It was standard procedure to meet with the local Night World leader when coming to a new city in order to be welcomed and warned about hunters in the area. In the past, Alexandra Harper had avoided it as often as she could. Tristan had sometimes gone alone, obtaining the approval of their presence for the both of them, but in a few cities across the country they’d both been required to appear before the leader.
That had been hell.
Once upon a time, when Lex’s body had been up for sale, the only vampires who could afford to spend a small fortune on a night with her were usually in positions of power. She wasn’t really worried that any of them would recognize her now—they hadn’t thrown down all of that money to look at her face—but she was afraid of recognizing them.
Standing in their offices with Tristan at her side, her eyes had flickered all around the room—the ceiling, the floor, the bookcases, the stereo systems, the windows, the glossy lacquer on the desks, the texture of the upholstery on the couches—anywhere, so long as she didn’t have to look at them. She couldn’t bear to look at their smooth hands and remember how they felt on her skin. She didn’t want to see their arms or their fangs or their chins or their ears, and more than anything, she didn’t want to see their eyes.
For days after those meetings, Lex wouldn’t hunt. Wouldn’t eat. Wouldn’t sleep. She would hold Tristan hostage in the bedroom, using the age-old rhythm of sex to pound the memories out of her head. And luckily, he mistook her desperation for excitement, for happiness, for perhaps a thousand other emotions that had abandoned her long ago. She didn’t care to enlighten him. She let him believe whatever he liked as she screwed their collective brains out until the dread eventually faded. Then she would be safe until the next time they moved.
But the first meeting with Angela Catellini had been different.
Angie had been running Washington, D.C. for five years out of a penthouse apartment in Arlington, Virginia. It was a small, but difficult area to manage because Circle Daybreak had made the capitol a stronghold a decade beforehand. Angie had persevered, however, strengthening the presence of the Night World in the city and extending her control up through Baltimore and as far south as Richmond. She was a vampire on the rise, but that was nothing new. In the Night World you were either rising or falling, there was no middle ground.
As usual, Lex had been anxious during the walk over the Key Bridge to Arlington. She clung so closely to Tristan that she nearly tripped him more than once. When they arrived in the lobby of the apartment building, Tristan had stood her in front of the large windows near the elevators. “Stay here. I’ll go first,” he offered.
“First?” she repeated, not understanding.
“Angie does this on an individual basis,” he replied with an amused roll of his eyes. “She’s really strict about security, so I’ll go first and then you can go up.”
Alexandra tried to protest, but Tristan had already entered an elevator that had just reached the lobby. For the next five minutes, she paced back and forth nervously in front of the window, watching her own reflection.
It was a strange habit she’d developed, always making sure that the face she presented to the world let nothing show. She was just a young teenage girl, all gloss and glory. But when Lex was alone, she let her mask fade away, revealing the despair and weariness in the reflection of her eyes. That night she watched herself struggle as she walked agitatedly, her hair whipping her face each time she turned to pace the other direction. After a small eternity, the elevator doors opened again and Tristan emerged.
“You’re up,” he said, seeming so relaxed that Lex wanted to shake him in frustration. “Don’t worry. It’s the same spiel we always get. You’ll be fine, sweetheart.”
But when Alexandra had stepped out of the elevator into Angie’s penthouse and saw the red-haired vampire for the first time, she knew that Tristan had been wrong. She would not be fine. Not by a long shot.
The ostentation was typical, the numerous werewolf guards standing at attention along each wall were to be expected, but Angie was unlike any vampire that she had ever seen. It wasn’t only the fierce, fiery beauty or the predatory way that she moved…it was more in the way that Angie had looked at her—with a raised eyebrow and a haughty half-smile—that left Lex feeling suddenly naked and defensive.
She had crossed her arms in front of her chest and let her gaze bounce around the penthouse, looking everywhere but at Angie. All of the times she’d done this in the past, Tristan had been right next to her, deflecting attention from her; without him, there was nowhere to hide.
Leisurely, Angie had risen from the depths of the black leather sofa and slowly walked toward her. The vampire brazenly took Lex in, letting her emerald eyes run up and down her body to come to rest, finally, on her face. After running her sharp canines over her lips, Angie said in a low voice, “Alexandra Harper, I presume. It’s a pleasure.”
Lex had nodded, staring at a spot over the vampire’s shoulder.
