by Erin Embly
“She doesn’t want to go home,” Miriam said, not taking the car out of park. She turned her head to look at me. “Darcy dear, you need to be able to walk and talk for yourself if you’re going to pull this off tonight.”
Bitch, I thought. I was just resting my eyes, didn’t ask you to talk for me.
Miriam let out a huff. “Well—”
“I’m fine,” I said, annoyed for the first time in a while that someone else could hear my unfiltered thoughts. “Sorry. Thanks. She’s right.” I sat up and cleared my throat, then took a sip from my third bottle of fruit juice. “Got a tip from Kat. She says Soma’s been taking kids and keeping them underground near his club. I think it’s connected to the blood they’re feeding that statue, and all the murders. Gotta go save them now.” I was fudging Kat’s words, but I couldn’t tell Adrian I’d already known about kids going missing before talking to her. I’d gotten that information from Dirk—from the parents of the kids who had run to the Guardians for help finding them.
Adrian rubbed his eyes before looking back at me. “That’s . . . not something that’s going to happen tonight. Even if you weren’t so desperately in need of some rest, we couldn’t go looking for these kids based on one tip without verifying it. I’d need to figure out who they are, connect them with missing persons reports, and then get a warrant.”
“That’s why it has to be me,” I said. “I don’t need to do any of that. And if I wait, another one might die.”
I could hear how crazy I sounded, how hypocritical. Going in anywhere half-cocked was a bad idea for more reasons than just red tape, and it was true I didn’t know nearly enough about the situation to justify this kind of thing yet. If we were just looking at another night like the previous two, after which we’d wake up to the aftermath of another murder spree by another unlucky soul, I would be going to bed right now without a fight. Because I didn’t have a clue how to stop that, sure, but also because it wasn’t a child in a cage somewhere about to be tortured or killed.
“I draw the line at letting kids die when I know where to go to save them,” I said. Had I recently developed a soft spot when it came to little kids who’d been separated from their parents? Maybe. But Noah would have that effect on anyone with even half a heart. I pushed myself to sit up straighter. “Miriam, got any squishies that can help me out with some adrenaline?”
“No,” she said with a cutesy scoff. “What do you think I am? A pharmacy on legs?”
Kind of. “Okay,” I said before she could protest further, “I’m going to need some coffee then.”
Adrian turned away from me and got quiet, which was a little unsettling, but Miriam took the car out of park and drove away from the club, leaving me to watch the fading neon sign in silence. I felt myself drifting off as the club got smaller, and the next thing I knew, my eyes snapped open to see a cup of coffee in front of me.
I tried to resist rubbing my face as I pulled myself up to take the cup, which Adrian was holding while glaring at me from above.
Steam caressed my face as I pulled the lid off, and the scent immediately made my stomach rumble. When I took a sip, my confidence climbed a little in an attempt to match my determination. My body had been through much worse than this, and I was reasonably sure I could still count on myself to perform in this state.
“We’re going with you,” Adrian said, crouching down beside the open car door to get to my level.
I raised my eyebrows over the cup of coffee. “What about all that stuff about verification and warrants?”
“Oh, we’re not going after any missing kids—we don’t know anything about that. We’ll be chasing a suspicious armed woman who’s doing something reckless. And if she leads us to some kids who need to be saved, well . . .”
“Got it.” My lips curled into a smile. “Thank you.”
“I’m not doing it for you,” he said, and I frowned.
My head snapped back to the confusion I’d felt at seeing him so unbothered by my fake relationship with Dirk. Was this confirmation that he’d lost whatever interest he’d had in me? “I didn’t think—”
“I have no idea what you’re thinking,” he said, cutting me off. “I just want you to know I’m not the kind of person to run around doing stupid things for . . . to help you.”
“So you think this is stupid?”
