Hunter by Night (17 page)

Lee exchanged a surprised stare with Siddoh. Chills charged up his spine. “How did you make certain?”

The elder huffed a breath through his swollen nose. “The dog. I let it out just before dawn. She’s never without the mutt. I knew she’d follow to bring it back.”

Fucking hell. “All for revenge.”

The elder lifted his chin. “To teach a lesson.” He pointed a stern finger as far as his shackles would let him reach. “You have all gone soft. Your acceptance of humans will come back to bite you. Mark my words.”

“Lee,” Siddoh said quietly, “step back, please.”

Lee complied, hitting the cinder blocks on the far wall. He gave passing thought to taking the knife from Siddoh’s hand but stood his ground. It wasn’t Lee’s place to take away someone else’s closure.

Siddoh made the kill quick. One firm slice across the throat. Blood spewed, soaking Siddoh’s already sweaty clothes.

“I’m sorry,” Lee said.

“Don’t be.” Siddoh shook his arm experimentally. The flesh of his hand had turned black, some residual effect of the elder’s powers. “He didn’t teach his daughter to be safe about humans, and he’s blamed the rest of us for his pain and his failing. Put our whole society in danger. Isabel. He wouldn’t have stopped. God damn it, Lee.” Siddoh pressed his good hand over his eyes “In a way it was a mercy kill. As far as I know, he hadn’t fed in a long time. He couldn’t have lasted much longer the way he was burning his powers.”

Yeah. They had thought so anyway, before the elder had unleashed his fury. Now Lee wondered.

“Still, you could have let me—”

“No. It had to be me.”

It did.

Alexia zoomed through the dark in a free fall. Hands clasped tightly over her face. She’d gotten more used to the sensation, like she was dropping from the Tower of Terror and might never land. She’d been forcing herself to go with the ride rather than fight the fear. She refused to bow down. She refused to accept that it was real.

Something Anton had done had caused this… this endless, haunted roller-coaster ride. He’d tried to heal a new tattoo on her back and, in using his powers on her, had opened up a door in her mind she had long ago sealed shut. A memory she did her best to keep buried. As she lay in the dark and the intense melancholy of Bush’s “The Chemicals Between Us” drifted out of her laptop speakers, she didn’t try to delude herself that she had ever truly forgotten that horrible night. But hell, day to day she could function, and for that she figured it was okay to feel good about herself.

An image of Lee came to mind. Her awareness shifted, her body heated, and the remembrance changed to a pleasant one: the fangs piercing her skin and his huge arms around her. His body pressing against hers. Thinking of him shouldn’t be so comforting.

She wanted him to be there in her bed, his large, solid body keeping her warm in her freezing cold room.
Never
gonna
happen. You think a little rockin’ good sex suddenly changed his mind about what you are to each other?

She pried her hands from her face and sat up in bed. The light from her laptop monitor glowed softly. She looked around at the place she’d called home these past several months. Despite her insistence that she wouldn’t get comfortable here, Alexia could pick out signs that she’d gotten attached. Books stacked on the dresser and even a couple of splurge trinkets like a Swarovski rose from that store in Tysons Corner. Agnessa had talked her into buying the glittery piece of cut crystal, and Lexi had agreed because she liked shiny things. Who didn’t?

She’d stuck a couple of pictures around the edges of her dresser mirror. She and Siddoh at a dance club. Isabel, pregnant and trying to knit a blanket for the baby. The dresser was a gorgeous, sturdy piece of furniture. Not quite Alexia’s style, but she’d declined all the same when Ivy offered to get her a different one.

She couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to get so attached to Lee. She’d sworn for so long that it was a crush. She’d bought her own lie: he was hot and she’d roll with the attraction until it worked its way out of her system. Like how she’d gotten sick of candy corn by blowing through two whole bags after eighth-grade Halloween.

Well, that theory had worked out so fabulously, hadn’t it?

The central air kicked on, and she shivered.
Well, there’s one thing I won’t miss. The vampires and their chilly tendencies.
Small freaking favors. She kept meaning to ask someone to close the vent over her bed. The ceiling was too high for her to reach, and of course she never remembered when everybody else was awake. She had fleece blankets even in summer. Talk about crazypants.

She could leave here, get her own place, get out of Lee’s pissed-off, buzz-cut hair. Keep the air whatever temperature she wanted. Yeah. It was time to take this gig on the road.

After pacing the carpet for a few laps, Alexia pulled her phone from her thigh pocket to text Nessa:
Okay. What can you do and how soon can you do it?

She felt like she might hurl as soon as she hit Send. Still. What choice did she have? Things had nearly passed the point of no return.

