McKell didn’t like the thought, even though he himself was beautiful. The boast wasn’t egotistical of him. Like Johnny, he was simply stating a fact. A fact he’d been told his entire life. Still, he thought again. He would have preferred Ava to look beyond the surface. Beauty faded. Not his, of course, because he didn’t age, but hers would. She would age.
He frowned. He didn’t like the thought of her withering, then dying, either.
You’re going to tire of her eventually.
Would he, though? His desire for her seemed to grow with every moment that passed.
“You’re an ass**le,” Jeremy said, “but I don’t relish the thought of finding pieces of you all over New Chicago. So do me a favor and stay away from her. Okay?”
“You’re acting like I have no skill. I could take him.”
McKell barely managed to silence his snort. And just how did the human plan to “take him”? With his puny pyre-gun? He should ask the other AIR agents how that had worked out for them.
“Just … watch your mouth, too,” Jeremy said. “Okay? Please. You keep badmouthing Ava, and you won’t have to worry about the vampire. She’ll end you herself.”
“Whatever, dude. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The two men branched apart, heading in opposite directions. McKell continued to follow Johnny. The agent plowed ahead, lighting a cigarette along the way. Cigarettes had been outlawed years ago.
Dark smoke plumed around him, and the few citizens who were out and about frowned and waved their hands in front of their faces. One even dialed the police to lodge a complaint.
Maybe I can help with that. If Johnny were to light himself on fire with one of his cigarettes … well, there would be no puncture wounds or claw marks to incriminate McKell.
He smiled for the first time since leaving the bar.
A woman stepped in front of Johnny, and the agent ground to a quick halt. “Out of my … way,” he said, tone changing midway. From angry to intrigued.
McKell stopped, too, and studied her from the shadows. She wore all white, a dress that flowed around her like water, had short black hair and a sweet, humanoid face most men probably drooled over. But she wasn’t human. She couldn’t be. The smell of rot wafted from her, strong enough to cause bile to rise in his throat.
Exactly what she was, he couldn’t tell. The clothes fit the description Dallas had given of the Schön queen, but the hair didn’t. Supposedly, the queen had long blond hair. Could she change her appearance, perhaps? He wouldn’t have thought so, but that smell … more than rot, it was undiluted disease. Disease in its purest form. Grotesque. Yet she appeared healthy, completely unaffected. Another characteristic of the queen.
“Hello,” she said in a voice that was more song than anything, humming against his eardrums.
Dallas had mentioned nothing about her voice. Not that McKell had overheard, anyway.
“Hey,” Johnny replied in what he probably considered a sexy purr.
There were three men behind the woman, and they were cloaked by shadows of their own. McKell could see them, though. They wore all black, were as tall and muscled as he was, and watched the woman with impassive expressions. They were armed. He sniffed. With pyre-guns set to blazing. Protecting her?
Johnny didn’t seem to notice them. He remained relaxed, on the prowl. “You shouldn’t be out this late. The streets are dangerous. Especially for stunners like you.”
“I’m lost,” she said, twirling a strand of her hair.
A lie. McKell could smell that, too.
Beside her, a doorway of air opened. Bright, those dust motes like outstretching arms. Come, McKell thought he heard inside his head, the voice male, soft, and directed at him. As every time before, no one else seemed to notice. Not even the woman, with her deceptively shrewd gaze. Please.
Silently McKell backed up a step. He’d always suspected, but now he knew. The doorway was sentient. And clearly chasing him.
Dangerous, that voice said. Be careful. Please be careful.
Here to protect him? Or to at last trick him, sweeping him to his damnation?
A similar doorway had brought the vampires from their home to this one, thousands of years ago. Though it hadn’t spoken. He’d even heard gossip that a similar doorway had opened for his mother, had stolen her, then returned her months later. She’d never spoken of what had happened during her absence, but she had cried herself to sleep for a long time afterward. So, he could guess. She’d been damned.
Go, he mentally shouted at the door.
The air shimmered, wavering, then faded. He hadn’t expected obedience.
“Where’re you headed?” Johnny asked. “Maybe I can help you find your way.”
With one threat thankfully gone, McKell focused on the other. How charming the soon-to-be agent was. Was that how he’d won Ava? McKell could be charming, too. When he wanted to be.
“Well … to be honest, I don’t actually have any place to go,” the woman said with a sweet smile, her charm far greater than Johnny’s, but no less fake.
“I could take you to my apartment, I guess. If you wanted. You could … call someone?”
“Yes. I would like that.”
Before they could wander off, McKell stopped time. Approached. He removed the weapons from the men, tossed them in the Dumpster behind them, and memorized their faces in case he ever ran into them again. He also patted down the woman. She didn’t have a weapon, but this close, he could see past her … skin? Perhaps. It was as if she’d cloaked herself in a beautiful, radiant mask, shielding the world from the hideous monster that lurked beneath. Pitted flesh, oozing sores, missing teeth, hair frizzed and matted. Inhuman.
The queen. Had to be.
From what he’d heard, she was treacherous, destructive, vile in a way only the soulless could be. AIR was desperate to stop her, but Johnny deserved what she would do to him. What McKell couldn’t do to him. What McKell wanted to do to him.
But as cold and unfeeling as McKell was, probably as soulless as the bitch in front of him, he couldn’t allow it to happen. Because of Ava. Letting her coworker suffer this way could very well bring the disease to her doorstep.
So. The lucky bastard had been saved. Again. Scowling, McKell returned to the shadows and freed the group from his time-stop, unable to hold them any longer.
They kicked back into gear, unaware of what had happened. The guards wouldn’t even suspect they’d encountered a foe until they reached for their guns. He didn’t follow, allowing the distance to grow between them. Only when they were out of hearing range did he withdraw Ava’s phone, scroll through the address book, and find Mia’s number.