sunfall (13 page)

Karma reached forward to squeeze her shoulder. “This reminds
me
of Jersey.”

Tension trumped my urge to laugh at her wisecrack. We scanned the streets for any sign that Brenner’s soldiers had managed to head us off or track down Tian’s location, but on the surface at least, everything seemed normal. Slowly, the neighborhood was coming to life in preparation for the new day. Lights were just flickering on in several houses, and a few early-risers were out collecting their newspapers or warming up their cars. One man walking his dog stopped to scrutinize us as we passed, but his attention wasn’t prolonged.

“Caravanning with a Humvee isn’t exactly helping us keep a low profile,” I said.

“It would be much worse if we weren’t in northern Canada.” Karma pointed to several of the driveways ahead, where trucks and Jeeps were in high supply. “We won’t stand out too much.”

As I turned onto a cul-de-sac, Alexa pointed straight ahead. “That’s the one.”

The house was beige, its shutters and door crimson. A minivan, windows rimed with frost, stood in the driveway. I pulled alongside the curb and turned off the engine.

“You’re sure.”

Alexa glanced from the GPS to the house and back again. “Positive.”

I glanced at my watch. Ten minutes until sunrise. If we were wrong, or if this was a trap, Foster and Summers would pay the ultimate price. No one had emerged from the vehicle behind us, so I took the initiative. As I stepped onto the driveway, I positioned the car door as a shield between my body and the house while I scanned its windows for any sign of a weapon.

“Looks quiet,” Alexa said as she joined me.

And then the garage door opened. Alexa at my side, I moved forward just far enough to see inside. Clean swept and empty save for a set of shelves at the back holding several boxes, it didn’t look like a hideout—which was, of course, the point. Neither did the tall man who stood in the entrance look the part of a servant of the most powerful vampire in the world. He wore a faded pair of jeans and a dark sweater, and he beckoned urgently to us.

“Inside,” he hissed. “Quickly.”

“Babe?” I knew she could tell his species by scent.

“He’s human.”

Of the humans who were aware of the existence of vampires and wereshifters, some had allied with the Consortium and some against. I couldn’t help feeling suspicious, but we were running out of options.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that the occupants of the other car had formed a loose semicircle behind us. At Malcolm’s nod, we joined the man inside the garage. He shut the door immediately and drew a thick dark curtain across its windows. Foster’s eyes closed briefly, her shoulders loosening in relief.

“Too fucking close,” muttered Summers.

“I am Jonah,” the man said. “One of Lady Tian’s personal servants.” He withdrew a small rectangular device from his pocket. “Before I can allow you to enter, your identity must be verified.”

The portable fingerprint device worked quickly, and within a few minutes, Jonah was leading us into the kitchen. It looked exactly as I had expected—medium-grade appliances, linoleum tiling, and faux-marble counters. A chrome-plated teakettle was steaming on the stove, and the scent of garlic and soy sauce lingered in the air.

As we crossed into the living room, I had to suppress the urge to ask whether I should remove my shoes. Old habits die hard, and my mother had trained me well in social niceties. A fire had been kindled in the hearth, and between its light and several tall lamps, the room was bright despite the drawn curtains.

A woman sat in an armchair before the fireplace, her back to the flames. Sharp cheekbones stood out from a heart-shaped face as smooth as a child’s. Whether she had been turned in her teens or early twenties was impossible to tell. The chair nearly swallowed her diminutive frame, but the aura of power radiating from her more than compensated for her petite stature. Two female guards flanked Tian. Like Jonah and their mistress, they were dressed casually—presumably to fit in with the suburban environment—but assault rifles were strapped to their backs and I was sure they carried more weapons in concealment.

Jonah introduced each of us in turn. He saved me for last, and I wondered if he was trying to figure out the proper way to go about it. I held two separate titles—positions that had fallen to me by default. To my knowledge, no one had ever been both.

“And finally, Valentine Darrow, the Missionary and Blood Prime.”

