Miko shot Burke death-daggers from his eyes. Burke returned them. “What the fuck!” they shouted in unison.
Burke then launched into a tirade about Miko’s lack of testicles, and Miko came back with a rant about Burke’s lack of a brain. Insults were traded… then shoves… then punches. Before long, they were both breathless and sore, battered and bruised. But at least the heat of their rage had been cooled.
Catching his breath, Burke clenched and released his bloodied fists. His knuckles cracked and popped, the pain just intense enough to make him grit his teeth.
He knew they’d both expected it to come to this. They had never been on the same team, yet they’d pretty much chosen to ignore it -- up until this point. Couldn’t anymore. Miko was the law. He lived the law. And he lived by the law.
Burke, on the other hand, had once had a great deal of respect for the law, but not any longer. His esteem had disappeared when the law -- and the organizations representing it -- had turned against him, despite his innocence. Justice was a myth. When it came to crime and punishment, finding the guilty party wasn’t as important as playing to the demands of politicians in the UMN. The Excoluni was a puppet organization.
The sad truth was it didn’t matter whether he was innocent or not. A judge had determined he was. Some bastard who had only one priority -- winning his next term on the bench -- had determined what facts would be presented in his case. A lowly citizen of the UMN, given no real legal representation, was powerless to change the fictitious reality that power-hungry piece of shit had created.
It was amazing the way the truth could be stretched and reshaped by the manipulation of facts.
“What did you do to Szader?” Miko snapped.
“No need to get all pissy. He’s still alive. I just bought myself a little time.”
“I should take you in. You know that, don’t you?”
“If you do, then Sylvie’s as good as dead.”
“You don’t know shit. Dead? What makes you think she’s in danger? She could have gone to a friend’s --”
“You don’t believe that any more than I do,” Burke interrupted. Dvorak didn’t honestly believe that, did he? “Come on. Use your fucking head. She would’ve left a note, a phone message, something to let us know where she was.”
They traded more hostile glares. Miko was the first to break eye contact. He combed his fingers through his hair and dropped his gaze to the ground. “Yeah.”
“I say it’s time you made a choice.”
Miko lifted his eyes and slowly nodded. “It’s been a long time coming.”
“You can’t straddle the fence. Either you’re with us, or you’re with them.”
Miko leaned back, resting his backside against his car. He toed a stone, sending it skipping across a puddle before landing with a plunk in a deeper patch of water a few feet away from the car Burke had stolen from Szader. “My career’s been everything to me. My purpose. My life.”
“Yeah, well, I learned a career isn’t the solid foundation I once thought it was. It can drop out from under you at any time, and then you fall. Hard.”
Still staring down, Miko simply nodded.
Burke sensed Miko’s struggle, read it in his mate’s set shoulders, dark expression and distant eyes. “You never know if or when something might happen. Relationships, people, they can be just as shaky and unreliable, I suppose. But they sure make for a more pleasant, more meaningful base. We might have a lot of differences between us, and maybe we’ll never fully settle them. But we share a very powerful and unique bond.”
Miko finally met his gaze. “Our love for Sylvie.”
“Yeah.”
Silence.
Burke pressed Miko, knowing his decision could very well determine how this whole thing ended for all three of them. “What’s it going to be, Miko? Your ego? Pride? A career that could let you down tomorrow? Or us?”
“I’ve wanted to be an Excoluni officer for as long as I can remember. My father. My brother…”
“For some reason, I don’t think it’s as important to you as you think.”
After another brief silence, Miko admitted, “You don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe.”
“We’re not going to save Sylvie if we don’t work together. Working together means you’re going to have to betray your Excoluni pals, the guys you’ve trusted and respected since your first day. Can you do it?”
“What about you? You’re going to have to trust me. Fully.”
“Not liking it, but that’s the way it is.”
Miko nodded. “That goes for me too.”
“Let’s see what we can do when we’re truly playing on the same team.”
“I say we go back to the safe house and see if we can find any clues. She didn’t just vanish. There’s got to be something.”
“Good idea.” Burke motioned to Miko’s vehicle. “You drive.”
* * *
After enduring a nerve-wracking ride in the backseat of an unmarked cop car like some common criminal – an unpleasant if not downright terrifying experience -- Sylvie was hardly relieved when she caught sight of their final destination. The words ghetto, slumlord, and dilapidated sprang to mind immediately.
Granted, she supposed it would be a little farfetched to expect a public safety organization -- human or otherwise -- to set her up in a five-star hotel. But still. Sheesh. They could do better than this place. Was it even safe?
She followed him into the ramshackle building with the boarded up windows, peeling paint and rotted front porch. The hinges groaned loudly when he pushed open the front door, revealing an interior as neglected as the exterior. He slammed the door closed behind them, eliciting a shudder, and motioned for her to continue straight ahead, through a living room inhabited by a single ratty couch which had clearly been abused by more than its share of transient cats.
