The Hidden (The Hidden Trilogy) (46 page)

“And what happens to the girl once Vivienne shows up?”

“We’ve got big plans for her, but they’ll have to wait. She’s useless to us until she matures.”

Movement caught my attention. Up ahead, under the trees lining the sidewalk, the girl–
Emily
–stepped down from the curb, out into the glow of the sun, and walked around a silver car. It beeped as she unlocked it.

Her long, dark waves fell to the middle of her back. Tight and fit, but somehow soft, her body looked…
good
. Her tits bounced slightly under her white tank-top as she walked, and a small patch of taut, creamy skin peeked out between the hem of her top and her shorts. If I believed in God, I would’ve said she had the face of an angel.

She’d make a nice trophy for my collection, but I didn’t do females of my own kind. I
only
fucked human women.

“I see her.” I hung up the phone and tossed it on the passenger seat, distantly following behind her as she pulled away from her house.

Pineapples? What the fuck are
pineapples
?

I stared at the prickly tan cylindrical food with odd leaves exploding from the top, turning it this way and that as I inspected it. My nose wrinkled as I smelled it, and I set it back with the others, wondering how a human was supposed to eat something so sharp.

I pushed the shopping cart along, passing a stand of clear plastic sacks that each had a bunch of dirt-covered oblong balls. I covered my nose as their smell hit me, and I almost gagged. These “potatoes,” as the sign read, stank of dirt and rotten earth.

How can humans eat this shit?

Maybe this “produce” part of the store wasn’t the best place I should be. What did that even mean, anyway? What was it supposed to produce? As far as I could tell, the only things it produced were alien looking “foods” and rank smells.

The “deli” section smelled borderline good with its plentiful array of raw meats. I picked up some ground beef, steaks, ribs, and pig’s blood, which I was pleasantly surprised to find. In a pinch, we could eat raw animal meat and animal blood, but we couldn’t live off it. So until I could properly feed, these animal carcasses in neatly wrapped cellophane packages would have to suffice.

Since I didn’t eat human food, I had no idea what an appropriate amount of groceries were. Looking at my cartful of randomly grabbed items–that I would just end up tossing out anyway, aside from the meats–I thought I might’ve overshot it.

I rounded the corner and saw the reason for my trip into the grocery store–Emily. Her eyes were on a small piece of paper as she chewed on the tip of a pen. Keeping my head down, I pulled into the closest checkout line so I could beat her outside.

*          *          *

The doors slid open as I pushed my cart outside and put my sunglasses on. The sight of my pupils in the midday sun would surely frighten her, and because of some unfathomable reason, this girl–
the bane of my
existence
–was raised among humans, completely unaware of our world. So now, I not only had to get this insignificant little twat to spend time with me, but I had to do it while pretending to be human.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Digging my keys out of my pocket, I pushed my cart along the scorching pavement. The rental car beeped as the trunk popped open, and I slowly started to load my groceries into it as I waited for the girl. I didn’t have to wait long before I saw her coming up the row of parked cars, squinting from the sun’s glare.

Now how was I supposed to make contact with her?

My mind raced as I thought of plausible ways to “bump” into her, as Michael suggested. Running out of time and options, I finally decided to go with the easiest route. While I loaded groceries into my car, my foot pushed the cart away from me. It slowly started to roll downhill before picking up speed.

“Hey!” the girl called out.

I pretended not to notice, and instead busied myself with arranging the plastic white sacks in my trunk. I heard her bags drop as she took off towards the cart. She was oblivious as I jogged over to her abandoned sacks, picking them up as I made my way over to her.

“I’m
so
sorry.” Her head whipped around as I stepped into the shade next to her car. “Are you okay?” I asked, setting her bags down.

She glared at me and shoved my cart to me, the movement causing her scent to waft up to me. I hated to admit it, but she smelled fucking awesome. All feminine and flowery and…
different
. There was something off about her scent, and I tried to pinpoint it.

