by Mary Hughes
“I’m truly sorry. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you. And I think I have a great way to start.”
“I’m listening.”
“A clue to locating Strigorul’s master.”
“The Shadow Lord.” The ultimate cause of all our suffering. Fury burned inside me.
He explained about the torn and dirty shipping label. “I used a UV light at the police lab to fluoresce it. That made the numbers and street clearer.”
“How clear?”
He set me down, dug in his trousers, and came up with his phone, which he manipulated for a moment with lightning thumbs. “I’ve sent you the photograph.” His gaze rose to mine, almost shyly hopeful. “Does this help?”
I checked my own phone, hope rising. The label’s print was clearer, though not much. I read something like “Str. Violet, 8” though I couldn’t tell if that was a comma or a smudged letter. Hope drained.
“Ah. I guess not.” Shoulders slightly drooping, he picked me up and we finished the trip in silence.
We took the back way into Otto’s. Outside Hattie’s room, he set me down.
I didn’t even get to knock. The door opened.
Race stood there, grim, alone.
“You made it. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not. They’re waiting for you. Let’s go.” He came out, shut the door behind him, and brushed by us on his way to the stairwell we’d just come up.
“Wait,” I said. “Where are we going?”
Race scowled back at me. “Luke Steel’s stronghold.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Luke Steel’s stronghold. “Stronghold” set off all sorts of warning bells. Had I screwed up, sending Rey to them? My nerves cranked tight.
“Why are we going to Luke’s?” My jaw clenched. “Is Rey—?”
“She’s fine,” Race said.
“But for how long? Strigorul is tracking Elias.” My tense muscles cranked tighter. “You need to hide them before the Destroyer finds them. Get her out of Meiers Corners—”
“He has found them,” Race said.
Acid dumped into my stomach. “You said she was safe!”
“She is.” He patted the air with placating hands. “They’re in a triply fortified bunker.”
Ryker’s black brows rose. “Then how are we getting in?”
Race slashed a grim smile. “The back way.”
We headed north, yet instead of turning east on Alexis’s street, we continued another two blocks to Lincoln. From there we went east to Seventh, finding ourselves at a large apartment building.
Race led us to the back, where he used a passcode to get us into a small vestibule. Ready for laser beams and retinal scans, I was surprised when we walked into a normal entryway. A large, clean kitchen was to our left and a huge walk-in pantry was straight ahead. To our right, a plain set of wooden steps led down. The stairs opened onto a disappointing, perfectly ordinary basement.
“This is Bo Strongwell’s place,” Race explained as he led us into the dark basement. “He’s the city master. He’s out of town right now.”
Dark? I meant pitch black. Within three steps, I couldn’t see my nose in front of me. I grabbed the back of Ryker’s belt, suffering his chuckle, but better that than face-planting on concrete.
We wound around in a darkness punctuated by the clicks and shoops of doors opening and closing. It was obvious we weren’t in the basement anymore. At one point, Race submitted to an eye scan, the only time there was light.
Finally, we stopped. Knuckles clunked on wood, a precise rhythm, long short-short long, long.
A vertical slit of dim light appeared, widening. The wall split in the middle, panels folding to each side like twin accordions, revealing a shadowy Logan Steel.
“Enkidu.” His fists were on his hips, his face a dark thundercloud. “I was hoping you wouldn’t make it. We’re inside.”
“Lovely. We have information. I’m going by Ryker now, by the way. Who’s ‘we’?” Ryker’s words were roughened by a low growl.
“My brother. His house staff. Our families. Enough armament and poison to neutralize you ten times over.”
Ryker’s answering grimace said you wish. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” He started for the opening.
Steel’s arm shot out, barring him. Ryker’s grimace thinned with annoyance.
I’d have bet money that, despite having died, my king could’ve simply snapped Steel’s barring arm off. For some reason he held himself from doing so.
He said mildly, “What?”
