“Hey, come on, why do you always leave so quickly?” He stood and motioned toward the bar with his head. “Grab a drink, come and dance. It’ll be fun.”
“Um, thanks, but I have somewhere important to be.” An attic, to be precise, but that made it no less important.
“Oh, well, maybe next time.”
“Maybe,” Elle said, though she knew it was a lie.
She made her way back across the crowded dance floor, one hand near her front pocket, just in case someone had seen the Essence in the vial and tried to pickpocket her. Not for the first time, she wondered if it were possible to use her strange power on herself. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to wipe away some of her own painful memories? It was so tempting to try, and yet she knew it was a terrible idea. The memory of every horrible moment from the past seven years was exactly what gave her purpose. It was what reminded her why it was so important to collect as much Essence as she could.
She’d just reached the other side of the room when a hand encircled her wrist and tugged her back. Against her will, she was swung around, coming face to face with another chest, this one covered in a tight silver shirt. A tattoo of a barcode disappeared below the collar. It was the man she’d dodged past earlier. “Hey, what are you—”
“Hello there,” he shouted over the music. Elle’s glare rose to his face—and landed on a pair of blood-red eyes. Stars above. What was a vampire doing inside Club Onyx? If anyone got close enough to see his eyes … If he pushed aside his straggly hair to reveal ears that weren’t pointed …
“I’ve seen you around,” he continued.
“I don’t think so,” she answered, trying to remove her arm from his vise-like grip and failing. Fortunately, he wasn’t squeezing the wrist she’d landed on earlier. “You must have me confused with someone else.”
He shook his head. “I’m not confused. I’ve seen you twice in the past two weeks. I know you meet people and do … something for them. I have a suspicion about what that something is, but I—”
Elle wrenched her arm free before he could get another word out. She twisted away and tried to run, but a hand grasped for her, scratching down her shoulder before hooking in the back of her shorts and yanking her backward. She lost her balance and tumbled toward the ground for the second time that night—though this fall was at least slowed by the number of bodies around her.
The crowd shifted, dancers shoved against one another, and irritated exclamations mingled with the pounding music as Elle’s backside finally hit the floor. A hand grabbed her hair and pulled. She cried out as she tried to get to her back pocket. If she could just reach the small knife she always brought with her—
And then—“Vampire!” someone yelled. The grip vanished from her hair. Several people lunged past her. She put her hand down to push herself up, then snatched it hastily back before a glossy black stiletto heel could pierce a hole through it. She tried to scoot backward, but that left her bumping into knees and swinging purses and several more pairs of shoes.
“Here, let me help you,” a voice said just as hands fitted beneath her arms and lifted her swiftly to her feet. “Are you okay?” he asked, turning her around before she could protest. “Oh, hey, it’s you.” Elle looked up into Dex’s silvery blue eyes as he asked, “Did that vamp hurt you?”
“No, no. I’m fine.” Though when she stopped to think about it for a moment, her skin burned where the vampire had scratched her. “I, um, I need to go.” She was utterly failing in the draw-no-attention-to-yourself department tonight. “Thanks for helping me—” The crowd jostled around them, and she almost lost her balance again. Dex slid his arm across her back and fought against the crowd as he guided her to the edge of the room. The fabric of his shirt stung her skin as it rubbed the scratches on her back, but she was grateful for the assistance. Only once they’d made it safely outside away from the shoving bodies and past the queue of people jostling to get inside did Dex remove his arm from around her.
“Thanks,” she said, after taking in a gulp of the cool night air. She almost asked why he was still here, but getting home was her priority now. A glance at the pocket watch around her neck told her it was twenty minutes to midnight. “I really need to go,” she said.
“Is it your bedtime soon?” he asked, a teasing edge to his tone.
Without meaning to, she found herself smiling in response. “Something like that.” She turned and stepped off the sidewalk.
“Wait, before you go …” Elle stopped and twisted around to look at Dex. His eyes moved back and forth across her face before he asked, “Will you be here tomorrow night?”
Her heart pattered double time at the realization that he wanted to see her again, but there was no way she could agree to that. “I never visit the same place two nights in a row.”
