by Dannika Dark
Viktor cursed in Russian when Christian shook his head.
“I hope you don’t have it all in cash,” Wyatt said with the utmost seriousness. “You should know more than anyone that cash isn’t king in our world. Inflation and all that jazz. The ancients were smart to hoard all their valuables. Just imagine how much buried treasure is out there.”
“If it didn’t create such a paper trail, I’d invest my money in sugar,” Blue said. “Humans put it in everything.”
Wyatt chuckled. “Your best bet is internet companies.”
Blue shook her head. “The internet won’t be around forever. Someday we’ll be living in huts again and talking about the good old days before the war.”
“What war?”
She stretched her arms across the back of the beanbag. “The one that’s coming. Don’t act oblivious, Wyatt. You know as well as I do there are underground organizations trying to start shit with genetic engineering. With all this technology, it’s only a matter of time before humans find us. I’m willing to bet their government already knows.”
Wyatt folded his arms. “Well, I’d like my key back before the war begins.”
Christian squeezed the stress ball and stared blankly at the floor. “How do we know the other bidder isn’t really him?”
Wyatt turned his chair toward Christian. “We don’t. Supposedly there’s someone who monitors that stuff behind the scenes, but it’s the black market. Newbies usually make that mistake when running their own auction. It drives away experienced bidders. Not only that, but you don’t want to piss off one of these moneybags. This one time… a guy actually started an auction to uncover the identity of the marketeer who screwed him over. And man, it got ugly. Betcha someone learned their lesson.”
Niko sat on the edge of the desk. “Whatever money I have is yours. Surely this man realizes you have other assets. He won’t make the connection unless you deposit it into your account.”
Christian didn’t want to put Raven’s life in peril, but he needed to secure the bid. He stood up and raked his hair from back to front. “Can it be done?”
Wyatt walked his chair in circles while cleaning the inside of his ear with a pencil eraser. “It’ll raise red flags. He’s expecting a deduction from your account, and we have no idea if he’s already located and scanned it. Viktor has a good banker, but nothing is foolproof. Money on the side from other possessions might work, but if you match the amount, he’ll never believe it. He’ll know something’s up if you come up with fast cash. Besides, this isn’t about a special order anymore. Speaking of special order, can someone run out and get me some fries?” He tossed the pencil on the desk. “And don’t judge. You need my brain cells functioning at full capacity, and I didn’t sleep a wink last night.”
Blue forced herself out of the beanbag chair, her long brown hair sticking out in the back from static electricity. “I’ll go if it’ll shut you up about that machine, but I’m not driving my car out in this mess. Toss me your keys, amigo.”
“Why don’t you just fly?”
“You want me to walk through the drive-through naked? I’m not flying back with a bag of fries.”
He reached into his drawer and eyed her. “Be careful with my baby.” Wyatt flung the keys to his clown car, and Blue caught them in midair.
“Back in a jiffy,” she said, taming down her hair with one hand. “Any tagalongs?”
Gem launched herself off the couch. “I’ll go. I need to get out of here. This is more stress than I can handle.”
As they bustled out of sight, Wyatt leaned back in his chair and yelled, “And the world ends from an asteroid, not a Breed war!” He turned in a circle, eyes bloodshot. “That’s what happened to the dinosaurs.”
Niko slid off the desk and made a quiet exit, the sleepless hours finally taking their toll on everyone.
When Shepherd struck a match to light up a cigarette, Viktor rose and gave him a curt look. “Take that into the hallway. There is so much smoke in here my eyes are burning.”
Shepherd reluctantly got up—the unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth—and kicked Claude’s foot, startling him awake. He chuckled quietly and left the room. Claude stretched his long limbs before excusing himself to take a shower.
Wyatt reached beneath the desk and switched on an air purifier. “I wish Shep would get on the patch or find a new addiction. That smell seeps into the walls, and I’m going to have to paint them again. Either that or strip them apart and rebuild.”
Christian fished a red lollipop from his pants pocket and peeled off the wrapping. He’d gotten into the habit of stuffing candy in his pockets. Sweets were a form of stress relief the way smoking was for Shepherd. Back in his days as a personal guard, he couldn’t pick up habits that would call attention to him the way smoking would. His job was to go unnoticed, not smell like an ashtray.
“How much time until the next bid?” he asked.
Wyatt rolled up to the computer. “Forty-five minutes. But things will get interesting around four.”
“Why?”
Wyatt found his slouchy hat and pulled it over his head. “I’m guessing that’s the time the minimum bid will increase. Maybe you shouldn’t bid it all. She’s a smart girl, and I feel sorry for the dipshit who ends up with her. He’ll have his hands full if he thinks she’s a new Vampire. She’ll play that card too. You can bet on it.”
If the seller knew who Christian was, then he must have figured out that Raven wasn’t human. He probably had measures in place to prevent escape. Raven was resourceful and fearless, but despite that, Christian would do everything in his power to get her back, even if it meant selling his last possession.
Somehow he was going to make this right. He was going to get her back. All the petty bullshit and apprehensions about their relationship vanished, eclipsed by one purpose—to save her life.
