by Laura Kaye
Vin turned to the gathered demons. “The rest of you, spread out and study the scent trails. I want to know every step the humans and Jett took.”
The Guardians dispersed into the darkness, their movements as silent as owls hunting in the forest.
Lexine’s pulse pounded so loudly in her ears, she almost missed Jett whisper, “They won’t hurt Bryce.”
Vin knelt. “Care to elaborate?”
In a sluggish movement, Jett pulled at the handcuffs. The chain links chimed against each other. His voice strengthened and darkened. “Get these off me.”
“The sooner you talk, the sooner I consider taking them off.”
Jett got an elbow under his body and, with far more effort than normally necessary, righted himself into a sitting position. He leaned back against the tree. “I stopped being anyone’s bitch the moment I walked out of Thornton’s little fun house last year. Get these handcuffs off me.”
Vin sat back on his heels. “Well, that’s disappointing. I really thought, considering how you helped Raphael, that there was more to you than a hermit who used to work for poachers. No demon I know would put his own pride over a child’s safety.”
Jett’s voice remained quiet, but filled with threat. “Don’t you dare get all holier-than-thou on me.”
“Hey.” Lexine gave Vin her best back-the-hell-off glare, sat on a large tree root, and put her hand on Jett’s shoulder. He glanced in her direction, more surprise than anger in his expression.
“My older brother was killed tonight. Please, I need to get my younger brother back. You said the humans won’t hurt him. How do you know that?”
“Because they need him alive.” His tone softened. He shifted and faced in her direction, giving Vin his shoulder. “The humans who took Bryce work for Victor Lawrence, a scientist who studies demons. I was his guinea pig for most of my youth. Assuming the nature of his work hasn’t changed, he’ll need Bryce both alive and healthy.”
Lex leaned forward, her mouth dry. “Did you help these humans take Bryce and murder the others?”
“No, and I’m going to tear Lawrence’s throat out with my teeth. I know where to find him.”
“Thank God.” Her eyes burned and a tear ran a hot trail down her skin. “But then, why did they spare your life?” Heat rose to her cheeks. “Don’t misunderstand. I’m glad you’re safe.”
“I don’t know why they left me alive.”
With a muttered curse, Vin pulled a key from his pocket. He bent forward and unlocked Jett’s ankles.
“Change of heart so quickly?”
“My instincts are never wrong, and they insist you didn’t do this,” Vin said. “All I care about right now is getting that child back safely.”
Jett held out his cuffed wrists.
Vin rubbed the key between his thumb and forefinger. “I want to know everything you can tell me about Lawrence.”
“I will deal with Lawrence myself.”
“You will help my Guardians find Lawrence. You don’t want tonight to happen again, do you?”
Tension thickened the air as Vin and Jett stared at each other.
“Please.” Lexine touched Jett’s arm again.
Jett glanced at her. “Your brother will not grow up in that place, I promise you.” He returned his attention to Vin. “If I won’t be restrained we have a deal, Guardian.”
Chapter Three
Jett sat at the base of the tree, staring up at the first hints of a colorful sunrise that filtered through the branches, waiting out the last of the paralytic drug’s effects. He itched to get on his feet and go after Lawrence. The son of a bitch would not live to regret taking the child. Even if the Guardians caught up with the human’s SUV and brought Bryce back, Jett would hunt Lawrence down as soon as he could walk.
He needed a vehicle. It would take days to get to Lawrence on foot. He loathed the idea of working with the Guardians, but what choice did he have? Besides, going after Lawrence and killing him would have been one thing. Jett could have done that alone. Getting out alive with a small child, past Lawrence and his security? Like it or not, he needed the Guardians. Didn’t mean he had to trust them, though.
“Damn me.” He should have gone after Lawrence months ago, as he’d intended to during his first hours of freedom from Thornton, the poacher who’d imprisoned Jett for years. Instead, he’d given in to the damnable urge, the borderline addiction—something he didn’t even understand—to make sure the archangels were indeed safe. If nothing else, he owed Raphael that much for saving his life.
