But overriding the resentment was the pulsing sense of danger Evie had as she took everything in.
One of the non-human men had blond hair and blue eyes. The other had brown hair and green eyes. Both sets of eyes were piercing and stark, the kind models immediately took to agents and that turned Hollywood stars into legends.
Evie absorbed very quickly, and then she turned back to the doctors, nurses and police officers in the hall. They were all staring at Roman, their eyes wide, their jaws open.
Naturally, Evie looked up as well. Roman’s own intense eyes were now glowing as red as stoplights. Evie inhaled sharply. The unexpected picture was beyond eerie, filling her with sudden and renewed apprehension.
The rest of the world receded as the face of the most handsome man she had ever seen came into sharp focus. Everything she’d “learned” in the last few hours ran like a loop through her head, and Evie had an epiphany.
This is no dream, she thought. He’s really a vampire.
“Evie, stay close,” he said softly. Then he spoke some arcane, strange set of words, and Evie felt what could only be described as a ripple in the air. She turned to watch in stunned silence as the people in the hall straightened, almost as one. Their hands dropped to their sides, and they stared straight ahead at nothing.
They were zombies, living and breathing.
What has he done? she thought. How did he do it?
It was highly upsetting to see other human beings manipulated in such a manner. This kind of thing happened in movies all the time, and viewers lacked the empathy required to feel anything for the victims on the screen. It was make-believe anyway.
But now that she was faced with it first-hand, she was shaken. It felt so intrusive. It felt as if their privacy were being violated. Their bodies, their minds – all of it, just violated.
A cold chill went through Evie at the thought. But Roman took her hand in his again, and this time the sensation she received when he touched her was not only shockingly sensual, but foreboding. A part of her wanted to pull away.
Roman looked down at her, his red eyes burning like Hell’s fires. His eerie gaze narrowed, his expression becoming quite grim. His grip tightened around her fingers as if he’d been reading her thoughts.
But he told me he wasn’t.
She had no further time to contemplate the upsetting notion before he was moving, taking long graceful strides down the hall toward the metal doors at the other end. His words replayed through her mind.
The city morgue is quite literally the last place I dreamed of taking you.
Above the swinging doors were the words “Forensic Science.” Oh God, Evie thought. He really is taking me in there. With the dead bodies. The moms and dads and baby girls and baby boys who have all been taken before their times. Oh no….
Beside her, Roman stopped and looked down at her again. She met his gaze and watched as the red began to leak away from his irises, going from a flickering lava-like color to an indigo and, finally, to black once more. Endless, bottomless black.
“Evie, are you all right?”
God no, Evie thought. You’re a vampire and those two there – She looked at the two men following them toward the morgue doors – are vampires too, and you’re taking me into a morgue, for Christ’s sake!
She swallowed hard, noticing for the first time that she had been trying to pull her hand out of his. He, however, had yet to let her go. She stared down at the hand, trying desperately to get a grasp on her situation. It was all real. All of it. And it was happening way to fucking fast.
She shook her head. “No,” she said.
“Then let me in,” he told her simply. Her head jerked up and she met his gaze once more. His expression was hard, unyielding. With his free hand, he gently tapped the side of her head. “Here,” he said. “I can make this easier on you.”
Evie felt her eyes go wide. She glanced at the other two behind Roman. They were watching her in silence, their expressions un-telling.
Pull it together, Evie, she told herself. You aren’t getting out of this one. A hard, cold fear ran like a metal rod through her core, straightening her spine and almost hurting her heart. All at once she realized what she was dealing with. For all intents and purposes, she was dealing with monsters.
As convincingly as she could, she said, “I mean I’m fine.”
Roman watched her in silence for a moment. And then he took a deep breath and let it out in a weary sigh. “Like hell you are,” he whispered. Then he let her go.
Evie rubbed her hand gingerly as Roman turned to face one of the men behind him. “Watch her,” he instructed. “I’ll keep everyone under and handle this alone.”
The man with brown hair and green eyes nodded and came forward. He seemed familiar to her, and Evie had a flash of a memory. Jaxon, she thought. Jaxon is his name.
Jaxon nodded. “Yes My Liege.”
My Liege? Evie thought, her heart doing a somersault in her chest. Did he just call him his liege?
*****
Roman could both hear and smell Evie’s mounting unease. It was evident in the scent of cortisol and adrenaline running through her tempting little veins, and it was made more so by the ever-quickening pounding of her heart.
The situation was freaking her out. Frankly, he was surprised it had taken so long.
He cursed his misfortune. He couldn’t leave her alone now because of the Hunters. He couldn’t take things slow and get to know her in a normal fashion. He couldn’t ease her into the supernatural world he’d grown so accustomed to.
Instead, fate had made it so that she was being thrown to the sharks, and despite her obvious strengths, she was finally beginning to feel the stresses of it.
He was a vampire. That would be enough to scare the hell out of any mortal.
But now he was dragging her into a hospital, hypnotizing two dozen people with magic, and facing Evie with the prospect of witnessing dead bodies. One of which had probably been placed there by another vampire.
