Jenna Black - Dark Descendant

Anderson finally picked up the phone just when I thought sure my call was about to go to voice mail.

“Nikki,” he said by way of greeting. Guess he had caller ID. “What a pleasant surprise.” There was a dry humor to his voice, but no hint of irritation. I chose to take that as a good sign. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

I’d debated how much to tell him about my current situation, but decided that full disclosure might be my best shot at getting the help I needed. “I met Konstantin today.”

He grunted softly. “My condolences.”

I surprised myself by smiling. “Yeah. I’m not a big fan.”

“Neither am I.”

“So I gathered.”

“Let me guess what he wanted: he’s asked you to use your unique abilities to find some people for him.”

Not that impressive a guess, considering he’d pretty much predicted it earlier. “There wasn’t really any asking involved.”

Anderson sighed. “No, of course not. Konstantin considers his desires to be everyone else’s commands. Is he still trying to court you, or has he begun making threats yet?”

“I wouldn’t even have met with him today if there hadn’t been a threat involved.” My heart constricted with fear for Steph. “He’s threatened to let Alexis … hurt my sister if I don’t do what he wants.”

Anderson hesitated a moment before answering. “I didn’t know you had a sister,” he said. “If she’s still alive, it’s only because Konstantin thinks he can use her to control you for the time being. He won’t allow another Descendant—even a Descendant of Artemis—to survive when he can harvest her immortality for one of his pets. He won’t destroy you as long as you’re useful, but your sister…”

“Steph and I aren’t related by blood,” I clarified. “I’m adopted.”

“Ah. Good. Otherwise, all your family members would be in danger.”

Yeah, I’d already figured that out. But if Konstantin was going to use Steph against me, I had no doubt that he’d be just as happy to threaten my adoptive parents if he thought that might make me more pliable. I could only thank my lucky stars that they were out of the country and out of his reach, at least for now.

“If I do what Konstantin wants, he’s going to kill anyone I track down for him. Right?”

“Yes. He always makes his purges of Descendant families as thorough as possible, but sometimes people slip through his fingers. I suspect he’s worked up detailed genealogies of all the families he’s ever identified and has extensive lists of people he’d like to locate.”

“He gave me a list of three.”

“Trust me, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. He’d rather present you with a short list and try to lull you into a sense of complacency than let you know that once he’s got the leverage he needs, he’ll set you to tracking down hundreds of people for him to kill.”

I winced. “Hundreds?”

“At least. The Olympians have been around a long time. Konstantin has been their leader since the early fifteenth century.”

I felt momentarily dizzy at the concept. I was finally getting around to accepting that the Liberi were immortal, but it was still hard to absorb the idea that I’d talked to a man who’d been alive since before Columbus discovered America.

“He was bent on destroying Descendants even then, though of course it was a lot harder before the days of modern transportation and computerized records. But just think—if he missed a family member in one of those Descendant purges back in the fifteenth century, how many Descendants might that person have running around today?”

I saw his point. And I once again saw that I couldn’t do what Konstantin ordered, no matter what the risk. I blew out a frustrated breath. “Listen, I need your help.”

“Oh, do you now?” he responded, and there was no missing the calculation in his voice.

“You keep trying to convince me you’re one of the good guys,” I forged on. “If that’s the truth, then you won’t let Konstantin and Alexis hurt an innocent woman, right?”

He thought about that a long while before he answered. “I hate to sound like a mercenary. But I can’t forget you’re the woman who killed Emmitt and shot Blake. I’m not a hundred percent sure that you’re one of the good guys. I’m sure your sister is a lovely woman, and she doesn’t deserve whatever Konstantin has threatened. But why should I stick my neck out for her when you’ve been so terribly … disobliging?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” I swallowed the lump of anger that rose in my throat. He had a point, and I knew it. He wasn’t even fully convinced I hadn’t killed Emmitt on purpose, so there wasn’t any particular reason for him to feel kindly toward me. That didn’t mean I had to admit it.

“I’m sure that’s very clear-cut from where you’re standing, but from where I’m standing … not so much.”

“So that’s it? I didn’t fall at your feet and adore you after you threatened to torture me, and therefore to hell with me? And to hell with Steph? If that’s the way you feel, then why the hell have you called me about a billion times?”

“I didn’t say to hell with you,” Anderson responded quietly, his calm making me feel like a child throwing a tantrum. “I was explaining why I’m not going to help your sister unless you give me something in return.”

I guess it had been foolish of me to hope that Anderson would help me out of the goodness of his heart. It sucked that I wasn’t in a position to tell him where to shove it.

“What do you want?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“I want you to find someone for me as well, but I promise it’s not for nefarious purposes.”

Too bad I didn’t have a clue what Anderson’s promises were worth. But I also didn’t have a whole lot of options.

“Who?” I asked, trying not to sound as wary as I felt. “And why? And please don’t give me the runaround the way Konstantin did.”

“I won’t. But it’s rather a long story. Perhaps you should come to the house so we can talk in person. I’ll make dinner, and we can have a civilized conversation.”

“We can have a civilized conversation anywhere,” I countered, not at all anxious to set foot in the mansion again. The place didn’t exactly fill me with warm, fuzzy memories. “If you want to make it a dinner meeting, choose a restaurant.”

He hesitated a moment before answering. “If we come to an agreement and I am to protect your sister, then you will have to come live here. My … arrangement with Konstantin is that he will not harm those who live under my roof or the families of those who live under my roof. It’s not a perfect arrangement, and he wouldn’t hesitate to break it if he thought he could get away with it, but it would provide your sister a great deal of protection.”

As usual anytime I had a conversation with one of the Liberi , I had about a million questions. However, they were all drowned out by my outrage.

“You want me to come live with you?” I cried. “Are you crazy?”

“Perhaps so,” he said drily. “Offering you my protection won’t be my most popular decision ever, but this is my house, and my rules.

“At least come have dinner with me. I promise you’ll have safe passage, even if you and I can’t agree on a single thing.”

I shook my head, though of course he couldn’t see. “Why should I believe you won’t just shove me back in that basement jail of yours the minute I show my face?”

“You’re asking for my help. What good is that if you trust me so little?”

Reality check time. I couldn’t protect Steph on my own. Sure, I could warn her that my problem-client had threatened her, and she could hire some security. But I couldn’t warn her without having to give her an explanation of the threat. If I told her the truth, she’d never believe me. If I made up an explanation that left out all the supernatural stuff, she’d insist we call the police. And even if I thought of a way to overcome those obstacles, who was to say human security would be able to protect her? I had no idea what Konstantin and the rest of the Olympians were capable of.