One eyebrow inched upward. “How mysterious.”
Before he could ask anything else, Elle said, “Goodnight,” and hurried away. The scratches running down her back stung like hell, but she waited until she was at the corner of the block and almost out of sight before reaching one hand over her shoulder to gingerly touch her skin. She felt something wet, and her feet stumbled to a halt. Pulling her hand back quickly, she looked down. Her heart lurched. A red smear covered her fingers. She was bleeding. And Dex had wrapped his arm around her.
With a pounding heart, Elle threw a glance over her shoulder toward the club entrance. No one was looking at her. Not even Dex, who was staring down at his hand with a perplexed expression. Then his gaze lifted, landing on hers a moment later, and she could tell in an instant that he knew. Human, his eyes seemed to accuse. Without pausing a moment longer, Elle turned and ran.
Dex watched the blond girl vanish around the corner before frowning again at the red smear on his palm. He’d assumed she was fae, but her blood clearly told a different story. He wiped his hand on his jeans, then rolled up the sleeve of his shirt to hide the reddish brown marks. He didn’t need anyone noticing and getting suspicious. He could prove pretty quickly that he was fae, but there were other reasons he didn’t want anyone taking a closer look at him.
“There you are,” a familiar voice said behind him, and Dex turned as Oliver ran out of the club.
“Did you get him?” Dex asked.
“No.” Olly pushed his hair away from his sweaty forehead and breathed deeply. He nodded to the other side of the street, and Dex took the hint. They crossed quickly before Olly continued. “I couldn’t catch him through the crowd, and once he got outside the back and had space to move, he was way too fast. I shot a blood tracker at him, but I must have missed.”
“Excuses, excuses,” a third voice drawled, and Dex and Olly looked around as Xander crossed the street, hands pushed into his pockets.
“You could have caught him if you hadn’t been late to your position in the alley,” Olly reminded Xander with a punch to his shoulder.
“Hey, this was a spur-of-the-moment operation, remember?” Xander said. “There weren’t supposed to be any vamps here tonight. Didn’t the message say Tuesday? And didn’t they just change the location?”
“Yes,” Dex said. He’d been just as surprised as Olly and Xander when he saw the man with the red eyes slip past the bouncer along with a group of giggling women too tipsy to notice the vampire in their midst. It was moments after Dex had spoken to the human girl, and he’d been about to leave. But the sight of a vampire entering Club Onyx changed his plans. “I don’t think this vampire has anything to do with the Allegiant, though,” he continued. “He wasn’t meeting any others. We scoured the place and didn’t spot any.” A chill crept across Dex’s skin as his mind replayed the moment the vampire had lashed out and tugged the human girl back. Was it simply because he had caught the scent of her blood? Or was he after her for another reason? Either way, if he wasn’t part of the Allegiant, then he probably had nothing to do with the abductions Dex, Olly and Xander had been investigating. “It looked like he was here for that girl,” Dex finished.
; “The one you almost flattened on the sidewalk?” Xander asked with a snort. He pushed a hand through his messy bronze hair. “I don’t blame her for running from you.”
“Yeah, sorry, man.” Olly clapped a hand on Dex’s shoulder. “I know you saved her from a vampire, but that’s not enough to make up for embarrassing a lady in front of a crowd.”
“Apparently not,” Dex answered, frowning in the direction the girl had run. He contemplated telling his friends the real reason she’d bolted, but decided to keep it to himself.
“Not used to having a girl flee in the opposite direction, are you?” Xander commented.
“Yeah, must be a new experience for you,” Olly added. “Don’t they normally swoon and fall into your open arms?”
Dex laughed. “Oh, is that what I did wrong? You mean I was supposed to use my arms to catch her, not the floor?”
“See? You’re learning. Soon you’ll be—Oof!” Olly’s words ended in a grunt as Dex elbowed him in the ribs.
“I don’t know why I keep either of you around,” Dex said, walking away from the purple glow of Club Onyx and toward the alley behind Jazzers, the all-night pizza joint.
“You’d miss us too much if we were gone,” Xander called after him.
