Key to Conspiracy

by Talia Gryphon

  “Good job, pumpkin.” Daed grinned solicitously at Gillian when they had a quiet moment away from the others and she was organizing her belongings. They were in the Team’s tent, alone for the first time in years. Daed couldn’t let the opportunity pass by now that he had her all to himself.

  “Fuck off, Aristophenes.” Gillian smiled. “I told you I would shoot you if you called me that.”

  Laughing, he went to her and hugged her. “I know we’re not really friends, but I’d like to pretend that we are every once in a while.”

  “Fraternization, Major?” Gill cocked an eyebrow at him but she didn’t immediately step away.

  “Certainly not!” He laughed again, then grew serious, looking down at her. “Thank you, Gillian, for everything.” The powerful arms that were only lightly around her tightened a little and his black eyes grew more liquid, warming with obvious attraction.

  Embarrassed, she pulled away, turning back to her packing to avoid the look in his eyes. “I just came along for the ride, Daed. And thank you, by the way, for saving my ass back there. That Bear was a nasty customer.”

  He came up behind her, sliding his hands onto her shoulders and pushing a lock of hair back into her untidy braid. “I didn’t mind.”

  It got very quiet and an uncomfortable silence ensued. She stiffened beneath his hands, shoulder muscles tightening.

  “Gillian,” he began, hesitantly, wanting to salvage something out of the moment.

  Turning, she looked up at him. He was handsome, brave, intelligent, dedicated. He’d saved her life, but he still irritated the hell out of her.

  “Look, Daed,” she started to make it easy on both of them.

  Daed could read the look in her eyes and scent her pheromones turning cold. It was a clear rejection, but he misinterpreted the reason.

  “It’s because I let you see that I am a Minotaur, a monster by anyone’s standards. I thought you of all people would understand and be able to handle it.” He was hurt and let her see it.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, no! When the hell have you ever known me to be prejudiced?” Gillian was exasperated.

  She didn’t want any part of a romance with him but she really didn’t want to hurt him either. Even if there hadn’t been Aleksei to consider, she and Daed were like nitroglycerine and gasoline. Nothing good could come out of a physical fling between them. They’d tried that once. It didn’t work then; it wouldn’t work now.

  “You are a decent man, Daed. Regardless if I think you’re an asshole most of the time, you’re still decent. You are certainly less of a monster than those folks we dealt with out there. Those are the real monsters: people who prey on other people of any variety, especially children. Not men and women like you who can’t help what they morph into.”

  She caught his hand and opened up to him so he could feel her sincerity. “I’ve always known you were a Shifter; you just never told me what kind. That’s why it was a bit of a shock seeing a real Minotaur out there, but that doesn’t matter to me. I don’t care what you turn into in the ‘were’ sense. What matters is that we drive each other crazy. You know it, and I know it. I don’t mind doing a victory dance with you, just not one in a horizontal position involving sheets and a mattress.”

  His dark eyes searched her face. He could feel her sincerity, believe in her words. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.” His smile was weak but she laughed anyway.

  “No, I guess I can’t. I am, however, still pissed at you for recalling me.”

  “Why? You were the best man for the job.” He joked then ducked as she swung at him.

  Gillian’s glare backed him up a few steps, and his lapse into his native Virginia accent belied his nervousness. “Whoa there, darlin’, no need to get all riled up. We got what we both wanted, the kids are free and safe, and you get to go back to Romania if that’s what you want, as a civilian.”

  “Or?” She stepped toward him and he backed up farther.

  “Or you could agree to be on call for me during this Turf War until we get things straightened out a bit more.”

  “No.”

  “It would mean that you could call on us too, Gillian, if you need help. I’ll send a platoon to wherever you are, make sure it’s a Paramortal group, whatever you need. We’ll give you special dispensation from the USMC and IPPA. I’ll release you from active duty, if that’s your preference. You can remain as a civilian contractor if you like. I can arrange the paperwork tonight.”

  Dammit, he did have the most gorgeous dark eyes and he was a charming Southern gentleman. Shit, she was going to hate herself for this, but . . .

  “Okay.”

