Night Series Collection: Books 1 and 2 (37 page)

I needed a shower, then I needed to read that book. I obviously missed something, and if it took me all night, I was going to figure out what it was.

But no sooner had I determined that then Luc was knocking on my door. Actually, he wasn’t knocking, he was pounding incessantly. “Dora!”

I think Jane Austen got it all wrong—it wasn’t a universal truth that a wealthy man was in want of a wife; no, the real truth was the more you resisted drama, the deeper it sucked you in. “Go away.”

Maybe talking was the wrong idea; the scent of sulfur was thick seconds before his hands clamped onto my shoulders, twirling me about so fast that I actually experienced a flash of wooziness.

Shoving his hands off me, I jumped back. “Don’t ever touch me like that again.”

His eyes widened a fraction of an inch before the cold, hard mask was once again on his face. “What did you find out?”

“Not a whole lot.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose as exhaustion rushed through the length of my body. “Grace gave me my marching orders, go get zombies. Num, num. But that’s not really what you came here to ask me, is it?”

“There is a child missing.”

“And since when did children become important to you?” I crossed my arms.

That wasn’t fair of me and I knew it the second the words left my mouth. How could I explain to him what was inside me now, lived and breathed in me, this malevolent force that turned my days hellish and my evenings into nightmares? I was making a mess of everything, and I knew it, but I didn’t know how to stop this. I was a train wreck waiting to happen. There went the frost, the glassy stare in his eyes. I’d pushed him way too far, beyond his limits. It was easy to forget sometimes that Luc had a heart too. So often, he went out of his way not to show it, but I knew Luc. He and I didn’t just share bodies occasionally, once upon a time, a long time ago, I’d loved him. But somewhere along the way that love had shattered, maybe when he stabbed me, but I don’t even think it’s that, we were just growing apart. We were so different, and maybe he didn’t realize it yet. They say women mature faster, maybe it’s true. I don’t think he’s as ready to let go of us as I am.

“What the hell does that mean?” he snarled.

Hating myself, wanting to reassure him but too much of a wimp to do it, I just shook my head and pretended he hadn’t asked a question that demanded an answer, that this conversation wasn’t long overdue, and that I didn’t need to know why he’d killed all those children before I could look at him without contempt. But now so wasn’t the time to open that can of worms.

“Who reported the child missing?”

It wasn’t often that Luc would meet my gaze, because to do it while Lust was riding him meant I’d physically change to become his ideal of beauty, but I hated that he’d never wanted me for what I actually was but rather for something I wasn’t. Out of respect for me, he’d adopted a style of looking from the corner of his eye that would give us eye contact without forcing a change. But he wouldn’t even do that now.

His eyes dropped to the ground, and he was studying my carpet as if it would reveal the mysteries of the universe.

Why hadn’t I noticed how nice he looked tonight? His hair was washed, slicked back. And it was just long enough to be pulled back into a ponytail of sorts. With his slashing cheekbones and his square-cut jaw, Luc was the epitome of masculinity. Normally he dressed like he was going off to a board meeting, but tonight he was in jeans and a button-down shirt, and I won’t deny that it made my heart throb. Sometimes I missed what we should have been.

“The mother,” he finally muttered. “She’s at the lost-and-found tent. There is no one else that I trust to go and speak with her.” He turned to go.

I grabbed his wrist. “Luc?” I don’t know what I meant to say after that. I knew I was messing up, and it hurt me, more than he probably would ever imagine. Letting go of us, of this, it was killing me. But I couldn’t just pretend that I wasn’t disappointed in him. I couldn’t help what I was feeling, like he was partly to blame him for everything, and it was so irrational. And I was such a jerk. “Please?”

Powerful fingers clamped onto the side of my neck. “Screw you.”

Then he was gone, and all I could do was laugh, because if I didn’t laugh I would cry. And crying hurt way too much.

R
ather than leave with Luc, I took a ten-minute break to shower and regroup. My life was quickly going to hell in a handbasket, but I didn’t have the luxury of time to lament that fact.

The more Luc hurt, the more nasty he got. Luc didn’t hate me; in fact, my pulling away was probably killing him and the only way to defend himself against it was to act like a prick.

I got it.

I didn’t like it.

