Angel Reborn, page 7
“Thank you,” I said, stroking his cheek with the back of my hand.
Reaching to close his hand over mine, he flipped my palm up and brought it to his lips. “You don’t have to thank me.”
I squeezed his hand before letting go and shifted in my seat to tuck my foot beneath my thigh. “So, this guy Zeck…you said you haven’t seen or heard from him in years, but you still have a lot of faith in him. What makes you trust him so completely? What if he’s not the same person he was when you knew him?”
“He is. I know Zeck. It doesn’t matter how long we go without seeing each other. That doesn’t change who he is. You’ll see when you get to know him better. Zeck is one of the good guys.”
“One of the good guys who happens to freelance for the vampire mafia?”
“Just because someone works for my family doesn’t automatically make them a criminal. And just because my family works…around the law when they have to doesn’t mean the Gilde is entirely a criminal enterprise.”
“Right. They only break the law when they need to. That’s comforting.”
“We can debate the morality of the Gilde all night, but I have no doubts about Zeck. I know who he is, and I know I can trust him.”
Nick may know that, but I didn’t. And after everything that had happened tonight, I was increasingly more wary of anyone connected with the supernatural world. The circle of people I trusted in life was already ridiculously small, and when my daughter’s safety was on the line, I was hesitant to widen that circle to include Zeck, no matter how well Nick thought he knew him.
When we’d first left Gwen’s penthouse, I’d still been in a state of shock, frantic to reach Sage and relieved that Gwen could get people there to guard her while we were on our way.
But the more I thought about things, the more paranoid I became. How did we know we could trust a ragtag team of freelancers who’d been pulled together at the last minute? After all, if someone working inside the ball had betrayed me and led me to the roof, wasn’t it possible the other attacks at the ball had inside help? And hadn’t Nick said they thought his father’s murder might be an inside job? If the tight security protocols at the lab and at the ball hadn’t weeded out the bad apples, it didn’t seem like too big of a leap to think that someone with nefarious motives could join a freelance security detail if they wanted to get at Nick through Sage.
“Why have you never mentioned this guy before? If the two of you were so close, how has his name never come up once in all the years I’ve known you?”
With his elbow propped on the door, he rubbed his hand over his chin. “Hiding who I was—who I’d been—meant not being able to tell you about people who are important to me. I couldn’t introduce you to them or bring them around because I couldn’t risk exposing my secret, and if I talked about them but you never met them, you would have questioned that. And rightfully so. I cut all ties with everyone I knew when I left that world behind so I could fully embrace my life as a human. It never could have worked if I was still connected to people from my past.”
The reminder of his deceit brought pain with it, and though I understood why he’d deceived me and I’d committed myself to forgiving him, my emotions at the moment were raw and too close to the surface. There was so much about him I didn’t know, and it felt at times like I was married to a stranger. As though the man I fell in love with was only a facade he presented.
Turning my head away from him, I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath to keep the wounded anger from flaring.
“Aria, I get that Zeck is a stranger to you, but he’s not a stranger to me. Far from it. I trust him with my life, and with yours, and with Sage’s. I’d like for the two of you to get to know each other so you can see for yourself who he is. But for now, we need someone we can depend on, and I believe that’s Zeck.”
What choice did I have but to agree? He was right. We needed to know the Nyack house was safe before we went there, and it wasn’t like I had anyone to recommend. Besides, Zeck was already guarding Sage, so if I didn’t think he was trustworthy, it was a little late to protest now. And Nick’s faith in the man obviously did mean something.
“Okay,” I said. “If you trust him, I trust you.”
He reached to cup my face in his hand, and I pressed my cheek into his palm. “It’s going to be all right, Angel. We’re going to get through this. Together. In a few minutes, we’ll be with Sage and Angie, and then once we have the all-clear, we’ll all head to Nyack. We’ll get some rest, and tomorrow, we’ll figure out the next step. I will protect you, and I will protect our daughter.”
