Word spread fast within the supernatural community. Saeed saw no point in keeping details from Rin that he would eventually find out anyway. Someone like Gregor would not have lived as long as he had without possessing a certain shrewdness. He could try to take Cerys by force, but Saeed suspected the berserker warlord would be much more subversive.
She was a rare treasure. Gregor wouldn’t simply let her slip away. Which was why Saeed needed to locate her soul as soon as possible.
“This is all very interesting,” Rin said. “But you still haven’t told me how you came by the information. I somehow doubt the child simply walked up to your door to tell you this.”
This is where things got complicated. It was important to protect Vanessa’s identity, especially since Rin showed a proclivity for enslaving those whose power could benefit him. It was bad enough that McAlister and Gregor had both tried to get their hands on the child. Throwing Rin into the mix would only make an already bad situation worse. If Saeed brought any more danger to Mikhail’s door, the vampire king would run a stake through his heart before he had a chance to explain himself.
“No, she didn’t.” Saeed cast a momentary glance in Cerys’s direction. He needed to stay as close to the truth as possible without revealing too much. “Gregor recently tried to sway a pack of werewolves to join his cause. They planned an attack on McAlister while he met with the oracle. No doubt Gregor hoped to kill two birds with one stone. A vampire in Mikhail’s inner circle happened to be tethered to one of the werewolves. We came to McAlister’s aid and in doing so I came in contact with the oracle.”
Saeed waited as Rin silently contemplated everything he’d told him. From the corner of his eye, he studied Cerys, looking for any outward show of emotion. Gods, she took his breath away. So inherently fierce. So gods-damned beautiful. So disconnected and hollow. And so deadly she made even the most stalwart of supernatural creatures quake in their boots.
“I’ve never heard of a werewolf mating with a vampire,” Rin remarked. “In fact, I’ve never known a vampire to take anything but a vampire or dhampir as a mate.”
Cerys pursed her lips as she glanced in Saeed’s direction. He disregarded her “I told you so” expression as he lent his full attention to Rin. “There are a handful of vampires in existence. It only makes sense that nature would compensate.”
“I suppose you’re right.” As if Saeed needed Rin’s acceptance of it to make the fact even truer. “So you were in the right place at the right time. Why did the oracle speak to you?”
Saeed shrugged. “Why do oracles do anything? Their power is as mysterious as they are. The child beckoned me to her and declared that I should come here and find the fae with the hair like fire before Ian Gregor ended her master and used her for his own devices.”
Saeed took a chance with that last bit. He’d learned enough about the art of deception over the centuries to know how to bluff without giving himself away. He doubted even his scent would betray him.
“You didn’t ask this oracle any questions?” Rin asked. “If someone told me to travel the length of the coast in search of something that might not even be there, I might do a little fact checking first.”
“I told you, the oracle is a child. She’s not yet old enough to know how to properly articulate her visions. I was happy to investigate. We’ve been confined to California for two centuries. Now that our numbers have grown, we are afforded the opportunity to venture past those old boundaries. Once I got here, you weren’t hard to find. Your reputation might just be your downfall, Rin. If it was so easy for me to find you, no doubt it will be just as easy for Gregor.”
“He’s right.” Cerys spoke up for the first time since they’d come into the office. “According to Kyle, it only took Gregor a matter of minutes to get a list of clubs that might be potential supernatural hang outs you’d frequent.” She looked pointedly at Rin. “Including your own club.”
Rin folded his arms across his chest in a moment of quiet thought. His gaze passed from Cerys, to Saeed, and back again. It took a sheer act of will for Saeed to pay Cerys no mind. To behave as though she meant absolutely nothing to him when he craved her body, her blood, with every fiber of his being.
“Why kill me? If Gregor is in fact amassing allies, wouldn’t I be more use to him alive than dead?”
Rin would be arrogant enough to consider himself a valuable commodity. Again, Saeed got the impression Rin knew a hell of a lot more than he let on. “You’re a mage, so is McAlister. Maybe Gregor thinks you’d take his side.”
“Without even asking me first?” Rin’s amused laughter grated on Saeed’s last nerve. He couldn’t find Cerys’s soul quickly enough for his peace of mind. His need to end the cocky mage increased with each passing day. “Seems a little impetuous, even for a berserker.”
