Hunted By The Others (6 page)

When I left the building, I saw Veronica standing off to one side near a planter, talking to another woman I didn’t recognize. Both of them were wearing chic business suits, and it looked like the other lady’s charcoal gray pantsuit was even more expensive and well tailored than Veronica’s navy blue skirt and jacket. The two of them had cigarettes in hand and were in a heated discussion. Veronica did not look pleased.

I started to approach but she saw me out of the corner of her eye and shook her head at me, mouthing “later” and turning back to the other woman. The woman turned to me, her startlingly bright green eyes staring at me from a lined, frowning face. Her graying hair was pulled tightly back on her skull into a severe bun, making it impossible to miss the disapproval in her gaze, like the teacher that just caught you playing hooky.

If I’d done something wrong, I might have felt uncomfortable. As it was, I just shrugged and kept walking. Maybe she didn’t like my clothes. Yeah, that was it. I’d just call or e-mail Veronica later.

Thinking better of showing up to meet with Royce with stakes on my person, I returned to my car, parked a couple of blocks away, and hid the belt under the front passenger seat. I wanted it out of my hands as quickly as possible. Next I poured a few drops of the perfume onto a finger and dabbed at my throat and wrists, finding the cinnamon-and-cloves scent curiously pleasant. I could get to like this alchemy stuff.

Rather than carry those delicate-looking crystal vials in my purse, I put them in the glove compartment, figuring they were less likely to get jostled around that way. Digging the necklace out from the depths of my purse, I put it on and locked the car up again, hefting the bag over my shoulder. Royce’s downtown office wasn’t too far from The Circle’s high-rise. I’d hop on the subway and be there in no time.

The ride was quick, but I had time to send a text message to Sara to let her know what was up and give her a brief description of the loot Arnold had given me. When I stepped back out onto the street, the sun was still just barely hanging in the sky. I figured I might as well grab a bite to eat before dealing with the vamp. I wanted to be as clearheaded as possible.

I found a café half a block from my destination. By the time I finished my overpriced sandwich and coffee, it was fully dark and I was feeling that familiar gut-wrenching fear settling into my bones. The food hung heavy in my stomach as I pushed through the revolving doors and stepped into Royce’s office building.

There was no snide receptionist in this place, only a guard in a sharp-looking suit who got up to greet me from behind the security desk. “Can I help you, miss?”

I dug into my purse and pulled out Royce’s card. “I have an appointment with Mr. Royce.”

He gave the card a cursory examination before handing it back with a nod and a smile, pointing to a bank of elevators. “Eighth floor and to your right. You can’t miss it.”

“Thanks,” I said, and meant it. Praise all for good service.

The eighth floor wasn’t terribly exciting. When I stepped out of the elevator, there was a pair of double doors to my left, and a similar pair to my right. A little plaque on the ones on the right read
A. D. ROYCE INDUSTRIES
. Guess I found the place.

There was a sticky note stuck to one of the doors. I peeled it off, figuring it was probably for me.

Well, that was nice, going from “Mr. Royce” to “Alec” in the space of one meeting and an e-mail exchange. I guess he wanted a more casual business relationship than his last e-mail implied.

The front office looked deserted but I could hear voices coming from the back. Following the voices, I recognized Royce’s in short order. I soon found myself standing in the doorway to his office, peering in.

“…will work just fine, and I’ll bring the paperwork with me. Thanks, Jim, I’ll see you Wednesday.”

“You got it, Alec. Take care.”

He had his feet propped up on his desk, and he gestured for me to come in as he tossed the pen he’d been toying with on top of the papers scattered there and reached to turn off the speakerphone. This office looked a little more like somebody worked in it, phone and computer included this time. The furnishings and view were still nice, but not as impressive as the one over The Underground. I noted the low bookshelf in the corner had a curious mix of cookbooks and classic literature. Guess he was a fan of cheesecake and Shakespeare. Who knew?

