Awaken Me Darkly (11 page)

The last thought to drift beneath my consciousness before a swirling fog engulfed me was, Please God, send me another miracle.

I came awake slowly and realized three things all at once, only one of them significant.

First, I realized that I hadn’t suffered through any dreams. Very unusual for me; I always dreamed.

Second, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since I’d fallen asleep. Third, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end.

As my senses became more attuned, I felt an invisible pair of eyes upon me, intense, observant eyes hovering over my shoulder, watching…waiting. I knew I was inside Dallas’s hospital room, and I knew it wasn’t Dallas watching me.

Keeping my motions slow and deliberate, I reached for the gun at my waist. Then I froze. My gun was gone. Fucking gone. I didn’t panic, though. I had a backup strapped to my ankle, though this one wasn’t as competent, since it only offered “hot” and “extra hot” settings. No stun. I curled my fingers around the trigger.

Fighting the urge to jolt to my feet, I allowed my eyelids to crack open a little at a time, gradually taking in my surroundings. Darkness had fallen, and muted beams of luminescence seeped through the beige hospital blinds. I kept my head and body completely immobile as I shifted my gaze around the room.

There, in the corner, a man lounged causally in a chair. I stifled a gasp when his features came into view. No, not a man. An Arcadian.

The
Arcadian.

The warrior I’d chased through the alley.

His energy wrapped all around me, strong, pure. Deadly. A shiver tingled along my nerve endings.

His hair was thick and white and fell to his shoulders. I pictured his eyes, knew they were the palest violet, almost crystalline, with a thin veneer of calm, like nitroglycerin just before detonation. I knew his lips were full and lush, a perfect contrast against his ultra-masculine features, making him seem all the more dangerous.

He must have sensed my perusal because he blinked, a sensual sweep of his lashes, and said huskily, “Your friend rests at death’s door, Tai la Mar.”

Angel of Death, he’d called me. I jerked upright. My chair skidded behind me and collided with the wall. I had my firearm drawn and pointed at his heart before he could take another breath. I knew Dallas still lived because the gentle hum of his monitors filled my ears, and I could see the rise and fall of his chest from the corner of my eye, courtesy of the machine breathing for him.

“Where’s my pyre-gun?” I asked, keeping my voice calm, even though my heart was tripping inside my chest.

“Your weapon is safe.”

Safe, my ass. “Where’s Rianne Harte?”

“I tried to warn you about her, did I not?” He shifted slightly, creasing his black slacks. The sleeves of his white tailored shirt were rolled to his elbows. “But did you heed my warning?”

I didn’t answer him. Instead, I asked a question of my own. “Did you take her?”

“No,” he answered without hesitation. “I did not.”

“Then prove it. If you can.”

“I warned you about her, didn’t I?”

I switched the safety off, making sure he saw, then narrowed my gaze, focusing on which part of his body I wanted to hit first. Between the eyes, I decided, leveling my aim. One move from him, and I would fire first, ask questions later. “I’m left wondering if your warning was meant to help me or taunt me.”

He only laughed, a rich, throaty rumble full of genuine amusement. The sound moved over me as softly as a caress. “You humans are so silly. Put your gun away,” he said. “Had I wanted to hurt you or your friend, I would have done so already.”

Unwavering, I held my weapon steady. “I’m still interested in hearing why you gave me Rianne’s name.”

He shrugged, his stare becoming hard and gauging. “Perhaps I was testing you.” He paused.

“Perhaps you failed.”

“And you’re here to give me another chance? Or to gloat over my failure?”

“Actually, I am here to offer you a trade. If you are as honorable as I have heard, we can help each other.”

I snorted. “The only thing I’m going to help you do is find your way into a cell.”

His eyes slitted. “I am Kyrin en Arr, and I have come for my sister.”

Lilla’s brother. I should have guessed. Automatically I applied pressure to the trigger, but stopped myself before actually firing. This man knew about the victims, and now he was connected to the case through other means. He would better serve me alive. “So you’re the Arcadian who’s murdered more humans than any of your kinsmen, are you?”

“Some would say so, yes,” he said without shame or regret.

“Well, guess what, Kyrin? Lilla belongs to A.I.R. now, and with her history of violence and being a prime suspect in a murder investigation, we’re keeping her. I’m sure you’re aware that her crimes are punishable by death.”