Agnessa would be going with Lee to the hospital sometime tonight to bless the brand-new royal bundle. If Lexi didn’t catch the royal mind-messer-wither before she left the estate, there would be a whole ’nother day to wait. Then Isabel and Thad would be home with the baby, and it would be even harder to say good-bye. Best to leave before she had to look her best friend in the eye again. Not to mention the tiny peepers of that adorable baby girl. She’d never seen a newborn vampire before. Holy wow. Cuteness times infinity.

Alexia flopped on the bed again, wondering what Lee had been like as a baby. He seemed so serious and larger than life that it was hard to picture him coming out of a standard-issue womb all small and wrinkly. Even a supercharged vampire one.

A light knock sounded at her door. “Alexia?”

Agnessa. How did she move so fast on those pricey stilettos she wore? One would think she jogged in them.

Alexia’s mouth dropped open when she answered the door to find Nessa dressed more casually than Alexia had ever seen her. Usually clad in chic pencil skirts, this time the half-succubus female wore a flowing tunic and white pants. White leather ballet flats. As always, of course, her signature diamond choker.

“I have to bless the baby,” Agnessa said. “Best to do it in comfortable clothes.”

“Uh… sure.” Maybe natural fibers channeled to the spirit world better? Maybe this was all fucking crazy? Alexia’s pulse kicked up. Fear mixed with sadness as the implications started to sink in. She was about to ask Nessa to take away everything she’d known for nearly the last three years, if she counted the time since she’d first met Isabel. The prospect had been straightforward and logical, right up until the moment when she’d finally gotten ready to push the big red button.

She asked anyway. “So you can still do it, right? My memory?”

Agnessa parted her lips in apparent surprise. “You want me to do it now?”

“Can you?” Please for the love of all that was holy. Otherwise she was going to lose her nerve and be trapped in darkness loving a vampire who didn’t love her back and missing her best friend whose life had gone on without her.

Fuck! She clamped her mouth shut so hard she made her teeth do an awful zing of agony, even though she hadn’t said the
L
word out loud.

She didn’t love Lee. Not that way. Fuck
. You thought it before, remember? When you were helping that guy with his truck…

Oh, hell, she couldn’t love Lee. Could Agnessa take
that
away too? She wasn’t going to ask.

Nessa studied her for so long that Alexia got hot and embarrassed. Being scrutinized made her twitchy. She wondered so often what people saw when they looked at her. The man who had tried to take her from her father’s house had said she was a “pretty little thing” and she’d make him a lot of money. Alexia wasn’t sure she saw pretty when she looked in the mirror, and she definitely wasn’t sure being pretty was good.

“You’ve got everything you need ready to go?”

“Yeah.” Alexia nodded slowly. “I parked a car by the rear entrance. I have stuff in the trunk.”

“All right. Lie on the bed,” Agnessa said finally.

“Uhm, okay.” She locked the door behind Agnessa. Awkward and exposed, Alexia did what Nessa asked. Pushed aside the temptation to jump up and yell, “Never mind,” before it was too late. She gripped at the soft blanket underneath her. Something invisible and heavy pressed against her chest.

With one hand on either side of Alexia’s head, Agnessa paused and leaned over Alexia’s bed. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to ease you into a trance. Open you up, metaphysically speaking. I’m going to go in and find the things that pertain to your time among us and unthread them. Then, I will need to give you instruction. A new path. Where do you want to go when you’re done here?”

“Back to Orlando, I guess.”

“You guess? You need to make a decision. Be sure.”

Alexia swallowed. “Back to Orlando.” She’d been living there when she met Isabel. It was as good a place as any. She’d go there and figure out her shit. “I’ll still remember who I am right? How to access my bank account…” What a time for practicality to rear its ugly head.

Agnessa smiled down at her. “I’ll do my best.” A deep breath, and a porcelain hand with red-polished nails settled over Alexia’s eyes.

She’d do her best. Well, on the upside, in a prior moment of paranoia, Alexia had written her ATM PIN and all her other urgent info on the back page of a copy of
The
Siren
in her spare backpack. She had cash set aside. She could get a job. She’d be fine. She closed her eyes.
It’s okay. How much more can she fuck up my brain than it’s already been fucked?
Talk about questions she shouldn’t be asking.

The door banged open. The door Alexia was pretty sure she had locked. No, very sure.

“For fuck’s sake, I’ve been looking—
Get
your
hands
off
her
.”

Agnessa eased slowly off the bed. “There you are. So, you’re ready to leave to see the queen?”

Alexia sat up. Had Nessa done anything yet? Didn’t seem so. Everything felt the same, mentally speaking.

She looked back and forth between Nessa and Lee, whose chest was puffed with all manner of alpha male posturing. Jeez. How did Agnessa not get…
flapped
by his extreme douchefuckery? Alexia on the other hand couldn’t manage to keep her mouth shut around him. “What the crap are you doing barging into my room?”

