Night Huntress 06 - Eternal Kiss of Darkness (13 page)

In the next minute, the window in Kira’s apartment glowed with soft light. Mencheres relaxed. She was safely inside now. He caught a glimpse of her as she passed by the window on her way to her bedroom. Even if she went to sleep immediately, Kira had less than seven hours until she would be at her desk again. Her long work days bothered him. She hadn’t returned home before ten o’clock even one night this week, and tonight, she had stayed out even later. It wasn’t right that she toiled such long hours at her job.

You must
stop
this,
his common sense railed at him. Here he was, perched like a gargoyle on a roof staring at a woman who had begged to be free of him. There was an appropriate modern word for his actions: “stalking.” He didn’t even bother to pretend that he’d only shadowed Kira these past several nights to ensure that she kept her word not to reveal what she’d learned about vampires. He knew he was here for one reason—he wanted to see her again even if he didn’t alert her to his presence.

Though Kira was no longer under his roof, she still managed to dominate his thoughts to a dangerous degree. Even now, he wondered what she would do if he appeared at her door. Would she welcome him into her home? And if she did, would he be strong enough to leave? Or would her nearness, her tantalizing scent, and the smooth melody of her voice be enough to make him abandon all his careful planning in favor of the chance to be with her?

Better not to find out. Kira made him want to live, to fight Radjedef to the bitter, bloody end regardless of the consequences, and he couldn’t afford that sort of thinking. His
people
couldn’t afford it. They’d suffered enough the last time he’d let his emotions for a woman sway his actions.

Mencheres forced himself to turn away though the soft glow at her window proved that Kira was still awake. He had to cease this madness. From what he’d seen the past several days, Kira had settled back into a life of working hard and caring for her sister, similar to how his time was spent on duties related to his people. But even if it looked lonely—another thing they had in common—it was still her life, and it didn’t include him.

He gave himself up to the embrace of the wind as he flew away. This would be the last night he followed her. It had to be, but he would do one tiny, additional thing before he purged Kira from his life completely.

K
ira mentally groaned as she heard Frank’s voice cut through the usual cadence of sounds in the office. Next to her, Lily gave Kira a sympathetic glance.

“At it early today, isn’t he?” Lily muttered.

“Where’s Graceling?” Frank called out.

Before Kira had a chance to reply, Frank came through the door. She plastered a limp version of a smile on her face, bracing for whatever had made him seek her out before nine in the morning.

“I’m caught up on the reports from last week and I should be done with the new ones by the end of today,” Kira said, heading Frank off before he could bark out a demand for her status.

Frank dropped something onto Kira’s desk that for once wasn’t a stack of papers. She looked at the car keys in confusion.

“Did I leave those here? I thought I had them in my bag…”

“They’re my set of keys for the company car,” Frank said. He beamed. “I’m giving it to you. You deserve it.”

Kira’s mouth fell open even as she heard Lily drop something that sounded like her coffee cup. “You’re
giving
it to me?” she repeated, glancing at the calendar. No, it wasn’t April Fool’s Day—unless Frank was getting his prank in a couple weeks late.

“Plus, I’m giving you a raise,” Frank went on. “And I want you out of the office by six o’clock every night that you’re not on surveillance. You work too hard.”

One extravagantly good deed from Frank, Kira could chalk up to his trying to balance his bad karma or something.
Three
extravagantly good deeds… either he was high, or this was his idea of a joke.

“I’m waiting for the punch line,” Kira said cautiously.

Frank laughed, loud and hearty, confirming her guess that he’d been joking. She wanted to smack him. That man had a real sick sense of humor.

Then Frank slapped an envelope on her desk. “Open it.”

Kira broke the seal, glancing once at Lily for moral support before she pulled out the contents.

It contained two pieces of paper. One was the title for the company car, signed by Frank and made out to her as the new owner. A check for two thousand dollars, also made out to her, was the other piece of paper.

“I made your raise retroactive,” Frank said, still in the same cheerful tone she’d only ever heard him use with clients. “Good job, Graceling.”

Kira just stared as Frank walked away. She was too stunned to even say thank you.

“What the hell just happened?” Lily whispered. “I mean, you
do
deserve all that, but Frank’s so cheap, I can’t believe he
did
it!”

Neither could Kira. Frank must’ve been visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future or something. Otherwise, his abrupt transformation from miserly Scrooge employer to gleeful generous benefactor was nothing short of miraculous.

Miraculous.

“Oh my God,” Kira whispered.

“What?” Lily asked.

“I… nothing.”

Kira swiveled her chair around, taking in several deep, uneven breaths. Frank hadn’t experienced a miraculous change of heart after a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future. No, he must have experienced something just as unusual—a visit from a mind-controlling vampire sometime between yesterday and today.

Mencheres.
Her heart began to hammer.
What are you doing?

K
ira put another stack of folders in the trunk of Frank’s car—make that
her
car—and paused to wave at Lily across the parking lot.

“What’re you doing with all those, girl? You’re not supposed to leave at a decent hour just so you can work all night at home,” Lily called out.

“These are for, um, a side project,” Kira stammered. A
very
side project.

“Some people call dating a side project, too. You should try that instead,” Lily cackled.

Kira almost flushed.
If Lily only knew…

“Good night, see you tomorrow,” was what she said with another wave.

It took about the same amount of time to get to the West Loop by car as it did by walking and taking the Green Line, as Kira found out. Still, it was infinitely nicer not to heft that heavy backpack around, or to tense at every shadowy patch along the streets she walked when she worked late. She’d just have to get a treadmill or a gym membership for her exercise from now on.

