“No. Never. I’d never work with one, and you know that. He was hunting them. He’s… something else. I don’t know. I’ll find out tomorrow.” She squeezed his hand and smiled. “And I’ll be careful. You know me. I never do anything rash.”
She did rash things all the time. Like cutting herself to lure vampires into a false sense of security. She just didn’t tell her brother about them.
It was better he didn’t know.
She hated arguing with him.
Although she could see one building in his eyes as he stared at her in stony silence.
“I’ll be careful. I’m not going to leave the Plaça Reial until I know more about him. If I get a bad feeling, I’ll leave. All right?” She hoped it was enough to ease Guillem’s worry, because it was all she could offer him, and she had doubts that she would actually go through with leaving the warrior and the hunt behind even if she did get a bad feeling about him.
She needed his help, because she needed to kill those vampires, and she had the feeling he was the fastest way to find where they were hiding now.
“I could go with you. You shouldn’t go alone.” Guillem’s tone brooked no argument.
It didn’t stop her.
“We’re meeting at dusk. It’s too dangerous for you.”
“It’s too dangerous for you,” he countered, his features darkening in a way that warned they were going to argue if she let things continue.
“I’ll be careful. I won’t move a step from the square without being sure of him and that I can trust him, and if I feel anything is wrong, I’ll head to the nearest police officers. There’s always some hanging out there to keep an eye on the tourists.” She brushed her hand over his, drawing his focus down to it, and the hard lines of his face softened at last.
He sighed and then reluctantly nodded.
She squeezed his hand again, gently so she didn’t hurt him. “I know you worry about me, but I worry about you. He knows vampires, Guillem.”
“He knows how to kill them,” her brother countered, the bite still in his voice.
“I’m sure he knows more than that. I don’t know what he is, but he’s part of the same world as the vampires… as you.” She hated herself for saying that, wanted to take it back straight away as Guillem looked away from her, his gaze straying to the window to the left of the TV.
He didn’t need her reminding him of what he was, not when he was so weak, liable to head out into the night and do something rash. She wasn’t the only one who had inherited their father’s recklessness.
“Just let me meet with him. I’m confident he can help.” Not a lie.
The more she thought about the mysterious warrior, the more confident of that she became.
He hunted vampires, sure, but that meant he knew the breed. He was part of their world, granting him access to information that was beyond her reach. If anyone could help her save Guillem, it was him. She just had to tap into that knowledge without revealing that her brother had been turned.
Because the warrior hunted vampires.
And the darkness that had been in his eyes at times left her feeling that he made no exceptions.
She looked at Guillem, filled with hope again as she thought about tomorrow, about the knowledge she might gain and how close it might bring her to saving him.
None of that hope was reflected back at her in Guillem’s eyes.
They grew cold, hollow almost as he stared at her, and she could see him withdrawing, closing himself off from her again.
She tightened her grip on his hand, desperate to keep him with her even as she knew it was impossible. Whenever he changed like this, all she could do was cling to the hope he refused to have, for his sake. One of them had to hold on to it.
One of them had to remain strong.
Or both of them would give up.
It was hard with the weight of the last nine years on her shoulders, constantly threatening to break her, testing her strength at every step, but she wouldn’t break.
She wouldn’t.
Because she couldn’t lose her only family.
For a moment, Guillem looked as if he wanted to say something, but then he slipped his hand from hers and stood.
Her heart wrenched into her throat as he looked over her head at the door and the distance between them yawned like a chasm, cold and forbidding, threatening to rip all hope from her.
“Guillem,” she whispered, silently pleading him to stay with her.
He looked down at her and offered her a soft smile as he ruffled her hair. “I won’t be gone long. I won’t bite anyone, Caterina.”
That smile gained a sorrowful edge as he rounded the couch and she twisted on the seat to track him.
He opened the door and murmured, “My fangs never seem to work anyway.”
Hope began to deflate as the door closed behind him and she sank against the back of the sofa, the brown leather creaking under the pressure as she settled her chin on the top of it.
She clung to it, refusing to give up as Guillem had. Things were looking up, even if he couldn’t see it, was so tired and jaded by the last nine years that it was impossible for him to find even a sliver of hope in what she had told him.
The warrior could help them.
She hoped.
She stared at the closed door, aching inside as cold swept through her together with a feeling that had her blood turning to icy sludge in her veins.
If he couldn’t, she was going to lose her brother forever.
And she would follow him into the endless night.
Chapter 5
Marek shoved his dark brown linen trousers down and stepped out of them, picked them up and neatly folded them. He set them on the bed beside his combat gear and paused to stroke them, feeling the heat of the sun on their fibres. It had gone down almost twenty minutes ago, and the sunset had been glorious from the covered patio of his villa high on the hills above Seville. Golden light had kissed the entire valley, making the dusty ochre soil glow and bringing out the green in the olive trees. Birds had sung. Insects had joined them.
Peace had invaded every fibre of his being, despite how aware he was of what the sunset meant.
Dusk was coming.
He had spent the entire day thinking about the woman. He should have asked her for her name before stepping, a term he and his brothers used for teleporting since it only took a single step to move a great distance.
Getting her name was the first thing he intended to do tonight when he met her at the square in Barcelona.
The second thing he intended to do was dig into why she hunted vampires. The more he knew about her before they started their hunt, the better. He preferred to arm himself with as much knowledge as possible, whether it was about his enemy or a new ally.
He already knew she was reckless, and that she had been fighting vampires for some time given the skill she had displayed during the battle last night. She had a fiery personality, and she didn’t like strangers, or perhaps men in general, trying to control any aspect of her life. She was headstrong, determined, and he had to admit, he found it more than a little alluring.
A slow smile curled his lips as he tugged his black fatigues on, barely aware of what he was doing as his mind replayed how they had come to verbal blows. She had intrigued him before they had started their intoxicating dance, exchanging barbs and subtly testing each other, seeking out how dedicated the other was to their cause.