As much as Reece disliked Carden, he had to admit that they fought well together. At first Angie had made fools of them both. She’d caught Carden’s kick midair and then threw him onto his back. When Reece moved in, she’d slipped his punches and followed with her own devastating blows. She was fast, spry, and she knew how to use an opponent’s momentum against him. But the Daybreakers soon found a rhythm; they learned how to move with each other to trap the Night World governor between them. Carden’s fighting style was so flashy that it distracted Angie long enough for Reece to stealthily rush her from behind. When she turned to fight him off, she didn’t spare Carden any attention because she assumed that she would anticipate his flamboyant attacks, but the lamia could strike just as silently as Reece. By the time Angie sensed his movement and whipped around to defend herself, Carden was close enough to drive his knee into her gut. While she was doubled over in pain, Carden brought his knee up again, catching her in the face, and the Night World governor fell to the ground.
Angie was back on her feet before either of the Daybreakers could grab her, but she was dazed. She tried to move back to avoid Reece’s high roundhouse kick, but she couldn’t react in time. While she was still reeling from that blow, Reece stopped his leg in the air and jerked it back, slamming his heel into the side of Angie’s head.
As the Night World governor wobbled on her feet, disoriented, Carden came up behind her and pulled her arms back, bending her neck into a Full Nelson. “Come on, Cahill,” he urged. “Finish her off.”
Reece hesitated. Angie was nearly limp in Carden’s grasp, and with her arms pulled so far back, her chest was left wide open. She seemed small and a little weary, and at that moment, killing her just didn’t feel right.
Sensing his reluctance, her expression changed. As she smiled, that vulnerability trickled out of her like the blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, and the girl that remained was little more than a caricature. “He can’t kill me,” she gasped. “The Daybreak witch has too much honor.”
Carden roughly tightened his hold on her, trying to inflict enough pain to make her shut up. “Do it, Cahill,” he snapped. “Stake her!”
But Reece couldn’t move. As his heartbeat slowed and the adrenaline that he’d been running on began to dissipate, he suddenly felt incredibly drained. He uncurled his shoulders and lowered his fists, shifting out of his fighting stance.
Angie’s laugh was wet and raspy. “Told you,” she said in a sing-song voice.
Carden looked at his teammate, his lip curled in a sharp sneer. “This is fucking unbelievable.” In his disgust, the lamia’s grip slackened and the Night World governor began to struggle against him. Before she could slip out of the hold, Reece darted in and threw an explosive uppercut that connected with Angie’s jaw. Knocked unconscious, her head fell forward and Carden dropped her body on the ground.
“Let’s go find Nigel and Gen,” Reece said softly.
“Screw that,” the vampire retorted. He pushed past him and grabbed one of the discarded wooden knives off the sidewalk. “I’m killing her.”
Reece stepped forward, blocking his way. “No,” he said. His voice was quiet, but it still carried enough force to make the vampire pause and glare at him.
“If we let her go now, she’ll continue to be a threat,” Carden told him. “She needs to be put down.”
Shaking his head, Reece insisted, “Not like this.”
His teammate laughed sarcastically. “So what do you want to do? Sit around and wait for her to wake up so we can fight her again, hoping to find a justifiable moment to kill her?”
“No,” Reece replied with exaggerated patience. “We leave her here and we go to find Genevieve now. She’s our responsibility, not Angie. Gen is out on the street with only Nigel to protect her and we don’t know if Angie has any more of her people around.”
“Damn it!” the vampire growled, starting to pace like a caged animal. “She’s right here! She’s unconscious and she deserves to die. Just let me stake her!”
Watching Carden pace, Reece was surprised. With his preternatural strength and sheer size, the lamia could easily shove him out of the way and kill Angie if he wanted, but it didn’t seem like he was going to make a move without Reece’s permission. Maybe in spite of his irritating attitude Carden understood what it meant to be part of a team after all.
