The serum and the research should have been destroyed when we burned down the vigilantes’ compound in Boulder. The lab was there. So was a network of computers. But, apparently, Nakano was smart enough to back up the research and store some of the serum off-site.
I run my hands over my face. A minute ago, I was blissfully relaxed in Aren’s arms, but now, the stress and tension I’ve been living with for the past several months slowly seep back into my body.
“What time is it?” I ask reluctantly.
“A few hours from morning,” he says with a shrug. That was a stupid question to ask him. The days and nights in the Realm and on Earth don’t match up, so he can’t tell me the exact time. Even in the Realm, fae usually speak in terms of hours or half hours before dawn, noon, dusk, and midnight—the real midpoint of the night. Time isn’t as important to them as it is to humans.
“I contacted the vigilantes yesterday around noon,” I say, reaching for the laptop on the table beside the couch. “They might have replied.”
It’s a sign of how tired I am that I don’t realize what I’m doing until I open the laptop and press the power button.
“Torture, nalkin-shom?” Aren asks at the same time that I say, “Shit. Sorry.”
I start to get up, but he laughs and pulls me back against him. “It’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Completely,” he says. “Nick still has the power off, and you’ve chased away my headache.” He slides his hand, the one that’s under the blanket, over my hip, then down my leg.
“What does it say?” he whispers, letting his lips brush against my ear.
“Mmm.” I move my finger across the laptop’s touch pad, trying to concentrate on what I’m doing, not on what he’s doing. “I, um, need to log in.”
“Okay,” he says, letting his fingers skim lightly up and down my inner thigh.
I manage to get into my e-mail. I read the one new message that downloads to my in-box.
“The seller’s responded already,” I say. “He wants to know how long it will take me to get to Boulder.”
Aren’s hand stops moving. “Boulder, again?”
“Apparently, the vigilantes didn’t flee the city.”
We were there just over a month ago. That’s where Naito’s father set up his compound inside a closed-down ski resort. Naito and I and a few rebels went there to destroy the Sight serum. Normally, fae go out of their way to avoid human deaths, but the vigilantes are ruthless and cruel, and they’re a threat to the fae. We left the compound in ashes, and more than a dozen humans died. The Boulder police are calling it a cult suicide. The first part isn’t far from the truth, but the second? Aren and the rebels—and probably the remnants who eventually showed up, too—killed the vigilantes, who were waiting to spring a trap on us. Most of them were slain with swords, but Nakano wasn’t. Naito shot him twice before Trev used his magic to burn down the compound. Since it’s obvious the fae learned where the vigilantes’ base of operations was, I’m surprised any of them decided to remain in the city.
I start typing a reply.
“What are you writing?” Aren asks.
“I’m telling him I live only a few hours away and can meet him at six tonight. You can fissure me there?”
He doesn’t respond immediately. I click SEND, then look at him.
“Yeah,” he says, a warm smile on his lips.
“What?” I ask.
“You didn’t think twice about being the person who meets with them.”
I set the laptop aside. “Who else would do it? They would recognize Naito and Lee, and you can’t do it. They’d kill any fae who showed up.”
“They’d try to kill any fae who showed up,” he says. “My point is, you get hurt so often—”
“That’s not my fault. People keep trying to kill me.”
“I know,” he says with a laugh. “I know, but any normal human would say they’re done with this. They’d leave us to fight our own war. You don’t. You always pick yourself up and put your life at risk again and again.”
I tilt my head. “Are you calling me an adrenaline junky?”
His arms tighten around me. “I’m calling you brave.”
I return his smile, shifting a little in his arms. Then I rest my cheek on his chest.
“McKenzie?”
“Hmm?” I respond. His heartbeat is comforting. It could lull me to sleep.
His hand moves along my inner thigh again. “I think my headache is coming back.”
I open my eyes, grin up at him. “Is it?”
His chaos lusters, which have been on a pleasant, simmering after-buzz from our previous lovemaking, suddenly strike hotly across my skin.
