Secret Unleashed

the nuances of vampire power, everything unnatural was an invasion of their psyche.

I wanted her to stay wary, but I didn’t want her to think all vampires were monsters. Some of them might be, but not all, and it wasn’t fair of her to paint every single one of them with the same brush because of the misdeeds of a few.

Maybe it was a side effect of her job too. I was willing to bet Cedes had a hard time seeing the good in humans, considering what she saw in the field on a daily basis. If I could get her to see vampires the same way she did humans, then I might have a chance of showing her there was some good mixed in with the bad.

Problem was some days even I had trouble seeing the good, in vampires and humans both.

“Cedes, this is Sig. He’s my co-chair on the…council.” I avoided the word Tribunal because there was just no way to make it sound like a normal job. Council could be anything, though.

“We were introduced,” she said, her expression serious and her whole posture becoming more rigid. Since I was feeling the soothing impact of Sig’s presence, I knew she must be fighting it hard.

I leaned in close and whispered so Barbie wouldn’t hear, “He’s not doing it intentionally. It’s just…him. Try not to resist.”

I might as well have told a wall not to resist a wrecking ball. She’d yield eventually, but now that I’d told her not to, she was more hell-bent on keeping his powers at bay. If Mercedes Castilla had a superpower, it would be stubbornness.

“You guys are good here?” she asked, though it sounded more like a statement than a question, as though we had no choice but to be okay. Without waiting for our reply, she turned heel and jogged up the steps and back into the upper floor of the precinct.

“Are you two done here?” Sig probed. It was a loaded question, and I knew he was going to unleash hell on me the second we were out of human earshot.

“Definitely,” Holden replied, the first word he’d spoken to me since we’d arrived here. In spite of our holding cells being next to each other, he hadn’t said a thing. Either he didn’t want to risk saying something telling in front of non-vampire company, or he was pissed at me for getting him arrested.

Or for ruining his precious suit.

We left the station together when all the necessary paperwork had been completed. With Sig signing everything, it made me feel as if he’d just bought me.

He already owned my life in so many other ways, what was one more?

Once the three of us were outside in the warm summer night, Sig’s pleasant veneer melted away, and he fixed me with a stern, unimpressed glare. “Do you know what it means to lie low, Secret?”

“I—”

“That was a rhetorical question, as the answer is obviously no. I let you stay in the city because you promised me you could stay under the radar. Keep a low profile. All those silly new expressions you people have for keeping out of trouble. And what do you do? You bring down an entire apartment building.”

“In fairness, that was Grendel…”

“Now is a poor time to make excuses, pet.” He shortened his long strides, giving me and Holden a chance to catch up. Holden didn’t seem to be in much of a rush, trailing a few feet back.

“We saved the girl,” I said. “And didn’t Shane bring Grendel in?”

“He did.”

I sighed inwardly, relieved to know Shane and the wardens had been able to wrangle Grendel into council headquarters before the vampire’s knees healed and he was able to make a run for it.

“I think he knows something about Peyton,” I said, recalling what Grendel had baited me with in the apartment complex. “He might know where he is.”

Sig crossed the street, and I had no choice but to follow him if I wanted the conversation to continue. The yellowish glow of the streetlights gave his white-blond hair a warm, angelic glow. Sometimes, if I glanced at him quickly and saw only the beautiful face and often-shirtless physique, I forgot he was scary. In those moments he was just an alluring man.

This was not one of those moments, in spite of how good he looked in his tight black T-shirt. Considering Sig’s outfit generally consisted of leather pants and nothing else, the all black was a change of pace. The shoes were the most impressive thing for me. He wandered around barefoot ninety-nine percent of the time, and I knew he’d only put the loafers on to appear normal at the police station, but it didn’t make me any less fascinated by the sight.

I was so distracted I didn’t notice him stop in his tracks and ended up walking into his backside.

It was like smacking into a muscular wall.

“The time has come,” he said, as if picking up on a conversation thread, but it wasn’t from any conversation I remembered having with him. Had he been talking this whole time while I was busy staring at his shoes?

Better his shoes than his ass, I suppose.

“For what?” I asked, before I could be distracted by anything else.

Holden was beside me now, and he shook his head at Sig. “That’s drastic. We said we could avoid it.”

“Avoid what?”

“We said we could avoid it if she played by the rules. I was a fool to believe such an option would work. If Peyton has other rogues working with him, there is no safe place here anymore. When a creature like Grendel can be lured in by Alexandre’s promises, we are left with no other choice.”

“But we caught Grendel,” I reminded them, still not sure what we were talking about. I didn’t like where I thought it was going, though. “I’m not afraid of rogues.”

“If you believe this is something you can talk your way out of by professing how unafraid you are, you are sorely mistaken. There will be no further discussion.”

“But—”

“I’m sending you away.” Sig’s tone was as flat as the skyline in my prairie hometown. “Tonight.”

Chapter Six

I was still saying no when we arrived at the council headquarters. The council building was an exact twin to Grand Central Terminal, a huge old train station cloaked from human eyes by layer upon layer of magic, both vampire and otherwise.

The three of us marched through the front doors, and I trailed after Sig like a desperate puppy, my high- heeled boots clacking loudly on the black-and-white tile floor. I hadn’t yet learned how to move with the silent grace of other vampires, but maybe that was something my werewolf half had negated.

Werewolves, as a rule, didn’t need to worry too much about running around in heels.

“You can’t send me away. I’m not a naughty child you can ship off to boarding school.” We were through the big oak doors that divided the main working floor of the council with the lower chambers where the Council Elders and our Tribunal space were held.

Somewhere lower still was a cell where Grendel was bound in silver and would be slowly starved until he was a literal husk of his former self. A vampire couldn’t starve to death, but they could waste away to something far worse.

“Why do you insist on making it sound as though I’m punishing you?” Sig spoke in a quiet, calm voice, which made the slightly hysterical pitch of my own words all the more pathetic.

“It is a punishment. You’re forcing me to leave my home.”

“You stupid, ignorant girl. If you can’t understand why it is I’m forced to do this, maybe I should just leave you for Peyton and his minions to discover.”

That made me stop talking.

A warden opened up the door to the Tribunal chamber, and Sig and I entered. Holden was forced to wait out in the hall. After a quick scan of the room assured me we were alone and Juan Carlos wouldn’t be joining this conversation, I continued.

“I don’t see why it’s necessary.”