Page 9 (1/2)
A commotion at the bus stop up the block snapped her out of her patheticwith hiand then he turned and looked directly at Geered toward the aance
"Go back to what you were doing, buddy," Kynan said, his voice low and soothing, but edged arning
The guy whipped out a gun from the waistband of his sweatpants and leveled it sideways at Ky "Fuck you,so would reveal secrets best kept that way
Kynan’s pleasant, let’s-deal expression turned into so deadly and cold A shiver of both unease and feh her, and she realized that even after knowing him for two years, this was the first time she’d seen the un," he said, "and you ht walk away from this"
"I ain’t stupid, youin a lethal blur The runt as Kynan took him to the pave over the un, one booted foot crunched down on his neck
"Call the police," he said in a honeyed, easy drawl As though he disar into action like a seasoned soldier following a superior’s command Geez, she had it bad for him The copsup with the 911 dispatcher, a cruiser was rounding the corner The cops spent about five athered up the stunned thug and took off
"You’re kinda handy to have around," Ge visibly as she stuffed condoreed with an enthusiastic nod
Kynan shrugged "That guy was so out of it he probably couldn’t have pulled the trigger if he’d wanted to"
He was being modest, but his take-down had probably prevented disaster
Her cell phone rang with a jaunty jingle "One second" She flipped it open, hoping Eidolon had finally gotten off his ass and called back She’d left hih most had been with Wraith, as about as reliable as a witch doctor’s miracle cure "Doctor Endri"
"Hello, Gem"
The voice froze the fluid in her spine With forced casualness, she turned away from the others and lowered her voice "I told you, no I’ll never help you"
"Your parents would like you to reconsider They’re begging, in fact"
The air exploded fros in a painful burst The ability to speak ith her breath, and for a ht
Shock ers clu it
"You bastard," she whispered "What did you do to theainst the a on her skin What now?
God, what now?
"You okay, Ge his eyes to nearly black "Anything I can do?"
She pasted on a fragile smile "I’m fine Thank you" She turned to Judy, whose expression of worry matched Kynan’s "Can you take me to the hospital so I can pick up my car? I have a family matter to attend to"
Six
Tayla and Eidolon had ridden through the city in silence for half an hour, since she’d grown tired of arguing Eventually, he ain until they arrived at a run-down aparty as it was, didn’t compare to the slum where she lived
He parked around back, between a rusted-out Greet out She did, her bare feet barely registering the flattened cigarette butts and cracked asphalt as they crossed the parking lot They entered the building, taking steps down to an area she wouldn’t have thought housed aparto first, a smart move It had occurred to her that she could take him from behind and escape, except that if she killed him she’d never learn the location of the hospital
As they entered the dank bowels of the building, the gurgle of boilers and the s ho in places fit only for rats She scowled into the darkness lit by a lone, caged bulb at the end of the hall
"This is the basement"
"Vampires and apart at one of three steel doors A sensation like ants crawling up her spine ut told her that soht When Eidolon rapped on the door, she instinctively reached for her stang, too late re she was unarmed
"Do a lot of vampires live here?" she asked
"Do I look like the landlord to the undead?" He knocked again and cursed before testing the knob and finding it locked
He stepped back, and then, in one smooth, powerful h a both he must possess to do thatit was definitely for the best that she hadn’t taken hiainst his any day, but with the strange losses of muscle control that always struck at the most inconvenient times, she wouldn’t want to risk an attack on hie
"She’ll be pissed if she was just napping"
Eidolon snorted at that They entered the apartrihtmares
Shades of purple and yellow assaulted her vision, from the lavender carpet to the baby-duck-colored, fuzzy lampshade Even the walls had been slathered with lehterhouse The nurse who lived here was truly not right in the head She deserved to die for her horrible taste in décor alone