“Once I say what I have to say, I’ll need to ask you a question. I need complete honesty from you.”
“Understood.” Another sharp glance. Impatience colored his voice. “Now will you get on with it? Tell me the rest of what Brigid said.”
“You’re not going to like it any more than I do.”
“Quit stalling.”
“Fine.” She lifted her chin. “Even before Dani was born, Brigid said the danger would come from the Pack.”
“From Pack?” The sharp tone of his voice matched the cutting look he gave her. “Pack in general, or just me?”
“Both. Before Dani was even born, she saw a vision. She warned me to avoid any and all shape-shifters. Including you. And now, her vision has proved true. Your people were the ones who kidnapped her. Shape-shifters have Dani.”
He made no sound. She studied him, worried, but couldn’t read his grim-faced expression. If she’d shocked him, he didn’t show it.
“And you have proof of this how?”
“I don’t need proof. Brigid told me in detail what would happen. She wanted me to stay with her, under her protection, for that very reason. She saw the Pack kidnap Dani. She didn’t know if you were behind it or if the threat came from others.”
Jaw tight, he continued to drive. When he finally spoke, he asked a question. “She doesn’t know why?”
“No. Now for the big question.” Letting a mocking note creep into her voice since she was wary of his answer, she turned in her seat to face him. “So, Protector. To rescue Dani, you will have to go against your own kind. Are you prepared to do that?”
“Of course.” He didn’t even hesitate. “I’ve gone against my own before. If those shifters mean to harm our little girl, I’ll kill them myself.”
She felt a prickle of pleasure at the way he phrased his declaration and then ruthlessly squashed it. “If? Why else would they have taken her, if not to harm her?”
“I don’t know. I think she might be too valuable to harm. Didn’t your priestess tell you that?”
She rubbed the back of her neck. The pulsing knot there spoke of her frustration. “No. She doesn’t know.”
“It makes no sense.” He sounded grim. “Dani is Pack and we protect our own. Why would shifters have done this?”
“Maybe they don’t want her raised by a vampire.”
“You’re her mother. Who better to raise her?”
Though he’d intuitively known Dani was valuable, he didn’t know the rest of it—what Dani was, what she could become. More than just an ordinary shape-shifter. Still trying to figure out how to tell him, she settled back in her seat and turned her head, giving herself time to think.
The brightening sunlight glared on the flat landscape, making heat spirals off in the distance. She always loved far-west Texas. The primitive surroundings had a stark kind of beauty, savage and simple, which suited her. She’d felt at home here—or had, until her daughter had been taken from her.
Now she felt like the proverbial fish out of water. Even if Brigid had told her she was close to finding her, she wasn’t certain she believed her. And Brigid’s plan? Would it truly work?
He touched her shoulder, making her jump. “Marika, I know there’s more.”
“Don’t touch me.” She had to bite the side of her cheek to keep from lashing out at him.
Narrow-eyed, he stared. A muscle worked in his jaw. “Why not? Do you honestly believe I’d hurt a child, my own daughter?”
“No. That’s not it.”
“Then why?”
“I’m angry with myself.” She spat the words. “Look at me, what I am, what I can do. Yet I failed to protect a helpless two-year-old. What does that make me?”
“What did Brigid want you to do?”
She ignored his question, repeating her own. “I asked you, what does that make me?”
“A mother who’s nearly out of her mind with worry.”
All at once, all the fury went out of her, and she sagged against the seat. “I’ve been a Huntress for a couple hundred years, yet I never knew fear until I held my baby girl in my arms. I’m trying not to panic. Do you realize how much I want my daughter? I need my daughter, now. Every instinct inside me screams that I need to do something, but what? I’m powerless, in the dark. I don’t know where she is or why they’ve taken her.”
“Your priestess has her magic. She claims to have visions. Do you think she knows more than she’s telling you?”
“She claims not to. But I’ll tell you this.” She took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain relatively calm. “If Brigid, the almighty Vampire Priestess, knows something that will help me find Dani, then I’ll do whatever she asks. That’s why we’re going where she asks us to.”
He digested this in silence. Then he asked, “And if she’s wrong?”
“Brigid is never wrong. Or so they say. But if I learn she’s only playing me for some obscure reason of her own, then neither heaven nor hell can help her. I’ll hunt her down myself and make her pay.”
He flashed her a quick smile. “There’s my Vampire Huntress.”
She wasn’t his anything.
“One thing occurs to me,” he continued. “What if the shifters took Dani to protect her from Brigid?”
Once, such a statement would have infuriated her. Now, she didn’t even flinch. “I’ve already considered every possibility, including this one, and discarded it. Why would they do that? Brigid wouldn’t harm her.”
“Are you certain?” He sounded skeptical.
“Not one hundred percent. You know as well as I do that anything’s possible. Look at what happened in your Society.”
He raised one brow. “You heard about that?”
One of the leaders of the Society of Protectors had tried to form his own organization, using cloned shifters to create the prefect Protector. He’d planned to brainwash them and make them answerable only to him and had exterminated anyone who’d gotten in his way.
“Everyone heard about that. It was used as an example among the Huntresses as what can happen with too much power.”
