As they fought, trading blows, kicks, and hits, Cain frantically looked for any weapons he could use to subdue his opponent without killing him. He had a stake in his jacket pocket, but he wasn’t going to use it. Zane’s order had been to take the crazy vampires they’d been hunting alive. If they could capture one alive, they would have a chance of figuring out what was going on.

With his next blow, the rogue vampire swiped Cain’s neck with his claws. Blood ran from the stinging cuts.

Fury charged through him, and he pushed back, pulling up his knee and driving it into the guy’s nuts. As his torso folded over, Cain kicked upwards once more, sending him against the cabinet behind him, making the supplies on it rattle and the items stacked in the shelves fall out.

Cain pinned him against the shelving unit, his arm across his opponent’s neck. “Gotcha!”

The rogue’s eyes danced first to the left then to the right, his arms reaching out. “No you don’t!”

When his attacker’s arm pulled forward, Cain saw him holding a piece of wood.

“Shit!”

Releasing the guy’s neck, Cain reached into his pocket in the same instant as he made a half-turn getting out of the way of the swinging arm that held the makeshift stake. Palming his own stake now, he completed the turn and slammed it into the guy’s chest.

Noise behind him made him turn on his heels, while his opponent disintegrated into dust. He raised his stake, ready to attack whoever had entered, when he sighed in relief.

“Thomas,” he breathed. “About time!”

Next to Thomas, Eddie popped his head into the room. “Sorry, there was an accident involving a bus on Mission. We got stuck,” Eddie explained.

“I had no choice,” Cain said, looking back at the place where the vampire’s dust now settled on the floor. “I guess there goes another chance at finding out what’s going on.” He’d failed, and he didn’t like failure.

“Don’t worry.” Thomas motioned his head to the room where the dead girl lay massacred. “He deserved it. Besides, Zane and Amaury got a live one.”

Cain let out a sigh of relief.

“Clean up time,” Eddie suggested.

Cain squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “She must have suffered terribly.” When he looked up at his two colleagues, they answered his look with sad gazes of their own.

“He’ll burn in hell for it,” Thomas claimed.

Cain shook his head. “He’s free now. I should have let him live to show him what hell really is.” Because hell wasn’t on some other plane. It was right in this world.

***

Cain left the cleanup to Thomas and the other vampires who’d arrived shortly after him, and transported the prisoner that Zane and Amaury had taken back to Scanguards’ Headquarters in the Mission. While Zane and Amaury took the still-struggling vampire to one of the holding cells in the basement, Cain headed for the V lounge, a large room only accessible to vampires via their specially-coded ID cards.

He needed a distraction from what he’d seen tonight, and he knew the lounge would provide it.

As he entered, the calming atmosphere of the room instantly eased away the tension of the night. The lounge felt like an old gentlemen’s club with comfortable seating arrangements, a fireplace and a bar with blood on tap.

This was where vampires rested between assignments, caught up with their colleagues, or enjoyed a quick snack. Visiting vampires who weren’t part of Scanguards were also entertained here, but tonight Cain saw only colleagues. No visitors were present. He nodded to several of the vampires as he walked up to the bar and leaned against the counter. The woman behind it smiled at him.

He let his eyes travel over her black dress which hid none of her curves. His mouth watered at the sight. Even though he had no actual memory of it, he knew he preferred curvaceous women.

“What can I get you?” she asked politely.

How about you on a platter? he thought, but stopped himself. It would do no good screwing somebody in Scanguards’ employ. After all, he wasn’t interested in a relationship, and things could turn awkward if he had to see her again after a one-night-stand. She was a vampire and therefore wiping her memory after the act was not an option. That particular trick didn’t work on vampires, only on humans.

He would have to go to a night club on his night off and pick up a human for some uncomplicated sex, just like the vampire he’d met earlier tonight had done. But the thought of visiting a nightclub didn’t appeal to him right now, not after what he’d seen there tonight. Perhaps a visit to Vera’s brothel would be in order. Her girls were pretty and asked no questions. And ever since he’d started working for Scanguards, he had enough money to spend on diversions like that.