by Rye Brewer
We walked together down the length of the dock, and I wondered how he really felt about me. Did he hate me, the way he seemed to sometimes? When his eyes would go dark, and his tone would go tight? Or did he like me?
I got the feeling he did when he smiled and joked and let me joke along with him. Or when his face lit up as he told me stories of the ancient wizards who originally called Hallowthorn Landing home, back when it became clear that the town’s inhabitants needed help to defend themselves against the creatures who held it in their grasp.
But then, just like he had described the weather turning on a dime, he’d look at me with those dark, angry eyes and I’d feel sure he wanted to kill me. Why was he so conflicted? And why would he agree to teach me if he hated me so much?
After watching him go back and forth for long enough, I decided to come out and ask. What was there to lose?
“Why did you agree to become my tutor?”
“It’s a favor to my sister. My half-sister.”
I frowned, then figured it out. “Sirene is your sister?”
“She is. She gave me the assignment, and I felt I owed it to her to agree.”
That was all. When he didn’t say anything else, I tried to prompt him.
“But why you? It can’t just be because she’s your sister.”
“No, that’s why. I have elemental skills, and my sister asked me for a favor. That’s all.”
I didn’t know why, but I got the sense that he was holding back. Something about the way he wouldn’t look at me.
It wasn’t a good enough explanation—if there was something else going on, I wanted to know what. I was tired of living in the dark, letting things happen to me. “You’re not telling me the truth,” I got up the courage to say.
“Why don’t you ask Sirene if you want to know so badly?”
His head whipped around and he glared at me with those hate-filled eyes.
Instead of backing down, I snarled at him. Just like that, the tingling started. I cursed myself and struggled to calm down, but it was no use.
Every time I looked at him or felt the waves of anger and irritation flowing from him, sparks flew.
“You know, you would be better at controlling your skills if you could control your emotions,” he said, and the snide nastiness in his voice sent me over the edge.
I wanted to strike him over and over, but knew it would be no use. He would use his skills to best me again and again.
Instead, I ran back toward the fortress and straight up the steps, then up to my room.
I didn’t go through Mom’s room, but used the door in the hall instead. I needed to be alone.
What was his problem? Why did Sirene have to pair me up with someone who didn’t know whether to be friendly or a raging jerk? Like that would make things any easier on me. How could I learn to control my skills when he kept pissing me off?
I splashed my face with cool water in a basin by the window and wished he were different.
Older, less attractive.
Maybe an ancient old wizard with a long beard and dim, cloudy eyes. Not young, gorgeous, with a smile that threatened to melt my knees and a laugh that warmed me the way the sun did.
My face in the little mirror above the basin was tense, my forehead lined as I frowned at myself.
I like Scott.
He meant so much to me. Right?
He had been the person my world revolved around for weeks, ever since we met. It was an instant connection. But he never made me feel the way Stark did.
I was alive, fully alive for the first time ever. Scott never even came close to doing that for me. It could’ve been my skills, the way electricity sizzled through me until my hair nearly stood on end—but no.
I never felt that way with Scott even after my skills showed themselves.
I was more lost than ever.
19
Anissa
One good thing about staying with Jonah: Philippa wasn’t around to make me miserable. Sometimes I got lucky.
Otherwise, being around Jonah was torture. Sometimes I liked it—I didn’t hate him. I even felt less angry with him every day, the more and more I thought about his reasons for being dishonest, I couldn’t blame him for wanting to keep Fane’s identity a secret, even though I still thought he should’ve come clean. I wouldn’t have ever let his secret out. He should’ve trusted me.
I spent a lot of time in my private room, an unused bedroom in the penthouse. It was easier than being around Jonah or running the risk of seeing him.
He said he loved me, and a big part of me wanted to give that love back and then some. I wanted to give in.
It was better if I didn’t. We had gone through so much, so fast, that thinking a little bit about whether we really worked together was necessary. I wondered whether he understood that was easier when I didn’t have to look at him and navigate conversation. So, being alone as much as I could was a priority.
Two days passed uneventfully.
Gage came and went without saying much—he was still staking out the shifters, trying to get a sense of who they were and why they were around. I didn’t like knowing they were in the city doing whatever they wanted.
Scott was still sulking over not being able to find Sara, and I could tell it drove Jonah crazy to lie to his brother. I didn’t like it anymore than he did, only being able to tell him she was all right and nothing more than that.
The second night, I was sitting in my room and wondering how Sara was making out with her training when Jonah knocked at the door.
“Come in,” I called out.
He didn’t bother with preambles. “I got a tip from one of my guys.”
“Someone you trust?” I asked, jumping to my feet.
“I wouldn’t pay attention to it if I didn’t trust him.” He jammed his fists into the pockets of his jeans. His body radiated tension and excitement. “Anyway, it’s an unsubstantiated tip, but I plan on verifying it personally. It’s about the lab where we used to get our blood.”
