"I'm going to pretend you didn't just insult me, lass, and remind you that I'm the general of Alek's armies."
Oh. Right. "Armies?" I mused. "As in plural?"
He arched a brow and sighed.
"How many vampires are there?" I threw my hands up.
"More than you'll ever know about," he answered with a smirk.
"Could you do it?" I challenged, the ache in my chest swelling into something that felt suspiciously like hope. "Could you find a needle in a haystack and then get her out?"
He folded his arms over his chest. "Depends on what I'd get out of it."
I'd seen them in action. They were her best shot. "Whatever you want," I rushed. "I'll give you anything if you get my cousin out of there." The tattoo at the back of my neck heated. I meant it. I'd even tie my freaking life to his if it meant Daphne had a shot at being free.
"Anything I want?" His eyes skimmed my body with a possessive heat, then lingered on my lips.
They parted.
"Anything," I whispered, knowing exactly what I was offering.
"Hmm. Okay." He nodded. "I'll hold you to it."
I swallowed.
A slow, panty-melting smirk lifted the corner of his mouth. "And don't stress, lass. The only thing I want from you is information."
My cheeks heated, and I scoffed at his blatant rejection. "Fine."
"We'll start tomorrow night." He inclined his head at Lyric, then Avianna. "Ransom is here to take over. There's a certain brunette I've had my eye on over in the feeding room. Excuse me." He left without another word, but I shouted one at his back.
"Asshole!"
This mating thing was about to be a major inconvenience.
3
Lachlan
All we needed was a swinging, single light bulb, and this would be a full-on interrogation. Not that she didn't deserve it. Helping us out when Lyric had been taken didn’t erase the fact that Valor was a Moorehouse.
For all intents and purposes, she was the enemy…or at least she had been, according to Benedict’s ability to detect lies. We were in the middle of a war, not only to save our own species but the supernatural world, and this woman had the answers we needed to bring down the enemy.
She also had my mating mark on the nape of her neck, which was seriously fucking with my center of gravity.
Mates came first. They came before the king, species, country, or even the breath in our own lungs, which was exactly why I'd never wanted one.
My life had been dedicated to the Order for hundreds of years.
My priorities were simple:
Protect Alek and the royal house.
Oversee the armies and lead them into battle...which hadn't been necessary in the last two hundred or so years.
But now...now I had the best possible source of intel sitting in my living room, and I was fucking torn on what to do about her.
Valor had changed into a pair of jeans and one of Lyric's shirts...but Valor didn't have Lyric's body, which meant the fabric of the blouse was stretched tight, pressing the swells of her breasts to her neckline like a damned offering.
"Here, you can use this," Ransom said, handing her a permanent marker and pointing her toward the map we'd pinned up on the wall, his jaw tight.
Sergei, Alek's talem, was going to kill us for putting holes in the wall, but we sure as fuck weren't going to take her down to the command center where she could see all of our intel and take it back to her brother.
She might be my mate by some cruel joke of fate, but I didn't trust her. Period.
"Okay," Valor said, tucking a piece of auburn hair behind her ear and heading toward the map, marker in hand.
I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back against the opposite wall. The farther I stayed away from her, the better, though I wasn’t sure another country would be far enough at this point.
Just being in this enormous room, even with its high, vaulted ceilings, was torturous. The scent of her was everywhere, burning my lungs with every inhale, and it wasn't like I could hold my breath for the length of the meeting.
Staying away from her room today had been nearly impossible. There was a physical pull between us, like a spring that had been stretched and was protesting the unnatural distance.
"Here," she said, marking an X in an area that was firmly in witch territory. "This is one of them." Her hand slid over the map, and she marked another spot. "And another one here." She cocked her head to the side and pulled her hair over her shoulder, revealing the Celtic knot that made up my family's seal.
My chest tightened like a vise as my blood roared through my veins, my instincts screaming at me to bite, taste, and claim.
Mating bonds were a bitch.
"We have those, too," Ransom said, rubbing his chin as he looked over the map that Valor had marked up.
"Testing me?" she challenged.
"Yes," he answered with a shrug. Our combat master was the second most lethal vampire in the room, though you'd never know with his boy band looks.
The most lethal? That title belonged to the asshole leaning farther down the wall, flipping his dagger end over end like he was bored. Sure, Ransom and Alek could kill in the blink of an eye. I could tactically outthink anyone in this room.
But Hawke? He didn't give a shit if he lived or died, which made him far deadlier than the rest of us.
"What about this one?" She circled a house less than ten miles away, just outside the Edgemont limits.
"That's in our territory," I said.
"Sure is." She looked at me over her shoulder, the eye contact hitting me like a fucking live wire.
"Damn," Alek muttered. "What else?"
She marked another few places on the map. "The circles are the Moorehouse safe houses that I know about. The squares are research facilities, and the triangle is our corporate headquarters, which you already know about considering you raided it a couple of months ago." Her jaw ticked.
Looked like I wasn't the only one conflicted.
We hadn’t found shit on the corporate raid. Just a bunch of financial records pertaining to the business. The Sons were too smart for that shit.