“No, that’s not what I . . .” He ducked his head and rubbed his forehead before continuing, “That’s not what I meant. My point is I don’t think it’s stupid. I’m doing it because I don’t want anyone else to die tonight.” He opened his mouth to say more and then stopped, shaking his head a little.
I wanted to ask him what else he had to say to me, but I didn’t like the look in his eyes. Even though he was agreeing with me, there was something making him uncomfortable. Not the usual kind of uncomfortable, either. He wasn’t fidgeting, not nervous. He was still, firm—mind somewhere else as he stared at a spot of nothing to my left.
“What is it?” I finally asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
His eyes snapped back to mine, hard and clear. “I know there’s something you’re not telling me. All of you,” he added before I could protest.
I just stared at him, the lip of the coffee cup pressed against my face as my brain went into panic mode.
“It’s obvious you know more about these missing kids than Kat told you,” he went on, “or you wouldn’t be so determined to go after them tonight. And you can’t really expect me to believe you’re dating Dirk. I mean . . .” He looked down for a moment. “Miriam never tells me everything, and that’s fine. She knows too much about everyone to go around spilling secrets without good reason. But you?”
Dirk was right, then. Adrian had known we weren’t really dating. Fuck—why was I focusing on that right now? “I—”
“No,” he said, waving a hand at me. “I get why you’ve been avoiding me, and that’s fine too. But this . . . Do you not even trust me? Do you think I’m so incompetent it’s not worth cluing me in on information relevant to this case? I’m not out here doing this for fun, Darcy. I’m a professional, and I am good at my job. Only I can’t do it properly if the people I’m supposed to be working with make a habit of lying to me.”
I lowered the cup of coffee, its scent suddenly unwelcome as a queasy feeling came over me. I wanted to look away from Adrian, but I forced myself to hold eye contact. Because he deserved for me to be straight with him or because it was the best way to convince him I was being straight with him . . . I wasn’t sure yet.
He trusted me. That was the worst part of all this. He trusted me and my decisions even when he knew I wasn’t being honest with him. Part of me couldn’t help but think that made him a massive idiot—but I didn’t want that to be true. I’d never had anyone put that kind of trust in me, and in this moment, my exhausted, dehydrated soul wanted to be worthy of it.
But it wasn’t even a matter of whether I trusted him enough in return to tell him the truth. If I told, Miriam would know immediately. Even if I took off the squishy now, she’d know. So I’d have to assume the Guardians would find out. And then they would fire me all over again for blowing my cover, even if there were no obvious negative consequences of Adrian knowing. That was how it worked.
In covert work, precautions like this had to be airtight. Secrecy might not matter too much on this job, but what about the next?
I sighed, wishing for more brainpower than I had right now. But it didn’t come. And it didn’t matter, because in that moment Miriam opened the door and plonked into the driver’s seat with a box that smelled like fresh donuts.
“Shall we?” she said.
Adrian didn’t look away from me, and I could see the disappointment in his eyes. He had to know Miriam was only helping me avoid this confrontation. I almost wished she wouldn’t—but what could I say to him besides asking him to keep trusting me? The smartest move would be to make up a new, better lie he might actually buy, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that ri
ght now.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said.
He stood up and shut my door without another word, and the empty feeling inside me that my roommates had left me with months ago grew a bit stronger.
“Got any cream filled?” I asked, and Miriam passed me a bundle of soft, sugary dough wrapped in thin paper.
Donuts weren’t as filling as friends, but for tonight they would have to be good enough.
“Yargh!” A sharp pain shot through my wrist as I used Adrian’s pry stick to remove the bars over the window at my feet. It would have been easier for him to do, but my fingerprints needed to get on it in case we needed to pretend later on that this was all my doing.
I stood up and shook out my arm, circling my wrist to try to remind my nerves it wasn’t actually wounded.
Miriam handed me her light-pink hounds-tooth jacket, then plucked a pin from her fine hair and shook it out until it framed her face like a plume of bright feathers. It had stopped raining, and the moonlight shone down from between the clouds into the otherwise dark alley we were standing in.