“Let’s get one thing straight.” The gold flecks in Logan’s hazel eyes boiled in tightly reined fury. “You’re getting in, but not because I trust you one inch. Because Elias is safe, because he trusts that woman with him, and because she seems to think you’re worth protecting. And because Elias…” He hesitated.
“Doesn’t recognize any of you?” Ryker arched a challenging brow.
Steel’s own brows lowered, his nostrils flaring like a furious bull. “Don’t push me,” he ripped out.
Ryker ripped in return, “I have information, we’re all in grave danger, and time is ticking. In, or out?”
The two held taut, breathing hard, for a few nasty seconds. I held my own chilled breath.
Then Logan nodded once, sharply, and I released my tension on a sigh. He growled, “Follow my steps, exactly. You’ll want to carry her.”
With my nodded permission, Ryker lifted me off my feet as Race followed Logan into the tunnel. Ryker and I entered last, my arms resting on my king’s muscled shoulders. The doors folded silently closed behind.
Darkness swallowed us. My heart beat faster, my eyes straining fruitlessly to see. My fingers tightened on his sweater.
Two points of red light resolved from the blackness, right by my face. My heart slammed into overdrive.
A moment later my brain caught up. Those were Ryker’s eyes, glowing. My hammering heart slowed.
Sure, I’d seen vamps’ eyes do that, but I’d always been too busy fighting to really study them. The glow stabbed the inky blackness like a flashlight. That’s how they see in the dark. Like a bat’s sonar, only with red light. His pupils were red-hot coals, the irises only slightly cooler. Even the sclerae glowed a bit. I found myself almost envious. Except for the whole burning-in-the-sun and needing-blood deals, the vampire factor did an excellent job adapting its human organism to conquering the night.
A beep-beep caught my attention. Logan’s face was barely visible in the backwash of a keypad’s light. He was popping in a code.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Fancy cyber security system,” Race said.
Ryker drawled, “Let me guess. Poison darts if we had strayed from the path?”
“Gas,” the blond said shortly. “Though even staying on the path wouldn’t have protected you. I have an electronic proximity passcard.” He tapped his pants pocket. “Plus, Luke is on the manual controls of 360-degree lasers.”
Wow. There really were laser beams and retinal scans.
“Nice.” Ryker sounded strangely as if he meant it.
Steel must’ve thought it was odd, too, because he frowned at my king a moment. Shrugging it off, he finished entering the code then dropped his head for a retinal scan.
The door opened to a lit room—and three red-eyed, plated-up vampires pointing assault rifles at us.
When Ryker said the Alliance didn’t like him, I thought that meant they didn’t invite him to potlucks. This was a whole new level of bad blood.
“What the hell?” I’d have jumped down and attacked, but these were supposed to be our friends.
“Oh, for pity’s sake,” Ryker said. “I’m here to help.”
“You only ever help yourself,” the middle vamp snarled, a male with a blond braid. “And it’s not jus
t you I’m aiming at.”
Wait. Blond braid… That bloodsucker was Luke Steel. Sweet swords of fuck. Luke was a vampire. Was his twin, too?
Had my whole family married suckers?
The revelation was so stunning, if my brain had been a bunch of turning cogs, butter knives had jammed into every one, grinding all thoughts to a halt.
It left me unprepared for Luke’s gaze, stabbing me. “You. You took it from us under the guise of friendship.”
“What are you talking about?”
“My wife’s serum. You were going to use it to destroy our leader. You fucking traitor.”
Good grief. Somehow, he’d found out my goal was to destroy the vampire king, which to him and Ryker and practically everyone besides me meant Elias.
I’d barely managed to put that together—when the barrel zeroed in.
On me.
Horror sheared away any rational response. Under me, Ryker gathered himself to run. Though even if he got us out before they opened fire, the deadly passage would kill us. Not to mention the Destroyer was right outside.
There was no way this ended well.
Crap. Tonight was not a good night to die. But my sister was safe. Maybe that was all I got.
Maybe that was all we got, Ryker and I.
