She sliced her claw-like nail across the lock of my hair. It clipped in half and fluttered to the ground.
I stepped back into full sunlight and out of reach. Bex let my remaining lock of hair slide from between her scabbed fingers. Her hand dropped to her side.
Walker’s gaze flicked back and forth between Bex and me, and I didn’t appreciate the calculation in his expression.
“Until tomorrow,” Bex murmured.
I blinked, and she was suddenly, inconceivably gone. Her reflective, otherworldly eyes had illuminated the shadows like twin halos, rendering the darkness a little deeper in her absence.
I reached up and wearily tugged on the shortened lock of hair. Her swift departure reminded me of Dominic. Despite my growing experience with vampires, his abilities still awed me. It didn’t matter that he displayed inhuman physical and mental feats at least once a night. I doubted I’d ever consider his exceptional abilities anything but exceptional.
“Get in the truck.”
Walker pounded the gravel in three long strides to his driver’s side door. He didn’t seem awed by Bex’s abilities in the least, but I knew better than most the comfort and clarity of being downright pissed. I bit my tongue and got in the truck.
Walker kicked the ignition, and I held my breath as we drove under the overpass and into the shadows. The cab dimmed for a heart-rending moment. The roar and hiccups of Walker’s truck and the squeaking grind of its wheels crunching over the pavement was the only noise between us. Walker didn’t offer any assurances about our safety now that Bex was gone, and I wondered if, despite knowing Bex longer than I knew Dominic, or perhaps because of his better acquaintance, he didn’t trust her not to double back and attack us.
Light beamed through the windshield as we crossed over, and in the next moment, we were once again basked in the sun’s protection.
I released a shuddering breath.
“What does Dominic have on you?”
I turned to face Walker. “Excuse me?”
He wrung the steering wheel in a punishing grip. “He can’t control your mind like the rest of us, so the only way I can even fathom that you would consent to that circus I just witnessed a moment ago must be blackmail.” Walker turned to meet my gaze. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong,” I said flatly. “Dominic doesn’t have anything on me.”
He sighed. “I can’t help if you don’t let me in. Whatever it is, Cass, I’ll take care of it.”
A laugh burst out from the same deep, dark corner I’d stowed my agony over Nathan, so the laugh sounded sarcastic and hysterical and not funny in the least. “Oh, you’ll just—” I snapped my fingers”—take care of it.”
Walker locked his earnest, velvet brown eyes on mine; the strength and confidence in his gaze made me believe that he could take care of it, or at least, that he believed he could.
“He might have healed the injuries you sustained in his coven, but make no mistake, healing you was for his benefit, not yours.” Walker said tightly. “He wants you. He’ll use you, and when he’s done, he’ll discard you. Dominic Lysander can’t be trusted. None of them can,” he said, his expression fierce. “If you need help, place your trust in me, Cass.”
An infinitesimal blossom of hope ripened inside my chest. The feeling was just a pin-prick of light, but it was more warmth than I’d felt inside myself in weeks. I had to look away before I started believing him.
“You weren’t there when I needed you last time,” I said softly.
Walker reared back, shocked. “The hell I wasn’t.”
I nodded, feeling deflated. “We infiltrated Dominic’s coven to kill the rebel vampires, but you wanted to kill them all. We were outnumbered and losing daylight, and when I asked you to fall back, you forged ahead with your plan without me.”
Walker closed one eye on a wince and massaged his temple. “You’re twisting what really happened. When I realized we were outnumbered, I told you to leave while I finished the mission. I was protecting you.”
“You never should have finished the mission! You should have left with me because that’s what partners do, they stick together, but you were too hell-bent on killing vampires—all the vampires, not just the rebels we had agreed to kill—to recognize a suicide mission when it’s slapping you in the face. Or in your case, when it’s driving its talons into your stomach.”
Walker was quiet for a long moment. I didn’t expect him to agree with me. His savagery concerning vampires was an established note of contention between us, but I expected him to say something. He remained silent and continued massaging his forehead.
“Are you ok?” I asked.
“You’re right.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“I left you alone and without backup because I was greedy to finish the mission and kill the vampires. We should have stuck together because, like you said, that’s what partners do. I’m sorry.”
My mouth fell open at his honesty. He was such a reasonable and intelligent man in every way except in his single-minded vendetta against vampires; still, I was shocked that he’d admit fault.
Walker stopped massaging his temple and took hold of my hand. His thumb stroked over the inside of my wrist. Shivers shot up my arm to my shoulder. “Can you forgive me, darlin’?”
I pursed my lips against the dual heat and chill his touch ignited. “I’ve already forgiven you.”
Walker narrowed his eyes. “But you don’t trust me.”
I shook my head. “I accept your apology, but it’s one thing to say you’re sorry. Even if you mean it, which I believe you do, it’s something else entirely to show me.”
“Give me the chance to prove myself.”
I released a long sigh. The crushing weight of Dominic’s situation in New York City and his approaching Leveling was my constant shadow, no matter the distance. “You can prove it to me by joining me for dinner with Bex. I need you to play nice and have my back.”
“Play nice,” Walker said quietly, nearly inaudible.
I nodded.
“With Bex.”
“Dominic needs this alliance. We—”
“I don’t care what Dominic needs! We are not visiting Bex’s coven for dinner tomorrow night.”
“Well I certainly am, with or without you.”
“Helping Dominic isn’t the answer,” Walker ground out. “Whatever he’s using as leverage over you, tell me. Let me help you.”
“I need you to be my partner and accompany me to dinner. That’s the help I need,” I pled, the argument familiar and bitter for its familiarity. “Please.”
Walker winced and covered his eyes with his hands.
I glanced at the road as we listed slightly. “Are you sure you’re ok?”
“Let Dominic mend his own alliances, and if he can’t, what do I care if they tear each other apart? Just two less vampires in the world for me to kill.”
“Right,” I said, realizing that I’d be having dinner with Bex tomorrow night on my own.
“Besides, Ronnie can’t go into that hell hole. She’d fall apart.”
I put my palms up. “You got her involved. Not me.”
A