Sylvia Day - A Touch of Crimson

She poured herself a cup of coffee and sweetened it, needing her brain cells to hurry up and start firing.

“You do realize,” Adrian began, “that you can’t continue to straddle your two lives? If you want normalcy, I can see that you have it. Raguel Gadara takes the safety of his employees very seriously. I can arrange for you to move into one of his residential properties. Between work and home and the cessation of your killing, you should be fine.”

“I can’t quit. Not until I find who I’m looking for. Maybe not even then. I can’t imagine going through life knowing those things are out there terrorizing others, and me not doing something about it.”

Something flashed in his eyes. Triumph, maybe. “The alternative is for you to stay here, train hard, and focus on hunting.”

“Isn’t there some sort of compromise? Can’t I live off-site, train on the weekends, and call you for backup when something sets off my freak-o-meter?”

“Even if I could afford to reserve one of my men for the purpose of identifying classification for you, we don’t hunt indiscriminately. We police the vampires, but we can’t exterminate them.”

Lindsay’s blood went cold. “Why not?”

“Their punishment is to live with what they are.”

“And we humans are… what? Collateral damage? We have to live-and die-with what they are, too.”

The airborne angels began to land. She watched them with both wonder and fury. These beautiful creatures seemed so magical and powerful, yet they were allowing the parasitic vampires to live.

“We hunt every day,” he said. “We kill every day. Is it such a bad thing that we focus on the ones causing the most damage?”

She looked at him over the rim of her mug. “Fair enough. Maybe I can join you on my days off.”

“Raguel hired you for a reason. What position did he hire you for?”

“Assistant general manager.”

“A big job at a big new property. I’m certain you’re extremely qualified, but I imagine it’s quite a step up for someone your age.”

Lindsay licked coffee from the corner of her mouth. “And he’s paying me too well.”

“Because he expects you to be ambitious, hungry, and willing to put in some long hours.”

She nodded, resigned. The new job alone would take up all her time. That was one of the things that had made the position so appealing-she might actually get to have a regular life, using her livelihood as an excuse for why she wasn’t hunting as much. A cop-out, yes, but she’d convinced herself that she was taking the best option open to her.

As angels alighted all around him, Adrian remained the calm center of activity. But he wasn’t the eye of the storm. He was the storm. He was the dark clouds on the horizon, beautiful from a distance yet capable of great violence.

Lindsay realized she was sitting in the midst of angels, drinking coffee and talking about her new job. Normal, she was not.

“Okay.” She took a fortifying sip. “Wow… All those hours of studying. For what?”

“I can’t believe you would give up your dream so easily,” Damien said, examining her. “Mortals wither without dreams.”

“Hospitality wasn’t her dream,” Adrian explained, sounding so sure. “An ordinary life was, or at the very least, a semblance of one.”

“Is that so wrong?” she asked. She wanted a steady man in her life, the chance to fall in love, hang out with friends, and clock in at a job where she didn’t get coated with ashes. But she also felt guilty for wanting ignorance. What kind of person would rather not know about other people’s suffering just so they could be happy themselves?

“It’s not wrong. Far from it. You’ve never felt comfortable in the mortal world, have you? You’re too beautiful and confident to be a loner, but you never really felt like you fit in.” He looked at her with those knowing eyes, seeing right through her. “There’s no shame in wanting to feel acknowledged for who you are and at ease in your surroundings.”

“I certainly don’t fit in here .” But she couldn’t deny that, deep down, she felt as if she did. And that Adrian was a large part of the reason why. He knew what she did and he accepted her without hesitation. That gave her a sense of fulfillment she’d never had before.

“Don’t you?”

“Not yet.” But she thought she might.

God… What would it be like to work alongside others who fought the same fight she did, to not feel so utterly alone in this vicious, lethal world she’d been initiated into with her mother’s death?

Reaching up, Lindsay rubbed the back of her neck. “This decision should really be much harder to make- for both of us. I’m going to slow you down and be a liability.”

“Agreed,” Damien said.

Adrian lifted one shoulder in an artlessly elegant shrug. “There’s a use for every talent.”

“I need income,” she pointed out. “Regardless of choosing one life over the other, I won’t accept a free ride.”

“Mortals,” Damien drawled, “are so obsessed with material wealth.”

Adrian’s mouth curved in a ghost of a smile. “Every day, I’m sending teams all over the world. The duty of making those flight and hotel reservations falls to whoever is unfortunate enough to be near me in the morning; I can’t assign it to my office staff at Mitchell Aeronautics without rousing suspicions. Today, that individual will be you. Barring complete ineptitude or profound dislike, we’ll keep you busy with that task indefinitely. We can negotiate your salary and rent. I provide cell phones, expense accounts, and transportation to all of the Sentinels. You can choose to maintain your own cellular service, but you’ll be carrying two phones.”

“Sentinels?”

“All the angels you see around us.”

Lindsay’s gaze swept over the wide deck. “How many of you are there?”

“One hundred and sixty-two, as of yesterday.”

“Total?”

He nodded.

A short laugh escaped her. “No wonder you’re willing to put up with me. You need all the help you can get.”

“We have the lycans,” Damien rumbled.

She looked at the guards dotting the perimeter of the deck. The disparity in their physical build compared to the angels helped to distinguish them. The angels were lithe and lean, which probably helped them aerodynamically, while the lycans were thicker and more muscular.

Adrian glanced at Damien. “I want to search the area around where Phineas was attacked, and I think it’s time for me to visit the Navajo Lake pack again.”

Damien nodded and stood. “I’ll send a reconnaissance team ahead to secure the base.”

“No. That would allude to fear and distrust, which isn’t a message I want to send.”

“Send a different message then,” Lindsay suggested. “A real one, letting them know you’re coming.”

Both angels looked at her.

She waved one hand in a careless gesture. “I don’t know what’s going on, so maybe I’m off base, but it sounds like you’re going someplace that poses a risk and you don’t want the people you’re visiting to know you consider it risky. So… let ’em see you coming. Announce it. That shows fearlessness-you’re handing them the opportunity to do whatever it is you’re worried about. But first, run with Damien’s reconnaissance idea, but on the down low. Canvass the area without them knowing. Put some people around to scope the place out before you send the message that you’re coming. Then watch what they do when they get it.”

Damien’s gaze narrowed. “Lycans have a strong sense of smell. They would know they were being watched.”

“So send some lycans you trust to do the job.” When she was met with heavy silence, her brows rose. “You don’t have any lycans you trust? Then why are they your bodyguards? Keeping your enemies close?”