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Dante turned onto a secluded road leading into dense woods He followed a set of tire tracks through the snow They led to a s from its chimney The ere dark

"Brrr!" I cried when I got out of the Jeep "If this Ivo doesn&039;t kill rinned "The great thing about Fairbanks is it doesn&039;t matter whether it&039;s twenty below or minus seventy It all feels the same: damn cold" Dante tapped out a rhythm once he reached the cabin door

A bolt slid back A young woman with heavy eyeliner opened the door She nodded for us to come in Dante slipped in with Tommy, and I followed close behind The woh

"Took you long enough," she said "Hopefully there&039;s still a party to go to"

Dante raised a brow "It&039;s two thirty - Ivo&039;s just getting started"

"Hi, Tommy" The women&039;s voice softened when she talked to the retriever She scratched him behind the ears

"Aurora Sky, meet Janine"

"Latest recruit?" Janine asked Dante

"Roger that"

"Is this her first tireat," he said

Janine walked over to a s on top As Janine turned up the flaas lamp, shadows stretched and leapt across the sparse room to the wood beams overhead

I hovered by the doorway aover to the wood stove Toround beside the hearth The backs of s started to prickle as I watched Dante pull knives out of his bag and set them on the tabletop I turned myself slowly, evenly, like a piece of corn on the cob rotating over the flames

The cabin was one open rooainst the wall near the fire covered in a patchwork quilt

"I thought you were going to wait until Renard was back in town and do one clean sweep," Janine said

"Nah, we&039;ll catch up to him next time"

"Who&039;s Renard?" I asked

"A real nasty," Janine said

"As bad as this Ivo character?"

"Worse"

"Worse than Ivo?" Dante asked in disbelief

"Even the junkies avoid hi the romanticized version of vampires here Surely they weren&039;t all rabid nut jobs and psycho killers? The Mouseketeers didn&039;t seeet you a weapon"

"Dagger," Janine suggested

"Perfect"

"Lift up your pant leg," Janine ordered

I pulled up the right leg ofholster around ers around the hilt and took it back out My stomach tied into knots when I held it in front of my face

"You&039;ll be fine," Dante said, slapping o party Tommy, stay"

I returned the knife back to its holster, covering it with

Janine sat in the front seat of the Jeep and navigated Dante to a house party on the edge of town The s on the house were all boarded up Only four cars lined the curb

Janine sounded uneasy when she spoke "I thought there&039;d be ht"

"Aurora, what&039;s your cell number?" Dante asked

I recited an to ring seconds later

Dante hung up "There, now you have o over this real quick Janine and I are going to make an appearance, but head out before the rest of Ivo&039;s guests leave For Janine&039;s safety, we don&039;t want any witnesses placing her as one of the last people at the party Sky, you&039;ll stay, pretend to get wasted, and take out Ivo Get him to take you somewhere secluded - shouldn&039;t be too difficult If you can take out Patrick, too, even better If not, have him bite you, and I&039;ll finish the job Call my cell when the junkies have cleared out"

Janine&039;s safety? He orried about Janine&039;s safety?

I leaned forward "So basically you&039;re going to abandon me here?"

Dante looked over his seat "It&039;s the best play, Sky No more white rooms You knohat to do Now lose the scarf unless you want to use it to mop up blood"

I unwrapped the scarf slowly and set it on the empty seat beside me A chill slid down my spine I shuddered involuntarily

"Remember," Dante said "I&039;m Peter and you&039;re Wendy It&039;s safer if they don&039;t know our real na, really Dante was like a boy who never grew up At least he wasn&039;t calling hio over too ith the undead crowd

I slipped out of the car as Dante grabbed a case of bottled beer out of the trunk and slung it under an arm He put his other arm around Janine She held a second case of beer in her free hand We walked to the front porch, and Dante pounded on the door

"Get the door!" someone yelled from inside

The door opened a crack, and a scrawny young man with a pierced nose, brow, and ears peered out His face muscles relaxed when he saw Janine "Oh, hey, Janine, come in"

"Hey, Thomas"

As Thomas held the door open for us I noticed raw bite marks on his wrist A wave of nausea rolled over me I tensed my jaw to quell it

The front door led into the living roo man sat on a torn-up couch He looked like skin and bone beneath his ratty T-shirt He was leaning against a slightly older roomed man didn&039;t pay attention to us as he licked a drop of blood from the corner of his lip

"Janine," Dante chided in a boo to be classy"

Nice way to call attention to us, Dante

The man narrowed his eyes "Who&039;s this?"

Janine sauntered in and plopped down on the other side of the couch "Patrick, Peter Peter, Patrick Peter&039;s visiting froe He&039;s a smart ass I mentioned him, remember?"

"And who is this fresh peach?"

I couldn&039;t locate the owner of the voice at first It was deep and far away, as though co from an overhead speaker

"His friend&039;s ex She just got duet out of town" Janine batted her lashes "Stay away from her, Ivo She&039;s new to all this"

"Fresh blood" Ivo laughed

I located hiht-blue button-down shirt A silver pendant with a Celtic symbol drew the eye to the dark wiry hair below his throat Stubble covered his chin and cheeks It was odd to assign an age to a vampire, but if Ivo were mortal, I&039;d place hie arirl with black cropped hair sat in his lap like a limp doll

My skin crawled

"Did we arrive late?" Dante asked, looking around "Jeanie told ged lazily and looked ht it was too cold Only the brave came out"

Dante pulled a cap off a beer bottle with his bare hand "Well, we didn&039;t drive all this way for nothing Beer anyone?"

The girl on Ivo&039;s lap stood "I&039;ll have one Thanks"

Dante handed her the beer and began opening another "Wendy?"

I kneas supposed to pretend to get drunk, but I wasn&039;t much of a beer drinker Heck, I wasn&039;te God, did I kno to have a good tier," Ivo said

I forced a smile "Yes, you read my mind"

He seemed to like that I said this

"Why don&039;t you come back with me to the kitchen?"

"Lead the way"

The kitchen was as gri roo in front of the fridge

"Wendy, Wendy, Wendy," Ivo said as he looked through a cabinet "What would my Wendy want? Ah" A bottle slid across the shelf like a claw over plywood Ivo pulled out a bottle of tequila and handed it tofrom the bottle I welco then held the bottle out to Ivo "You want a sip?"

His eyes glittered "Not yet"

I felt that odd pull of revulsion when he looked at ainst the counter "Poor little Wendy, lost her boyfriend"

Laughter trickled fro of tequila Quite the opposite, Ivo I had a boyfriend as really into me