Chapter 4
Vampire?Dagan ground his teeth at the word. He wasn’t one, at least not in the way books and legends depicted. He could walk in sunlight, into churches. Stakes wouldn’t kill him. His life waseternal.
But he was a killer, had taken so many lives. Consumed by darkness, the madness taking over, seeking, alwayssearching…
Bodies writhing in blood, he drank deeper and harder until every last drop was drained. And, still, the thirst grippedhim…
Jolting free from those crippling memories, his emotions locked down, he made his call. He hadn’t bothered about the surveillance cameras on this floor since he’d already hazed them all the moment he entered thebuilding.
Hedori answered on the second ring. “Sire? How may Ihelp?”
He pulled his gaze away from the empty staircase Shae had gone up. “I need the Ford here. Park behind The Tower.” He reeled off the address. “And come up to the penthousefloor.”
“Be there in aflash.”
Dagan slipped his cell back into his pocket. Yeah, the Empyrean would be here in a flash. Literally. He, fortunately, could transportanythingwith hisabilities.
Unlike Dagan. He couldn’t dematerialize large, non-organic things. It was why he needed the truck to cart Shae’s luggage. Besides, he liked driving, and it cleared his head, something he needed rightnow.
He studied the flickering mystical wards keeping him from entering the apartment. Shae, it appeared, had no idea about the protection spell.Hecould break through, painful and doable, but that would only alert whoever had put them up in the first place. Since creating wards wasn’t something he did, he left it to the Empyrean who was ace in building the defenselayers.
A few minutes later, the elevator opened. Hedori stepped out and strode toward him, his gaze already shifting to the doorway, clearly sensing the ward. “Shall I undoit?”
“Yes. But once we’re done, put it upagain.”
Hedorinodded.
“One other thing, can you get me moresmokes?”
“Yes, of course,” he said, his focus on the doorway. As Hedori set to work using intricate hand movements and murmuring soft words he didn’t catch—mostly because he wasn’t interested—Dagan waited impatiently, his gaze back on the stairs Shae’d gone up. He didn’t like the idea of her alone up there while he was stuck out in thecorridor.
Whoever had put the wards up seemed determined to keep immortals away because only humans could cross the threshold. “How muchlonger?”
Hedori didn’t respond. A minute passed, then several more, before he lowered his hands. “It’sdone.”
Dagan entered the penthouse. The place screamed opulence. He hadn’t pegged the hellcat as one to like this kind of overdone abundance when she dressed in battered boots and simple clothing. But what did heknow?
He jogged upstairs and followed her light, tantalizing scent down the hallway until he found her in the last bedroom, pulling out a froth of silky things from adrawer.
“The door’s there for areason.”
He ignored her tart comment and strolled around the huge, lavish bedroom, stopping at the window overlooking the park. He leaned against the windowsill and watched her pack. She pulled out a…he peered at the name—Dextrose pack—from the bedside drawer and tossed them into her suitcase on thebed.
“What’sthat?”
“For my low bloodsugar.”
He frowned. He hadn’t smelled any illness on her. “You’resick?”
Those stormy grays snapped back to him. A feminine eyebrow rose in a taunt. “Why? You gonna use your superpowers and cure menow?”
He merely stared at her. She rolled her eyes and dropped a pile of clothes in a case. “I’mfine.”
He wasn’t sure what exactly went on with that since immortals didn’t get sick. “Is it a riskfactor?”
A long, drawn-out sigh followed, like he’d asked her the fate of the universe. Hewaited.
“Depends on how you look at it. As long as I have my meals regularly and this close”—she pulled out the pack of Dextrose she’d thrown in her suitcase and waved it at him—“I’m good. So, no worries that I’ll be dropping in a dead faint at yourfeet.”
