But she really, really wanted to be the one to do it. Not Ronan.
Shanti put on an extra burst of speed and leapt at the fleeing vampire’s back. Her momentum took them both to the floor, and the vampire started trying to scramble away from her.
“What’s the matter? Not such a badass if the other person isn’t tied up?” Shanti asked. He flipped over, taking her by surprise and wrenching himself free of her grasp. As he took off down the hall again, Shanti pulled a second knife free of the sheath she wore under her shirt, and she jumped up and followed him.
He definitely didn’t want to fight. That wasn’t really a surprise. These worthless wastes of space, the parasites among the vampire community, were creatures who had no dignity. No honor. They enjoyed what they did, with no regard to their victims or how hard it made life for their fellow, honest, vampires.
Shanti caught up with him again, and this time, she didn’t give him a chance to get away. Ronan came bursting through he front door just as she plunged the knife into the vampire’s heart, and they both witnessed the rogue vamp’s dying wail.
Shanti pulled her knife out of the vampire and let him fall to the floor. She bent down and wiped the blade clean on the dead vampire’s shirt, then put her knives back in their sheath.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked Ronan, who was standing in the same spot, arms crossed over his chest.
“I was getting tired of waiting,” he said.
“I had it.”
“I see that. Why did it take so long?”
She stared at him, open-mouthed. “Are you kidding? That took like all of thirty seconds.”
“Should have been faster. Do better next time.”
Shanti shook her head and turned toward the back of the house. “Whatever. There’s an injured human back here.”
Ronan followed her into the back room. The man was still there, looking terrified. Shanti approached him and he did everything he could to avoid her, which really wan’t much. In the end, all he managed to do was clench his eyes shut tight.
“Can you do this, Ronan?” Shanti asked.
“Fine.” Ronan bent to the human, sealed his wounds. The man passed out from the stress and blood loss, and Shanti and Ronan both stood there, looking at him. After a moment or two, Shanti started cutting the ropes.
“What are we going to do about him?” she asked Ronan quietly.
“There are some who would say we should just kill him now. He’s seen too much, and he’ll probably talk.”
Shanti stared up at Ronan as she lowered the man to the floor.
“Don’t even think about it,” she muttered to the vampire, settling the man as gently as she could.
“I said some people. Not me, Shanti. That’s not how we do things and you should know that by now.” Ronan said. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Rayna has some contacts. There is a small, private facility where they take people like this man, who have seen our world and lived to tell about it. There aren’t many but they’re out there.”
“And what happens to them there?” Shanti asked, standing up.
“They’re given time to recover. Therapy to help them deal with what they’ve experienced. And we also make it clear that if they talk, they’ll be seeing one of us again. That’s usually enough to keep them quiet.”
“So, threats then,” Shanti muttered.
“It’s better than killing them, isn’t it?” Ronan asked.
“It just seems really crappy to me that they go through all that, and then they have us threatening them.”
“Well, think of it this way: they usually have absolutely no interest in running into one of us again. They keep up their end of the deal, and they don’t have to worry about it,” Ronan said. “And you know as well as anyone that this is a brutal, hard life. You’ve spent time with the Angel. You’ve patrolled the city with the demon and Brennan. And you know damn well that our kind are worth fearing. It’s a cold world, and the sooner you realize that, the better.”
“It’s only cold if we make it that way,” Shanti said. “And shit like this is why I didn’t want to get involved with your team. Any group that is interested in rising to power is going to do things that normal people would find questionable. And threatening survivors of vampire violence while you have them kept in some facility somewhere is one of those things.”
“Right. The Angel and the Demon never do anything questionable,” Ronan huffed.
“Not like this .”
“Well we don’t all have mind control powers like the Angel. You think going into their heads and removing people’s memories is any less questionable than what we’re doing? That scares me a hell of a lot more than anything we do.”
“Except that I know where the Angel’s heart is and where her loyalties are. She’s not interested in power at all for herself. And that’s the difference.”
Ronan sighed. “Shanti, we don’t want power for ourselves, either. We want it because the city is chaos without it. There’s more of this shit,” he said, gesturing to the man and the ropes Shanti had cut off of him, ”here than anywhere else. In other areas, the vampires are monitored, policed, by their own kind. And Rayna is capable and she wants to do this. It’s about protecting the humans, and protecting ourselves.”
Shanti crossed her arms.
Ronan was studying her. “And you know all of this. So what’s this really about?”
Shanti looked away. Before Zero, she’d seen nothing wrong with threatening people to keep the quiet. Hell, she’d threatened Zero’s life the night she saved him.
Something about that night had changed everything. Including the lines she was no longer willing to cross.
Every time she saw a Normal in pain at the hands of one of her kind, she saw Zero. She hadn’t wanted to seal the man’s wounds, because it reminded her too much of the night she’d saved him. And the thought of him being threatened, afraid for the rest of his life if Ronan or Rayna had been the one to find him instead of her… that made her blood boil.
