Alien Obsession (Shadow Zone Brotherhood Book 2)

by Elise Jae

  What could be worth that? “What is it, exactly, that you expect me to do?”

  “Next time Drift comes in… you’re going to inject him with this.”

  It’s the first time I’ve heard D’s real name, but the syringe in the man’s hand captures my attention and I can’t focus on anything else.

  “No.” I say before thinking better of it. These men might not be human, but they have that feel.

  “You don’t understand.” What little civility it once held leaches from his face. “This isn’t a request. You do it and get paid… or, you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

  He smiles again, as if the words aren’t a direct threat. “It’s your choice, but I’m sure your family would prefer to see you walk off the ship when you return home, rather than be carried off in a body bag after meeting with an unfortunate accident.”

  He’s still holding the syringe out to me.

  There’s no way to run—no chance I can hide from a man like this. I don’t even know who I’d go to to protect myself.

  There’s a police force here, but I don’t know what I’d be sending their way.

  So I take the syringe.

  There’s no other choice.

  And with another smile that sends a shiver down my spine, the man bows and turns, heading for a van on the far side of the lot I didn’t see before now.

  The others follow, leaving me with a stomach full of writhing coils of dread.

  DRIFT

  There are grumbles from among the crowd at the bar.

  She didn’t dance tonight.

  Some are quickly distracted.

  Some are pissed.

  They came to see her, she owes them.

  I have to walk away before I remind them what they could get for being an asshole.

  Margot greets me with a smile and tells me the room number, so I know she’s here. But something is definitely off.

  She’s never changed rooms on me before.

  If I had hackles, they’d be raised.

  I pause in front of the door, hand on the panel, and glance sideways at the man who’s been watching me since I arrived.

  His face is turned toward the stage, but he’s got a bead on me. And I’d love to go over and ask him why….

  But the desire to see Kimba—to know she’s safe—is stronger.

  Kimba’s waiting in the room when I get there. Which wouldn’t be quite as concerning if she wasn’t fully dressed, hunched as though someone’s hit her… and holding a capped syringe.

  She doesn’t look up until the door shuts behind me.

  And I don’t know how to ask the twelve questions swirling in my mind.

  When she finally looks at me, her lips are pursed, her brows pinched.

  “Someone asked me to kill you.” She holds the syringe up on the flat of her palm. “Or maybe just to sedate you so they can be the one to finish you off. I don’t know.”

  Her hand trembles.

  I’d thought I’d seen every emotion paint Kimba’s face, but this is new.

  It’s fear.

  And thank the saints it’s not of me.

  But I don’t want to see her like that. I need to distract her. If I can make her laugh….

  “I didn’t realize murder required street clothes.”

  It doesn’t work.

  But the fear is replaced with frustration.

  “Do you think this is funny? Someone wants you dead.”

  She’s scared, and I’m being an asshole.

  “I’m sorry.” Dropping to my knees in front of her, I push her hair back from her face. “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you wear shoes.”

  She looks down, but her feet are hidden by the too-dim lights.

  “Because when they find out I haven’t done it… I’m going to guess I’ll need to run.”

  “I’ll carry you if it comes to that.”

  The look she shoots me is skeptical, then her gaze goes back to her hand.

  She looks at the syringe again, brow creasing. “Who are you?”

  It’s a question I knew I’d have to answer eventually… even if Kimba never asked it. One that could end everything I’ve worked toward.

  But who I am has dragged her into something I never wanted. She deserves the truth. The whole truth…. but we don’t have time for that right now.

  “My name’s Drift, and I’m the head of the Shadow Zone Brotherhood.”

  “Nice to meet you, but that doesn’t explain why someone wants me to kill you.”

  Plucking the syringe from her hand, I cross to the bathroom and shatter the syringe against the sink wall, washing whatever vile thing it is down the sink. I don’t trust the liquid, even to keep it for testing.

  “No, it doesn’t. But that’s not what you asked.”

  In the mirror, I can see she’s staring at the sink “That was evidence, and I’m asking now.”

  The way she says it is hard. Almost like she’s interrogating me. But thinking that would paint her as my enemy.

  I have to walk away from her.

  But I can’t go far.

  I turn back to her, search her face and lean against the textured wallpaper. “Would you be willing to put this off until we get someplace safer?”

  She shakes her head, and I’m tempted to try to tease her until she smiles, just once. But I know it won’t work right now.

  Closing my eyes, I drop my head back against the wall and search for any other option…. “Best guess?”

  She doesn’t say a thing, but she’s waiting.

  “There are some, as you know, who don’t want you here. Human women are… for whatever reason, considered ‘not good enough’ by them.”

  “What does a group of extremists want with you?”

  “Say you want to paint humans as dangerous…. Say you’ve found out that the head of the group that guards our borders from the monsters has a human woman who is not bonded to him, that has ready access to him. What sort of picture can you paint if she kills him?”

  “That humans are conspiring to hurt you all?” Kimba shakes her head, a scowl twisting her unpainted lips. “One instance isn’t going to be enough.”

