Reaper, happily faking his state of unconsciousness, hadn't realized anything was wrong until Briar's anguished shriek split his eardrums. And by the time he reacted, the car was already airborne and his grab for the wheel to try to right it was completely useless.
He glimpsed Briar as the car sailed through the night, her head bent forward, her eyes squeezed tight against her tears, her teeth bared in a grimace of pain, hands in a white-knuckled grip on the wheel. She'd opened her eyes briefly, glowing red and meeting his, insane with agony, just before the car hit a tree halfway down the side of an embankment, nose first.
His body snapped forward so hard that it felt as if the seat belt had torn his shoulder from its socket. And then...sudden stillness. Grimacing, Reaper lifted his head and reached down to undo the seat belt, even while blinking his vision into focus and looking for Briar.
Panic set in when he realized she wasn't there. She wasn't behind the wheel. She wasn't in her seat.
Shit, she hadn't put her seat belt back on!
"Briar!" Reaper wrenched his door open and got out of the car. He was hurting but not bleeding. And he was only slightly weakened from her earlier attack. He'd pretended to pass out, knowing she wouldn't stop until he did. And he'd thought himself pretty damn clever, too, when she'd begun talking to him, revealing secrets as if he couldn't hear, when he was listening the entire time.
But if he hadn't been faking her out, he might have seen this coming.
He noted with a wince that the windshield was blown out and realized that Briar had likely sailed through it. He climbed over some brush and finally spotted her. She was lying in a shallow stream just beyond the tree they'd hit. Running forward, he slid his hands beneath her body and lifted her.
"Briar. Hey, come on. Wake up."
She didn't. Just lay there, limp in his arms. He trudged out of the water, searching in vain for someplace to go, someplace to take her. She was soaking wet, though he didn't smell blood or sense her life force ebbing.
"Dammit, Briar, wake up and talk to me."
He found a dry spot on the grassy hillside littered in fallen leaves and dandelions, and laid her down, then bent over her, examining her more closely. Her face was bruised and scratched. Her hands and arms, as well, but there were no deep cuts, no injuries that looked serious enough to threaten a vampire's life.
He cupped her cheeks in his palms. "Briar!"
Her lashes fluttered and then, slowly, her eyes opened, but she quickly squeezed them tight again. "I can't. It hurts."
"What hurts?" he demanded.
"My head. God, my head." She lifted trembling hands and pressed them to either side of her eyes.
"Did you hit it in the crash?"
Eyes still squeezed tight, she shook her head very slightly from side to side. "It was before. It's what caused the crash. It's Crisa. Dammit, it's Crisa."
She furrowed her brows as her eyes parted to tear-filled slits. "What's happening to her, Reaper? What's hurting her this way?"
"I don't know. But we're damn well going to find out." He smoothed her hair away from her forehead. "Can you see anything about where she is?"
She closed her eyes again, tried to focus, but he could see that the effort intensified the pain. "She's riding with someone. I can see the headlights, the road... wait...they're stopping."
"Is there anything around them? Any landmarks that might tell us where she is?"
"She's going north."
"I know, but-"
"She's getting out. The car's driving away, leaving her there. It has Connecticut plates."
"Good. Good, that's helpful."
She nodded. "She's walking now. Her head hurts, too, and her vision is blurring from the pain. She's crying, Reaper. And she's weak. God, we have to help her."
"We will. We will. Just try to stay with her a little bit longer. What do you see?"
"It's a highway. It looks just like every other highway in the freaking-" She broke off there, and her brows drew together in a tight frown. "There's a sign."
"What does it say?"
"Byram," she whispered. "It says Byram." Her face relaxed, and she released a long, staggering breath. When her eyes opened, they seemed clearer. "What's Byram?"
"Not the boy's name, apparently. I didn't put it together before. It's a town in Connecticut." He helped her as she tried to sit up.
"Is the pain easing?"
"Yeah. Mine is, anyway. The connection is broken. It's getting harder and harder to maintain it." She rubbed her temples, took a few breaths. "Why is she going there, Reaper? What do you know about the place? What the hell is in Byram that could be exerting this kind of pull over her?"
He shook his head slowly. "I only know two things about Byram. One is that it's the former home of Eric Marquand, though he abandoned his house there years ago, once the government learned of its existence."
"That could be no more than coincidence," she said. "What's the other?"
