Vash stared down at the burning pain in her shoulder and realized she’d been hit with a silver-plated throwing knife. Ripping the blade free, she looked up in time to catch sight of another volley a split second before it caught her in the bicep.
“Fuck!” she hissed, unprepared for a full-on attack in the middle of the damn day.
A blonde was racing toward her, another blade flying from her grip. Vash barely lurched out of the way in time, the smell of her own blood stirring the hunger in her.
A human. What the hell?
Vash charged, ready to take the crazy bitch down, when she smelled lycan. He raced out from beneath the shadow of the hotel’s front awning, chasing the crazy blonde with the death wish.
It hit her then: Shadoe. Followed swiftly by the identifying scent of her guard dog…
The fucking bastard who’d kidnapped Nikki.
Stunned into senselessness, Vash skidded to a halt, earning her another blade in the thigh.
The two people she was in town to capture were coming straight toward her, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. Not while she was alone. Not without her weapons. Not with witnesses.
Another blade nailed her in the shoulder, damn near dead center of the first hit she’d taken.
She had taught Shadoe how to throw like that. She had taught her how to hunt, how to kill. It was clear to Vash right away: Shadoe was deliberately avoiding hitting vital organs and arteries. The crazy blonde thought she was going to capture a vamp.
Vash grabbed a blade out of her shoulder and lobbed it at the lycan, then discarded the one in her leg and lunged forward, hitting Shadoe in the chest with her palms and throwing her backward several feet to crash into her lycan guard. The two went down, and Vash fled, leaping onto the hood of a nearby Jaguar and running up to its roof. She vaulted up and over the stone wall that divided the Belladonna parking lot from that of the dinner theater’s next door, her rage so wild she could barely see straight.
She never ran away. She never took multiple hits. She never let anyone live who spilled her blood. But she couldn’t take out Syre’s daughter. She couldn’t kill Shadoe.
“Goddamn! Shit! Fuck!” she shouted.
Her boots hit the roof of a Suburban on the other side of the wall, the alarm activating in an eruption of horn blaring. Her right heel broke off and stole her balance, sending her tumbling down the windshield, across the hood, and onto the asphalt.
She’d barely regained her footing when she heard another body hit the car behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the blonde hot on her heels. Vash took another hit in the shoulder, the sizzle of silver sending agony racing through her veins. Unable to pull a dagger out of her back, she could only run forward and hope like hell an escape route opened up. Ahead of her was a busy street, but that didn’t seem to deter Shadoe. Whatever had crawled up Syre’s daughter’s ass was goading her like a cattle prod.
A white full-sized pickup truck bounced into the lot with too much speed, racing toward her. Vash was calculating the trajectory needed to leap over it when it spun out and swung around. Salem’s head shot out the driver’s-side window. “Get in!”
She jumped into the back and he hit the gas, kicking up loose asphalt and leaving behind a cloud that smelled of burning rubber. A throwing knife hit the rear of the cab with a sharp ping. Vash ducked with a curse.
The truck squealed into the swift-moving traffic to a chorus of angry horns and the crunch of metal and fiberglass. They were a good two miles away before Vash felt safe enough to pop her head up.
“You asked for reports of abductions.”
Syre looked up from the spreadsheets on the monitor in front of him and met the gaze of the vampress in his office doorway. “Yes, Raven.”
The dark-haired beauty entered with an unconsciously sensual stride. She wore mile-high black stilettos, a knee-length pencil skirt, and a button-down shirt that hugged full breasts. Apparently she was acting the role of naughty secretary, one of the many games she played to keep things interesting.
“There was a raid last night in Oregon,” she said. “A group of Sentinels invaded a nest and took several minions with them.”
Leaning back in his chair, Syre wondered at Adrian’s growing boldness. To infect minions with a disease seemed unlike him. He was a warrior who engaged in and excelled in physical combat. Biological warfare wasn’t a tactic Syre would ever have attributed to the Sentinel leader. Something had changed, or was in the process of changing.
For the first time in many, many years, Syre felt the clock ticking with brutal impatience. Torque had been pushing him to act, instead of react, for many years now. It looked like that time might indeed be nigh.
“Thank you,” he murmured. “Send a team out to Oregon. I want to know every detail of the raid. And keep me apprised of any further reports immediately.”
“Yes, Syre.”
