otherwise.”
Asmodai laughed, but then the laughter faded from his face. “You do know there is a chance we won’t stop Andarta. With the Key, she can go anywhere, anytime, and take a whole army with her.”
That sounded bad.
“Does she have an army?” Christian asked.
“I don’t know—she never had any problem getting followers.”
“Well why don’t you bugger off and go find out?” Piers said.
Asmodai thought for a moment. His gaze flickered to Tara and away again when she gave no sign of responding. “Okay. And I’ll see if I can’t find out where she’s hiding.”
“Good. Off you go then.”
Asmodai stepped closer. He took Roz’s hand and ignoring Piers’ dark stare, raised it to his lips, and kissed her palm. “It’s been a pleasure working with you, Rosamund. We will meet again.”
And he was gone.
“We’re off as well,” Christian said. “We’ll arrange the meeting for as soon as we can.”
Piers grimaced. “I’ll look forward to it.”
Tara came over and kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t worry about the Walker. He won’t harm you. We won’t let him.”
That wasn’t the point really. Roz didn’t want a father she had to be protected from. Better none at all than that. But she gave Tara her best smile, which seemed to do the trick. Tara kissed her again, squeezed her hand, and backed away to where Christian waited.
As the door closed after them, Roz dropped to the chair behind her. It was sinking in after the initial euphoria—she was free. She rubbed her arm where the sigil had been, almost expecting to see it come back.
“So what’s happening?” Ryan asked, dragging her from her preoccupation with a non-existent mark. She’d almost forgotten Ryan was there. “Can I go as well? Or is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?”
Apart from her and Piers, only Ryan and Carl remained. She reckoned Carl was keeping an eye on the detective.
Piers leaned back on the edge of the desk, arms folded, and studied him. To give Ryan his due, he never flinched, just faced the vampire squarely.
“Well, we have a few options.” Piers grinned. “The easiest is—we kill you.”
“Call me cautious,” Ryan replied, “but I think I’ll hear the rest before I go for that one. I’m presuming that there will be something that will appeal a little bit more.”
“Maybe. We can wipe your mind and send you home, and you’ll have no memory of us or this place or what happened here.”
“Marginally better, but I’m not sure I like the idea of you doing anything with my mind.”
“It won’t hurt, and it won’t do any permanent damage.”
“Nah, still don’t like it. You got anything else on offer?”
Piers smiled, revealing the tip of one white fang. Roz got the impression it wasn’t meant as a reassuring smile, more of a let’s-see-how-tough-this-cop-is sort of smile. “You can come and work for us.”
“He can?” Roz asked.
“I can? And do I want to?”
“Well the money is good, and you get to see a lot of action.”
“Why? I mean why take me on? I get the impression you guys don’t have a very high opinion of us mere humans.”
“Hey, we keep you safe from the big bad monsters.”
“Yeah, but I’m thinking that’s a by-product of what you’re really doing, and if you keep us safe it’s more in the way of protecting your food supply than through any… niceness.”
“You don’t think I’m nice?”
“Shit no.”
That’s why she liked Ryan so much. He told the truth. Piers didn’t seem bothered. She guessed he didn’t really think of himself as nice anyway. He certainly didn’t look nice. He looked…hot.
“The truth is,” he continued, cutting off her distracting thoughts, “one day soon, we’re going to have to come out to the world. It’s only a matter of time, and we have to start working toward that.”
“And how do I come into this?”
“We’ve been discussing it, and we’d like to start liaising with government organizations, security forces—get a feel for the best way to move forward, and we’d prefer some actual humans involved in that process.”
“Again—why?”
Piers flashed her an annoyed glance. “Is he always this inquisitive?”
“Yup. It’s what makes him a good detective.”
“Mr. Lamont, if you’re recruiting for someone to be on your side against my own people, you’re looking at the wrong man.”
Piers pushed himself up and paced the room a couple of times. Roz guessed he was deciding how much to tell Ryan—but what did it matter if they could just wipe all the information away? Then she realized that perhaps he wanted to persuade Ryan to work with them rather than resort to coercion and threats.
“We might seem human, but never presume we are. We don’t think the same way. There are some within our…community who would like nothing better than to remove the threat you humans pose by enslaving you all.”
“I don’t think it would be that easy.”
“No? Well, let’s hope you’re never proven wrong. In the meantime, there are others of us who would prefer not to go that route, and we’re looking for any help we can get. So Detective Ryan, would you like to come and work for us and help save mankind from the coming revelations that the monsters are real?”
“Can I think about this?”
“Until you decide to leave.”
“So let me get this straight: you can kill me, you can mind-fuck me, or I can come and work for you. And I don’t leave the building until I pick one of those options?”
“Yes.”
Ryan turned to her, but Roz didn’t want to influence him in any way, so she kept her expression neutral.
He ran a hand through his already messy hair. “I’m knackered. I’m going to check up on Maria, and then I’m going to sleep. I’d appreciate it if someone could show me to a bed.”
“I’ll take you,” Carl said.
Ryan looked the man up and down. It wasn’t possible to tell that Carl wasn’t human, but he gave off an energy that was almost palpable.
“And just what are you?” Ryan asked. “How do you fit in with this lot? I don’t see any fangs.”
“I’m a werewolf,” Carl replied.
“Yeah, of course you are.” He turned to Roz and she nodded slowly. “Shit. I’m going to bed.”
He stomped from the room. Carl shrugged and followed him, leaving her alone with Piers.
“There’re two hours until dawn—you want to go for a walk?” he asked.
Suddenly, she was filled with a longing to be outside, to revel in her newfound freedom. “Yes, please.” Taking her hand, he led her from the room to the elevator and pressed the ground level. The doors opened straight on to an alley that ran alongside the building. They were silent for long minutes. The night was warm, and they headed toward the river.
They reached the river without saying a word and walked along the embankment, the salty smell of the water mingling with the fumes left over from the day. It reminded her of the other night when they had walked here. But everything had changed. A sense of peace stole over her. It was hard to believe that there were other beings, other dimensions. They had existed all these years while she had lived in ignorance. But that was what slavery was, keeping people in ignorance of their options.
Somewhere out there, she had a father. Had he abandoned them? Or had he somehow been prevented from coming to their aid? She wanted desperately to believe the latter, but at the same time, she was scared to let
