Night's Cold Kiss (31 page)

One hand after another, one foot after the other she
climbed. Light cracked above her in the doorway, growing steadily wider. She continued to climb toward it when Oberon’s head popped through the gap. Then he used his shoulders to push the heavy doors wider.

“Climb faster,” he yelled down at them.

She missed the next foot rail in her haste and slipped, but kept a firm handgrip on the rung to keep from falling. She took a deep mental breath as Christian grabbed the ladder over her shoulder and wrapped one arm around her waist.

“Be careful, but keep climbing,” he urged.

With a surprising burst of speed, she did.

The twang of snapping cables and the shattering squeal of metal filled the shaft. Antoinette glanced down to see the elevator disappearing from beneath them. She watched it fall all the way to the bottom, where it crashed in a loud exploding ball of fire. It must’ve blown out the doors below as the fire grew and began to ascend the shaft after them.

She glanced over her shoulder as she climbed, the fireball rushed up at amazing speed.

We’re not gonna make it.
They were still a few feet from the top. An extra burst of speed and half a human heartbeat later, Oberon’s strong hands wrapped around her wrists and hauled her out. Christian leapt out of the shaft after her, shoving Oberon out of the way before pushing her down and covering her body with his as the furnace-hot blast of flames exploded from the open elevator shaft doors.

The flames dissipated just as quickly as they’d burst into the room. Christian’s weight pressed Antoinette against the floor and she dared not move, or even breathe. His face was mere inches from hers. Blue eyes darkened as he held her gaze and ran his fingertips down her cheek and across her lips.

“Are you all right?” he croaked.

Her voice had been stolen, she could only nod.

“Good.” His eyes dulled and he rolled off her.

The smell of burnt hair and flesh overwhelmed her senses, churning her stomach. She sat up and turned Christian onto his stomach. A lump caught in her throat—his blackened jacket had partially burnt away and the skin beneath was scorched.

“My God, Christian.” Her voice had returned.

Oberon hauled his large bulk off the floor and crawled to where she sat.

He looked at the burns and leaned close to Christian. “Well, Laroque, you sure know how to make an entrance.”

To her surprise, Christian chuckled.

“Let’s get you out of here.” Oberon wrapped his hands under Christian’s arms and lifted.

The Aeternus groaned—some of the melted jacket fell to
the floor. Underneath new healthy pink skin showed through as his body began to heal itself.

A trembling under her feet grew steadily stronger until the house shook as if caught in an earthquake.

“Let’s go,” Christian yelled as he finished climbing to his feet and held out his palm to Antoinette.

The three of them raced through the house as it quaked about them. The chandeliers rattled and tinkled above, the pictures fell from the walls, and furniture overturned. But they made it to the door and out of the house onto the front lawn to dozens of flashing lights and buzzing activity.

Bent over a thin creature, Bianca Sin looked up as they made it out. She spoke to the paramedic beside her before crossing to where they stood.

“You found them,” she said.

“I need to find my father,” Antoinette said, looking around the gathered people.

“Christian’s been badly burnt and it might be a good idea if you got checked out too,” Oberon said. “Can you help them, Bianca?”

“No, I’m fine,” Christian said. “Antoinette, go find your father. I have to talk to some people myself.”

She dashed through gathered former captives on the damp lawn, all wearing the same expression of disbelief—as if they were waiting to wake up at any moment and discover they were only dreaming of freedom. She checked each person huddled under a blanket in the frantic search for her father’s face.

She found him sitting near the row of handcuffed guards and ran in his direction. A paramedic attended him—relief and joy fought for dominance as she threw her arms around his neck. He hugged her tight for a minute, patting her back with shaky hands and then held her at arm’s length. “Let me look at you,” he said.

She sat back, letting him twirl a lock of her hair, just as he used to do when she was a little girl.

“You look just like your mother,” he said, tears welling in his eyes.

Antoinette drank in her father’s features then looked around for Lisbet. She sat close by looking tiny and lost and totally alone.

“Come here, Lisbet,” Antoinette said to the little girl with the eyes of an ancient woman. “This is my father, Grigore.”

Grigore reached out his hand and cupped Lisbet’s face. “My God, Antoinette, she looks just like you did when you were a little girl.”

Lisbet smiled up at the old man. “Lucian says I look like our grandmother.”

“She’s family, Papa,” Antoinette said. “And she’s coming with us.”

