Sylvia Day - A Touch of Crimson

It was a quiet surety inside her. She knew the fallen angel who stood across the room from her, looking far too young to be her father. He was gorgeous. Tall and elegant, like a Sentinel, but much darker. Definitely dangerous. Not just in his looks, although those were dark and dangerous, too. His black hair and caramel-hued skin were paired with eyes the color of toffee, making him stunning in a wholly exotic way.

God, the thought of him squaring off against Adrian was insane to her. They were too evenly matched.

“Where are we?” she asked, recognizing the brand of the hotel by its signature layout but unsure of where the property was located.

“Irvine.”

“Why?”

He gestured for her to have a seat. As she did with Adrian, she felt an inexplicable pull to the suave vampire leader. She didn’t trust it-didn’t trust him. Vampires lured victims with seduction and a lulling sense of false security.

Lindsay moved to the wet bar instead and pulled the corkscrew out of the drawer. As far as weapons went, it was laughable. But beggars couldn’t be choosy.

“There’s no need to defend yourself against me, tzel ,” he murmured, taking a seat at the small dining table as if he had no concerns in the world.

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped, hating to hear Adrian’s term of endearment for her on another man’s lips.

“Why not? It’s your name.”

Swallowing hard, she fought another wave of dizziness and intense déjà vu, so familiar now after the last few weeks but no less disconcerting. “My name is Lindsay Gibson. My father’s name is-was-Eddie Gibson.”

“Those things are true… in regard to your mortal body.” His amber eyes watched her with undeniable intensity. “But you carry the soul of my daughter Shadoe inside you.”

Lindsay felt the blood drain from her face.

“Did you think it was just a pet name Adrian had for you?” Syre’s slightly raspy voice was mesmerizing. “An endearment perhaps?”

His direct hit struck her hard.

“Ah, I see that you did.” His smile was smugly knowing. “I bet he took one look at you and there was no getting away from him. He focused on you with an all-consuming intensity, didn’t he? He pursued you swiftly and with a determination you couldn’t deny. He treated you like the most precious thing in the world. And when a seraph like Adrian puts his mind to something, he never fails.”

Leaning heavily into the countertop, she set one hand over her roiling stomach and tried to regulate her breathing.

“You’re a beautiful woman, Lindsay. I’m sure he was sincerely attracted to the packaging. But the woman he covets is inside you-my daughter-and he’s been keeping us apart since the dawn of time.”

“That’s not possible,” she whispered through dry lips. “I’m not possessed by someone else’s spirit.”

His chin lifted. “So how do you explain your speed? How do you explain the first question you asked when you walked into this room-‘ What are you?’ not ‘ Who are you.’ You felt the power in me with senses beyond the few afforded to your mortal body.”

She stared at him, her right leg beginning to twitch and shake with her growing disquiet.

“You’re wondering how it’s possible,” he said, still in that low, captivating tone. “You see, Shadoe was fatally wounded. You were a huntress even then. Adrian loved you so much, he couldn’t bear to lose you. I’d already discovered that I could share immortality with others, and he brought you to me on the brink of death, begging me to save you.”

Lindsay didn’t realize she was crying until she felt the drops hitting her chest.

“I didn’t hesitate,” he went on. “I began the process of Changing you.”

“Into a vampire?” She was sickened by the thought.

He gave a soft, humorless laugh. “Adrian’s reaction was the same. He thought I could heal you without Changing you. You were too far gone for his blood to do the trick, but he’d heard that the Change took individuals to the very precipice of death, and he thought I could pull you back from it. Which I could, but as a vampire. When he realized what you would become, he finished you himself with a blade through the heart.”

She flinched imagining what that would have cost Adrian-to kill the woman he loved in order to save her. But she understood it, too. Like her, every blow he’d been dealt in his life had come from a vampire. Of course he would rather lose his love than have her become a soulless, bloodsucking creature.

“But it was already too late. You were a naphil, one of the nephalim-a child born to a mortal and an angel. Your soul was stronger than a mere human’s. It had the strength of an angel’s, but without the weakness of wings. I’d given you just enough of my blood to immortalize that inhuman part of you before Adrian killed your body. So you’ve returned again and again, always in a different vessel but still my daughter.”

Still the woman Adrian loved. A woman that wasn’t her.

Her spine straightened. “A pretty s-story, but I don’t believe you.”

“Why would I lie?”

“To turn me against Adrian.”

He made a soft tsk ing noise. “On the contrary, I can give him back to you. Fully, completely. I know you want that. I can see how much you love him.”

“What are you saying?”

Pushing to his feet, he stepped closer. “I can finish the Change, Lindsay. I can give you immortality and reawaken the soul in you that Adrian loves. I can take away the mortality that makes you forbidden to him. Everything can be what it should have been.”

She laughed, but it came out a broken and painful cry. “Of course. Take Adrian’s woman and make her a vampire. The ultimate revenge for the loss of your wings. It must kill you to see those crimson tips on his pretty feathers. It must be an agonizing reminder of how he mutilated you.”

Syre was unfazed by her venomous outburst. “I didn’t expect you to believe me. Will you believe him?”

Her heart stopped. “What are you saying?”

“Call him.” His beautiful eyes glittered like gemstones. “Ask him yourself.”

Elijah watched the gates of the Navajo Lake pack entrance pass by the rear windows of the black Suburban he was in. He couldn’t shake off the coiling apprehension rippling through him. Although Damien had assured him he wasn’t being held responsible for Lindsay’s abduction-which had technically happened under the Sentinels’ watch-he’d been immediately returned to Navajo Lake instead of being allowed to assist in the hunt for her. All of Adrian’s pack was being sent to the Lake and a new pack was being formed.

The extreme scope of that act spoke of deep suspicion. Lindsay had been taken from the Point, which meant someone there was undeniably involved. Quarantining the lycans appeared to be the first step in the attempt to find the culprits.

Despite understanding the precariousness of his own situation, Elijah’s greatest fear was for Lindsay. Once he’d learned the identity of the vamp she’d attacked, his stomach had bottomed out. Vash had already been hunting him because of the blood in Shreveport; then Lindsay had been spotted with him-in the midst of launching an attack of her own. No matter how he looked at it, it looked bad for his friend. Real fucking bad. He doubted Lindsay would survive the day, if she wasn’t already dead.

And he was states away, unable to help her. The beast inside him was pacing restlessly, growling its desire to be slipped free of its leash. If he weren’t an Alpha, he would have lost control hours ago. As it was, he was debating mutiny for the first time in his life. He didn’t have enough friends to callously disregard losing one, and Lindsay was special to him-she’d already proven she would die to save his ass. He had yet to return the favor.