by Rye Brewer
I looked back at the mountains, where we had come from. They weren’t so scary in the daylight, with no wind whipping the bare trees around.
“Is the weather always so sudden around here?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. What you saw today isn’t unusual. One minute it’s sunny and beautiful. The next, black clouds are rolling in from over the water.”
He stood next to me, and I stole a glance at him from the corner of my eye. He seemed normal again and was smiling a little. He enjoyed it as much as I did, I realized.
I guessed he’d needed to get away from the stark, stony surroundings of the fortress more than I had. I had only been there for a half-hour. He’d been there for centuries.
“Do you ever go swimming, with all this water around you?”
He smiled ruefully. “No deeper than my knees. The current can be quite strong, quite suddenly. Many have been swept up in the blink of an eye.”
“That’s a shame. I love to swim. You could always turn to water to ice, couldn’t you?”
He laughed again, looking up at the sky as he did. “I don’t know if I’d be able to create ice from this entire body of water. Even I’m not that good.”
“But you admit you’re skilled,” I said.
“Oh, I don’t just admit it. I brag about it.” He grinned at me, and I gave him a grateful smile in return.
It was so much nicer to talk to him when I didn’t get the feeling he hated me.
I gazed over the water and sighed. I was happy. I actually felt happy. I wished Anissa had been here with me so I could tell her. I watched the birds circling again and noted the way the sunlight made the water sparkle like jewels. I had never seen anything like it before.
“I get it,” I murmured.
“Get what?”
“Everything here is more. Just more. Brighter, more beautiful, more saturated. The colors and the smell of salt in the air and the way the water sparkles. It’s all stronger than it is back in the human world. That’s why the storm seemed so extreme because I’m not used to seeing storms like that back home.”
“And why it seems so much more beautiful now.” He moved to stand at my side. “Compared to how wild everything was earlier.”
“But there was a beauty there, too. Wasn’t there?” I smiled at him, and he smiled back, and for a moment, that was enough.
We walked together down the length of the dock, and I wondered how he really felt about me. Did he hate me, the way he seemed to sometimes? When his eyes would go dark, and his tone would go tight? Or did he like me?
I got the feeling he did when he smiled and joked and let me joke along with him. Or when his face lit up as he told me stories of the ancient wizards who originally called Hallowthorn Landing home, back when it became clear the town’s inhabitants needed help to defend themselves against the creatures who held it in their grasp.
But then, just like he had described the weather turning on a dime, he’d gaze at me with those dark, angry eyes and I’d feel sure he wanted to kill me. Why was he so conflicted? And why would he agree to teach me if he hated me so much?
After watching him go back and forth for long enough, I decided to come out and ask. What was there to lose?
“Why did you agree to become my tutor?”
“It’s a favor to my sister. My half-sister.”
I frowned then figured it out. “Sirene is your sister?”
“She is. She gave me the assignment, and I felt I owed it to her to agree.”
That was all. When he didn’t say anything else, I tried to prompt him.
“But why you? It can’t just be because she’s your sister.”
“No, that’s why. I have elemental skills, and my sister asked me for a favor. That’s all.”
I didn’t know why, but I got the sense he was holding back. Something about the way he wouldn’t meet my gaze.
It wasn’t a good enough explanation. If there was something else going on, I wanted to know what. I was tired of living in the dark, letting things happen to me. “You’re not telling me the truth,” I got up the courage to say.
“Why don’t you ask Sirene if you want to know so badly?” His head whipped around and he glared at me with those hate-filled eyes.
Instead of backing down, I snarled at him. Just like that, the tingling started. I cursed myself and struggled to calm down, but it was no use.
Every time I looked at him or felt the waves of anger and irritation flowing from him, sparks flew.
“You know, you would be better at controlling your skills if you could control your emotions,” he said, and the snide nastiness in his voice sent me over the edge.
I wanted to strike him over and over but knew it would be no use. He would use his skills to best me again and again.
Instead, I ran toward the fortress and straight up the steps, then up to my room.
I didn’t go through Mom’s room but used the door in the hall instead. I needed to be alone.
What was his problem? Why did Sirene have to pair me up with someone who didn’t know whether to be friendly or a raging jerk? Like that would make things any easier on me. How could I learn to control my skills when he kept pissing me off?
I splashed my face with cool water in a basin by the window and wished he were different.
Older, less attractive.
Maybe an ancient old wizard with a long beard and dim, cloudy eyes. Not young, gorgeous, with a smile that threatened to melt my knees and a laugh that warmed me the way the sun did.
My face in the little mirror above the basin was tense, my forehead lined as I frowned at myself.
I like Scott.
He meant so much to me. Right?
He had been the person my world revolved around for weeks, ever since we met. It had been an instant connection. But he’d never made me feel the way Stark did.
