The shock was so thick in the air that Damon could hardly breathe. He felt blindly for Alexia, desperate to make sure she was still breathing herself.
As if to prove his fears were unfounded, Alexia spoke again, though she almost seemed not to have heard what Eirene had just told them.
“Michael found out about the first experiment,” she said in a dazed voice. “Now it all makes sense. He managed to hide his knowledge so well that Aegis sent him in with me, even though his first partner had died under similar circumstances. He was supposed to leave me alone with Damon, but he had his own plans. He wanted to sabotage the second experiment, because he—” She nearly choked, and Damon reached out to steady her. His hand closed on empty air.
“He wasn’t the only one who didn’t want the experiment to succeed,” Sergius said, filling the unbearable silence. “The Expansionists also learned of it and determined to stop it by killing you and Damon. After all, were you to build the bridge Theron mentioned—” he nodded toward his former mentor “—it would scarcely benefit those who wanted war.”
“And Michael wanted war, as well,” Alexia said, her voice growing stronger, “no matter whom he destroyed in the process. He led the assassins to us. Lysander was one of them, and Michael made a deal that he’d deliver my patch to him as long as he and his men didn’t kill me. It all went as Michael planned, and he took my patch. But other operatives, presumably from the Council, killed two of the assassins before they could finish Damon off, and Michael fled.”
She met Damon’s gaze with a steadiness that surprised and humbled him. “Later, Lysander killed the Council operatives—the ones we found—and Michael came back to us with the intention of murdering you. By then, he’d already sent the message to Aegis. He knew the colony was the other new hope for peace, and summoning the strike force would wipe that out, as well.”
“How did he learn the true nature of the colony?” Damon asked, resisting his desire to sweep Alexia into his arms and carry her to that place out of time they had once—oh, so briefly—found together.
“I told Lysander, of course,” Sergius said, “and he must have told Carter. How well it would have worked if he had not underestimated you, Agent Fox.”
“And Damon,” Alexia added, lifting her chin. “And Theron, and the colonists.”
“And the Lamiae,” Damon said. “Was that what made Michael decide to help us, Alexia? Changing into one of them?”
“He recorded his message to me before he became an Orlok,” she said. “At the time, he was fully committed to his course and wanted me to understand why he’d done it. But yes, something happened to him when he changed. Something that made him realize what a terrible mistake he’d made and inspired him to fix it in any way he could.”
“If he hadn’t,” Eirene said, “if Lamiae really were the monsters we always believed them to be, we wouldn’t be standing here now.” She met Alexia’s gaze. “What became of your patch?”
“We don’t know,” Alexia said, glancing at Damon. “We thought it might have been brought here, to the colony. But we realized soon enough that it couldn’t have been, and Sergius confirmed it. I’m sure Lysander thought they could gain some benefit out of the patch, maybe sell it to the Expansionists. But since it seems to have disappeared, we’ll never know.” She smiled. “And now that we’re all such good friends, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
“You’re going to need a new patch,” Damon said.
“I should thing that the Enclave would be willing to provide you with one,” Eirene said.
“Agent Fox—” McAllister began, clearing his throat.
“Director McAllister,” she said, swinging around to face the older man. “What about you? What could have possessed you to send a strike force based on one agent’s word?”
The man had the grace to look ashamed. “I was not told about this so-called experiment,” he said, “and I was not informed about the deployment of the strike force until they had already left San Francisco. Certain members of the Enclave government acted without the approval of the Mayor or Congress. I was fortunate to learn what was happening before—”
He broke off, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “The important thing is that a new war has been avoided, and we have begun talks to determine how this came about and what to do if something similar happens in the future.”
“And will I and Damon be part of these talks?” Alexia asked bitterly. “We did what Aegis wanted, didn’t we?”
“I know how much you sacrificed, Agent Fox, and if I had realized...” He folded his hands nervously across his groin. “It will not be forgotten, I assure you.”
“Sacrifice?” Damon said, baring his teeth. “Your Enclave had no right.” He walked away from Alexia and Theron, striding toward McAllister with fists clenched and head down.
“Damon!” Alexia cried, running to catch up with him. “Don’t you see? No matter what we had to go through, we proved something important. Darketans and dhampires can work together. They can care for each other. And someone like you can become more than a Nightsider or a Lamia.
“You can see things from the middle no one on either side can imagine. What you have, the ability to truly feel, is a gift.” She glanced at Theron. “The colonists have proved that humans and Nightsiders can live side by side in harmony. Isn’t that worth any sacrifice?”
Damon stopped, intensely aware of Alexia behind him, of Eirene and Sergius, of the Opiri and humans and Lamiae on every side.
Alexia was right. She had always been able to see things more clearly than he could. And it wasn’t only hope for a lasting peace she gave him now, but hope for himself. Hope that he could become what Alexia believed he could be. Hope that her faith in him would let him accept what he wanted so desperately to give her.