Saeed didn’t necessarily need Rin to believe that Gregor was a threat to him. But he did need him to realize Gregor wouldn’t stop until he stole Cerys out from under him. “Maybe he simply wants you dead so nothing stands between him and what he really wants.”
Saeed’s gaze went to Cerys and Rin’s eyes followed. A sneer curved his lips and his eyes narrowed. “I invite him to try,” Rin said. “But he won’t get so much as a finger on her.”
“Which is why I’m here,” Saeed said. “To help ensure that it doesn’t happen.”
“I have no dog in this fight,” Rin said with disgust. “I don’t appreciate being drawn into it.”
Liar. Rin couldn’t cover it this time. He reeked of lies. “You might not appreciate it, but it doesn’t change the fact that Gregor is in Seattle and that he wants what’s yours.” Admitting Cerys belonged to Rin burned Saeed’s throat like swallowing acid. She wouldn’t belong to him for long, though. He’d make sure of it.
“So what?” Cerys’s tone soured. “We pull up camp and leave the city?”
Rin snorted. “There’s no fucking way I’m going to let some bloodthirsty warlord drive me out of the city I spent years beating into submission.”
Leave it to Rin to let his ego trump safety.
“Well if you think I’m going into hiding, you’ve got another gods-damned think coming.” Cerys obviously had no problem letting Rin know exactly how she felt. “I’ll go after Gregor and kill him myself if I have to.”
Saeed fought the urge to push up from the chair and tell Cerys that under no circumstances would she go after Gregor. His concern would only throw up another red flag, however. And so, he was forced to sit still in the rickety old chair and pretend as though he couldn’t care less one way or the other what Cerys did.
Rin laughed. “And send you right to him?”
Cerys cocked a challenging brow. “You don’t think I could do it?” Saeed wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose at her competitive audacity. “I can guarantee you he wouldn’t see me coming.”
“I have no doubt, my deadly little assassin.” Saeed’s temper rose to the surface at the endearing tone of Rin’s gently spoken words. “That doesn’t mean I’m willing to risk you under any circumstances.”
That he spoke to her with any measure of affection was enough to make Saeed’s blood boil in his veins. Rin had enslaved Cerys, stolen her soul, taken all of her choices from her, and had the nerve to address her as though their relationship was so much more.
“Well then, you’d better think of something. Because like I said, I am not hiding in my apartment until the berserkers leave the city.”
If things went Saeed’s way, Cerys wouldn’t be waiting anywhere for long. He didn’t want her any more imprisoned than she already was, but neither was he interested in dangling her right in front of Ian Gregor’s nose. “Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to lay low for a couple of weeks at least.”
Cerys looked at Saeed with disbelieving shock. Of course she would never expect him to suggest such a thing. Especially when he’d been so adamant about freeing her from Rin in the first place. “No.” She looked directly at Saeed as she said the one word.
For the love of the gods, she was stubborn! She might not want to be cooped up in a building somewhere, but the least she could do was get her ass out of one of the handful of clubs in the city that Gregor was sure to investigate. Saeed ignored Cerys as he spoke to Rin, “It’s up to your discretion of course, but I would at least suggest getting her out of here for tonight.”
“I think I need to decide on my own who and what I believe,” Rin said after a moment. “I’m not making any decision based on information gathered from a desperate human and a vampire I’ve just met.” Saeed’s gut twisted as he realized he was about to be dismissed for the night, leaving Cerys unprotected. “I’ll be in touch,” Rin said. “In the meantime, get out of my fucking face so I can think.”
Saeed stood from the chair. As much as it pained him to leave, he knew he had no choice. He cast one last furtive glance Cerys’s way as he headed for the door and pulled it open to leave. He swore to the gods, if Rin let anything happen to her, he would make him pay for an eternity.
* * *
“Get rid of him.” The words left Cerys’s mouth the moment Saeed closed the door. She wasn’t worried about him overhearing, all of the offices in the club had been soundproofed. “I’m serious, Rin. Cut him loose.”
Rin studied her as though trying to read her thoughts. “He probably hasn’t been a vampire for more than a year. Why so quick to end his new life?”
“Jesus Christ, Rin!” Cerys exclaimed. “I meant send him back to L.A. Not run a stake through his heart.”
Rin chuckled and it only made Cerys want to lay her fist into the side of his face. She didn’t know how much of Saeed’s story was actually true—he was damned good at bending the truth—but she was certain if he had a run-in with the berserker or any of Gregor’s men they’d be quick to put an end to Saeed’s existence. Cerys wasn’t worried about losing her own life. Unfortunately, she had value. Saeed wasn’t so lucky, and the thought of a world without him in it sent an anxious rush through her bloodstream.
