Cliff hadn’t come by last night, which meant he’d had a psychotic break.
It always meant that now. And those breaks had been coming closer and closer together.
But this one was different. She didn’t know the details. She could only guess based on the little bit Todd had allowed Cynthia to wheedle out of him.
Bastien and Aidan had taken Cliff hunting last night, and whatever had happened had taken place outside the safety of network headquarters.
Cliff had never had a psychotic break outside network headquarters before.
She bit her lip.
Had he hurt someone? Someone who wasn’t a vampire? Had he…
Had he attacked a human?
Todd either didn’t know or wouldn’t say. But he’d admitted that Cliff had been unconscious when Bastien and Aidan brought him back to the network, his hands coated in blood.
He’d said Melanie had wept. And Bastien’s and Aidan’s eyes had been suspiciously moist.
Emma had been unable to concentrate for the rest of the day, tears of concern hovering just beneath the surface, so she’d left work early. She would’ve lingered in case Mr. Reordon allowed her to see Cliff. But Todd said Cliff had been sleeping heavily all day.
Cliff only did that when they sedated him. So at least he…
She closed her eyes.
At least he was still with them. He hadn’t asked them to kill him, to let him go.
Nevertheless, the fear and dread and sense of impending doom that had nearly suffocated her all day refused to relent.
Opening her eyes, she glanced at the front windows.
Darkness lay beyond them.
Normally she would have already showered, changed, and succumbed to a nap while she waited for Cliff to work out some of his aggression on a hunt and then come to her.
She glanced down. All she’d managed thus far tonight was to shower and change into a comfy T-shirt and yoga pants, too anxious to sleep despite the fatigue that rarely abandoned her.
She needed to see Cliff. Needed to know he was okay. Needed to feel his arms around her and hear him say he wasn’t ready to give up the fight despite whatever had happened.
A tall, dark figure abruptly appeared several feet away.
Yelping, she sprang to her feet.
Oh shit.
Seth, leader of the Immortal Guardians, towered over her. Standing roughly six feet eight inches tall with broad shoulders, a muscled form, and hair down to his hips, he’d been a frequent visitor at the network the past few years.
He held up his hands. “Forgive me for startling you,” he said, face grim. “You’re needed at the network.”
Fear filled her as she hurried toward him, not even pausing to slip on a pair of shoes.
As soon as she was within reach, he clasped her shoulder.
Darkness surrounded her, accompanied by a feeling of weightlessness.
Then light resumed, and she found herself standing in…
Well, she wasn’t sure. A shattered big-screen television and what was left of a sofa indicated it was someone’s residence. But the place had been completely trashed. Overturned furniture—splintered and barely recognizable as such—cluttered the place, forming disjointed mounds and ragged ridges. Fragments of glass caught the overhead light and glittered like diamonds amid the remains of a coffee table with a missing metal leg.
A crash split the air.
Emma jumped.
“Let me out!” someone bellowed, his voice deep and rough as though he’d been shouting for hours.
Gasping, she whirled around. Something sharp pricked her foot. A piece of glass perhaps. But Emma paid it no heed. Instead, she stared at the man who was doing his damnedest to beat his way out of the room with the missing metal leg from the coffee table.
Sweat glistened on the smooth brown skin of muscled arms left bare by his T-shirt. White powder—Sheetrock perhaps?—clung to the perspiration and speckled his dreadlocks.
Unaware of their presence, he continued to hammer away at the wall. “Let me out!” Crash. “Let me out!” Crash.
His violent strikes had succeeded in removing a large chunk of drywall beside the door. What looked like concrete lay beneath. But it, too, began to crack and crumble beneath his powerful blows. “Let me out!” he roared.
Tears filled her eyes. “Cliff?” she called softly. She’d never seen him like this before and wondered if she’d even be able to reach him.
Her pulse pounded in her ears as silence fell.
Cliff wheeled around so quickly he nearly toppled over. His brilliant amber eyes glowed with madness as he regarded them, brows lowered, face full of fury as his breath emerged in jagged gasps.
Emma’s heart broke. No recognition lit Cliff’s eyes as he