Now, several children and an adult demon were dead, and Bryce kidnapped, because Jett hadn’t stuck to his guns. He’d feel the weight of his screwup in his gut until he made it right.
Vin walked away, ranting into his cell phone, giving orders with military focus and precision.
“What for?” Lexine sat at Jett’s side on the tree’s knotted, exposed roots, her hands clasped between her knees. Bryce’s older sister. How much older? She appeared to be in her midtwenties, but so did all demon adults for hundreds of years of their life.
“Huh?”
“Why should you be damned?”
He shifted his gaze to her face, framed by her black hair, which she’d braided and wrapped around her head. Such an unusual, exotic hair color among the mostly blond and redheaded demon population. “Because I excel at putting others in harm’s way.”
She tilted her head. “Looks to me like you excel at rescuing people. Raphael—”
“Raphael would have died because of me had Wren not shown up with that healing ability of his.”
“At least you didn’t leave him in that miserable place.” Her throat worked. “I know you won’t leave Bryce, either. I’m glad you’re here.”
His jaw slackened, but he covered the reaction with a cough. Had anyone, ever, been glad to have him around? He’d befriended Raphael, but that didn’t count. Jett had simply talked to the archangel to help pass the time, as opposed to taunting him and abusing him like the rest of Thornton’s thugs. It wasn’t as if Raphael had his choice of friends. Now, with all these Guardians around, why was Lexine looking to him?
He changed the subject before, heaven forbid, she made him blush or something equally horrifying. “You take care of the cemetery.”
Her face wrinkled, and she dissolved into sobs.
Okay, wrong thing to say.
“Yes, I do,” she answered, to his surprise. “You’ve been visiting often the last couple of months. And hiding in the woods. I haven’t worked a day recently without catching your scent on the breeze.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“My brothers,” she choked out, and shook her head. “You’re not upsetting me. Please. I need to talk about something, anything, or all I can think about is…” She cried some more, her face in her hands.
He rolled his shoulders and stretched, attempting to awaken his sluggish muscles from the drug. The sooner he got moving, the better. He needed to get on Lawrence’s ass, and out of this situation—what did he know about comforting a female? Nothing, that was what. “When I first saw you working in the cemetery, it was noon on a sunny day, and you had no sunglasses. I thought you were a human, so I stayed downwind and got closer to investigate. How can you see in full daylight?”
Lexine ignited flames on her fingers and held her hand to the side of her tear-reddened face. She lacked eyeshine, a characteristic of demon retinas that reflected light, enabling night vision. “It’s a rare earthborn defect. I can’t see well in the dark, and bright light doesn’t bother me.” She cleared her throat. “You must have realized I wasn’t human, though. Why have you kept coming back?”
“I got close to you that first day, but you didn’t notice me. If I’d been a hostile human, or even another demon with ill intentions, you’d have been caught off guard. You really should be more aware of your surroundings if you’re going to work alone.”
She half sobbed half laughed. “You’ve been protecting me?
”
“I’ve been keeping watch.”
“I’m not a silly little girl. If humans came near that cemetery, I’d hear them because they don’t know how to walk quietly in the woods—”
“Never make generalizations and assume you’re safe. Some humans are remarkably well trained, like the ones who took Bryce.” He paused. The cemetery, located on a hillside, had a good view of the archangel house, not that he couldn’t find just as decent a vantage point high in a tree. He’d chosen the cemetery because the illusion of having company had been…nice. “You object to me watching out for you, then?”
“No.” The corners of her mouth curved upward in a hint of a smile. “It’s sweet of you, actually.”
Sweet? He’d been called many things in his life. “Sweet” definitely did not make the list.
“Doesn’t matter.” He stood and tested his balance, but stumbled. He braced himself against the tree. “First, I’ll deal with Lawrence. Then, I’m going to move on from this colony.”
She opened her mouth but Vin returned, pushing a low branch out of this way. “They lost the scent trail on the main road, but they’re going to continue to search the area. I had a brief conversation with our liaison in Montpelier, and an Amber Alert is going to be issued.”
