Keri Arthur - Fireborn

A huge bank of bookcases lined the wall to my right, and to the left there were two doors, both of which were closed. Harriet Chase sat impassively behind a mahogany desk, which dominated the center of the room. Only she wasn’t alone.

A man lounged casually in one of the visitor’s chairs in front of the desk. Even seated he looked tall, and he had gray hair and old-fashioned rimmed glasses that perched precariously on the end of his nose. He had the air of a professor, but, as my gaze met his, the image that rose wasn’t scholarly. It was of Death herself; she was standing close by his shoulder, waiting for her chance to reach out and take my soul.

I stopped, my heart hammering and my mouth suddenly dry. “You wanted to see me, Ms. Chase?” I said, my gaze still on the man in the chair rather than Harriet herself.

“Yes,” she said, her voice almost mechanical. “Professor Baltimore’s death is both unfortunate and untimely, but his work is far too important and must be continued.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Fear of the man in front of me had frozen over my throat.

“Luckily, Professor Heaton here is available to jump on board at short notice.” She beamed at the man. It was a false thing, and hard to believe. “We are extremely lucky to have him.”

“I’m the one who is lucky.” His voice was a low rumble of sound and surprisingly pleasant—the total opposite of what I’d been expecting. “Baltimore was someone I admired greatly. I’m honored to be picking up where he left off.”

Where Mark left off was being dead. I somehow doubted he’d find that such an honor.

“Of course, given you worked with Professor Baltimore for so long, Emberly,” Harriet continued, “and you are already familiar with his research, it is in everyone’s interest for you to continue your position as an assistant to Professor Heaton.”

Work for Death? Not if I could help it. I wasn’t that desperate for a peaceful job this life span.

“But—” It came out croaky. I swallowed heavily, then added, “I’m technically not a research assistant. I rarely did more than transcribe his notes.”

And she knew that, so why the pretense?

She half shrugged. Again it was an almost mechanical gesture. “That doesn’t alter the fact that you’re more familiar with his work than most. So, could you take Professor Heaton down to the labs to familiarize himself with the work space?”

“What, now?” I squeaked.

“Now,” she said firmly. “It is more than two hours into your workday, after all.”

Heaton rose from his chair in one long, fluid movement, and I resisted the urge to step back from him. He reached across the desk and shook Harriet’s hand. “I cannot wait to get to work, Ms. Chase.”

His words sent another chill down my spine as visions of Mark, tied to a chair and beaten to death, rose like ghosts to taunt me.

He swung around and swept a hand toward the door. “Shall we go, Ms. Pearson?”

No, my inner voice said. No!

But I forced my feet to turn around and walk out of the office. He followed, a somber, forbidding presence who seemed to loom over me. He drew close the minute we left Abby’s office, until every breath seemed filled with the nonscent of him and my skin crawled in distaste. Only, he didn’t just have no smell; there was no heat in him, no sensation of life.

I remembered Abby’s lack of life, Lady Harriet’s mechanical responses, and my heart suddenly lurched.

He was a vampire .

And he’d been controlling them both.

I closed my eyes briefly and battled to remain calm. One thing was abundantly clear—I couldn’t get into the elevator with him. I couldn’t go anywhere alone with him. If he’d been controlling them to get at me, then he certainly couldn’t intend anything good.

The urge to run was hard to ignore, but if I moved too soon, didn’t plan my escape, he’d have me. Vampires were fast. Superfast.

My gaze swept the corridor almost frantically and came to rest on the fire escape down at the far end. I took a long breath, gathering courage, then strode forward, punching the elevator call button and hoping like hell the one closest to the fire escape answered. It was the one I’d come up in and—given how little time had passed—there was a good chance it was still sitting on this floor. The light above the doors flicked on, and I moved toward it with relief.

“Such prompt service,” Heaton said, as if to make conversation. Maybe he sensed the tension in me and was trying to calm me.

Maybe I was overreacting and he was just a professor who intended me no harm.

But if that was the case, why mind-control the two women?

I clenched my fists against the flames fighting for release. I had to time this precisely if I didn’t want to provide the security cameras with more of a show than they were expecting. I might not want to work for this vampire, but I wasn’t about to out myself as something other than human, either. Of course, that was presuming the cameras were actually working. Heaton’s appearance had all the hallmarks of a well-planned raid, and I doubted he’d chance the police using security-cam images to track him down if something went wrong.

But would he know that Lady Harriet had a separate system working in her office? Few people did. I knew only because I’d been working late the night it had been installed. It might have been a secret installation, but no one had informed the workmen, and they hadn’t minded telling a curious female what they were up to.

As the elevator doors fully opened, I pretended to stumble. Heaton was following so close that not even his vampiric speed could prevent him from running into me. As he did, I caught his arm and yanked him forward with every ounce of strength I had, so that he sailed over my back and crashed into the rear wall of the elevator.

Then I spun and ran like hell for the stairs.

I flung the door open and called to the fires as I raced downward. They came in a rush, sweeping through my body like a maelstrom, flinging me from flesh to flame in an instant. No longer restrained by physical form, I leapt over the railing and surged downward, until the sound of the door above opening again echoed across the silence. I swept back over the railing, keeping to the wall and out of his sight as the race downward continued. As I neared the exit, I switched back to human form, and suddenly the awareness of him surged. He was only a couple of floors above me, a dark and forbidding presence that swamped my senses and snatched my breath. I crashed out into the foyer and ran like hell for the doors.

“Hey, Emberly,” Ian called, as I raced past his desk. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” I yelled, not wanting to say anything and risk the vamp getting into his head. “Just got an urgent errand.”

The doors swished open and I raced out into the sunshine. I didn’t immediately stop, but ran down the street to put some distance between me and the main entrance.

Finally, I stopped and turned around. Heaton had halted on the cusp of sunlight, his face impassive but his fists clenched. The darkness in him rolled out in waves, battering my senses, making me gasp.

I dragged my phone out of my purse and took a photo of him as he turned away. I doubted he’d seen me do it, but I also had no doubt that I hadn’t seen the last of him. I might have escaped him this time, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t try again. And if they knew where I worked, then they knew where I lived.

I grabbed my phone and called Rory.

“Hey, babe,” he said, his voice cheery. “What’s happening?”

“Don’t go home,” I said, the words coming out in a rush.