“Yet you seem to believe Brigid when she says it’s Pack that stole Dani.”
“She has no reason to lie.”
He continued to stare at her, skepticism plain in his face. “You think not? That’s what I thought, when things started going wrong at the Society. I dared to question them, and for that, I was almost killed.”
“That was you?”
“I was one of many who rebelled and fought back. My friend Simon tried to save a female Feral from extermination. Turned out she was his mate.”
“A Feral? Like a wild shifter?”
“We have them. More than you know. One of our duties as Protectors was to save and rehabilitate them. The ones who were too far gone, too mad, or were a danger to themselves and others, had to be exterminated. It got so bad we had a virtual standing order to kill them on sight.”
“Wow.” She bit her lip. “Now I understand why you quit.”
“Yeah. So my point is, don’t rush to judgment. If shifters took Dani, they may have had good reason.”
She didn’t want to hear such nonsense. “They have no right. How can you even say such a thing, knowing they attacked so violently? Dani is mine.”
To give him credit, he didn’t continue to press his case. Probably because he knew he didn’t have one. Instead, he simply drove as she directed, asking no questions. She let the sound of the engine and the uneven pavement under the tires soothe her frazzled nerves somewhat.
Finally, she felt she could speak calmly enough to tell him the rest of it. “Brigid is sending others to help me—us. That’s where we’re heading.”
“Reinforcements? Vampires, I assume?”
“I guess.” She knew she didn’t sound happy. “She said they would fill me in when I met up with them. I’ve gotta tell you, though, I’ve never been much of a team player.”
“Me, either.” Grim-voiced, he looked as unhappy as sh
e felt. “I mean, I had to when I was a Protector, but that’s one of the reasons I left. Things get out of hand too easily when a mob gets together.”
“Yeah. I agree. But once again, until I have a reason not to, I’ve got to do what Brigid asks, so we’re meeting up with them in a house in the mountains.”
“Where?”
She rattled off the address from memory. “I’ve been there once or twice over the years. The vampire who owns it is on an extended vacation in Europe.”
Beck frowned. “That address sounds familiar.” Keeping one hand on the wheel, he rummaged in his pocket, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper and squinting at it. “Yep. That’s the same place I’ve rented for the next six months.”
She stared, incredulous. “You rented a vampire’s house?”
“Give me a break. I didn’t know who owned it.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“No. Should it?” Grimacing, he shot her a disgusted look. “I can’t say I really care, as long as it’s nice.”
“You don’t know?”
“No. I haven’t even been by there yet. Addie’s the one who set this up. I was going to pick up my keys from her.”
Again, he’d managed to shock her. “Addie set this up?”
“Yeah.” He shot her a glance. “I don’t understand. Why is this so weird to you?”
“Let’s see. This entire thing has been nothing but a nightmare. First, someone grabbed me and drugged me. Then you show up, captured by the same people.”
“And now they’ve got our daughter.”
“And now they’ve got my daughter. Oh, and then you tell me you’re renting a house in the middle of a vampire enclave. What’s next?” She couldn’t keep the agitation from her voice. “A vampire-shifter war? Addie knows better. She might be human, but she’s always been incredibly savvy about this kind of stuff.”
“What kind of stuff? You’re not making sense.” Beck sounded genuinely confused. “Who cares where I rent a house? A war? Why would you even say such a thing?”
“Because a shifter renting Vlad’s house would be like lighting a match to gunpowder.”
“Aren’t you being a bit dramatic? Things aren’t that fragile. The truce between vamps and shifters has been in place for at least ten years.”
“The truce has always been shaky. And ten years is nothing to a vampire. Let me give you an example. Four years ago, when Juliet and I visited here for one of Vlad’s famous parties, several of the older vamps got upset that a shifter dared to enter their territory. I had to do a lot of fancy politicking to calm them down. Vlad finally asked us to leave.”
Beck shook his head. “Are you kidding me?”
“No.”
“For God’s sake, this is the twenty-first century.”
“I know and you know that, but we’re talking about vampires that are centuries old. They barely give lip service to the truce. I’ve heard only Brigid’s power keeps them reined in.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, he swallowed hard. “This is completely unbelievable. But since you promised not to lie to me, I have to accept that it’s true. Which makes it even worse that Brigid wants you to go there. How do you think her vampire helpers are going to react to me? Won’t they have a problem with me being a shifter?”
“Probably. But then again, they’ve been handpicked by Brigid, so I don’t know. Maybe that’s why she’s gotten involved in all this. Usually, she doesn’t pay much attention to the goings-on of lesser beings.”
“I see.”
She gave him a curious look. “What will you do if they do have a problem with you?”
“I don’t want to start a war. Most importantly, I don’t want to do anything that would cause a delay in getting Dani back.”
Despite herself, his words touched her. “Thanks for that. I wonder if Brigid knows yet that I’m bringing you with me. She must know.”
“What does she have to gain by playing games?”
“And endangering the life of my child.” She finished what he did not.
“Exactly.”
