Twilight Vendetta Read online

  Package ... arrived. (2:37 a.m.)

  Exercise ..eme.. caution. (extreme)

  Project Offspring. (offering? office spring? off string?)

  Offspring was the right answer, she thought. That had been what she’d heard one of the goops call those two kids. She didn’t know what it meant, but she was sure it was no coincidence that her father had heard that term on the radio.

  Based on the time and place of the kids capture, and the time of the radio message “package…arrived” Oliver had done some math. Using an educated guess at the van’s likely speed, he’d drawn a circle on the map that included the entire possible area, half of which was in the ocean, and they certainly hadn’t wound up there by van.

  Today, they would try to narrow it down some more. She didn’t know exactly what they would do with the information once they had it. Walking into a government internment camp to rescue prisoners was a bit risky, even for her. But her father was brilliant. He’d think of something.

  She eyed the map again, noting that the area wasn’t all that big. Then she heard eggs being cracked and knew time was short, and she needed that shower. So she headed up the stairs to her room.

  Emma didn’t really live with her father, because she was usually traveling the globe, trying to find out about local vampires and writing about her daredevil experiences to pay the bills and provide a cover. But when she was home, this was often where she stayed. She kept all her things in the bedroom her dad kept just for her, the same one she’d had since childhood. She stored her Jeep in her dad’s garage…except for this time. This time, after meddling in clandestine government affairs, she’d parked her Jeep a couple of blocks away, just in case. Putting her father at risk was not on her to do list.

  She grabbed a bunch of clothes and headed into the bathroom for a shower, moving quickly because she was eager for that breakfast she could smell cooking downstairs. So she cranked on the water, adjusted the temperature, and jumped right in, scrubbing herself from head to toe, and washing her hair twice to get the dried salt and sand out of it, and then using extra conditioner to repair the damage.

  She stepped out onto the plush pink bathmat when she was finished, reached for a towel, and froze.

  He was standing there, staring at her.

  Her vampire.

  “What the–!” Emma snatched the towel from the rack and wrapped it around her, so startled she almost forgot to be overjoyed to see him again. Thank God, she thought. Thank God he’d come to find her.

  Aloud, she only said, “What are you doing in my bathroom?”

  Devlin had followed his sense of her to her home, entered through a second story window, and walked directly to where he felt her energy pulsing. And much like a bloodhound on the scent, he paid attention to nothing other than the goal. So when she stepped out of the shower naked, just as he had entered the bathroom, he was caught unprepared.

  And then he couldn’t look away. Her breasts held his eyes captive, round and firm, their centers dark and enticing. And when he managed to drag his gaze elsewhere, it was only to notice the dip of her waist, the well of her navel, the firm curve of her thighs, and the smoothly shaved skin at their juncture.

  Then she snatched a towel and covered herself, breaking the spell, allowing him to look away at last. He tried to get hold of himself, to show confidence, even cockiness, to pretend this hadn’t been a terrible mistake, and that he hadn’t dreamed about her during what should have been a dreamless sleep, and that he wasn’t burning with desire for her right then.

  It was chemistry. It was natural for a vampire to feel drawn to one of The Chosen. He should’ve listened to Bellamy and got them all something to eat before coming here.

  “Speak up, Vampire. What are you doing here?”

  He cleared his throat and turning his back, albeit belatedly, handed her the stack of folded clothes that was sitting nearby. “You said last night that Wolf and Sheena were still alive.”

  “Wolf and Sheena?” she asked, still pretending to be offended by his intrusion into her privacy. But he knew she was thrilled. Excited. Attracted. He felt it. “Seriously? Who named them, Edgar Rice Burroughs?”

  His eyes still averted, he shook the clothes at her because she hadn’t taken them. So she did. And then he listened to the sounds of her dressing, and tried not to imagine it taking place in his mind’s eye. “I came here to make you tell me everything you know about what happened to the two of them.”