Hoping that he was right, but still bracing himself for a blow, Reece confronted the vampire toe-to-toe. “I’m going to have to ask you to stand down, Carden,” he said heatedly. “I’m the team leader and I will not waste time debating orders with you when the life of a Wild Power is on the line. If you want to come after Angie on your own time, fine, but right now I need you to help me find Gen. Are you coming or not?”
Carden stared down at him antagonistically for another moment, but finally he yielded, taking a step back and pocketing the knife. Then, surprising Reece once again, he smirked. “Did you seriously just ask me to ‘stand down’? I think you’ve been watching too many made-for-TV movies, Cahill.”
“Be careful,” he replied, returning the smile. “The next time you don’t listen to my orders I might go all George Lucas on your ass.”
The lamia held his hands up in surrender. “That should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.”
Leaving Angie behind, the Daybreakers headed down the street.
“Okay,” Reece sighed as he reached for his cell phone. “I’ll try to reach Nigel. He and Gen couldn’t have gone too far.”
Before he could dial, though, Carden elbowed him in the ribs. “Hey, hold up.” He pointed to a figure emerging from a tiny side street several yards away. “Nigel is right there.”
Watching the short, dark-haired witch sprint toward them, Reece’s stomach turned cold. Nigel was out of breath, his face was badly scraped, and he was holding one of his wrists as if it was broken. Worst of all, he was completely alone. “Where’s Gen?”
“I can’t find her!” Nigel exclaimed when he reached them. “I was attacked by some vampire girl back there and I told Gen to keep running. By the time I staked the girl, Gen was gone. I searched the entire block, but I can’t find her anywhere. I was hoping she had found her way back to you.”
“How could you let Genevieve run off by herself?” Carden snarled.
The witch shrugged as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his good hand. “I didn’t want her waiting around to get killed if the vampire killed me.”
Reece nodded begrudgingly. He wished that Nigel had ignored the vampire and kept running with Gen, but what was done was done. “Is the girl dead now, or did she get away?”
“What difference does it make?” Carden interjected. “If Angie had that one soldier in place, then she probably has at least a dozen others around.”
“I’m not sure if that girl was one of Angie’s soldiers,” Nigel said. “She was certainly fast, but she couldn’t fight worth a damn.”
“Then what happened to your wrist? And to your face?” Reece asked.
Carden snorted. “Hasn’t he always been that ugly?”
“She, uh, tripped me,” Nigel replied awkwardly, as if he was embarrassed. “And that’s part of what bothers me. Gen and I were running down the side street and I guess the girl was hiding behind a dumpster. As we came by, she just—stuck her foot out. I was only on the ground for a few seconds, but in that time the girl had a clear shot at Gen and she didn’t take it. Actually, she seemed...terrified.”
Running his fingers through his hair, Reece tried to clear his mind. Nigel’s vampire girl did sound peculiar, but they had more important things to worry about right now. “All right, let’s focus,” he said to his teammates. “The priority now is finding Gen. Carden, can you reach her telepathically?”
The lamia’s eyes glazed over slightly as he tried to contact the Wild Power. After a long moment, he shook his head. “No. I can sense that she’s alive, but she’s shielding herself.”
Nigel frowned. “Why would she do that when she knows we’re looking for her?”
“The Night World must be close by,” Carden concluded. He smiled wolfishly, pulling his lips back from his teeth to reveal his fangs. Bouncing on his toes, he looked eager for another fight.
“No,” Reece said slowly. “She’s had intensive training on shielding. She knows how to specifically let some people in and lock others out. There has to be another reason—” He broke off, suddenly struck by a vivid image: Gen kneeling down on the floor of the evacuation tunnel, the heels of her hands pressed against her temples as she smiled wistfully, whispering, He’s coming for me. “Oh no,” he gasped. “She’s with Aiden.”
His teammates exchanged doubtful glances, but Reece didn’t give them the chance to question him. “We need to split up and search for her. We’ll start with a five block radius. Carden, you take the North side. Nigel, the West. I’ll take South and East. If anyone finds her, call the others. And Carden, keep your mind open for her; if her shields fail, give us a telepathic shout.
