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Then it faded, as the sunlight faded, and I was left standing alone in the middle of the shadowed clearing.
I sw
iped at the tears, then dropped to my knees and picked up the small shovel I’d carried up here with me. I dug a hole in the soft soil, then kissed the box and buried it.
Then, with a final smile at the forest that was her final resting place, I turned and made my way back down to my car.
To find I was no longer alone.
Director Hunter was leaning against my SUV, her arms crossed and her demeanor reminding me somewhat of a snake about to strike.
I stopped and stared at her. Eye-to-eye contact. The worst thing you could do when faced with a vampire as old and as powerful as her.
I should have been scared. I wasn’t. Far from it, in fact. This moment was mine. Mine and Mom’s. She should never have intruded.
Anger surged and I had to clench my fists against the sudden urge to do something stupid—like attack her.
“It’s an extremely wise decision to restrain yourself,” she said softly, “because any such attempt would only end badly. For yourself, at any rate.”
My smile was thin and cold. “Keep out of my head, or I will annihilate you.”
She arched a thin eyebrow. “You truly think you’re capable of such a feat? Because many people have tried over the years and, as you can see, none has succeeded.”
“Have you ever seen an Aedh reach into someone’s body and tear out their heart, Director?”
“No, but I’ve seen more than my fair share of vampires and various other creatures do it.”
“Ah,” I said softly, as I called to the Aedh within. Her power flowed through me gently—carefully—and I concentrated it on my hand, letting my fingers become little more than transparent wisps. The embers of pain stirred enough to warn me not to try for more—not yet, not until I’d fully recovered—but I had no intention of doing so. This was a demonstration, nothing more. “The difference is, with an Aedh, you don’t see them coming. Nor can you smell them, or hear the beat of life through their veins. They don’t exist on any known plane, and are invisible right up until the moment they destroy you.”
Her green eyes glittered despite the shadows that hid much of her features. A hunter with a prey in its sight. It really should have scared me. Maybe that part of me was still too numb from my loss to react sensibly.
“Now that we have the pissing contest out of the way, let’s get down to business, shall we?”
I released the energy and re-formed my hand. The veil of tiredness ran through me. It was going to be a while yet before I could claim that part of me more fully. “You came to me, Hunter, so why don’t you tell me what the hell you want?”
“I want to help you.”
I snorted loudly. “Yeah, right. Believing that.” The only thing Hunter was interested in furthering was her own agenda.
She arched that eyebrow again. “You do not believe that I want to catch your mother’s killer?”
“Oh, I believe you will place the full might of the Directorate behind it. I just don’t believe that’s what you actually came all the way up here to tell me.”
“And you’d be right.”
She uncrossed her arms, then pushed away from the car and walked toward me, every movement economical and yet powerful. Dangerous. She stopped several feet away, her scent teasing the air. It was pleasant enough—until you saw what lay underneath it.
There was no warmth in her, no lingering vestige of humanity. She was a vampire in thought and deed, and that was all she cared about.
She might have started the Directorate, but it hadn’t been for humanity’s sake. Rather, it had been little more than a PR exercise for the vampire council.
If ruthlessness and cunning had a smell, then it would be this woman.
“You are your mother’s daughter, aren’t you?” she commented. “But you are right, of course. It benefited the council to have humanity protected by a body perceived as separate from the council.”
Part of me wondered what Rhoan would say to something like that, and whether Jack actually knew he was running a front for the council. But the truth was, it didn’t really matter. Not to me. And I very much suspected it wouldn’t matter to humanity, either, simply because the Directorate did protect them.
“Director, either tell me why you’re here, or leave.”