Antoinette realized he was only fifty-one, yet her father appeared at least half that age again. He kept nodding and looking from her to Lisbet and back again, his smile plastered to his worn old face.

Antoinette had to talk to Christian. She squatted down in front her father and took Lisbet’s hand. “You two wait here together. I’ll be back soon and I’ll take you home to Katerina and Sergei.”

Her father nodded. “That is good, Sergei will be pleased. And then you can tell me how you became an Aeternus?”

She sensed someone watching her and turned around. For a nanosecond she thought she saw Dante standing near an ambulance. Then someone walked in front of her and she lost sight of him. A shuddering feeling of déjà vu peppered goose bumps up her arms. Surely Lucian killed him and if not, Oberon would have him taken into custody by now. She would ask him.

Three helicopters roared overhead, buffeting everyone with the downward blast from their rotors.

“Stay here,” Antoinette warned her father and Lisbet.

She made her way toward the field adjacent to Lucian’s house where they landed. Christian and Oberon already stood at the far end of the field waiting to greet the people
piling out of the aircraft. His back had totally healed, but was still a little pink and puckered—a testament to his strength as an Aeternus.

He lifted the canister cord over his head and passed it to a woman wearing a black jacket with
INTEL
written across the back. He shed the remnants of his burnt top and slipped on the jacket she handed him, identical to her own. After he zipped it closed, he took back the canister and reslung it over his shoulder as he approached one of the suited men.

“High-Chancellor,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Agent Laroque,” the man answered with a French accent. “Your people were good enough to bring this to our attention. Fortunately we were holding a retreat not far from here to discuss the replacement of Sir Roger as our ambassador to CHaPR.”

Covering your ass, more like it. Antoinette instantly disliked the head of the Guild. He was far too smooth—too oily.

The High-Chancellor held a silver-headed cane, though he seemed not to need it. “I’ve called an emergency meeting of the Guild High Council to convene as soon as I return with my report. Can you fill me in on what happened here?”

“I think Oberon DuPrie is the best person to do that, sir,” Christian said. “I have to get back to headquarters immediately for a debriefing with my superiors, and to get this to our labs.” Christian held one of the canisters he’d brought out of the lab.

The High-Chancellor’s eyes narrowed, but he covered it quickly. “And what would that be?” he asked, seemingly innocent.

He didn’t fool Antoinette, nor did it seem Oberon as the ursian stood a little way off, his arms crossed and frowning at the man.

“Just something we want to identify before we make any wild guesses.” Christian covered it nicely. “As I said—Oberon DuPrie, formally of the VCU, can brief you, sir.”

Antoinette turned toward a man moaning in pain. He was one of Lucian’s human guards and had several large gashes
on his outstretched legs and ground his teeth while a paramedic cleaned the blood from a fresh seeping wound.

Antoinette wasn’t thirsty. Not like she had been when she’d attacked Lucian, but the smell of fresh human blood reminded her of the appetite and the now-familiar growling began in the dark corner of her mind where the beast dwelled.

“Come with me,” Christian whispered in her ear.

He’d come up from behind and her heart skipped a beat as his breath hit the back of her neck. The beast growled again—this time hungry for more than just blood.

“What?” she asked, caging the darkness a little more easily than last time.

“Come back to New York with me; let me help you through this.” He gripped her upper arms and turned her around. “When I thought I would lose you…”

“I can’t.” She ran her hand down the side of his face, a tear slipped down her cheek.

“Why not?” he asked, stepping away from her.

Antoinette looked over at her father being treated by the paramedic. And Lisbet, who’d lost everything and everyone she’d ever loved. Antoinette knew what it was like to have your whole world ripped from underneath you. But it wasn’t just them. How could she tell Christian she wasn’t sure if she could forgive him for what he’d done to her—even if he’d done it with the best of intentions?

She sighed and turned back to Christian. “I don’t know whether to thank you or hate you for what you’ve made me become. I don’t know how I feel or even what I feel anymore. You’ve turned everything upside down and I don’t know what feelings to trust.” She met his eyes and held them with all the strength she possessed. “How can I give myself to you when I don’t know who or what I am anymore?” She swiped away the tears. “I don’t even know where I fit…”

“Antoinette, please—” He reached for her but she shrank away. If he touched her, it would break her resolve. She needed to get away from him to think clearly. She glanced
over her shoulder at her father and Lisbet. They needed her.

“Right now I belong with my family. I need to take them home.”