Another shiver zigzagged up her spine. This place gave her a serious case of the willies. Since her vampires had been able to give her last safe house a facelift with a simple snap of the fingers, why did this dump have to be so ugly? Weren’t all vampire types magic? Maybe Mr. Big Shot hadn’t had a chance to fix the place up yet?
“Uh,” she hedged, eyeballing the dirty walls and filthy linoleum floor in the kitchen as they headed toward the back of the house. Surely she wasn’t expected to consume any food stored or prepared in that filth. “This place could use a little TLC, doncha think?”
“Apologies.” Her escort gave her a reassuring smile, which didn’t exactly do its job. “This was the only remaining safe house we have in the area. You won’t be here long.”
“Glad to hear that.” Her toe caught on a curled tile and she stumbled, catching herself on outstretched arms, hands flattened against a closed door. Upon contact, the latch released, the door swung open, and she tumbled into a bathroom so grimy, she gagged. Twisting, she jumped to her feet and lunged forward.
Her host had one hand on the door. Was he about to shut her inside? Why would he do that?
She shivered as she stomped down a narrow passageway. “Okay, not trying to be a whiner, but oh my God. I’m going to get the plague. You’ve got to do something about this place,” she ranted as she shoved by him. “It’s gotta be condemned. I’m wondering if it’s even safe. Black mold’s deadly, you know. You could at least give me some hand sanitizer. And where are we going?”
“The bedrooms are in better shape.” He hurried past her, halting outside another door. He twisted the knob and pushed open the door, revealing a room the size of a closet.
“Better shape? Says who?” Her gaze hopped from the wall, painted the most obnoxious red color ever, to the twin-sized bed, lacking bedding of course, to the boarded up window. The carpet’s grungy nondescript color reminded her of boogers. It was all too gross for words.
Before she could voice her opinion about the state of the bedroom, Mr. Big Shot gave her a swift shove then slammed the door shut.
What the hell? Closed inside this dump? He
had been trying to shut her in that nasty bathroom. Did he think she was going to run?
She clambered to her feet, knowing something was really, really wrong, and lunged for the door. Locked. Scared, confused and pissed, she pounded with her fists. “Hey! Open up!”
No answer.
Well fuck! She was getting really tired of being locked up. What did these vampires think? She was going to head out for a little stroll in the moonlight? And if they thought Burke was the killer, and Burke was now in their custody, why did they need to hide her away anyway?
What the hell was going on?
Miko was going to have some explaining to do. And that other guy, the one who’d locked her in this shithole -- he’d just better protect his dangly bits.
She was about to proclaim open season on his groin.
* * *
Burke was in hell. He’d long hated having dragged Isabella into this mess. She was now wanted for aiding and abetting a convicted felon.
She was a great friend, a dear woman who deserved so much better than what she’d received in the last several months.
And now he’d inadvertently hurt Sylvie too.
God help him, maybe the Binding had been completed, because the torture he suffered now… Agonizing. He’d never possessed a soul. He’d never been complete, fully human, in the most positive sense. Never experienced the kind of bone-deep regret he felt right now. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear he had a soul. And it had been put through a shredder.
Death would be welcome relief.
He loved Sylvie. Loved. A man without a soul. He’d always thought it was impossible.
“Since I was slightly indisposed, I couldn’t exactly keep a close watch on Sylvie,” Burke snapped as they pushed open the door to the apartment. His gaze swept around the room, now completely empty. The only sign of the earlier struggle was a single scuff mark on the scarred wooden floor.
“If it hadn’t been for my intervention, they would’ve killed you. And then where would Sylvie be?” Miko stood in the hallway outside, down on one knee inspecting the stained carpet.
“We don’t know that they’d have killed me. Yet. Do we?” Burke toed the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust. “Dammit, how will we find her? I was flat on the floor. I saw Szader and of course Hadrian. Who else?”
“There were several agents inside. But there could have been someone else outside, waiting.”
Burke headed for the window, shoving aside the battered blinds to peer down to the parking lot below. “How would they know what was about to happen?”
“Overheard?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “One of the Excoluni?”
Miko gave his head a decisive shake. “Absolutely not. Impossible.”
“Aren’t you trained to consider every possibility? Even the impossible?” he challenged. The blinds slipped through his fingers and fell back into place with a metallic rattle. “Who was the last man to see her?”
“Petrov escorted her to my car.”
“Then we will talk to him. There’s nothing here.” Burke pushed past a bewildered looking Miko and hurried down the stairs without a backward glance.
Who is the detective here?
* * *
Several hours later, Sylvie had not only developed a seriously full bladder, but also a really pissy attitude. Thus, when the door to her prison cell was finally opened, she had a tough time deciding which pressing issue she needed to deal with first -- the urgent need to pee or the equally pressing compulsion to make one asshole pay for his sins.
The need to pee won. But it was a temporary concession. She gave Mr. Big Shot Whatever-his-name (Was it Adrian? She couldn’t remember, but she did recall meeting him at the club) the cold shoulder as she shoved past him. “That was just wrong.”
“Your safety is our only concern.”
