Harlequin Nocturne March 2014 Bundle: ShadowmasterRunning with Wolves Page 12

  Drakon took Lark’s arm, pulled her to her feet and led her out of the room.

  “He doesn’t realize what you really are, does he?” he asked.

  “No!” She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “I...did recognize him as soon as you caught him. But he wouldn’t—”

  “That was a very pretty performance,” he said, “but hardly convincing. Young Patterson needs acting lessons.”

  “What?”

  “It was too well-rehearsed,” he said. “He offered too much information about you, whether he knows you’re part dhampir or not. He also just happened to fall into our path like an overripe apple. I admit I wasn’t completely sure before, but your pleading with him convinced me otherwise.” He backed her up against the wall. “He let himself be taken, didn’t he? He was part of your plan.”

  “Let himself be taken?” she asked, appearing genuinely shocked. “When he knew you might kill him? He had nothing to do with this!”

  “Why don’t you tell me why the Enforcers put on this act of wanting to capture you, when that’s the last thing they intend to do?”

  She met his gaze with a long, direct stare. “You’re right,” she said. “It’s all an act.”

  He trapped her with his body, his hands planted to either side of her head. “Variations on a theme,” he said. “One lie built upon another, each a little more convincing than the last.”

  “If you’ll only listen...”

  He stared at her parted lips, wishing he could kiss her senseless, feel her naked thighs wrap around him, enter her right here in the corridor until she gasped and cried out and lost herself completely. He wanted to sink his teeth—the teeth he dared not show—into her neck and take her blood until he was drunk with it.

  “I’m listening,” he said, closing his eyes as he breathed in her complex and intoxicating scent.

  “I had a chance to be completely honest with you after we fought The Preacher’s men,” she whispered, arching against him—whether purposefully or instinctively, he didn’t know. “But I was still afraid.”

  Drakon felt a tightness in his chest that almost made him forget how much he had lied to her. Was lying with every breath even as he condemned her for the same betrayal.

  “Go on,” he said coldly.

  “It was all a setup, making it seem as if I were running from Aegis and the government so I could have a legitimate reason to go looking for a way out of the city.” She met his gaze, sorrow in her eyes. “You were right in your suspicions. I was sent to identify and expose the Holds of as many Bosses as possible, so the Enforcers could take down at least some of the worst criminals in the Fringe and close up the hidden passages.”

  Drakon released his breath. It was still possible that this story was true. He prayed it was.

  “Why send a non-human operative on such a job?” he asked.

  “The humans weren’t having any success.”

  “But you’ve located only one Hold so far,” he said. “Leaving the Enclave would never have served your purpose. Is that why the Enforcers stepped up their patrols around the Wall? To give you a plausible reason for remaining?”

  “I knew nothing about that,” she said, “though I admit it did serve my purpose.”

  “As did my attraction to you.”

  She laughed a little hoarsely. “In some ways, it was easier than I expected. But it backfired on me. You were one of the men I was hunting. But the sex was good for both of us. No matter what else has happened, that part was true.”

  Nothing in this world was true, Drakon thought. Nothing real. Nothing that survived. He had learned that long ago.

  “Neither one of us was thinking then, were we?” he said. “What of the information you were prepared to trade? The warehouse you showed me?”

  “Also a setup, so you’d believe whatever else I had to give you was real.”

  “And now you’ve succeeded in destroying your mission after all. That doesn’t sound like Aegis to me.”

  “I told you I was never considered qualified for the important jobs,” she said, edging out of his reach. “I obviously wasn’t qualified for this one, either.”

  The bitterness in her voice was very convincing, Drakon thought. Very convincing, indeed.

  “Are you only half-dhampir, as you claimed?”

  “Do I look like a full dhampir to you?”

  Drakon stalked away. “If I took you into that room and subjected you to the kind of interrogation you thought I intended for Matthew Patterson,” he said, “would that finally persuade you to stop lying to me?”

  “If you mean you’d torture me,” Lark said. “I know you wouldn’t.”

  “Do you truly think you know me after three days?”

  “I’ve already admitted I’ve made a mess of things. But I can’t do you any harm now, can I?”

  He laughed, hating that she thought him so weak.

  “Why is Aegis suddenly so interested in the Fringe and the Bosses?” he asked. “The city couldn’t operate without smuggling. Corruption runs through every facet of human civilization, and the Enclave’s no different. There are always enough officials who will work to prevent any long-term efforts to destroy us.”

  “But this time,” she said, “the faction supporting Shepherd wants an end to deportation. You even said you agreed with his policy.”

  “I said I’d look for some other means of solving the problem,” he said. “So who is behind this, then? Patterson and his cronies?”

  “The mayor was...pressured into allowing Aegis to send a few agents to explore the possibility of closing up the illicit exits and round up a few Fringers to—”

  “Keep the Enclave from descending into a state of virtual war between the opposing factions before the election begins,” Drakon finished for her. “And you agreed with this plan?”

  “It was never my decision to make.”

