The warrior stood at the entryway, arms crossed over his middle. "I could destroy you without you ever realizing what happened."
"Hey, now," Bride said. "None of that, remember?"
McKell spun on his heel and stomped from the cave. "Come. Before I forget myself."
Just as before, he and Bride followed. Guards were still posted at the gate, and when they passed, the men fell into step behind them. Though only a few hours had ticked by, the city they next entered was nothing like the city they'd first encountered. This one pulsed with life.
Vampires meandered in the streets, their robes dancing almost magically at their ankles. Some were alone, some were paired, while others strode in groups. It was like any other city on any other planet. No one wore those glamoured masks, so all that beauty was nearly blinding.
Shops were filled with clothing, food for vampires to buy for their human slaves, a bar that served the thirsty. Bride wasn't looked at twice. Devyn was regarded with hostile curiosity by the males and eye-fucked with naked desire by the females. Nothing had changed, he mused.
One woman stopped directly in front of him and invited him to her home for breakfast. He, of course, was to be the meal. She was pretty, with Bride's pale skin and bright, vivid eyes. But her lips were not as lush, her hair not as dark.
"Sorry, darling," he said, not slowing but continually stepping around her. "While I'm sure you are indeed a delicious little treat, I'm taken."
After trying a bit longer, and still meeting with rejection, the female flounced away in a huff. Devyn glanced over at Bride, unsure of what he'd find. She was shaking her head. "Sorry, love," he told her. "But what can I say? I'm irresistible.”
“No, you're a ho. But the good news is, I'm okay with that."
And he'd once wanted jealousy from her, he thought. This was so much better. Acceptance for who and what he was. Because she knew he would always return to her?
"You would never have to wonder about my affections," McKell said, keeping pace at Bride's other side. "Since I began my search for you, I have given myself to no one." His voice had lowered, less substantial than even a whisper, so that only the three of them could hear.
Sneaky bastard. Devyn glared at him. I'm going to cut out your tongue and give it to my maids to clean my toilets with.
"Stay with me, and this could all be yours." The warrior spread his arms to encompass the city. "You would never have to hide who and what you ate again."
"Wouldn't I?" she asked meaningfully. She was nefreti, hunted for her abilities. Deemed too dangerous to live.
That's my girl.
"You would be safe," the warrior said, "safer here than you could ever be up there. I would make sure of it. Besides, what makes you think the king would allow you to leave, placing our secrets in the hands of war-hungry humans?"
"She has lived on the surface for a long time and never revealed herself to the humans," Devyn replied. "She would not do so now."
McKell snapped his too-sharp teeth at Devyn, eyes glowing bright red. Devyn gave him a pinkie wave and a smile.
"Not another pissing contest," Bride said on a moan. "Come on, be a good boy, McKell, and take me to my mother's home."
McKell frowned at her. "I told you. It was destroyed.”
“That wouldn't stop me from taking her," Devyn told him.
There was a beat of silence, McKell clearly struggling to rein in his temper. "Very well," he finally said. After waving his men away, he changed directions completely, heading back toward his home. They skirted two shops and rounded three corners, and soon stood in front of a wall of loose rock. There were no people present, as though the area itself was somehow tainted. "Here you are."
Bride hesitantly, shakily stepped forward and traced her lingers over a few of the crumbles. "This
was a doorway?"
"Yes." McKell nodded. "Tell me what was inside."
"A home very much like mine. When you entered, there was a main meeting area and three doorways that branched into rooms. One was for your parents, one for you, and one for the food."
"What was my mother's name?" she asked softly.
"Ellen."
"Ellen," she repeated.
"She was beautiful, a lot like you. Same dark hair, same red lips, though you have your father's eyes. His name was Dominick, and he was a soldier like me. His strength was legend."
Her shoulders drooped a little. "I wish I remembered them."
In the distance, a clatter of bells rang. When the last echo faded, a strained apprehension settled over their little group.