  “What?” He wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly.

  “I said ‘Okay’ to the civilian contractor as long as it doesn’t interfere with my contract with IPPA or piss off the Corps, and doesn’t consist of you in the bargain as a bonus prize.” Her eyes were cold as emeralds and she crossed her arms, waiting for his reaction.

  Daed laughed, infectious and friendly. Her face inadvertently cracked into a smile, despite her intention not to let him get to her. She couldn’t help but join him. Daed was a shit, but he was an endearing shit. After a moment he ruffled her hair and replied, “All right, pumpkin, have it your way. I’m not part of the deal, but I will be true to my word.”

  He took her with him when he made his calls to the Pentagon and to IPPA, getting Dr. Gerhardt involved so that Gillian knew everything was on the up and up. Satisfied, and with an official document proclaiming her an independent civilian contractor on call, Gillian gathered everyone together to say good-bye to those who were remaining behind.

  Trocar had explained that he wanted to help wrap up everything there, and since it was closer to the Doorway in Finland, he’d complete his obligation then return to his own world. He had a score to settle there and wanted to get back and see to it.

  Daed gave the Elf a recon device. He could leave it outside the Doorway, and if ever there was need, he could activate it and it would send a signal to Daed or Gillian over a private channel to their own cell phones and computers. His farewell embrace was warm and tight, but that was an Elf thing. They weren’t ordinarily touchy-feely people, but when they liked you, they liked you and demonstrated it, no matter who was watching.

  He kissed her forehead and stepped back. “Good-bye, Gillyflower. I shall miss you until we meet again.”

  “Bye, Trocar. Thank you for everything you did.”

  Kimber had found she rather liked the area and the job they’d done so she agreed to remain temporarily active. Daed gave her a field promotion to Captain and put her in charge of the platoon he was bringing in. She and Pavel had to say their good-byes but promised to stay in touch. She had e-mail, and Pavel was given a laptop as thanks for his assistance. Gillian promised to show him how to use it.

  “Bye, Kemo Sabe.” Kimber saluted and Gillian returned it. “I’m going to miss all the trouble we could have gotten into under better circumstances.”

  “Me too, Kimmy.” Gillian hugged her friend. “You be careful or I’ll kick your ass.”

  “Ditto.” Kimber’s grin lit up the night.

  Pavel and Jenna would accompany her back to Romania via helicopter, courtesy of the USMC. Neither Jenna nor Luis had any interest in reactivating anything but their retirement. The Vampire was given an honorable discharge in the field and safely locked away in a regulation casket then spelled asleep for his shipment to Dionysus in Greece aboard another C-130 transport plane.

  There was no way of knowing how much damage Dracula’s goons had done to him and Daed was worried about leaving him on active duty. Luis had agreed, fearing that he had some sort of ticking bomb in his psyche. He didn’t want to risk his friends. After a brief conference with Gillian, he decided to leave the service and let the Greek Lord help him if he could. He’d rejoin Gillian in Romania as soon as he was safe to do so.

  Communication from Romania and Aleksei had been a bit vague during their most recent phone ca
ll. He had kept his mental communication to a minimum, knowing that it would make Gillian uncomfortable to overuse it. She hoped everything was hanging tough at the Rachlav residence and that she had the nerve to continue the conversation she’d started with Aleksei in the darkened alleyway outside the pub. Part of her was longing for it, the other part was scratching madly at the “Get the Hell Out While You Can” emotional exit door.

  Green eyes surveyed the twilight sky and she sighed in resignation. There was no point in not going back. Aleksei wouldn’t be so gauche as to come after her again, of that she was positive, but she really didn’t want to hurt him by not going back. The part of her that rationalized it as being just a physical attraction between them understood her motives just fine.

  Aleksei was fantabulous, erotic, wonderful, caring, and beyond hot. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out. In her darker, hidden thoughts, she knew that if she ran away, disappeared from this, Aleksei would be hurt. She would always, always wonder what might have happened between them, though secretly she dreaded him ever asking her for a commitment. The truth of the matter, she realized, was that to leave now after she’d essentially given him her word would simply be dishonorable and that she could not abide.

