Shanti took a breath she didn’t need, mainly because it calmed her down. “I don’t suppose you’ve run this little idea past the demon in charge?”
Rayna shook her head. “How weak would I look to our kind, crawling to the Nain Rouge begging permission to rule? No. This happens, and the demon will realize I’m on his side. But we need to be taking care of our own, Shanti. We’re uniquely suited to hunting our fellow vampires down, when it needs to happen.”
Shanti looked toward the river. “Well. Good luck with everything but I’m happy with my current team. I have no intention of standing in your way. I hope you’ll show as much respect toward me.”
“I understand. But I want you to consider something: there are things I can teach you, things Ronan can teach you, that you won’t learn with your team. You seem like the kind of woman who is relentless in trying to improve herself. There are things a group of demons and shifters will never be able to explain to you.”
Shanti nodded. “I understand that. It was a pleasure fighting beside you.” She held out her hand and Rayna took it, shook it firmly.
“Take this. If you ever change your mind, let me know.” She handed Shanti a small slip of paper with a phone number on it.
“All right. Take care,” Shanti said, and she jogged away, wondering how much she should tell Nain and Brennan about the conversation she’d just had.
When she got home, the first thing Shanti heard as she rode up the creaky elevator was Nain calling someone a complete fucking idiot. She rolled her eyes. She could guess who. He and Brennan hadn’t exactly gotten along since Nain had gotten back and found out Molly had moved on while he’d been gone. They worked together, and it was clear that they were friends, even if the friendship was strained. Molly had said once that Nain was like a brother to Brennan, that he’d taken him in and raised him after his parents had been killed.
Still. He spent most of his time looking like he wanted to kill the shifter. More so of late than ever.
As she unlocked the door to the loft, she looked up and saw that Nain was standing in the kitchen, hands clenched at his sides. If he’d looked at her the way he was looking at Brennan, she would have been running, as fast as her vampire body would move. Brennan was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen island, glaring right back at him.
“Uh. Hey. Don’t let me interrupt,” Shanti said as she closed the door and kicked her shoes off.
“Hey. You’re bleeding,” Brennan said, coming over to her.
“It’s healing. It wasn’t much more than a scratch anyway. I’m fine.”
Brennan looked at her stomach anyway, satisfied himself that it was healing. “Did you feed?”
She nodded, remembering not her bottled blood or the sip she’d taken from the vampire at the riverfront before she’d killed him, but the taste of that Normal’s blood. “Yes. I fed.” Then she glanced back toward Nain, who still looked like he wanted to murder Brennan. “Is something going on?”
Nain just threw Brennan a look of disgust and stalked into his office, slamming the door so hard the wood trim surrounding it cracked. Shanti cringed.
“So, he’s pissed,” she said to Brennan a few seconds later. He nodded.
Then he walked into the kitchen, poured a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles. He held the box up, and she nodded. He grabbed another bowl and poured some for her. Then he grabbed chocolate milk out of the fridge, poured that into both bowls. He brought both of them into the dining room, and sat across from Shanti.
“Molly would be absolutely disgusted to see us eating this,” Shanti said, taking a bite of the tooth-achingly sweet cereal.
“She would,” he said, smiling a little. It disappeared almost as quickly as it came.
A thought struck her. “Oh god. Please don’t tell me you heard something bad. I can’t—”
He held up his hand. “No. Nothing like that. I still feel her, on and off. The ‘off’ part scares the shit out of me, but she always comes back, after a while.”
Shanti put a hand over her heart, said a silent prayer. “Thank God,” she said quietly, and he nodded. They both took a few more bites of cereal. “So what’s up then?”
Brennan looked up at her. He seemed to be trying to figure out what to say, how to say it.
“I screwed up, Shanti. I screwed up worse than I’ve ever screwed up anything in my life.”
She put her spoon down, suddenly not at all hungry. “What happened?”
He put his spoon down, too, rubbed his hands over his face. “I messed around. One time. A few months ago.”
Shanti stared at him. It took her longer than it should have to process the words he’d said.
“You cheated on Molly?”
He hesitated, then nodded.
She felt numb. It was like hearing your father say he’d cheated on your mother. She’d come to see Brennan and Molly as a matched pair. She’d watched her hero slowly but surely fall in love with Brennan, even though she fought it, even though she felt guilty about it. She’d watched Molly learn to live, bit by bit, thanks in large part to Brennan.
“You… why?” was all she could manage.
“I was stupid. Weak. Anyway. She’s pregnant. That’s what I just finished telling Nain.”
“And so what? You’re moving in with her or something?”
He shook his head. “Hell no. But she doesn’t want the baby because I’m an ‘animal.’ She told me I had to make the choice to take the baby after it’s born, or she’d put it up for adoption.”
“So you’re taking it?”
He nodded.
“Well. That’s good. Uh. I guess. What the ever loving fuck is wrong with you?” she said, aware that she was raising her voice.
“Shanti,” he said, shaking his head and standing up. “I was stupid and weak. It happened one time. And that’s for me and Molly to talk about, not for me to justify to you, and definitely not for me to freaking justify to him,” he finished, pointing toward the door.
