Eternal Hearts (14 page)

He looked up at the clock and shook his head. It was only a little after Noon. No wonder the woman’s emotions were all over the place. Aside from being hungry all the time, if this was even a semi-regular occurrence, it was amazing she even found the strength to function, let alone maintain control of her beast.

When she jerked and flipped over, her face contorted with agony, an overwhelming but very unfamiliar desire to comfort her welled up inside him. He watched, unsure what to do as tears streamed down her face.

Was some
Ancient
using her dreams against her? Is that why he’d been contracted to protect her?

Don’t do it.
He knew he shouldn’t, but he needed to know who or what was haunting her. Because if indeed it was an Ancient vampire directing her nightmares, they could very well kill her. And he wasn’t about to let that happen.

Not on his watch.

Drake closed his eyes and concentrated on Toni. He relaxed as a shimmer of magic coursed through his body and the darkness slowly mottled, changing to a hazy view of the Chicago skyline. But when the mystical fog cleared, he was confused by what he saw…

He stood in the middle of the street in front of The Rivers Building, not a single other soul in sight. The night air felt slightly warm against his skin, telling him it was late spring or early fall. And if pressed to make a guess, based solely on the decided lack of noise and traffic in the Business District, it had to be a Friday or a Saturday night. Yet nothing appeared out of place, there was nothing that explained why, if this scene truly was what Toni dreamed about, it upset her so much. There was also no hint of any powerful presence other than his.

Drake frowned as he looked around again. Maybe he’d done something wrong. He wasn’t practiced enough with the ability to actually meld his consciousness with hers, but he should at least be able to watch her dream unfold as an invisible spectator.

He closed his eyes and was just about to extract himself from the nightmare that wasn’t, when he caught the faint click of heels falling fast against the pavement. He opened his eyes, listening as the sound grew louder until a tall platinum blonde burst around the corner roughly a hundred yards in front of him. Garbed in a black vinyl cat suit and spiked heels, she easily pushed the bounds of the Veil, moving faster than any human had a right to as she raced towards him.

He studied her for a moment. If he wasn’t mistaken, that was Natasha something-or-other, a fifty some year old Tech who had a reputation for playing with people well above her pay grade. From what he’d heard, she’d put her boney ass directly in the fire a number of times, but for some strange reason she always managed to pull herself out.

She cut to the right just a few feet before she would have collided with him, and then dashed towards the doors leading into The Rivers Building. “Don’t let her in,” she shrieked as a small group of security guards poured from the doors with their weapons drawn. She frantically pointed at something across the street. “If you let her follow me, I swear to God I’ll have your children for dinner!”

Drake turned his head and peered down the shadowed alley he’d used to race Toni to the hotel, just in time to see a dark figure duck behind a sedan parked near the end of it. Not more than a few seconds passed before gunfire erupted all around him. A wave of bullets zipped through his ghostly body; drilling into the car and making it bounce.

It wasn’t until the figure rounded the front of the car with a
Glock
23 clenched tightly in each hand that Drake realized why he was here. Why this scene had been conjured by the nightmares of the very woman he’d been contracted to protect.

The dark figure leveling a pair of semi-automatic weapons at the six human guards standing in front of The Rivers Building…was Toni.

With her fangs clearly visible and her eyes glazed by the beast, gone were the sweet and innocent qualities he’d come to admire. Hatred and rage were all that marked her face as she opened fire, peppering the group of men along with the entire front of the building. The thunder from her gunshots was deafening. The lobby’s frontage popped and shattered, raining glass down on everything and everyone below. The planters on either side of the doors exploded, sending chunks of dirt and shards of broken concrete everywhere.

But Toni didn’t move at all. She stood there, rooted to the pavement, even while five rounds chewed through her long sleeved t-shirt and into her torso. Five rounds, which created five very familiar scars that
still
marred her tanned skin years later.

Drake couldn’t do anything but watch as concentration flashed behind her dark eyes and slowly, one by one, the bullets pushed themselves from her flesh, falling against the street like heavy raindrops.

What could make someone like her…do something like this?

The thought had no more than crawled across his mind when the unmistakable scent of gasoline touched his nose. He stared straight into Toni’s vacant eyes, but he couldn’t tell her what was about to happen, couldn’t warn her.

He couldn’t do anything to change what had already happened.

When the sedan ignited, the force of the explosion threw Toni towards the lobby. She crashed into the sidewalk and let out a bloodcurdling wail as metal, glass and concrete cut deep into her skin, but she didn’t stay down for long. She scrambled to her feet and stared at the ground in utter horror, her eyes moving over each mutilated body as if she were committing their face to memory.

But just when Drake thought she might be coming back, that the real woman had finally broken the animal’s hold, she let loose with a primal roar that said she wasn’t even close to being finished.

He followed close behind as she barreled into the lobby, straight towards the elevators as glass crunched beneath her boots. She stared up at the glowing marker that displayed the number 15 before she slammed the heel of her palm against the up button, shattering the plastic casing.

“Damn it!” Her angry scream echoed through the lobby.

Toni’s head whipped from left to right as her eyes searched for something, but then she burst into a full out run and ripped the door to the stairs off its hinges. At that point, she became nothing more than a dark blur as she disappeared up the staircase.

