by Lizzy Ford
“For reals? That’s amazing. Beautiful and brilliant.”
She blushed deeper.
Zoey snorted. “Behave, Enforcer.”
“Never.” He winked.
“If you want an Enforcer to leave you alone, just cry, Chrissy. They can’t stand it,” Zoey said.
“True,” Aiden seconded. “I’d want to make love to her until she stopped.”
“Sometimes I really hate these guys,” Vikki said with vehemence born of sexual frustration and worry.
“Weren’t you supposed to be taking today off, Chrissy?” Zoey asked. “Why were you there anyway?”
Concentrating on the road, Vikki muttered about wanting vacation time. Zoey ignored her. As long as her best friend was complaining, she was fine. The moment she stopped, Zoey would know something was wrong.
“I cracked one of the Project Sienna files,” Chrissy replied, referring to one of the five hard drives Zoey and Vikki had stolen from the Sucubatti before they broke away from their society. They sold the information derived from four of the hard drives to the top bidders from the Sucubatti and Incubatti in order to fund their operations. The fifth drive contained too much personal information for them to part with.
“Sienna?” Aiden’s gaze sharpened. “What is it?”
Chrissy looked up and froze, a dreamy expression crossing her expression. “Medical records for Team Rogue. Olivia had their entire history on file and called it Project Sienna. We-”
“Maybe you should come up here, Chrissy,” Zoey interrupted. The flair of incubus magic in the air was influencing Chrissy too much, which Zoey guessed Aiden had done on purpose. “You shouldn’t be so flushed.” She glared at Aiden. “Where’s that toy you made?”
The incubus magic retreated. Aiden rested his head against the locker behind him.
“I forgot it. A few more tweaks, and it’ll repel sex magic for whoever holds it,” Chrissy said. “Vikki scared the hell out of me when she woke me up. I didn’t have time to grab it.”
Zoey switched spots with Chrissy, who sighed in relief to be away from the influence of the incubus. Aiden’s eyes drifted closed.
“Speaking of scared … are we not going to talk about this, Zoey?” Vikki demanded, eyeballing her via the rearview mirror.
Zoey shrugged. She leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees. The headache was gone, though her concern remained.
“It’s been seventeen nights where you disappeared and woke up somewhere else, and ten of those nights in the past two weeks.”
“I know. I was there,” Zoey grumbled. “There’s nothing to talk about, Vikki.” Her fear was harder to dismiss. She had no control over her actions when she had a blackout, no way to prevent from hurting someone innocent or worse – someone she cared about.
“The only way I can track you is through the monitor Chrissy made. What happens if that gets damaged one day while you’re out fighting incubuses?” Vikki pressed.
“I’ll deal with it. Aiden is the first non-Cambion I’ve almost killed.”
“Whatever’s going on isn’t good, Zoey,” Chrissy seconded, her voice softer. “I’ll do another blood draw on you tonight.”
“You won’t find any common sense in that blood,” Vikki snapped.
“Why are you such a bitch lately, V?” Zoey retorted. “I can’t sneeze without you jumping down my throat!”
“Maybe because I haven’t gotten laid in months!”
“She’s pregnant, Zoey.” Chrissy’s calm words were quiet.
Zoey stared at the back of Vikki’s head. For a long moment, no one spoke. Aiden lifted his head, listening intently.
“You weren’t supposed to say anything, Chrissy,” Vikki said at last.
“Pregnant? Why?” Zoey managed.
“What do you mean why? It’s what happens when you have sex.”
“You didn’t use protection?”
“Did you when you went through the rite?”
“No, but …” Zoey drifted off with a growl. “Why did you pick now to get pregnant?”
“I didn’t choose to get pregnant,” Vikki replied in the same sour tone. “It just … happened. I’m two months, which means it happened before everything went to shit.” Vikki waved her hand at the events of the past few weeks.
“Seeing as how I’m the team’s doctor, I might have to give you all some pamphlets about safe sex,” Chrissy interjected. “You’re part-succubae. How do you all not know anything about using protection?”
