Soul Survivor (19 page)

 

I
excused myself and slipped into the bathroom. Once in the ladies' room, I washed my hands and looked under the bathroom stalls. A pair of feet were under one, so I slipped into the other stall until I heard her wash her hands and leave.

I poked my head out, still not seeing Dejan. With a sigh, I soaped up my hands once more. I'd give it two more minutes. I couldn't wait in here all night. Who knows what the vampire even wanted to discuss? Whatever it was, I'd probably have to tell Damien and Adrienne anyway.

I brushed my wet hands along my pants and headed for the door. As I reached for the handle, frigid fingers grasped my wrist and locked the door instead. A thin, hinged window along the top of the bathroom wall clattered shut behind me.

“Well, it took you long enough,” I said on an exhale. “I wasn't about to wait in here all friggin' night.”

Dejan moved around the bathroom like lightning, checking the various stalls to ensure no one else was around. “No one else is in here,” I said, crossing my arms. Did he think I'd waltzed in and not bothered to check the stalls myself? Honestly.

Once he had fully checked and felt comfortable with the security in the bathroom, he sauntered toward me with a slow, calculated grace that made me want to shudder. I suppressed the urge and instead rolled my shoulders back, tilting my chin higher to meet his gaze. “You best make this fast. They are going to get suspicious if I don't get back soon. And even more suspicious if they come to look for me and the bathroom is locked.” I gestured to the door he had bolted and wedged closed.

“We'll hear them coming before they even wiggle the doorknob,” he said with a scowl. “Why are you consorting with an elemental?” He spoke fast, almost frantically, and glared at me with black eyes.

“What? He's a detective. He's one of the good guys.”

“Elementals are never the good guys.” Dejan's jaw was clenched so hard, the muscles in his neck were thick and corded.

“Don't get all righteous, Dejan. It clearly doesn't suit you.” I folded my arms across my chest and glared back at him.

He held my gaze. “Just be careful around him. Keep an eye open for odd behavior.”

“Right, right. You mean like if he pulls me into a ladies' room and locks the door?”

“I'm not joking, Monica.” His eyes flashed and I rolled mine in response.

“Fine. Yes, I'll keep an eye on Damien.”

“I meant it when I said I was surprised to find Julian's descendant involved.” Dejan shook his head back and forth as if trying to make sense of it all. “I don't know why he would be involved. I thought for sure it was Buckley. But then Luis was found and . . . and he would never hurt his own blood.”

“Do you have any idea where Lord Buckley is right now?”

He shook his head. “Like I said, I haven't seen him in over a century. All I know is he's around.” Dejan lowered his voice, looking to the ceiling. I couldn't tell if he was looking around or rolling his eyes. “He's always around,” he whispered.

“He doesn't still have any power . . . or hold or anything over you, does he?”

Dejan snorted. “Don't be ridiculous. Of course not. That all disappeared when—well, you know.”

Oh, I knew, all right. My stomach tightened with the memory of Dejan on top of me, his fangs puncturing through my skin, venom burning in my veins. Dejan's power over me had counteracted Lord Buckley's power over him. Had Buckley known that ahead of time, I doubted he ever would have gone through with the plan. Squeezing my eyes shut, I pushed the memories away.

“Monica.” His voice dropped to barely a whisper and Dejan took a step closer. I stepped back, bumping into the wall behind me. “I think you should leave. Get out of Utah . . . go back to Vegas and bide your time with Lucien. I don't know what's going on here, but I'm certain it has everything to do with you. And I'm even more sure that it's not going to end well.”

I swallowed a golf-ball-sized lump in my throat. “Stop trying to scare me.” My throat was parched and my voice sounded as such.