McKell was the first to break through it. He cleared his throat. "The king is ready for visitors. Come, if we hurry, we might be able to beat the crowd."
Dread tightened Devyn's stomach as he reached for Bride. Once again, she was trembling. By coming here, he had placed their fate in the hands of a fierce king he apparently no longer knew. And all because he'd wanted to do what was right for a female. His female. Last time he'd tried to please a woman, that dark day on his mother's birthday, he'd spent weeks nursing a broken heart.
God only knew what would happen this time.
CHAPTER 23
Dallas didn't even have to knock on the metal door in front of him. Kyrin was already there, standing in the entryway, waiting. Dallas wanted to believe the otherworlder was there because he'd called ahead, which he had, but he knew better. Mia's man was as attuned to Dallas as Dallas was to him.
"I am glad you've come," Kyrin said, shutting the door behind him.
Silent, Dallas strode into the living room. Mia, lounging on the couch, flipped off the TV when she spotted him. He'd never seen her so relaxed. AIR was her life. Well, it had been until Kyrin found her.
She smiled a contented smile. "Took you long enough. Idiot."
His lips curled in response. She'd always been ballsy. "What can I say? I recognize that I need help.”
“You've been using your powers," Kyrin said from behind him.
He nodded. "Not as well as I'd assumed I would, but I've accepted that they're a part of me. That's something, right?""Sit, sit." Kyrin's arm, with pale skin that reminded him of Devyn's Bride, stretched past him, motioning toward the nearest chair.
His nerves were a little raw as he obeyed. Kyrin hadn't meant his words as a command, but that's exactly how Dallas's body took them, planting one foot in front of the other until Dallas was at the chair and easing down.
He faced his audience with narrowed eyes.
"Sorry," Kyrin muttered. The otherworlder settled beside Mia, who snuggled up next to him without shame or hesitation.
Hadn't pegged her for a cuddler. Amazing what love did to people.
"Before you guys begin," Mia said, "why don't you tell us what happened in that clearing. The full story, not the condensed version in your report."
He nodded, grateful for the reprieve. "Yesterday when I pegged Nolan with the night-night cocktail, he passed out, and a woman spoke from behind me. I turned, fell to my knees because my energy was completely drained, and there she was. An angel. There were guards behind her, and I shot them all. Didn't stun them, but killed them. I heard and smelled the sizzle of their flesh."
Dallas drew in a deep breath before continuing. "She promised to come back for me. I could feel the power radiating off her. It was like she had me in a trance. I wanted to shoot her, but I couldn't force my fingers to work. Then she was gone, the men were gone, and Hector was standing over me, telling me I must have imagined it."
The queen was part of the reason he'd finally decided to take Kyrin up on his offer of training, to prepare himself for the day she returned. And he knew, knew, she would return.
Kyrin frowned. He rubbed his smooth jaw with a finger, pensive. "You shot the men, but there was no sign of them when you awoke."
"Right."
"And we were only minutes behind you, so there would have been no time for her to drag them away."
"Right." But she'd been real, damn it.
"She could have walked through the wormhole again," Mia suggested, "taking the men with her." God bless her.
Then Kyrin had to ruin it. "To my knowledge, other-world travel is only possible through solar flares. There wasn't another solar flare after she stepped through."
Dallas's shoulders slumped. "So you're saying I dreamed her, too? Or maybe had a vision of her?”
“It's possible, I suppose. Have you ever seen yourself in a vision?"
He shook his head. "I'm always a shadowy figure. Faceless."
Once again Kyrin tapped a finger against his chin. "You don't see yourself because your decision about what to do hasn't yet been made when you see the future."
"Well, I saw myself clearly in this. I was an active participant."
"I doubt this was a vision, then." With a sigh, Kyrin leaned back on the couch. "Not a hallucination, either. We aren't prone to those. Our minds are too locked on what could happen in the future to give way to fantasies."
One small thing in his favor, at least.
