unnatural paleness, which she tried to cover with a black long sleeved top and jeans that only made her skin look paler, white as snow. Aidan didn't fare any better, and his unnaturally blue eyes didn't help his cause.
"You're blending right in, dude." I held out my hand, grinning. Aidan reached out but Amber grabbed it first, her hazel gaze meeting mine. She squeezed tight.
"Thrain, right?"
I nodded. "We met before when you were the damsel in distress. Seems like things have changed."
A smile lit up her face. "You could say that. I went from alive to dead to alive again."
I smirked. "You have a broad definition of alive then."
"We should get going," Aidan said, grabbing her elbow as though to protect her. The chick certainly didn't need protection, but she kept silent. "Meet us at the hotel?" Without waiting for my answer, they dissipated into thin air.
"Still the same control freak, I see," I muttered to Cass as we neared our car, hating the fact that, between portals, we had to travel like mortals in the physical realm while the vampires got to teleport to places without being stuck in traffic. I didn't like that they had this advantage over the inhabitants of Hell. Cass had a phone that could open a portal anywhere, but with all the potential witnesses around us it was safer to just drive.
"He'll get the job done," Cass said.
I peered at the tight lines around her mouth, wondering what she was hiding. "What job? I thought it was mine."
She nodded as she opened the car door and slumped down into the passenger seat. "It is. But you're a tracker and he's the bounty hunter."
"What do you need a bounty hunter for?"
"You said Kieran's around." She turned to face me as I started the engine, letting the car idle on the spot. "Kieran's a bounty hunter too. Aidan doesn't know his brother's here, which means he's looking for something." I raised my brows, still not getting where this was heading. Cass groaned and pointed at my forehead. "Yo, could you turn that thing up there on? Kieran was the one who turned Amber and the Lore court knows it, meaning until now he's been hiding. Why would he leave his hiding place, unless he made a deal with someone?"
I nodded, even though I still had no idea what she was talking about. "What's he doing here from all the places in the world?"
"Right. Okay, let's go." She slumped into her seat. I didn't move.
"You knew Kieran was here." She didn't answer, which I took as a confirmation. Dammit, something was wrong with me, or why would she pick up a vampire's scent long before me? "Just say it."
She shook her head. "Wouldn't be good for your ego, mate."
I set my jaw. "When?"
"At the airport. That's why I went to pick up Amber and Aidan. If Kieran's looking for something, we need to find it first. And who's better at picking clues than a bounty hunter?"
"I'm a tracker."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know that. But right now you can't even find Sofia. With me incapacitated because of this horrible curse and your blocked nose—" she waved her hand in my face "—let's just say, we might not be able to find Sofia, get her to do the job and keep an eye on Kieran if we stumble upon him. Besides, they're brothers, so the chance they'll screw each other over is very unlikely."
And then I understood what she was saying. In the paranormal world, everyone was your enemy. What were the odds of someone employing Kieran to be in the same place at the same time as us? Whoever employed Kieran could only have harm in mind, and the moron probably didn't even know it.
"Have you told Aidan?"
"And miss all the drama?" She snorted. "Are you kidding me?" I could smell the excitement wafting from her, passing on to me. Grinning, I dodged the oncoming traffic as I changed lanes. My foot hit the accelerator hard. Time to let the chaos demon in me out and get this job done.
Chapter 6
For a long time all I could hear was yelling in a language I didn't understand. The words sounded accusatory and angry, but I wasn't sure whether they were aimed at me, or someone else. The entity was gone, but I felt cold, colder than I had ever been in my entire life, the freezing sensation competing with the pain in my chest. But that wasn't