Anton’s attention was on Dmitri. He stroked his cheek and murmured, “I’ll see you again, my sweet.”
Roger held on to Amber because if he let her go, he would try to kill Anton again, and they would all lose.
“You have ten minutes until I call the mansion’s security,” Anton said without taking his gaze off Dmitri. He grinned broadly as he backed away into the shadows. “Maybe less.”
Anton vanished the way he’d arrived. Knowing that the trick was going to happen, Roger could use that extra sense to feel the shape of where Anton had been. Could he have followed him?But where is he going?
He had to deal with what was before him. Though he’d stopped her from hitting the floor, Amber was unsteady on her feet. They didn’t have time to waste. With a note of authority in his voice, he said, “On your feet, hunter. We need to get him down.”
Amber had a hand on her throat. But his tone and words gave her focus, and she nodded, pushing down the fear until it was a minor pulse against Roger’s senses.
By the time she had undone the mechanism, Roger was prepared to catch Dmitri. He broke the handcuffs off him. Then he swept him up into his arms and murmured words of comfort to him.
Dmitri clung to him like he hadn’t done for centuries. His cries might have been sobs if he’d had more energy. The emotions that Roger could read from him were incoherent.Can he even hear me?
Thomas came to the door of the room, though he kept his true attention on the hallway. “Got it handled out here for the moment. You two all right?”
“Alive,” Amber croaked.
Stronger than his tattoo could hide for him, fear for one’s child emanated from Thomas. He glanced at Amber, and a righteous fury was clear in the clench of his jaw.
“We have to go,” Roger said.
“We haven’t found Zack.”
The truth stabbed Roger in the heart. He’d known they hadn’t, or Anton wouldn’t have bargained with the information.We’re in the wrong place. We won’t find either of them down here.“If we stay, we’re dead.”
Thomas puffed up.
“Dad, the op is blown.” Amber stashed the wire cutters in her backpack and put it on with professional quickness. She kept her blade in her hand, and it continued to flare with white light.
Amber’s words cut Thomas’s resistance to shreds. Needing a hand free, Roger gently put Dmitri over his shoulder, and the four of them made their way out of the building and escaped into the night.
CHAPTER 9
Without a clock or a window, Takashi had to rely on his internal sense of time. Sleeping had thrown off his estimates, but he could feel in his bones that the sun was down. Considering his hunger, he figured that the hour was probably in the neighborhood of ten o’clock.
Pacing wasn’t an effective use of energy, but he wasn’t content to sit still and wait for someone to fetch him. He needed patience to see him through this terrible turn of events, but he needed movement to settle his mind. Summoning calm wasn’t easy on an empty stomach. The gray bands the night before hadn’t been satisfying. Disconnected from their emotions, they were as fulfilling as a glass of ice water—gratifying for the moment he was swallowing, but not for long after.
Midstep, his shadow reached up from the floor and wrapped around his ankle. It yanked him toward the floor. He avoided faceplanting on the wooden boards, landing on his hands and knees. Tendrils roiled out of his shadow and latched around his wrists, forearms, and thighs. No amount of pushing freed him from the inky-black pseudopods. When he growled, a tendril snaked up and wrapped around his mouth.
This sort of magic had to be Anton’s doing. But why pin him to the floor of a room no one else was in?
Agonizing minutes later, the door swung open. Anton was dressed for an evening out, though he’d left behind his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. He regarded Takashi with the same impassively cold demeanor he’d had at the end of their last conversation.
A twinge twisted Takashi’s heart because Anton wasbreathtaking. He knew what he was, what he wanted, and the only opinion that mattered was his lover’s. People spoke of greatness as if it was something achieved, but it was grown. Nurtured and cultivated. Where other older vampires faded into pettiness, Anton was a mystery. An undead force of magic and persistence.
He was a blazing star.
You’re falling for the same bullshit that’s broken your spirit too many times. Sergei. Kuwat. Nobu. Faustino. Roger. Charismatic, gorgeous men had always lulled Takashi’s sensibilities. He was drawn to their orbit, unwilling to deny their gravitational pull, even when he knew better.I cannot afford to drop my guard around this monster. He willdevourme. Perhaps literally.
“Come along,” Anton said, crooking his finger for Takashi to follow him. He turned on his heel and walked out of the room. His bootheels clicked, each sound echoing with confidence.
Takashi was about to make a noise despite the gag in his mouth to point out that he couldn’t do as commanded. Then the shadows rose up underneath him and carried him into the hall. The touch of them became colder, firmer, almost as if they were solid creatures. Riding them was like being carried in a blanket by several others. One side would jostle him, the other dipped. It was unnerving.
Anton stopped beside a window and leaned against the wall, gazing outward. Languidly, he waved his hand, and the shadows receded into the floor, depositing Takashi. In a musing tone, Anton said, “I have been thinking about you a great deal.”
Slowly, Takashi stood and joined Anton. The view beyond was of the darkened yard. The mansion’s grounds went on for a little way, and a tall fence marked the edge of the property. Other than a few large trees and the occasional set of bushes, the field of grass was unremarkable. Due to the light in the hallway, the details were harder to pick out, but as far as Takashi could tell, there was nothing interesting to see.
