“That would imply against your will.”
“I was unconscious.”
“Oh, for feck’s sake. I didn’t play with your fanny in the night. A few drops of my blood on your tongue was all it took to heal your face. You barely stirred in your sleep. For what it’s worth, the sun didn’t come out this morning, so you might want to thank me.”
I rubbed my stiff neck, deciding to let it slide. I felt much better than I did six hours ago, aside from the fact I probably looked like one of Wyatt’s ghosties.
After staggering to my feet, I rubbed my eyes and stretched. Even though I’d fallen asleep on the concrete, I vividly remembered waking up with my head on Christian’s lap. He must have also put his coat all the way on me since I didn’t recall doing it myself. I tucked my hands inside the pockets and fished around until I found a piece of candy to remove the taste of blood in my mouth.
And not my blood.
I popped the mint in my mouth and crunched on it. When I shook out my hair, particles of dust and dirt floated to the ground. “What are we going to tell Shepherd about his Jeep?”
Christian strode over to the opening in the wall and turned away from it. “I don’t give a shite what he says. Assuming it’s still there, we’re heading back to get my sunglasses before walking home.”
Ugh. The idea of walking back to Keystone in the snow after all that had happened left me bitter. But I soldiered on and followed Christian down the ladder and through the alley, the wind at our backs and fresh snow having covered our tracks from the previous night. He didn’t ask for his coat, and I didn’t offer. But it felt good to be moving again, and it generated some much-needed body heat.
This time no one we passed gave me a second glance. I blended into the scenery with my scuffed shoes, dirty coat, rumpled hair, bloodstains, and sour look. Even with my nose healed, I could only imagine what my face must look like.
It was overcast with a light flurry, but the world seemed too bright to admire. We passed by a shirtless Vampire sitting on top of a broken intersection light, watching us with keen interest. His long black hair rippled in the wind, whereas the rest of him appeared as lifeless as a statue.
“Do they sleep outside?” I asked.
“Some of us don’t require sleep.” Christian rubbed a few flakes off his beard. “You’d be surprised what some of the buildings look like inside. A few rich bastards remodeled them into castles fit for a king. Some are in ruins but livable, others abandoned. It’s impossible to tell from the outside who’s making all the money. If Viktor hadn’t taken you in, this is likely where you would have ended up.”
“What about you?”
“I lived here a short while. But that was some years back.”
“You lived here?”
That offered me a new perspective. I’d seen Christian gleefully torture and murder men as part of our job, but it made me wonder what kind of man he was before Keystone to wind up in a place like this.
My stomach growled as we continued our march.
“Sounds like a wild boar in there,” he remarked. “We better get home while there’s still time for breakfast.”
I groaned. “This rotation thing isn’t working out.”
“Perhaps you can cater again,” he quipped.
“I would if I had my phone.”
After what must have been an hour, we reached the intersection where we’d abandoned Shepherd’s Jeep. I didn’t think anyone would steal it since it had an empty tank, and as we approached, the only thing different about it was a layer of snow on the hood and roof.
Christian slowed to a stop. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” He approached the vehicle and circled it, eyes brimming with disbelief. “They didn’t even take the tires!”
Even more astonishing was that the door was unlocked and nothing was stolen from the vehicle. I climbed inside to warm up and take a breather before we continued our walk.
Christian sat in the driver’s seat, and after he retrieved his sunglasses, he stared at the console. “If the battery’s still alive, maybe we can walk to a gas station and get enough fuel to move this thing out of here.”
“Sign me up for that plan.”
When he turned the ignition, the Jeep started up. It didn’t just turn on, it roared.
“Feck me.” He thumped his finger against the panel in front of him. “It says a full tank. Hand to God, it was empty when we left.”
“Maybe Shepherd needs to take it into the shop and get the needle checked. Sometimes they get stuck, or maybe it froze in the cold weather.”
Christian rubbed the back of his neck. “If I were a man who believed in fairies, I’d think one was playing tricks on us.”
That made me chuckle. “Maybe it was a leprechaun.”
