Prince of Shadows (3 page)

It didn't take them long to reach Shae's domain; the old nurse's office was just a short jog off the main hall. Aaron pushed the door open, chivalrously holding it for her. She stepped in and frowned. No Shae. Just the sparse room with its neatly organized counters and cabinets.

“Huh…maybe on the training floor,” he said, even as he scanned the room again, like Shae might be hiding in a cabinet or something and jump out at any moment. “Why don't you settle in and I'll go find her, okay?”

“Sounds good.” Gabby plunked her butt down in the pint-sized chair that hadn't been replaced yet. “I'll just sit right here.”

He gave her a narrow-eyed look, but when all she did was blink up at him innocently, he nodded and left the room.

She gave it a full ten seconds before she hefted herself out of the low seat and made her way to the cabinet. Wipes, gauze, tape. Check, check, check. At the door she took a moment to listen in case he'd been waiting to see if she stayed. No sounds nearby, no smells—well, other than the general combination of dust, dirt, mildew, and fresh, hard-earned sweat that permeated the air of the school.

Feeling like a convict making an escape, she slipped through the door and started back for the main hall. Her own slice of home was one of the old conference rooms back behind the main office. Most of the others who crashed here had taken the larger rooms: the old classrooms, the principal, vice principal, and guidance office, the teachers' lounge. The small conference room had been overlooked due to its distinct lack of windows. Gabby was okay with not having a window. In fact, she was more comfortable that way. Though she'd come to love the sun, there was something about waking with its rays beating down on her that still sent a wave of terror through her blood.

She made it to her room with only one other run-in, and that wasn't really a run-in, more a quick head nod as one of the women soldiers zipped by, obviously not at all inclined to stop and chat. There were still some people here who weren't comfortable around a vampire—even if that vampire fought on the “good guys'” side and could walk in the light now due to Karissa's blood running through her veins. However, when Gabby pushed open the door to her room, she found the one woman here who was most definitely
not
afraid of her, to Gabby's never-ending frustration: Annie. The tall redhead might not hover like Aaron did, but she was just as annoying. At least as of recently, though Gabby supposed she would've been too had she been in the same situation.

If Gabby played an escaped convict, then Annie was an actual inmate. A week before, after overhearing a conversation between Gabby and Jacob about the vampires' latest plans, Annie had enlisted some of the younger recruits to take their own countermeasures. Together they made their way into Haven's sacred halls in an attempt to deliver the intel. Somehow Annie had taken an offhand comment from Gabby to Jacob of “if you see Logan tell him…” to “find Logan by breaking into the Paladin sanctuary and tell him…” Needless to say, Annie hadn't exactly gotten a warm reception at Haven. The Paladin leader, Logan Calhoun's father, had pretty much tried to take them prisoner.

Jacob, upon hearing about the near kidnapping, had decided the Paladin leader actually had a damn good idea and forbade his headstrong daughter from ever leaving the base again without permission. Which, if Gabby had to guess, would be when Annie was fifty maybe?

“Have fun tonight?” Annie asked from where she sat with arms folded on the bed.

“No, actually. Your uncle is a royal pain in the neck.”

“Ah…” She leaned forward, cocking her head as she looked Gabby over. “He give you that nice hickey then?” She pointed to Gabby's bloody neck.

“Ha-ha.”

Annie smiled, leaning back against the wall. “He get in the way?”

Gabby grunted a noncommittal answer as she unbuckled her belt and dropped it, the knife and her axe on the floor to be cleaned later. Despite the fact that Aaron had put a nix on her feeding plans, he'd also probably saved her ass. Six vamps to one might've been slightly heavy odds even for her, especially in her current depleted state.

“Huh. If I'd been there I bet we could have kicked some major ass.”

“Maybe.” Gabby glanced over her shoulder at Annie, wincing a little at the pull on her wound. “But we also ran into two Paladin. And they probably would have kicked ours, staked me, then dragged you back by your hair to their cave.”

Annie curled her lip back in disgust. “Doubt that. We could have run if need be, and then they wouldn't have been able to find us.”

“You think so?” Gabby unzipped the hoodie, frowned as she pulled one of the disinfecting swabs from her pants, tore it open, and dabbed at the wound. And hell's fire that hurt. Grimacing, she went on. “Then how is it that I can find you? How is it that I can always track you down, no matter where you are?”

