“Don’t worry,” said the other kid, whose face looked smooshed as flat as if he were pressing it against a pane of glass. “We’ll wash the bloody bills and put them back. If we can’t clean them, Joseph said he’d replace them for you.”
She gave the young man a nod and trailed after Ronan and Pepper.
They passed through a pair of glass doors, into a long hallway about ten feet wide. Waiting just on the other side of the doors was a tall man with dark hair going gray at the temples. He held a soft wad of purple fabric in his hand. His hazel eyes dipped to Pepper, then shot back up to Justice.
“I’m Joseph Rayd,” he said. “Welcome to Dabyr.”
She noted that he didn’t extend his hand in greeting, which suited her just fine.
As he spoke, two more big guys stepped up behind him, eyes hard and mistrustful. Both wore strange, iridescent necklaces that hugged their thick throats. She didn’t need any introductions to know that they were Joseph’s backup, and even if they didn’t have the empty-eyed look of the men she’d killed earlier, she would bet they were just as deadly. Probably even more so.
“This is Justice, the woman I told you about,” Ronan said. He nodded to the child. “This is Pepper Louise Sullivan, who is in need of a proper dinner, but is also quite fond of ice cream.” He crouched beside her and in a low voice asked, “Will you show him your special mark?”
Pepper pulled up the blood-smeared sleeve of her shirt to reveal a red, ring-shaped birthmark on her inner wrist.
Instantly, the mood of the men shifted from mistrust to shocked disbelief.
Protective instincts Justice didn’t even know she had rose up and had her taking Pepper’s hand. She pulled the child behind her and demanded to know, “What does that mean?”
“She’s a Theronai,” Ronan said. “Like these men and many others here. She’s one of our own.”
“Does that mean I can have ice cream?” Pepper asked from behind Justice.
Joseph looked Justice square in the eyes—something most men never could manage without flinching. “We would never hurt her. Every man here would die to keep her safe. You have no idea how precious she is and how grateful we are to you for finding her.”
“She stays with me,” Justice said.
“Okay,” Joseph agreed. “I imagine you could use a meal as well. Why don’t we talk over dinner?”
She almost told him that she didn’t have time to waste but realized there was no itch in the back of her skull, no pressure to keep moving on to the next task.
The sensation of being free to linger was both odd and heady. Not to mention the fact that she was starving. She couldn’t remember the last real meal she’d had, and she was certain that it had been crappy fast food eaten behind the wheel, flying down the highway at ninety.
“Okay. Dinner. But then we’re out of here.”
“Is Mama coming?” Pepper asked.
Justice’s heart lurched in her chest and bled. She knew there were things an adult should say to a child whose mother had just been killed in front of her, but Justice didn’t know what those things were. She wasn’t good with kids. Or adults. Or people in general. She was better off alone.
But what about Pepper? Could Justice really leave her here with strangers? Just because they hadn’t done bad things yet didn’t mean they wouldn’t.
Justice checked in with the fates, searching for their opinion, but they were uncharacteristically silent, leaving her to figure things out on her own. The bastards.
Ronan crouched beside Pepper and took her slender shoulders in his big hands. “Your mother isn’t coming, honey. But it’s okay. We’re going to take care of you. You don’t have to worry about anything.”
“But I want Mama.” Her chin trembled and tears magnified her big, blue eyes.
Ronan slid a finger over her brow to brush her tangled hair away from her face. “Of course, you do. But everything is going to be just fine. You’ll see. Would you like to meet some of the other kids here?”
The tears dried up as the tension drained from her face. “Okay.”
“Let’s see who might be in the dining room. Maybe you can make a new friend,” he said.
“She needs to change first,” Joseph said, holding out the soft purple dress. “She shouldn’t be around the other kids with blood on her clothes. Most of them have seen more than their fair share already.”
“For me?” Pepper snatched the dress and hugged it as if in love.
Joseph showed them to a restroom toward the end of the hall. He looked at the child. “Do you need help to change?”
She wrinkled her nose at him in response, then rushed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her with an independent flourish.
Joseph caught Ronan’s gaze. “How bad?”
“Her mother is dead, but Pepper is not yet able to understand what that means. She thinks it’s temporary. I’ve been easing her fear and worry, but it’s not healthy for me to numb her for long.”
“What about a father?”
Ronan shook his head. “There was no memory of one in her mind.”
“You read her mind?” Justice asked, appalled.
“How else was I going to learn what happened? She’s too young to make sense of what she saw. She still thinks her mother will wake up, like in a video game.”
“You stay out of her head,” Justice warned. “I don’t want you fucking with her mind.”
A flash of hurt flickered in his pale blue gaze, then vanished. “All I’m doing is helping. She needs to eat and sleep so she can face what’s happened and begin to heal.”
“This isn’t the first orphaned child we’ve dealt with,” Joseph said, his tone defensive. “Ronan knows what he’s doing.”
Did he? Justice had no idea. She did, however, know that she was clueless when it came to kids. Hell, she couldn’t even remember being one.
