Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) (20 page)

A corner of her crimson lips lifted. “And yet you are still alive, aren’t you? Trust me when I say you do not want to be around for when the Lord of Centennial City shows his anger.”

“There are three more like him.”

“And yet all three of them defer to him,” she said. “Doesn’t that tell you anything?”

Jason pulled himself free of my arms, straightened the collar of his coat. “What do you want, Shannon?”

Voice colder than the heartlessly frozen air swirling around us, for the first time in a while, I felt hope blossom in my chest. Was he free of her? Or was this just the thrashing of a wounded beast that only seeks to return the favor?

“Jason,” she said and her expression softened. Did she still love him? Impossible. Why, then, did she leave? “This really wasn’t how I wanted to come back to you. Please. You’ve got to trust me. I know what you’ve been going through, just to find me.”

Even her tone had softened. Perhaps she truly did love him.

And despite all the warning alarms that blared in my head, I could not hope to stop him, could not hope to keep the siren from her prey. They still had unfinished business and it would have been nothing but stupid for me to keep him from that. After all, I was not his lover, just his Ailward.

His protector.

That was the only thing I was to him.

I would do well to remember that very important fact. “Jason.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, Ran. I don’t...”

“Either way, we have to leave.”

And even though it was almost two in the morning, the sounds of a lone car drifted through the thick air, and instinctively, I took a step back, one hand on his shoulder, even though the car, if it wanted to run us down, would have to jump onto the curb and make it three feet across the sidewalk to the front of the silent casino.

But I had survived this long by being so damn paranoid and suspicious of those around me.

Shannon took a step back onto the sidewalk and we watched the car drive to us, a sleek black Toyota Celica, windows tinted darker than the night.

We waited for it to pass.

It did not.

Instead, it stopped in front of us, blocking us from Shannon and the passenger side’s window went down.

For a moment, I froze, half expecting an Uzi to start spraying bullets.

But no.

Just the driver leaning over, the brilliantly blond hair familiar, but somewhat annoying at the same time.

Although, I suppose I did owe him.

“What the hell are you doing? Get the fuck in the car before he gets here!”

Jason blinked. “You’re...”

The blond vampire grinned at me, exposing those wicked fangs. Was he making fun of me? “Hey, Ran. I’m here to pick you up.”

“For?”

He laughed. Surprisingly, I found I was not completely averse to it. There was something free, something so damn childish and innocent that reminded me there was indeed something beyond all the death and darkness surrounding me.

Not...that I would ever admit it. “Our date, silly!”

That I had just heard such words from a so-called monster of the night made me wonder if I wasn’t currently passed out somewhere and this wasn’t just some crazy dream. “Date?”

He pouted. “You forgot? Christ, woman, you’ve got the memory of a gnat.”

Shannon tapped on his window. “Ryder? For once in your life, quit flirting with every woman under a hundred and open the damn door.” She peered at us over the hood of the low-sitting sportscar. “Get in. I promise you no harm. I’ll explain everything once we’re out of this place.”

Face Vincent?

Or get in the same car with two people to whose allegiance I could only guess at?

Jason let out a breath. “We don’t have a choice, Ran.”

With that said, he opened the passenger’s seat and pulled the seat forward, exposing a dark cave that made my insides clench uncomfortably. “Get in.”

But I would do as my Master ordered.

The car smelled like expensive leather and something else, something almost sweet and bitter at the same time.

I ended up behind Ryder, who smelled just like the car. Or was it the car that smelled like him?

Jason’s shoulders brushed mine as he closed the door behind him and pulled the passenger seat back to accommodate Shannon, who was taking a rather interesting entry in: mostly by slipping through Ryder’s window head first. But I supposed it saved time from having to go around the vehicle.

By the time Shannon had righted herself next to Ryder, the car was already moving and for one absolutely frightening moment, I felt the intense, dry-throated fear of dying in a small, metallic box in a million terrible ways, each more horrifying than the last.

I cleared my throat. “Small car.”

Ryder laughed again. I wanted to hear it again. “Sorry. I don’t really have more than one other person in it. Don’t get too many people in the backseat. Er. Other people, that is.”

Shannon snorted. “You’re a fucking dog, you know that?”

“Aw, come on, cut me some slack, yeah? It’s not like you don’t do this kind of shit either. So get off your high horse, you slut.”

Next to me, Jason flinched, but said nothing.

I wasn’t so sure if I could be so laissez-faire if someone I loved was called a tramp. “Do you always talk to each other like that?” And then a far more pressing matter occurred to me. That it hadn’t occurred to me before made me feel like an idiot. “And furthermore, how are you two related? I was under the impression you were under Vincent’s...rule, Ryder.”

He snorted as he turned a quick left taking us off the main thoroughway. “I follow him, yeah, but only when it suits me. I guess you can say that I am a...free agent.”

“Vincent doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who would be okay with that kind of loose allegiance.”

Shannon laughed, a high shrill sound that put my teeth on edge. “He’s not. Oh, he’s definitely not. If he ever found out about Ryder and his bid for freedom, I’m pretty sure he’d lope his head off. Ryder’s, not Vincent.”

It really was none of my business.

That didn’t stop me from asking. “Then why? It seems you’re putting quite a bit on the line. And for what purpose? Is it so you feel like you are your own Master? Is it because you feel stifled in your current position? Or is it because you’ve always hated him, always resented the fact that even though he is younger than you, he is still, and will always be, stronger than you are?”

