nightrise

by Nell Stark

  “He’s toying with us.” Foster sounded just as pained as Summers looked and I felt. “The bastard.”

  As we sped back toward Manhattan, my adrenaline rush and blood high began to fade simultaneously. Combined with my disappointment, it felt as though all color was rapidly being leeched from the world. I leaned my head against the cold glass of the window and closed my eyes, glad I didn’t have to be the one to take charge of the report to Helen. She was going to grill Foster and Summers, but I could probably escape to my apartment. Or perhaps Tartarus, where I reigned like a god and could leave the memory of Brenner’s taunts behind.

  It seemed insane to be thinking about going back to my daily business as though I hadn’t just seen his face in my gun sights. But what else could I do? The Consortium was hamstrung. Even with the element of surprise on our side, Brenner had easily neutralized our raid. A second extraction mission would be far more difficult to plan—it would take weeks, if not months, to execute properly. Brenner seemed bent on making us wait, but I doubted he’d delay taking action for that long. And what was he waiting for, anyway? Was he playing mind games, or was he deliberately holding off until a certain date had passed or goal had been accomplished?

  Unsettled, I disembarked with the team in the Consortium’s garage and rode up to the seventh floor where we would be debriefed in the War Room. Before I could join them inside, however, Caleb pulled me into a corner. His expression was guarded.

  “I just checked my voice mail,” he said. “One of my FAA contacts left me a message while we were…preoccupied.”

  Alexa. The thought was involuntary, but despite the surge in my pulse, I forced my expression to remain neutral. “Oh?”

  “An hour ago, Alexa boarded a flight from a regional airport in western Argentina, bound for Buenos Aires. Her name also appears on the manifest of a flight scheduled to depart early tomorrow morning for JFK Airport.”

  Every sense leapt into high alert as the memory of her incomparable taste flooded my mouth. A fine shiver swept me, but if he noticed, Caleb said nothing. The urgency and helplessness I’d felt over Brenner’s plans receded to the back of my mind, banished like morning mist before the sun.

  Alexa was coming home.

  alexa

  Chapter Sixteen

  I set my teeth against a gasp of pain as the airplane hit another pocket of turbulence, jostling my left arm against the wall. Sensing a threat, my panther tried to ascend and I shut my eyes, turning all my attention inward to keep her under wraps. When Olivia reached for my hand, I squeezed hard enough to feel her wince. Her injury seemed not to be bothering her much at all, but then again, she didn’t have a living organism trying to colonize one of her limbs.

  As the panther finally retreated from the fore of my mind, I released my grip on Olivia and glanced out the window. Below, the land was growing larger, its features becoming more distinct. In the seat across the aisle, Solana gave me a sympathetic look.

  “It won’t be long now,” she murmured.

  The area around my scar had been red and puffy before we boarded the airplane, but in the hours since, my entire forearm had swelled significantly. I didn’t know whether that was linked to the shifts in cabin pressure or whether it would have happened even had I stayed on the ground. Regardless, I was in constant pain. The wound throbbed dully and even the gentlest touch on any part of that arm was excruciating.

  “Do you think ice will be safe?” I asked Solana. We had discussed whether I should go on broad-spectrum antibiotics to decrease the risk of infection, but since we had no way of knowing whether that kind of medication would affect the viability of the flower’s root, I had decided to stay off all pills except painkillers.

  “I should think so,” she said, and I consoled myself by imagining how good it would feel to plunge my burning arm into a huge bucket of ice cubes once I was home.

  When the plane finally touched down, I held my arm well away from my body to minimize the discomfort of the landing. Mercifully, the foot traffic through Passport Control moved quickly, and we claimed our bags within an hour. As we waited in the line to clear Customs, I couldn’t help but flash back to the last time I’d returned to the States from abroad—back in the summer, when Constantine and I had used forged documents to avoid Brenner’s detection after escaping from his outpost in Morocco.

  This time I had my proper passport, but transporting a rare and potent flower inside my body was in flagrant violation of the injunctions—posted on the walls at regular intervals throughout baggage claim—against bringing foreign fruit, plants, and seeds into the country. Fortunately, the Customs official took my stamped paperwork and waved me through without any questions.

  I searched the crowd for Karma and found her waiting next to a newsstand, but she was on the phone and didn’t see us right away. A frown furrowed her brow as she spoke, and she looked as though she had lost some weight in the past week. But when she did catch sight of us, she smiled and waved and ended her call. I embraced her awkwardly with one arm, shielding the entire left side of my body.

  “What happened?” she asked, the smile leaving her face as quickly as it had come. “Are you injured?”

  “In a matter of speaking.” I hadn’t filled her in when I’d called from the airport in Buenos Aires asking her to meet us at JFK. Secrecy was paramount if this plan had any chance of working, and I had no idea who might be listening in to her phone calls.

  “You remember Olivia,” I continued. “And this is Solana Carrizo, who has been a huge help to us. She’s an acquaintance of Helen’s from, ah, several years ago.”

  Karma’s thin eyebrows shot up. “Really. It’s a true pleasure to meet you.” She cut her gaze to the window, where the sun was just beginning to set, then back to Solana.

