Know Thine Enemy (36 page)

"
What part of her loving me don't you get?"

"
Loving something's one thing, becoming that thing is something else. If she loves you at all."

Ryker inhaled sharply, hoping he managed to find a brave enough face not to betray the worry living inside his chest.
"You're right."

"
Fuck yes, I'm right."

"
She might not love me. She might hate what I turned her into. Hell, she might never wake up at all." He tried not to shudder. "But if she does wake up, if she doesn't hate me, if it turns out she loves me after all—"

"
She doesn't."

"
We'll see. If she
does,
then here's what's going to happen." Ryker tipped the chair forward. "You're gonna let her walk."

Wright
's jaw tightened but he didn't object.

"
More than that," the vampire continued, "you're gonna help me and her put a violent, bloody end to these twisted assholes that sold us up the river. Nothing you wouldn't do otherwise, seeing as they meet your standards by having fangs. Then you and your girl are gonna close up shop and get the fuck outta my town. You hear me?"

For a long moment, they exchanged venomous stares.

"Yeah," Wright said slowly. "And what happens if
I'm
right? If Izzie wakes up and guts you."

"
Well, the plan's open for revisions, but somehow I doubt she'd forget you're the one who pulled the trigger."

"
And you're the one who bit her."

Ryker shrugged.
"She didn't have a problem with it the first two times. Fuck, she begged me to give her the second. One way or another, Michael Prentiss is going to the ground in a nice permanent way. If I have to bite the dust to make it happen, that's fine. But it's her choice."

Wright cocked his head.
"You cut me free and there's no fucking telling what I'll do."

"
No." Ryker's voice was soft. "There is. You might be a murdering jackass, but you care enough about her. And you know I could've killed you any time. I kept you alive."

"
For your own purpose."

"
I also know where your daughter is."

Wright
's nostrils flared. "Fucking son of a bitch, you touch her—"

Ryker
's hands came up. "That, my friend, is entirely up to you."

"
This is you not being a monster?"

"
This is me playing the hand you dealt me. All I want out of this is Michael dead and Izzie free. Small price to pay." He paused. "Your word, please."

There was no way, of course, to determine whether Wright
's word held any value. No way to know if he considered a vow made to a vampire something worth upholding. Yet even though Ryker's feelings toward the man weren't friendly, his instinct was to trust Wright's intentions were pure even if his methods and conviction were not.

Furthermore, should Wright attempt to kill him,
Ryker would be more than prepared. Whatever prior advantage the hunter had boasted had vanished the second Ryker knew his name and attached it to his face. Wright was a strong man, undoubtedly, but still a man. And Ryker would have no qualms rendering his daughter an orphan should the hunter so much as look at him the wrong way.

"
Okay." Wright's voice was soft but the light in his eyes was not. "You have it."

"
Your word."

"
Izzie for me and my daughter."

Ryker nodded.
"Pleasure doing business with you."

* * * * *

It was nothing like the first time.

Perhaps that had been Ryker
's largest fear after all. That her eyes would open and she'd scream when she didn't feel her heartbeat. She'd see Connor or Wright and the pull for blood would tear her mind into pieces that could never be mended. Logically, he understood Izzie was stronger than that—stronger and smarter than any human he'd seen undergo the transformation. He understood, yet his past was riddled with so many mistakes that second-guessing the next step was all he knew. All that made sense.

Even still, it was nothing like the first time.

Izzie didn't start awake, lurch upright or even gasp when her new life took her. Instead, she opened her eyes and found him.

"
Ryker?"

He
'd been staring at her so long he wondered at first if he had fallen asleep. "Hi," he said awkwardly.

She was quiet for a moment, and they just looked at each other. Then she raised her hand to her face and flexed her fingers. A second later she had fought her way upright, stretching her changed body and feeling around her mouth.

"They slide out," Ryker said. "Your fangs. They slide out when you're hungry. Or excited. I'll teach you."

Izzie blinked.
"You changed me."

"
Yes."

"
Zack shot me, and you changed me. This isn't a dream."

His heart twisted.
"No."

Izzie just looked at him, then again at her hands, at her chest and arms and legs.

Shit, this was killing him. "Izzie—"

A sigh, then. A long sigh of acceptance. She looked up again, life at last bursting behind her eyes.
"Thank God."

"
What?"

The next thing he knew she was in his arms, in his lap, straddling him and pulling him against her. Her mouth captured his, seizing hot, desperate kisses that felt so good he could
have blacked out. Izzie's hands were everywhere, touching, exploring, and searching every inch of his worried, exhausted body. He tasted blood a second before realizing her fangs had burst free for the first time, and she consumed him.

"
I knew you'd know," Izzie whispered between kisses. "I knew it."

"
You knew?"

"
No, you did. You knew to bite me. To do this. I knew you'd know."

A startled laugh tore through his throat.
"I had no fucking clue, you silly girl. I was terrified you'd hate me."

Izzie giggled, not bothered by his confession.
"I could never hate you."

"
He couldn't kill me like that. You didn't need to jump."

