Chapter One

Anubis studied the waves that rocked the yacht for tell-tale air bubbles. A deadly silence had hung in the air since he killed the motor. The quiet settled around him like a well-known lover. A dull orange haze lined the eastern horizon of the vast Pacific Ocean and spread a pale golden light against the billowing cumulus clouds signaling the start of another normal day… for some.

He straightened from the bow of the ship, tracking the air bubbles as they moved from aft of the two-hundred-foot floating palace. Correction, the floating morgue. His target had been making his way to the United States, but his journey ended fifteen miles off the coast of California. Technically the event was still in international waters. Yi Bao lay dead inside his stateroom. The crew was unconscious and adrift in the yacht's lifeboat. They'd wake up in an hour with one hell of a headache, but they would have a radio, and they'd be alive. As for Bao's minions, their deaths had been… peaceful. The poison he'd used to lace their dinner worked quietly and efficiently. They went to sleep, never to wake. Anubis felt no remorse at the loss of their lives. If you choose to align yourself with the devil, you will reap what you sow. Bao, the demon's head, had died the way any true demon should die. Awake and fully cognizant of what Anubis was doing to him. Bao had crossed the line of acceptability-even for demons-and the international security community had authorized his extermination.

Hiking the backpack stuffed with the contents of Bao's safe over his shoulder, he followed the air tank trail from the port to the starboard side. The boat rolled under his feet, untethered and drifting with the waves in the open sea. He glanced at the speedboat tied to the starboard side of the vessel. It was his escape. The man currently rigging the yacht with explosives appeared from the darkness when Anubis had flashed the all clear. His orders for this assassination had been clear. Bao's demise must look like an accident at sea. The demolition specialist was sent to ensure only toothpick-sized pieces of the yacht would be found. Normally, he would rig an explosion, but the powers-that-be wanted the specialist to ensure the destruction of the craft. Anubis understood the reasoning behind the order. Bao had led the powerful international Triad. Any indication of an assassination would cause problems, and the Triad had already caused death and maiming within the Guardian family. It wasn't often he took pleasure in his job, but in Bao's case, he made an exception. Anubis ensured the man would never hurt his organization again.

The diver surfaced and pulled his oxygen tank's mouthpiece from his mouth, treading water as he looked up at Anubis through his facemask. The power of the waves would have made it impossible for Anubis to tread water so easily.

"We have five minutes and seventeen seconds. Finish your business. If you aren't in the boat by the time I get there, I will leave you." The man put the mouthpiece back in his mouth and slipped under the water.

Cocky son of a bitch . A smile spread across his face. He liked that. He walked down the length of the yacht to where the speedboat pulled against the rope that bound it to the luxury ship. The diver had levered himself into the stern and was shedding his flippers and tanks. Clutching the backpack in one hand, Anubis looked at the waves and judged the pitch and roll of both boats. His muscles tensed and he vaulted over the rail, dropping to the deck of the smaller craft as it started its upward pitch. He stood and grabbed the knot in the rope pulling it free. The speedboat's motor roared to life. Anubis braced his weight on his back foot, fighting gravity and the power of the propulsion of the speedboat. He lunged forward and grabbed the seat adjacent to the diver.

The boat barely skimmed the top of the water, lifted into the air at a forty-five-degree angle by the power of the racing engines. Fuck, he'd survived ten years as an assassin only to die now of a broken neck because the demolition specialist was fucking insane. Speaking of violent deaths… He glanced at the person piloting the boat-and did a double take. Son of a bitch, no wonder the man had brass balls. Anubis recognized that profile but shelved the thought. The man's code name was Smoke; he was an underwater demolitions expert, and that was all Anubis knew for a fact. He damn sure wasn't going to strike up a conversation with the bastard that might distract him from flying the boat over the waves. Anubis didn't feel much like dying, at least not today.

At a vivid flash of light, Anubis whipped his head around. The entire sky lit with the violence of the explosion. The man beside him let out a whoop of pure, unadulterated excitement and laughed almost manically as he pushed the throttle even farther forward, urging the bullet they were riding in to go faster. Fucking hell, it figured. The man was insane.

The trip to the small marina that rested in the snug cove surrounded by the city of Santa Barbara took far less time than it should have. About a mile offshore, Smoke throttled back and brought the boat out of its hypersonic flight. Anubis unclenched his fingers from the seat. He'd bet the metal frame under the leather padding had dents from his grip. After they tied up the boat, Smoke grabbed his gear and climbed up to the pier. He reached back and offered Anubis a hand up. Anubis narrowed his eyes at the man. He dropped down and launched from a crouched position straight up, landing on his toes at the edge of the wooden pier.

