“Goddamn it!” the red-haired man—Reece—snarled. Normally, Lindsay didn’t like when people took God’s name in vain like that, but he was glaring at his cell phone so furiously that she was too afraid to ask him not to do it. Besides, she was pretty sure that this man had saved her life, so it would probably be rude to ask anything else of him. If God were mad at Reece for swearing, then He would deal with it Himself.
They had been driving for a few hours now and the sun had set long ago. The white light from the headlights of oncoming cars illuminated Reece's face, making his green eyes glow in the darkness, but his eyes seemed less frightening now than they had when she'd first seen him. They were actually sort of pretty.
From the signs on the highway, it seemed like they were heading north, toward Canada. The thought sparked hope inside of her because that meant he would have to stop at the border to present his passport. When he did, Lindsay was going to scream bloody murder. She felt a little sorry for him for that, because he had saved her life and she’d believed him when he said that he wouldn’t hurt her, but he was still kidnapping her, and she wanted to go home. Her parents were probably going crazy by now.
Reece swore again and threw his phone in the back of the car.
“What’s the matter?” Lindsay asked.
He glanced at her sharply, as if he’d forgotten she was there. “I’m just trying to reach someone and she’s not picking up the phone.”
“Oh.”
She? Lindsay wasn’t sure why, but she felt a little disappointed when he said that.
Hastily, she looked away from him, at the phone lying on the back seat. “Can I call my parents?” she pleaded. “Just to tell them that I’m all right? Please?”
The man shook his head. “The police might be tapping their phones. If they can trace the call, they’ll know where we are. Which means that it’s only a matter of time before Zarek knows where we are. He might already know—I have no fucking clue, but I don’t want to risk it.”
“How would he know?”
When didn’t answer her, Lindsay pursed her lips. It wasn’t the first time he had ignored one of her questions and she didn’t understand why he was doing it. He'd already told her his name and he was letting her see his face, so he couldn’t be afraid of her knowing enough for the police to catch him, if she got away. What could he be hiding?
An image of the orange fireballs he’d thrown at the priest flashed before her eyes, and she knew that that had to be it. Reece had said that he wasn’t an angel or a demon, and Lindsay believed him. An angel wouldn’t swear like he did and a demon would have left her with the dark-eyed priest, the one he kept calling “Zarek”. So what was Reece? And what was Zarek?
“Is he really the Devil?” she asked. “That Zarek guy?”
Reece ran his fingers through his spiky hair. “The closest thing I’ve ever seen to it,” he replied tiredly.
Lindsay shuddered, suddenly wondering how much evil Reece had seen in his life to be able to say that. She saw sin everywhere, but she had the feeling that the evil he’d experienced went far beyond disrespecting parents or teasing classmates or stealing lunch money. Maybe that was why he swore so much, because once you saw the things he had, you just didn’t care about the little sins any more.
When Reece saw that she was shaking, he took her hand in his, which made her stomach dip strangely. “Don’t be scared,” he said softly. “He’s not going to get anywhere near you.”
Her face felt hot, but she was still shivering inwardly. “My dad told me once to watch what I wish for, because I just might get it,” she told him. “I should have listened.”
Reece took his eyes from the road and looked intently at her. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve always hoped that God would show me an angel or some miracle, but after today, all I want to do is go home and forget everything I saw.”
“The gods have nothing to do with this, Lindsay,” he said flatly. “You didn’t ask for this. You haven’t done anything wrong. If anything...”
It was odd that he’d said “gods” instead of “God”, and it made her a little uncomfortable. But then seeing how drained he looked as his voice trailed off and he turned his bright green eyes back to the road, she felt bad for him. “What?” she asked.
“If anything, this is my fault,” he said, gripping the steering wheel like he wanted to strangle it.
“How could it be your fault?”
“I’ve been after Zarek for a long time now. I should have caught him before this.”
“If you were supposed to catch him before, then you would have," she said in a small voice. "There’s a reason that you didn’t, even if you don’t know what it is yet.”
Reece gave her a sideways glance and a slight smile, squeezing her hand gently. “You have a lot of faith.”
She flushed, hoping that he couldn’t see it through the darkness. “Of course,” she said with a shrug. “Don’t you?”
He sighed. “I used to. Maybe not in the same things you do, but it was faith nonetheless.”
“So what happened?”
He was quiet for a long moment, and she didn’t think that he would answer her. Then finally he said, “It’s complicated.”