  “We’ll explain everything,” I said, “but we need a secure place to talk.”

  Karma nodded. “You must be hungry. Let’s chat over dinner. I know just the place.”

  We discussed only trivialities in the Consortium car that drove us into downtown Manhattan, and as an added precaution, Karma had the driver drop us off several blocks from our intended destination. Rabbit in the Moon was a cozy gastropub in Greenwich Village that specialized in updated British comfort foods, and they were happy to seat us at a secluded table in an alcove near the back.

  “First of all,” I said as the waitress left with our drinks order, “how is Malcolm?”

  “He regained consciousness yesterday.” Karma held up a hand to forestall my exclamation. “But he shifted immediately and hasn’t yet transformed back.”

  “You don’t think he’s gone feral, do you?” I couldn’t imagine that. Malcolm’s will was strong and his control nearly perfect. Then again, his brain injury could have changed all that.

  “Gone feral?” Olivia looked alarmed. “What does that mean?”

  “Under certain circumstances, a Were can lose himself in his beast,” said Karma. “When that happens, the Were becomes unable to shift and lives out the natural life of his other half.”

  “What are the physicians saying about Malcolm’s condition?” I asked.

  “The optimists among them believe this to be a necessary stage in his healing process. They have him under observation in the arena and are holding off on any action for now.” Karma lapsed into silence when our drinks arrived, but focused back on me once the waitress had left. “There’s something else you should know. Balthasar Brenner is here.”

  “Here? In New York?” The revelation triggered a surge of anxiety and I pressed the heel of my right hand to the space between my breasts, as though doing so might calm my pounding heart. Alarm skittered down my spine, and I took deep, even breaths to calm my panther. Karma was gripping the table hard, her jackal reacting to my volatility. For an instant, I was back in the prison Brenner had arranged for me and Constantine, overwhelmed by the acrid scent of urine and wet fur, fighting off despair that I would ever see Val again. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, inhaling th
e aroma of pine wood and candle wax. I was free. I was safe. I was among friends.

  “He’s just across the river, actually.” Karma’s voice was tight with strain. “He arrived yesterday to join his soldiers. They’ve set up a makeshift base at a storage lot in Elizabeth.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “How did you discover this? And if you know where they are, then why hasn’t he been captured? Or better yet, killed?”

  I glanced at Olivia, wondering whether she found the harshness of my words to be disturbing, but she looked as grim as I felt. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Brenner was the one responsible for Abby’s illness, and she would want to make him pay.

  “Valentine discovered his whereabouts,” Karma said, watching me closely. “After Brenner’s people captured the members of a delegation from the Sunrunner vampire clan. Last night, a team attempted a raid on Brenner’s facility, but they had to turn back when he threatened to kill his hostages.”

  I took a long sip of my cocktail, hoping it would help to steady my nerves. “What’s the plan, then? What does he want?”

  “No one knows. He sent a message back with the Consortium operatives that he would open negotiations at some future time.”

  Olivia made a sound of disgust. “He’s playing with you.”

  Solana, who had been following our conversation with interest, finally spoke. “I do not know Brenner, but I have known many men like him. He will make negotiation impossible. He’ll take whatever he wants.”

  “What he wants is the dissolution of the Consortium.”

  “With Malcolm out of commission, Helen is the only one who can stand in his way,” Karma said. “And she’s shut us out. She mistrusts all Weres categorically, now—even Constantine.”

  “Perhaps she will listen to me,” Solana said into the silence. At Karma’s curious look, she elaborated. “We were lovers long ago.”

  I could tell that Karma wanted more details, but she didn’t press for them. Instead, she turned to me. “Despite everything that’s happened, I’ve been burning with curiosity to hear how your search went. Did you find it?”

  “Miraculously, we did.” I launched into the story of how we had traced the legend of the flower from documents in the National Library to the mountains of western Argentina. When I reached the part about Miguel’s plan for the flower, I let Solana take over the narration since she knew far more about the flower’s properties. By the time she drew to a close, Karma was leaning forward incredulously.

  “The roots are literally inside you?” she asked me.

  I checked to ensure that no other pub patrons were watching before I gingerly pushed up my sleeve.

  “Dear God,” Karma murmured in horror.

  It was a ghastly sight, like something out of Frankenstein. The skin of my forearm was mottled red and stretched tightly over the bulge that rose around the site of the wound. My scar was so taut that it looked as though it might fly apart in the next second. When my fingertip accidentally brushed the fiery, swollen skin, I bit my lower lip to keep from crying out. Again, the panther battered at the walls of my psyche, and again I held her back. Pain blossomed at my temples from the strain.

  “I need your help,” I said once the sharp spike of agony had faded into the ever-present ache that refused to dissipate. “I have to convince Valentine to drink from me. We believe that if she does, she’ll absorb enough of the flower’s essence to reverse the transition.”

  “Convince?” Karma squeezed my right hand. “Sweetie, listen to me. That night, last month, when I convinced you to come to Luna? When she surprised us there? She may have come to the club to raise hell, but her entire demeanor changed when she saw you. She wants you. Badly.”

