by L. J. Red
Jacob did not seem reassured, but his expression smoothed out and he nodded, gesturing for them to continue walking. Rune felt his frown pulling at the scar on his brow. He didn’t think he’d done a good job of reassuring Jacob. Perhaps Brigit would have some insight, he thought as he pushed open the door to the dining room and his eyes unerringly found hers.
She looked up from where she had been talking to Dana and the smile that lit up her face lifted his spirits and filled him with light. He turned to Jacob, seeing his friend for once wearing a smile, though one tinged with a little sadness. “Go to her my friend,” he said. “I know you wish to.” Jacob turned to leave, and Rune saw his eyes pass over his shoulder and fasten on one of the ten vampires they had rescued. The tiny one, the one he recognized as Brigit’s friend. The young woman that had been kidnapped the night Rune met his soulmate. Jacob’s eyes focused, the flash of blue intense.
Rune frowned. Wait. Could it be? Could Jacob have found his—
“Rune!” Brigit exclaimed and launched herself at him, her arms twining around his neck and her lips landing on his. Rune forgot Jacob, forgot the room, forgot everything but the feel of Brigit against him.
“Miss me?” she asked once they broke apart, her eyes full of mischief.
“Yes,” he said seriously. “Always.”
Her grin turned into something warmer, something gentler, and she ran her hand through his hair, winding one of his braids around her finger. “You know, I was starving a minute ago, but now you’re here, I find I’m hungry for something a little,”—she ran her eyes down his body—“different.”
He drew her in once more, wrapping his entire body around her and kissing her deeply, hungrily, letting her know exactly how much he wanted her. This time she was breathless when they parted, her eyes shining. “Oh yeah, we’re getting out of here right fucking now.”
“As you wish,” he said, his lips close to her ear. Food would have to wait. He had a different hunger to sate.
Chapter 7
Sparrow bemusedly watched Brigit and the hulking vampire warrior she spent most of her time with walk quickly to the door. She guessed they weren’t hungry then.
“Where’s the fire?” one of the Shadows called from behind them, and Sparrow saw Brigit flush red to the tips of her ears, not that she slowed up any, and they were gone before she could blink.
“Don’t tease them, Talon,” Eden said, and Sparrow flicked her gaze back to where he was reaching out to snare Eden as she passed, tugging her in for a kiss. “Uh-uh.” She shook her head, pulling back. “I don’t skip meals.” She grinned, showing fangs, as she danced out of Talon’s reach. His dark eyes watched her go and Sparrow shivered at the possessive light within them. What must it be like to have someone look at her like that? Eden had to have an iron will to walk away from him.
Sparrow slipped a bread roll into her pocket. She still couldn’t get used to the fact that all this food was there for them. A seemingly unlimited supply of meats, bread, vegetables, fruit, and even sweet desserts over on one corner of the room. They had everything from fried snacks to health food.
She was so used to the constant pangs of hunger in the hollow of her stomach she couldn’t quite trust that all this food wasn’t going to be snatched away. Ingrained habits were hard to break. Her fingers crept toward a shiny red apple, but one of the vampire guards stepped close to her chair on his way to the sideboard and she snapped her hand back and tried to hide what she had been doing. At least she had the bread roll.
She looked up from behind her long bangs to see if anyone had noticed, but the other vampires and humans were distracted getting their meals or talking in loose groups; no one had their eyes on her.
Wait, that wasn’t quite right. One person did. Jacob’s blue eyes were resting on her. She jerked straight and tried to control the urge to duck underneath the table to get away from his piercing blues. Had he seen her? Shit, was he angry? What must he think of her sneaking food away from the table like some kind of wild thing? She tore her eyes off him, tried to act cool. She wasn’t the only one to have unusual food habits, she realized, catching sight of one of the rescued vampires with his elbows planted on the table and his hand curled protectively around his plate, ready to snatch it away should anyone try to take his food from him. They’d been kidnapped right off the streets. Very few of them had anything like a normal upbringing, and she knew deprivation had made its mark on them even before HUNT had decided to traumatize them further.