Lindsay was stung. It sounded like he was saying she was too young and stupid to understand. A lot of people treated her like that, just because she was a kid—even her parents. Up until now, Reece had been talking to her like she was smart, like she was an adult, and she hadn’t realized how nice it had been until he brushed her off.
Nice? He’s kidnapping you, she reminded herself. He grabbed you off the street, stuffed you in his car, and took you away from your home. If he’s being nice to you, it’s a lie. He’s just trying to get you to do what he wants. So stop talking to him, stop feeling sorry for him, and think of a way out of this!
Lindsay pried her hand away from Reece’s and crossed her arms over her chest. After a few minutes, an idea popped into her head.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” she blurted out.
“Can you wait? We’ve only got another hour or—”
“No,” she replied firmly. “I have to go now.”
Reece sighed. He was a little annoyed, she could tell, but he was trying to hide it. “Okay. I’ll find somewhere to stop.”
Her heart started to pound. At first it was easy to ignore—she was only marching quickly over even ground, but when she saw a sign for a rest stop two miles ahead, it felt like she was jogging over a mountain. When she caught sight of its bright lights, she felt like she was running a marathon. Her heart leapt into her throat, blocking her airway. By the time they approached the entrance ramp to the rest stop, she had gone a full minute without breathing, so the gasp she gave as Reece passed straight by it made her head spin.
Her hands flew to the window, her palms pressing on the cool glass helplessly as they left the lights behind them. “You said that you would stop!” she exclaimed.
“I will,” he insisted. “But that place will be too crowded. I can't protect you there. I’m going to get off the next exit. Okay?”
Lindsay just nodded, no longer trusting her voice. She clasped her hands together in her lap so that Reece wouldn’t see the way they were shaking as her heartbeat began its thundering crescendo all over again.
She held her breath as they reached the next exit, but as promised, Reece pulled off the highway and turned right end of the ramp. And there, less than half a mile ahead, was the golden arches of a McDonalds. Lindsay didn’t think she’d ever seen anything so beautiful in her life.
They turned into the lot and Reece parked the car. She lunged for the door handle, but he grabbed her arm. “Wait.”
Lindsay was so anxious by that point that she nearly slapped his hand away, but then she realized that he was shrugging his coat off his shoulders. He hissed sharply through clenched teeth as he pulled his arms out of the sleeves. "Stiff," he said shortly in response to her curious look. Then he handed the coat to her. “Take it.”
It was so warm in the car that Lindsay had forgotten that she’d lost her own coat back in the church. “But you’ll be cold.”
Reece gave her an amused smile as he opened the driver’s side door. “Let me worry about that. Now, come on. I want to get back on the road.”
There were only a few people inside the McDonalds—maybe five people behind the counter and two customers sitting at a table, eating their food. Even so, it was enough people to come to her aid as soon as she screamed. Just one screech and she could be back at home in a few hours.
But for some reason she couldn’t understand, Lindsay didn't make a sound. She just walked into the women’s bathroom while Reece sat down at a table outside of it.
At the sink, she splashed cool water on her face and stared at her reflection in the mirror. The sight of her shorn hair startled her a little. She hadn't thought about it since the priest had used her hair to pull her into his side of the confessional. As she ran her fingers through it, she found that her scalp was still tender.
Lindsay knew that she'd been lucky, though. She could only imagine what else that man with the horrible black eyes would have done to her if it weren’t for Reece.
He’s kidnapping you, her mind whispered again.
But Reece wasn’t stupid. He knew that once Lindsay was in a public place, it would be easy for her to get away from him. He'd seen the way she could draw attention to him, and he knew how loud she could yell. Yet he’d still stopped when she asked him to. He hadn’t even seemed worried that she would try to escape.
He trusted her.
In that moment, Lindsay realized trusted him too. She didn't know how, but he’d saved her from Zarek. He’d fought for her, and she was pretty sure, after hearing him hiss in the car, that he’d gotten hurt doing it. And after all that, he’d given her his coat, facing the cold himself so that she wouldn’t have to.
He would sacrifice himself for her without a second thought, plain and simple. So if what he said was true, if Zarek really was after her, then there was no safer place than with Reece.
With a final nod of approval at her own reflection, Lindsay left the bathroom.
Reece got up from the table when he saw her coming, another hiss escaping from his tightly locked jaw. Then his expression slowly softened. “All set?” he asked her.