Dex shook his head but didn’t fight the grin that pulled at his lips. Olly and Xander had annoyed the hell out of him for longer than he could remember, but he couldn’t imagine life without them. So different—Olly short and pale and reserved, Xander tall and tanned and confident—yet equally loyal. Which meant that right now, they were just as determined as Dex to find the vampire extremist group known as the Allegiant. “Can we focus on what’s important?” he asked as Olly caught up to him. Xander’s lazy stride left him several paces behind, but Dex knew he was listening. “You intercepted a message just before that vamp showed up,” Dex said to Olly. “Something about the location of Tuesday’s meeting being changed?”
“Right, yes. I’ve got the new coordinates here.” Olly produced his phone from a pocket. “You still want to check it out tonight?”
“Yes. So we know what to expect before we get there on Tuesday.”
“Okay, let me see …”
Dex glanced away from Olly and turned his gaze upward as a shadow passed over the alley. Dragon shifter? Pegasus? Oversized phoenix? But the shadow was gone before Dex could figure out the shape or scale of whatever creature had flown past.
“It’s in Belgravia,” Olly announced, drawing Dex’s attention back to him. “At the old fairground.”
“Abandoned and creepy,” Xander said from behind them. “Seems appropriate.”
“I don’t think they appreciate stereotypes like that,” Olly said.
“Which is exactly why he said it,” Dex reminded Olly, knowing he would find a smirk on Xander’s face if he looked over his shoulder.
“I guess I should be glad he’s at least paying attention to what we’re saying,” Olly said.
“Of course I’m paying attention,” Xander answered. “I’m keeping my eyes peeled for more vamps. And pretty girls. You know, in case someone else is about to dazzle Dex so much he can’t see where he’s going again.”
“I was not dazzled,” Dex grumbled, hating that there was some truth to Xander’s words. There had been something about the girl that made him pause. Something familiar. Something that tugged at the edge of his memory. Probably just the way she smelled, he decided. Like apple blossoms. The scent conjured up fond memories of the hours he used to spend running through orchards as a child. He could probably blame the overwhelming sense of nostalgia for the fact that he’d behaved like an idiot and asked to see her again. Thank goodness she’d said no. I never visit the same place two nights in a row. He’d almost laughed at that. It was so similar to the rule he’d been about to break: Never spend more than one evening with a girl.
“You sure she didn’t use some kind of charm on you?” Xander asked, startling Dex as he appeared at his side. “’Cause she certainly distracted you enough to keep you from running after the vamp.”
“Because I thought you guys had it handled,” Dex replied. “Next time, I’ll have to catch him myself.”
“Next time,” Xander said, “there’ll be loads of them, and your lazy ass will have no choice but to join the hunt.”
“Lazy ass indeed,” Dex muttered, reaching out to shove Xander sideways.
With a hoot of laughter, Xander dodged out of the way. “Seriously, how slow are you tonight? I think you’ve been bewitched.”
“Not possible,” Dex answered immediately, which only made Xander laugh harder. But it wasn’t possible. The girl couldn’t have bewitched Dex. She was just a human.
Elle made it back to her street breathless and with a stitch in her side. Pressing one hand beneath the right side of her ribcage, she stared up as she caught her breath. Her home was a tall, skinny townhouse wedged between other tall, skinny townhouses on a pretty street in Willowton, a not-too-shabby borough of Vale City. The front door was only a few steps away, but since she hadn’t left through it, she certainly couldn’t return that way. Her eyes skimmed past the three floors and landed on the attic at the top of the house. Climbing wasn’t usually a problem, but her sore wrist might make it more challenging.
She pulled the pocket watch out from beneath her tank top—she’d shoved it down there while running to keep it from bouncing around too much—and her heart squeezed when she saw the position of the minute hand. “Stars,” she muttered. She was about to take ‘cutting it fine’ to a new level.
She hurried toward the ivy-covered trellis that ran from the ground all the way to the roof on the left side of the building. Salvia had got someone to make sure it was firmly secured to the house when they moved in years ago. “If I can’t have my gardens and orchards,” she’d said, “I’ll at least have that damn ivy on the outside of the house.”
