Unseen (The Heights, Vol. 1) (6 page)

“Bring a human to me—one who is not as
stubborn as you are. I am stronger now and ready to use my
power.”

“I’ll think about it.” Okay, she was done
thinking. And the answer was: “No way.” How could she pick someone
to bring back here, knowing what he was going to do? A human
sacrifice. He hadn’t fed in a while and his injury probably made
his needs greater. As in, ten pints greater.

She stopped thumping the wad of cash against
her palm when she realized there was blood on the bottom of it.
Eww-eww-eww.
“A true example of blood money. Except in this
case, it may actually have helped you stay alive…ish.” She set the
stack of bills on her nightstand and wiped her hands on the sheet.
Why not? It was already ruined. “Do you always carry that much
money around?”

“The lifestyle of the Prime is costly to
maintain.”

“No doubt. What do you do for him? Bodyguard?
Head of the treasury? Hair stylist?”

“I do nothing for him.” He sounded incredibly
offended. “Because I
am
him.”

Her head popped up. “Sorry, what?”

He
looked
incredibly offended, too.
“Impossible. How did you not know who I am? Have you never seen my
face?” He shook his head. “I do not believe it.”

“I spend most of my time with dead things.”
Her brow furrowed. “That sounds a lot weirder than it is.” She
peered down at him, trying to remember if she’d seen him
before.

He bared his teeth
after
she got close
and
before
she stumbled multiple steps backwards.

Oh, shit.
The heated eyes. The fangs.
The overall gorgeousness. Yeah, she’d seen him. In a painting on
the wall at HQ. Just once, because there was no point to look more
than that. Fact one: Vampires were unearthly beautiful. Fact two:
They were killers. And the second made the first far less
impressive.

But there was no way. She had
not
brought the leader of the entire North American zone into her
house. Into her life. No fucking way. “Were you really the
Prime?”

“I really
am
the Prime. Whoever tried
to kill me failed.”

“Well…aren’t you lucky?”

“My kind does not give much credence to luck.
Perhaps it is you—whatever you are—who is lucky.”

The vampire king, the Prime of the North
American zone, was lying in her bed tied up with necklaces.

“
Yeeeaaahh
. I can’t see a single thing
about this that makes me feel lucky.” The situation had just become
four times worse. A couple silver chains weren’t going to keep her
safe. There must have been swarms of beings looking for him, so any
time she could’ve used to think and stay alive was gone.

“You are confusing to me.” He paused. “And I
dislike being confused very much. Tell me what you want.”

“For you to get up and leave without stopping
for a snack until you’re out the door.”

“And then?”

“And then you pretend this never happened and
don’t tell anyone else.” As if she was going to get that. Her only
chance was to be out of here and searching for somewhere far, far,
far away to hide before he recovered or someone came to get
him.

The Council wouldn’t bother sending a tracker
for a random vamp, but for the Prime?
Shit
. She didn’t know
how long it would take them to track her down and kill her, but
whatever it was wasn’t enough.

The only possible way she could get out of
this with a heartbeat was to talk him out of mentioning her to
anyone…ever. How hard could that be?

“I could’ve left you in the garbage where I
found you. But I didn’t. You owe me.”

“I owe you nothing. You are required to serve
me.”

“I didn’t know you were the Prime until a
minute ago, but I still helped you.” She cleared her throat to stop
sounding so incredibly whiny. “That should count for
something.”

“You say all you desire is for me to leave,
but that could not possibly be true. Of course, I have never been
held hostage before; therefore, I defer to your knowledge on the
subject. Whatever you ask, I will consider it as long as it is not
offensive. And I am easily offended.”

“I’m not holding you hostage.”

“Then take off the chains and feed me.”

“I’m not suicidal, either.”

“If I tell you I will not bite?”

“I’d say you were a liar.”

The intensity of his eyes sharpened so
abruptly she could almost feel its cut. “You call me a liar. Yet
you expect me to believe you desire nothing but for me to go, while
refusing to provide the means to make that possible.”

