He could see his men had their weapons out, that they were holding them up, aiming them... and then first JB lowered his arms, then Trask followed suit.

When the skyadvert made it close enough to one of the Dumont Tower balconies, Dain let go. He dropped to the stone, cringing a little on impact. The cuts and bruises didn't give him a second thought, though, nor did the alarm that sounded as he broke in from the balcony. There was only one thought in his mind. With a pounding heart, Dain made a bee-line for Fleur's room.

Chapter Twenty-eight.

Fleur was poring over a map of the Hollywood region at a conference table in the war room when the building security alarm sounded. Her comm box beeped. "Fleur, it's Dain Reston," a voice said. "He wants to see you. He says it's urgent. He says it's a matter of life or death."

Fleur looked at her cousins in time to see them exchange glances. "I'll go talk to him," Marius said. "We don't know that-" Fleur frowned. "No. He asked for me. You finish up here and I'll find out what he wants." She leaned down to the comm box. "Where is he now?" she asked.

There was a pause. Then, "Your rooms."

"Thank you. I'll be right there."

Marius held on to her as she tried to stand up. "Fleur-," he began.

"What?" she snapped, shaking his hand away. "I'm not going to do anything stupid."

"n.o.body's saying..." Ian began.

"You don't have to say anything. I swear on my mother's grave I will not compromise what we must do here tonight for anything or anyone."

Marius c.o.c.ked his head, then he stepped away to open the door for her. Fleur thought she saw a look of respect in his eyes as she pa.s.sed. She walked out to the stairs and jumped over the banister, soaring up to her own floor.

Dain stood outside her rooms, flanked by two sentries. "Dain, this is a very bad- My G.o.d, you look like h.e.l.l." Fleur turned to the sentries. "He's not a threat. I'll handle this. But go ahead and do a security sweep before you turn off the alarm."

The sentries nodded and disappeared.

"A security sweep," he murmured. "You think I'm a diversion?"

She ignored his complaint and took a good look at him. He was wrecked. Physically and emotionally, he was just wrecked. And in spite of Fleur's bravado only minutes before in the war room, she felt her defenses slip.

She reached out to open the door to her room, and Dain actually flinched. "You're in bad shape," she said. "Come inside."

Dain followed her in but didn't sit down. She glanced at the blood streaks over what seemed like every part of his exposed flesh, and noticed the blood pooling at his ankle. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself and looked into his. eyes, then gasped. "Oh, no. No."

"What?"

"You have that look."

"What look? Never mind that." He reached out and cupped her face in his hands. "I need your help, Fleur. It's important. Please." Stricken without even knowing why, Fleur pulled his hands away. "Don't sweet talk me, Dain," she whispered. "Just tell me what you want."

"I need you to make me a vampire," he blurted.

She pushed him backward, fighting the urge to strike him for even saying such a thing. Was he a plant?

Was he trying to betray her in some way she didn't realize? "What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? A few nights ago you nearly lost your mind when I nipped you for fun. Now you want me to bite you in full and make you vampire?"

"I know, I know," he said. "I couldn't fit all the pieces together. I wasn't ready for the truth."

He looked like a drowning man, and Fleur had to work hard to fight her compa.s.sion. But she owed it to herself and her people. "What truth? Why are you asking me for this?"

Dain stared at her wordlessly for a moment. He ran his hand over his mouth and Fleur had to look away from his cuts and sc.r.a.pes. They created a thirst in her, but not one more powerful than she'd already felt with Dain. She caught his expression in her dressing mirror and put her hand over her heart, almost unable to breathe.

"Can't you see it?" he whispered. "It's because I love you." His gaze met hers in the mirror. "I love you, Fleur. Can you see it? It's in everything I am."

Fleur's eyes filled with tears, and she tried to hold them back. "How dare you. How could you do this to me?" She turned to face him, her chin held high though it trembled with emotion.

Dain stumbled forward, confused. She didn't blame him for his confusion; he'd laid his heart bare. She believed him, too, but he should have believed her when she'd said that the two of them were impossible.

"What did I say wrong?" he asked. "How can telling you I love you be a bad thing?"

Fleur couldn't shy away from the truth, though it might kill her. Might kill them. "You don't really mean it. Even if you think you do, you'd regret it. You'd end up hating me for changing you. You told me yourself-you said you were dark, but not that dark."

