Dark (16 page)

He zoomed through the woods a little faster. Twilight had just
begun to kiss the landscape, painting the treetops in red-gold as the sunset
splashed the sky with its wrath. They’d slept most of the day away. When she
woke, Greyson had looked at her with his silver-shot eyes, his expression fond,
and she’d known instinctively that he would do whatever it took to keep her
safe. Although she knew he didn’t realize it, she’d heard his words to her
before she’d fallen asleep. During their pairing, she’d relived his life in the
space of a few seconds: grief and loneliness and hope filled her, but none of
it had frightened her. Greyson was no longer the gruff, mysterious, disturbing
stranger she’d once known. No, now he was her lover.
Her
Sentry.
The man who’d lived two hundred years alone and then let her
into his heart.

The closer they got to her house, the more intensely she felt his
apprehension, but strangely, she wasn’t worried. She knew he would protect her
from John. And, too, she sensed his awareness of his brothers through her
connection with him. She squeezed his arm as he pulled up in front of her
house, needing the physical connection.

Tell him,
she reminded herself as she got off the motorcycle. “Greyson,” she said,
fingers grazing his wrist.

He paused, eyebrow raised. She sensed him already sinking into a
combat mindset, but this was important, too.

“I love you, too,” she murmured quickly, heart pounding. She wasn’t
afraid of death, but this? Saying those words out loud scared her crazy.

To her surprise, he smiled and gathered her close, tucking her
face into his neck. “I know, Eva. I knew yesterday. Hell, I knew the day you
left for college.”

She took a deep breath.
“Good, because I already
called John, when you were in the bathroom.
He’s on his way here.” She
plucked at his shirt. “So, um, don’t freak out, okay?”

Greyson went perfectly still, his shock hitting her new empathy
like an egg hitting a brick wall.
“When?”

Leave it to him to get right to the heart of the matter. At least
he wasn’t angry.
Or not
only
angry
, she thought. “He should be here
within a half hour,” she said, her
mouth suddenly dry
.
“I didn’t see any reason to draw this out.”

Greyson leaned back. “What did you tell him?” His surprise was
already changing to a sort of calculating speculation.

“That I’d made copies of his precious code and if he wanted them
all back, he’d have to come here and get them before I handed them over to the
Sentries. I asked him for enough money to get me through grad school.” She
shrugged. “I honestly wasn’t sure he’d believe me, but I guess I’m a better
liar than I thought.”

Greyson nodded,
then
tugged her up the
front steps. “Good. If he’s rushing to get here, he may make mistakes.”

Eva nodded as she opened her door. “That’s what I thought, too.”
She paused in the entry. Her living room was still trashed from the Spider
attack. Thankfully, her willow tree was still okay.
I’ll have to get Lucy to help me cart it to Greyson’s Stronghold. It’s
not
gonna
fit on his motorcycle,
she thought,
stifling a hysterical giggle.

“We’ll fix this, I promise.” Greyson put his hand on her back.

She shook her head. “It’s not that. I’m not planning on staying
here. I just—” She broke off, flipping her hair over her shoulders as she tried
to put her feelings into words. She knew he felt her frustration and anger, but
he didn’t know
why.
“I trusted John, and that was stupid. I should’ve
known better.”

Greyson ushered her inside. “You won’t have that problem anymore.”

“Oh
,,”
she breathed, thinking through the
implications. “That’s going to be weird.” Eva hadn’t considered that her new
empathic gift would give her the ability to read other people. Right now, all
she could feel was Greyson. His emotions surrounded her, and his love for her
felt almost like a blanket she could pull around herself.

Greyson held up his hand. “You’ll get used to it, and sooner
rather than later. He’s here.” He turned to the door, putting her slightly
behind him. Broken glass and sand scraped under his boots.