  Olivia seemed uncomfortable with this shift in conversation, and I wondered what she had thought would have to happen for Valentine to be saved. Perhaps she had deluded herself into thinking that my blood could be mixed with Val’s morning coffee, but that wasn’t how this worked. Val would have to part my skin with her teeth and drink deeply. At the prospect of her bite, arousal blossomed deep in my stomach, and I took another long sip of my drink to disguise my reaction.

  “Although,” Karma continued, leaning back in her chair, “She may be more suspicious now, after the most recent attempt.”

  “Attempt?”

  “On her life. Brenner sent an assassin to the club last week—his third in as many months. According to the rumor mill, she closely resembled you as a human.”

  I growled, and Olivia instinctively jerked away. A haze of red filmed over my vision at the news that Brenner had used me to get to Valentine. In the process, he had made my task significantly harder.

  “In other words,” Solana said as I struggled to calm myself, “you will, in fact, have to ‘convince her.’” One corner of her mouth quirked in a mirthless smile. “You will have to mount a seduction worthy of an epic.”

  Olivia visibly squirmed in her seat, but Karma’s eyes glinted at the prospect.

  “All’s fair in love and war, and every war needs a staging ground. Come to my apartment tomorrow night, and from there we’ll all go to Tartarus together.” She focused in on me. “I have the perfect dress for you to wear.”

  I wanted to demand that we not waste even a second—that we ambush Valentine tonight. But I needed to sleep, especially if I was going to look my best and feel my sharpest. The fate of her soul rested on my ability to be both seductive and disarming—to convince her of my attraction without making my own capitulation unbelievable. To convince her that I still desired her now with a ferocity equal to the emotions I’d felt…before.

  As we gathered our belongings, I found myself wondering how much of the charades to come would actually be an act.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Close your eyes.”

  I sat on one of Karma’s bar stools that we had placed before her bathroom mirror. Her reflection looked insistent as she brandished her eye shadow brush as though it were some kind of weapon.

  “I’ve always been a very light makeup user,” I reminded her. “If you go crazy with this, Val will know something’s off.”

  At Karma’s exasperated sigh, I relented and let my eyes fall shut. For a moment, the scene felt eerily normal—as though we were simply a group of attractive, single women preparing for a night on the town. So much had never before been at stake on the outcome of a girls’ night out.

  As the brush fluttered across my eyelids, I tried to relax. The pain in my arm had temporarily receded after I’d submerged it in a bucket full of ice for the second time today. I didn’t want to keep it there for too long, lest the cold somehow damage the root, but I needed to reduce some of the swelling.

  “She’s doing a great job,” Olivia reassured me after a moment. She had arrived a few minutes ago with our ride for the evening—a Bentley four-seater sports car. I was glad to hear her speak up. After our conversation at the pub last night, she had seemed aloof and preoccupied. We had parted ways after dinner, Olivia and Karma heading uptown, while Solana and I walked to my Lower East Side apartment. I’d been surprised that Solana hadn’t taken the opportunity to see Helen. She had claimed to want to stay with me because of the flower, but I thought she might actually be nervous.

  Karma patted me on the shoulder. “Take a look.”

  I was impressed. Karma had used a delicate gray-green shading to bring out the color of my eyes, and a subtle touch of eyeliner to make them look bigger and darker. I didn’t look exhausted or in pain—I looked elegant.

  “Wow. You missed your true calling.”

  She handed me lipstick the color of a dusky red rose, and I applied it lightly. At that moment, Solana, who had been perusing Karma’s collection of books in her living room, joined us. In a silver spaghetti-strap dress, she looked a far cry from the woman who had surprised Olivia and me at Shadow Ranch.

  “You look beautiful,” she said, then gestured toward the ice bucket. “You’ve probably done that for long enough.”r />
  I removed my arm, but when Solana approached me with a towel, I waved her away. “Let’s just let it air dry. Putting the glove on is going to be agonizing enough.”

  Olivia’s mouth tightened at my reference to just how much pain I was in. Despite her professed desire to help Valentine, I had a feeling that she was starting to wonder whether Val was truly worth this level of effort. The only questions on my mind, however, were the ones that would make this mission more likely to succeed.

  “While we’re all here, let’s figure out the specifics.” I glanced at Karma. “Have you been to Tartarus? What’s the layout?”

  Karma perched on the edge of her Jacuzzi-style tub. “There are three entrances: the main entrance, a VIP entrance, and Valentine’s private entrance. Each has its own elevator that goes down to the dance floor. Security was tight when I was last there, and I imagine it will be even tighter after the most recent assassination attempt.” She shuddered. “The club is deep underground—very deep. I’ve been there only once, and I don’t relish going back.”

  I sighed. Not only would I be suffering from chronic pain and performance anxiety, but also claustrophobia. Wonderful. Hopefully, I could minimize my time underground by convincing Val to take me back to her apartment.

  “Do you know where Val lives in Soho? Just in case you aren’t able to follow us there?”

  “I do. But I don’t think her first inclination will be to take you home. She’ll probably just take you to her office.”

  “Well, that’s not going to work,” said Olivia, sounding agitated. “How are we going to be able to get to Alexa if we have to fight through security in an underground fucking fortress?”