by A. K. Morgen
Aubrey darted toward the opposite side of the hall and jerked the door to the stairwell open so hard it slammed into the wall. He caught it with his foot before the force of the swing could slam it shut. Aubrey hurried through, grabbing his wrist as she went.
As one, they pounded down the stairs. She tripped and skidded along but didn’t stop.
They burst through the door into the lobby within minutes and slowed to a fast walk. The night doorman poked his head out of the little booth. Spotting Aubrey, he stepped out.
Killian cursed under his breath but slowed as they neared him.
“Everything okay?” he asked her, taking in Killian’s shirtless state and the dark, wet stains on his jeans. The guard gaped as his gaze flickered between the blood dripping from Killian’s hand and the splatters across Aubrey’s T-shirt.
Killian frowned at him, daring him to say anything. He was not in the mood for nosy humans.
“Yes, but my friend cut himself,” Aubrey lied, her voice almost steady. “I’m taking him to get clean clothes and then to the doctor. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. Please tell Larry I decided to take Zee with me.”
“Of course.” The man turned to her, eyes wide as Killian continued to glare at him.
“I’ll see you soon, John.”
John nodded and backed into the guard booth.
“Dammit,” Killian muttered.
As soon as they made it outside, the man would be calling Aubrey’s aunt and probably the police too. Nothing Killian could do about that now, though, he decided, following Aubrey out the doors and into the parking lot.
He glanced up as she clambered into his car and swore under his breath again. Storm clouds had turned the night sky an ominous silver. Within an hour, any trail the vampire might have left would be gone, washed away by one of the city’s notorious spring thunderstorms. He cursed again and climbed into the car, slamming the door behind him.
His hand throbbed in protest, pulling a hiss from his lips.
“What’s wrong?” Aubrey asked, looking up from the kitten with frightened eyes.
“Nothing,” he lied, revving the engine before speeding from the lot. He gritted his teeth, fighting the pain radiating from his palm. “There’s a cell phone in the glove compartment. I need it.”
Aubrey untangled the kitten from her shirt and reached into the glove compartment to rifle around. Killian held his hand out for the phone when she found it, and immediately wished he had not. The car passed beneath a streetlight, illuminating the deep cut running from his thumb to his pinky.
Aubrey cried out and cradled his hand carefully between her little palms. She stroked one finger across his wrist. “Did he—?” Her voice trembled.
“No, it’s clean,” he said, distracted by her soft touch.
She exhaled, the sound colored with relief. “This is bad, Killian. It needs medical attention.”
“It’ll be fine.” He slammed on the brakes to avoid running a red light.
“I’m not an idiot,” she snapped, reaching into her bag. She rummaged for a minute before pulling out a T-shirt. “Hold still.” She wound it around his hand, her movements gentle.
“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “I’m half-angel, Aubrey. I heal fast. In a couple of hours, the cut will be gone.” He removed his hand from hers when she had the shirt secured over his wound. “Phone, please.”
She opened her mouth as though she wanted to argue, but didn’t. She rolled her eyes, muttered something wholly uncomplimentary, and flipped open the phone. “Who am I calling?”
“Abriel. He’s number one on speed dial.”
Aubrey pushed the button and held the phone up to her ear. She waited a moment and then frowned. “It’s not doing anything.”
“I know.” Killian jerked his head toward the stereo as a ring blared from the car speakers. “It’s synced.”
The phone rang again and then again before Abriel answered.
“What’s up?”
“We’ve got a situation.” Killian filled him in on the details, leaving out the fact the vampire had known Aubrey’s name. “We’re going to have to clean it up before the cops walk in and find the mess, and there’s a storm blowing in.”
“Son of a bitch,” Abriel mumbled. “I’ll send Dom to do cleanup. You need to ditch the Mustang.”
Killian considered where to leave the car for a minute, glancing at Aubrey out of the corner of his eye. Unless they masked her scent too, they ran the risk of another infected demon or Elioud shifter hunting her down before the storm rolled in.
“Where do hospital employees park during overnight hours?” he asked her.
“In the employee lot.”
“Where’s that?”
“West side,” she answered.
“Where your car is at?”
She nodded.
“Meet us in the west lot of St. Jude’s,” Killian repeated to his blade-brother. Though he didn’t relish the thought of leading demons to a hospital full of human children, he didn’t see another choice. Her scent would be easier to hide in the area since she’d been all over it in the last two days. That should keep the infected from breathing down their necks until the storm hit, though it pissed him off that he and his brothers would be as unable to track the infected as they would Aubrey.
“Bring the van.” He glanced over at her, hesitating. “And a first aid kit.”
Aubrey gave him a tight smile.
“For you or for her?” Abriel asked.
“Me.”
“You got cut?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s clean?”
“Barely, but yes. Lost my shirt, though.”
Abriel swore again. “I’ll meet you there in twenty.” The stereo flashed call ended.
Aubrey flipped the phone closed and shoved it back into the glove compartment. “I hate this day,” she muttered, slamming the compartment closed.
“I’m not loving it, either,” Killian said.
