Keri Arthur - Fireborn

As I half expected, it was a comment that finally got a response.

“And yet,” a cool voice replied, “we have.”

It wasn’t my watcher who spoke, but someone I hadn’t sensed until now. Someone who stood behind me. I didn’t bother twisting around to try to spot him. Not only would the hobnailed folk be unappreciative of such an action, but the utter blanket of darkness made any hope of spotting him nigh on impossible. Phoenixes weren’t blessed with the extraordinary eyesight of werewolves and vampires.

And that, I thought with a chill, was who held me now.

Vampires. And not just any old vampires, but the sindicati.

Fuck .

“Well, good for you,” I said, trying to keep my voice even despite my heart hammering so hard I swear it was attempting to jump out of my chest. “But, as I said, I have things to do. Can we please just move this along?”

“It is odd that you do not question who we are or why you are here.” He’d moved to my left, though I’d heard no footsteps.

A tremor ran through me. Only the very old ones could walk so silently. I licked my lips and tried to shove old fears back into their box. That I was still alive meant they had some use for me. Whether they’d let me go after I’d fulfilled those uses was another matter entirely.

“I don’t question who you are because I already know that. As to why I am here—” I paused, then shrugged. I might not be able to see them, but I had no doubt that the two men in this room—if they were vamps—could see me as clear as day. Vamps were blessed with night sight very similar to infrared. Even if he couldn’t taste my fear or hear the pounding of blood through my veins, he’d be able to see it. “I’m gathering it has something to do with Amanda Wilson.”

“Then you would gather wrong.”

Meaning I was in even deeper shit than I’d thought.

The voice, however, hadn’t quite finished. “And just who do you think we are?”

“Sindicati, obviously.”

“Ah,” he said, his cool voice still giving little away. But then, if my guess was right and he was a very old vampire, that was no surprise. They had a tendency to become more remote—and far less human—the longer they were alive. “Dear Amanda obviously talked far more than was wise.”

“Dear Amanda had little other choice given it was either talk to me or I’d leave her to the tender mercies of whatever goons you decided to send after her next.”

The speaker was silent for several minutes. I closed my eyes and tried to get some sense of him. But all I could feel was the man whose presence was beginning to scratch at my skin like some foul disease. He was the real power here, I suddenly realized, not the man who spoke.

“Ah, so you are the reason no one has heard from either of the subcontractors.”

“Well, I might be responsible for one being incommunicado, but not the other. He is, as far as I know, still in the hands of PIT.”

This news finally got a reaction. It was little more than a hiss of annoyed air, but it was nevertheless there. It made me wonder if the werewolf we’d questioned was more closely connected to the sindicati than just being a mere subcontractor. While wolves and vampires generally weren’t overly fond of one another, there were certain elements within each society that happily coexisted. I suspected the sindicati and whatever the werewolf equivalent was would be one of those.

“And you are responsible for this?”

“Well, he did try to kill me.”

“An unfortunate mistake on his part,” was the response. “Especially since we still have need of you.”

And if they didn’t, would I now be dead? The answer, very obviously, was yes. I flexed my hands, felt the surge of heat across my fingertips, but resisted the urge to let it show. I might have little more than sparks, but those sparks might yet save my life.

“Which leads neatly back to my original question,” I said. “What the hell do you want from me?”

“Ah,” the vampire said. “You are a being who obviously does not appreciate the complexities of bargaining.”

“It’s hardly bargaining when you have me tied up tighter than a mummy in a pyramid.”

Amusement slid around me, its touch as foul as the silent presence in the corner. Who the hell was he? I had a vague feeling it was something I should know—that not knowing could prove very dangerous in the future.

Or was that merely fear speaking? Was it a combination of the uncertainty of the moment and the knowledge that my end in this lifetime might very well come at the hands of either of these men, and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, I could do to stop it?

“You are tied up for your own protection as much as ours.” He’d moved around to the right side of my body and was close enough that his breath whispered past my ear.

I shivered and couldn’t help wondering whether perhaps he was tempted to have a little taste . . . I swallowed, forced the thought away, and said, “Yes, because one lone female of unknown heritage is such a danger to two very old vampires.”

Again surprise rippled across the darkness. “Interesting that you know there are two of us. You should not have been able to sense my colleague.”

“And why is that?”

“Because he is . . . not what I am.”

Meaning he wasn’t a vampire? Then what the hell was he? And how was he connected to the sindicati?

“And that, of course, makes perfectly good sense.”

“Indeed.” Amusement laced his tone. “Let’s just say he and his kin are something society will see far more of in coming months.”

Meaning another race of supernaturals was coming out of the proverbial closet? Or was it something more sinister? I didn’t know, but I had a bad feeling it would be in my best interest to find out—and sooner rather than later.

“So why doesn’t he show himself? In fact, why the darkness at all?”

“Because neither of us has any desire to reveal our identity.” He paused. “However, this is all beside the point. Let’s, as you have requested, get down to the reason you are here.”

He’d moved again and was now standing directly in front of me. I couldn’t see him. Couldn’t even see a vague outline. It was an unnerving sensation.

“Excellent,” I said. “And to repeat . . . What do you want?”

“An exchange.”

Obviously, getting to the point was not one of this vampire’s strong suits. “What kind of exchange?”

“You have something I want. I will exchange it for something you want.”

I raised an eyebrow. “If you’re talking about Amanda, then forget it. There’s nothing I have that I’m willing to exchange for her.”

It might have been a harsh thing to say, but it was nevertheless true. If Amanda was still alive, then I’m afraid it was time for her to lie in the bed she’d made. I’d done what I could to uphold my end of the deal. I wasn’t about to do anything else. Not given what she was and how many lives she had already destroyed.

“Dear Amanda,” he replied, “is not the asset we hold.”

“Meaning she is still alive?” I couldn’t help the surprise in my voice. Given that they’d sent two goons to kill her, I’d have thought completing the task would have been their first priority.

“Yes, she is, but only because my colleague has decided he has some use for her talents.”

I remembered the way his goons had tried to kill her and knew with a chill the talent he was speaking about was not just telepathy. Amanda would undoubtedly die, but it only would be after the dark presence was done using her—in bed and out.

It was a shitty way to go, but I still couldn’t muster much in the way of sympathy. Amanda had known what the sindicati were and what they were capable of when she’d thrown her towel in with them—she could hardly complain now that things had gone sour.