Pepper came out, pleased with her new dress and tall, striped socks. The fabric was a soft jersey knit. The dress that fell to the top of her socks and sported some cartoon character Justice didn’t recognize. To her, the blonde could only have been called Princess Glitter Bomb based on the amount of sparkly paint and plastic gems covering the front. Still, Pepper seemed to love it, so who was Justice to judge.
Maybe these people did know what they were doing when it came to taking care of orphans.
A pile of bloody clothes lay on the tile floor in the bathroom, completely forgotten, along with one sparkly shoe stuffed with rumpled socks.
Pepper needed shoes and her hair was tangled, but all traces of blood were gone.
“You are beautiful,” Joseph said with a wide grin. “Let’s go find you some friends. We’ll let you try on shoes after you eat. We even have some that light up.”
Pepper clapped her hands in anticipation and gave a little jump.
Joseph led the way to an open dining area that was big enough to feed at least two or three hundred at once. Tables were covered in cheery checkered cloths and flickering tealight candles in colorful jars. The ceiling overhead was glass, which reflected the warm, earthy tones beneath. The smell of rosemary and garlic filled the space, along with something sweet and citrusy.
Dozens of people sat at the tables, talking and laughing as if they were out at a casual restaurant with friends. Several tables were filled with children, who’d segregated themselves by age. Teens took up three tables, their plates piled high. Tweens gathered at another pair of tables, watching the teens with open fascination. The little ones sat lined up on benches along a long, low table sized just for them.
Some of them were smiling and talking animatedly, while others were quieter and more sedated. They were all bigger than Pepper, but not by much. As soon as she saw them, her face lit up.
“Can I eat over there?” she asked Ronan, who looked at Justice for permission.
How could she say no? The poor kid had been through hell, and while she might not have been able to grasp what had happened, one day she would. Maybe o
ne of the kids over there had been through the same thing. Maybe one of them could help her cope with the loss of her mother in ways Justice never could.
Besides, it wasn’t like she could drag Pepper along with her, into the chaos and gunfire that was her life. It had taken Justice a minute to realize it, but her life was no place for a child.
She couldn’t get attached, and this place, with its thick, high walls and laughing kids was as good as any to drop off an orphan.
Wasn’t it?
“Sure,” Justice said. “Go ahead.”
Pepper raced off on stockinged feet and squeezed into a seat beside the youngest girl there—a redhead with fuzzy braids and a wash of freckles across her pale cheeks. She offered Pepper a smile and half of her sandwich.
Joseph led them to a table a few yards away, but well out of earshot of the kids. His two silent guards didn’t join them, but she could feel them hovering nearby, watching her for signs of violence.
Little did they know, she was doing the same, only with a lot more people. The place was bustling during the dinner rush, with at least a hundred bodies present.
“Are they all orphans?” Justice asked as she watched Pepper make herself at home.
“Most of them, but not all,” Ronan said.
“Too many,” Joseph added.
A middle-aged woman with rosy cheeks and a sweaty brow came over to their table. She read the short list of options for dinner.
Joseph ordered coffee, Ronan asked for a salad, and Justice opted for a ribeye with all the trimmings.
If they were going to kill her, she at least wanted to be well fed when it happened.
The waitress bustled off. A second later, a stunning woman with feline features and yellow-blond hair came to their table. She was tall like Justice, but with a delicate build. She sat close to Joseph, who offered her a welcoming smile full of shared secrets.
“This is my wife, Lyka,” he said. “Lyka, this is Justice…what was your last name?”
“Don’t have one,” she said.
Lyka extended a slender hand across the table. “Nice to meet you.”
Justice saw no reason to be rude before her steak arrived, so she shook the woman’s hand.
Her skin tingled, like it carried a faint electrical charge. Her pale golden eyes went distant for a second before she let go and turned to her husband and nodded. “We’re good.”
“You’re sure?” Joseph asked.
“Positive. The only thing she wants is freedom.” Lyka frowned. “I’m not sure from what, but she means us no harm as long as we don’t strike first.”
Irritation raked beneath Justice’s skin. “That handshake was some kind of test? Why not just ask me if I’m here to screw you?”
Joseph’s hazel eyes held hers. “We do what we must to protect our own. Lyka has a gift for knowing what people want. If she says you don’t want to hurt us, I trust her.”
“Well, I don’t. What I want or don’t want is my own damn business. Next time you decide to pull some magical mindfuck, why don’t you just ask me to leave first. I don’t need to be here anymore than you need me to stay.”
“I need you,” Ronan said. His tone was clipped and angry.
She turned to him and saw that his ire was aimed directly at Joseph.
“Do you really think I would have brought her here if I wasn’t sure it was safe for her to be around the children?”
“All I know is that you’ve been searching for her for weeks, and that you’ve disobeyed orders to return home to do so. After Connal’s betrayal, and after what happened to Rory, you’ll have to forgive me for needing a second opinion.”
“I am not Connal,” Ronan growled.
Justice didn’t know who Connal was, but she was oddly curious to find out.
The middle-aged waitress brought Pepper a bowl of macaroni and cheese. She grinned up, then dove in with relish. The little redhead sitting next to her picked up a spoon and joined in the feast. Both girls were chatting nonstop between bites, uncaring that they were talking with their mouths full.