“Yeah,” she replied. “Let’s go.”
Karissa opened her eyes as a loud knocking sound woke her from a deep, delicious sleep. She tried to sit up, but there was a heavy weight draped over her. Settling back down, she blinked a few times in the darkness, groggily trying to discern her surroundings because the room she was in was definitely too big to be her bedroom. As soon as she made out the shape of the sofa in the bluish light of the clock on the DVD player, she remembered that she and Nick had never made it back to their room that morning. Now it was past 8 PM and they were still lying on the living room floor, their limbs entangled.
Geez, good make-up sex sure wore you out.
The knocking came again. The sound was louder, but duller this time, as if the person was using the bottom of their fist. Karissa turned her head to see that Nick was still fast asleep next to her, obviously undisturbed by the person pounding on their door. It just wasn’t fair: when he was out, he was out.
“Nick?” a voice called through the door. “Karissa? Open up!”
Karissa shook her boyfriend roughly. “Hey,” she whispered. “Wake up.”
Nick lifted his head and opened his eyes a fraction. “What?” he mumbled. “What is it?”
“There’s someone at the door.”
“Who is it?” he asked sleepily.
“Sounds like Cahill.”
The witch stretched his arms over his head. “I thought you said he was out of town.”
“He was,” she replied as she started to gather the clothes that were strewn around them. “I guess he’s back.”
Nick yawned and then rolled over, ready to fall back asleep. “So go let him in.”
“Baby, I’m sure Cahill doesn’t want to see either of us half-naked,” she said, tossing his shirt on top of his bare back.
“He should be so lucky,” her boyfriend grumbled. “We’re both very attractive.”
“Granted. But voyeurism isn’t his style,” Karissa said as she threw his jeans at him. “So get dressed.”
“Come on,” Reece yelled from outside. “Open the door!”
Nick sat up with his eyes still closed and banged his head on the coffee table. “Shit!”
Karissa snickered at him. “That ought to wake you up.” Then to the door, she yelled, “Hold on a minute, Cahill.”
“Hurry up!” he yelled back.
“You know,” she said to Nick as she finished dressing, “he’s the one who has been blowing us off for months and now he wants us to hurry?”
“Hm, he seems a little stressed,” her boyfriend commented as the doorbell rang several times in succession.
“You think?” Karissa replied sarcastically. She took her time in checking out her reflection on a picture frame to make sure that her hair wasn’t too disheveled.
Already dressed, Nick watched her intentionally languid movements and shook his head. “You’re cruel.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Sit down before your leg gives out again,” she advised with a wink. As he sat on the edge of the sofa, she wrenched the front door open. “This had better be good—”
Reece stood on the steps, pale and shaking. There were dark circles under his eyes and his cheekbones protruded sharply, leaving deep hollows underneath. In spite of his shivering, Karissa could see beads of sweat along his brow, as if he had a terrible fever. On the whole, he looked like he’d just stumbled half-dead out of some dank, medieval dungeon.
“What happened to you?” she gasped as she reached for his arm and tugged him inside. “Are you all right?”
She started to close the door behind him, but Cahill thrust his hand out and held it open. “Lindsay, it’s okay,” he said softly to someone outside. “You can come in.”
A young girl with a terrible haircut and an over-sized coat appeared in the doorway and paused at the threshold. From her size, Karissa guessed that the girl was ten or eleven, but there was something in her eyes that made her seem older. The girl looked up at her warily, and then looked at Reece. “It’s safe?”
Reece nodded. “These are friends of mine. They’re going to help us.”
The girl didn’t seem convinced. She stayed rooted to the steps.
Cahill gave Karissa a pleading glance, which she returned with a look of her own, one that said that he’d better be ready for some serious explaining once the girl was inside. Then she crouched down in front of the girl, so that they were at eye-level. “My name’s Karissa,” she said in her brightest, most kid-friendly voice. “What’s yours?”
“Lindsay,” the girl replied with a shy smile.
“It’s nice to meet you.” She rubbed her own arms briskly. “It’s really cold out there. Why don’t you come in?”
The girl glanced at Reece again and waited for his nod before she stepped inside. As Karissa shut the door behind her, she frowned to herself. She'd seen Cahill around kids before, and he’d always been pretty good with them, but she couldn’t remember one being this attached to him. It was too weird.
“Can I take your coat?” Karissa asked the girl.
