The Ian Dex Supernatural Thriller Series: Books 5 - 7 (Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department Box Sets Book 2)

by John P. Logsdon

  Valerie looked him over. “It is our first charge, of course.”

  “Then, my lady, if you trained the Roman soldiers, were you not biased toward their living on the field of battle?”

  Valerie opened her mouth and closed it a few times. She even pointed at Griff once or twice. Finally her shoulders slumped and she said, “Damn.”

  “Do not feel abashed,” Griff said finally. “It is the way of men to prey upon the kindhearted. They manipulate at every turn. One merely need only look at the historical records to witness the horror that befalls those who trust.”

  That brought the mood down in the arena.

  Blasted historians.

  “Right,” I said, bringing the topic back to me and my much needed training. “Even though what Griff said is probably true, I’m not interested in manipulating you, Valerie.”

  “Sounds quite similar to what Aulus Plautius claimed when he asked us to help train his soldiers,” she replied.

  “That may be,” I countered, “but I’m not looking to conquer the world.” I touched her hand. “I just want to stop four amalgamites from taking over Las Vegas.”

  She looked down at my hand and then back up at me. There was a hint of shine to her magnificent eyes, and her face softened.

  “We will help you, of course,” she said, “but only if you will agree to discuss terms of pleasuring when we are finished.”

  I glanced at Rachel. She was all smiles. So was the rest of my team.

  “Oh, all right.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Recognizing that everyone on the team was so enamored with the valkyries, except for Chuck and Griff, of course, I had to get them to focus on their training. I told them that this was going to be the basis for their annual reviews.

  That shaped them up.

  My first round was with Serena. The reasoning was that any damage I’d take during training would result in my needing to heal myself. Looking at the musclebound ladies who were itching to kick my ass, this seemed the logical path to take.

  Yes, I was already a fast healer, but there was a huge difference between five minutes and five seconds. If you don’t believe me, ask your spouse.

  “The first thing you’ll need to do is control your heart rate,” Serena explained as we stood in one of the far corners of the arena, away from the rest of the squad. “It’s fine to let your blood pump when healing someone else, but when it’s your own body undergoing repair, you need to stay calm, cool, and collected.”

  “That’s so the blood doesn’t just squirt out of me like a geyser, right?”

  “Partly,” she confirmed, “but it’s more about making sure your mind stays in the game. In fact, you’d be well advised to avoid looking at your wounds while healing them. It’s completely unnecessary to see them as you work, and it’s likely to break your calm if you do.”

  That made sense.

  Over the years I’d been injured more times than I could count. As long as I had been able to get away from the battle, or end the battle, I would heal all on my own. Now and then I’d end up in the hospital or subject myself to the healing hands of Serena, obviously, but in most cases my body just did its thing without much fuss. That said, I’d learned early on that it wasn’t such a grand idea to look at my wounds. It made me queasy.

  “Got it,” I said, pushing to keep an active pace going for my training. “What’s next?”

  “You have a leg up on my abilities in that you can combine your normal magic with your healing magic.”

  “Mmm…I don’t get it,” I replied, confused.

  “I can only channel healing energy,” she explained. “This is a form of magic, but not like the kind used by mages and wizards.”

  I gave her a double-take. “Are you saying you’re a cleric?”

  “No, Ian,” she laughed. “This isn’t a video game.”

  The moment she pointed that out, I wanted to facepalm.

  Here I was, a dude made up of a bunch of genetic mishmash, having tons of skills and knowledge of every race and profession in the supernatural community like nobody else in the entire world—with the possible exception of my ‘brothers’—and I was jumping into thoughts of World of Warcraft and Everquest.

  “Right,” I finally groaned. “Just ignore me.”

  “Anyway,” she continued, “since you can channel the power of your normal magic along with your healing, you should be able to manage almost instant repair.”

  She then pulled out a knife from her boot. It was long and curved, with a handle made of white stone with skulls engraved on it. That thing belonged in a video game.

  After taking a deep breath, she slid the knife along her open hand, causing a long cut to form.

  Then, she turned away and closed her eyes.

  Her lips were moving almost imperceptibly and I had no idea what she was saying, but the cut began to slowly close until it was finally healed completely. The entire process took roughly thirty seconds. It was mesmerizing.

  Once she was finished, she glanced back down at her hand, opening and closing it a few times.

  “There,” she said, looking a little tired. “Now, that took a little time to heal, but it was still much faster than if I’d bandaged it and just let nature take its course.”

  “Totally,” I agreed.

  “How long would it take your body to heal from a cut like that?” she asked. “I mean, without intervention.”

  “Five minutes?” I guessed.

  “That’s pretty incredible,” she admitted with her eyebrows up. “Then again,” she added, “I recall our sessions with the whip when we used to…” She shrugged. “Well, you know.”

  “Right,” I said.

  Serena and I had spent a couple of years playing with each other before I’d become the chief of the Vegas PPD. Hell, I’d played with damn near all the chicks on the squad back then.

  “Ah, the good old days,” The Admiral reminisced.