What was she going to do? “I’m going out.”
Running away. “Feel free to leave whenever. Or die whenever.”

Unfortunately it was morning, so all he would
do is sleep or go into a coma or whatever they did. They were dead,
so maybe the daytime hibernation was a way to refuel—actually
be
dead for eight hours. And if she was really, really,
really
lucky, he’d stay that way.

And why not leave a dying vampire back at
your apartment while you try to pretend your life is normal? Normal
for the Heights, at least.

Holy shit.
He couldn’t be the Prime.
Addison had found him in the garbage. No one would throw the Prime
in the garbage. He was probably some random vamp who looked a
little like the Prime, who got staked by someone he owed money
to.

Focus on the first thing that could get
you killed and then move on to the next.
And the next. And the
next. If she didn’t do her job, someone might be curious as to why.
And if that curiosity led to the discovery of the dying vamp in her
apartment, she’d be toast.

She’d make it quick: Go to Headquarters, find
out if anyone had noticed that someone—say the most important being
on the continent—was missing, and then drop off her paperwork.

HQ looked totally normal, nothing that the
human bike messengers or delivery folks would think was different
from the billion other office buildings in the city. The art on the
walls was spelled to look like something it wasn’t, something
other
than paintings of influential supers from the last few
centuries. The statue of a vamp surrounded by dead bodies—just in
case seers forgot what they kept from happening again—disguised for
non-seer eyes to look like a handsome prince surrounded by admiring
women.

It all made Addison nauseous. But this was
the only life she had and so she’d live it as long as she could.
After flashing her ID to the security guard, she tucked it into her
pocket and headed towards the row of elevators. It was the only
place outside of her apartment where she could put her ID away.
Inside HQ, everyone was off-limits.

Smith Street was the center for all North
American seers. Home to the historians, estate lawyers, travel
agents, and all the rest. A one-stop shop for the paranormal.
Disposal was on the fourth floor, on the side of the building with
the crappiest view. Addison went to the call center first.

“What’s up?” Addison sat halfway on Dawn’s
desk.

“I was about to call and ask you the same
thing, since your life seems to be a lot more exciting than
mine.”

“You mean when I called you? It was a false
alarm.” Not surprisingly, her lie got her a look of disbelief. “You
didn’t log it in, did you?”

Dawn shook her head. “You didn’t call the
main line so I didn’t have to.” She came close enough to whisper.
“What happened?”

Addison considered telling her the truth, but
all it would do was bring Dawn into an already-dangerous situation.
“Turns out he was just some Goth kid role playing with his friends.
You should’ve seen me freak out when he opened his eyes.”

“Shit, really?”

“Yeah. Stupid human. It seems exciting from
the other side of the wall, I guess.”

“Are you working tomorrow night? I wanna go
out.”

“Maybe. I haven’t been sleeping well,
though.”
And if my luck keeps going the way it has been, I’ll be
spending my night off babysitting a vampire and praying he’ll
die.

“Is your friend working? The really, really
attractive one?” Dawn shrugged. “What? Just asking.” And it was
totally understandable. Not only was Logan really, really
attractive, he was also a really, really great guy. Not that Dawn
actually knew anything other than the really, really attractive
part.

“I don’t know—he works a lot.”

Dawn’s eyes widened at something behind
Addison. “My boss. Go.” She shooed Addison away just as a portly
guy showed up. They all had jobs to do—might as well do them.

At the disposal desk, she plopped last
night’s paperwork and samples on Rhonda’s desk.

“This is the first time you’ve been late in
six years, Addison. What’s going on?”

“I’m training someone and I got a little
distracted by…distracting things.” Thankfully, that last bit of
nonsense came out as an unintelligible mumble. “My trainee asked
what the tally was for an average night, and I didn’t know what to
tell him. What
was
last night’s tally?” If the vamp who
claimed he was the Prime had phased from a big fight somewhere,
there would be witnesses to him being there, and Addison might get
out of this without dying.