She turned back to Ronan, met his eyes. “If this was someone you loved,” she said quietly. “If they managed to survive a nightmare like this only to live the rest of their life in fear… how would that make you feel?”
Ronan watched her, understanding dawning on his face. “Right.” They stood in silence for several long moments. “I do see what you’re saying, Shanti. I just don’t know what else we can do.”
“Nain has been doing this for a couple hundred years. There are Normals who know about him. There always have been. And they’re not keeping quiet out of fear. There are Normals who know about the Angel, people she’s saved, but by the time she’d finished saving them, she had no power left to take their memories away. How often do you hear anyone flapping their gums about either one of them?”
She turned toward the window, looked out at the dark yard. “In Nain’s case, they respect him. Yeah, he’s scary as hell. Rough. Mean when he has to be. But the few Normals who know about him also know that he’s the kind of being they want in their corner.”
“And in the Angel’s case?” Ronan asked.
Shanti smiled. “In the Angel’s case, the people she’s saved love her.” She glanced back at Ronan. “And I know that from experience.”
“I don’t get how that works,” Ronan said, sitting on the chair the man had been tied up in.
“Simple. People know that these are two beings who have saved lives. They know whose side they’re on, because both of them have this strong moral code or whatever you call it. They’re both ruthless. Terrifying. But they’re the kind of terrifying that scares the nightmares away, and that’s what everyone wants. A big bad who’s on their side.” She knelt next to the Normal, noted with satisfaction that he was regaining his color. “You and Rayna might want to start spending some time talking to Nain. And the Angel, once she’s back.”
“Is she coming back?” Ronan asked.
Shanti nodded. “Yes. She’ll be back.”
Ronan was watching her. “I’m glad you brought your concerns up, rather than letting them fester. What you’re saying makes a lot of sense. We’d be cultivating allies instead of making people fear us even more.”
Shanti nodded.
“I think Rayna will agree. And maybe you’re right about getting to know the Demon a little better. We’ve been avoiding other supernaturals because that just never works out very well for us.”
Shanti nodded. “Nain is an ally you’ll want to have. Believe me.”
“I do. We should get him out of here,” Ronan said. Then he went and picked up the human, slung him gently over his shoulder. They left the house and walked several blocks down to the SUV they’d driven to the neighborhood. They laid the man in the back seat. Shanti glanced at the clock on the dashboard. It was a little after nine.
“Am I needed anymore tonight?” she asked, and Ronan shook his head. “Okay. I’ll see you later then.” There was somewhere else she needed to be before she could relax.
Shanti made her way back to her old neighborhood. She did her customary check of her aunts’ house. And being in the neighborhood reminded her of Zero, and, just like every time she’d come around since she’d told him he wouldn’t see her again, she was tempted to stop by and see him.
She was only human, after all.
Well. Not anymore. But she still felt human sometimes. And she hated how weak she was, but she found herself walking past his studio every once in a while. She learned that on Wednesdays, he taught a beginning karate class to kids, and on Thursday nights, it was self-defense for women. The other days, the studio closed at six.
Yes, she’d checked.
And when she did let herself walk by, she’d look in the window and see him, and her heart would give those few hard thumps, every single time.
She was there again, telling herself she was absolutely freaking NOT going to walk past, that she would just check on her aunts’ house and then head back to Rayna’s. And then she convinced herself she should check out his alley, just in case. And then she figured she had already wimped out and gone near his place anyway, so she might as well walk past and get a look at him.
You are pathetic, girl, she thought to herself as she walked around the corner. The October evening air was unseasonably warm, and the glass door of the studio was propped open. She stopped three storefronts down when she heard his warm, smooth voice wafting out into the night.
“If you’re ever attacked, you need to fight as if you’re fighting for your life, because you very well could be. Don’t hesitate. Don’t try to plead or reason with an attacker. Use everything you have. Scream, kick, bite, punch, slap…whatever. Draw attention to yourself. Be difficult. Be aggressive. Show no mercy, because your attacker sure the hell won’t be showing you any.”
Shanti’s heart gave another hard thump. That smooth, calm, cool voice saying things she’d said herself dozens of times did all kinds of crazy things to her.
She stood off to the side, listened to him talk a while longer. And then he and another man (she guessed this was his business partner) started demonstrating moves to the class, then practicing one on one with them. Shanti walked past the front window, quickly, and saw that the studio was packed. And he looked way better than anyone had a right to.
The class ended shortly after, and the women started filing out. The business partner left, walking out the front door, and Shanti glanced inside one more time to see Zero putting away some of the visual aids they’d used for the class. She started walking away before he turned and saw her. She only got a few steps when she heard his voice.
“I know you’re out there, Shanti.”
She stopped, wanting to smack herself. This was exactly what she should not have been doing. Damn it.
She turned, and he was standing in the doorway watching her. He wore a pair of black pants and a black t-shirt. She felt her fangs lengthening in her mouth, and it had absolutely nothing to do with being hungry.
“How did you know?” she asked, trying to keep her fangs hidden.
“I saw you when you walked past the window a while ago.”