Lindsay took the over-sized coat off and handed it to her. “It’s Reece’s.”
“I figured. I’ll give it back to him,” she promised.
Once she’d hung the coat in the closet, Karissa discretely scrutinized Lindsay’s outfit. Most people didn’t appreciate how much information you could get about a person by looking at their clothes. This girl, for instance, was wearing jeans and a wool sweater over a turtleneck shirt, all of which were definitely from Gap Kids—meaning that they were nice, and a little expensive. So Lindsay most likely came from an upper middle-class family. The colors she wore were dark and demure, especially compared to some of the clothes that girls her age wore these days, which hinted at fairly conservative parents. The only anomaly in the assessment was the girl’s punk haircut.
Nick got up from the couch and limped over to Lindsay. Holding out his hand, he introduced himself.
The girl shook his hand uneasily, her gaze slipping down from his face as if she were intimidated. Then she furrowed her brow. “What happened to your leg?”
“Car accident,” Reece interjected with a significant look at Nick, and then at Karissa. They both got the message loud and clear: this little girl did not know about the Night World.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lindsay said.
Nick smiled kindly. “It’s okay. It’ll be fine soon.”
An awkward silence fell as the four of them stood in the living room, assessing one another.
Karissa couldn’t take her eyes off of Reece. There was a strange stiffness in his face and in the way he held himself, leaning his hip against the side of the couch. He was in pain, she realized—a lot of it—and he was trying to hide it. He had to know that Nick and Karissa, knowing him as well as they did, would see through the mask, so she guessed that it was for Lindsay’s sake. His eyes hadn’t left the girl since they’d arrived and there was something terribly protective in his gaze that reminded Karissa of the way he sometimes looked at Lex.
But who was this young, human girl who was nervously fingering a silver cross that dangled from a chain around her neck? How had Cahill found her? If she was a part of a Daybreak assignment, then why didn’t she know anything about Circle Daybreak? Why hadn’t Cahill told her yet? And did she have anything to do with his recent transformation into Bizzaro-Reece?
Karissa wanted explanations, but she had the feeling that Reece wasn’t going to tell them anything as long as Lindsay was around, especially since he didn’t want the girl to know about the Night World. So as much as she wanted to stick around and pry the truth out of him, she decided to leave that to Nick.
Casually, she turned to Lindsay and asked, “Are you hungry?”
The girl smiled a little and nodded.
“Why don’t you come with me into the kitchen and I’ll fix you something?”
Again, Lindsay glanced at Reece, waiting for his approval.
“Go ahead,” he said. “I’m just going to talk to Nick for a minute.”
“Okay,” she replied.
“The kitchen is right that way,” Karissa said, pointing to the doorway down the hall. Once Lindsay’s back was turned, she gave Nick a pointed look and he nodded in understanding. They were not going to let Cahill leave here without giving them some answers.
As soon as Karissa had taken Lindsay into the kitchen, Reece collapsed on the couch, wiping the sweat from his brow. His entire body was zinging with pain from the fight with Zarek and from the time-altering spell, and the effort it had taken to hide it from Lindsay during the ride to Montreal had been incredibly strenuous. So even though he didn’t like letting the girl out of his sight, at that moment it was a relief.
“What’s going on, Cahill?” Nick asked him. “You look like hell.”
Reece lifted his head to find the other witch standing over him, and it suddenly occurred to him that the last time he’d seen Nick was right after the witch had been attacked. Nick had been lying unconscious in the Daybreak hospital, still hovering somewhere between life and death. Now he was already well again—or at least he was very close to it. Reece could hardly believe that so much time had passed, and guilt twisted inside of his stomach. He should have been here to help Nick heal. Instead, he’d single-mindedly pursued Zarek, not even bothering to care about how badly he was letting his team down.
“Trust me, I feel like hell,” he assured his friend. “Look, I know you’re still recovering and I have no right to ask, but I’m totally burned. Can you spare any Power? I’ll take whatever you can afford to give me.”
“Fine. But after that, we talk.”
Reece nodded. It was what he had expected. Really, it was what he’d come here for. He’d screwed things up so badly on his own and now had to do whatever it took to get some help.
Nick placed his hands on top of Reece’s head. As the cool energy flowed into him, Reece nearly sobbed with relief. The Power took the edge off his pain and it filled the burning void inside of him. It felt like he’d been dying in a dry, scorching desert and a rainstorm had suddenly broken overhead, suffusing him with life.
