A Touch of Crimson

today.”

“Are you ever going to tell me what you’re calling me?”

“Ask me again,” he purred, “the next time I’m inside you.”

Shivering against a sudden flare of sexual heat, Lindsay said a hasty good-bye and ended the call.

She knew she’d done the right thing by leaving, but that didn’t stop her from regretting it. Especially now that she knew he needed her with him to listen and offer support.

Damn it… she had to get a grip and think, but her lungs were constricted by a ferocious pressure to return to him. Although her mind knew the most reasonable and selfless course was to stay away, there was a driving need inside her demanding she go back and take him. Claim him. Make him irrevocably hers. The rapacious urge was so intense, it frightened her.

She’d never had trouble holding to her decisions, but with Adrian it felt like she was battling with herself… with a high risk of losing. He was a glorious being, proud and dangerously beautiful. His sole purpose was hunting the very creatures she hated and wished dead. If she destroyed him, if she derailed the work he did-which was so important to her-she’d destroy herself. But knowing the consequences didn’t seem to quiet the furiously whispering devil on her shoulder.

Holding to her chosen course of action by more willpower than she should have needed, she sent Elijah a text message: c u @ the Belladonna.

She was glad he was going to be with her. He was a straight shooter. He’d help her keep her head out of the clouds, where angels flew and mortals had no business treading.

“This is for the best,” she told herself, earning another wary glance from the driver.

The verbal reinforcement didn’t help as much as she wished it would.

“Whatever the most disastrous thing you can imagine is, the reality is worse.” Torque shoved a pillow behind his back and leaned into the headboard attached to the wall. He was careful to keep his leg away from the slender shaft of sunlight sneaking through a tiny parting in the blackout curtains of his motel room. “Word on the street says Phineas is dead-from an unprovoked vamp attack.”

There was a long pause, filled only by his father’s deep and steady breathing. “Dead? Are you certain?”

“As certain as I can be without hearing it from Adrian himself. He’s been out of town since I arrived. My guess is that he’s hunting down those responsible.”

“Without a doubt.”

Torque allocated unlimited resources to the cabal he’d managed to infiltrate into the area, which gave him-and his father-access to fairly accurate reports of Adrian’s and the other Sentinels’ activities. Of course, Adrian kept a high profile on purpose, and Torque had long suspected that the cabal members had gone unmolested only because the Sentinel leader willingly looked the other way. You can see me coming and I’ll still get the jump on you seemed to be his message.

“I was hoping to meet with him,” Torque said, toying with a throwing star, “to let him know we had nothing to do with this.”

“No. He might see you as a fair trade for Phineas-someone he loved and relied upon for someone equally valuable to me.”

“A small sacrifice to keep a war from erupting.”

“That isn’t your decision to make.”

“Isn’t it?” Torque threw the hira-shuriken at the wall, absently noting the star’s position in relation to the wallpaper pattern. His father was too protective, to the point that Vash served as his second-in-command to keep Torque out of the direct line of fire. While Torque understood the motives-and the paranoia that fueled them-it didn’t make the bitter pill any easier to swallow. He wanted to serve the vampire community to the fullest extent he could. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do or sacrifice to see them thrive and flourish.

“I’ve already lost one child. I won’t lose both of you.” Torque could imagine his father’s head leaning heavily into the headrest of his office chair. “Come home, son. We have the information we need. Now we need to figure out what to do with it.”

“We should send Vash on cleanup duty. If we police ourselves first, maybe that will reinforce our innocence.”

“Yes, you’re right. You can take over the hunt for Nikki’s abductors.”

“I’d like nothing more, but there’s something else.” Torque threw another star, embedding it in the wall directly beside the first. “Adrian’s been spotted with a woman recently.”

Again, a lengthy stretch of silence. “You think it’s Shadoe?”

“I haven’t known him to show interest in any other women. Have you?”

“Phineas is gone. Adrian will be deeply aggrieved, maybe enough to break a cardinal rule. We need to be certain of the woman’s identity before we take her.”

Torque’s hand relaxed. “I’ll keep digging until I know for sure.”

“If it’s your sister, we need to bring her home.”

“Of course. I’ll keep you posted.” Pulling the phone away from his ear, Torque turned it off and tossed it on the bed beside him. The hunt for intel distracted him from the grief he couldn’t bear to deal with now. When he’d Changed Nikki, he had done so because he wanted her immortally by his side. Nikki’s life was a sacrifice he hadn’t expected he would have to make. Living without her was killing him. He now understood the venom that coursed through Vash’s veins over the loss of her mate. His agony fueled him, keeping his focus sharp and his need for retribution simmering in his blood.

A couple more hours until dusk, and then he could hit the streets again. And god help any Sentinel unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Adrian had just reached Mesquite when his phone rang. “Mitchell,” he answered.

“Do you have an idea of how long the vampire was infected before you captured him?”

The somberness of Raguel’s voice snared Adrian’s complete attention. “No. Why?”

“The vamp is dead, and the blood sample degraded during testing. It was, I am told, as if his blood turned into a ‘motor oil-type sludge’ in an instant.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that.” Furious was more apt, but he made certain that wasn’t evident in his tone.

“Whatever you are dealing with,” the archangel went on, “is apparently lethal and perhaps fast-acting, depending on when the subject was infected.”

“Thank you. Your help is appreciated.”

Ending the call, Adrian looked at Jason and Damien. They were waiting nearby, looking bleak and disheartened beneath a flashing neon keno sign. Adrian wished he could have spared them this hunt for one of their own, but he couldn’t risk losing Helena or her lycan if they decided to split up. Already Helena’s second guard was traveling separately from the couple, stopping less frequently and swiftly pulling ahead.

“We need to capture more minions,” he told them. “Infected and not.”

Jason’s golden good looks were made stark by concern. “What’s going on?”

“Perhaps the end of the vampires is finally nigh.” Adrian returned his cell phone to his pocket. Jehovah does love his plagues, Raguel had said. Perhaps the archangel had been onto something.

“What a blessing that would be,” Damien said grimly, following Adrian around the corner of the casino parking lot in preparation for takeoff.

Adrian didn’t voice the rest of his thoughts.

Or we are about to be tested in ways that may yet see the end of us all.

CHAPTER 15

Lindsay fingered the keypad on her cell phone and debated the wisdom of calling Adrian. She’d been strong the first few days and refrained from contacting him, but the night before had been hard. She had roused from sleep at