Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause Book 3)

by Jessica Lynch

  Tabby reached up, rubbing him on the shoulder, snapping her gum while she grinned up at him. “You’re so cute. Of course I knew that. A mysterious chick just so happens to come up with a vial of elixir right after it gets out that a slayer’s looking for one? I don’t like that she tagged the Society, but even that makes sense if she wants to make sure we both show up. I’m just not sure if the trap’s being set for you or me. Could be both. A two-fer, maybe?”

  Adam’s answer—a softly muttered, “Woodbridge again? Why Woodbridge?”—didn’t quite answer her question, but it told Tabby that he was probably thinking along the same lines as she was even so.

  “I’m lucky that it hasn’t gotten to Boone yet,” she told him, and she couldn’t have been more honest when she admitted that. “Though it might be an idea to fill him in. He can help us get the elixir—”

  “No.”

  “Adam?”

  “It’s okay. I know it’s a trap. You know it’s a trap. Doesn’t mean we both have to fall for it. Just me. I’m gonna go, but I’m going alone.”

  He had to be kidding.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I have to. Not just because of the elixir,” he said, “though I’m gonna take it with me if it even exists. I’ve gotta find out what that’s about. Who would go to the trouble of setting us up? Why?”

  “See? You don’t know that it’s just for you,” she pointed out. “Nightwalkers hate slayers.”

  Which just went to prove that he didn’t act anything like the dangerous paranormal race.

  “Exactly. If it’s for you, that’s even more of a reason for me to go by myself.”

  “Ha. No. I’m going with you.”

  “Tabby, you can’t—”

  Standing on the tips of her toes, Tabby pressed her pointer finger against his lips, effectively silencing him. “Listen to me. Okay?”

  “Tabby.” Adam tried to speak around her finger. The word came out garbled and he sighed when she just stuck up her middle finger next, using two to keep his lips together.

  “Hush, you.”

  He huffed.

  “‘Atta boy, champ. Now listen. Some wise”—when Adam raised his eyebrows at the compliment, Tabby chuckled—“wise and incredibly sexy guy I know told me once that it’s always a good idea to take back-up if you can. Let me go with you. I’ll be your back-up.”

  Adam waited for her to pull her hand away from his face so that he could answer. As soon as she did, he said, “I distinctly remember you telling me I had to stay behind when you went out and fought a feral wolf shifter.”

  “Well, we can’t all be as smart as you,” she teased. “But, seriously. If you go, I go. We’re doing this together.”

  “Yeah. Alright.”

  “I mean it, Adam. I— hang on. Did you say ‘yes’?”

  “I did?”

  “You did.” He so did, though she could hardly believe it, and there was no way she was going to let him take it back now. Still… “I thought I’d have to do a lot more convincing to get you to agree.” Hang on. Tabby squinted. “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch,” her Nightwalker told her, reaching out to snag her by the wrist, careful as always to avoid scratching her. “Though I won’t stop you if you want to try to convince me. That sounded pretty good.”

  He used his strength to tug her closer, her heart warming as she lay her head on his chest before wrapping her arms around his middle. She might not know exactly how she felt about him, but she knew that there was nowhere else she’d rather be than in his embrace.

  Still, she slapped his back playfully, then rubbed him soothingly as if taking the sting out of her hit. “Later. First we have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

  Reluctantly, Adam let her go. “Well, now that I know I have back-up, I think I might have an idea.”

  “Lay it on me.”

  “We might have to cross some lines,” he said. “Casing the place during the day while the Nightwalkers are sleeping, get the blueprints so we know what to expect, use your connections to get an idea of how big of a trap we’re walking into… that’s just the beginning. If it’s a nest instead of just one vampire, we could both end up throwing our lives away. Well, I’d probably just die again, but I’m more worried about you. Either way, it’s not going to be fun. Or easy.”

  That’s just what she wanted to hear.

  “Adam, baby, you had me at crossing some lines.”

  A week later, on the night Adam was set to meet the mysterious female, Tabby was in position.