But I got it.

There was no time to eat or read that book that Billy told me to. All I had time for was to freshen up, brush my teeth, and toss on some fresh clothes. A low-slung pair of faded and ripped-at-the-knees jeans and a skull-and-crossbones black tee. I’d burn the other stuff when I got back to my trailer. I’d been vomited on—odds were good that if a mortal touched it, the plague would spread. With a sigh, I closed Kemen’s trailer door and headed to the lost-and-found tent.

I’d been living mostly in his space since the morning I’d woken up from the coma. The stars winked from between breaks in the cloudy black sky. The breeze was much more balmy than it’d been in South Dakota just a few nights ago, but the air was still rich with the scent of carnival fried foods and sagebrush.

Flipping aside the flap of the lost-and-found tent, I stepped inside.

Like a sheep surrounded by wolves, the beautiful brown-skinned woman sat with a handkerchief to her eyes. Vyxen and Kane stood to either side of her. Vyxen—dressed in her customary acid-trip attire—stared at the woman with undisguised lust in her emerald-green eyes. Not for her body, no, Vyxen did not suffer from that demon. Vyxen’s demon wanted. Everything. Anything you possessed. She housed Envy, and right now the woman was in danger just being that close to her.

Of all of us, Vyxen had the hardest time controlling her urges. I’ve asked Luc to get rid of her many times, but my cries always seem to fall on deaf ears. Kane, on the other hand—another one of us Lust demons—was looking at her with seduction clear in his lavender eyes.

It always amazed me how mortals could see and not instantly feel the prick of
wrong
. We didn’t look human. Not really.

Because no humans looked as flawless, as physically perfect, as we did. Nor did their eyes glow. Several hundred years ago, the glowing eyes meant we’d needed to stay deep in hiding. But now, thanks to the advent of movies and freaky contacts, nobody guessed we weren’t wearing props.

“Kane, get your ass away from her. Vyxen, you too,” I growled.

Kane just blew me a kiss and, with a final trail of his fingers along the woman’s upper arm, left the tent. Vyxen, however, never really listened to me. All she did was take a miniscule step back.

“Pandora.” My name dripped like a silky slur from her tongue. Wrinkling her nose, she adjusted her cat-ears headband. “The woman, Juanita, was it?” She looked at the woman, her eyes a brightly glowing green.

Juanita nodded. She looked so small, wearing probably her finest dress to come to the carnival. It was well tended, worn in spots and somewhat faded, but with the red mum pinned to her bodice, there was pride in what she wore. Her hair was freshly washed, and though there were wrinkles around her eyes that bespoke a woman who worked hard for what she had, the mere fact that she’d come here with her son let me know she was
light
. She’d come here to have fun and hang out with her boy.

It lit a fire in my belly, made the demon inside me go wild. Walking up to them, I gave Vyxen a slight shove back and drilled her with a hard stare. I let my eyes do the talking, telling the hellcat that if she so much as laid a finger on Juanita, I’d gut her.

Vyxen never backed down. Not with me. Not usually. But tonight, she must have sensed just how close I was to completely losing my shit, because with nostrils flared, she turned on her chunky, five-inch heels and left.

Kneeling, I grabbed Juanita’s cold hand and made her look me in the eye. “Where is your son?” I asked in Spanish.

There was only one other Neph still here, Cash. A tall, ginger-headed, golden-eyed pride demon. Dressed in fitted gray trousers and a dove-gray silk shirt, he was striking. And even though Juanita was clearly upset, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from glancing at him.

But Cash would be no problem to her; all he needed was a good ego stroking to get him off. Which she was giving him plenty of.

“Dora,” he said in a smooth seductive burr, “I’m going to take a break.”

He really didn’t need a break. Cash’s Pride could sense the woman’s nervousness regarding his close proximity; he was giving me the space I needed to operate.

A pride Nephilim is an extremely valuable and rare commodity to have in a Neph family, and one we’d been lucky to nab from my cousin Adam’s sister carnival back in the States.

Juanita’s lower lip trembled and when she turned back to look at me, there was a helplessness in her eyes I’d grown all too accustomed to seeing lately.

“I swear to you, we’ll find your boy. But you need to tell me where you saw him last.” I patted her hand.