“I don't know,” Annie replied a bit uncertainly. “Do I have some sort of scent that you can smell because of…well…”

“My senses are good, but not
that
good. Smelling you only works if you're nearby and there aren't a lot of other masking scents.” She tossed down the bloody swab—three of those weren't enough anyway—and turned to Annie. “But I know you're there from almost a full mile away.”

“Fine.” Annie folded her arms, taking on a distinctive pout. “I don't know then. You going to tell me how?”

Gabby tapped her head. “You're not on my radar. And neither is anyone around you. All I have to do is look for the black hole and I know where you are. Do you think I'm the only one who might notice that?”

Annie frowned, her brow drawing into a vee above her nose. Gabby watched as the new worry and concern warred with her frustration of being contained, her mouth finally thinning into a stubborn line. “Fine. I just won't pull at all.”

Gabby gnawed the inside of her lip. Not “pulling,” as Annie called it, was much easier said than done. A null, which is what Annie was, tended to naturally eliminate the magic energy around them no matter where they were or what they were doing. Even now, when she was obviously making a concentrated effort to choke it back, she couldn't fully tamp the instinct. To completely stop took extreme willpower. And besides, to not use her gift meant that any baddy who happened to clue into her little oddity would be at their full power, leaving Annie to fight with wits and weapons alone unless she pulled, which again might draw more enemies. Definitely a catch-22. “That would probably be better, but maybe you should talk to Jacob. He might have another solution.”

Annie huffed, flopping across the cot. “Yeah, wrap me up in foam and assign people to stand behind me with catcher's mitts just in case I fall.”

Despite herself, Gabby found her lips trying to creep up. Jacob
was
essentially doing that with his daughter. “Your dad cares about you, Annie. That's not a bad thing.”

“If this is caring, I'd hate to see what happens when he doesn't,” she said sullenly, waving her hand dramatically at the building around her.

Gabby's lips thinned as memories assailed her. If Annie wanted to compare notes on the unfairness of her life, then Gabby was almost willing to do so. Only Gabby had never been very good at all the sharing crap.

“Annie, I genuinely hope you never have to find out.”

“Find out what?”

“What would happen if he didn't care.”

Annie's eyes dimmed, a distinctive frown pulling on her lips.
Yeah, don't like to think of that, do you?
Gabby's satisfaction was short-lived when Annie huffed again, visibly shrugging off Gabby's words as she sat up, her feet plopping hard on the floor.

“Whatever.” Annie stood, brushing by Gabby. When she was halfway out the door, she paused, her face a storm cloud as she glared over her shoulder. “You know, you're not as badass as you think,” she said, then marched out the door.

“I'm well aware,” Gabby mumbled, but the door was already closed.

She took a deep breath. A long calming one. She should probably say something to Jacob about his daughter's frustrations. They were petty, sure, but if left unchecked they could lead to trouble. Of course everything with Annie recently seemed like it brought trouble, so he was probably already well aware. His strategy, however, of wrapping her up in bubble wrap and stuffing her in this box of a base was probably not the way to instill cooperation.

Not
my
problem.
Nope, Gabby had other issues.

Pulling her bloodstained hoodie off the rest of the way, she inspected her mangled shoulder. It was already healing despite the inflicted torture of the disinfecting swab. Still, it had been close. Couple more inches to the left and she'd be missing her throat, which was much harder to heal, maybe not even possible post her Karissa-blood transfusion.

A lot had changed after Roland's mate's blood had been forced on her. Karissa's Paladin blood seemed to have negated a good number of Gabby's vampire characteristics. Being able to withstand the light was definitely a bonus and was something she'd been extremely grateful of when she hadn't fried to a crisp in that cave four months ago, but much to her continued frustration, she still couldn't handle real food. Her strength had also waned a bit, though it was better now that she was consistently training. All that training made her realize how much she'd relied on her vampire abilities before. Not that they were gone, just…dimmed.

Sighing, Gabby pulled off her blond wig and tossed it aside. Her red hair tumbled down in a curtain of lackluster waves. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, hoping to ease the stabbing headache that had gotten worse during the round with Annie.

When had she gotten so old? Four months ago that would have been her pouting and stomping around, but now all she ever felt was tired. Tired of the constant war. Tired of looking over her shoulder for enemies, some made by her own choices, but many made because of what she was as much as who. She was so damn tired. Tired of…everything.

She leaned in closer to the faded mirror that she'd hung on the wall, her hand jittering as she raised it to poke at the faint wrinkles that appeared when she squinted her eyes. Crow's-feet. She had goddamn crow's-feet now.

