Tempted in the Night by Robin T. Popp Read Free Book Online Page B

looked to where she pointed and saw a second body. He went over to it and knew just by looking that the man was dead. Still, he checked for a pulse. "Nothing."
    "They'll have to be staked," she said, sounding all business.
    He stared up at her in disbelief. "These men just died here. Do you mind?"
    She narrowed her eyes. "You think I'm insensitive? Well, I'm sorry that they died, but frankly, I'm more interested in making sure that no one else dies because we didn't do what needed to be done." She walked over to one of the chairs, picked it up and smashed it against the doorframe, causing parts of it to break off. Selecting two of the longer leg segments, she carried them over to where John crouched beside the body.
    Kneeling across from him, she stared at the body. "You might not want to watch this."
    He reached for her arm as she lifted it and took the chair leg from her. "I'll do it. In the heart, right?" Staring down at the body, he couldn't remember ever looking forward to anything less than what he was about to do.
    "I don't mind doing it," she offered, now sounding sympathetic.
    "No."
    "Okay," she conceded, reaching for the man's shirt. "It'll be easier if you don't have to go through the cloth as well," she explained, undoing the buttons and pulling back the left side. "Wait. What's that?" A bloodied piece of wood protruded out of the man's chest directly over where the heart would be. "Who would have done that?"
    Jessica got up and went back to Franklin Brody's body, quickly undoing the shirt and pulling it back. "This one's been staked as well."
    "We should get out of here," he said, taking her hand and leading her to the front door, where he paused long enough to look outside. Seeing nothing suspicious, he led her to the car and opened the door while she climbed inside. "I'm going to take a quick look around the grounds," he told her. "Lock the doors and please, this time, don't get out."
    He slammed the door shut before she could protest and walked off, not bothering to see if she obeyed him.
    Around the side of the building, everything looked normal, so he continued toward the back. He'd just turned the corner when the hairs on the back of his neck started to prickle. The shadows were thick, and John didn't see the figure until it stepped out into the open.
    "You! What are you doing here?"
    "I came to finish the job that you interrupted the other night," the man from
Thompson
Park
said conversationally.
    "You mean, stake Simon Brody before he turns into a vampire?"
    "So, you figured it out." He sounded like a teacher pleased with a favorite pupil.
    "What? That you're a vampire?" John made it sound like an accusation. "Did you think I wouldn't?"
    "I was beginning to wonder." The man smiled, revealing the tips of his white fangs.
    John grimaced at the implied insult, trying to ignore how surreal it felt to be carrying on a conversation with a real vampire. "What now? You try to kill me?"
    "Try?" There was a rumble of laughter. "No. I have no interest in killing you."
    John didn't know if he believed that. "Did you kill Franklin Brody and the other man?"
    "No. They were dead when I arrived."
    A new thought occurred to John. "But you staked them, didn't you?" The vampire didn't have to answer for him to know the truth. "You did. In fact, you've been staking all of them, haven't you? All the other criminals you killed. That's why they never became vampires."
    John knew it was true. Someone had to have been doing it because he'd stopped calling Mac and Dirk, who had presumably done it before. The vampire, he noticed, didn't try to deny it. Then, belatedly, something the vampire said registered. "How did you know Brody was here? It wasn't public knowledge."
    "I went to the morgue earlier tonight and discovered that the body wasn't there." The vampire shrugged his shoulders in a very human gesture. "The Brodys have been burying their dead in this cemetery for almost a century—it seemed like the next logical place to