Lee narrowed his eyes with a growl. “Better question: What was going on in here just now?”

***

Alexia had dozed off, confused and strangely tired after Lee had stormed out with his ex in tow. She jumped, disoriented and sleepy, from her rumpled bed when the door to her room slammed open wide.
Again
. Thank God she hadn’t paid a security deposit when she arrived in this place.

“C’mon, girlie.” Siddoh stood with one substantial hand braced on her door to keep it from swinging back the other way. His face resembled the earlier weather outside—dark and stormy. “I need to get fucked up, and I knew just the human to come to for help.” Clasped firmly in his grip was an open bottle of Mondavi Reserve Cabernet. Her favorite red.

Alexia twisted her head around. “I’m so not sure…” Lord knew she was the last person to get judgy, but Siddoh shouldn’t be drinking while Lee and the rest were gone, that was for damn sure.

“Come on, what the hell do you mean? You drink. You could drink a vampire three times your size under the table.”

An exaggeration, but whatever. She drank plenty. Often with Siddoh as her partner in crime. Because he was her oversized, fanged-up Jiminy Cricket. “I drink, but you don’t. You definitely don’t drink red wine.” Red wine affected vampires much, muchmuch
much
differently than humans. It was often referred to as the “vampire hug drug.” She’d never known Siddoh to touch a drop of wine.

He gave an exaggerated wink. “Shows what you know.”

She rubbed her forehead. Seriously? The world had practically collapsed around them, and this was how he chose to deal? “Aren’t you still…”—she made a sweeping motion with her arm—“y’know… in charge of everything?”

“I’ve got a guy covering the patrols. Lee will be back soon with Agnessa. And soon after, God willing, Thad and Isabel.” He stepped close, hooking the arm that held onto the wine bottle around her neck. “
Entre
nous
, sweetheart, I want the fuck out of this leadership shit as soon as possible. What the hell is up with those power-hungry despots, you know? Couldn’t goddamn pay me.”

The wine bottle smacked Alexia in the cheek. She pushed at it and ducked away. “Yeah, I got that,
sweetheart
. I think I’d want to be sober, though, when the actual guys in charge get back. Or if, heaven forbid, anything else goes wrong?”

She twisted the bottle from his hand, taking a swig for good measure. She could use a buzz right now, and it would keep Siddoh from drinking. Eh. Didn’t taste as good as usual, but she drank anyway. She didn’t feel so great for some reason. Maybe the buzz would help.

Had everyone lost their minds? Siddoh wasn’t like this. He put on a laid-back playboy attitude, but he was always sober and, as far as she could tell, fought harder than anyone. Many nights, Lee wasn’t even out there fighting. Not that she blamed him; someone had to stay at the mansion to protect Thad and Isabel. But except for the nights when they were rotating shifts, Siddoh was out there busting his ass. Or he was in the training facility busting his ass. And on his off nights, he put up with her, trying to protect her when she wanted to go out and pretend she had a social life.

Everything Siddoh did was about guarding the safety of others. Getting fucked up on the job made no sense.

“Okay, dude. What’s wrong?” She took another drink of the rich, fruity red. Dammit, she usually loved this stuff, but tonight it didn’t sit well in her stomach. Maybe it was all the bad juju in the air. Or maybe it was the blatantly disrespectful chugging. Somewhere a sommelier was rolling in his grave over the way they were downing a hundred-dollar bottle of wine straight from the container.

She looked carefully at Siddoh’s face, trying to make sense of his expression. His eyes, normally a light hazel, were darkened and bloodshot. He held back from saying something, but whatever it was stood there in the room like a big, evil elephant.

“Something tells me you’d get into big trouble with Thad if he came home to find you’d been hitting the sauce in the wake of what sounds like…” She paused and reached around him to shove her door shut. “In the wake of some kind of security breach. Now I know you butt heads with him and Lee plenty, but swilling red wine while you’re on duty sounds like pushing things too far.”

He ran a hand over his head, and that was when she noticed what else was strange: “Ew, you shaved your head?” He still had hair, but he’d given himself one of those buzz cuts that was even shorter than Lee’s. The tousled mess of brown stuff that Siddoh used to have had disappeared. Most of the guys kept it short. Probably a regulation. Her estimation of Siddoh was that he cared more about regulations than he let on, and for some reason, he always pushed the envelope as far as he could without shoving it straight through the shredder. This, however, looked an awful lot like conforming. Or desperation.

“Yeah. Wanted to set a good example.”

“For whom? Since when have you given a shit about an example?”

He sagged against the door then, not so much tired as worn out in a sad way. No answer.