Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) (10 page)

What you found will not be what it was
.

What the hell did that mean?

There wasn’t time to think about it, though. I needed to follow Hades and find out where he went.

I burst out the front door, searching the shadows across the street where Ivan was supposed to be hiding. My phone vibrated in my jeans pocket, and I pulled it out to read the screen.

I’m following the mad scientist. Meet back up with you later.

Should I leave Ivan to it? It wasn’t like I had much choice, not that I was happy about it. Hades had practically disappeared into the shadows. Sure, I had an initial fifty-fifty chance of going in the right direction to start, but he could have turned down any number of alleyways. And yet…how did Ivan know where to meet us later? Lea had told me to meet her where we’d met Sean the other night. Why would Ivan know where that was?

I didn’t trust the werewolf. That was probably grounded in the fact I no longer trusted men in general, but the timing of his appearance was a little too suspect. Even if he arranged for us to meet with the werewolves, it could be a trap. And for a brief moment, I wondered if Lea’s judgment of him could be trusted. I’d seen how he affected her. I knew firsthand how a man could make a woman behave like an idiot.

Never again.

I headed back to the subway station, pulling the jacket hood over my head. A light drizzle began to fall, which helped hide my face. I doubted anyone was looking for me here—I hadn’t been followed by anyone resembling the government drones who’d chased us in Midtown—but it couldn’t hurt to be too careful.

I headed down the steps to the station, my mind reeling with the Rubik’s cube of how to get into Iraq. We couldn’t just hop on a plane from New York to Baghdad. Even if flights were available, we’d never get an official visa. We’d have to take a more indirect route, and Turkey was probably our best bet.

We could fly into Istanbul, take a smaller flight to Diyarbakir, and then take a taxi across the border into Zakho, Iraq. I’d made that trip several times in my last years as a war reporter. I just needed to make sure it was still a viable route. And I’d have to reach out to my contacts to get under-the-table visas. There were a lot of variables in play, but we needed to get to that facility. I’d tunnel underground if it came to it.

The subway platform was quiet, making it simultaneously easy to notice if someone was following me and creepy as hell when a man descended the stairs from the opposite end of the platform. He waited at the other end, keeping his attention on the tunnel. He wore jeans, boots, and a leather jacket. His hair was in need of a trim, but his beard was very close cut. In fact, it looked more like a five o’clock shadow had been given a few days to grow. There was something about him that set me on edge, but I couldn’t figure out what. Was he human?

I had to laugh at that one. Until a couple of weeks ago, I only would have asked that question while drunk.

The train pulled in and no one got off, so I headed toward a middle car, keeping my eye on the man as he boarded toward the front, not even giving me a glance.

I really was paranoid.

Paranoid enough that I didn’t sit in a seat even though there were several empty ones around me. I hung onto the pole instead, keeping my gaze on the doors while casting furtive sideways glances. The only thing of interest was a couple in the throes of a hot and heavy makeout session to my left. That was good. The few people around them looked uncomfortable, which gave me a good excuse for standing out of their PDA zone.

I had to change trains to get to the vacant hotel. The next three stops were uneventful, so I started to let my guard down when I boarded the next train, ready for a longer trip.

I was still too edgy to sit, so I was standing and staring at the doors when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. The man from the first platform was several feet in front of me, a purposeful look in his eye. I turned to run, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me to his chest. “There you are, baby. I told you the front car,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear, then lowered his mouth to my ear. “You’re being tailed.”

“No shit. You’re proof enough of that,” I snarled, my hands on his chest, prepared to push him away. Two things stopped me: One, he was holding me in a vise grip with his arm, and two, if he was right, I didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself. But now I was worried. Had these supposed tails seen me meet Hades?

“I don’t think they saw you meet your contact at the diner. You seemed to pick them up here in the station.”

I gasped as I looked up at him. Did this asshole have mind-reading abilities?

He gave me a cocky grin, but his eyes were full of warning. “I know more about you than you think.”

“Just what every girl wants to hear.”

He chuckled softly, then leaned in closer, his tone turning serious. “You’re playing a dangerous game here, Rachel.”

He knew my name. Shit. But then again, I’d been on TV earlier that evening. A report like that was bound to set all the crazies loose. “I’m a big girl. I know how to take care of myself.”

“Are you trusting the right people?”

That gave me pause. What exactly did he know? “Is there someone I shouldn’t be trusting?”

His breath blew warm against my ear, sending a chill down my back. “The supernatural world is not to be trusted. They don’t like to be outed. I hope you have a plan.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Is that who’s following me right now? Someone from the supernatural world?” Shit. I needed to get some silver stakes pronto. I could handle humans, but I was no physical match for vampires. While Lea had said there weren’t many of them, it made sense they might try to eliminate me for speaking out about their world.