“Oh, yes,” he says, pulling me higher on top of him. “It’s definitely back.”
* * *
SEVERAL hours after the sun rises, Aren and I finally tear ourselves away from each other. We need to get to Boulder, so we make plans to meet at the Vegas gate. Naito and Lee will be coming with us as well. They’ll recognize the vigilantes, and it doesn’t hurt to have a little human backup.
The wind whistles through my broken window as I pull to a stop in front of a hotel on the outskirts of town. I vacuumed out the broken glass at a gas station, but I think I might have missed a few shards in the back. Lee curses as he climbs into the car.
“Sorry,” I mutter when I look into the rearview mirror and see his reflection staring down at his palm. He plucks the glass from his hand without another word.
Naito doesn’t say anything either. Not even a hello to his brother. He hasn’t said much since we left Nick’s, and as soon as I hit the road again, the silence stretches between us. He’s not the same person he was before Kelia’s death, and even though I know it’s unreasonable, I can’t help feeling a little guilty after last night. Aren and I had what he lost, and our human-fae relationship is a reminder of what he’ll never have again. I don’t know if he’ll ever love someone like he loved Kelia.
Naito’s the one who told me that once I’d been with a fae, I’d never want to be with a human again. After last night, I believe him. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but being in Aren’s arms, feeling him move against me, then feeling the lightning strike between us . . .
The memory brings a rush of heat to my cheeks. That was definitely worth waiting for. It felt earth-shattering. Literally. I’m surprised there weren’t burn marks on the walls from the explosion of the edarratae. We reached the point where they coalesced into a disc of light four times during the night—a feat Aren insisted wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for me and my humanness—and I thought I saw a black scorch line on the walls long after the light disappeared.
I shake the images from my head, not just because Naito’s sitting next to me, but because Kyol’s picking up on my emotions. He’s training with his swordsmen right now, trying to reinforce his mental walls. Problem is, those walls keep his feelings from me more than they keep mine from him, and last night, I was incapable of building a barrier between us.
I feel like I’ve stabbed Kyol in the back. But I wasn’t naïve. I knew Kyol would know when Aren and I were together. I knew I’d have to deal with the pain of hurting him. I guess I just hoped I wouldn’t hurt him so much.
I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. I need to focus on something besides Kyol and Aren.
“You going to tell him the plan?” I ask Naito.
He doesn’t respond immediately, but after I turn onto the rural road that’ll take us to the gate, he gives Lee a quick rundown of what we’re going to do in Boulder. The vigilante who responded to my e-mails didn’t give a name. I think whoever it is has watched a few too many espionage movies because he wants me to wear a red scarf and meet him at a bar.
As I pull to the side of the road, Lee says, “It’s gotta be Harper. The guy’s paranoid.”
“You’re all paranoid,” Naito tells him as he gets out of the car.
I toss my keys into the gl
ove box—they’re useless in the Realm—and climb out just as Lee slams his door.
“They’re all paranoid,” he says.
Naito studies his brother over the hood of my car. After a handful of seconds, he nods once, then heads for the gate. Aren, Trev, and Nalst are there waiting for us.
“Lena wants to know if you’ve talked to Paige,” Trev says when we reach them.
My jaw clenches, and I shake my head. I tried to get in touch with Paige before we left Nick’s. Sure, my “noon” phone call might have been half an hour later than I said it would be, but it wouldn’t have killed Paige to keep her phone on and in her hand for a little while longer.
Unless, of course, Paige is already dead. If Caelar and the false-blood are working together, the false-blood may have insisted upon it. He might have . . .
I bite my lip, forcing the image of the skinned humans in London and at the tjandel out of my head. I’m almost certain Caelar and Tylan wouldn’t let that happen to her.
“I’ll try to call her again when we’re finished in Boulder,” I say.
Trev doesn’t look like he believes I tried at all. Whatever. He can get over it.
