Something akin to fear prickled across my skin. How did Gautier know about the other killings? Was he involved? It wouldn’t be surprising if he was—after all, like tended to attract like, so it made sense that Gautier would gravitate toward other evil little psychopaths. He wasn’t the world’s greatest thinker, even if he was a killer born and bred. “So you know the person behind it?”
“Of course. And I have a lot of admiration for his methods.”
I just bet he did.
“I’m going to flank him,” Rhoan said. “Keep him talking.”
“Have you forgotten, Gautier, that the Directorate specializes in capture of nonhuman criminals? That we guardians are judge, jury, and executioner? We will find the man behind these killings, and we will take him out.” I gave him a nasty smile that was more than a little bluff. Gautier scared the crap out of me, and I didn’t mind admitting it to myself. But I’d never, ever admit it to him. “And guess what, stinko? You’ve already been judged, and have been found extremely wanting. Whether you’re involved or not, you’re a dead man.”
His smile faded a little, and the sensation of danger swirled around me. “It’s nice to know recent events haven’t knocked the bravado out of you. It is something I have always wished to do myself.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re the big bad vampire we all have to fear. I’ve heard the song before. Just get on with whatever shit you’re here to deliver.”
“Impatient to play the game. That’s nice.” He paused, and his gaze went to the floor above. In that moment, I knew
he
knew Rhoan was up there, and something inside me froze.
Everything was about to go to hell in a big, bad way.
“But first,” he continued, voice all oily smoothness, “tell your roommate that if he takes one more step, the child dies.”
Oh God, oh God
…child? What the hell was Gautier talking about? I licked my lips, and tried to control the fear churning my gut. That was what this sick bastard wanted—fear—and I’d be damned if I’d give him it so easily.
“What shit are you talking now, Gautier?” Rhoan said, voice harsh as he stepped out of the shadows and came closer to the railing. I was glad to note he kept near one of the support beams. It’d give him cover if Gautier suddenly whipped out a weapon.
After all, his hands
were
behind his back for a reason, and Gautier didn’t do
anything
without a reason.
“I talk of the child who hangs above us.”
“That has to be the oldest trick in the book, Gautier.” And one I’d used myself—successfully—on my brother. “I’m surprised you’d sink to something less than…creative?”
He gave me another of his flat smiles. “Oh, I am not above using old tricks. However, I do like putting new spins on them. Take the old money-or-the-box question, for example.”
What the hell? “Has being off the leash totally fried your brain cells? Because you’re not making the tiniest bit of sense at the moment.”
“It’s simple, really. It’s all about options. What do you want more: to capture me, or to save the life of the child above us?”
“What child?” I asked again.
I tensed as one hand came out from behind his back, but all he did was casually lean sideways and press a switch. Lights flickered, throwing uneven spats of brightness across the shadow-filled room. Not that any of us actually needed lights. It was just done for effect.
“Fuck,” Rhoan said softly.
I didn’t look up, as much as I wanted to. I was closer to Gautier. I was the one who had the chance of hitting him if he moved.
“Tell me,” I said flatly.
“There’s a little girl above us with a rope around her neck. She’s standing on her toes on a thin board.”
“Dead or alive?” If she was dead, I was going to charge Gautier and kill him, no matter what he had hidden behind his back.
“Alive.” Rhoan paused. “Blood still flows, and I can hear a heartbeat. Just.”
He was more vampire than me. He had to drink blood during the rise of the full moon, and was therefore more attuned to the thud of life. Still, the news that she was alive didn’t do anything to ease the tension riding my limbs. Quite the opposite, actually.
Just because she was alive now didn’t mean that Gautier intended to keep her that way. Or that he’d allow us to help her.
“How long her heart continues to beat is up to you.” Gautier moved his other hand and finally revealed what he’d been hiding. The biggest fucking laser rifle I’d ever seen. “One move, Riley, and your pack-mate dies. This rifle has a wide-fire beam that will treat flesh much the same as it treats concrete. With complete disdain.”
“Gautier, if you’ve got a damn point, please come to it,” Rhoan snapped.
Gautier’s smile was lazy. Obviously, he had this all planned out to the nth degree, and he wasn’t about to hurry.
“Do you know anything about hanging?”
“No. But if you’d like to volunteer, I’d gladly experiment on you.”
I might as well have not spoken. The great Gautier was on a roll, and there was no stopping him. And as much as I wanted to help the little kid, I believed what he said about that laser.
For good or for bad, I wasn’t about to risk my brother’s life on the off chance of stopping Gautier.
“Hanging with little or no drop, which is the case with the kiddy above us, usually results in death by strangulation. Asphyxia, to use the correct terminology. The kiddy struggled the usual one to three minutes after suspension, then became as you see her now. However, there have been recorded cases of people being successfully revived even after thirty minutes.” He paused and glanced at the watch on his free hand. “Which gives you precisely nineteen minutes.”
“You’re a bastard, Gautier.”
I said it with venom, and he laughed. “Well, I would have thought that was a given.”
“And the point of this whole charade?” Rhoan said, voice flat—a sure sign his control was close to the edge.
“As I said, it’s all about options.” He paused, smiling like a cat who knew the mouse was his. “Option one. Play my game and save the child. Option two, come after me now and let the child die.”
“You forgot option three—kill you and save the child.”
“There is no option three. You move, Rhoan dies. Rhoan moves, he dies. Either way, I win.”
Because he knew we were pack-mates. He might think that Rhoan was a wolf who’d become a vampire, but that didn’t matter. He knew that for wolves, the
true
death of a close pack-mate could incapacitate for weeks, if not months. Particularly with us, because Rhoan wasn’t only my pack-mate, he was my twin. We were two halves of a whole—and, truth was, I really didn’t know if either of us would
want
to live without the other. We were too much a part of each other’s lives.