  Everything had gone according to plan so far. They drove Adam’s car into Woodbridge for one last time the night before, staking out the building from a distance so that they knew what they were getting into. After spending the last week setting up for the meet, she was relieved to go a night early since she spent the ones leading up to it keeping an eye out for her uncle or Eddie.

  But neither one of them had come screaming down to pluck her out of Grayson and now? It was too late.

  Operation Get the Damn Elixir was underway.

  It was surprisingly easy to sneak into the vents which only cemented her suspicion that this was a trap. Since the only way that Adam agreed to let her tag along was this ridiculously crazy plan, she was actually kind of glad that she was inside with half an hour to spare before midnight.

  Even if it was as hot as hell in there.

  Good thing she wasn’t claustrophobic, she decided, as she wedged her body in the narrow space; if she’d been a little taller or a little wider, she never would’ve fit. It was a tight squeeze to begin with, and that didn’t count how difficult it had been to climb up the side of the abandoned building.

  Not only that, but Tabby was doused in scent-reducer potion so that the Nightwalkers swarming this place didn’t realize she was hiding out above their nest.

  Because surprise.

  The address was a damn Nightwalker nest, just like they suspected—and just like Tabby discovered that first morning she drove Adam’s car into Woodbridge alone.

  She was glad she insisted on the scent-reducer in the first place. For the last week, Adam kept finding flaws in her plan, trying to convince her to stay behind. Even though she was the one who could still do out during the daylight so he needed her. He still tried to talk her into staying in Grayson the night of the meet.

  Yeah. Right.

  As if that was going to happen.

  She understood that he didn’t want to risk her or see her get hurt again, but she needed to be there so that nothing happened to her Nightwalker.

  She finally managed to get the message through his thick skull. He couldn’t stop her, and he finally realized that it wasn’t worth it to try. So she slapped on the potion so that she could watch the meet from up above, and prepared herself to take out a shit ton of Nightwalkers if they so much as looked at Adam funny.

  Her body count was already up to two. A pair of blood-bloated vamps were patrolling the back half of the building while she was attempting to scale it. Before they could sound the alarm, she eliminated both of them, sprinkling slayer dust so that the next round of patrols didn’t stumble on the headless remains.

  It gave her enough time to get to the roof before kicking in the outside vent, shimmying inside. Like he said he would, Adam had gotten his hands on the building’s blueprints during the initial planning stages of this meet. He quizzed her on them until she had them memorized. Following her internal map, she crawled through the inside vent until she was over the largest room on the plans.

  And then she settled down to wait.

  Holding Venice, stroking the hilt while keeping her eyes wide and alert, she finally realized what the annoying feeling that had been plaguing her since she kissed Adam earlier and darted toward the back of the building was.

  It was fear. Fear for her lover. Fear that something would go wrong and she’d never get to see him again. Touch again.

  Get the chance to tell him that she maybe—okay, most likely—loved him,
too.

  Ugh. Tabby frowned.

  Fear.

  She didn’t like it. She didn’t like it one bit.

  Adam’s part of the plan was simple. Because the Nightwalkers would be expecting him, he forced himself to hang back until Tabby gave him the signal. She needed to be safe and tucked out of sight before he could even think about approaching the Nightwalkers’ hideaway.

  Once his phone buzzed, the text message simply a thumb’s up emoji, Adam slipped his phone in his back pocket, patted the front to make sure he had his keys, then loped toward the building.

  He couldn’t help but remember the last time he was sneaking toward a Nightwalker’s nest. He’d been alone, with only the machete strapped to his back and the syringe full of holy water his old precinct had provided him with. He was considerably better armed this time, better prepared, though he had infinitely more to lose.

  He didn’t want to admit it, but maybe Tabby was right when she insisted she get to go along with him.

  Last time, he thought he’d bleed out on the floor of the Nightwalkers’ new set-up. His only hope had been to take at least Julian Koenig out with him before he went. Of course, that hadn’t worked out so well for him. Julian force-fed Adam his blood, then arranged for his turning before Rafe accidentally speeded it up by going for Adam’s throat.