“Let’s go,” Aren says.
Trev and Nalst fissure out with Naito and Lee, leaving me alone with Aren. He gives me one of his sexy half grins as he reaches for me.
He leans me against a tree, kisses my neck, then says, “Naito and Lee can probably take care of the vigilante.”
He kisses my collarbone. “The vigilante’s expecting me.”
“Mmm,” he murmurs, sliding his hands under my shirt. My stomach tightens when a chaos luster skips across my ribs. “You’re telling me no, then?”
“I’m telling you later.” My voice is suddenly raspy. His hands have moved down to my waistband. His thumbs dip under it, and my legs turn molten when an unbelievably hot bolt of lightning shoots down low.
“What if the evil vigilante steals you away?” he asks, his lips brushing against my ear.
“Then you’ll come find me.” I dig my fingers into his shoulders. “Or I’ll kick his ass. Whichever is easier.”
Aren chuckles.
“I’ve missed you,” he says, tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear.
“It’s only been an hour.”
“You didn’t miss me then?” he asks, kissing the corner of my mouth.
“I’ve missed you for the last month,” I tell him, and as soon as I say those words, I remember the other kisses we’ve shared over the last week. The reluctant kisses, the ones he tried so hard not to give me.
I take a half step away from him. His smile wavers. It’s brief—no more than half a second passes before it returns—but it’s telling.
“You haven’t told me why you tried to push me away.”
His chaos lusters are darting across my skin. It takes everything in me to stand there, not giving in to the desire to kiss him again.
His smile turns into a tantalizing half grin. “Would you believe it was because I was the Realm’s biggest fool?”
“Yes.” A particularly hot bolt of lightning makes my voice break over the word. “And no,” I force myself to say. “I want to know the truth, Aren.”
“I told you the truth.”
“You told me you couldn’t accept the life-bond.”
He looks away from me, back toward the road. That’s when I feel Kyol’s apprehension. Thinking about the life-bond has made me more aware of him, and I’m all but certain he’s braced for Aren and me to be together again.
“That’s close to the truth,” Aren says, his brow furrowing. “Life-bonds are sacred between fae.”
“I’m not fae,” I manage to get out. I’m trying so hard to build a mental wall.
Aren nods. Then his gaze settles on me again. “That makes it worse.” He takes my hand. “Come on. Someone’s just pulled over.”
He presses an anchor-stone into my palm, then leads me to the edge of the river. Still trying to put up a wall, I look over my shoulder and see a police officer walking to my car. He’s not looking in this direction, thank God, but I’m betting I’ll have another TOW AWAY sticker slapped on my car when we get back.
Aren doesn’t release my hand when he dips his into the river. His chaos lusters spiral up my arm. They’re heating my skin, making me flush, and as the fissure shrrips open, I welcome the chill of the In-Between. It extinguishes my lust just enough that I’m able to build a fairly solid mental wall when we step out of the light in Boulder.
“It doesn’t affect you much, does it?” Aren asks, pocketing the anchor-stone.
“What?” I hedge because I’m not sure how to answer. If I tell him the truth, that yes, knowing that Kyol feels how much I love and want Aren is wearing on me, Aren might think I regret last night. He might try to put distance between us again, and I don’t want that.
“You usually hold on to me more tightly when we step out of a fissure,” Aren says. “You’re not off-balance or shaky. The life-bond’s made you more resilient.”
Thank God I didn’t answer. He wasn’t asking if the life-bond affects me; he was asking if the In-Between does.
“Yeah,” I say with a shrug. “It’s had some interesting side effects. Kynlee was able to take me through a gate without—”
“Kynlee,” he interrupts, his silver eyes widening.
“Yeah. She—”
“You fissured with Kynlee? With a tor’um?”
“I’ve already been informed how risky that was. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight.” I’m surprised he’s just now learning about this.
“It wasn’t risky, it was suicidal. Sidhe.” He runs a hand through his already disheveled hair.