Raven left the room. He attempted to return his focus to the screen in front of him. The effort was futile. When the phone rang, he reached for it with relief, his thoughts still occupied by Adrian’s offensive moves.
You have no idea of what I’m authorized to do, the Sentinel leader had said just a few short weeks earlier. Perhaps there was a wealth of threat in those words that Syre had been oblivious to.
The raised voice of the caller on the other end of the line was audible before he even placed the receiver by his ear.
“Calm yourself, Vash,” he soothed. “Slow down. I can’t-”
He stiffened as she continued spewing words in a rush, all but one thought dissipating from his mind. Act, instead of react.
It was indeed the time.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Adrian asked in that cool, modulated tone of voice that made Lindsay grit her teeth.
As wired as she felt, she’d prefer him to yell or raise his voice, pace or glower-something. Instead, he stood casually in front of his desk and spoke so calmly he might have been commenting on the weather. It was only the distant rumble of thunder that told her he wasn’t taking the news of her reckless assault on one of the Fallen with anything less than total aplomb.
“I’ve been looking for that vampire my whole damn life,” she bit out, “and there she was, strolling right by me. I had to do something.”
“It was the middle of the day. You were surrounded by dozens of tourists.”
Her arms crossed. “I don’t have forever to hunt her down. If I have to wait another twenty years to find her, I might not be physically capable of doing anything about it. I might not even be alive. It’s now or never.”
Adrian’s flame blue gaze bored into her, searing her with its heat. “You’ve now exposed yourself to the Fallen. They’re going to come after you.”
“I hope they send her,” Lindsay shot back defiantly. “Next time, I won’t play with her. I’ll just take her down.”
Damien made a noise that drew her attention. “If you could have killed her, why didn’t you?”
“Because I need to know where the other two assholes are. She was alone when I first saw her. I didn’t see anyone with her until she was rescued. And, by the way, the guy driving the getaway vehicle had the same crazy crayon-colored spiked hair I remember from the day they attacked my mother. If she’s still hanging with that dude, I’m guessing the other one isn’t far away.”
“The ramifications of what you’ve done are going to haunt us. We don’t hunt the Fallen. We can’t. Their punishment is to live with what they are.”
“She wasn’t suffering when she terrorized my mom; she was having a damn good time. That bloodsucking cunt doesn’t deserve to live.” She shot a look at Adrian, whose impassive face gave nothing away. Her stomach knotted. God, she didn’t want to cause him any more trouble. But what could she have done? Her entire life had been built around avenging her mother. “She left me alive, so it’s her stupid mistake that I’m hunting her now. I guess she figured that, as a human, I wasn’t going to grow up to be a threat. But that should absolve you of any blame. I’m not one of you. I don’t operate under the same rules. What I do shouldn’t affect you.”
“You had a lycan with you,” Adrian reminded. “That involves us.”
“So cut me loose.” She hated the soft note of pleading in her voice. “I can’t bring you anything but trouble. That’s killing me, Adrian. It’s breaking my heart.”
With a harsh exhale, Adrian leaned his hip against his desk and wrapped his hands around the edge. “When Vash shoved you into Elijah, she could have just as easily punctured your rib cage with her fist and ripped out your heart. You’re only breathing now because she let you go.”
“Why the fuck would she do that? Again? I got the drop on her; I can do it again.”
“That was Vash?” Elijah’s growl rumbled through the room. “I want that hunt.”
Lindsay glanced at him and gave a curt nod. Vash had taken people they loved from them, and it was time to make her pay.
Looking back at Adrian, Lindsay said, “You told me you’d help me hunt her down. You dug around in my brain. You knew who she was. Were you lying?”
“No. But we need to provoke them into attacking us, not launch a war ourselves. We can take defense, not offense. There are rules and there are ways around those rules-” His cell phone rang, drawing his attention to where the phone rested on his desk. Frowning, he said, “Excuse me.”
He answered with a clipped “Mitchell.”
As she watched, Adrian’s face took on the hardness of stone. She could hear someone speaking rapidly, but couldn’t make out the words. Elijah exhaled in a rush and stepped closer to her, as if to stand with her. Support her. A chilly sense of foreboding swept over her.
A long, drawn-out moment passed. Finally, Adrian nodded. “Yes. Stand by. I’ll make the arrangements.”