Too
long
since
my
last
feeding.
Not that it would help all that much. She could bathe in blood and it wouldn't erase the aging of her body. But it would, at least, give her more energy and keep her from biting the people she'd promised to help—even if some of them were annoying and deserved it.

“Hell's fire!” She spun around, hands on hips as she paced the small room. She was going to have to slip out while Aaron wasn't watching and go hunting again. Not that she dared go tonight, not with the Paladin sniffing around. And not just any Paladin.
Him
.

God, Valin.

She stopped, head tipped back as she took a long, deep breath. The uncovered bulb burned against her closed lids, but that wasn't what she saw. What she saw was Valin's face. That cocky devil-may-care grin, the dancing eyes that did nothing to conceal the wealth of pain he so obviously tried to hide. She'd never forget their first meeting and the moment when the disgust and disdain for what she was vanished from his bourbon gaze, his mask sloughing off as he peered further, the brief flare of surprise when he saw her for who she
could
be if not for her vampire heritage. That moment hadn't lasted nearly long enough. It had taken him less than a moment to start closing off the barriers. Slamming up the walls.

Not that their meeting mattered. There hadn't even been a flicker of recognition tonight. And it had nothing to do with the fact that she'd been wearing a wig.

Crow's-feet. Dead eyes. I'm the epitome of the walking dead. Only I'm not dead. Not since that night.

She turned back to the mirror, laying her hand upon the reflective surface, watched the steam that indicated the transfer of her own body heat to the cold glass. Still a surprise to her after all these months.

Fire pulsed through her veins.

A fire that was eating her from the inside out.

She leaned forward, tipping her head against the cool glass. “Nope, definitely not grave material yet, Gabby. But don't worry, you'll be there real soon.”

Their security sucked.

Valin looked around the dingy cafeteria turned mess hall of the old school he'd infiltrated, his lip curled back in disgust at the grime-covered flooring under his bare feet. Lax security and no maid service either.

A click of a gun brought his attention back to the crowd of wannabe warriors that had surrounded him the moment he'd fallen out of the shade. Okay, almost no security. That assortment of guns and knives would do a fine job at turning him to Swiss cheese if he wasn't careful. Thankfully the redheaded Amazon who first nulled his powers had been whisked out of the room within moments of his appearance and he could ghost again if needed. Not that he planned to, but if there were no other options he'd do so.

“It's okay. I'm not here to cause trouble. I only want to talk to Gabriella.”

By the number of narrowed eyes he got and the way the tall, lean, brown-haired man's finger tensed over the trigger, Valin guessed mentioning Gabby's name hadn't been the right thing to say. Obviously they weren't about to buy into the whole I-come-in-peace, take-me-to-your-leader crap. Smart. He wouldn't have either. Though it wasn't like he had anything dangerous on him—couldn't exactly hide anything.

Pure dumb fucking luck. That's how he'd found them. They'd been working in a radial search from their encounter in Williamsburg the other night when an overheard projective thought had allowed him to take a bead on the mind of one of their less experienced soldiers. He'd had to resort to ghosting to trail the two men coming off their patrol, but being without clothes or a weapon was a small price to pay for following them back to their base. Even if it did put him in kind of an awkward position now…being held naked at gunpoint and all.

Rather than digging himself into a bigger hole, he took his twiddle-his-thumbs time while waiting for something to happen—hopefully besides a firing squad—to tag Bennett. Not the easiest of tasks given the heavy shields on the place, but he managed, probably because he was inside reaching out rather than the other way around.

<>
he told Bennett once the connection was established.

<>
Bennett's projected thought sounded distant and hollow, testament that the Paladin—who was almost as good as Logan and Calhoun Senior at projective thought—was having his own troubles circumventing their shields. Tough shields indeed.

<>

<>

<>

“My friend's coming over to say hi too,” he told his band of gun-toting groupies. “Tall, blond, British accent. Don't shoot him when he shows up, 'kay? He has my clothes.”

“What a shame,” someone said from the back of the group. Valin was pretty sure it wasn't sarcasm, and similarly sure the husky voice was a woman's. Well, that was one out of a dozen or so who probably wouldn't go postal on him at least.