“No!” Race jumped between us and the guns, arms spread like shields.
My stomach lurched in surprise. Race? Beneath me, Ryker paused.
Race grabbed Luke’s barrel and pointed it at his own chest. “Kat is my daughter. You try to hurt her, you go through me.”
My heart thumped painfully. My father was protecting me with his life. Just as if I were his real daughter.
Maybe I was. I blinked itchy eyes.
“You go through us.” Hattie pushed through the line of death to stand grimly beside her husband. Despite the accusations I’d hurled at her, she too was defending me.
My heart thumped in growing respect for her.
Before the line closed up, I caught a flash of my sister. Nothing else mattered, at least right then.
She’d seen me too. Anguished, she cried out, “Don’t hurt her! Kat’s my sister.”
“She’s also my sister.” Liese moved into view. “Your sister-in-law, Luke. She’s family.”
My itchy eyes began watering. Damn it, I was not going to cry again. Even if I hadn’t already come around to believing one vampire was different, this solid show of kinship would have swayed me.
“Family doesn’t give each other a shotgun greeting,” Ryker drawled.
“You wouldn’t know,” Luke snarled. “You have agents, not family and friends.”
“Enough,” I bristled. “He’s got reasons for the way he is. Leave him alone. Or better yet, get to know him. He’s not that bad, for a bloodsucker.”
Everyone’s eyes swung to me. Mouths opened, though the only answer was silence.
Prickles of embarrassment broke out on my skin. Now what had I said wrong?
“Lovely compliment,” Ryker murmured. “‘Not that bad.’ Like ‘tremendously adequate’ or ‘could be worse.’”
“You know what I meant,” I grumbled, but he made me feel better.
“Feeble yet awkward.” Liese laughed. “You’re a Stieg, all right.”
From behind us, Logan clipped out, “This isn’t accomplishing anything. As family head, I declare pax.” He cast a worried glance at the far-right corner of the room. “If that’s all right with you, sir.”
As Ryker brought me inside, my bird’s-eye view revealed Elias in that corner—with my sister. She sat in one of a pair of chairs, her face pale and drawn. She was scared.
“Put me down,” I demanded of Ryker.
“Wait.” He’d followed my gaze. “Look at her. Look at him. Look at them.”
My sister leaned against Elias. Drawing comfort from him. And he…
He wasn’t the lost waif I’d seen at the house. He sat forward, bigger somehow, and determined. As if anyone trying to harm one hair on my sister’s head would get one hell of an ass-whooping. And one thing more.
They held hands.
Something weird was going on there, and I didn’t like it.
“Stand down.” Logan pointed at the welcoming committee then at the wall. I gazed around me, taking in the bunker for the first time.
Opposite Rey and Elias in the far-left corner was a businesslike conference table, a wall-mounted whiteboard and monitor making it almost like a boardroom. Except for the rest of the walls, festooned with all manner of weapons. In the front right corner, Liese’s twin boys snoozed inside a playpen while the girls played with dolls nearby. Both Barbsies carried pixie-stick bazookas, which, despite everything, made me smile.
As the trio hung their guns on hooks and un-plated with varying degrees of reluctance, Liese pointed at one of the two strangers, a quick, tiny yet muscular blonde. “That’s Sandy.”
It was a surreal moment. My sister was introducing vampires to me as if that was polite.
Yeah, I’d fallen in love with one. I still had some leftover emotional tapes to erase, of the decades-old variety.
“And Hardison,” Liese went on. The male vampire was broad-shouldered with a cap of tight curls and dark skin. His eyes gleamed with intelligence. He was tall, though not as tall as Ryker. “They’re Luke’s household protectors. Here, take these for your face.” She handed me a couple baby wipes.
I touched my cheek, encountering crusted blood and battle dirt. As I wiped it off, I considered that term, “household protectors.” From my dark web chats, some vampires not only had nests, they ruled other bloodsuckers. Luke Steel must be one.
