The Darkest Frost: Vol 2 of a 2-part serial (TDF, #2)

by Tanya Holmes

  * * *

  THE TAYLOR GROUP BUILDING

  WASHINGTON, D.C.

  BRAEDEN

  ____________________________

  The show-and-tell with Vogel had been a huge risk, but Braeden couldn’t have saved the man otherwise. To grasp the futility of his vendetta, Vogel had to see what he was up against. If anyone found out what Braeden had revealed, Vogel wouldn’t be long for this world, which is why he’d taken great care in the planning. Including several fail-safes. As long as Xavier stayed out of it, the man would live a long, healthy life. So the plan would work—this time, but what about the next? Well, he’d cross that crocodile-infested moat when he came to it. He had more immediate issues to deal with.

  Like Denieve Knight, psychic detective.

  He’d just pulled up to the empty garage tollbooth and was dialing Jim Colona’s number when he saw her. She was standing across the busy city street leaning against her car door. It was much like finding a zebra in your bathtub, or Elvis…anywhere.

  This—she didn’t belong there.

  He had to be hallucinating.

  “Hello?” Jim’s rusty voice crackled through the speaker.

  Braeden absently lowered the cell phone, squeezed his lids shut and opened them again, but she was still there. Orange-and-gold tinted light from the setting sun framed her from behind as a gentle breeze danced through her hair. Cars zipped by. Pedestrians passed. But she didn’t move.

  Her frightened eyes were fixed on him.

  CHAPTER 12

  OUTSIDE THE TAYLOR GROUP BUILDING

  WASHINGTON, D.C.

  BRAEDEN

  ____________________________

  “Frost? You there?”

  Jim’s voice jarred him back. With his eyes still gaping at Denieve across the street, he slowly raised the phone to his ear again. “Yes,” he said as if in a daze. “Just wanted to give you a head’s up. Vogel should be in contact soon. Call if there’s a problem.”

  He absently dropped the burner on the seat as surprise turned to dread.

  This was no hallucination.

  She was standing out there. Waiting for him.

  One tenuous breath later, he sent a mental command to the yellow-and-black striped gate arm. Soon as it lifted, he surged into traffic. Ignoring the shrill chorus of car horns, he swung a U-turn to pull in behind her blue Chevy. He’d barely cut the engine before he was out the door, making a beeline for her. She looked shaken and bewildered. Her arms were wrapped tight around her body as if they were keeping her from flying apart.

  Tears brimmed in her bloodshot eyes and her face was flushed. He moved to cup her cheek, but she dodged his hand. The slight didn’t faze him. Confusion had his mind racing.

  “What are you doing here?” She didn’t answer. Just continued to study him in bemused silence as if he were a stranger. “What’s wrong? Why are you—Hang on.” A truck roared by and he guided her between their two cars. The ground rumbled beneath their feet. “What’s going on? Talk to me.”

  She swiped a runaway tear with her thumb. “Angela didn’t want me to go without giving us one more chance.”

  “Angela sent you here?”

  “Not exactly.”

  It took a moment before the word “Go” finally registered. Only then did he notice the paisley suitcases in her backseat. His chest tightened as half a dozen unsettling thoughts skittered through his mind.

  He stared down at her, stunned. “You were leaving me?”

  Ignoring his question, Denieve plowed ahead. “She gave me the address to the bank, but I didn’t get there in time. You’d already left.” Her voice sounded toneless, detached. “I was upset and I just wanted—needed to see you.”

  “Who told you I was here?”

  “No one.” A gale blew her hair into her eyes. She pushed it back with an unsteady hand. “Remember last night when I said we were connected?”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, I didn’t go into detail. I-I thought it would freak you out even more. My gift seems to have shifted somehow.” Her tremulous voice trailed off as she struggled for words. “When I got there, at the bank, this feeling came over me. I can’t explain it. It was like…” She swallowed hard. “Like my body sensed you’d already gone. This has been happening for weeks. Me knowing whenever you’re near. For some reason, it’s…it’s happened with Xavier too, but today, it guided me here. To you. A whole five miles from that bank.” Her cagey gaze cut to the garage across the street. “I knew you were in there.”

