Page 110 of Bought for Blood

“Nothing. It’s…” He almost laughs. “Wolf. Witch. With old-line vampire blood.” He shakes his head again. “And he askedmeto take care ofyou.”

“I don’t get it.”

“You will.”

We come down off the mountain road, and at the highway he turns south.

“North’s the other way.”

“I know where north is.”

“Then turn around.”

He doesn’t. He drives on, snow coming at the windshield out of the dark. A few miles down, he turns in at a lodge set back off the highway. No lights in the windows. The sign by the road is unlit. It’s the kind of place that closes for the season, and it looks closed…until we come around the back. Cars are parked nose-out in the lot with the snow brushed off every one of them.

He kills the engine and sits with both hands on the wheel.

I’m out of the car before he’s moved, standing at the hood.

“What the hell, Crowe? You said tonight.”

“I said tonight.” He comes around the front of the car. “I didn’t say just the two of us. You and I go up there alone, and we get as far as the gate. Then they kill me, and they put you in a cell.” He pauses. “If they have one strong enough.”

“So what is this place?”

“Where Faine is. She came out here after the first mission failed. She wouldn’t stay under Viktor’s roof; not with somebody under it handing plans to the enemy. She took this place instead. Nobody knows she’s here. Including Viktor.” He takes the handle of the back door and stops with his weight against it. “Whatever you feel in there, don’t run. Don’t turn your back on anyone. Stay by me. If I put my arm out, you get behind it.”

“Crowe—”

“Sleeves down. Collar up.”

He opens the door.

Warm air comes out at me, which is wrong for a building that’s supposed to be shut. There’s one long room taking up most of the ground floor, a fire burning, lamps at both ends, the furniture pushed back against the walls. No coffee. No wet coats. None of the noise of a building with people living in it.

People stand at both ends of it anyway.

There isn’t a heartbeat in here except mine.

I hear it. Then I understand that all of them can hear it, and it gets faster.

Slow down. Slow down.

Every face in the room turns.

A man near the left-hand lamp puts down the glass he’s holding. He’s young, shaved head, heavy coat over powerful shoulders. He turns his head toward me. He does it slowly, withhis chin lifted. His eyes were brown a moment ago. Now there’s no color in them at all.

The man behind him does the same thing.

Crowe’s arm comes across my chest.

“That’s enough.”

“Who is she?” The young one is three steps closer than he was, and I didn’t see him take them. His hands are open at his sides. “Crowe. Who is that?”

“She’s Val-Serein’s. Sit down.”

“Val-Serein isn’t here.”