Not What She Seems (27 page)

On the ride back to Mason’s place she lamented all she had lost. Her territory was gone, her apartment was unbearable to live in, and Keith had come and gone in her bed once again. She still had Mason, but there was little point in continuing their relationship now that she had lost the
Challenge and had to leave town. She still wanted to sleep with him, but she didn’t have the time required to stick it out and wait for him to be ready. With the Hunter still at large, and her territory gone, it was time to relocate away from the whole mess.

Besides, it was getting too emotionally intimate with Mason. He was falling in love with her, and Sylvia found herself becoming too involved in their relationship as well. It was pointless. She could never have a sincere romantic relationship with a human. Even if there was a way to keep what she was hidden, she aged far more slowly than humans and eventually that would be noticed.  She couldn’t keep her need to hunt hidden forever either, and humans tended to frown on their partner sleeping around. Better to move on, start somewhere new, and forget about Boston, and Mason.

It was settled then, she would leave tonight. She could get a hotel room, pick out a place to move to, and Lilith would send her on to her new life tomorrow. Telling Mason wasn’t going to be easy, but she needed to cut him out of her life and it would be better to do it abruptly than to drag it out. Cut all ties and move on.

When the cab arrived back at the brownstone Sylvia paid her fair and frowned when she noticed a car parked out on the front curb. She didn’t remember Mason mentioning any company coming
tonight, but she knew he was home as she could see both the SUV and the Audi in the garage. It was poor timing and she wouldn’t embarrass Mason by ending their relationship in front of his company. She would have to pretend everything was normal and fine until his company left, then she would leave. Keeping their breakup private was the least she could do for him.

He
greeted her at the door as she slid the key into the lock.

“There she is!” He pulled her into a quick kiss. “I’d wondered where you wandered off to. Listen, my brother stopped by,
and he’s staying for dinner. I’m excited for you to meet him, come on.” He took Sylvia’s hand and led her into the living room.

She
stared at the man sitting on the couch, drinking a scotch. She struggled to recall where he had seen him before. Ah, the subway. He was the lower grade energy that had been with the upper grade man she had given her phone number to on the T, right before Mason called her for the first time.

“Jeffrey, I’d like you to meet Sylvia, my girlfriend. She’s staying with me for a little while
.”

“Ni
ce to meet you, Sylvia.” He rose and shook her hand. “Mason hadn’t mentioned he had such a gorgeous new lady in his life.”

Sylvia laughed. “Well, it’s all happened pretty quickly, I guess.
Nice to meet you too.” She was pleased to see Jeffrey was keeping himself in check in front of his brother and keeping the lustful looks under control.

“So, I
just started a roast chicken for dinner, we’ll eat in another hour or so,” Mason informed them. “Sylvia, would you like a glass of wine or something?”

“That’d be gr
eat. Red, if you have it.” He left to get her a glass of wine, leaving her alone with Jeffrey. She took a seat in the leather recliner next to the couch.

“I remember you,” he told her. “You gave your number to my friend Steven.”

“That was before I began seeing your brother,” she answered stiffly. The night was going to be hard enough when she left him. She didn’t need Jeffrey to bring that up in front of him beforehand.

“Don’t sweat it, I’m not going to say anything in front of him, you’re
just an easy girl to remember.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Mason bustled back in with her wine and a scotch for himself and settled down next to Jeffrey on the couch.

“So Jeffrey here’s only
been back in town a few months. He was overseas for work for a while.”

“Yes, baby brother here was kind enough to give me a job in one his overseas operations,” Jeffrey added bitterly, taking another swallow of his scotch.

“Come on, let’s not bore Sylvia with our family disputes,” Mason admonished him, looking nervously at her.

“Ah, she’s part of the family now, isn’t she?” Jeffrey’s tone was dark.

“Enough, Jeff, really. I’m glad to see you, even if your visit’s a surprise, but you can’t come in here and start with that stuff right now, okay?”

“All right, you’re right. Keep the family skeletons in the closet, right?” He winked at Sylvia. He was rapidly making her very uncomfortable and
she couldn’t figure out why he had dropped by when he clearly had so much animosity towards Mason.

“So what’d y
ou do today?” Mason asked her, closing the uncomfortable conversation that had been developing with Jeffrey.

“I, uh, had to run to the office to take care of a few things.”

“What do you do?” Jeffrey asked her with interest.

“
I work for a PR firm.”

“I thought
you were going to say modeling or acting or something. You’re beautiful enough to do that kind of stuff.”

“Isn’t she?” Mason cut in, oblivious to his brother’s under-minded passes at Sylvia. “I’m a lucky guy.”

Sylvia cringed. Breaking it off with him later, once Jeffrey had gone, was going to be tough. He was a wonderful man and she hated to hurt him like that, but it would be for the best, for both of them.

“You sure are. It’s good to see you’re dating again. Will you excuse me?” Jeffrey rose to use the bathroom.

“Sorry,” Mason told her quietly. “He’s… difficult at times, and I came home to find him sitting on my front steps. We’re not exactly close, so I’m not sure why he’s here, but we’ll have dinner with him and then he’ll wander off, I’m sure.”

“Don’t worry about, he’s your brot
her, it’s not a problem,” she assured him. Privately she was irritated that Jeffrey had shown up. He was holding up her grand plans of leaving Mason.

Their chatter was more relaxed when Jeffrey came back, and they spoke of trivial things to make polite conversation.
Suddenly Mason’s cell phone rang and before he had a chance to answer it the home phone began ringing as well.

Sylvia and
Jeffrey could hear his end of the conversation as he answered the home phone in the kitchen. “Yes, this is he… What?... Are they on their way?... I ’ll be right down.”

