Bittersweet Darkness

by Nina Croft

  Ash would hate her for this. But again, did it really matter? In some ways, it would be better that way. He was starting to care for her, the fact that he’d come to her last night when he was in need of respite from his worries, told her that.

  She didn’t know how long she had left, but she certainly wasn’t in a position to offer any man “forever.” Better their growing relationship get cut off now, before Ash got in any deeper and lost her anyway. And at least he wouldn’t have long to hate her.

  Who would have thought that dying could be considered a positive?

  Freeing Tara was the next order of business. Maybe the first thing was to check how good her new security clearance was. As she came out of the restroom, she glanced across at the colonel’s door. It was closed—a sure sign he was in residence.

  She headed back the way they had gone earlier. Last time, the colonel had opened the doors; this time she used her own card and bent her face to the panel for the retinal scan. Each time the doors slid open.

  By the time she hit the lower corridor where Tara’s cell was located, she was a juddering wreck of nerves. Maybe she shouldn’t have risked this—it might only draw attention to her. But she wanted to check she could make it through on her own.

  A guard stood at the door. Faith didn’t recognize him.

  “I wanted to check—is she conscious?”

  “Yes, ma’am”

  She peered through the glass at the front. Tara was huddled in her corner, but she raised her head as though she could sense someone watching her. Did she know who had her imprisoned?

  Faith backed away. “Do you know where her personal effects are?”

  “Down the corridor. In the office on the left.”

  She found the office staffed by another young priest. He seemed unfazed when Faith flashed her ID and asked to see Tara’s things. He handed her a clear plastic bag. It contained Tara’s clothes, a small handbag, a watch, and the pendant Tara had been wearing that night. Faith went through the bag. Was she still trying to find some justification for this, some evidence that Tara was not the innocent, young woman she appeared? But there was nothing. Finally, she picked up the pendant and dangled it from the silver chain. And she realized that was why she had come here. To get this one thing.

  Tara had told her the necklace was a gift from her father. From Ash. Faith glanced up, the priest was immersed in a game of spider solitaire, and she slipped the pendant in her pocket.

  There was nothing here to help her or change her mind about what she had to do and she made her way back upstairs. She headed to the main entrance instead of back to her desk. Guy, her babysitter for the day, sat in the coffee shop across the street. He didn’t acknowledge her as she appeared, but she made her way to where he sat.

  She didn’t want to use her cell phone; she wasn’t sure that it was private anymore. There was a queue in the coffee shop. As she took her place at the back, she sensed Guy come up behind her. She turned and spoke quietly, “Can I borrow your phone?”

  He looked at her for a few seconds, then pulled it out of his pocket and slipped it to her discreetly.

  She took it to the ladies’ room and stood thinking for a moment.

  Who to call? She had three choices. She pulled out her own phone for the numbers and dialed Ash first. Feeling distinctly queasy as she waited for him to answer, she forced herself count the rings. She wasn’t allowed to end the call until it reached twenty and she was sure he wouldn’t answer. But in fact, voice mail kicked in at ten.

  “It’s Faith, call me. It’s urgent. About Tara,” she added the last as she suspected that if it wasn’t about Tara right now, it wouldn’t be urgent to Ash. She couldn’t begin to imagine what it must be like to lose a child. She’d never thought about children of her own. She’d always been too involved in her career.

  No point worrying about what could have been.

  She tried Ryan next. This time praying he would pick up. Because next on her list was Christian Roth, and she so didn’t want to make that call.

  But Ryan picked up almost straightaway. “Guy? Is there a problem?”

  Caller ID must have come up. Ryan sounded sleepy. What was he doing napping in the afternoon?

  “It’s Faith,” she said.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Not really. I need you to get hold of Ash—he’s not answering. Or Christian.”

  “What is it, Faith?”

  “I’ve found Tara.”

  “What? Where?”

  She took a deep breath. This was it—the betrayal of all she had held important in life. “In the cells beneath my office.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’ve just seen her.”

  He was silent for a moment while he processed the information. “Shit, Faith, tell me you didn’t know anything about this.”

  “Does it matter?”

  “I’m guessing it’s going to matter to some people.”

  Yeah, Ash and Christian. Ash would see it as a betrayal, but really, what she was doing now was betraying her own people. Anyway, it was too late to worry about the consequences.

  “So, I’ll deal with that when it happens. But, Ryan, we have to get her out of there. And soon.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “No. But she’s alive.”

  “Shit. Double shit. If she’s hurt, they are going to go mental. Totally fucking mental.” She could hear him breathing on the other end of the phone. “It will be a few hours before Christian can make it—is that a problem? If there’s any risk, we need to go in now.”

  “Go in?”

  “What did you think would happen?”

  “You said Christian had contacts. I thought he’d use them and force them to let her go. She’s being held illegally. There are no charges.”

  “Still trying to play the game by the book?”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they broke the rules first. And there isn’t a book written to cover this situation.”

  In the back of her mind, she’d known it would come to this. She forced her doubts aside. “I think she’ll be fine for tonight. She’s not scheduled to be questioned again until morning.”

