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love, honor, and cherish Ivy. The fact that Ivy did still seemed to astound him.
    Truthfully, she’d moved on a while ago, and really, really wanted him to do the same. At least twice a week, or so it seemed, she’d find him on her doorstep. At first, seeing him was heart-wrenching. Then it became tiresome. Now, it was plain infuriating.
    Particularly considering that a vampire running around her county dropping bodies was taking up just about all her energy. She didn’t need Jorge or his steadfast denial.
    He stared at her for a long moment, then shrugged. “Pity, bonita, we are so good together.”
    “Were, Jorge. It’s past tense, and the sooner you get that through your thick head, the happier we’ll all be.”
    In the pickup, he leaned out the window and shook his head.
    “No, Ivy, you’re wrong. I’ll never be happier without you.
Te amo
.”

    Ivy met his eyes and her voice was rock steady as she said,
“Yo
no te quiero.”
She spun around and strode to the house. She didn’t turn to look back when Jorge roared away, the big tires of the truck squealing on the asphalt.
----
    The shower helped, but Colin was still curious about the scene inside the medical examiner’s office. It seemed like the thing to do now was relax and dig a little deeper to see what he could come up with. He started toward the desk and then changed his mind. One thing could help make a few hours of research easier. He zipped open his suitcase and pulled out a bottle of twelve-year-old scotch.
    Breaking the seal and unscrewing the top, he put his nose close to inhale the rich scent of the amber liquor. Nice.
    With glass in hand, he sat at the small desk and powered up his laptop. Logged into the secure site, he searched. Nothing. He stared at the unhelpful screen. By all accounts, he should be the only hunter here. Then again, if the women knew the man pulled from Moses Lake would turn, it made sense that one of them would have to be a hunter.
    Except that scenario was impossible. He was the only one. So a couple of million-dollar questions remained: who were the women in that autopsy suite and what were they doing with the vampire’s victim?
    He tried some more search avenues and still came up with squat. Taking a long swallow of the scotch, he dug his cell phone out of the jeans he’d tossed on the bed. No sense screwing around, might as well go right to the top. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been left out of the loop, and if this was one of those times, he wanted to know.
    The call was answered on the first ring, it always was. “Colin.”
    “Monsignor.”
    “Is there a problem?”
    “That’s what I’m calling to find out.”
    “Perhaps you should explain.”
    Colin did, in great detail. He finished by asking, “I was under the impression I was on this mission alone, am I mistaken?” The possibility that Monsignor would lie to him after all these years made him tense his shoulders and grind his teeth.
    There was a long silence on the other end. “No, you are not.”
    His shoulders relaxed, a little. “Then who do you think these women are?”
    “I do not know,” the monsignor said on a sigh.
    The phone still held to his ear, Colin walked onto the balcony and looked out over the river at the full moon. How many preternatural beings were out tonight? The moon huge and round was a call to the weres. And to the vampire he hunted.
    “We need to know who they are.”
    “Agreed. I’ll check with the council and call you with any additional information I discover.”
    “I don’t like this, Monsignor. I don’t have a good feeling about any of it.”
    “Neither do I.”
    “I’ll be in touch tomorrow.” He was just about to click off when the monsignor’s voice stopped him.
    “Colin?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Be careful.”
    The two words sent a chill down his back. “Always.”

Chapter Four
    With effort, Riah found her voice. “I…I came by to see what you found with the blood samples.” Adriana motioned