I rubbed my temples and shook my head. "The aura today was red, which means undead—more likely a newborn Vampire or a fledgling five years or younger. The neck was torn and it could be a cover up. The murders are on the front page of every tabloid and newspaper out there. This one feels wrong, like a set-up."
Ryder nodded from where he stood with his back to the wall, his arms folded over his chest in a leisure stance. "The bomb and pattern fits though."
"Yeah, it does. But her throat was ripped out, which is common among the vamps that can't control the feeding urge. The bomb in the last victim made the headlines yesterday. So did the disfigurement of the face of the Fairy. This victim however had no missing parts. Just the skin on her face was missing."
"If you're right that means the real killer has yet to make his move on a Witch to keep his pattern up," Adam said softly.
"Who is guarding Alden?" I asked.
"The Paladin's," Larissa said grinning.
The Paladins were knights that protected Guild leaders and others in the world of supernatural beings, an elite group who could wield magic and enchanted weapons. It's who you called when all hell broke loose, as it just had.
"Who called them in?" I inquired.
"Not sure, but the two Washington Guilds have called in Paladins now. Protocol I guess. Alden said he was recalling, not who though. It's likely they would only call back those who are without coven. It's not likely the killer would go after a full coven since they are stronger together." Larissa finished off with a sad smile.
"It’s going to take them too long to bring them all, which means we will have a new crime scene soon," I winced as I moved my arm causing my side to move and the injury winced from the movement from where it had yet to fully heal. Fae magic took time to work, as it healed from the inside out, sealing the internal organs first.
"You need to rest Syn. We can go through these alone. You've been almost blown up twice now." Adam said as he sat down and allowed me to curl up against him. The glare Ryder gave us was worth it, his eyes narrowed as a possessive glow lit in his molten lava depths.
"I'm not sleeping while someone else dies Adam. According to all these files only Witches and Fae have been the targets. What if it's not just Fae and Witches and the others are doing the same thing we do and keep the problems of our own silent?"
Ryder pushed off the wall and walked towards us before pulling out a chair and flipping it around to face him before he straddled it and set his hands on the back of it. "You think other groups are being victimized and not reporting it?"
"You think they could keep the newspapers from finding out better than we could?" He countered.
"Who do you report it to when dead bodies pile up?" I replied back hiding the wince that threatened to show in my face as I settled in more against Adam's chest.
"We don't report it, we handle our own." He said with a deadly glare leveled right at me.
"Bingo and no one from the Horde reports their deaths now that the Horde King decided to tuck his tail between his legs and go into hiding."
Everyone inside the room stopped and looked directly at me. Ryder's eyes glowed with anger as he narrowed them on me. "I can assure you that the Horde King is not tucking anything, or hiding. He's a busy man and if I were you little Witchy—I'd watch that pretty pink tongue of yours while speaking of him."
I snorted, "He's been gone for years and I’m pretty sure his caste is slinking around fucking shit up while he's gone. He's the King of the Unseelie Ryder, one of the most powerful Fae in the universe and yet not one flipping Fae knows where he went, or why for that matter, so yes, he is missing right now. And while he's gone, his horde is running around leaderless, so who the hell do you think they're reporting it to while he is gone? No one, instead they're handling it by themselves. Hell for all we know it could be him running around in lipstick killing people!"
Thirteen male's growled in unison. The sound alone was enough to make the hair on my neck stand up straight.
"You think the King of the Horde is out prancing around wearing lipstick while he implants bombs inside body cavities?" Ryder asked with his sexy little smirk plastered on his full mouth.
I considered it, tipping my head off of Adam briefly before letting the air from my lungs on a soft sigh. "No, rumor says he can blow people up without bombs. He's one scary SOB. But my point was, his people are left without a leader while he's gone. They have no one to report to if they have any problems and they're Unseelie, the Darkest Fae. They wouldn’t ask for help, ever."
"That I can believe, I wouldn’t tell anyone else that you think the Horde King prances, or wears lipstick."