God, what
is
that?

It didn’t smell bad, not by any means, but she smelled…
sweeter
than other Feeders. Maybe it was her perfume. 

“I’m
fine
,” she muttered, “but maybe next time you should pay more attention.”

She was mad. How cute.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Again, I’m really sorry,” I said, taking off my sunglasses.

Her breathing faltered as her pupils dilated. She quickly composed herself and looked away, her face turning pink.

Gotcha
.

*          *          *

Scrubbing a towel over my wet hair, I paused as I left the bathroom. The terrace door was ajar. I hadn’t left it open...

“How’d you find her?”

I froze at the woman’s voice behind me.

That was quick. A ten minute conversation with her daughter and she came running.

A slow grin spread across my face as I turned to her. “So it’s true. Infamously cold-hearted Vivienne has a daughter. And a lovely one at that. You know, I don’t normally go for women of my own kind, but for her, I think I could make an exception.”

She pinned me to the wall a fraction of a second later, her hand gripped tightly around my neck. “You’ll keep your dick in your pants if you want to keep it at all,” she sneered.

I’d never seen her this close in person before, having only seen her a handful of times at dinner parties or treaty conferences. With her flawless porcelain skin, delicate features, and big green eyes, it was easy to see why people often hailed Vivienne as the beauty of our race… However, our race hadn’t met Emily yet.

I smirked, even though she was beginning to cut off my oxygen. “Testy, are we? Relax, Viv, I’ll go slow with her. Break her in nice and easy.”

She had me face down on the floor before I could stop her, with my arm twisted behind me. I scowled as she mashed the side of my face into the hard marble.

Goddamn it, this one’s fast.

She leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Careful, Gabriel. I’m not one of your pathetic little humans. Push
me
around, and I’ll push you back. Got it?” She laced her fingers through my hair and tugged, bringing my head off the floor several inches before slamming my face back down.

The marble cracked and I winced, though not from pain. “Goddamn it, I’m gonna have to pay for that!” I pushed myself up and glared at her.

She ignored me and said, “Who sent you?”

“Michael gave me the orders.”

“Oh, yeah?” She smirked. “And who’s that sniveling little shit working for now?”

I shrugged. “That’s confidential, even to me, but I have it on good authority you fucked him twenty years ago, if that helps.”

“What?”

I stopped glaring at the cracked marble long enough to give her a “duh” look. “Emily’s father? Ring any bells?” A thought occurred to me, and my eyes widened. “Hey, who is he? They won’t tell me shit about his real identity.”

She shook her head and laughed. “Your boss is
not
Emily’s father, I guarantee it.”

“How can you be so sure?
I
don’t even know who he is.”

“
Trust me
.”

“Then why would he think he was? You two obviously had sex, otherwise he wouldn’t–”

She threw her hands up. “I don’t know!”

Exhaling sharply, I rubbed my forehead. “Look, they just want to talk to you, so are you coming or not?” I didn’t actually know what they intended to do with her, but I seriously doubted it was just “talk.”

“What’s going to happen to Emily?” Her voice came out hushed, and I softened.

“I’m not here to hurt her, if that’s what you’re asking.”

After several seconds, she shook her head. “I can’t leave her here unprotected.”

“They’ll send others if you don’t come back with me. Right now, I’m the only one here.”
I think.
“And they’ll use her as leverage against you… This is the only way she’ll stay safe.”

Her eyes widened as desperation started to sink in. “I’ll take her, run away with her.”

I stepped in front of her, blocking her path. “I can’t let you do that. You’re not leaving here unless it’s with me, and we’re on our way to Paris.”

Biting her thumbnail, she frowned, as if she were weighing her options.

Sighing, I said, “If you’re so certain he’s not the father, then what’s the harm in going? I’m sure in his mind, he’s just shocked to find out he might have a daughter, and he wants to talk to you about it. You
did
kinda disappear without a word to anyone, you know…”

She nodded. “Fine, I’ll go. But I don’t want you sniffing around her anymore.”