She wondered how they could think so alike. After all, they came from completely different backgrounds. “I hope, once her minions get here, they’ll fill us in on what exactly is going on. This delay—any delay—is killing me. I need to find my baby and make sure she’s safe.”
Beck didn’t respond. She glanced his way to find him intent on the road ahead, the clean lines of his chiseled profile, so eerily familiar, again caught her by surprise.
Mate. The word whispered in her soul, horrifying her. Dani resembled her father so much, looking at him made her chest hurt. Suddenly she wondered if it would be easier with him out of the picture. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”
Now he turned to look at her, his gaze blank. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you have a choice. I don’t know what Brigid has planned, who she’s sending to help us. This could be dangerous for you. You can still walk away.”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “Marika, do you honestly think I’d abandon my own child because I was worried about my safety?” His voice rose. “What kind of an ass do you take me for?”
She had to smile. Then, inexplicably, her throat closed, and her eyes filled with tears.
Beck only saw the smile. “You seriously find this amusing?” Fury simmered in his voice. He stomped hard on the accelerator, sending the truck fishtailing. Tight-lipped, he said nothing else as they barreled down the road, heading into the rising sun.
She tried to speak, but knew if she did, she’d only start weeping. Ruthlessly, she tried to get herself under control. She spent a few seconds bucking herself up before she could turn her head and face him.
Opening her mouth, she began to explain, but he cut her off before she could get out a single word.
“You know, sometimes I wonder if you knew me at all….” His voice trailed off.
This got her attention. “What do you mean?”
Glancing at her, the hard lines of his jaw seemed to soften. “My sister loved you so much.” When he swallowed, she couldn’t help but follow the line of his masculine throat. “I miss her.”
“I do, too.” She awkwardly tried to comfort him, though she couldn’t bring herself to actually touch him.
“I loved her, too.”
“After she died, every breath I took felt like it seared my lungs. The guilt was tremendous.”
This was what she’d meant when she’d asked him if he hated Dani. She felt as if she had rocks in her mouth. “How did you manage to go on?”
“I ran in place.” He gave her a quick, humorless smile. “You always hear the phrase take it day by day, you know? But there’s some truth in that, though in my case I took it minute by minute, hour by hour. I told myself, if I could just make it until noon, until one, until five, I’d be okay. Every single day, I lived like that. And somehow, the sun kept rising and setting, the world moved on. I existed and learned to bury my pain.”
While she’d had her pregnancy to distract her. “You’re brave, you know.”
“Not really.” He waved her away. “You lost your best friend, too.”
“I had my little girl. If anything happens to her…”
“Your Priestess would have told you if Dani was in immediate danger, would she not?”
“I don’t know.” She knew she sounded flat. “I don’t know what she saw or didn’t see. She wasn’t exactly forthcoming with details.”
“Something’s got to give.”
“You think?” Raw sarcasm mingled with the anger. “If Brigid has even the faintest inkling of where they’ve taken my daughter, she’d sure as hell better share it.”
“I’m sure she will. Why else would she bother sending reinforcements?”
“That’s another thing I don’t get. Why does Brigid think we need reinforcements? I’m a Vampire Huntress, you’re a Pack Protector. We’re two elite members of our species. Surely the two of us can handle a couple of
ordinary kidnappers, even if they are shifters.”
“Maybe they’re not ordinary.”
She made a rude sound. “All I know is Brigid’s people had better be waiting when we get there. Otherwise, they can try to catch up with us.”
“We don’t know where to look.”
“True. A major sticking point. Without Brigid, we could go running off in a thousand wrong directions. Maybe you should try your Protector friends again. They have the technology to help us locate her.”
“They’ll call me when they’re ready.”
“I’ll give them another half hour, then I’ll call them myself. Look, there.” She pointed ahead, where the road undulated down a hill and across a flat expanse of land. “Turn left once we cross that valley.”
“Toward the mesa?”
“Yep. Vlad’s house is on the incline.”
She wasn’t kidding. The house, stucco and glass and weathered cedar, perched halfway up the mesa as though a hardscrabble climb had gained it a foothold there. The morning sun reflected off the wall of windows, sending bright pinpricks of light back out into the rising heat of the day.
As they pulled up in the driveway, the garage door began to rise.
Startled, Beck looked at Marika. “Do you have an opener?”
She shook her head. “No. But look, they obviously do.”
Three vampires stood in the empty garage, so still they might have been made of stone, waiting.
Chapter 6
Brigid’s reinforcements. Hellhounds. Beck let the truck coast to a stop and killed the ignition. The vampires hadn’t moved.
He glanced at Marika. “Do you know them?”
“One of them looks familiar. The woman, though I don’t know where I’ve seen her.” She didn’t sound happy. “The other two, I don’t recognize. But they’re old, all of them. Ancient.”
And now coming toward them. Like most of their kind, the vampires moved effortlessly, with an otherworldly sort of grace. Their perfect skin glowed pearly white in the bright sun. The two males were tall and slender, wearing dark suits that were both well-fitting and expensively made. With their well-groomed hair and chiseled features, they looked savagely elegant. In direct contrast, the female appeared exquisitely deadly in her curve-hugging, black spandex jumpsuit and five-inch stiletto heels.
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