Chapter 19 #2
“Yes,” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck. “I asked Gladis to make you a blood smoothie for today.”
Her eyes widened slightly before dropping to the tumbler again.
“We’ll be outside briefly, going to and from the car,” I continued. “And FangTech has both human and supe divisions. I didn’t want you getting too hungry while we were there.”
The second I said hungry, her expression shifted and her cheeks got red. She nodded in agreement.
“That’s actually really thoughtful.” The quiet sincerity in her voice hit me harder than it should have. “Thank you.”
I ducked my head slightly and squeezed her hand.
“You ready?”
She nodded immediately, tightly closing both eyes shut like she was bracing for impact. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing.
God, she was adorable.
Today was going to be a disaster for my self-control.
***
“Okay,” she admitted around another long pull from the straw in her tumbler, slowly lowering it as we passed through FangTech’s front doors. “You were right.”
Her shoulders loosened visibly after that sixth gulp, color returning to her face little by little.
“I definitely needed this.” She lifted the smoothie in surrender. “Who knew a tiny amount of sunlight could make me feel half dead and starving?”
A laugh slipped out of her as she shook her head.
“I totally get why vampires become night creatures now. Human me would’ve judged.”
“It gets easier,” I assured her, watching the way she instinctively stayed closer to me while we walked through the lobby. “Your body’s still adjusting. Right now, everything hits harder because you’re newly turned.”
Her nose scrunched faintly.
“So eventually I won’t feel like I got hit by a truck after five minutes outside?”
“Eventually,” I said, amused.
My gaze drifted over her again, and irritation immediately tugged at me.
I hated the glamour spell.
The disguise did its job, sure. Brown hair. Green eyes. Softer features. Safe. Forgettable. But it erased her, and the only one I wanted to stare at was her.
It stripped away the sharp, dark edge that made Olivia look like trouble wrapped in charcoal and smoke. Gone were the ruby eyes that flashed when she got worked up. Gone were those red-tipped braids my fingers had already become obsessed with.
This girl beside me looked pretty, but she didn’t look like my mate. My Olivia.
Not for the first time, I found myself counting down the days until we figured out who tried to kill her so she could stop hiding.
And fuck, that search was turning into a nightmare.
Since the shooting, I’d had people digging nonstop. We’d hunted down every alley camera, every whisper on the street, every mechanic, dealer, and low-level idiot with loose lips and nothing.
Whoever pulled the trigger either knew exactly what they were doing… or got impossibly lucky.
No one was bragging. No rumors had spread. Even the people who heard the gunshot conveniently “saw nothing.”
The streets around the garage were scrubbed clean except for tire tracks too muddled to identify.
Every dead end only made the frustration worse. Our only real lead was Olivia’s memory, which still hadn’t come back.
At the front desk, I handed her a guest badge application and watched her glance around the lobby like she was trying to absorb every detail at once.
The awe on her face reminded me of the first time she saw Calix’s underground lab. That same spark lit behind her eyes now, and I realized her brain worked like his.
Different angles. Different solutions. Different instincts.
Which was exactly how I knew where she’d actually care about going.
Not the executive offices or fancy conference floors. Testing and Development. Calix’s territory.
The elevator dinged open, and I stepped aside, motioning her in first. Then I looked over my shoulder at the employees waiting behind us.
One glance was enough.
They immediately pretended they’d always intended to wait for the next elevator, but Olivia still looked back at me suspiciously before stepping inside.
I smiled innocently.
“Press five, please.”
She turned toward the panel and blinked hard.
“Holy shit.” Her eyes climbed the glowing numbers. “There are fifty-two floors?” She looked genuinely offended by the betrayal. “This building does not look that tall from outside.”
I stepped in behind her, settling close enough for her scent to curl around me, and breathed in deep.
“There are actually ten more below us,” I murmured near her ear. Her back stiffened against my chest.
I pointed toward the thin red line dividing the buttons.
“This separates the underground levels from the main tower.”
“Oh.” The word escaped her in a small breath. “Th-that’s cool.”
That shaky little stutter nearly unraveled me.
I leaned closer without thinking, breathing her in while she stared at the panel and pretended she didn’t notice how close I’d gotten.
My mind immediately betrayed me.
