Moonlight and Diamonds & The Vampire's Fall by Michele Hauf Page B

hunting party to track them. You in?”
    Stryke nodded. “I’ll put Blyss in a cab and then join you.”
    â€œExcellent. I’ve troops to gather.” Vail wiped black blood from his face and winced. “That stuff tastes nasty.”
    Blyss shook her head when Stryke offered his hand. “I can’t leave until I’ve found it.”
    â€œIt’s not here! I must have dropped it, and someone, likely a demon, grabbed it.”
    â€œBut you don’t understand.”
    Stryke knelt before her. With a stern twist of his finger, he tilted her chin up to look at him. “Enlighten me.”
    She sighed, weighing the consequences of a confession. She looked around. Everyone was in tatters. A few women were sobbing, but most were celebrating the win, including the bride, who wiped a black smudge from her groom’s cheek before kissing him. What a way to start a marriage.
    Had this been her fault? Who could know that the diamond would be here? Even she had thought it would be found in Vail’s closet.
    This didn’t make sense.
    â€œI think they came looking specifically for
Le Diabolique
,” she said quietly.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI don’t know how they knew the diamond was going to be here. But the one that was after me asked for it by name.”
    Stryke hissed. “What the hell is it?”
    â€œIt’s just a diamond. I don’t know what it means to the demons.” Edamite had told her about it. And she had chosen to look the other way and let him have it, no matter the consequences. Because at the time what mattered was securing her future. “I...I have to leave.”
    He gripped her upper arm tightly. “But you stole it from the gallery. You must know what it means to the demons. Were they the ones you were to hand it off to?”
    â€œNo. I don’t believe the ones here tonight were working for Ed—”
    Blyss pulled away from Stryke and ran for the exit doors. She couldn’t do this now. Not this confession. Much as the whole family deserved it. The best thing she could do for them was to get the hell away and never show her face to any of them again.
    Stryke followed on her heels, gripping her by the arm again. She could sense his anger and smell his wolf. Whenever her emotions were stirred she could sense her breed. It was disturbing, yet she couldn’t deal with that at the moment.
    Stryke hailed a cab, which pulled over immediately. He opened the back door, but held her firmly when she tried to enter. “You brought this upon my family?”
    â€œI’m sorry. I didn’t know this would happen.”
    â€œYou admit it?”
    She nodded.
    â€œIt’s over between the two of us.”
    He shoved her inside the back of the cab, more gently than she’d expected. When she pulled in her feet, he leaned in, looking to say something more. He couldn’t meet her eyes. His jaw was so tense. But then he shook his head and closed the door.
    Stryke’s brothers joined him at the curb, and she saw them talking to him, but Stryke’s gaze remained on hers as the cab rolled away.
    If they intended on tracking the demons perhaps they would find the diamond.
    She’d lost this one. She’d lost...
    ...everything.
    * * *
    â€œI can’t believe that bitch,” Trouble said as the cab drove away. “You’re going to let her get away, Stryke? She was the one who brought those assholes on us!”
    â€œGive it a rest, Trouble,” Kelyn said. The tall, cool faery bumped his fist gently against Trouble’s shoulder. “Stryke never has been lucky at love. The day he finds a good woman...”
    Stryke closed his eyes and inside he felt the wince. So he’d had a tough couple of years with women. Blyss had been different. Perfect. A glamour girl so out of his league he’d have to climb a staircase just to touch her feet. And he had known they had an expiration date. He’d