  The only reason he was still up and walking around was because Colt Wolfe and Shea Moonshadow showed up to save his sorry ass. So, yeah, she was right. It felt much better walking into an obvious trap when he knew that he had solid back-up.

  Plus, knowing she was close but safely hidden away helped him way more than worrying she was somewhere that she could be hurt.

  He trusted her. He loved her so trusting her kind of had to go along with the whole love thing if he ever wanted her to return his feelings.

  Maybe, he told himself as he walked straight-backed and alert to the front door of the building, once he reversed the change and he was human again, she would.

  Hey. It was worth a shot.

  22

  Just like last time, when Adam knocked on the door, an unfamiliar Nightwalker led him in through the crowded nest. Only this time, he muttered, “You’ve been expected,” without even asking Adam’s name before dropping him off in front of a second door.

  Adam had to resist the urge to peek up at the ceiling. From the blueprints, he knew that this was the main room; the room in the building that Tabby was watching over. They assumed this would be where the meet took place and, though he was quickly proven wrong when the Nightwalker told him to step into the next room, it was still a good look-out point. Depending on if things went south, at least Tabby would now have eyes on the twenty or so Nightwalkers milling around this space.

  Plus, he didn’t have to worry about her interfering when he met with the mysterious female about the elixir. The last thing he wanted was for Tabby to be involved. He still couldn’t get past how the invitation was for both of them. Whether Tabby was the true target or not, Adam would do this on his own so that he could keep her from becoming one.

  Listening to the Nightwalker at his back, Adam pushed the door open, stepping inside of a dim room that reminded him of the place where he met his death the last time. From the dais along the wall, to the thrones perched side by side in the middle of the platform, the only difference was that there were two thrones this go-round.

  That, and Julian Koenig wasn’t there.

  But his second was.

  Sprawled lazily in the throne on the right, there sat Rafe Silverson. He looked up when Adam walked in the room, then immediately went back to filing his already sharp claws to points.

  Adam stopped in the doorway.

  It might be a trap, he accepted, but he couldn’t ask for a better one.

  Only—

  It didn’t make sense. Rafe was the one that Adam had been after all along. He was the one he fought during Priscilla’s attack, and the one who served as Julian’s right-hand man. But all the intel Tabby’s slayer contacts had passed along made it clear that it was a female who wanted to meet with him.

  Slowly, he tore his gaze from Rafe, paying attention for the first time to the woman perched in the throne next to him.

  He recognized her, too. With her angelic features, ruby-red lips, and a soft cloud light blonde hair, she was the female Nightwalker who stood with Julian the night Adam died.

  And, when she rose up from her throne, her curvy body accentuated by the skintight red dress she was poured into, silver eyes gleaming as she looked him up and down, he realized that, oh yeah, he’d been the target alright.

  “My, my, my. So glad of you to come. And right on time, too. I love a man who’s punctual.”

  Lowering his file, Rafe cocked his head, shifting in his throne to face the female. “Alexis? This is the male you want to blood-bond with?”

  Of the three of them, he was the only Nightwalker in the room still wearing the trademark glasses. Still, he was sure even they couldn’t hide his expression of shock when he heard that.

  “Wait. Are you fucking with me?” he demanded. “I’m here for elixir—”

  “You’re here because Alexis has petitioned me to approve her blood-bonding,” Rafe interrupted before addressing the female. “Isn’t that so?”

  She tapped a fang with her pointer claw. “Why can’t it be both?”

  “Alexis—”

  “Rafe. Please. Julian would’ve let me do this my way.”

  She said the magic word. Adam knew before the other Nightwalker sighed and said, “Very well,” that just invoking the former Nightwalker king’s name would be enough to get Rafe to agree with whatever stunt she was pulling.

  Now if only he could figure out what it was.

  “You’ve come alone,” Alexis pointed out. “That’ll make this easier.”

