by Melody Raven
“My name is Scragg. I expect your family to recognize that name from now on.”
“You know, even if I tell my family about this meeting, they’re not going to leave LA.”
Scragg smiled, baring his fangs. “Oh, I know. But at least you can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The horde all turned and got back in their vehicles, disappearing just as quickly as they appeared. Aidan watched their retreat as the sense of unease remained with him. If they wanted a war, they were going to get a war. And it would be quick and devastating if they were going to take on the witches.
But he couldn’t get over the “why.” Ever since the Siege of Seattle had ended, the Vopura had scattered off into small clusters and remained in hiding. Was this a sign that they were starting to organize again? And the only leg up they’d had during the siege was the great wall set up by a witch foolish enough to side with them. A witch who had been quickly betrayed by the very species she’d aligned herself with.
Why there were still magicks who were foolish enough to get into bed with that mess was beyond him.
Maybe this would finally convince Talia that he needed his powers now more than ever. He shook his head and turned to go back inside. “Lina!” he called as he strode toward the back. But there was no sign of her. Her shoes and jacket were exactly where she’d left them, but she was long gone.
Fuck. What a shitty way to end what had been a great night.
Lina ran as far and as fast as she could. She had to be out of her mind. She had to be imagining it. Scragg. That was what he’d called himself. A hideous name symbolic of how little he cared about fitting into human culture. He couldn’t see her. He couldn’t know she was here.
If he did, it was over. It didn’t matter how much she fought or struggled. She’d never be able to get away if he got his claws into her.
But worst of all, she knew what his presence meant. Because he hadn’t taken the gate in Seattle. He hadn’t been in the first wave of the invasion. She could tell by his short hair that he was a new arrival.
Which meant the unthinkable had happened. The Vopura had found another way onto Earth, and another invasion was imminent.
Aidan leaned against the wall and tried to picture Lina. He’d much rather be play-fighting with her than in this godforsaken room right now.
He felt useless and he had no idea why Talia had ordered his presence. And as frustrating as he found her orders, he knew she usually had good reasons for what she did. But that didn’t make him feel any better at the moment.
To be fair, he wasn’t more useless than most of the people in this room. Ian and Carter, partners at Special Unit 4, were on the other side of the room. Ian, the more pleasant of the two, was somber, keeping his eyes on his phone as he scrolled through who knew what. Carter, however, spent most of the time glaring at Aidan and the fourth man in the room, Harper, one of Talia’s most trusted advisors.
Aidan didn’t know what it was, but Carter obviously had something against witches. Hardly surprising considering it was his job to protect humanity, but his attitude wouldn’t help any of them at this moment. If there really was going to be some sort of imminent attack, they’d need to work together now more than ever.
And there was nothing Aidan hated more than working on a team project.
“So we have nothing.” Carter glared at everyone.
“We have a new player identified,” said Ian. “And we have a warning. It could be a bluff for all we know.”
“Our house has put everyone on high alert. All family members are on guard and on the lookout tonight. If they do plan to attack, they’ll be in for a rude awakening.” Well, at least Harper was optimistic—the only one in the entire room who seemed that way.
But Aidan knew his confidence was misplaced. If the Vopura were attacking traditionally, in person attacking one of the Masters’ strongholds, then yes, they would have the upper hand. But they lived in a new world. There were bombs, and drones, and suicide bombers. There were plenty of attacks that they were in no way prepared to prevent or stop. Tonight would be a test. Their reaction to this test would set the stage for the conflict going forward.
“What do we know about this Scragg?” asked Aidan. “He obviously has a following. Have you heard any chatter about him?” He decided to direct his questions to Ian because he didn’t have the patience for Carter right now.
“Nothing. Until you called, we’d never heard of him.”
Fanfuckingtastic. “What about Dante and John?” The Vopura-turned-human allies were some of the best weapons they had in this war. If anyone could help, it would be them.
Carter shook his head. “They don’t know a thing. But Scragg isn’t the guy’s real name. Back on Vora, they all used different titles. So they could be the guy’s brother, for all we know. Until we have a picture to show them, they won’t be able to tell us anything.”
Aidan let out a sigh. “Harper, what did Talia say about me?” If there was any reason to untether him, it was this.
Harper shrugged apologetically. “She’s confident in her course of action.”
What a smug son of a bitch. Harper wasn’t related by blood but had been adopted into the House of Masters. One of Talia’s pet projects. His mixed-race heritage made his ethnicity hard to place, but Aidan always did his research. His mother was white, and his father was mostly African American, with just a touch of Samoan. Not the most common mix, but it gave him a unique look. Undoubtedly women loved the unique skin tone and the one-in-a-million eyes.
Aidan might just be biased against the man because Talia had always seemed to favor her employee over him. He thought back to what Scragg had called him. Talia’s chained pet. God, what he’d do if he had his powers available to him.
“All right. If she doesn’t want me to have my powers, what does she want me to do?”
“Your original task. Find the Vopura preying on men at Puncture.”