  Walking with Pavel and Jenna out to a waiting USMC helicopter, which would take them to Helsinki for the flight back to Romania, Gillian allowed herself to be drawn into their happy chatter. When then reached the aircraft, Daed thanked her again, kissing her cheek conspiratorially in front of the reporters who’d gathered like vultures to watch them leave—effectively preventing Gillian from decking him with all the cameras buzzing away. Bad PR.

  The last she saw of Daed, Kimber and Trocar was on the road by the village as the chopper lifted off. She’d miss Kimber and the Elf, damn him. Daedelus she wouldn’t miss, but it had been a rewarding experience.

  All was going well until the pilot turned to yell back into the aircraft, “We are being diverted to Moscow, Captain Key!”

  “Why?” she bellowed back over the noise of the rotors.

  “Problem at the Helsinki base!” the pilot shouted across the small space.

  “Divert to Reykjavik!” Gillian ordered him, thinking the Icelandic base would be the logical alternative.

  “Too far! This isn’t a long-range craft, Captain!”

  “I am aware of what a UH-1E Slick’s range and combat capabilities are, Captain,” she yelled back, unimpressed by the pilot’s nod of acknowledgment and irritated by the disbelief in his eyes.

  He was surprised she knew that a UH-1E referred to the Corps’s equivalent of the Army’s famous Huey Helicopters and that a “Slick” was a chopper that had been stripped of its exterior guns. Maybe she’d been away too long. They were flying her in a craft usually reserved for Recon missions or VIPs.

  “You can pick up a cargo transport in Moscow!” he informed her.

  “Shit.” Gillian sat back against her seat.

  “We’ll get back,” Jenna tried to assure her, “and he’ll be there, still waiting for you.”

  “That’s not what I’m worried about, Jen.” Gillian glared out of the chopper’s small window into the black of night.

  “Like hell it isn’t,” Jenna smirked, then put on her innocent face as Gill’s glare turned to her.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  The brunette grinned at her commander and friend. “Aleksei isn’t going anywhere, Gillian. He’ll be elegantly pissed off at the delay but he’ll be there for you.”

  “Who the fuck said anything about Aleksei?” Gillian demanded.

  “You didn’t have to.”

  “Do not start this with me right now,” Gillian warned her.

  “I’m not starting anything, Captain. I’m just making conversation.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Okay, have it your way. Have you seen that new Harrison Ford movie?” Jenna’s chocolate eyes were wide and guileless.

  “And how are you going to start things up with Tanis when we get back? Straight to the slab for some bite and tickle?” The small blonde’s dander was up. Anyone with any sense would have dropped it. Jenna wasn’t that bright and burst into hysterical laughter.

  “Oh my Goddess, if you could see your face! You’re just being bitchy because you didn’t give that poor Vampire a chance to really express himself with you.” She dissolved into giggles, completely unimpressed by the fury in her commander’s eyes.

  “Go fuck yourself, Blaise, and I mean it,” Gillian bit off. “I don’t appreciate you taking information I told you confidentially in a weak moment and rubbing it in. That is beyond low, even for you.”

  Seeing that she’d struck a nerve, Jenna took her friend’s hand. “Jeez, Gillian, I was just teasing you. Aleksei doesn’t seem like the type to kiss and run. I think it’ll be all right.”

  “I would like to believe that but I just can’t yet.” Gillian looked down at their hands, hers so much smaller than even Jenna’s, and thought about Aleksei’s strong, elegant hands over hers.

  Jenna tucked an errant strand of golden hair back into Gillian’s braid. “You know, not everyone betrays feelings and confidences like your parents have, or makes you work for every scrap of acceptance.”

  When Gillian wouldn’t look at her, she went on, “Gill, I know it’s not the Vampire thing. You’re afraid of locking yourself into any person despite the obvious fact that professionally you made what you thought was a lifetime, significant commitment to the Corps.”

  “Look who’s talking. You haven’t had a meaningful relationship since your mother gave up breast-feeding. Besides, the Corps gives back what you put in. If I’m loyal, they’re loyal. And the USMC isn’t a person, it’s an organization.”

