Leon finally defrosted enough for his mouth to move. “People are panicking. There isn’t a single case of bottled water left in town. People think this is the end of the world.”
I understood that train of thought. I was thinking it too sometimes. It certainly might be the end of Boston if things kept going this way.
“And if you do help?” Kane asked, his head tilted to the side.
The ramifications were obvious either way.
I shrugged. “There’s obviously problems. I could help them through and we could end up in the same place in a few weeks. I could say no and they could blow up the whole city tomorrow. There is no right answer.”
Kane thought over my words for a moment before he said, “We call a meeting.”
“We’re going to let those buffoons make the call?” Butch asked. “Rudy with his ancient ways, or Collin, who’s just plain old stupid? Frederickson certainly doesn’t give a shit what happens to anyone but him.” Butch raised his hand and then yelped as hot coffee spilled on his hand.
Kane stood. “Of course not. We decide now and then let them think they had a say. If things go badly, we might need help cleaning it up. That’ll be easier to get if they think it’s partially their fault.”
“Things go badly which way? When we help them in or when we don’t?” Jerry asked.
That was the question now, wasn’t it? It seemed like the difference between getting slow-roasted or flash-fried. At least with a slow roast, maybe we could drag it out long enough to find a solution. “We let them through,” I said. “This isn’t an idle threat. They’re going to light the city up otherwise.”
“What if we let them through and then they do it anyway?” Leon asked.
I glanced over at Kane, waiting for him to step in. He didn’t. Maybe someone had dropped his crystal ball on cement and now the picture was all cracked and foggy. Or maybe this was a test.
“Either way, we’re cooked,” I said. “We’ve got guaranteed destruction or possible destruction. We let them in, but only because there’s no other solutions right now. We can work it into the bargain that I only bring over five a month until we figure out how to destroy them, or what they really want.”
Leon let out a huff. “I’m pretty sure it’s not to get a job, get married, and have two kids.”
“I agree with Ollie,” Kane said. I guessed that meant I’d passed the test.
Butch, Leon, and Jerry nodded.
“It was better than my idea,” Leon said.
“What’s your idea?” Butch asked.
“I didn’t have one. It was a low bar to clear.”
Kane turned to Butch and Leon. “Line up a meeting for tomorrow. You know who to call. You, come with me.”
I didn’t realize I was the “you” until he pointed at the closet door and was staring at me.
I knew what this was about, and it had nothing to do with getting me up close and personal for a moment. He had a bone to pick with me right now. I wanted to hash this out in private too, but the closet seemed like a weird choice.
He walked, and I mentally shrugged and followed. In the closet, he moved a shelf out of the way and opened a door. If I hadn’t been fairly sure that he wasn’t going to kill me, I might’ve hesitated stepping into the pitch-dark entrance that looked like it led to a dungeon.
There was a stairwell below, and I reached out, feeling for the wall as he shut the door and all light ceased to exist in the space. His arm looped around my waist, pulling me back to the top landing. His hand shifted to the wall, and I felt his forearm brushing my side, blocking me from falling in the dark. Nope. Definitely not the move of someone who wanted me dead.
“What did you not understand about lying low?”
It was so dark that I couldn’t see his face, but his heat reached out like the lure of a fire on a freezing night.
Something had shifted last night when he’d held me. I could pretend it hadn’t, but my body was making a different choice as it bowed toward him, hips shifting forward as my shoulders were planted on the wall. My nipples hardened and my pulse thought it had just gotten the flag that the race was on.
“I was lying low. That thing came to me.” I licked my lower lip, hating how breathy I sounded.
“You shouldn’t have answered.” There was heat in his voice, but it wasn’t anger this time. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t one-sided.
“Sometimes shit happens you don’t plan for.” Sort of like the way my stomach fluttered when he was close and my breathing hitched, completely beyond my control.
His other hand rose, cupping my neck, his thumb grazing the side of it. My heart was beating so hard that I was sure he felt it racing against his fingers.
The arm that grazed my other side shifted. Suddenly it was grasping the back of my thigh where it joined the curve of my ass, lifting my leg up so that his hips pinned mine to the wall.
When his lips covered mine, it was as if they were claiming what was already his. And I didn’t care. I was willing to surrender everything I had, at least at that moment. Right now, it didn’t feel like he was kissing the past, but the person I was now.
His tongue darted into my mouth, rubbing against mine as our hips rubbed below. All I wanted was to embrace this feeling, this want that felt larger than us both, because as we came together, it felt like it must’ve been preordained for it to feel this perfect.
I didn’t care that the guys might still be in the next room, or that there were so many questions still unanswered right now. There was only one thing that was driving me back from the emotional abyss that was Kane.
“Do you think I caused the explosions?” My question came out in breathy pants.
He didn’t answer as his mouth covered mine again, but this time I wasn’t swallowed back into the moment. I was jerked to awareness by his silence. I turned my head, and his lips shifted to my jaw.
“Kane, I need to know.” I hated the pleading in my voice.