  I had to agree with The Admiral that time. Those were the days.

  “By the time our afternoon together was complete,” she recalled, “your welts were all but gone.”

  “Just think how quickly we could recover from them now!”

  “Shut up.”

  Her eyes were still dancing at the memory.

  “But now I’m the chief and I’m with Rachel,” I pointed out, “so we should probably stay on topic.”

  Serena shook her head, bringing herself back to reality.

  “Sorry,” she said, swallowing. “This place really gets me in the mood, I suppose.”

  “Me too, sister,” said The Admiral. “Me, too.”

  “Right,” I said with a cough. “Well, the question I have is how to channel the healing magic effectively? I’ve done some basic stuff in the past, but I was never very good at it.”

  “Ah, that’s both easy and challenging,” she remarked. “It’s challenging to get it right the first few times, but then it becomes second nature and you don’t even think about it anymore.”

  Sounded like when I was firing Boomy, or any weapon for that matter. Or bringing pleasure to the ladies.

  “That’s more me than you, pal,” noted The Admiral.

  “I don’t just use you for that purpose, remember?” I debated.

  “You don’t?”

  With a sigh, I refocused my attention on Serena.

  “I’m listening,” I said.

  “The trick is to imagine a pure blue light flowing through your body,” she said. “Think of it like a beautiful body of water that is full of sparkles from the sun bouncing off a group of flawless diamonds.”

  “I can do that…I think.”

  She put out her hand and cut it again. Then she held it up to me.

  I reached out and touched my fingers to hers as I closed my eyes.

  At first, I found it difficult to concentrate because I was trying to picture water running down my arm. But the water concept was only intended to be an analogy. Once I changed my thoughts to light i
nstead, I felt a soothing warmth flowing from my hand to Serena’s. She released a small moan, which didn’t make it easy to concentrate.

  “That’s it, baby,” whispered The Admiral. “You know you want it.”

  “For fuck’s sake,” I growled back at him. “If you don’t stop pestering me, I swear I’ll stick you in a chastity device for a week!”

  “Shutting up as ordered,” he replied, sounding terrified.

  I guess having irritated words with my dick caused a spark of power to flow through me, because Serena yelped and we both opened our eyes.

  The wound was completely healed, and it only took about ten seconds.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “You used your magic along with the healing spell.” She lifted the knife. “Let’s try it again.”

  “Wait,” I protested, grabbing her arm before she could cut herself. “Use it on my hand instead. I’ve got to learn to heal myself, remember?”

  She nodded and sliced away like there was nothing to it.

  From my side of the equation, though, I’d have to say it hurt like a bitch. But I couldn’t let the pain drive my emotions. This was business. I had to focus and get the job done.

  I closed my eyes, imagined the blue light, sent a shock of power down my arm, and yelped as the feeling of being cut reversed itself. It actually hurt worse than the original cut. That was strange, but when I opened my eyes, my hand was completely healed.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” I said, grinning from ear to ear as I studied my hand. “That’s fuckin’ sweet.”

  “You’re a fast learner,” Serena commented as a sinister smile formed on her face. “I remember that about you.”

  Thankfully, The Admiral said nothing.

  CHAPTER 15

  P ower and speed were the domain of the werewolf, and Felicia married those two elements better than any wolf I’d ever seen. Even when she was only in partial-wolf mode, she was quite formidable.

  “There are three ways we can go about this,” she said, reminding me of a sensei I’d studied under years ago. “You can stay in your normal form, go halfsies, or completely change over to wolf.”

  “My guess is that I’ll have to be decently versed in all three modes.”

  Felicia nodded and looked me over carefully. She walked behind me and was touching various points on my body, kind of like a doctor does during a physical. When she was directly behind me, I became a little nervous. Fortunately, she kept on moving.

  “Have you turned into full wolf yet?” she asked after returning to stand in front of me.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Remember when we were fighting against Sylvester? I went full wolf then.”

  “No, you didn’t,” she said seriously. “You were more like a burly poodle.”

  “That’s not true,” I shot back, affronted by her tone.

  “Did your clothes rip?” she questioned.

  I thought back to the fight. They hadn’t. They’d barely stretched out at all.

  “No,” I admitted finally.

  “When you bit people, did their limbs snap off?”

  “No.”

  She duck-faced, crossed her arms, and deadpanned, “Burly poodle.”

  “Fine, then,” I grunted, rolling my eyes. “I guess I haven’t gone full wolf.”

  “It’s not much fun,” Felicia said, relaxing her attitude. “I only do it when I really need to, and one of the best things I got when getting my PPD enhancements was to completely control that aspect of my life.” She blew out a long breath. “Prior to that, it was…” She looked up at me. “Well, let’s just say that the timing wasn’t always perfect.”

  “Right.”

  “One of the problems you’re going to face is that your clothes are not magically enhanced.” She then looked up at me questioningly. “Correct?”

  “They’ve recently been updated to handle stains,” I answered.

  “Right, but they’re going to rip apart if you go full wolf in them.”