Perhaps the last sentence I should not have said.

I almost broke my neck as he braked abruptly, almost sending Shannon through the windshield, while Jason bounced off the back of her seat.

Jason spoke. “That was not necessary. I apologize on her behalf.”

My hackles rose. “I don’t need you to apologize for me. I am fully capable of doing it myself.”

“Oh? Then why aren’t you?”

I knew I had stepped over some invisible line.

But I had to know. “Ryder, I’m sorry. But I can’t take that comment back.”

Shannon turned in her seat, eyes narrowed. “You know, you make us look like fucking saints, hunter. Put a clamp on that mouth before it gets us all killed.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

Ryder stared straight up head, hands clenched on the steering wheel. For one brief moment, I thought he would break the steering wheel clear off and kill me with it. A muscle twitched by his thinned lips and then he blew out a heavy breath.

He laughed and leaned against his seat, taking his hands off the steering wheel, one hand going through his thick yellow hair.

“Wow,” he said, voice shaky and soft. “You sure as hell don’t pull your punches, do you?”

“I need to know.”

He drew in a deep breath and proceeded to drive. Something in me relaxed, now that I knew he wasn’t going to throw me out the window. Truly, I was lucky, although perhaps luck had absolutely nothing to do with it and just the fact that Ryder merely wanted to sleep with me. “Look...it’s not as easy as all that, okay? There are...issues. Vincent and I are...at odds with many things. I will follow him but there some things I just don’t agree with him. One of them being the guy sitting next to you.”

Jason lifted his head and met Ryder’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “And what would that be that?”

“He sees you as--”

“Ryder!” barked Shannon. “Why go through this now? We’re just going to have to repeat this conversation once we meet up with Matthias. Let’s try not to make this any more boring than it already is, hm?”

“Who is Matthias?”

Shannon’s jaw tightened. “The man who has saved me.”

Jason spoke up then, his words tumbling over each other. “Saved you? Saved you from what? Saved you from vampires? Saved you from humans? Saved you how?”

A dull silence followed his words and I watched the multitude of emotions play across Shannon’s face...from where I could see, that is.

She was not as expressionless, not as heartless as she would have liked to seem.

Was that a good thing?

“I’m sorry, Jason,” she said and faced forward, her eyes on the road swiftly blanketing in white. “Everything will be explained very soon. I promise.”

Trust a vampire?

One could only hope it would not come back to haunt me.

13

The mansion was large.

Perhaps large was a bit of an understatement.

Sitting atop a walled off property that seemed to be at least five acres, it rose from the white grounds like a dark, skulking thing, the snow failing to soften any of its sharp angles, failing to soften any of the harsh, unrelenting dark gray paint of the mansion.

It was with some surprise I noted the large amount of cars parked in front of the double doors that did not look unlike the casino we had just left.

Most of the cars were imported racecars, although a few working class sedans showed like gaps in a line of teeth.

Ryder cut the ignition. “Look, before we go, I really have to give you some advice.”

Jason straightened, put his shoulders back. “Advice? I thought you wanted me here? Am I wrong in assuming this gathering is for me?”

Shannon snorted. “No, you’re not. I see you still haven’t lost your way of sounding like you belong in some BBC period drama.”

“I thought you liked it.”

A corner of her lips quirked up. “I did.”

“Advice,” I said, clearing my throat. “What is this advice you have?”

“Don’t say a thing,” he replied. “Let Shannon and me do the talking. Trust me, this is kind of like those rights the cops always tell the perps. You know, what you say can be used against you? Only it won’t be in court, it’ll be just another strike as to why we shouldn’t keep you alive.”

Jason looked vaguely stunned. “Is this my execution then? Maybe I would’ve had better luck with Vincent.”

“Not quite,” said Ryder. “At least here you have people who will speak on your behalf. With Vincent, it’ll be over quicker than you could blink. Come on. We should go. They’re waiting.”

They’re waiting.

He couldn’t possibly sound any more ominous. “Then we would be fools to keep them waiting, wouldn’t we? Especially since I must now beg them for my Master’s life.”

And through all this, I needed to keep my ultimate goal in mind.

Infiltrate the vampiric circle.

Kill Noir.

And I needed Jason.

He couldn’t die.

I would not let it happen.

Getting out of the car took longer when Jason had a difficult time trying to undo the lever that would push the car seat forward and that only solidified my suspicion that two-door cars were merely death traps.

His fingers shook as he finally pushed the car seat forward. Did anyone else notice? Probably not, as Ryder and Shannon stood waiting for us on the front steps, Ryder with his arms crossed and Shannon with her hands shoved deep into her coat pockets.

I touched Jason on the shoulder and he flinched. Visibly. “Will you be...okay?”

He let out a shaky breath and shook his head. “I can’t have things end here. I have to know.”

“About Shannon?”

His eyes narrowed. “About everything.” His glance slid to me standing by his side. “But don’t worry. I’ll help you achieve your goal. I never go back on a promise. I swear it.”

“I never worried about that for one moment,” I said and meant every word.

Surprisingly.

I had never trusted anyone this much.

Not even Adrian.

Not even the Fellowship.

Best not to think about it. “We should go.”

He nodded. “Let’s go.”

Dressed as though black was going out of style the next night, two vampires stood sentry before the engraved, gilded double doors, arms crossed over their chests as though they were some sort of genies. “Your business.”