His shoulders tensed underneath my palms, and I knew what he was thinking, because it had been running a marathon in my mind for the last hour. Harg thought I could get the weaker ones through. Why wouldn’t Kane think I might’ve gotten the first ones through? That I might’ve gotten Asher through somehow? It all seemed to keep coming back to me.
“I think it doesn’t matter to me what you did.”
But it did. Because if someone had been able to manipulate me into doing it in the past, odds didn’t look so hot for the future. Was I a monster? Maybe not, but it didn’t look good. That was clear too. I’d never tried for sainthood. My goals had never been that high. But I’d always tried to stay out of the gutter.
“Do you trust me?” I asked.
His forehead dropped to mine, the silence stifling. He didn’t. And maybe he shouldn’t. That didn’t change how it felt to know it.
I shoved at his shoulders, but his muscular bulk stayed firmly pressed against the length of me.
“How am I supposed to trust you when you don't even trust yourself?” he asked. “You have no idea what you did, and still I'd kill to protect you. Isn't that enough?”
I bit my lower lip, wishing he was right. His tongue ran over the spot, making it clear one of us could see in the dark.
“I wish it was.” This time when I shoved, he moved back.
Chapter Fifteen
The Underground was closed to all but invited guests the next morning for the meeting. That was easier to achieve than normal, since half the people who lived here were still afraid to come back since Harg. Bunch of wimps.
I was over at the bar beside Butch when Kane walked in. I stared out of the corner of my eye. He just stared back. All in all, the moment felt fairly awkward, since the last time I’d seen him, we’d been kissing in a stairwell.
I gave him a short nod when he stopped beside me and Butch.
He did the same before turning his attention to Butch. “Stay beside Ollie and give her a rundown as people show. They all probably know she lost h
er memory, but no reason to broadcast it.”
“Got it,” Butch said.
Kane stepped away, walking to his office as Leon made his way closer.
“Are you two not talking?” Butch asked. Leon leaned in, waiting for my answer.
“We’re talking.” I squinted at them, as if I were confused at the very idea of it.
Butch scratched his jaw. “Something’s up.”
“Nothing’s up.” I pointed at both of them as I saw a familiar trend about to happen. “Don’t either of you make a face.”
Leon shrugged. “I had no intention of making a face. None.”
Butch crossed his arms, snorting at the same time. “I certainly didn’t. I’m not a maker of faces.”
I matched Butch’s snort with a louder snort of disbelief.
Before we could completely dissolve into the ridiculous, Jerry signaled and Leon headed toward the door. Our company had arrived. All my enemies, or known ones, would walk through that door. I had a past with these people that I only knew about because I’d been briefed.
The first arrival stepped inside. A tallish man with hair nearly as black as Kane’s. His deep blue suit and pocket square had a slight dandy feeling. He was followed closely by a man with auburn hair and a beard.
Butch ducked his head closer to me. “Leprechauns. They held you hostage in the basement. Rudy, the one with the dark hair, still claims he wasn’t aware of what was happening. He’s the top guy, so it’s dubious.”
First enemy up to bat. I remembered Kane saying something about how the two who had kidnapped me weren’t a problem anymore, with no other details provided. I’d watched enough gangster movies to know that probably meant they were dead.
I committed those two faces to memory and turned to watch Leon and Jerry greeting the next new arrivals. Definitely vampires—even though one had an older look about him, his face was somehow still perfectly unlined. Like he had some weird vampire Botox thing going on. The woman who followed him wasn’t much to look at by vampire standards, but would still be above par if you threw her into a room with a bunch of blond mortals.
“Frederickson, head vamp,” Butch said. “That woman following is his new second in command, since, well…”
“Well what?” I grabbed Butch’s arm to get his full attention.
Butch shrugged. “Nothing important.”
I let it drop, more interested in the next arrival.
“That’s Collin,” Butch said. “He’s the head werewolf.” Two lackeys followed him, and those two I actually remembered. They’d shown up at my building, trying to hire me even before I’d met Butch and Leon.
“Is he the one who tried to help?” I asked. If getting me stuck in the Shadowlands could be called that. It was still a relief. If things turned ugly, at least he wouldn’t be swinging his claws my way.
“I guess you could say that,” Butch replied, thinking along the same lines as I was.
The next face I recognized from the Underground. “A witch?”
“That’s Dana. She— Yeah, nothing good to be said there.”
I didn’t ask anything else. I knew that she’d probably been involved in some of the nasty things I’d heard about. I didn’t want to cause a scene breaking things by accident.
“Is this it?” As they’d come, I’d kept hoping something would trigger a memory, but nothing had.
“We only invited the pains in the asses,” Butch said. “We left the crowds that lie low out of it for now.”
There were general nods and a few hellos, as you’d expect of a group thrown together by necessity but not likeability. At least I wasn’t the only one not vibing with the group.
Frederickson was the first to approach me, and I gave Butch a nudge with my elbow to shoo him away.
“I’m supposed to stick by you,” he said, not budging.
“You’ll broadcast that I’m such a lightweight I can’t be alone, even in a crowded room.”
Butch put on a fake smile and then edged away, just a bit. Five feet wasn’t perfect, but it was better than having him glued to me.
