“What’s she doing?” Ian asked her from across the room. He was lying on the couch with his arm resting over his eyes, as he often did when they were supposed to be working. The TV was left on “The Price is Right,” even though he wasn’t watching it.
“Sleeping,” Hollis Pasquale replied shortly.
That made Ian bolt upright with a lecherous grin. “Naked again?”
Hollis rolled her eyes. Watching the subject walk around the apartment naked was the one part of the assignment that Ian was consistently interested in. “She has a blanket on, pervert.”
“Damn,” he grumbled, lying back down. “You should have told me when she was getting into bed.”
“Well if you were doing your job instead of lounging around, you would have seen it. Not that I would condone that sort of behavior. In fact, I think it’s disgusting. I’m just saying that—”
“Okay, Holl,” Ian interrupted her, sounding bored. He made a flippant gesture with his hand, as if he were brushing her away like a fly that was annoying him. “I get it. Shut up now.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Yeah, yeah. Shut up.”
Hollis stood up from her chair so fast that she knocked it over. She whipped around and stormed over to her partner. “I’ve had it with your disrespect! We are partners, in case you forgot. You cannot talk to me that way. And you can’t keep dumping your responsibilities on me, Ian. So get your act together, or I’ll call Daybreak and petition to have you removed.”
Ian looked back at her blandly. “You’re blocking my view of the TV, princess.”
Hollis punched him in the stomach and Ian curled up, choking on his own breath and laughter. She didn’t believe in senseless violence, but Ian McCafferty seemed to pride himself on driving her over the edge, leaving her convictions in the dust. They had been on assignment together for ten days and by the second day Hollis had already felt that she was developing a raging ulcer.
Shaking, she righted her chair and sat back down in front of her laptop. Resting her head in her hands, she tried to will away her headache without success. She was exhausted—overworked and tired of constantly battling with Ian. It would have been kinder for him to use his preternatural strength against her, knocking her down with a single punch. At least, then, his cruelty would be over after a moment. Instead, Ian used words as his weapons, constantly needling and mocking her. He was systematically stripping away her confidence and her sanity.
Hollis had only been working for Circle Daybreak for a year, but she had always been treated with respect by her co-workers. They’d never seemed to look down on her for being human, nor had they lost patience with her when she had questions about the Night World. Everyone that Hollis had met had been kind and enthusiastic. That is, until Daybreak had paired her with Ian.
She had been seated by her supervisor’s desk when Ian had been called in. His first words, as he boldly ran his gaze over her body, had been, “Nutrition or recreation?” Hollis should have refused to work with Ian that very moment, but she’d been too proud and too eager to please—qualities that her partner had discerned and hadn’t ceased to exploit since that day.
Brushing her blond hair out of her face, she tried to refocus on her assignment. The image on the computer screen hadn’t changed. The subject, Risa Sinclair, was still sleeping, unaware that she was being watched from a hidden camera mounted in the overhead light of the bedroom. The picture was black-and-white, the resolution wasn’t great, and there was a time-delay, but Hollis was grateful that they had eyes in there.
Breaking into the apartment to plant the cameras had been a gutsy move on Ian’s part because he hadn’t known how much security the subject had set up. Luckily, though it seemed strange, Risa Sinclair hadn’t installed anything more than a new deadbolt on her apartment door. Ian had picked the lock easily and set up enough cameras to view each room in its entirety.
Too bad he hadn’t done any work since.
Hollis glanced back to glare at her partner. Ian had his eyes closed, appearing to be perfectly relaxed, even as Hollis was still grinding her teeth. He was the most irritating and infuriating Daybreaker that she’d ever met. He partied late, slept late, ran up huge room service bills, and barely worked. Several times, he’d taken advantage of their adjoining hotel rooms and had barged in on her while Hollis was changing. And even more frustrating, he seemed completely apathetic to all of her threats to report him to her supervisor. Though, to be fair, Hollis suspected that this was because he knew that she would never carry any of them out. Not getting along with a partner would look bad for her as well as for Ian. She could be mistaken for a person that was not a team player. And, in all honesty, she didn’t want him to know that he’d gotten the best of her.
While his eyes were closed, Hollis swept her gaze over his face. Physically, Ian was remarkable. With his unkempt dark hair, impossibly long eyelashes, and delicate bone structure, he resembled an actor that Hollis had seen, but she couldn’t recall the name. She never paid much attention to such inane things. And besides, most of the Daybreakers who had defected from the Night World were gorgeous.