“Stay on guard at all times,” he continued. “Aiden St. Helen is one of the most vicious fighters Daybreak has ever seen, so don’t take any chances: shoot to kill. Do you understand?” His teammates nodded. “Good. Then move!”
She had to keep moving.
The streets were eerily empty for mid-afternoon and the neighborhood itself seemed menacing. Tall buildings surrounded her, trapping her in the harsh sunlight. As the rays bore down on her and the heat dried her bones, she felt as if she were lost in a vast desert. If she could only find some shade, some slice of darkness to sink into, she might begin to heal, but there was no escape, no relief, nowhere to hide.
With her eyes focused on the ground in front of her, Lex didn’t realize she had reached the corner of the building until she tried to grab the next brick and her hands grasped at nothing. Without any support, her knees gave out under her weight and she fell onto the sidewalk. For a moment she lay there, too exhausted to move. She let her heavy eyelids shut, finally finding a taste of the darkness she craved. It was only as a blissful numbness began to claim her that she remembered the danger in resting.
She recognized this sensation; she had experienced it twice before. The last time, only three years ago, she had eagerly embraced it, but now she was afraid. With the last of her strength she fought, forcing herself to breathe. A trace of air inflated her shriveled lungs and she wished that she could hold it, cradle it tenderly inside of her chest. It was such a precious and delicate thing—her last breath. But it was no use; the battle was already lost. The air slipped away, slowly passing over her lips as the shadows in her mind overran the landscape of her thoughts. She was sinking. Drowning. Dying, dying once again.
Just as she surrendered to the cold black sea, however, she felt something pulling her back to the surface. Still lying on the sidewalk, Lex could feel her skin prickling, as if someone were watching her. And almost against her will, she felt her body draw another breath.
Blood. The air was saturated with the scent, so rich and thick that she could taste it on her tongue, feel the weight of it sliding down her throat. Filling her, healing her. Making her whole.
Her eyes snapped open.
Through the blinding sunlight, Alexandra found herself staring down a narrow alley that rested between two buildings. And at the back of the alley, there was a girl.
The girl was so beautiful and still that she seemed at first to be a mirage—an angel amongst the dumpsters and graffiti. She was dressed all in black, but the clothing only accentuated the graceful lines of her slender figure, the depth of her violet eyes, the way her golden hair shone like a halo about her face. The scent of blood was a heady perfume that wafted from her—a flare of delicious heat on the cool, clean breeze.
Gazing at the girl, mesmerized, Alexandra had the sense that she had seen her before but she couldn’t recall when or where. A strange haze had settled over her, clouding her mind. There was no more thought, nothing beyond this moment and this beautiful, ethereal girl. The world fell silent.
In a sudden burst of desperate longing, Lex shattered the sublime stillness and rolled onto her hands and knees. Like a beggar, a slave, she crawled toward the girl. The movement stretched her stomach, tearing her wound wider, but the thought of reaching the girl occluded the pain. There were only a few yards between them, but when she finally collapsed at the girl’s feet, Lex felt as if she had completed a pilgrimage.
The girl looked down at her, grimacing slightly as her violet eyes fixed on Alexandra’s stomach. “Goddess,” she breathed.
Lex followed her gaze and winced as well, mortified by the sight of the blood soaking her clothes—blood that she had stolen from so many, many people. It was still pouring out of her gut, an endless fount of shame.
But there was no reproach in the girl’s eyes as she kneeled down next to her. And when she reached out to touch Lex’s face, her hands didn’t feel reluctant. Rather they were steady and comforting. “You’re dying,” she said softly.
Alexandra couldn’t formulate a response. Her senses were too overwhelmed by the smell of the blood staining a white bandage that was wrapped around the girl’s forearm, draped so closely to Lex’s mouth that it nearly kissed her lips. The scent set her body afire and her canines lengthened in anticipation. Appalled, she tried to push them back with her tongue.