"
I did."

"
Why?"

"
Because I love you." Izzie sat back. She was so beautiful he wanted to cry. "I love you."

For a second, a sliver of a second, Ryker would have sworn his heart started beating again. It was fleeting but delicious, and though he knew it to be a lie, the sensation that bore it became immediately permanent. A rush from which he
'd never come down. She loved him.

"
You love me," he repeated. "So you decided to kill yourself."

"
You know what I mean."

"
Hardly ever."

The words were true, but for the moment explanations didn
't matter. Nothing mattered.

The worst was over, and they had each other.

Chapter Twenty-
One

The strange thing was she didn't feel all that different. For whatever reason, Izzie had always assumed on some basic level that becoming something other than human altered their perception so outrageously they became a wild, bastardized version of themselves. Her body was harder now, yes, but not unbreakable. Though something seemed amiss—she never thought she'd notice the lack of a heartbeat—the energy coursing through her veins was unlike anything she'd experienced.

Ryker kept reaching for her hand or shoulder, and asked every ten minutes or so if she was all right. Izzie suspected it would be a while before he accepted her actions were deliberate. He hadn
't been in her head before she made the leap—hadn't experienced her epiphany, even if he had been the cause of it.

A day had passed since Wright burst into The Wall, crossbow
at the ready. Izzie spent most of that day resting and trying to reconcile her sudden hunger for blood with innate disgust at the thought of consuming it. Ryker had asked her to remain in Connor's borrowed room until her stomach felt sufficiently full, namely for fear her newfound bloodlust would render her a danger to the humans downstairs.

In the interim, he brought her entr
ée after entrée of normal food with some of Connor's special remedies for the newly turned vampire. Catsup, for instance, mixed with pig's blood, was the condiment of choice on bloody rare burgers otherwise slathered with cheese and vegetables. Transitional foods, Ryker explained, were all the rage with younger vampires. Their taste-buds didn't change except for the craving for blood, therefore introducing blood on familiar items made the idea of consuming it less threatening.

By the time evening rolled around, Izzie had made her way through two full bags of blood without the help of chasers. With her stomach full and her body rested, it was time to move forward. Moving forward meant one thing for now: killing Michael Prentiss.

That was one death Izzie felt she could truly relish. Whatever happened from there was in the air, unplanned and unmapped, and though uncertainty felt a little strange, she likewise couldn't deny her rush of excitement.

For the first time, the true first time, she was actually free.

The sun had just dipped below the horizon when Ryker entered the room for the last time, holding a fresh change of clothes. "Wright's coming with us," he said, tossing her his offering. "These are yours."

Izzie blinked and held up a tank top she hadn
't seen in what felt like years. "These were in my duffle. The one I dropped in the alley."

"
He had them. Guess he was never too far behind us."

"
He's coming with us?" Izzie swallowed hard when Ryker nodded. "And he's going to be carrying his crossbow?"

"
We have an understanding, he and I. He won't do anything."

"
Not to me, but—"

"
Not to you or me. We talked it out. Had our Kumbayah moment and all."

Izzie frowned. She
'd sooner believe Jesus Christ had returned than she would Zack Wright made peace with a vampire.

Then Ryker cleared his throat and added,
"I also told him I knew where his little one's staying."

She rolled her eyes.
"You're a moron."

"
To be fair, I know that."

"
You threatened Berlie?"

Ryker shrugged.
"Got shit done, didn't it? I had him call his girl and stay on the phone with her while Connor went over to get your things."

"
Zack let someone he doesn't know into his room?" She shook her head. "I think he's a pod person."

"
Well, he could hear her not getting killed or kidnapped the entire time."

Izzie snorted.
"You're lucky you're still alive."

"
He's tied up!"

"
Yeah, but he's that good."

Ryker looked offended.
"And I'm not?"

"
You are, but he wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating you." Izzie shrugged, then threw her hands in the air. "Well, it's true! You supernatural types think you got it all figured out, but Zack's as tough as they come. I think you'd have a better chance at killing Rasputin."

"
Your faith in me is overwhelming."

She rolled her eyes.
"Men are so insecure." Izzie paused, grinning at his disgruntled frown. "He's coming with us."

"
Yes."

As far as weapons went, Wright was definitely a good one. While Izzie logically understood they
'd benefit from going in with him at their backs, the image of her old friend's arrow barreling toward her lover was something she wouldn't forget anytime soon. No matter what happened from here, something between them had broken forever. And as much as the break saddened her, Izzie wasn't sure if she wanted it mended.

"
He wouldn't have killed me," Ryker said again, as though reading her thoughts. "Back there. When you jumped. That shot—"

"
Was the first. I know his M.O. He would've paralyzed you and moved in for the kill. What I did stopped that second part from happening."

"
And got you vamped in the process."

Izzie
's eyes narrowed. "I wanted that part.
You
wanted that part, too."

"
I wanted you like this," Ryker agreed softly. "Like me, just so I can keep you forever. But I wanted it to be your choice."