Jett blinked. “An Amber Alert? For a demon?”
“Not every available station will broadcast it, but yes. We do have some supporters out there.”
Lexine stood, maneuvered toward Jett over the sprawling roots of the old tree, and slipped. He caught her arm, but let go as soon as she had her balance. Her gaze lingered on him. “Thanks.”
Vin took a step closer. “I’ve called for cars, weapons, supplies, and my best available Guardians. They’ll be here momentarily. Where are we going?”
“New Hampshire.”
“Care to be more specific?”
“Not really, no. I don’t like you and I don’t trust you.” He sighed. As a youth, everything he’d done had been about self-preservation. As an adult, he’d worked for the poacher, under threat of being returned to the laboratory. His job had been to spy on, and be suspicious of, everyone, all the time.
But what would he do without their vehicle? How would he get Bryce out safety and kill Lawrence, without the other demons to occupy the security personnel and the rest of the staff? “Damn it.”
“We’re on the same side here, Jett,” Vin said, his tone tense.
After muttering more curses, Jett said, “Lawrence’s lab is in the White Mountains region of New Hampshire, a no-stop-light, more-moose-than-people town called Dearly.”
“What kind of security and defenses are we walking into?”
“Lawrence has the financial resources for substantial security, but he is a civilian and his research is a one-man show, so we’re not looking at an impregnable military bunker. Fences, guards, cameras, dogs. Of course, I haven’t been back to Lawrence’s lab in nearly six years. He may have made improvements.”
“We’ll be prepared,” Vin said.
“Is this the part where you tell me to go back to the colony and wait?” Lex moved to stand directly in front of Vin. No way she’d let him leave her behind. “The forecast calls for a sunny day. I can drive and spare someone a migraine.”
Vin’s lips thinned, but he nodded. “I can’t argue with that. This is going to be a bitch of a drive.”
Headlights pierced the foliage. Jett walked next to Lexine out from under the trees onto the logging road. Three black SUVs pulled to a stop. Overhead, the sunrise smeared half the sky with pink and gold, the brightness already uncomfortable. The daylight glinted off specks of gold in Lexine’s pale copper irises. Her eyes were a fraction too big for her face—a beautiful feature on a female. Resisting the urge to stare, Jett pulled his sunglasses from his pocket.
“I’m driving.” Lexine shooed the driver out of the first vehicle. She got behind the wheel and adjusted the mirrors. Vin slid into the backseat.
Jett sat in the front passenger seat. “Do you drive in human traffic often? We need to travel the main roads to save time.”
“Often enough. It’s a good skill to have, so I practice.” She shifted into drive with a shaking hand and hit the gas far too hard.
The force of her sharp U-turn pressed Jett against the passenger door and the tires skidded in the dirt. “Are you sure you’re all right to drive?”
“I’m fine. If I sat around and waited, I’d lose my mind. I need to help. Besides, I know that’s what Jac would want me to do.”
“Okay.” Bravery, a quality even more captivating than her eyes. He cleared his throat and averted his gaze to the windows. The SUVs sported tinted glass, thank goodness, but it would still be difficult to focus on the road for a long period of time in the sunlight. He kept his sunglasses on.
They drove in silence. The logging road met the wider dirt road that connected the colony to the rest of the world. Twenty miles later, unseen Guardians opened the heavy gates that marked the border between Sanctuary’s land and Vermont state land. The scenery remained the same—nothing but trees.
Tears slid down Lexine’s cheek. Jett sighed and the air whistled past his fangs. “If it makes you feel any better, Jac didn’t suffer. Neither did the other children. No one survives wounds like that for more than a few seconds. And I killed the two individuals who wielded the knives against your brother and the children.”
“The only thing that’ll make me feel better is getting Bryce back and seeing Lawrence pay for those murders.”
“I doubt vengeance will truly make either of us feel better,” he muttered. “But vengeance we will have.”