An awkward five minutes ensued. Valin figured it was a toss-up to see who got there first—Bennett, Gabby, or the person in charge of this shindig. Turned out it was the last, though he was followed almost immediately by a tightly packed group of men surrounding a familiar blond head. And yeah, Valin couldn't be sure this guy was the leader of this hodgepodge base of operations, but he was fairly certain. Tall, muscled, and bearing scars on every available bit of exposed skin, the older man oozed calm confidence. Of course, the fact that everyone's gaze at one point in time during his walk across the cafeteria met up with, checked in, then resumed their task of playing guard dog or dashed off to do something else if given a mere nod of his head was a real clue in too.

<>
He cast the thought into the room, not caring who overheard this conversation with Bennett. Besides, it was always good to know what you were up against and when at least a half-dozen other minds jumped into the stream he wasn't all that surprised.

Oh yeah, Senior was not going to be happy with the amount of power these less-than-pure-bloods had.

<>
The words were cast calmly, but Valin could sense the accompanying lash of annoyance.

<>
he assured him.

“As my men told you at the front doors, your weapon will be returned when you leave,” the man in front of the group said over his shoulder to Bennett. What went unsaid was
if
you leave. Wise, since saying things like that tended to not invoke cooperation.

The man turned his hard stare on Valin. Valin suspected most men flinched under that brown gaze, so he wasn't sure it was to his advantage or disadvantage that he didn't. Another half-minute game of who will blink first ensued before the man conceded a tie and spoke.

“I'm Jacob. My men said you wanted to speak with someone?”

“Mind if I get dressed first?” Valin nodded at the bundle of clothing Bennett was holding. Definitely some major holes in security if they'd allowed Bennett to keep them. Unless of course they'd already searched them and found what was inside—Bennett wasn't the only one capable of pilfering his own blade from Senior's lockbox.

Jacob considered a moment, then nodded. The bundle was passed from Bennett through one of his guards to Valin.

“Thanks.” He took the clothes and started pulling them on. When he got to the knife that had been wrapped in the center, he noted the immediate rise in tension, including how the soldier who'd passed it to him shuffled uncomfortably under Jacob's glaring look and also how Valin's favorite fan shifted his grip on his gun ever so slightly, as if he might either take the shot…or maybe just forego the weapon and reach for Valin's knife.

“Bennett's better natured than I. You try to take my blade and I'll have to kill you,” Valin said, injecting what assurance he could with his calm tone.

Trigger Happy opened his mouth, but Jacob laid a hand on his shoulder, though his attention was all on Valin as he gave him a look that said he didn't appreciate being fucked with.

“Sorry. Just saying how it is.” Valin quickly pulled on his T-shirt. And resisted smiling when the same soldier in the back—definitely a woman, a pretty little blonde, actually—sighed in disappointment.

Jacob flicked her a quelling glance before replying, “And I'm sorry, but you seemed to be under a misimpression when you came here.”

“Oh? And what's that?”

“That we welcome visitors,” Jacob said, his hand closing over the hilt of the K-bar on his belt. And though he was further away than at least three of those surrounding him, Valin thought it most likely that Jacob would be the first to connect if Valin did something threatening.

Valin flashed a grin instead. “Oh, I don't know. This kind of animosity makes me feel right at home. Right, Bennett?”

“You are a right bastard,” Bennett replied, eliciting a brief glance from Jacob. “Valin's the black sheep,” he explained.

“And he's the one you sent to say hello to your neighbors?” Jacob asked.

Bennett shrugged. “He's good at what he does.”

“Ah. A spy then?”

“Hard to spy when you know I'm here, but yes, I do that too.” Valin didn't expand. Scout, spy…assassin. Yup, he did it all. Not this time though. This time he was simply searching for lost treasure, and this old schoolhouse had a big ole
X
painted right on it. The mental shield, the one he hadn't even sensed from outside the building, had the distinctive taste of Gabby all over it. Not the Gabby he'd touched minds with back in the mines though, but the one he remembered from the street a couple weeks ago when he'd briefly skimmed along a succubus's shields. She'd run from him that night too, before he'd recognized her for who she was. And though he knew now that she hadn't been part of a trap, but rather leading them to one where a human, Logan's mate to be precise, had been in danger, it still didn't negate the fact that there had been a darkness to her that set off every instinct of wrongness he had.

Something had happened to Gabby between now and four months ago. Something that could account for the taint of evil he sensed stamped upon her. A taint that hadn't been there before, despite her maker's best efforts. Valin would be damned if he would go another day without finding out what had caused it. And it would be a cold day in hell before he let her leave again before he could fix it.

“I'm afraid you also have another misimpression,” Jacob said.

Valin tipped his head questioningly.

“We don't know who this Gabriella is that you're talking about.”

