“The alternative is you come to work with us.”
She’d thought she’d scuppered that idea and they wouldn’t want her after her involvement with Tara’s kidnappers. “So you do employ humans?” Of course they did. They’d employed Ryan and Ash.
“Not many. But we’re recruiting right now.”
“Why? What for? What’s changed?”
“Our role at the Order has always been to police the supernatural world. Occasionally, we do clean up jobs like your mother’s murderer. But our main emphasis has been on keeping the peace between the demons and the fae.”
It was like she’d been dumped in the middle of a fairy tale. “You’re kidding me right? Demons? And fae—you mean like fairies?”
“Yes. Until the Accords there were regular wars between the two and there was a danger that mankind would be destroyed. So the Accords were set up, and demons lived in the Abyss—”
“That’s like hell?”
Christian grinned. “It’s not so bad.”
“I’ll take your word for it. I don’t plan to visit anytime soon. Go on…”
“The fae live in the Faelands. Neither can enter the other’s world. There’s still the occasional war that breaks out, and it takes place here on Earth. We usually manage to put it down and banish the guilty parties to where they belong. We lock down the portals between the worlds until things settle.”
“So what’s changed?”
“The two sides have reached an accord of their own. We’re changing the emphasis of what we do as we’ve come to the conclusion that it can only be a matter of time before our existence becomes known to you humans.”
“Already happened.”
“But not the general public. Over the next few years we plan to prepare them.”
“That’s what Ryan and Ash are doing?”
“Yes, meeting potential…allies.”
She supposed it made sense. With increased technology, more and more people would notice the monsters among them. Look at those photos of Christian. How long until someone spotted that he hadn’t aged in…
“Hey, just how old are you?”
“Five hundred years, give or take a few.”
Her mouth dropped open. She couldn’t imagine living that long. He appeared pretty good on it, though. One of the perks of being the undead.
She covered her mouth with her hand as a huge yawn escaped her. “Sorry,” she muttered. “Stressful day and night. So what happens now? Can I go home?”
“Not until you decide what you’re going to do. Whether you’ll join with us, or whether you want to forget.”
She didn’t want to forget. And she didn’t want anyone messing with her mind. It was messed up enough already.
“So I go back to my cell until I decide?” At least there was a bed, but all the same she wasn’t looking forward to returning to her cell—she needed a shower. She glanced down at herself. Her white shirt was stained dark with dried blood. Yuk.
“I think we can manage something a little better. There’s guest accommodation upstairs. You can stay there until you decide what you want to do.”
“I’ll show her,” Ash said, pushing himself up and coming to stand in front of her.
She didn’t want to go with him. But he obviously had something he wanted to say, and maybe it was best to get it over with.
He was silent in the elevator. They went up a long way. At least she would be aboveground. Finally, they stopped and Ash led the way out and across a corridor. He opened a door and gestured for her to enter.
The door led straight into a large, luxurious living space, decorated in creams and blues. She took a deep breath and turned to face Ash. He was leaning against the wall, arms folded, watching her.
“What?” she asked.
“I was just waiting for you to say you were sorry.”
Chapter Nineteen
He could wait as long as he liked. Faith was through with apologizing. “Sorry? Sorry for what exactly?”
“For not telling me you knew where Tara was last night. For letting me kiss you when all the while you knew who had my daughter. For lying to me.”
Her blood pounded in her veins. She’d been feeling sort of pathetic and the anger felt good. She stepped up close to him and stabbed him in the chest with her finger—it was rock hard. “Piss off, Ash,” she snarled. “I’m not the only one who fucking lied. I didn’t see you spilling the truth. By the way, Faith, I work for a bunch of vampires. Did you say that? No you fucking didn’t.”
“I—”
She jabbed him again. “And another thing. I didn’t even know Tara was your daughter until you were leaving last night. Because you know what, that was one more thing you didn’t tell me. All I knew was she didn’t seem to like you very much.”
“We were estranged for a long while.” He unfolded his arms and straightened taking a step toward her. “I’m glad you didn’t know.”
“What difference does it make?”