Hair stood up on the back of my neck. “What did you hear?”
“There might be information we could get out of their email system. One of my guys is probably better at hacking into computers and networks than he should be, and he suggested breaking into a laptop if we can get our hands on one.”
“Which means you’re going to the lab.”
“Correct.”
“I’m going with you.”
I expected him to explode and deny me and tell me I was crazy to even suggest something like that.
Instead, he smiled. “I was hoping you would say that. You have skills I don’t have.”
“Skills?” I raised an eyebrow.
“You know what I mean. I could come out and call you an expert at breaking and entering, but…”
“No, no. I get your point.” I grabbed my backpack with all my tools. “I hope you don’t plan on waiting around.”
“I don’t.”
Minutes later, after we both changed into dark clothes, we were on our way.
The lab was on the outskirts of the city, in one of those sprawling office parks that made what used to be beautiful, green space look ugly and ordinary and full of concrete.
He drove us in his car—we had never traveled like that before, with him driving. It was different. Nice, even. Like we were two normal—vampires.
“How much did you pay for this?” I asked, running my hands over the supple leather.
It was a beautiful shade of tan and as soft as anything I had ever felt. The car was low-slung, fast, with a powerful engine that purred like a cat.
“You don’t want to know,” he said, just before hitting the gas and sending us rocketing off into the night.
Clearly, he liked to drive fast.
At the same moment, it occurred to me how little I knew about my boyfriend, as far as normal life went.
No, I corrected myself. My ex-boyfriend. I let out a small sigh, and luckily, he didn’t seem to have no
ticed it.
We parked maybe a mile or so from the park, then coursed the rest of the way to the security fence which surrounded the parking lot. That was no challenge for us—we jumped it easily.
“Now what?” Jonah asked once we were inside the fence.
For once, I was the one in the lead, and he needed to rely on my know-how.
I scanned the outside of the building and caught sight of security cameras pointed out toward the pathways leading from the lot to the main entrance. I looked up next. The lab was only five floors total.
“How do you feel about ziplines?”
“Ziplines?”
“I could get a grappling hook up to the roof, and we could hook the line to my harness and let it pull us up.” I reached into my backpack and showed him the tools I had in mind. “See, when I release this switch, the line is drawn back into the spool. The spool will be clipped to me, so it’ll pull me up. Get it?” I stepped into the harness as I spoke and tightened it around my waist.
“What about me?”
“You’ll be holding onto me—or, I’ll be holding onto you.”
He went a little pale—okay paler than his usual vampire self. “If you think it’ll work.”
“Of course, it will. And there’s bound to be an entrance up top. Probably not as hi-tech as the access door on your roof,” I joked.
He only shook his head.
We ran to the building, making sure to keep off the pathways to avoid the cameras. We went through the grass instead, and I thought for a second of how we were ruining the lawn. Not to mention our boots.
“Okay. This has to be fast.” I estimated the amount of wire I would need to reach the roof and pulled it off the spool, then swung the hook in a wide circle. When I let go, it sailed up to the roof and dragged along the surface until it caught on the raised edge.
“Here. Pull on this, make sure it’s secure.”
Jonah tested the wire as I hooked it to my harness.
“Okay. Are we ready?”
“As we’ll ever be,” he said with his teeth gritted.
I wasn’t used to seeing him looking nervous, and I had to turn my face away before he saw my smile.
“Hold on tight to me,” I advised.
We both hesitated for a second before his arms wrapped around me.
I closed my eyes and let myself feel him, but not for long. I couldn’t afford to do that to myself.
He was tense, stiff, formal. He couldn’t afford to let himself hold me for real.
“Here we go.” I released the little switch and just like that, we were in mid-air.
We reached the roof in the blink of an eye, five floors in less than a second, and Jonah only let go of me to haul himself over the edge and onto the surface.
I did the same.
“Have you done a lot of that?” he asked. His eyes shone with exhilaration.
“Maybe,” I admitted. “It wasn’t the first time; I’ll tell you that much.”
He looked around, then pointed to the access door. “I’ll test it to be sure no alarms go off—wait here.” He was smart to make me wait.
I watched him run over to the door and slowly open it, cocking his ear like he was listening for a bell or siren.
There was nothing.
He gave me a thumb up, so I left my tools out of sight and joined him.
“What next?” I asked in a whisper as we ran down the stairs to the fifth floor. “There were lights on in so many windows, and there are cars in the lot. There must be people still working here.”
“I think they work throughout the night,” he said in a whisper that matched mine. “But it doesn’t look like there are a lot of people in.”
“That’s true—the lot was only a quarter full.”