Angie had cocked her head to the side and laughed. “Why won’t you look at me, Luscious? You must know that I’m not one of the ones who raped you.”
Alexandra had lost her breath. No one was supposed to know about that. Ever. Panicked, she’d tried to reinforce her mental shields only to find that they were already as solid as possible.
That could mean only one thing…
The fiery vampire had given her a coy smile and backed away, tossing her long red hair back over her shoulders. “That’s right, pretty one,” she had purred. “My power is not much different from yours. I can taste you, Luscious. I can taste your insipid, though rather sexy bodyguard waiting for you downstairs. Mental blocks mean nothing to us. The humans, the rest of the Night World—they are all beneath us. Their souls are ours for the taking.”
“No,” she’d whispered, shaking her head slightly in response.
“Oh, don’t deny it,” Angie had chided as she sat back down on the sofa and crossed her legs. She was mesmerizing and Lex couldn’t look away. “You know what you feel every time you stare into someone’s eyes and feel the power well up inside of you. You know how it feels to tear into them, consume who they are. What they are. You could control it if you only had the focus. The will. Every moment for you could be like the kill.”
The vampire had looked at her curiously. “But you don’t want the will, do you? You fear it.” A slow, husky laugh spilled from Angie’s lips. “You fear your maker.”
Alexandra couldn’t breathe, then. The air had caught in her throat and even though her heartbeat had been thundering in her ears, the sound would not drown out the words that were screaming in her head. Your maker.
“You won’t live long if you fear power,” Angie had continued. “Your power is aching to be set free and it has a will of its own. The Night World is vicious, as well you know. To cast aside a gift like yours would be a foolish and deadly mistake. And there is so much more to this life than blood and the measly human lives you revel in.”
“Like what?” Lex had asked, even though she didn’t want to hear the answer.
“Billions of souls to steal, Luscious. Your maker knew. Power is the elixir, not blood…though he certainly took a great deal of both from you. He still does.”
“Stop,” she’d begged as she fought the urge to hide her face with her trembling hands.
“You still can’t bear it, can you?” the other vampire had asked. “You still feel those hands on you, those teeth in you. He made you so young so that you would never have the strength to fight him. Or any of them.”
“Stop it!” Alexandra had hissed, her hands pulling desperately at her hair. “Stop! What do you want from me? Why are you telling me all of this?”
Angie had smiled again, her white fangs glinting in the candlelight. “I’m just having some fun, pretty one. What can I say? You are delicious.” She’d gestured off-handedly towards the elevators behind Lex. “You can go now. But you’ll stay in Washington, won’t you? I might need to taste you again before long.”
The voracious gleam in her green eyes was the last glimpse Alexandra had had of Angie until now.
Soul Stealer…the very phrase sent a cold shiver through Lex’s body as she followed Tristan and Angie down the escalators into the metro station. They leapt gracefully over the turn styles, moving too fast for the humans to see as they made their way down to the platform where a subway train stood with its doors open.
Angie led them into the last car, which was empty except for a tall, lanky vampire with pale gray eyes standing at the back, his long fingers grasping one of the metal poles in the center of the aisle. Alexandra took hold of the pole next to him and Tristan followed suit. Eyeing the new vampire warily, her companion covered her hand with his in a gesture that was purely possessive.
She looked up at him questioningly. He could be jealous sometimes, but it was completely unwarranted now; the tall, seemingly solemn vampire hadn’t even glanced at her. If Tristan wanted to guard her from anyone it should be Angie.
The Night World governor slid into a window seat, stretching her legs across the aisle seat. She looked the same as she had those months ago, both seductive and commanding. Her satiny clothes clung to her in such a way that, at first glance, she could have been mistaken for a streetwalker. But only a fool could miss the power smoldering in her eyes.
And those eyes were trained on Lex just then, pulling on her like gravity while she tried to stare at the orange carpet under her feet. She could feel Angie willing her to look up, to meet her gaze.
I’m just having some fun…
Alexandra shivered even as she broke into a sweat. The walls guarding her mind were like steel, but that meant nothing to someone with Angie’s power and she couldn’t help wondering what the vampire was seeing in her mind right now. There was so much torture to choose from. Was she seeing it all at once or was she fixed on a certain night? A certain scream? Did it disturb her on some primal level or did she absorb it with a sick sense of fascination?