Putting the BlackBerry down with far too much care, Adrian swept his gaze from Damien to Elijah. A silent communication passed between them, and the two men moved to leave the room. Elijah’s brief squeeze to her shoulder and Damien’s pitying look tightened the cold knot of dread in her stomach.
“What is it?” she asked when the door shut, leaving her and Adrian alone in his office.
He stepped toward her and gripped her upper arms in gentle hands. “It’s your father, Lindsay. He-”
“No.” The floor fell away from her and she swayed. Her chest felt as if it had just cracked open, the pain so excruciating she would have sunk to the floor if not for Adrian’s hold.
“He was driving and swerved off the road. He hit a tree.”
“Bullshit.” Tears streamed down her face. “I don’t fucking believe it. My dad handles cars like a pro. This is Vash’s fault. She’s Syre’s second. She could order this.”
Which made this partly her own fault.
His wings unfurled and wrapped around her, sheltering her. He caught her close, gripping her nape and hip to press her fully against him. “I can’t rule that out. I’ll investigate until I know for sure.”
A broken, serrated noise filled the room. Lindsay realized she was sobbing, her entire body racked by violent quaking.
Adrian held her, his warmth penetrating from the outside and sinking into her. No-he was inside her. Inside her mind like before, curling around everything like insidious tendrils of smoke. Her agonized grief began to fade, the sharpest edges softened by a strange sense of comfort.
Lindsay wrenched away from him, stumbling backward before crumpling to the floor. “What the f-fuck are you doing?”
Crouching beside her, he reached to brush her hair away from her face. His eyes flickered with preternatural flame and glistened with tears. “Taking away your pain. I can’t bear it.”
“W-what? How…?”
“I can pull the painful memories from you, neshama. I can heighten your recollection of the happy ones.”
“Don’t you dare!” She pushed to her feet, shoving away his hand when he reached to steady her. “If you ever steal a memory from me, painful or not, I’ll never forgive you.”
“You can’t resent the loss of something you don’t remember.”
How she remained standing when it felt like a glowing-hot poker was piercing her chest was a miracle. “If you care about me at all, you won’t take away the events that shaped me into who I am today… God-” She gripped her pounding head in her hands, her thoughts tumbling through her mind in a chaotic deluge. Her chest was heaving in its struggle for air, her sobs half crazed to her own ears. “I have to go. I can’t stay here.”
“Stay tonight,” he said quietly. “Can you do that for me? You’re in no condition to be alone now.”
“Adrian-” She couldn’t even see him through the rush of tears that burned her eyes and throat. They’d made love in this room, held each other for hours. It was fitting that she would face the punishment for that transgression in the same space. “We’re killing each other. Every moment we spend together comes back to us in torment inflicted on people we love. We have to stay away from each other.”
“Yes,” he agreed quietly. “I’ll let you go. But not tonight. Not like this. One night in my home, where I know you’ll be safe. I won’t disturb you. Can you give me that?”
“You promise to let me go?”
“Yes, neshama sheli. I promise.”
She no longer wanted to know what that meant. It was all too painful, the sweet and hot intimacy they shared. She nodded in acquiescence to his request, her mouth too dry to allow her to speak.
He bowed his head slightly. “Thank you.”
There was something in the severe austerity of his features that unsettled her. A hint of grim determination. But she couldn’t take any more right now. She was falling apart, shattered by a blow she’d never recover from.
Daddy…
Without another word, Lindsay left the office and shut the door behind her. She was a mess. Her life was a mess. And she was fucking up the lives of everyone around her.
She retreated to her room and crawled into bed, crying herself into dark, restless sleep.
Adrian packed an overnight bag with quiet deliberation. He set aside a week’s worth of clothes, but didn’t anticipate needing all of them. God willing, Syre would be dead within the next forty-eight hours.
There was so little time. Vash had recognized Lindsay as Shadoe; there was no other reason for why she would’ve allowed Lindsay to live. At this very moment, Syre knew his daughter had returned. The Fallen leader would be weighing his options. He’d be consulting those he trusted, gathering data, and deciding what to do with it. Adrian had to get to him before that decision was made.
Then he had to get to Vashti. The attack on Lindsay’s mother had been so unlike Syre’s second that it could only have been done as a message to Adrian. Vash had to have known Lindsay was Shadoe and anticipated his learning of the murder when they inevitably met. The few decades in between were nothing to an immortal, the wait inconsequential.
