by Gaja J. Kos
Aric opened his mouth, and I could taste the lie coming out.
So I stopped him before it could. “You need to start telling me the truth, Aric, or I swear, I’ll drag your ass into interrogation.”
Though my words came out without their usual bite but a vulnerability that was sincere—vulnerability I wished would get through to Aric—that inconceivable, all-consuming warmth Aric had been exuding shut off as if someone had flipped a switch.
Ice spread in its stead, sending a shiver down my skin.
Aric rose in a movement sharp as a blade and walked over to the window. His back to me, he gazed outside, a visibly painful tightness straining his shoulders.
He braced his hands on the windowsill but didn’t dip his head as I’d half expected him to. He kept staring outside, the sun catching on his dark hair.
Transfixed, all I could do was watch him until his voice, almost too soft for me to hear, brushed against the glass.
“The past is catching up with me.”
Chapter 14
The articles, the note written in blood on Aric’s floor, Aric’s own evasiveness when it came to his pre-Whiskey-Jet-Preachers years, they all crashed together in my head and set off an explosion that left no corner untouched.
The past is catching up with me.
I bit my tongue, waiting for him to say more, but Aric just looked at me over his shoulder and shook his head.
Utter stillness swelled in the room—then cracked.
Resolutely ignoring that I was still wearing Aric’s shirt and nothing beneath, I climbed out of bed. The detonations kept going off inside my skull, sparking, then feeding my anger. If he thought I’d settle for that admission…
I walked into the stream of afternoon sunlight pouring through the window and faced the rigid vampire. “Is it the girls you were draining in the fifties?”
A tick pulsed in his jaw.
“Well?” I demanded. “Is that the past that’s catching up with you?”
Ice-dark fire burned in his eyes, but I didn’t relent. I kept staring right back at him, refusing to lose again.
“I saw you in a photograph near the two girls who wound up dead, Aric. Was it you who killed them?”
When he maintained his stoic silence, I knew I’d make good on my promise and drag his ass to ICRA if I had to. This wasn’t what I wanted. Far from it. But this wasn’t just about him any longer.
His past had entwined with my present, with the lives of countless others who had nothing to do with whatever shady shit Aric was hiding, yet were impacted by it nonetheless. If Aric knew something about the people who took me, the people, I suspected, who had kidnapped and cursed Emilia…
There was no way I was letting that information go.
Several tense moments passed, both of us flirting with that jagged, unstable edge—the only thing keeping us on this side of erupting. But I could feel the rubble breaking off beneath our feet, the ground eroding—
Aric looked away. “I never murdered anyone.”
His voice came out so carefully controlled that the relief his words should have brought never rose.
“But?” I asked.
Aric ground his teeth and met my gaze. “But I’m far from innocent.”
The statement sucker punched me even as, deep down, I’d seen it coming. There was something in his delivery, though, that made me ease back a step.
“Tell me,” I said.
Aric hesitated. He raked a hand through his hair, the curses he didn’t utter written all over his face. “I didn’t want you to get caught up in my mess.”
It was almost hard to rein in a tart laugh.
“If this”—I gestured to myself, alluding to what brought me here in the first place, the state he’d found me in on that damn stairwell—“is part of your past catching up with you, then I’m already involved.”
“You don’t have to get dragged into this, Gina.”
Anger flamed at the back of my skull and ignited the very air in my lungs. “You know what, you’re coming with me to ICRA.”
“I haven’t done anything.” He threw his hands up, then stormed away to pace by the foot of the bed.
I crossed my arms and glared at him. “You’re obstructing an investigation, Aric. That’s enough cause for me to bring you in. But”—I sighed, softening—“that’s not why we’re going. Just humor me, all right?”
Toning down my temper had been the right thing to do, because something shifted in Aric. He looked at me, and, for the first time, I could see the sorrow lurking beneath the protective, defensive layers he’d put up.
“Let me get you some clothes.” He walked over to the floor-to-ceiling closet and pulled out a pair of shorts and a neatly folded black tee. “There’s a fresh towel in the bathroom already.”
I accepted the clothes. No point in denying I needed a shower, and it wasn’t as if Aric could bail on me while I was in the bathroom, given that we were in his own home. Besides, some time for him to cool down could prove to be beneficial. Not just for what I had in mind, but us.
Under different circumstances, I’d never take the risk of someone walling-up again, but what had just passed between us—it felt significant. The barrier Aric shattered would stay down. There were still a whole bunch of them lurking beneath it that I’d have to break through, but right now, instead of frustrating me, I sensed they’d work in my favor, preventing him from feeling too exposed.
After I thanked him for the clothes, I strode into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I set the clean clothes on the broad white marble counter, turned on the spray in the shower, and stripped out of the shirt. My twists had definitely seen better days, but since I didn’t have an appointment with my hairdresser until Monday, I wrapped them up in the shirt, then made quick work of emptying my complaining bladder before I finally slunk under the shower.