Eva frowned, concentrating. Just at the edge of her mind she
sensed a tangled flare of emotions: rage, desperation, and greed roiling like
acid in a crucible. She stepped in front of Greyson. “Go in the kitchen. If he
sees you, he won’t even come in the house.”

He looked at her,
then
nodded shortly. “Don’t
panic.”

She half-smiled at him, feeling his worry. “I won’t.” A sharp
knock on the door made her jump. “Showtime,” she whispered under her breath as
Greyson silently disappeared into the other room. She walked across the living
room and opened the front door. John stood just outside, the maelstrom of his
emotions flicking at her like tiny, electric whips. “John,” she said, stepping
back to put a little distance between them. She sighed quietly, relieved when
the extra space diminished her empathic sense. He hesitated on the threshold. His
perfectly combed silver hair and elegant attire was out of place in her small
house.
He looks like he’s about to go to
an investors’ meeting.
Pompous prick,
she thought.

He glanced around, frowning when he saw the mess. “Now I know why
you need money. Did your boyfriend trash the place?”

For
God’s sake…
Eva shook her head. “You know he didn’t, John.”

“Let’s cut to the chase,” he said, clearly dismissing her damaged
house as unimportant. “I’ve got the money you wanted. Give me the code.”

She laughed. “You already took my computer.”

His eyes widened.

“You think I didn’t know?” She gestured to the room. “I didn’t
even need to look for it.”

“Then you obviously have nothing with which to bargain.” He made
as if to turn and walk out, but Eva spoke before he reached the door. She had
to stall him so that Greyson’s brothers could get into position.

“I made copies in New York, before I even got here.”

He spun back around. “Impossible. You didn’t even know the
Stronghold code existed.”

Eva shrugged. “I didn’t need to. I make backups of my backups. I
always have, ever since my dad died. I learned the hard way to make copies of
things that were important to me.”

He narrowed his eyes at her,
then
lifted
his arm. “Hand them over.”

She slid her hand into her pants pocket and drew out a blank flash
drive. “Here.” She held it out.

He pursed his lips,
then
walked closer.
As he did, Eva sensed Greyson just inside the doorway to the kitchen. The
moment John touched the memory
stick,
he was there,
grabbing her stepfather by the arm. Weirdly, John didn’t resist. He let Greyson
pull his arms back, smiling calmly the entire time.

“You don’t honestly think I came here alone, do you?” he said.

Eva looked out the windows, but saw nothing except trees and
darkness. Then, faintly, the sound of a chopper’s engine echoed through the
wind. Greyson tapped an earbud she hadn’t seen him wearing before.
“Status.”
She watched his eyes. When his expression shut
down, she knew they were in trouble. Through her newly awakened empathic sense,
she could feel John’s arrogant confidence and Greyson’s worry.

“We’ve got incoming,” Greyson said in a clipped tone. He let John
go and walked to the shattered front window.

John shook the wrinkles from his shirt. “I’ll take that code now,
Eva.”

She handed it to him without argument,
then
put her back to the wall. She knew he thought his men were coming, but from
Greyson’s posture, she knew it was much, much worse than that. “You might want
to run,” she said to her stepfather.

He snorted. “Run from what? You’re the one who is in trouble,
little Eva.” He stepped closer, clearly trying to intimidate her with his
height. “I’d have you arrested for corporate espionage, but your Sentry would
probably just wave his hand and get you immunity.”

She looked past him. Greyson hadn’t relaxed his stance. He stared
out the window vigilantly. “You’re not going to like this, John. You really
shouldn’t have hacked the Stronghold net. It’s dangerous.”

He put a hand on the wall and leaned in. “You’re delusional.”

She curled her hands into fists. Greyson had recharged his ring
for her, but she already knew that the energy dissipated too quickly for her to
rely on it for protection. Lucy had learned that lesson too, all too painfully.
“Is Lucy okay?” she asked Greyson, ignoring her stepfather. “I forgot to ask,
earlier.”