So, it was of little surprise to Roman that she was finally starting to flip out a bit. However, it was definitely of concern.
He released her hand with extreme reservation. He had the impression that she would bolt at any moment now, and since he lacked the ability to subjugate her mind, he would have no choice but to overpower her physically. It was the last thing he wanted to do with her.
Actually – that wasn’t true at all. It was not the last thing he wanted to do with her, and that was what scared him. He wanted to… hold her down. He wanted things he was starkly ashamed of. It wasn’t like him to lose control over his desires. It hadn’t been for a very long time. Her blood had smelled good to start with, but now there was a nuance to it that grew with every passing hour. It smelled like magic – a very special, very unique kind of magic. And it was mouth-watering.
He turned to Jaxon behind him. David was there as well; the two had transported to meet him at the hospital as soon as they’d received word of the murder and shared as much with him.
He’d been catching their thoughts since his arrival; Cade wondered who the woman was and wondered even more why he wasn’t able to read her mind. Jaxon recognized Evie, of course, but not only was he still highly curious about her significance, he was concerned about her attendance here in this place and at this juncture.
“Watch her,” Roman instructed. “I’ll keep everyone under and handle this alone.”
“Yes, My Liege,” Jaxon replied. He came forward as if to put his arms around Evie, but she pulled back – just as Roman had feared she would. He could sense a power struggle coming on, creeping ever closer. It felt inevitable. He just hoped it didn’t have to happen here and now.
“Evie, I don’t want you to have to see what is inside,” Roman told her, meaning every word. “No one should have to see it.” He’d heard that the body was badly burned, as if an Offspring had attempted to hide the evidence of his crime and failed. Evie had a big heart and hated the unfairness in
the world. This was not something he wanted her to witness.
She was already on edge. She’d lied to him about being fine. He didn’t like being lied to, much less by her, but what made it worse was that she was doing it because she was afraid of him.
It was something he was going to have to deal with later. In the meantime, he needed to get in, see the body, and determine whether it was one of his men who had taken the life of an innocent. “Please remain here with Jaxon,” he requested.
“No.”
That magic he scented in her blood intensified. It was like it swelled around her defiance, was fueled by it. He froze in the wake of it as his hunger blossomed to life and he felt a little more of his infamous, never-failing control begin to slip from his grasp.
“Don’t leave me here, Roman.”
It was spoken softly, a technical command and also a plea.
The sound of his name on her lips was like the brush of silk across his skin. Every time she said it, that feeling grew stronger. It gave him enough pause to consider her request.
“Please.”
He lifted his chin. “Very well.” He offered her his hand again then. It was a direct challenge. If she wished to come with him, she would do so under his own terms.
Evie gritted her teeth; he could see the muscles flex in her jaw. The power struggle had begun, it seemed. And contrary to his expectations, he’d been the one to start it.
Ever the brave, Evie slipped her small hand into his. He could feel the tremor of trepidation that ran through her bones as he curled his fingers over hers once more. As his grip tightened, he experienced a thrill of triumph. It was unexpected and even unfitting of one of his incredible age and stature, but he actually enjoyed this small surrender on her part. He enjoyed it all too much.
Without waiting any longer, Roman turned with Evie and headed back down the hallway toward the double doors that led to the coroner’s morgue beyond.
Chapter Twelve
It was standard procedure for situations like this. Vampires had been getting in and out of monitored locations for years without leaving behind the slightest bit of evidence that they’d ever been present. So, David Cade knew that when he and Jaxon met up with D’Angelo at the hospital morgue, Roman would immediately start taking control of every human mind nearby, as well as whatever cameras might be recording in the vicinity.
It happened just as he’d expected, as far as that was concerned. He and Jaxon rematerialized out of their transportation spell and Roman was there to meet them, rematerializing at the same time. At once, the king’s power shot out, like tendrils of invisible lightning, and took control of every single mortal present, from the basement all the way up to level three. For all intents and purposes, the humans would behave no differently than the walking dead until Roman released them.
The cameras that whirred and clicked overhead in the corners of the hallways were being taken care of as well. D’Angelo’s magic fried the wiring, erased the footage, and made certain nothing would ever show that vampires had at one point walked the halls.
Because of his experience, all of this David had known would happen. What he hadn’t been counting on was the appearance of the woman that rematerialized beside the king in the hallway. What he also hadn’t been expecting was the way D’Angelo was behaving toward her.
Interesting, David thought. It was intriguing, to say the very least. Not in all the time he’d known him had David witnessed his king act like this toward a woman.
D’Angelo actually seemed off his game, to be honest. The air around him was charged as if lightning could be pulled from it at any moment, and his demeanor was tense. It wasn’t like D’Angelo to be tense.