The question was: why? If she’d known who Lindsay was that long ago, why not tell Syre? Adrian intended to get the answer directly from the source.
Damn it. He hated hunting like this-too poorly thought out, too hasty. That was why, in all of Shadoe’s past incarnations, he’d waited for Syre to come to him. Better to face his opponent on his home turf, where every advantage was at his fingertips. But sometimes a swift, foolhardy strike was just what was needed to slip beneath an enemy’s defenses. He prayed that was the case this time, because he was going for it. Because this time was different. Lindsay was different. He was different with her. That was worth whatever price he would pay.
His gaze darted to the clock on the nightstand. It was shortly before midnight. Blessedly, Lindsay had stopped crying around ten, then fallen asleep. Every sob from her room had cut him deeper and deeper until now his heart bled steadily. It had never been like this between them. In the past, she’d always swiftly wiled her way into his bed and stayed there. In any other incarnation, he’d be in her arms now. Holding her, making love to her, choosing not to rush the inevitable confrontation with Syre, so that he could steal one more day with the woman he loved.
Now he had a flight booked that would take him to Raceport in a few short hours. He was traveling alone, flying commercial, and arriving just after sunrise. The time of day wouldn’t affect Syre, but it would limit the number of minions Adrian had to contend with.
He was shoving another henley into his bag when he heard her whimper. He stilled, his senses zeroing in on the woman who was sleeping in the room next door. The mattress sighed as she moved; then a soft, sultry moan drifted over his senses.
Gooseflesh spread across Adrian’s skin. He moved away from his bed, stepping closer to the wall, although proximity wasn’t required. He could be up at the lycan barracks and still hear her breathing as if his ear were pressed to her chest.
She began panting, then writhing. Another whimper shook him.
Incapable of resisting her when their time together was nearly at an end, Adrian left his room and moved the short distance down the hall to her door. He released the lock with an impatient thought and entered.
Her bedroom was shrouded in darkness. The drapes were drawn to block the views of the city in the distance. He closed the door behind him and moved silently toward the bed, his vision seeing her as clearly as if every light were on.
Lindsay had kicked off the covers. She twisted on the bed with sensual abandon, the lush scent of her desire going to his head and intoxicating him. Her hands cupped her breasts, squeezing through the satin of the tank top that matched the thong she wore.
Her back arched, offering up her beautiful breasts like a gift.
“Adrian…”
He sucked in a sharp breath at the erotic invitation in her voice. Reaching down, he rubbed the aching length of his erection through his slacks, his blood flowing hot and thick through his veins. He was so turned on by the willingness she displayed while sleeping, a willingness she denied him while awake because she cared for him. He understood the affection that motivated her. If she didn’t love him, she wouldn’t deny the needs that haunted her even in dreams.
Knowing he shouldn’t, he willed his clothes into a haphazard pile on the floor. The cool night air felt good against his heated skin, almost like a caress from her hands. Lindsay gave another soft moan. His knee settled on the bed.
As the mattress dipped with his weight, her eyes flew open.
“Adrian,” she whispered, rolling swiftly into his arms.
He groaned as her mouth pressed ardently to his, her tongue thrusting with a hunger that made his cockhead slick with wanting her. She pushed him back, tossing one silken leg across his hips and reaching between them to grip his cock in her slender hand. His neck arched with the pleasure of her touch, of her desire, of her lust given without reserve for the very first time.
She pressed down, the humid warmth of her sex soaking through the satin of her thong and searing the sensitive skin of his erection. Needing to feel her skin bare against his, he fisted her underwear, ripping it off her body. A hard shiver moved through him at how wet she was. The petal-soft feel of her denuded lips stroking along his length nearly brought him to climax.
“Ani rotza otha, Adrian.” She purred, gliding her slick sex back and forth over him.
I want you.
He froze, his heart stilling in his chest. He knew that seductive tone all too well. “Shadoe?”
She reared up, her hands sliding into Lindsay’s sexy blond curls, undulating Lindsay’s body as she weaved her sensual spell over him.
But it was no longer lust he felt as Shadoe’s soul stared back at him from Lindsay’s beautiful face.
A shivering exhalation left him.
She’d lured him like this the very first time. It started with a stolen kiss. Then the taste of her breasts, offered up to him with both of her hands, the dark brown nipples peaked tight in the open air. He’d begged her to leave him in peace, to respect the very law he had enforced on her father. He’d begged her to be strong for him because he had been so weak over her.
