Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

“It’s Tessa.”

“Hi, Tessa.” A creak carried to her ears, and she imagined him leaning back in his desk chair. “What can I do for you?”

“I could really use some chocolate.” It was a code he’d given her the night she’d met him to let him know she wanted to talk without the vampires or other immortals overhearing them.

“No problem. I’ll have Todd bring you some in a few.”

“Thank you.”

The call ended.

Tessa dashed back into the bedroom and exchanged her cross-back tank top and sleep shorts for jeans and a T-shirt. As she slipped on a pair of sneakers, a knock sounded on her door. Tessa swiftly combed her fingers through her hair to tidy it then tugged the door—as thick and heavy as that on a bank vault—open.

Todd, the highest-ranking guard on sublevel five, smiled at her as he held up a paper bag. “Mr. Reordon said you wanted some chocolate.”

Smiling, she took it. “Thank you.”

He glanced up and down the hallway, then jerked his head to one side.

Nodding, Tessa set the bag on a nearby table. As soon as she stepped out into the hallway and closed her door, Todd led her to the only elevator this level boasted.

A dozen guards with automatic rifles and tranquilizer guns loitered in front of it. Some stood. Some sat behind a large desk.

Among those standing, Jared stopped chatting with the guards and offered her a nod as she approached.

Tessa nodded back and forced a smile.

The elevator doors closed, sealing her inside with Todd.

Neither spoke as they ascended to the ground floor. More guards greeted them as they exited and headed down a long hallway to Chris Reordon’s office.

His assistant’s office preceded his and offered ample seating for anyone forced to wait. The large desk that presided over it sat empty. The door that connected Kate’s office to Chris’s stood open.

Todd only took Tessa as far as the doorway and rapped on the frame.

Reordon stood by his desk, shoulder to shoulder with Kate, as they went over some papers she held up for his consideration. Both looked over and smiled.

Tucking the papers into a file folder, Kate offered Tessa a silent wave and left.

Todd struck up a conversation with Kate while Reordon motioned for Tessa to follow him into an adjoining room.

Tessa entered a large swanky boardroom and waited for him to close the door.

Absolute silence fell when he did. There was so much soundproofing packed into this room’s walls, floor, and ceiling that even Seth couldn’t eavesdrop upon whatever took place within. And the only way anyone in the swanky boardroom could hear what happened outside it was if Reordon flipped a switch that let speakers play sound wired in from his office.

Though many considered Reordon a hard-ass, he turned to Tessa with a friendly smile. “What can I do for you?”

She shifted her feet. “I’d like to go outside.” Having to ask permission still galled her. But she was new to this world and—after all they’d done for her—should play by their rules. At least for a time.

He glanced at the door he’d just closed as if it were a window with a view of the building’s exterior. “It’s nine a.m. And there isn’t a cloud in the sky.”

“I know,” she said, “but I’m as fast as an elder and can reach the shade trees before the sun burns me.”

Face sobering, he studied her with a piercing gaze. “Everything okay?”

“Yes.” She forced a smile. “I just get insomnia from time to time. Always have. And becoming an immortal doesn’t seem to have eradicated that.”

“Well, that sucks,” he responded with a commiserating smile. Tessa suspected, however, that he knew there was more to it than that. Reordon was a very discerning man.

“It really does. I thought maybe some fresh air would help.”

“No problem. I’m sure Jared wouldn’t mind accompanying you.” Amusement sparkled in his eyes. “And the guards could probably use a break.”

She laughed. The ancient immortal was well known for talking the guards’ ears off. “I wouldn’t want to bother him.”

He waved her concern away. “It won’t bother him.” Before she could protest—couldn’t she even go for a walk by herself?—he opened the door and poked his head out. “Jared.”

He didn’t yell the name, just spoke it as if the ancient were waiting in his office.

Jared appeared just outside the doorway and joined them.

Chris closed the door. “Would you escort Tessa outside? She’d like to get some fresh air.”

Jared turned to her and issued a slight bow. “It would be my pleasure.”

She doubted that. She wasn’t exactly in a chatty mood.

Chris reached for the door. “Give me a minute to put sublevel five’s windows on a loop. All the vamps are sleeping right now. But if they wake up, I don’t want them to see you out there and get jealous. Most of them miss daylight.”

Vampires couldn’t leave sublevel five unless Bastien accompanied them. And—in moments when the encroaching madness drove them into darker thoughts—they sometimes resented that the immortals could.

A couple of minutes later, she and Jared strode through the network’s lobby.

The guards all greeted Jared like a friend and coworker. She would’ve thought they would be more in awe of him. He was, after all, as old and nearly as powerful as Seth. But his tendency to pester them with questions must have eroded that.