I didn’t doubt his conviction or his determination. I just didn’t know how he could keep us safe when our enemy was unknown, immortal, and able to shift into any living being they chose to be. And possibly working from within our circle of trust.
I called Angie to let her know we’d been delayed, and then Nick called Zeck to relay the issues at our house and tell him what he needed him to do at Nyack. They agreed that Zeck wouldn’t leave until we arrived so that either he or Nick was near Sage at all times.
When we arrived at Angie’s, I jumped from the van and ran toward the house, anxious to finally see my daughter.
Angie had opened the door and was waiting on the porch as I came bounding up the steps. “All quiet here. No Lincoln.”
“Good. Thanks, Ang,” I gave her the briefest of hugs before moving past her into the house. “I’ll be right back. I need to see Sage.”
“She’s sleeping,” Angie called after me. “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I just want to see her.”
I took the stairs two at a time, and once I’d reached the hallway at the top, I hurried to the open door of the bedroom that had been mine when Sage was born.
The soft glow of the rotating night light cast stars spinning around the room, and my heart leapt at the sight of my baby girl asleep in the double bed we once shared. She was lying on her side with her hand tucked beneath her chin, her red curls splayed out across the pillow.
Moving quietly, I sat on the edge of the bed and fought the urge to scoop her into my arms. It would be selfish to wake her from a peaceful slumber just to make myself feel better. So instead, I leaned over and pressed my lips as gently as possible to her forehead, inhaling deeply to take in her sweetness.
She was safe. She was alive. No harm had come to my baby.
And thankfully, I was alive too. Still here to be her mommy.
I pulled back to look down at her, and she let out a sleepy sigh as she rolled to her back, her arm flopping out to her side, as limp as a rag doll’s.
My love for her was so immense it felt like my chest would explode from the effort to contain it, and my throat grew thick with emotion.
“Mommy loves you, Sugar Cakes,” I whispered, and then I rose, startled to see Nick standing behind me. He’d come in so quietly I hadn’t even heard him approach.
He bent and smoothed back Sage’s hair to kiss her forehead in almost exactly the same spot as I had and with just as much tenderness. Then he whispered next to her ear, and though I couldn’t hear what he said, she smiled in response to him as she always did, even in her sleep.
We stepped back into the hallway together, and he followed me downstairs where a worried-looking Angie was waiting.
“Is someone going to tell me what’s going on? Because there is obviously more to all this than two random yahoos in a Lincoln being parked outside my house.”
Nick looked to me with a raised brow, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to put her off. She’d been dragging the truth out of me since I was a teenager, so I might as well go ahead and spill the beans. While I didn’t want to scare her or make her worry even more, I knew she’d want the truth. Besides that, it would be a relief to talk to someone not supernatural who would understand why I was completely freaked out by what was happening.
“Do we have time?” I asked Nick, and he nodded.
“Zeck just left for Nyack. He’ll call when he’s ready for us.”
Angie’s eyes widened. “Nyack? Why are you going to Nyack? I thought we were going back to your place.”
“Change of plans,” I said to Angie with a deep sigh. “You might want to sit down. This is gonna be a doozy.”
“Oh Lordy.” She rubbed her hands over her eyes with a groan. “I have a feeling we aren’t getting any sleep tonight. Should I put on a pot of coffee?”
A few hours later, I stepped into the massive shower at the Nyack house, alone for the first time since I’d walked out onto the roof at the ball to see the moon.
I let my head fall back as the warm water cascaded over me, washing away any remaining bits of dried blood, along with the glue-like product Cricket had put in my hair and at least a little of the tension that had held me strung tight for hours.
We were safe.
I didn’t know for how long, and I tried not to focus on that uncertainty.
All that mattered right now was that we were all together under one roof, and we were no longer on the run. We could be still. We could rest.