"And where do the Sons meet?" Ransom asked, taking a step closer so his shoulder bumped hers.
A low growl reverberated around the space, and he immediately stepped back and shot me an apologetic look.
Right. Because I'd been the one to growl without even knowing it. Fuck my life.
"I don't know," she said, shaking her head.
"Bullshit," Hawke challenged, catching his dagger by the tip.
"I don't." She turned a full-fledged glare on him, and I adjusted my stance just in case he took offense and decided to act on it.
I didn't want to be mated to the woman, but I couldn't let her get herself killed, either. Every cell in my body railed against the possibility and demanded I protect her, no matter how reckless she was.
And she was pretty fucking reckless.
Of all the females in the world, why the hell had fate tied me to this one?
"Only the heads of the families know the locations for their meetings. You guys killed my father—the head of the Moorehouse family, and then my brother put a nice little bounty on my head, so it's not like I can just call him up and ask for the coordinates to their secret lair."
Benedict smothered a laugh.
"There's a reason they split up all the info, and you're looking at it." She gestured down her body. “You honestly think they’d make it so easy to take them down?”
"You don’t know? But you were being groomed to take over." Ransom’s gaze turned shrewd as he examined the map, no doubt comparing it to the one we had downstairs in the war room.
"From what I know, my brother slipped into the role quite easily. Then again, the friend who told me that was killed shortly after the conversation by her own husband.” Her voice broke. “They'll do the same to me as soon as they catch me." She put the cap on the marker and lifted her chin, but there was a sl
ight tremble in her shoulders.
The room fell silent.
"No lies," Benedict announced.
"So, what's the plan for tonight?" Ransom asked.
"I'm checking out that location." I pointed to the circle Valor had drawn in our territory. How had we let it go undetected?
"Fine, then I'm going with you." She looked at me and handed the marker to Ransom.
"The fuck you are." It wasn't happening…for too many reasons to even list.
She walked right up to me and lifted a delicate, red brow, her neck arching to keep eye contact. Damn it, those pale green eyes of hers were going to be the death of me. It was like the woman had been created specifically to distract and destroy.
"No," I ground out through clenched teeth as the guys started quietly discussing the Conclave-given judgments they'd need to carry out tonight. Balancing the usual justice and this war with the Sons of Honor was wearing us thin.
"Yes," she countered, folding her arms under her breasts, which only made them rise even higher against the neckline—all creamy and—no.
I clenched my hands into fists to keep them off her.
"You don't even know the layout of that safe house, but I do,” she argued.
"Exactly." Fuck, was everything going to be a battle with this woman? What do you care, it’s not like you’re going to act on the bond. "I don't know what I'm walking into, and I can't trust you, so you stay here."
She narrowed those gorgeous eyes at me. "If you can't trust me out there, what makes you think you can trust me back here…in your house…without you?"
My chest rumbled at the thought of the havoc she could wreak back here.
Alek put his hand on my shoulder. "Let me make this easy. Surveillance only, otherwise you have to take one of the trainees with you. We're too spread out tonight."
"Looks like I'm your backup!" Valor flashed me a victorious, smirking grin and walked out of the living room. "Meet you at the front door!"
"Really?" I snapped at my king, who had the misfortune of also being my best friend.
He grimaced. "Yeah, I thought about ordering her to stay, but then I paused long enough to consider how I'd feel if someone else ordered my mate around and decided to let you handle that one. Good luck." He slapped my shoulder and laughed.
I muttered a curse and took off after the redhead who was slowly ruining my life.
* * *
"Thank you for grabbing coffee," Valor said, breaking the silence between us as we sat outside the Moorehouse safe house from a respectable, inconspicuous distance. There were only a few lights on, and I’d counted three separate shadows passing by the window in the last half-hour. "I'm not usually a night owl, so two a.m. is pushing it."
"You live in a house full of vampires, lass, so I suggest you convert. Quickly." Then again, perhaps we'd be safe from each other if she slept while I was awake. Even now, the bond called to me, distracting as fuck. "And don't thank me. Thank Owen. He's the one who put it in my hands as we were walking out the door."
"Which one was Owen?" she asked without looking my way, as staking out a house on surveillance was commonplace. “I thought I knew every vampire in the Order.”
"The fact that you know there is an Order is infuriating. And, you didn't see him," I answered, taking a sip of the hot, black coffee from the stainless-steel travel mug. "He's my talem. Pale hair. Brown eyes. Scottish accent. Talems are—”
"Immortal servants," she interrupted, a slight smirk playing at her lips. "I bet I know more about you than you do about me."
"I highly doubt that. I’m well-versed on all things Valor Moorehouse. And yes, they are immortal, but Owen will tell you he's more valet, less servant." I smiled at the thought. "He’s been at my side since I was thirty, so he can call himself whatever he damn well likes." Sergei ran the house, but just like I was the general of Alek’s armies, Owen made sure everything in the house ran on time at Serge's order.
"So, the coffee?” she questioned, leaning forward on the passenger seat of my rover and narrowing her eyes at the house. "I know caffeine doesn't have any effect on you. No human drugs do."