"We should do that again. Oh, you're supposed to call Alpha, priority, Omega." The man gave him a wink and a wicked smile before he threw his tanks over his shoulder and walked, barefooted, toward the end of the pier. Son of a bitch, he'd seen all types, but that man… yeah, there was a screw loose somewhere in that one's brain.

Anubis looked across the bay. The sunrise painted the boats with a rich golden hue. The hills surrounding the area took on a mystic look as a low fog hung along the coastline. He gave Smoke time to clear the area before he followed him to the parking lot. Anubis made a casual walk around his vehicle. He dropped down on the pretense of tying his shoe to check the undercarriage of his SUV. Assured there was nothing attached to the undercarriage, he popped the doors, threw his backpack in the passenger-side seat and climbed in. Before he'd gone a mile, he palmed his phone and called the number he knew by heart.

"Operator Two Five Two." The distant, professional voice was the same today as it had been ten years ago.

"ID Six Four Nine for extension Seven Zero One," Anubis replied.

"One moment, Six Four Nine."

"Alpha."

He recognized Jacob King's voice. The man had taken over the Shadow World along with guiding the helm of Guardian's overseas operations. Anubis respected the man and his past. He once was the skipper of Alpha Team. That meant he wasn't a paper pusher and knew the perils of being in the field.

"Anubis."

"I pass you-Cobalt."

Anubis immediately replied with his code word that would let Alpha know he wasn't compromised. "I pass you-Azure."

"Report."

"The mission is complete. Ancillary documents obtained, without incident." Well, except for one crazy-ass underwater demolition specialist.

"Understood. Implement Option Daniel One."

Anubis's head jerked toward the phone as if he'd been slapped. "Repeat your last, Alpha."

"Implement Option Daniel One."

Anubis blinked at the command. Fuck! "Affirmative." He powered down the phone as he waited for the traffic light to turn green. Calculating the quickest route, he turned left from West Cabrillo Street onto State Street. As he passed over Mission Creek, he chucked the cheap burner phone he'd purchased yesterday out of his passenger side window hard enough to send it over the pedestrian walkway and into the water below.

On Highway 1, headed south, is mind raced with questions for which he had no answers. Option Daniel One was basic code and referred to the biblical story of Daniel in the lion's den. Gabriel, the original handler of the Shadow World, had invented the option when one of the first SW operatives had been compromised. The directions were clear. Go to Guardian's closest safe house in the area you were currently assigned and standby. He was being pulled from the field because somehow someone had shined a light on him. Anubis gripped the wheel of the SUV and drove carefully, observing every traffic law. He had miles to go before he'd have answers. Fuck, he shook as he put distance between himself and the harbor in Santa Barbara. The drive through Ventura took longer than it should. Traffic, even at seven thirty in the morning, was bumper to bumper. He tapped the steering wheel with his thumb, agitated by the drivers around him. Point Magoo State Park passed by in a blur as his destination, and answers to his questions, drew nearer. He entered Malibu's city limits and continued along Highway 1, traveling just past La Piedra State Beach. He slowed looking for the address he'd memorized when he'd accepted the case. He traveled on until he saw the gated drive. He turned in, punched in his code and waited as the gates opened. Eucalyptus trees lined the drive and hid the mansion from the roadway. Anubis pulled into the circular drive and parked. He damn near ran up the steps and entered his code again on a keypad outside the door. The locks disengaged. Anubis entered the massive foyer and listened as the locks re-engaged after him. He knew it could take hours for someone to reach the safe house and debrief him, but that fact didn't help the constant questions that kept circling through his mind. He rubbed his hand over his face. A line of dried blood circled his wrist. The gloves he'd worn protected his hands as he worked, but Bao's death had still managed to stain his skin.

He did a quick visual of the premises and headed upstairs. He needed a shower, and it was something to do other than sit and wonder what, or who, had compromised him. He opened the first door on the right and closed it. A library. The next room was an adjacent office, and the third was a bedroom. He stalked over the plush carpet and went through the open bathroom door. He turned on the taps and stripped out of his boots and clothes. He spun on his heel and headed for the walk-in closet. There were slacks, jeans, and shirts of various styles and sizes hanging from the bars. He found a pair of jeans his size and grabbed a shirt. The built-in dressers provided an assortment of undergarments. He grabbed a pair of socks and fresh briefs before he returned to the bathroom. The steam coming out of the shower beckoned him with the promise of a brief slice of heaven. Anubis stepped under the rain head and closed his eyes.

