out a hand to her, he said, “You look incredible yourself.”
She ducked her head, oddly shy, and admitted, “I kid you not, Kendra took me shopping.”
His eyes widened. “How on Earth did that happen?”
“Nikolas asked her to,” Sarah replied. “I gather he figured I would be hopeless to prepare myself adequately on my own.”
At that, there was a stab of something from him … not jealousy, but … guilt? “It’s okay,” she blurted out. “This whole thing has been hard on you, too. I can understand needing to get away for a bit.”
She said the words before she even fully processed the thoughts she had picked up from him. Nikolas had exaggerated the amount of help Nissa had needed, but Kristopher had stalled nevertheless, needing time to go over some of the same thoughts Sarah had found slashing through her brain.
She accepted his hand.
As he drew her closer, he observed, “You’ve hunted.”
Something made her hesitate to say Nikolas’s name again, but she knew that it was implied when she said, “I went to Phaethon.”
“Oh.” He reached up as if to run his fingers through his hair, and then seemed to remember that it was tied back tightly. When she had met him, Kristopher’s hair had been chopped short, but it had been long when he was changed. Since he had rejoined his brother, his vampiric body had swiftly returned to its original state, and now he and Nikolas were again close enough that they were like reflections of each other. Even their auras were nearly identical, in the way they twined together.
And yet they were very different.
She had comforted him, because the feeling of his guilt had hit her so powerfully, but Kristopher was coming to the same realization she had already reached. Kristopher had changed her to save her life. Before that, at most he had intended to bloodbond her—and that only because his brother had intervened. If it hadn’t been for Nikolas’s struggles to get his brother to return to him, Sarah would have driven Kristopher away, and that would have been the end of their relationship instead of the beginning.
“Kristopher—” she said at the same moment that Kristopher said, “I’m sorry, Sarah.”
“I should have …” His voice trailed off as he thought that he should have been the one to show her how to hunt, but he still hadn’t reconnected with all his contacts after his fifty years away. He wouldn’t have been confident enough to bring Sarah somewhere like Phaethon at a time like this. He had left to try to get his thoughts straight, at a time when he knew perfectly well that she needed him. She was new to this world, former Vida or not.
“Kristopher,” Sarah said firmly. She waited until he had pulled himself from his thoughts and was really looking at her before she continued. “We both made mistakes, which caused us to end up here, but that doesn’t mean you’re responsible for me from here to eternity. Going to one school dance together for a date that didn’t even work out doesn’t mean we’re destined to be together forever. I know that.”
Kristopher said softly, “I was thinking earlier about what would have happened if Romeo and Juliet had woken up.”
“Me too,” Sarah admitted. Maybe she had picked the thought up from him. “I don’t need a boyfriend, Kristopher.” She started off strong, but her voice faded as she added, “But I could really use some family tonight.”
This time, when Kristopher pulled her into his arms, there were no anxious doubts about responsibility and romance and failures. Kristopher knew what it meant to be family and how it felt to lose family.
“We’ll get through this,” Sarah said. “I don’t know how yet, but we will.”
CHAPTER 23
SATURDAY, 8:01 P.M.
ADIA KNEW IT was impossible to get to New York City before the show began. Dominique had access to a private jet, but trying to scramble it, get a flight plan approved and fly into New York would take even longer than driving.
After days of anxiety riding her so tightly she thought she might explode, Adia felt strangely calm. Even with the sporadic traffic she hit, she was pretty sure she made it to New York City in record time.
Like most hunters, she tended to avoid Broadway and the general theater area of Manhattan. It was too bright, too shiny, with too many people and rarely a worthwhile hit. Being there made her nervous.
She knew what she had to do—the only thing she
Michael had called shortly before she reached the city, to give her the address of a Mexican restaurant not far from the theater. He had found them. Michael used a little money and a little magic to reserve the restaurant’s back room for their meeting. When Adia arrived, he was eating chips and freshly made guacamole.
Zachary arrived behind Adia by less than ten minutes. He was avoiding looking at her, which was fine, since she still wasn’t sure what he would see in her face. Once Jay joined them, even Michael noticed that something was up. Adia saw Jay meet the Arun’s gaze and shake his head. She had never been so grateful for the telepath’s interference. Now was not the time.
Adia began. “Michael, fill everyone in so we can decide what to do next.”
“I was scoping spots where I thought I might hear news about Nikolas, and was lucky enough to see Sarah herself,” Michael explained. “For the record, she fed, but didn’t kill. Does anyone in this room really think that she would?”
Jay was the first to say no. Zachary sighed and leaned back against the counter.
Michael said, “Jay and I agree that Sarah came to the house the other day to turn herself in.” He looked over at Jay, who nodded without adding anything. “We’re also agreed that the most surprising part of all this is that Sarah
“What’s your plan?” Zachary asked.
“By now, I figure they’ll know we’re here, but Kendra’s line is arrogant enough, and takes their theater seriously enough, that they won’t—”
“Wait,” Zachary interrupted. “They know we’re here,
“I cleared it with Kendra,” Michael replied, utterly blase. “She has given us a green light. If Sarah or the twins present us with an opportunity, we have carte blanche to take them down. Sarah knows the way we work. If she wants to make it through the night, we won’t have a clear shot. If she is being held against her will, though, we’ll have a chance.”
As plans went, it wasn’t much, but Adia enjoyed improvisation. She was a little uncomfortable with the bit about having the approval of a two-thousand-year-old vampire, however. Granted, Michael was an Arun, but seriously—how many of her crew were in bed with the vamps, figuratively speaking?
“Could you clarify the part about your having
“She doesn’t want a war,” Michael said. The words were an eerie echo of what Jerome had said earlier. “No one does. So we have one night to end it, however it goes, and a promise of no future retaliation from Kendra or her associates. She is somewhat unsure how Kaleo will react should the twins die, but she owns the theater we’re going to hit, so she mostly gets to decide what can be done to people and vampires inside it.”
“I believe Adia was looking for an explanation of the fact that you seem to be able to predict movements and contact vampires in a surprisingly friendly manner,” Zachary said.