“I won’t fail. I never have,” he said. “I’ll call you when it’s done.”
The woman kissed his cheek. “I love you, you know. I’ll go deal with the detectives. Since the Underveil wasn’t exposed, I don’t have to kill them. I’ll just take their notepads and computers and screw with their memories.” She laughed. “Yeah, I think maybe I’ll make them remember going to a topless bar instead of the hospital. That should give them something to think about when they go home to their wives.” She winked at Nikolai. “I’ll tell the techies at headquarters to hack into the hospital system and erase her medical records.” She grabbed the patient chart from off the counter where she had laid it. “I’ve got this.” She gave Elena a pointed glare. “Poof! Like magic, little girl, you’re gone. You never even existed. None of your kind will exist when we’re through.” She trembled as Aleksandra chanted some strange words and disappeared into thin air with the chart.
She pulled her knees to her chest and bit her lip, fighting the urge to cry. Unable to bring herself to look at Nikolai, she closed her eyes and laid her chin on her knees, waiting for him to carry out Aleksandra’s orders.
Nikolai stared at the diminutive, blonde woman with blood-soaked hair, curled up in a ball on the hospital bed. So fragile—not at all what he had expected. Vampires were fierce, calculating warriors, and this one was the daughter of Gregor Arcos, one of the most notorious vampires of modern time.
Gregor had killed Nikolai’s father two decades ago, instigating the bloodiest war in the history of the Underveil.
Fydor, Nikolai’s uncle, had sent him on this mission so that he could personally avenge his father’s murder. Eager for closure, he’d accepted the assignment readily, anticipating a worthy opponent.
A pitiful human was not at all what he had expected.
He had spent the last two decades preparing for this moment by killing every rogue vampire he could find in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain, but the void in his heart was just as empty. Even Aleksandra couldn’t fill it.
Certainly no gratification would be derived from reaping the soul of this tiny creature. Tiny, but not inconsequential. When he had stood over her in the convenience store, ready to end her life, something had happened—something more frightening than death itself: He had felt the pull of her soul. A distinct tugging at his own, calling him to join with her.
No. Impossible. Aleksandra was right. He was nuts. Maybe he had been too long without a woman. He shook his head and sighed. The girl in the bed shuddered, her head still on her knees and her eyes closed.
Something foreign in him wanted to calm her but knew it was the wrong thing to do. He was a Slayer—a terrifying being created to patrol the Underveil and execute immortals who broke the laws. He wasn’t a wimp who consoled unconverted vampires before he killed them. Grow a pair.
But what if Fydor was wrong? His messages had been odd recently, consumed with finding Arcos’s offspring and executing her as soon as possible, insisting she was planning an attack on the royal family to avenge her father. He’d devoted a huge amount of resources to the task and insisted Nikolai be the only one to carry out the mission, which had suited him fine. Killing anyone related to his father’s murderer seemed apropos. But now that he’d met her, something seemed way off. What if she wasn’t a menace to the Underveil? He couldn’t execute her until he knew for sure. He had to take her somewhere they could have privacy for a while. Some place Fydor and his soldiers had not been so that they couldn’t teleport in unannounced. Someplace even he had never been that was close enough to not use a ton of energy in transit. He intentionally infused his voice with hatred, more to motivate himself than to frighten her. “Get up, parasite. We need to get out of here.”
Instead of obeying him, she squeezed her legs tighter to her chest. Damn. He was going to have to do this by force. He yanked the sheet off her and grabbed her arm. “Listen to me. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Get out of bed, or I will drag you out. Do you have any powers?”
“I don’t understand.”
Shit. “Can you teleport or read minds or do anything unusual?”
She reached down and pulled the covers back over herself defensively; her blue eyes flashed anger as they met his. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have any powers. I’m just a regular person who had a regular life until you came along and screwed everything up.”
Her surprising defiance caused a wave of adrenaline to roll through him. “Kiss your regular life good-bye, princess.” He ripped the cover back down and grabbed her ankle. “Get out of that bed, or I’ll make you wish you had.”