The girl drew back, and even though Lex knew that she deserved the rejection, she could feel tears pricking the corners of her eyes. But then she realized that the girl hadn’t actually pulled away from her, she had merely tipped her head to the side, exposing the creamy skin of her neck.
Alexandra froze.
Her heart pounding, she looked questioningly into the girl’s face and the girl nodded. In an instant, her awe and shame were pushed aside by sheer reckless need, and Lex threw herself at the girl, sinking her teeth deeply into her throat.
The blood rushed into her mouth and the taste of it was unlike any blood she’d ever had before. It tasted purer somehow, as if it had been stripped of all the unnecessary adornments of sweetness or bitterness. It was basic, elemental, and powerful, and it meant something, but Lex couldn’t follow the thought to the end.
The girl’s pulse quickly grew faint, leaving her poised on the knife-edge between life and death. Instinctively, Lex wanted to shove the girl over that edge, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Killing this beautiful, selfless, innocent girl who had saved her life would just be wrong. The world needed her—Lex needed her—so she summoned every shred of will power she possessed and began to pull away.
A hand abruptly clamped on the back of her head, holding her there. “Do it,” the girl hissed. “Please just do it.”
Horrified, Alexandra struggled, but the girl’s grip was like a vise. With her lips mashed against the girl’s throat, the blood continued to spurt into her mouth in a relentless deluge. Lex choked and gagged, but eventually she had no choice but to swallow it down over and over again.
The onslaught seemed endless, but at last the girl’s hand fell away. As the girl crumpled to the ground, the haze hovering in Lex’s mind suddenly cleared. Blinking forcefully a few times, she glanced around, feeling as if she had been released from some kind of drug-induced stupor, or woken from a vague, bewildering dream. The colors around her were brighter, the details sharper. The properties of cause and effect, logic and reason had been restored, and she could finally think again.
What the hell had happened?
Lex looked down at the girl and now that her head was clear, she realized who this girl was. She could almost hear Aiden St. Helen’s dispassionate voice murmuring, Slight build, average height…Blond hair, fair skin, violet eyes.
Genevieve Harman.
And that realization led to another one which was far more devastating: this girl—this witch—had set her up. She had cast spells to hypnotize Lex and draw her close, knowing that a dying vampire wouldn’t be able to resist her blood. Once she had Lex in her clutches, the girl had cast another spell to trap her there, forcing her to drink until there was nothing left. Turning her into a murderer.
Lex grabbed Genevieve’s shoulders and shook her angrily, refusing to let her die in peace. “Why?” she growled. “Why did you do this to me, you bitch?” It was a pointless question, one that had amused her maker to no end, but she couldn’t help it. Spell or no, she had trusted this girl, and the girl had betrayed her.
Genevieve pressed her lips together, her expression pained and remorseful. “Sorry,” she breathed. “I couldn’t…just couldn’t…”
Couldn’t help it.
Couldn’t bear it.
Couldn’t do it myself.
The girl didn’t say the words, but the grief shadowing her violet eyes spoke to Lex, tempering her anger with empathy. How could she hate Genevieve for hurting, and for wanting to put an end to that hurt? For having the courage to do what Lex herself never could?
Awkwardly, she leaned closer to Genevieve and brushed a few strands of blond hair back from the witch’s face. Looking into those tortured eyes, she felt a churning inside, a desire to know this girl, to learn who she was and what had driven her to the point of desperation.
Lex’s power stirred and she knew that it was useless to fight it; she was too tired, too beaten, and too—curious. Bracing herself on her hands, she let the power draw her down until Genevieve’s forehead touched her own. Though she shuddered imperceptibly, the witch didn’t turn away; it was as if she knew how much Lex needed this. And just below her surface thoughts lay a need for this as well. The girl had been alone for so long, and before she died she wanted someone to forgive her for what she’d done. Someone to understand—
Betrayal, hands around her throat…
The image and the emotion it carried were both so vivid that Lex flinched, nearly severing the connection between her and the witch. Her power sputtered, but after a moment, it surged again, locking her onto Genevieve as effectively as the witch’s magick had done.