For fuck’s sake. “That’s ancient history by now. I’ve been stalking that club almost every night. There haven’t been more attacks and no Vopura there that I could sense.”
“If you’d like me to assist you with a spell, I’m sure I can work something out.”
Harper might as well slap him with that offer. He didn’t know what pissed him off more: that Harper had even considered it or the fact that it would really help him. “If you want to use your spells, why don’t you work on finding out more about Scragg before this hypothetical attack becomes very real?”
“You know we would if we could. But without a personal item, a piece of DNA, or even a real name, there’s not much we can do to spellbind him. Maybe if you had gotten us more that we could work with, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
Aidan blinked a few times. He carefully controlled his rage. It wouldn’t do him any good right now. But he did imagine, in great detail, what he would do to Harper if he had his powers back.
It was oddly calming.
“None of us like being in this situation,” said Ian placidly. “But we’ll figure it out. Scragg is trying to scare and rattle us. If we start fighting among one another, it’s not going to help. For now, the plan is that the witches will be on high alert. Any events for tonight will be cancelled and you’ll try to stay inside. And we are going to reach out to our contacts and see who knows what about this Scragg. What do we know about the witch working with him?”
All attention turned to Harper, and he shrugged. “The symbol Aidan drew for us doesn’t look familiar to me. I’ll circulate it and see what comes up.”
He was lying. Aidan was certain of it. But why would he? Was he trying to keep Aidan out of the loop or the humans? Neither option was great.
If he was trying to keep Aidan out, that meant Talia was trying to distance him even more. If he was trying to keep the humans out, that was even worse. Because that meant there could be a credible threat to his house. The humans, as helpful as they’d been in the fight with the Vopura, were still ancient enemies
of his kind. The witch trials were no joke, and there were plenty of humans who would still gladly burn him at a stake.
And considering the sore state of his powers, he couldn’t do much to protect himself.
“Okay,” said Ian. If he suspected Harper was lying, he didn’t show it. “Then we’ll both look into that one. And if we find anything, we’ll let Aidan know.”
God, he hated being a liaison between his kind and the humans. There were much more productive things he could be doing.
“Same,” said Harper.
Somehow he managed to not look smug at all even as he shot insult after insult in Aidan’s direction.
“Great. Good plan, all. I look forward to tackling this together with all of you.” With that fake sincerity, Aidan left the building as quick as possible. He slid into his Camaro and managed to keep his annoyance under control until he sat down and was alone. Finally, he bit out a curse and punched the steering wheel. He felt powerless, and considering his family ties, that was such a rare feeling for him.
He glanced around him, just looking for more things to piss him off until his gaze fell on the passenger seat. Lina’s jacket and shoes sat on the seat, and for a moment his rage flitted away.
He really should return them. It was the nice thing to do. After all, she thought he was nice. He might as well keep that impression going. There was nothing else good going to come out of tonight. Maybe if he could at least see her he would feel better.
The reasoning was thin, but it didn’t stop him from starting up the car and navigating in the direction of her apartment. He remembered the location well. Just a few blocks away from Puncture. He’d driven by it every time he’d gone to and from the club ever since he’d met her. He wouldn’t consider himself a stalker because it wasn’t too far out of the way, but it also wasn’t the shortest route for him to take. So on the creep-o-meter scale, he’d say he fell somewhere in the middle.
But he wasn’t making this up. He genuinely did have items to return to her.
He reached the apartment in ten minutes. The sun was just setting, so there were a few parking spots available on the street. Not right in front of the building but not far away either.
Picking up the jacket and sneakers, he got out of the car and strode for the apartment. Luckily, it was easy to determine which apartment was her employer’s. She always referred to her employer by her last name. Grace Anders. On level one. He hit the buzzer and waited to see whether anyone was going to answer. He was about to give up when finally the intercom buzzed back.
“Hello?”
He could tell it wasn’t Lina. This was an older voice. More weathered. Less guarded. “My name is Aidan. I wanted to drop off Lina’s jacket and shoes. She left them yesterday.”
There was a pause. “I don’t know who that is,” the woman finally said.
He knew she was secretive, but was her boss under orders to not even let people know she lived there? Fuck. There went his one chance to make this night better. “All right then. Sorry for the confusion.” He took his phone out to text Lina and tell her he was there when the intercom buzzed again.
“I’m on my way down,” said Lina.
He smiled in victory. He’d gotten her. He was still smiling a second later when Lina appeared at the door and pushed it open.
She looked more like she had the night he’d first met her. Wearing all black again. This time, a tight black skirt that was probably a reasonable length on an average woman, but combined with her long legs it looked like a mini. She wore a loose black silk tank top that draped erotically over all of her curves and begged to be touched. The flat black boots gave the look a grungy edge, but he remembered what she said about going out. She wasn’t trying to draw attention. She just wanted to watch. And he was betting the flat heels were a hell of a lot more comfortable than the towering stilettos he saw women walk in like it was second nature.
