Keri Arthur - Fireborn

With a sigh, I pushed upright and got to it. It was close to eleven by the time I’d finished. I picked up the laptop and left Mark’s apartment—hopefully for the final time—then made my way downstairs. The back of my neck began to prickle as I neared the ground floor, and I frowned, glancing around quickly. I couldn’t see anyone in the shadows, couldn’t feel any body heat, and yet . . . someone was watching me.

And while the sensation might have been nothing more than tiredness and an overactive imagination, I nevertheless hurried out of the building. Only it wasn’t just cold, but raining.

“Fantastic,” I muttered, shoving the computer under my coat. “Just fucking fantastic.”

Shivering, I ran toward the crisp white and pink glow of Magenta’s lights.

The sensation of being watched didn’t fade.

It grew.

And they were no longer just watching, but following.

Iran on, but all my senses were trained behind me. Whoever it was, they were little more than the occasional whisper of footsteps and a distant shimmer of heat that was too cool to be human.

Vampire.

Fear and panic surged, making my heart race and a cold sweat break out across my skin. I could protect myself better than most, but I’d been attacked by a rogue vamp in a past life, and it was an experience I had no wish to repeat. Legend might suggest a vampire’s bite was orgasmic—and they certainly could be—but it was a harrowing, hateful thing when you were an unwilling victim.

And the bastard had killed me, too, simply because he’d caught me off guard and had ripped out my throat before I could fully react. And if a phoenix died before their allotted one-hundred-year span was over, the subsequent rebirth was a wretched, traumatic experience.

I shivered, suddenly thankful Magenta’s was close. I raced for the warm pink glow of the bar, slowing only once I’d reached it. A quick glance behind me didn’t reveal my follower, but if it was a vamp, I wouldn’t see him. The bastards were well able to surround themselves in shadows and all but disappear.

At least I was safe for the moment. Whoever it was would hardly make a move in front of so many people.

I shook the rain from my hair, then unzipped my jacket and held the laptop in one hand as I made my way through the crowd hanging around the front of the place, smoking and drinking. Sam wasn’t among them. Inside, the music was loud and bass heavy, and the air rich with the warm heat of humans. It took me a few minutes to find Sam, as he’d positioned himself in a rear corner and was half-hidden by the shadows.

He rose as I approached, his gaze scanning me and suddenly sharpening. Just for a moment, his concern washed through me, thick and sharp, and it not only warmed me deep inside, but provided yet another hint that the man I’d once loved was still in there somewhere. Which only made the steely front all that much harder to take. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m being followed,” I said. “A vampire, by the feel of him—”

He made a disgusted sound and sat back down. “He was supposed to keep out of your damn sight.”

I stared at him for a moment; then anger surged. “He’s one of your people?”

“Yeah.”

He motioned me to sit. I ignored him. That odd sense of darkness flared again, sending a shimmer that was part desire, part fear, down my spine.

“Why the hell are your people following me ? I’ve been doing all that I can to help you, and this is the thanks I get?”

“Emberly, sit down and calm down.” His voice held the whip of command. “It’s not what it seems.”

I snorted in disbelief and shoved the computer at him. “You might want to have your people look at this. It’s Mark’s laptop, the one we used in the lab to transcribe his notes. We erase the drive regularly, but I’m guessing you’ll have someone who can recover data.”

“We do.” He frowned. “But we searched both the lab and his house thoroughly—where the hell did you find it?”

“He had a special compartment built into the desk.” I stripped off my sodden jacket. The shirt underneath was soaked in thick patches that clung to me like a second skin. It was also white and, where it was wet, more than a little see-through—something I couldn’t do much about. But it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen me exposed before. Wasn’t like he was even interested.

“So, explain why the hell you’re having me followed.” I dragged out the chair opposite him and sat down. “Because it certainly smacks of you not trusting me.”

“Actually, we don’t trust anyone, but in this particular case, we just don’t want you dead. Would you like a coffee? You look cold.”

I was cold, but I’d be damned if I’d let him do anything for me—not even something as simple as getting me a drink. I crossed my arms and said, “All I need is for you to explain that comment.”

He grunted. “Think about it; Baltimore is dead, his home and office ransacked, and you’re the only link we have to both Baltimore and the false security guard. And if they haven’t found what they’re after, it’s logical to think they’ll come after you next.”

“But I don’t know—”

“ They don’t know that,” he cut in brusquely. “Adam will continue to follow you at night, and someone else will shadow you during the day. At least until we know for sure they’re not going to snatch you.”

I glared at him, though my anger had slithered away faster than rain down a drain. I could hardly argue about what he was doing when it was being done to keep me safe. “You could have at least warned me. I damn near had a heart attack.”

He grimaced. “You weren’t supposed to know he was there. Most people can’t sense vampires when they shadow.”

“Well, I’m not most people.”

“No,” he said, voice dark. “You’re not.”

And he would never forget it. God, I needed a coffee. No, what I really needed was alcohol. A bucket of it, preferably. But I couldn’t be bothered getting up to order anything and I wasn’t about to ask him.

So I simply said, “I don’t think anything was missing from either the lab or his office, but when I went to his apartment, I booted up the laptop and discovered his stash had been erased.”

“His stash?”

I nodded. “Mark backed up all his research in an online cloud service as an additional security measure. Only he and I knew the codes, so that’s one of the things they must have beaten out of him.”

“What time did they access it?”

“Three forty-five this morning.”

“Well after he’d been murdered and everything ransacked.”

I nodded again. “Which doesn’t make sense. Why do it after they’d ransacked? Why not do it before?”

He half shrugged. “Maybe they accessed it only after they hadn’t found whatever it was they were looking for elsewhere.”

“But all his notes were stored there. All of them—” I stopped suddenly. All except the ones I had, that was.

“What?”

I cleared my throat. “Mark asked me to type up some notes the night he died. I’ve still got them.”

“Fuck. You should have mentioned—”

“I forgot,” I snapped. “It’s not like I did it deliberately.” Not like I wanted his grumpy, forbidding ass in my life any longer than necessary.

And if I kept telling myself that often enough, I might eventually believe it.

Sam grunted. His expression wasn’t giving much away, but the darkness in him was stronger, its caress making me shiver and yearn. It almost felt like the aura a vampire used when they wanted to make their blood taking as pleasurable as possible. Not all of them did, of course. Some, like the one who’d killed me, rather enjoyed the taste of fear and panic. But at least the bastard had suffered, because I’d managed to burn a good part of his body before I’d died. Vampires couldn’t regenerate ruined flesh any more than a phoenix could—although at least our rebirth did give us a fresh, scar-free start.