I was alive, fully alive for the first time ever. Scott never came close to doing that for me. It could’ve been my skills, the way electricity sizzled through me until my hair nearly stood on end—but no.
I’d never felt that way with Scott even after my skills showed themselves.
I was more lost than ever.
19
Anissa
One good thing about staying with Jonah: Philippa wasn’t around to make me miserable. Sometimes, I got lucky.
Otherwise, being around Jonah was torture. Sometimes I liked it—I didn’t hate him. I felt less angry with him every day. The more I thought about his reasons for being dishonest, I couldn’t blame him for wanting to keep Fane’s identity a secret, even though I still thought he should’ve come clean. I wouldn’t have ever let his secret out. He should’ve trusted me.
I spent a lot of time in my private room, an unused bedroom in the penthouse. It was easier than being around Jonah or running the risk of seeing him.
He’d said he loved me, and a big part of me wanted to give that love back and then some. I wanted to give in.
It was better if I didn’t. We had gone through so much, so fast, that thinking a little bit about whether we really worked together was necessary. I wondered whether he understood that was easier when I didn’t have to look at him and navigate conversation. So, being alone as much as I could was a priority.
Two days passed uneventfully.
Gage came and went without saying much—he was still staking out the shifters, trying to get a sense of who they were and why they were around. I didn’t like knowing they were in the city doing whatever they wanted.
Scott was still sulking over not being able to find Sara, and I could tell it drove Jonah crazy to lie to his brother. I didn’t like it any more than he did, only being able to tell him she was all right and nothing more.
The second night, I was sitting in my room, wondering how Sara was making out with her training, when Jonah knocked at the door.
“Come in,” I called out.
He didn’t bother with preambles. “I got a tip from one of my guys.”
“Someone you trust?” I jumped to my feet.
“I wouldn’t pay attention to it if I didn’t trust him.” He jammed his fists into the pockets of his jeans. His body radiated tension and excitement. “Anyway, it’s an unsubstantiated tip, but I plan on verifying it personally. It’s about the lab where we used to get our blood.”
Hair stood up on the back of my neck. “What did you hear?”
“There might be information we could get out of their email system. One of my guys is probably better at hacking into computers and networks than he should be, and he suggested breaking into a laptop if we can get our hands on one.”
“Which means you’re going to the lab.”
“Correct.”
“I’m going with you.”
I expected him to explode and deny me and tell me I was crazy to suggest something like that.
Instead, he smiled. “I was hoping you would say that. You have skills I don’t have.”
“Skills?” I raised an eyebrow.
“You know what I mean. I could come out and call you an expert at breaking and entering, but…”
“No, no. I get your point.” I grabbed my backpack with all my tools. “I hope you don’t plan on waiting around.”
“I don’t.”
Minutes later, after we’d both changed into dark clothes, we were on our way.
The lab was on the outskirts of the city, in one of those sprawling office parks that made what used to be beautiful, green space look ugly and ordinary and full of concrete.
He drove us in his car—we had never traveled this way before, with him driving. It was different. Nice, even. Like we were two normal… vampires.
“How much did you pay for this?” I ran my hands over the supple leather. It was a beautiful shade of tan and as soft as anything I had ever felt. The car was low-slung, fast, with a powerful engine that purred like a cat.
“You don’t want to know,” he said, just before hitting the gas and sending us rocketing off into the night.
Clearly, he liked to drive fast.
At the same moment, it occurred to me how little I knew about my boyfriend, as far as normal life went.
No, I corrected myself. My ex-boyfriend. I let out a small sigh, and, luckily, he didn’t seem to have noticed it.
We parked maybe a mile or so from the building then coursed the rest of the way to the security fence which surrounded the parking lot. That was no challenge for us—we jumped it easily.
“Now what?” Jonah asked after we were inside the fence.
For once, I was the one in the lead, and he needed to rely on my know-how.
I scanned the outside of the building and caught sight of security cameras pointed out toward the pathways leading from the lot to the main entrance. I looked up next. The lab was only five floors total.
“How do you feel about ziplines?”
“Ziplines?”
“I could get a grappling hook up to the roof, and we could hook the line to my harness and let it pull us up.” I reached into my backpack and showed him the tools I had in mind. “See, when I release this switch, the line is drawn back into the spool. The spool will be clipped to me, so it’ll pull me up. Get it?” I stepped into the harness as I spoke and tightened it around my waist.
“What about me?”
“You’ll be holding onto me… or, I’ll be holding onto you.”
He went a little pale—okay, paler than his usual vampire self. “If you think it’ll work.”
“Of course, it will. And there’s bound to be an entrance up top. Probably not as hi-tech as the access door on your roof,” I joked.
He shook his head.
We ran to the building, making sure to keep off the pathways to avoid the cameras. We went through the grass instead, and I thought for a second of how we were ruining the lawn. Not to mention our boots.