"I didn't understand then," Dain said desperately. He looked wildly around the bedroom as if the right words to convince her were there somewhere. "Being human is a state of mind. And I don't feel human anymore-I'm not human. I don't believe what they believe, I don't feel loyal to the people I knew. I don't love anyone there. There's no one in the human world who matters to me the way you do. You're everything. Now I'm asking you-begging you-to make me like you. We could be together forever, and that's worth everything."

The pressure was getting to her. Fleur struggled to keep up her facade of strength. She didn't want him to see how much she wanted to just do what he asked, no explanations needed. But explanations were needed. And she wouldn't do what he asked, no matter what. No matter how much she wanted to.

Crumbling under his destroyed look, Fleur started to cry. Tears streaming down her face, she walked to the door. "You really don't understand what you're asking. You've created an idealized reality of what could be because your old life's not working for you anymore. That doesn't make it right."

She put her hand on the doork.n.o.b, but Dain moved quickly and put his hand on hers, holding it. "I stand a good chance of being killed by my own people."

Fleur flinched. "Oh, Dain. Couldn't you have just said that? It's immortality you seek." Not me.

"No!" He looked up at the ceiling as if beseeching the Heavens to grant her understanding. "It's you." His hands went to her face again and his mouth was a kiss away. "I love you. I said it once, and now I feel like I could say it a million times, to anyone. It's the timing of everything that makes it sound so bad. I don't have time right now to persuade you of how I feel about you, but if you grant me this one request, I'll spend eternity proving it."

Dazed, Fleur leaned her head back against the wall. The smell of his blood was clouding her senses. "You'll spend eternity proving to me how much you love me," she said grimly. "Oh, where have I heard that before?"

Dain's face darkened with a sudden and intense rage. He let go of her and slammed a fist into the door above her head. "You know what? I realize this doesn't look good. But this is me. I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble in part because I've allied with you. And I'm hoping that you can look me in the eyes and see that when I ask this, it's a request born out of sheer desperation. I know how we operate. I've seen this play a dozen times. I'm marked, Fleur. So, how about I just take away the love c.r.a.p that seems so unimpressive to you and pare down to the bottom line: If you don't help me, I know they're going to kill me. I have to fake my death and disappear. So, will you make me vampire or not? Yes or no?"

Fleur swallowed hard but held her position.

Dain just stared at her, obviously reeling. His hands slipped on the wall above as his knees buckled. "I told you something the other day that proves my trustworthiness, and now it looks like what I told you will get me killed. I'm asking for your help. Yes. Or no."

"What you're asking isn't a simple matter of yes or no. It's drenched in the thousands of years of everything we vampires are. It's-"

"Yes or no, Fleur? Do you want me to live?"

Yes? The word wouldn't come.

"Yes or no? Do you want me to live? Say it! I want to hear you say it!" Dain pounded his fists against the door, unaware of what he was doing. Fleur could hear the sentries in the hall on the other side.

Dain took her by the shoulders and threw her back against the door. "All of the questions I have, everything that I need to know can be answered the same way. Do you want me to live? Will you make me a vampire? Do you even love me, Fleur? I'm dying here, even now."

With tears streaming down her face and in utter anguish, Fleur screamed, "No! I can't!" and she dropped her face into her hands.

Dain stilled, and it was the sentries pounding on the other side of the door that she heard now. He stepped back, freeing her from the heady scent and heat of his body, and Fleur opened the door. The sentries took Dain by the forearms and hustled him out of the room. Fleur stood in the doorway and watched them lead him down the staircase.

At the bottom of the first flight, he suddenly turned around. In a voice so cold it sent a shiver down her spine, he said, "By the way, I think we're planning to trap you tonight. It's a major offensive they've got planned out in Hollywood. You might want to get some people on that."

The sentries kept moving and Dain didn't fight any longer. When he disappeared from view, Fleur ran to the banister and looked down the heart of the spiraling crimson staircase. All she could do was watch him go and cry.

"You told me yourself," she whispered. "You're dark, but you're not that dark. I won't make you something you don't understand. Hay den would be the first to tell you this is the right thing to do. And it's because I do love you."

