Darkness Everlasting (Guardians of Eternity #3)(51)

"Where are you going?" CIA demanded.

"I'm not really sure." She managed a stiff smile. "Thank you, CIA, and please promise me you'll be careful."

"Me?" The woman deliberately glanced around the disaster of a building. "I'm not the one playing hide-and-seek in a nasty warehouse."

"Just promise me, please," Darcy insisted. She would never forgive herself if CIA was harmed.

"Sure, whatever. I'll be careful."

With a shrug the woman turned and walked out the door. Within moments Darcy could hear the sound of a car starting and roaring out of the parking lot.

Alone, she sucked in a deep breath and stared at the phone with a large lump of fear lodged in the pit of her stomach.

This was it.

Flipping open the phone, she studied the one number that was listed under contacts.

She had the means she needed to contact Salvatore.

Now all she needed was the nerve to do it.

Salvatore was in his office studying the large stack of reports that had recently arrived from Italy.

It would no doubt shock the entire demon world to learn that Salvatore possessed a staff of the most talented scientists and doctors in the world. They liked to dismiss Weres as savage dogs without intelligence or sophistication. How else could they justify keeping the werewolves imprisoned and oppressed?

Salvatore was quite happy to keep them in the dark. Eventually they would learn just how wrong their assumptions were, but not until the last of his plans fell into place.

And for that he needed Darcy Smith.

The image of her fragile features had barely formed in his mind when, with a haunting sense of destiny, his cell phone broke the thick silence.

Frowning at the interruption, Salvatore automatically checked to see who would be bothering him at such an hour. His heart came to a halt as he recognized the number of his second cell phone.

The one he had left for Darcy.

After flipping the phone open, he pressed it to his ear even as he was hurrying from the room and motioning for Hess, who had been standing guard at the door.

"Cara?" he said in a soothing tone. There was silence at the other end although his enhanced hearing could easily pick up Darcy's ragged breath. "I can feel you there. Speak to me, Darcy."

"I... want to meet," she at last rasped.

Salvatore leaped down the stairs and then another set as his entire body hummed with electric excitement. He could sense the worried wariness in Darcy's voice, but there was something else there as well. A hint of defiance.

Whatever her fear, she was determined to confront him.

Which could only mean the gargoyle had revealed the picture that Salvatore had planted for him to find.

"It is what I want as well, cara, although you will have to forgive me if I prefer our encounter to take place somewhere other than a vampire lair." Salvatore took the last of the stairs and moved across the crumbling lobby. "You are welcome to join me at my own humble home. It may not be as elegant, but I can promise that you will be a most honored guest."

"No. I want to meet somewhere public. Somewhere that I'll feel safe."

He wasn't bothered by her sharp tone. She was an intelligent woman. It was only natural for her to be suspicious.

After leaving the building, Salvatore smoothly crossed to the waiting Humvee and slid into the passenger seat. Hess was just as quick as he took his place behind the wheel and turned over the engine.

"How many times must I assure you that I would never hurt you, cara?" Salvatore demanded, flicking on the GPS system. A smile touched his lips as the tracking system that he had installed in Darcy's cell phone flicked to life. She was a good distance away in an abandoned warehouse west of the city, but she was well away from the protection of the vampires. "You are the most important thing in this world to me."

He sensed her disbelief. And the fragile fear that clutched her. She felt vulnerable, and the least hint of threat would send her running.

"Will you meet me someplace public or not?" she demanded.

"I will meet you anywhere you desire," he assured her softly.

"And I want your promise that you'll come alone."

Salvatore was slammed against the passenger door as Hess raced through the empty streets at a hair-raising speed.

"Now, cara, you must be reasonable. For all I know this is a trap being set by your vampire. I'm not entirely stupid."

"Neither am I. There's no way I'm going to let myself be surrounded by a pack of werewolves."

"Then we must find a compromise. I am willing to do whatever is necessary—"

Without warning his soothing words were interrupted as she gave a low growl.

"You son of a bitch."

Salvatore frowned. "As a matter of fact I am, but what has you so angry?"

"You're already here, aren't you? You were tracking me."

His blood ran cold. Which was saying something for a werewolf.

His blood was usually just short of an inferno.

"Someone is there?"

"You followed me into town, or you've put something into the phone. Dammit, Styx was right. You can't be trusted."

"Darcy, you must listen to me." His voice was thick with urgency. "Whoever is in the warehouse with you, it's not me, or any of my pack."