Even though she had consumed that rich businessman on the street a mere twenty minutes ago, Lex could feel her own power prickling along the surface of her skin once again. If she just looked up, she could delve into Angie’s soul and find the answers to her questions. Hell, she could find a lot more than that. She could probably steal some bit of knowledge that she could use to protect herself from Angie. Something she could use to hurt her.
No. She couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t...
But Angie was still watching her, silently urging her to submit to the monster inside.
No, goddamn it! She was free from her maker. The monster was under her control now and she would not let it out. Her breathing labored, Lex squeezed her eyes shut.
Tristan tensed, his hand tightening over hers, and she realized that he had caught her last thought. Suspiciously, he looked back and forth between her and Angie. “Lex?” he breathed softly.
She shook her head in reply. It hurt him, but she didn’t give a damn.
“This is an associate of mine,” Angie said, her husky voice breaking the awkward silence in the subway car. She gestured to the new vampire. “I don’t believe you met him last time. Aiden St. Helen, this is Alexandra Harper and Tristan Chaucer.”
In awe, Lex quickly glanced at him and whispered, “Hellraiser.”
“He used to be,” the red-haired vampire replied flippantly. “But I’m afraid that his career in Daybreak came to a rather abrupt end.”
A sardonic smile tugged at one corner of Aiden’s mouth, but he didn’t respond. He only tipped his head back and sighed deeply, as if praying for patience. He seemed to be the exact antithesis of the relentless, driven Daybreak slayer that Alexandra had heard about. How many Night World enclaves had he personally decimated? And yet here he stood, silent and composed, with Angela Catellini. It didn’t make any sense.
He brought his head back down and found her staring at him, but neither of them looked away.
Her heart lurched in her chest. She shouldn’t be doing this. Her power was still pulsing inside of her like a restless beast, demanding to be set free, and if she didn’t force her gaze down she was going to latch onto him.
As she started to turn away, he moved slightly, his gray eyes holding hers captive, refusing to let her go.
Oh god, he didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t...
But then all of her thoughts were swept away as her power, unwilling to be contained any longer, broke through the walls between them and Lex suddenly felt as if her heart had caught fire. She was burning alive from the inside out, smothered by the screams caught in her throat. This sensation was so familiar that she didn’t know if she was drowning in his soul or being swallowed by her own.
After a fleeting moment, he tore his gaze away, severing the current between them and she nearly cried out at the loss. It had been so long since she had felt that close to anyone and in spite of everything, she wanted to feel it again.
In Lex’s peripheral vision, she could see Angie watching her, a strange smile playing on her lips.
“What the hell is going on here?” Tristan snapped. His grip over Lex’s hand was so tight now that he was crushing her fingers against the pole. He sounded irritated but she knew that he was anxious. So much was being said without words among the other vampires and he couldn’t hear any of it, much less understand it.
“Enough of this,” Angie said, as if she hadn’t heard the outburst. “Let’s get to the point, shall we? I have a job for you two.”
Tristan looked at her. “What sort of job?” he asked carefully.
“There is a certain witch I need eliminated,” she replied with a subtle glance at Aiden.
“Why?” Alexandra asked before she could stop herself. “Why us?”
Angie smiled. “Let’s just say that she has sensitive information about my operations and she’s with Circle Daybreak. And you two are not involved in my operations and you’re unknown to Daybreak, so it should be easier for you to finish her off successfully. And, well, the truth of the matter is that she’s a powerful witch and you, Luscious, and your sexy bodyguard are capable and more importantly, expendable.
“Although…it would be a shame to lose such potential.” She winked at Lex. “I would be disappointed if you died, Soul Stealer. There are so few of us.”
“Few of who?” Tristan demanded. “Why do you keep calling her that?” His questions were for Angie, but his eyes were on Alexandra, begging for answers. Desperate for trust.
“You mean she hasn’t told you?” Angie asked sarcastically. “And I thought that communication was the most important aspect of a relationship.
“But that’s beside the point now, isn’t it? The witch is the main concern now. So to reiterate: kill this witch or you two will die. You can try to run, of course, but then I’d be angry over wasting the time and resources to find you. And when I do find you…well let’s just suffice it to say that it would be incredibly foolish to run.”
“What are the details?” Tristan asked after a long moment of silence, his voice sounding thick.
Alexandra could barely listen. She had the strange and sudden urge to cry. Tristan may have conceded for the moment, but Lex knew that he would not let his questions go this time. She looked at her reflection in the window of the subway car, seeing a girl that seemed so young, and felt old.
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