He came back into the livin
g room, his handsome face taught with stress. “That was the security company. There’s a huge fire at the office, I have to go down there. Will you two be all right here, without me?”

“I’ll go with you,” Sylvia offered as she jumped up.

“No, I want you to stay here. I’ll go alone, there’s nothing you can do at the scene anyway.”

“Is it serious?” Jeffrey asked anxiously.

“Sounds like it. The firefighters are on their way, the security company called them as soon the alarms went off. They’re linked to their monitoring system, so they were quickly alerted about the fire. They called me afterwards, right away, but they had confirmed with the fire department that citizens have been calling them in droves, reporting visible flames and smoke. I’ve got to go! Just eat dinner when it’s done. I have no idea how long this will take, so you guys stay here.” He dashed out the door after giving Sylvia a quick kiss.

“Be
careful!” she called after him.

He
must not have heard her, because he didn’t reply and a minute later the front door slammed shut. She stood there for a moment as she realized it was just her and Jeffrey alone in the brownstone now, indefinitely, until Mason returned. Somehow she had just ended up babysitting Mason’s salacious brother.

Chapter 26

“So,” Jeffrey began, sipping his scotch, “looks like it’s just you and me now.”

Sylvia sank back down into the recliner and nodded. She didn’t care for the look in Jeffrey’s eyes.

“
Yes, at least until Mason gets back. I assume the firefighters will get it under control quickly and he’ll be back soon.” She was sure of no such thing, but she wanted to give the impression that she was confident he would be back shortly.

“He’s not the only lucky one, is he?” Jeffrey ask
ed, studying her. His gaze made her uncomfortable and she struggled not to squirm under his scrutiny.

“Well, yes, I’m lucky as
well, he’s a great guy.” She disliked his implication.

“Oh yes, a
great
guy, everyone thinks so. Even our own Grandfather preferred him to me, did you know that? He got the business, and all the money, I got a boring new job with Mason as my boss. Lucky
me.
” Sylvia didn’t respond; she didn’t want to encourage him.

“But you, you’ve got a chunk of the fortune without even lifting a finger, now,
haven’t you?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, you don’t have it directly, but I’m sure Mason’s throwing all kinds of money at you. It must be easy being you, so beautiful, and so sexy. Men must open their wallets for you in a heartbeat. And you landed one of the richest men in the city, probably without having to work for it in the slightest.”

Sylvia’s brow furrowed. She was tempted to unleash
her fury and rip into him, but he wasn’t worth it. She only had to tolerate him for the evening, then he’d be out of her life. “It’s not like that at all.”

He
waved off her answer with his free hand. The other still held his rapidly dwindling scotch. “If you say so,” he humored her.

“I best go check on d
inner, excuse me please.” She rose hastily and crossed the room towards the kitchen, anxious to get away from him. Checking on the chicken in the oven was the perfect excuse.

“Sure, sure.
I have to run to my car anyway.”

A quick look at the chicken showed it was browning up nicely, which was good news as Sylvia couldn’t cook very well. She was reluctant to go back into the living room with Jeffrey so she decided to poke around to see what else she could put together to serve with the chicken. The grocery service had made a delivery while she was away, and Mason had already put everything in its place. She heard the front door close while she was digging in the fridge for the ingredients
she needed to make a salad.

“Need any help?” Jeffrey called from the living room.

“Thanks, but I got it.” She decided she would stay in the kitchen, away from him, for as long as she could. She didn’t like him and the less time she had to interact with him while Mason was gone, the better.

“You mind if I turn on the
TV?”

“Please, go ahead,
” she called back, relieved he had found something to entertain himself. She pulled out some assorted vegetables and went to work washing them. She frowned as she heard the TV come on. Jeffrey had turned the volume up way too high, but she wasn’t going to complain. Whatever kept him out of her hair.

As she began coring the green
peppers she didn’t hear him sneak up behind her. She sensed him, rather than heard him, and warning bells rang in her head. Just as she was turning to face him, he snaked a wire cable over her head and pulled it taught from behind, choking her. Sylvia thrashed with all her might, but he had the upper hand with his vastly larger frame and his positioning behind her as he choked her. She tried to pull the cable away from her neck but he pulled it so tight she couldn’t snake her fingers beneath it to pull it away. Panic coursed through her as she tried to reach back and grab him, any part of him she could reach to scratch and gouge. He turned his face away from her, out of her reach, while increasing the pressure on the garrote. It was a fight for her life as Sylvia struggled against him to no avail. She had more strength than an average woman, but it did her no good when her body was unable to take in the oxygen it needed to fight off her attacker.

“You’ve been very naughty
, hiding from me. Who would’ve thought I’d find you at my brother’s house?” he chuckled darkly. Sylvia’s struggles became more frantic but finally her oxygen-deprived body could stand it no more and she passed out. The Hunter had found her at last.

~~~

She came to and found herself zip-tied with plastic cable ties to one of the kitchen chairs, with her hands and feet bound. Her mouth had been gagged with a necktie. She struggled against her bonds as they cut into her flesh, drawing blood. Jeffrey had taken no chances and made them extra tight; she couldn’t escape them.

“Calm down, there’s
no need for the drama,” he told her calmly as he unpacked the contents of the duffle bag he had grabbed from his car. Sylvia watched him with wide eyes as he laid out on the table a few different hunting knives, a container of rose petals seeped in Holy water, a tarp, and duct tape.

“I
was thinking I’ll dump you in the sewers, let the rats have you, but maybe not,” he said conversationally. “You’re probably wondering how I know what you are, yes?”