“Oh.” She looked away. “I should go.”
“You’re here. Why don’t you just come in for a minute?”
“I really shouldn’t.”
“Well. According to what you said before, you shouldn’t be here at all, right?”
“Right.”
“Too late.”
She looked up at him. He was watching her with that intense gaze, his golden eyes making her stomach flip.
“Maybe just for a minute.”
Zero nodded and stepped to the side a little so Shanti could walk past him. Once she was in, he closed and locked the front door and pulled the blinds across the front windows. Then he turned to her, crossed his arms over his chest. Watching her.
He looked kind of pissed, actually. And it was not exactly a bad look on him.
“So, what? You just happened to be in the neighborhood?” he finally asked.
“I was checking on my aunts’ house. It’s near here.” Shanti took a breath. “And then I walked by, even though I shouldn’t have.”
“Why?”
She didn’t answer, looked away from him. After a few moments, he walked over to her, stood directly in front of her.
“Why?” he asked again.
“You know why,” she said softly.
“No. I really don’t. And now you’re here despite telling me how terrible it would be for us to be around one another.”
“It’s a really bad idea,” she said.
“Well it was probably a bad idea for me to insist on talking to you after seeing what you did to that other vampire that first night. And it was probably a really stupid idea to ask you out that time, and then go out to dinner with you. And it must have been an amazingly stupid idea to give you a place to hide that werewolf.”
She sighed. “Yes. Those were all terrible ideas.”
He closed the distance between them, and she felt like she’d lose her mind if he came any closer. The smell of him, the sound of his voice. Those eyes.
“So why are you here, then?” he asked quietly.
“Because I really kind of hate that I like you so much and I had to cut you out of my life,” she said, looking away, unable to look at him anymore before she lost any resolve she had left.
“Yeah? I hate that you cut me out of your life, too. I think about you way more often than I should. Do you know that?”
She closed her eyes, shook her head.
“I do. I’m not helpless, Shanti.”
“You’re not. But you’re also mortal, and if I were a good person at all I would stop being so selfish and make myself stay away from you.”
“I’m a mortal who can take care of myself,” he said.
“You wouldn’t stand a chance against one of us,” she replied, shaking her head.
He ran his fingers down her arm, and she trembled at the sensation. “Let’s do this, then: spar with me. If I can keep up, you have to agree to give this a chance. If you automatically kick my ass, I’ll agree to your terrible idea about us not seeing each other anymore.”
She looked at him, raised her eyebrow. “My terrible idea? Really?”
He smiled then, and she swore her knees went weak. “It is a terrible idea. Tell me you can’t feel the connection between us.”
“There’s nothing there,” she said.
“You are a terrible liar, Shanti.”
“You are delusional, Zero. That, or you have a death wish.”
“I’m too stubborn to die. Ask anyone.” He walked to the center of the gleaming wood training floor. “Are we doing this? Or are you chickening out?”
“I am afraid I’ll hurt you,” she said, walking slowly toward him.
“Are all vampires this superior?”
“Yep.”
“Ugh. You’re lucky you’re hot, then,” he said, pulling his t-shirt off and tossing it aside.
/> She knew she was staring. She knew she should probably pick her jaw up off the floor.
But damn. The Good Lord had gotten every single thing right the day He’d made Zero. Amen.
Smooth golden skin, taut, sculpted muscles. Dark hair across his chest and down his stomach. She could see several angry-looking scars across his right shoulder and down his upper arm. She would bet they were on his back, too. Oddly enough, it did nothing to make him less mouthwatering. She found herself wanting to lick them, which she knew was weird.
That, and she saw several really tempting places she’d like to sink her fangs into.
Speaking of which, they were lengthening again, and she felt them poking at her lower lip. She did her best to hide them.
Zero was watching her. “Are you hungry?” he asked.
“No. Why?” she asked, still trying to keep her fangs hidden.
“Fangs, Shanti,” he said.
“I’m not hungry. I fed already.”
“Then why are they doing that?”
She glanced at him again and turned away. It was a damn good thing she couldn’t blush anymore. Wow.
“Are you going to explain the fangs or not?”
She shook her head.
“So you’re just going to let me think you want to eat me?”
She rubbed her hands across her face. “It’s warm in here. Can we open the door again?”
He laughed then, and she looked at him.
“Put your damn shirt back on, Zero,” she muttered, looking away.
“I thought we were going to fight. But I’d rather not if you’re that hungry.”
“I’m not hungry. You can’t put that much rippling muscle in front of me and not get a reaction. Especially when you smell as freaking addictive as you do. Okay?”
When she looked back at him, he was staring at her.
“Yes. I’m fangy. Vampires get fangy when we’re hungry, pissed off, or turned on. Guess which one I am.” This time, she didn’t look away, and she watched as his gaze intensified. She could see the pulse leaping at the side of his throat. “This was a terrible idea,” she said, heading for the door. Before she reached it, he was there, blocking her way.
Forever Night: A Hidden Novella Page 8
