Of Shadow Born (12 page)

Kade frowned. "I never called her a wimp."

"Ah, but you did. If she can't talk to strangers without big, tough you hanging around, you might as well have told her she couldn't take care of herself."

"She doesn't know what she's up against," Kade reminded his fellow operative. "It's not a matter of can't and she’s not my girlfriend."

She just smiled. "
Little slow on the denial there, big guy. And, it's a matter of you teaching her and giving credit where it's due. You said she didn't freak out when you told her about us in the first place. Did you congratulate her? Say good job? Tell her she'd earned one free meltdown sometime later?"

Kade's eyes narrowed. "Are you speaking English?"

Sylvie grinned and stretched her leg out to poke him in the ribs with a toe. "I'm speaking use your
big
brain, Kade. Think of her like the person she is, not just the woman who turns you on."

"Sylvie
..."

She leveled a finger at him. "We need her to put that tablet back together for us. If you knew the kind of strings we had to pull to get it to her in the first place
..."

"She's important," Kade said wryly. "And she's smart. One of a kind, I get it. That doesn't make her bulletproof. They tried to kill her."

Sylvie nodded. "And they probably will again. She's by herself now. You don't think this is a good time to take another shot?" She pressed down with her heels when he tensed, keeping him from climbing to his feet. "That wasn't a nudge to go play hero. Sit. Stay. I'm comfortable."

But now that she'd reminded him he
’d let Melanie walk away and make herself more vulnerable, Kade didn't want to sit still. It took a conscious effort to relax his legs and take a deep breath.

Sylvie beamed. "Good boy. Now. What's your plan?"

Silence spun out between them. Kade waited for an explanation. Sylvie just stared, faintly amused. Kade cleared his throat. "Give me something more to go on. Plan for what?"

She rolled her eyes. "I take back all the points you just won. Your plan for how you're going to teach her to fend for herself against the big bad shadow men."

Despite the mockery, Sylvie had a point. He hadn't thought much beyond needing to teach her a trick or two. She'd already demonstrated she had power, whether she knew what to do with it or not. Now he just had to get her to focus and refine until that power was completely in her control.

"Silence isn't going to cut it," Sylvie prompted when he didn't answer.
“It's all well and good to be a guardian, Kade, but you know better than anyone how fast a fight can go bad. What happens if you're not there when the next attempt comes? What happens if you
can't
be there for some reason? Do you want her to be an easy mark?"

He made fists, concentrating on the way his nails bit into his palms to control his temper. Her words felt like physical blows, reminders of his failure, reminders of the loss of his family. His father and brother had both been taken from him because he wasn't strong enough to protect them. He hadn't been fast enough to reach them in time. He'd stood over their bodies and howled out his fury at his impotence, but rage didn't make it better. He had no way to bring them back, no way to turn back time.

He wouldn't let the same thing happen to Melanie.

He couldn't breathe with his chest this tight and yet he desperately needed air. His ears rang and his jaw ached from grinding his teeth. Sylvie kept on talking, but he couldn't hear what she said. He didn't want to hear. She goaded him, taunted him. She laid his faults at his feet.

He knocked her feet aside and surged out of the chair, catching her by the shoulders as he rose so she would stand with him. It didn't matter that she was so much shorter. It took all the concentration he could muster not to shake her. "She's not an easy mark," he snarled through his teeth. "She'll survive. I'll make sure of that. No more questions, no more pushing. Enough."

To his surprise, and to Sylvie's credit, she didn't flinch. She waited until his temper cooled and he'd let her go to say anything at all. Then, the words came with a slow, pleased grin. "No more pushing," she agreed. "I got what I wanted."

Kade shook his head. "That was a test."

"That was a test," she answered without shame. "And you passed with flying colors." Her smile softened. "Welcome back. We've missed you around here. Now." She punched him solidly in the shoulder. "Get back to work."

Chapter Eleven

Melanie didn't tend to keep track of the number of things going wrong. As a general rule, she thought she led a pretty good life. She had a job she loved. Her colleagues respected her work, no matter how much grief they might give her over her personal life. She loved her apartment and the neighborhood. If she put in a little effort, San Francisco could probably keep her entertained and employed for a very long time.

Assuming she finished this project. Assuming she survived. There was a thought she'd never imagined cropping up. Assassins and shadows and sometimes
-surly men had invaded and made her life far more interesting than she'd ever hoped. Or wanted, for that matter. She was a living victim of the infamous Chinese curse. Interesting times, her ass.

Kade frustrated her beyond all coherent telling. She didn't appreciate feeling like the universe had decided she couldn't take care of herself. And yet, in this situation, maybe she really couldn't. He'd been impressed by her ability to move shadows without him, but not satisfied. An accidental ability didn't mean she could defend herself.

And she really needed to learn to do that. To not be dependent on a man she barely knew. She'd worked hard for her reputation as an intelligent, competent woman. She was not willing to give that up even to save her own life.

