She whipped around to stare in the direction where he stood, but she didn’t see him. It was too dark and he was pressing his body so hard against the wall that his completely black outfit most likely blended in. He turned to the side so that his long locks covered half of his face.
She didn’t speak and Steele didn’t breathe for seconds that dragged on like eons.
When she finally turned and ran down the alley Steele released the breath he’d been holding. She was gone.
But she was safe.
For now.
Chapter Two
Slamming the door wasn’t going to make what had just happened any better. Nor was it going to stop her death, which he’d seen in his dreams. Helplessness gripped Steele like a fist, choking the life out of him.
Yanking his jacket off, he tossed it onto the leather love seat across the room. His boots clunked across hardwood floors as he headed to the kitchen. The refrigerator door opened with a jangle of every item that was stored on the narrow shelves as he reached inside and grabbed a beer from the top inside rack. Twisting off the cap and chucking it into the trash can he tossed his head back and let the cold brew slide down his throat. The bottle was empty in seconds and he still felt like hell.
The vibration of his phone in his back pocket wasn’t going to help either.
“Yeah?” he answered gruffly.
“Where you been, out playin’ with yourself? Theo and I’ve been trying to reach you for the past couple hours.”
Magnum was the smartass otherwise known as Steele’s brother. As the younger brother, Steele presumed that made him just an “ass.” He was good with that assessment but wasn’t really in the mood to answer questions right now, not from Magnum and not from Theo—their boss.
Adrenaline from a combo of holding back the urge to kill that persistent bastard in the alley and the act of fading away from the scene minutes later still buzzed through his body. He needed to walk it off or he might be tempted to go back.
“I was out,” he replied and left the kitchen, heading to the living room once more.
There was too much junk in here—a love seat here, a couch there, tables, rugs, lamps, shit that just got in his way.
Magnum grumbled on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, I figured as much. Did you see anything interesting while you were out?”
Standing at the window now, looking out at the bright lights on the myriad of buildings in downtown Burgess, Steele nodded even though his brother couldn’t see him.
“I saw a few things.” But none of which his brother needed to know about. “No sign of those two vamps that slid into the drain months ago.”
Three months ago, to be exact—when the legion of Drakon were hunting a sadistic demonic named Hoan, who’d escaped from the Spirit Realm. One minute he and Magnum had been standing in the alley, prepared to learn more about the vamps’ alliance with Hoan by any means necessary, and the next they were watching those same vamps being pulled into the ground by some eerie black sludge. The two were supposedly dead, but in their world, dead didn’t mean dead until you had a stiff body lying out for all to see.
“But you went to Twilight, didn’t you?”
Magnum knew him well, so no answer was required.
“They just reopened a few weeks ago and you’ve been staying downtown ever since. You plan on staking the place out forever?”
“Nah, I plan on making sure they don’t have a chance to pick up where they left off.”
“Not possible. Their leader is dead.”
Steele frowned. “Yeah, well, sometimes death doesn’t stop evil.”
And sometimes death stopped everything else.
“True. That’s what I told Theo, but you know he kinda wanted more of an explanation for why you’re there. That’s how it goes when you work for somebody.”
“I work with him, not for him.” He reminded himself on a daily basis that there was a difference.
Theo Masters was the Drakon emperor, a role he’d just assumed a few months ago when they’d all returned to their home on the Far Realm. On the Human Realm, Theo was the owner of the Legion Security Company, a place he’d created to carry out the Drakons’ first and most prominent duty—to protect humans from preternatural beings. Magnum and Steele had come to the Human Realm one hundred years ago, and knowing who Theo was meant to be, pledged their loyalty to Theo and his mission on this realm.
“You cash that paycheck the same way I do so that means you work for him. And anyway, that’s how it’s supposed to be. He’s the emperor,” Magnum reminded him.
“I don’t need that money any more than you do and you know it.”
Their clan had access to billions of dollars in diamonds, so there was no need for him or Steele to work for a paycheck. What they did with Theo was out of duty. All of Steele’s paychecks went into a bank account he barely ever touched.
“Besides,” he continued. “Theo only took the throne because his father died, and we’re not on the Far Realm. Anyway, I’m cool with what I do.” At least he had been before he’d seen her die in his dream.
He glared out the window. From his view on the twenty-fifth floor he could see the rooftops of most buildings on this side of the city. She wasn’t on any of them and she hadn’t been on any of the nights he’d stood here watching for her.
Magnum continued, interrupting Steele’s thoughts again. “Me too and it’s so much better than what we were doing before. But Theo wants you to check in, so come by the Office tomorrow and fill him in.”
“I will, even though there’s nothing to report.” Because on this realm sometimes it seemed their hands