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. You’re right to stay with her for now, but don’t trust her for a minute.”

He knew about Lea, and he believed in the supernatural world. Which meant he saw me as a pawn in this game. If he was warning me, that meant I was currently serving some purpose for him. “What’s your stake in this?”

“I don’t think you’re adequately prepared to handle the mess you’ve created.”

“You think I should back off?” I asked in belligerence.

“No, you’re exactly where you need to be, but you aren’t ready to defend yourself.”

He was right and it pissed me off. But there hadn’t exactly been time for a visit to the anti-supernatural protection store. If there even was one.

His hand cupped my cheek and tilted my head up to face him. I sucked in a breath as I stared into his intense brown eyes, my hold on his jacket beginning to loosen in anticipation.

I felt something several inches long and most likely made of leather slip into the back waistband of my jeans.

I stiffened, but before I could jerk away, his arm tightened. He whispered, still staring into my eyes, “I need you to stay alive, Rachel Sambrook. Can you do that for me?” The intensity in his gaze almost made me believe he gave a shit about me.

Almost
.

I pushed on his chest, but his hold didn’t slip an inch. “Why the fuck should I believe you care about me?”

The train was slowing down, and the speaker overhead announced the next station.

He grinned, but it wasn’t the cocky expression I halfway expected. It was just the barest lift of the corners of his mouth. The intensity in his dark brown irises mesmerized me. Pinned in his gaze, I didn’t put up a protest as his face lowered, his lips lightly skimming mine.

I froze as his warm breath fanned across my cheek, his kiss growing bolder. My fingers dug into his jacket in an effort to remain upright as the train came to a stop.

The doors opened and I felt movement to my side as someone boarded the train, but this man’s mouth had me spellbound, blocking out everything and everyone around me except for him.

His head lifted and determination filled his eyes, before they softened. “Don’t worry, pet. You will see me soon enough.”

Then he shoved me hard, throwing me out of the train car. I landed on my side as the doors shut.

I saw him through the car windows, knife in his hand, facing two men. As the train pulled away, they rushed him, and the way he defended himself led me to believe he could hold his own.

Something poked the top of my ass cheek. I reached back and pulled out a six-inch-long leather case with a silver handle sticking out the top. I pulled it free, gasping at the sleek silver blade. There was no doubt it was designed for killing supernatural creatures. The question was, why had he really given it to me?

LEA

I crouched in the second floor window of the broken-down hotel. This was where we’d met Sean, where he’d done his damnedest to convince Rachel I was the bad guy and he could be trusted. Turned out he was wrong, a mistake that had cost him his life.

Rachel was below me, pacing from one end of the blown-out room to the other. She hadn’t seen me yet, and I’d decided to watch her to see if anyone followed her into the abandoned hotel.

Her hands went to her lower back, paused, then fluttered up to her lips.

“Son of a bitch,” she muttered, never slowing her steps.

Interesting. An image of Ivan kissing her sent a shot of pure adrenaline through my system that shocked the shit out of me. There was no way she would have let him kiss her. But then, where was he? I’d told him to watch over her.

I waited another full minute. Though I told myself it was to make sure we were safe, the real reason was that I was pissed at Ivan for being missing.

And more pissed at the thought of him kissing Rachel. I drew in a slow breath. No, I was not going there. Ivan was a werewolf—lecherous, dangerous and unpredictable. I had no reason to be surprised he hadn’t followed through with my command.

I pushed off the window ledge and dropped to the floor, deliberately landing on a stack of wood. It clattered away from me and Rachel spun around, whipping out a six-inch silver stake. I couldn’t help my eyes from widening. There was no way Ivan had given her that.

“Good reflexes.”

The stake was a replica of mine, right down to the length of the handle. A Cazador’s weapon. Even more interesting. I didn’t ask her about it, I didn’t need to. There were very few people who would have access to silver stakes.

I walked toward her as she tucked the stake away. “Who kissed you?” The question popped out of me before I thought better of it.

Her mouth dropped open, but she snapped it shut so fast her teeth clicked. Her face flamed an interesting shade of pink visible to me even in the dim light. “No one.”

A lie so thick it all but hung in the air between us. “Where’s Ivan?”

“He followed my contact.” She seemed to pull herself together. “How is he going to find us?”

I shrugged and Rachel narrowed her eyes. A few beats of silence passed between us, and then she smiled a slow-growing grin I didn’t like.

“Oh my God. You think Ivan kissed me? Girl, he is so not my type. Irritating as hell is about all he is to me.”

My jaw ticked, but I struggled to keep eye contact with her. I finally put a hand to my forehead. “
Madre de Dios
, what wrong with me? Hundreds of years and I’ve never been affected like this.”