Page 25 of Bitten By Desire

She led the way, using a dented and blood-soaked wristband as an ID to get us through the doors. The second they opened, I breathed a sigh of relief. We passed several guards stationed outside but it wasn’t a stretch for Julian and me to appear beaten. I kept him in front of me, worried he’d stagger, but though barefoot and in tatters, he managed just fine.

We wound our way back down into the cell area, which had me running the wording I’d used through my mind to make sure I hadn’t left a loophole. But she took us away from the area I’d started in and through a locked door with her bracelet once again. Inside stood a portal much like the one in Lorraine’s basement, and I finally allowed myself to relax.

“Send us back to Lorraine’s,” I said before she could get any ideas about putting us in the middle of the desert or something. “Don’t follow or send anyone else after us either.”

She used a keypad to program the portal and stepped behind us.

“Help us take off these?—”

She shoved us through the portal before I could finish, and we landed hard on the stones of the passageway from Gerard’s study, still cuffed and sore but away from MorningStar.

We’ll get you out, too, Binx, I promised silently as I lay on my back staring at the high, gray ceiling.

Chapter 8

More than she Seems

Julian broke through our cuffs, leaving them on the ground. We supported each other, climbing the steps to the master bedroom, thankfully avoiding Lorraine and her servants. I suspected she was out of the house when I peered into the room she’d been sleeping in to find the bed empty. It seemed odd this close to dawn, but I already knew she wasn’t telling us something because of the vials of MorningStar elixir still tucked in my belt.

First things first, though. Julian needed blood. But we’d barely made it up the steps, and there was no way I could go much farther.

The second we dropped onto the edge of the bed, I said, “You have to feed.”

“And you need rest,” he said without argument, laying me back on the soft covers. “I will return, and we will talk.”

He always knew what I needed. I rolled onto my side as a gust of wind let me know he’d left to find food. I let the exhaustion finally win and pull me into a dreamless sleep.

I woke to the sound of an argument in the hall and dragged myself from the bed, rubbing at my eyes. The clock on the nightstand said it was almost noon. When I focused on the voice, I realized it was only one. Lorraine.

“I do not find his presence comforting at all. I’d like you to reassign investigators to this case. My husband’s death is practically a farce to you. SHADE was his life, and I expect more than an imp and a shifter.”

Silence echoed after her last pronouncement, and I wondered if she’d been talking to the general like that. I couldn’t disagree about the feelings Tittwell elicited. In fact, I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of someone being able to yell at the general like that. Even so, I wanted to know exactly what her deal was. She didn’t work for MorningStar, but she somehow stole from them and failed to mention that to us.

I started for the door and realized the state I was in, so I took a sharp right and threw on the first fresh clothes and heels I could find.

When I turned to the bed, Julian sat on it, spine stiff but eyes as bright and deep as I remembered. He met me in two long strides as I rushed toward him and pulled me against him, burying his face in my hair.

“You’re safe,” he breathed. “I was so worried about leaving you. But you were right, I have to be at full capacity to be able to defend you.”

Pulling back, I cupped his cheeks and shook my head. “Julian, it isn’t all about me. When I saw what they—” My voice broke, and I sucked in breath and tried again. “I couldn’t?—”

Julian cut me off with a tender kiss, wiping a tear from my cheek with his thumb.

“I hate that they made you watch,” he said when he pulled away.

I swallowed hard and decided to change the subject. “Lorraine called into SHADE to complain about Tittwell and ask for replacements for the investigation. I must say I’m confused by her. She’s not telling us the whole truth, yet she seems to be on our side. I think it’s because she’s so infatuated with you and Binx.”

“Whatever her reasons, she did us a favor. It buys us time.”

“There’s more.” I filled him in on the vials, pulling them out of my belt and lining them up on the bed in demonstration. “We need to find out how she got them from MorningStar without them knowing.”

“The best way to do that is to ask me,” Lorraine said from the doorway.

Julian was instantly between us. “Do tell.”

She sighed, leaning against the doorjamb while pouting her scarlet lips. “I followed the detective the day she came. I knew she wasn’t an investigator. SHADE was sending someone else, and who would have hired her?”

Striding over to the bed to look down at the vials she hugged herself, emerald satin sleeves draped over her arms. Julian continued to angle himself between us, watching her carefully. But she hardly appeared to notice.

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