Somewhere, some place, someone was dying and I could feel it. "We have to figure this out, comb through these and find out what is connecting these victims. A place they go, or hell I don’t know a dating site maybe?"
Ryder laughed and the sound vibrated through me making my body respond in ways it shouldn’t have been able to after almost being blown up twice in two days. His face changed from hard lines to smooth and almost playful and I wondered what he would look like if he was making love to me…
His eyes flashed with heat as the thought occurred inside my head making me lose my train of thought, which was probably for the best. I needed to dig up more info on the details of the contract, ones that wouldn’t be common knowledge via Google. I was beginning to think he could tell when my thoughts tilted towards the gutter—and I was damn good at shielding my mind from everyone, but him.
Yet his eyes were damning, ancient ones that if you looked too long in them you could get lost inside their dangerous depths and never find your way out again. I shivered in Adam's arms. It didn’t go unnoticed by him or Ryder who awarded me a roguish grin.
"If your cold Syn, I can grab you another blanket," Adam said against my ear.
"If she's cold, I can take her to bed," Ryder injected smoothly, his smile still in place.
"I'm fine," I snapped too sharply which caused Ryder to widen his grin to a radiant smile. I melted further against Adam as if he could protect me from Ryder. It was futile. I don’t think anything could save me from the Dark Prince now.
Sixteen
We poured through the files for hours and found nothing. It was horrifying to find out that these murders had been happening for a little over a year. Alden had known about them and kept me out of the loop on purpose. Everyone was locking down, even Alden. Ryder was on the same page as the Paladins and wouldn’t let us out of his house in case we had made the hit list.
As if, I had a huge reputation for being damn good at killing those who needed it. I'd been great at puzzles—when they weren't missing most of their pieces that is. This one had so many missing that it was hard to tell which pieces fit and where they should be placed. I had grabbed several file folders and retreated to my room to look over them with as little distraction as possible—or one big distraction.
"Coming down to go swimming?" Larissa asked with a bright smile on her strawberry red lips.
I looked up from the pile of folders and shook my head. "Too much work to do, go have fun with your boy toy—which we still need to talk about Larissa."
She dropped her smile as she folded her arms across her white knitted bikini top. "You had Adrian Syn. You loved him enough to chance hurting the coven. Why should you get to be the only person to be happy?"
I rolled my eyes, "Adrian is dead, so if you have a point to make do it. I don't want to talk about him right now besides, you have no idea how much shit Adrian and I took from the Guild about our relationship."
"You got a chance to be happy with Adrian. We deserve to be happy too. Yes, this might be a huge mistake, I get that, but it's mine to make Syn and mine alone. If you could get over Adrian maybe you could see that others pine over you, hell Rex was in love with you and you didn’t even know the poor guy existed! Get over Adrian already, we buried him in the cold ground years ago. You need to go dig up your heart because I'm pretty fucking
sure you buried it in that box with him." She spun around on her heels and left the room in quick angry steps.
I exhaled. Maybe she was right, maybe I was the Ice Queen, frozen in time since the moment I fought to gain Adrian's soul and lost it like I had my parents. He'd been everything, if I faltered he'd held me up, but it was so much more than that.
Like Adam, he was one of the people I could run to when I had to get away from everything. He would hold me through the tears, even though he had been through hell too. He would sing to me and he'd taught me to dance in the rain when I thought I couldn’t even smile anymore. When we'd grown closer and became teenagers everything had changed.
We'd gone from friends to lovers at seventeen and told each other how we'd get married and have beautiful babies, but I'd lost him to my pride, cockiness that seems to be part and parcel of practicing the Dark Arts, which we'd both been introduced to by Alden since we'd been the top of our class. Everything had gone downhill from there.
Larissa was right. I was stuck living in the past. Carrying around the scars of things I couldn’t fix. Couldn’t overcome.
"She was harsh," Ryder said from the doorway that led to the connecting rooms.