There was no conference table here, no couches or wet bar. The walls were hung with corkboards covered in papers and Post-it notes instead of paintings. From the look of it, he didn’t get visitors here very often. This was obviously where the real work got done.

I noted with a touch of amusement that he was just as casual today as he’d been in the club. This time he wore blue jeans and a plain white T-shirt instead of leather pants and a netted shirt, but he still looked good to me. Damnably so. Undead, blood-sucking fiend, Shiarra. Remember that.

He rose and moved around to pull out a chair for me, a warm smile curving his lips. I felt pretty overdone in my makeup, pantsuit, and heels, but a second later my fashion worries were overtaken by a surge of unreasoning fear at his approach.

“Ms. Waynest, thank you for coming.”

I took a seat, relaxing slightly when he slid back around to sit at his desk. I kept my purse clutched in my lap, however.

He leaned back comfortably in the chair and regarded me with heavily lidded eyes. I wasn’t fooled. He looked more like a waiting python than a relaxed businessman to my eyes.

“Have you eaten? Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you, Mr. Royce.”

What was with the formality and looking after my happiness and well-being? Was he trying to put me off balance with his solicitousness on purpose?

“Did you get any news about the missing boy or the girl he was with?” I asked.

“Yes, actually. The girl’s name isn’t Tara, it’s Anastasia Alderov.”

I nodded, impressed despite myself. His people must move fast to get that kind of information on such short notice.

“She’s the progeny of one of my competitors in Chicago. I imagine she was here to scout the area when she met the Borowsky boy.”

Yeesh, he was doing me out of a job. “That still means that she’s…” The words died in my mouth. I just couldn’t say it.

He seemed to sense my discomfort and his tone turned serious. “Yes. It’s still grounds for disposal. She has no guest permit to hunt in this state.”

Good God. He made it seem like he was talking about deer season. I swallowed hard, trying to calm the sudden racing of my heart.

“Unfortunately, we have not pinpointed her resting place yet. She’ll turn up, and so will the boy.”

I nodded, not quite trusting my voice just yet. He sighed, spreading his hands in a helpless, frustrated gesture. He looked so human and convincing, for a moment I forgot my fear.

“What is it about me that frightens you so? I am not about to leap over the desk and go for your jugular, Shiarra.”

Now that was embarrassing. I must have been exuding nervousness more than I thought for him to be remarking on it. Turning my eyes away, I forced myself to relax a little, leaning forward to put my purse down between my feet to show that I wasn’t about to make a run for it.

“It’s not you exactly, Mr. Royce.” How could I explain my fear without sounding like an unenlightened racist idiot?

“There is no need for the formality; call me Alec. Has someone at The Circle been filling your head with stories about me?”

I started. He smirked. Damn it, he knew, he already knew what I’d gotten myself into and was just toying with me now. I started to rise, but he held out a staying hand.

“Please, sit. I know you’re doing something for them, and I know it has something to do with me. I’m prepared for that. What I don’t understand is why it is you. You’re obviously terrified to be here, yet here you are. What hold do they have on you? Perhaps we can come to an arrangement.”

An arrangement. Would he be able to keep The Circle
and
the White Hats off my back? Doubts immediately assailed me. I didn’t have much to offer a vampire like Royce. He had more money than God, owned a good chunk of prime real estate in several states, and had more flunkies and fawning donors than one would think he’d know what to do with. I didn’t have anything to give him that he didn’t already have, except maybe a line into The Circle.

Not to mention he’d probably be pissed once he knew what I was really after. Plus, I was contracted. There were all kinds of confidentiality clauses tied into that contract, and I could lose my license if The Circle didn’t just splatter me out of existence for turning on them. Oh, and let us not forget that this was a vampire I was dealing with. Judging by our previous encounter, he’d probably try to charm me into revealing what I was really after. The devil was a sweet talker, too.

Thoughts racing almost as fast as my pounding heart, I chose my words very, very carefully. “With all due respect, Mr. Royce, I can’t divulge my other clients’ information without their blessing. I wouldn’t last long in this line of work if I did that.”