“I'm not
trying
to frighten you. But you should be scared.” Dejan's tongue ran across his red lips and his gaze dipped to my throat. My heart slammed against my ribs. Dejan squeezed his eyes shut, turning his head away from me. “I haven't had angel blood since yours long ago.” He shuddered—whether in pleasure or pain I had no idea. “Demon blood is a delicacy, too—and sometimes I wonder—what do you taste like now?” His eyes slowly opened, and he turned to look at me once more, his eyes now rimmed with red and rippling with blood. “I bet there's still a little angel left in that blood,” he whispered, his fangs snapping out.

“Dejan,” I exhaled and shoved at his chest with two palms. I was strong enough to send him across the room, but he was quick to recover and had his hand wrapped around my throat, pressing my body back against the wall.

“Did you know that Luis was following you?” His hand squeezed and he pushed me harder against the cement block wall.

I clawed at his knuckles. “Let me go!” He blinked and released me, but not before throwing me to the wall once more.

“He was following you,” Dejan repeated. “He had been watching you for a couple of months after the attack happened in your apartment back in April.”

I shook my head, rubbing a hand over my neck. “I didn't know he had been following me that long. But I did meet him just a couple of days before I came here. He came to the club and tried to buy a private dance. A—uh, another customer beat him to it, though.”

“What did he say to you when he introduced himself?”

I thought back. It seemed like so long ago. “Just typical introductory things. His name—well, his first name. He tipped me quite generously. Made a point in showing off his wealth . . .”

“The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, then . . . ,” Dejan growled.

Lord Buckley had certainly loved his money, too. “That was basically it. Then, he slipped me his business card and left. That was the last I saw him.” I paused, shifting my hair to be smoother while looking on in the mirror. Dejan disappeared from view in the reflection—something I always found disconcerting—and I quickly turned back around to face him. “Do
you
know why he was following me?”

Dejan shook his head. “No. But I wish I did. I have a feeling. A feeling it ties into that crazy bitch Lexi and the bounty that's on your head.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you care? You nearly killed me yourself long ago.”

Dejan's face fell, and for all of a moment, he actually looked hurt. “Is that what you think? You clearly don't remember anything correctly, do you?” he growled. “I was saving you, Monica!” His voice grumbled through clenched teeth and two large fangs appeared behind red-stained lips. He closed his eyes with a deep breath through his nose. A tiny clicking sound echoed in the bathroom as the fangs retracted.

“Saving me?” I snorted. “I would have rather died. We all know that nothing good comes when a vampire bites an angel—at least not for the angel. The vampires on the other hand are probably worshipped among their covens.” I spat while storming to the door. “If you hear of anything else regarding Lord Buckley or this case, please let me know,” I said over my shoulder just before storming back to the table.

 

I arrived back at the hotel room around eight p.m. to find Kayce lying in my bed watching television. I tossed my purse onto the floor and threw my phone next to hers at the foot of the bed. I flopped onto my back beside her. “You've been productive, I see.” I quirked an eyebrow at her and she handed me a bag of Twizzlers.

I took one, biting into the sugary twisted candy. “Kourtney and Khloe are taking Florida by storm,” she said, staring at the television screen with about as much enthusiasm as I felt.

“Aren't you supposed to be helping George tonight?” I asked, mouth filled with sticky candy.

“Yeah. They're doing a guy dinner thing first. I'm meeting them out in a bit.”

The iPad was still sitting on George's bed and it pinged in a way that reminded me of an oven timer. Like,
Ding, your encrypted file is ready!
I glanced at Kayce, whose grin spread across the entire length of her face. She wiggled her eyebrows. “Ready?”

“Oh, boy. As ready as I can be, I guess.”

Kayce shrugged. “It might totally be nothing. Though in my experience, people don't encrypt files that aren't important.”

“And what experience would that be, exactly, Miss Kayce?”

She smirked while typing a few things into the iPad. “Oh, if only I could tell you, Miss Monica.”

I chuckled and sat down on the bed next to her, crisscrossing my legs over each other.