  “Doing your duty,” he said heavily. “You told me you’d seen things here you’d never let yourself think about before. People living in misery without decent housing or food, scrounging for what they need to survive. But you would have brought even greater misery to people who already lack hope.”

  She looked away, a suspicious moisture in her eyes. “The Bosses and their crews cause plenty of suffering without help from anyone else. Maybe even you, Sammael. What have you been getting out of your selfless philanthropy?”

  A desperate grasp at redemption, he thought. Redemption that would never come.

  “You said yourself that you deal with evil men,” she said into his silence. “No matter which side we’re on, we make compromises. The only difference is in our motives.”

  “And yours is to serve Aegis without question.”

  Her lips pressed together, holding back words she was obviously afraid she’d regret. He desperately wanted to kiss those lips. Even now.

  “We were both born more than human,” he said. “We chose different paths. I would have done anything to keep out of the government’s hands. The only way to do that was to hide. And I wasn’t going to live like a cockroach scuttling out of the light.”

  “But that’s exactly what you do, isn’t it?”

  “Make up your mind,” he said. “Either I’m like The Preacher, exploiting innocent people for my own gain, or I’m a generous benefactor who helps them stay alive. Either I’m a traitor, or I’m a survivor. Which is it?”

  “I wish I knew,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “But I can guarantee that Matthew Patterson won’t know any more than I’ve told you. You realized that he was acting. The Enforcers knew I wasn’t supposed to be caught. They weren’t to make any attempt to take other prisoners.”

  “Strange that they seemed so intent on capturing me yesterday, out by the Wall.”

  “I thought you wer
e lying about that,” she said, “you and Brita both, though I didn’t know why. In any case, I didn’t tell them to do it. Even if they’d thought you might be a Boss, it wasn’t in their orders.”

  “With the elections so close, and nothing to show for what Mayor Shepherd ‘authorized’?”

  Her eyes held his without fear. “You’ll never believe anything I say now. But as far as Matthew Patterson is concerned, common sense will tell you that holding him will bring the whole city down on your head. He’s not only the senator’s son—he’s considered a hero for acts of valor facing down several murderers who escaped detention. He’s also one of the generation who seems willing to consider new solutions with the Opiri.”

  “Like you?” He laughed under his breath. “Will the good Senator Patterson bargain to get him back?”

  “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “But I’m beginning to realize that...there’s something wrong about all this. Even if you sent me back now, I’d leave without really understanding why things are as they are, here in the Fringe, in the rest of the city.”

  “You know why. The people here are a burden on the Mids and Nobs. The higher-ups would deport them if they could get away with it.”

  “You can mock me,” she said, meeting his gaze. “I did say that I didn’t question my duty, not at first. But any person has the right to change her mind. Even against her duty.”

  Drakon didn’t believe her sudden change of heart. It had come too quickly, like everything else.

  “Are you prepared to accept the consequences if you choose to betray your own people?” he asked bluntly.

  “You said it yourself. There must be another way of solving the problems we face as a society, and with the Nightsiders.”

  “And what do you see as the solution, Lark?”

  “I don’t know!” She took one step toward him and then another, until their faces were literally inches apart. “I don’t know the answer. To anything.”

  She put her arms around him and kissed him, hungrily, madly, and as Drakon returned the kiss he felt that urge to strip her clothes from her body, take her against the wall, indifferent to those who might pass by.

  Lark gasped and let go as if she’d been reading his thoughts. Her skin was flushed and hot, her breath and heartbeat racing. She reached down and grasped his hand.

  “Not here,” she said, her voice little more than a pant. “My room. Or yours. I don’t care. I just want to feel you—”

  Drakon turned his hand and tightened his fingers around hers. “Don’t even try,” he said, fighting his lust down to a more manageable desire. “Come with me.”

  He pulled her into the room where young Patterson was waiting. She stopped near the door.

  “I won’t tell you!” Patterson snarled. “If that bitch is still here...”

  “Give it up, boy,” Drakon said. “I know it’s all been a trick from the beginning, and what your ‘fugitive’ was sent to do.”

  “You told him?” the young man said, turning his head in Lark’s direction.

  “To save your life,” Drakon said. “Just as she did before, when the Scrappers would have taken you. The people of the Fringe are just looking for a way to get back at the Enforcers. I’d just as soon have fed you to them.”

  “You should have let me die,” Patterson said, turning his head toward Lark. “You’ve made it easier for the Bosses to defend themselves against us, haven’t you? You’ve told them our plans, everything we’ve worked for!”

  He spat to the side of the chair. Drakon stepped behind the young Enforcer and yanked the blindfold off his head. Patterson blinked several times, struggling to bring his vision into focus. Drakon moved again to face the young man, gently pushing Lark aside. “Look at me.”

  The Enforcer blinked again. “I still don’t know you,” he said.

  Drakon slowly released his breath. “No,” he said. “You don’t know me. But your father was the most brutal captain and commissioner the Force has ever known. And even if the mayor authorized this sweep, Patterson was behind it.”

