Night Marks

by Amber Lynn

  Too bad I feel his threat is a joke. As it is, I am just trying to get a rise out of him. I don’t have time in my busy schedule to grapple around with sweaty men, or women.

  The Camaro appears in front of us and as Alex goes to open the door for me, I stop him. All of a sudden, an immense sense of wrongness washes over me. It makes no sense, but I don’t want to get in the car. Something is different about it.

  “Wait. Something isn’t right. Don’t touch the car and get everyone back from it,” I say dropping to the ground and looking under the Camaro as I hear Alex directing people away.

  “Get to the arena, now,” I hear him yell. I am guessing he made a phone call.

  Under the car, I see a red light blinking and a timer that says 00:05:27 and is counting down. Looks like it is attached to a couple bricks of C4. I haven’t worked with explosives, so I cannot really be sure what I am looking at.

  “How much do you like your car, Alex?” I ask standing back up.

  “It is one of my favorites. Why?” he responds.

  “Because in about five minutes you won’t be able to recognize it. I am not a bomb expert, but I don’t think there will be much left to it when this thing goes off,” I tell him.

  “Thankfully, Jonas is a bomb expert and he is on his way. It shouldn’t take them more than a minute to get here and maybe we can save her.”

  Sure enough, thirty seconds later Sebastian arrives followed by Smitty, Jonas, and Jake.

  “And you thought you guys were getting the night off,” I say to the guards as Sebby walks over and wraps his arms around me.

  “Getting into trouble I see,” he whispers into my ear.

  “Me? Never. Someone just doesn’t like true American muscle cars and is taking their hate out on this beautiful piece of machinery,” I reply like I am actually speaking sense.

  “Jonas, would you mind taking a look? Do we have people scouring the area? I imagine the person that planted the bomb wanted to watch the show, so they shouldn’t be far,” Alex states.

  “Yes, there are at least thirty of our people looking for anyone out of place or just in general suspicious,” Sebastian reports.

  Jonas takes a look under the car and takes out a multi-tool. He starts fiddling around with something and I really hope he knows what he is doing. I go to take a step back, just to add some distance, but Sebastian is still behind me.

  “It’s a decoy,” Jonas says carrying out the “bomb”. “The wires aren’t connected to the explosive.”

  “Why would someone plant a fake bomb and how in the world did I sense something wasn’t right?” I ask.

  “Shit,” Jonas says under his breath. “Thirty minutes ago our prisoner woke up. We brought most of our people out here for this threat. I imagine security for him is currently low. Do you think someone is trying to get to him?”

  “Hey, I was supposed to be told the second he woke up. That little pipsqueak has some questions to answer and, hopefully, this time Sebastian won’t snap his neck before he tells me everything he knows,” I say and immediately stretch out my wings.

  I haven’t really figured out the science of where the wings go when I am not using them. They aren’t there all the time and I don’t have any ridges that seem to hold them. The wings, by the way, are not black like the other vampires I have seen. They match my wolf and are shimmering shades of gold.

  I bend my knees and take off into the air. I have to get to our holding area and make sure the captive is still there. Within seconds, I feel Sebby and Smitty pull up beside me.

  “Alex is going to be pissed you just took off like that,” Sebastian taunts.

  “Alex spends his days pissed, so it won’t be anything new for him,” I return. “Plus, it looks like he gets to sleep in my bed tonight. I am sure that will negate any hard feelings.”

  “He told you I picked out the dress, didn’t he?” he asks as I start to make my descent close to our jail. The jail happens to be in the lower levels of my apartment building. It comes in handy.

  “Why would you think that?” I reply.

  “That’s the only way you would have put it on,” he says. “I didn’t, by the way, pick out the dress. It’s not fair that he is allowed to lie to you and I cannot. Of course, when you guys become fully mated his options for deceiving will be limited.”

  “Really?” I ask landing on the ground. “What exactly will change to cause that?”

  I am still working on learning what it means to be a vampire or a werewolf. The guys have helped explain some things, but I still have a lot to figure out.

  “At that point, you will be able to read each other’s thoughts. So, if you think he may be lying, you can just take a look-see in his brain and find out,” he informs me.

  I spin around to face him. “You are joking about that part, right? I know I don’t pick up emotions and stuff as strongly as you two do, but that guy is horny twenty-four seven. There is no way I want to know what he is actually thinking. I will have to give myself daily brain washes to get all the crud out.”

  He smiles at me and opens the door. “After you, love. Since you don’t get the emotions, maybe the mind reading part won’t happen either.”

  I still have problems remembering that Sebby cannot lie to me, so he must be telling the truth about the dang mind reading. Stupid werewolf genes.

  We make our way to the elevator for this facility. Once inside, I press the secure level and we descend three floors. When the doors open, we are met with a destruction area. The guards’ station has been demolished. The video terminals are smashed and thrown towards the opposite wall. There are papers everywhere and there are three guards shaking their heads as if coming out of a fog.

  “What did you guys do, play vampire Twister?” I ask walking into the area.

  The guards look up and then at each other nervously. “No, ma’am,” one of them says.