Nothing. Nothing should shine a light on him. He approached every mission with a meticulousness considered obsessive… except for the mission in that hellhole of a third world country almost six years ago. In truth, he should be dead after that one. He'd endured the torture the minions of the man he'd killed had dealt out, waiting for a chance to escape, or at least find a way to take some of the bastards with him. Bengal was the reason he was alive today. He'd never forget a debt that could not be repaid. He had few friends and Bengal was one.

Anubis went back over each mission he'd completed for Guardian. He had no fingerprints that could be traced; scar tissue obliterated any possibility of identifying him in that manner. Lifting his hand up, he examined the pads as if they could provide an answer. Meticulous pre-planning for every event he was assigned ensured there was no security system to capture his likeness. Several of the operatives in the Shadow World knew him by sight, but only by his code name. His aliases were disposed of like yesterday's trash as soon as he'd completed his assigned event. Dropping his head and rolling his shoulders, he drew a deep breath, and then another. There was nothing to do but wait.

He washed quickly and dressed in the clothes he'd selected before he headed downstairs to find the kitchen. The grandeur of the kitchen didn't impress him. He wasn't one to covet wealth, although, by any standard, he'd become very wealthy. Anubis found a can of soup and opened it, heating it in a bowl that he'd triple washed and rinsed for over five minutes. Overly cautious? Perhaps, but when you work with poison for a living, you tend to make sure things you eat and drink haven't been compromised.

He'd just sat down to eat when he heard the door locks disengage. Anubis was up and pinned to the contours of the wall within the span of two heartbeats.

"Ani, you piece of shit, where the fuck are you?" Bengal, or rather, Zane Reynolds bellowed from the foyer area. His muscles relaxed, and Anubis returned to the table as he yelled back, "In the kitchen."

He sat back down, picked up his spoon, and listened for Zane's tread on the floor, but as usual, the big man moved like the cat he'd been named after-silent, powerful and deadly. He also lived in the light, no longer an apex predator in the Shadow World.

He entered the kitchen and headed straight for the table where Anubis sat. "Who do you know in Merced, California?"

Anubis stopped mid-swallow. He played the name of the city through his mind and came up with a blank. The spoon found a resting place on the napkin he'd fished from the middle of the stack. He finished what soup was in his mouth. He gave himself a second to spin the name of the city through his mind again. He shook his head. "Nobody? Why?"

Zane elevated an eyebrow at him and reached into his suit pocket, pulling out a sheaf of papers. "Because someone ran a partial of your DNA through the Combined DNA Index System."

"CODIS? My DNA? Impossible. Besides, we aren't listed in CODIS." Anubis leaned forward. "What do you mean, partial?"

Zane pulled a second sheet of paper out of the stack. "As in it matches fifty percent of your markers. Enough that all the bells and whistles at Guardian went off. We track every input into all the national systems. When your markers lined up, we got the hit, not the lab tech that works for the Merced County Sheriff's office."

A graph filled the sheet Zane pointed to, with arrows indicating matching markers. Another page slid from the stack. A photograph of a man in his mid to late twenties. He didn't recognize the face. The next page was a Guardian-run dossier on the guy, one Mitch Canaga, lead lab tech for the criminal investigation unit of the Merced County Sheriff's Office. Anubis shook his head and let his gaze drift up to Zane's. "I've never seen this guy. Again, I ask, what do you mean, partial? My family's dead." They'd been brutally murdered in a home invasion while he was stationed overseas. His mother, father, and little sister died after the bastard that broke in, bound them, poured drain cleaner down their throats, and then cleaned out their house as the acid slowly ate his family's lives away. Samuel Avery, the perp who committed that heinous act, was out on bail when Anubis found him. He was the first person Anubis had ever killed that wasn't shooting at him. The bastard's death paid Anubis's price of admission into the Shadow World. If he had to do it over again, he wouldn't hesitate. Except now that he knew how to kill, it would have taken much, much longer for that bastard to die.

"We know about your mom, dad, and sister." Zane pulled out the last sheet from the stack he brought with him. A little girl with dark brown hair, golden eyes and a capricious smile stared back at him. Anubis ran his hand over his face and glanced away from the picture. It could have been his little sister, Thea. The family resemblance was that strong.

"Who is she?"

