Everafter Series 1 - Everafter (17 page)

“We’re well aware,” Foster snapped.

I arched my eyebrows. “All right then.” I turned back toward the elevators, but she stopped me with a hand on my forearm.

“Look, I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s been a rough weekend. As you can imagine, there’s even more pressure now to get this case squared away.”

I turned back to her and nodded. My temper worked the same way, after all, flaring up over nothing when I was under stress. “What can I do to help?” As if I didn’t know better than she did.

Foster spread her hands out in front of her, palms up. They were callused, probably from weights at a gym. “If you remember anything else…”

“You’re always the first to know.”

“Thank you. Really.” She smiled halfheartedly and then turned toward Olivia’s room. I found myself eyeing her gun, cradled in a hip holster today, as she walked away. I wondered if there was some part of her that hoped she got to kill this guy herself—to take him out, instead of bringing him in.

And then I wondered if deep down, that’s what I wanted as well.

*

The Consortium had a lounge on the facility’s top floor, sporting a 360-degree view of midtown. Comfortable chairs were arranged in clusters near the windows, and a bar took up the center of the room. The bartender had been serving drinks since 1881. During my self-imposed separation from Alexa, I had often come up here at night to drink a scotch and brood over the city lights. It was a good place to think.

As soon as my Neuroanatomy class finished, I called Kyle to ask him to meet me there. When I arrived, I found him catnapping in one of the chairs. His face was ashen, and an ugly bruise peeked out from under the collar of his button-down shirt.

“Hey,” I said, crouching next to him and placing a gentle hand on his arm. “Are you all right?”

He opened bleary eyes and blinked several times before he was able to focus enough to recognize me. “Hey, Val. Yeah. I’m okay.” He gripped the edge of his chair and pulled himself out of his slumped position. “Helen was thirsty last night.”

“Jesus,” I breathed, feeling the skin on the back of my neck start to crawl. Right then and there, I made a vow never to do that to Alexa—to take so much that she could barely sit up. Never. “I’m sorry, Kyle. I didn’t realize. You should sleep, and—”

“No,” he insisted. “I’m good. Really. What’s going on?”

I was worried that the only reason Kyle had agreed to meet me in his current state was that he hoped to get in my good graces so that I’d deign to suck on his neck someday. Something else that was never going to happen.

“I need to know everything I can possibly know about this rogue vampire,” I said, taking the chair next to his.

Kyle looked dubious. “That’s all anybody’s been talking about since Saturday morning. Helen deployed a team to hunt him down almost two months ago, but they haven’t come up with anything. I don’t think there’s much to know—he seems really good at giving everyone the slip.” He looked at me sideways. “You still don’t…remember?”

I sighed in frustration. “Just flashes. Not nearly enough to be helpful.” I stretched my feet out in front of me and watched the afternoon sunlight glint off the Chrysler Building. “I know the woman he attacked this weekend, and seeing her lying there like that, like I was…I just want to do something.”

Kyle was staring off into space. I wondered if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. “You could always try the Red Circuit,” he said suddenly.

“The what?”

On top of looking like death warmed over, Kyle now seemed ill at ease. “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but that party at Luna was very upscale. Classy and relatively tame. The Red Circuit is completely different. I’ve never been myself, but everyone says that those parties are savage. Brutal.” He turned to look me in the eye. “Someone like this rogue vamp, though—that might be his thing.”

I nodded, afraid that he was right on the money. While the idea of this Red Circuit might be morbidly fascinating, it also frightened me. I didn’t want to acknowledge my own inner monster, not to mention someone else’s. “Surely Helen would send people there to investigate.”

He shrugged again. “I don’t think that would do much good, unless he’s bragging about the people he’s killed—or turned.”

“And if they haven’t caught him by now, then he’s not that stupid,” I finished for him. I didn’t say the other thing that had suddenly popped into my head: the notion that if I could be in the same room with the rogue vampire—if I could see him—then maybe I’d be able to recognize him.

Kyle rested one hand lightly on mine. I blinked at him, surprised; he rarely touched anyone unless they touched him first. “I’m pretty sure Helen knows where they are each week, but she won’t tell me. I met someone the other night at Luna who might be able to get me in, though.”