  Shock hit him like a lash and his knees gave. He braced the car trunk, his head falling forward. For the first time in centuries, he whispered a thank you to the God who’d cursed him and his kind long ago.

  She wasn’t dying.

  She was pregnant—with his child.

  Hope cradled his heart. He released a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding, but even as relief filled him, anxiety chased it back. “So you’ve been out here all this time?”

  “No.” She shook her head, fear resurfacing in her eyes. “The gate was closed to visitors, so I parked on the street and went looking for you.”

  His stomach smacked his throat.

  “It was a voice—the man you called Mr. Vogel. I’d walked halfway up the steps when I heard him yelling. He said he had a gun, so I hid. That’s when you stepped from behind the van.”

  This wasn’t happening. Not here. Not now.

  “I saw you with him, Braeden. I saw you!” She drew a shaky breath. Her unyielding gaze sharpened, narrowing on his face. “If you lie to me, I swear to God—”

  “All right. All right.” He gave a solemn nod. It was time to surrender to the truth, to her. He swept the busy perimeter in a glance, then lowered his voice. “Can we go somewhere private?”

  She went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “The lights and surveillance cameras were all broken. Like they exploded. Did you do that?”

  “Yes,” he admitted with a curt nod. “What else did you see?”

  “Enough to know you can’t possibly be human.”

  The truth. At last. He swallowed convulsively. “Does that scare you?”

  “No. It terrifies me.” She hugged herself tighter. “You never denied being responsible for his wife’s death or Lionel Gubczyk’s. That’s why you were here. To confront him because Vogel hired him.” Her voice hardened. “Whatever you are, it had something to do with the others dying, didn’t it? You killed all those people. That’s why you were so upset about Finn Moreau. You made him sick too.” Horror blazed in her eyes. “Is that what’s happening to me? Am I dying like them?”

  “No.”

  “Why am I even asking you? You’re probably lying.” She stared off. “The clinic couldn’t find anything, but I’m going back. I have to—”

  “You went to a clinic?”

  She glared at him. “Yes, I got checked out. I would’ve been a fool not to. You weren’t talking, so I had to do it on my own. Not that it amounted to anything. They did all kinds of tests but everything was negative.” She paused as if hit by an epiphany. “Is that how it works? This illness you give people? They get sick, but nobody knows what’s wrong until it’s too late? That’s why they never charged you with murder! Because they couldn’t find anything.”

  “Sweetheart…” When he approached her, she backed around to the passenger’s side door. His shoulders fell. It was as if she’d stabbed him in the heart. “Please don’t be frightened of me.”

  “Tell me I’m wrong!”

  Braeden took a step, but she shook her head. He sighed in exasperation. “I need to get you home.”

  “Why? So you can handle me the way you handled those cameras?” Her fearful eyes rounded. They screamed Monster. “Or will you send your insane brother to feed me to his sharks? Dathan Teale? Really? You’d think he’d be more creative.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “That’s his favorite poet. Stay back!”

  Braeden shuddered. “You have no rea
son to be scared of me, Danielle. I could never hurt you.”

  “It’s not Danielle, remember? It’s Denieve. Denieve Knight. Psychic detective.”

  “Danielle. Denieve…I couldn’t care less what your name is. Or that you’re a detective.” He spread his arms wide. “I don’t give a damn, okay? The only thing I care about is—”

  “Well, you should care since I’ve compromised you.”

  “Do you seriously want to debate this out here?”

  A city bus rumbled by, shaking the ground beneath them again. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation if I hadn’t caught you in that garage.” She balled her hands. “I gave you ample opportunity to tell me the truth. But you had no problem telling Vogel. Why is that?”

  “Because he’s worth risking! You aren’t. God, I wanted to tell you—I planned to tell you, but I had to wait until I knew for sure.”

  “Knew what!?”

