Opening my eyes, I frowned at Avin. “You might as well make Bryant’s skull stop talking. There’s no point. It doesn’t know the answers we need.”
“Wait,” Gil said. She stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the skull. “We can ask him other questions. This is the perfect time to study why humans who turn shifter go insane. Not to mention how the two spirits are tied together and to the memory of the body—”
“Study later. If I don’t get to Death’s Angel before Tatius discovers I’m gone, it’s Nathanial who will pay.” I glanced at the sky. How long had I been gone? Had Samantha reported my defection to Tatius? “Get me back to the club.”
“But—” Gil started.
“You’re going to be my apprentice, remember, babe?” Avin smiled at Gil. “Trust me, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to study the dead.”
She frowned but nodded. “All right. I’ll come back after I take Kita home.”
Avin made a slight nod goodbye.
And for the first time, I waited anxiously to be thrown into the void.
Chapter Eleven
Snow crunched under me, the dampness clinging to my fishnets. “Gil, this is not where you picked me up.”
“It’s close.” She shuffled in the snow. “I’ve read about these clubs. No one should notice you coming and going.”
My teeth clenched in an effort to ward off a scream of frustration. I needed to be back in Tatius’s room, pretending like I’d never left. Walking in through the front door of Death’s Angel and winding my way through the lower levels was bound to draw attention. My jaw cracked as I forced my teeth apart. Gil took one look at my face and backed up before I uttered a word.
“Uh, you probably need these.” My ruined boots appeared in her hands, and she dropped them between us. “I should, uh, go. Lots to learn.”
She vanished.
Great. Just great.
Leaning down, I snatched the broken boots from the snow then padded around the side of the building. I’d been led underground twice since becoming a vampire. I should be able to make my way to the lower levels. Now finding Tatius’s suite, that was another matter. I’ll deal with it when I get to it.
If I even made it that far.
Getting into the club wasn’t a problem, nor was taking the staff-only halls through to the VIP area, but that was where my luck ended. A huge metal door blocked my path to the stairs leading underground. I’d forgotten about it. A keypad was inlaid into the wall beside the door, but I didn’t have the code. A fingerprint reader rested above the keypad, and I pressed my left thumb to the panel. The small machine made a noise as it scanned, then the light flashed red.
The door didn’t unlock.
Crap.
Behind me, in the VIP room, an unseen door crashed open.
I jumped. Did I trip an alarm?
I glanced around for somewhere to hide, but the short hallway held nothing but the door I couldn’t get past and the one I’d just entered from. Another door banged open, this one closer. With nowhere to hide, I leaned on the metal door to the underground and crossed my arms over my chest, forcing a relaxed pose.
The door across from me flew open, and three large men poured into the small hallway, moving fast—inhumanly fast.
My arms over my chest tightened, my muscles tensing.
Otherwise I didn’t move—where could I really go with the locked door at my back?
The men stopped in the middle of the hall, still several yards away. Two wore more straps and chains than anything resembling clothing, but the third wore black jeans and a muscle shirt. He was the one who held up his hand, stopping the other two. His head cocked to the side, his chocolatecolored eyes pinching quizzically as they slid over me.
“You’re the Hermit’s companion, aren’t you?”
That was a complicated subject, and at least one of Tatius’s vampires could see through lies, so I let him believe what he liked. Cocking my head to the side, I jerked my thumb at the door.
“I got locked out.”
I smiled as I said it, but he only frowned at me, his eyes sliding over my—probably very expensive—water-stained dress, the broken boots dangling from my grip, and my torn and grass-stained fishnets. Then he nodded at the other men.
They turned without a word, strolling out of the hall and back the way they’d come. He remained.
I shifted my weight between my feet, and his eyes snapped back to me. He stared at me long enough that the urge to squirm traveled all the way up my spine. Then he marched to the door and pressed his thumb to the scanner. A green light flashed as a loud click resounded in the short hall.
“I’m Liam,” he said, hauling open the door.
“Kita.” I stepped around him, hurrying into the stairwell beyond the door.
I expected him to escort me down—probably all the way down to the council room, but he stayed at the doorway.
“Don’t wander the city. With all the shit going on with the Collector’s visit, pandemonium is one drop from spilling over all the lesser vampires.” Then he slammed the door, the large lock snapping back in place.