  Damn it. She was right. Without the magic tailoring, my suit would be destroyed if I shapeshifted. I swear, it seemed like the universe just wanted me to repurchase suit after suit.

  First-world problems, I know.

  “Do you think going half-wolf would cause that?”

  “No,” she said, “and it’ll be much easier for you to think properly that way, too. You’ll still be highly interested in hunting and fighting, but you’ll also have your wits about you.” She cracked her neck. “Frankly, I’d bet that you’d be a better fighter like that than if you went full.”

  “Then we’ll just—”

  “However,” she interrupted, “you won’t be nearly as strong or fast.”

  “I figured as much,” I replied, “but these suits aren’t cheap, you know.”

  As soon as this was all over, I was going to have the works done on all my clothing. Every available option, no matter the cost. It was either that or spend countless days trying shit on and spending tons of coin on new suits. To be fair, I did rather enjoy shopping for outfits, but it just seemed wasteful to have to throw them away every time they got gooey or bloody. And now that ripping was in the mix, too, I couldn’t even justify passing them along to one of those charity places.

  For now, I would just do the half-wolf thing and be done with it.

  That was a problem, though.

  If I didn’t know how to go full wolf, I sure as hell couldn’t go half wolf either, and without proper guidance, I’d probably end up shredding my suit.

  “Okay,” I grunted, not wanting to do this at all, “how can I make sure I don’t end up in full-wolf mode?”

  “Simple,” Felicia replied. “All you have to do is stop yourself about halfway through the transition.”

  I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be ‘simple.’

  “And how do I start the transition in the first place?”

  “You already know the answer to that,” she replied. “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have been able to pick up my scent the way you did when we were at New York-New York battling the goblins.”

  I gulped, feeling embarrassed about that.

  “I…uh…”

  “You couldn’t have controlled it, Ian,” she stated before I could say anything that would make an already awkward situation even worse. “Your pheromones were through the roof, which caused mine to respond in kind. If either of us had morphed, the other would have been ravished.”

  “I would…” The Admiral wisely stopped himself before he could finish that sentence. “Sorry.”

  I looked at Felicia. “Isn’t that going to happen right now, if I change here?”

  “Quite possibly,” she replied. “But I will fight to keep myself under control. I can’t stop you from smelling my scent, though, so that’s something you will have to combat. If you don’t, you’ll never be able to fight because you’ll be too busy wanting to rut.”

  “Ah, super.”

  “Agreed!”

  So take the horniest guy in the world and then give him the ability to pick up the scent of any woman who is even remotely interested in sex. Sounds like a match made in hell.

  “What if I can’t control it?” I asked.

  “I’ll shoot you,” she replied, pulling out her Desert Eagle. “Now, do you remember what happened the last time you started feeling the wolf inside you as it tried to emerge?”

  “Rage,” I said after a few moments. “The goblins were trying to harm Rachel and I was pissed off about that.”

  “Good.”

  “Good?”

  “I don’t mean that it’s good they were trying to hurt Rachel,” Felicia chided. “I mean that it’s good you remember the level of rage you felt.”

  “It’s not easy to forget.”

  “Yes, but it’s the amount of anger you channel that will determine how far you morph.” She stuck her gun back in its holster. “You never morphed beyond those heightened senses you had at New York-New York, which means you did have some
measure of control. The difference here is that you’re going to have to let yourself go a little further into your rage. Once you’ve made enough of a change, you can then just let your anger simmer.”

  “Simmer?”

  “Yes,” she affirmed. “If you let it build too quickly, you’ll lose control of it. If you don’t let it build quickly enough, it’ll never grab hold.” She gave me a stern look. “You need to let it build fast at first, so that the morphing can happen. Then you need to edge it back until you have it under control. If you can manage that, you’ll be set.”

  “Okay,” I sighed. “I think I’ve got it.”

  I didn’t, but there was no way to get things rolling without just letting go and taking a shot at it.

  So, rage it was.

  I started thinking about things that pissed me off. Not just minor things, but rather those items that made me madder than hell.

  People cutting me off on the freeway. Tailgaters. Getting to the bottom of a box of cereal and finding out that there wasn’t a toy inside. Wanting a cup of Bones Coffee and finding that we were out…again.

  There were thousands of things that could probably do the trick, but I had to be careful what I chose since I didn’t want the werewolf to surface at an inappropriate time. I imagined myself turning into a wolf because a little old lady picked up the last box of Entenmann’s cookies at the grocery store.

  Not good.

  The item I finally latched onto was the vision of Rachel hanging in the middle of the werewolf arena in London. That image was burned into my mind for all eternity. She hadn’t seemed all that bothered by it, but it made me seethe to know that she could have been killed all because Rex, the werewolf, wanted to test his mettle against me.

  “Got it,” I said.

  “Good,” Felicia replied. “Now, you need to really push that feeling until the change takes hold.”

  “How will I know if it’s working?” I asked.

  She looked at me. “You’ve heard us howl, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “We do that because it hurts like a bitch when we actually start to change.”