“Wow,” he said before he could think better of it. “You look amazing.”
A blush crept up her cheeks. “Thanks.”
Obviously she’d been trying to dress down for their little training session. Now that he’d caught her by surprise, he felt as if he were getting a look at the real Lina. “I’m sorry for showing up here out of the blue. I was in the area and I wanted to make sure you got your stuff back.”
She glanced down at her stuff in his hands and back up at him. “Is that the truth?”
“That I was in the area or I wanted to make sure you got your stuff back?”
She shrugged. “Any of it.”
Well, he hadn’t been far away. And he did want to make sure she got her things. But if he was being truthful.... “I wanted to see you. Last night ended so suddenly and you were just gone. I was worried about you.”
“I told you I was okay.”
He scoffed. “You sent me a three-word text that you were okay and ignored all of my other messages. That’s not the same thing.”
“It’s not nothing.”
“One step up from nothing.”
“Listen, I appreciate everything you were doing. And, to be honest, you were a much better teacher than I was expecting. But I think my life is just... incompatible with what we were doing. I’m sorry.”
He frowned. She was breaking up with him? How was she going to break up with him? They weren’t even doing anything. “I don’t get it. Don’t you want to learn how to fight?”
“There are things going on that you don’t... that I can’t— I just have a very complicated life.”
“I’m a warlock who can’t use my powers. If anyone gets a complicated life, it’s me.”
She smiled, and he was more determined than ever to keep this going. “Aidan, I—”
He threw caution to the wind and leaned forward, pressing his mouth against hers. She caught her breath as he kissed her softly. He went slowly, keeping his hands firmly at his sides in case she wanted to pull away.
She obviously had gone through a lot of shit in her past, and he wasn’t about to make her feel threatened in any way. But he wasn’t going to just ignore the chemistry between them.
Her lips finally responded, pressing against his as she kissed him back. It was so damn soft and innocent. He was just about to lean in and give her the full force of what he was feeling when she pulled back, looking up at him with wide eyes. In the darkness, they looked completely black, making her already unique look seem positively otherworldly.
“I don’t want to let you go,” he breathed, unable to look away from her eyes.
“I don’t want—” Her gaze went over his shoulder, and her eyes widened.
A second later, he was thrown to the side as shots rang out. He barely registered what had happened as he turned around to see the Vopura running off. He couldn’t see their faces. Just a blur as they disappeared. He took a few long strides for them before admitting that there was no chance of catching up to them.
Fuck. The bangs. What had that been? Gunshots? It had to be gunshots. He glanced down, confirming that there were no holes in his body. But if he was okay, then that meant....
He raced back to where he’d been and saw Lina curled up into a little ball and holding her knees tightly against her. “Baby, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“You need to leave.” He could barely hear the words because her face was pressed so tightly against her knees.
“You were shot. I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to the hospital right now.”
“Aidan!” she screamed, still not lifting her head. “Get out of here! I don’t want you here!”
If she thought he was leaving, she was out of her damn mind. Which made him even more worried about what her injuries were.
“Come on.” He knelt down. He was planning on picking her up with one hand behind her back and one hand under her knees when she finally lifted her head, shoving against him with both hands.
There was so much force behind the shove that he slid back a good twenty feet. He quickly jumped back to his
feet and looked at his poor, injured Lina.
Except she didn’t look helpless. With her eyes completely black and fangs protruding from her top lip, she looked exactly like a vampire.
Lina took deep breaths in and out as she tried to comprehend the pain she was in. She’d never been shot before, but somehow she thought it wouldn’t be this bad. Her kind healed so quickly. How could it be this bad?
To make matters worse, Aidan was staring at her as if she’d grown a second head.
Was he going to kill her now? Was he going to get over the shock of what she was and then come at her with a stake and jam it through her heart?
Of all the ways she expected to die, she’d never considered someone she liked would do it. And she did like Aidan. As much as she didn’t want to and as much as she’d tried to keep her walls up, somehow he’d managed to sneak beneath her defenses.
And that might be a mistake that would do her in.
“What are you?” he asked as he approached slowly.
She inched back as far as she could into the wall. She wanted to push herself up to run away but didn’t think she was capable of it. Either through the pain or because of the shock of Aidan discovering who she really was. “You know what I am,” she said softly. No point denying it. The pain brought out her natural defenses, and she couldn’t suppress the changes even if she tried.
“Are you a vampire?”
She could tell the way he asked he already knew the answer, but she supposed he needed to ask. She could lie, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get away with it for long. She knew nothing about the vampires of this world. There was no way she’d be able to fake an association. “No,” she said simply. “I know this is a lot. Just leave me.” If he left, she’d be able to drag herself inside. Once she was safe in her room, she could nurse her wounds until they healed.
“I can’t leave.”
She closed her eyes and let her head fall against the wall. “Please.” A tear escaped her eye. Somehow she didn’t feel afraid. Just defeated. Sad. So much time running, only for this to be her end.