"Kadey Meyers. Her mother is-"

"Sky Meyers." Anubis finished for him. He sat back and tried to deal with the onslaught of emotion that name pulled forward. Sky was… fuck, she was the woman he didn't deserve and the woman he couldn't release.

"Yeah. I take it you didn't know?"

"Fuck, no." He turned his glare up and focused on Bengal. His gut, heart, and head fought for dominance. His gut told him not to get involved. He wasn't what they needed in their lives. His heart… fuck, his heart wanted to run out of the safe house and drive however long it took to find Sky and his daughter. And his head? His head told him to weigh all the options, develop a plan and assess the possible outcomes before he made a move.

"You've got a daughter." Zane used one finger to push the photo closer.

Anubis drew a deep breath and shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I can't do anything for them except bring death to their door." That was his gut talking. Loud and clear.

"Death is already making its way to their door, my friend. Kadey has a heart condition called Ebstein's Anomaly. It is when one of the valves in her heart is malformed. In most kids, it's mild; not with her. She needs surgery. Jewell thinks maybe her mom is using her connections to look for you."

Anubis's stomach twisted violently. The soup he'd consumed rose with the bile, lodging in his throat. He stared at the picture. His daughter was sick. He elevated his eyes to his friend. "I can't. I'm a Shadow."

"You can. Guardian has your back on this one. I'm assuming her mom is someone special?"

Anubis stared at the picture. "After you bailed me out of that mission, I came back here, to Fresno, to recuperate-a town where I knew nobody. Hell, I hadn't been in the state before. I laid low for the first three months before I went stir crazy. I met Sky at a bar. We hit it off, and one thing led to… well, it led to two months. I left in the middle of the night. An assignment."

"You kept in contact with her?"

Zane's question got a head nod. He had checked in on Sky through black door acquaintances. At first, never directly and never requesting any information about her, just making sure she would be all right. He made sure she'd been offered a good job in Sacramento, ensured things happened to provide her an affordable place to live. The last time he'd checked through those contacts, about six months after he left, she was working for the District Attorney as an office manager.

Then he'd done the wrong thing, and he'd done it more than once. About four years ago, he called her when he was in California, and they hooked up. Just a hook up at a cheap hotel in Davis, a town southeast of Sacramento.

He'd expected questions and to end up talking half the night, but Sky shocked the hell out of him. She didn't want to know anything about him or why he left, even though he had a perfectly good cover story to use. Hell, he should have suspected something when she wouldn't answer any of the questions he'd asked about how she'd been. Anubis rolled that thought around. Nah, he figured it was her way of keeping him at arm's length for leaving her so abruptly. Sky made it clear she was there for the sex-the fantastic, red-hot-orgasmic-rock-your-fucking-world kind of sex.

It was so damn good that one intense night led to more. Every time his work brought him to California, he called. The sex between them was so hot the devil's balls roasting in hell were frostbitten in comparison. The last time he was in the state before this mission was… damn near two years ago. Anubis was actually looking forward to calling her after he'd debriefed Bao's mission… but now? Fuck, now he had a daughter. A daughter. How the fuck was he supposed to wrap his mind around that?

Anubis shook himself out of his own head. Continuous questions spun while his mind was stuck on "reboot" and none of this shit would give him any answers. He moved a piece of paper off Canaga's picture. "Who is this guy to Sky?"

"He is her second cousin."

For some reason that bit of information made him feel better. In another life, he could have loved Sky. Maybe he had loved her, but he didn't have another life. He didn't exist. If he were to vanish off the face of the earth tomorrow, no one would know to grieve his loss. He stared at the chubby cheeks of the little girl who smiled so innocently into the camera. He was a father. "Okay, she needs surgery. Why is Sky trying to find me? Is the procedure that risky?"

"All surgery is risky, especially open-heart surgery, but there is another reason Sky is looking for you. There is always substantial blood loss during this type of operation, and your daughter will require multiple transfusions." Anubis froze as the realization hit him. He stared at the man across the table from him. "My daughter is Rh-null."

"She is. You know how rare your blood is. How rare hers is. There are only ten active Rh-null blood donors in the world. The hospital refuses to operate until a blood supply is located. You are her only chance."

Anubis donated his blood routinely until he joined Guardian. The International Blood Group Reference Laboratory in Filton, England, maintained the world's database of rare-blood donors, the International Rare Donor Panel. Before he became the man he was today, he'd been listed on that panel. As far as that group knew, he was dead. "What about the Rh-null people on the list?"

