LITMIR.BIZ

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she said. “And you’re a cop?”

      “Yeah, I’m a cop,” he said. She studied him as if he’d done something wrong, or as if his being a vampire was anathema to her. He felt his temper rising. “Yes, I am a vampire,” he said angrily. “I’m the vampire who just saved your ass.” He was shaken. He didn’t usually strike out because a panicked victim fought him.

      But…

      He’d seen her in his vision. Seen her with a ribbon of blood coming from her throat…

      At a wedding.

      Their wedding.

      That was certainly never going to happen.

      “Saved me?” she exclaimed. “Vampire idiot. You ruined everything.”

       Chapter 1

      “Seriously,” Sailor Gryffald said, “what were you thinking, Alessande?” Sailor continued to pace while Alessande sat.

      After a stop at the police station, Brodie and Mark had dropped Alessande off with Sailor and had gone straight to Pandora’s Box, since Brodie had been anxious to see Rhiannon, the canyon’s vampire Keeper—and his fiancée. Alessande was glad to be alone with Sailor and free to talk.

      Sailor continued, “Those monsters were about to sacrifice you. Believe me, you helped save my life, so I know how competent you are, but no one knows what kind of evil you were really up against, if I understand what you’re saying correctly.”

      Alessande winced. She really shouldn’t have been so angry with that vampire cop—after all, he had been trying to save her. But, in her own opinion, she had been prepared. Ready. And she was suspicious of vampires and…

      No, she shouldn’t have snapped at him.

      “I had to be taken captive,” Alessande explained wearily. “It was the only way for me to get in there and find out what’s going on, who’s behind the cult and the deaths.” There was more to her logic—and her desperation to get at the truth—but at this moment she wasn’t ready to completely explain herself, not even to Sailor Ann Gryffald.

      “But…you’re Elven,” Sailor said sternly. In the world of the Others, Sailor was the Keeper of the Elven community in the L.A. Valley. “You’re an ancient!”

      No one liked to be reminded of her age, Alessande thought, arching a brow at Sailor.

      “Sorry,” Sailor said. She and her two Gryffald cousins—Rhiannon and Barrie—were new to the Keeper job, but all three had already been tested under fire. Alessande knew that because she’d been involved with helping Sailor find her way.

      They’d met when Alessande had carried Sailor into her home after Sailor had been attacked during the recent so-called Celebrity Virus plague.

      “Seriously,” Sailor went on. I can’t tell you how proud I am of so many in the Elven community, but we’re not considered the…the toughest of the Others. Alessande, you create potions, you’re a healer. You live alone… . You’re practically a hermit.”

      “Gee, thanks,” Alessande said.

      “I’m not trying to offend you, and you know it. You brew the best tea in the country—maybe in the world. You’re like a beacon of caring and wisdom. But you’re gentle. And you could have been up against were-creatures, vampires and God knows what else—not to mention very vicious human beings. How did you intend to save yourself in that situation?” Sailor demanded.

      “I was going to teleport,” Alessande said, indignantly.

      “You can’t teleport when you’re unconscious,” Sailor argued.

      Alessande shook her head, desperately wanting to deny the seriousness of the situation, but the truth was she knew she might have gotten herself into trouble—serious trouble—and she should be grateful to the cops who had come to her rescue. She had just gotten it into her head lately that she had to be more proactive in protecting all Others—along with the human race. And that, of course, was because of Regina, because she’d been forced to see firsthand once again what could happen to the young and innocent—especially the young and innocent among the Elven.

      Like the rest of the world, L.A. was filled with all manner of creatures most of humanity knew about only because of legend—and movies. Creatures that most humans didn’t even believe in. Keepers—like the Gryffald cousins—were human beings, but…more. They had special powers aligned with those of the particular paranormal race they were tasked with protecting, and were generally born into longtime Keeper families. They bore special identifying birthmarks. It was as if their role had been predetermined by a divine power.

      There were areas in the world where the Other races seldom desired to live…too hard to blend in, not enough for them to do.

      L.A., however, was a haven for Others. Because it was a movie town, monsters and strange creatures abounded on-screen and, frankly, offscreen, given how many…unique individuals tended to migrate there. As a place to “hide in plain sight,” nothing filled the bill like Hollywood. That meant that the area was densely populated by Others, so there had to be a commensurately large number of Keepers.

      Elven, like Alessande, were fairly recent arrivals in the New World; they were creatures of the earth. Ocean voyages—that much time away from trees, from the rich soil—would have killed them. Alessande had only left the Old World herself when transatlantic flight started to become commonplace.

      She was an ancient, one hundred six years old, though she knew she appeared—in the human world—to be about thirty. She’d seen a great deal of the wickedness the world had to offer—wickedness dealt out by both human beings and Others.

      Despite everything she’d encountered, everything she had lived through, she had chosen to heal, to advise.

      But, damn it, she was an ancient! She should have been able to overcome whatever drug had been given to her.

      She’d been aware of everything as it had been going on, and to some degree she had been able to fight the drug, though she had feigned complete passivity.

      But…they had drugged her, and it had definitely affected her. Would she have been able to escape at the last second?

      Now she was at the Gryffald family estate, a small collection of historic homes on a nice little hill in Laurel Canyon, collectively named the House of the Rising Sun. Sailor’s home was the main residence, and it was called Castle House, while on either side were the guesthouses: Gwydion’s Cave, where Barrie lived, and Pandora’s Box, where Rhiannon made her home. When their fathers, Keepers all, had been called away on international business, the cousins—Sailor, Rhiannon and Barrie—had been thrown into a game that was ages old, though mostly new to them, since they hadn’t expected to take their places as Keepers for years to come, yet the land had been deemed for Keepers for decades. The property had originally belonged to a magician billed as “Merlin,” real name Ivan Schwartz, who had been helped by the Gryffald cousins’ grandfather. Schwartz had added the guesthouses to his estate so that the Keepers could live on his property if they chose. Before he died, Ivan had sold the estate to the Gryffald family for such a pittance that for all intents and purposes it had actually been a gift.

      Of course, it came with a catch. Merlin was still around, haunting whichever house he chose. He was a very polite ghost, often extremely helpful, and totally respectful of the inhabitants’ privacy, so in actuality he was a perfect tenant.

      At the moment, though, Alessande was glad he wasn’t haunting Castle House.

      Keepers had watched over various communities of Others at least since the ancient days, before accepted magic had ended and the world had become a place where the unusual was feared and anyone different, even if they were human, was considered an enemy to be burned at the stake or otherwise destroyed. Because the cousins’ fathers had been considered some of the wisest and most effective Keepers in the world, they had been called up

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