  Matthew’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about? My father...he has nothing to do with this!”

  “Your father has been behind every major sweep by the Enforcers over the past six years,” Drakon said, barely controlling his rage.

  “Yes!” Matthew said, trying to rise. “He helped keep this city alive!”

  Drakon caught the young man’s jaw in his hand. “Hunting men and women like dogs, violently separating families, sending the most petty criminals to Erebus...”

  “Necessary!” Matthew said, his voice muffled by Drakon’s merciless grip. “To save us...just like now!”

  “Stop!” Lark grabbed Drakon’s hand and pulled it away. “You have nothing to gain by—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Drakon said, releasing Patterson and leaning down to stare into the young man’s eyes. “I never believed your operative’s claims about possessing secret information and wanting to escape the city. I would never have let her leave this Hold alive. And you’ll only get out if your father pays the price.”

  Lark stared at him, almost as pale as the Enforcer. “Sammael,” she said. “Please. Let me talk to you outside.”

  “You’ve said enough!” Matthew shouted. “You’re obviously on his side now. What turned you into a traitor? His skill at—”

  Moving more quickly than the young man could possibly detect, Drakon yanked up the untied blindfold and pulled it between the Enforcer’s teeth as if it were a bit on an unruly horse.

  “You’ve said enough, I think,” he said, tightening the knot at the base of Patterson’s skull. “This game is over.” He turned to Lark. “You have more to say to me?”

  “Yes.” She swallowed. “I want to know why your hatred for John Patterson is so personal.”

  Chapter 12

  Phoenix left the interrogation room before Sammael could drag her out, wondering if she’d made a mistake. Instinct had demanded that she throw Sammael off balance again, but it was more than that. She truly wanted to know why he hated Patterson.

  Sammael had called Matthew’s father a cruel leader. But it didn’t make sense that such hatred was related to the death of Sammael’s father, since his story couldn’t be true. He was a Daysider, and though no one knew exactly how Daysiders were created, his forebears would never have been in the Enclave. It was highly unlikely that Sammael would have encountered Patterson in the Zone, since Enforcers seldom ventured outside the city Wall.

  The large men who had carried Sammael to the Hold were waiting in the corridor as if they’d been summoned to arrive at a specific time. “Keep him under guard,” Sammael told them as he walked out. “No one is to speak to him. Understood?”

  One of the men saluted, and the other nodded.

  “My room,” Sammael said to Phoenix, not waiting for her to follow.

  She caught up with him quickly, but didn’t attempt to speak until they had reached his quarters and he’d closed the door with more than necessary force. She sat in the chair, forcing herself to relax as he took up his usual pacing.

  “You once asked me about my background,” he said suddenly, never breaking stride. “I told you I came from the Mids, as you did. I told you I was married. Had a son. I told you they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” His burned fists closed, and his face tightened with a show of agony as much emotional as physical. “My father wasn’t the only one in my family to suffer at the hands of Enforcers. My wife and son were two of many innocents caught between a team of Enforcers and a small crowd of protesters. The protesters were no danger to anyone, and my family was only passing through the area when the Enforcers opened fire.”

  He was so utterly sincere that Phoenix began to feel tears in her eyes again. The unwilling sympathy made it that much easier to pretend
she believed him.

  “I’m...so sorry,” she whispered.

  His rigid expression didn’t change. “One man led the assault, though his deliberate malice, his intent to kill and not just control, was covered up later as a small error in judgment.”

  “John Patterson,” Phoenix whispered. “And you want the son to pay for the father’s sins. Matthew may defend his father, but he might not fully understand the extremes Senator Patterson went to during his military career.”

  “And I still don’t plan to kill him,” Sammael said. “As long as his father will pay to get him back.”

  Phoenix released her breath slowly. “How?”

  “‘Common sense will tell you that holding young Patterson will bring the whole city down on your head,’” he quoted her mockingly. “The boy’s a hero, according to you. Even if the mayor was pressured into this sweep for political reasons, he can’t oppose saving his rival’s son.” He met her gaze. “The only other way is to dump Matthew’s body in another Boss’s turf. And even then, if anyone else knew where he was or what he was doing when he disappeared...”

  “What is your plan?” she asked.

  “Much of it will depend on you, Lark. On your courage and cleverness.”

  Phoenix managed to maintain her composure. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to return to Aegis—to one of your superiors, one you believe you can trust—and tell her that one of the Bosses you’ve been investigating has Matthew Patterson. You will tell this superior that, in exchange for Matthew’s life, you must deliver all files connected to John Patterson’s career with the Bureau, particularly records about the incident in which he killed my family. Do whatever you must to convince them to let you take those files. And then you will tell Patterson that his son will be killed unless he and certain politicians meet at the border of the Fringe at a specific time one week from today.”

  “But why? They’ll never agree to—”

  “I’m betting they will. They can bring all the security they like. I intend to bring those files with me when I return Matthew and read them to the assembled politicians. It may do nothing to harm Patterson, but at least the information will be on public record.”