Betrayal, hands around her throat. Squeezing the life out of her with long tapered fingers that had always caressed her so lovingly. He rarely said the words, but she’d thought that she could feel them in his touch…
Daybreakers crowding around her, eager to touch her. The sick hoping to be healed. The faithful searching for affirmation. The skeptical waiting for a miracle. All so good to her that she had never realized not a single person among them cared about her for herself. She was a savior, a messiah. Never just a person, just a girl. Not until him…
His lean body pressed against hers, his long legs intertwined with hers. His skin, usually so cold, now slick with sweat and hot to the touch. His mouth on hers, fierce and demanding. His fangs scraping her lips, his nails digging into her waist. His eyes squeezed shut, as if in pain…
Betrayal, hands around her throat. Steel gray eyes glaring down at her mercilessly. Strange how he had never held her gaze this long. Didn’t want her to know that the sun, the moon, and the stars she had always seen in his eyes were just a trick of the light. Of her own pathetic idealism…
Sitting next to him on her bed, she found the courage to say, “I heard about your patrol last night.”
Poring over a stack of documents, he didn’t lift his head. “What about it?”
“That you killed a coven of vampires.” Taking a breath, she quietly added, “I heard you gutted them.”
He nodded. “I did.”
She cringed reflexively, disturbed by the indifference in his voice. “I wish you hadn’t.”
“Why?” He finally looked up, seeming annoyed and perplexed. “They were Night World.”
“And we’re Daybreak,” she returned. “We’re supposed to respect life. Protect it. And if we’re forced to kill, we’re supposed to leave the dead with dignity.”
Shifting his weight to lean over her, he held her chin firmly in his hand, forcing her to look at his stern face. “Do you think they’ll show you that kind of mercy, Eve?”
Betrayal, hands around her throat. His thoughts swarming in her head, pleading and panicked. Die, die, die…just one more minute, just die, please die…
“I’m tired of thinking and I’m tired of being…I know how selfish it is, but I wish I would die.”
Vampire in her arms. Teeth in her throat. Blood spilling. “Do it. Please just do it.” Almost there. One more minute, just die, please die…
Love you, Aiden...
As the witch’s life force weakened, Alexandra felt her power retract, ripping her out of Genevieve’s soul as quickly as it had thrust her into it.
When she became aware of her surroundings once again, Lex found herself still staring down into the witch’s violet eyes. They were glassy now, but the light behind them would dim in a matter of seconds, leaving them dull and empty. Alexandra didn’t want to watch it happen, but she couldn’t let the girl die alone. Bending her head, she lightly kissed Genevieve’s lips and waited for the witch’s last breath to fall on her mouth. When it finally did, she inhaled sharply, drawing it into herself and clinging to it as desperately as she had her own last breath. But it was hopeless. There was nothing anchoring Genevieve to this world any more.
As Lex lingered there, trying to summon the energy to move, she heard the rumble of footsteps behind her. Before she had time to turn around, someone hauled her up by the collar of her shirt and slammed her against the wall, pinning her there.
Over her attacker’s broad shoulder, she saw the two Daybreak witches who had been guarding Genevieve earlier kneeling next to the girl’s body. The red-haired witch—the leader, Lex remembered—gently turned Genevieve’s head to the side and found the puncture wounds on her neck. “She’s dead,” he said without bothering to check for a pulse.
“God-fucking-damn it,” growled the brawny vampire who was holding Alexandra against the wall.
“It’s my fault,” the short, dark-haired witch murmured as he looked up at Lex. “That’s the girl who tripped me.”
“I thought you staked her,” the vampire snapped.
“I did,” he replied softly. “In the stomach. To put her out of commission.”
“More pacifist, tree-hugging bullshit!” With a snarl, the vampire leaned more of his weight on Lex, holding her in place as he glanced over his shoulder at the leader. “Cahill?”
The red-haired witch didn’t answer. Sadness and frustration emanated from him as he stood up and turned his electric green eyes on Alexandra.