  “Gee, twist my arm, why don’t you?”

  “I’m afraid mortal sarcasm is lost on me.”

  “Liar,” she accused. “Look, I came to you, you big jerk. I almost drowned myself just to get you to come out there so I could tell you everything I know about what happened to the two of them.”

  She’d dropped her voice as she repeated his words back to him in what he thought was supposed to be a mockery of his own. It angered him, being mocked, especially by her, and he turned around fast.

  Her blouse was unbuttoned over a white lace bra, and the swell of her breasts was almost more tantalizing to him than seeing them naked had been.

  She continued fastening buttons as if she didn’t care where he was looking or what he was seeing. “You let me go,” she went on. “You let those two fishermen do the rescuing and you vanished on me, just like you always do. If you’d taken me with you, you’d already know everything I know.”

  It was only then that her words penetrated. “Your accident in the water, it was planned?”

  “Of course it was planned. Do you think I’m stupid enough to get myself into that much trouble by accident?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time, Emma.”

  “It would be the first time as an adult. I’m not a reckless teenager anymore.”

  “Right,” he said. “It’s not as if you travel the world doing stunts that could you killed on a regular basis. No, wait. It is.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I know my own limits.”

  “And push them.”

  Shrugging, she looked away.

  “You knew I would come.” She had played him, exactly the way he’d feared she would since he’d realized his weakness for her. His feelings had made him vulnerable, and she was no more trustworthy than the rest of her kind. Which was not at all.

  She lowered her head. “I hoped a vampire would come. I had no idea it would be you.”

  “But you admit it was a trick to lure one of us out.”

  She nodded. “It was the only way I could think of to let you know that two of your own had been taken.”

  He searched her face, easier to do now that her blouse was buttoned, and then he tried to probe her mind in search of a lie. She flung up both hands, and turned her head away. “Don’t do that. Don’t go poking around inside my head—you know how rude that is.”

  It was considered to be an invasion of privacy among his kind. But how did she know that? He stopped.

  “Why are you so suspicious of me?” she demanded. “I’m trying to help you here, or hadn’t you noticed that?”

  “It only begs the question...why? Why are you trying to help? Or pretending to?”

  “Pretending to?” She lifted her brows, dark and perfectly arched, and shot him a look that would’ve been angry if eyes that big and that brown could look angry. “Wow. Turns out you’re kind of an a-hole. And to think, all this time I’ve been thinking you were my–”

  “Emma! Breakfast is served.” The man’s voice came from downstairs.

  Devlin shot a look toward the bedroom door. “Who is that?”

  “My father. Who, by the way, is also trying to help.” She looked that way too, and bellowed “Be right down, Dad,” so loudly that it hurt his ears. Then she glared at him. “You mind? I’m famished.”

  “So am I,” he muttered, his eyes moving to her throat. It should’ve scared her. But he felt her reaction, and it was anything but afraid. “Tell me what you know and we can both eat,” he said, his voice raspy, as if he had to clear his th
roat.

  She pushed past him, going to the sink, picking up a comb and pulling it through her hair. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll tell you what I know if you’ll take me back to your hideout with you.”

  “I knew you were up to something. How about this, Emma? You tell me what you know, and I won’t have your father for breakfast.”

  She spun around so fast it surprised him, and to his utter shock, grabbed the front of his shirt in one small fist, raised herself up onto tip-toes, and stared hard into his eyes, holding her comb beneath his chin as if it were a dagger. “You touch my father and I’ll kill you. We’ve done nothing but try to help vampires since you were outed, you ungrateful, untrusting piece of–”

  DPI’s pulling up out front, Dev, Tavia said to him, mentally. His crew were a few blocks away, keeping watch. Get out of dere.

  There was a crash from below. Devlin heard shouts, men’s voices, more crashing. The sense of fear from her father was louder than the noise.

  “Dad!”

  Devlin clapped a hand over her mouth and dragged her into the bedroom as footsteps pounded up the stairs.