Aiden snorted.
Zoey glanced at him. “Does Liam know?” she asked Vikki.
“No, of course he doesn’t,” she replied. “We’re sort of at war right now.”
“He will when we ransom Aiden back to them.”
Aiden smiled without speaking.
Vikki cursed, then fell silent.
The idea that her best friend was pregnant depressed her. Zoey didn’t know why, except that it was one more huge issue for her to manage. Leading the team was harder than she expected, especially when their ranks were growing daily, and they were constantly scrounging for supplies and weapons. She’d had to learn boring, administrative shit, in addition to taking on the responsibility of leading, finding funding, and managing the operations … but a baby ward? Totally not in her plans.
Although, she’d always wanted a family, and it seemed like a baby was going to fare better with Team Rogue to raise her than in the Sucubatti or Incubatti societies that viewed Halflings as flawed or sub-members. The five core members were half-sisters whose biological mother was one of their least favorite succubae, the chief of the Internal Affairs Bureau, who was not so affectionately known as Bio-Mom by the team.
Zoey never thought twice about children, having spent her life without a real parental figure. Now with her blackouts and the world trying to track her down, she didn’t think she’d ever have the chance at a family or normal life.
But Vikki’s baby might have a shot at a good life. Team Rogue was cleaning up the Cambion threat and Vikki was strong enough to protect her child from anything. Vikki also wasn’t suffering the blackouts Zoey experienced.
What if I hurt her one day? Cold fear sank into Zoey’s stomach. She had no control over her episodes. What happened if Vikki confronted her while she was in blackout mode? She’d already killed a full-blooded incubus and done severe damage to Aiden.
She’d never risk hurting her best friend or her child. It was one more problem Zoey had to solve on two hours of sleep a night.
“I’ll help you take care of her, V,” she said. “But your timing really sucks.”
“It wasn’t planned! Kinda like your little jaunts to kill shit and wake up with no memory.”
Zoey’s thoughts drifted back to how she ended up some place she didn’t recall going. Every other time, she’d killed Cambions. It was no surprise, given that’s what she did for a living.
Facing a super-incubus like Aiden was different. One of them could’ve ended up dead, and there was a grim possibility it would’ve been her. She didn’t mind the fight, but she minded not being in control of herself.
“Drive faster, V,” she said, anxious to be back to somewhere somewhat safe. With Aiden and a succubus snooping around, her hideout was compromised. It was only a matter of time before those watching her decided to act. “We need to make plans to move again.”
“Yep,” Vikki said. “We’ll get rid of Aiden and disappear.”
Zoey leaned back and rubbed her face. Life had become so much harder since she left the Sucubatti. She didn’t expect doing the right thing – killing Cambions – to be so complex, or for Olivia to pull her mind into blackouts when they’d completely removed themselves from her influence.
Nothing was going right and now, Vikki was pregnant. Zoey wanted to scream and shred a herd of Cambions. Instead, she sank back into impotent emotion and stared at Aiden, disturbed by how much he resembled Declan.
Chapter Two: Hunted
Olivia, Chief of the Internal Affairs B
ureau for the Sucubatti, knelt gracefully next to the puddle that gleamed red-black in the moonlight in the shadow of the Washington Memorial. The full succubus studied the blood with blue eyes that glimmered almost silver in the night. The blood was less than an hour old, with one pool radiating succubus magic while the other pulsed with incubus sex energy. She tossed her hair over one shoulder and nibbled a plump lip, troubled.
“What took so long tonight?” she purred at the Cambion leader, Paul, who stood off to the side.
“If you could control your Halflings, I wouldn’t be scrambling to find them,” he replied. The strongest and oldest of the Cambions, Paul’s ability to identify, track, and locate Zoey was the key to capturing the half-succubus whose blackouts were growing more frequent. Aware of what made Team Rogue members special, he also knew he and his fellow Cambions were the only ones capable of finding them by following the trail of sex magic.
“Yes, well, I’m not in a position to activate her.”