Hopefully it wasn’t already too late.
Chapter 16
My intention was to rebel. But the longer I sat on the bathroom floor, the more uncomfortable I became in those tight leather pants. Not only were they hot, but they hindered my movement. As it turned out, Houdini hadn’t left me pajamas. Instead, I found ripped jeans and a threadbare T-shirt. They were exactly my style, and him knowing things about me—personal things—made the whole situation insufferable as I reluctantly put them on. At the end of the day, petty arguments for the sake of pride weren’t going to get me out of here. I needed to stay strong and focused, so if he wanted to feed and clothe me, I wasn’t going to refuse. He didn’t respond well to resistance, so I had to come up with another plan.
Christian was right. I’d always hated my Vampire maker more because his betrayal was far more crippling than any torture I’d endured at the hands of my Creator. They’d both hurt me in different ways, but had it not been for Houdini’s indifference, I’d have a much different life. Albeit one of crime and servitude, but at least I wouldn’t have suffered.
Hours had passed—enough that I knew it was the next day. Without windows or the ability to use my Mage gift, I couldn’t be certain of the exact time. When I finally emerged from the bathroom, Houdini was nowhere in sight. I glanced in the cubbyhole and saw a thermos, two beignets, sugar cubes, and a small container of coffee cream. For whatever reason, it made me smile that he didn’t know everything about me. I always took my coffee black, something Christian knew.
Christian.
He must have been cursing up a storm.
In the dark room, I plopped down on the mattress, my back against the wall and knees pulled up. My heart did a somersault when I noticed two dim lights moving on the other side of the glass. They weren’t lights but eyeshine from a white panther. When he rose to his feet, a low growl rumbled before he walked into the shadows.
Minutes later, Houdini casually crossed the room, wearing tight black pants that ended just below his knee. The light from the fridge blinked on, and he grabbed a carton of milk. After filling two plastic glasses, he strode over to the re
cessed cubbyhole and slid one of the cups to my side. When his hand briefly appeared, it made me wish I had impalement wood. Even if I managed to do it, where would that get me? He’d be paralyzed on the other side of the wall, and I’d be trapped in this room… forever.
“Please eat something,” he urged. “I give you my word I haven’t spiked the food or drinks.” He put his hands on his hips. “You need your strength.”
“Only if you stop this.”
“You can’t stop inevitability.”
I stared absently at the glass wall, catching a ghost of my reflection. “I’ve had a shitty life, you know. I’ve never complained about it because when all you know is bad luck, you just learn to deal with it. But something good finally happened to me—for once—and now it’s gone. I’ll never have just one good thing in my life. You think humans are expendable, but can’t you empathize with their situation? I don’t understand how someone who seems as normal as you do can ruin so many lives. I just don’t get it. Each person you made carries a part of you inside them, whether you like it or not.”
He guzzled half his drink and returned to the chair by the table. “You’ve always intrigued me. Even now, all you can think about are those humans and not your own plight. Why is that?”
“Because I can’t stop whatever’s going to happen to me, but maybe something I say will make you think twice about doing this again.”
He smirked, his voice soft. “I’ve finally kidnapped my conscience. Fate has a wicked sense of humor.” After a quick glance at the screen, he angled the laptop away so it wasn’t shining directly on him. “This is what I’m good at, and the way I see it, I’m giving these humans immortality. We could go round and round with the ethics of it, but life is a gift no matter how it’s given. Things change, and buyers aren’t all malevolent bastards. I can’t stop the evils of the world from happening. I’m not the one hurting people. I’m giving them what they desire, and their fate is whatever they make of it. If I didn’t intervene, those lost souls might have committed suicide or landed in an abusive relationship. Would you hold me responsible for that?”
When he took another sip of milk, I pulled my arms against my chest and sighed. How many women had sat on this same mattress, begging for their freedom? Even worse, how many didn’t?
“Is there something I can make that you will eat?” he asked, licking his milk mustache. “I’m not the best cook, but I’m not the worst either.”
“I don’t need food.”
“Of course you do. I’ve seen you famished on a number of occasions. You’re not entirely Vampire, so that means some of your gifts are altered.”
That was an interesting way to put it. “And what would you know about a crossbreed?”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Plenty, because I am one.”
Impossible! What had happened to me was a fluke. There was no way he could be like me.
He stood up and dragged his chair up to the glass to see me better. When he sat down, he rested his arm on the edge of the table. “That’s how this whole thing began, you know. When I first saw you after your long disappearance, I couldn’t help but watch. You didn’t look like a Vampire, and it didn’t take long for me to notice your other abilities. Curious, I hired a Mage to put his light into a girl right after I turned her, but she died instantly. Maybe your Creator had strong light, or maybe you’re one of a kind. I began to wonder if I could pass my other half into a youngling. Maybe I couldn’t make another like you, but what if I could make someone like me?”
“What other half?”
He tilted his head. “I’m part Shifter.”
I glanced behind him, having just assumed he was some weirdo with a big-cat fetish.