Dana was sitting on her right, making some effort to talk to Alex and another vamp, but she could see they found her intimidating. Hell, Sparrow found her intimidating and she’d known Dana much longer. It seemed obvious to Sparrow that the rescued vamps weren’t fitting in. Too awkward, too isolated.
The Shadows themselves were spread out in the room. Looking around, Sparrow realized the placement wasn’t random. Between them, they had every exit, every door, every window covered, and while some of them sprawled in a deceptively relaxed position on their chairs or leaned against the wall, their shoulders loose, their long, lean bodies were ready to spring forward at a moment’s notice. Their eyes flitted constantly over the room. They were aware of everyone’s movement, even if they didn’t seem to be watching. A warrior’s tension ran through them. She wondered if they ever really relaxed, or if they were always ready and waiting for the next threat.
She knew what it was like to constantly be on edge, looking out for trouble, but they seemed to do it instinctively, like it wasn’t a source of anxiety. For her, especially after the kidnapping, she felt like she could never really relax. She was always carrying a frantic, tense kind of awareness, a nervous paranoia she wished would go away. She rolled her shoulders, trying to loosen them out. She wished there was someone she could speak to. Someone she could rely on. She wished she could know, just for a day, an hour—hell, just for a minute—that someone had her back.
Without meaning to, her gaze was dragged back to Jacob. He was the only one of the vampires standing alone, half cloaked in shadows.
The other vampires and vassals in the room didn’t seem to notice him at all. They walked past his hiding place without a flicker of awareness. Sparrow couldn’t understand it. She saw him clearly. Could barely drag her eyes away. The long, lean line of his body, the dark jeans, dark jacket. Everything matte and black, no shine, no glint to catch the light. Only those pure blue eyes that… shit… that were watching her again. Had he seen her checking him out? Not that she was checking him out, because she wasn’t, she was just… just looking in the direction of his body. Right.
She turned right around, her elbow knocking into Dana’s beside her.
“Oops,” Dana almost dropped her glass, catching it at the last second and righting it. “You ok there?” she asked, putting it down and resting her hand on Sparrow’s arm. Sparrow twitched at the unexpected touch.
Dana caught the flinch and hurt flashed through her eyes. She pulled back her hand.
Sparrow felt a moment’s remorse; she hadn’t meant to turn Dana away. Dana was one of the few people she knew here other than Brigit, who had already hightailed it with Rune. But Dana didn’t turn away from her. She merely reached out and picked up a plate, handing it over to Sparrow. “You’re as thin as anything,” she said. “You need to eat. What can I tempt you with?” She pointed at the roast chicken in the center of the table and Sparrow nodded quickly.
“Yes, thank you,” she said. She had intended to take a little food and steal off to a quiet corner but she didn’t know how to refuse Dana’s kind offer.
“Here you go,” Dana said, handing her the plate now loaded up with chicken and potatoes and veg. “It’s pretty good,” she said. “May said the cook was trying out a new recipe. It’s definitely a winner.” She grinned and Sparrow caught a hint of fang behind her lips. She wondered if Dana supplemented her food diet with blood. It wasn’t a question she felt comfortable asking. She certainly had no desire to start drinking any more blo
od than the minimum required amount Dr. Patil had recommended she take. It was unspeakably awkward drinking from the vassals that came into the infirmary under Dr. Patil’s concerned and watchful eyes. Sparrow was glad she only needed to do it once a month. In the meantime, she would gladly stock up on normal food instead.
“How are the others doing?” Dana asked after a moment. Sparrow glanced sidelong at Dana, then out to where Dana was looking, at the other rescued vampires. “I noticed you’ve been making an effort to check in on them,” Dana continued. “It’s really good of you. I’m glad you feel like you can rely on each other.”
Sparrow swallowed a sigh. She wished that were the case. Instead, the ten of them didn’t know how to speak to each other, or anyone really. Either they retreated into themselves or a handful turned it outward, uncaring, as if they’d erased what had happened from their memories and were left with only the worst parts of themselves. Her gaze went to the far side of the table, where one of the rescued, a tall blonde woman was currently picking at her plate. It was like something was lying between them and the rest of the world: a pale, filmy gauze that wrapped them up, bound them tight, and they didn’t know how to break through. Sparrow had tried, but even conversations with her petered out into empty stares and the slow flicker of memories.