His eyes, so full of guilt and pain, searched hers and he started to reach out again but dropped his arm to his side. With one last searching glance, he spun on his heels. He strode to the waiting helicopter and, without looking back, he signaled for the pilot to take off.

She watched the chopper disappear into the night sky. Hollowness gripped her chest, squeezing the breath from her lungs. It would go away eventually…wouldn’t it? She wiped away another stray tear as it slipped down her cheek and turned.

Antoinette rolled off the training mat. Exercise was so effortless these days, and she couldn’t even break a sweat no matter how hard she tried. She did it more out of habit than any need to maintain fitness.

Cerberus sat by the door and lifted his head at her approach, his tail thumping the floor excitedly. Christian had sent the dog to her when he wouldn’t stop pining, and she was glad of the company.

Antoinette had always loved this school, but now it seemed too small. Too restricting.

Not for Lisbet, though. As she predicted, the family welcomed the childlike Aeternus with open arms. They didn’t care that she, or Antoinette for that matter, weren’t human anymore—they were family and it was all that mattered.

Sergei took training to a new level with the more talented students, now that he had a couple of real parahumans to help.

After a century locked in a dungeon, Lisbet blossomed in the freedom of the school and everyone instantly fell in love with her.

Antoinette began to realize her prejudices had been hers alone. Her father’s recovery was almost as miraculous as Lisbet’s. His shrunken frame filled out and his laughter re
surfaced. He still had quiet moments, and they often talked of Viktor. While he still walked with the aid of a cane and the premature gray in his hair remained, the vitality Antoinette remembered had returned and he now appeared more his real age.

He’d also started to train students with Sergei. The two of them could often be seen with their heads together, coming up with new and wonderful training plans for torturing the students.

Lisbet and Papa also spent a lot of time together. He’d missed out on Antoinette’s childhood and Lisbet had missed out on a father. While he didn’t treat the tiny Aeternus as a child, every now and then it seemed they both liked to pretend. In a way it made Antoinette a little jealous that Lisbet had something that she could never give her father.

“Come on boy, let’s get out of here,” Antoinette said to Cerberus.

Antoinette wandered out of the training room and its cloud of human sweat and leather. Once those scents would’ve comforted her, but now she just found them cloying and overpowering. Pride had stopped her from calling Christian, but not only that. Her new body still baffled her and the beast still stirred, although she was getting better at facing it. She went through periods of grieving for the life she’d had before, and being here didn’t make that any easier. Antoinette swung between hating Christian for what he’d made her and missing him—his touch, his voice, and the way he made her feel.

“Antoinette,” one of the younger students ran up the hall after her. “There’s some guy from the Department here to see you.”

Her heart leapt. Christian…he had finally come for her. It was at that moment she realized she’d been waiting for him. “Where is he?”

“He’s talking to your father over behind the main hall,” the boy said.

She ran a few steps then stopped and paced back and
forth. What if he was only here to see how her father was? Or Lisbet?

As she neared the hall she saw her father and Lisbet talking to someone hidden from her by the wall. Her father saw her approaching and smiled before he and Lisbet walked away in the other direction. Her heart picked up pace and she forced her steps to slow. Her head felt giddy, and her heart light. How she’d missed him.

Antoinette turned into the room. “You!”

Her stomach physically clenched with crushing disappointment and her heart almost tore in half.
It wasn’t him.

“Good to see you too.” Oberon smiled and folded his large arms across his chest.

“Sorry,” she said. “I was expecting…” her voice trailed off. “Well, what are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to see you, see how you’re coping,” he said.

“I’m fine,” she lied.

He arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be? This is where my family is, they need me.” It sounded hollow even to her.

“Actually—I came to offer you a job, but it looks like I’ve wasted my time.” He started for the door.

“What kind of job?” It sounded far too eager.

She caught his knowing grin before he covered it quickly. “I’m putting together a new team.” He looked away. “After what happened with Lucian they want a specialist team to consult on high-profile parahuman crimes. Especially ones where there is suspicion of intergenus terrorism or political destabilization. Lucian’s crimes have people at the top running scared.”

“What section of the Department?” she asked.

“Actually we’ll be autonomous, answering only to a CHaPR Subcommittee. For now we’ll be based in New York, funded by CHaPR and the Academy—and part of the deal is becoming part of the teaching faculty, but that is only part-time. This way we can look for any gifted students to be trained as agents.”

“Why me?” she asked. “I’m sure there’s plenty more qualified than me.”