“Remember?” He tugged his earlobe, which no longer had a black plug in it. “We met once before in a bar. I rubbed up against you, and your partner didn’t seem to like it very much. He’s a little possessive.” Houdini stretched out his legs, his feet on the glass. “When I buried him in that tomb, I hoped he wouldn’t show up for a while.”
I drew in a sharp breath.
“I love collecting favors, and when I saw one of Darius’s men in the trunk of a car, I gave him a call and offered to hide the body. For a favor, of course.”
Houdini was talking about the goon I’d killed who worked for an extortionist. Christian had driven the man’s car to a cemetery to dispose of the body, and someone snuck up and staked him from behind.
“You were the one who put Christian in the crypt? But how?” I shot up to my feet and approached the glass.
Houdini studied his short nails. “Vampires tend to ignore animal sounds in the woods. I followed him there and—”
“Why would you do something like that? He could have died in there.”
Houdini lowered his hands in his lap. “You always think there has to be a motive—a reason or goal. Sometimes people do bad things because it feels good. He was talking to himself, you know. Saying that you wouldn’t bat an eyelash if he turned up missing or was burned at the stake. Fire seemed a little excessive, so it became an interesting experiment. How people react under duress fascinates me. I do love a good plot twist.”
I flattened my hands against the glass and glared down at him. “I thought you were an observer.”
“Once in a while, I meddle.” His eyes flicked up. “I got close to him once, Raven. I can do it again.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“I brought you two closer together, and yet you’re complaining. What would have happened if I hadn’t intervened?”
That night, Christian had almost left Keystone, and I was on the outs. We might have gone our separate ways had he not disappeared unexpectedly, prompting me to go on a search.
I recoiled when Houdini poked his finger through one of the airholes and touched my stomach.
“No one will believe you if you tell them what I’ve done. I erased Claude’s memory of me in his salon, and you have no documented evidence linking me to a crime. They’ll think you’re paranoid or crazy, but more likely, they’ll think the person who kidnapped you replaced all your memories with a lie. How much do you know about Vampire magic? Not only can I erase someone’s mind, but I can create a whole new reality, making them believe they were born a different person.” As he rose to his feet, my hair stood on end. “Do you know how rare crossbreeds are? I’m not talking about the Breeds who can have children, but the ones who can’t. We’re the future, Raven. We’re Adam and Eve. There’s always a chance I could make someone else like me, but I can’t help but wonder what might happen if you put your light into one of my younglings.”
“I’m not a Creator.”
Just as soon as the words left my mouth, I shut my eyes. Like everyone else, Houdini knew that not every Mage was a Creator. He was carefully manipulating his words to access new information about me.
And I’d just given it to him.
He rested his forehead against the glass. “You want so desperately to hate me, but you can’t. You should thank me.”
“For what?”
“For putting loyalty to the ultimate test. You’ve formed an attachment to those people, and now you’ll see what your life is really worth to them and how hard they’re willing to fight for it. Prepare for disappointment, Raven. If you haven’t already figured it out, you’ll eventually learn that you can’t depend on anyone but yourself, and the sooner you recognize that, the better off you’ll be. You’ll stop making choices that benefit others. Now why don’t you have a beignet? I made them fresh this morning.”
I strode over to the food and grabbed the plastic cup. Then I pushed my arm all the way to his side and tossed the milk onto the floor.
“These aren’t deplorable conditions, Raven. If it’s any consolation, I think your Vampire friend will win the bid. He’s persistent, so you’ll be back home in no time.”
I walked to the small chair and sat down, the leg wobbling. “No, I won’t.”
“What makes you say that?�
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“Because I can’t be with anyone who bought me. Congratulations. You’ve successfully ruined a good thing.”
“Don’t all women want a man to fight for them?”
“What you know about women would fill a thimble,” I said, using a phrase that belonged to Christian. It made me miss him, and I rubbed my face. “Christian’s doing what he thinks is right, but I’ll never be able to work there. And no matter how good his intention, I can’t be with anyone who paid for me.”
Houdini leaned his shoulder against the glass. “You act as if love is meant to last. Vampires aren’t monogamous by nature. There aren’t as many female Vampires out there as males, and most of them want nothing to do with mating. He’s attracted to you because of your Vampire blood, but if another female Vampire came into the picture—one of high caliber—do you honestly think he’d stay true? What you see as sabotage is really enlightenment.”
“How much money will be enough before you to stop?”
After scratching his pale chest, he dragged his chair back in front of the table and sat down. “Waking up and drawing breath isn’t living. We all need a purpose, and this is what I’m good at. Don’t you remember that feeling when you were a rogue?”
I was beating a dead horse. Houdini would never change his ways because I talked sense into him, and I was growing weary of fighting a losing battle.
“My maker instilled in me the wisdom to build a fortune,” he continued. “So I wouldn’t be reduced to the life of a scavenger.”
“Hunger makes you appreciate life the way a fat belly never can.”
He arched a brow. “Even in my human life I always had money. I can’t imagine not having choices, and that’s what money provides. Fortune doesn’t mean filling your life with material things, but it gives you options that being penniless doesn’t. You once told me that you felt the same way.”
“I probably did,” I admitted.
His computer chimed and drew his attention away.