Abruptly he turned and took her arm. “If you will excuse us,” he growled, “Alexia and I have something to discuss. Privately.”
Striding past McAllister and the humans around him, he led Alexia back along the wall until he was certain not even the Opiri could hear them. Then he swung her to face him, trapping her face between his hands. “Alexia, I—”
She gazed up at him, lips parted, eyes shining with tears. He realized that it was fear he saw in them, felt in the trembling of her body.
Fear of him. All those brave words she had spoken. They had been said for the benefit of her audience, not for him.
He dropped his hands. “I’m sorry, Alexia,” he said. “If I had known what they were trying to do, what they made me a part of—”
“I know,” she said with such overwhelming sadness that Damon felt his own eyes grow moist. “I’m sorry, too, Damon. You suffered so much. And all this time Eirene was alive. She was the one who saved me, who gave me the gift that helped us both survive.”
Her blood signature. The most devastating revelation of all, that Damon had been drawn to Alexia—come to care for her—because he had sensed Eirene all along.
“I’m glad for you, Damon,” Alexia said, her lips trembling in a smile. “For you and Eirene. After all this, I know they won’t keep you apart again. You can be free. Really free.”
Damon swallowed hard. “Is that what you want, Alexia?” he asked.
She took his hand. “I want you to be happy. You loved Eirene, even if you couldn’t admit it at the time. And she loves you. It was always her. I should have known—”
Her voice broke, and her knees began to buckle. Damon bent to catch her and lifted her to face him again.
“Should have known what?” he asked. “That I couldn’t care for you unless your blood carried Eirene’s blood signature?”
“Not only that. They starved you, Damon. They took advantage of everything you are to make you turn to me. It was your own strength that kept you from hurting me, not anything I did or didn’t do. It was only natural, when we took each other’s blood—”
“Natural?” Damon’s anger roughened his voice, but he couldn’t hold it back. “Are you saying tha
t what we feel for each other can’t be real?”
“What I feel doesn’t matter. Eirene—”
“Eirene was my salvation a long time ago. Yes, I loved her. But she knows that’s over, Alexia.” He cupped her cheek in his hand. “The first time we spoke in the caves, she knew I loved you.”
Her gaze met his. “What?”
“I love you.” He tried to smile. “You put me through Human Hell just to get me to say those words. And I won’t forgive you for it. I mean to make you pay for the rest of your life.”
“Damon—” She searched his eyes. “Do you mean—”
“I mean that I can’t live without you. I mean that you’re the most remarkable woman of either species I’ve ever met.” He kissed her chin. “They said I can see from the middle. But I can’t, Alexia. Not without you.”
“You’re wrong, Damon,” Alexia said, still refusing to believe him. “You’re more than just a symbol of peace. You can’t just forget what you represent to all of us.”
“A symbol doesn’t feel what I feel for you,” he said, kissing the side of her mouth. “It wasn’t the blood signature, and it wasn’t starvation that made me love you. That would never have been enough. It may have brought us together, but no one can force someone to love.”
He kissed Alexia lightly on the lips, but he felt her holding back. She was afraid. Afraid that he was giving her what she wanted without regard for his own wishes.
“What can I do to prove myself to you?” he asked, stroking her cheeks with his fingertips. “I’d love you even if you became a Lamia, you little fool.”
Suddenly she burst into laughter. “I...I know what they’ve done for us,” she said, catching her breath, “but I’d rather stay just as I am, if you don’t mind.”
“Whatever you are, wherever you go, I’ll be with you. No matter what happens from now on, whatever agreement the Enclave and Erebus reach with or without our help, we won’t be parted again. We’ll do whatever we can to convince them that the peace has to be maintained.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “Maybe there’ll be a lot more work to do. But we’ll do it together.”
“I don’t know...Damon,” she whispered. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“Then believe this,” he said. And he showed her with his mouth and his body and his heart until every last barrier fell and she was in his arms, loving him, his for all time. Together they watched the dawning of a new day.
And a love that could never die.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Claimed by the Immortal by Rachel Lee
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Chapter 1
Police sergeant Carolyn Hamilton stared at her captain with utter disbelief. He was a large man with one of those Irish mugs that seemed to perpetually smile, even when it was totally inappropriate to. Like now. “I’m suspended?”
“Not suspended. Indefinite medical leave, Caro.”
“I’m fine! There’s nothing wrong with me.”
“Except for seeing things that are impossible.”
She glared at him, grinding her teeth. Captain Malloy was usually a good boss. Until today she had even liked him. “I saw what I saw.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it,” he said kindly. “Men don’t get lifted into the air and impaled on the horns of a stuffed elk head by invisible forces. Just doesn’t happen.”
“I saw it happen. You explain how he got there.”
Malloy shook his head. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out. In the meantime, you were involved in a shoot-out last week and that can have unpredictable effects. Delayed shock, that sort of thing.”