Frederickson took in the proximity but acted natural enough as he stopped beside me. “How are you, Ollie?”
The moment he neared, I immediately wished he’d walk away. I couldn’t tell if it was a past feeling bleeding through the black hole of memories or if I hated his overdone cologne. “Good, thank you, Frederickson.”
“I’ve been hearing that things aren’t quite the same as they used to be around here?”
“Most things do change.” Most people, too, but he wouldn’t know about that.
“You know, there’s a lot of rumors I’m hearing,” he said. “I, of course, don’t pay any heed to that type of talk, especially when it includes slights against my friends. You might want to think about which friends you want to keep.” He wiped a hand over the front of his jacket, as if a stray fur from Collin had floated onto him.
I nodded. “I’ll think long and hard on that.”
Jerry dropped a thick bar over the entrance, and all eyes shot to the upstairs door when it swung open. Kane made his way down, heading toward the table. “Everyone, take a seat.”
I would’ve grabbed the closest chair to me if Butch hadn’t shown up at my side again and steered me to the seat beside the head of the table.
“All the groups sit together,” Butch said, barely audible.
“Stop shoving. I got it,” I told him.
I sat beside Kane, who didn’t seem very concerned or aware of where I sat. Butch sat to my left, and Leon took the seat on Kane’s other side.
When I heard the snarl, I thought there was going to be a fight for the other head chair. Collin stepped away from Rudy, head leprechaun, who didn’t appear to be budging. Well, that told me one thing. If this were a card game of war, leprechaun trumped werewolf. I didn’t know where vampires ranked, but Kane seemed to trump them all, with the way everyone seemed to be taking their cues from him.
The werewolves were on the other side, with Butch buffering me from the vampires. Kane waited as everyone took a seat, but remained standing in front of his. “As we all know, there are some new monsters in town.”
There were grunts and nods around the table. Collin growled and added, “And those fuckers better learn their place.”
No one disagreed with the statement, and I found myself nodding as well. I’d been feeling that way about crawlers my whole damn life.
“One of them showed up here,” Kane continued. No one so much as budged in their chairs. After the stampede out of here the other day, it wasn’t surprising that news had spread. There were all types in the Underground, after all—better for everyone to keep tabs on everyone else. “We believe it to be their leader, and it wants to negotiate.”
“What?” Frederickson shouted out.
“Seriously? For what?” Collin asked, his two backups taking up the growling.
Dana, the black-haired witch, stared at me, as if I were the cause of all the problems in the universe, and maybe the galaxy next door, too.
“They want Ollie to help some more of them through,” Kane said. “In exchange, they’ll stop torching the place. We were thinking five crawlers and no more for a month until we see if they uphold their end.” He took his seat, and proceeded to kick his heels up on the table while everyone else was still absorbing that tidbit.
“What do we get out of it?” Rudy asked.
“We can say no if you want. But the crawlers seem to have an affinity for your locations.” Kane shrugged.
Dana stood, shoulders squared. “The witches will help out in whatever way is needed.” She smiled sweetly in Kane’s direction before retaking her seat.
“I’m fine with that agreement,” Collin said, rolling over pretty easy, considering.
“We’ll go along with this, but”—the head vampire pointed at me—“she comes with us.”
“Why in the world would I go with you?” I asked, having absolutely no intention of going anywhere.
I hadn’t been keen on moving into the Underground, but I’d rather live in the first level of hell than with the vampire who might send me to my death.
“She stays here,” Kane said, almost at the same time.
Well, that was pretty predictable. If I’d thought about it for a second, I would’ve realized I could’ve leaned back and kept quiet. There was no way Kane was letting me leave here, no matter who wanted me to go, including myself. He’d put up too much of a fight to get me here in the first place.
“Why do you get her?” Rudy asked. “We have just as much right here—”
“She’s not going anywhere. End of discussion.” It was the first time Kane had raised his voice, and the room fell silent. He let the silence hang for a moment before he continued. “You can send over a representative for updates. That should be more than sufficient.”
Frederickson nodded.
“Us too?” Collin asked.
“Yes. Everyone. Complete transparency. We’ll handle the rest of it.” Kane stood, completing the meeting before anyone had technically agreed. “Glad this is worked out. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve other business to attend.”
He walked away from the table and over to the bar and ordered a drink from a gargoyle, as if his guests were no longer at the table.
It was a real ballsy move. If he could do that, then surely I could leave as well. I stood. “Nice to see you all again,” I said with a peppy wave as I headed toward the hallway, not wanting to push my luck by hanging too close.
I didn’t make it out of the room before Collin rushed over to me. “Hey, I just wanted to say I hope there’s no hard feelings about that Shadowland incident?”
“Not at all.” I shrugged it off, not mentioning that I might change my mind once I remembered the incident.
He smiled and shrugged a broad shoulder, a lock of freshly cut brown hair falling across a prominent brow bone. “I’m somewhat adverse to the crawlers being let out, but we have to work together in these times or we’ll self-destruct.”
I nodded in agreement. I would’ve said just about anything to have this charade over with.
Kissed by the Dark Page 10
