by Dannika Dark
“Patrick will brainwash him. He won’t be able to make his own choices when he becomes a man. And take heed, for Patrick will seek his opportunity to be rid of you. You’re protected under Keystone, and that’s why he spared you. But you’ll always be a liability to him no matter how much power he acquires.”
“So what do I do?”
Niko lifted his chin. “Discover his weakness.”
“Assuming he has one.”
“In all the years I’ve walked this earth, I’ve learned that no man is without an Achilles’ heel. You just have to find it. And when you do, strike fast.”
Energy flickered in the distance, and the familiar pulse of Mage light prickled Niko’s skin. More specifically, the ancient energy from an old nemesis.
He folded his arms. “Thank you for entrusting me with your secret. Don’t allow your pain to ruin your life. A patient and persistent man is one who makes his own destiny. If the fates wish to save the boy from his circumstance, they’ll present you with an opportunity.” Niko could hear Shepherd’s breath quavering from the cold. “Why don’t you go inside where it’s warm?”
“You’re one lucky bastard for having an internal heater. Are you coming?”
“The energy overwhelms my senses. Give me a few minutes to clear my head.”
It wasn’t unusual for Niko to step outside the club on a crowded night, and right now he needed to separate himself from Shepherd as quickly as possible.
The hinges on the door creaked, music and laughter spilling into the alley. “Hurry up. You still owe me a game of darts.”
Once the door closed, Niko turned on his heel. “You can come out now, Cyrus. There’s no point in hiding in the shadows.”
Cyrus’s maroon light unfolded from the darkness, silver flecks sparkling. “I see you’ve learned a few tricks, Nikodemos. Very impressive you noticed me. I still remember the weak little slave who blindfolded himself to hide from his own gifts.”
“You’re right. There was a time when my energy made no sense and I didn’t have the tools to interpret it. But I never needed eyesight to see evil.”
Chapter 3
Well, if it isn’t the incomparable Mr. Poe,” I said, strolling into room number seven. I stopped at the low counter on the left and tapped it with my finger. “How many women have you brought back here?”
Without a word, he stalked forward and lifted me as if I weighed nothing. Christian set me down on the low bar and wedged himself between my legs, his knuckles pressing against the wood on either side of me. We hadn’t been alone since his return, and the heat between us burned like a raging forest fire.
“Did you miss me?” he purred.
“Hardly. Niko’s been keeping me busy.”
“Has he now? I’ll be the judge of that.” Christian’s hand clamped over my thigh, his thumb circling over a sensitive spot. “Mmm, feels firm.”
“Firm enough to kill a man.”
“Do you still do that trick where you wrap your thighs around a man’s head? Where can I sign up?” When he gripped the small push dagger on my belt, I seized his wrist.
“Don’t you trust me?” he asked with a wolfish grin.
I pushed him away with one finger. “Maybe too much.”
He pinched the front of my sweatshirt and frowned. “Why do you insist on wearing these infernal sweaters? I much prefer you in those tight little shirts.”
“It’s winter. Besides, I don’t need Claude smelling your arousal every time my nipples get hard.”
He straightened his back and cocked his head to the side. “You’re implying I have no self-control?”
“Why are we in here?” I snapped my knees together when he stepped back. “If anything’s going to happen between us, it’s not going to happen in your lair of iniquity. I bet the assprints on this counter are polished to a shine. I’m not judging you for it, but I’m not one of those girls.”
“Clearly. All the men you’ve seduced are dead.” He strode toward the back of a leather couch and leaned against it, arms folded.
Had Christian changed during our time apart? His hair was a little wilder, his onyx eyes more intense. Or maybe there was something else lurking beneath his inscrutable gaze.
“There’s no privacy in the mansion,” he argued. “Where would you have us be intimate? Behind a shrub at the base of a hill? Or perhaps in the parking garage on top of Shepherd’s Jeep?”
Then it dawned on me. Christian didn’t share his heart or emotions with anyone. He shared his body. And our unique circumstance denied him of that physical contact. I also craved touch, but I’d deprived myself of it for so long that I no longer considered it a necessity in life.
“Did Viktor’s assignment keep you occupied?” I asked. “A month is a long time to be away from home.”
His lips twitched. “Is that jealousy I detect?”
I crossed my feet at the ankles. “There’s no reason why we should lie to each other.”
He inclined his head. “I have no desire to be with other women.”
I hopped off the bar and strode forward. “Is that the truth? Don’t mistake me for a sensitive girl.”
His black eyes flashed up to mine. “Aye.”
“You talk funny,” I said, a smile hovering on my lips. “Like a pirate.”
“I was born two centuries ago on a small farm in Ireland. I can testify that even they don’t sound the same as they did a hundred years ago.”
“So get with the times.”
“I’ve made a lot of adjustments to speak with a modern tongue considering my world travels, but I make no apologies for not incorporating words like ‘hashtag’ and ‘dope’ into my vocabulary.”
“Nobody uses dope anymore.”
“Imagine that. You see how fast language changes?”
I hooked my fingers around the belt loops in his pants and gave them a tug. I’d missed him. His smell, his crooked smile, the whiskers that grew down his neck—even his raggedy old lace-up boots.
