“You know nothing about me or the people around me,” he bit out. “You’ve known me a few days, and you’re an expert on my life?”
“Am I wrong?” she shot back. “Or do you wield your venom like a weapon, poisoning everything around you?”
Her swipe at him hit so close to home that it was almost a physical blow. His temper swelled, fed by his own self-hatred, which had been encapsulated by hardened layers of denial. Now the capsule had cracked, leaking toxic anger that Nicole didn’t deserve but was going to feel the brunt of anyway.
“You have a death wish, don’t you, human?” He surged closer to her once more, tempted to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. The kind of sense that would teach her to never taunt a vampire.
To never tempt a vampire.
She lifted her chin stubbornly. “You said you wouldn’t kill me.”
“And you believed me?” He bared his fangs for emphasis. “Me, a vampire?”
She cringed, almost imperceptibly, but he also caught a whiff of anxiety, so yeah, she wasn’t percent sure she was safe, and he felt like a f**king heel.
He’d come here to satisfy a primal urge for a female who had captivated him from the moment he touched her, but even as those raging hormones rushed through his body, he’d calmed in her presence. She’d admitted to being frightened and confused, lost in both her world and his, and all he’d wanted to do was to comfort her. Now he’d made her feel trapped again, like nothing more than a sheep awaiting slaughter in a pen.
He drew in a breath, hoping oxygen would clear his head and magically give him the right words for this situation.
Apparently, neither magic air nor magic vaginas existed.
There was a pounding on the door, followed by Hunter slamming it open and crossing to the bedroom in a matter of a heartbeat. He stood in the doorway, his gaze sweeping from the messy bed to their disheveled clothing, and Riker knew he was in for a first-class dress-down later.
Awesome. Because it wasn’t enough to have Myne up his ass about his involvement with Nicole.
“There’s something you need to see,” Hunter said grimly.
Riker shifted his weight, crunching a shard of broken glass beneath his foot. “Give me a few.”
“Now,” Hunter countered. “Both of you.”
If there was anything Riker knew how to do, it was take orders, even if he didn’t like them. In sullen silence, he and Nicole followed Hunter to his office, where his television was on, the picture paused.
He punched a button on the remote, and a reporter standing in front of Daedalus’s headquarters started speaking.
“Dr. Nicole Martin, billionaire heiress and CEO of Daedalus Corporation, is still missing after being brutally kidnapped by vampires, igniting a cry from some to eradicate vampires once and for all, and counter— protests by the Vampire Humane Society demanding freedom for vampires that Daedalus has played a large role in capturing.”
The camera panned to a woman holding a sign that said VAMPIRES ARE PEOPLE, TOO. “Nicole Martin got what she deserved!” the lady yelled. “You reap what you sow. Free the vampires!”
A man across the street shot the VHS chick the finger and then shouted, “Vampires are abominations!
They must be destroyed, or this kind of thing will keep happening.”
The reporter’s too-perfect face came back on, and Riker wondered if the guy had been the recipient of antiaging vampire juice. Riker would love to drain the human juice right out of the man.
“Charles Martin, Dr. Martin’s brother, has sworn to stop at nothing to find her.”
Yeah, right, Riker thought. But next to him, a faint smile trembled on Nicole’s lips, relief that her brother intended to come through for her. But as she’d pointed out before, she wasn’t stupid. She must know, deep down, that her jackass of a brother wasn’t going to lift a finger to help her.
Charles came on the screen, and a dozen micro— phones were shoved in his face. “The evil creatures that did this to my beloved sister will be caught and executed. We’ve learned that these vampires escaped from one of our South Seattle facilities after being set free by vampire activists. Consider these creatures to be very, very dangerous, which was why they were locked up in the first place.”
Riker frowned. “We didn’t escape from the facility.
What the hell is he talking about?”
Charles continued. “As a precaution, and to prevent incidents like this from happening in the future, we will close down the facility, which was a vampire re— habilitation center, and all vampires will be destroyed.
We now know that it’s far too dangerous to give these animals the benefit of the doubt.”
“Oh, my God.” Nicole’s voice trembled. “He’s lying to cover up for whatever is going on at the B-lab he mentioned. I’ll bet he knows there’s going to be an attempt to rescue Neriya, and he wants to make sure we don’t even have a chance.”
“Fuck,” Hunter snapped. “How long do you think we have?”
Charles looked directly into the camera, as if he’d heard Hunter. “Effective tomorrow.”
Chapter 20
Nicole stood in the bright, early-morning sunshine outside the Daedalus lab grounds, Riker at her side. The sunglasses on her face were borrowed from katina, the top borrowed from Benet, whom Nicole felt bad about thinking was a skank. The sneakers were actually new, given to her by a female named
Caris, who had shyly handed them over with a quiet whisper of “Good luck.”
Nicole hadn’t the heart to say that it was Neriya and Riker who needed the luck, because truly, they were the ones Nicole was putting in danger with this plan.
“I hope to hell this works.” Riker, dressed in jeans and an olive-drab long-sleeved T-shirt under a matching trench coat that concealed weapons, slid her a sideways glance.
“It will.” She tugged the jacket of Riker’s that she’d failed to return more tightly around her. “It has to.”
Riker studied the building looming before them with detached calculation. They hadn’t spoken about what happened in her room, and now, she supposed, there was no point. The chances that both of them would come out of this intact were pretty slim. He could be caught and killed, and she could be arrested for any number of offenses. If not for the deaths of the vampires in the lab she was responsible for, then for breaking into the lab in front of her and conspiring with vampires to do it.
Then there was the uncertainty of her fate if, by some miracle, this did all go down without a hitch.
“We won’t kill you,” Riker said, and there went his mind-reading thing he claimed not to have again.