She heard the main door close and ran to the window. Pulling aside the curtains and stepping out on her balcony, Fleur leaned over the stone rail and saw Dain tumble headlong onto the sidewalk. As soon as her sentries left him on the street, he was beset by his own people. Fleur watched him struggle until she couldn't take it anymore.

Dain had just barely cleared the doorway when they were all over him. They tackled him-his own men.

"Don't struggle, man," JB said. "You know the drill. Of all people, you know the drill."

"We already lost one person we care about. Don't make us lose you, too." JB wrestled Dain to the

ground on his stomach while Trask handcuffed him. "I'm not trying to kill you, boss."

"Nah, you're just trying to get me to go with the nice men with the white coats."

JB raised his left palm. "You know that's not what I want. We've got a bulletin out on you, and I know

that doesn't come as a surprise. Come on, man. We can come up with something. Cyd's death put you overboard, you got raked by a dog or a vamp and nearly got made... everything's gonna be fine. Some shrink-time and some probation, and you'll be back on the job. But you gotta pick a side."

"JB?".

"Yeah?"

"Nice job. Chapter 6, Calming a Suspect, page 15. At least it's nice to know you were listening."

JB swallowed, his fingers shifting on the handle of his gun. "That's not how it is."

With one captor on either side of him, their hands gripping his forearms, Dain struggled, if only out of

principle.

"Get in the car," Trask said, shoving Dain's head down with his palm. After tossing him in the backseat, the man got in next to him. JB took the wheel, and Dain couldn't help but notice he was still driving Dain's car. His onetime friend shrugged nervously. "You're my mentor, Dain. Please don't make this worse than it has to be. What happened to Cyd is bad enough. You're gonna end up sending me to the shrink." Dain watched his protege clearly struggling, sweat dripping off his nose and into the neck of his armor, and actually felt a little sympathy. "I'm not the man I used to be," he admitted.

"I'm wondering if you're still even human," Trask growled.

Dain's eyes narrowed. "You think I've been made?"

Before he could react, Trask pressed a three-p.r.o.nged cartridge into the soft flesh at the bend of Dain's

elbow. "Let's find out."

Dain roared with pain as the chemical tracer diluted into his bloodstream. He closed his eyes and shut his mouth, gritting his teeth as the fluid spread through his body.

JB suddenly pulled over, throwing everyone in the backseat forward. "This is so not right. This is so f.u.c.ked up."

His forehead pressed into the back of the front seat, Dain waited it out, panting. The agony in his veins lessened. "Go ahead and take your sample," he said, wishing he had the strength to put Trask in his place. He slowly eased back into the backseat of the car.

Trask tapped his watch and shrugged. He took a drop of Dain's blood from the same spot he'd stabbed and touched it to a piece of litmus paper.

Dain had just enough energy left in him to chuckle with satisfaction at the disappointment and confusion on Trask's face.

"What the h.e.l.l did they tell you about me?" he asked.

"What's it say?" JB said.

"Negative. He's not a fang... or a dog, for that matter. Still human. One hundred percent."

JB looked shocked, then heaved a sigh. He put the transport back in drive. "First we lose Cyd, now you. 1 don't know what Kipp is planning to do with you, but you're about to find out. Why'd you do it, man? All you had to do was stay away from that girl when they asked you to. You dug yourself a hole."

Dain shrugged. "I could give you a million reasons."

"You're in love with her, right?"

Dain didn't answer.

"I'd rather believe that was it, you know? It would just sit better if that was it... and if she was in love back, you know?"

"I didn't realize you were such a romantic," Dain grunted.

"Yeah, well, guys do stupid things where women are concerned. I can buy that. And the alternative just doesn't sit good with me, where she's some kind of freaky Mata Hari or maybe you're a double agent... the idea of that s.h.i.t just makes me crazy. It just ain't right... this whole situation is effing nuts!" JB looked at Dain through the rearview mirror. "Sorry, man. I don't know what you did to deserve this, but I'm real sorry." He heaved a sigh.

"What the h.e.l.l are you sorry for?" Trask asked. "He may not be made, but he's not one of us anymore, either. He's not human, no matter what the tests show."

He meant it as an insult, a comment about Dain's loss of loyalty, but to Dain, it was nothing more and nothing less than a fact. He wasn't human anymore; he just wished he done a better job of explaining that to Fleur.

"Well, he used to be human," JB said sullenly. "And when he was, he was a friend."