Massive killers tattooed from the top of their bald heads to the tips of their toes tended to attract attention.
Which is why the Sentinels also needed hunters who could travel unnoticed.
Hunters like him. Oh, and the man currently standing a few feet away.
Never allowing his gaze to stray from Angela Locke, he gave a tiny motion of his hand. All high-bloods understood you didn’t approach a Sentinel when he was locked on his prey.
Bad, bad things could happen.
“Arel,” he murmured, recognizing the scent of the fellow Sentinel.
The younger man stepped forward, the flashing strobe lights shimmering over the honey highlights in his light brown hair and turning his eyes to molten gold.
Most humans dismissed Arel as a charming playboy. A role he performed with consummate skill. But those trained to look beneath the surface could detect the muscles honed to lean perfection beneath his casual T-shirt and faded jeans, and the ruthless determination that simmered deep in the gold eyes.
“Dylan?” Arel murmured softly.
Niko grimaced at the mention of the female high-blood they’d been hunting for the past six weeks.
“Still in the wind.”
“Are you positive she’ll show up here?”
Niko didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“And you’re always right?”
“Always.”
Arel snorted. “You know you’re an arrogant SOB, don’t you, Niko?”
Niko shrugged. Yep, he knew. But his confidence wasn’t just conceit.
From the second Dylan had murdered her two guards to escape from Valhalla, he’d dedicated every waking moment to studying his prey.
He knew the day and hour Dylan had been born. He knew that she’d been less than a week old when her parents had left her in the field outside Valhalla. He knew that she nursed a bitter fury at having been abandoned by her family despite her welcome among the high-bloods. Perhaps because she was one of the unfortunate freaks that had been born with a mutation that left her with startling crimson eyes and large black spots on her skin, like a cheetah. Unlike many high-bloods she’d been unable to pass as norm, which only increased her resentment.
Or maybe she’d just been born a psychopath.
Being given special powers didn’t mean that a person was automatically a superhero.
High-bloods possessed all the usual failings of norms. Only they could do a hell of a lot more damage if they weren’t contained.
Which was where Niko and his fellow Sentinels came in.
He shrugged. “I know what she’s going to do before she does,” he said.
“And you think because she’d been searching through Calder’s files on your scientist that she’s coming here?”
“Yes.”
Niko had been baffled at first when he’d discovered that Dylan had been sneaking into the Master of Gifts’ office. Calder and his order were dedicated to tracking down those high-bloods who either didn’t realize they were “special” or were trying to pass as normal. Like a Sentinel they possessed the ability to sense talents, even latent talents, although they used their skills to convince high-bloods to join with their brethren at Valhalla, or in one of the many compounds located around the world. While Niko . . . well, his duties weren’t quite so nice.
At last he’d put together the reasons for Dylan’s late-night visits to Calder’s office.
And it had everything to do with Angela Locke.
“Not that I’m questioning your conclusion, amigo,” Arel said in dry tones, “but why is she currently on a killing spree through Texas?”
“She’s trying to disguise her true purpose and throw us off her trail.”
“For six weeks?”
“She’s always been patient.”
“True.” Arel’s features hardened, his charming smile replaced by a cold hatred. Both Niko and Arel had reason to want Dylan tracked down and destroyed. The sooner the better. “She must have planned her escape from Valhalla for months.”
“Years,” he corrected.
“We can’t keep cleaning up her kills, Niko.” Arel grimaced. “There have been five more. Plus the losses we suffered—”
“I know how many she’s killed,” Niko interrupted. He couldn’t discuss Fiona’s bloody murder.
Not yet.
“Then you’ll understand that I was sent by the Tagos to warn you that you have until the end of the month,” Arel said, referring to the ultimate leader of the Sentinels. “After that he wants you on the trail in Texas.”
Niko shrugged, unperturbed by the warning. “Dylan will be here before then.”
Arel snorted. “You’re good, but you’re no psychic. How can you be so certain?”
“Spring break starts at the end of classes tomorrow,” he said, his gaze narrowing as he watched Angela being led to the edge of the dance floor by a blond jackass who obviously ate steroids like candy. No mere mortal had those kinds of muscles without pharmaceutical help. He didn’t like the way the bastard was staring at her overexposed breasts. In fact, he might very well find a way to make Blondie disappear if he laid a hand on the vulnerable female. “It will be the perfect opportunity to make Angela Thorne disappear.”
“It’s a little late for her to try and be subtle, isn’t it?” Arel demanded.
“She wanted to attract attention to draw us south. Now she’ll want to fly below the radar. She won’t want us knowing that she has the scientist,” he pointed out, his tone absent as his attention remained homed in on the female who was moving with a surprising grace. “Besides, it’s far more difficult to disappear when you have a hostage.”
Easily sensing Niko’s distraction, Arel leaned against the railing.
“Is she the real deal?”
“Yeah, she’s the real deal.” Niko forced himself to shift his attention back to his companion. Until Dylan was dead he couldn’t afford to be distracted. Especially not by this particular female. “Calder intended to bring her to the compound after she graduated.”
“Why wait?”
“He wanted the female to enjoy being normal for as long as possible.”
Arel gave a grunt of laughter. “He’s always been too softhearted for his own good.”
“You won’t get an argument from me.”
“While you’re a coldhearted Sentinel who’s willing to use an innocent female as bait for a psycho killer.”
Arel’s words rasped a raw nerve that Niko didn’t even know he possessed until he’d crossed paths with the pretty young scientist who’d slayed him with one shy smile.
Dammit.
Angela Locke was a pawn.
And like any pawn she was supposed to be expendable.
So why had he spent the past six weeks imagining her stretched beneath him as he taught her the true meaning of biology?
He swallowed a low growl. “I get results.”
“True enough . . .” Arel’s words ended with a low whistle as the frantic music ended and Angela turned to reveal her slender curves so shockingly revealed by those too-tight jeans and the shirt that should be illegal. Damn, Megan. It had to be her influence. “Hellooo. You didn’t say anything about her being a beauty.”
“Because it has nothing to do with the job,” he snapped.
Arel smiled with a slow anticipation. “Hey, if you don’t want to bed her, I will.”
Niko hissed at his unexpected surge of fury. He was never possessive of women. Not even when they were his lovers.
It had to be this job.
He was . . . on edge. Anxious to find Dylan and make her pay for what she’d done to Fiona.
That had to be it.
Feeling the weight of Arel’s all-too-knowing gaze, he sent his fellow Sentinel a scowl.
“Don’t you have someplace you have to be?”
A mysterious smile played around the younger man’s lips. “Yes, but I don’t mind changing assignments.”
“Go away, Arel.”
Arel chuckled before he placed a hand on Niko’s shoulder. “Take care. I’ve already lost two friends. I won’t lose another.”
Chapter Three
Usually the small apartment three blocks away from the campus was a place of peace for Angela.
Not that anyone else would share her opinion.
Most people would shudder at the worn furniture that she’d picked up at second-hand stores and garage sales. Not to mention the bedroom that was overflowing with unpacked boxes from her mother’s house. Boxes that were filled with painful memories she wasn’t prepared to open.
And oh yeah, a kitchen that had become a mini-lab with microscopes, petri dishes, test tubes, and three small fridges that contained her current experiments.
Hardly the palace most women dreamed of.
But for Angela it was far better than a palace.
It was her safe haven.
The moment she closed the door she could forget the day, along with the frustrating challenge of trying to fit in a world that always seemed slightly out of focus.
Today, however, there was no peace as she shut and locked the door.