…
Welcome to Dearly, New Hampshire, Established 1761.
Lexine’s fingers hurt. She relaxed her white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel and glanced at the clock. They’d been on the road for three hours. The late-morning sun gleamed overhead.
Vin’s men had called a half hour ago. Their search of the area around Sanctuary, where they’d lost the scent trail of the kidnapper’s car, had turned up no leads. No credible responses to the Amber Alert, either.
“Where to now?”
Jett, who’d spent most of the trip in silence, stretched and adjusted his sunglasses. His voice dripped acid. “Home sweet home. Take this left.”
“Here?” Lexine turned. “The Dearly Motel?”
“Yeah. Dearly is a small town, but a tourist trap. Law-rence’s people won’t notice three black SUVs with tinted windows at a place like this, but on the back roads closer to the lab, we’d draw immediate suspicion. We’ll walk the rest of the way through the woods behind the building.”
She parked near the few other cars, and the two other SUVs parked nearby. The motel, a single-story, L-shaped building, lacked the run-down face of similar establishments. White paint gleamed. Hanging pots full of mixed flowers hung every ten feet along the porch that ran the length of the building.
Vin leaned forward between the two seats. “Lex, I need you to stay here. I can’t have you in the middle of this confrontation.”
“I’ll stay,” she muttered. She knew better than to be a distraction for the Guardians or put herself in danger. Bryce had already lost one sibling. So long as she was nearby, she could tolerate waiting on the side.
“Good. Thank you.” Vin turned to Jett. “I’m going to the motel office to book a room, so the humans don’t tow us. I’ll meet you and the others in a moment. They have weapons for you.”
Vin got out and Jett opened his door to follow, but she grasped his arm. “Jett.”
He stared at her hand and gently pulled his arm away. “If Bryce is here, I’ll bring him back. If he’s not here, I’ll find him, and bring him back. I promise you.”
“Thank you.” Her voice trembled. “Be safe, all right?”
He paused, looking for all the world like no one had ever expressed concern for him before, and he didn’t know what to make of it. “I will.”
Chapter Four
A
fter accepting a gun and extra ammunition from the Guardians—though he preferred his knife and his fangs when it came to fighting—Jett led the procession through the woods. They discussed basic strategy as they traversed the undergrowth, quick and silent. One of the Guardians, Vin’s fastest runner and a skilled spy, listened to Jett’s directions and ran ahead to scout, vanishing in seconds.
Jett had been in this section of forest only once before but knew it well. The previous trip—after Lawrence sold Jett to a group of archangel poachers headed by Thornton—played through his memory like a video in reverse.
At that gnarled old maple tree, Thornton had shoved Jett to the ground and smashed his fangs with a rock. At that stream, Jett had tried to run after stopping for a much-needed sip of water, only to get backhanded by his new “owner.” Here, in the section of white pines near the house, Jett had hoped Thornton would be kind, that he’d taken Jett away from Lawrence as a mercy, that a better life awaited.
Jett cursed under his breath and slowed the pace.
Ahead, the trees thinned and the forest brightened with light. An involuntary growl ripped from his throat. Thornton had been dealt with eleven months ago. The poacher had wronged the archangels in far worse ways than he’d hurt Jett, and Wren had finished off the wretched human.
Now, it was Lawrence’s turn to die. Jett’s turn for abso-lution.
A night raid would have been beneficial, but he’d be damned if Bryce would have to wait. Besides, Lawrence wouldn’t expect a noontime assault from demons.
He tracked the scout’s scent and climbed a massive pine tree. Vin followed, and at the top, the three of them had an unobstructed view of the house. The brick colonial sat on the crest of a hill, surrounded by a brick wall.
“There’ll be numerous cameras, and he always kept dogs in the yard…” Jett paused, straining to see the details of the distant building. Even with his sunglasses, the sunlight added a washed-out quality to his vision as it beat down on the scene. The light glinted off haphazard edges of broken glass in a window. A knot formed in his stomach. “That’s not right.”