Page 36 of Depths of Desire
I can’t let Malrick find me. I can’t let my father’s sins become mine. And I sure as hell can’t let Nico Valdici be my downfall—even if part of me, a very stupid part, wants to run right back upstairs and let him be exactly that. But I’ve survived all the shit that being the daughter of a top capo in a mafia family brings. And I’ll survive this, too. Even if it means running for the rest of my life.
The gravel crunches under my boots, suddenly sounding like a canon shot. I glance down and realize I’m too close to the edge of the driveway.Stupid. I move back and crouch low behind a hedge halfway down the long, winding driveway. The gate is maybe fifty yards ahead, but it might as well be a mile. Floodlights illuminate the entire front of the estate like a goddamn stage. Two guards stand near the gate—one smoking, the other watching the monitors inside the small guard shack.
Of course there’s a guard shack. I’d forgotten about that, or maybe I’d slept through seeing it. I scan the driveway, noting the blind spots in the camera coverage, studying where the shadows fall. I stand behind a tree and watch the cameras. Some are stationary, but some are rotating. I realize there’s a rhythm to their movement, a pattern. I just need to slip through the gaps without being seen.
Easy. Right? Who the fuck am I kidding? I’m sure as hell not Tom Cruise, but this is definitely an impossible mission. Maybe if I can get outside the gate, then I can get away fast enough that it won’t matter if Nico knows I’m gone. I snort softly. That’s just another lie I’m telling myself, but what choice do I have? As soon as he finds out about Malrick, my life is over.
I exhale slowly and move, hugging the tree line. My pulse hammers in my throat, louder than the breeze in the branchesabove me. The backpack is heavy, pulling at my shoulders, but I can’t stop. Can’t hesitate. If I do, I’m afraid I’ll go back. All the years of being around killers and I’ve never been more terrified than I am right now.
I press my body flat against a tree trunk, just behind the last camera’s arc. I’m about to make a break for the final stretch when I feel it. A weird breeze—almost a vibration of some kind in the air. It smells like metal and rot. I gag. What the hell? I look up and see two large creatures descending onto the driveway like they’ve just been dropped out of the sky. The same two that broke into Nico’s apartment. Smelly magickal creatures. Fucking brilliant. Just what I need.
My stomach drops. I try, and shrink behind the tree trunk, but the tall one sniffs the air and then lunges toward me—seven feet of muscle, rage, and snarling fangs—and I let out a scream, barely dodging his arms in time. Its hand slices through the air where my head just was.
I try to run but stumble, my knees weak beneath me. Another one appears from the dark, and then a third. Where did he come from? Their eyes glow faintly in the shadows, red-hot and full of hate.
“Fuck,” I whisper, my back hitting the base of a tree. What the hell am I going to do now? I’ve been trained for a lot of things, but fighting magickal creatures is not on the list.
The largest one snarls and takes a step forward. “Malrick wants you alive. You need to come with us,” it says. “Now.”
And then everything goes still. Like the air has been pulled out of the world.
A blur of movement. A low, guttural growl—not from the creatures. From behind them. Nico is there. He hits the first creature like a wrecking ball, eyes blazing with fury and fangs bared. Ohmygod. Fangs? Jesus, is Nico a vampire? All the airhas left my lungs. Time stopped. I can’t seem to focus. Nico is a vampire. What the actual fuck?
A creature grabs my leg, and suddenly I can move. I scream and poke him in the eye with my finger. He roars and lets me go. Nico drives his hand through the thing’s chest and yanks something wet and black out of it before tossing the body aside like garbage. Blood sprays across my face, and I gag.
The second creature doesn’t even get a chance to react before Nico snaps its neck with a sickening crunch. The third tries to run. He doesn’t get far before Nico crashes down on him and smashes his head into the pavement.
I sit there, panting, blood spattered across my face, as Nico gets up and turns toward me. His shirt is soaked, torn at the shoulder, and his knuckles are slick with gore. His eyes lock on mine.
“Going somewhere?” he asks, voice low and deadly.
I swallow hard, my throat burning. “You’re not supposed to be out here.”
He steps closer, slow and deliberate, like a predator scenting weakness. “Neither are you.”
“I had to go.”
“No,” he says sharply, “you have to tell me what the hell is going on.”
I push to my feet, but stumble. My knees don’t want to hold me. Nico reaches out and steadies me. “I thought we had an agreement. I would protect you, and you stay put until we know who is trying to kill us.”
I meet his gaze. “I already know.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Ithink you owe me an explanation,” he says as he storms into my bathroom. I hastily wrap a towel around myself and glare at him.
“I told you I will explain everything once I wash all the…what were those creatures?”
“Blood Orcs.”
“Right. Once I wash the Blood Orc stink off me, I will be down.”
“You are taking too long. I need an explanation now.” Nico moves so he is standing directly in front of me ,and I’m forced to crane my neck to look up at him.
“You can wait five minutes.” I’m trying to be brave, but honestly, I’m in total free fall. The truth is going to come, out and chances are excellent that I’ll either be killed or married off to a vampire.
“You’re a vampire,” I say accusingly. “Might have been nice to know that detail upfront.”
