Read Page 19

They spent the night in an empty barn on the edge of town. It was one Eric had known about when he'd lived in Byram years ago, and he'd expressed relief to see it still standing.

Reaper spent the night with Briar in his arms, and he thought he had never felt such a sense of completion. Or of love.Advertisement

They'd handcuffed Dwyer's right wrist to a beam, leaving food and water nearby just to be decent. They hadn't quite finished with him yet, and they didn't dare let him go, knowing he couldn't be trusted not to return with reinforcements to take them all out. Or take them in. No one was sure anymore whose side the man was on in all this.

As the sun went down, they stirred awake, one by one. And one by one, they gathered around Crisa where she lay, still unmoving.

Dwyer, tethered to a beam like a dog on a leash, thrust a slip of scrap paper into Reaper's hand.

"What's this?" Reaper asked.

"The name and last known address of the shrink who tinkered with your mind. He always said he could reverse the process, the programming.

How you choose to make him do it is your business. I gave it to Eric, and now I've given it to you:' He glanced at the others around him. "And now that I've kept my promise, I would really appreciate it if you would let me go."

Reaper nodded. "I'd like to know one more thing before I do."

Dwyer sighed. "I told the others, I don't know the location of the installation where the cloning takes place. I did once. But it's been moved. They move it regularly, and no one who knows where it is one year is informed where it is the next. And that's the truth."

Reaper glanced at the others. "Cloning?"

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"We'll fill you in later," Eric told him.

Reaper nodded and returned his attention to Dwyer.

"He wants to know about his wife," Briar said. "About Rebecca. I told him how she wasn't really dead. How it was a setup to establish her cover and load him down in enough guilt to keep him dancing to your fiddler for years to come. He probably wants to know where she is now."

Reaper looked down at her. She was standing close to him, so close, but not touching. He saw the fear in her beautiful dark eyes, and he understood it.

"I don't particularly care where she is right now," he said softly. "She let me think I had murdered her. What I was wondering was whether she was working for you all along. Whether our marriage was just the first step in the plan to recruit me."

Dwyer nodded. "It was. We knew you were one of the Chosen. We knew you had a powerful bloodline and few mortal connections. We wanted a vampire we could program and train as an assassin. She was already working for us, so she took on the job of bringing you in and helping us to keep you under control."

Reaper nodded slowly. "And now it all makes sense," he said. Then he turned to the others. "Is there anything else we need from him?"

Eric shook his head. The others concurred, so Reaper released Dwyer and waved an arm toward the barn door. "You're free to go. And, uh, just so you know, Gregor's dead, and so are all the drones who were on the premises."

Dwyer held Reaper's gaze for a long moment. Finally he lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I know it's not worth much, but you became more than a project to me over time. I've spent a lot of hours regretting what was done to you." He swallowed hard, then began again.

"I'm not asking your forgiveness. I just...I needed to tell you I'm sorry."

Reaper nodded. "Goodbye, Dwyer."

Nodding, Derrick Dwyer turned and walked slowly out of the barn.

Briar sidled up closer to Reaper, and slid her arm around his waist, which gave him an instant sense of ease and relief.

"Bri? Briar? Are you here?"

Crisa's soft voice brought them both around, and then Briar pulled free of Reaper and raced forward, dropping to her knees in the hay where Crisa lay. Her eyes were open, Reaper saw as he crouched down beside his woman. Crisa was blinking them all into focus and smiling a little crookedly.

"That's funny," she said. "My head doesn't hurt anymore."

Around her, every face split in a relieved smile. And then Matt crowded past them all and hugged her hard, even as she struggled to sit up. She hugged him back and ran a hand through his hair. "Hey, kiddo. I told you we'd all be okay." And then she looked past him, finding Ilyana with her eyes. "I really love your son," she said.

The others gathered around Crisa, helping her to her feet, all of them talking at once. As they did, Reaper tugged Briar just slightly away from the rest, folded her into his arms and hugged her close.

She rested her head on his chest.

"What did you mean before?" he asked her. "Just as we were leaving the Marquand Estate you said I did all this?"

She pressed even closer, held him even tighter. "You dragged me kicking and screaming into your little scout troop. You kept me around the bunch of them until they started getting under my skin. You treated me like I was...like I mattered. Like you cared. And you didn't lie, you didn't use me, not once. I was forced to watch you risking your neck for that crew of misfits until I started caring, too. You made me share blood with Crisa or watch her die, and then I loved the little nutcase."

She closed her eyes, swallowed hard. "And then I loved you. It's like you showed me how to be...real.

More than just the shell of a living thing I'd been before. And it feels good, Reaper. It feels really, really good."

She sniffled and lowered her head.

"Then why are you crying?" he asked.

She shrugged. "You brought me back to life, and I don't know how I'm ever going to thank you for that. I was dead inside, are you getting that? Dead inside. And you came along and you just-"

"It's mutual. You know that, right? I wasn't far from dead inside myself."

She lifted her head. He lowered his. And just before their lips met, he said, "But if you insist on sticking around and trying to repay me, I have to warn you, it's gonna take a long, long time."

"No problem. Because I plan to be around for a long, long time. So that works out perfectly."

"I love you, Briar."

She blinked away fresh tears. "You know, a lot of men have said that to me. But you're the very first one who wasn't lying. You mean it. And I know that, and I don't doubt it, despite how many times it's been untrue. And I love you for that as much as for anything else."

And then their lips met, and Reaper could feel what she felt just then. Briar felt true, pure happiness glowing from within her for the first time in her life.

It was a glow Reaper intended to nurture and keep alight for as long as he lived. pqdm.com