“He’s pissed at you for cheating on Molly?”
“Yeah. You’d think he’d be happy.”
She just stared at him. “I never placed you for an asshole, Brennan.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“He’s pissed off at you because he cares about Molly and no matter what else happened, when she gets home and finds out what you did, she’s going to be completely heartbroken.”
Brennan crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s my business. Not his.”
She shook her head. “Fine.” They stayed where they were, an awkward silence between them. Shanti couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this disappointed in another person. She loved Brennan like a brother. Owed a lot of her skill to the training he’d given her. “Well. I hope it was worth it,” she ended up saying. Then she watched as Brennan left the loft without another word.
What the hell? Did everything have to fall apart eventually? Was that just the way it worked? After all the crap Molly had been through, now she’d make it home someday to have to hear this?
Thinking of Molly made her remember her meeting with the would-be vampire queen. She glanced toward the closed office door, walked over to it and knocked.
“What?” Deep voice. A definite edge of anger to it.
“Can I talk to you a minute?” she asked through the door.
A pause. “Yeah.”
Shanti opened the door, which took some effort because of how hard he’d bashed it closed. “Remind me not to piss you off,” she said as she closed it, as best as she could, behind her.
He didn’t answer. She saw that the frame on his desk, with the photo of him and Molly, was flat on the desk in front of him, as if he’d been looking at it before she’d come in.
She felt like she should say something. “She’ll be okay, you know. She’s tough.”
He watched her for a minute. “She will be. But she shouldn’t have to deal with shit like this.” He leaned back in the big leather chair.
“You miss her.”
“More than I’ve ever missed anyone in my entire existence,” he said, glancing toward the photo again. “What did you need?”
Shanti tore her gaze away from the photo. “Uh. On my way home tonight, I realized I was being followed by another vampire. So I went to the riverfront, because I didn’t want to bring them over this way.”
He nodded, and Shanti took that as a signal to continue.
“It was this vamp, Rayna. Have you heard anything about her?”
He watched her. “Word is she’s trying to make a push to be the city’s first vampire leader.”
She nodded. “Right.”
“What did she want?”
“She wanted me to join her.”
Nain sat, watching her in silence for a few seconds. “Did she cut you?” he asked, gesturing toward her stomach.
“No. We were ambushed by a group of five other vampires who don’t want her to do what she’s trying to do. We killed them.”
“What do you think of her?” he asked after a while.
“She seems like she means what she says. Really strong. Good fighter. She reminds me of Molly a little,” Shanti said, and then regretted it. It seemed cruel to talk to him about her.
He must have seen something in her expression or heard something in her thoughts. Her mental shield slipped sometimes when she was stressed. “It’s okay to talk about her.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “Don’t be. So Rayna seems all right?”
Shanti nodded.
“Do you want to join her?”
“My loyalty is to this team.”
Nain rested his hands on the desk. “Let’s cut the crap, Shanti. Your loyalty is to Molly, which is the way it should be. You don’t owe me shit.”
“And she’d want me to stay loyal to you, even if she wasn’t here,” Shanti said.
Nain watched her. “Would she?”
“She would. When she met with me the first time, it was right here in this room. And she sat in that chair and I asked her to kill me because I was afraid of myself. And she said she believed in me and that she’d help me.” She paused, remembering. “She was still mourning you. She showed me that picture of you together. She was dead inside, and she still insisted on saving me. She did things like that in your memory, because it made her feel closer to you. It was the only thing getting her out of bed most days, especially early on.”
Nain was silent for a long time. “Thanks for that,” he finally said.
“You’re welcome. So like I said, my loyalty is to this team.”
“But you’re curious about your own kind, too. A lot of it is a mystery to you, and as much as I’ve been around, I still don’t know everything. If you want to join them, you should. Or if you want to see if she’ll let you work for her part time or something. I appreciate loyalty, but I’ve never forced anyone to stay.”
Shanti nodded. “You’re not nearly as much of an asshole when you’re not bossing everyone around,” she said, grinning.
“Only because you got on my good side by telling me that Molly story. Don’t push it.”
Shanti laughed. “All the same, I think I’ll stick around. At least for the time being.”
Nain nodded, and she got up went up to her room. Dawn was nearing, and she still wanted to shower and change out of her bloody clothes.
Once she was clean and ready for bed, she pulled the covers back, said a short prayer, and climbed into the soft bed. The last thought she had as the dawn pulled her under was of golden-brown eyes and the taste of rich, sweet blood on her lips.
Chapter Three
It had been a few weeks since Rayna had approached Shanti, and though she was busy enough with her work with the team, her mind kept turning to the vampire queen and the things she’d promised her. Better herself. Learn more about what she really is. Stop vampires from doing to others what had been done to her.