Elle hooked her fingers into the diamond shapes hidden behind the leaves, raised one boot, and began to climb. She gritted her teeth as the ache in her wrist intensified, but she didn’t slow down. Rustling the leaves as little as possible, she ascended the side of her home, quickly reaching the ledge that ran the width of the house beneath the attic window. She pulled herself onto it—sucking in a breath as her wrist screamed at her—and shuffled sideways until she reached the window. Slowly, silently, she slid the window up, sat on the sill, and swung her legs inside. Her boots scuffed the wooden floor, and she cringed at the sound, freezing for a moment. But there was no time to waste. She stood, pulled the window down, and stepped away.
Just in time.
Barely two seconds later, gold lines raced horizontally and vertically across the window, sealing Elle inside. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw the same glowing lines barring the door on the other side of the attic. The gold chain-shaped tattoo encircling her right ankle burned briefly in unison with the glowing lines. Then the burn was gone, along with the bright gold light, leaving dull metal bars across the window and door. By morning, when it was time for Elle to go downstairs and begin preparing breakfast, they would be gone.
She crossed the moonlit attic, passing the screen that concealed a basin, toilet, and small shower. An old striped rug covered the center of the room, and on the other side stood her bed. It creaked as she sat on the edge. She reached down and tugged her boots off, then removed her fake ear tips. The ear tips would end up inside the secret compartment at the back of her wardrobe, which was where her sparkly clothing and makeup—the items she’d gathered over the years without Salvia noticing—were hidden.
The only other pieces of furniture in the room were a wooden table and chair, and it was the chair Elle headed for next. After climbing onto it, she reached for the box hidden on top of one of the beams. She pulled it down and placed the vial of Essence inside, then returned the box to its hiding place and climbed off the chair. She removed her watch necklace and pocketknife, and turned her phone off, sliding all three items between the mattress and the bed
base a moment later. The pocket watch was the only valuable thing she had left from her father, and if Salvia got hold of it, she’d probably try to sell it.
“Elle?”
As if conjured up by thought alone, Salvia’s voice pierced the quiet night and echoed up the stairway outside the attic door. Elle froze. Don’t come upstairs, she begged silently. But the clack of shoes on the wooden steps announced Salvia’s ascent.
“Stars above,” Elle muttered. She had no time to change, no time to remove her makeup. She grabbed the boots and ear tips and hurried on tiptoe to hide them inside her wardrobe. Then she tugged back the patchwork bedspread on her bed and dove beneath it, making sure to pull it right up to her shoulders to cover the glittery strap of her tank top. Turned away from the door, and with her hair partially covering her face, she hoped her makeup wouldn’t be noticeable.
The sizzle of magic indicated the confinement charm lifting from the door, and a moment later, the hinges squeaked as the door swung open. A moment of silence passed before Salvia’s voice, brittle and cold as ice, reached Elle’s ears. “What have you been doing up here, Elle?”
Elle didn’t respond. With her eyes sealed shut, she did her best to keep her breathing slow and even.
“Elle,” Salvia repeated, her voice drifting through the air like a chill breeze. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” She took a step closer. Then another.
Breathe, Elle told herself. Just. Breathe.
Salvia muttered something Elle couldn’t make out. A curse of frustration, perhaps? Elle didn’t care, as long as it wasn’t magic. Salvia’s shoe scraped the floor and moved again. Toward the door or toward the bed? Elle couldn’t be sure. “Nothing’s going on up here, my love,” Salvia said.
“But I heard something,” Meredith’s whining voice echoed up the staircase.
“Yes, so you’ve repeatedly told me. But I’ve checked your window and Sienna’s window, and now I’ve checked up here, and there’s nothing. It must have been a bird or a pixie or some other nasty little critter.” The door banged shut, which would have woken Elle if she’d genuinely been asleep. “Go back to bed, Meredith dear,” Salvia continued, her voice muffled by the door and another sizzle of magic. “Tomorrow is a big day for you.” Her shoes clacked down the stairs, growing a little quieter with each step.
The Memory Thief Page 2
