Riders (Riders, #1)(29)

On the road, the part of me that scoped out danger had been able to take a break. It’d just been me and Daryn and we’d been moving. Not much I could do but drive to keep us safe. Not anymore, though. The second we ventured into the dense population of the city, the threat factor would multiply. The Kindred could be anywhere. They could track Daryn, so we had to move quickly. The faster we located Famine and got to a safe location, the better.

“You know where he is in the building?” I asked. The things I’d been learning as a soldier came up, quick and clear. We had a lot to go over. Knowledge of terrain, routes to and from our objective, contingencies.

“Yes.” Daryn yanked my sweatshirt off, tossed it in the backseat, and hopped out of the car.

“Daryn.” I shot after her. “You can’t barrel in there without a plan.”

“We don’t have time to plan. We have to move fast, before Samrael finds us.”

“Fast doesn’t mean reckless. Fast should be slow—efficient. We need to move in a coordinated—” The garage elevator door opened. I was tempted to physically keep her from entering it, but a humming in my arm distracted me.

The cuff.

Magic metal was talking, sending energy flowing into me. I pulled my sleeve down, covering it.

Daryn pressed the button for the eleventh floor. “I know we’re rushing but we have to get to him before Samrael does.”

“Hold up. You said the Kindred track the object. That’s what they’re after. Are they after us, too?”

Before she could answer, the door slid open on the lobby level and a flood of humanity poured inside. I grabbed Daryn’s arm and swam against the tide, keeping us right up front by the door as I checked every face that went past us for Samrael. Bad enough we were in a metal box. I wasn’t going to get cornered in the back.

A guy in a pinstripe suit crashed into my shoulder as he rushed through the closing doors. “Dumb couriers,” he muttered, shooting me a look. “Use the service elevator next time, moron.”

“Gideon,” Daryn said quietly. I still had her arm. I let it go. “Just ignore him.”

Easier said than done. The lid on my anger had started to clatter the minute she’d jumped out of the Jeep. As the elevator went up, so did tempers. People started getting huffy, their griping filling my ears.

“—never heard of the concept of personal space—”

“—way over capacity in here and it is just rude to disregard the safety of others—”

“—idiot up there thinks he can use the regular elevator—”

I knew it was my effect on them. Daryn kept looking at me, but I couldn’t ratchet it back. We were making a blind charge. This was a bad idea.

Finally, we reached the eleventh floor. I launched through the doors like I was back in jump school. Then I followed Daryn down a hallway, around a corner.

Moving was helping mellow me out. Not being trapped was helping too.

The cuff was buzzing. Noticeably more voltage now.

Kinda hard to ignore. Kinda wished I knew what it meant.

Daryn stopped in front of double glass doors with frosted letters. “He’s in here.”

“What—here?” I had to read the sign again. “Herald Casting?” I didn’t know what I’d expected from Famine. A guy who worked in a soup kitchen maybe, or a homeless man. But this? “He’s an actor?”

“Gideon.”

“It’s okay. It’s fine.” I wasn’t going to spin on this right now. As I quickly considered what I knew about entering potentially hostile situations, Daryn pulled the door open and strolled right in.

Inside it was a waiting area like at a dentist’s office only bigger and sexier, with photos of perfect people on the walls, plastic chairs around the perimeter. Lots of white and chrome.

And Samraels. Samraels sitting in every chair. My entire body went tight. Then I relaxed. The room was filled with guys who were around Samrael’s age and build. They had his same dark hair and general look. But he wasn’t here.

At twelve o’clock, the receptionist peered around her computer screen. “Hi there. Come on over and sign in.” She dropped the smile when she saw Daryn. “Sorry, hon. This is a closed audition.”

“But I’m a relative.” Daryn took a step my way. Half the guys in the room had stopped reading their stapled pages in favor of looking at her. “I’m his sister.”

“And?” the receptionist said. She had high penciled-in eyebrows already, but now they went even higher. “Were you planning to deliver his lines for him?”

“Well, no. It’s only that”—Daryn tipped her head my way—“he can’t read.”

Amazingly, I was able to keep from thoroughly losing it.

Okay, Blake. Options. Any other options? Negative.

“Actually I can read, it’s just—” What the hell was it just? I pointed at my face. “I had a minor equipment issue. Lost a contact on the way here.” Then I stood there and tried to look like a guy who could only see out of one eye.

The receptionist shook her head. “Ohhh, bummer. One of those days, isn’t it? I’m having one myself.” She looked back to Daryn. “But it doesn’t change anything. You still can’t stay.”

Daryn stepped closer, lowering her voice so only I could hear. “You’ll have to find him on your own. I’ll meet you at the Jeep in an hour.”