I glared at him before staring back down at the piles of paper that were strewn unceremoniously over the red sheets of silk. "Ever heard of knocking?"
"Not when I own the room," he said pushing off the frame to come further into the room. His long strides bringing him easily to where I sat in gym shorts and a tank top that said "Try me" across the front of it. "They found another body."
My eyes locked with his. "Why are we talking then? We should be looking for clues before it blows up."
"Not likely Synthia, you have come close to death twice now in less than two days. I won't chance a third, we're going to go talk to the Vampires tomorrow night. See if they have had any unexplained murders, or if they have committed any and tried to cover it up."
"You have no sway over the Vampires, they could get seriously pissed if we go there asking questions."
"Not if we enter someone in one of the many contests they run over at the Nightshade it's a club that Vlad runs."
"Uh, Vlad…as in Vlad freaking Tepesh. As in freaking Dracula himself. Great idea, good luck with that." I wasn’t an idiot. Vlad loved to bite and I wasn’t into it. I had also heard he was skilled in the art of killing anyone with a beating pulse which I had.
"He won't kill you. Not if you leave the necklace on while you take everything else…off." His eyes slid down my body slowly, covering each inch with leisure. I could feel heat in every inch he took in, as if his hands were caressing my skin instead of only his eyes.
"Stop looking at me like that!" I blurted before I could think better of it.
"Why? Does it make you uncomfortable Synthia? Make you ache in certain places?" He smiled wickedly. "Good."
"You're looking at me like I'm a freaking Scooby Snack."
His lips twitched as he held in a laugh. I wanted to hear him laugh and it shocked me more than it should have. Maybe a dunk in a cold pool wasn’t such a bad idea after all, but then I'd be intruding in whatever the two love birds were indulging in.
"You buried your heart with your lover?" His change of subject was giving me whiplash today.
"Love is for idiots, it's just something people think they need." I griped fed up with hearing about Adrian.
"Love is, but souls meeting and connecting isn't. I wonder Pet…did he touch your soul?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I snapped.
"It means did he look inside your blue eyes and touch you inside. Love is more than just feeling something Syn, it's the connection of two souls that intertwine and cannot be without the other. It's not just saying you love someone, its showing them with every fucking breath you take, every look. It just is, simple as that. That kind of love doesn't die. It withers the soul without the other to keep it alive. Eventually, it turns you bitter and cynical."
"You tell that to all the girls?" I snapped. His words made a lump form in my throat; I wanted that kind of love. But I’d be damned if I admitted it to him.
His teeth flashed as his smile faltered. "Destiny doesn’t ask you if you want it Syn, it just forces it into your lap and you deal with it. In the meantime, you should find something to wear to impress Vladimir, he's into tight bodies and blondes with spunk. So naturally, you get to strip your clothes for the Undead King, unless you want me to send Larissa in?"
"You know this could go very wrong in so many ways Ryder."
He nodded his dark head before sitting in the chair and throwing his feet up on the bed and crossing them low at the ankles in a lazy pose as his hands covered over his lap. He was once again wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and casual jeans which made him look almost human if you could get past those devastating eyes.
I gave him a questioning look as he watched me. "Practice time, find something sexy and short."
"As if, I am not taking my clothes off in front of you!" I bellowed coming up to my knees on the bed as I started to scoot backwards off of it.
"So change in the bathroom, I need to approve of the outfit. You have yet to abide by any of the terms inside the contract besides sleeping where I want you. It's time to prove how willing you are to get out of this contract you hate so much."
I wanted to wipe that self-assured smirk off his lips, with my fist. Instead I got up and stopped abruptly. "I don’t own anything short, besides actual shorts and I can only hold the full glamour for a few hours or so before it drains me too much…it’s an illusion you can feel, but if I have to strip it’ll be useless.”
"Are you asking for money to buy clothes, Synthia?" He inquired smiling still, amused by my outrage.