I’d been uneasy about this plan at first, but Miriam’s doll-like figure was obvious underneath the silky white tank top tucked into her maroon pencil skirt. She was even wearing heels. Of the three of us, she was by far the most likely to go unnoticed in the basement of a strip club.
Even though I’d been down there before, I looked like absolute hell tonight, so it had to be her sneaking in first to scope things out. Adrian and I would follow when she gave us the all-clear.
“The dressing room is straight ahead, the stairs are to your left, and the room with the statue is to your right,” I said, trying not to fidget.
“Mmm hmm, I’ll figure it out,” she said in a dainty voice. Then she slid open the small window on the side of the building and morphed into a human-shaped glob of pink jelly. She collapsed in on herself quickly, slipping down through the window like liquid into a slimy puddle on the bathroom floor.
“Yuck.” I grimaced, averting my eyes as the puddle turned back into Miriam. That couldn’t have been necessary; now that I’d removed the bars, she would have fit through the window just fine in her human form.
“I love it when she does that,” Adrian said from behind me.
When I turned to look at him, he had a childish grin on his face, like a little boy who’d just collected some sort of swamp-monster trading card. Seeing it made my lips quirk up unexpectedly, and I held in a chuckle.
“Hm?” he said, turning to me. “You say something?” His smile was gone, and mine faded quickly along with it.
“Nope,” I said. Then I tossed him Miriam’s jacket.
He caught it and slung it over his shoulder without a pause, the textured pink fabric at odds with the sleek lines of his dark gray coat. It looked ridiculous, but the color suited him, and I caught myself staring at the warm tones in his light hair and the slight flush on his lips.
Luckily, something else quickly caught my eye behind him. I stepped to the side to get a better view and saw a woman in a suit walking towards us through the shadows.
Her red hair was slicked back in a long ponytail, which swung from side to side as she approached, and her dark olive complexion shone under the moonlight with a surreal glimmer that reminded me of Soma.
I tensed. She must be an old-ass vamp to be looking like that. Even Simeon had looked perfectly human when he didn’t have his teeth out, and he’d been older than most other vampires I’d encountered.
“What are you two doing out here?” she asked, her stance setting off a few more alarm bells in my head. She kept her arms at her sides, elbows only slightly bent, subtle tension making its way to each fingertip. Not only was she ready to draw a weapon at a moment’s notice, she was calm and controlled enough that I could count on her knowing what to do with it.
“Who’s asking?” Adrian said as he turned to her, and my eyes bulged. He’d picked a bad time to suddenly not be the nicest person around.
“Club security,” she said. “This area is off limits to guests.”
I broke out into what I hoped was a panicked laugh, then let my legs wobble like they’d been wanting to do since I’d gotten out of the car. I closed the distance between me and Adrian with a stumble and fell into his arms. “I’m so sorry,” I said as best I could with my face squished against his coat. “It was my first time here and I couldn’t . . . I got a little jealous when she put her . . . you know . . . in his face.”
“Can you give us a minute before we go back in?” Following my lead, Adrian wrapped his arms around me and gave me a condescending pat on the back.
I fought the urge to relax as his steady heartbeat and warm chest tried to lull me back to sleepiness. Twisting my head to peek at the vampire, I saw a look of utter disdain on her face. But her posture had softened, which I’d count as a win.
“Fine,” she said. “But if you’re still here in—” She stopped, eyes narrowing on something behind us.
I twisted my head in the other direction, looking where she was looking as I pulled myself slightly away from Adrian.
The bathroom window. It was still open, and pretty obvious we’d ripped away the bars.
By the time I turned back to the vampire, she had pulled a baton from her belt and was holding it out in front of her, legs apart and bent, ready to pounce. I supposed the weapon was for appearances, mainly—and because vampires preferred not to cause any bleeding unless they were hungry. This one could probably rip our heads off our shoulders with her bare hands, but she wouldn’t want to make a mess. “On your knees, now,” she said in a tone that was calm and terrifying all at the same time.