His face paled. He was definitely aware.

“I plan to see her executed,” I finished.

“She is not a criminal.” Something cold and hard washed over his features, returning his color. His eyes gleamed with dangerous intent, like the sharpest of daggers, exquisite to view, lethal to touch. “Let her go.”

“Yeah. Right.”

“I would not be so quick to deny my request, were I you.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I,” he said, studying me with an unnerving intensity, “can save your friend.”

I can save your friend.

Those words beat inside my mind, causing white-hot fury to pound through every fiber of my being. Bastard! How dare he utter such a lie? How dare he attempt to offer false hope, simply to save his sister? Eyes compressed to tiny slits, nostrils flared, I began adjusting the level of power on my gun to its highest setting. I was going to have myself an Arcadian barbecue.

A nurse entered the room. I saw her in my peripheral vision, but didn’t switch my position or my focal point from Kyrin. She dropped her chart when she caught sight of my gun. She froze in place, her eyes a tableau of horror, her mouth open.

“I—I heard a noise,” she stammered, her features ashen with shock.

“Exit the room, ma’am,” I told her. I meant for the words to elicit calm and reassurance, but they exploded from my mouth with all the rage I felt. “I’ve got the situation under control.”

“I—I—should I call the police?” she stuttered to Kyrin, as if he was the one in charge here.

“I am the police,” I shouted. “Now get the fuck out!”

Nurse Idiot didn’t move.

Then Kyrin gave a slight tilt of his head, and she raced from the room as quickly as her feet could carry her. My lips curled in contempt.

“Do you prefer original or extra crispy?” I asked. “Because I’m willing to fry you up either way.”

He ignored me, and instead replied with, “I gave Dallas—that is his name, yes?—some of my blood. Only a drop, mind you, but he will live a few days more because of it. Were I to give him more, he would live out the rest of his life, healthy and whole.”

“If you won’t choose, I’ll choose for you. I say”—I pretended to mull it over—“extra crispy.”

“Is his heartbeat not steadier? His color not brighter?”

I flicked my partner a quick glance, and my eyes widened. Yes, on both counts, I realized, shock pounding through me. My hands stilled. “That doesn’t mean
you
helped him.”

“You disappoint me. I thought a woman of your talents would be more insightful.”

I bared my teeth in a scowl. “Perhaps you require a demonstration of exactly what my talents are.”

“Perhaps you require a demonstration of
mine.”
Kyrin slowly rose. He was so tall, I was forced to look up, almost at the ceiling. I scanned his body, but I saw no evidence of weapons. Still, my heart slammed inside my chest, and my palms sweated. I didn’t understand my reaction. I’d squared off with aliens just as intimidating and won. I was the one in control here. I had the authority. I held the weapon.

“You’d say anything to save your sister,” I said.

“I would say anything to free her, yes, but in this, I do not lie.” He stretched out one hand and reached inside his slacks pocket with the other. Gaze locked on mine, he withdrew a small but deadly blade.

Okay, now he had a weapon.

“Stop right there,” I commanded. “I’ll kill you without a qualm.”

“Then you would never know the truth, would you?” Calmly he clasped the blade and placed the tip at his palm. I was too fascinated by his words and actions to follow through with my threat. His features remained expressionless as he sliced a deep incision from one end to the other. Blood sprang from the torn tissues, and the scar on my arm throbbed in reaction.

As I watched, his wound slowly closed itself, the tissues weaving themselves together and leaving the blood pooled in his hand. He wiped away every crimson drop on his shirtsleeve, a red smear against pristine white, then revealed the perfect smoothness of his hand.

“Do you see?” he said. “I cannot die, and those who consume my blood will live, as well.”

My God, this alien was some sort of immortal being.

I didn’t know what to think of that fact. A lot of aliens had special powers, but I’d never heard of one with accelerated healing. I told him so.

“That doesn’t mean it isn’t so. There is only one other like me,” Kyrin said with a shrug, “but you will never find her. So right now, I am your friend’s only hope. My blood
can
save him.”

That’s when it hit me, truly hit me. Dallas could be saved. The knowledge rocked me to the core.

