Everafter Series 2 - Nevermore by Nell Stark, Trinity Tam Page B

between the tap and a bottle of red wine. The choice was easy: the viscous wine sometimes fooled my throat for an instant. “I’ll head out in a few minutes.”
    “I’m coming with you.”
    “Hell no, you’re not!” My hand shook, and I cursed under my breath as the rich Shiraz splashed onto my white tank top. “If there’s some kind of pathogen out there, then vampires don’t seem to be susceptible. I’ll be safe. You’d be in danger.”
    “If there’s some kind of pathogen out there,” he said, “then I’ve probably already been exposed.”
    However likely that was, I refused to believe it. I didn’t want to think of Sebastian that way, convulsing helplessly in the thrall of some power he could not defeat. “Still, there’s a chance you haven’t been. And we should try to keep it that way.”
    He was quiet for a moment. The red wine sluiced down my throat, thick and fragrant but nothing like what I needed. Alexa was supposed to come home tomorrow. I would go to the airport, even though I suspected she would not be stepping off the plane. Grimacing, I threw the rest of the glass back in one swallow.
    “Call on the land line. Hang on a second.” Sebastian’s murmur was followed by the sound of him setting down his cell phone. “Brenner,” I heard distantly.
    Brenner. The dream returned in a rush: the taste of smoke coating my mouth, the sharp tug of Brenner’s fingers in my hair, the despair pressing behind my eyes as I realized my fate was sealed. Balthasar Brenner. The memory of the snarling white wolf made my skin prickle. It had felt so real.
    “Back,” Sebastian said. “Now where—”
    “Is your father named Balthasar?”
    Silence greeted my question. “Yes,” he said finally, his voice flat. “Why?”
    “I had…a dream.” I paused, the words sounding ridiculous as I said them.
    “About my father?”
    “Yes. It was very vivid. He turned into a white wolf.”
    “He has been known to do that,” Sebastian said dryly.
    “I’m sure there’s a logical explanation,” I said, even though I wasn’t. Had Sebastian ever mentioned the kind of wolf into which his father transformed? I didn’t think he had. So how had my imagination manufactured the correct details?
    I was no stranger to nightmares, but this one had been different. “Just random neurons firing,” I told him and myself. “Probably inspired by our conversation last week.”
    “If I contributed to his invading your dreams, then believe me, I apologize.”
    “Invading,” I said slowly, remembering how my hope had been extinguished when I’d found myself in Brenner’s hands. “In my dream, he was invading a city.”
    Sebastian barked out a laugh. “Your random neurons seem to have generated a very accurate picture. I have no doubt that he would like to invade severalcities, if he could.”
    As he spoke, I upended the bottle of wine and frowned when only a few drops dribbled out. My throat was pulsing now, and my head was starting to ache. Sighing, I reached for the bottle of painkillers next to the sink and shook three into my palm. At least I could do something about my head.
    “Val? You still with me?”
    I blinked hard, realizing that in a matter of seconds I had zoned out. What the hell was going on? “Uh, yeah. Sorry. Distracted.” Distracted, yet in dire need of a distraction. I pushed off the counter and headed toward the bedroom, putting the phone on speaker while I shucked off my stained tank and ran it under the bathroom tap. “I’m going out. Did you get a name to go with that address?”
    “Shade.”
    “Anything else?”
    “That’s it.” Sebastian’s voice was laced with frustration again. “You’ll call me as soon as you find anything.”
    It wasn’t a request, but I didn’t take umbrage. I couldn’t stand feeling helpless either. And this was particularly difficult for him, I knew, since he was being forced to rely not on another Were, but on a vampire.
    “I’ll call.” I pulled on a