“Is there enough room for me to tag along?”

Kyle leaned back in his chair. “I’ll work on it.”

I rested a hand on his shoulder as I stood. “Thank you.”

“Say hi to Alexa for me,” he called softly as I turned to leave.

I closed my eyes during the cab ride home in an effort to sort through the jumble of thoughts in my brain. I had no doubt that the Red Circuit would be profoundly disturbing, but it also sounded promising. Whatever the rogue vampire’s motivation, he was clearly a sadist, and a party where even the veneer of civility was discarded seemed like exactly the kind of entertainment he’d look for.

“Hey, lov—mmph!” No sooner had I stepped into the apartment than Alexa’s arms were around my neck, her lithe body pressing me up against the wall next to the door. She kissed me fiercely and I met her with all the love and passion in me, wrapping the thick strands of her hair around my fingers and urging her even closer than she already was.

When she finally pulled away, licking her lips, I was gasping for air. I watched as she closed the door and set the bolt and chain. She kept one hand on my stomach the entire time, stroking my abs through the fabric of my sweater.

“You okay, baby?” I asked, once I had my breath back.

She led me to the couch; I lay down and she snuggled in on top of me. “It was so hard being away from you today.”

“Yeah. For me, too.” I ran my palms firmly down her back and she hummed deep in her throat.

“How’s Olivia?”

I settled in on her lower back, massaging in small, tight circles. It felt so good to touch her. “She’s okay. Awake. And not a vampire.”

“Oh?”

“Apparently he got interrupted. Didn’t have time to do enough…damage.” She felt my wince and kissed my chin.

We lay there for a good half hour—me gently working out the tension in her muscles and telling her about everything I’d learned, and her punctuating my narrative with the occasional question. While she listened, she rested her head over my heart. When I got to the part about the Red Circuit, her grip on me tightened.

“That sounds awful,” she whispered. And then she raised her head to glare at me. “You’re not going. You’re not even contemplating going. Right?”

Her insistence didn’t faze me—I knew I’d feel exactly the same way if our roles were reversed. “I might be able to recognize him if I did,” I said quietly.

“Hell no. Hell no.” Alexa grasped my head in both hands. “Because he’ll definitely recognize you, Val, and what do you suppose he’ll do then?”

That was true. She was right. He would know that I’d want vengeance. “I hadn’t thought of that,” I admitted.

“You really won’t, right?” she pressed. “Maybe there’s a way to tell Detective Foster?”

My jaw clenched as I had a sickening epiphany. “They wouldn’t let her live,” I realized out loud. “Not whoever’s in charge of that party…and I bet not the Consortium, either.”

“Shit,” Alexa whispered.

I sat up then, rearranging us so that my back was to the couch and she was straddling my lap. “Kyle might have a way in for me,” I said softly. “He’s looking into it.”

Her eyes narrowed. I met them without flinching. “If you go, I go,” she said finally.

“That’s craz—”

She pushed one finger against my lips, halting my protests. “You listen to me. We are a team—so much stronger together than apart. Have you really not learned your lesson by now, after everything that’s happened? Really?”

I shook my head, even as I realized that trying to convince her to stay would be useless. “Weren’t you listening? From everything Kyle’s heard, this place is going to be chaos!”

But she showed no sign of backing down. “Either I go, or you don’t.”

“Okay,” I finally conceded, both frightened for her safety and relieved that we could watch each other’s backs. “Thank you.”

Fortunately, my stomach growled at that moment, lightening the mood. She leaned in and grazed my jawline with her teeth before whispering, “Hungry?” into my ear.

I shivered, but didn’t surrender. “Mmm,” I whispered back, letting my hands drift down to her hips. “What if I’m thirsty?”

Alexa yanked the neck of her sweatshirt down over one shoulder. “Have a drink, then.”

Arousal and need slammed into me. At the jolt that ran through my body, Alexa smiled. She caressed the back of my neck, then pulled me forward until my mouth rested against the soft skin at the juncture of her shoulder and torso. Saliva flooded my mouth as I traced her warm skin with my tongue.