The woman herself was just as intriguing in her own right. She was lovely, certainly. She was small and perfectly shaped, her eyes were striking, and her hair looked like spun caramel with honey thrown in. But it was absolutely more than that. He couldn’t read her mind, for one thing. Not so much as a floating surface thought. She was like a holiday present, all wrapped up in layers of sparkling giftwrap. He had no idea what treasures waited inside, and given the way the king was behaving toward her, he wouldn’t be finding out any time soon either.
If Roman’s grip on her wrist was any indication, this woman was one present no vampire in his right mind would attempt to unwrap.
There was something else as well. There was something in her blood. It was a kind of magic, he would bet his right incisor on it. She smelled human in that delicate way that cried out for protection and kid gloves. But she also smelled like morning dew and fog, and the way the air smelled just before lightning struck. It was all around her, an aura of some kind, a shiny, impenetrable wall of glittering otherworldliness. Whoever – whatever – she was, he couldn’t blame D’Angelo for the death grip on her wrist.
David trusted that if it was important, Roman would explain about the woman eventually, when there was time. For now however, David understood enough about his duties as Roman’s best friend and loyal companion to accept that if the king felt she was imperative, it was David’s responsibility to feel that way as well.
David glanced at Jaxon beside him. Jax was probably thinking along the same lines. The three were usually on the same wavelength, which was one reason their friendship was so cohesive. Whoever the woman was, she would have their combined protection.
Ahead of them, Roman entered the double doors that lead to the coroner’s morgue beyond. David steeled his nerves. He wasn’t as old as Roman by far, but he’d been around a while, and yet when things like this happened, it had a profound effect upon him. He was an Offspring and one of the most dangerous predators on the planet, but at the same time, he despised those who preyed upon the weak and helpless. He always had and he always would.
The doors swung shut behind them and Roman led them through the cold metal space to a table that waited against one wall. It was fortunate that the room was presently empty. The medical examiner had either come and gone or had yet to arrive. Either way, the Offspring had the room to themselves.
The four of them approached the table, upon which rested a misshapen form covered in a white sheet, and David experienced a moment of apprehension. He didn’t want the woman to see what waited under that sheet. It didn’t matter who she might be; no one should have to witness what was on that table unless they absolutely had to.
“Evie, I don’t want you to look,” Roman told her. David exhaled a relieved breath when the woman nodded and turned her face away. She didn’t have to be told twice, obviously, and he had a feeling that the first time hadn’t been necessary either. She didn’t want to see any more than they did.
With his free hand, Roman reached down and pulled the sheet from the body on the slab. It was as bad as David had feared it would be. At once, he was filled with revulsion, however it wasn’t the gore of what lay before him that turned his stomach, but the act that had brought it there in the first place.
Half of the body had been burned, but some trick of fate – an impromptu storm or a strong gust of suffocating wind – had belied the murderer’s efforts and saved the remaining half. The result was that the telling puncture wounds in the neck were still there.
Roman’s expression hardened, and the red in his eyes was back. He straightened. “It was one of our own.”
Long ago, before Roman had become their sovereign, Offspring were undisciplined and selfish. They needed to feed to their victim’s “last drop” far less often than they were doing, and the murders piled up, tainting the world in red. But for three thousand years, things had been different. D’Angelo had seen to that. Now when a vampire had to feed on the entirety of his or her victim’s blood, the kill was directed at criminals or addicts or those who were terminally ill.
Innocents such as this were protected. This was a terrible crime not only amongst the humans, but amongst the Offspring as well.
Beside Roman, “Evie” made a small sound, half-sigh, half-moan, drawing everyone’s immediate
attention. Roman released her wrist and she leaned down, placing both of her hands on her knees as if to steady herself. “It smells like coffee,” she said softly.
David frowned. Coffee? That was the last thing he smelled. It smelled like charred flesh, chemicals, and antiseptic.
“Evie –” Roman moved forward – and Evie fell. It happened fast, and a mortal man might not have been able to catch her, but Roman had her in his arms long before she would have hit the ground.
He turned with her, cradling her unconscious form against his chest. “Jaxon, I’m taking her back to the safe house. Alert the guard and call a meeting. One of our own has gone rogue.”
*****
Lalura was still on her bed; the atmosphere in the room was quiet in the early hours of dawn. Outside, no cars traveled the icy roads, and no jets split the sky overhead. Snow had fallen all night; the world was now travel-free and wholly, peacefully silent.
But in the sleeping confines of the ancient witch’s mind, there were voices. They spoke to her in jumbled masses, their whispers and words a mixed-up mess that she could not understand. She floated in a strange darkness as something blurry and blue took shape up ahead.
There was a table, black and smooth as an onyx plane. It reflected some unknown light, and atop it was a.…
A chess board.
Lalura floated toward the board, ever closer to the object of her imagination. As she neared it, shapes materialized upon it, taking up the squares beneath them with a regal purpose. Lalura counted them. One, two, three….
Thirteen kings. Different colors, all tall and gleaming beneath the magical light, all with a waiting majesty.
Lalura stepped forward, her feet now firmly planted on the ground, the vision around her now solidified. The room was empty other than the table and chess board. She moved to stand beside the table and looked down at the pieces.