Kelsey looked away from the monitor, watching Malachi as he prowled the room. He didn’t speak. Settling in the seat, but careful not to touch the computer setup, she looked at the other Council members. “I really don’t know what to do.”
“Could she be dead?”
Kelsey stared at Niko. Sometimes, she really disliked that vampire. Giving him an icy smile, she said, “No, she couldn’t be dead. That we would have felt.”
“Not if she chose to hide it,” he countered. “And we all know how depressed she has been. Borderline suicidal, even.”
“Borderline suicidal isn’t the same thing as suicidal.”
“All it would take is a nudge in that direction.” Niko shook his head, returning Kelsey’s stare with a dark one of his own.
To give him credit, she could tell he wasn’t happy with the news of Nessa’s disappearance. Although Niko had fought tooth and nail to resist the truth of things, once he acknowledged Nessa still lived, he had shown her the same respect he’d given her in the past. Even when Nessa was acting more batshit crazy than normal.
“She’s not as strong as she used to be,” Niko said quietly. He looked away, his mouth unsmiling, his face grim. “We all know that.”
“She’s stronger than you think,” Malachi bit off, stalking up to the monitor and giving Niko a scathing glare. “She lives with pain the likes of which you cannot imagine. A weak soul couldn’t do that.”
“She’s strong. But she’s not who she once was. She doesn’t welcome this second chance she’s been given.” Niko didn’t back down, although Kelsey could sense his wariness, even though hundreds of miles separated them. He feared Malachi.
But then again, just about every vampire on earth feared Malachi.
“She doesn’t view it as a second chance,” Andreas murmured. “To her, it’s a curse. A punishment. Would it be so unlikely to see her ending it?”
Kelsey’s heart clenched. Tears stung her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. Her voice was husky as she replied, “I know she suffers. I’ve felt it—and I’m sorry, but you cannot understand that grief unless you have felt it. But Nessa’s not a quitter. She never has been. If nothing else, that alone will keep her from ending it.”
Nibbling on her lower lip, she shot the sleeping vampire a look. She truly didn’t think Nessa had gone and killed herself—she was alive. In her heart, Kelsey believed that. But there was a small doubt, one that whispered what if they are right . . . ?
What if they were right . . . and what if that truly was Elias there, reborn centuries later and now a vampire?
He’d live a long life this time.
If she had killed herself . . .
If that was Elias, and he’d come back for Nessa . . .
So many ifs. So many questions.
Most of them, she couldn’t even voice yet. She wasn’t going to say a damn thing about Dominic to anybody, not until they knew what was going on. They couldn’t risk Nessa hearing anything about it—it would be too cruel.
Of course, first they had to find her.
“Nessa isn’t a quitter,” Tobias said, echoing Kelsey’s words. “She’s a fighter, a born fighter. In both lives.” A faint smile curled his lips and he met Kelsey’s eyes, gave her a sad smile. Shared pain, shared miseries. They both loved Nessa.
“Could she just be hiding herself from us?”
Toying with one of her braids, Kelsey shrugged. “I really don’t know. I’m a good witch.” It was simple fact. She was good. She knew her power and she knew that as she aged it would grow. The longer she lived, the more powerful she’d become. In time, she might even outreach Nessa—especially since Kelsey was mated to a vamp. Malachi and Kelsey shared a bond between their souls and through the bond, she’d inherited his near immortality.
For as long as he lived, Kelsey would—unless she was killed. Old age, sickness, they couldn’t kill her. She wouldn’t fade and wither away as Nessa had done.
“I’m a good witch,” she murmured again, staring down at the floor. Then she looked up and met Tobias’s gaze. “But Nessa’s better. If I lived a thousand years, I might eventually be her equal—assuming she never grew any stronger. Which isn’t likely. I would say that I couldn’t hide my presence from my fellow Council members—I could cloak myself, and I could hide. But you would still feel me. Nessa, though, I just don’t know. If any Hunter alive can do it, it would be her.”
After a few strained minutes of silence, Tobias glanced at the two vampires with him and then he said, “Right now, I fear there is nothing we can do but think on the matter. Perhaps we should convene again in the evening. Could you come to Brendain?”
