A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1)

room.”
    “I’m not calling the police, I swear,” I
said. “I just need to talk to Cameron.” And sneak in a few hidden messages.
Cameron was a clever guy. He’d read between the lines.
    “Your ex?” Kieran raised his eyebrows.
    Clare shrugged. “Sure. Just remember we’re
not the bad guys here.”
    I waited until Clare and Kieran disappeared
into the library, then dialed Cameron’s number. Tapping my fingers on the side
table, I waited for someone to pick up. He never went to bed before midnight,
always hanging out with his friends, drinking and debating into the night. I’d
thought him terribly clever at that time. Looking back now, he was a boring,
pretentious show-off. But I loved Cameron, didn’t I? It wasn’t his fault he
knew so much. He surely didn’t mean to come across as a snob.
    It rang for a long time before the sleepy
voice of a girl answered. My heart fell in my chest. It didn’t mean anything. She
could be just a friend. The girl said something, her voice dripping with
impatience as though she couldn’t wait to get back to whatever she’d been doing
before my call interrupted her. What had she been doing? I opened my mouth to speak, but my tongue stuck to the back of my
throat. I pressed the earpiece against my ear, listening for any background
noise. Naked feet slapped against the tiled floor, then Cameron’s low voice
whispered on the other end of the line, “Who is it?” A giggle followed and the
line went dead.
    I stood frozen to the spot, the phone still
clutched to my ear, surprised to discover Cameron’s betrayal didn’t really
hurt. My heart was fine, my pulse still normal. It was my ego that couldn’t
deal with the blow. Even though a giggle didn’t have to mean anything, I felt
relieved for things to end this way.
    Someone draped an arm over my shoulders and
pulled me toward the library. I peered at beautiful Clare, at her deep-blue
eyes and glossy hair. No one would ever cheat on Clare. They’d be stupid to do
so.
    Clare snorted. “You’ve no idea.” She opened
the heavy door and stepped to the side to let me walk past. “Sorry, I couldn’t
help but overhear. Better you find out sooner rather than later. Something
better might be lurking around the corner already.”
    I nodded. Stepping into the library, I met
Blake’s hard stare. Why didn’t I notice the signs before? His dark eyes with a
golden gleam screamed vampire. His skin was pulled too tight over prominent
cheekbones. My gaze scanned the furniture. I wished I had the privilege of
disbelief—like the first time I joined them. The thought of one of them
lunging for my throat and sucking me dry terrified me.
    “What? No crossbows? No stakes to pierce through
my heart? No sword to decapitate me?” Kieran shook his head, grinning. “I
thought you’d come prepared.”
    I returned the smile. “What do you take me
for? A vampire hunter? I’m just an average girl who won a prize and got stuck
in your freaky world. Lucky me, huh?”
    “Hold on to that prize,” Blake said, gawking
at me. “If things don’t work out the way we hope, you can talk to Aidan from
the other side. It might be the only way to reach him once he’s dead.”
    “Don’t even say such a thing,” Clare said,
slapping his arm. What was he talking about? I opened my mouth to ask when Clare
whispered, “Ignore him. We trusted you with the phone call. Now it’s your turn
to trust us. You look tired. Why don’t you rest until Aidan’s back?”
    Clare was right. It they wanted to kill me,
they’d have done so already. They had never given me any reason to doubt them. I
felt my fear slowly subsiding as I lay back and closed my eyes, ready to forget
the world, even if just for a few minutes. When I pried my eyes open, the
others sat gathered together, whispering with their backs turned on me. I sat
up, dizziness washing over me. “What’s going on?”
    “Aidan should’ve been here by now.” The
tension in Clare’s voice was palpable as she pushed a plate with a ham and
cheese sandwich across the coffee table.
    I eyed the sandwich, but didn’t touch it.
The sudden sense of dread sat in the pit of my stomach like a rock. “Maybe he’s
late.” Blake shot me a grim look.
    Kieran shook his head. “The day Aidan’s
late is the day hell freezes over. Usually, he’s more punctual than a watch.” The
seriousness in his face made me wonder what Aidan hadn’t told me.
    “Where did he go?”
    They hesitated, peering at one