And then I bit down. The rush was instantaneous—hot, thick, rich—and I swallowed to the sound of her low moan. Fuck, this was hot. So. Damn. Hot. So—

The images flooded my brain, a kaleidoscope of agony:
rain in my eyes and vomit coating my tongue and his laugh ringing in my ears. The burn of the knife pinning my arm to the earth. I knew I was going to die. Olivia, pale and bruised, covered by a mound of white blankets. “Please,” I tried to whisper, but gagged on the blood trickling into the back of my throat.

I snarled as the vision unfolded, barely registering Alexa’s flinching movement.

“Easy, love, easy,” she said, her voice strained in a way I’d never quite heard before. But it was only when her fingertips brushed against my cheek that I finally had the sense to pull away. I came back to myself, rather than the dark alley: to the sight of Alexa, left hand pressing into her right shoulder in an attempt to slow the blood, her teeth clenched in pain.

“What the hell,” I muttered, horrified at myself. Jumping up and going to the kitchen, I moistened a fresh washrag and hurried back to clean the blood both from her arm and palm. She watched me silently, and I felt the panic return to my gut.

“What just happened?” she asked, once I had fixed her newest Band-Aid in place.

I leaned back against the couch and grabbed a fistful of cloth in each hand. “I saw him, in my head. It was like I was back there, feeling it all over again for the first time.” When I shuddered, Alexa moved back into her original position and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“Why, do you think?”

I rubbed my cheek lightly against her hair, struggling to hold myself together against the riptide of despair that was threatening to engulf me. How had I lost control? How had I been so absorbed that I’d hurt her? What did this mean? I had finally dared to hope that we could make this work, that we’d be okay. Was I doomed to be bad for her forever, no matter what we tried?

“Don’t know,” I said hoarsely. I thought back to what had flashed before my mind’s eye: the attack, and Olivia. “Maybe…maybe it was seeing Olivia, in the hospital?”

She kissed me lightly. “Oh, love. I wish I could have been there with you. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been, to see her like that. To remember.”

I shook my head. Why was Alexa trying to comfort me, when I had just practically attacked her? It made no sense. I felt like I was going to be sick. “I hurt you,” I whispered, feeling the heat rise behind my eyes as I fought the urge to cry.

“It’s fine. It really is. Look at me.”

One tear spilled out when I did. She caught it on her forefinger. “You’ve had that bastard in your thoughts all day, love,” she pointed out. “It’s no wonder that he popped into your mind.” She cradled my head against her neck and I took a few deep breaths. She smelled so good, so warm. So vibrant. So alive. I could have—

Like clockwork, her grip on me tightened. “If you’re thinking about leaving me again, then you’d better quit it. Right now.”

I pulled back, not even bothering to wipe the moisture from my face. “I can’t leave you again,” I said, hoping that my voice conveyed the deadly seriousness that I felt. “It was a mistake the first time. I don’t think I’d survive a second.”

Suddenly restless, I got to my feet. Usually, I was a fan of talking through whatever problems were confronting us, but I suddenly wanted nothing more than to forget this had ever happened. “Are you getting hungry? How ’bout I cook us some dinner?”

“Okay,” she said, but didn’t let me escape to the kitchen. Or rather, she escaped there, too. Within a few minutes, she was bumping my hip with hers as she chopped vegetables and shared the latest gossip from her peers.

She seemed perfectly fine. And she was probably right about the source of my disconcerting flashback; all day, I’d been obsessing about how to bring the rogue vampire to justice. So I kept up the best happy façade that I could muster, for both our sakes.

Deep down, though, I couldn’t help but continue to worry over the fragile equilibrium we had just managed to find.

Chapter Eleven

The car picked us up promptly at 10:30 outside of our apartment. It was a nondescript black Honda. When Alexa and I slid into the back, Kyle turned around from the driver’s seat.

“Valentine, Alexa, meet Monique.”

I reached across the gap to take the cool hand of the beautiful vampire who had homed in on Kyle at Luna, after Sebastian dragged Alexa and me away. Her honey-colored curls hung in tiny corkscrews down to her shoulders, and her long, dark fingernails matched the shade of her fur coat.

“Pleasure,” I said, even though she creeped me out—particularly the way her predatory gaze lingered on Alexa. I wrapped my free arm around Alexa’s shoulders, pulling her close. Mine.