“I bet you’re going stir-crazy,” Dana said.
Sparrow glanced up at her through her bangs. “Stir-crazy?”
Dana turned a knowing glance on her. “Sparrow, I’ve known you for a long time. You’ve never been one to stay in one place. Unless you were forced to.” Her expression turned regretful. “I don’t want you to feel that you’re forced to stay here. It’s just, with the court case, we can’t risk anyone getting to you; you’re safer here in the Sanctuary.”
“No, I understand,” Sparrow said.
“There have been some new developments with the case.”
“Developments?” Sparrow asked nervously, tension skittering across her skin. “I don’t have to see them, do I?” She wasn’t sure her nerves could stand up to being confronted by the men who had hurt her.
“No,” Dana replied. “Well…” She twisted her mouth. “Eventually, in the courtroom, yeah. But not for a while yet. We’ll just be speaking to the lawyers first.” She reached out slowly and rested her hand on top of Sparrow’s. Sparrow managed to keep still. Dana’s hand was warm, not what she had expected from a vampire. “Depositions start soon, not much more than witness statements. You’ll be fine.”
“But I already gave you my witness statement,” Sparrow said, pulling her hand away from under Dana’s.
“I know, Sparrow,” she said, “but I’m not a lawyer, I’m just a cop. I’m sorry to have to ask you to do it again, but the lawyers want to go over certain questions that might come up when it eventually goes to court.”
“Is it just me?” Sparrow asked, spirits sinking.
“No,” Dana said. “All of you will be questioned, but you mentioned that Cleaver spoke to you directly during your captivity.”
Sparrow nodded her head and tried to shove the ugly memories down. “Yes, I mean, he wore a mask though.”
“That’s okay,” Dana said. “Anything you can tell us will help to pin him down. We’ll prove it was him running the show. Your testimony is our best shot at catching him.”
Sparrow wanted to make sure HUNT paid for what they’d done, and Cleaver had masterminded the entire thing. He needed to be stopped before he did anything worse. “But what about R-Roman?” Sparrow stumbled on his name. The mad vampire who had turned them and left them to be tortured.
Dana’s face darkened, her eyes looking almost black with anger. Sparrow tensed. “Roman will never be caught by human authority,” Dana said sadly. “A different kind of justice will come for him,” she swore. Her eyes left Sparrow’s, her gaze going across the table to Lucian, sitting opposite her. He broke off from his low conversation with the vampire on his right and caught Dana’s eyes as if he had sensed her looking at him. Sparrow felt some wordless message pass between them and she shivered at the look in Lucian’s eyes. The leader of the Shadows was a force to be reckoned with. Sparrow hunched down, making herself small. She felt a flicker deep inside the back of her mind. A flash of white. Her gaze sharpened on Lucian’s face. A flash of hate. Her breath caught. What the hell? Where did that come from? She didn’t hate Lucian. And yet, there it was again.
There was a fogginess to her thoughts. Another flicker of anger, then a nauseous roll of sick and consuming hatred that went right through her belly. Her gaze tripped from Lucian to Neal to each of the Shadows in the room. It flared, icy and hard, as she rested her eyes on each one, her gaze moving across the room, the pressure building in her head until she reached Jacob. Jacob. Her emotions shifted, pulled in two, stretching, like she was fighting herself, fighting… something. The hatred splintered. Cracked, jagged shards sliced into her as they fell away. She gasped in a breath and held it. Jacob’s eyes seemed to burn away the white fog, and deep within her core she felt desire reach long tendrils through her body, warming her, waking her back up. She exhaled roughly. It was too much. These feelings inside her, the change from hatred to desire too fast, she felt like she had whiplash. She pushed away from the table.
