Not just his humanity. Not just his chance to have a relationship with a human female like Ana.
He’d lost the only family he’d had left. His sister, Naomi. She was dead because of him.
When the men had approached them on the street six months ago, Naomi had urged him to walk away. Only he hadn’t. Instead, he’d—
A faint shuffling sound came from behind him.
Instantly, thoughts of that night shattered and he was focused solely on the here and now. Ty shot to his feet. Listened.
When the sound came again, this time from somewhere to his left, he stepped toward it. As he did so, his nostrils caught a new scent—something with a hint of mint.
He stiffened when a voice drifted out of the darkness.
“Well, look what we have here, Niles. It’s the vampire. The one that left his prey in that alley with puncture wounds still in his neck, but only after he drank from him with all the skill of a newly born babe at his mother’s tit. All desperate hunger and no finesse.”
Automatically, Ty reached for his gun. Before he could withdraw it, however, something flew out of the darkness and knocked him down.
“Don’t waste your time, mate. Guns won’t work on us,” the same male voice intoned.
Ty scrambled to his feet, body crouched against another attack.
The sound of male laughter came from the opposite side of the room. Ty whirled around, then back again, trying to decipher movement in the darkness just as someone flipped a switch, washing the room with a faint yellow light. Two males stepped out of the darkness to flank him on either side.
Not just two males. Two vampires.
Shock held Ty paralyzed. Except for his time in captivity, Ty had never actually seen another vampire aside from Peter, at least not one who wasn’t hiding what he was. But these males?
They were both tall and lean, with the same silver hair that Ty now had. But Ty dyed his hair dark. He also wore contact lenses to disguise the eerie silver pupils that went along with his black eyes, which had once been blue. Even from twenty feet away, Ty could see the males weren’t bothering to hide their unusual eyes any more than their hair. Why? Because they were concealed in the dark building? Or because they could somehow camouflage themselves from human eyes? How else had they witnessed him leave the homeless man in that alley without Ty knowing they were there?
His curiosity was tempered by caution, but also, despite himself, by the faintest stirrings of hope. In the faint glow of the buzzing overhead light he could see the two vampires wore matching gold medallions—three linked triangles, two on top and one directly beneath the others. Were they part of an organized group? Vampire leaders? Could he get information from them without letting them know about Belladonna’s purpose?
He’d already taken a step forward before he forced himself to stop.
No, he couldn’t take such a risk. By their words and their expressions, these vampires were a definite threat. So that was how Ty would have to treat them. As if they might be one of the Rogues he’d been ordered to bring down. Facing them squarely, his body tensed for an attack, Ty remained silent.
He concentrated. He tried to read the minds of the vampires in front of him.
Nothing.
Damn it. Peter was much more skilled at mind reading, maybe because he didn’t share Ty’s misgivings about the intrusive act.
Then a horrible thought occurred to him. He’d tried to read their minds and failed, but what if they tried to read his mind? Damn it!
It had always been a possibility—that Belladonna’s purpose would be discovered by a mind-reading vampire, one that wouldn’t appreciate the fact they were hunting their own, Rogue or not. One that would try to stop them. In the end, the potential risk hadn’t mattered. Belladonna needed agents out on the street. It was just as possible a vampire would read any one of those agent’s minds, including Carly’s, just as much as Ty’s. So what to do now?
He could try to outrun them, he supposed. But he wasn’t sure he’d be faster than they were.
The one called Niles snorted. “Apparently he’s the strong, silent type. But I don’t recognize him, Lesander. Do you? Maybe he’s visiting from abroad. Maybe that’s why he left his dinner for us to clean up. Because he doesn’t care if humans in the area begin to suspect our presence here. Only …”
He suddenly stopped talking and narrowed his eyes.
“No, wait. He’s not one of us. I can—I can still smell a hint of human. From him, not his dinner.” Niles looked at Lesander, his expression grim. “He’s been turned.”
“Son of a bitch,” Lesander growled. He came at Ty and struck him before he could even blink. As the force of Lesander’s initial blow forced him backward, the vampire flew with him and continued to pummel his face, each blow feeling like a metal spike was being driven through his skull.
Ty hit the wall behind him with enough force that plaster rained down on him. Rained down on them both. Lesander wrapped his hands around Ty’s throat and squeezed, cutting off his air. He tried to break Lesander’s hold, but despite his own considerable strength, he dangled in the air like a broken puppet and gasped for breath. Clear as day, a vision formed in his head, one in which the homeless man dangled from his own hands. Helpless.
Yeah. Talk about karma.
“You fuck,” Lesander snarled. “Who turned you?”
“I—I don’t know,” Ty gasped, blinking in an effort to see past the blood dripping into his eyes. Lesander fractionally loosened his grip on Ty’s throat and immediately moved on to the next question.
“How long ago were you turned?”
How long ago was it? It felt like years, decades since he’d been himself. Truly human. Pleasantly oblivious to the fact that vampires really existed. But no, it hadn’t been that long. “Several … months …”
“Been having fun since, huh?” Lesander opened his mouth to say more, but suddenly shook his head. “Oh fuck it. There’s a better way to see what you’ve been doing.” He stared intently at Ty, and within seconds Ty felt it—a faint tingling in his mind, as if someone was sifting through his thoughts …
No! he thought, outraged. Get out. Get out of my head.
“Damn it, everything we’ve suspected is correct,” Lesander said. “The FBI has been working with born vampire traitors—they call them Rogues—to turn humans. This explains the increase in vampire deaths and disappearances. The Rogues must have blackmailed them. Threatened their families. This one’s a fucking agent, only he …”
Ty barely processed Niles’s claims of blackmail and threats. He was more concerned with the secret he’d inadvertently given away. He and the rest of Belladonna were supposed to be protecting the FBI’s Turning Program, which was in jeopardy due to the fact Rogues had stepped out of line, and now these vampires knew about it—or at least he’d just confirmed their suspicions for them.
The faint wail of police sirens could be heard in the distance but were obviously getting closer. Had someone else seen what he’d done in that alley? Had they followed him here, just like these vampires had?
“Shit,” Niles hissed. “Damn it, they’re coming. We need to go. We can’t be seen by the police. Not yet.”
“We need to take him with us,” Lesander said. “I don’t know who … I don’t know how …”
“Then that means he doesn’t know, either. Doesn’t matter,” Niles said. “We need to disappear fast and we can’t teleport with him. Dear Goddess, we have to go to Queen Bianca. Tell her what the FBI is doing—”
“Shut up, you fool,” Lesander shouted.
For a second, Lesander squeezed Ty’s throat tighter, cutting off his ability to speak completely when all he wanted was to shout, “Wait, don’t go. I know you don’t like what the FBI is doing, but I need to know more about what you are. What I am. Can I become human again? Can I die?”