Once she pulled inside the garage of her apartment building, Kira couldn’t help but look around. Was Mencheres nearby? The thought sent a thrill of excitement through her. Or had he mesmerized Frank at the office without anyone’s noticing him? It was possible. Mencheres moved so quickly, he could have been in and out without Kira, or anyone else, seeing him.

And
why
did he do it? Whimsy? Boredom? Or as a hint that he wanted her to find him? Mencheres knew she worked for a private investigator. He knew she’d had cases where clients spoke of strange happenings that she’d previously dismissed… but now realized might have been true. If mesmerizing her boss into giving her a car and cash was Mencheres’s way of dropping bread crumbs to see if Kira followed them, it worked. The chance to see him again,
not
as his captive, but as a woman, made more slivers of exhilaration course through her. She had a thousand good reasons why seeing him would be a mistake, but instinct overruled those whenever she thought of him.
All right
,
Mencheres. I’m taking the bait.

Two trips from her car to her apartment later and she had all the boxes of files spread out in her living room. Each case contained some sort of occurrence that might be paranormal in nature, be it outrageous witness testimony, odd evidence left at the scene, or rumors of involvement in something freakier than the occult. Kira intended to go through all of them until she found a common denominator. Mencheres might have stayed in his house most of the time that she’d been with him, but she had a feeling being homebound wasn’t his normal pattern—or the pattern of most vampires.

Time to follow those gut feelings. With luck, somewhere in these files, she’d find something that would lead her to Mencheres. If that didn’t work, she’d search the Internet next.

Or she could always tape a bat image to her apartment window right above a Welcome sign, but Kira thought that might be pushing it.

She picked up the first folder.
Follow the bread crumbs.

G
orgon appeared in the bedroom doorway, but Mencheres didn’t bother to open his eyes. He knew who Gorgon had come to announce. He’d heard him arrive.

“Tell him I’ll be down momentarily,” Mencheres said.

“Yes, sire,” Gorgon replied.

Mencheres opened his eyes once Gorgon shut the door. He stared at the ceiling for several long seconds, not seeing its pale patterns but trying to see into the future, hoping something had changed. Perhaps the new vigor for life Kira had somehow wrought in him would alter the vision of the future he’d seen before.

His power reached out, piercing the veil that separated
now
from
later
, but instead of images of people, places, or happenings, all Mencheres saw was a blanket of ebony as vast and fathomless as the universe.

The underworld of Duat, waiting for him. Just as before.

Mencheres got up from the bed. His fate was still death, but instead of the acceptance he’d felt when he first saw that looming endless void, now it angered him. Death had become a bitter defeat instead of a coolly logical way to thwart Radjedef while releasing the burdens he’d long carried, and it was all because of Kira.

He clenched his jaw. How cruel the gods were to send her into his life. She made him want to live when he had no time left.

And even less time for complaining about his fate, Mencheres reminded himself. He took the manila envelope from his nightstand before he swept out of the room. Some things he still had control over, even if his future wasn’t one of them.

Mencheres went downstairs to the front hall. A vampire stood near the door, his dark curly hair cut close and his lean frame encased in casual black pants and a fitted pullover shirt. For a moment, Mencheres stared at him.
My co-ruler. My heir.

And his wife’s murderer.

“Bones,” he said in greeting. “Thank you for coming.”

Dark brown eyes met his with a coolness that still stung even though Mencheres knew he had earned it. “You said it was urgent,” Bones replied, a British accent coloring his words even after centuries.

“I don’t trust this to be passed even through members of our line,” Mencheres said, not bothering with any formal pleasantries. Bones had always preferred getting right to business. He held out the manila folder that contained all of Kira’s personal information. “Put this with my other Legacy items.”

Bones arched a brow as he took the folder that was meant to be opened only in the event of Mencheres’s death. He didn’t know it, but by taking it, Bones had just assumed responsibility for Kira once Mencheres was gone.

“Still think you’re soon to be shriveled, grandsire?” Bones asked with a hint of a scoff. “Vision impotence doesn’t necessarily mean impending death. It might only be a temporary loss.”

Bones knew that Mencheres’s visions of the future were gone, but Mencheres hadn’t told his co-ruler that the one thing he did see ahead of him was darkness. He also hadn’t told Bones that his cold war with Radjedef was heating up. Bones would feel obligated to act on both pieces of information, and Mencheres didn’t want that. He’d settle his own affairs in the time he had left.

“It is foolish not to be prepared for any eventuality,” Mencheres said with a shrug.

“Indeed. Speaking of preparing for any eventuality, we might have a problem with some ghouls. I’ve heard reports that Masterless vampires have gone missing in recent weeks, with ghoul gangs as the primary suspects.”

Mencheres hid a grim smile as he thought back to the morning of the warehouse. “I’ve heard the same thing.”

“Could be nothing more than a few sods needing to be taught a lesson,” Bones went on. “But it also could be Apollyon stirring things up with more of his rot about my wife’s being a threat to the ghoul nation. I’ll be checking into it. Thought you’d want to know.”

Another reason why Mencheres was frustrated by his impending death. Bones would be left to handle this threat without him if he was right, and Apollyon was involved. His death meant he’d be leaving his co-ruler when Bones needed him the most. Once again, Mencheres cursed the looming darkness in his visions.

“How fares Cat?” he asked, forcing back his anger at his fate.

“Quite well,” Bones replied. His lip curled. “She said to send her regrets for not coming today.”

Mencheres gave Bones a dry smile. “Yes, I’m sure she deeply regrets not seeing me.”

“You erased her memory of a vampire who kidnapped her and coerced her into marriage when she was only sixteen,” Bones said softly. His eyes glinted green. “And then you didn’t bother to tell either of us about it until that vampire came after her again a dozen years later, or tell us the reason why he wanted her so badly. That sort of betrayal tends to linger.”