  Could she not see his frustration? He looked around and scowled. “Can we please go home?”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  He stared at the ground, then gazed up at her, his eyes intent, focused. “I know what you saw in there frightened you, but I haven’t changed. I’m still the same man who made love to you last night.” He approached her, palms raised. “That’s why I can’t let you leave. Not like this.”

  Her back hit the door. “Touch me and I’ll scream.”

  “No you won’t.” Braeden sidled up against her and leaned down to whisper in her ear. Her body stiffened against his. “This isn’t how I wanted it to happen,” he said. “I wanted to do it when we were alone. Not in the middle of D.C.” He paused as a group of camera-toting tourists ambled past them. Cupping her face in his hands, he said, “I’m immortal, sweetheart. One of the Yoreck. And I didn’t make you sick. I made you pregnant. It happened the night of the storm.” He placed his right hand over her belly. “This is how you found me today. The baby—our baby—led you here.”

  Denieve blinked as if dazed. Breath catching, she glanced off, appearing to go inside herself, to consider his words. A tiny spark of hope glimmered in her eyes, softening them for the briefest of moments. But all too soon, hope shifted to disbelief.

  Then outrage.

  Her eyes turned to granite, and she shoved at him. “Whatever sick game you’re playing, I am not amused. I can’t have kids and you know it.”

  “That was before you met me.”

  “I just had my period!”

  “No, you didn’t,” he said. “You bled because your body had to prepare for the child.”

  She wiggled from his grasp and fumbled with her keys. “You’re insane.”

  “Did you wake up with migraine?” When she just looked at him, he came after her, his steps deliberate. “You’ve had other symptoms. The bleeding. Mood swings. Paranoia. Fuzzy thinking. Maternal radar. You even said your psychic gift hasn’t been working the same, right? It’s because your body’s changing. But I assure you it will come back. And soon you’ll discover new talents, my talents. Everything I can do, you’ll be able to do. Because I was the one to change you—to Make you. And you’ll develop others as well, unique talents.” His eyes pleaded with hers for understanding. “You’re very warm. I felt it when I touched your face just now.”

  She continued frantically sifting through her keys.

  “If you doubt what I’m saying, we can pick up a pregnancy test. There’s a CVS right down the street. Now that you’ve got the Fever, your hormone levels can’t be masked. They’re high enough to show a positive result.”

  Eyes filled with terror, she retreated to the driver’s side door.

  “Listen to me.” He was fast on her heels. “At the moment, your temperature is low-grade, and you may feel fine now, but it’ll get much worse in a few hours. Soon you’ll be seeing things that aren’t there. Vivid hallucinations.”

  “You’re lying. You’d say anything to get me into that car.”

  “You don’t believe me because you’re not thinking rationally. You’re paranoid. Scared. Your mind’s racing.” He grabbed her arm. “These are symptoms—pregnancy symptoms from the Fever. It’s your body’s reaction to the pregnancy. Your temperature will soar. You’ll get delirious. Dehydrated. And the hospital won’t know how to treat you. But I do. That’s why you can’t go. Not in your condition.”

  She jerked away and stabbed her key into the door. “So what’s next? Are you going to freeze me with your Jedi mind tricks? Because if you do, I swear I’ll never forgive you. If you even try to drag me to your car, I guarantee I’ll put up a hell of a fight.”

  People crowded the sidewalks. Another cop car passed.

  He wrenched her around. “You’ll lose our baby—”

  “For all I know these ‘symptoms’ are from some illness you’ve given me—just like the others! And for the last time, there is no baby!”

  “Yes, there is. And you’ll miscarry if Xavier doesn’t—”

  “Xavier?” Her brows slammed together. “What does he have to do with this?”

  He taxed his brain for a response that wouldn’t set her off. Finding none, he said, “I can’t get into it here. Just come with me, and I’ll explain everything.”

  “How do I know you’re not trying to lure me back so you can ‘Protocol’ me?”

  “Denieve—”

  “I saw what you did in there, Braeden.” She tossed a hand at the garage. “You lifted a man with one finger!”

