Circle of Desire (Damask Circle 3)

She frowned. Since when had Jack begun speaking in weird riddles? “And that’s what you’ve done? Chosen a side?” She shifted her feet a little, strengthening her stance. If Jack came one step closer, she’d fire, partner or not.

So much for trusting this man beyond all others.

He smiled his strange smile. “Yes. And now it’s your turn.”

She stared at him, wondering what was really going on. Surely he hadn’t called her down here just to pick a side in some upcoming mythical war. “We’re cops, Jack. We’re supposed to be impartial and all that.”

He snorted heavily. “Yeah, right. Tell that to someone who doesn’t know the truth.”

The cynical edge to his voice made her feel no easier. If there was one thing Jack had always been proud of, it was his badge. “So why do I have to choose?”

“Because, for you, there can be no standing in the middle. It’s one side or the other.”

She wondered if pinching herself would wake her from this weird dream, or make sense of what Jack was saying. “That doesn’t actually answer the question. I mean, why me? Why not the thousands of others who work for the department?”

“Most of them don’t have your intuitive nature, or your determination to act on a hunch.” He shrugged. “And we need more people who can move around in the daylight.”

Right now, her so-called intuitive nature was telling her he was lying through his teeth—at least when it came to the reasons for wanting her to join them. “Who are you actually working for, if not the department?”

She might not have spoken, for all the notice he took. “We could continue as partners,” he added.

God, how deep did he think their partnership had become? “Sorry. But it still doesn’t appeal to me.”

“That’s unfortunate. Already, too many good men and women have gone missing.”

A chill ran down her spine. “So you know about the disappearances?”

“Of course. They are, unfortunately, dead. It does not pay to be too inquisitive in this world.”

“Meaning what? That they knew about you? About whatever it is you are up to?”

“Something like that.”

His smile sent more chills down her smile. There was nothing pleasant about that smile. Nothing rational. She licked her lips and tried to remain calm. “I really think you should come back to headquarters with me—”

She hesitated. The odd, prickling sensation ran across her skin again, whispering dark secrets to her mind. She stared at Jack, her gaze widening. Her partner, and friend of five years, was the vampire she’d sensed earlier.

And that thing out there in the darkness, the creature she could not name, was with him.

He studied her for a moment, then sighed, almost sadly. “So you know.”

Her finger curled around the trigger, and it took every ounce of strength she had to resist the urge to shoot him. Not all vampires were evil—how often had he told her that? Certainly she had no evidence that Jack himself had crossed the line between good and evil when he’d taken the step from life to death.

Only instinct, and the oddly ferocious look in his eyes, said that he had.

“Yes. But I still don’t know why,” she said.

“Why does one normally undertake the ceremony?” Amusement touched his green eyes. “I have no wish to die, Ryan. With the eve of the war at hand, I had no option but to cross over. Humans have no place in what is coming.”

Well, that, at least, explained his recent absence. While it took only a couple of days for a human to become a vampire, it could take anywhere between a week and a year for the newly turned to master the sensations and control the bloodlust that came with being a vamp. Some people never mastered it, and it was generally these few who were responsible for the rampages that sometimes swept the city. Given the relatively short time Jack had been missing, he’d obviously fallen into the lower end of the control spectrum.

Though looking at him now, she wasn’t entirely sure he had actually mastered being a vampire.

The sensation of danger was becoming so strong her muscles were twitching under the force of it. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. Yet if Jack were a vampire, he would know her fear, her uncertainty. Would hear it in the thunderous pounding of her heart. “So why call me here?”

“Because, as I said earlier, it’s your time to choose.”

“I made my choice long ago.” And her badge was all she really had. She wasn’t about to walk away from it, even for her best friend. “I intend to stick to that choice.”