Earlier, Brynleigh had told Ryker she had another job to do for her Maker. She’d considered not telling him she was going out, but then she remembered the tracking bracelet. Zanri probably could’ve helped with that, but obviously, that wasn’t an option. Besides, she was in this mess because of the shifter.
To say that Ryker had been displeased would have been an understatement, but Brynleigh had stood her ground. This was important.
She pulled out her phone, rereading her last text.
Brynleigh
Cooperating with Jelisette is how we get information about the Black Night. That’s why I’m going.
Ryker’s reply had been sohimthat she’d heard him say the words as if he’d growled them in her ear.
Ryker
If you get yourself killed, I’ll never forgive you.
The words would have sounded harsh coming from anyone else, but Brynleigh knew better. She heard the care in his words and felt his worry wash over her.
Even now, after everything, he wanted her to be safe. That’s precisely why she was in this dangerous place.
For him.
For them.
Brynleigh would risk her personal well-being a thousand times over if it meant they could repair their brokenness and return to the way things were before.
Giving herself exactly one minute to be sentimental about Ryker’s messages—she’d enjoyed texting him far more than she ever thought she would, considering her recent hatred of cellular technology—Brynleigh put the phone away and drew in a series of deep breaths.
The time for happiness was gone. Now, she had to concentrate on the warehouse.
She’d been surveilling the area for the past two hours.
Every few minutes, a vehicle approached the warehouse and pulled around back. Someone got out, their faces covered by hoods or hats, and the car sped away. People entered the warehouse, but so far, no one left.
When midnight was a few minutes away, Brynleigh pushed off the alley wall. She slinked around to the back of the warehouse and quickly located the entrance. The door was nothing special, other than the image of a crescent moon stabbed with a dagger painted in silver, and the hulking shifter stationed in front of it.
He was enormous. Blond, almost white, cropped hair revealed his curved ears. A black suit hugged his body. Sunglasses were perched on his nose despite the late hour. He clutched a tablet in his right hand, the technology laughably small in his grip.
Brynleigh wondered about the man’s animal counterpart. Was he a dragon? Perhaps a bear or a lion. Either way, he looked like he could devour someone whole, even in this form.
Sarai would’ve commented that the shifter looked like a bodyguard from the action movies she loved to watch… if she was alive to make comments.
Grief stabbed Brynleigh in the gut, the emotion wholly unwelcomeat a time like this. She couldn’t afford to think about her family right now.
Brynleigh was on a new mission: get information about the Black Night, fix things with Ryker, and get her damned happily ever after. She would do whatever it took to make that happen.
Forcing her grief aside, Brynleigh returned her assessing gaze to her surroundings.
A bulb flickered overhead, casting waning light over the shifter. A blinking security camera sat above the door. Cigarette butts littered the broken, cracked pavement. Disgusting.
She kicked at one with her booted toe. Why did people insist on sullying the land where they lived by throwing their trash on the ground? If Brynleigh were an Earth Elf, she’d be horrified by how some people treated this world.
But she wasn’t an elf. She was a vampire, and she was here with a purpose.
A glance at her phone confirmed it was time. Drawing in a fortifying breath of crisp midnight air, she let her shadows fall away.
The shifter’s attention snapped to her. He straightened, his muscles tensed, and he watched her like a hawk as she approached.
“Name?” the burly guard asked in a baritone voice.