"It's where my former boss lives."
She lifted her head, brows raised, staring at him. "Your former boss...in the CIA?"
"Yeah. And that seems a little bit too coincidental." He lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Briar. But I think there's a pretty good chance Derrick Dwyer is using Crisa to get to me. Somehow, he's done something to lure her there, knowing I'll follow."
"How?"
"I'm about to find out." He pulled a cell phone from his pocket, flipped it open and scrolled through a list until he found the number he sought. It was saved under the initials DD.
Derry's cell phone woke Matt up with its ringing. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand. One-thirty in the morning. He opened his eyes wide, his heart jumping into his chest, as he bounded from his bed, ran to Derry's which was completely blocking the bedroom door, and shook the man hard.
Derry opened his eyes. He was still hurting, Matt could tell. They'd met up with some woman earlier, and she'd done a pretty good job of patching him up, even giving him some pain pills, all without asking any questions. But she'd been looking at Matt oddly the whole time. After they'd left her apartment, Matt had asked Derry who she was, and he'd said, "A colleague. One I trust. That's all you need to know."
Bleary-eyed now, Derry blinked Matt into focus.
"Your phone's ringing. Be careful, it's probably my dad. If he finds out where we are..."
Derry came fully awake and reached for the cell phone, which was on the bed beside him. He made a shushing motion, finger to his lips, glanced at the screen and read the words there. Private Caller, He frowned, flipped it open and said, "Dwyer."
Matt sat down on the floor close to him, closed his eyes and opened his mind. He had to be careful not to let on what he was doing. It would be better if he never let Derry find out about his gift. But he sighed in relief when he heard the voice on the other end and knew immediately that it was not his father.
"It's been a long time," the voice said.
Matt opened his eyes to glance at Derry, and saw the surprise in his face.
"Reaper? Dammit, I've been turning over every rock in the country trying to find you. Where are you?"
"I'm tracking a friend of mine who's in trouble. But you know that, don't you?"
"I don't have a clue what you're talkin' about."
Even without his skills, Matt would have been able to tell Derry was lying.
The man on the phone could tell, too. He said, "Then I've got no reason to talk to you. 'Bye, Derrick."
"Wait! Wait. Okay, I know. You're talkin' about the girl. Crisa, right?"
"What the hell have you bastards done to her?"
Derry sighed. "Have the headaches started yet?"
"If you can call them headaches, you could call a hurricane a stiff breeze. She's in hell. What did you do to her, Dwyer?"
"Nothin' I can't undo, if I can get to her in time."
"And what do you want in return?"
"I'll tell you that when you get here. Where are you?"
"I-95, border of Maryland and Jersey."
"You can make it tonight, then."
"Not without a car, I can't, and ours is embracing a tree at the moment."
"I'll take care of that. I'll make a call and have a car waitin' for you at the rental agency in town. I'm assumin' you can make it that far."
The man Derry called Reaper was quiet for a long moment. Then, finally, he said, "All right. Okay. I'll come in. But if this some kind of a trick, Dwyer, I swear..."
"I've always been on your side, Reaper. I've never pulled a fast one on you, you know that."
"You never used to be the kind of man who would abuse an innocent to get what he wanted, either. I don't trust you anymore."
"Then trust this," Derry said. "I've got a much bigger priority here than bringin' you back into the fold for deprogrammin'. I've got a rogue on my hands, Reaper."
"One you created and turned loose on the world. This is all your doing."
"The agency's. Not mine. I was against this project from the beginnin'. But I have to put an end to it before any more people die. And I need your help to do it."
"I've been hunting Gregor anyway, for reasons of my own."
"Trust me, that's all I want from you right now. You have my word, I won't try to take you in. You can trust me on that."
"You want my trust?"
"I know it's askin' a lot."
"Tell me where he is, then. Where is Gregor?"
Derry shifted his glance toward Matt, so Matt pretended not to be paying attention. "He's here, in Byram."
There was a sigh. Matt thought the guy didn't believe Derry. Then he said, "You don't need to use Crisa to get me there, Dwyer. I'm coming in. Whatever it is you're doing to her head, stop it."
"I can't do that until she gets here. But when she does, I promise, I'll take care of it." He sighed. "That's the best I can do, Reaper."
"We'll be there by dawn. But we'll be holing up for the day."