It wasn’t like she had a ton of time to think about things. Even though things weren’t as bad as they’d been the first year or two after Molly disappeared, they were still bad enough that the team was overworked and exhausted. Add to that the tension that Brennan’s little revelation had caused, and things were hardly happy. For the first time since Molly had taken her in, it was a relief for Shanti to be out of the loft. It had been her refuge, her sanctuary. Now, it was a place full of anger and loss and everything she saw in it reminded her of how much things had changed.
Which was why even though she’d been on duty since she woke up, and her shift had ended an hour ago, she was wandering around her old neighborhood. She had been checking it out more regularly since finding that vamp there a few weeks ago. She’d taken out one more since then, but things seemed to be calm.
Shanti tried to tell herself it had nothing to do with wanting a glimpse of the Normal she’d saved that night. She avoided the area she’d seen him in. She wasn’t sure if it was out of shyness or knowing that she couldn’t actually talk to him anyway or what. The temptation to take a sip would be too much to resist; the memory of his taste still fresh in her mind. The only living being she’d fed from since her first months as a vampire was Levitt, and that was mostly tied to sleeping together. She grimaced as she walked. Levitt. One more problem she didn’t want to think about.
She was walking down a side street full of little shops and cafes. It was bustling, people out and about on a Saturday night, cool October air putting a little bit of color in everyone’s cheeks.
Shanti smiled to herself. Well, maybe not everyone’s cheeks. Really, vampires were just lucky Normals tended not to look at anything too closely. It was all kind of obvious if you knew what to look for. Her mind turned, as usual, to things at home. Brennan. Molly. The demon in charge. There was still a lot of anger between Brennan and Nain. The last few days, she’d noticed them actually talking to each other. Of course, before that, there had been that little incident in the parking garage where they’d been throwing punches at one another. She shook her head. Men are crazy, she thought. And supernatural men are even worse.
She was so lost in thought that she didn’t register that someone was calling her name. She stopped and looked around.
She looked around some more, and heard it again. She looked in the direction she thought it was coming from, and she felt her stomach do a weird little flip. The Normal she’d rescued was standing across the busy street, arm raised in a wave. She waved back, and he started making his way across the street, dodging between moving cars with a speed and agility she had to respect. She put her hands in her coat pockets and watched as he came toward her.
Damn, she thought to herself. The real thing was even better than she remembered. Probably a lot of it had to do with the fact that he wasn’t pale from being nearly drained. He looked strong. Alive. And his gaze was on her, his focus laser-like, as if he was determined to make sure he didn’t lose sight of her.
He reached Shanti, stood a couple of feet in front of her. He looked down at her, and they were silent, awkward for a few seconds as pedestrians made their way around them.
“Hi,” she finally said.
“Hi Shanti,” he said, and his voice was low, smooth, and if she could have blushed, she would have been. Bedroom voice, she thought.
“Um. Did you need something?”
He was watching her, those nearly-golden eyes studying her face as if he expected to find the answer to some mystery there.
“I have been hoping to see you again,” he said.
“Oh?”
“I wanted to thank you. I’ve thought about you a lot since that night.”
Shanti looked down at her feet. Anywhere but at those mesmerizing eyes. “Oh. You’re welcome. I’m just glad I got there in time.”
“How did you know?”
She shrugged. “Luck, mostly. I was walking down the street and thought I heard a struggle in the alley, so I checked it out.”
He was still watching her. “You could hear that fro
m the street? She didn’t give me a chance to make much noise.”
“I have really good hearing,” she said, glancing away from him. Staring is rude, she reminded herself.
“Do you want to go grab a bite to eat?” he said.
She couldn’t help it. She tried to bite back the smile, and then a little laugh escaped her.
“What?” he asked, and she shook her head.
“Phrasing. Were you offering?” she asked, looking up at him.
He stilled. “Oh. No, I wasn’t. Is that rude?” he asked as his hand went to his neck.
She smiled. “No. I was kidding. Sorry.”
She watched as his eyes took on a warmer look. He wasn’t smiling, but he seemed like he was maybe on the verge of it. And why did that even matter?
“Let me rephrase, then. Do you want to go eat food or drink coffee with me?”
She smiled. “Sure. We can eat food.”
They started walking. There were several restaurants on the next few blocks. “Do you like Middle Eastern?” he asked, and she had to bite back another smile.
“I’m willing to give it a try, I think.”
“Was that a blood sucking joke?”
“Nope. Not at all.”
“So, you’re a…”
“You can say it. Just not to anybody else. Vampire. Yes, I am.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
They reached the end of the block, where there was a little Middle Eastern restaurant on the corner. As he opened the door and waved her inside, the scent of spices enveloped her. When she’d first been turned, a place like this would have been overwhelming, with its strong aromas, din of conversation, and background music. Bright colors everywhere. It would have assaulted her senses. Now, she could appreciate it, even if it was still a bit much. She had a feeling she’d be distracted from the scenery well enough. She glanced around and saw that a small table in the corner was empty. She pointed toward it, and her companion nodded. They made their way over, and a waitress arrived with water. They ordered tea and started looking at their menus.
“What’s good?” Shanti asked him.
Forever Night: A Hidden Novella Page 3