He brushed his finger down my cheek. “I still haven’t decided if I like the blue eye better or the brown.”
“Does one have to be better than the other?”
A look of regret crossed his expression. “You’ve had plenty of time to think about our situation. It’s not too late to change your mind. I won’t scrub your memory unless you give me permission.”
I locked eyes with him. “Just because I’m not tackling you on that sofa doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind. Have you?”
“I can’t erase how I feel, but perhaps we’ve made foolish choices.”
“If you scrub my memory just to save face, I’ll find out. And I’ll hunt you down if you run. I’ve been through a lot of shit. There’s nothing you could do to me that hasn’t already been done. Life already broke my heart.”
He abruptly curved his hand around my nape and kissed my forehead. There was more passion and meaning in that kiss than all the others he’d given. It claimed me like no words ever could.
“Are you still vexed that Viktor didn’t let you come with me?” he asked, referring to his trip.
“We’re partners. He sent you off to another continent without backup. How do you think I feel about it?”
Christian lowered his arms and sighed. “Europe is the old country, and they can smell new blood. I was tracking down one of Viktor’s informants, and that meant going through some of my old contacts. Bringing you along would have raised suspicion, and I’d already invited enough of it.”
“Why couldn’t you just call this guy or send him an email?”
“He went missing. Completely off the grid.”
I folded my arms. “So? What good is an informant who lives across the ocean? How often do we go on trips to Paris or Greece?”
“For immortals and semi-immortals, it becomes an infinitely small world. You run into the same people, but you also learn valuable information along the way. Think of how much knowledge you’re privy to by the connections you’ve made and the case f
iles you’ve reviewed.” Christian stepped away. “Besides, Viktor knew him from long ago, and he’s not the sort of man who goes missing.”
“Did you find him?”
Christian flattened his back against the wall, hands in his pockets. “Aye.”
I surmised by his response that he didn’t find the man alive. “Do tell.”
“It was a shanty village in Bulgaria, and they’re not fond of Vampires. Most of the villagers were Shifters or Relics, and not much else.”
I moved toward the corner of the sofa and chuckled. “Isn’t that where Vlad the Impaler was from?”
“Close enough. And being Irish didn’t help matters. They’re not a fan of my accent.”
“Too chipper?”
He gave me a dark look. “It’s an isolated village, so most of them severed contact with even the humans in nearby villages. The packs run wild day and night. I was vulnerable in the daytime, so I had to do my moving about at night between the tavern and Valko’s farm.”
“Valko was Viktor’s informant? How did he get in touch with Viktor? Do they have internet out in the sticks?”
“You’d be surprised how resourceful some are, but not these people. Valko was an old man who knew a lot of dirt on Breed—mostly undocumented history. He and Viktor exchanged letters through a foot messenger.”
“That’s risky,” I murmured, thinking how easily a messenger could use that information to his own advantage.
“Aye, but in this case, Valko had her complete loyalty.”
“So he made his wife run back and forth?”
“Valko wasn’t mated. The townspeople said he was one of the oldest Shifters in the village, and his pack broke apart centuries ago for reasons I don’t know. After that, he secluded himself, severing contact from all the large packs in the territory. People rarely saw him, and he became folklore for many of the young who dared to walk up the path to his farm.” Christian’s eyebrows gathered together. “Some said he’d gone mad and his wolf had developed a taste for chewing on the bones of children.”
I chuckled. “I bet he created that rumor to keep people away.”
“I never found any bones, so that’s promising. Don’t underestimate how savage a Shifter can become. Sometimes when their animal goes mad, so do they.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “If someone had murdered you, how would we have known?”
He pursed his lips. “Perhaps I’d have Wyatt on speed dial for the dead?”
I gave him a peevish look. “How did Valko die?”
“I convinced everyone I was an old acquaintance and had a message to deliver. Lies, but after a while, they didn’t see me as much of a threat—outside of the fact I’m a Vampire. I had money to spend in the tavern, so that was a little boost to their nonexistent economy. I charmed a conniving old woman who was adamant about turning the town against me. Her sons mysteriously vanished around the same time as Valko’s disappearance. The old bag confessed that they’d schemed to rob Valko of all his riches, but when they didn’t find any, they killed him and hid the body up in the hills.”
I stepped away from the sofa and inched toward him. “What did you do to the woman?”
His eyes flicked up. “Everyone deserves punishment.”
“Did you scrub her memory?”
Christian was a contemptuous man who showed no mercy. But would he slay a woman even if she deserved it?
His bottomless eyes made it difficult to read his expression. “Aye. I removed her memory. And when her sons return one day to reconcile with their mother after abandoning her, they’ll discover she has no recollection of their vile deeds. In fact, she won’t have any memory of them at all. She admitted that even if they’d found any treasure, they would have still left her behind. They were rotten to the core—greedy men who refused to work and made their poor old mother do all the cooking, cleaning, and labor. But she was no saint. She protected them when they committed crimes within the village, like stealing goats and setting fires.”
