Break of Dawn by Chris Marie Green Page B

vowed to refrain from taking life.”
    Whoa, she didn’t like the sound of that. “So all they really can do is help and . . . persuade?”
    “What they do means all the difference.”
    “Oh, definitely.” Friends were even better than Santa’s elves. “I’m wondering how they joined up with you, but I have a thought or two about that, also.”
    His silence allowed her to continue. From elsewhere in the house, all the clocks struck four, chimes reverberating like beats in a ghoulish dance.
    She gathered her hair so it was out of her face. “Since Breisi’s now a Friend, and Kalin is one—and they were both hunters—I’m guessing all the portraits contain members of your old teams who’ve agreed to stick around. Their loyalty didn’t just last in life. But . . . that brings up another question.”
    “Naturally.”
    She sent a wry smile to the dark corner. “Where’s the portrait of Rose?”
    Jonah’s sigh was heartfelt, brushing the darkness. “That night, Rose didn’t die until Kalin brought her back to me. Her last wish was to rest in peace.”
    “And when Kalin finally passed?”
    “She had already committed herself to me, just as Breisi did.”
    “You’ve never asked me to be a Friend.” Dawn was shocked at how petulant she sounded.
    “I’m not certain you would have agreed.”
    “How do you know?” It was just for the sake of argument. Okay, she also had some pride here.
    “Dawn.” She could imagine Jonah shaking his head. “You, yourself, know that you joined the team for personal reasons, not for ‘saving the world,’ as you would say.”
    The truth made her feel like an ant. No, smaller. An ant would be Godzilla next to her.
    Jonah must have sensed her mortification. “Kalin, Rose, and Will were my first team. In those days, there were no established Undergrounds, only masters and their minions roaming the world. It wasn’t until centuries later that Underground societies were established, after . . .”
    “After what?”
    She could almost feel him choosing not to fight this particular battle with her. “After the most dangerous vampire ordered his faithful to multiply. And that is where it ends for you, Dawn, with that answer.”
    Hell, she had a thousand more roads to travel here, so it wasn’t like he’d put her at a dead end. He’d mentioned Will the vampire hunter, and Dawn realized that she hadn’t seen him in any portraits, either. In fact, she hadn’t seen any obvious males.
    “What happened to your hunter, the guy named Will?” she asked.
    “We found his body later and put him at peace.”
    “So he didn’t want to be a Friend, either.”
    Jonah paused, and Dawn possessed enough sense to realize that it had nothing to do with Will wanting to be a Friend.
    “Oh, man,” she said. “Are the ghosties, like, your harem?”
    “Harem? Not quite.”
    She thought of how sexy most of the feminine pictures looked—except for Breisi’s and the field of fire. “You were nailing Kalin. And maybe you were even putting it to Rose. Not that I’m jealous or anything . . .”
    He moved in his corner again, as if shuffling from one foot to another. Hah—so busted.
    She didn’t let up. “You told me you weren’t doing Breisi, but—”
    “I wasn’t.” His voice had risen. It shook the ivy trimming the bed. “Breisi has a vested interest in seeing Frank to safety, so when she discovered what was happening with the Friends, she made me promise to keep her active beyond her death if he was still gone.”
    “Impressive,” Dawn said. Acting! She really was jealous, because he hadn’t denied involvement with the rest of the Friends. Like, all five hundred million of them. “It’s amazing that you managed to remain neutered around at least one of your female hunters.”
    Now he sounded as if he were wrestling his temper. “As far as Breisi goes, I knew you were coming, and I waited.”
    Her body quivered, hit by his honesty, vibrated by the thought of his restraining