I crossed my arms. Which meant the laser was no longer aimed at the monster in front of me and left me somewhat vulnerable, but I wasn’t worried about him shooting me. Far from it. He’d drawn us here for a reason, and it wasn’t so he could kill us. “What game is it you wish to play, Gautier?”
“I was hoping you’d choose that one. As much as I like listening to life slowly slipping away, the game has the potential to offer us both so much more.”
“For God’s sake, just get on with it,” Rhoan said.
Gautier’s smile faded. The sensation of danger that had been swirling around me sharpened abruptly, and sweat broke out across my skin.
“Jack often commented in the past on how good Rhoan was, and how good he expected you to be, Riley, when you finally gave in and joined the ranks. So I think it only fair that we have a little test to see who truly is the best guardian. And the test is, of course, stopping the madman behind the recent killings.”
“I feel inclined to point out that, a, you’re no longer a guardian, and, b, you said earlier you know the man behind the killings. That gives a rather good head start, doesn’t it?”
He gave me a grin that was all teeth. “I never said the game would be easy for
you
.”
And he had every intention of making it even harder, if the gleam in his eye was anything to go by. Not that
that
was so surprising. “So, we play this little game of yours and both hunt The Cleaver. What does the winner get—besides the termination of said killer?”
“Well, you both get the satisfaction of knowing you beat me.”
“Lucky us.”
He nodded. “And, of course, I would leave the state.”
And I’d grow wings and fly. “And if you win?”
“Then we begin another game. Me hunting you and all you hold dear, while you try to survive.”
Which is precisely what he’d promised to do four months ago. “I can’t speak for Rhoan, but if you leave right now, I accept the challenge.”
It was worth it, just for the chance to save the kid.
“Leave now, and I agree,” Rhoan said, voice little more than a venomous hiss of air.
Gautier smiled. “I thought you’d see it my way. I’ll see you on the battlefield.” He gave us a salute with the laser.
Then he shot the board out from under the kid.
Chapter 2
N
o!” The denial was wrenched from me as I sidestepped the falling halves of the plank.
Gautier’s laugh echoed even as the shadows swept him from sight.
I looked up for the first time, saw the tiny body dangling almost directly above me. Saw her bare and filthy feet, toes that were so tiny, so fragile. Not a teenager as I’d for some reason presumed, but barely older than a tot.
Bastard. Fucking evil bastard…
“Rhoan—can you shoot the ropes from where you are?”
“Yes. Get ready to catch.”
I shoved the laser into my pocket and positioned myself under the little girl. “Ready.”
A bluish beam bit through the half-darkness, cutting through the rope and blowing out the window above and behind me. Glass exploded, raining down in deadly shards. I caught the girl with a grunt, her limp little arm whacking me in the nose as I hunched over her and tried to protect her from the rain of glass.
Razor-sharp shards thudded into my back, but the leather coat protected me from the worst of it. I waited until the last of the glass had fallen, then carefully placed the little girl on the ground.
She was still alive—her pulse fluttered underneath my fingertips. But God, she was so little, so fragile…so cold.
There was a soft thump, then footsteps. I looked up, but could barely see Rhoan striding toward me through my tears.
“I’ll take care of her,” I said. “You go after Gautier.”
“Keep aware.” Rhoan’s voice held all the fury I was desperately trying to contain. “He might have made other vamps. They might be hidden around somewhere.”
If they were, I couldn’t sense them. But I nodded, and as Rhoan ran off, I looked down at the little girl again and noted the bluish tint to her lips. The cause could have been asphyxia, or it could have been blood loss, but in all likelihood, it was a combination of both. Especially given the fang marks on her neck. If she was to have any hope of survival, I had to get help here fast. I stripped off my coat and sweater and wrapped them around the little girl’s body and legs. It wasn’t much, but at least they were warmer than the thin nightie she had on. Then I got out my cell phone and called in a mica-unit. The micas were ambulances designed to cater to medical emergencies on a street level. It was the little girl’s biggest chance. Maybe her only chance.
Five minutes, they said.
I hoped the little girl
had
five minutes.
I gently brushed tangled tendrils of brown hair from her face, the chill in her cheeks so very evident against my warmer fingertips. Christ, why hadn’t the Directorate received any reports about a missing kid? It was routine for the cops to pass on reports of kidnappings and disappearances, as rogue vamps often found easy victims in the young and the frail. A good majority of the reports
weren’t
vamp related, of course, but the Directorate always had them double-checked, just for the one or two percent that
were
.
But maybe this snatch had been very recent. Maybe her poor parents weren’t even aware that their little girl was missing.
God, what a hell of a way to greet the morning—an officer on your doorstep telling you your baby had been kidnapped and murdered.
I bit my lip again, fighting the fresh spurts of anger and tears. And I knew, deep down, that they stemmed not only from the horror of the situation, but from the fact that
I
couldn’t have children. Would never feel life grow within my belly. My vampire genes had overrun my wolf ones in that area and left me a mule—not just barren but with a womb that would not support a life. Of course, there was still hope of motherhood via a surrogate, as some of the eggs I’d had frozen
had
been tested and were apparently still viable. But that choice was one I’d hoped to avoid.
Of course, the rest of my body was still a battleground, and no one could tell me how my vampire genes might yet affect my future. I might become more vampire, like Rhoan, or I might not. And then there was an added element of uncertainty—the cell-changing ARC1-23 drug now running through my bloodstream.