“You know, Holl, it’s really hard to fall asleep when someone is staring at you,” Ian said.
Startled and embarrassed, Hollis twisted back around in her chair. Her cheeks were burning. He probably thought that she was ogling him, just like every other girl did. Goddess, she was not like that. She had a brain in her head. Hollis had graduated at the top of her class in high school and in college. When Circle Daybreak had recruited her, she was getting ready to go to Africa for two years with the Peace Corps. If she was going to be interested in a guy, it certainly wouldn’t be some lazy, pretty boy.
She should say something clever back, but no words came to her. And as the silence stretched out, Hollis realized that it was too late to brush away his remark with a sarcastic comment of her own. She tapped her fingernails nervously on the desk, deciding to simply ignore him.
Twenty-three years old and she was behaving like a fourth-grader. This was he did to her.
“What?” Ian asked from behind her. “No snipe about how I shouldn’t be sleeping on the job anyway?”
Hollis cleared her throat. He was giving her an out, she realized with bewilderment. A reprieve from the awkwardness of the moment. It wasn’t much, but it seemed to be a peace offering. Grateful, Hollis accepted it. “Would it help?” she asked.
“Probably not.”
“Then I guess I’d rather save my breath for now.”
Ian snickered. “I’m wearing you down, princess.”
Hollis bit down on a smile. “Keep dreaming.”
She heard Ian rolling over on the couch. “Don’t mind if I do.”
On the computer screen, Risa Sinclair jerked upright in her sleep, then fell back down to the pillow. Hollis had seen her do that several times before. She had written in her notes that the subject didn’t seem to sleep well. Could this be a mitigating factor for her actions? Or perhaps it was simply a guilty conscience that tormented her. Even after ten days of observation, Hollis wasn’t sure where she stood on the issue. And as for her partner…
“Do you even care?” Hollis found herself asking him softly.
“Of course not.” Ian’s voice was muffled by the cushions. “I’m just a lazy, pretty boy. Remember?”
Hollis flushed again. She didn’t think she would ever get used to being around a telepath. She’d been taught how to block her thoughts, but it wasn’t second nature yet and she still caught herself lapsing.
She started to apologize clumsily. “I never meant—”
“Yes,” he broke in. “You did.”
Shame, embarrassment, and indignation collided. “Well you’ve never given me any reason to think otherwise!” she snapped over her shoulder.
There was silence behind her and for once, Hollis thought that she might have won.
“No,” Ian finally said. “I haven’t.”
“Then how can you possibly make me feel so guilty?”
“A person can’t make you feel anything, princess. Your reactions are your own. So maybe you should ask yourself that question.”
Game. Set. Match. As always.
Hollis gave up and concentrated on her computer screen. At least when Ian was sleeping, he wasn’t ripping her to shreds. At the rate they were going, there would be nothing left to her by the time this assignment was done.
Being back in New York was creepy. In eight years, nothing and everything had changed. It was still a city that dazzled and depressed him. There was extensive opulence as well as rampant destitution. It was all so familiar, and yet it was very different from his memories. The buildings and blocks seemed, somehow, out of proportion. The size and shape of his surroundings felt warped, as if he were dreaming.
But regardless, as soon as the taxi entered Manhattan, Carden felt something inside him stir. He was home. And it was going to kill him. The sites and smells were painfully familiar, evoking memories that he’d buried long ago…
Risa’s wrinkled nose as he dared to eat a hotdog from a street vendor. Didn’t he know that thing was poison? Sure, he was immortal, but did he really want Giardia taking up residence in his gut?
Her laugh as he stood, star-struck after spotting David Duchovny in Central Park. He had managed to keep his addiction to “The X Files” a secret from her until that moment. Jonas Carden, self-proclaimed badass, Daybreak assassin, vampire privy to the secrets of the Night World, was hooked on a TV show about the supernatural. And once Risa knew, she teased him about it relentlessly. But she still stood on line with him for two hours to get seats the night the movie opened.
Her body moving with the pulse of the music, wearing an outfit that made his jaw drop. Clad in spandex, satin, and patent leather as she tried to draw out predators in the night club.
Her blood flowing down her arm, dripping onto the sidewalk as he carried her home, half-dead. The blue veins that formed a web under her translucent skin. Her hiss as he tried to stitch up the deep gashes on her body, using vodka to sterilize his work.