He leaned forward on the desk, folding his hands and propping his chin on his knuckles. Those black eyes narrowed as he took in my words, weighing what I did and didn’t say.

“I would hate to see you come to some harm on my account.”

Oh great. That was comforting.

“My resources are considerable, Ms. Waynest. I’m not withdrawing the offer of protection, even if you choose to continue this farce and work against me. I take care of my own.”

What the hell was that supposed to mean? I wasn’t one of his donors, or even an employee.

“I appreciate that. I’m sorry I can’t give you what you’re looking for in return.”

About as sorry as a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. I still wanted my cookie, er, money, damn it. I had bills to pay.

He inhaled through his nose deeply, eyes closing. I wondered why. Vamps didn’t need to breathe like a living person did.

“The Circle wants something badly if they’re giving you Amber Kiss perfume. I thought the alchemists stopped making it centuries ago. It does an admirable job of hiding your scent, but your heartbeat gives away your fear.”

Hairs on the back of my neck rising in renewed terror, I tried to quell the shakes that started up at his words. What the hell was he playing at?

“I’m not sure I understand where you’re going with this.” That sounded safe enough. Except that I really, really wasn’t sure I wanted to know where this conversation was going.

His eyes stayed shut. He didn’t look at me at all, or speak right away, instead kept taking the occasional deep breath to, I guess, see what he could smell on me under the perfume. Talk about creepy.

“You’re attracting the attention of vampires, The Circle, and the White Hats. You’ve managed to upset the power structure of a local Were pack. You are human, and yet you find yourself caught up with those like myself. You do it despite being afraid for yourself. It is interesting to me.”

“And we all know how much you value that which cures your boredom, however momentarily.” The bitingly low feminine voice came from behind me, startling me so badly I had to stifle a cry.

Royce’s eyes finally opened as he looked to the door, his expression going carefully blank. I turned in the leather chair to look and see who had come to join us.

It was The Circle’s receptionist!

The girl sauntered over to Royce, dropping her purse on his desk and giving him a friendly kiss on the cheek. I don’t think I could have been more stunned and horrified if she’d grown horns and a tail and started singing “New York, New York.”

Through the shock, part of me distantly noted that the girl didn’t look quite so skinny or perfect as she had behind the desk at The Circle’s headquarters. Her hair and makeup weren’t quite so flawless. She was still pretty, but not the runway model she’d appeared to be earlier.

My fingers itched to touch the charm around my neck, which I remembered was supposed to let me see through illusion. I suppressed the urge with difficulty and kept my hands primly folded in my lap. Seeing the girl this way made me wonder what Veronica must look like under the veneer of magic.

“Ms. Waynest, this is Allison Darling. I believe you’ve met.” Royce’s voice couldn’t have been more carefully noncommittal and disinterested. Was that for my sake or hers?

Though I would rather have stuck my fingers in an electric socket after how she treated me earlier, I leaned forward across the desk to offer her my hand. As long as Royce was here to referee (imagine that), I’d play nice. She waited longer than was strictly polite before offering me her limp-wristed shake.

“I can’t stay long,” Allison said to Royce, leaning against his chair with an arm casually flung around his shoulder. As she spoke, her bright blue eyes were locked on mine, glinting with malice behind those trendy glasses. “I thought you’d want to know that she was given the hunter’s belt today.”

Royce arched a brow in surprise, turning to look up at Allison questioningly. She shrugged and nodded, and I noted with growing alarm the almost imperceptible shift in the air as anger stirred below the frighteningly blank mask of his features.

“Allison, love, go on back to the restaurant. Let me finish my business here and I’ll speak with you later.” His voice had taken on a dangerously silky undertone, a promise of something unspoken. What worried me most was that I couldn’t tell if it was me or her that he was mad at, and what exactly he was planning to do if it was me.