  “You’ve been after me to tell you the truth. Well, I’m doing it today, all right? I couldn’t risk telling you anything until I was sure of your condition.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you can’t be Protocoled now! You’re pregnant, so the Elders can’t touch a hair on your head! It’s against our laws. And it’s now physically impossible for you to betray me or my kind. A mortal pregnant with a Yoreck child can’t. That protectiveness you feel for me is a natural side effect of the pregnancy. You’re becoming like us. That’s what I was waiting for, sweetheart. I had to be sure. I was willing to risk Milton Vogel’s life, but not yours!”

  She wagged her head. “That’s it. I’m out of here.”

  “But you’re not in your right mind!”

  “You saying that a billion times doesn’t make it true,” she snapped. “It’s called common sense. That’s what I’m using.”

  “No. Your reasoning is off. If it weren’t, you’d be willing to hear me out. Instead, you’re being completely irrational. You shouldn’t even be driving!”

  People stared. Cars slowed.

  “Right. So I’m the crazy one. Whatever.” She yanked the door open. “Bye, Braeden.”

  Panic set in, but he managed to lower his voice. “I’m begging you, sweetheart. Don’t—”

  Denieve waved a hand. “I can’t think like this. Not with you…talking.” She squeezed her eyes shut briefly. “I’ll call you first thing tomorrow. I promise. I-I just have to get away.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I said I’d call you. Now let me leave, Braeden. I won’t ask again.”

  He almost couldn’t hear his own thoughts over his pounding heart. When he’d seen her staring down from the window today, the possibility of losing her had circled his mind like a vulture. Now it wasn’t a possibility anymore. It was a clear and present danger.

  He scoured the area. Sure, he could grab her and throw her into his Jag, but there were too many people around…so many, many witnesses.... As if in warning, a police cruiser approached on the opposite side of the road. The car slowed to a crawl. The cop’s eyes locked on them.

  Seizing the opportunity for escape, Denieve climbed into the Chevy and pulled off.

  * * *

  THE CAPITAL BELTWAY

  MARYLAND

  BRAEDEN

  ____________________________

  A swath of red taillights bled before Braeden as he cut into evening traffic. He stabbed the Talk button, his thoughts raging. Angela picked up on th
e first ring.

  “Yes, hello?”

  “It’s me,” he said. “What were you thinking?”

  “I had no way of contacting you. You didn’t give me your new number.”

  “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You just couldn’t resist inserting yourself into—”

  “Inserting myself?” Angela scowled. “She was determined to leave! What else was I to do?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. How about stopping her?”

  “And how was I supposed to do that without giving myself away?”

  That she had an irrefutable point annoyed the hell out of him. “You broke your promise.”

  “If you’ll recall, I told you I wouldn’t say anything, and I didn’t.”

  He zigzagged between lanes. “No, you just lit the fuse and waited for the bomb to go off.”

  “So this is my fault? Newsflash, darling, she was dead set on leaving. The only way I could’ve stopped her is if I subdued her. And I only know of one way to do that.”

  “Well, why didn’t you do something to her car?”

  “A better question is why didn’t you?”

  Why? Because he didn’t think of it in time, and he gathered Angela hadn’t either.

  She sighed. “Where is she now?”

  “I have no idea.”

  He’d caught up to her after she pulled off, but lost her on BW Parkway.

  HOOONNNNK!

  Braeden jerked the Jag back into the lane. He’d veered over the line, almost sideswiping a tracker trailer. The big rig thundered by in a toxic cloud of diesel exhaust.

  He clamped the steering wheel in a death grip. “She is pregnant, but before you get giddy, let me remind you she’ll get very ill within the next few hours, and I have no way of finding her.” He changed lanes again. “Did she give you any indication about where she was going?”

  Angela paused for a beat. “Wait a minute. She took a call right before she left. She mentioned something about a room.”

  Hope lifted his heart. “Hotel or motel?”

  “All she said was that she’d be there within the hour. But this was before I gave her the address to find you.”