Sage was asleep in her bedroom down the hall. She’d barely woken when Nick lifted her from her bed at Angie’s, and she’d slept in the van the whole way to Nyack. When the car stopped, she woke up long enough to ask where she was, and she’d drifted back to sleep as peaceful as could be as he’d carried her up the stairs and laid her down in her bed. The princess furniture that she had loved from this house had made its way to our home in New Windsor, so the bedroom here now was filled with her furniture from home. It was sort of comforting to see her curled up in her old bed, surrounded by familiar things.
My heart ached at the upheaval she’d gone through recently as our family adjusted to so many new realities, and my anger flared again as I considered that she’d now be put through more changes due to whatever diabolical plot had been hatched against us.
I hated that we’d unwittingly dragged Angie into our mess. Ever the epitome of calm, she’d sat quietly as we told her about the break-ins at the Gilde, the attack on the roof, and the intrusion at our house. I didn’t mention the part about me nearly dying and somehow miraculously recovering in record time. Firstly, because I figured we’d given her enough to process for one night, but also because I still had the strongest conviction that I shouldn’t tell anyone. But if the rest of it left her shaken or unsettled, she hadn’t let on.
She agreed to come to Nyack with us only because Nick had insisted, and she’d announced as soon as we arrived that she was tired and needed a bed, which was where she was now in the room across the hall from Sage.
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sleep at all. Zeck and his men were still outside and would be for the rest of the night, but even if no one could get in the house, my mind was a minefield of topics, each one more distressing than the last and guaranteed to keep me awake worrying.
Who was responsible for the attacks, and what did they want from us? How would we find them, and what would it take to stop the threat once we did? Would there be more threats even if we squashed this one? If so, what kind of life could we offer Sage if she had to be surrounded by security to venture outdoors?
Forcing the spiraling thoughts from my mind, I lathered up my hair and rinsed it, and then I lathered again to insure there was no sticky product or dried blood remaining. I slathered on conditioner and let it sit while I washed the rest of me, and then once I’d rinsed my hair again, I reluctantly shut off the water and stepped out of the sanctuary of the shower.
Wrapping myself in the thick towel I’d found in the corner cabinet, I grabbed the bag we’d hastily packed at home. After brushing my teeth and running a comb through my wet hair, I put on my pajamas and hung the towel on the rack by the shower.
When I came out into the bedroom, the door leading onto the balcony was ajar, and Nick’s voice drifted inside. Another man’s voice joined his, and then the two of them laughed.
I couldn’t make out their words, and I couldn’t see them because Nick had switched the glass wall to its frosted mode for my privacy in showering and dressing, but Nick’s voice held no tension and his laughter seemed to come easy.
His balcony companion had to be Zeck, and curiosity drew me toward the door, eager to meet this man my husband trusted so implicitly.
Nine
Aria
They were standing at the rail with their backs to me, looking out over the pool below and the river in the distance, but they both turned and looked my way as I came through the door.
The full moon had long ago begun its slow descent in preparation for the sun’s inevitable arrival, but its glow backlit the two men, making it easy for me to see the faint red mist surrounding Nick. Beside him, Zeck was also clouded in a mist, but I was shocked to see that it was a beautiful pale aqua blue.
I sucked in a shocked breath and then shook my head, blinking hard to clear my vision.
“What’s wrong?” Nick asked, rushing to my side.
“Um, I’m not sure.” I blinked again, but the mist around Zeck was still there. And still the color of a Bahamian lagoon.
Nick wrapped his arm around my waist. “Are you dizzy?”
Pulling my gaze from Zeck, I looked up at Nick. “No. I’m okay.”
“I should go,” Zeck said, and I stepped forward, protesting.
“Please stay. I’m fine, really.”
Nick moved with me, his arm never leaving my waist. “Zeck, this is my wife, Aria. Aria, this is one of my dearest friends, Hezekiah Laine.”
Zeck came closer, and the mesmerizing blue mist swirled around him.