Aubrey scowled at him but said nothing further.
***
Killian raced through the city toward the hospital. Neither of them said much of anything as they drove. Aubrey didn’t know why he was so quiet, but she was still trying to sort through the last half hour.
Things had happened so quickly in her apartment—she hadn’t had time to take it all in. One minute, she was trying to convince Killian to go home. The next, that…man…had come through her front door. She didn’t even know how he’d gotten into the building.
She didn’t particularly want to find out, either.
Yesterday, she’d thought the shifters were terrifying. She’d since changed her mind. The shifters, at least, had looked like wolves. That man had seemed more like the walking dead from some horror movie. Only a whole lot faster and a lot more horrifying.
She’d seen hundreds of kids with cancer over the last year. The disease scarred, disfigured, and ruined far too often. But she’d never seen anything like that poor creature. She never wanted to again.
Who knew what he would have done to Killian if she hadn’t found a little courage when she had? The thought made her chest ache.
“Was he a vampire?” she asked, ignoring the curious ache.
“Yes,” Killian answered. “I think.”
“You think?”
“I didn’t have time to do a thorough check, but he smelled like a vampire. You okay?”
“No,” she said. “Why—?”
“Did he look like that?” Killian guessed.
Aubrey nodded.
“The virus.”
“Oh. Are they always so gruesome once they’re infected?”
“The demons usually are. They rot from the inside out after a few days.”
Aubrey swallowed convulsively. “Was it…w-what did he want?”
Killian hesitated a minute and then sighed. “He was looking for you.”
Aubrey whipped her head in his direction. “What?”
“He was looking fo
r you,” Killian repeated. “He knew your name.”
“How do you know that?”
“I heard him.” He carefully avoided her gaze, the passing shadow obscuring his expression.
“You heard him?”
“Yes.”
Aubrey sat in stunned silence for a full minute. She’d heard nothing over the pounding of her own heart and Zee’s terrified yowls. The way Killian refused to look at her gave her pause. She examined his stoic expression for a long moment, her stomach sinking.
“You can read minds,” she said.
“Yes.” Again, he purposefully avoided her gaze.
She didn’t miss the way his good hand tightened on the steering wheel, though. Her mind raced, trying to remember if she’d thought anything she shouldn’t have while in his company.
“I can’t read yours,” he said, exactly as if he’d done just that.
Her eyes widened.
His lip curled up, amusement glinting in his blue eyes beneath the passing lights. “I guessed, Aubrey.”
She relaxed a little. “Is this common?”
“Most Fallen have the ability—though, full-blooded Fallen have a stronger Talent than I do. I can’t read humans. I can barely read the stronger Elioud.”
“Why not?” Aubrey had no clue what else to say. After everything she’d learned since meeting Killian, she didn’t know why the fact the Fallen were mind-readers should startle her so much, but it did. That they might possess such a Talent had never crossed her mind.
“The human mind works differently than an angel’s. The Fallen use more of their brains than your people do. But I’m Nephilim, so maybe mine isn’t as developed.” Killian glanced at her and shrugged. “That’s the best guess I have.”
“Does it bother you?” she asked. “That you’re different, I mean.” He was so unlike the Halfling who’d attacked her, but he had the same problems. He wasn’t fully Fallen and wasn’t fully human.
Did he resent that like the other one had?
They pulled into the lot at St. Jude’s and parked.
“I can’t change who I am. I’ve learned to accept my limitations.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“Yeah, it bothers me.” He looked at her, his expression open and honest for once. “But I’m not like the Halfling who attacked you, Aubrey. I don’t hate who I am or resent what I’m not. I got over that a long time ago.”
“How old are you?” she demanded.
Killian arched a brow at the abrupt subject change. “Does it matter?”
“Just answer the question.” Her head pounded, and she still had more questions than answers. She didn’t want to explain the inner workings of her mind to someone who could read the minds of others. If hers was safe from his Talent, she intended to keep it that way.
He gave in with a small shrug. “Do you want the truth or the human equivalent?”
There was more than one answer? Well, then.
She felt a little like fainting. “Both, please.”
“I was born in 1793,” he said.
Knowing the Fallen were immortal was leagues different than having it confirmed. Killian was over two hundred years old, but his youthful, unlined face made him seem closer to her age.
“And the human answer?”
“Twenty-two.” He gave her a sardonic smile. “Even Nephilim like me age slowly.”
“What’s it like to live forever?”
“I don’t know,” Killian answered. “I haven’t lived forever.” He didn’t add that he probably wouldn’t live that long, either, but she heard it loud and clear anyway.
She climbed from the car slowly, her mind spinning.
Killian followed her out and circled around to her before leaning back against the door.
“You were able to read the vampire in my apartment, weren’t you?” Aubrey tilted her head to look up at him. “That’s how you knew he knew me.”
“I could,” he answered. “You’re sure you didn’t recognize him?”
“I’ve never seen him before.”
Killian nodded once, his blue eyes serious. “Well, he was definitely looking for you.”
“Lovely.”