"Which is smart, not stubborn," she reassured herself and reached for a new piece of the broken tablet. Stubborn would get her through another hour's working. Then she'd go home, crash into bed and start fresh in the morning.

A decision that made it the perfect time for the power to go out. There was a loud
crack
from somewhere outside the building. A second or two later, the room went black.

In all the time that she'd been coming back to work late, Melanie had never considered what she'd do if the power cut out. Some of the collections in other parts of the museum needed to be
climate controlled to keep the displays safe. As a result, the Sentinel had multiple generators and redundancy protocols. She'd just never had to use them.

She didn't remember them now.
Before she’d met Kade and learned about a world beyond the ordinary, a few seconds of quiet darkness wouldn’t have troubled her. Now, as time ticked on and the lights didn’t, her heartbeat tripped forward, picking up speed. She could feel a warning stiffness in her chest as her breathing got shallow. “We’re not going to panic,” she murmured. “Everything’s fine. Accidents happen. Transformers blow out.”

Not, ordinarily, without a car accident or violent storm. There were other reasons, though. Old equipment and faulty connections and things that didn't necessarily mean trouble was on the way.

Slowly but surely, her eyes adjusted to the lack of light and she could make out shapes in the darkness. The door with its glass rectangle gave her a peek out into an equally dark hall. She could see the edges of the table and faint lumps of the pieces spread out in front of her. She’d be able to make it out of the room, down the corridor and to the stairs. Maybe this was a sign she should be finished for the night. She’d made her point. She could swallow her pride and go home now, confident she hadn’t lost herself in the shadow of a handsome man.

And yet leaving the tablet here, out in the open and unattended felt wrong
somehow. Dangerous. She couldn’t leave it like this in good conscience. She couldn’t properly put it away. Being able to see the broad shapes wasn’t the same as reading labels and grabbing the right supplies to store it as she ought to, even just for a few hours until she was back at work again.

What if you take it home?
a voice inside her mind wondered.
Just for the night. Just for peace of mind.
There were, after all, people interested in getting their hands on it, and with the power down, there wouldn’t be proper security in place. She’d been handed the project and apparently Dr. Moore wanted her in charge, so he’d understand if she kept it in her possession for a while. She could explain herself to Dr. Andruss in the morning and even he’d have to agree she’d done the right thing.

So it was settled. She stood and picked her way around the table to the door and the phone hanging there. She lifted the handset without thought, then rem
embered the phones needed power. The line was dead, but she had her cell phone and a trusted taxi phone number in her address book. Arrangements made for a ride home, she went back to pack up her project, then headed downstairs to wait.

Just before she reached the bottom of the stairwell, Melanie swore she heard voices. Maybe a single voice, given the way it bounced around the empty space. The words were low and impossible to make out, but it was a man’s voice, she thought. Maybe one of the building’s security guards was down there, calling in the outage. She hurried toward the sound, abruptly grateful for some company.

But when she stepped off the last riser, she was still alone. No figures crossing the lobby, no echo of footsteps. She could see the parking lot through the glass door and nothing moved out there either. Where had he gone? If there’d been someone down here, surely he must have heard her coming. She wasn’t trying to be quiet coming down the stairs.

“Hello?” Her voice bounced back the way the
other's had, the same tinny echo distorting the simple word. Someone had to have been down here talking. She hadn’t heard any doors open. Obviously, no one had passed her on the stairs.

If she could have controlled it, she'd have kept her attention focused straight ahead. Instead, like a traitor,
it drifted toward a dark corners of the stairwell. Had someone stepped through shadow there, either coming in or leaving the Sentinel for some reason? Had more shadowy puppets been sent to collect her now that she’d stubbornly stayed out on her own? Was one of them watching her, even now, waiting for the right moment to reach out from the darkness and drag her in?

Two short, sharp blasts of a car horn made Melanie nearly
come out of her skin. A car’s headlights swept across the stairwell and the cab she’d called rolled to a halt just outside the door. Perfect timing, despite the unpleasant jangling of her nerves, thanks to a sudden adrenaline burst. She climbed into the back of the car quickly, box of shards clutched to her chest. She’d proved her point and survived the night, but she was ready to be home.

And in truth, she was exhausted. She’d checked
her watch once she got settled in the cab and discovered it was two a.m. She hadn’t stayed out this late since her college days and she’d probably regret it in the morning. She paid the driver, flashed him a weary smile, and headed up the stairs to her apartment.

Her shoulders ached
with the slight weight of the box. Her feet felt as though they'd been weighted down. She should have crawled into bed hours ago and her body let her know it. She'd be lucky to make it through a full day at work. Getting through her own front door without passing out would be an accomplishment.

It took too long to fit her key in the lock. Her hands felt thick and clumsy. She fumbled the security chain into place on
ce inside and crossed the living room to the coffee table. She put the box squarely in the center so she wouldn't accidentally knock it off the edge, then peeled her coat off and tossed it on the sofa. She'd hang it up when she came home from work tomorrow. Later. Whenever she got back. She rubbed her eyes and started toward the hallway that led to the warm comfort of her bed.