“Are you going?” Dana asked, concerned. There was still food left on her plate and Sparrow hated to waste it, but she needed to get away from here. “Yeah, I-I gotta…”
She stumbled away from the table and out into the hallway. Her vision flickered again, her gaze flashing white, focus sharpening and blurring. She felt like she was on drugs. The bad kind, the kind HUNT had dosed her up with. She was standing by the dining room, then a blink and she was halfway down the hall. The fuck was happening? Suddenly she was at the stairs, her legs moving her forward without thought, drawn on by a power she didn’t understand. A searching, angry, nauseating desire to find… to find something… to find what? Her mind flickered back and she remembered Lucian’s face. Hatred again. Lucian’s secrets… find his secrets… his office… upstairs.
The strange urge pushed her forward, dragging her against her will, moving jerkily like a puppet through the Sanctuary rooms toward the private upper floors. Sparrow’s thoughts flickered in and out, every second erased by the one following it. She’d been in the dining room, hadn’t she? For a moment she thought she saw a figure, pale, with long fingers and sharp claws, standing right before her. She jerked backward, stumbling, almost tripping, and then slammed into a hard body.
“What are you doing here?” She felt broad palms on her shoulders, spinning her around. Her vision cleared; the white burned away, receding quickly like morning fog under the sun. Jacob’s piercing eyes were on her, his grip on her arms firm. She couldn’t get her thoughts in order. She didn’t know what she was doing here. Where was she? Her mind was a blank from leaving the dining room to suddenly being here. And Jacob’s hands on her weren’t helping her get her thoughts straight. She felt pinned by his attention. Like if he pressed in any closer her entire body would burn up. Shifting, echoing desire grew from the base of her spine and up through her body. She was a live wire, electric, and his hands were the only thing keeping her grounded.
“Sparrow?” The sound of her name in his mouth was painfully erotic. She wanted to hear it again. She swayed toward him. His eyes flared with something like lust, something so dark and deep she could drown in it.
Fuck. What was happening? What was she doing? This was all new to her; she’d never felt like this for anyone. She’d been so busy surviving she’d never let anyone get close, never been able to let anyone in, not friends, not lovers. It was too much. All of it, too much. She pulled back.
“Let me go,” she whispered, not sure if he would listen, but Jacob seemed to come back to himself, as if he had forgotten he was holding her. His hands fell away, but instead of feeling freed up Sparrow only felt the loss of him.
She took a big step backward and tried to get hold of her thoughts. She could feel tears t
hreatening to spill. It was all too much. This violent seesawing of emotions. The way Jacob was looking at her, like his eyes could carve straight through into the deep core of her soul and see everything. She felt laid bare in front of him. And what killed her was that he didn’t seem to be affected at all. His body was tense, his expression so still it could have been carved from stone. She must have imagined the emotion she’d seen. There was nothing there now, while she was a sorry mess.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, and took another step back, flinching away when he reached for her. She couldn’t let him touch her again. She couldn’t let him scramble her thoughts. It wasn’t fair that he had that effect on her. She had to put some distance between them, and without any explanation, without giving herself a chance to waver, she turned and walked away from him as fast as she could.
Chapter 8
Roman snarled in frustration, turning away from the window. That fucking Shadow had broken his concentration. He’d almost had her. Almost got his claws deep into his little Radiance fledgling, guiding her where he wanted her, deeper into the Sanctuary, ready to see all its secrets, to crash Lucian’s fucking plans open in front of him. Then that fucking Shadow had turned up and ruined everything.
He kicked out at a chair. It flew across the room and smashed into splinters, pieces of wood landing in the dust that coated every surface. He strode across the room, leaving footprints, whirling eddies of dust in his wake. Roman strode through the building, what had once been the heart of Radiance territory and was now just an empty shell. Dust mingled with ash blown down from the upper room where he had destroyed the vampires he had once led.
Perhaps he should do the same to the last ten vampires he had handed over to HUNT, he thought. He had always intended them to die like the rest, their souls trapped in the bonds of his power, giving him strength, making him the greatest vampire ever to live. He grinned at the empty halls, his eyes unseeing, turned inwards, stroking mental fingers over the trapped vampire souls whose bodies he had destroyed, but whose power lived on in him. Their muted screams were like music.
