Page 27

Rae remembered how he’d tucked her in front of him with such ease, the hungry look in his eyes as he’d stared down at her, the thrill it had sent down her spine, and knew she was long overdue for a date with her hand.

Straight to Hel, Rae, she told herself. “Spying on me, Bax? Green isn’t really your colour. ”

A shrug. “Looking out for you.”

Nobody did anything in Demesia for free.

Rae handed back the PAD. “It’s got to be believable, right?

” Bax was one of only a handful of people who could identify her.

Even most of Omnia wouldn’t recognise her if they passed her on the street, and that was partly why becoming Aidan’s Odalik had been so easy.

The other Vampires wouldn’t have had a clue she led Omnia; Bax certainly didn’t.

He only thought she was a cadet following orders.

What did it matter what the humans knew?

Whoever had broken in, they were looking for the data, that much was obvious.

There was nothing else Rae had of value.

Which meant Zeke had been compromised. Rae told herself he knew what he’d been getting himself into, that anything could have happened to him at any point prior to their meeting. Couldn’t it?

Baxter hauled a drill back onto the bench, and Rae frowned as she watched him, fixing her hair up into a tight bun with two files that had fallen from a toolbox.

That thing was seriously fucking heavy—it had taken two fit delivery guys to carry it in—but before she could question him on it, her PAD chimed in her back pocket, and Rae’s eyebrows pinched together in a frown.

Meet at Hardwired. One hour. Reed. Hardwired was the supply store not far from where he’d first met Nim. Rae’s heart thudded in her chest. “Bax. I need a lift.”

“Nim?”

She nodded her response, shoving down the worry and anger. She’d asked Bax to keep an eye out for her friend the moment she’d gone missing. “Her boyfriend.”

“And this?” He waved a hand at the mess surrounding them.

“I’ve got a Vampire husband with deep pockets, remember?”

He shot her a look, but Rae was already heading out the door, all thoughts on Nim. She slid onto the back of Baxter’s motorbike, shaking her head when he handed her his helmet along with the key to Silver Star. “I don’t want anything covered in your sweat touching my skin, thank you.”

“I don’t remember any complaints last time,” he said with a quirk of his lips.

Rae didn’t bite, only pocketed the key. The sun had finally dipped behind the mountains, the Western Quarter illuminated in the soft glow that had first drawn Rae to it as the city lights flickered on one by one.

Soon enough, the Vampires would be coming out to play.

She glanced over her shoulder at the workshop, wondering if she should ask Baelin to hurry up with the new cameras, but that meant letting him know her exact location.

Instead, she shared a map pin to Bax’s PAD as he started up the engine, sliding an arm around his waist, and trying not to think of the last night with him that had started this way.

“The data?” Rae shouted over the noise, over Bax’s shoulder, wishing she’d taken him up on his offer of a helmet as her eyes streamed from the wind.

“Nothing,” came Baxter’s muffled reply.

They rode in silence as Bax navigated the streets, the bike cutting through busier spots to shorten their journey, and Rae suddenly wished she hadn’t opted for aqua hair with lilac ends that morning.

“Stop here,” she called out, tapping his shoulder.

They were three streets away, just outside one of the Fae temples, but Rae wasn’t taking any chances.

She ran a hand over her hair, muttering a spell and changing the strands to a light brown before he’d unclipped his helmet and rested it across the handlebars.

He turned back to look at her, blue eyes flicking up to her hair and then back to her face. “Your natural colour?”

“I’ll never tell,” Rae said with a wink, shifting off the bike, but Bax grabbed her wrist.

“Wait,” he said softly, running a thumb over her pulse point. The other he traced lightly over her shoulder. “What if I told you there was more to all of this?”

“More what?” Rae asked, shrugging his hand from her shoulder, earning herself a few glances from the Fae descending the temple steps.

“Everything.”

Rae began to pull away, uninterested in whatever game he was playing tonight. “What are you talking about, Bax?”

He held firm and tugged her closer, wrapping his other arm around her waist. Where this was all coming from, she had no clue. She searched his eyes for any hint that he might be on something before he said, “Come with me. I’ll give you everything you ever dreamed of. More than he can give you.”

This was no drug. This was Bax. Rae pulled out of his embrace. “It isn’t real. You know that.”

“It looked real to me.”

She filed that under stupid shit that’s come out of Bax’s mouth and chose to ignore it. Aidan had his reasons just as much as she did; being his Odalik only worked in their favour if it looked real, but the way Bax was looking at her, that was something she couldn’t ignore.

He reached out and touched her face, but she smacked him away, putting space between them. “I think you should go. I can handle this from here.”

“My offer stands if you change your mind. Be careful with him, Rae.” He didn’t start the engine, but he didn’t move from the bike either. Fine. If he wouldn’t leave, she would.

Rae took off without another word, waiting for the sound of the engine roaring to life behind her, but it never came. She’d already rounded the first corner when she finally heard it, casting aside Baxter’s strange behaviour to pick apart later.

The buildings changed to the metal-fronted hardware units, and incense clung to her clothes from passing the temple. Her skin prickled. The air was thick, and she knew if she could see the sky beyond the city lights, it would be heavy with clouds.

A storm was coming. Wonderful. Rae hated storms even more than she hated being Aidan’s Odalik, but if a little thunder meant getting her one step closer to finding Nim, she’d endure it.