  “My daughter’s not here!” her father shouted. “And that’s a bad thing for you, because she will come after me!”

  She struggled in Devlin’s arms as he pulled her into her bedroom and through it. As they moved through the room she kept twisting, reaching, grabbing things, and he realized she wasn’t trying to pull free of him, just picking up items along the way. A big canvas shoulder bag, a cellphone, a jacket. The window through which he’d entered was still open, and he adjusted his hold on her and jumped straight through it. She barely had time to squeak behind his hand before he landed nice and easy on the back lawn.

  “Stay quiet,” he told her as he bounced upright and ran for the nearest cover, a neighbor’s garden shed, green with white trim and window boxes full of pansies and rue. He moved fast, knowing it would shock her and possibly make her dizzy, but he had no choice. A second ticked past, no more, and they were crouching side by side behind the shed, the angle giving them a view of the road in front of Emma’s home, which was lined with sedans bearing the damned DPI logo on the side: a shield with an eagle clutching the three hateful initials in its talons.

  “Be still. I’ll get you out of here unseen, I–”

  “Are you kidding me? I can’t just go and leave my father there to–”

  “You heard what he said as plainly as I did, Emma. He was telling you to get out so you could come after him.”

  “Shh!” Emma pointed as a man, presumably Emma’s father, came into view. He’d been taken from the house with his hands zip tied behind him. Emma lurched upright, but Devlin pulled her right back down and kept an arm around her shoulder, holding her close to his side. He whispered near her ear, “If they take you too, you won’t be any help to him. Be still.”

  “I don’t want to be still. Why don’t you do something? You could kill them all. Why don’t you–”

  “They have rifles, and there are six of them,” he said.

  “I’m not afraid of their rifles.” She tried to get up again, stopping only as they shoved her father into the back of a dark sedan that lurched into motion almost before the door closed on him. “Dammit!”

  Then other men came out of the house, carrying electronics in their arms. One of them had a map, and he showed it to his superior.

  Emma’s breath stuttered out of her.

  “What is it? What’s on that map, Emma?”

  “The most likely locations of your...of Wolf and Sheena.”

  And then he heard Bellamy speaking inside his head. They’re cordoning off the block, Devlin. You need to get out of there, now.

  The girl in his arms was going to get her wish. He had no choice now but to take her with him, at least until he figured out exactly what was going on. “We need to move,” he said. “They’re blocking off the area. If we wait much longer, we’ll be trapped.”

  “I can’t leave him. You don’t understand, I can’t–”

  “They won’t hurt him. He’s human like they are.”

  “He’s human like I am.”

  “What do you mean? He’s not one of The Chosen.”

  “No, he’s not. But trust me, there’s a big difference between humans like them and humans like my dad. A big difference.”

  He didn’t argue the point, though he disagreed. Human was human. He didn’t have any use for any of them. It wasn’t his fault that he was genetically compelled to help The Chosen when they got their human backsides into trouble. If he had a choice about it, he’d let them all die.

  Even as he thought it, he knew it was a lie. He would always help Emma, even if it turned out to be the biggest mistake of his existence.

  The car carrying her father took off. As it rolled out of sight, she said, “I’m going after my father.”

  He stared at her, nodded once. “And I’m going after Wolf and Sheena. For all we know, your father is being taken to the same place where they’re being held. Come with me now, and we’ll figure out where that place is and take it from there.”

  “Like I said before,” she told him, “twist my arm.”

  Chapter Four

  His eyes were glossy black walnut, and they were compelling when they stared into hers. She blinked, broke away, turned her head. “Don’t try mind control on me. It’s not fair. I can’t block you. I haven’t had enough experience.”

  “I’m not trying mind control on you, Emma.”

  Then why do I want to tell him I’ll go anywhere he wants me to?

  Hell, he probably heard that.

