“Me too,” I breathed.
Z and I darted around a huge fiberglass mushroom painted in bright green and yellow that held an old trashcan in it to tempt people to throw their trash away instead of littering.
“If we make it through this … all the sex,” Z panted.
“All the sex,” I promised. Part of me wanted to laugh at his train of thought. But I didn’t want to waste my breath. We rounded another corner in the path and zoomed past the log ride.
I could hear the doors of the fun house burst open and smack the sides of the building.
I swallowed hard. Unlike us, Callum didn’t have to worry about being quiet.
Quiet only mattered if a hunter wanted to surprise his quarry.
We already knew he was coming.
Z grabbed me and the world blurred again. In the sliver of moonlight, I saw a giant wavy slide and the tilt-a-whirl. Zavier came to a stop behind the red, white and gold carousel. He was breathing hard and his eyelids fluttered closed.
I touched his cheek gently. “You have to stop. You’ll wear yourself out.”
“If I stop, we’re dead,” he contended as a sharp wind whipped my hair around my face.
“You’ll be dead if I want you dead, and no amount of your insignificant magic will stop it,” Callum’s British accent slid over us like a stream over stones, smooth and icy cold.
Holy fuck. He was fast. That hadn’t been wind. It had been him.
Norms stood zero chance.
I stared up at the pale vampire, who wasn’t nude tonight. He wore a crisp navy suit and a pale blue shirt and was handsome, not in a way that drew me to him, but handsome like a portrait, or a work of art.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to step in front of Zavier.
If anyone was going to be talking, it was going to be me. If anyone was going to be dying, it was going to be me.
But my brave front faltered when I saw two vampires step out of the shadow of trees behind Callum. My eyes flickered from them to him. He had more with him? He might negotiate, but the others …
My crew.
My emotions shifted like a continent on a fault line and hope was shoved deep underneath terror.
I could blast them all with sunlight. But I couldn’t guarantee they’d die. And if I started a war with Callum… all the news reports told me how it would end.
Pleading felt like my only option.
“Please …” It slipped out of my lips like a whisper.
Callum’s mouth twitched. “Not used to using that word, are you?”
I swallowed hard. “We didn’t know you were here.”
“Obviously.” The vampire leaned on one of the golden posts of the merry-go-round as he stared at me. “So, what are you doing here?”
“Same as you. Trying to hide from the Pinnacle.”
“Hide?” Callum shook his head. “No. I’m not hiding. I’m biding my time.” There was a fierce, predatory gleam in his eyes as he said that. Then he lifted his hand, and, as if they’d been awaiting his command, the other two vampires came closer.
Awe filled me, fluttering like moths in my stomach. How could he control them?
No one had ever been able to control vampires. At the lab, my dad’s scientists had tried. Amulets and spells didn’t work on them. That’s what had driven them to develop the serum …
Of course. The lab probably had additional vials of serum. In my idiocy, I hadn’t even thought to ask. But obviously, Callum had known where they were and had been able to dose at least a couple of the vamps he’d freed.
Here it was, proof before my very eyes.
The serum worked.
Z’s fingers dug into my shoulders and I could feel the energy of his magic dance along my skin. I reached up and gently set my hand over his. “It’s okay,” I told him.
I wasn’t certain that was entirely true, but I did think that if Callum had wanted to kill us, we would have been dead already.
I glanced at Callum’s companions once more. One girl had hair as black as midnight, a nose ring, septum, Madonna, Ashley, and labret piercings that glittered around her deep red lips. She and Tia would have immediately hit it off.
Twenty feet from her stood a tall man with sandy hair and a trench coat. His face was dipped in shadows and I left it that way.
Callum waited patiently for my eyes to drift back to his. I supposed he had all the time in the world, he was an immortal.
“How long did they have you down there?” I asked softly.
“Too long.” He tilted his head and studied my face. “What were you doing down there?”
“Robbing them.”
He laughed until he realized I was serious. Then a thoughtful look came over his face. “What did you take?”
“Stuff. What’d you take?” I challenged. There was no way I was risking Matthew’s cure. For all I knew, Callum would take it to use for a random vampire I didn’t know. And I’d be able to do very little to stop him.
“The news did say there was a big jewelry heist that night.”
I tipped my imaginary hat in his direction.
His smile widened with delight. He took a step forward, and I felt Zavier stiffen against my back as Callum leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Some Pinheads behind the scenes are also whispering that something very important was taken from the vault.”
I fought to keep my face neutral as I raised a brow and said, “Is that so?”
But Callum merely chuckled again, straightening before leaning once more on the carousel pole next to a leaping tiger.
He tapped his chest. “You know your heart rate gives you away.”
“Dammit. You can hear that?” Genuine curiosity filled me.
“It’s how we track … prey,” he seemed almost hesitant to use that last word.
“That’s a bit unfair. No one else stands a chance. You’re overpowered. Like Superman.”
“Except for the madness. Slight defect.”
“Very slight,” I agreed.
He grins. “I knew I liked you from the moment I saw you.”
Zavier’s grip on my shoulders tightened.
Callum’s eyes flicked over to his. “Oh relax. She’s practically a child.”
My shoulders shook with laughter. “Wow. Don’t spare my feelings.”
Callum shrugged. “I’m nearly ninety.”
“Old people do tend to lose their filters.”
“Old?” he countered.
“Child?” I shot back.
“Let’s call a truce on that matter and move onto other topics. You’ve discovered us. What do you plan to do about it?”
“Do?” I was just happy it looked like there was a chance my crew and I wouldn’t get eaten.
Callum lost a bit of his patience then. “Yes. If you want to live, I expect you to make a good argument for it.”
I straightened until my spine was as rigid as a soldier’s. I gently removed Z’s hands from my shoulders and then took a step closer to Callum. “You think I just want to live? No. I want to partner with you.”
33
“I still can’t believe you made a deal with the devil,” Evan said, stuffing his mouth with a bagel from Grayson’s shopping run as dawn peaked over the trees. We were under the picnic awning at the edge of the decaying dreamland, watching Andros at the grill as the smell of sausages and French toast filled the air.