Kelsey winced and shot a look at the vampire lying on the bed. Tobias tried to follow her gaze, but the bed wouldn’t be visible to the little camera. Giving him a weak smile, she said, “Now really isn’t a good time for me to be leaving. I’ve got a battered vamp on my hands—he took a bad blow to the head, crushed his skull. Until he wakes up, I’m not leaving him.”
Niko opened his mouth to say something, but Malachi cut him off. “We needn’t come to Brendain, Tobias. We need to figure out what to do about Nessa, but we have a bit of problem here as well.”
“Could we be of any help?” Andreas offered.
Kelsey hoped the panic she felt inside didn’t show on her face. Since the others weren’t in the room, they wouldn’t hear the jump in her heartbeat or scent her nervousness. As long as nothing showed on her face, they were good. With what she hoped was a convincing smile, she said, “No. It’s just the vampire. He was in a bad way even before he got hurt.”
They agreed upon a time to speak again later in the day and then Malachi shut the computer down, smiling as Kelsey continued to keep well away from the monitor. “You know, pet, just touching it isn’t going to harm the bloody machine.”
She made a face at him. “Don’t bet on it. Computers hate magic. More, they hate me.”
“Likely because you hate them.” Then he folded his arms over his chest and studied Dominic.
In that moment, the younger vampire stirred. Tension spiked in the air—a sure sign the vamp was coming back to awareness.
Three seconds later, his eyes opened. A heartbeat later, he was on his feet and staring around in confusion.
His gaze lit on Malachi and his eyes narrowed. His body tensed like he was going to pounce.
“You.”
DOMINIC didn’t know what the hell was going on, but he recognized the vampire right away. Kelsey pushed between them right before he would have lunged for the bastard.
“Let’s not do that again, okay?” Kelsey put a hand on his chest and shoved. He went to go around and she just sidestepped with him, neatly keeping her slender body between the two vampires.
“I just want to know where in the hell she is.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes. Her voice was placid as she said, “Then perhaps you should ask nicely instead of attacking Malachi.”
Extra emphasis on the Malachi.
Dominic stilled, staring at the big, red-haired bastard. Shit. Malachi. Yeah, he’d felt the bastard’s power earlier but he hadn’t realized who it was. He’d seen the ancient vampire a few times, on other occasions when he had visited Excelsior in the past, but nobody had ever mentioned who in the hell he was.
Every Hunter alive knew that name, though. It was the name handed out in case one of them screwed up. If the screwup was bad enough, his name was mentioned—you didn’t want Malachi coming to clean up your mess, because he’d also come kick your ass while he was at it, if he decided the screwup was in part your fault. Or worse—all your fault.
Yeah, every Hunter knew that name.
Even now, even banked, the vamp’s power slammed against Dominic. He had an instinctive urge to go to his knees, lower his head and a bunch of submissive shit that didn’t sit at all well with him. Rafe had once told him it was the strength of a budding Master that let a vampire resist any submissive urges. Dominic couldn’t care less about b
eing a Master, but if it kept him from kneeling before this guy, he was more than fine with it.
Jutting his chin up, he spat out, “If you expect me to kiss your old ass, you’re out of your mind.”
“And you are out of your nut,” Malachi shot back, his blue eyes swirling, spiking with power. Then abruptly, his face relaxed. His eyes gave nothing away as he asked, “So, Elias, if you want to ask me something, be on with it.”
Dominic scowled. “My name is Dominic.”
The vampire shot Kelsey a look. Then once more, he focused those unreadable blue eyes on Dominic’s face. “Well, then. Dominic it is. What did you want to ask me, Dominic?”
Where is she? The question danced on the tip of his tongue. Rubbing the heel of his hand over his chest, he glanced all around and then looked back at Kelsey. “The cabin we were in earlier . . . who had been staying there?”
“A fellow Hunter,” Kelsey said, her voice cautious. Her eyes were as unreadable as Malachi’s. “A witch.”
“What’s her name?”
Neither of them spoke.