  “No, but it’s a start, and a high-profile one.” I don’t like how conceited that makes me sound, but…. “You’re famous too. They probably thought you’d be easy enough to convince. Did they threaten you? Or offer to pay you?”

  “Little bit of both.” She grimaces as if the admission is a foul taste in her mouth.

  “Tell me.”

  “It was a ‘your life or mine’ offer… and they’d send me back to Earth.” She smiles ruefully and looks at the ceiling. “But we both know they weren’t going to let me leave. I assumed they’d kill me once I’d done what they wanted… if what you say is true, they’d probably have found a way to put me in jail, discredit me, and get me hanged for your murder.”

  I don’t tell her the real sentence she’d face.

  “They probably have people watching the doors.”

  “Oh, I have no doubt of that.” I scowl at the ground, then the door. But I wipe it from my face before I turn back to her.

  I’ve put her in this position—somehow—and I have to get her out of it. “We need to leave.”

  She’s watching me, as if unsure of what to say, then, “Is this the part where you say, ‘come with me if you want to live.’?”

  “No. This is the part where I get you out of here, whether you like it or not.”

  Taking her hand and pulling her to her feet, I let go and reach up to brush my thumb across the line of her jaw.

  “I need you to stay behind me and stay close. If they want to do what you didn’t for them, they’ll only be able to get to one of us before security takes them down.

  “Wait.” She grabs my arm and pulls me away from the door. “Not that way, they have people out there, waiting.”

  “I saw them.” And part of me wants to deal with this problem head on, but if she gets hurt because of i
t….

  “I didn’t pick this room for the fun of it.” She pulls back one of the long curtains, revealing a door. “Did you park where you normally do?”

  Nodding, I try to figure out where the layout of the building would put us out.

  When she opens the door, it’s to complete darkness.

  My lens gives me the ability to see in pitch dark, but there’s light enough from the stars I can find my way with the macabre gift my maker gave me.

  “How’d you manage this?”

  “Margot’s is telling anyone who asks that there’s a fuse problem.”

  Kimba’s thought this through. When we make it out of the city, I’ll finally press her on what she did in her previous life. Because if she’s that good at organizing an escape, she’ll fit right into the position I want her to fill.

  THREE

  KIMBA

  There was no one waiting for us.

  A fact that has me more uneasy than relieved.

  D suggests it’s because they need him to die a certain way. That there’s a narrative we don’t know about yet.

  I hope he’s right.

  We’re deep in the mountains before I ask the question I’ve never wanted to voice. “Are you bonded?”

  There’s a pause, but it feels like confusion, not deceit. “No.”

  “Okay, I just didn’t want to walk into a house and have your bondmate come after me for encroaching on her territory.”

  He looks at me, the blue glow in his eyes a reminder he is the one driving the car. “You’re the only woman in my life.”

  The warmth that spreads through my chest has me swallowing a lump, something I’d long ago told myself I could live without.

  Something I may have lied about.

  And I don’t want to think about that, so I turn to look out at the snow.

  But what greets me isn’t a vast expanse of grey crag covered in white. We’ve turned a corner, and from here I can see where we’re undoubtedly going.

  Perched on top of a ridge, it’s a lair fit for a Bond villain.

  As we near, I have to fight back a shiver. The place looks more like a fortress than a home.

  But the car slows, and we pass through large automatic gates into an underground parking structure fit for a small convoy.

  His house is enormous.

  The stairs from the garage open into a living room that’s more of a conference center than someplace meant for daily life.

  If I had to guess what the room actually is, out of context, I’d say it’s a war room.

  Screens are marked with red points of light, and it doesn’t take long to figure out what they are.

  “I didn’t think the monster problem was this bad.”

  “It isn’t…. Those are the sightings for the last six months.”

  I look at the board again. “Four a month feels like a lot.”

  “Sadly, it isn’t. But don’t worry. The house is set up so they can’t get in—not without a fight that will make them nearly toothless. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I wasn’t prepared.”

  There’s something in that statement. Something that makes me think he’s been planning to bring me here all along.

  “Nothing, and no one can get to you here.”

  I trust him, so I don’t ask what it is that’s keeping them out. Don’t ask him if he’s safe here too.

  Instead, I take a long, slow turn about the room, just cataloguing the basics. The map on the far wall, lit with a pulsing glow shows the patrol zones.

  D’s isn’t small.

  “So, who was keeping watch while you were with me?”

  “The system’s automated. If something had come up while I was gone, I would have known immediately and sent one of the brotherhood to deal with it, or been notified that they’d already headed out to do so.”

  He’s standing so close to me now, I barely have to shift, and I’m touching him. Hip to leg, shoulder to bicep.

  And for the first time since I’ve known him, when his eyes travel from mine down to my lips, I feel that tiny lace of fear.

  Not of him… not really, but of the possibilities he holds.

  Good, and bad.

  But risk is another part of life… one I can’t hide from.