All too soon, Nick released him. “You weren’t kidding. You really are burned. What did you do to yourself?”
“Got into a fight,” Reece replied dazedly, rubbing his face roughly. “Got slammed into the floor. Got my throat crushed. Threw some fireballs. Stopped time. Broke the world record for a thousand meter dash. Drove a few hundred miles. And here I am.” He paused. “Oh yeah, and I haven’t slept in two, maybe three days.”
“Stopped time? What do you mean, you stopped time?”
Trust Nick to focus on the one detail he wanted to gloss over.
“All right, look,” Reece said, “long story short: Alexandra isn’t lamia. She’s a made vampire and the bastard that did it tortured her for almost thirty years before leaving her to die while he moved on to another girl. She survived, met me, and I’ve been hunting him since I came back from D.C. with her. I tracked him down in Vermont and when I found him, he was about to take Lindsay. I got her out of there, but he found out that Lex is still alive. Now he’s going to go after her.
“He’s one of the most powerful telepaths that I’ve ever come across. No mental shield can block him and he might be able to find Lex across long distances. I don’t know, but I’m not going to take any chances. So I need you to come back to the apartment with me and do a cloaking spell on her. I’d do it myself, but it’ll take too much time before I have enough Power.”
Nick just stared at him. “That’s why you’ve been blowing off the team?”
“Yes.”
“For revenge?”
Reece sighed. “Yes.”
“What is the matter with you, Cahill?” Nick exploded. “You’ve neglected all of your duties for some personal vendetta? That goes against everything Daybreak stands for. Everything you stand for.”
“You don’t understand,” Reece said in a thick voice. “You don’t have a soulmate. You don’t know...” He struggled to swallow the painful lump that had formed in the back of his throat. “Every time I touch her, I see what he did. Things you can’t even imagine, Nick. For thirty years. I couldn’t live with it. And I couldn’t live knowing that he was out there, doing to another girl what he did to Lex. I just couldn’t...”
Nick was quiet for a long moment. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because Lex didn’t want anyone to know about her past. She didn’t even want me to know, and to be honest, sometimes I wish that I didn’t. As it happens, neither of us have a choice in the matter. The only thing we can choose is who else knows.”
“And you’re the only one?”
Reece hesitated. There was one other person who knew about Lex’s maker—someone whom he hated almost as much as Zarek. In order to explain the situation with Aiden St. Helen, however, he would have to tell Nick about Genevieve Harman, and that meant telling him that Lex was a Wild Power. And if Nick knew, then Karissa would know, and then the rest of his team would know.
The thought triggered an explosion of fear in his mind. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his team. It was just that with each new person who found out about Lex, the threat to her life incrementally increased. Too many people had known that Genevieve Harman was a Wild Power, and it had gotten her killed.
But hell, Reece had already spilled most of Alexandra’s secrets. He might as well get this last one—the biggest one—out of the way because he wasn’t sure that he could get through this mess with Zarek without his team finding out anyway.
“Look,” he started. “About Lex—”
Karissa chose that moment to come back down the hall, cutting Reece off. “Cahill,” she said, “you’re being paged.”
He exhaled an anxious breath and followed Karissa into the kitchen. Lindsay was sitting at the table in front of a rather large frozen pizza. Reece crouched down next to her. “What is it?” he asked.
“You haven’t eaten either,” she said. “We should share this.”
Reece’s heart contracted in his chest. This girl was so thoughtful, so caring. In some ways, she reminded him a little of the person he used to be, before he’d started hunting Zarek. And just like Nick, she made him realize just how far gone he was.
“Thanks,” he replied. “But why don’t you start without me? I need to run a quick errand with Nick.”
Lindsay's eyes widened. "Don't leave me here alone. You said that you would protect me."
"You won't be alone," Reece assured her. "Karissa will stay with you. And trust me, she can kick some serious butt. She can even beat me sometimes."
The girl looked at him doubtfully. "Really?"
"Yup," Karissa replied proudly from behind him. "Cahill's a wuss."
Reece rolled his eyes at her as he stood back up. "I believe that 'sometimes' was the operative word." Then he looked down at Lindsay. "You'll be safe. And I'll be back soon, I swear."
"Let me get your coat," Karissa offered as Reece and Nick left the kitchen. While she was opening the closet door, she asked quietly enough so Lindsay couldn't hear, "Where are you guys going?"
