"Death Row 03 - The Avenger" - читать интересную книгу автора (Black Jaid)

It seemed like forever before Kerick at last spoke. By the time he did, her heart was slamming against her chest. With fear of what would happen next? With apprehension of how he would react to her confession? She no longer knew.

“I know,” Kerick murmured, “that you are valuable to the Hierarchy. I have known that for quite some time now. I just didn’t know why. It’s because you are Abdul Kan’s daughter, is it not?”

She slowly shook her head. “No. Hardly anyone at Fathom Systems was aware of our association.”

His eyebrow quirked. His gaze momentarily flicked down to the leather-bound book she was holding, but he made no move to take it from her. “Then…?”

Her sigh was long and weary. “I told You the very day You stole me I was working on a serum.”

Kerick’s muscles tensed. Yes she had. Yet somehow amidst all the chaos he had briefly forgotten as much.

“I was close to perfecting it before You took me from Altun Ha. Very close, in fact.”

He frowned a bit as he absently ran a hand over his stubbled jaw. “This is why you are wanted back? To finish the serum?”

Her smile was sad. She glanced up, her gaze meeting his. “They don’t want me to finish it, Kerick. They never did. Only I didn’t realize that until later, after You took me.”

His eyes narrowed.

“They want me dead,” Nellie murmured. “My own sire included, no doubt.”

Kerick took a deep breath and blew it out. “They let you work on it until you got too close to the truth.”

She nodded. “I didn’t know it until after I ran from You the first time and returned to Altun Ha, but had You not stolen me away that eve I…” She sighed, uncharacteristic tears welling up in her eyes. She supposed the tears were due to fatigue for she had long ago come to accept that her father was evil. He had murdered her mother, his own wife. There was little point in harboring hurt feelings over the fact that he had also intended to kill his ownchild—herself. She blinked the tears away, clutched the journal tighter against her breasts, and continued. “Let us just say I would be dead,” she admitted a bit shakily.

Had she not glanced away she might have seen a gentling in his stark gray eyes. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “For whatever that’s worth.”

Her gaze clashed again with his. “I won’t pretend that growing up I didn’t crave his love. I thought I could change him. That never happened.” She smiled. “Idealistic youth,” she whispered.

They studied each other for a prolonged silence. Kerick ran a battle-worn hand through her dark red hair, his fingers sifting through it with quiet appreciation. Her eyes shuttered. An unspoken bond was forged between them in those moments. He didn’t know it yet, but the fact he was not holding Nellie responsible for her sire’s actions had served to further endear him to her. Everyone else had her entire life. Why wouldn’t he?

Perhaps he truly did love her.

His hand dropped, falling to rest at his side. Nellie broke his gaze.

“I suppose now is the time to tell You all.”

Kerick said nothing, just stood there and waited.

Nellie lowered her eyes to look down upon the journal she was holding. She ran a hand over the worn leather casing before slowly handing the book to her husband. His steel-gray eyes were filled with incomprehension. “This is the journal all of my ideas for the serum came from,” she admitted. “Few know of its existence. Or at least, few did. I think the Hierarchy is now aware.” She sighed. “And I think they came that eve to retrieve it at all costs. Even if they had to murder me to obtain it.”

Kerick frowned as he glanced down at the diary his wife had handed him. There was something oddly familiar about it. The look of it, the scent of it, the—

His eyes widened in dawning comprehension as he opened the book to its first page. “I don’t believe this,” he muttered, his heart slamming against his chest. He realized it belonged to his mother before he saw her name within it. He would recognize her hurried, precise penmanship anywhere. “Where did you get this?” he asked, stunned.

“An infected woman brought it to me,” she whispered.

He searched her eyes. “But how—”