Nicholas sped off, while Lucian went off. “What the fuck, Alex? Do you have a death wish or something? It’s nearly dawn!”
“I had them, both of them.” He eyed Nicholas in the mirror. “Dare and Trainer.”
Nicholas’s dark brows lifted. “Bodies on their way to the Order already?”
“They pulled the disappearing act again, but I did manage to take out a few of his recruits.”
Nicholas drove with the speed and precision of a race-car driver, utterly focused. “All you get is a few recruits and I get blood all over my backseat.”
Lucian chuckled.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Alexander said dryly, shifting his focus to the street they were racing down. Again, he felt the end of night nearing. “Let me out here,” he commanded.
“What?” Nicholas barked.
“Right here! Stop the car.”
“No way.”
“There’s access to the tunnels here, through the subway.”
Nicholas cursed, but slammed on the breaks. “Where are you going?”
“I’ll stay belowground,” Alexander said, exiting the car.
“No more hunting solo, Duro,” Nicholas called after him. “We wait until dusk and go together.”
Alexander clipped him a nod. “Agreed.”
Lucian glared at him. “You look different, your blood too. Have you fed?” He said the last word as though it were an accusation all its own.
“Drained the cow dry.” His face as controlled as his words, Alexander lifted a hand in farewell. “Thanks for the save.”
The sun was just rising as he rushed down into the subway and toward the secret passage that led to the tunnels. Bronwyn Kettler was certainly no cow, but he’d sworn not to reveal her generous gift to anyone. If the credenti found out, they would not accept her back in the fold, for she had fed a paven who was not her true mate.
Once in the tunnels, Alexander rejected the path that led him home, taking instead the one that would lead him to Sara. As he ran, his thighs bled and ached to be healed, but his heart was in far more pain. He needed to see her and hear her voice, even if she refused him. He snaked through a tunnel that had clearly been unused for a long time, then entered the hospital basement.
He palmed his cell phone and dialed.
The veana answered on the first ring. “You better be in the shade.”
“I’m directly below you.”
Dillon released an irritated sigh. “You’re here? In the hospital?”
“What floor is she on?”
Dillon cursed. “Four. But she’ll be heading your way in a few hours.”
“For what?”
“Tests on the brother.”
“Good.” He was no longer surprised at the palpable relief that spread through his system at hearing he would see her soon. “Can you meet me down here?”
“For what?”
“I need a blow job.”
She was silent, then ground her words out like crushing glass. “I know I didn’t hear you right.”
Alexander laughed, his gaze running the length of the gashes in his thighs, the blood oozing from them. “Just get down here, veana.” Without waiting for a reply, he stabbed the off button and hunkered down in the black corner to wait.
30
The man wasn’t tall, but broad in the shoulders and undeniably handsome. His long, blond surfer hair, dimples, and pale blue eyes were a stark contrast to his manner, which was closed off and just plain shady.
Sara didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him.
Standing toe to toe with him inside Pearl’s room on the juvenile ward, Sara once again explained the reason she was kicking him out. “Unauthorized visits are not allowed, Mr. Barnes.”
“Alistair. Please.” He gave her a tight-lipped smile. “The child needs her parent, don’t you think?”
“Yes, unfortunately that legal parent is not here.”
“Doctor—”
“I’ve tried several times to reach her, as has the social worker.” Sara’s gaze shifted to Pearl, who sat on the edge of her bed, looking flushed and worried. “Pearl, do you know where your mother might be? How I can get ahold of her?”
Pearl didn’t even open her mouth before Alistair jumped in. “Unfortunately, her mother can’t handle the stress of this situation. She’s asked that I watch over Pearl, and”—he lowered his chin—“of your care of her.”
What was it? Sara thought, studying him. There was something almost familiar in his tone and the expression in his eyes. For a second, she wondered if he’d been a patient.
Keeping his back to Pearl, he continued. “And may I say that you are taking fine care of our girl?”
“I’m doing my best,” Sara assured him.
“I’m sure you are.” He seemed to grow a few inches as he stared down at her.
Sara didn’t so much as blink. “And I won’t stop caring for her until she is . . . well, herself again.”
His eyes narrowed. “Good to know.”
They stared at each other for a moment, and Sara wondered if the man felt some type of connection to her as well. What the hell was it? As if hearing her thoughts, Alistair’s eyes darkened from baby blue to sapphire, and his nostrils flared as though he scented something unpleasant.
“I should be going,” he uttered.
Sara heard Pearl mumble irritably under her breath, but she nodded at the man. “I’ll walk you out.”
After Alistair said good-bye to Pearl, Sara followed him out of the room and down the hall. Her beeper went off and she glanced down to read the text. The tests she’d ordered for Gray were ready to go, while the bloods she’d been waiting for on Pearl couldn’t be located. What the hell? The shift in her focus had been ten seconds max, but when she looked up again, Alistair Barnes had disappeared.
Alexander moved soundlessly down the hall, past the morgue, and into an alcove where he would be obscured yet could freely watch Sara through a small square of glass.
“You trying to blow my cover?” Dillon whispered beside him, deep sarcasm threading her tone. “Because you know how much I enjoy that.”
“I needed to see her.”
“Well, there she is. You saw her. Now fuck off back to the basement.”
“You’d better watch yourself, Dillon,” he warned softly.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, you’re starting to sound a little like a possessive lover.”
She turned and punched him in the very leg she’d healed an hour ago. “Shut up.”
He grinned in the darkness. “Don’t think I don’t see it.”
“See what? You’re talking in circles.”
“You like her.” Alexander watched as Sara spoke to her brother, who was lying on his back, eyes closed. “I see the way you look at her.”
“Morpho has screwed with your wiring, you know that?” Dillon uttered.
Alexander shrugged. “Can’t say I blame you. She’s something to see.”
“Are we done here?”
“Your secret shame is your own, Dillon. Paven, veana, whatever you choose to lust over this week makes no difference to me, never has. Sara, however, is mine.”
Dillon cursed. “You want to take over this assignment?”
“You know I cannot.”
“Then shut it before I walk away and declare my debt paid in full.”
Alexander chuckled softly, though his attention remained in a room he could barely see and in it, the woman he ached to touch. “So that’s the brother.”
“His name is Gray.”
“They look alike.”
“They’re siblings, genius.”
“What’s she doing with the movie projector?”
“She has a theory about bringing back an old fear to his mind, then using temporary amnesia to place a new, gentle memory in its place. I heard her talking about it with the boss man this morning.”
It happened in an instant. One moment Alexander felt nothing, the next every inch of his skin crawled with life. Eyes widening, he stared through the window, directly at Sara. “She wants to get rid of memory?”