"I like the taste." I also liked that she kept her eyes on the target as if she might notice something I wouldn't in the house ahead of us.
"Something we have in common." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Look at us, being civil."
"That doesn't mean I trust you."
"Something else we have in common. It looks like we’re on our way to a glorious, temporary partnership.”
I nearly laughed but merely shook my head. Beautiful, smart, and a sense of humor? She might have been the perfect female if she hadn’t been human. But she is.
She rubbed her hand over the back of her neck, and the hairs on my forearm prickled. “Avianna said I can’t get the mark removed.” Her brow puckered, but she kept her gaze firmly on the house.
The living room light went out, and the silence stretched between us, the air in the Rover growing thick with tension.
“It doesn’t work like that,” I finally answered, putting my coffee into the cupholder now that it had somehow lost its flavor. “You don’t want this.” It was part revelation, part question.
She snorted. “Like you do?”
“Hell no.”
Her posture straightened with a jerk. “Well, you don’t have to be a dick about it.”
A corner of my mouth lifted. “Oh, lass. You’d love me to be a dick about it.”
“Like you have any idea what I’d love.” Her scent flared as her cheeks flushed. “There is nothing about being linked to a vampire that I love or even like. Trust me.”
Now that brought on a full grin.
“What?” she snapped.
I shook my head.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, just say it.” She shoved her mug into the cupholder.
“Lass, do you know the benefit of being hundreds of years old?”
“You qualify for the AARP discount?” Her gaze shifted to mine.
I ignored the jab. “Experience. I know about a hundred different ways to get you off, all of which would leave you screaming my name and loving it.”
She sucked in a breath. “Yeah, well that’s not going to happen. You’re keeping your hands to yourself.”
“Who said I needed my hands?” My tongue skimmed the tip of my fangs, which ached a little more with each passing minute I spent in this damned car with her.
She noticed, her eyes widening and her lips parting before she jerked her attention back to the house. “Don’t tell me you’re…hungry.”
“I’m always thirsty. Doesn’t mean I act on it.”
The light in the dining room vanished, then the kitchen.
“You just ate someone last night! Remember? You raced off to some brunette.” She spat the last word like a curse as three men emerged from the house.
“Careful lass, or you’ll start to sound like a jealous mate.” An unwanted thrill shot through my veins. Stop it. I quickly memorized the faces of each man before they crammed themselves into a late model Honda Civic and pulled out onto the road.
My finger hovered over the ignition button, waiting for the Civic to turn the corner—
Valor bolted out of the car and sprinted toward the house.
“What the fuck?” I dematerialized and reappeared right in front of her.
She skidded to a halt, and I gripped her shoulders on instinct to keep her from falling. Damn, she felt good under my hands.
“How?” She sputtered as she caught her balance.
“Get back in the car!” I hissed.
“Fuck off.” She moved to the side, and I moved with her, blocking her again. “I’m going in.”
“No, you’re not.”
She rolled her eyes at me and sidestepped again, so I matched the move, frustration exploding in my gut and locking my jaw.
“Don’t you ever do what you’re told, Valor?”
She smiled.
My heart clenched. Bea
utiful.
“Nope.” She shrugged. “So you may as well come with me…unless you’re not struggling with that whole overprotective male thing Lyric told me about last night. I’m sure you’d be super comfortable with me going in there alone.”
I opened my mouth and shut it. She had me, and she fucking knew it. There was no way I’d let her waltz into unknown danger.
“That’s what I thought. Let’s go. The guy forgot to set the alarm on his way out. The keypad didn’t flash. I watched the kitchen window.”
I looked over my shoulder at the house, my vision switching to thermal. No one was home.
“The sooner I can get a message to Daphne, the faster we can get her out, which means I’ll be out of your hair.”
The relief I was supposed to feel with that statement didn’t hit, which meant I was already…what? Adapting? Shit,was I in serious danger of actually acting on this bond between us? You can’t. Did I want to fuck her? Obviously. But spending an eternity in arguments like this? Hard pass.
“Fine,” I growled. I led armies of men, and yet somehow this slip of a woman was putting me through the fucking wringer, and that had to stop.
It took less than two minutes for us to slip inside the house and into the first-floor bedroom, where Valor wiggled her ass under the bed.
I dropped beside her, bracing myself on my palms, and watched her remove a small, wooden panel in the floor. She pulled out two romance novels, a pen, and a spiral notebook opened to a page where the handwriting altered every few lines.
“We had a system,” she whispered, even though there was no one here, and scribbled a single line beneath the last entry. It was an email address.
She put everything back in place with an efficiency I appreciated almost as much as I was appreciating the spectacular view of her ass in those jeans.
“They won’t keep any intel here, so don’t bother searching.” She shimmied out from under the bed and climbed to her feet.
I beat her to the door, scanning our surroundings just in case. Everything about the house was impersonal, like one of those vacation rentals you could book on the internet. There wasn’t even a dish in the sink. No wonder these people were hard to track. They didn’t leave anything trackable.
Crimson Highlander: An Onyx Assassins Novel Page 3