  “Questioned?”

  “They’re hurting her Ryan. They’re supposed to be the good guys, and they’re hurting her, and I had to stand there and pretend I was okay with that.”

  “Shit,” he said again. “Can you stick around?”

  “Of course. But don’t contact me—my office phone is monitored, and I’m guessing my cell is as well.”

  “When we’re in place, we’ll ring your office line three times and cut off. When you hear that, come to the outer entrance.”

  “Okay.”

  “Faith, did you set this up? Did you know they were going to take her?”

  “No.”

  “God, I hope that will be enough.”

  Enough for what, she wondered. To ensure Ash or Christian wouldn’t hold her responsible and…she cut off the thought. What was the point in worrying? She’d set this in motion, there was no way to stop it now, even if she wanted to.

  She went back through, handed the cell phone to Guy, and took her place in the queue. She bought a double-strength, double-sized mocha latte, and without speaking to Guy, left the café and headed back to her office.

  She held up the coffee to the security guard. “I needed a fix, and I’m guessing my extra clearance lets me take this in.”

  He nodded and checked her through.

  At her desk, she tried to appear as though she was engrossed in the background files for Christian, but the words on the screen didn’t make sense. She stared at it blankly and sipped her coffee.

  At six, the colonel came out of his office and headed over. “You still here? You should go home, Faith, you’ve had a rough few days.”

  “I want to read these files first. Think up some questions for the interrogation tomorrow.”

  He nodded. “I’m working late myself, so if there’s an
ything you need, anything you want to talk about… I know the way we work is different from what you’re used to—it’s good to see you adapting.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  After he went back to his office, Faith resumed her staring. The minutes dragged by. She tried to keep her mind blank; she didn’t want to think about anything. Not Tara, not the fact that she was dying.

  Or how much Ash was going to hate her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Anything?” Ash asked.

  Shera, his assistant and right-hand woman—or cat depending on her current physical form—shook her head.

  “Bastard, he promised to get back to me.”

  Panic clawed at his gut. It had been forty-eight hours and there was no trace of Tara. He knew she was alive, and he knew she was hurting, but he couldn’t get a fix on where she was.

  But they must know they had the wrong woman by now, so why hadn’t they released her. Or offered to trade her…or anything.

  He’d even gone to Lucifer, although he really didn’t want to owe him for any more favors. Lucifer had said he would see what he could find and get back to him. But so far nothing.

  It was driving him crazy.

  He ran hand through his hair. He didn’t know what to do, and the feeling was so new he felt disorientated.

  He wished he could go and see Faith. Hold her for a short while. Everything seemed better when he was with her. After this was over, and they had Tara back, he was going to find out exactly how good she could make him feel.

  The thought surprised him. Not that he desired her, but that he wanted to spend time with her, hold her, let her comfort him. He hadn’t felt that way about anyone except Lily.

  But he wouldn’t worry about that until his daughter was safe.

  “Christian will be waking,” he said. “I need to go, but contact me if you hear anything from anyone.”

  “Will do, boss.”

  He opened the portal that brought him to the alley at the back of the CR building. The sun was setting and the alley in shadows. As soon as he stepped through, his cell rang. He pulled it out and answered.

  “Ryan? What is it? Have you found anything?”

  “I might have. Where are you?”

  “Coming into the building, now.”

  “Well, meet us in Christian’s office.

  “I’ll be there.”

  Ryan sounded cagey but with a sharp edge of excitement in his voice. What did he have?

  Ash hurried through the building. He took the stairs to the thirteenth floor and entered the office without knocking. Christian stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out at the city below. He turned as Ash entered and he looked terrible—barely human. His whole figure radiated a ferocious tension, his eyes black, his face shadowed, lips curled in a perpetual sneer.

  They were going to have real problems if they didn’t get her back soon. If they didn’t get her back at all, they needed Piers—he was the only one who might be able to control the other vampire.

  But Piers had kept to his word and they’d heard nothing from him, had no clue where he had taken Roz.

  “Anything?” Christian asked.

  “Nothing. But Ryan called me—he said he might have news.”

  Christian’s hands balled into fists at his side and he smashed one into the concrete wall.

  Had Ash been like this when he’d lost Lily? He couldn’t remember—it was as if the time was enshrouded in a black cloud. It had been years before he’d been able to control his grief and rage. When he had, his first thoughts had been of revenge. Revenge against this man.

  At that moment, the door opened and Ryan entered followed by Carl and a rather frail-appearing old man behind him. Of course, the appearance was deceptive; this was Jonas, the Order’s most powerful warlock.

  “Faith has found her,” Ryan said without any preliminaries.

  For a second, the words didn’t make sense. How the hell could Faith have found her?

  Christian stepped forward. “Where?”

  “She’s being held in the cells below MI13.”

  Ash turned away trying to make sense of the information. MI13 had been investigating Christian. Had they taken Tara as part of that investigation—to find out more about the vampire?

  Faith worked for MI13.

  Tara had been taken after meeting with Faith.