I was almost afraid to speak my next words. “In exchange for his life, you want me to set your sister free?”

“Yes,” he said. “That is all I require.”

Yes, I’ll set her free, I thought in the next instant. I’ll slip inside A.I.R. headquarters, unlock her cell, and escort her from the building. Yes, that’s exactly what I’ll do. Excitement bubbled inside me.

Then…the enormity of the situation slammed into me with the force of an antique 9mm Glock. I closed my eyes, lowered my gun. I couldn’t let Lilla go. Six other lives were at stake here—the lives of the five abducted citizens…and my own.

By setting Lilla free, I would severely damage the Steele case. I might doom the very people I’d sworn to protect. Breaking the very rules I worked so hard to enforce meant losing my job, my honor, the respect of my coworkers. And quite possibly gaining a lifetime of imprisonment.

I’d always feared small, dark places—a reminder of my childhood and a fear I had yet to overcome. The cold, the complete and utter blackness. The silence. But I wanted Dallas healed. God, I did. Desperately, I wanted my friend to live a long, healthy life. I hadn’t saved Dare, but now I had a chance to save Dallas.

Opening my eyes, I gazed down at Dallas, at the helpless man who now had a single hope of survival. I tore my gaze away and faced Kyrin imploringly. “What you’re asking is impossible,” I said, guilt already crashing through me because I hadn’t shouted “Yes!” immediately. “My boss would never okay such a trade.”

“I do not recall suggesting that you ask your boss.”

No, he hadn’t.

I chewed on my bottom lip. Damn it, what was I going to do? I couldn’t allow Dallas to die now that I knew there was a chance to save him, but I couldn’t release Lilla, either. “The law states I must eliminate Lilla once she is no longer useful to my case. What if I vowed to keep her alive? To let her live inside a cell for the remainder of her life?”

“Were I to say yes to that, I would be supporting the very laws I despise,” he growled. “Laws that were made because your people fear what they do not understand.”

“Our laws were made to protect us from uninvited visitors,” I replied just as darkly. Then, as quickly as my anger appeared, it vanished. “Please. Please help me. Help Dallas. I’ll beg you, if necessary, to save him. I’ll fall to my knees right here, right now. I’ll do anything you ask.

Anything…except free Lilla.”

His eyes glinted like opalescent steel. “Mia Snow on her knees before me? Tempting, I must say.”

“Is that what you want?” Currents of sexual energy sparked between us as we both pictured me doing more than begging. “Me on my knees?”

“Actually, right now I would rather have your gun.”

Everything inside me shouted to deny him—a good agent never relinquished her weapon—but I closed the distance between us and pressed the barrel into his cheek. I lingered there for two heartbeats.

“I could kill you right now,” I said, staring up at him.

“But you will not.”

No, I wouldn’t. Scowling, I removed the gun from his face, saw the impression I’d left there, and felt a small surge of satisfaction. I turned the weapon hilt first and placed it into his waiting hand. I didn’t mention that I had other weapons. Blades were strapped all over my body.

I watched as he removed the detonation crystal from its chamber, rendering it completely useless, then tossed the gun in the far right corner of the room. At least he didn’t plan to shoot me.

“I did as you wanted,” I said, my eyes narrowed. “Now you owe me something in return. Give Dallas more of your blood.”

“I never promised you anything. I merely asked you to give me your gun.”

“Damn you,” I whispered hoarsely. I longed to jam my fist into his nose, but I couldn’t spill his precious blood unnecessarily. I bared my teeth in a scowl. The bastard wasn’t going to give an inch.

Wasn’t going to negotiate. He’d stated his terms, and I either met them, or he walked. “I need time.”

“And so I will give you some. But do not take too much.” His expression stubborn and determined, he strode past me, saying over his shoulder, “Without my help, Dallas will die in four days.

Remember that as you consider my offer.”

As if I could forget.

He exited the room.

I didn’t think about my next actions, or the consequences they could bring. I knew what I wanted, and I was going to fight for it. I followed quietly behind him. The moment Kyrin stepped from the building and into the cold air, I sprang forward, and my leg shot out; I focused all of my anger, all of my frustration and helplessness, into the blow. Contact. My foot hit the middle of his back. Kyrin stumbled.