"My best guess is that you spoke to this woman, and she has a power very similar to Nolan's. Not invisibility, because we would have seen her with the infrareds. Perhaps she can travel from one location to another with only a thought. My queen had that ability, as well."
Which would mean that Dallas now had a very powerful enemy. A powerful enemy he was insanely attracted to. A woman who slept with legions of men to save herself, killing them. A woman who had nearly controlled him with the same force Kyrin possessed over him.
A woman who could ruin his entire life, taking everything he loved from him. "We'll have to place you under surveillance," Mia said, "in case she returns."
He gave a reluctant nod. Wouldn't be his favorite thing, being watched constantly, but it was better than the alternative. He didn't trust himself with Nolan's queen.
"Wow," Mia said. "I thought you'd fight me on that one.
"I'm not an idiot. Not all the time," he said, and she laughed. "I understand now how she so entranced Nolan, and why he refused to give her up."
Mia's gaze sharpened on him. "You didn't have sex with her, did you?"
"No." Had she remained, he might have let her seduce him, though, and he didn't like that. Made him feel weak.
"One thing we know. Her powers are vast, to have wiped away any hint of her presence like that," Kyrin said. "But there have been no new reports of the virus, so that is in our favor."
Mia snuggled deeper into her man's side. "When you guys are done with your training, I want a composite made of her."
"That is code for us to get started," Kyrin told him with a grin. "So tell me what brought you to this point."
At this second order, Dallas shifted uncomfortably. "First," he said, "there's Devyn. About a week ago I had a vision of him being murdered at the pier. Then, this morning, that image wiped itself from my mind as though it was no longer a concern."
At the word murder, Mia jolted upright. Probably arming herself mentally and figuring out the best way to watch the pier to save Devyn's ass.
"It's not. Valid, I mean." Kyrin patted her leg, and she gradually returned to his side. "You managed to change the future."
"So not all visions are set in stone?" That was news to him. Every vision he'd had before had come true.
"Not all, no. The more you allow the visions to dance through your mind, the more types of visions you'll receive, and the easier it will be for you to know what is changeable and what is not." Kyrin arched a black brow. "Were you given a new vision to take the other's place?"
"Yes." And the new one had pissed him off as much as the first, though it hadn't been nearly as bleak. "I saw Devyn chained inside a small, dark cage. He was cut up and bleeding. There was murder in his eyes." Worse, Bride had been nowhere to be seen. "There were two men beyond the bars, and they were eyeing him like he was the tastiest treat they'd ever seen."
Clearly, they were vampires. Which meant, to Dallas, that Devyn had gotten—or would get— himself captured by the warrior McKell.
Kyrin's head tilted to the side. "Tell me. Were the edges of this vision as real and colorful as the vision itself? Or were they faded, tapering into nothingness?"
Dallas frowned as he closed his eyes and replayed the scene of Devyn's captivity through his mind. He'd never paid attention to the edges of a vision before, only concentrating on the happenings. His frown deepened when he noticed that the edges were of the solid variety. "No fading. What does that mean?"
There was a regretful sigh. "That means at this point, that vision is not changeable. It will happen, and there's nothing that can be done to stop it. Devyn has already chosen the path that set him on that course and the pieces have already fallen into place."
Damn. How many layers were there to the visions? He'd never had a clue, never suspected there was more to think about than what he was seeing. He'd just thought that what he saw was what was going to happen.
"We've gotta get him out. He doesn't do well in confined spaces. Good news is, I can pinpoint his exact location. He injected himself with the isotope tracker a few weeks ago. Just in case Bride drank from him, he wanted to be able to track her."
Mia's grin returned. "God, I love that isotope. I'm thinking of implementing a Mandatory Injection Monday the first of every third month." She tapped her chin with a blunt-tipped fingernail. "And maybe I'll have everyone we arrest injected, as well. I mean, it's how we finally nailed Nolan. It could save us a lot of time if another escape is ever made."