“Captain...”
But he shook his head sternly. “Take the time, Caro. I don’t want anything to keep you from getting promoted to detective next month.”
That effectively silenced her, although it didn’t prevent her from grinding her teeth some more. She’d worked hard for that promotion. If he was going to hold that over her head, she’d better do as told.
But she didn’t have to like it.
At least he didn’t ask for her badge and her service pistol. She grabbed a few things from her desk, then headed over to Robbery-Homicide to talk to her friend and mentor, Detective Pat Matthews.
“I’m out of here,” she told Pat, a striking woman in her forties with short, steely hair and equally steely eyes.
“Not suspension?”
“Medical leave. Indefinite.”
Pat waved a hand as if to reassure her. “After that shooting last week...”
“Pat, I never even had to draw my gun.”
“That’s not the point. You go running around here talking about that guy being impaled, your credibility will be shot. Understand? So you’re going to take this leave with all the grace you can muster, and you can probably come back in a week or so if you just don’t talk about this anymore.”
“I know what I saw.”
Pat’s eyes softened a shade. “I believe you. I believe that you saw it. I believe you didn’t imagine it. But we’re cops, Caro. We don’t handle that kind of stuff, not as part of our jobs and not as part of our worldview. You need to stop talking about it.”
“Great. I see a guy murdered and have to shut up about how it happened.”
“Only around here,” Pat said. She pulled open a desk drawer and hunted around a bit, then handed a business card to Caro.
“Messenger Investigations?” Caro asked.
“Jude Messenger handles the kinds of things we don’t. The kinds of things we can’t. He’s on the weird side, evidently suffers from some medical problem that makes it impossible for him to tolerate daylight, but he’s never let me down yet. You talk to him about this, Caro. He won’t think you’re crazy.”
At that moment, Caro honestly didn’t know if that was good or bad. She had to admit her story sounded nuts, but she had actually seen it happen. What would it mean about a guy who would believe it without seeing it?
“I’m serious,” Pat said quietly. “This isn’t cop stuff. This is Jude Messenger stuff. He’s good, he’s honest and you can trust him.”
* * *
Caro wandered the streets for two hours after leaving the station. She was back in civvies, her pistol at her waist under her navy blue jacket in a belt case. Its weight seemed to be all she had left to remind her of who she was.
Worse, she continued to feel watched. It had started right at the moment she had witnessed that man’s killing, and the feeling hadn’t left her since. She was a little psychic but had always kept that to herself, knowing her grandmother’s insistence that she was descended from a long line of witches wasn’t any kind of proof that would hold water with her fellow policemen.
And she should have had the sense not to mention what she had seen in that house. What in the world had made her think it was her duty to relay a story no one would believe? Simple, stupid honesty, that’s what. Because it was her job to help solve such crimes, not impede investigations by withholding information.
Hah!
Now here she was, wandering the darkening streets alone, with neck-prickling certainty that whatever had killed that man was now keeping its eye on her. Who the hell would believe that?
But she couldn’t ignore it any more than she could ignore what she had seen. Final
ly, not knowing what else to do, she caught a bus to go see Jude Messenger.
* * *
She found Messenger Investigations in one of the seedier parts of town. Not unusual for a P.I. who probably made less than the average cop. The office was just below street level, but there was a light on over the door, making it possible for her to see the steps.
At the bottom, facing the closed door, she hesitated. He wasn’t going to believe her. She didn’t know how much more of that she could take. Yet Pat had recommended him.
She scanned the signs beside the door, saw the agency kept night hours only, but Pat had warned her that Messenger was ill. She also saw a security camera and a button to push for entry.
It seemed like a lot of security for a small-time P.I. She pressed the button, though, and heard a voice say, “Can I help you?”
A young woman’s voice that sounded just a little suspicious. Cataloging impressions was second nature for Caro after eight years as a cop. Why would the woman be suspicious?
She shrugged the thought away. “I’d like to see Mr. Messenger. Detective Pat Matthews sent me.”
The magic words worked, because she heard a buzzer and was able to open the door.
She stepped into a dark hallway that put her immediately on high alert. Light spilled from an open doorway. She headed for it and stepped into an ordinary-looking office furnished with a desk, two computers, three chairs and a sofa.
What wasn’t ordinary was the young woman who greeted her. Enough black eye makeup to keep a cosmetic company in business. Spiky dyed-black hair, scarlet lipstick, and a combination of black leather and lace clothing that straddled the border somewhere between punk and stripper. Not your typical receptionist. Who was this Messenger guy?
“Have a seat,” the woman said, indicating a chair near her desk. “I’m Chloe Crandall, Jude’s assistant.”
This day was just getting better and better, Caro thought as she sat in the metal chair with a padded leather seat. Who had a receptionist who dressed like this? A lunatic?
Daysider (Nightsiders) Page 27