“So you do like him.”
Gods. Was there ever a time when he wasn’t trying to bait her into doing or saying something? “I like him about as much as I like you,” she replied dryly.
Rin laughed a little harder this time. He definitely got off on pushing her buttons. “Honestly, I don’t give a single shit whether or not you like him. The question is, do you trust him?”
The crazy thing was, Cerys did trust him. He might’ve been moody, brooding, dark, stuffy, and a few crackers short of a stack, but Cerys inherently knew Saeed would always have her back. He’d never betray her, never turn on her. And she knew without a doubt that he would protect her with his dying breath. A tremor shook her and Cerys let out a shaky breath. Shit. The realization convinced her even more that the safest place for Saeed was as far from her as possible.
“Yeah. I do.”
“Then why cut him loose?” Cerys found it annoying that Rin often turned to her for counsel. She was his slave, not his gods-damned advisor. “With slayers in the city it seems a vampire would be the perfect companion for you.”
“Companion?” Cerys asked. “Or bodyguard-slash-shield?”
Rin hiked an unconcerned shoulder. “The vampire is expendable. You, however, are not.”
“You let the slayers kill one of the very few vampires on the planet, and you’re going to have more than Ian Gregor to worry about. From what I’ve heard, Mikhail Aristov tends to hold a grudge as well.” From the sound of it, the berserker uprising had made for some strange bedfellows. She wondered if Aristov would ally himself with Gregor to kill Rin if Saeed happened to die in the crossfire.
“Aristov can make more vampires,” Rin said with a flick of his wrist. “You, on the other hand, are one of a kind.”
Cerys’s gut clenched. Like Saeed, she was a rare breed. But hardly one of a kind. She wasn’t interested in arguing that point with Rin, though. Honestly, all this talk of berserkers had her on edge. She wanted to get the hell out of there and call it a night.
“I don’t want anyone taking a bullet, a stake, or anything else for me.”
Rin’s eyes narrowed. “Your first mistake is in thinking you have a choice.”
Did she really need her soul back? Living in an empty, unfulfilled, emotionless state for the rest of eternity might actually be a fair trade for the pleasure of running her dagger through Rin’s sadistic heart. It wasn’t all emotionless, though, was it? Saeed had managed, with all of his crazy disjointed certainty, to awaken something within her she thought lost. It wasn’t emotional per se. But it was … something. She just wished she knew what.
She’d never find out if she forced Rin to send him away.
“I know you won’t form an opinion one way or the other until you’ve done your own research.” Rin was nothing if not thorough. It was how he’d managed to climb so close to the top of the supernatural food chain. “But for what it’s worth, I believe Kyle. And Saeed. I don’t think it’s a good idea for either of us to be out tonight.” Rin rolled his eyes. It was easy to be cavalier when using other’s lives to protect your own. Cerys’s lungs compressed with her slow sigh. “I don’t ask you for much.” Please. She resisted the urge to laugh at the absurdity of her words. She never asked him for anything. “Let’s just call it a night and avoid trouble for once.”
“All right.” She could tell by Rin’s magnanimous tone that he’d never let her live down this act of kindness. Asshole. “The club is dead anyway, and I want to hear how it went with the werewolf tonight. I’ll order pizza and you can tell me all about it.”
Like they were besties sharing secrets at a Saturday night slumber party. Give me a break. Saeed’s absence had managed to reopen that cavernous void within her. If she didn’t do something to fill it, she’d go out of her damned mind. “Double pepperoni. With mushrooms and onions.”
“Whatever you want,” Rin replied. “I’ve got to keep you happy.”
If he really wanted to do that, he’d give her back her fucking soul.
Cerys followed Rin out of Crimson and climbed into the backseat of his Range Rover. The drive into downtown to the building where they lived passed in silence. Cerys had nothing to say to Rin. At least, nothing that wouldn’t land her in a world of hurt. She’d won a victory with him tonight, albeit small. It was best not to push her luck. She got to call it an early night and there was pizza involved. If that wasn’t a win, she didn’t know what was.