It was so…normal. So innocent. Justice’s world was stuffed full of blood and violence, full of compulsion and an endless string of tasks she had no hope of understanding. And yet here, inside this stone fortress filled with orphans, vampires and women who knew what you wanted with a single touch, Justice felt at peace for the first time she could ever remember. Literally. There had not been one true moment of quiet in her mind until now.
It was a gift she would relish for as long as it lasted.
“Are there other people here like me?” she heard herself ask before she could think better of it.
“Maybe. What are you?” Lyka asked as casually as if she were asking if Justice liked chocolate.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly.
“I think she’s like Hope,” Ronan said with a kind of reverence in his tone she didn’t understand.
Both sets of eyes on the other side of the table widened in shock.
“Who is Hope?” Justice asked.
“Are you sure?” Joseph asked at the same time.
“Not yet,” Ronan said to Joseph, then his gaze fell on her and his next words were clearly meant for her alone. “But even a man like me can dream.”
***
Ronan had revealed too much. He’d let his excitement get the best of him and told Justice about Hope before it was time.
Their food arrived, but Justice hadn’t touched hers yet. Instead, she’d watched him with those silvery-green eyes as if she could see all the way through him.
Maybe she could.
“I want to meet Hope,” she told him.
“Of course,” Ronan said.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Joseph said. He sipped his coffee, then slid the mug over to his wife to share.
“Why not?” Justice demanded.
Lyka laid a hand on her husband’s arm. “I told you she’s no threat.”
“No, you told me that she wants to be free. From who or what is still a question. For all we know her freedom comes at the price of lives here.”
“It doesn’t,” Justice said through clenched teeth. “I may have been forced to do some bad shit, but none of it was by choice.”
“She brought us that live demon a few weeks ago when we needed one,” Lyka reminded him. “And she found Pepper. We owe her.”
Joseph’s mouth tightened. “I owe a lot of people a lot of things, but these kids are at the top of my list. Everyone else can get in line behind them.”
Ronan set down his fork as he fought a sudden surge of anger. He ignored Joseph and turned to Justice. “Who forced you to do bad things? What did they make you do?”
Her expression shut down hard and fast, leaving him guessing her emotions. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Tell me.”
She sliced into her steak and filled her mouth and mumbled, “Can’t talk. Eating.”
“I’m not letting this drop,” he said.
She ignored him.
Joseph recovered from the daggers his wife was staring at him and let out a long sigh. “Fine. Tell us about yourself, Justice. Let me get to know you a little, then we’ll decide if meeting with Hope is a good idea or not.”
“Nothing to tell,” she said.
“Why don’t you have a last name?” Lyka asked.
“Didn’t have a first one either when I woke up.”
“When you woke up?”
Justice stopped eating and toyed with the buttery innards of a baked potato. “I woke up ten years ago with no memory, no clothes, no nothing.”
The quiver in her voice made Ronan’s heart clench. “That must have been scary.”
“I managed.”
“How did you manage?” Joseph asked, though his tone was gentler now than it had been before.
“I had help. Kind of.”
“Care to elaborate?” Lyka asked.
“Not really, but apparently that’s the price of admi
ssion to see Hope. So, here goes.” She pulled in a long breath and took a while letting it out, like she was putting off the inevitable for as long as she could. “I get these feelings, like someone needs me to do something. I never know why and sometimes don’t even know what I’m supposed to do until I’m doing it. I’ve tried to fight the urges, but I can’t. Whoever is calling the shots makes me suffer if I don’t play along.”
“Who is it?” Ronan asked.
“Not a damn clue, but whoever they are, I’d like to kick them square in whatever is between their legs.” She trailed off with an angry, “Fucking fates.”
“You think it’s fate?” Joseph asked, skeptical.
“Or karma, or God, or little green men on Mars. Who the hell knows? All I know is that if I don’t do what they want, I suffer.”
“What kind of things do they want you to do?” Ronan asked.
“This last time, I thought I was trading a dusty old book for some cash and a ring, but it turned out that the real reason I was there was Pepper.”
“These fates, or whatever they are, knew she would be there?”
“I guess. It’s not like I can talk to them. All I get is the urge to act and punishment for resisting. And the assholes always want something. I can’t remember the last time I had a day to myself.”
Ronan couldn’t imagine a life like that. It was no wonder she was so nomadic, flitting from one task to the next without any time to rest between.
He kept his voice level out of sheer willpower. “What kind of punishment?”
“Pain, mostly. My brain will itch, then if I ignore it, the headaches come, then dizziness, nausea and the general need to curl up and die.” She finally looked at him, and when she did, he saw desolation there. “I nearly killed myself trying to run away from you. Guess the fates want to rope you into their twisted games too.”
He put his hand on hers in an effort to comfort her, but instead, he got swept up in the smooth softness of her skin.
She flinched, let him touch for a second, then pulled away and steeled her spine.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I cope. But it would be really nice to meet someone who’s been through what I have and come out on the other side. If this Hope chick can tell me how to get the fates to back off, maybe I could have something vaguely resembling a life. That’s all I want.”
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