him come here. Now every time Brovik wants him to do something ugly, he pressures Kurt with threats to your safety. Your boy is stretched.” She crossed her arms over her breasts. “I’ll lay it out to you. Got a chance to acquire a small biotech firm. I need money, big money. Brovik has the numbers. It can be diverted, a little here, a little there. Kurt knows everything about Brovik’s little enterprise— has the scientific contacts— but most importantly he goes to Zurich once a month. Lots of money passes through his lily-white hands.”
“Kurt’s life wouldn’t be worth a dime. Neither would ours for that matter. Besides Brovik is already a step ahead of you.”
“He can be taken out. There has to be a way. In the meantime, I’d hide you both somewhere. We’ll be partners. Anything we eventually make we split.”
“Kurt isn’t in this for the money.”
“He likes to live well Mia.” She looked at my muddy knees. “I know for a fact he doesn’t like to see you scrounging in the pockets of dead mortals.”
“That’s all over. Ethan’s back.”
Now her face registered genuine shock. “You’re shitting me? You aren’t back with him?”
“No, he just gave me what he owed. I couldn’t do that to Kurt.”
She raked her eyes over my face. “The boy’s got it bad, but somehow I figured it wasn’t the same for you.”
“At first, Ethan had such a hold on me. You know how it is.”
She shook her head. “I had a life, Mia. I’m a damned good attorney and I worked like hell to get where I was. Filthy bastard stole all the things I’d achieved. Maybe you can’t appreciate just how much that means for a woman like me— but I’ll find a way. And let me tell you something, I always get what I want.” Her face and voice suddenly softened. I didn’t trust it. “What about you Mia? It’s a chance for you and Kurt to really break free. He’s about to fall apart, girl. A little nudge is all he needs.”
The thought was tempting but I couldn’t see Kurt betraying his master for anything. “He’s tough. It’d take a miracle to push him over the edge.”
Her long soft fingers smoothed a lock of wet hair away from my face. Her velvety voice turned maternal, very seductive, “When I first saw you, I was shocked at how small and young you looked— like a beautiful child. When I learned you were still alive, I thought, how did she survive? Kurt told me how you’ve been abused out here. But you survived Mia, you’re stronger than anyone knows. But I can see how tired you are of it all. I can shelter you, take you someplace safe, none of them will ever hurt you again.”
Pheromone perfumed the air. She took my face in her hands and gently kissed me, tongue sliding softly into my mouth, over the tips of my fangs. Distant voices made the hairs on my neck suddenly prickle.
I pulled away. “Leave! Don’t come back! I won’t rat on you. Go!”
Her eyes registered pain and loneliness. The bronze goddess was actually flesh and blood? She pressed a card into my hand. “My cell. Call, if you ever change your mind.”
“Go, the rain’s letting up. They’re looking for me.”
She rose, scanning, a tigress scenting the air. Dangerous. Unpredictable.
“I’ll draw them downtown. Careful.”
“Always am.” She opened her coat to show a concealed pistol. “You do the same, little sister.”
She melted into the trees and disappeared. Moments later, I scented my watchdogs on the bridge above my head. I set off running opposite Leisha’s direction. They shouted curses, jumping down to follow me out of the park. I laughed. I’d dodged another bullet so to speak, but my luck was rapidly running out.
NINETEEN
* * * *
New Years Eve. The last of the millennium arrived. Although Kurt wanted to spend it with me in New York, Brovik, worried his systems might crash, kept him home to troubleshoot.
Weird night, unseasonably warm and all this talk about the turning of a century and a new millennium was unsettling enough, without Sanjivani’s ghost whispering in my brain. I needed to walk and walk, away from crowds to clear my head. I gave Brovik’s dogs the slip in the throng milling around Times Square, and headed east toward Fifth Avenue.
Along the way, I passed one of those small exclusive hotels Immortyls tend to frequent, where one of my suitors had once taken me for his recreation. I