flicker of images, she thought of the way his body had grown during the change, and the kind of cellular storm that transformation had to represent … down at the molecular level.
“What?” he asked her.
When she didn’t reply, Nate sat up as well. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
As the scientist in her went forward a hundred miles, the human she prided herself on being stayed put.
No, she thought. It’s not right.
“What’s not right?” he asked.
Sarah shook her head. “Sorry. I just … you’ve been through enough.”
“Enough of what?”
“Ah, you know, experiments. Being poked and prodded and stuck with needles for the purposes of someone else.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s okay. It’s nothing—”
“Sarah,” he said in a tone of voice that suggested not only was he twenty, and not twelve, he was a lot older than even that. “What’s on your mind?”
I owe you,” Murhder said an hour later. “Big-time.”
As he and Xhex walked over to a stand of boulders on the side of a mountain, he paused and looked around. The snowy landscape was distorted, mhis making it hard to determine exactly where they were.
Vishous, he thought. Up to his old tricks.
But she’d been wrong about him not knowing where they were. He knew exactly the place: Darius’s mountaintop mansion. The Brotherhood must have finally moved into it, just as Darius had always wanted them to. Murhder could remember coming to the construction site back in the early 1900s and watching as the magnificent house had been erected, steam cranes setting I-beams, great walls laid stone by stone, the whole of it built by fine vampire craftsmen to commercial specifications.
So the manse could last centuries.
“No, you don’t owe me.” Xhex slipped in between the car-sized rocks. “But you are lucky we had a change of clothes in Trez’s office.”
And that shower, he thought as he squeezed himself into the shallow hideaway. As he’d come off the field of conflict, he’d been covered with all kinds of blood and the last thing he wanted was for Sarah to see him like that. Looking for exactly what he happened to find, he’d gone to Xhex’s club and ID’d a vampire among the security staff monitoring the entrance. The male had been good enough to get Xhex without asking a lot of questions.
She hadn’t asked for any details, either. Especially as he’d told her he’d been with her mate. It was obvious her feelings were hurt, but typical of the female, she hadn’t let any of that emotion through.
Leaning forward, she hit a hidden button and a small fake “rock” panel slid back to reveal a keypad. After she entered in a code, the lock was released and part of the entire cave wall opened.
But she didn’t step aside so he could go through. Instead, she leveled those gunmetal-gray eyes at him.
“Listen,” she said, “you need to get straight with the Brotherhood and take care of that human woman. She can’t stay here in our world, Murhder. Say your goodbyes, wipe her memories and then get her back where she belongs. Or they’re going to do that shit for you.”
“She’s going to help John.” As the female looked away sharply, he put his hand on her shoulder. “Xhex, she’s going to figure it out.”
Those hard eyes swung back to him. “I don’t want to be cruel here, I really don’t. But you don’t know that woman. You’re attracted to her so that sizzle of chemistry makes you think you’re on intimate terms, but you don’t have a clue about what she’s really like—and I refuse to put my faith in some human who incidentally worked for the company which has been torturing members of the species for over two decades.”
Anger curled in his gut. “So you’re just going to let John die?”
“Excuse me?” Xhex glared at him. “Not believing in a pipe dream does not equate to letting my hellren die. And fuck you for bringing that up.”
He let his head fall back as he took a couple of deep breaths. When he righted things, the female had crossed her arms over her chest and was staring over his shoulder.
He was willing to bet in her mind, she was kneeing him in the balls.
“I apologize,” he muttered. “That was a low blow.”
Her eyes returned to his again. “Thank you. Now go make things easy on yourself and do the right thing. It’ll be better for everybody.”
When she went to walk off, he reached for her hand. “Xhex …”