"There are none in the United States. The two that were listed on it died. One, of course, was you, the other died of old age about two years ago."

Anubis stared at the picture. The sparkle in the little girl's eyes shone like a beacon into his cold, hardened soul. That smile penetrated the vault where he'd sealed his emotions just like a heat-seeking missile found the ass end of a jet engine. "There is no other way?"

Zane shook his head. "Not according to the docs we talked to."

"I'll need the engineer to redesign my old cover."

"Name?"

"Kaeden Lang."

"It may take a few days to set it up, but I know Jacob will push this through as fast as he can."

"I'll make an anonymous blood donation." It would solve everything. Sky and Kadey would be safe from the danger that flew in a constant satellite around his life.

"We thought of that, but that is a risk Guardian isn't willing to take. If you are up there, you can control the situation. Once your rare blood type hits the medical system, doctors and researchers will have a field day, just like they did with Kadey."

Anubis knew Bengal's assumptions were true. When he'd been on the registry, the medical community hounded him relentlessly for donations for research. He'd given as much as he could, but the demand was never-ending.

"Go up there and get the lay of the land. We didn't have time to get an in-depth report on Sky's past or the acquaintances in her life. Jewell is working that as we speak." Zane leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hand over the five o'clock shadow he sported.

"Guardian has a doctor up there we trust to do your workup. You have an appointment in three days to do the screening to ensure your blood is viable. We can control what he puts in the system, but what happens after that? My lady is good, but from what she tells me, the medical systems are unbelievably easy to compromise. Thousands of access points and no definitive way to regulate who goes in and reviews patient information. The honest people stay honest, and HIPAA rules put some teeth into prosecuting those who are caught, but…"

Anubis sat back in his chair and played with the corner of his little girl's picture. "You're telling me I need to make contact."

"I am." Bengal leaned back and met Anubis's stare.

"Sky obviously did not want me to know about her daughter." Anubis remembered every word and every touch they shared when they were together. Why hadn't she told him that he was a father? Probably because he showed up, fucked her and left . Hell, he didn't blame her for not telling him. Still, it was a sucker punch.

"Newsflash. The kid is also your daughter and that little girl needs you." Bengal tapped the photograph with his finger.

Anubis rolled his shoulders and looked up at the ceiling. He'd put his life on the line countless times without a second thought, but this? Fuck, he didn't have the skills to do…family. Not anymore. He'd given up that part of his humanity long ago.

"Where's your head, brother?" Bengal's voice brought his wandering mind back to the kitchen and the conversation at hand.

"I don't know how to do or to be… this." He was honest. He reserved deception for the people they used, not the people with whom he worked.

"One step at a time." Bengal cleared his throat and leaned forward on the table, bracing on his forearms. "When I came out into the light, man…" Bengal shook his head. "It's like being born again. You need to relearn every-fucking-thing."

"I'm not stepping out like you." He had no intention of leaving the Shadows. He was damn good at what he did and taking out the scum of the world was his calling.

"Yeah, I get that. Only you can make the decision to stay or walk away."

"If I walk, it won't be toward the light."

"I know, man. That is always an option, but you don't need to make that decision. Yet."

Anubis nodded as he considered the facts. He could ignore his daughter's situation and hope that she'd find a donor, or he could man up and head north. His eyes fell on the picture again. The mop of curls and the brilliant smile left him no choice. "I'll also need access to my off-shore money. I'll give you an account number so funds can be transferred."

"I won't need an account number. Guardian will foot any cost and the hospital bills. I'll have accounts set up in Sacramento, checking and savings, plus you'll have several credit cards in Lang's name."

"I'll still need access to that money, so put it into those accounts. She's my daughter. I need to make sure she's taken care of."

Bengal looked across the table at him, and a sly smile spread across the man's face. "I'm sure the mother and the little girl will benefit from your generosity."

"Shut up, man. Has Sky been dealing with this alone?" He re-routed Bengal's propensity for bringing up his assumed humanity… or lack thereof.

"From what we can tell, yes. Again, we didn't have time to work through this the way we'd like, but according to the information Jewell was able to put together, Sky's expenditures are minimal with the exception of things for her daughter and now, the medical bills. We do know she's struggling to pay her debt."

"Do you have that brief here?"

Zane pulled another paper from the interior pocket of his suit. "Here is everything we could compile. Jewell is working a complete background on her. We have your back on this one. You have a daughter, Ani… a daughter, and she needs you. Whatever it takes."

"As long as it takes." Ani automatically finished the words he'd lived his life by for the last ten years.