“Okay. This has to be fast.” I estimated the amount of wire I would need to reach the roof and pulled it off the spool, then swung the hook in a wide circle. When I let go, it sailed up to the roof and dragged along the surface until it caught on the raised edge.
“Here. Pull on this, make sure it’s secure.”
Jonah tested the wire as I hooked it to my harness.
“Okay. Are we ready?”
“As we’ll ever be,” he said with his teeth gritted.
I wasn’t used to seeing him nervous, and I had to turn my face away before he saw my smile.
“Hold on tight to me,” I advised.
We both hesitated for a second before he wrapped his arms around me.
I closed my eyes and let myself feel him, but not for long. I couldn’t afford to do that to myself.
He was tense, stiff, formal.
“Here we go.” I released the little switch, and, just like that, we were in midair.
We reached the top in the blink of an eye, five floors in less than a second, and Jonah only let go of me to haul himself over the edge and onto the roof.
I did the same.
“Have you done a lot of this?” His eyes shone with exhilaration.
“Maybe,” I admitted. “It wasn’t the first time; I’ll tell you that much.”
He glanced around then pointed to the access door. “I’ll test it to be sure no alarms go off. Wait here.” He was smart to make me wait.
He ran to the door and slowly open it, cocking his ear like he was listening for a bell or siren.
He gave me a thumbs-up, so I left my tools out of sight and joined him.
“What next?” I asked in a whisper as we ran down the stairs to the fifth floor. “There were lights on in so many windows, and there are cars in the lot. There must be people still working here.”
“I think they work throughout the night,” he said, his pitch matching mine. “But it doesn’t look like there are a lot of people inside.”
“True. The lot was only a quarter full.”
“So there’s less chance of being spotted. I say we take the first unoccupied laptop we can find. No sense in taking chances.” His eyes met mine, and I nodded.
He opened the door a crack, and I could just make out the inside of the hallway as he peered out.
“Coast is clear,” he whispered, waving me on.
I slid through the slight opening he left for me and pressed myself to the wall.
It would’ve been easier if the place had been dark, with only a few lights on here and there. The fluorescent strips along the ceiling turned the hall into a glaring, white nightmare for anybody trying to break in.
There was nowhere to hide.
I looked back and forth while Jonah waited for me to make my move. I heard activity halfway down the hall and saw one of the doors standing open.
A workstation?
I closed my eyes and concentrated.
Voices came from that room—faint, but present.
I sniffed the air.
Human blood.
So, there were humans working here, not vampires. That was in our favor. Other vampires might sense our presence.
I pointed down the hall, and Jonah nodded. I waved him back into the stairwell.
He shook his head.
I glared at him, trying to send a silent message.
It wouldn’t be right for the two of us to go—we would double our chances of getting caught.
I waved him back again.
He looked reluctant, even angry, but he nodded.
I was better on my own when it came to sneaking around, anyway. I went into a crouch and hurried down the hall to the last door before the open one.
This door was closed—I tried the knob and, when it turned, I slipped inside the dark office. I peered through the crack I left.
There were windows along the wall across from me, facing the occupied workstation. That was windowed, too. I guessed the room across from me was a workstation as well, but it was closed for the night.
The blinds were shut, but that gave me a nice reflection of what was happening in the room
next to me.
There were five humans in long, white lab coats sitting on stools around three different tables. All of them had laptops open in front of them.
How was I going to get in there without one of them seeing me?
They joked and chattered and compared notes on whatever it was they worked on. They seemed busy.
The buzzing of my phone made me jump.
I had forgotten about it, stashed in my back pocket.
A text from Jonah: Fire alarm?
I almost laughed out loud. Of course. What were the odds they would take the laptops with them?
I would have to take that chance—and even if they didn’t leave theirs, somebody else in the building was bound to. When they left, we’d be able to explore a little easier.
I fired off a quick reply: Go up to the roof and wait for me there.
Already there, he said.
I poked my head out from my hiding spot and checked up and down the hall. There was an alarm box two offices down, away from the workstation. Perfect.
I waited another few seconds to be sure none of the humans looked like they were going anywhere before I crept out to the hall.
The office closest to the alarm was standing open, too, and I left the door I exited cracked before closing my eyes, wishing for luck, and pulling the lever.
Then, I darted into the room and left the door open just enough for me to see out into the hallway.
Lights flashed and a siren’s wail filled the air.
Shouts of surprise came from the workstation before five humans hurried out, racing off in the opposite direction of where I waited, watching.
And their hands were empty. Luck was finally on my side.
The second they were in the stairwell, I ran straight for the room they’d been working in.
Their computers were all sitting there, locked. So that was their security? Locking them instead of taking them? What if a fire destroyed them? Well, that was their problem, not mine. I took the one closest to me, unplugged the charging cable then headed out to the hall.