“Thank you, Mr. LaRay, I’ll take it from here.” The driver peeled away to reveal Darius, just as immaculate and freshly pressed as when he’d shown up earlier at the warehouse. How was beyond me. I was pretty sure I looked like a dead rat that had been dragged by the tail through the apocalypse.
Darius held out his hand, and I took it, because it seemed rude not to. The man had some serious manners.
“I didn’t want this venture to be associated with Mr. Regent in any way,” Darius said, steadying me until Emery had climbed from the car and slipped an arm around my shoulders.
“I’m good, you guys,” I said. “Aside from the headache, I’m fine.”
“We merely encountered a small, on-hand staff tonight,” Darius continued as though not hearing me. Clearly he had his own ignore list.
He directed us up the driveway to the house and continued. “The Mages’ Guild will be out for blood. I do not want them knowing who exactly the perpetrators were.”
“But they had cameras.” I watched the vampires zip by, carrying their boxes.
“Vampires don’t show up in cameras or video equipment,” Emery mumbled. “They’ll only see you and me.”
“Yes,” Darius said. “They will know you were working with vampires, but they will not know which vampires. Mr. Regent has been with guests and in the public eye all night, along with his prized children—”
“Wait, vampires can have kids?” I asked.
“That’s what they call the new vampires they make,” Emery whispered.
“When they inevitably go looking for him,” Darius continued, “he’ll have an alibi. As for you two…well, you are already at the top of their list. Now they know to fear you.”
Dread pounded in my middle. “People kill what they fear.”
“Not in your case.” Darius nodded to a woman holding the door open. Not a woman, judging by the predatory stare—another vampire. “They will see you—both of you—as the greatest prizes available to them. You blew through their facility as though peasants had created the spells guarding it. You are firmly at the top of the power pyramid.”
“Being the top of the pyramid didn’t help my brother,” Emery said darkly.
Darius held out his hand at the bottom of a wide set of stairs, the house large, spacious, and fashionably rustic. It was gorgeous. “Please. I’ll show you to your room. I’ll have dinner and drinks brought up, if you’re hungry?”
My stomach growled in answer.
“Yes, I thought so.” He followed us up. “Your brother, Mr. Westbrook, was in an entirely different situation than are you. He thought he could change the guild from the inside. You, wisely, realize that to do any benefit, the guild must be torn down and rebuilt. Which you have the power to do. With my help.”
“I’m not saying I don’t agree, but it’s going to take a lot more magical might than someone like me to change the guild.” Emery stopped at the top of the long hall. Darius gestured us to the right. “Even with Penny, we can’t do much more than make a dent. Not if they organize. Which, after tonight, you can bet they will. I’ll never be able to set foot in this town again.”
My heart squeezed and I grabbed hold of his shirt. Though what was I responding to? I wouldn’t be able to stay in this town either. Not after tonight. My home wouldn’t be my home anymore. I needed to come to grips with that.
“There are…others that can help in the struggle, I think,” Darius said, his voice far away. He was strategizing, probably. “The guild won’t be taken down immediately, but all good things come to those who wait.”
We stopped at a closed door that looked the same as the closed doors to the right and left. Darius opened it and pushed it wide.
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted two rooms or one. This—”
“One,” Emery said. He squeezed me, and butterflies filled my stomach.
Darius offered a slight bow and stepped back. “I’ll have clothes brought up to you. After you’re rested, we’ll create a plan for what is next.”
“I need someone to look at a couple letters,” Emery said.
“Of course. And you’ll want to know what we dig up from the records we’ve collected, I trust?”
“I would, thanks.” Without a goodbye, Emery walked us into the room and closed the door after us. He conjured up a spell and smeared it against the door. “It’s unusual for a vampire to offer to share information.” He unzipped his vest and shrugged out of it. His white shirt underneath was plastered to his body with sweat. “I’m not sure what that’s about.”
“Seems like he wants the guild brought to the ground for his own reasons, and realizes you have to help. You need to know your enemy.”
Uneasiness wrestled with his expression, but he didn’t comment. Instead, his gaze connected with mine, raw, deep, and bare. “How about that bath?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Something clattered against the nightstand. Before I could open my eyes, it clattered again. And one more time. The accompanying buzzing finally registered.
My phone was ringing. Probably my mother. If she’d sent another text, she’d now be calling to chat about it.
I willed myself to roll away from Emery’s heat and grab the phone, but I couldn’t find the strength to peel my eyes open, let alone move my body. I hadn’t stayed awake long enough for dinner the night before. I’d let Emery slowly strip me of my clothes, kissing every cut and scratch along the way, plus a little extra kissing on certain areas of my body that had made me curl my toes and arch in pleasure. We’d sunk into the hot waters of the bath, the tub large and easily able to accommodate us. But while my body was gloriously wound up, and my ache for him had only grown stronger, I’d fallen asleep nearly immediately. The next thing I’d known, he was carrying me to bed and settling in beside me, comfort, trust, and magic making the air buzz around us. I’d never felt so safe in all my life, and given the circumstances, that was saying something.
The clattering sounded again. I moaned and Emery stirred under my cheek. His arms, wrapped around me, squeezed before he tilted his head on the pillow and his breath, heavy and content, drifted over me.
Sure, I felt safe, but we were in a house with a bunch of night dwellers, and it was most certainly daytime. Anyone could crash through the place, and it would come down to Emery and I to fight them off. If my mother could help with that, it was worth it to roll out of Emery’s arms and answer the phone.
Just barely.
I slapped my hand on the nightstand, capturing the jumping flip phone that had endured these last few days better than Emery’s smart phone. Take that, modern technology!
I pulled it over and forced a groggy, puffy eye open. Two in the afternoon and fatigue still pulled on my every limb.
Was it too late for an office job?
Two missed calls from Veronica, which was strange, since my mother had called her and told her some of what was going on. She’d been told to wait for me to contact her—which I planned to do once this was all over. Then two calls from my mother, which were the last two, plus three texts. I was usually a light sleeper, but it looked like my body had pulled me way under.
I rubbed my eyes as I pulled up the texts. The first was from the early morning, probably when we were still in the thick of it. Not all monsters are bad.
Monsters. A vampire’s other form, like when shifters changed into animals. That was what Marie had turned into last night in order to heal quicker. They were faster and stronger that way, but so, so much uglier.
“A little too late on that one, Mother,” I muttered into the quiet room.
They won’t go to you. You will go to them.
I nodded, because clearly she meant the Mages’ Guild, and I had gone to them, all right. Right into the heart of their whole operation.
I frowned, because that text had been sent at nine in the morning. Until now, my mother’s premonitions had always arrived before the event or, at the latest, during. It was strange this one would come so late.
In a moment, I saw why.
They’ve got Veronica. Call me ASAP.