for a change.

  Lucas’cousin— well not his cousin it turned out. The girl he had been looking for— was doing well also. Her parents and little brother were staying nearby and it seemed that she was working to convince them not to pack all her things in a panic and take her home with them when she got released. Caroline tried to call Lucas, again, but the number had been going straight to voice mail since the night of the raid.

  “On the one hand, I want to track the guy down so I can thank him,” Darien said in the car after they finished their visits to the half-dozen victims. “On the other hand, I’d love to know exactly who he is. I don’t trust him. If he’s innocent of anything serious, why did he vanish into the void after he called Greg? Shakes dug into the guy a bit and all he found was a squeaky clean historical romance writer.”

  “I think Lucas lives on the edge of legal, D. He probably just doesn’t want to get arrested for doing something fully on the side of justice,” Caroline said. She knew how Darien felt, though. She definitely wanted to thank Lucas. Without his help she and Darien might very well be dead, and the rest of the victims would’ve been sold off to the highest bidder. They also found several emails from a man looking for specific traits in a ‘fertile human female’ that were no doubt what had disturbed Lucas when he was rifling through Elm’s computer.

  On the other hand, his skeleton handcuff key turned out to be enchanted specifically to be widely useable in a variety of restraints, and as such was wildly illegal. Caroline now carried it on her own keychain and Point pretended that he thought it was in the evidence vault. Shakes had been very interested in finding out how Lucas bypassed all the digital security so fast, since apparently it was actually more robust than their physical security precautions. It left the FPAA tech both intrigued and disconcerted by the missing man’s abilities.

  Still, she couldn’t help but think that if he was a thief or other sort of criminal, it was mostly in a Robin Hood sort of way. Maybe he didn’t give the proceeds of his activities to the poor, but he seemed like the sort of guy that would be a crook who preyed on criminals far worse than himself. It was vigilante justice of a kind, but she had a hard time arguing that he should be punished for it. Either way, Lucas was definitely not a man to adhere strictly to what was entirely legal.

  “I’m hungry,” Darien interrupted her train of thought as they made their way out of the hospital and into the bright, early October sunshine. “What do you say we call Greg and get some dinner?”

 
“Going to pay nice with the big, bad kitty?” Caroline teased. Darien had been caught growling at Greg more than once in the last couple of days when the man got a little too rambunctious in his goofing off around Caroline.

  Darian grimaced. “You know I can’t help it,” he sighed. “I got onto a private chat with some other vampires who do feed from their spouses. They all agreed that this was pretty normal, and they said that make sure to schedule a long weekend alone for the worst of it to wear off.”

  “Well, with all the paperwork and interviews involved with cleaning this mess up, that’s less of an option for us,” Caroline said. “But I promise not to get kidnapped again for at least a week. How’s that sound?”

  Darien growled and blocked her in, between himself and the car door. “You’d better not get yourself kidnapped again at all, even after the blood bond wears off. Are we clear?”

  Caroline laughed. “I suppose I can at least try. Best offer.”

  Darien stared at her for a long moment, his eyes narrow and searching. Finally his head dropped back onto his shoulders in defeat. “You’re going to be so much trouble, aren’t you?” He stepped back and made his way around to the driver’s side of the car.

  “Honestly,” Caroline laughed as she opened her own door. “You seem smart enough to have figured that out a while ago.”

  Acknowledgments

  My thanks, as usual, to Stuart and Margaret, my tireless Opinion People. Without you two pointing out my all the little dumb, awkward, or almost clever things in my writing, I’d be a real mess! I’d also like to thank Curtis for his support and clever ideas. And, of course, my friends and family, who help keep me sane and sometimes even bring me coffee. They’re cool that way. Much appreciated, all!

  About the Author

  Katherine Kim is a lifelong lover of fantasy. She started early, being read Tolkien as bedtime stories, which honestly explains a lot. More recently she’s been drawn to more urban fantasy stories through both books and television, and reading continues to be a passion. She is an American that lives and writes in Tokyo, with her family.

  If you liked this book, I hope that you’ll leave me a review! I read every review and it makes a huge difference to me and to my work. You can also join my newsletter for news, announcements, and snippets of my life in Tokyo!

  Books by Katherine Kim

  The Demon Guardian

  A Demon’s Duty

  A Demon’s Sanction

  A Demon Saved

  The Riverton Demons

  Personal Demons

  Spirits of Los Gatos

  Sarah’s Inheritance

  A Spirit’s Kindred

  Finding Insight

  Brewing Trouble

  Spiritkind

  Federal Paranormal Activities Agency

  Quick Study (Prequel)

  Caroline’s Internship

  In The Blood