Reaching the scarred and graffitied metal door meant to discourage any intruder who got this far, she coded herself in using another concealed keypad, then put her eye to the retinal scanner. The door slid open seconds later, inviting her into a solid metal cubicle where she was scanned three ways to Sunday in a new layer of security, her weapons noted.
“That way,” Vivek had told her, the first time she’d visited after the upgrade, “if you turn out to be a bad guy, I can gas you, and bye-bye, Evil Elena.”
“Funny,” she’d said at the time, thinking about just how much trust they put in Vivek down here—all of them dead certain that trust would never be broken. He might be occasionally petty, but Vivek was nothing if not loyal to the Guild.
When the doors opened to release her from the steel cubicle, she knew it hadn’t been an automatic action; Vivek personally cleared all incoming and outgoing traffic.
“Ohayō, Vivek,” she said to the air.
“Gozaimasu, Elena.” A pause. “Seriously? That one was so easy even Ransom would’ve got it.”
“I’m going to tell him you said that.” She waited patiently as she was scanned a second time, wondering what other tricks he had up his sleeve; she wouldn’t put it past him to have had automatic gun ports built into the walls.
“Hey, I think I might have to double-check your identity.” Vivek’s voice came out strong and resonant through the speakers. “You usually start bitching about how long the scan takes the second after you walk in.”
Fingers tightening on the piece of paper she’d crushed beyond any hope of repair, she rolled her eyes. “Next time you complain about the bitching, I’m going to remind you of this little conversation.”
A chest-deep laugh, an unexpected sound when it came to the often moody hunter, before the final doors opened in front of her. She headed straight to the reinforced core from where Vivek held court, his steel hand controlling all aspects of the Cellars. That, however, was only a sideline—his true job was keeping watch on anything and everything that might affect the Guild or its hunters.
Today, he buzzed her into his inner sanctum without making her jump through any further hoops. “You’re in a good mood,” she said, when she entered to see him grinning from ear to ear.
“I just had dirty, dirty cybersex with a smoking-hot brunette from Italy. Let’s hear it for intimate international relations.”
“Too much information.” Grabbing a chair, she swiveled it around to sit with her arms braced along the back. In front of her was the large wall-mounted screen where they most often played Scrabble, below it a sleek bank of computers, merely one set of the many that filled the core.
“I go to the trouble of getting a chair constructed to support wings,” Vivek complained, “and you always do that.”
“If you ever get rid of that chair, I’ll never forgive you.”
Pretending to think about it, he brought up a game. “I hope you have tissues—because I plan to make you cry like a widdle baby.”
He was in such a good mood, she thought again. Vivek was often sarcastic, sometimes sulky, more than a few times curt, but truly happy? It was an uncommon thing. She didn’t want to change the tone of this conversation, wanted to leave him as happy as she’d found him.
“You want the first move?” he asked, after the computer allocated their letters.
Shaking her head and knowing a delay would only make this more difficult, she reached out to put her hand over the one on the arm of his wheelchair, though she was conscious he couldn’t feel the contact. He saw it, though, curiosity alive in those dark brown eyes. “What’s the matter, Ellie?”
“I have a question to ask you.” Shifting her hand from his, she used it to grip her chairback. “It’s a question that might piss you off. If it does, I’m sorry—but know I’m only asking because I love you.”
Smile fading, he turned his wheelchair around to face her. When he didn’t say anything, just waited, she thought about simply showing him the crushed paper in her other hand, but that would be a cowardly act, not worthy of their friendship. “If you were a viable Candidate,” she said into a silence underwritten with the quiet hum of Vivek’s computers, “would you want to become a vampire?”
Blinking quickly, he swiveled back to the game. “Your move.”
Elena made that move on autopilot, somehow ending up with a triple word score. Where her luck would’ve normally made Vivek scowl and promise retaliation, today, he made a three-letter word that wouldn’t have challenged a seven-year-old. In return, she added four letters to the board to deliberately create a nonexistent word—and waited for Vivek to challenge her.
He didn’t.
Five moves later, he said, “You’d never have asked me that question unless you already knew I was a viable Candidate.”
20
Elena gave a jerky nod.
“How did you get my blood to do the test?” Vivek supplied his own answer before she could. “Guild physical, right?” Glancing at her, he turned the chair around again. “Do you think I need to be fixed?”
She heard the bitterness, knew she had to face it head-on if they were to go forward as friends. “I think you’re unhappy deep inside.” This wasn’t the time to pull her punches. “You’ve built an extraordinary life.” She waved her hand to encompass the room and everything that resulted from his skills with the machines that inhabited it, said, “Hell, you’re the reason half of us are alive. I think you’re brilliant and gifted, and gorgeous, too, while we’re at it.”
Clenched jaw, the tendons stark. “No need to go overboard.”
“I don’t lie to my friends.” Vivek was classically handsome, the bones of his face clean and sharp against brown skin that would be warm if it was touched by the sun more often. It was true he was far too thin, but his shoulders were broad, his legs long. “Put on some muscle, some weight, and you’ll have women eating out of your hand.” She paused. “If you don’t scare them off with your attitude.”
A scowl, then narrowed eyes. “You trying to get me mad?”
“You’re always more fun mad.” Blowing out a breath, she locked her eyes with his. “I asked for you to be tested because, amazing as you are, I know here”—she slammed her fist against her heart—“you hurt.
“I’m hunter-born. I know exactly what it’s like to attempt to cage that instinct.” She’d tried so hard when she first realized how much her father hated anything to do with hunting. “It feels like being clawed to pieces from the inside out. The fact that you’ve managed to stay sane? It makes you stronger than I could ever be.”
Vivek snorted. “You slit a vampire’s throat in broad daylight, shot an archangel, and lived to tell the tale. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” His eyes dropped. “What’s that in your hand?”
“Confirmation of your Candidacy.” Smoothing out the mangled piece of paper, she put it on a scanner. Two seconds later, it showed up on one of the screens. “Because of the amount of damage to your spinal column and how long you’ve had the injury, it’ll take years for you to get back full use of your body.” She wouldn’t lie to him, wouldn’t pretend it would be in any way an effortless transition. “That tick on the right means you’ve been cleared to proceed to the next stage. If you decide you do want to be Made, the process can begin within twelve hours.”