The wind kicked up, sending the curly hair of my fake beard fluttering across the hollow of my throat and tickling me without mercy. Maybe one day I wouldn’t have to hide my identity, but as of right now, I was still the supernatural world’s most wanted hacker. That meant a life of anonymous sex, zero meaningful relationships, and way too much wig adhesive. It was all fake names, deep cover, and high security for me. Unless I wanted to get caught and become the captive of that vengeful witch.
Hard pass. She’d already done enough damage.
I scratched at my chin with an annoyed grunt, my irritation rising when I felt the adhesive give way. Great. My goatee probably looked drunker than I did—than I wassupposedto be.
The whole thing was bullshit, my night wrecked, and now I didn’t even have a good buzz to make any of the effort worth it. I should have just waited until I got home. Then I could have cracked open one of the bottles of Jack I’d bought and found oblivion in the best way I knew. Alone.
I hated the need for these disguises, but it was the only way to maintain any sort of social life when, as far as the people of Aurora Springs knew, Asher Henry didn’t exist. And I needed to keep it that way if I wanted to stay alive. In a town of one hundred and seventy-three people, that was a special sort of hell.
Thus I became Joe Baker, resident hermit and curmudgeonly fisherman. No one bothered me. No one cared if I ever showed my face.
Well, almost no one.
Starting up my old beater of a truck, I waited for the heat to blast and fill the cab. Even in the spring, it was cold here. But going into hiding meant isolation in a small, nowhere town. What better place than the near wilds of Alaska?
I drove the forty minutes up the winding path to my mountain fortress, mostly muttering to myself and ignoring the sorry excuse for music playing on the radio. It was really just a bunch of static with a random guitar strum here and there, but what could you expect from a town with one fucking station?
If the night had gone according to plan, I would have slept it off at Joe Baker’s houseboat or any of the other properties I owned under various names. But since tonight had shit the bed before it even started, all I wanted was to go home. That meant my log cabin in the woods. The one filled with technology so advanced not even the military had access to most of it, and no one in Aurora Springs, let alone anywhere else, would find it on any kind of map. Google Earth could fuck right off.
As I pulled past the camouflaged gate hiding my property from the prying eyes of wayward hikers, I frowned. The beams of my headlights flashed across strange tracks in the muddy earth of the dirt road.
“What the fuck?”
My pulse raced, adrenaline spiking as the path continued toward my house. Animal? Maybe. I’d encountered my share of wildlife here. They were the only creatures who breached my walls.
But as soon as I parked, I saw the culprit. A dirty lump huddled against my door. Stringy dark hair hanging in front of their—no,her—face.
Reaching under the seat of my truck, I pulled the revolver I kept hidden there out of its holster. You never knew what you’d come up against out here. I’d learned that the hard way.
I got out, breath tight as I raised the gun and switched off the safety. Then I cocked the hammer and said, “Don’t fucking move.”
Her head snapped up, and she pinned me with eyes the color of burnished gold. My heart stuttered. I knew those eyes. That face. I’d stared at them far too many times from the glow of my computer screens under the guise of “research.” But she wasn’t my assignment, shouldn’t have been on my fucking radar at all. And yet I hadn’t been able to look away even after—
“You’re dead.”
Her stats flashed in my memory:
Roslyn “Rosie” Blackthorne
Age: 21
Species: Vampire-Human hybrid
(never turned)
Parents: Cashel and Olivia Blackthorne
Siblings: Noah and Westley Blackthorne
Status: Deceased
Cause of death: House fire
“Not dead enough, it would seem.” She got to wobbly feet, her eyes tired, face dirt-streaked and pale. “Asher, I need your help.”
“Why the fuck should I help you? How did you even find me?”
A proud, exhausted smile flitted across her face. “You’re not the only one with a certain skill set.”