He waved his hand. “Don’t start with the Irish jokes.”
“Did you bring your lucky clover?”
Christian gave me a cursory glance before turning the Jeep around. When I switched on Shepherd’s music, the chorus chanted: Let the bodies hit the floor.
“Now there’s some uplifting music,” Christian remarked, changing the station over to classical.
“Air on the G String,” I said, remembering it from music class back in high school. “I didn’t take you for a Bach man.”
“It’s easier on a Vampire’s ears. Be thankful you don’t have to suffer hearing every sound magnified.”
I slowly took off my gloves, staring at Christian’s profile. Sometimes when he was thinking, he would draw in his lower lip and lightly scrape his teeth against it. I noticed his scruffy hair covering the top of his ear and had a strange urge to tuck it back.
“Is it like that all the time?” I asked. “Hearing everything. Does it hurt?”
“When it comes to bright light, I’ve got these,” he said, tapping his finger against the sunglasses. “But filtering sound takes practice. A Vampire learns to block out noise, and I’m quite good at it. I don’t hear the engine running, but I can hear a cat howling in the alleyway. If I wanted to, I could silence every sound in the world but the breath in your lungs.”
My face flushed, and I turned my attention out the window to two men fighting in the street. One Mage blasted the other man with energy, and in a split second, the tall man’s eyes rolled from yellow to black.
“Chitah,” I said, locking my door. Once they went primal, they targeted anyone who looked like a threat.
The Chitah took on a predatory stance, flashing his upper and lower fangs as he circled the Mage. They were worthy adversaries. A Chitah could kill a Mage with his bite, and a Mage could take down a Chitah with enough energy blasts.
If he could get close enough.
The Chitah rushed the Mage, and they rolled end over end across the snow. As Christian drove past them, I turned in my seat to steal a final glance of the violent ending.
A lawless society terrified and intrigued me. The appeal of a place like the Bricks was undeniable, even to the most honorable man. I’d lived in fear of the Mageri for many years. As an illegally made and undocumented immortal, our laws supported my execution. And yet criminals were given a safe haven in a place like this.
During the ride back to the club to pick up Christian’s car, we didn’t speak. The silence wasn’t awkward, and for the first time, it felt like we were two partners out on a ride.
By the time we made it back to Keystone, everyone had already eaten. I felt guilty that Viktor had to cook breakfast on my week, but I trudged upstairs and decided to worry about it later—after I took a hot shower.
With my hair still wet, I put on a workout hoodie, jeans, and thick socks. I used cotton swabs to clean out the dried blood from inside my nose, and once I finished that delightful task, I felt like myself again. My blue eye was a little puffy from rubbing it, but no one would ever know to look at me that I’d fought a Mage, dodged a sword attack, escaped an explosion, gone on a subway chase, traipsed around the Bricks, and slept on Christian’s lap.
When I knocked on the door to Wyatt’s office, no one answered. The lights were out, which was unusual.
“That’s a first,” I muttered, heading to the staircase. Why wasn’t anyone monitoring the black market website?
When I reached the first floor, I steered toward the dining room to see if maybe they were eating. Voices overlapped from the adjacent gathering room, and a log crackled and snapped within the hearth on the wall opposite the entryway.
“Hold your ponies!” Wyatt said, clearly flustered. “I have to put in the right amount. Don’t break my concentration.”
As I entered the room, I glanced up at the massive window on the left, admiring the way it sprayed colors onto the floor. The fireplace glowed, Niko sitting beside it with his back to the wall and one leg drawn up. I stepped behind Gem’s chair and faced the group. The long wall to my right dividing the gathering room and dining room had small archways in the middle that allowed those sitting in the booths to peer into the room. The couch was against it, Blue sitting next to Wyatt, who had a MoonPie in his mouth, laptop on his legs, and was wearing a grey T-shirt that said: NO BONES ABOUT IT and depicted a skull and crossbones.
I leaned against the back of Gem’s chair, Viktor sitting in the chair that faced the sofa. “What’s going on?”