"I can offer you shelter."
"I'll feel safer resting where you can't find me, so don't bother trying. I'll meet you after sunset."
"All right. Call me then and I'll give you the address. Are you, um... are you comin' alone?"
"Yes. I'm coming alone." But Matt got the clear feeling that he wasn't.
Reaper hung up the phone, got to his feet and reached a hand down for Briar. She ignored it and got up on her own. "Did you gel all that?" he asked.
She nodded. "All except why you're trusting this jerk. And why you told him you were coming alone."
"I'm trusting him because I don't have a choice. We have to get to Crisa."
"And Gregor," she said, lowering her eyes. "He's there, too."
"If Dwyer's telling the truth, yes."
She nodded.
"I'm going to kill him, you know. Whether you end up hating me tor it or not, it's what needs to be done,"
She met his eyes, held them for a long moment and decided not to tell him that her only objection to that plan was that she would prefer to do the killing herself. And she intended to. But if believing she still had some twisted up feelings for Gregor would keep Reaper at arm's length for the remainder of their time together, it was for the best that he keep on believing it.
"You were faking before," she said. "In the car you pretended to lose consciousness when I took your blood."
"If I hadn't, you'd have kept drinking until I lost it for real. I thought it would be best."
She nodded.
"That wasn't very nice of you, Briar. Trying to knock me out."
"I'm not a very nice person. Or haven't you figured that out yet?"
They began walking, heading for the nearby town where Dwyer had promised a car would be waiting. He didn't reach for her hand again. She told herself she was glad.
"You wanted to stop me from trying to see through the mask you wear. From probing your mind with mine."
"I wanted to shut you up."
"You screwed yourself over, though. You know that, right?"
She frowned and sent him a disgusted look. "I don't know any such thing."
"No? Stop walking for a minute."
She stopped walking, unsure where he was going with this. "We don't have time for another round, cowboy."
"Just stand still for a minute," he said. So she did. And there was silence, aside from the breeze and the passing traffic every now and then. "Now close your eyes and open your senses."
She closed her eyes, opened her senses. And she felt a heartbeat. It was strong and steady, and it wasn't her own, yet it seemed to beat in synch with her pulse.
"I live inside you now, Briar. You drank me into you. Do you feel me there?"
She did. And it suffused her with a mixture of warmth, sexual desire and panic. She popped her eyes open. "I don't feel a damn thing."
"Liar." His cell phone rang, and she started walking again, thanking the fates for the distraction and picking up the pace. The lights of town were in sight now. They were nearly there.
"Hey, Roxy," he said, as he flipped it open. "You can call the others. I have it on good authority that Gregor is in Connecticut."
"Well his drones aren't," Roxy said.
"What do you mean?"
"Seth and Vixen are surrounded by the bastards. They're gathered around the place where they took shelter for the night. Same story with Jack and Topaz."
"Are they all right?"
"Yeah, so far. The drones are just standing there, watching, so they can't leave. So far they haven't made a move to attack or anything else. They're just... lurking."
He lowered his head, sighing in frustration. "Crisa's condition is getting worse, and Briar's along with it. I talked to Dwyer, and the CIA is involved, too. They know something about this-are behind it, I think. I have to keep going, Roxy."
"I think that's what Gregor wants you to do. And he wants you to do it alone. Raphael, is there any chance this Dwyer character is working with Gregor to get you back into CIA hands? I mean, that was the original plan, wasn't it?"
"It's possible. It's even probable. I don't have a choice here, Roxy. Crisa's condition, whatever the hell is causing it, is getting worse."
Roxy sighed. "I'm assuming you know that because Briar's symptoms are worsening, as well."
"Yeah. It's getting bad."
"Do what you need to do, then. We can come up with a plan to deal with the drones ourselves. If Gregor's only goal is to keep the others from rushing td your side, then he has no reason to order the drones to attack. If he just wants to keep the rest of the gang where they are until this is finished, they should be fine."
"I don't like them being surrounded by night, knowing those thugs could move in on them at any time, but if you're going to get them out, it needs to be covert, Roxy. Don't engage. You're outnumbered. I'll get to all of you as soon as I can. And call me if there's any change."
"All right."
He hung up. And then he was moving faster than Briar was. "We need to get on with this. The gang's in trouble."
"So I heard."
He shot her a look. "Listening in?"