"I need to get Lex," Reece replied as he pulled his coat on. "I just hope that she's home. I tried calling her a few times on the way, but she wasn't answering her phone. Have you guys talked to her at all?"
When he turned back towards Karissa, she was biting her lip nervously, her eyes locked on Nick. They weren’t soulmates and neither of them were telepaths, but somehow they had perfected the art of silent communication. They could have an entire conversation with one look.
Reece frowned, anxiety starting to jangle inside of him. "What is it?" he asked. "What's going on?"
Karissa opened her mouth to reply, but Nick cut her off. "It's Lex. She left."
"She left." Reece repeated flatly, his brain refusing to understand the words.
"She left you, Cahill. She's gone."
Alexandra lay on her side. Aiden was lying behind her, his fingers stroking up and down her arm, making the soulmate link crackle like static through her body. Even though his touch was light, the friction of his skin brushing against hers again and again almost hurt. At least he wasn't delving into her mind now, though it might not be for lack of trying. Lex felt like a layer of ice encasing her, hiding the thoughts churning in her head.
Slut.
The word had been plaguing her since she rolled off of Aiden, shying away from him at the edge of the bed. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since she’d left Reece, and she’d already slept with someone else. And not just anyone—she’d chosen a vampire whom he despised.
Lex had mentioned Aiden’s name a few times in passing not long after she’d gone to Montreal with Reece, and even though the witch tried to hide it, she’d seen hatred burning behind his eyes. He would never forgive Aiden for trying to kill Genevieve, or for attacking Lex in the compound.
The Reece she’d met in D.C. hadn’t known how to hate. It hadn’t been part of the basic make-up of his personality. But after a few days with her, well, he’d been a quick learner. If he ever found out about what she’d done with Aiden, she was sure that he would hate her too.
What did it matter? She was never going to see him again. Was she supposed to spend the rest of her life alone? Aiden’s soulmate had died, mostly because of things that he’d done, and yet he was able to lie with Lex now, seemingly guilt-free.
But that was Aiden St. Helen for fuck’s sake. Did she really want to share the morals of a man who had tried to kill his soulmate?
The friction of his fingers on her arm was really hurting her now. Lex jerked away from Aiden and turning onto her stomach, keeping her face turned towards the window.
“Is there anything wrong?” he asked, and the caress of his voice was more irritating than his touch.
“No,” she replied. It was an obvious lie, one that she didn’t even bother trying to disguise with a breezy tone. She didn’t care if Aiden believed her. She only hoped that he would take her brusqueness as a hint and leave her alone.
Aiden chuckled softly. “If you don’t want to talk about it, just say so.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay, then,” he said. The smile she heard in his voice confused her. Reece would never let her get away with that. He would push her, hammering away at the ice encasing her until it cracked and he extorted the truth from her. Or, at least the Old Reece would have. The witch she’d been living with for the past few months wouldn’t have slept with her in the first place. He would still be locked away in his office, ignoring her pleas for him to come to bed.
But the vampire lying next to her wasn’t Reece. It was Aiden St. Helen, and he was a private person. He didn’t like being pushed any more than she did.
The outer layers of her ice melted as Alexandra rolled over to face him. It was dark in the motel room, but the moonlight shining through the window was bright enough for her to make out his silvery eyes and the lines of his mouth. “You really don’t mind?”
“I’d rather you be honest than try to spare my feelings,” he replied evenly. “If there’s anything I’ve learned over the last two years, it’s that lying is a waste of time.”
His words moved her. For months now she’d been enduring Reece’s lies, and it felt nice to be with someone who wanted honesty. More than that, he wasn’t going to trap her with his questions like Reece used to, forcing her to either confess or to lie. Aiden was offering her an out that she hadn’t been allowed to take with her soulmate. She could be honest and free at the same time.
Aiden noticed the strange smile playing on her lips. “What?”
“Nothing. It’s just that what you said is…refreshing.”
The vampire snorted. “I thought that witch of yours was honesty incarnate.”
Lex’s temper flared in spite of herself. How dare Aiden judge Reece? Recklessly, she lashed out, using the only weapon that she knew would hurt him. “No, that would be your witch, if she weren’t dead.”
Aiden started to recoil from her, but after a moment he recovered. Leaning forward menacingly, he forced her onto her back and he placed his hands on either side of her head. His weight wasn’t on top of her, but he was close enough for her to feel the heat of his body, his anger.