“Here we go,” she whispered and double clicked on the file. A document opened with my headshot as the main image. It held my name as well as every alias I've even used throughout my existence. There were photographs of me at the coffee shop and with every single person in my life. There was a picture of George and me at the club. Drew and me talking at the cafe. Lucien, T, Kayce, Damien, Adrienne . . . everyone who meant anything to me was a part of this file. It listed my address as well as a blueprint of my home layout; even my furniture placement was there.

“I think I might be sick,” I whispered. Kayce rubbed my back with the palm of her hand, circling, in the way a mother might to a sick child.

“It's okay, Mon. This is pretty much what I was expecting. It's a hit folder. All the information one might need for an assassination.”

“And you don't find that terrifying?” I whispered. My tongue felt suddenly too big for my mouth.

“It is terrifying. But it's also expected. These people know everything about everyone you've ever come in contact with.”

“Who sent it?” I asked.

She shrugged and scrolled down some more. “I don't know. I doubt that will be listed on here. Anonymity is the only thing that keeps people like this in business. They wouldn't be so stupid as to list their identities on the case file.” She leaned into the screen and typed a few more things. “There's something else here, though. I don't think it's to do with the job—it just looks like Aaron kept it in the same folder. I need a minute. It's encrypted differently.” A cell phone rang from the other bed and I jumped up to grab it. “Whose is it?” Kayce asked, eyes still glued to the screen.

“I don't know yet.... We need to get different ring tones, Kayce.”

She shrugged. “If it's George, tell him I'm leaving in five.” On the bed—neither phone was ringing. “Uh, Kayce, do you have another phone? It's not either of ou—”

She jumped up and in a flash had another small phone in her hands and was glancing at me before swinging the door open to answer. “I'll be right back.” She gave me a tilted half-smile as an apology.”

I peeked out the hallway and she was already nowhere to be seen. Something uneasy burrowed in my stomach. Grabbing my room key, I did a quick lap around our floor until I heard her voice. She wasn't whispering, yet she also wasn't talking in her normal volume. The sound was faint, but I could barely make out the gruff voice she was conversing with. She was in the stairwell and I stepped back to the other end of the hallway so that she couldn't hear my breathing.

“Is it done?” the gruff voice rumbled.

“Negative. It's a delicate situation I'm in here.”

“We know. It's why you were chosen.”

“It's a sensitive case. One that requires more time,” Kayce said.

“You have until morning.” I listened for a moment more when I heard a footstep and the stairwell door swing open. I ran for our room again, leaving the door cracked open as she had and lunging for the bed. Seconds later, Kayce came back in.

“Who was that? Was it George?” I asked in my most innocent voice.

“Yep,” she said and coolly tossed the phone back into her bag. Then she came over back to the bed, sliding in next to me. “Have to leave in a bit.”

“New phone?”

Kayce gave me a look, the kind that said
don't ask
, before she went back to focusing on the iPad. I glared at her profile. This don't-ask, don't-tell policy she had instated in our friendship was gnawing at me. Especially now. I had a uneasy feeling that that call had to do with me.

“Aha!” she exclaimed, a giant smile on her face. “Got it.” She looked up at me and her eyes flashed with concern. “Hey, you okay? You're really pale.”

I cleared my throat, nodding my head. “Oh, I'm fine. Just shaken from the file.”

She'd be leaving soon—out of the room to be with George. I could do a little snooping of my own.

I leaned in to look at the screen. “It's—it's a bunch of numbers. What is it . . . some sort of bank account or something?”

“No, it's a code of some sort. You know—like if someone assigns letters of the alphabet to numbers. A would be one. B would be two and so on and so forth.” She wiped a hand across her forehead. “It can take a while to decode. I doubt it's as easy as the example I just gave. We'll work on it tonight after I finish George's thing. You'll be here, right?”

I nodded. “Oh, I'll be here.”

Kayce shifted into a sexy, tight red dress and did a little twirl for me. “Well? What do you think?” she asked, holding out two hands.

I arched an eyebrow. “Um, I think you might want to tone it down for this crowd.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes, shifting into a looser dress that covered more skin. “Fine. This town is so boring.”