Hunter's Rise (23 page)

It made sense— of course, that was part of the problem. He was making sense, he was easy, or easy enough, to work with. And damn it, they were spinning their wheels.

“Fine,” she muttered. “But it’s just for tonight.”

He smiled at her. The light glinted off his eyes, making them impossible to read. But still, it was enough to send a shiver down her spine.

“S

HIT.
How many dancers does he
have
?”

Sylvia was
tired
. Vamps weren’t prone to headaches but she felt like her head was about to split into a hundred pieces.

A hand came up, brushed against the nape of her neck. “He rotates between twenty or so. Most of them are going to school and shit and he watches their hours. We’ve only got one more.”

“Twenty?” She frowned at him. “I’ve only seen thirteen.” Thirteen— had to pry open thirteen minds, hold them steady and then release them. No wonder her head was killing her. This was more mind-twisting shit than she was used to.

“I talked to some earlier while you slept.” He shrugged as they jogged down the steps and headed north.

“You talked to some earlier.” Narrowing her eyes, she caught his arm and glared at him. “I thought we were working this
together
.”

“We are.” Toronto crossed his arms over his chest, his blue eyes glinting with something that just might have been the edge of temper.

She stared right back.
Come on, wolf.

“You had to sleep. I rested for two hours— that’s all I needed. Did you want me to twiddle my thumbs and pretend we’re not trying to find a killer?”

“Smart-ass.” She started to walk once more, long angry strides. What if he’d found him? Would he have…

“I would have tied his sick ass up and delivered him to you,” Toronto said quietly. “I made you a promise. I don’t plan on breaking it if I can help it.”

“Wow.” She rolled her eyes and muttered, “
That
is reassuring.”

“You want guarantees, and I can’t promise them. For all we know, the bastard is dead in a ditch somewhere— and if he is, I hope something ripped his dick off and choked him with it first. But if we find him alive, I plan on keeping my end of the deal.”

Stopping on the sidewalk to look at him, she studied his face. That pretty, pretty face with those impossibly blue eyes. “Okay, then. Let’s finish this up.”

“Y

OU.”
The boy was the last one on Toronto’s list, and the minute Toronto had appeared on his step, he looked nervous. “I’ve seen you.”

Toronto lifted a brow. “Yeah? I hear that. Maybe I got a familiar-looking face.”

Sylvia bit back a snort at that. He had the most
un
familiar face she’d ever seen. When the dancer looked at her, she smiled.

He didn’t bother smiling in return, just shifted his gaze back to Toronto. “No. You’ve been at the club. I’ve seen you talking to one of the guys there. He’s scared of you.”

This isn’t going well.
Sylvia had no doubt Toronto was picking up on the kid’s fear the same as she was— if he had too much fear, she’d never be able to grab his mind without damaging him. Fear left marks. Pushing in front of the were, she caught the kid’s eyes— shit. He wasn’t a kid, not really. But she had a hard time looking at him and thinking
adult
.

Especially as that fear grew larger, and larger…

“Hey, we’re not here to cause you any problems. We just need to find somebody,” she said. When he looked back at her, she reached out, caught his mind, but gently.
Calm down… we’re not going to hurt you. Calm down…

Just a little of the fear receded. Somebody had done a number on him.

Reaching inside her pocket, she pulled out the picture of Pulaski. “We need to find this guy. Do you know him?”

At the very first look, his face went white. And he started to scream.

“S

HIT.
”

“Yeah.” They stood outside, watching as an ambulance drove away.

The man had shattered. One look at Pulaski’s picture and he had broken. Now he was being taken away, his mother in the ambulance with him as he lay there, all but catatonic.

“Any idea what was done to him?” Toronto asked quietly.

“No. I can’t pick up on thoughts well. All I could tell was that he was afraid, and he has been for a while. Somebody hurt him.” She tugged the picture out of her pocket, staring at it with distaste. One more sin to lay at this bastard’s feet. “I don’t know if it was him or not.”

“He’s too old for Pulaski. I’ve got him at twenty-two.”

Sylvia sighed. “He barely looks old enough to shave.” Her heart hurt for him and she wanted to kick herself… she’d done that. One look at this picture and she’d reduced that kid to a screaming, terrified mess.

“You didn’t do it.”

Through her lashes, she stared at Toronto. “Didn’t I?”

“No. You didn’t.” He took the picture from her, tucked it back into her pocket. Curling his fingers in the lapels of her jacket, he tugged her closer.

She thought about pulling back, but instead, she let him, until they were standing just a breath away. “You didn’t,” he said again. “Maybe it brought the memories to the fore, but they were already there and it looks like they were choking him.”

“If he wanted to hide from it, he had that right.” Her own memories sought to choke her often enough, rising out of the dark at the worst moments. She could understand the need to hide away from them.

“As broken as he is, if he doesn’t deal with them, he’ll do
something desperate… you can see it in his eyes, all but smell it on him.”

Troubled, she stared down the street. They were lost in the shadows, hiding away while they watched over the boy they’d just terrified. It bothered her, she realized. A hell of a lot more than she wanted to admit.