She shrugged, uncaring, as if this happened all the time. Acting like she had all the time in the world, she lightly patted his shoulder, picked up her purse, and made a hip-swaying exit. I watched her go, still in a state of shock trying to figure out the convolutions and consequences behind whatever this relationship of theirs was. The look she threw him over her shoulder at the door was unbelievable, a mix of warning and what looked like lust. I sincerely hoped it wasn’t really some of the latter. Gross.

“Don’t keep me waiting too long,” she purred.

Didn’t she realize she was provoking an already pissed-off vamp? Probably doing it on purpose, knowing she was leaving me to deal with it.

Tense and unblinking, I shifted around in the chair to face Royce. He stayed silent and unmoving until the muted sound of Allison’s heels on the carpet faded and the front door of the office suite opened and closed. When I say he was unmoving, I mean no twitches, no fidgeting, no breathing, still as a stone. It was creepy as hell. His pitch black gaze soon slid back to focus on me, and I felt myself contract, as if I could disappear into the leather chair if I pressed against it hard enough.

“My, my. The facets of your personality become more and more complex with each passing moment.” His tones stayed dangerously soft, thoughtful, and contained a hint of that promising lilt. I was so dead. “You have not yet made any overt moves against me. You are smart enough to be afraid of me, but beyond stupid to think you could take on an assignment as my assassin and survive the attempt. What is driving you? Your family line has no history of mage blood, so it can’t be the carrot of an apprenticeship with The Circle. You don’t have any known ties to the White Hats. Is it a threat on someone you love? Greed, perhaps?”

I went cold at that. He’d researched my bloodline? Oh no, if this went bad, that meant he knew where to find my family. It took quite a long moment for me to find enough of my voice to speak.

“It isn’t like that. I didn’t want the belt. He made me take it. I didn’t take a contract on your life.”

He said nothing, simply stared in silent accusation. I could feel the anger building under the veneer, and it made me feel even more panicked than if he’d dived across the desk for my throat.

I plunged ahead, heedless of what the cost might be. Screw my license, and screw the contract. I wanted to live. I’d figure out some other way to pay my rent and keep all my creditors from camping on the landing—my life wasn’t worth this kind of trouble for a few thousand dollars.

“I swear, I never agreed to hunt you. All I agreed to do was help find some little statue thing.” If anything, his anger seemed to grow at the mention of the artifact. I knew I was babbling, but I was scared out of my mind. “I need the money or my business is going to go under. Please, don’t be angry with me, I swear I never meant to do anything more than this job and then leave you alone.”

He rose slowly, unfolding from the chair like some great predatory bird preparing to dive down on its prey. I shrank back even further as he came around the desk, slowly and deliberately setting his hands on the arms of my chair and leaning forward right into my face. Both of my hands involuntarily came up to shield my neck as I slid back in the chair. My knees drew up to my chest as he glared down at me, my mouth dropping open and eyes wide in shock and fear. His breath, when he finally spoke, smelled like a mix of mint and copper, cloying and chokingly thick.

“I am buying out that contract. Whatever they offered, I’ll triple it. With a few added conditions, in case you’re thinking of running back to The Circle.”

I didn’t know what I could say without making him even angrier. From the sound of it, I wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. A hint of fully extended fang behind his lips was even more reason to keep my mouth shut until he said what he had to say and, hopefully, calmed down.

“One—you’re to turn over the hunter’s belt to me. You may keep the Amber Kiss, and whatever else they gave you. Two, you are to end all contact with The Circle except to tell them that your contract with them is null. Direct any questions on why to me. Three, you may not speak of the focus to
anyone
other than myself. That includes your business partner.”

This didn’t sound so bad. He stared down at me expectantly, like he was waiting for something. I belatedly figured out that he was waiting for an acknowledgment, so I stammered one out. “Oh—okay. I can do all that.”