  “An organization that can get you very dead and keep you very alone,” Jenna remarked quietly.

  “Some things are worse than death or being alone, like being trapped in a circular relationship, for instance.” Gillian whispered, “Plus I don’t think Aleksei is out to convert me or kill me.”

  “So now it’s a choice? A relationship versus what you do for a living?” her friend countered.

  Gillian’s response was unavoidably delayed as the chopper landed at the Moscow airfield. They hustled off and caught a transport on a bomber bound for London. They’d catch a flight from there and be back to Romania by the next night. Pavel wisely stayed out of the entire exchange and dutifully followed the two women to their connecting flight.

  On the seven-hour flight to London, Jenna and Pavel decided to catch a few Z’s and stretched out on the floor, wrapped in a heavy coat, snuggled close to one another for warmth. Watching her friends rest with their heads pillowed on a duffle bag, Gillian thought briefly about the wisdom of grabbing some sleep while she could but her mind was in turmoil.

  With the unexpected London stop then the return flight to Romania, it would be another fourteen to twenty hours before she would be reunited with Aleksei. Reunited. Gill blanched at just the word. It made for a realization that she wasn’t sure she was ready for—that she and Aleksei might be headed for being a couple or might already be considered a couple. Aleksei seemed to think so, as did Jenna and Tanis, apparently. She deliberately kept her shielding up. With Aleksei’s new mental power tools, she didn’t want him accidentally eavesdropping on her few panicky moments, despite them being self-inflicted.

  He hadn’t offered her anything except transitioning their relationship to the next level. It wasn’t exactly a proposal or even a suggestion of a long-term relationship. Hell, they could find out that they were absolutely not sexually compatible at all. Yeah, right. Gillian snorted derisively at her own thoughts on that issue. They were compatible all right. Any more compatible and they would have set the alleyway on fire during their last good-bye.

  Maybe she was getting ahead of herself. Aleksei wasn’t a rabid fucknut. He’d been nothing but honorable and nice. Okay and a little bossy . . . chauvinistic . . . opinionated, where she and women in general were
concerned. She still didn’t want to hurt him by running like hell, as her Self-Esteem Demon was demanding her to do. Sighing, she realized that she did care what he thought and, after a brief mental struggle with her inner emotional claustrophobic, accepted the fact that the tall, dark and scrumptious Vampire held a great deal of interest for her and it wasn’t purely physical.

  So deep in her thoughts was she that she nearly slit the throat of the copilot, who laid a gentle hand on her slender shoulder.

  “Hephaestus’s Hells!” she gasped, her Buck knife manifesting from her calf sheath into her hand and placed against the throat of whoever had touched her.

  “Captain Key?” squeaked the copilot, a bit taken aback to find six inches of steel against his windpipe.

  “Don’t ever do that again!” Gill ordered, hastily resheathing the knife. “What is it?”

  “London HQ would like you to assist with an ongoing investigation if you can spare the time. It seems they need an empath of your caliber,” the pilot responded.

  He resisted the urge to wipe his brow and straightened his shoulders as he unbent himself into a standing position again. One thing was for sure, he wouldn’t lean over her again for any reason.

  “I really need to get back to Romania,” she heard herself saying to her astonishment and dismay.

  “I explained that in anticipation of your answer, but they were most insistent that they speak to you first before you turned them down.”

  “All right, fine. Tell them they’ve got exactly thirty minutes, then I’m bound for hom— fangland.” Gillian turned away to look out the window again, hugging herself as she bit her tongue as punishment for almost saying “home.”

  The copilot vanished and left her to her thoughts. She opened her mind a little and reached for Aleksei. “We’ve been diverted to London. There’s something they want me to investigate, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Brief. Succinct. Completely to the point. His response wasn’t. “Thank you, bellissima, for caring that I might worry.”

  Shit. Did he have to sound so fan-fucking-tabulous? That voice was like chocolate-covered sin. Deep, melodic, laced with sensuality, power and raw desire. There was an undertone of a promise in his words. He would be there, waiting, but when she arrived, their waiting would be over. Oh joy, oh goodie, oh shit.