The car. Her straddling me. The sounds she made while feeding. The way she clung to me like she’d die if I stopped touching her.
The elevator dinged open before I could spiral any further.
“Wow!”
She slipped under my arm and darted out before I could recover, leaving me standing there, staring after her, while my body tried to remember how to function normally.
I hung my head for one second. Get yourself together.
“What’s that?” Her voice echoed excitedly down the hall.
I followed the sound and found her pressed up against a glass wall, palms braced against it while her eyes flew around the room behind the glass.
I chuckled softly.
“This room stores discontinued robotics projects. Some failed in testing. Some worked but weren’t profitable enough to sell.”
She barely heard me. Her eyes rapidly bounced from machine to machine while her lips moved under her breath.
“But if they shifted the axle there…” She leaned closer to the glass. “And replaced that plate with a wheel strut…”
A slow grin spread across her face.
“Oh my god,” she whispered to herself, almost gleeful now. “These idiots thought this was junk.”
I stared at her instead of the room.
Of all the expensive technology on this floor, the thing lighting her up most was the scrap pile. My mouth twitched upward before I could stop it.
“Come on,” I said. “There’s more to see.”
She turned toward me slowly, her lower lip pushed out just slightly, and those absolutely devastating puppy-dog eyes locked onto me like she knew exactly what they did to people.
I’d watched hardened criminals beg and cry for their lives. I was the one who stayed stone faced and brutal when it came time for their life to end without blinking.
This? Her? She nearly dropped me to my knees.
“Can we come back to this room later?” she asked hopefully.
Fuck. I was absolutely doomed.
Someone in a nearby cubicle peeked over the partition at the sound of Olivia’s voice. The second his eyes landed on me, all the color drained from his face.
“Sorry, sir.”
The apology tumbled out so fast it nearly overlapped itself. Papers clutched tightly to his chest, he ducked his head and hurried off before I could say a word.
Olivia watched him flee with raised brows before slowly turning back toward me.
“Are they all that scared of you?”
I straightened slightly, shoving my hands into my pockets.
“Maybe.”
The answer came easier than it should have.
“No matter how polished FangTech looks, some people will always see the Syndicate as killers in expensive suits.”
“And the others?”
I reached out before I could stop myself, tucking a strand of glamoured chestnut hair behind her ear. My fingers lingered along her jaw before I gently tipped her chin upward. Our faces hovered inches apart.
“To the others,” I murmured, watching her pupils widen slightly, “they know exactly who we are and don’t care… because we protect what belongs to us.”
Her throat bobbed in a swallow while excitement flickered through her eyes like sparks catching fire.
And fuck, seeing that look directed at me, my self-control was starting to crumble like a house of cards.
The urge to drag her into the nearest empty office and ruin her against a desk came roaring back.
I released her face before I did something reckless.
Show her the floor first. Then maybe find somewhere private. That became the new plan.
I turned and motioned for her to follow.
“This entire level is Testing and Development,” I explained while we walked. “It’s underground because we needed more space than the actual tower could provide.”
Her gaze bounced everywhere at once.
Massive open labs stretched out beneath exposed industrial beams. Glass-walled workshops buzzed with machinery while drones zipped overhead carrying parts between departments.
“The underground floors are each about the height of an airplane hangar,” I continued. “Double the width of the building above us.”
Her eyes widened again.
“That’s insane.”
A grin tugged at my mouth as she hurried closer to one glass wall, peering into a fabrication room like a kid at an aquarium.
“The lower levels handle military-grade projects. Weapons. Defense systems. Syndicate-specific equipment.” I pointed up. “Floor fifteen handles mass production and public consumer tech.”
She nodded along quickly, absorbing everything. Meanwhile, every employee we passed suddenly became deeply invested in their workstations. Heads lowered. Eyes avoided mine. Nobody wanted my attention for too long because attention from me usually meant more work.
And if you failed after I delegated something? You didn’t stay around long.
Legitimate business wasn’t all that different from the streets. The predators just wore nicer watches.
“So where do you—” Olivia abruptly stopped mid-sentence.
I turned back toward her and followed the direction of her stare. Tall frame, ash-white hair, and an attitude like he owned the place.
Calix.
He stood inside one of the shooting-range booths behind reinforced bulletproof glass, focused entirely on the weapon in his hands.