“So there’s less chance of being spotted. I say we take the first unoccupied laptop we can find. No sense in taking chances.” His eyes met mine, and I nodded.
He opened the door a crack, and I could just make out the inside of the hallway as he peered out.
“Coast is clear,” he whispered, waving me on.
I slid through the slight opening he left for me and pressed myself to the wall.
It would’ve been easier if the place were dark, with only a few lights on here and there. The fluorescent strips of light along the ceiling turned the hall into a glaring, white nightmare for anybody trying to break in.
There was nowhere to hide.
I looked back and forth while Jonah waited for me to make my move. I heard activity halfway down the hall and saw one of the doors standing open.
A workstation?
I closed my eyes and concentrated.
There were voices coming from that room—faint, but present.
I sniffed the air.
Human blood.
So there were humans working here, not vampires. That was in our favor. Other vampires might sense our presence.
I pointed down the hall, and Jonah nodded. I waved him back into the stairwell.
He shook his head.
I glared at him, trying to send a silent message.
It wouldn’t be right for the two of us to go—we would double our chances of getting caught.
I waved him back again.
He looked reluctant, even angry, but he nodded.
I was better on my own when it came to sneaking around, anyway. I went into a crouch and hurried down the hall to the last door before the open one.
This door was closed—I tried the knob and, when it turned, I slipped inside the dark office. I peered through the crack I left.
There were windows along the wall across from me, facing the occupied workstation. That was windowed, too. I guessed the room across from me was a workstation as well, but it was closed for the night.
The blinds were shut, but that gave me a nice reflection of what was happening in the room next to me.
There were five humans in long, white lab coats sitting on stools around three different tables. All of them had laptops open in front of them.
How was I going to get in there without one of them seeing me?
They joked and chattered and compared notes on whatever it was they worked on. They seemed busy.
The buzzing of my phone made me jump.
I had forgotten about it, stashed in my back pocket.
A text from Jonah: Fire alarm?
I almost laughed out loud. Of course. What were the odds that they would take the laptops with them?
I would have to take that chance—and even if they didn’t leave theirs, somebody else in the building was bound to. When they left, we’d be able to explore a little easier.
I fired off a quick reply: Go up to the roof and wait for me there.
Already there, he said.
I poked my head out the door and looked up and down the hall. There was an alarm box two offices down, away from the workstation. Perfect.
I waited another few seconds to be sure none of the humans looked like they were going anywhere before creeping out to the hall.
The office door closest to the alarm was open, too, and I left the door I exited cracked before closing my eyes, wishing for luck and pulling the lever.
Then, I darted into the room and left the door open just enough for me to look down the hall.
Lights flashed and a siren’s wail filled the air.
I heard shouts of surprise coming from the workstation before five humans hurried out, down the hall in the opposite direction of where I waited, watching.
And their hands were empty. Luck was finally on my side.
I ran down the hall the second they were in the stairwell at the other end and went straight for the room they’d been working in.
Their computers were all sitting there, locked. So that was their security? Locking them instead of taking them along? What if a fire destroyed them? Well, that was their problem, not mine. I took the one closest to me and unplugged the charging cable, then headed out to the hall.
“Hey!”
He was still drying his hands on a paper towel.
I didn’t have a choice but to throw myself against him to get past.
He hit the windows across from us so hard, the glass cracked. He let out a cry of shock, probably at how strong I was for my size, but I didn’t stop to see if he was okay before running for the door to the roof.
I heard him yelling behind me as I hurtled through the door and up the stairs to the roof.
Jonah was waiting for me—and he had put on the harness this time.
“Come on,” he said, reaching for me as I slid the laptop into my backpack and secured it on my back.
We rappelled down the back of the building, away from the employees who were gathering out front, then coursed back to the car.
We didn’t stop to catch our breath until we were safe inside.
“I can’t believe we just did that!” he laughed.
“I almost got caught!”
“And you used to do things like that all the time?” he asked, eyes narrowed.
“I know! I forgot what a rush it is!” I put my hands on his shoulders. “You were brilliant. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
It must have been the excitement of the moment getting to us.
He took my face in his hands, and I didn’t stop him as he drew me closer—in fact, I kissed him just as hard as he kissed me.
It felt right.
It didn’t last long enough, but it was best that he pulled away when he did.
“We’d better get moving,” he said, looking at me the way he used to.
My heart ached as I nodded.
We made the drive back to the high-rise in silence and dropped the laptop off with Jonah’s hacker—a tall, brooding type I remembered seeing once before, sort of hanging out along the fringes of the clan.
He only nodded in greeting when he saw me standing beside Jonah. Maybe he knew better than to question his leader. Philippa could’ve taken lessons from him.
It was only twelve hours, maybe less, when we got the laptop back—along with an email address and a message containing information about three units of blood.
One name was mentioned in the email: Bourke.