She brought her free hand to her face, and I recognized the motion immediately. She had a communication device on her wrist, and she was about to call for help. We’d be way beyond fucked if she did that, so I stopped midway to the ground and sprang forward at her instead.
I knew how to fight an opponent who was stronger than me, and I had to assume the same principles would hold even when the magnitude of strength was completely insane.
With a quick spin, I brought my leg up and kicked the outside of her wrist, causing her to drop the baton. Not an ideal target for my first attack, but that baton would give her a huge advantage in being able to reach me before I could reach her. And after this, she would react quicker to anything I did.
Keeping a healthy distance, I circled around to put Adrian on the other side of her, drawing a small blade with one hand while holding eye contact.
She only smiled at me, long fangs suddenly protruding from beneath her lips.
Bats. It might have been necessary for me to attack, but in doing so I’d given this vamp explicit permission to eat us.
Once I had Adrian almost behind her, I moved forward with my knife aimed at her heart. Not because I thought I had any chance of making that shot, but because I wanted her distracted while I shot out my leg again and the sole of my foot crashed into her knee.
Vampires were strong as hell and didn’t feel much pain, but body mechanics were body mechanics, and a blown-out knee would impair movement for a while even if she couldn’t feel it.
I heard a crunch before quickly retracting my leg, and the vampire let out a low growl as she stumbled to the side before picking herself back up and fixing her eyes on me. The fangs were still out, but the smile was gone.
Now I’d made her mad.
She rushed at me with clenched fists, not limping nearly as badly as I’d hoped. I braced myself with my knife held up. If I could get it in her heart before she did too much damage to me, she’d be stunned for at least a few minutes. And if I couldn’t—well, then I was probably fucked anyway.
The knife pierced her skin but glanced off a rib as she grasped both my arms. But she didn’t tear them off me like I’d expected. Instead, she put her face close to mine and then released one of my arms to touch her hand to my cheek.
Her fingertips were icy cold, and I could feel them shaking as her li
ps parted, eyes softening for a moment in what looked like horror before everything hardened again.
“It’s you,” she whispered. The way she said it, I couldn’t tell whether she thought I was some long-lost sister or someone who had killed her long-lost sister.
Was this crazy vampire yet another person who’d been wiped from my mind? Maybe . . . But if that was the case, why hadn’t she recognized me earlier?
Whatever her deal was, I didn’t want to wait to find out. With the arm she had released, I reached across my body for the long blade that was strapped to my thigh. I almost got it up to her neck, too, before she came to her senses and grabbed my arm again.
This time, the cold from her fingers crept through the leather I was wearing. When I looked down, I saw ice crystals tearing through my jacket and snaking up my arm like vines.
My heart pounded faster than it had all day.
Not only was this vampire wielding non-vampiric magic—which I’d never heard of before—it was ice. The same kind of magic the Sweepers and their assassins had all but pelted at me like a barrage of deadly snowballs just months ago. The same kind of magic used by the assassin someone had sent after me just before all that, to make me think it was the Sweepers who had killed Simeon.
And here was a vampire—one obviously connected to Soma—using that same kind of magic against me now.
Rage clawed at my insides, much stronger than whatever fear I’d been feeling before now. I was used to putting my fears aside in situations like these, but I didn’t have as much experience when it came to fighting people who had personally pissed me off.
I unfocused my eyes to get her face out of my mind and searched frantically around me for the electric tingle of magic I’d managed to take hold of to kill that other vampire.
But it was weaker now, not only because it had stopped raining but because I couldn’t tilt my head up to see the moon without offering this vampire my neck on a silver platter. Still, I strained to pull everything I could into my scrye, knowing I couldn’t fight her with anything else in the position she had me in.