I stepped forward as the others had done and greeted Tian with a short, crisp bow. But when I would have rejoined Alexa, Tian gestured for me to move closer. As I approached, I found myself strangely mesmerized by her eyes. A lustrous, sapphire blue, they seemed to see far beyond the appearance I presented to the world. Under the intensity of her gaze I felt split open, peeled back, dissected.

“You are the object of extraordinary rumors, Valentine.” Her voice was soprano and melodic—pure, like the chime of a bell. “And now, it appears they are true.”

“To which rumors do you refer, Lady?”

She laughed. “There is no need to be so formal,” she said. “You and I are peers, after all. And you needn’t be coy, either.”

I inclined my head but kept silent, remembering the old adage about the perils of making assumptions. After several seconds of silence, she smiled.

“I see you are cautious. The rumors left that out.” She stood and paced around me in a tight circle. “You made your transition, became a full vampire. And yet, now you are able to walk under the sun.” She stopped in front of me, craning her neck to meet my eyes. “This is true?”

Without breaking eye contact, I extended my arm backward. A moment later, Alexa’s fingers brushed against mine as she took the cue to join me.

“It’s true, yes. All thanks to Alexa. She has saved my life many times—most recently, just hours ago. And she also saved my soul.”

Tian looked between us, a half-smile curving her lips. “We will speak more of this. But not now.” She returned to the chair, her gaze taking in all of us at once. “Your vehicles must be moved, in case Brenner is scouting by air. Jonah will show you where they can be concealed. Two rooms upstairs have been prepared for you, if you wish to rest.” She focused in on Malcolm. “You and I should retire to the office, where we can discuss our plans for this evening. We will all reconvene at noon.”

As Tian’s guards escorted them out of the room, Karma touched my shoulder to get my attention.

“Constantine and I will move the cars. You two should get some rest.”

Karma’s generosity was touching, and I smiled in gratitude. Now that we had reached relative safety, fatigue was creeping in around the edges of my brain like a fog. I needed to sleep for about four days, but in the meantime, I would gladly take the four hours Tian was offering.

“Thank you. We owe you one.”

I tugged at Alexa’s hand, drawing her down the hallway and up the L-shaped staircase. We claimed the first empty room we came to, which held two full-sized beds. I closed the door, shucked off my boots and vest, and collapsed on the one closer to the window. Turning to face Alexa, I opened my arms. She smiled—an open, wholehearted smile that had always been mine.

“If only ‘Lady Tian’ could see you now,” she said, dropping her own outer layers to the floor.

“Well, she can’t. This is only for you.”

She slid into my embrace and I buried my face in the curve of her neck, breathing in deeply. Her scent never failed to inflame my thirst, but in this moment my need to hold her close trumped my urge to take her. I slid my hands beneath her shirt to massage the taut muscles of her back, and the sensation of her warm skin against my fingertips at once stirred my passion and soothed the anxiety that had lingered after her close call in the forest.

“Speaking of Tian,” I said, “what did you think of her?”

She pulled back just far enough to look into my eyes. “She’s surprisingly tiny.”

I muffled my laughter against her shoulder. “So was Napoleon.”

“Point taken.” She combed her fingers through my hair and I reveled in the perfect fit of our bodies, even through two layers of clothes. “You should drink, my love.”

I shook my head. “Not right now. Maybe later, before we leave.”

“But—”

I cupped her cheek with my free hand. “You almost died today, Alexa. That was
close
. You know it was. For a second, it felt like…like when you had the virus.”

She shivered lightly and her gaze turned inward. I would never be able to know what she had experienced in those terrifying seconds after her human body had failed but before her panther had emerged victorious over death. I only knew that in the aftermath of my own terror, I needed to nurture and strengthen her. There would be time for me to claim her blood after she had rested.

“I love you,” I whispered against her temple. “I need you. Only you. You believe that, right?”