“I see I struck a nerve,” he purred. “It didn’t end well with him, I take it. Tell me, what did that sanctimonious son of a bitch do? Mess around behind your back? Leave you for someone less…tainted? Sell you out to the highest bidder? I wouldn’t have thought he had it in him, but maybe he’s not so much better than me after all.”
Lex wet her lips, battling the urge to snap back at him. He may have started this, but it was up to her to end it. If she didn’t find a way to diffuse the fury escalating between them, it would spiral out of control. Hellraiser wasn’t the kind of person who ever backed down and if he insulted her or her soulmate one more time, she wouldn’t be able to back down either. Then they would shred each other until one of them wound up dead.
“I never said he was, Aiden,” she said softly. The vampire drew back slightly and she knew that she’d surprised him. “Besides, does it ever end well?”
Some of the heat in his eyes dissipated. “Hell if I know,” he replied as he pulled away and lay back down.
Relieved, Alexandra took a silent, shaky breath.
After a long moment, Aiden said, thoughtfully, “Eve was with someone when she came to D.C. Some Daybreaker she’d met through her family’s circle. When she decided to move to Washington, he applied for a transfer so that he could go with her. He flew in a few days after she got there, but by that time she was already in love with me.” He sneered at that, but Lex thought that he was only doing it out of habit. “The guy rearranged his entire life for her only to be dumped as soon as he arrived. He should have been livid, should have hated her, but he was perfectly understanding. They actually stayed good friends. I thought he was pathetic, but I suppose that I’m no longer in any position to judge. So anyway, maybe for people like him and Eve, it can end well.”
Lex turned onto her side to face him again. “And for people like us?”
“I don’t know about you,” he said, his teeth glinting in the darkness, “but I burn my bridges.”
“Are you going to burn me, Aiden?” she asked him in a low voice.
“I think I should be more worried about you burning me, with that blue fire of yours.”
She laughed shortly, but she knew that she could never use that fire. Not until the war came. If she ever did, then Circle Daybreak or the Night World would probably sense it, and they would track her down. Then she would either be dragged off to some fortress for protection—like Genevieve had—or be killed on sight. Neither option was particularly appealing to her.
“How is it going with that?” Aiden asked. “Are you learning to control it?”
Suspicion whispered through her. She’d heard that sort of question from Aiden before, inside Genevieve Harman’s mind. Gen hadn’t known it at the time, but he’d asked because he was gathering information to use against her.
Betrayal, hands around her throat...
Lex forced herself to calm down, to push away the memories that were not her own. “Why do you want to know?”
“No reason,” he replied smoothly. “Why do you want to know why I want to know?”
“No reason.” But her voice didn’t sound nearly as off-handed as she’d hoped it would.
His gray eyes narrowed, focusing on her. Through her. “You think I came here to kill you?”
“No,” Lex replied. “But you’re not exactly renowned for your stability. One minute you want me, the next you want me dead—it’s within the realm of possibilities.”
“And yet you’re brazenly provoking me,” he pointed out. “Would you do that if you thought I was a danger to you?” The question was clearly rhetorical. Aiden had seen the way she’d cowered before Angie Catellini, like a white mouse before a lioness. Even when they’d been arguing heatedly a few minutes ago, Lex hadn’t truly been afraid of him; she had been more afraid of herself.
“I’m not asking for your trust, Lex,” he continued. “I don’t need it and I’m not sure that I even want it. I’m just asking you to use your head. If I wanted you dead, you already would be.”
“So what do you want?” she found the courage to ask.
The vampire smiled at her. “Right now, as you said, I want you.”
Gently, he swept his fingers into her hair, pulling her curls taut as he combed through them. Lex shivered, realizing that he knew very well she had a weakness for that gesture. “You’re really not a nice person.”
“No,” Aiden admitted. “But it doesn’t seem like ‘nice’ worked out too well for you.” He moved closer to her, until his lips grazed her collarbone.
“You either,” she murmured, as she slid her hand down his bare back. His skin was cool and smooth against her fingertips.
“No,” he said again. “So why don’t we both forget about ‘nice’ for a while and concentrate on this.” Then he leaned in and kissed her, not trying to be sweet or careful with her this time.
Alexandra let him devour her mouth as he drew her closer, until she was lying on top of him. And even as her pulse started to race and her blood burned hot in her veins, something inside of her relaxed.
Forget, she thought. Forget…
Part 8
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