Killian reached out and touched her arm. Her skin tingled beneath his fingers. “We’ll keep you safe, Aubrey.”
Maybe so, but he wasn’t exactly going to be around forever, was he?
She could put two and two together. If the virus was spreading as quickly as he said, it’d get him sooner or later. And given what he’d spent the last months doing, she kind of figured infection would kill him sooner rather than later. She didn’t want to like him or feel any sort of responsibility toward him or his world, but she did.
How could she not when the more she learned about the situation, the more uneasy she became? The shifters and vampire had been hunting her. She couldn’t deny that fact anymore. Nor could she deny that there was only one reason they’d have come for her. And if she was right…she couldn’t keep it to herself any longer.
Killian and his brothers needed to know even if that meant she lost their protection.
“There’s something you need to know,” she said, the words threatening to stick in her throat.
Killian pushed himself to his feet as the van pulled into the parking lot. He turned back to her, waiting for her to speak. She closed her eyes, not sure if she wanted to be right or wrong, but unable to look at him and confess her fear at the same time.
“I think my father knew about the virus.”
Chapter Eight
Killian stared down at Aubrey, trying to process the look on her face as much as her revelation. Her eyes were wide and stricken, filled with a combination of emotion he couldn’t decipher. The pounding of her heart played like soft music in the background, and his sensitive ears picked out the sound with ease. Despite the dark, he saw the subtle tick of her pulse thrumming like a vibrating guitar string in her throat.
She feared him, feared how he might react to her revelation. What he might do to her, perhaps. Her earlier confession about her attack floated through his mind, causing shame to course through him. After everything she’d endured, he’d given her no real reason to trust him. In truth, he hadn’t cared one way or another if she trusted him.
He didn’t feel that way now, though, did he? He was drawn to her in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. The more he learned about her, the more he liked her…and the more he wanted to protect her. The need to keep her safe was growing, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact she was human and he was a Warrior of Light. He felt like…sweet Heaven, he felt like he was bonding with her, as one angel did to another. But that was completely impossible, wasn’t it?
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said softly, pushing the thought from his mind. He wanted to reach out and touch her cheek to reassure her, but with Abriel watching them from the idling van, he dared not. His blade-brother had spent three centuries living in human cities, watching over them, protecting them, but never getting close to them. He was a good warrior, an honorable angel. And he would never condone Killian’s shameful attraction to this beautiful little human.
“That might change,” she said, trembling.
The words she needed poured from him unbidden. “I offer you the protection of my life and sword, Aubrey Carter, and that of my blade-brothers. So long as we may prevent it, no harm will come to you, not by our hands or through another’s. I do so swear it.”
Her bottom lip went between her teeth, and her expressive eyes widened a little more as the pledge tumbled from his lips. He would not call it back, though. He couldn’t.
Fallen did not break their vows.
But sweet Heaven, Dom and Abriel would thrash him for involving them in this.
“I believe you.” Aubrey’s voice wavered, but the fear lurking in her eyes eased.
“We can talk in the van,” Killian said before he did something even more foolish than pledging their swords to her, like kiss h
er.
Aubrey nodded again, a little more firmly this time, and allowed him to lead her to the van. She arched a brow when he climbed in behind her, as if surprised he’d rather sit in the back with her than up front with Abriel. He ignored the question inherent in that look and slammed the van door closed.
Aubrey settled onto the long seat, her kitten snuggled to her chest.
Killian sat beside her, his gaze locking with Abriel’s in the rearview mirror even as his blade-brother greeted Aubrey. Abriel’s disapproval of Killian’s pledge hung heavy in his mind. Oh, Abriel intended her no harm, and would do everything in his power to keep her safe, but if it came right down to it, if Aubrey became a threat, Abriel would break Killian’s vow even if that meant accepting exile. Not because Abriel wanted to hurt the girl, but simply because he might not have another choice.
Kill or be killed.
That was the reality they now lived.
Killian and his blade-brothers didn’t have to like it, but they had to accept it. Their people were dying, cut down by a virus they could not slow or halt. Not even a Fallen like Abriel, who lived by honor as much as the sword, would risk the survival of their entire race to keep Killian’s vow to Aubrey.
Hell, less than twenty-four hours ago, Killian would have wielded the knife himself if necessary. How odd that so much could change so quickly, but for Killian, it had. And damned if he knew what that meant for any of them. He didn’t know what was happening to him where Aubrey was concerned. All he knew for certain was that he meant the pledge he’d given her—neither he nor his blade-brothers would harm her or allow harm to come to her. He would see to that.
“Later,” he mouthed as Aubrey returned Abriel’s greeting.
Abriel dipped his head in a brief nod then tossed a clean shirt toward Killian.
Killian snagged it with his good hand.
Abriel put the van in gear and pulled out of the lot. “The storm’s still an hour out. I’ll circle the neighborhood a few times and try to confuse her scent as much as I can before we head out.”
“That’s fine,” Killian murmured, watching as Aubrey snapped her seat belt in place. “Why do you think your father knew about the virus?” he asked her, knowing Abriel had heard her confession.
