Overbite by Meg Cabot Page B

they not see it?  Was she really the only one?
    Because there was no life inside this house. There hadn’t been for a long time.
    There was no good either.
    Only evil.

Chapter Eleven
    W e are not going in there,” Meena said firmly.
    “No,” Alaric said. “ We aren’t. You and I are going back to the city. We’re just dropping Abraham off.”
    “What?” Meena grasped the back of Abraham’s headrest as he unbuckled his seat belt. “You’re not going in there. Are you?”
    “Of course I am,” Abraham said, chuckling a little. “Alaric’s temperament, as we all know, isn’t particularly suited to missions that require the subject to be taken alive. Why?” Abraham smiled at Meena. “Is that a problem?”
    “Yes,” Meena said. Only she couldn’t say which was causing her heart to pound more: the idea of leaving an old man to hunt a vampire in such a sinister-looking house, or having to spend time alone in a car with Alaric Wulf. “Sort of. I just think it would make more sense, since Alaric has so much experience in the field, for him to—”
    “Ms. Harper,” Abraham interrupted gently. “I’ve been doing this a great many more years than Alaric. Despite outward appearances, I do know my way around a demon infestation. But I’m touched by your concern. Now, tell the truth. Is this a roundabout way of telling me you’ve had one of your visions?”
    Meena, flushing, said, “Something like that. It’s just that . . . well, I know Brianna looked very sweet in the photos. But you just said New Jersey is a hellmouth. And last night, David was like someone I’d never met—”
    “Of course he was,” Abraham said to her consolingly. “He’d lost his humanity. He was a creature of darkness, without a soul, incapable of compassion or pity. You did well to put him out of his misery. When we discover what clan he was from—after we interrogate his wife—it will help explain a little about his behavior, I hope.”
    Meena nibbled worriedly on a thumbnail. She knew the Palatine considered all vampires exactly that—soulless creatures.
    And David had been like that. No doubt about it.
    Of course, she’d never gotten that feeling from Lucien, who was also—allegedly—without a soul. Her old neighbors, his cousins, the Antonescus, hadn’t been that way either. They’d once saved her dog from being murdered by the same group of rampaging Dracul that had destroyed her apartment.
    Alaric knew it, too.
    But he didn’t say anything in their defense. Instead, he unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car. Now that he was going to have a chance behind the wheel, he looked relaxed and happy, despite the fact that the car was a hybrid and not the kind of gas-guzzling sports vehicle he preferred.
    “I do appreciate your anxiety on my behalf, Meena,” Abraham went on. He had reached into the back of the car, pulled his briefcase up from the floor, and opened it to reveal a secret compartment, from which he removed a pistol, several extremely lethal-looking stakes, a vial of holy water, and a large crucifix, all of which he began tucking into various pockets of his suit.
    “But while I may seem to you like an old man who has spent too much time behind a desk, I assure you I can handle myself in the face of evil,” he said. “You might recall I took out a good many of your previous ex-boyfriend’s clan that night at St. George’s. This little outing is not going to be much of a challenge in comparison.”
    “I don’t know,” Meena murmured. She looked anxiously at the house. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
    “I do, too,” Alaric leaned in the window to say. “Abraham’s about to do battle with a housewife from New Jersey, and there’s no reality television crew here to film it.”
    “It’s not funny,” Meena said. “I think we should stay here to help. What if the Delmonicos show up? I could—”
    Abraham opened his car door. “Alaric is attending the opening of the Vatican