Dominic raised an eyebrow. “This shelter was meant to protect vampires from the Damned, not night bloods from vampires.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered how well-protected the walls were between us,” Bex murmured to Walker silkily. “When I ask you to let me in, you always will. Nothing can prevent me from peeling your skull open like an orange rind and taking a big, juicy bite whenever and however often I want.”
“Not helping, Bex,” I muttered.
Walker whirled on me, his face beet red, either from embarrassment or rage—probably both. “With your super-enhanced ears, are you hearing this?” Walker asked, pointing at Bex accusingly. “We had a deal. We promised not to harm each other in any capacity unless in self-defense or in defense of each other.”
Bex grinned. “I made no such deal.”
“You may as well have broken your word outright and killed me yourself, leaving me with that monster,” Walker said to me, ignoring Bex.
“And yet, here you stand, alive and well enough to complain us to death!” Bex rolled her eye.
Rafe and Neil stepped minutely closer, a low growl swelling in the small room.
“I apologize,” I said, also ignoring Bex. “I wouldn’t have abandoned you in the Underneath with Bex if I’d had a choice.”
Walker shook his head, disgusted. “I should have known better than to take the word of a—”
“Dominic was dying,” I interrupted before Walker could utter an insult he’d regret. “I left you in possible mortal danger to defend Dominic who was in actual mortal danger, which was well within the parameters of our agreement.”
Walker laughed and the sound vibrated like a cheese grater against my skull. “I might have actually believed that except for the fact that you didn’t come back for us. Want to enlighten me on that one, darlin’? When the actual mortal danger had passed, what prevented you from coming back to save the person you’d left in possible mortal danger?”
I struggled to hold his gaze and not glance at Dominic, my face blazing.
Walker nodded knowingly. “That’s what I thought.”
“Then why are you here, Walker?” I asked, exasperated. “Are we allies? Are we enemies? What do you want from me?”
Walker glanced at the kitchen where Ronnie was flipping pancakes and pursed his lips.
Ronnie, of course. A frustrated, scoffing noise scraped from the back of my throat. Even when Walker and I had been on good terms, our arguments had always somehow circled back to Ronnie.
“As riveting as this conversation is, we have more important business to discuss,” Bex interrupted, and by the sharpness in her tone, like the precision of a well-aimed bullet, I could tell she was done being ignored. “You’ve certainly put me in quite the pickle, Lysander.”
“And what pickle might that be?” Dominic asked drily. He knew exactly the pickle she was in—the same pickle we were all in—and that he’d personally placed the cucumber in the vinegar and sealed the bottle tight with his own two hands. But I could tell by the rhythmic flex of his jaw, despite his flippant words, that he was dreading this conversation as much as the rest of us.
“You and Cassidy have worked very diligently to regain my favor and rebuild our alliance. In my role as Master vampire of Erin, New York, I consider myself your ally. But in my role as Second Day Reaper to the Lord High Chancellor”—Bex tutted—“you’ve placed me in an impossible position.”
Dominic stiffened behind me. I could actually hear his complete cessation of movement. “We have been allies for decades while you have avoided the Lord High Chancellor for just as long. The position I’ve placed you in is difficult, I’ll grant you that, but I’d hoped not impossible. In fact, I’d think your position on the matter should be quite obvious.”
“Are you deliberately sugar-coating what you’ve done because I know for a fact you’re not that idealistic,” Bex chided. Her expression was serene, almost teasing, but I wasn’t fooled. Bex was a snake, waiting and eager to strike if provoked. I held my breath as she continued. “We may have been allies for decades, but he is the Lord High Chancellor.”
“I’m not sugar-coating anything, Beatrix,” Dominic purred, his voice in perfect decorum but his words and the use of her full name were a warning. “I know exactly what I’ve done, but I also know exactly where I stand. Being lifelong allies does not mean only backing one another in times of peace. It also means strapping on the armor for one another in times of war. This is that time.”
“You knowingly transformed a potential Day Reaper, Lysander. The Lord High Chancellor will consider your actions an act of treason, and should I not carry out punishment, I could be charged with insubordination, at the least, if not outright treason!” Bex shook her head, all pretense of teasing forgotten. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that Cassidy was dying, and between her certain death and potential charges of treason, I chose treason. Not that there was much of a choice at the time,” he added drily. “As there isn’t much of one now.”
Bex sniffed. “You wanted Cassidy for yourself. Admit it.”
“If you could go back to your own transformation, would you willingly submit to the Lord High Chancellor as your maker?”
Bex opened her mouth.
“Don’t even try to deny it,” Dominic scoffed. “Your centuries of living apart from him and avoiding your final transformation into a Day Reaper belie anything you might say now. You resent his rule. Admit it.”
Bex snapped her mouth shut with an audible click.
“Cassidy, Ian Walker, and I saved you from painful, permanent imprisonment within the Underneath. Is that how you would repay my part in your rescue? A charge of treason?”
“You leave me no choice!” Bex hissed. “I could stay the Lord High Chancellor’s hand when you at least put up a front of subservient obedience, but this”—Bex waved her hand in my direction—“this takes the fucking cake. Not even I can save you from his wrath now.”