“It’s nice to meet you, Aria, but please, call me Zeck. My father is Hezekiah.”
He grinned with a conspiratorial wink, and I was struck by how handsome he was. He and Nick were of a similar height and build, but Zeck’s was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, wholesome handsome that offered a polar opposite to my husband’s darker features.
“It’s nice to meet you, too.” I started to offer my hand in a customary handshake greeting, but since Zeck had tucked both his into his back pockets, I withdrew mine and smiled. “Thank you for your help tonight.”
“Oh, it’s my honor.” With his grin widening, he laid a hand on his chest and looked to Nick. “Though I must say I’m a little hurt I didn’t get a wedding invitation. You’d think after all we’ve been through together…but I guess not.”
Nick laughed, and then he motioned toward the lounge chairs. “Come and sit with us, Angel. Enjoy the moonlight and a moment of peace after a crazy night.”
Unable to shake my fear of flying assassins, I looked up as I sat down, and then I watched Zeck plop down on the other side of Nick.
I was fascinated by the blue surrounding him. What the hell was causing me to see these colors? And why would his be different than any other I’d seen? Was it possible that…
“You’re not a vampire,” I blurted out, and then I flushed warm with embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I suppose that was rude. I had just assumed…you know, since the two of you were so close.”
“Zeck descends from the Veiori bloodline,” Nick said beside me. “The seers and communicators. He’s not one of the cursed.”
Ah! That must be why his mist was different.
“We’re all cursed in one way or another, are we not?” Zeck smiled at me and then cocked his head. “Since you’ve broached the bloodline topic, I must admit I’m curious about your lineage. I’d been told Nick’s wife was human.”
I drew back, startled. “I am human.”
Zeck’s brows drew together as he looked to Nick.
“What? Aria is human,” Nick confirmed. “Why would you think differently?”
The blue eyes narrowed as they came back to me. “She carries the energy.”
“What are you talking about?” Nick scoffed. “Aria’s as human as they come. You must be mistaking my energy for hers.”
“No, I felt it distinctly as soon as she approached us. You don’t feel that?”
Unease tickled up my spine and out across my limbs. “Feel what? What energy?”
“Supernatural beings vibrate with a different energy than humans,” Nick said. “We can all sense it, but the Veiori are the most attuned to it.”
“And you sense this energy in me?” I asked Zeck. “Supernatural energy?”
“Yes. It’s fainter now, but it’s there.” He darted his eyes back to Nick. “You seriously don’t feel that? You’ve never felt it? At all?”
“No.” Nick leaned an arm’s length away from me, and then he looked to Zeck. “And you feel it now?”
Zeck’s forehead creased with confusion as he frowned. “I’ll be damned.”
“What? What do you feel?” I demanded. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Zeck said, cocking his head again. “Now, I sense normal levels. Humanity. But it was there, just a moment ago. Do you have bloodline descendants in your lineage? A grandparent perhaps? Great-grandparent?”
“Not that I know of. My family’s pretty normal. About as boring as they come.”
“Ah, well, perhaps I was mistaken. Whatever it seemed I felt is not there now.” He clasped his hands together loosely. “I should go and check in with the sentries. It’s been a long night for you both. Aria, I’m sure you need rest, and Nick, you need to feed, brother. You look like hell.”
Nick chuckled, but Zeck was right. Nick did look haggard, and I felt guilty that I hadn’t noticed it. I’d been so consumed with everything going on that I hadn’t thought about his needs. I wasn’t the only one who’d been injured, and he’d expended a great amount of energy in pursuing the Vardiyati who shot at us, which had delayed his body’s recovery. On top of that, he’d been through the shock of watching me die and then return, followed by the stress and worry regarding Sage.
“I’ve called in more men so my team can have the entire property under surveillance,” Zeck said to me as the three of us stood. “We have drones in the air, we’re patrolling the perimeter around the wall, and we have stationary guards on all sides of the house. We’ll keep your family safe so you can rest.”