"Not on purpose," she said, "though I would have. I just...I didn't have to."
"We're bound now. The blood is the bond. Do you understand what that means?" he asked.
"It means the sex is going to be even better next time. Aside from that, not a damn thing."
He shook his head, but she felt the rush of desire that shot through him at her words. Yeah. She was still in control here. She could handle him.
She just wasn't certain she could handle what was happening to her. It was bad enough that she'd become sick with worry about Crisa, the crazy little pain in the ass. Now she was feeling an odd and unfamiliar rush of emotion regarding the others. The too-rich-for-her-own-good princess, Topaz; the cocky young fledgling, Seth; the odd little shape-shifter, Vixen. And Jack.
Jack had been the closest thing she'd had to a friend in her entire life.
She'd tried to chalk up her worry for Crisa to the bond formed between them from sharing blood when Crisa's life had been ebbing away. But that didn't explain why she was worried about the rest of the white-hats. There was a fire forming in her blood, urging her to rush to them, to vent her rage on the hordes of drones, to get the gang out of harm's way. And that made no sense whatsoever. Since when did she risk herself for anyone but herself?
She was honestly torn. As they walked in the open, along the road that led into the nearest town, and veered off toward the car rental agency, she turned to Reaper. "Let's get two cars. I'll take one and keep searching for Crisa. You take the other and head to the nearest airport, then fly out to help your band of do-gooders before they get themselves dead."
He stopped walking in the middle of the parking lot. "You care about them."
"I'm just trying to be practical."
He shook his head. "Look, whatever Dwyer is up to, it's about me. He's not going to give up whatever hold he has over Crisa until he gets what he wants, and it's not you, Briar."
She lifted one brow, tipping her head to one side. "Hell, all men want me. He just hasn't seen me yet."
Reaper smiled just a little. "And once you get Crisa?"
"I'll bring her with me and join you to help the others. Unless you've already rescued them by then."
He pursed his lips, nodded slowly. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"What?"
"Gregor," he said. "Interesting."
They went inside, spoke to a man who asked no questions whatsoever, just acknowledged that yes, their car was waiting, handed them the keys and pointed them to a cherry-red Jeep Cherokee in the parking lot.
They got in, and drove onward, crossing into Connecticut with an hour to go before dawn.
Roxy waited until just before sunrise to phone Jack. He picked up on the first ring.
"Good," she said. "You're still alive,"
"Yeah. The drones are still just standing out there, watching us. It's creepy, Rox. Topaz is a nervous wreck. Her fight-or-flight instinct has her jumping at every shadow. I don't know how much more of this we can take."
"Yeah, well, help's on the way."
"Reaper?"
"No. Ilyana, Mirabella and me. Reaper can't get away, and I don't have time to explain, because you'll be dead to the world in a few minutes. Just tell me where you're sleeping and how to get in."
"Where are you?"
"Five miles from Oklahoma City."
"Roxy, this is dangerous. You don't know what the hell you're up against, whether the drones are alone, or whether Gregor has managed to give them talents we don't know about."
"I'm armed and dangerous, pal. Don't waste your breath. Tell me where you're sleeping and leave the place unlocked so I can get inside. Okay?"
"Be careful, Roxy."
"Better tell that to the drones, kid."
Twenty minutes after sunrise, Roxy and Ilyana were driving very slowly over the rutted dirt track that led to the house Jack had described. Mirabella was once again sleeping in the hidden compartment beneath the van's customized rear section, safe from the sun. They didn't speak, were almost holding their breath as they got closer. Ilyana stared, wide-eyed, out the side window, scanning every tree and bush they passed. Roxy did the same, her vision straining so hard she was giving herself a headache.
The sun had crested the horizon, and she was banking on the fact that vampires, even Gregor's drones, couldn't withstand sunlight. They had to have taken shelter. Somewhere.
As far as she knew.
"I don't see any of them," Ilyana said.
"They'd be toast if they tried to stop us."
"You hope. Roxy, you know what Gregor is capable of." Roxy glanced at her companion, saw the fear in her eyes. "If he's somehow made nice with the agency, if they're helping him again, there's no telling what he might have done. We already know he can seal off a room or an entire building to prevent mental communication between vampires. We know he seems to have an endless supply of drones to fight his battles for him, and that they obey without question."
"But even drones can't go out by day."