“We were grabbing some churros before going to see the acrobat show and I turned around for just a second”—her face scrunched up and her pain was like a fist in my heart—“it happened so fast. I called his name, over and over. Everyone was looking at me, but no one saw him. He was just gone.”

Now I understood why Luc had been about to rip Bubba a new one. I shuddered, wondering the same thing now—wondering if the boy had been tagged by a glutton demon.

But even as I wondered it, I discounted the notion almost immediately. As much as I’d been burned by trusting others, Bubba wouldn’t touch a child. None of us would.

I’d even give Vyxen the benefit of the doubt on that one, and I’d seen that girl cut a teenage vampire’s heart out with satisfied glee. But a mortal who was so clearly light and not dark (That was how we gauged whether a human would become our late-night snack or not, and we never screwed with light. Ever. It was a Neph’s only hard-and-fast rule.) just wouldn’t be on the menu.

“I know where the churro booth is. I’ll start there.”

Fat tears dripped from her eyes and plopped off her nose. She swiped the back of her hand roughly across her face. “How do you think you can find him now? I’m terrified that he’s gone.”

In the States we’d have just called the cops, left it in the hands of the boys in blue. But here in Mexico, cops weren’t exactly the first people you’d call in a case like this. Fact was there were a lot worse problems out there. One missing child wasn’t much of a priority in these parts. Bringing down meth labs and stopping cartels was. The job would fall to me and I’d be damned if I let anything happen to the little guy on my watch.

I shook my head. “You leave that up to me. What’s the boy’s name, and most importantly, what does he look like?”

“He’s wearing a Forty-niners shirt with tan shorts and blue running shoes. He’s got black hair and brown eyes and only comes to my chest in height. His name is Carlos.”

She rocked forward at the sound of his name and began keening. I wrapped her in my arms and gave her a giant hug. “You stay here. I will find your son. I promise you.”

Hands trembling upon her lips, all she could do was nod.

Taking a deep breath, I left her and walked out. Luc and Cash were waiting for me just outside. They didn’t appear to be talking, and the second I exited, Cash nodded and walked back in.

“Hey,” Luc said softly, and I got the sense that either his anger at me was snuffed out (for the moment) or he was ready to just move on.

Whatever. So was I.

I shook my head. “We gotta find that boy. You questioned everyone yet?”

Licking his front teeth, he shoved his hands into his jean pockets and rocked forward on the balls of his feet. “Yeah. Everyone says the same thing. They didn’t see him.”

“I saw you hand Bubba his ass earlier, can I assume it was about this?” Because if there was more going on here, I really needed to know now.

Jaw working from side to side, he nodded. “I wondered. I wonder about everyone here now.”

There were so many different meanings behind that sentence and I all I could do was snort. I wasn’t being sucked into this, not now. Carlos was my first priority.

“Think it’s a zombie?” he asked me as a couple strolled past, completely oblivious to the turmoil inside the tent.

Sometimes I really hated how ignorant humans were to the realities of the world they lived in. But then again, knowing too much was more of a curse than a blessing.

“I think this isn’t going to turn into another situation like the last one. That’s what I think,” I said, referring to the incident in South Dakota when a girl had been taken and killed by a crazed group of vampires. Only later had I discovered the entire thing was an elaborate ruse set up by the Order to keep me unaware of the real truth happening right under my nose.

He nodded. Luc hadn’t shaved today. There was a day’s growth on his face. I scraped my nails on the rough coarseness of it but didn’t speak. Sometimes there’s just too much to say and so you don’t say anything at all, even though it’s literally just below the surface.

“Yeah.” He snorted and then turned his head so that I could no longer touch him. “I’ll send Vyxen and Stryker to scout the south end of the carnival. Lynx and Greta to the north. Corrine and Attica to the west. You and me got the east.”

“You’re actually coming?”

“Figured we’re the only ones not manning a station tonight. Is that a problem?”

“Whatever, Luc. I’m not here to fight with you; you’re the boss. But we’re losing time just sitting here.”

His look was intense, hard, and probing. I felt it to the depths of my black soul and wanted to cringe under the pressure of it. It wasn’t lust staring back at me, or even hate. It was the type of raw pain that left you breathless and aching.