Midnight Predator

Greg didn’t seem to know how to handle that one, so Turquoise didn’t make him respond.

“There’s something I need to deal with first,” she explained. Taking Greg up on his offer would put him in danger, at least until Daryl was dead.

“How are you going to get there?” Eric asked practically, knowing that she would go to Midnight.

That was the most difficult part of her plan.

Greg was a lifesaver. He chewed his lip for a moment, and then asked, “Do you need to borrow my car?”

There is a God. She gave him a hug. “I’ll be back in less than a day.” She was still armed from Challenge, and she could pick up a few more weapons from her Bruja house before getting to Midnight. It was almost on the way.

“Sure,” Greg answered nonchalantly. “Just be careful with her, okay?”

It was hilariously easy for Turquoise to get inside Midnight. The raven guards at the gate did not challenge her; they were too shocked that a human was willing to fight to getintoMidnight. Her fury was visible in every movement she made, and no one approached her until she was almost to Daryl’s door.

“You no longer annoy me.” The voice behind her caused Turquoise to turn, a knife instantly in her hand. She hesitated upon seeing Jeshickah, willing to wait for the vampiress to either push a fight or back off.

“Always nice to gain a new friend,” the hunter retorted.

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Jeshickah’s voice was dry.

Belatedly, Turquoise informed the vampire, “Gabriel made me freeblood.”

Jeshickah nodded. “I’m aware of that. His foolishness is why I am speaking to you, instead of chaining you down so I can break every one of your bones before removing your skin and making it into a nice pair of pants.” Jeshickah’s expression of polite amusement never left her face as she spoke.

“Pleasant image,” Turquoise answered. Impatience was gnawing at her, but she was smart enough to avoid antagonizing Jeshickah by ignoring her.

“I have determined my reasons for detesting you,” Jeshickah stated. “You are too like my own pets. The traits are attractive in a man I own. They are less so in a human girl.”

Turquoise thought with unease back to Jaguar’s words.Jeshickah picks her trainers for physical beauty, mental acuity, moral void, and what she calls a trainer instinct—the instinct to watch a person, determine her weaknesses, and destroy her. Surely she didn’t fit that description.

“I’m not one of your pets,” she argued.

“You’re willing to sell yourself, your principles, for power, strength. You’ll lie, manipulate, or kill for money. And may I say you are very good at it; you have my Jaguar eating out of your hand.” There was bitterness in the statement. Or jealousy? Was Jeshickah jealous?

“Do you have a point?” Turquoise spoke to keep from laughing. She didn’t think Jeshickah would appreciate amusement.

“Go ahead and kill Daryl if you wish,” Jeshickah purred. “He’s too stupid to live anyway. But then go home. Get a job, breed, do any of the tedious things humans do. Get old and gray, and stay that way. If you take vampire blood from any of my brood—either Nathaniel or Jaguar would give it to you, at your request—know that I will control you.”

That sounded unpleasant.

The conversation skidded to a halt as Jaguar stepped into the hall. His step faltered as he noticed Turquoise and Jeshickah, and when he approached, he did so cautiously.

He addressed the vampiress first. “Your Triste is requesting a meeting with you.”

“That creature is no end of trouble,” Jeshickah grumbled.

Jaguar shrugged. “You hired him.”

“There seems to be a shortage of gray matter this century.” To Turquoise, she offered, “Enjoy your sortie, girl. Don’t make too much of a mess.”

“How long until she dies?” Turquoise growled, as soon as the vampiress was out of the hall.

Jaguar smiled; the expression looked too wary to be hopeful. “Not long, if Jesse does his job. Jeshickah hired him for his kind’s talents at restraining vampires. It’s something he is very good at.” The smile was gone as he asked, “You’re after Daryl?”

She absently checked one of her knives. “I’ve waited too long already.”

“You know that if you get yourself killed, I’m going to hate myself for not stopping you,” he informed her.

“I’m not planning to die.”

“No one ever is.” He hesitated, but then turned away. Jaguar, like most of the vampires in the building, would turn his back and not hinder her, but he wouldn’t help her.

She didn’t want the help. This was her fight to win or lose alone.

Turquoise kept one knife in her hand as she turned the knob and entered Daryl’s room. If he wasn’t in, she could wait.

CHAPTER 23

NATHANIEL HAD SAIDhe was there to conduct business; he didn’t say what type. He had seemed surprised when she, a slave, had spoken to him, but he was willing to talk.

Despite knowing what Nathaniel was and despite knowing that Lord Daryl would be furious to find someone in his home when he returned, Cathy was grateful for the vampire’s companionship.

“Would you help me kill him?” she asked, in a moment of frustration.

Nathaniel looked at Cathy as if she had finally done something interesting. “Is that really a road you want to travel?” he asked.

“Is there another choice, besides dying here?”

“You could have asked for help escaping,” the mercenary pointed out.

“He killed my parents and my brother,” Catherine argued. “I want to see him dead.”

Daryl’s room in Midnight brought back unpleasant memories, even once Turquoise had assured herself that he was not in it. From the delicate glass etching on the chair, to the whip lying ominously on the cluttered desk, every object reminded the hunter of the creature she had come to kill.

Turquoise paced restlessly, waiting. She killed some time working at the tight braid of his whip with her knife, and unraveled enough to make it harmless if Daryl got his hands on it. She started to go through the desk, and found more cash than she had ever seen, then amused herself imagining a Midnight Savings Bank.

One of her Crimson knives, a slender weapon with a blade of expensive firestone, was in her hand before Daryl finished opening the door; she saw Daryl hesitate when he caught sight of her. “Catherine,” he greeted her. “I thought you would find your way back here. A slave without her master is lost, after all.”

“You don’t seem to understand your situation,” the vampire said coldly. He reached past her to shut the door she had been trying to escape through, and she recoiled from his proximity. “I own you, Catherine, as surely as I own the shirt I’m wearing, and you don’t want to make me mad.”

That had been her introduction to the concept that a human being could be property. The concept had been beaten into her time and again; the more she fought, the more she had been forced to realize how powerless she was.

She actually smiled at the memory. She wasn’t powerless anymore. She certainly wasn’t this creature’s slave. “You’re not my master.”

“You’re human, Catherine,” Daryl argued. He closed the door and leaned against it, and Turquoise realized that, while she would never prove the point to him, she no longer felt the need to argue. He continued, “Ours is simply a higher race. You are a slave by blood, and that is all you can ever be.”

Without words, Turquoise attacked.

Daryl was prepared for a fight this time, and he dodged her first attack easily, and then drew his own