Harlequin Nocturne March 2014 Bundle: Shadowmaster\Running with Wolves (11 page)

As his fellow Enforcers had done their duties by betraying him as a
traitor,
worthy of the worst penalty the Enclave could impose. Was it their fault that a brother Enforcer's wife and child had died because of a superior's vindictive command?

He began pacing again, aware of the young man's well-trained silence. The longer he was missing, the more risk that every Enforcer, cop and Aegis operative in the city would descend on the Fringe. And likely round up or kill anyone in their way.

“I asked you who you think I am,” he said to the Enforcer in a calm, level voice devoid of threat.

“This is a Hold,” Patterson said. “There are lots of people here, but they're scattered all over. So you belong to a crew, and you have to have influence or you wouldn't be the one questioning me and giving orders. Maybe you're the Boss.” He shifted, stretching his shoulder against the pull of the ropes. “I don't know why you were with the fugitive, but she was obviously leading you somewhere, so you're helping her somehow. Or she's helping you.”

“If I'm a Boss, why would I need the help of a fugitive with half the Enforcers in the city on her tail?” he asked.

The Enforcer must have realized he'd already said too much. He fell silent. Drakon squatted before him. “Let me fill you in,” he said. “She was an Admin for the government, and she's got classified information. She could sell it for help getting out of the city. That's what she wants, isn't it?”

That presumption, Drakon thought, would undoubtedly be held by this young man's peers, the common patrolmen. But the officers of the various Enforcer units had to know what they were really chasing. That she wasn't entirely human.

“What surprised me,” Drakon said, “is why you were working alone and decided it was a good idea to tackle the traitor and a male companion without backup. Are you Enforcers spread so thin?”

The young man's lips tightened. “I was following orders.”

“Or perhaps bending them so that you could take credit for capturing the fugitive yourself.”

“I said I was following orders,” the Enforcer said through gritted teeth. “Look, I never got a good look at your face. I can offer an assurance on behalf of the Bureau that you won't be harassed if you return the prisoner to us.”

“Can you?” Drakon asked. “A few moments ago you threatened me, said I would be in
‘big trouble'
for taking you and presumably helping the fugitive.”

The young man sat very still, obviously composing himself. “It was a stupid thing to say,” he admitted slowly. “But I mean what I'm telling you now. They don't want you, or any of the Bosses. They only want
her
.”

“And you have the authority to offer such a bargain? I don't see any indication of it on your uniform. Or are you really an officer posing as a regular patrolman? Perhaps you even wanted to be captured, hoping you could obtain useful information.”

“I'd have to be crazy to do that,” the Enforcer said. “I know you could have killed me anytime since then if you thought I was a threat. So why am I here? Do you really think I'm going to tell you something useful?”

“You just indicated you had nothing useful to tell me.”

“Then maybe you'll consider the idea that we'll not only leave you alone, but pay you more than the traitor ever could if you turn her over to us.”

“I'd consider that you're afraid that what she can tell me is very valuable, indeed,” Drakon said, rising.

“She...” the Enforcer swallowed with obvious nervousness. “She could hurt the entire Enclave with what she knows, including the Fringe.”

“Interesting,” Drakon said. “But again, I ask how you hold the authority to make such bargains on your organization's behalf?”

“I—”

“I'll tell you what
I
believe,” Drakon said. “Whatever rank you hold, you personally are of some value to the government. You took a stupid risk, and now you've placed yourself in a position where someone might pay a great deal to get you back, even without your so-called
‘traitor.'
”

“You're wrong,” the Enforcer said. “I'm just a regular—”

“We're not quite as isolated here as you in the Nobs seem to believe,” Drakon said. “Your name is Lieutenant Matthew Patterson, your father is Senator Patterson, and he'd do anything in the world to get you back alive.”

Chapter 11

P
atterson clamped his lips together in a way that told Drakon he wasn't likely to offer any confirmation of his true identity.

But there were other things Drakon wanted from the Enforcer at the moment. He needed to know if the average patrolman knew that their quarry wasn't human, and that they were on the hunt for her under orders from Aegis. He needed to confirm Lark's story about her past, her parents' deaths, her
adoption
by Aegis. He needed to find out if her employers believed she was seeking revenge by using what she'd supposedly stolen. And what exactly they thought that revenge would be.

But this Enforcer seemed to have courage, conviction and devotion to the cause he fought for. He wasn't likely to give Drakon the answers he sought.

Was that the real reason Lark had saved him? Not just because she hadn't wanted to see an
innocent
young man killed, but because she'd recognized him as the son of the influential senator, just as he had?

He laughed, making young Patterson jump. He still wanted to accept Lark's explanations, even as his doubts grew stronger. So soon after she'd seemed to prove herself worthy of his trust by revealing the usefulness of her stolen intelligence, he'd been forced to realize how stupid he'd been in not recognizing that she was more than human.

Now he could understand why he was so sexually aroused in her presence. It wasn't just her enthusiasm and beauty and desire for him. Even if he couldn't become addicted by it, he had unconsciously recognized her dhampir blood. And now he wanted very, very badly to taste it.