“When he finds out,” Dominic murmured.
Bex narrowed her eye. “Excuse me?”
“When the Lord High Chancellor finds out about my insubordination, not even you will be able to save me from his wrath. But for now, he has not found out. And when he does, perhaps you did not find out until shortly before him. Or perhaps, circumstance being dire, you rescued him as soon as you were able after utilizing me and Cassidy and all other useful resources at your disposal to overthrow Jillian and free him. But until then…” Dominic shrugged. “Circumstances are dire, and another grave act of insubordination—Jillian’s raging army of the Damned—must be addressed first. I think even the Lord High Chancellor would agree that stripping Jillian of her power, eradicating the Damned, and crowning the rightful Master vampire of New York City is our highest priority.”
“I don’t think the Lord High Chancellor would agree with anything you have to say, simply because you’re the one saying it.” Bex cocked her head and studied Dominic as if he were a specimen in a petri dish. It was a disconcerting look. “You saved me from the Underneath because we’re allies, and you’re calling on that bond now to secure my loyalty to you over my loyalty to the Chancellor?”
Dominic inclined his head deeply.
“I’m calling bullshit,” Bex said.
Dominic blinked. “Excuse me?”
Bex pointed at Walker. “He is not my ally. Why did you really release me from the Underneath?”
I cursed under my breath. “I knew working with Walker was a bad idea.”
Bex’s eyes honed on me. “Something to add, my dear?”
“Yes,” I said. “We all have our own motivations for what we do, but Walker’s motivations don’t detract from Dominic’s. Dominic saved you out of loyalty. You can hear the truth of that ringing from his words, can’t you?”
Bex cocked her head again, and suddenly I was the one in
the petri dish. “And what are your motivations, Cassidy DiRocco? Have they changed since we last met, or are you still trying the keep the Titanic afloat?”
“The plan isn’t about saving the ship. It’s about saving the passengers,” I said.
“And I suppose I play some vital role in that plan.” Bex sighed dramatically.
I stared at her, gnashing my teeth.
Bex gestured with her hands for me to continue. “Come, come. Tell me the plan.”
I opened my mouth and inhaled, using the extra seconds to find the words I needed to convince her. “You won’t like what I’m about to ask of you, but it’s nothing I’m not willing to do myself.”
Bex laughed at that. “Considering everything you’ve willingly done yourself for the sake of others, I cringe to think of the possibilities.” She waved a hand at my protest. “You’ve never been one to mince words. Just tell me the plan, and I’ll tell you if I’m willing to participate.”
I nodded reluctantly. “Dr. Susanna Chunn is developing weapons against the Damned and needs samples of our blood to further her research.”
“Nothing you wouldn’t do yourself,” Bex murmured, “and nothing you haven’t done before, if I remember correctly.”
“At least she’s requesting your permission,” Dominic added, “and not distributing samples of your blood without your knowledge.”
I flushed deeper.
“Dr. Chunn is developing weapons against the Damned using our blood,” Bex repeated my words as if the shape and sound of them was a texture in her mouth. Considering our skewed senses, maybe they were. “Genius, that, considering we’re the only species whose claws are capable of penetrating their hide.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said. “There’s merit to her theories, and I’d like to give her a chance to prove them.”
“And you think these weapons that she develops will be only used against the Damned?” Bex’s eyes sliced to Walker. “You don’t think giving her our blood will give her everything she needs to develop weapons against Day Reapers?”
“She’s our ally, and we—”
“And we are surrounded by enemies,” Bex murmured.
“Dr. Chunn will continue her research whether we help her or not. She will create weapons, and when she does, I’d like to use them against the Damned. If we don’t help her, we may not get to use them. In fact, we can almost guarantee they’ll be used against us.”
Bex narrowed her eye. “So either way, we’re screwed.”
“What I’m saying,” I said firmly, “is that despite the fact that Dr. Chunn could use our blood against us, we need to trust that she won’t. If we play on the same team now when she needs us, she will return the favor when we need her, because that’s what allies do. They help each other and become a stronger force together than they were separately.”
Bex raised her eyebrows, but for once she didn’t have a ready comeback.
“We are allies,” I continued, gesturing between the two of us, “and despite the fact that you could use Dominic’s crimes of treason against us, I freed you from the Underneath anyway, trusting that you won’t. We’re on the same team here, Bex. Hell, I’ve held your heart in my hand and healed you with Dominic’s blood. Some people might even call that friendship,” I said. “And friends, real friends, don’t betray each other, even if it’s in their best interest to do so.”
Bex considered me and my words for a long moment in silence. Eventually, she turned to Dominic.
“You play a dangerous game, Lysander.”
“It’s the only game anyone here is willing to play,” Dominic said softly.
A sly smile curved her lips, baring a hint of fang. “Good thing it’s a game we both play well.”
Dominic inclined his head.
“So that’s what a deal with the devil looks like.” Walker shook his head. “Two devils. God help us all.”
“Your pancakes are ready, Ian,” Ronnie piped from the kitchen.
Walker glanced at Ronnie like he might regard smeared excrement on the bottom of his shoe. “I’m not hungry.”