Drake tapped into his own blood powers and made it to the top floor just before she did. She coughed and sputtered as she came to a stop, her chest heaving as she struggled to breathe.

He frowned when she froze and began sniffing the air around her. Head tipped back like a wild animal, she followed the stench of some disgusting perfume to yet another door. She reached down and squeezed the handle, but let out a growl when it wouldn’t turn.

Of course, a simple locked door had never been known to stop a beast crazed Warrior before, so why should it now?

Toni crashed right through the damn thing, sending splinters of wood everywhere as she raced up yet another flight of stairs at a speed far surpassing anything human.

This time, Drake broke the plane of the roof in exact time with her. She stopped dead and stared out across the desolate rooftop, her eyes narrowed to thin slits. He could only assume she was looking for Natasha, but the gangly blonde was nowhere to be seen.

At least, he couldn’t see her, until Toni spun to her right and Natasha suddenly appeared in plain sight. How she’d done it, he didn’t know, but somehow Toni had managed to pierce the mystical shield the Tech had used to make
herself
invisible.
The very same shield that had kept the nasty smelling bitch hidden from even his powerful eyes.

Surprise fell like a curtain across Natasha’s face as Toni bared her fangs. But when Natasha took a large step back, Toni didn’t move an inch.

“You killed my family!” she roared.

“I did what I was paid to do, Toni. That’s all!”

“My family’s dead because you needed money?”

Drake could barely process the words. Natasha had killed Toni’s family? Why? Techs were known for gathering and selling information to the highest bidder, not assassinations.

Both Natasha’s and Toni’s heads snapped left when rhythmic pounding echoed all around them and the wind picked up. A moment later, a Chicago Police helicopter dropped to a hover near the edge of the roof.

Toni’s face twisted with rage. “If I don’t kill you, I hope Locke does!”

Natasha stepped sideways and made a run for the chopper, but Toni caught her with a wicked kick to the shins. The strength behind the blow completely flipped Natasha’s body. Her forehead scraped the concrete before she landed flat on her back, arms sprawled out at her sides.

Toni instantly moved to stand over her. She glared nothing but hatred down into Natasha’s terrified eyes. However, when Toni opened her mouth to say something, Natasha grabbed her ankles and pulled them out from under her.

The back of Toni’s head smashed into the pavement. She blinked hard over and over as she tried to sit up, but she couldn’t quite complete the necessary motions.

Natasha took the opportunity to crawl towards the helicopter.

Drake couldn’t help but to cheer for his woman when she braced both hands against the concrete on either side of her head, and then kicked herself up to her feet like a little Warrior ninja. In a matter of seconds, she’d caught Natasha by the throat and was dragging her to the edge of the roof. Natasha screeched like a howler monkey as Toni stepped up onto the ledge and roared into the night like a lion with a fresh kill.

Toni’s fingers dug deep into Natasha’s throat right before she extended her arms. She held the dirty bitch at eye level, watching with what looked to be no small amount of satisfaction as the Tech’s spiked heels dangled twenty stories above the ground.

Natasha clung to Toni’s arms. “Don’t do it, Toni. Please!”

Drake heard the rustle of movement in the helicopter still hovering behind Toni, but she didn’t turn around. She just kept staring deep into Natasha’s pale blue eyes.

“Give me one reason not to kill you. They were just humans!”

“It wasn’t personal,” Natasha yelled. “It was just business.”

The beast disappeared from Toni’s wide eyes. Shock relaxed her face and slowly drained down her body. It looked as though she didn’t understand what Natasha had just said, like her mind couldn’t even begin to process the statement.

Drake tensed as the crack of a rifle shot rang out.

Toni’s eyes widened as the high powered round ripped into her back. Pain darkened her features as the warped bullet chewed through her chest and buried into Natasha’s right shoulder.

Natasha bellowed in agony as her grip loosened on Toni’s arms.

Toni tried to draw in a breath, but all that followed was the sick, sucking sound of air escaping the deep wound in her chest. Her body dangerously swayed in what felt like slow motion, and as consciousness slipped from her brown eyes…she let go of Natasha.

Drake pulled himself from Toni’s nightmare when everything went dark and braced a hand against the wall. His heart pounded hard against his ribs and his stomach churned with bile. He squeezed his eyes closed and swallowed a mouthful of fresh air.

What she’d done that night three years ago, every single crime she’d committed, each rule she’d broken – it was all to avenge the death of her human family…

He opened his eyes and stared down at Toni’s beautiful face. He couldn’t hold that against her, and he certainly wouldn’t blame her. Not one bit. Because he knew damn well if the roles were reversed, he’d have done the same thing, if not a million times worse.

However, even for as much as he completely agreed with what she’d done that night, now he understood exactly why Locke had exiled her from the city. If the fight between her and Natasha had started down on Rush Street like Jake said it had, it was amazing Locke hadn’t sentenced Toni to death for breaking the Veil.

Then again, if Locke knew why she’d blazed a trail of destruction through his beloved downtown, which he probably did, he’d most likely exiled her because he didn’t have the heart to kill her for doing the same thing that rumors said he’d done over a thousand years ago in London.