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Page 138 of Visitors (Pathfinder 3)

“The car is out front,” he said. Ricky couldn’t rush out the club any faster if he had wings. I was sure this had been a little bit of a shock for him, so I didn’t blame him. When Andre went to follow, I touched his arm to hold him back.

“Hey, wait.”

He turned to me. His eyes flashed back to their normal gray color but still glared down at me.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” I whispered. “For taking a bullet for Ricky. Literally. It… means a lot to me.”

He said nothing for a long moment, only peered down at me with anger tensing his jaw.

“Hemeans a lot to me,” I explained. “He’s the small part of my unknown past—the only part I have. I don’t want to lose him.”

Finally, Andre’s features softened. The tension in his shoulders eased. “Sometimes I forget,” he mumbled.

“Forget?”

“What it’s like to be human. Alive,” he explained but shook his head as if he was unsatisfied with what he’d said. “What it was like before my awakening.”

Oh.

“To care about someone so fiercely for no other reason but compassion and love… not for position or self-service. It’s one of the most basic human needs but one I haven’t seen in a long time.”

He stepped closer to me, his lips tugging down into a frown. “I know he’s important to you. That’s why I did it. For you.”

My mouth opened, but my brain couldn’t find the right words to say. He’d stepped into a bullet’s path and almost became paralyzed for me? But why?

Without saying anything more or waiting for me to respond, he turned around and walked away.

Back at the hotel, Ricky didn’t want anything to do with the vampires and Cornelius, so he went back to his room for the rest of the night. I wasn’t surprised. He’d gone through a great deal these last twenty-four hours and I couldn’t ask him for any more of this craziness.

Honestly, I wished I could sleep, too, but with a prominent vampire tied up in The Grand’s basement and Andre’s worry about the fight hurting our chances with the Omaris, I had to see how this played out. Especially since the next step would most likely involve me.

I walked from Ricky’s room toward the elevator, pressed the down button, and waited. When the car arrived and the doors peeled open, Hector was standing there inside. He moved to the side, allowing me more room, and I stepped in, uneasiness settling over me.

The moment the doors closed, he moved in a blur of speed. I was up against the wall, his breath spilling over the side of my face as he breathed in the scent of me. I didn’t dare move. Only clenched my fists, debating whether or not to use my power and blast this guy through the wall.

But that would be revealing myself—something Andre had warned me not to do. I doubted his people wouldn’t see that as anything but a threat. Better to wait this one out, and only shoot him if I really had to.

“So, tell me,” he began in his heavy Spanish accent. His breath smelled like blood, too, strong enough to make me gag. “Why did the great Andre DeMonte choose you to be his claim? What’s so special about you?”

I noticed the red stain on his teeth and winced. He must have just fed. “I’m a lady in the streets but a freak in the sheets?” I bit out.

He huffed a laugh as his gaze roamed over me. “Although I believe that to be true, I doubt that’s the sole reason. There’s something… special about you. I can smell it in your blood.”

What was with vampires and smelling me? Freakin’ creepy.

“This is getting a bit uncomfortable now,” I said, shifting side to side. “Why don’t you back up and give a girl her space?”

A rumble climbed up his throat, and when his lips split in a grin, I could see his fangs lowering from their sheaths.

The elevator chimed and the doors rolled open. He was off me in that second, and when I glanced out, my eyes locked with Andre. His brows pinched in confusion.

Hector strolled out as if nothing had occurred, while I had my back pressed against the wall, letting all the held breath out of my lungs. Andre trudged over to me, bumping into Hector’s shoulder as he passed. They shared a hard glare before Andre came over and held the closing doors open for me.

“What happened?” he muttered my way, his lips barely moving at all.

I shook my head. “Later.”

Andre’s anger tensed his muscles, and I knew if I told him what had happened in the elevator, another fight would break out. We definitely couldn’t afford the break in the already thin family alliance. Especially over me.


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