  This time, I press up on my toes, the invitation for him to bend down…. As soon as I can reach his lips, I kiss him.

  This time, he wraps an arm around my waist, lifts me, pulls me close, kisses me back.

  His lips are soft and warm. His free hand travels up my neck cupping my jaw, tilting my face, just so.

  When I open to him, he doesn’t surge, his tongue dips in, a gentle caress.

  And when he pulls away, his eyes are closed, something akin to pain is written across his brow.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” His words are soft. “I can’t even remember how long I’ve wanted that.”

  “Then why haven’t you?”

  “Because it had to be your choice.” He lowers his forehead to mine. “It all has to be your choice.”

  He pulls away, kissing my forehead before he takes a step back.

  “Come on. I don’t want to be up here with you. Not right now.”

  He takes my hand and gently tugs, leading me down a wide spiral staircase.

  The exterior wall is glass and that floor to ceiling expanse continues on until it hits the rough rock wall. The moon reflecting off the snow below floods the room with light.

  This is where he lives.

  There’s an enormous couch, meant for laying more than it is for sitting, and I plop down on it, not at all surprised that it’s the most comfortable thing I’ve felt in years.

  “What do we do now, D?”

  “You could call me Drift.”

  I’d rather call him something more personal, but I can’t say that, not right now. “I think you’ll always be D to me… but you could call me Kimberly, or just Kim, if you want.”

  He pauses, looking out into the night. “No… who we were at Margot’s was as real as anything I’ve ever experienced. Changing where we are on the planet doesn’t change that.”

  Scowling at the white expanse beyond the windows, D crosses his arms, closing up. “I have to bring the brotherhood in on this.” He twists his neck to the side and it lets out a half dozen pops and cracks. “If they’re after me, they might be after others.”

  “Of course.”

  “Would you be willing to talk to them… help describe the man who asked, give any details you can think of?”

  When I hesitate, he takes my hand. “If you’d rather not be seen in my home, you can stay down here. They won’t leave the main floor.”

  I don’t understand why he’d offer, unless….

  “If I was going to let the world think I’d chosen someone… it would be you. I’m not worried about your brothers spreading rumors. Though, I don’t know that they would.”

  “Arc might. He loves gossip.” He looks back at me and his eyes crinkle. “You’re going to need more clothes.”

  That’s when I realize this is the first time he’s seen me fully dressed. “I have things in my car… in case I needed to disappear on my own.”

  “Give me the key and I’ll have one of them go get it.”

  I hand it over, and the chip they’ll need to operate it. “How long do we have?”

  “Not very. I sent the message on the way here.”

  The chime overhead peals and he winces.

  “I’m not a fan of wasting time.” Standing, I take his hand, and let him lead me back upstairs.

  But when he goes to the door, I stay back. I’m used to space between me and crowds of men. I like it that way.

  The light level doesn’t change that.

  Six of them pile through the door, exchanging japes and, occasionally, fists.

  That all stops when they see me.

  I hadn’t really understood the flight instinct until that moment.

  But D positions himself betwe
en us. Whether he’s guessed I want to bolt, or is feeling particularly possessive, I have no idea. I appreciate it.

  With curious smiles and looks shot between them, they move away, to the round seating area on the near side of the room.

  D lets them go in silence, casting me a glance before he follows. Letting me decide where I want to be for the discussion.

  There’s a space next to him when he sits, and I take it. I don’t want any of them getting ideas, this is the only one I want them to have.

  “So…” the one lounging nearest to the door asks. “I assume you didn’t invite us over to meet your lady. Some of us would have brought our own.”

  D quickly goes around the room, naming them.

  Richter, who clearly wants to have brought his mate, is the odd sort of handsome sian men sometimes are. Eerily pretty. He has the fewest scars.

  Core—another bonded male—keeps himself in the back of the group, quietly watching. If he cares that I’m here at all, he doesn’t show it.

  The gossip D had mentioned, Arc, sits with two others whose names I forget almost as soon as he’s said them, but they look like they’re a group, like they do everything together, and might also hate each other.

  And finally Trench, who looks at me like he’s trying to figure something out. He is the biggest of them, and he doesn’t try to hide how much space he takes up. He is, as far as I can tell, keen to be observed.

  When he leans forward, D holds up his hand. “This isn’t a social visit. Someone has put a contract out on me.”

  “And let you find out? That’s pretty stupid of them.” Trench shakes his head and shifts, somehow taking up even more space.

  “They asked Kimba to kill me. Luckily, she didn’t.”

  “Wait… wait.” Trench holds up his hands. “You’re Kimba, like the Kimba?”

  I blink, look at D for some clue as to why my name matters that much. “I didn’t realize I was famous.”

  Trench snorts, and D knocks him upside the head for it.

  “Sorry, it’s just… every unbonded guy I know knows who you are. Half of them have gone to watch you dance. Hell, half of them have professed their undying love for you.”

  “Not to me.”

  “Of course not. Margot wouldn’t let anyone near you.” His gaze trailed from me to D. “Well, almost no one.”