Death Wish (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #5)(85)

My sanity slipped. The cuffs were keeping a lid on my power, but they couldn’t keep my four fangs hidden or muffle the snarl that spilled from between my lips. I eyed the three humans each in turn, trying to decide whom I wanted to taste first. The need to feel warm human blood dripping on my tongue was overwhelming.

An image flashed behind my eyes, sudden and startling. The bright red of my Charger beneath the streetlights, a flash of golden hair, an angry shout. Then blood, pumping hot from the artery.

I watched through Arys’s eyes as he slaughtered the agents outside. Somehow, he’d escaped Falon’s hold, unless the angel had simply released him.

I fought back the image and the hunger it drove crazy within me. Knowing it was Arys’s bloodlust feeding my own made it easier to regain control. Regardless, it was time to go.

“I’ll bring you the files on a flash drive,” I told Briggs, forcing my gaze away from the pulse beating steadily in this throat. “You and your people will then leave me and my people alone. We are not your enemy. Keep me on your watch list if it makes you feel better. I assure you, I have no interest in interacting with the FPA as either an enemy or an ally. Understood?”

Agent Briggs appeared undecided. Information was the most valuable tool these organizations possessed. He was taking a gamble and so was I. Neither of us knew what those files could mean to either of us. I was taking a chance that no matter how bad it was, it would be worth Kale’s life. Briggs now had to decide if he felt the same way.

“Certainly,” he said at last. “We will arrange a time and place to exchange Sinclair for the flash drive. It’s best that you don’t come back here.”

“I’m not leaving him here like this.” I gestured angrily to bloodstained room. “I can have the files for you in a matter of hours. Tonight even.”

Briggs was stony faced, his eyes emotionless. “We’ll be in touch within seventy-two hours. Take it or leave it.”

I felt helpless. I’d never believed I would be leaving here without Kale, but with Arys running amok outside and no access to my power, I had very few options.

“You’re making a mistake, Agent,” I warned.

Briggs banged on the heavy-duty door, and the agents standing guard outside opened it. “The only mistake I’m making, Ms. O’Brien, is allowing you to walk out of here at all. My men will escort you. We’ll be in touch.”

It took all my strength to turn my back on Kale and walk out of that room. Briggs disappeared down an adjacent hall, but Juliet remained. Falon was gone.

Several agents ushered us to an elevator. I observed carefully as an agent provided both a voice and fingerprint sample to a scanner before the elevator began to move. Juliet waited until we had stepped out a secure exit at the rear of the building onto the grounds outside. Then, she pulled me aside and removed the cuffs from my wrists.

Low and hushed she whispered, “I’ll do everything I can to make sure they don’t hurt him anymore, Lexi. I promise.”

The emotion I’d carefully concealed in front of Briggs erupted like a volcano. “Don’t call me Lexi. That’s what my sister called me. You are not my sister.”

I shoved past the agents with Shaz at my side. Without a backward glance I added, “Tell Briggs that if he has a problem with the dead agents you’ll find out front, he can take it up with me. Nobody else.”

I walked away to the sound of agents on cell phones, calling for back up. Useless. Arys was long gone. I couldn’t sense him anywhere. By the time Shaz and I reached the car, I was fighting back tears, screams and maniacal laughter. This had not gone as I’d anticipated.

Jez and Brogan sat on the hood talking in low tones. Three dead agents lay sprawled near the car. Thankfully, both ladies were unharmed.

“I don’t know about you, but we had a blast,” Jez greeted us sarcastically. “Your vampire is long gone, by the way.”

“Are you two ok? Did anyone try to hurt you?”

“Nah. Arys went after them. I thought he may try for us, too, but he didn’t stick around long once they were dead. What the hell happened inside? Where’s Kale?”

“Let’s get out of here, and I’ll fill you in.”

I reached out to Arys, flinging open that mental door between us. ‘Have you lost your mind? Where are you?’

He felt distant. His thoughts were scattered and rushed. He resisted my presence in his head. ‘Go home, Alexa.’

He shoved me out with an abruptness that left me feeling dizzy. I was never letting Arys near that old hospital again. This did not sit well with me.

The drive back to The Wicked Kiss wasn’t a happy one. My sister was now my enemy. The FPA was a menace I didn’t feel would go away after one transaction. I needed to stay alive for the next three days if I wanted to see Kale again, but to do that I had to successfully bind a demon during the full moon.

I was so screwed.

Chapter Twenty-Two

I paced the length of Arys’s house like a caged animal. From the kitchen, through the living room and down the hall, and then back again.

After exchanging a few words with Brogan regarding the possibility of Veryl’s files being magically secured, I had parted ways with my companions. Shaz had strongly insisted on coming back to Arys’s with me. My insistence that he go home to Coby had been stronger.

The clock ticked down the minutes until dawn. It wasn’t far off now. Where was my vampire?