Ronnie blinked several times, first at Walker and then at the dozen pancakes on the plate she’d placed on the counter, as if the possibility of his lost appetite had never occurred to her. “Yes you are. You haven’t eaten since arriving yesterday.”
“I’m fine,” he said stiffly.
“I can hear your stomach growling.”
Silence, like a grenade, detonated the room with hostility.
“Fuck you and your vampire senses. I don’t want your fucking pancakes.”
Ronnie’s blinking increased. She might be short-circuiting. “I don’t have vampire senses. I can hear your stomach with my very human-hearing ears.”
Walker made a rude, scoffing noise in the back of his throat, nearly identical to the noise I’d made at him only minutes before. “Whatever.”
“You’ll let all these pancakes go to waste out of stubbornness,” Ronnie said, her voice disgusted.
“Someone else can eat them.”
“No one else here eats solid food!”
My cell phone rang, thank God for small miracles.
“Sorry, I’ve got to take this,” I said, digging it out of my pocket.
Dominic glanced askance at me and scowled. “Who is it?”
“Does it really matter?” I muttered.
“You can’t just—”
But I’d already escaped back into the peace and solitude of the bedroom and shut the door, cutting off his words mid-sentence.
I answered the phone. “DiRocco here.”
“It’s Greta. How fast can you get to the morgue?”
“Why? What’s happened?” My heart clenched on a bad thought. “Is Nathan all right?”
“Your brother’s fine. He’s helping Dr. Chunn in the lab.”
“He’s out of the cage?” I asked, surprised.
Greta let loose a very unladylike snort. “I’m not one for exercises in futility. Keeping him caged knowing he could have escaped and killed us if he’d been so inclined all along kind of defeats the purpose of caging him, wouldn’t you say?”
“And he’s helping Dr. Chunn?” I asked. I wasn’t sure which revelation was more shocking.
“Much to Rowens’s consternation, yes. And doing a damn fine job of it.”
“Glad to hear it. So if not Nathan, what else hit the fan?”
“Nothing. We were just given a golden egg.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Who the hell hands out golden eggs these days?”
“Seeing is believing, DiRocco,” she said, throwing my favorite words back at me, “and you’re going to shit your own golden fucking egg when you see this.”
I laughed. “Okay. I’m on my way, G. Before you hang up, let me say hi to Nathan.”
“Your sister says hi,” Greta said, her voice suddenly muffled.
“Hi!” I heard from afar.
“There you go,” Greta said, her voice solid again. “Anything else you have to say, say it in person. Get here pronto, D.”
“But I—”
But I was talking to myself.
Chapter 15
Had Bex and I visited the morgue by ourselves like I’d intended, we could have traveled there from Dominic’s underground bunker in minutes—the Damned be damned—but I’d failed to consider the fact that I wasn’t a lone agent anymore. Where I went, Dominic would follow, and where he went, Rafe and Neil wanted to shadow, and where Bex went, Walker would stalk. Ronnie had a pile of dishes to clean and dozens of pancakes to dispose of, but I could tell by her longing looks that without domestic obligations, she would have tagged along in Walker’s wake, no matter his rude, callous disregard. Sunset had come and gone by the time we’d agreed on who would join me at the morgue to further our investigation, who would help Rafe
restock our blood supply, and who would play house with Ronnie.
But when Dominic, Bex, Walker, and I entered the morgue, I discovered that the tension between Walker and Ronnie and our little vampire family was apparently not the only bomb I’d have the pleasure of defusing. Greta took one look at Bex, in her svelte green-and-lace dress, waiting patiently for permission to cross the threshold, whipped her electric gaze on me, and snapped, “Who the hell are you dragging into this investigation now?”
“Detective Greta Wahl,” I said, forcing my voice to remain professional despite the beating my skin was taking from the rubber band snaps of her frustration. Greta raised an eyebrow at my formal introduction. “I’d like to introduce you to Bex, Master vampire of Erin, New York, and Second Day Reaper to Lord High Chancellor Henry Lynell Horrace DeWhitt, Master vampire of London and Lord of all vampires.” I turned to Bex, determined to keep the sarcasm from my voice. “Bex, I’m pleased to introduce you to my very good friend and the lead detective on this investigation, Detective Greta Wahl.”
Bex grinned mischievously. “A pleasure to officially make your acquaintance, Detective.”
“This is Bex?” Greta’s lips thinned grimly. “Wonderful.”
Both Dominic and Bex had fed from living, breathing humans on our way to this meeting, so they were once again glowing with health, strength, and model-perfect beauty. I’d refused their insistent offerings to share; my own driving, addiction-like thirst had been quenched by the bagged blood I’d swallowed to heal Dominic, so the pulse of a freshly sliced artery wasn’t tempting enough for me to bridge that final chasm between my human life and my vampire existence. Besides, since basking in sunlight and completing my transformation into a Day Reaper, I was looking pretty glowing, too, if I did say so myself. My eyes had reverted back to their human appearance, and my skin had plumped and blushed into smooth perfection. Not one blackhead or wrinkle marred my pores. My hair, typically pin-straight from root to tip, now had some body to it, curling silkily at the tips as if I’d styled it that way.
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