Alexa blinked, snapping out of whatever dark memory had held her. “My faith in us is the cornerstone of every other belief.” She kissed me gently, then turned onto her side and drew my arm across her breasts. “Sleep well, sweetheart. See you in my dreams.”

I woke three hours later, just shy of eleven o’clock. At first, I resisted alertness, hoping that Alexa’s rhythmic breathing would pull me back into slumber. But as the minutes passed, my brain kicked into hyperdrive. The nap had taken the edge off my exhaustion and now I needed to be in motion.

Slipping out of bed without Alexa’s knowledge wouldn’t normally have been possible, but I suspected her energy had been much more depleted than either of us realized. I moved quietly around the other bed where Karma had decided to crash and stopped in the bathroom for a quick shower before heading downstairs.

The last person I’d expected to see in the kitchen was Tian, but there she was, sitting at the wooden kitchen table, hands clasped around a ceramic mug. Dressed entirely in black, she was already prepared for the evening’s mission. Her ever-vigilant guards were leaning against the wall behind her, but they straightened as I entered.

“Valentine.” Her once-over made me feel disheveled, as though I’d had a choice about wearing the same clothes she’d seen me in earlier. “Join me. Would you like some tea?”

“Please.”

She clapped her hands and Jonah immediately appeared in the kitchen doorway. “Tea for our guest please, Jonah.”

The steam rising off the dark liquid was fragrant with the scent of chrysanthemum, and I inhaled it deeply. Tian’s scrutiny was palpable, but I refused to let her rattle me. We were, as she had said, peers. And I would act like one.

“Will you answer a question for me?” said Tian.

“Probably.”

A smile flashed across her lips. “Your lack of pretense is refreshing, but rest assured, I am not asking you to reveal clan secrets. This question is one I have asked many times, of many individuals, over hundreds of years. I would like to know your experience of the sunlight. The details of how it feels to you.”

I frowned in confusion. “But surely you’ve felt it recently?”

“Not for centuries.”

“So long? You could survive with impunity for several seconds, possibly even a full minute.”

Tian sat back in her chair, tracing patterns through the ring of moisture her mug had left on the table. “When I was a child, my favorite haunt was a small pond on my family’s estate. In the spring and summer, lotus blossoms bloomed so abundantly that the water was no longer visible. I used to sit by the pond for hours, luxuriating in the warmth of the sun on my neck, my shoulders. Each freckle, my father told me, was a kiss from the light. My mother, who wanted my skin to remain porcelain white, tried to forbid me to go. But he was indulgent.

“You are quite right, Valentine, that my body could endure the sun—however briefly. Any physical pain would be well worth the experience. But it is my mind and my heart that I do not trust. A recovered addict cannot sip their poison. So, I fear, it would be with me.”

Her voice was thick with nostalgia that prompted both my sympathy and empathy. “Why do you want me to remind you of what you’ve lost?”

She smiled sadly. “To remember the sun is to remember humanity.”

The answer shocked me. I had never heard Helen speak this way. She had exhibited brief moments of nostalgia in my presence, but never the kind of soulful regret with which Tian spoke now. Helen embraced the chill she had found in the darkness—the distance between herself and mortality.

“You seem surprised,” Tian said.

“I am, a little. What is it about humanity that you find so important to remember?”

Tian turned her gaze to the blacked out window, as though she could see the sun-drenched world beyond. “Unlike wereshifters, we cannot be born. We can only be made. Humans are our raw materials. We come from them, and to deny their influence on us is to deny an integral part of ourselves.”

Her eyes met mine, and I was helpless to look away. “I reflect on the human experience because doing so makes me a stronger ruler. As powerful as we are, humans still control most of the world. To forget that, and to forget how life feels to them, would be myopic.”

I sat back in my chair, uncertain of how to reply. Most of my peers regarded humans as weak and vulnerable. As prey. Tian’s perspective was remarkable, and hearing her insights made me want to share something in return. The least I could do was to answer her original question.