“City, country, or zone-wide?”

“Just the city.”

Rhonda swept her computer mouse around and
clicked a few times. “With your four…seven.” With that seven went
Addison’s theory.

“Only seven, and we did four?” She knew her
route was busy—wealthy areas meant a higher percentage of supers
lived and died there—but she didn’t know she was the only disposal
tech who actually
did
anything. “Is that normal?”

“No. It’s usually less. But a were and a
human were found in an alley. Huge mess. The human police got there
before we did, so Damage Control had to wipe a lot of minds.”

There were a lot of parts to this life that
Addison hated, but wiping was at the top. “The human kill wasn’t
legal, was it?”

“Nope.”

“Shit.” Legal kills didn’t happen in alleys.
Too risky. And Addison knew this because she’d seen too many of
them. “Where?”

Rhonda gave her the name of a club halfway
between her route and her apartment. “You should be careful,
Addison. If someone killed a were and a human, I doubt they’d feel
bad about a seer.”

“Well, golly, Rhonda. That makes me feel a
lot better,” she grumbled. “Thanks. Was anyone going to tell me
about it?”

“You know how it is. You hear the rumor today
and get the official notice in seven to ten days.”

“After seven to ten days on the streets.”

She shrugged. “You got your kit, right?”

“Yep.” The infamous and inadequate kit every
disposal tech received on their first night out. As if an ounce of
holy water was going to stop a vamp in bloodlust or any other kind
of lust. And
that
was if your aim was good.

On her way out, she stopped in front of the
line of portraits on the wall of the lobby—the primes of each zone.
A European vamp who was gorgeous and had big, shiny fangs followed
by another gorgeous, shiny-fanged vamp, this one from Australia.
And then another. And then—

Fuck.
The biggest portrait was of her
vamp, just like she remembered him. But healthier looking and
without the big hole in his chest. And in real life, her vamp was a
bit more gorgeous and shiny-fanged than the others, because not
everything could be captured in a painting. Of course, calling it
‘life’ wasn’t right because he wasn’t alive in person, either, but
he was real and nothing could truly capture beauty like that.
Except a stake a centimeter away from his heart and a disposal tech
with silver jewelry. Oh yeah, she’d totally captured him.
Idiot.

Right next to his beautiful face and horrible
fangs was a placard with his name and title. Rhyse, Vampire King,
Prime of North America.
Just fucking great.

Addison hurried out of the building and went
straight to her mommy—not that her mom could give her any comfort
or advice. But being with her gave Addison a chance to think, to
pretend her life was normal, and to vent, as long as she kept
everything vague.

Seers left their families behind when they
officially entered the Heights. It was too difficult to explain
what they did, where they went, and why they freaked out about the
gorgeous guy who’d just walked into the restaurant. Who would
believe he was actually a demon and was there to have a snack and
poke around in someone’s head until he found something naughty to
tempt them into doing?

Most seers couldn’t live with the fear,
wondering if today would be the day someone they loved would be
chosen as a creature’s free-range kill. Since they couldn’t stop it
from happening, it was better not to know. It was easier to
separate their lives into BH and AH—
before
the Heights and
after
the Heights.

Two different lives for two different worlds.
But Addison hadn’t done that. She’d thought she could have both
lives, that she didn’t have to give up someone she loved just
because her job was across the wall from the human world.

That had been a huge mistake.

“Hey, Grace.” She leaned on the assisted
living facility’s reception desk, next to her mom’s favorite nurse.
“How is she today?”

Grace seemed to know the only thing
sugarcoating her comments did was cause cavities. “Today’s not a
good day. She had to be sedated last night. She wouldn’t stop
screaming at them to leave her alone.”
Them
. ‘Them’ could’ve
been a mage or a vamp or a werewolf, some being she should never
have seen and should
definitely
not remember.

“Thanks.” Addison went down the hall to her
mom’s room and knocked on the door as she went in. “Hi, Mom. It’s
me, Addison.”