“I'm not good enough to serve as an agent,”
she had said. If she seemed an outsider, a misfit, she could be a far more effective operative under certain circumstances. If his worst suspicions proved true, why hadn't she taken Matthew to safety when she'd had the chance? Wouldn't returning him to his influential father have been more important than whatever her mission might be? Or had Brita actually stopped her?

Drakon clenched his aching hands. He knew she wasn't afraid of him, and he'd no more be able to force answers from her than he could from Matthew Patterson.

But he'd looked into her eyes when she'd inspected his injuries, recognized emotions he'd seen in Cynthia's eyes so many times before her death. She'd claimed such feelings before, and he had begun to believe they were genuine, even if they ran contrary to her purpose in the Fringe. Maybe he could make use of those feelings now.

What if he were to offer to get her out of the city this coming night? Her reaction might prove—

Young Patterson sucked in a breath, and Drakon snapped back to the task at hand. He retreated to the far corner of the room and let the Enforcer stew in silence a good half-hour before he rapped on the inside of the door. Lark entered as he'd instructed, her expression wary. Now he'd get a better chance to see how she and the Enforcer would interact under very different circumstances.

“You've been questioning him?” Lark asked, though the answer was obvious.

“He's told me very little,” Drakon said.

She moved closer to the young man, and Drakon saw a muscle twitch under her eye. “It's all right,” she said to Patterson. “No one's going to hurt you.”

“Who are you?” the young man asked.

“Lark,” she said. “Lark Bennet.”

Patterson's face crumpled in dismay and disgust. He looked as if he'd liked to have spit in her face.

“What have you told him?” he demanded.

“Please,” Lark whispered. “You don't—”

“You're worse than any scum in the Fringe,” Patterson said. “Why haven't you bought your way out of the city yet?”

“Be silent,” Drakon barked. “She had no choice. This woman is my prisoner.”

“Your
prisoner?
” He laughed under his breath. “What happened, Bennet? Your information not good enough? Couldn't make him do what you wanted? Or are you enjoying being his whore too much?”

“I told you to be quiet,” Drakon said in a very soft voice. “She may be a traitor in your eyes, but she's no one's whore.”

The Enforcer turned toward Lark again. “They hired you even though your evaluations said you were unbalanced. They gave you a rating way above what you ever should have—”

“How do you know all this?” Drakon cut in. “Did Senator Patterson tell you?”

Lark cast Drakon a look of astonishment.
Almost convincing,
he thought.

“Don't pretend you didn't know who he was from the moment we took him,” Drakon said to her.

She had the sense not to deny it. Instead, she leaned closer to Matthew as if to confide some secret to him. “The government decided to execute me without a trial, without giving me a chance to defend myself,” she said. “Why shouldn't I run? Why shouldn't I use whatever information I have to get out of the city?”

The prisoner turned his head aside. “Do you want me to intercede with the senator and beg for your life? He won't listen to me, even if I'd give you another chance.”

“But you said you could guarantee that the Enforcers would leave the Fringe if I gave this woman up to you and let you go,” Drakon said.

“He told you that?” Lark asked. “I—”

Drakon took Lark's arm, pulled her to her feet and led her out of the room.

“He doesn't realize what you really are, does he?” he asked.

“No!” She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “I...did recognize him as soon as you caught him. But he wouldn't—”

“That was a very pretty performance,” he said, “but hardly convincing. Young Patterson needs acting lessons.”

“What?”

“It was too well-rehearsed,” he said. “He offered too much information about you, whether he knows you're part dhampir or not. He also just happened to fall into our path like an overripe apple. I admit I wasn't completely sure before, but your pleading with him convinced me otherwise.” He backed her up against the wall. “He let himself be taken, didn't he? He was part of your plan.”

“Let himself be taken?” she asked, appearing genuinely shocked. “When he knew you might kill him? He had nothing to do with this!”

“Why don't you tell me why the Enforcers put on this act of wanting to capture you, when that's the last thing they intend to do?”

She met his gaze with a long, direct stare. “You're right,” she said. “It's all an act.”

He trapped her with his body, his hands planted to either side of her head. “Variations on a theme,” he said. “One lie built upon another, each a little more convincing than the last.”

“If you'll only listen...”

He stared at her parted lips, wishing he could kiss her senseless, feel her naked thighs wrap around him, enter her right here in the corridor until she gasped and cried out and lost herself completely. He wanted to sink his teeth—the teeth he dared not show—into her neck and take her blood until he was drunk with it.

“I'm listening,” he said, closing his eyes as he breathed in her complex and intoxicating scent.

“I had a chance to be completely honest with you after we fought The Preacher's men,” she whispered, arching against him—whether purposefully or instinctively, he didn't know. “But I was still afraid.”

Drakon felt a tightness in his chest that almost made him forget how much he had lied to
her.
Was lying with every breath even as he condemned her for the same betrayal.

“Go on,” he said coldly.

