A Touch of Crimson

Syre ran a hand through his hair. His phone had beeped with a text message an hour before, telling him Adrian had made an appearance in Raceport. By now the Sentinel leader knew Lindsay Gibson was out of his safekeeping and a search would have been mounted. They didn’t have long before it would be impossible to leave the state without Adrian knowing about it. If Syre hadn’t Changed Shadoe by then, nothing would save them.

“You might have to turn her first,” Torque said, “then explain later. Once she’s back to being Shadoe, she won’t have reason to hate us anymore. She’ll remember what we are to her.”

Syre moved to the adjoining door and waved them out. “Go. Both of you. Leave me alone with her.”

“That’s not wise,” Vash said. “She might try to kill you.”

“Without the lycan here to tell her what I am, how will she know?”

“You’re assuming she can’t tell. But I saw her run-watched her leap over a damn eight-foot-high wall. She’s not entirely mortal, whatever the hell she smells like.”

She smelled like Adrian, which turned Syre’s stomach. He was ready for her to know why she’d suffered all these years. He was ready for her to remember just how much Adrian’s desire had cost her.

“Then Shadoe is close to the surface in Lindsay Gibson,” he said. “And I’m safer than you give her credit for. Now go. Help Torque track the lycan. Let’s try to tie up all the loose ends we can while we’re here.”

They shuffled out the door into the connecting room, with Vash sending him a scowl over her shoulder. He turned the lock behind them, smiling. Vash hated to be bested in anything. That she’d been bested by a student of hers was chafing her mightily. If Lindsay Gibson hadn’t been the vessel carrying his daughter, she’d be dead now.

He heard the soft creak of the mattress in the bedroom and turned to face the door leading into it, his heart thudding violently in his chest. He’d never been this close to having her back. Adrian had always kept her close, waiting for Syre to break down and come for her. The Sentinel had no idea how many attempts Syre had made over the years. Adrian was too precise, too methodical-a machine. It was next to impossible to break his code. But something was different this time. Something had prompted him to act rashly, to allow her out into the open, to leave her alone… It had to be Lindsay Gibson herself and how close Shadoe was to the surface in her. Maybe that’s what Adrian had been waiting for all this time.

She appeared in the doorway, her gaze as sharp as a hawk’s. A predator’s gaze. The gaze of a huntress. It lit on him first, then swept around the relatively small space. “What are you?”

“How precise do you want me to be?”

He saw the shadow of confusion sweep across her features. She looked nothing like him, nothing like her mother or brother, whose Asian heritage was evident in their skin tone and sloe eyes. But something in her recognized him, and that perplexed her.

“Very,” she said.

“I’m Syre. A vampire”-his mouth curved gently, with genuine affection-“and your father.”

Lindsay stared at the seriously hot man standing a few feet away from her…

… and broke into crazed laughter that bubbled up from the stew of emotions inside her. She laughed until tears came to her eyes and coursed down her cheeks. She laughed until her chest was racked with harsh, hiccoughing sobs.

Syre, who actually managed to look alarmed, took a tentative step toward her. She lifted up her hand to hold him off.

He stopped. The leader of the vampires, who’d somehow kidnapped her from Angels’ Point, stopped at her uplifted hand.

He deferred to her. And she knew him.

It was a quiet surety inside her. She knew the fallen angel who stood across the room from her, looking far too young to be her father. He was gorgeous. Tall and elegant, like a Sentinel, but much darker. Definitely dangerous. Not just in his looks, although those were dark and dangerous, too. His black hair and caramel-hued skin were paired with eyes the color of toffee, making him stunning in a wholly exotic way.

God, the thought of him squaring off against Adrian was insane to her. They were too evenly matched.

“Where are we?” she asked, recognizing the brand of the hotel by its signature layout but unsure of where the property was located.

“Irvine.”

“Why?”

He gestured for her to have a seat. As she did with Adrian, she felt an inexplicable pull to the suave vampire leader. She didn’t trust it-didn’t trust him. Vampires lured victims with seduction and a lulling sense of false security.

Lindsay moved to the wet bar instead and pulled the corkscrew out of the drawer. As far as weapons went, it was laughable. But beggars couldn’t be choosy.

“There’s no need to defend yourself against me, tzel,” he murmured, taking a seat at the small dining table as if he had no concerns in the world.

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped, hating to hear Adrian’s term of endearment for her on another man’s lips.

“Why not? It’s your name.”

Swallowing hard, she fought another wave of dizziness and intense deja vu, so familiar now after the last few weeks but no less disconcerting. “My name is Lindsay Gibson. My father’s name is-was-Eddie Gibson.”

“Those things are true… in regard to your mortal body.” His amber eyes watched her with undeniable intensity. “But you carry the soul of my daughter Shadoe inside you.”

Lindsay felt the blood drain from her face.

“Did you think it was just a pet name Adrian had for you?” Syre’s slightly raspy voice was mesmerizing. “An endearment perhaps?”

His direct hit struck her hard.

“Ah, I see that you did.” His smile was smugly knowing. “I bet he took one look at you and there was no getting away from him. He focused on you with an all-consuming intensity, didn’t he? He pursued you swiftly and with a determination you couldn’t deny. He treated you like the most precious thing in the world. And when a seraph like Adrian puts his mind to something, he never fails.”

Leaning heavily into the countertop, she set one hand over her roiling stomach and tried to regulate her breathing.

“You’re a beautiful woman, Lindsay. I’m sure he was sincerely attracted to the packaging. But the woman he covets is inside you-my daughter-and he’s been keeping us apart since the dawn of time.”

“That’s not possible,” she whispered through dry lips. “I’m not possessed by someone else’s spirit.”

His chin lifted. “So how do you explain your speed? How do you explain the first question you asked when you walked into this room-‘What are you?’ not ‘Who are you.’ You felt the power in me with senses beyond the few afforded to your mortal body.”

She stared at him, her right leg beginning to twitch and shake with her growing disquiet.

“You’re wondering how it’s possible,” he said, still in that low, captivating tone. “You see, Shadoe was fatally wounded. You were a huntress even then. Adrian loved you so much, he couldn’t bear to lose you. I’d already discovered that I could share immortality with others, and he brought you to me on the brink of death, begging me to save you.”

Lindsay didn’t realize she was crying until she felt the drops hitting her chest.

“I didn’t hesitate,” he went on. “I began the process of Changing you.”

“Into a vampire?” She was sickened by the thought.

He gave a soft, humorless laugh. “Adrian’s reaction was the same. He thought I could heal you without Changing you. You were too far gone for his blood to do the trick, but he’d heard that the Change took individuals to the very precipice of death, and he thought I could pull you back from it. Which I could, but as a vampire. When he realized what you would become, he finished you himself with a blade through the heart.”

She flinched imagining what that would have cost Adrian-to kill the woman he loved in order to save her. But she understood it, too. Like her, every blow he’d been dealt in his life had come from a vampire. Of course he would rather lose his love than have her become a soulless, bloodsucking creature.

“But it was already too late. You were a naphil, one of the nephalim-a child born to a mortal and an angel. Your