The driver pulled the Range Rover into the underground parking of the swanky downtown Aspira building. Nothing but the best for the mage that owned Seattle. Cerys swallowed down a snort. The place was a veritable prison. With top-of-the-line security and all of the extras money could buy, Rin had set them up in one of downtown Seattle’s high rise castles. Rin’s place occupied the entire top floor and made Saeed’s tiny penthouse condo seem like a shack in comparison. Cerys’s own place was situated right below Rin’s. A tiny closet of a condo close enough for him to keep an eye on her. She was really living the life, wasn’t she?
Since Rin wasn’t going to let her hit the sack anytime soon, she rode the elevator to his place. He’d ordered her pizza and she knew he expected an update on his werewolf problem, which wasn’t a problem anymore thanks to Saeed. Cerys settled down at the bar while Rin poured himself a drink. His calm arrogance drove her up the damn wall. Sure, the place was better protected than a maximum security prison. But somehow she doubted the best security in the world would manage to keep out a berserker in full battle rage.
“You know, it might not be a bad idea to exercise a little bit of humility. I know you think you’re untouchable, but you’ve never gone up against a berserker before.”
Rin took a long drink from the heavy crystal tumbler before setting it back down on the bar and refilling it. “Cerys, your concern for me is touching.”
His facetious tone made her want to deliver a kick to his nuts. “Don’t flatter yourself,” she said. “You’ve got something that’s valuable to me. That’s all.”
“True.” Rin downed his second drink and poured a third. “I suppose you’d better hope nothing happens to either of us.”
His veiled threats didn’t faze her anymore. Not after so many thousands of years. Ian Gregor might just be the male to put Rin in his place. Cerys just wished his undoing wouldn’t inevitably lead to hers as well.
“So does that mean you’re ready to believe Kyle and Saeed?”
“No.” He sipped from the lip of his glass. “Not yet. I am more than willing to entertain the idea that Gregor has broken his leash and is hungry for vengeance. But I’m more inclined to believe the sky is green than to believe for a second that Mikhail Aristov would ally himself with the very male who issued his death sentence.”
Rin was skeptical because it suited him to be so. He always went against the current, took the hard way simply because he could. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think Mikhail would have any problems allying with the Sortiari. They might have ordered the executions, but the berserkers carried them out.”
By the time the guardians of fate had declared war on the vampires, Rin had cleared him and Cerys out of Europe. A fair weather friend to be sure, as soon as shit got dicey he took off. No way would he have risked getting caught in the crossfire. Maybe it was karma coming back to bite him in the ass that he’d landed himself smack dab in the middle of the same conflict he’d run from centuries ago.
“The subject of Ian Gregor is off the table. For now,” Rin added. “I want to hear about the rogue.”
The least of their problems was a young, terrified werewolf who didn’t have the good sense to stay where he belonged. Cerys let out a heavy sigh. Her pizza was taking for-ev-er. How could she possibly be expected to get through tonight with Rin on an empty stomach? She drummed her fingers on the granite countertop more to waste a little time than anything. If she had to have a conversation with Rin without the comfort of spicy, salty, pepperoni goodness, she might just go out of her mind.
“The rogue—” The doorbell rang, interrupting her. Relief crested over her, and Cerys said a silent prayer of thanks for Domino’s thirty-minute delivery guarantee. A couple of minutes later, one of Rin’s staff brought in the pizza box and plopped it down on the bar in front of her. She didn’t bother saying thanks. None of Rin’s hired help ever paid attention to her anyway. She flipped open the box and filled her lungs with the delicious spicy scent of pizza before snagging a wedge from the sixteen inch round. She tore off the pointed end and said none too gracefully through a mouthful of food, “The rogue was no problem. Saeed took care of him. You can expect him tomorrow night, ready and willing to do whatever task you set out for him.”
“How did Saeed get him to cooperate so easily?”
Cerys wasn’t the only one who’d forgotten how handy it could be to have a vampire around. “Saeed compelled him,” she said. “I was ready to persuade him with my fists before Saeed stepped in. All it took was a couple of words and he had the poor kid eating out of the palm of his hand.”
“Poor kid?” Rin tsked. “He knew what he was getting into when he asked for my help.”
Leave it to Rin to always cast blame on the victim. No wonder Cerys had spent the past couple thousand years feeling like all of this was her fault. Well, no more. Rin would have been wise to do as Cerys asked and send Saeed away. The passionate vampire had managed to give her hope. And in the hands of someone with nothing to lose, hope was a very dangerous thing.