Encouraged by the leader’s silence, the vampire used his free hand to withdraw stake from the pocket of his black vest. Resting the sharp point of the stake against Lex’s chest, he asked once again, “Cahill?”
Still, the leader said nothing. While his subordinate’s expressions were twisted by anger and guilt, the red-haired witch just stared at Lex in disgust, as if she were the vilest being he’d ever seen. And she was—she knew that she was—but for some reason, his revulsion hurt her.
You don’t understand, she thought, and she was surprised to discover that she wanted him to understand. For the first time since she had escaped from her maker, she wanted to explain herself. Defend herself. Anything to dispel that look in this Daybreaker’s eyes.
She started to cry out to him, but at that moment the vampire curled his lip and moved to plunge the stake into her chest. The instant the weapon broke her skin, Alexandra’s cry changed into a shrill scream of agony as her body caught fire. The blaze started in her veins, turning her blood into boiling lava, and then it exploded out of her in a brilliant blast of heat. The force of it hurled the vampire and the dark-haired witch into the air, carrying them away on a tidal wave of Power. When the fire cleared, there were only two people left standing in the alley—Lex and the red-haired witch.
Shaking violently, she dared to look at him and found that the hate and disgust that had seared his green eyes was replaced with pure shock. Alexandra smiled faintly, flooded with relief, and then she collapsed.
Wild Power. The girl was a Wild Power.
No, it wasn’t possible. The prophecies only ever spoke of four Wild Powers and Genevieve had been the last. There was an entire vault inside of the D.C. compound filled with documentation confirming that fact. Reece himself had watched hours of video footage of Gen working with blue fire—learning to direct it, focus it, and create it on command.
But that was precisely how he knew this vampire girl had to be a Wild Power. He had seen blue fire before, and there was no mistaking it. It was the only force in existence that could harmlessly sweep over Reece and Genevieve’s body while it pitched Carden and Nigel so high into the air that they probably hadn’t even landed yet. Though, why the girl would spare Reece when staking her had obviously been his call, he didn’t know. That confused him almost as much as the small, grateful smile she’d given him just before she fainted.
Reece finally forced himself to approach the girl, who was still lying on her side on the ground, her mass of dark curly hair shielding her face. Her blue silk blouse was soaked in blood and it hung in tattered pieces on her small frame. In that shirt, a pair of shiny black pants, and spiked heels, she wasn’t dressed for battle, but then again, Angie hadn’t been dressed appropriately either.
After he had circled her once, he slowly crouched down in front of the girl. Even though she appeared to be unconscious, Reece knew that he couldn’t afford to make any more assumptions about her, so he stayed on the balls of his feet, ready to attack. But thankfully, she didn’t move as he carefully pushed her hair back over her shoulder.
Her face was striking—beautiful, really. She had smooth, flawless skin, extraordinarily lush lips, and long dark eyelashes that were fanned out in perfect crescents on her high cheekbones. Reece had noticed all of those features when she’d been pinned against the wall a few minutes ago, but as she lay here now, she looked younger than he’d thought. In fact, if she were human, he wouldn’t put her a day over fourteen. And the thought unsettled him.
On impulse, he reached his hand out to touch her face. As the back of his knuckles brushed her skin, a jolt of electricity shot up his outstretched arm, short-circuiting every nerve-ending as it forged a path straight to his heart. With a gasp, he jerked his hand back and clutched it to his chest.
Aftershocks from the blue fire, he thought. Had to be. And it was a harsh reminder that watching a few videos of Genevieve’s training had in no way prepared him for dealing with a Wild Power. Standing back up, he flipped open his cell phone and did what he should have done the moment he’d found out that Gen was dead.
Thierry Descouedres answered his phone on the first ring. “What happened, Cahill?” he demanded. “You’re not supposed to check in until tonight.”
“Genevieve is dead,” Reece told him.
The Daybreaker cursed. “Was it Angie?”
“Someone working for her, maybe.” He gave Thierry a quick rundown of the botched mission, from the sniper shooting Beth, to the discovery of Gen’s body in the arms of the vampire girl. “I’m sorry, sir,” he concluded. “I take full responsibility for everything that happened.”