“It was all a setup, making it seem as if I were running from Aegis and the government so I could have a legitimate reason to go looking for a way out of the city.” She met his gaze, sorrow in her eyes. “You were right in your suspicions. I was sent to identify and expose the Holds of as many Bosses as possible, so the Enforcers could take down at least some of the worst criminals in the Fringe and close up the hidden passages.”

Drakon released his breath. It was still possible that this story was true. He prayed it was.

“Why send a non-human operative on such a job?” he asked.

“The humans weren't having any success.”

“But you've located only one Hold so far,” he said. “Leaving the Enclave would never have served your purpose. Is that why the Enforcers stepped up their patrols around the Wall? To give you a plausible reason for remaining?”

“I knew nothing about that,” she said, “though I admit it did serve my purpose.”

“As did my attraction to you.”

She laughed a little hoarsely. “In some ways, it was easier than I expected. But it backfired on me. You were one of the men I was hunting. But the sex was good for both of us. No matter what else has happened, that part was true.”

Nothing in this world was true, Drakon thought. Nothing real. Nothing that survived. He had learned that long ago.

“Neither one of us was thinking then, were we?” he said. “What of the information you were prepared to trade? The warehouse you showed me?”

“Also a setup, so you'd believe whatever else I had to give you was real.”

“And now you've succeeded in destroying your mission after all. That doesn't sound like Aegis to me.”

“I told you I was never considered qualified for the important jobs,” she said, edging out of his reach. “I obviously wasn't qualified for this one, either.”

The bitterness in her voice was very convincing, Drakon thought. Very convincing, indeed.

“Are you only half-dhampir, as you claimed?”

“Do I look like a full dhampir to you?”

Drakon stalked away. “If I took you into that room and subjected you to the kind of interrogation you thought I intended for Matthew Patterson,” he said, “would that finally persuade you to stop lying to me?”

“If you mean you'd torture me,” Lark said. “I know you wouldn't.”

“Do you truly think you know me after three days?”

“I've already admitted I've made a mess of things. But I can't do you any harm now, can I?”

He laughed, hating that she thought him so weak.

“Why is Aegis suddenly so interested in the Fringe and the Bosses?” he asked. “The city couldn't operate without smuggling. Corruption runs through every facet of human civilization, and the Enclave's no different. There are always enough officials who will work to prevent any long-term efforts to destroy us.”

“But this time,” she said, “the faction supporting Shepherd wants an end to deportation. You even said you agreed with his policy.”

“I said I'd look for some other means of solving the problem,” he said. “So who is behind this, then? Patterson and his cronies?”

“The mayor was...pressured into allowing Aegis to send a few agents to explore the possibility of closing up the illicit exits and round up a few Fringers to—”

“Keep the Enclave from descending into a state of virtual war between the opposing factions before the election begins,” Drakon finished for her. “And you agreed with this plan?”

“It was never my decision to make.”

“Doing your duty,” he said heavily. “You told me you'd seen things here you'd never let yourself think about before. People living in misery without decent housing or food, scrounging for what they need to survive. But you would have brought even greater misery to people who already lack hope.”

She looked away, a suspicious moisture in her eyes. “The Bosses and their crews cause plenty of suffering without help from anyone else. Maybe even you, Sammael. What have
you
been getting out of your selfless philanthropy?”

A desperate grasp at redemption,
he thought. Redemption that would never come.

“You said yourself that you deal with evil men,” she said into his silence. “No matter which side we're on, we make compromises. The only difference is in our motives.”

“And yours is to serve Aegis without question.”

Her lips pressed together, holding back words she was obviously afraid she'd regret. He desperately wanted to kiss those lips. Even now.

“We were both born more than human,” he said. “We chose different paths. I would have done anything to keep out of the government's hands. The only way to do that was to hide. And I wasn't going to live like a cockroach scuttling out of the light.”

“But that's exactly what you do, isn't it?”

“Make up your mind,” he said. “Either I'm like The Preacher, exploiting innocent people for my own gain, or I'm a generous benefactor who helps them stay alive. Either I'm a traitor, or I'm a survivor. Which is it?”

“I wish I knew,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “But I can guarantee that Matthew Patterson won't know any more than I've told you. You realized that he was acting. The Enforcers knew I wasn't supposed to be caught. They weren't to make any attempt to take other prisoners.”

“Strange that they seemed so intent on capturing
me
yesterday, out by the Wall.”

“I thought you were lying about that,” she said, “you and Brita both, though I didn't know why. In any case, I didn't tell them to do it. Even if they'd thought you might be a Boss, it wasn't in their orders.”

“With the elections so close, and nothing to show for what Mayor Shepherd
‘authorized'?
”

Her eyes held his without fear. “You'll never believe anything I say now. But as far as Matthew Patterson is concerned, common sense will tell you that holding him will bring the whole city down on your head. He's not only the senator's son—he's considered a hero for acts of valor facing down several murderers who escaped detention. He's also one of the generation who seems willing to consider new solutions with the Opiri.”

“Like you?” He laughed under his breath. “Will the good Senator Patterson bargain to get him back?”