shaking. It wasn’t the cold breeze coming in off the bay; she was terrified of what was to come. He felt bad for her, but she had made a grievous error in trying to harm the influential vampire. Alec was a conniving monster, no doubt about it, but she was fortunate that he wasn’t a particularly violent one.
Rohrik counted himself lucky that Royce kept the more dangerous vampires out of the city, tightly controlled his own, and mercilessly destroyed or ran off any of his own kind who thought to abuse the meager trust humans were affording supernaturals these days. The pack leaders considered him a necessary evil. Rohrik didn’t want to muddy up the relations between his pack and the local vampires, so would help drag Analie along if necessary to make sure she went wherever Royce wanted her.
As for Analie, as much as she wanted to make a run for it, she didn’t dare. Even if she got away, none of the packs here would take her in. They’d track her down and deliver her to Royce. If by some miracle she escaped them all and made it home, her own pack would have to abide by the deal or they would start a war. As violently tempered as the Goliaths were, war was the last thing any of them wanted.
She wouldn’t run, but she didn’t respond to the vampire’s dimly seen beckoning as he gestured for her to come closer, either.
Christoph ended her paralysis by the simple expedient of stalking over to where she was rooted, grabbing the back of her jacket in one hand, and hauling her off her feet. Soon enough, she was flailing and squirming and crying out, but he ignored her protests and set her down a few feet away from Royce. She surged back from the vamp as soon as her feet touched the ground. Christoph hadn’t let go of her shirt, so she didn’t get very far.
He winced and shook her a little when she scratched at his cheek to make her settle down. “She won’t be able to see you unless you’re in the light. You’re going to have to guide her or she won’t know where to go.”
Royce nodded, stepping forward to place a hand lightly on her shoulder. He might as well have touched her with a live wire, she jumped so badly. He didn’t bother hiding his smile at her reaction.
“I won’t harm you. Follow me.”
Every step was leaden, feeling more like she was going to the gallows than to her new home until Christoph somehow managed to get their alpha to negotiate her release. She lifted hazel irises from the ground long enough to muster a heated glare for her packmate, who was staring across the dark waters of the Hudson at the lights on Ellis Island, so far away.
“You are so going to pay for this, you jackass!”
“That’s the spirit,” Royce murmured.
She shuddered as his grip tightened, turning her gaze straight ahead and trying very hard not to look at the there-but-not vampire at her side as they moved through the deeper shadows beneath the trees in the park. “Where are we going?”
“One of my havens.”
“Where is it?”
“In the city.”
Very helpful. Figuring out soon enough that he wasn’t planning on being forthcoming, Analie tried a different tactic. “What do you want me for?”
“I thought we’d been over this.”
“Not specifically,” she said. “You didn’t say what you expect me to do.”
He tilted his head to look down at the girl, taking note of the fact that her heartbeat wasn’t quite so fast and her breathing more regular now. Some of her fear was coming under control, even if she was still shaking slightly under his touch.
“Honestly, I hadn’t thought the boy would be so craven as to send you in his place. You’re too young to act as a bodyguard, or to work in any of my clubs. I’ll have to find some other way of working that twenty grand out of you.”
She came to an abrupt halt, jerking to a stop at that last. “What?”
He paused when she did, sounding all too reasonable. “You destroyed my jacket. I just had that fitted last week. I’m not going to hurt you for it. I want you to work out some kind of amends for having damaged my property and preferably a way to earn back my loss.”
She stared at what she thought was him in stupid shock. “The jacket?”