  “Just tell me the prisoner is still here and alive,” I say. “Once I know that information, we can discuss what exactly happened.”

  “The door is still secure, so I believe he is still there. We were knocked out for a little while, though,” the same guard replies.

  “How many were there?” Sebastian asks.

  “Just the one. Sorry, but he was wearing a mask, so we couldn’t get a lock on him. He came in and immediately shot us with tranquilizers. The thing is, his scent was familiar, so none of us thought to arm ourselves for a fight,” another of the guards claims.

  “So, it was an inside job,” I say. My father told me recently that I couldn’t trust anyone but Sebastian and Alex. He seemed to know there was at least one traitor in our midst.

  “Had to have been. It was a wolf and none of us mingle with the furries, so for all of us to know the scent, it must have been someone from here,” the last guard says.

  “I take it the security codes were changed like I requested?” Sebastian asks.

  “Yes, sir. As soon as he woke up, we changed them to the new system where it changes every ten minutes to your preset code combinations. Whoever tried to get to him wasn’t aware of the change,” the first guard says.

  “Excellent,” Sebastian says dragging me over to the door.

  He enters in a long series of numbers. How he has them all memorized, I have no clue. When he finishes, a green light flashes and the door pops open.

  “Right this way, love,” he says guiding me into a long corridor with jail cells on each side.

  We keep walking until we reach the end of the hall. There, he starts entering codes into a keypad.

  “Remind me never to piss you off enough to lock me up down here,” I say as he finishes and we make our way through the second door.

  “I have much nicer facilities to keep you locked in, but trust me, they are just as secure.”

  This hallway is lined on each side by five doors. He picks the middle door on the left-hand side and inserts his finger into a scanner of some sort. For a second, I smell iron and realize it just scanned hi
s blood.

  “So, who all has clearance to go this far?” I ask.

  “Technically, only I have all the new codes at this moment. Only you, Alex and I would actually get by this scanner, if someone were smart enough to crack the codes. As you can see, Smitty didn’t even come with us down the hall.”

  I look back and see we are alone. The door opens after Sebastian’s blood is analyzed and we walk through to find a man, or werewolf, lying on the cot in the room.

  He looks up and sees us standing in the doorway. “Good, you are alive. I would have been an even bigger dead man, if you didn’t make it.”

  “The bullet that hit me wasn’t from your gun, so as far as that goes you would be safe anyway,” I tell him.

  “How much time has passed? I have a feeling it hasn’t been just a few hours. I woke up with a really stiff neck and I am not sure why,” he says.

  “It’s been a couple weeks. The neck issue was Sebastian here being a jerk. He didn’t like the fact that I was shot and you were the closest target for him to take out his aggression. I am sure he is extremely sorry for spinning your head around,” I tell the prisoner.

  “Why does a vampire care if a wolf gets shot? I was sent to try and get you away from your guards,” he says. I have a feeling getting him to talk won’t really be that hard if he is already providing information without any prompting.

  “Sebastian is my boyfriend,” I say. We still haven’t come up with better terminology for our relationship. “Enough about me, why don’t you tell me who sent you?”

  He pauses before speaking and looks to be thinking about something really hard. “I know Jonas, the wolf I tried to shoot. He is with Alexander Monroe and whatever cell of resistance they are trying to mount. Does that mean you are part of the force against the Collective?”

  “I don’t know that it is wise for me to just give that information over,” I tell him. This is supposed to be a case of me getting all the answers, not show and tell with Lucy. I would think it was pretty obvious we are part of the resistance, since I know the Collective doesn’t have holding cells this nice.

  “The reason I ask is that if you are, I would be willing to join. After you left the Collective, for all of the like two days before I was sent after you, things had been a bit chaotic. There are tons of rumors floating around about you and how maybe you had the right idea to leave,” he explains. “As you can see, I am not a very strong wolf. That has always made living in the Collective difficult for me. I was shocked when I was told they were giving me an assignment. Now, I figure they thought you would just catch and kill me.”

  “The Collective sucks, but I don’t know that we can just bring you right into the fold. We have to be very careful about who gets close to us. We could maybe offer you some training, so you aren’t stuck in here all the time, but I think it will be a while before we can trust you,” I say.

  “That’s understandable. I was sent by Frank, in case you were wondering. The objective was to get rid of the guards, as I have been saying. I don’t know if they had someone else that was going to get to you or not. I was just told to shoot the guards. I am actually a pretty good shot when my target isn’t pushed out of the way,” he claims.

  It doesn’t surprise me that my Collective father was the one to send the troops out to get me. He is pretty high up in the food chain. I guess I am just glad to hear it wasn’t Tommy. Of course, that creep wouldn’t send someone else to do his dirty work.

  “I guess we should officially introduce ourselves. As you know I am Nyx,” I say holding out my hand.

  “And I am Sam,” he says taking my hand and giving it a shake.

  Sebastian asks a few more questions, but it is quickly apparent this guy is bottom of the totem pole green. Any theories on why he was sent, other than the Collective wants me back, are not made available. It is kind of a letdown, but not a big surprise.