“She’s still at Solomon’s. She’ll be fine,” he replied quietly. “Two
minutes. Get ready.”

“What do you want me to do?”

He glanced at her,
then
nodded. “You’re
in a good position. Just stay there.”

She licked her lips, mouth suddenly dry. “Your brothers are
coming?”

“Yeah.
Thanks to your stepfather, the
Spiders managed to hack our sensors and slip past our shield net, but we have
something that will eradicate them,” he said.

“What are you talking about?” John asked, apparently finally
realizing that they weren’t talking about his men.

Eva didn’t feel like explaining it to him. No sooner did she
mutter, “You’ll see,” when Greyson snapped his arms up, energy shimmering out
from his body. She couldn’t see it, not exactly, but she could sense it more
sharply than ever before. She fished the ring out from under her blouse and
held it in her hand. When the Spiders poured over the sill like a crystal wave,
she didn’t flinch, not even when John began yelling.

****

Greyson didn’t have the energy to spare to deal with Eva’s
stepfather. The Spiders came at them like a tidal wave, thousands of them
skittering over the windowsill. He concentrated his will, vaporizing some of them,
but not all. When Eva gasped, he backed up, hands still raised. He could feel
her determination seeping through his skin and it gave him the strength to keep
fighting.

“ETA one minute,” Isaac said into his earbud.

Greyson snorted under his breath.
“Too late.”

“Shit. They’re already there?” His brother cursed.

“Yup.
Maybe a couple hundred thousand,”
he estimated, still backing up slowly. From the corner of his eye he could see
Eva holding his ring out to activate the shield. When the first Spider got past
him, it shimmered. He grimaced. It wouldn’t hold them off for long.

“Copy that,” Isaac said tersely. “The others are a little further
out, but they’ll be here soon.”

Greyson didn’t respond. He’d reached Eva and she grabbed his arm.
The moment she touched his skin, her energy poured into him like a massive
feedback loop.

“Holy shit,” she said, fingers digging in.

“Don’t let go,” Greyson told her, using the extra boost to push
out the energy a little further. At this point, the three of them huddled within
a sphere built of his will. The Spiders piled onto it like a sparkling
avalanche of relentless hunger.

“Oh my God,” Eva’s stepfather whispered, shrinking back against the
wall. “What are they?”

“I tried to tell you, but you didn’t listen,” Eva said, sounding
tired.

Greyson knew how she felt. He and his brothers had tried to warn a
number of world leaders, had even brought a deactivated Spider to their
meetings as proof, but no one really believed them. Even after this incursion,
no one would believe them, because he and his brothers would destroy every last
trace of the Spiders. They had to, or they’d regenerate and the cycle would
begin all over again. They’d seen it happen when a deactivated Spider had
suddenly reanimated and begun to reproduce. If they hadn’t been watching it so
closely, it would’ve been a disaster of apocalyptic proportions.

“Hold on,” he said to Eva, even as he began to tire.

She laughed tightly. “Don’t worry. I have no desire to die here
today.”

“What the hell are these things?”
John asked,
louder now.

Greyson recognized the sound of a man about to lose it. “Don’t
panic. I can keep us alive here until my brothers come, but I can’t help you if
you run.”

Eva’s stepfather didn’t listen. “Oh my God, what the hell is
happening?” He stepped away from the wall. “We need to get out of here.”
Unexpectedly, he grabbed Eva by the arm and hauled her away.

The moment she lost contact with Greyson’s skin, the energy
faltered. “Fuck!” he swore, reaching for her hand. Eva kicked at John, making
him stumble.

“Greyson,” she called desperately. Greyson grabbed for her, but
John hooked his fingers in her hair. She kicked her stepfather again and he
lost his balance. They went down in a heap with Eva yelling and fighting, but
it was too late. Greyson’s concentration shattered as her signature dropped off
his empathic radar. Was she dead?
Unconscious?
He had
to find out, but the Spiders rushed in, pouring over them.