I blinked at the door for a long heartbeat. A friendly warning? A dire one? Turning, I hurried down the stairs. The waiting room was empty, thank the stars, but now I had to find the door. With all the walls draped behind heavy layers of fabric, that was easier said than done, but after a moment of flailing with the drapes, I located the hidden door and slipped into the hall beyond.
Now all I have to worry about is finding Tatius’s suite.
“Where the hell have you been?” an annoyed female voice whispered as I turned a corner in the hall.
Okay, apparently I didn’t have to worry about navigating the underground labyrinth after all.
Samantha closed the space between us. Her hand shot out, her polished nails digging into my bicep as her fingers locked around my arm. “Are you trying to tangle us both in Tatius’s wrath?”
“There was a misunderstanding and… well… I’m here now.” Oh yeah, that was pathetic.
Her eyes slid down me, taking in the damage my wardrobe had already suffered tonight. “Saints alive,” she hissed in an exasperated whisper. “The dress will have to do. Lose the stockings and the boots. We don’t have time to find replacements.”
She released my arm and stepped back. Her nails clicked together like claws as she waited for me to shuck the ruined fishnets. I hadn’t thought much of the stockings while I wore them, but once they were off, the short dress felt all that much more revealing.
“What do I…?” I looked around for a place to put the fishnets and boots.
Samantha snatched them out of my hands. “Come on. Do you think you can keep him waiting all night?”
I didn’t have to ask who he was.
I followed Samantha as her heels tapped an angry staccato down the hall. She took me on the same path Tatius had led me and Nathanial the night before. We ended back in front of the council room where we’d met with the Collector.
Samantha jerked open the door, and her posture changed, her movements became smoother so that she swayed as she sashayed into the room.
It was a wasted effort—the council wasn’t inside. A couple of vampires were moving chaises into a circle in the center of the room, but the council table was empty. No council meant no Nathanial. I still didn’t know if he was okay.
Samantha smoothed her gown with a jerky movement that betrayed her annoyance and held up a hand, motioning me to stay. She marched to the closest vampire, her whispered words too soft for me to catch in the cavernous room. The other vamp set down the chaise he’d balanced over his shoulder and pointed toward the ceiling. Samantha nodded.
Then she made her way back to me, shutting the door behind us as she led me into the hall.
“You could have told me Tatius wasn’t down here,” she said.
I blinked at her. “How would I know?”
She frowned, her full lips dragging down her cheeks. “Well, if your bond with Tatius isn’t tight enough for you to feel his location yet, you could have told me Nathanial wasn’t here, either. Obviously, they’ll be together.”
I tried not to gape as Samantha’s slanted eyes drilled into me. Feel Nathanial’s location? I had never had any woo-woo sense of where he was. Not once.
But he always knew where I was.
I swallowed. Gil had told me that I was the first shifter to become a vampire and that the effects of the change were unknown. Apparently this whole sensing thing was something I’d missed.
Not wanting Samantha to realize I was deficient in vamp powers, I smiled weakly and said, “Right. Sorry.” Then I lifted a finger to the ceiling like I’d seen the other vamp do. “He’s upstairs?”
Samantha’s frown twisted harder, but she nodded. Turning on her heel, she stormed down the hall.
* * * *
We emerged from the underground halls into a large, walk-in freezer, through which Samantha led me into a bustling restaurant kitchen.
“Where are we?” I whispered as a waiter in a dark waistcoat scurried by.
“Crimson. Another of Tatius’s investments.” Samantha glanced around the kitchen. “You there, you’re a manager, right?”
A woman in a sleek black dress looked up from her conversation with a cook and placed one hand on her hip.
“Yes. Is there something Tatius needs?”
“Your shoes,” Samantha said, holding out her hand.
The manager blinked, but when Samantha just stood there, waiting, the woman leaned down and pulled off her simple black pumps. She handed them over, and Samantha shoved the shoes at me.
“Put these on and hurry up.”
I shoved my feet in the pumps—two sizes too big—and then hobbled after Samantha as she pushed open a swinging door. The chaos of the kitchen faded as we entered a dimly lit dining room. A harpist sat in one corner, her fingers pulling ethereal sounds from a harp as tall as me. The soft music drifted around the room, mingling with the hushed conversations of the diners. Candles flickered on top of tables covered with pressed white table cloths and gleaming with real silver.