“Our very own Dr. Frankenstein.”
“Careful,” Niko growled.
“It wasn’t an insult,” Arel hastily assured him. “Just the opposite. Think of the potential benefits of having her work with our scientists. She could save hundreds if not thousands of lives.”
Niko shook his head. “It’s too early to know how far her skills will develop. Or even if she’ll be willing to accept her gifts.” He deliberately held his friend’s gaze. “It will be her decision. I won’t have her bullied into giving more than she’s willing to offer.”
“Not even if she can help your family?”
“She is my family.” Niko straightened, his gaze challenging. “Any argument?”
Arel gave a sudden laugh. “Niko, if I ever find a female who lights up like a neon sign just because I walked into a room I intend to do whatever I have to do to keep her.”
Niko stilled, ridiculously pleased by the soft words. “A neon sign? Did she?”
Arel shook his head in disgust. “Wipe that smug smile off your lips. There had to be one woman in the world crazy enough to fall in love with you.”
“I only need one.”
“Good God. How the mighty are fallen.” Arel hissed as the sharp sound of an alarm pierced the air. “What’s that?”
Niko was already headed into the living room, moving to stand directly in front of the line of monitors.
“Someone just broke the perimeter.”
The men frowned in unison as they studied the thick woods that surrounded the house.
“Nothing,” Arel muttered as Niko manipulated the cameras to do a complete scan of the area. “Not even a stray dog.”
“It has to be Dylan,” Niko ground out.
What the hell was she doing? She had to sense that Arel was in the house. There was no way she could hope to overpower two Sentinels.
Not without help.
“Or a distraction,” Arel stated the obvious. “You stay here and I’ll try to flush her out.”
Niko nodded in agreement. As much as he wanted to be on the hunt, his heart was firmly committed to protecting Angela.
Of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about his friend.
“Arel,” he called as the younger man opened the door and stepped onto the front porch.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be careful,” Arel called, disappearing into the darkness.
Niko moved to shut the door and reset the alarm, then headed to the back of the house to check the locks. Stepping into the kitchen his instincts were on full alert.
Dylan.
The scent of her filled the air.
On cue, the slender female still dressed in black stepped out of the pantry and offered him a mocking smile.
“About time,” she drawled. “I thought Arel would never leave.”
“Dylan.” He clenched his hands at his side. His weapons were upstairs, but it didn’t matter. He could kill as easily with his hands. Or even a well-placed kick. “How did you get past the security system?”
Her eyes glowed with an eerie crimson heat as she strolled forward, one hand held behind her back.
A hidden weapon?
That was the most logical guess, although he couldn’t catch the scent of gunpowder or the metallic tang of a blade.
He would no doubt find out soon enough, he conceded with an explosion of frustration.
Goddammit.
Why the hell couldn’t this female simply accept that she was made precisely as nature had intended? She was graceful, strong, intensely intelligent and beautiful in an exotic fashion.
Everything most women wanted to be.
“I was watching the property when dear Arel was kind enough to punch in the codes so I didn’t have to waste time trying to sneak past the cameras,” she confessed.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
“What about the alarm that just went off?”
She shrugged. “I set it off with a delayed explosion.”
Ah. Of course.
“Clever, but a waste of your time,” he said, his voice steady and his expression carefully devoid of his seething fury.
She strolled forward, a smirk curling her lips. “There’s no need for us to be enemies, Niko. Give me the female and I’ll walk away. No harm, no foul.”
“The female’s name is Angela,” he said from between clenched teeth. “It’s not going to happen.”
“Then I’ll take her.”
He shifted, making sure he was standing between the crazed bitch and the door.
“It won’t do any good. She can’t help you.”
Bitterness flared in the crimson eyes. “Oh, I think you would be surprised what people can accomplish when they’re desperate.”
“So you’ve proven,” he pointedly reminded her, his acute hearing picking up the sound of the shower being shut off overhead. Oh. Christ. Don’t come down here, Angela. “You betrayed and murdered your own family. And for what?”
“For a life beyond the prison walls.”
His brows snapped together. “Valhalla has never been a prison.”
She hissed in anger. “Not to you.”
Niko shook his head. He was wasting his breath. Dylan had convinced herself that her life had been some sort of torture at Valhalla. How else could she excuse the murder of those who’d offered her only kindness?
“And you believe if you can pass as a normal human your life will be filled with endless happiness?” he instead sneered.
Her chin tilted, the slits of her flat nose flaring in anger.
“Endless happiness? No. But fleeting happiness? Maybe,” she ground out, taking another step closer. “Why shouldn’t I have the opportunity to fall in love? To have children.”
He barely listened to her whining. He could smell . . . what? Something he couldn’t identify.
Which was worrying the hell out of him.
“If a man loves you he doesn’t care about your appearance,” he said in absent tones.
“Don’t insult me,” she snarled. “Would you be bedding your scientist if she looked like a monster?”
Niko didn’t even have to consider. “Her looks have nothing to do with my feelings.”
“Liar.”
Niko narrowed his gaze. “Believe what you want, Dylan, but be very clear on one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll kill you if you lay a hand on Angela.”
A slow smile of anticipation curled Dylan’s lips as he widened his stance and squared his shoulders.