“Heh, right. That’s why you brought me to this deathtrap. There’s more germs in this dump than a cesspool, the roof is about to fall in on us, and there are more holes in the floor than Swiss cheese. Puhleez.” She found a larger bathroom at the end of the hall, and after giving him yet another scowl, closed herself in and took care of business.
There was, of course, no running water. Therefore, she could not flush. She could not wash. It left her feeling icky, itchy and dirty. And more annoyed.
The instant she opened the bathroom door, she launched into yet another rant. “This is unacceptable. What kind of second rate organization houses innocent victims in roach infested, filthy accommodations that aren’t fit for vermin? Come on! Snap, for chrissakes. Do something about it.” At his bewildered look, she illustrated with a literal finger snap. “You know? Snap?”
“Not sure what you mean by that.”
“Uh… You can’t snap?”
“Of course I can, but what’s that got to do with the safe house?” He snapped his fingers, but absolutely nothing happened.
Interesting. So, the snap didn’t work for all vampires? How about that? Then again, did she know for a fact that this guy was a vampire?
A flurry of questions followed. Why were Burke and Miko able to do magic and this guy couldn’t? Did he know Burke and Miko possessed magical powers? What did it all mean?
“Sorry. I guess I thought you were magical. Silly me.”
He eased her down the hall with a gentle press on her lower back. “Oh, I can. But it takes a little more than a gesture to invoke a spell.” He directed her a little more forcefully toward the kitchen.
“I see,” she said, intentionally dragging her feet. “Where are we headed? Do I need to be worried about anything? You know, while I was in the prison cell, I had some time to think. Why do I need to hide if you caught the killer?”
“Hmmm. It’s a little complicated.” He reached around her and opened a door, which she quickly realized led to the basement.
Oh. No way.
A coat of goose bumps popped up all over her back and this funny, tickly sensation pricked her spine, little creepy spider feet. “Why do I need to go down there?” She was getting a bad vibe about this.
As crazy as things had been when she’d been on the run with Burke and then hiding with Miko, she’d never once felt this squicked out. She’d never been afraid they were going to hurt her. Quite the opposite, she’d felt safe, protected.
She guessed this guy was a big shot in the vampire secret police, but he gave her a bad case of the willies. There was no way he was convincing her to go down into that basement. Something was wrong here. She didn’t want to know what that something was.
Twisting, she planted an elbow in his gut then sprinted in the opposite direction. But before she’d gotten very far, something hard and heavy slammed into her from behind, flattening her to the floor.
“Dammit, I don’t have time for this,” her assailant whispered, his voice trembling. “I have some blood and an assortment of body parts to harvest.”
A split second later, just as she was about to belt out a scream, everything went black.
Chapter Sixteen
Miko knew he shouldn’t be smiling, considering the situation, but he couldn’t help himself. Burke really thought he was something. Yet, at the same time, his insides were being ripped apart. Sylvie was missing. He -- a man who hadn’t questioned his ability to do his job in several centuries -- was suddenly wondering if his life was on the right track. He’d always dreamed of being an officer with the Excoluni. Further, once he had joined the force, he’d never questioned his ability to be a damn good officer, just as his father had been.
Until now.
Since the first night he’d met Sylvie, everything he’d believed about his life, himself, his priorities, had been in question. Was he a good officer? Did he want to be? What was important anymore?
He hated to think he’d spent his entire life to this point chasing rainbows.
On Burke’s heels, he headed back to his car. But just before reaching the vehicle, he took a quick detour. He hadn’t taken the time to in
spect the ground where he’d been parked earlier, a mistake. He was getting sloppy.
With the wind having picked up, he expected anything that might have been left behind gone, swept away. But it was worth a look, anyway.
What he found was a large puddle about a foot away from where his car had been parked, and three sets of footprints. Three people had passed through the water, leaving a wet trail going to and from the vehicle.
One set of prints was noticeably smaller than the other two -- it had to belong to Sylvie. The others were both similar in size. The tracks were identical in pattern, suggesting both men wore the same size and type of shoe. He stooped down, to get a better look at the trail heading away from the car.
The footprints were dry, and the mud around the puddle showed few tracks. But what remained was enough. Hadrian had led Sylvie from his car. To… somewhere. Maybe another vehicle?
He’d lied.
Why?
“What do you have there?” Burke asked from behind him.
Miko pointed at the evidence. “My brother knows more than he’s telling.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He’s always had troubles with his left leg. See the way the left footstep is scuffed? He sort of drags his foot as he walks. Has done that as long as I can remember.”
“Well… damn.” Burke scowled. “Why would he keep secrets from you?”
“Maybe he thinks I’m helping you? And since he thinks you’re the killer…”
“Yeah. Maybe. Could he be using her as bait? To get to me,” Burke offered.
“Why would he do that? She was missing before you escaped.”
“True.”
“I need to talk to him.” Miko jumped to his feet and hurried back to his car, Burke mirroring his strides beside him.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Burke said as he slid into the passenger seat and pulled the door shut. “He’s just trying to keep her safe.”
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