  She sighed and wondered why she was even debating it. Going with him was what she’d wanted all along. But now he thought she was up to something. He’d all but accused her when she’d admitted to nearly drowning on purpose.

  She couldn’t just come out and ask about her mom. Not yet. That would just confirm for him that she had ulterior motives. And dammit, she did, but she also wanted to see justice done, see those kids rescued.

  He might not see it that way, though. And if she couldn’t gain his trust now, she might never get another chance. His trust...it was important to her. Dumb, since she didn’t know him. She needed him to help her save her father, though. Maybe she should just focus on that for the moment, and talk to him about her mother later.

  “I’ll go with you. Of course I’ll go with you. That’s what I wanted in the first place.”

  “All right. This way.” He held her upper arm lightly as they got up, then jogged back to the redwood fence that separated the small copse of woods behind it from the neighbors’ back lawns. It was eight feet tall. He put his arms around her waist from behind and hopped it as easily as if it had been a tiny puddle.

  “Ask me before you do that crap, all right? Jeeze!”

  He reached to clasp her arm again, but she danced away from his hand and asked the question she couldn’t keep in. “You don’t trust me, do you?”

  “I don’t trust any mortal, Emma. Now come on.”

  He took her hand, not her arm, in his great big one, and he pulled her into motion behind him. They traversed the woods, came out on the other side on a narrow residential road with ranch style houses, some wood, some adobe, all landscaped and neat. Outdoor lights were on, but only the blue-white flicker of television screens emanated from inside most of them. It was early yet. People were still up.

  Headlights came bounding along the road, then brakes squealed and the vehicle stopped.

  Her vehicle. “That’s my Jeep,” Emma said.

  A dark-haired woman stuck her head out the driver’s side window. “Get in, what are you waiting for!” she said with an accent that sounded way too cliché vampire to be for real.

  “Um, that’s my Jeep.”

  The back door opened, and the vampire began to get into the Jeep despite that she was standing in front of him, kind of nudging her in with his body.

  God he was big. Bodybuilder big. And that skin. Dar
k for a vampire. Almost like he had a deep tan.

  She got into the backseat of her own Jeep, sliding too close to a twenty-something man with carrot-colored hair and an angelic smile, despite the insane situation. Then the big vampire was squashing his bulk in beside her and closing the door. “Go, Tavia.”

  Tavia stomped the gas, popped the clutch, almost stalled it, and then managed to shift into second, grinding gears all the way.

  “Jeeze, if you can’t drive, pull over and let me. You’re gonna wear out the clutch.”

  “Who is dis girl, Devlin?” she asked, taking a corner too fast.

  “Dis girl is the owner of dis Jeep, lady. And I’d like to know what the hell you’re doing with it.”

  Tavia looked over her shoulder and Emma was struck. She had huge, expressive black eyes, and thick, dark brows in contrast to her pale skin. “We needed a vehicle. Dis one was parked a few blocks from your home, keys still inside.”

  She took another turn too fast, and then seemed to relax a little. Emma figured she could sense that they were safe. Of course she could. She was a vampire. They were all vampires. She was getting what she wanted. She was walking with vampires. Well, riding with them, technically, but still. She sank back into her seat and told her muscles it was safe to unclench just a little.

  “So your name is Devlin,” she said. “I’ve always wondered.”

  He met her eyes, nodded just once. “That’s Bellamy, sitting next to you,” he said.

  She turned and Bellamy smiled again. Light blue eyes like a summer sky. “Nice to meet you, Emma.” Then he slid a glance past her at Devlin. “This is Emma, right?”

  Devlin ignored him. “Our fearless driver is Tavia,” he said.

  Tavia didn’t look back this time, but she did mutter, “salut.”

  “And that’s Andrew sitting beside her.”

  “Hey, Emma,” said the too-thin blond male who’d been silent up till now. His hair was longish on one side, shaved on the other. He looked like a white supremacist, in her opinion.

  “What happened back dere?” Tavia asked.