  “I got your message. They told me you had elixir. Were they lying?”

  In answer, Alexis dipped her hand down her ample cleavage, pulling out a glass tube that was about half the size of one of Tabby’s vials of slayer dust. It was a rich gold color mixed with flecks of dark grey and white.

  He knew without exactly knowing how that that was no fake. It was De Vivre and he’d do almost anything to get his hands on it.

  “How much do you want for it?”

  “My price is simple. Actually, it’s more of a choice. Forget your revenge, forget your old life, and be my betrothed. In exchange, I’ll return your humanity to you.”

  Well, not anything.

  What was it Rafe said? A life for a life.

  Alexis would give him his humanity—in exchange for bonding his newly human life to hers. Plus he’d have to spare Rafe?

  “Pass.”

  “Think it over. Don’t be rash. I could make you very happy.” She waggled the vial. “This could, too. Isn’t this what you want, Adam? Just say yes.”

  It was the familiar way she said his name that had him spitting out his answer.

  “I don’t need your elixir,” he told her. “I didn’t have to come here, but I was curious. Not anymore. I’ve got another lead. If you could get some, I’m sure I can, too. It might take longer, but that’s fine. So, yeah, thanks for wasting my time. I’ll be leaving now.”

  “Mm.” Alexis pursed her lips, tapping the vial against the hollow of her cheek. “You sure about that? About getting more elixir?”

  Adam was… until about two seconds after she said that.

  “I did my research. Most covens know the main ingredients in this… Mountain ash. Some rowan. Holy water.” Alexis ticked them off with her free hand. “But you can mix those all together and get mud. No, to make this elixir, you need the exact recipe. And of all the covens, the only one willing to confess they knew it was a tiny little witch who should’ve stayed in Coventry.”

  Alexis gave the vial a little shake. The viscous gold elixir coated the side of the glass tube.

  “Holly Meadows thought she could hide in Woodbridge. Poor thing. She just didn’t h
ide well enough.”

  Adam felt his chilled skin go icy cold. “Are you saying you killed her?”

  “I didn’t have to. She gave me the only vial of elixir she had prepared, then disappeared. You can try contacting her. I doubt you’ll have any luck.”

  The Nightwalker wasn’t wrong. For a good chunk of the last week, Tabby had been tugging on any line she had, calling all of her contacts, trying desperately to get in touch with Holly. Part of Adam had been hoping that their hunch that this was a trap was wrong, that maybe things were finally going his way.

  Yeah fucking right.

  Well. He had his answer now, too, didn’t he? When he wondered why the trap was set in Woodbridge, he couldn’t understand it.

  Now he knew.

  She widened her eyes, the faux innocence almost insulting. Her silver gaze still managed to gleam under the dim lights as she kept her unblinking stare locked on Adam. “It was supposed to be for a fledgling. I wondered if it was for you. And look at that. You want it. I have it.” Alexis licked her ruby-red lips. “All you have to do is say yes.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  With a cruel smile at odds with her angelic features, Alexis tipped the vial over. Half of the elixir splashed onto the tile below the dais, evaporating on contact.

  “What do you say? Choose the elixir and be my betrothed. Or, if your revenge is so important, take that and know that I’ll smash this as soon as you give your answer.”

  Adam noticed she kept saying “revenge” like that. He was sure she knew exactly what he thought about doing the second he laid eyes on Rafe. Was that on purpose?

  Was he set-up?

  Or, he wondered with a sudden spark of understanding, was Rafe?

  Either way, it didn’t matter. If Alexis forced him to decide between changing back to human or killing Rafe, he’d sacrifice his revenge in a heartbeat; once he was human again, he’d forget all about the Nightwalker.

  But if being human meant agreeing to a blood-bonding with her? If it meant being trapped in the paranormal world for as long as she lived—because, even if he was human, once he was bonded to a Nightwalker, they’d share the same lifespan—forced to love her, be her mate, and never have a chance at a love of his own?