  He didn’t want to follow the thought to its obvious conclusion.

  “She knew?” he asked Ryan.

  Ryan didn’t ask who he referred to. He appeared uncomfortable and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Does it matter? She’s helping us now.”

  Hell, yes it mattered. Last night, she’d held him in her arms. She’d come apart for him. Had she known all the while? Had she been responsible for them taking his daughter?

  Darkness rose up inside him, and the room dimmed as he saw through a veil of crimson.

  “Ash, get a fucking grip,” Ryan snarled. “We need to work out how to do this and you going into some demonic rage is not going to help.”

  Ash forced himself to concentrate on the words. Ryan was right. Tara was the important one right now. He would deal with Faith later.

  “So we go in there and get her,” Christian said.

  “Faith is waiting for me to call.”

  “Could it be a trap? Is she setting us up? Did she set Tara up?”

  “No.” Ryan ran a hand through his hair. “At least, I don’t think so.”

  “You don’t fucking think so?” Ash snarled. “Well, you’d better make up your mind.”

  “You don’t understand. Faith has always seen everything as black and white, good and bad. If her new employers persuaded her you fell on the side of the bad, then…” He shrugged. “I don’t know. But she sounded shocked. She didn’t like what they were doing.”

  Christian had been pacing the room; now he went still, his body quivering with pent-up tension. “What are they doing?” His voice was soft and cold and deadly.

  Ryan swallowed visibly. “Faith didn’t say but I’m guessing Tara has been tortured.”

  A low growl filled the room. Ash felt the darkness building inside him again and forced it down.

  Ryan didn’t back away and didn’t run for cover—the man had balls. “She’s alive,” he said. “Hold on to that. Get her out and…I don’t know, but remember, we wouldn’t know where Tara was if Faith hadn’t told us. She’s going against everything she believes in.”

  “If she’s not setting us up,” Ash said, “I vote we go in cold, don’t call her.”

  “I agree,” Christian said. “I don’t trust her. We can do this ourselves.”

  Ryan didn’t appear happy but he nodded. “Okay. We’d been researching the place anyway, ever since Faith told us about it. We have plans for the building and check points. At least it’s underground so we don’t have to worry about noise, but security is top of the range, palm prints, retinal scans—”

  “Won’t be a problem if we rip their fucking heads off.”

  “And the place is warded,” Ash added and everyone turned to look at him. “It has to be. I can’t feel her. She’s my blood. If she were in a simple cell, I’d sense where she was.”

  “We’d already come to that conclusion,” Ryan said. “That’s why Jonas is here.”

  “He’s going in with us?”

  The warlock nodded. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  “So how many?”

  “I think me, Christian and Carl. Jonas as well, but he keeps out of the fighting.”

  “And me,” Ryan said.

  “No. You’re human. You get shot and you die. You can drive the vehicle.”

  Ryan seemed about to argue, then nodded. “Okay.”

  “When do we go?” Carl asked.

  Ash glanced outside. The night was fully dark. He didn’t want to wait.

  “Now.”

  …

  Faith glared at the phone willing it to ring.

  Nothing.


  It was after eleven at night. The place was deserted apart from the security guards and the colonel who she presumed was still in his office, though she hadn’t seen him in hours.

  Where the hell was Ryan?

  She still hadn’t eaten. Nothing since the small amount of Chinese she’d managed to force down last night, and she was starting to feel light-headed. But she knew she wouldn’t be able to eat anything and keep it down.

  Ring.

  A sound from above made her glance up. Gunfire? She got to her feet as the colonel’s door was flung open from inside. He came out, his pistol held loosely in his right hand. But he didn’t seem panicked.

  “We have a security breach. I’ve sent a team to investigate. They—” His words were cut off as he stared at something behind her.

  She turned slowly.

  Christian Roth stood in the open doorway. He held what looked like an automatic rifle in one hand and a…her eyes refused to take in and comprehend what he was holding in his other hand. She swallowed. A severed head? As she watched, he tossed it across the floor and it rolled to a halt a foot from where she stood.

  A shot rang out. It appeared to hit Christian squarely in the chest, but he didn’t even flinch. Just aimed his rifle at a spot behind her and let out a burst of bullets. The colonel fell to the floor with a crash, but a groan showed he was still alive.

  She braced herself for the bite of bullets. They hadn’t called. She knew what that meant. They didn’t trust her. It came as no surprise, but all the same, an ache started in her heart.

  Christian lowered the weapon, and she breathed again. He strode into the room as Ash and Carl appeared behind him.

  Ash was all bad-ass black leather, a gun in his hand, but no severed head. His gaze skimmed right over her as though she wasn’t even there.

  She forced herself to stand upright.

  Carl came toward her. He didn’t speak and his face was expressionless, though she thought she saw a glint of compassion in his eyes. He felt sorry for her and that couldn’t be good. He held up a pair of handcuffs and gestured for her to turn. She peeked at Ash, but he was staring the other way. She shuffled around and put her hands behind her back, felt the coldness of the steel against her wrists, heard the click as they locked in place.