“I’m assuming if Viktor sent you all the way to Bulgaria, he must have been good friends with this guy. Do you think that’s why he stayed home tonight? He’s depressed over his friend’s death?”
Christian pulled a lollipop from a small canister on a shelf to the right. “You’re inquisitive tonight. More than usual.”
I nodded toward the red candy. “Be careful. They might be spiked.”
He plucked off the wrapping and eased the flat lollipop between his lips. “Stick to your tequila and leave the strong stuff for the grown-ups.”
I sauntered up and flattened my hand on his stomach. “I just hope a Sensor didn’t imbue that with erotic fantasies.”
Christian slowly pulled it out, the glossy candy staining his lips red. “Already have those, lass. Why don’t you ask me the question that’s really plaguing your thoughts?”
I squared my shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Amusement danced in his eyes. “Valko’s messenger girl. I can see how it vexes you to know what happened on my journey.”
“The only thing that vexes me is how you said you didn’t understand jealousy, but here you are, gleefully inciting it.” I shook my head and reached for the doorknob. “Vamps,” I muttered.
His arms were around me in a heartbeat.
He didn’t speak, and neither did I. There was an understanding in our touch that transcended words, reminding me that despite all my doubts and apprehensions, I needed him. For reasons I might never understand, Christian filled a void I’d carried since my mother’s death. I closed my eyes and surrendered to his touch.
What I didn’t know—what I couldn’t ask—was if he needed me back. Not wanted, but needed. When male desires and curiosity were stripped away, did he have a calling deep within his bones that went against all reason?
Someone rapped on the door. “Christian!” Wyatt called out. “Zip up in there. As soon as I find Raven and Niko, we’re heading home. Viktor sent a message, so chop-chop.”
When Christian and I emerged from our private room, the main area in the club was thumping with music. We weaved through the crowd, colorful lights slicing through the darkness as we passed the oval-shaped bar in the center of the room.
“Do you see anyone?” I asked.
Christian didn’t need to see. He had an uncanny knack of filtering out different sounds one by one. When he stopped in the middle of the club and cocked his head to the side, he did a slow turn that caught my attention.
Someone bumped into me from behind, but instead of shoving him back, I kept watching Christian’s expression morph until he suddenly snapped his gaze toward the back of the building.
I gripped his sleeve. “What is it?”
Christian bolted toward the hall, weaving around people to avoid knocking them down like dominoes. I was one step behind, my heart thumping against my chest.
He flung the back door open, and the first sound I heard was the clanging of swords. I stepped around Christian to discover Niko fighting a dark-haired man with tatted biceps. Sweat glistened on his brown skin as he matched every move Niko made. It took a minute for me to place him. Cyrus was the man who’d ambushed Niko in an alleyway not so long ago.
“I don’t want to kill you,” Cyrus said as they fell in a clinch.
I gripped Christian’s arm, my senses on high alert. “Look around. He’s got minions.”
“How the feck do you know that?”
“Long story. Keep your eyes peeled.”
Something whistled past me, and Christian jerked his body to the side. The rip in his sleeve exposed a bloody gash that slowly began to heal.
“Impalement wood,” he growled.
The moment we looked up and saw archers on the rooftops, we bolted in different directions.
I flashed to the end of the alley and turned left in front of the club. People yelped and complained as I shoved through the line to get to the other side of the building. Once there, I scanned the wall, the es
cape ladder my only way up. It was too high out of reach, so I backed up to the side and decided to scale the wall like they do in the kung fu movies.
My first attempt died in a lake of fire when I fell on my ass.
It was only a matter of time before the archer searched the other side of the building, so on my second attempt, I ran headlong and managed two steps up before grasping the bottom rung, which didn’t lower. It must have rusted in place, so I gathered my strength and grabbed the rung above it. When my abs clenched, I quietly thanked Niko for all those morning workouts of pull-ups and rope climbing.
Once I got a foothold, I scaled the ladder in three seconds flat. When I reached the top, I raised my hand above the ledge and waved.
An arrow whistled by.
That moron would need a few seconds to reposition a new arrow, so I leapt over the edge and ran toward him. When he fired again, I flashed to the right and almost slipped and fell on my ass. A sheet of ice covered parts of the roof like it was a skating rink, though areas near the door and pipes had melted.
I winced as an arrow nicked my left shoulder.
At least it wasn’t my dominant arm. I rushed toward the dark-haired man, my dagger in hand. When I swiped the blade, he did an aerial cartwheel that defied gravity. I pivoted around, slicing the air as he appeared behind me.
This goon wasn’t one of the men who’d fought against Niko with swords. He didn’t even wear a scabbard.
Anchoring his bow over his shoulder, he reached in his quiver and pulled out an arrow, gripping it like a knife. I took notice of the metal tip—possibly a stunner. Though immune, I wasn’t sure if I wanted this guy to know all my secrets.
With the grace of a panther, I dodged his every attempt to impale me. As I flashed behind him, an idea sprang to mind. I grabbed his bow and yanked him backward, stealing an arrow from his quiver. When I raised my arm to strike, he spun around so fast that I glimpsed a shiny arrowhead spearing for my gut.