Page 84 of Bent Out of Shade
It didn’t come. Well, not from the car.
“Consider this your one and only chance to save yourself,” Ryann said. “I’ve got dozens of Lonestars hunting for the killer. It’s Deadman’s Island for anyone protecting that rogue.”
Tatiana resumed driving.
“How big is that place anyway? Because it’s going to be pretty crowded with everyone you’re tossing there.” I held the phone so tightly that the plastic case bit into my fingers. “The rogue, accomplices, any turned humans. I mean, I’m all for densification but this is sounding a little too cozy for my tastes.”
Tatiana flashed me a thumbs-up at the snap in my voice. Some of it was bravado, but I was angry at the Lonestar’s black-and-white thinking that put me into this position when all I wanted to do was save Sabrina from a horrible fate. More horrible than she’d already endured. And yes, I also wanted to come out unscathed. Sue me.
“Really, Miriam?” There was a quiet resignation to Ryann’s words.
My relationship with the Lonestar hadn’t been easy, but I’d impressed her to the point where she unofficially subcontracted me to take on jobs she wasn’t allowed to. Yelling I could handle, but disappointment was another story.
I opened my mouth, wanting to assert that the murderer was a victim too, a human changed without consent and left to fend for herself. That the one Ryann should go after was whomever turned Sabrina against her will in the first place and then abandoned her, but the words stuck in my throat at the unfairness and futility of having to explain this, not to mention the blood oath sending hot shafts of pain up my arm.
When my silence went on several beats too long, Ryann sighed and hung up.
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Tatiana said. She jammed her beast of a car sideways into a parking spot, bashing the vehicles both in front and behind her so violently that they bounced. “She wouldn’t have listened.”
“I know,” I said, tracing a finger along the window, “but we were becoming friends.”
Uninterested, Tatiana was already climbing out of the car. She left me to pay for parking, striding on ahead to the gates of Blood Alley.
Most of the doors to the rooms were open, though the bulbs were off, and our walk up the lane was accompanied by the sounds of clanking bottles and the whir of card machines. Only human employees were about, but the sky was growing dark, and the vamps would be awake soon.
Were the trainees working tonight? Had they found others for Kian to snack on?
My heart pounded in my ears, my mouth was dry, and I would rather have faced the collective undead minions of Blood Alley than their leader. Depending on Zev’s mood, I might have to do both.
Tatiana would do her best to prevent Zev from hurting me, but she was compellable, and my magic was laughable in the face of his powers. I’d seen that lethal predator be taken down; how could he possibly let me live?
Did we have enough to persuade him to swear the blood oath—and would he give us a chance to speak or was my death warrant signed the second I stepped into his office?
At the top of the lane, I eyed the stretch of unkempt lawn between us and the front doors of Rome with trepidation, my arm out to assist Tatiana. She ignored it, striding shakily on her heels over the uneven ground, her head high.
I kept pace with her, not wanting to insult my boss by walking behind her in order to catch her. We were in enemy territory, after all. Still, I sighed in relief when she made it to the concrete outside the front doors without breaking a hip.
Instead of entering, though, Tatiana went around to the side and flipped open a small metal panel. She fit a gold key into it and the wall slid away, revealing an elevator.
Look who had intimate access to someone’s club. My jaw fell open a further thousand feet or so at the discovery that there was only one button inside the car. Zero guesses for where it led. My curiosity about her and Zev reached new heights, but at her granite expression as we descended, I wisely kept silent.
The elevator deposited us in Zev’s art gallery, the vampire on hand to greet us. There was no sign that Kian had hurt him: no bruises marred his pale skin and there was no stiffness in his movements, though he wasn’t wearing a suit jacket.
“Tatiana. I wasn’t sure I’d see you here again.” He tugged on his perfectly straight shirt cuffs, and my eyebrows shot into my hairline. Was he nervous?
They stared at each other, not with longing or even sizing each other up; the look was far more complicated than that.
I cleared my throat. “We have business to discuss.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw when he flicked his gaze over me, and I dug my nails into my sides to keep from protecting my throat, but he didn’t attack. “Indeed.”
Tatiana motioned for him to lead the way back to his office area, but he didn’t move.
Zev sliced the plastic on a pallet open with a fingernail and the packaging slipped to the floor revealing a bubble-wrapped painting. “Your client formally greeted me and asked my permission to conduct business in my territory. I’ve granted it. Now, return his fiancée at once.”
Tatiana shrugged. “As you wish. Good day, Zev.”
His expression turned wary at her automatic capitulation. “Wait,” he commanded, but Tatiana was already halfway back to the elevator while I scrambled after her.
