Shadows Rising (Darkness Falls Book 2)

Chapter Thirteen

Leon abruptly climbed to his feet. His Coke nearly went flying, but I managed to catch it before it sloshed all over me. I tensed, waiting for him to yell at me, or maybe even take a swing, but he just stared at me, emotion churning in his eyes, then he turned and stalked out of the diner.

Several other customers watched him go, and slanted not-so-subtle glances at me, trying to guess what the drama had been about. Georgia was one of the spectators, but to my relief Arthur was nowhere to be seen.

Not meeting anyone's eyes, I hurried into the locker room to change out of my uniform. That hadn't gone exactly as I'd hoped. Leon hadn't given me any sign that I'd got through to him, that my words had penetrated the ugly bubble he surrounded himself with. And, after having listened to him, I was convinced that he had nothing to do with the rats. He'd said he didn't want to make an enemy of me and I believed him. Whatever poison Caleb had filled his journal with, it had twisted and blinded and confused Leon, but it hadn't turned him into the sort of person who did sick things to unsuspecting rodents.

And there was dead Brian Rathdon to consider. I stuffed the candy-striped shirt into my locker, and pulled on Alice's white one. There was no doubt that he'd been killed by a vampire - something else that had nothing to do with Leon. Problems were cropping up on all sides, and I didn't know which to tackle first.

I paused, halfway through buttoning up the shirt. What if there was a connection between the rats and the dead man? It was an angle I hadn't considered before, but it was too much of a coincidence that everything would happen at once and not be related in some way. After I'd found Brian's body, we'd debated the likelihood that a new vampire was in town, one who didn't play by the same rules as Luke's clan. One who didn't mind killing humans. But why would some nameless vampire none of us had ever met leave dead rats on our doorstep?

I groaned and put my hands up to my head. Nothing was making any sense. I needed to get home and see if anyone else could make heads or tails of this mess.

To my surprise, Ava was waiting for me outside the diner. She looked brighter than she had the last time we met, some of the worry-lines smoothed from her face. She'd always been an attractive woman, but the hardness of her features sometimes detracted from her looks. Tonight she was softer, and when she smiled at me I was surprised to see a glimmer of myself in her face. It had been a long time since I thought there were any physical similarities between us.

I wondered how long she'd been standing out here. It couldn't have been long otherwise she'd have spotted me with Leon. Any parent would be suspicious of a thirty-something guy hanging around their teenage daughter, but if Ava had seen us, she would have recognised the tension in both our stances and sensed the threat of violence crackling in the air. She'd definitely have asked who Leon was.

I spared a moment to wonder why Noah had never introduced Leon and Ava. Maybe on some level he knew that she was drifting further and further away from him, and so he'd already started cutting her out of things that involved the team. Or maybe he knew that she'd never have agreed with his decision to betray me and the clan. I'd probably never know or understand that man's reasoning.

Ava looked past me and through the Waffle House's front window. "Did you ask for a job?"

In spite of everything else that was happening, I couldn't hold back a grin. "Better than that; I've already worked my first shift."

Her eyes lit up and she made a move towards me like she was going to hug me. Instinctively I stepped back. The smile froze on Ava's face, the light in her eyes dying to shadows.

"Sorry," I muttered, trying to look anywhere but at her. We might have taken those first tentative steps towards rebuilding our relationship, but we definitely weren't at the hugging stage yet. Honestly, I wasn't sure we ever would be. I couldn't remember Ava ever hugging me, not even as a kid.