“Blame hardly matters now,” Thierry replied quietly. “Four less one and darkness triumphs.”
“Right. And that’s actually the reason I called.” Reece paused to clear his throat. “We still have four.”
“Excuse me?”
“We still have four,” he repeated. “The vampire who killed Genevieve is a Wild Power.”
The Daybreak leader’s reply was resolute. “That’s impossible.”
“I know it sounds crazy,” Reece replied. “But I saw her throw blue fire at Nigel and Carden, and it literally blew them off the face of the earth. There’s no question about it: she’s a Wild Power.”
“That can’t be right,” Thierry murmured. Then after a long silence he asked, “Where is this girl now?”
Reece glanced down at the petite body lying at his feet. “Unconscious.”
“Good. Bring her back to the compound.”
After the lecture he had given Carden about obeying orders, Reece should have known better than to argue with Thierry Descouedres, but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. “But it’s not safe there. If Angie has any more of her people planted in the compound, they’ll have easy access to the girl.”
“She killed Genevieve,” his superior reminded him. “She most likely is one of Angie’s people.”
“All the more reason not to bring her in. The last thing we need is a Wild Power hooking up with someone on the inside.”
Thierry sighed. “Trust me, I share your concern, but the truth is that there’s nowhere else she can go. The coven in West Virginia was willing to hide Genevieve because she was on our side, but they won’t protect a Night World vampire. And until we know exactly who and what this girl is, she needs to be kept somewhere secure.”
With that much, Reece agreed. “All right,” he conceded weakly.
“I’ll call ahead to Anton Parish and let him know that you’ll be coming back,” Thierry said. “I’m also going to tell him that I want you to guard the girl.”
That statement startled him. “You still want me to guard her after what happened with Genevieve?”
“As you said, Angie might have more moles in the compound, so I need someone from the outside to do this. Until you hear otherwise directly from me, don’t let the girl out of your sight.”
“Yes, sir,” Reece replied. “And when you speak to Anton, could you please ask him to send a team out to search for Nigel and Carden? I don’t know how far the blue fire threw them, but if they survived it, they’re going to need serious medical attention.”
“Of course.”
As soon as he snapped his phone shut, Reece realized that he hadn’t asked Thierry about the aftershocks. He really didn’t want to call him back, though; he’d caused Circle Daybreak enough problems today. Besides, if Thierry thought that it was dangerous to touch a Wild Power after a blast, then he would have warned Reece. The aftershocks couldn’t have been anything serious.
Still, he was on edge as he bent down to pick the girl up. As a test, he tentatively slid one of his arms underneath her back. When nothing strange happened, he slipped his other arm under her knees and lifted her up. Even as dead weight, she was disturbingly light, and for the first time he noticed just how thin she was. Not emaciated, but not too far from it either.
The girl’s head lolled back against his chest and Reece stiffened. The jolt that went through him at the sight of her cheek resting against his shirt and the feel of her hair spilling over his arm had nothing to do with blue fire.
Annoyed with himself, he looked back at Genevieve, who was lying cold and dead on the ground. The vampire girl had done that. And it was because of her that Reece had to leave Gen’s body here like a piece of trash. He’d been ordered to protect the girl, and so he would, but he could not forget all of the harm she had caused today.
Imitating the sneer that Carden so often wore, Reece stormed out of that alley.
Just before he reached the street, something suddenly stopped him. He looked up at the roof of the building next to him and saw Aiden. St. Helen kneeling there, staring at his soulmate’s body. For a moment Reece pitied him, but then the ex-Daybreaker turned slightly and his gaze locked onto the vampire girl. His expression revealed nothing about how long he’d been lurking there or how much he might have seen.
Without taking his eyes off Aiden, Reece tightened his grip on the girl and quickly backed away. When he hit the sidewalk, he whipped around and broke into a run. He may have lost one Wild Power today, but he’d be damned if he was going to lose another.
Part 8