“Shall we sit?” Logan indicated the table.
Ryker stalked to the end farthest from the door, setting me in the chair there. He took the next seat around, his back to the wall, and folded his hands on the table in front of him, neutral, relaxed.
Logan took a chair mid-table against the wall, mirroring Ryker’s hand position. His wife slid in beside him.
Luke dropped into the seat across from the king with a hard glare. He slapped his hands on the table, flat, ready for action. One was slightly softer, more…human.
Holy halberds. Alexis had tested the needle’s vampire poison on her husband.
The others, with the exception of my sister and Elias, arranged themselves around Luke and Logan, as far from Ryker as possible.
They really did not like my king—with Luke the worst of the bunch.
Ryker, though… He didn’t blush or cower or even get angry in return. No, his gaze on Luke gleamed in a way that I recognized meant trouble.
“So, Steel, if your staff is here, aren’t your humans in danger?”
Luke’s return glare glinted with suppressed fury. “If you cared—which you don’t—the household and shelter have been evacuated. The Adelaide’s Heart protectors are accompanying them to Elias’s Iowa stronghold.”
“Oh? Who did you pick for the shelter?”
“Didn’t your spy network tell you?” Luke shot back.
Alexis put a calming hand over her husband’s. To Ryker, she said, “Daniel and Drusilla.”
“Drusilla joined your household?” In an aside to me, Ryker added, “She was the town’s premiere professional companion.” He shook a skeptical head at Luke. “I’m surprised she would leave such a lucrative and enjoyable field to work for you as what’s virtually a babysitter for humans.”
“She loves it,” he shot back. “And the residents love her, because she has something you don’t—empathy.”
Logan cleared his throat. “As acting head, I declare pax over this meeting.” Sending pointed glares at both his brother and Ryker, Logan deliberately opened his hands on the table, fingers relaxed. Maybe a vampire version of a handshake, symbolizing empty, not-fighting, hands. “Go ahead,” he said to Ryker.<
br />
“I’ve got a lot to tell you,” my king started. “Including what I think has happened to him.” He nodded his black head at Elias. “I need you to fill in some gaps first. What happened before the meeting at Roller-Blayd Hall?”
“He’s playing us,” Luke snarled. “Don’t tell him anything.”
Though his fury was aimed at Ryker, it was so potent and overwhelming it hit us all.
Wow. Such relentless anger, such mistrust. My vampire had been putting up with this for decades? I was beginning to want to smack Luke in the face myself.
“Don’t pool our information, good idea.” Ryker’s sarcasm was acid. “Because the bad guys don’t already have enough of an advantage.”
“It’s all right,” Logan murmured to his twin. “If he doesn’t reciprocate, you can kill him then.” He turned toward us. “A little less than a week ago, a powerful Soul Stealer threatened us. Elias, for his own reasons, couldn’t fight him. Instead, he and another vampire blooded a champion, Aiden Blackthorne, in the ancient rite of Transfiguration.”
Ryker sucked in a breath, telling me that was a big deal. “Voluntarily giving his heart’s blood. Oh, that’s just like my noble brother, isn’t it? Idiot. Even sharing the burden, it would’ve cost him.”
“It did,” Luke snapped.
“The champion Blackthorne couldn’t immediately return Elias’s blood,” Logan went on with a cautioning glance at his twin. “Worse, while still weakened, Elias went into Bargaining Rights with another enemy. The bargaining table was defiled by an ambush.”
“Revolting.” Ryker’s expression was grim. “What happened after was as appalling. I’m amazed he’s even alive.” He glanced at Elias. “That explains why he’s so reduced.”
“It doesn’t explain the…mental effects.” Logan’s eyes cut to Elias, worried.
“He doesn’t recognize us,” Luke said, confusion and pain darkening his voice. “Three hundred years, we’ve been with him. He doesn’t know our names.”
My annoyance with him flipped to sympathy. He’d lashed out at me and Ryker even though we were trying to help, but deep pain drove him.