The cab driver leaned on the horn, startling Carden back into the present. He slid across the seat and slammed his shoulder into the door in the back of the cab as the driver careened around a tight corner at forty miles an hour. It was the fifth time that this had happened since they’d left the airport. Just as he righted himself, the car screeched to a stop, only inches away from the car in front of them, sending Carden’s head flying into the back of the driver’s seat. He quickly sat back and buckled his seatbelt. He may be immortal, but he really didn’t want a broken nose.
Smiling, he pictured how Risa would laugh if he tried to explain that his perfect profile, which he prided himself on, was ruined because he’d been too stupid to wear a seatbelt. She’d always said that he was too vain for his own good. But hell, he was hot and he knew it. Why pretend otherwise?
Because being vain negates the attractiveness of your looks, she would say. Nobody likes a narcissist, Carden.
You do, sweetheart. And we both know it. He came up behind her, put his mouth to her ear. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t let me—
The cab drove through a pothole and Carden hit his head on the roof of the car as it bounced. Not a moment too soon. He knew exactly where that argument with Risa had led and he didn’t want to think about it.
This trip was strictly business, he reminded himself. He would not talk to her. She would not know that he was here. No fraternizing. He had to stop letting his memories bombard him. There had been some good times with Risa, yes, and plenty of bad times as well. None of that mattered. It was all in the past and there was nothing he could do about it. He needed to concentrate on the present.
The driver slammed on the brakes to bring the taxi to another sharp stop. The seatbelt caught around Carden’s stomach as he flew forward and he was grateful that he hadn’t eaten yet today.
“Your hotel,” the driver said.
Carden paid the fare and got out of the car, thankful to be standing on solid ground. He had only one bag with him and it was filled with his laptop and clothes that he’d already worn in Washington, DC. He was going to need to find a store to buy clothes for tomorrow. Well, he’d chosen to stay at a hotel in Manhattan and there was certainly no shortage of stores there.
But first, a room. He walked into the lobby of the Hudson Hotel and sauntered over to the desk. Working there was an older gray-haired man and a cute blond girl. Catching her eyes, Carden approached the blond girl with a practiced, sheepish smile.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he purred. “Can you help me with something?”
Five minutes later, he’d obtained a suite in the over-booked hotel and the girl’s phone number. In case he wanted someone to show him around the city, she’d said. Carden smirked. If he called that girl, he bet that the only place he would see was her bedroom. And maybe her bathroom, living room floor, kitchen table. A few days ago he would’ve been very tempted, but now Risa was the only thing that he could think about. But once he’d seen her, he could put her out of his mind. Then, maybe, he would call up the blond.
The hotel suite was large and luxurious, as Carden was accustomed to. He supposed that he shouldn’t squander his money like this. He was technically unemployed, now that Circle Daybreak had given him the boot. He couldn’t blame them, though. To protect Risa’s life, he’d given up a Wild Power and, if given the chance, he would do it again.
Carden hadn’t given much thought to what he would do after he got back to LA. His previous job experience didn’t exactly prepare him for a career in customer service or anything. And he certainly didn’t have the personality for it. Whenever Carden crossed paths with stupid people, he had to fight the urge to put their heads through a wall. If he dealt with them all day, it would only be a matter of time before he hurt someone or threw himself onto a stake.
But he thought that he might be pretty good at law enforcement. Maybe he could be a cop for a while, at least until his coworkers noticed that he didn’t seem to age. Makeup and hair dye would only work for maybe fifteen or twenty years.
Risa’s father had been a cop, he remembered. NYPD for sixteen years, until he’d been killed trying to stop an armed robbery. Risa had been nine years old at the time and her little sister had only been a baby. That’s when their mother decided to take the girls out of the city, so they could grow up somewhere safer. Not that it had kept Risa safe. But then, she was the one who sought out danger, not the other way around.
Carden sometimes wondered what Risa would have been like if her father hadn’t died the way he did. She might never have come to the conclusion that she was personally responsible for the terrible, inexplicable things that sometimes happened to people. She might have been happy.
He looked at the clock on the bedside table. Sunset was still a few hours away and, unless Risa’s hunting habits had changed, she wouldn’t be out until after that.
The worst scum don’t come out until after dark, she would say. Cowards, all of them. And then she would look at him with a hatred in her eyes that scared him. She looked as if she’d been possessed. And really, she had been. As soon as the sun set, she became nothing more than a vehicle for her hate. He remembered how, the night he met her, he had admired the way that she carried herself, as if her body was merely a machine. It was a long time before Carden had noticed the ugliness of the force driving her.
