Page 75 of Red Rooster

“Isn’t the most important thing in the world. My family comes first, and that includes you and Sasha.”

He breathed shallowly a moment, then jerked a nod and pulled back.

She returned to packing, marveling a little at her willingness to abandon the career she’d worked so hard to cultivate. But no, she told herself with a mental shake. She loved her job because it was a way to help people – to right a few of the world’s wrongs. But the second that jobpreventedher from doing the right thing? Well, it wasn’t worth much after that.

Her phone pinged with a text alert from Harvey:call when u can.

Trina sighed. She needed to make one more stop after this, before she threw caution to the wind.

Speaking of which…

Just before she zipped her bag, she turned back to her sock drawer and contemplated the little bronze bell in its corner. The bell that had rung in Nikita’s pocket a lifetime ago.

“Dark forces, huh?” she murmured, and slipped the bell into her own pocket. She had a feeling they would need all the help they could get.

~*~

“Huh,” Jamie said when he caught sight of the car Lanny had stored in his building-supplied parking spot. It was a five-or-so-year-old Ford Expedition, plain gray, dirty and unremarkable.

Lanny opened up the rear hatch and started stowing their things in it. “What?”

“I was expecting something…more you,” he said, gesturing to the SUV.

Lanny glanced back over his shoulder, frowning. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know.” Jamie shrugged. “Your apartment was all home gym, and protein powder, and every issue ofMaximever. I guess I was expected a jacked-up Jeep, or a hot rod or something.”

“A…hot rod? Wow.” He whistled. “First off: insulting. Way to stereotype. And second: you don’t know shit about cars, do you?”

Jamie felt his cheeks heat. “I know…a little.”

“Uh-huh.” Lanny resumed stowing their bags. “This is practical. I can fit my whole home gym back here, thank you very much.”

“Ah.”

“Don’t say ‘ah,’ like you know shit about me.” But it wasn’t said meanly. Jamie was beginning to learn that beneath the muscles, and the broken nose, and the intimidating cop routine, Lanny was actually kind of fun. And funny. “I’m offended you think I’m such a douchebag.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Uh-huh. This all your shit?”

“Yeah,” Jamie said, and his stomach grabbed in a sudden, shocking pulse of fear. He’d felt borderline nauseas and sweaty all day, between having to act as backup, and then the revelations that Sasha was truly gone, that Nikita could apparently choke the life from a child without hesitation – even if the said child was a mage, whatever the hell that meant. But it hit him fully now. Hit him hard. He was about to leave the city in the company of scary near-strangers – leave his home – on an insane rescue mission. He just…

The parking garage tilted around him and he realized he’d stopped breathing.

“Whoa,” Lanny said, in front of him suddenly, hand on his arm. “Sit down.” He lowered Jamie to a concrete parking chock as his knees gave out.

“I – I – I–”

“Head between your knees. Come on. Don’t pass out on me.”

Jamie pitched forward, and Lanny’s hand settled on his back, between his shoulders.

“Nice deep breaths. In and out. You’re alright.”

Black spots crowded his vision and steel bands tightened around his rib cage. He couldn’t draw a deep breath, couldn’t fill his lungs. It was an asthma attack…

Only, he didn’t suppose vampireshadasthma.