Back at the loft, after Dom left for the field office, Mackenzie took her mocha, her laptop and her recharged cell phone up to the rooftop terrace.
She had a few voice mail messages, but she decided to call Corey first. Dom wanted to meet him as soon as possible to see if he was a sweetblood. If so, he was in danger and they needed to figure out how to get him either here or to another safe house. But what were the odds both of them having this type of blood? Not high, Dom had told her. He’d also said Corey hadn’t been on the list of known sweetbloods, but still, they couldn’t take any chances. She wouldn’t be able to relax until she knew for certain Corey didn’t have the same blood characteristics she had.
“Hey, Kenzie, what’s happening?” Corey said when he picked up.
“Are you free for dinner tonight?” she asked. “I’ve got someone I want to introduce you to.” She didn’t know that she was quite ready to start introducing Dom as her...what...boyfriend? What an inadequate description. But it made for a good excuse to get together with Corey.
“I’ll have to talk to Vanessa first. She hates it when I make plans without consulting her.”
“Talk to her and let me know as soon as possible, all right?”
“Does it have to be tonight? I’ll have a better chance of talking her into it if we schedule something in advance.”
“No,” she said quickly. Realizing she sounded a little desperate, she cleared her throat to give her a moment to collect herself. “It’s just that this guy means a lot to me, and I really want you to meet him.”
“Okay, what’s going on? You’re not planning a trip to Vegas anytime soon, are you?”
She didn’t argue. Might as well let him think what he wanted if it got him to agree to dinner this evening.
After she hung up with Corey, she looked out over Elliott Bay and knew she could never tire of this ever-changing yet constant view. Today the sky was completely gray with clouds and the water looked cold and ominous. She hoped Sam was doing better.
Okay. Email or voice mail?
Remembering she hadn’t checked the email for her new business in a few days, she settled back on the canopied lounge, tucked the blankets around her legs and grabbed her laptop. Cool. A friend from college she hadn’t seen in a couple of years had found her website and contacted her. Mackenzie fired back a quick hello and suggested they meet for coffee sometime. Oh, and someone from a small farming town near the Canadian border was interested in having her do a commissioned piece of one of her whimsical landscapes. Wanted to send her a few pictures or drawings—weird—of his childhood home in Europe. Oh well, should be fun.
After finishing her email, she checked voice mail. Five new messages had come in while her phone’s battery was dead. Steve needed some pictures of a small marina in the evening. If Corey could meet tonight, maybe she could drag Dom to the one in Des Moines, just south of Seattle. That way she could take a few pictures while they were down there. Who knew when she’d be able to go out again? Dom certainly wasn’t about to let her go out on her own anytime soon.
Three messages from Dom. She listened to them next. Closing her eyes, she pressed replay a few times just to hear the timbre of his voice. He sounded heartbroken. She felt a littleguilty that she enjoyed hearing just how torn up he had been about leaving.
When she played the final message, her blood ran cold and she nearly dropped the phone.
“Oh God. Martin.”
She dialed his number but it went right to voice mail. She checked the call history to see what time he’d left the message. When she rang his condo and he didn’t pick up, she called Dom.
“Everything all right, Kenz? I’m sensing?—”
“Martin, they have Martin.” She relayed the contents of the brief message to Dom. “That was the class I was supposed to teach last night.”
“I’ll head over to the art school at dusk to check it out.”
“We can’t wait that long. That’s in six hours. I’m going now.” She rushed down the stairs from the terrace and burst through the door into the hallway of the loft.
“No, you’re not,” Dom yelled at her through the phone. “You’re staying right there. It’s not safe for you to be out alone.”
“I can’t just sit here. You can’t go out and neither can any of your people. That leaves me. Since the Darkbloods won’t be out, either, I’ll be fine.”
“Goddamn it, Kenz. You’re not going anywhere.” Then the line went dead.
She didn’t know how far away the field office was, but she was determined to be gone before he arrived. She grabbed her purse and hoped she’d be able to quickly find a ride. After waiting a moment for the slowest elevator in the world to reach her floor, she decided to take the stairs. She’d only made it down one flight when a deep voice boomed from above.
“Where in the hell are you going?”
She let out a little yelp and kept going. “Don’t try to stop me,” she called over her shoulder. “Martin needs—” She smacked into Dom’s chest at the next landing. She would’ve fallen to her kneesif he hadn’t caught her. “How the hell—” He grabbed her wrist and started to yank her up the stairs. “Let me go.” She dug her heels in and leaned back with all her weight, struggling to break free, but Dom kept hauling her up the stairs as if she were a naughty child.
Without a word, he hoisted her up and slung her over his shoulder. She tried to kick, but he held her legs tight at the ankles, so she pummeled his back with her fists. “Goddamn it, Dom.” She was sobbing now. “I’ve got to get to Martin.”
He kicked open the steel door of the loft and stomped down the hallway to his bedroom. With another hard kick of his boot, he slammed the door shut behind them and flung her onto the bed.