Eight years later, he didn’t know what to expect. Maybe she didn’t hunt any more. Maybe she’d moved on and now lived a peaceful and boring existence in the suburbs with someone who loved her. But he didn’t think so. If anything, Carden was afraid that her obsession had gotten worse and that it was his fault.
He looked out the window. The room had a lovely view of the wall of the building next door, only a few feet away. Carden pulled the heavy curtains shut and the hotel room fell into darkness. He kicked off his shoes and lay back onto the king-sized bed. He had a few hours to kill and he hadn’t slept in days.
As soon as he shut his eyes, his cell phone rang again. Carden dug it out of his back pocket and checked the caller ID. Reece Cahill again. He wanted to ignore the call, like he had all of the others, but it was becoming obvious that dodging the witch wouldn’t work.
Back in Washington, Carden had told Circle Daybreak that he’d betrayed a Wild Power to save his own life from Aiden St. Helen. In truth, he had done it to protect Risa, but he didn’t want Daybreak to know that. His work was dangerous, and admitting that he had a soulmate exposed his Achilles heel. And it was Aiden, himself, who had advised Carden to guard his weaknesses better.
Reece Cahill was the only person who didn’t buy the story. He seemed like the type of person that wanted to see the goodness in everybody. But what the witch didn’t know was that, whether Carden had sacrificed a Wild Power to save himself or to save his soulmate, it didn’t matter. He’d still chosen his personal interests over the mission. Daybreak was right to kick him out.
Carden’s phone chirped again and he finally answered it. “What?” he snarled.
“Why didn’t you answer my calls?” Cahill yelled back at him. “We were worried about you after the attack. You could have let us know that you were still alive, you ass.”
“Who is this?”
“Carden!”
The vampire had to laugh. The witch hadn’t pulled any punches, even from the start. It was good to hear his exasperated voice; it made Carden feel more like himself. “I’m alive,” he replied nonchalantly. “I’m too stubborn to die, remember? Happy now?”
Cahill didn’t sound appeased. “Where are you?” he asked accusingly.
“I’m lying drunk in a ditch by the Anacostia River.”
“What?”
Carden smiled dryly. “Kidding. Sarcasm. Look it up some time.” Then he sighed. “Look, I’m just taking care of something. No big deal.”
“Yeah? Then why did you sneak out of the compound?”
“Fine,” Carden ground out. “It is a big deal and I don’t want to discuss it.”
“Okay. That, I can respect.”
“Where are you? Were you or the Wild Power hurt in the attacks? What about Nigel?”
“I’m fine,” Cahill replied in an unusually mechanical tone. “Lex and Nigel are both okay, as well. I’m driving back to Montreal with Lex now. We should get there tomorrow night, maybe.”
A sudden stab of envy. “Good,” he said, shakily. His weak voice surprised him a little. Carden cleared his throat. “You need a good lay, Cahill.” Ah, that sounded better.
The witch sighed into the phone. “Screw you.”
“You wish.”
“If you need any help, you know how to reach me.”
Cahill hung up, but Carden still held his phone to his ear as if he were waiting for something. Damned if he knew what. After a minute, he snapped it shut and threw it to the other side of the bed.
He lay back down, wanting to sleep. He needed to sleep. But ultimately, his mind drifted back to Risa and his heart would beat erratically. In just a few hours, he would see her. He wasn’t sure how he was going to find her, but it was only a matter of time before he did.
Would she look the same? Well, of course, she would. Risa was a vampire now. She wouldn’t appear to be a day older than she had eight years ago. But maybe her hair was different, maybe her style of clothing had changed, maybe she had gotten a tattoo. Though, few vampires got tattoos. Humans worried about living with one for fifty or sixty years. Vampires had to imagine centuries or millennia with it.
Would her eyes look the same? Would the sadness and weight of unbearable responsibility still darken them? Carden had watched the inner light in her eyes dim, night after night. Maybe, by now, there was nothing left.
Of all the questions that shot through his mind, like a bullet to his brain, there was really only one that mattered. And in the end, it was the one question that would not be answered because he would not let her see him. It was the question that kept him awake, that made a cold shudder shoot down his spine whenever he allowed himself pay attention to it.
Would Risa still hate him?
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