Silence stretched out between them.
Taking a step toward Malachi, he snarled, “What in the fuck is her name? I need to find her.”
“Why?” If he was at all irritated by Dominic’s spiking temper, it didn’t show. “You don’t even know her name . . . why it is so important to you? Who is she to you?”
Dominic closed his eyes. Years of dreams slammed into him, the weight of all the longing piling on his shoulders, damn near driving him to his knees. The ancient vampire couldn’t do it, but his need for this woman could.
Nessa . . . my Nessa. Pretty little witch.
Her voice a husky murmur in his ear. I love you, Elias . . .
Elias.
His eyes flew open and he stared at Malachi. “Elias . . . you called me Elias.”
Malachi inclined his head. “Indeed, I did. But that isn’t your name, right, mate? It’s Dominic. Answer me, then . . . who is she to you? This woman whose name you don’t even know?”
Dominic fisted his hands, pressed them to his head, fighting the onslaught of memories, trying not to get lost in them. “I know her . . .” he muttered. Lowering his hands, he stared at Malachi. “A few weeks ago, I had a dream. You were standing with her, on the roof of the Willis Tower. The fucking roof. They don’t let people go up there, but then again, dreams don’t always make sense. In my dream, you were there with her . . . and she acted like she was going to jump.”
A muscle jerked in the ancient vampire’s jaw. Off to the side, Dominic heard Kelsey’s breath hitch in her chest.
“How did you know about that?” Malachi asked, his voice low and hard, demanding.
Dominic shook his head. “I just told you . . . I fucking dreamed it. A year ago, there was another dream, and both of you were it. The two of you . . . and her. The woman. You were all in a cemetery, and she was crying.”
Malachi closed his eyes.
“Why did you call me Elias?” Blood roared in his ears, and his heart began to beat slowly at first but then faster and faster. Damn thing hadn’t beat like this since his Change. It was enough to make him light-headed. What was going on? “What in the hell is her name?”
Malachi opened his eyes. Through his lashes, they glowed, sparked and swirled. That banked power began to pulse. “If you’re who I think you might be, you should already know her name . . . Elias.”
I love you, Elias.
Nessa . . . my Nessa.
Remembered pain tore his chest.
Dear God, that pain.
He could feel it, feel that knife tearing through him, fiery hot, then icy cold. The blood as it pumped out of him, in a hot, unending river of red. And her tears as they fell on his face.
He could feel it . . . like it was yesterday.
Staggering, he clapped a hand over his chest, but there was no wound. The pain had been in a dream—a dream he’d dreamed hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. A dream . . . or a memory.
Where he lay dying in the arms of the woman he loved . . . leaving her alone. Alone, with nothing more than a promise to find her again.
From the time he’d been just a kid, he’d dreamed of her. Dreams that made no sense to a child, dreams where he’d been making love to a woman even though he had no idea what sex was. They’d come sporadically for most of his life, but the past few years, he could hardly sleep without dreaming of her. Since he’d become a Hunter, they’d gotten stronger. More real.
Somewhere inside his head, some semblance of sanity, some semblance of logic, tried to stir. None of this made sense. None of this was possible.
He couldn’t possibly have dreamed of a woman he had never met.
Yet he had. He did.
Dominic clenched his hands into fists, then forced them to relax. Slanting a look at Kelsey, he asked hoarsely, “Do you have any pictures of her? I need to see her. I need to see what she looks like.”
“Don’t you already know what she looks like?” Malachi asked quietly. “After all, you saw her up there with me, dancing around like she might fly if she fell. If you dreamed of her, you know what she looks like.”
Dominic shook his head. “Right now, I don’t know whether I know anything. Nothing makes sense.”
“Describe her for me,” Kelsey suggested. “If it sounds like her, maybe we can find a picture.”
Impatience tangled inside his gut. He didn’t have time for this. He’d wasted so much time already. Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared at Kelsey.
The red-haired witch returned his gaze levelly.
“You have any idea what’s going on?”
Kelsey shook her head. “I have no clue. But if you work with me, I’ll do my damnedest to help you figure it out.”