"As far as we know. We learned in Mexico that there's a drug that can enable vampires to remain awake by day. What if Gregor got hold of it?"
"Awake by day is one thing. Even awake, the sun kills them, Ilyana. They can't hurt us."
"Unless he-or the CIA's science lab-found a way to solve that problem, as well."
Roxy swallowed hard. As much as she'd been trying to reassure Ilyana, she knew the beanpole platinum-blonde was right.
Anything was possible.
"Let's try to think positive, okay? Hey, at least we kept those sunproof body bags from the last skirmish in Mexico. I knew those damned things would come in handy."
The house was in front of them now. It was a ramshackle building, listing badly to one side, old worn clapboards free of any hint of paint. "That Jack. He really knows how to pick accommodations, doesn't he?"
Ilyana smiled just a bit. "I think he could care less about his surroundings, as long as he's with Topaz. And she feels the same way about him, so... "
"Yeah." Roxy swung the van around in a loop, then backed up to the front door. "All right, here's the plan. I'll take the first body bag inside, zip Topaz into it, haul her butt back out here and toss her into the back, then take the second bag back for Jack. You sit behind the wheel and keep the engine running."
Ilyana met her eyes and shook her head slowly. "You can't carry either of them alone. You might be able to drag Topaz, but it'll be faster if we work together."
Ilyana made sense. "I was thinking at least one of us could get away, if the drones somehow manage to attack."
"I know what you were thinking." Then Ilyana shrugged. "Look, these...people have been good to me. I know I've been ungrateful, fearful of them, never trusted them, but I owe them. I need to do this."
"No one blames you for being afraid of vampires. Not after what Gregor put you through."
Ilyana lowered her eyes, clearly unwilling to discuss what had happened during her time as her former husband's captive and slave. "Let's get on with this."
With a nod, Roxy climbed from the front seat into the back, making her way all the way to the rear. She grabbed a body bag on the way, then waited for Ilyana to join her, carrying the second one.
After peering out the windows and seeing nothing and no one, Roxy opened the van's rear doors, and got out. She'd parked so close that the open doors nearly touched the house on either side of the front door, forming a sort of hallway. Roxy tried the doorknob, and it opened with only a bit of protest. The hinges creaked, making her wince and look around, in fear of having been heard.
There was no movement. She met Ilyana's eyes. The other woman nodded, and the two of them went inside.
It took very little effort to find Jack and Topaz, lying close together in a side room, its windows covered in broken shutters, nailed-up boards, and scraps of ratty fabric. They were lying on the dirty floor, and they looked like a pair of corpses. Pale, still, cold to the touch.
"I'll never get over how dead they seem when they rest," Roxy said, spreading her body bag beside Jack and unzipping it.
"How would we even know if they were?" Ilyana asked. "I mean, if they had been murdered, then laid out here like this, how would we know?"
"When they didn't wake up at sundown, I guess." Roxy rolled Jack's body into the bag, then maneuvered his long legs into place, while Ilyana was doing the same, with far less effort, to Topaz. Once they had the vampires secured, they zipped the bags tight.
Ilyana rose. "Okay, let's do this, then."
"Here goes nothing," Roxy said. She got on one end of Jack's bag, Ilyana on the other, and they lifted it. Between them, they managed to carry his body to the door and heft it into the van. Roxy quickly rolled him to one side and gave a look around, and then they rushed back inside for Topaz.
There was a sound, something moving through the nearby forest, as they shoved Topaz into the van. Roxy stiffened, then clambered in quickly, nearly stepping on the body bags. She clasped Ilyana's hand and pulled her inside, then dove for the front seat.
"Close the doors-fast. We're out of here!" She jerked the van into gear even as she heard the rear doors slam, and they bounded over the drive. Roxy kept her eyes shifting in search of attack. But all she saw was a buck, leaping a pile of deadfall and vanishing into the brush.
And then they hit a paved road, and she breathed again.
"We did it!" Ilyana reached forward to clap Roxy on the shoulder. "We pulled it off. We're like superheroes or something."
"Yeah, two down, two to go. I'm going to put up the sun shields on those rear windows, Ilyana. If you can manage it, unzip the bags and get them out. We're going to need the bags empty to rescue Seth and Vixen."
"Can we make it to them before sunset?"
"It's only a couple of hours south. We've got plenty of time."
She hoped.