“That’s going to disrupt our plans.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Olivia responded. Her operations officer, a blonde bombshell with wintery blue eyes, crouched with a vial to collect blood from the incubus puddle. “Don’t bother, Heidi. What I’m looking for isn’t in their blood.”
Heidi rose obediently and shifted towards her, filling the bottle with Zoey’s blood instead.
Olivia stood and watched, displeased. Ten out of the past fourteen nights she’d been alerted by Paul, whose Cambions picked Zoey up by accident, only for Olivia to arrive to the location too late. Had she been ten minutes faster tonight, she would’ve gotten her dream list: Zoey and a full-blooded incubus, disabled enough to transport without a fight and healthy enough for medical experimentation.
“You don’t know what’s causing this?” Paul grew nearer. With one blue eye and one green, he was unique in looks, lean, strong and wary, drawn to her sex magic and compelled to stay by their common goals.
“Hopefully her blood tells us,” Heidi answered.
“Maybe she’s not the miracle of genetic engineering you expected.”
“Shut up, fool,” Olivia snapped. “Before I was the Chief, I was the scientist in charge of genetically modifying the Halflings. I know what I created with Team Rogue, and they’re not flawed.”
“Then what’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know, but I have to get a handle on it fast. At this rate, she’ll burn out soon.”
“You think he’s the key.” Paul lifted his head towards the puddle where the incubus had lain.
“If the research you brought me is correct, then yes. What prevents you Cambions from becoming completely independent of the incubus society may also stop her blackouts. We won’t know until I can bring in an incubus to experiment on.”
“Our situation is improving,” he stated. “With my election to the Incubatti Council, I have access to information that should help us. Our genetics lab is pretty well locked down, though, compliments of the former Enforcer Chief. I’m doing what I can.”
“I have plans for Ethan,” Olivia said. “Depending on what Zoey does.” Her senses tingled, the way they did when an incubus was around.
Her gaze sharpened, and she turned towards the direction of the World War Two Memorial. The light tinkling of the fountain at the center of the fifty plus pillars reached her. None of the shadows moved, and nowhere did she see anyone lingering.
But she knew he was there, without knowing who it was. “We’ve got company,” she whispered. “Heidi, call for clean up and get that sample to the offsite lab tonight.”
“Roger,” Heidi said crisply. Olivia’s loyal second-in-command strode away and pulled out her cell.
Olivia turned away from the location of the incubus, doubting he’d let them get anywhere close to his position, since he had no business being there unless he was following Zoey. It wasn’t like Declan, Zoey’s soul-mate and the Enforcer Chief for the Incubatti, to do something like this, but Olivia could see him sending one of his brothers or another incubus he trusted to keep an eye on Zoey. Olivia wasn’t in a position to pick a fight with him yet and pushed the sexy, powerful incubus from her mind.
“Paul, we’ve got their location and plan on engaging soon. Keep your Cambions clear of Team Rogue for a day or two. It’s time to turn up the heat on Zoey and see if we can’t smoke out this rat. We can’t risk her falling into a blackout and not recovering. I’d say her time is limited.”
“If she won’t cooperate?”
“There are four more,” Olivia said with a shrug. “Zoey is my masterpiece, but the others will do.”
Paul glanced towards the WWII Memorial, picking up the traces of incubus magic as well. “Good luck.” He started away at a trot.
“I don’t need luck,” she whispered in response. My time is coming. Declan wouldn’t know what hit him when it did.
Chapter Three: Intrigued
The silence in the van was tense throughout the trip to the warehouse in southeast DC where Team Rogue had set up shop a week before. Tucked among dozens of similar looking warehouses, it was a good place to hide and large enough to house the Halfling Hunters that were defecting from the Sucubatti.
Vikki halted the van behind their hideout. Zoey hopped out, eyes going to the far end of the warehouse to the barracks area.
Zoey had to figure out how to feed and buy weapons for four dozen Hunters. She’d spent many sleepless nights with the original members of Team Rogue planning and learning mundane things like budgeting, balancing manpower with missions, and dealing with issues. Because there were always issues.