The warm water running down my body felt absolutely divine, but I didn’t linger any longer than was absolutely necessary. I toweled down, then put on Aric’s clothes. They were far too large for me, though the shorts had a nifty string I could tighten to keep them from shimmying down my hips, and the T-shirt was cut nicely enough to not have my boobs spilling out at the first uncontrolled move. I rinsed my mouth with water, untied the shirt from around my head, and threw it in the laundry bin, then padded out into the bedroom.
My gaze caught on a pair of socks and shoes Aric must have laid out for me. A small smile graced my lips. There was no way they would fit, but the gesture alone, lined with Aric’s thoughtfulness, softened even more of those hard edges I’d been holding on to.
“If it’s all right with you”—I looked at the vampire standing a bit awkwardly just behind the bundle—“I think I’ll go barefoot.”
He glanced from my feet to the shoes and scratched the back of his neck.
One of those smiles that always got me broke across his face. “Yeah, yeah, of course.”
He picked up the shoes and stashed them at the bottom of the wardrobe. I was pretty damn sure that wasn’t where he usually kept them, just another tiny glimpse into his rare, normally hidden awkwardness that could tear down my defenses to the very last.
“Do you want me to get you something to eat before we leave?” he asked when he straightened. “Coffee, maybe?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you stalling?”
When he didn’t answer, a kernel of my previous annoyance leaked back into my mood, but I reminded myself that Aric was still cooperating, even if reluctantly.
“I’ll eat at the office,” I said. “Come on, time to go.”
As soon as we parked in the visitor’s lot at HQ, I marched Aric into the building. A couple of familiar faces greeted me, none of them paying much attention to my baggy-clothed, barefooted state. Just one of the perks of working for an organization comprised entirely of supes.
We went through the usual security checks, then, preferring to avoid being stuck in an elevator with him after the silent car ride, I guid
ed Aric up the stairs. The short climb didn’t leave me achy, only further testifying that I’d made a good fucking comeback while I’d been out. The memory of breaking my own bones slithered through me, but I shook it off. That whole experience was something to process at a later time.
When we reached the proper wing and entered the cell-lined hallway, I nearly bumped into Mara, our resident curse expert.
“Sorry.” I stepped back, though I wasn’t sure if that was an improvement in the whole not getting into someone’s personal space sphere since Aric’s presence immediately blanketed my back.
Mara didn’t move, continuing to stand sentry before the cells, but she did grace me with a smile. “No worries, Gina.”
“How are they?” I asked.
“Both in human form, but still sleeping. Their vitals are good, though, and the magic currently dormant.” She eyed Aric behind me. “Bringing a visitor?”
“Just up to the glass, if that’s all right with you.”
Mara nodded and let us pass. In the distance, I spotted another of her kin sitting guard by the cell to keep an eye on the fortification spells. I didn’t know the witch—she had to have been one of the new blood ICRA had roped in over the summer—although I’d have no true problem doing this in front of an audience, intuition stopped me halfway down the corridor.
I faced Aric, who seemed to be having a hard time figuring out what we were doing here.
Good. His insecurity played into my plan.
“Aric, I understand wanting to deal with your past alone. I really fucking do. Sometimes, letting other people in…” I shrugged. “It’s like picking off the scabs of an old wound and prying it open, maybe even tearing it further apart. But whatever it is that you’re hiding, it isn’t about you anymore.”
His frown broadcasted the question simmering beneath his otherwise immobile features.
I could have waited for him to put it all together—my earlier mentions of obstructing an investigation, what I’d said to Finn over the phone when Aric and I had still been running away from that wretched torture house. But Aric seemed almost hypnotized by my words, caught in the suspense of what I would reveal.
So I said, “I wasn’t the first person my kidnappers took.”
Surprise shifted something deep in his eyes.
“I—I thought…” He blinked and snapped his mouth shut.
Whatever he’d been on the verge of admitting, it seemed like he still wasn’t on board with me hearing it.
Instead of letting my annoyance run free, however, I said, “The same witch who got me kidnapped and cursed a werewolf. A young woman, Emilia, who came to Berlin to start a new life.”
“Is she…” The tightness around his eyes finished the question for him.
“Emilia is alive, but…she’s not well. Aric, the witch hijacked Emilia’s control, stole away her ability to be at one with her wolf, and turned her into a rampant beast who slaughters everyone in her path when she shifts.”
Letting that sink in, I marched down to the cell. I briefly nodded at the newbie witch in greeting while Aric caught up.
His gaze landed on the two werewolves huddled together in human form on the cot. I ignored how my heart twisted.
“That’s Emilia,” I said, a lump weaseling its way into my throat and shaking some of the strength from my voice, “and the werewolf beside her is Dominik. My brother.”
Aric snapped his face toward me with a speed only a supernatural could pull off without snapping their own neck.
Fighting against pits of hurt that seemed adamant to reopen, I pressed on. “Dominik suffers from the same curse as Emilia. It might not have been this witch in particular who infected him, since she’s long dead, but this is the first time I came across any kind of magic even remotely like this since it happened.”
I glanced toward Emilia and my brother, then refocused my gaze on the hard planes of Aric’s face as he observed the two sleeping werewolves.