"Nope, we can leave the tags on it and return it when we're done," I smiled back. No way in hell was I owing him more than I could pay back with my measly paycheck.
He brought his laced fingers behind his head and awarded me with a wicked smirk. "You truly are the most infuriating woman on this planet."
"I'm sure I'm close. I don’t need any handouts and I will not leave here owing you a damn thing. I don’t need to be kept and I'm not some fucking plaything you can dress up and show off Ryder. I'm a damn good enforcer, top of my class at the Guild. Show me someone who needs to die. And I will make it happen, I'll bury the fucker six feet deep and no one will know the why or who of it—but I am not arm candy!" I was shouting with my fist balled up on my hips when I finished.
"You won't owe me anything, the only way you will get inside the club will be if you impress the bouncers who know their lords taste in women. So I will send Claire out to get you a dress, size 5?" His eyes skimmed over me slowly, ravenously.
"Yes," I wondered how he knew what size I was from just looking at me, but then he'd probably dressed—and more the point undressed thousands of females. And Claire who? Not that I would be asking him, since I wanted to scream right now.
"You will dance for me, so I know you can do it when it's time," he answered smoothly.
"No. Freaking. Way."
His lips twisted up, "Okay, then Larissa can do the job. She's to his taste as well and she does not seem to argue as much as you do Synthia."
I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I wouldn’t let Larissa do this. She was too sweet to go into a nest of vipers like the vamps. She'd more than likely pass out at the first sight of Vlad. I opened my eyes to catch his sparkling with interest.
"When and where?"
"My room, now," he purred.
My body responded instantly. It disturbed me on so many different levels that I was getting mental whiplash from it. "I am not coming to your bedroom, not willingly. Ever."
"Is that so?" He moved silently as he stood up towering over me. This man was carnal, his beauty mixed with a frightening twinge that left me boneless. "I could force you in, or you can walk. The choice is yours. Decide now."
His eyes slid down to meet mine, challenging me, daring
me to say no. I opened my mouth to do just that but the words I wanted to say didn’t come out. Instead I stood there with my mouth open as his eyes burned with his need to feed. "I'll dance for you Ryder, but that doesn’t mean I'm on the menu."
"You think someone like you could feed me Synthia? I'm the Dark Prince. I need more than some little itchy Witch with a big mouth for dinner."
Ouch! I wasn’t sure why his words made my stomach hurt and plummet to my feet but the fact that it did bothered me. "Good."
"Fifteen minutes, I want to see skin," his eyes slide to my shorts as I bit my bottom lip waiting for him to say more. "I'll have Claire bring you something for now. If you can manage to impress me I won't ask Larissa to go to Nightshade."
Claire came in a short time later, all leggy, beautiful and impossibly Fae. Her long blonde hair the perfect shade of platinum, with milk chocolate eyes the perfect shade as well. She was incredibly beautiful and friendly.
She was overly excited about helping me dress, almost to the point of annoyingly so. I held my tongue and allowed her to give me any advice that would keep Larissa from having to do anything with Ryder, or Vlad Tepesh.
Seventeen
Ryder's room was in the lower level of the house, on the ground floor, larger than his room back at the Dark Fortress and more sadistic. He had chains hanging from the ceiling and some sort of chair set up that I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know what it was used for.
The bed was as big as the other's I'd seen, easily fitting a full out orgy party. Black silk sheets covered it invitingly like a tractor beam to catch and hold you within its smooth clutches. I'm sure they were a distraction for what he did to the women who ended up in it.
I stood barefooted and alone inside his room. Claire had manifested a skirt that barely covered my ass and the shirt was barely made with enough material to cover my breasts—which she had suggested that I go braless in order to get more of a reaction from Ryder.
It was idiotic to do this, hell it was suicide to make a Fae want you sexually and yet here I was in nothing but a hookers outfit with no panties on! My head was telling me to get out even as my hormones demanded I give in and make him want me and oh so much more. I reached back for the doorknob when I felt his eyes on my skin.