“I know,” she said, and she meant it. Riker wouldn’t let anyone harm her. “But you can’t let me go free, either.”
“True. But we can keep you with us. You’ll be safe.” katina had said something similar. Nicole smiled sadly. “keep me. Like a pet. Or a slave.”
His head whipped around, and although she couldn’t see his eyes through his sunglasses, she felt the weight of his burning stare. His jaw was clenched so tight she was surprised she didn’t hear the crack of teeth.
“I don’t think I can live like that,” she murmured.
Then you’ll know how all the captive vampires feel. She could practically hear Riker speak the words, even if he had the decency not to say them out loud.
“Before we go inside, I just want to say that I’m sorry for everything my family has put you and your people through.” She started walking, not wanting him either to reply with some lame it’s okay bullshit that wasn’t true or to cast her apology back in her face by accusing her of too little, too late.
He walked with her, a silent shadow at her side.
She sensed that he wanted to say something, but she was thankful that he kept quiet, his demeanor shifting from sort of affable to deadly, focused warrior the closer they got to the building.
As suspected, entering wasn’t a problem. The security guy at the front desk knew her and was aware of her kidnapping, and he was so relieved that she’d “escaped, thanks to the Good Samaritan hunter” accompanying her, that he let them inside without question.
“You should have let me eat him,” Riker muttered, as they hurried to the area where she was certain Neriya would be held.
“Right,” she drawled, “because a severely anemic, unconscious security guard wouldn’t have attracted attention at all.” Then again, if the guard was doing his job, he’d be calling his supervisor right now to report her unannounced and irregular arrival. Maybe she should have let Riker eat him.
She picked up her pace, checking each door as they passed to orient herself. All Daedalus labs were of the same design, but the contents of each room varied according to what the main purpose of the lab was.
“I think it’s the door ahead on the right. The big red one.”
“I’ll take point.” The commanding tone in Riker’s voice both annoyed her and sent a shiver of feminine appreciation through her. “You—”
A soft puff of air whispered across Nicole’s cheek, followed by Riker’s grunt. She spun as he yanked a dart out of his neck and stumbled into the wall.
“Riker!” She started toward him but froze as half a dozen men popped out from doorways and hallways, weapons trained on them both.
“Hello, sis.” Chuck stepped out from behind a big security guy. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
There was a sting in her arm and then . . . nothing.
----------------------
“Nicole. hey, sleepyhead, wake up.”
Nicole woke to Chuck’s voice, bright lights, and a headache the size of Europe. An awful snarl rattled every cell in her body, but where it was coming from, she had no idea. A thick strap across her forehead kept her from looking anywhere but at the ceiling.
Chuck’s face appeared in front of her as he crouched down, and she realized she was lying on the floor inside one of the cells meant to hold vampires.
“What . . .” She swallowed, wincing at the dry roughness in her throat. After months spent in a hospital recovering from Boris’s attack, she knew the feeling all too well; she’d been intubated and extubated.
“What’s going on? What are you doing?”
“I’m protecting Daedalus, just like I’ve done for the last twenty years.”
“What are you talking about?” She tried again to move, but shackles pinned her arms and legs to the floor. “Where’s Riker?”
“Subject fifteen-seventy-two, you mean?” That horrid snarl sounded again, and sickly, she realized it was coming from subject fifteen-seventy-two. “I’ll let you see him after you answer a question.” A lock of hair fell over his eyes as he cocked his head, and he shoved it away with a vicious swipe of his hand. “Did he force you to come here, or are you working with them?”
Nicole’s head spun. This was all so bizarre. Chaining her to the floor? To what end? Was this some sort of game? A prank? If so, it wasn’t fun or funny.
She hedged, seeking his angle. “You know how much I’ve always hated vampires. Why would I work with them?”
“Because they’re masters of seduction, Nikki. Liars with pretty words.” He straightened, looming im— periously over her. “Look how they tricked you when you were a kid. They made you love them. Made you believe they cared about you. They don’t. All they want is to eat us. They’ll even murder their own kind.”
He started to pace, the clack of his shoes on the floor so annoyingly loud. “There’s a simple truth we try to keep from the simple human population: that vampires are the top of the food chain. If we ever let their numbers get out of control, humans could face extinction.
What we do here at Daedalus ensures that the human race keeps the vampires in check.”
“Why are you telling me all of this?” He was spouting propaganda that she knew well. “I’ve heard it all before, same as you.”
“Yes, but I’ve never tried to protect the vampire who kidnapped me. The vampire who murdered his own mate.” Chuck’s cheeks were mottled with anger.
“Did you know that? Did you know this vampire behind me is the one who killed your nanny? Who butchered Terese?”
Taken aback by his sudden rage, she stared. Why did he care so much about Terese’s death? What was the point of this? And how on God’s green earth could this be the brother she’d followed around like a puppy and worshipped as a child? Granted, she hadn’t seen much of him over the last twenty years, but they’d communicated frequently via teleconferencing, and he’d flown to Paris once a year to see her. Nothing he’d said or done during any of those times had made her think he’d gone off the rails.
She was beginning to lose hope that this was a prank.
“Well?” he prompted, impatience turning his voice guttural.
“Riker didn’t kill Terese.”
“Of course he told you that, but you saw it yourself.” Chuck’s patronizing smile made her want to scream. “So your denial tells me that either you’re suffering from Stockholm syndrome or you’ve switched sides. Which is it, sister?”
She tried again to free herself, but her futile struggles only heightened her awareness that she was in a lot of trouble. Stay calm. He’s your brother. He won’t hurt you.
Maybe not, but he could hurt Riker, and she had no doubt he would.
“I’d be happy to discuss all of this at home.” She cleared her throat and conjured her I’m the boss voice.