Behind him, Bennett raised his brow. Didn't need projective thought to get that question across:
Who
and
what
the
hell
is
he
talking
about?

Yeah, yeah. He'd explain it all later. “Bullshit. Amazon and her little group of buddies that broke into Haven already gave away that you do.”

“Haven?”

Valin sighed. “Are we really going to do this dance? You know exactly what I'm talking about and who I'm talking about, both the red-haired Amazon woman and Gabriella. I'll even guarantee you that I'm not here to bust your ass about sending troops into our sanctuary if you'll cut the crap and tell me where Gabby is.”

“What about him?” Jacob jerked his head over his shoulder at Bennett. “You speaking for him too?”

“Bennett's pretty good at speaking for himself if you ask him.”

Jacob twisted his head. Bennett lifted and dropped a shoulder. “Don't know anything about this Gabby my mate here's talking about. But I'm here to discuss what happened last week at Haven and to hopefully come up with a solution to the problem the null presents.”

“The problem?” Jacob asked dangerously.

“Aye, namely the fact that she would be positively lethal to us if she were to be captured by Ganelon and subsequently used against us.”

Jacob didn't even blink at the mention of Lucifer's right-hand man but met Bennett with a straight face as he said, “Annie would never allow herself to be used.”

Valin felt his brow quirking and his lip turning up. Annie? As in little orphan Annie? Or perhaps she was named for Annie Oakley in
Annie
Get
Your
Gun
. That image fit a bit better with the Amazonian null who'd been hustled out of the room.

Bennett shook his head. “She wouldn't have to allow it. If Ganelon got a hold of her, he'd find a way to force her compliance. Ganelon has…mastered the art of persuasion.”

It was hard to miss the way Jacob's face paled, or how it took him a moment to regain his composure. Either he took his troops' welfare very seriously or there was something personal here. Was he Amazon's older brother maybe? There was a bit of a resemblance, in height alone if nothing else. In fact, Trigger Happy looked a lot like him too. Way to keep it all in the family.

“Annie your sister?” Valin asked.

Jacob rounded back on Valin, his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Annie is off the table of discussion.”

“Fine, but she needs training. And Bennett here is the best man we have for the job. Unless you have someone who's even better at shielding. Like, say, a certain vampire and succubus that you all seem to be acquainted with.”

Bennett stiffened at the same time that Jacob choked out, “Succubus?” His gaze skirted briefly to Trigger Happy. Something in Valin's gut hardened, his blood pumping double-time. Why the fuck had Jacob looked at trigger-boy just then? As if Gabby being a succubus explained something. It better as hell not.

Trigger Happy's mouth thinned. “Get the hell out. We don't need you and your friend in here trying to scare us shitless by spouting lies.”

“I'm not going anywhere without talking to Gabby.”

“I don't know about that. Hell is a place, after all,” Trigger Happy said, twisting his gun in true gangsta fashion. Was this guy for real?

Maybe
yes, maybe no, but that gun is. So if you want to see her, you might want to play nicer.

“I'll talk with him,” a voice cut through the tense silence.

And there she was, standing just inside the doors at the far end of the cafeteria. Even from here the sight of her was like a brick to the jaw. The urge to plow through all obstacles or, hell, give up the clothes and knife he'd made such a big deal about and ghost over to her was intense. He wanted to touch her, push back the hefty hunk of hair that obscured half her face just to be sure it
was
her. Yes, he'd seen her twice now since the mines where he thought she'd died, but the first time he hadn't recognized her and the second he wasn't one hundred percent convinced. He was now though.

“Gabriella, you don't have to do anything for this asshole.” Trigger Happy all but growled, his gun shaking in his hand.

“It's okay, Aaron. Valin just wants to talk.” The corner of her full lips tipped up slightly on one side, not an amused smile, more a look of self-recrimination. “My fault, probably. Our good-byes were a bit rushed last time.”

“Try nonexistent,” Valin muttered. And he still wanted to throttle her for it. Not the lack of good-bye so much, but the fact that she'd taken off in the first place and put herself in danger. Whenever he thought of it he remembered the soul-clenching sense of panic that had consumed him as he'd searched those mines. It wasn't until he'd finally given up, returning to the surface, and gotten the shocker of his life when he'd seen both Karissa and Roland standing, unharmed, in the sun that he'd begun to believe it possible Gabby still lived. Gabby had been given Karissa's blood, and it seemed Karissa's blood was the cure-all for the whole vampire-to-ashes thing.