“Hey,” Naito’s voice comes from behind me. We’ve fissured to the edge of a wooded area. When I turn, Naito is stepping between the foliage. “Are you two coming, or do you need some time?”
“We’re coming,” I say.
We’re just a handful of paces away from a parking lot that’s crammed with cars. Lee’s on the phone, arranging for a taxi to pick us up. When he sees me, he starts walking toward the entrance to a shopping mall. After a short debate on whether it’s actually necessary for me to have on a red scarf—Naito thinks it is just in case we don’t recognize the vigilante, but Lee’s certain the vigilante will be Harper—I grab some cash from Lee, run inside, and buy a scarf that’s more pink than red. It’ll have to do.
Half an hour later, I’m sitting alone at the bar. It’s ten minutes before six, so the place isn’t crowded. That’s kind of a problem. Lee’s hunkered down in a corner booth. He’s wearing a baseball cap that he picked up at the last minute from a street vendor, but if the vigilante is paranoid and looks closely, he’ll see Lee’s face. Plus, there’s always the possibility that my contact isn’t coming alone.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asks. She’s skinny with a tattoo inked from her left wrist all the way up to her shoulder.
“Nothing right now,” I say. “I’m waiting on someone.”
“Are you waiting on him?” She nods toward a man sitting at the end of the bar. He’s older, pushing sixty at least, with a deeply pockmarked face. A briefcase sits at his feet.
“If so, you’re the third”—she eyes my pink scarf—“reddish-scarfed woman he’s met here recently.”
“That’s probably him then. Thanks,” I say, staring at the man. He’s still not looking at me. And Lee isn’t moving. He’s here instead of Naito because, theoretically, he’ll recognize more of the vigilantes since Naito hasn’t been one of them for several years. Honestly, though, I’d rather have Naito here, or Aren or Trev, but they’re all waiting outside in inconspicuous locations. The vigilante would either run or fight if he saw a fae, and we don’t want to cause a scene.
If Briefcase Man is my contact, I could just walk out of here. We could follow him to see where he goes, or we could maneuver him into a dark alley and question him. Either way is simple and would work. Really, all I need to do is make sure h
e’s who I think he is.
I’ll give him until 6:05. Then I’ll go talk to him.
When the clock behind the bar reads exactly 6:00 P.M., Briefcase Man picks up his briefcase, walks to me, then with a curt “Follow me,” he heads for a narrow hall at the back of the bar. Presumably, it leads to the restrooms and rear exit.
As I stand, I glance at Lee. He won’t see me if I go down that hall, and he’s not looking my way now. He’s staring out the window. I hesitate, waiting for him to check on me, but he seems riveted to something outside.
Crap. I can’t call out his name without alerting the vigilante, and I can’t wait for him to turn. I follow Briefcase Man, thinking. Aren, Trev, and Nalst should be watching the back exit. Naito’s watching the front. Even without Lee following me, I’ll be safe.
I step into the hallway, see the back exit then—
The vigilante turns, swinging his briefcase at my head while he kicks open a door.
I manage to duck beneath the briefcase, but he rams into me, making me fall into the side room. Instinctively, I roll to my back, intending to kick up and knock his head off, but someone’s behind me. They grab the arms I brace against the floor, then drag me all the way inside.
TWENTY-ONE
“DON’T MOVE. DON’T make a sound.” The man holding me presses a gun into my ribs.
In front of me, Briefcase Man closes and locks the door. We’re in a restroom. The men’s restroom. Three urinals are on the wall to my right. Gross. I want to peek under the two stalls to see if anyone is in them, but I’m sure I already know the answer. They’re empty, and no one in the bar had a view of the hallway or my abduction.
I draw in a deep breath—through my mouth, not my nose—and do my best to keep my heart rate steady. I’m going to get through this without Kyol fissuring to my rescue. Hell, after last night, he might not come to my rescue at all.
“We knew we’d get their attention sometime,” Briefcase Man says to me.
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