“
Please
,” I scoffed, grabbing my phone off the nightstand and scrolling through my contacts. I glanced at Vivienne and held the phone up to my ear as it dialed Michael’s number. “The fuck would I want with her anyway?”

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Saturday, August 22
nd

Paris, France

“You did good.” Michael grinned and slapped me on the back, then walked over to his wet bar and poured himself another drink.

The trade off with Vivienne had gone smoothly. She willingly got into Michael’s car as he directed the driver where to go, and that was that. She was gone. However, I had a feeling she wouldn’t be so docile once face-to-face with the boss.

Michael sat down across from me at his desk. He propped his feet up on the shiny dark wood and took a slow swig of his drink while appraising me. “Now for the bad news,” he said, setting his drink down.

My body tensed in the seat before him. “What is it?”

“I need you to go to Virginia and keep an eye on the girl.”

I shot up from my chair. “
What?
You never said anything about–”

Michael held his hand up to silence me. “The order’s coming from up above, so I don’t want to hear about it. It’s out of my hands now.”

I picked up my drink from the table and threw it across the room. It smashed into the wall, the glass shattering on impact as tan liquid ran down the off-white paint. “Are you fucking
kidding
me? I’m not some goddamn babysitter, Michael!”

His head turned slowly from the mess I’d just made to face me. He was not amused. “No, of course you’re not. How
can
you be, when you’re no more than a child yourself?”

I paused pacing his office long enough to flip him off.

He sighed and stood. “Quit bitching and just go. For
once
, don’t make this any more difficult.”

I opened my mouth to retort, but he cut me off. “Two words, Gabriel: Co. Eds. Now go, get out of here.”

As I picked up my jacket and walked out, I couldn’t help but think maybe Michael had a point after all.

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Tuesday, August 25
th

Potomac Ridge, VA

Jesus, the tiny college town was in the middle of
nowhere
. It was nothing but the Blue Ridge Mountains and trees for miles. The closest airport was an hour away in DC, which was the closest thing to civilization from this dump. And it was too damn quiet out here. I was used to big cities that filled my head with a constant low-frequency hum. This place filled my head with nothing–my thoughts had no place to hide here.

Today was the first chance I’d gotten to go check out the university. I drove around the campus, memorizing the layout. It looked just like I’d imagined it would–gray and brown brick buildings, a large courtyard, several parking lots, sidewalks, grass, trees, blah, blah, blah…

I pulled into the first parking space I saw and turned off the car, then grabbed my phone out of my pocket. It only showed one signal bar. No–three. Aaaand…now it was down to none.

Goddamn mountains and your shitty reception.

I held my phone in ten different spots before it finally leveled out to full service. I flipped through my contacts and dialed Michael. He answered after the third ring.

“Are you there yet?”

“Yeah, I got in yesterday. By the way, you neglected to mention how
charming
this town is.”

He laughed quietly. “You probably wouldn’t have gone if I’d told you.”

“No, probably not.” Not if I’d actually had a choice, that is.

“Have you made contact with her yet?”

“Not since I got here. So…what’s the plan?”

“Keep an eye on her till she matures. Then bring her in.”

My hand tightened around the steering wheel as my eyes squeezed shut. That could take
 years
for all I knew. “Why can’t I just take her now?”

“Because she’s of no use to us yet, and need I remind you that she lives in the human world? When a pretty thing like that goes missing, she’ll be plastered all over the news, which is exactly what we
don’t
need. Use the time you’ve got to get in good. Get her to trust you so that when the time comes, she’ll come with you willingly.”

“And what if I never get her to trust me that well?”

“Then when she matures, we’ll fake her death and you’ll snatch her.” He made it sound so easy.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “This is fucking bullshit. Why do
I
have to be the one–”

“You just
do
, okay? You’re the only one that could be relocated. Everyone else has mates or young. You have nobody.”