She stopped halfway across the room. It took a moment to pinpoint the source of her discomfort
with the way her head was swimming. When she did, her pulse picked up speed again. A knot of anxiety twisted low in her stomach, unpleasantly similar to what she'd felt before the attack in the pub. She pressed her hand against it, willing it away. It was just a fit of nerves caused by bringing the artifact home. It was her body's reaction to a desperate need for sleep.

She hoped. Given the echo in the stairwell, and the strangeness of the past couple days, she had to look. She had to turn around. She stepped toward the coffee table again, weight on her toes, moving more or less silently. Why she felt the need to sneak around her own apartment, she couldn’t honestly say. She only knew that if she moved too quickly, someone might see her and realize what she had. Then they’d take it and she couldn’t allow that. The tablet was hers and she would protect it, no matter whether the one who wanted to take it was a friend or an enemy.

And then, to explain her sudden protective mood, she thought she saw the shadows in the corner move. There should have been nothing there but a potted houseplant and a rack of DVDs. A weapon. She needed something, just in case the shadows weren't. She couldn't afford to assume. She needed
Kade
, the voice at the back of her mind insisted. Not an option.

The closest things to hand were a pair of scissors, left over from cutting coupons
, and a dull letter opener, made of hard plastic. The end was sharp and she could fold it tightly in her hand. It would do. She swept it off the table and tucked it into her grip, the pointed end caught between her knuckles.

Then she turned toward the shadows,
squared her shoulders and braced herself. "Come on. I'm ready."

As if he'd been waiting for the invitation, a figure appeared, stepping out of the deepest shadows. He seemed to pull himself together from the blackest corner, fingers flexing and curling as he moved
toward her.

Do something
! Practically vibrating with fear, every muscle tensed for flight, Melanie watched him come. One step then two. She took a hitching breath and tried to order him to stop. She had no voice, made no sound other than a squeak, so she did the only thing she could.

She hurled the letter opener at him with all her might.

The silhouetted man lifted his arm at the last moment, batting the makeshift weapon away. It clattered to the floor and spun to a halt, closer to Melanie than the intruder she meant to frighten.

"What the hell are you doing? Trying to put out an eye?"

"
Kade
?" Relief made her even more lightheaded. She braced a hand against the arm of the couch until the room stopped swimming, then staggered forward to meet him as he stepped close.

"What happened?" He tucked her into the curve of his arm automatically. "Are you okay?"

“Fine,” she promised. “Just being a little crazy. Just feeling a little ridiculous. I’m sorry.” The ridiculous part was just how much better she felt in his arms. She didn’t want to be the clingy, needy girlfriend but she also didn’t want to spend her life jumping at every little sound and seeing danger in every corner from now on.

Melanie pressed her face against his chest, just for a minute. She breathed in the scent of him: leather, warm skin and something that might have been cologne several days ago but now just left a pleasant hint of spice lingering in his clothes.

When she lifted her head again, her thoughts were clear and all traces of impending panic had disappeared. Now to work on him. She lifted a hand to smooth away the crease between his eyebrows with her thumb. "I psyched myself out. It's too late for me to be conscious, much less thinking about anything." She paused and frowned. "What are you doing here?"

He didn't smile, still looking at her like he expected more of an
explanation. "Looking for you."

"I said I didn't want to see you." But she was glad he'd ignored her command. She pushed her hair back, confessing, "I got caught up in doing work. I lost track of the time." She went to fetch the fallen letter opener and put it on the table beside the box full of stolen goods. She lingered there, fingers resting against the lid.

"Is that it?"

Trust him to zero in on the tablet.
She glanced over her shoulder and found Kade standing just behind her, his gaze intent on the box beneath her hand. She'd never seen him look quite so intense, and that was saying something. The knot of anxiety announced itself again as he stepped forward and reached past her, sliding the box off the table without asking. She bit back a protest as he sat on the edge of her easy chair with the package in his lap. He hesitated just for a second before lifting the lid.

"That's it. It's not very impressive now, but when it's reassembled, I think it’ll be amazing."

“It will.” There was an odd note of reverence in his voice. He pulled pieces out of the box and lined them up on her coffee table, handling them with a gentleness that surprised her. One by one, he arranged them in a vaguely square shape, then put the box by his feet and leaned closer. His eyebrows drew down. "It doesn't make sense."

Melanie knelt beside his chair, weariness forgotten. "It won't until it’s all in the right order. May I?" Without waiting, she shifted them into a semblance of where they'd been on the table in the lab. Her knack for remembering shapes and relative positions had helped her all throughout her training. It came in handy now.

Then he brushed her hands aside again, adjusting a piece she'd just put down as if he knew exactly how and where it went. A flare of pride threatened but she bit it back and watched instead. If this was really something crucial to the people he worked for, then maybe he did know more than she did. "This is wrong," he announced, and turned a jagged block ninety degrees. "And this," he added, reaching for another fragment.