“I have to find these people, Aric. My brother has been locked up at my aunts’ estate for the past nine years, suffering through the shifts he has no power over. I can’t let them do this to anyone else. And however slim the chance, I have to try and save my brother.”
Aric, stiffer than I thought a person could be, even a vamp, looked from the cell to me. “I had no idea…”
“Yeah, well, now you do,” I said dryly, then let some of that vulnerability I’d been hiding show. “If you know anything, Aric, anything at all that can get me closer to that witch…”
I pressed my lips together and sighed.
My speech about old wounds truly hadn’t been some fancy narrative I’d spun to get to Aric. Just preparing to speak the words fucking hurt.
But I pushed myself straight into the grasp of pain.
“Dominik’s curse is getting worse. Ever since we found Emilia, something’s changed, and…and I’m fucking terrified because as hard as it was before, the curse was still predictable. Now, through…” I swallowed. “I have to help him, Aric. I have to do whatever the fuck I can.”
Aric tipped his head toward the ceiling, then exhaled, long and hard, through his nose before he locked his gaze on mine.
“You’re trying to save your brother.” A dark, solemn weight entered his eyes. “I’m getting threats from mine.”
Chapter 15
“Your brother?” I gaped at him. I didn’t even know Aric had a brother.
Aric’s jaw pulsed, but before he could say anything—if he even would have—the witch who’d been perfectly silent at her station up until this point cleared her throat. Right.
“Let’s take this somewhere else, all right?” I said to Aric.
He looked hesitant as fuck but nodded. To say I had to fight tooth and claw not to wrap my arms around him and pull him close would have been a severe understatement. Aric’s reluctance had shifted from its icy shell into a raw fragility that pulled on my damn heartstrings.
Answers, I reminded myself. I need those fucking answers.
I thanked the witch by the cell, then did the same with Mara once we reached the end of the hallway. She closed the door behind us gently, yet I couldn’t help but feel as if a cord had been severed. Like we were cast into a different dimension, filled with haunted echoes that bounced off stark walls in a cacophony of sounds and images.
Dominik and Emilia sleeping in a fortified cell under twenty-four-hour observation.
Aric’s words.
The pain he’d tried to conceal but failed.
And once more, I found myself in a place where the only right path was the one leading forward.
Aric and I went up a flight of stairs, then, as if by silent agreement, or simply feeling ourselves and each other clearly for the first time, stopped on the empty landing between levels. Silence wrapped around us in thick cords. Only that cacophony persisted in the background like an echo of a surrounding storm.
I searched for the words, but shit, I didn’t even know where to start.
You’re trying to save your brother. I’m getting threats from mine.
I gave myself a hard mental slap. The basics. Start with the fucking basics.
Standing close to Aric, I braced my shoulder against the wall. “So, you have a brother?”
“Vampiric brother.” Aric fidgeted with one of his silver rings. “Milton and I share the same maker.”
“And the witch?”
Aric’s nostrils flared. Rocking on the souls of his feet, he glanced aside—his profile stark and painfully beautiful from his angle.
Again, I had to wrangle with the impulse to reach out. He was a grown-ass vampire. But I also knew how hard facing your own damn shadow could be.
A telephone rang from the floor above.
“I’ll tell you, just…” Aric met my gaze. “Not here.”
When he gestured to the stairwell anyone could barge into at any time, I nodded, then led him toward the interview rooms. Not the best of locations for an intimate talk, but few other spots w
ithin HQ offered that kind of privacy. Atmosphere had to come second.
We strode down the corridor when a hint of a hint of a familiar sunny aroma prickled my nostrils. I couldn’t even give Aric a heads up before Finn rounded the corner.
“Gina.” He threw his arms around me, cradling me so tight it took my mind and body a second to catch up with what was happening.
“What,” I drawled as I pulled away, though it was impossible to keep a straight face at the sight of my partner, “thought some asshole would get the better of me that easily?”
Finn laughed, but the sound didn’t quite match the strain lurking beneath his features.
He’d seen the house. The chair. It wouldn’t take him long to figure out just what I had to do to escape.
And how lucky I’d been I’d even managed to pull it off.
He flicked his gaze at Aric. “Thanks. Again.”
Something passed between them, and I got the distinct feeling they’d had a pretty long talk while I’d been out.
“Where are you rushing off to?” I asked, drifting back closer to Aric without really meaning to.
The old Gina would have probably hissed and clawed like a cat over water. Right now though, I just didn’t have it in me to fight this whole Aric being my gravitational center angle. Or dwell on the deeper consequences of me even admitting it.
I refocused on Finn. “Did you find anything at the scene?”
“I’m waiting on an update.” Finn pulled his phone from his pocket, briefly checking the screen. “Jorn is still overseeing the forensics working the scene, but so far, the place came back clean.”
Disappointing but…kind of predictable. Someone who’d kept Emilia captive for months and used her as their own murder beast we’d been unable to track down wouldn’t make rookie mistakes. Yes, Emilia had gotten away in the end. But if anything, my gut insisted the failure would instill even more precaution into the witch.
“Any record of whom the house belongs to?” I asked.