Like Vikki being pregnant. She wasn’t able to summon any happy emotion for her friend, not when their own survival was so far from certain.
She entered the open bay of the warehouse. Vikki and Chrissy escorted the prisoner to the office area in one corner, a space set up with four rooms where the core members did business. Chrissy’s office was the largest, and the gadgets she made were stored in a second room. An infirmary consisting of three beds and used medical equipment was in a third and in the fourth, the cots and planning area for the original members of Team Rogue.
The infirmary was full, a reminder of another issue Zoey didn’t want to think about right now. The Halfling curse had begun to spread to those Hunters that were over twenty, and no one, not even Chrissy, could figure out why. They’d expanded the medical bay to Chrissy’s office in response, where three more hospital beds were crammed into a space opposite her makeshift lab. Zoey hopped onto the end of a bed in the corner. Aiden stretched out onto the one inches away with a groan. His blood dribbled a trail across the cement floor and formed a puddle beside the bed.
Peeling off her t-shirt, Zoey grimaced at the two stab wounds. Although there was a lot of blood, there was only little pain. Vikki shook her head, approaching with gauze and alcoholic swabs in her hands.
“He got you good,” she said, studying the wounds. “But you’ve already started to heal.”
Zoey ignored her observation, aware there was only one way for her to heal, and it was because Declan was helping her. She sensed the connection with him was open. He never spoke to her, though, not since the horrible night she’d seen evidence of his betrayal. She’d done everything she could to mentally block him, to make the connection one way by enforcing a barrier on her end.
He kept his end open and simply … helped her. Silently. Consistently. Unconditionally.
She took it as an admission of his guilt, and the constant flow of his sex energy fed her confusion and fury.
Vikki’s placed her supplies on the bed beside Zoey.
“Why didn’t you tell me about your pregnancy?” Zoey asked her best friend.
Tall and beautiful with flawless skin, green eyes, and fiery auburn hair, Vikki was usually the last person to keep a secret from her.
“You’ve got enough on your shoulders,” Vikki replied. “All the issues around here. Randomly waking up someplace.” She shrugged. “I
didn’t want you to have a meltdown.”
“But I’m your best friend.”
Vikki sighed. The first swipe of the alcoholic swab made Zoey hiss with pain.
“You know Aiden is gonna tell Liam,” Zoey said. “If Aiden knew where to find us, so does Liam, which means he’ll come for you.”
“Nope. I’m staying right here.”
Zoey studied her friend, aware Vikki was in greater danger on Team Rogue – which was being hunted by every Cambion, incubus and succubus on the planet – than she would be under the protection of the Incubatti. There was no way she’d let Vikki or her child get caught in the crossfire, especially since it was Zoey that everyone truly wanted. She had killed a full blooded incubus while under the influence of a blackout caused by the Sucubatti, an infraction whose penalty was death in both societies. If their enemies didn’t get her, there was a chance Zoey did once she slipped into zombie mode.
“I have to do what’s best for my people,” Zoey started.
“Bullshit. Don’t try to go all-leaderly on me.” Vikki cut her off. “We’re in this together. Right?”
“They’re after me.”
“They’re after all of us.”
Zoey hesitated then nodded, sensing she wasn’t going to sway Vikki this way. Too tired to know how to warn her friend, Zoey vowed to find a safe place for Vikki before things got worse.
“I say this with love,” Vikki continued. “If you want to ransom Aiden, you gotta do the deal this time. It was hell the last time. I dealt directly with Liam, and he was an ass.”
Zoey rolled her eyes. “All right. I’ll take it easy on you, because you’re preggers.”
Vikki’s eyes narrowed. “Pregnant does not mean weak or suddenly incompetent or anything else. I knew you’d react this way, Zoey.”
“React how?”
“Like I’ve been given a death sentence or something!”
“It’s pretty close.”
“Nowhere near it.” Vikki dug something out of the drawer of a dolly. “Read this. It talks about everything.” The paperback was thin, the size of a field manual.