“We can try to rationalize it all we want,” she finally said, shaking her head. “But we hurt him. Maybe the memories were already there, but we were the ones who cut him open and forced them out.”

Pulling away, she started down the street. “And it was all for nothing, too. Not that it would be any easier if we’d found out anything, but if we’d learned
something…”
Shit. She didn’t know if it would have helped or not. The one thing she did know— those screams would haunt her. For a long, long while.

A

S
she mounted her bike, Toronto caught up with her. He looked as grim-eyed as she felt. “We lost the night,” he said.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Shit, her head was killing her. A wave of weakness swamped her as she swung her leg over the bike, but she ignored it. Nothing that wouldn’t ease after a decent feeding; there was bagged blood at the safe house. Yum.

A hand came around her arm, steadying her. “You’re beat. You pushed yourself too hard with the mind thing, didn’t you?”

“No.”
Yes.
Jerking her head toward the bike, she said, “Get on. We need to move. I want to feed before I crash for the day.”

“I think you should crash with me.”

“No.” She clenched her jaw, ignoring the feel of him along her back. “I don’t think I should. The vamp safe house worked fine.” It had been fine— technically. A room the size of a small bathroom, a small cot. It had been like a damn cell, but it did the job.

“My place is better… and it’s closer. You wouldn’t have
to do bagged blood, either. If you’re feeling so lousy you’re swaying, you need a better hit than bagged blood can give you anyway.” He leaned forward, resting his chin on her shoulder. “We’re going to my place.”

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t go and turn over my free will to you,” she drawled.
Hell, no.
That just wasn’t an option. She was having a hard enough time just keeping her distance from him, trying not to stare, trying not to wonder.

And now he expected her to be
alone
with him? And feed from him?
Again?

Just the thought of it was enough to make her want to start drooling.
No, no, no
—

“It’s got nothing to do with free will.” Still sitting there, his chin on her shoulder, his hands on her hips, he turned his face into her hair. “You need a place for the day. I’ve got a place… and it’s not at the Enclave. You need to feed, and you’ll do better if it’s something other than bagged blood; we both know that. It’s just common sense. You’re a sensible type, right?”

I used to think so.
But if she was
sensible
, she would have found a way to avoid being on her bike with a werewolf who made her head hurt, who managed to make her undead heart pound and who also made her toes curl. Sensible vampires stayed away from troublesome things like that.

And yet here she was, about ready to go stay at his place. Worse, she was all but salivating at the thought of feeding from him again. It wasn’t
just
the hunger doing it, either. Feeding was rarely intimate for her. But it had sure as hell been intimate with him.

As his lips brushed against her neck, she shivered. “Do you really need to think it through that hard? A lousy meal and a room that’s not much bigger than a closet, or you can come with me, sleep in a real bed after you’ve had a real meal…”

No. Sighing, she pulled away from the curb. “Sometimes, you really make me want to hit you.”

“Only sometimes?” He squeezed her waist. “Hell, that means we could be like the best of friends. Most people who know me want to hit me all the time.”

“Give me a few more days.” Although if she had her way, she’d speed up time and just get this job
done
. Before she got too attached to him. He was already too easy for her to be around— and that was something that just never should have happened.

“Where in the hell do you live? I’m tired.”

S

OMETHING
had her pulling away from him. He wanted to find it and hurt it.

He wanted her to explain it to him, so he could fix it for her. Instead, he stayed quiet as she drove, giving directions when she needed to turn but otherwise holding his tongue.

What am I doing?

He had no clue— none at all.

She was tired. She needed to feed. This made plenty of sense and yeah, Toronto knew he could argue that with anybody. But it had nothing to do with logic, and everything to do with the fact that he wanted her with him. At his place.

Where he could feed her, then tuck her into a bed and…

Stop it before you go thinking crazy stalker thoughts
, he told himself.

Except he was already feeling slightly crazed over her. He didn’t get like this over women. He liked sex, liked it a lot, but that was generally all he wanted when he was attracted to a woman.

Sex
barely touched the surface of what he wanted to do with her, although that was definitely part of it. Touching her, stroking away whatever had brought the unhappiness to her, holding her until it all faded. Feeding her… fucking her. Then starting all over again.

And
none
of that was what he needed to be doing. Markland’s dancers had been a bust— except this latest one. Toronto wasn’t going to go adding to his misery, but there were other ways to get answers. He could start with that.

But instead, he was going back to his place.

C
HAPTER 16

“T

URN
here.”

A strange, heavy silence had fallen during the drive. It was a lovely one, even though the last few miles over the unpaved, rutted mess of a road were rough as hell. Still, it was a pretty drive, yet Toronto was just about certain Sylvia was completely unaware of it, maneuvering her bike completely on autopilot.

She was sad.

And hurting. He decided he didn’t like that. It bothered him, on a lot of levels. Even the wolf wasn’t happy. It rumbled within him, pacing and uncomfortable, but unsure of how to act.