Dominic pinched the bridge of his nose. Lowering his hand, he sighed and stared off into the distance. “This won’t make any sense. In my dreams, she doesn’t always look the same. Hell, I don’t think I look the same. Sometimes it’s like a different time, I don’t know when. History isn’t my thing. But it seemed like a long time ago. The clothes . . .” His voice trailed off, and he glanced at Kelsey. “Back before I was Changed, I had a girlfriend who used to like those ren-fairs. You ever been to one?”
Kelsey cocked a brow at him. “I think I’ve been to one or two.” She had a bland look on her face.
Off to the side, Malachi snorted. “One or two, pet?”
“A year. One or two a year,” she amended.
“In some of the dreams, everybody was dressed like that. The simpler clothes, though. Does that make sense?”
Her voice cautious, Kelsey replied, “Yes . . . I think it does.”
“I’m glad it makes sense to somebody,” Dominic muttered. He rubbed the back of his neck. Closing his eyes, he brought her face to mind. “She had long hair, golden brown, and she wore it in a braid. At night, she would sit by the fire and I’d watch her brush it. Sometimes, when I woke up, I could still smell wood smoke.”
He glanced up, found both of them watching him with a heavy intense gaze. Spinning away from them, he stared at the wall. “You have no idea how long I’ve been wondering if I’ve lost my mind. I’ve dreamed of her for years.”
“Well, mate”—Malachi sighed—“if you’ve lost your mind, then I’m right there with you. Because I believe you. Tell me more about these dreams. In your dreams, who was she to you?”
“Everything.” In those dreams, for whatever time he was with her, he felt whole. He felt complete. And when he woke, and realized he was alone, he felt that much emptier for it. “In my dreams, she’s everything.”
“Soft bastard, aren’t you?” Malachi grinned at him.
In that moment, Dominic was glad he hadn’t fed yet. If he had the blood to spare, he knew he would’ve been blushing.
Malachi’s grin faded as quickly as it had come. His face solemn, his voice somber, he said, “Tell me more, then. Put aside your romantic inclinations, and tell me who she was. A
friend? A lover?”
“My wife.” Dominic closed his eyes. “In the dreams, she’s my wife.”
“Is it the same in all the dreams?” Kelsey asked. “Is she the same?”
“No.” Dominic shook his head. “Only in the ones that seem like they happen a long time ago.”
“Tell me more.” Malachi’s face showed no expression.
Dominic narrowed his eyes. “You’re awfully interested in my dream life, old man.”
Malachi gave him a toothy smile. “If you want my help, you’ll indulge me.”
“Shit.” Dominic started to pace the small cabin, feeling restless and edgy. Trapped. He needed to find her. He needed to go to her. He needed her. That restless energy built inside him, brewing, boiling, threatening to burn out of control. The taste of blood filled his mouth. Dismayed, he lifted a hand and felt the bulge of fangs behind his upper lip.
Control. He needed to get control. But it was hard, so fucking hard. It had been years since he had this much trouble finding self-control.
Stalking to the corner, he braced his hands on the wall. Although he didn’t need to breathe, he still did on occasion. There was something soothing about it, something calming in the passage of air traveling down his throat and into his lungs. He forced himself to take a long, slow breath, then a second, and a third. That restless boiling energy began to ease. After a minute, he was able to sheathe his fangs.
Keeping his voice low, and his hands on the wall, Dominic quietly whispered, “I need to find her. Are you going to help me or not?”
Behind him, he heard Malachi sigh. “Look, lad. Whether you believe it or not, I do want to help. I need to know what’s going on first. So you have to help me before I can help you.”
“If I knew what was going on, I’d tell you,” Dominic snarled. Low in his gut, something began to burn. Leave. He needed to leave.
The urge started as a whisper, slowly and steadily spiraling up to a wail. His fingers dug into the brick wall, as though some part of him wanted to claw his way out of the cabin.
Behind him, he heard a whisper of sound. It was Kelsey; he recognized her scent, and her warmth—vampires didn’t have that warmth. Setting his jaw, he turned to face her.
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