Shadows Rising (Darkness Falls Book 2)

Chapter Twenty

Ethan stood outside the house, head tipped back. The expression on his face was equal parts disgust and sadness. I wanted to tell him I was sorry that both our leads had been in vain, but the words were pointless. Sorry wouldn't bring Riley back. Sorry wouldn't help us find her.

Ethan took a deep breath. "So what now?"

The front door opened before I could say anything, and Clara hurried out. Dressed in black jeans and a black tank top that left her sinewy, scarred arms bare, her shoulder-length blonde hair stark against the darkness of her outfit, she cut an imposing figure.

Ethan stiffened, casting a suspicious eye over her.

"I want to help," Clara said before either of us could speak.

"Why would you want to help us?" Confusion mingled with hostility in Ethan's voice.

"Look, I'm still confused about the whole good vampires issue, but there's one thing I do know, and that's that Riley is the victim in all this. Caleb was bad through and through, and it sounds like Leon is a chip off the old block." Clara shook her head. "We've already lost Sophie. We're not letting the same thing happen to Riley."

Most hunters killed vampires out of a misguided sense that they were protecting humans and making the world safer. Clara was no different. With that in mind, it wasn't so surprising that she wanted to help us rescue Riley.

Ethan still didn't look convinced but I subtly nudged him, trying to tell him through expression alone that we should accept Clara's help. I didn't know what she had in mind, but she was reaching out to us and I didn't want to leave her in the cold. I knew how it felt to be left out like that.

Reluctantly, Ethan reached out and shook Clara's hand. "Thank you," he muttered.

Clara just nodded.

"One thing though," I said. "We can't take you back to the clan's house. We appreciate your help, but you've already admitted that you still haven't made up your mind about vampires, so I can't put my family at risk by bringing you to their house."

At the risk of sounding rude, it was a ground rule that needed to be laid down.

Clara studied me with carefully blank eyes, then nodded. "Fair enough."

With a new ally by our side, we started walking away from Noah's house. We had barely made it to the end of the street when the temper that Ethan had been struggling to contain burst out of him.

"Where the hell are we supposed to start looking?" he yelled, aiming a kick at a nearby lamppost.

A couple of people passing by on the opposite side of the road cast us alarmed glances, and increased their pace.

Clara put a hand on her hip, muscle flexing under the pale skin of her arm. "The one thing we can't do is get hysterical. We do that and we'll never find her."

Ethan flinched.

"Let's look at this logically," Clara said. "What exactly does Leon want with Riley? I'm assuming he hasn't issued a ransom or made any demands?"

Miserably, Ethan shook his head.

"I don't think even Leon knows what he's doing with her," I said. I filled Clara in on the whole situation, including the mysterious female vampire and the nasty gifts she'd been leaving me.

Clara pursed her lips. "If Leon is afraid of the clan, then it seems unlikely he'll come back to the house to make any demands. But he must want something otherwise he would have let Riley go by now. The question is, what does he want?"