Instead, she’d grown bolder with every month that passed. She had played with her body in front of him, deliberately haunting the places he frequented, teasing him with the sight of her glistening fingers pushing in and out of her pouting sex until she climaxed with his name on her lips. He’d resisted her until she threatened to take a lover to her bed, then made sure he stumbled upon her fondling another man’s cock through his clothes. Angry, possessive, tempted beyond reason, Adrian had given her what she’d been asking him for, taking her on the ground like an animal in heat. And once he’d fallen, there had been no turning back.
“Ani rotza otha,” she said again, her hips rocking almost violently over him, riding him toward orgasm.
“No, tzel.”
He caught her by the hips and rolled her off him, then moved away. Gaining his feet, he ran his hands through his hair, painfully aroused by the feel of Lindsay, the scent of her, the sound of her voice.
But it wasn’t Lindsay who called to him from the bed behind him.
“Ani ohevet otchah,” Shadoe whispered, rustling the sheets with sinuous movements.
I love you.
Adrian squeezed his eyes shut. His wings burst free and flexed angrily. He should have known better. Lindsay would never seduce him. She would have denied him, as she’d been trying to do from the beginning. For his sake. Because she loved him.
He willed his clothes back on, then shoved his hands through his hair. When Shadoe’s hand touched his bare shoulder, he grabbed it and spun, facing her.
“Take me,” she whispered, standing naked before him, possessing the body that so perfectly fit his, that held him so sweetly, that gave him such pleasure he wept with the power of it.
It was only a shell without the woman he loved inside it.
Adrian cupped Lindsay’s face in his hands, looking into her eyes, the windows to a soul that wasn’t her own. Bending his head, he pressed his lips to hers, softly, chastely, his heart aching for the woman he’d once loved long ago. A woman so beautiful, fierce, and seductive she’d lured an angel to fall. He had loved her with hot, saturating abandon.
But Shadoe’s time had passed, and he had since fallen in love with someone else. A mortal whose love was selflessly given. A woman who accepted him just as he was, including the law and rules that had forged him yet also forbid them to be together.
His thumbs brushed over her cheekbones, and he pressed his forehead to hers. “I’m going to free you, Shadoe. I’m going to let you go.”
“I want you,” she said again, reaching between them for his flagging erection.
Adrian arched his hips away from her touch and sent a rush of languidness through Lindsay’s body. He caught her as she sagged unconscious, lifting her and carrying her to the bed. He could do nothing about the thong he’d destroyed in the extremity of his need, so he covered her with the sheet. Brushing her hair back from her face, he kissed her forehead.
“Lindsay.” He nuzzled his lips across her perspiration-damp skin. “Soon it will all be over.”
He straightened and left the room with a purpose-driven stride. The beating of his heart was quick and heavy, but his mind was clear for the first time in ages.
The weight of the past dissipated along with his wings.
As he undressed again and stepped beneath a cold shower, it all washed away-the guilt and pain, the sorrow and remorse.
Why won’t you let me save you? Lindsay had asked, unaware that she already had saved him in the most fundamental of ways. She’d given him the strength he’d lacked, and a sweet, precious love. There was so much she could teach him about how to love from the inside out. His biggest regret was that he’d never have the chance to follow her lead.
But at least he could free her from his past. All the fear and indecision that had plagued him for centuries was gone. He was no longer debating the wisdom of his decision to strike first, within enemy territory. Lindsay was unhappy and Adrian couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t stand being the cause of her pain. If it was in his power to end her suffering, he had to try.
All these years, he’d wanted to spare himself further self-recriminations. Instead of allowing Shadoe the peace of an honorable death in battle, he’d selfishly tried to bind her to him with immortality. It was not his place to intercede once the Creator decided it was time for someone to die, and his punishment for doing so had been long and agonizing. He’d intended to end the cycle as much for himself as for Shadoe.
Now he would act for Lindsay alone. He would give her back the life that should have been hers. A life of normalcy. A chance to be happy. The opportunity to find a man who would love her without all the chains that bound Adrian to his duty.
It was a gift he could give to her without strings. It wasn’t equal to the gift she’d given him, but it would be given selflessly and out of a deep love, the likes of which he’d never known before.