He pulled back from the chair. Instead of aggressively standing right over me, he aggressively folded his arms and stared down at me from a few feet away, leaning back against the desk. It looked like his anger was abating but not entirely gone. Not gone enough for me to feel comfortable about removing my hands from my throat or putting my feet back on the floor. His eyes were narrowed, black pits boring into me, keeping me pinned in place with their intensity.

“One last thing. To ensure your loyalty, you’re to sign papers by the end of the next business day. I want a notarized copy in my hands by no later than Monday night.”

A sudden sick feeling swept over me. I could literally feel all the blood drain from my face.

“P-p-papers?”

He nodded tersely, his gaze staying sharp and pitiless. “I won’t have you turning back to The Circle or the White Hats for help. You’re mine now. The Circle can’t touch you if I lay a claim, and the White Hats won’t come near you if you bear my mark. Your partner may want to consider doing the same.”

Bear his mark. His bite, he meant. Oh shit.

“By Monday, Shiarra. If you don’t deliver them, I’ll come looking. Trust me, you don’t want it to come to that.”

“No, please!” I had to fight this. I couldn’t let it come to that. Death would be better. “Please, you don’t need to do that, I won’t go back to them! I swear!”

He actually laughed at that, the sound soft and bitter. “Begging is in poor taste, lovely. You should’ve thought of that before you stepped outside the bounds of your confidentiality agreement. You broke under pressure. Right now, your promises are just words. The claim will ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

He wasn’t just talking a little love bite. He meant a full-fledged bond, tying me to him until my death. Bloody hell. There had to be a way out of this. There just had to be. Panic was making me feel ill, and I was afraid I might end up losing my lunch on his nice, clean tennis shoes if I didn’t find a way out of this, fast.

“It doesn’t need to come to that, please. You don’t need to do this. Give me a chance, I’ll prove it to you somehow.”

“I’ll be in this office Monday night. Meet me here.”

Strain made my voice crack. “Please!”

He shook his head, unmoved by my pleas. Pushing off the desk, he moved around it and pulled out one of the drawers. He thumbed through some folders, finally withdrawing papers from one and returning to press them into my trembling hands.

“This is for your protection as well as mine. Come on now, I’ll have someone take you home.”

I jerked back from his touch when he reached for me, and he withdrew, waiting patiently for me to rise on my own. The thing that bugged me most was that he now seemed so bored with the situation. It was like the anger never existed. Like he’d planned this from the start, knowing I’d break.

When I looked at the papers he’d put in my hand, my stomach gave a sickening lurch as I saw they were already filled out with both our names in all the right places. I flipped to the last couple of pages and saw that the part for the vamp to sign had already been filled out and notarized earlier today. All that was left was for me to sign on the dotted line and get my portion of the agreement notarized.

Damn him to hell, he’d known I wouldn’t be able to keep my cool if he got in my face or flashed his fangs, and he used that fear to put me in this position. This wasn’t a burden to him; he’d wanted to put me under his thumb from the start. No wonder he wouldn’t even consider giving me the chance to prove I could be trusted. The worst part of it was that I still wasn’t any closer to knowing
why,
or what he expected to get from me or use me for. Blood aside, there had to be a reason for his actions. He had too many willing donors, so he wasn’t doing this just for a chance to sink his fangs into me. There was something else he wanted out of me that he hadn’t put on the table yet. Judging by the lengths he went to and the methods he used to put me in this position, he probably wouldn’t lay it out in the open until I was bonded and didn’t have the will left to oppose him.

I slid from the seat with as much grace as I could muster under the circumstances, grabbing my purse from the floor and turning away from him to wipe at the hot sting of tears in my eyes before they could fall. He would
not
see me cry. I’d disgraced myself enough already tonight.

“Wait downstairs in the lobby. I’ll have my driver get you.”

I kept walking, almost running to get out the door. He didn’t follow, thankfully. I’d be damned if I waited around for Royce’s driver. Forget it, I’d take a cab back to my car and then go straight to Sara’s. She’d know what to do.

There had to be a way out of this. There just had to be.