  Next time we get a Collective agent in our grasp, we are going to have to find a higher up target. I have a few in mind that will shed all sorts of light on the situation. Maybe I will bring them up later and see if the boys will let me go on a little mission. I doubt they will, but I can at least try.

  Chapter 5

  Conversations you never want to have

  “I’m hungry,” I say as me and Sebastian exit the holding area. He makes sure to lock everything back up. With his level of security, I am pretty sure leaving one door open still would make it impossible to get in, but better safe than sorry.

  “Alex should be here by now. You should be able to finish your date,” Sebastian replies.

  “It was a really great date too,” I say elbowing him in the side. “How come we haven’t ever gone on a date?”

  “You mean you don’t consider all those great meetings we had at Sins dates? You know, neither of us is big on crowded places. Our quiet nights at home are more our speed. Plus, if we go out, there is the potential that I have to share you with others.”

  “Very true. The fights were fun tonight, though. We will have to go together sometime,” I reply as we make it to the guard area and find Alex, Smitty, Jonas, and Jake standing with the jail guards.

  “Did you find out any new information?” Alex asks immediately coming to my side and putting some space between me and Sebby.

  I give him a quick glare for the gesture. “Not really. He was sent by the Collective like we all assumed. He was to get rid of the guards and he thought someone else might try to take me, if he accomplished that task.”

  “Didn’t figure someone at his level would have been given accurate information,” Jonas says.

  “He wants to join the cause,” I say watching the startled expressions come over their faces. “I told him we can start giving him some better training, but we aren’t just going to open our doors to someone who was taking orders from the darkside.”

  “Since we are mostly all here, would now be a good time to bring up your trip?” Smitty asks moving the conversation on to a new topic.

  “Trip?” Sebastian and Alex inquire simultaneously.

  “It’s a new case. I need to go to D.C. for a couple days to track down a girl and her supposed kidnapper,” I explain.

  “What variety is the kidnapper?” Alex asks.

  “One you don’t need to worry about. He is human,” I answer.

  “A human was able to kidnap a paranorm and she hasn’t gotten away yet?” Alex queries continuing on his information quest.

  “She’s human, too,” I say with a grin.

  “So, the dad wants him killed.” Sebastian states not even questioning the reason for the contract.

  “And we have a winner,” I say making ding ding noises like a bell. “Yes, that is his hope, but I haven’t promised to turn him over or kill him personally. I think they just ran off together and daddy doesn’t like her choice of boyfriend. Not really a killing offense, if you ask me.”

  “I don’t know. When we have kids, our girls better choose someone I approve of. If not, I may not have the guy killed, but I will make sure he isn’t able to ever have children,” Alex says thinking now would be a good time to hold hands.

  I look over at him with a look that could create an iceberg. “There are so many things wrong with that statement and I bet it wasn’t even fifty words. First, I am not planning to have any children. How do you think they would survive in the lifestyle I live? I know I won’t be just doing assassin calls, but I still kill people. Not only that, I have a lot of enemies and my children would be in constant danger. Secondly, if we had children, I imagine they would have that pesky trait that turns them furry, meaning they would have a mate. If they found him and you didn’t like him, there ain’t shit you can do to stop them from being together.”

  “Hence the fact that I would probably not kill the guy. I would just make it impossible for them to ever have children. Wouldn’t want a jackass being able to create new tiny versions of himself,” Alex replies ignoring the part of the statement about not having children to
begin with.

  “Whatever,” I say rolling my eyes. “I am hungry. Can we still go out to get something to eat?”

  “Of course. I called the restaurant on our way over here and told them to hold the reservations. You know you are really crabby when you are hungry,” he says drawing me out of the room to the elevator.

  “She’s crabby all the time,” Jake says putting in his two cents. “Do you want any guards for the rest of the night?”

  “I would like Jonas with us. If Sebastian wants to send one of his, I will allow it. We weren’t in any danger tonight, but the threat seems to always be present,” Alex replies.

  Jonas and Smitty follow us. I guess Sebby must have given a silent signal to follow. During the elevator ride, I ponder why I even thought to look for a threat with the Camaro. I have to guess there was a smell that triggered something, since that is my most keen sense. I just don’t remember anything specific and it is going to really bother me until I figure it out.

  I clear my mind of everything as I am led to the waiting Camaro. Might as well try to enjoy the rest of my date. Sebby made a good point about me being a private person and normally being out around people makes me a little edgy, but when I have the choice to get to know Alex in public, where I don’t have to worry that much about him trying to get my clothes off, I am going to take that option.

  The ride to the restaurant ends up being silent. If I was concerned about Alex’s welfare, I would check his forehead for fever, but sadly I really don’t care that much. The quiet gives my mind time to think about how my life is shifting.

  After spending the past couple weeks with the guy, Alex seems cool and all, as long as you define that word by being a total ass, but my heart doesn’t pitter patter at the thought of him. Truthfully, my heart doesn’t really do that for Sebastian either; our relationship is more grown-up than that.

  When we arrive at Cattleman’s, I climb out of the car, much to Alex’s chagrin. He tries to be courteous and I have been trying to thwart every attempt.

  “One of these days you will let me open the door,” he says coming up next to me and taking my hand.