Devil's Tango (Running with the Devil Book 1)

by Claire J Monroe

  Before he could respond with questions, Bravo launched into another short show-n-tell session that included possible extraction points and how to thwart them. By the end, disgusted mutters were filling the air.

  “It’s impenetrable.”

  “Fucking dragon’s lair.”

  Annoyed with the sudden lack of moral, Tango said, “Nothing’s impenetrable. There has to be a weakness.”

  “There’s none.” Whiskey muttered, eyes still on the screen.

  “Well find one,” Tango ordered.

  Whiskey turned on him. “Dammit, Tango, we’re not fucking miracle workers.”

  “The hell we aren’t.” Tango got in his second-in-command’s face and went off. “Do I need to remind you of each and every mission we’ve ever been on? Do I need to hold your fucking hand and order you to quit being a pussy and do your job?”

  Whiskey’s nostrils flared with anger, but he didn’t break eye contact. “No, sir.”

  “Then fucking man up and do it!”

  Whiskey broke eye contact and with a surprised look fell back a step with the amount of energy Tango fired at him.

  Flood gates were open and Tango couldn’t have stopped himself from ranting even if he’d wanted to. “I want solutions. Now! Maddie’s brother is in that fucking compound and I will not be the one who tells her Zed got left behind because we were too pussy to try the impossible!”

  “Bravo designed the defenses,” Whiskey fired back. “He’s the best of us at building them and disabling them.”

  “Then fucking unravel them,” Tango roared. “You’re a team of experts. Highly skilled soldiers with more missions under your belt than I can fucking count! Think, goddammit. Think your way through the problem! Tell me how many RPGs I need to blow that wall to hell and—”

  “And what,” Whiskey fired right back at him. “Kill the hostages? Four buildings, Tango. They could be in anyone of the four. How many casualties are enough? How many innocents do we have to sacrifice to save two men?”

  Tango didn’t miss a beat. “No man left behind. Zed is one of us. I want him out.”

  “At what cost,” Whiskey roared.

  “By whatever it takes!”

  “And what? We leave Maddie here to play house with Delta team while we dash off to save her brothers.” Whiskey drew out the ‘s’ in brothers to make a point. Yeah, so fucking what he’d not mentioned Nev in his angsty state, but whatever. Whiskey wasn’t done making his point. “The compound is impenetrable with a split team. You want a fucking miracle, then we’re either all in or all out.”

  “He’s right,” Bravo said in a calm, rational tone. “I can get us in, but not if Fox is back here guarding Maddie.”

  Slowly sanity crept back in and Tango began to calm down. He’d been played. Whiskey had riled him up on purpose to see the flaw in his plan. The real reason why he was ate up inside with frustration. “I hate it when you do that shit.”

  “Necessary evil,” Whiskey replied. “You’ve been on edge ever since this mission came down.”

  “You would be too if it were Kristina in the crosshairs,” he muttered.

  “Fucking right I would, but she’s not. Maddie is and we will do everything in our vast repertoire of skills and knowledge to keep her safe.” Whiskey didn’t give an inch. “Maddie is the mission. Not Nev. Not Zed. Maddie. Period. End of fucking story.”

  Tango knew Whiskey was right, but it fucking sucked. Zed was his friend. Maddie’s brother. Good people. The best. Yeah, he didn’t know Nev as well, but… fuck. “We have to try.”

  “We will if we can.”

  “I mean it, Carter. We have to try. No giving up because of some misguided Bravo knows everything there is to know about defense back then. He’s had more than five years to pick up new shit. See new angles.”

  “He has and we will look at it. Thoroughly,” Whiskey assured him. “But we can’t focus on it with you flipping the fuck out. So chill. Go get laid. Whatever you need to do, fucking do it.”

  “Van,” Maddie called from behind him.

  Unable to help himself, Tango snapped, “What?”

  “I have something that might help and… make it a little less impenetrable.”

  Tango frowned and spun around. “What do—” He stopped speaking as soon as he saw what was in her hands. His blood ran cold. Fucking stomach dropped out of his body and hit the ground.

  “Is that…,” Whiskey muttered.

  “Sonofabitch.” Bravo.

  “Shit.” Fox lunged for Dell. “Don’t look.”

  He missed. Dell looked and gasped. “Nexus suit.”

  Oh sure, it was a gasp, but it might as well been a fucking Hoover being unleashed for the amount of energy that suddenly sucked right out of Tango’s lungs and into the air and… hero, protector, savior, god slayer, whatever the fuck was that resided inside of him clicked into gear and he ripped his feet from the ground, then lunged in the path to block Maddie from Dell’s sight. “Whiskey! Get her out of here now!”

  Bravo was in motion before Tango finished yelling and he rushed Maddie, scooped her up and raced down the hallway.

  Maddie squeaked. “What—”

  “To her lab,” Tango yelled as he spread his arms out and did his damnedest to block Dell’s rising angst.

  Whiskey lunged for Dell and wrapped his arms around him. “It’s not working!”

  Fox grabbed K-dog and half dragged-carried him into the kitchen out of the line of fire. “Dell, dial it back!”

  Dell blinked and the look on his face said sorry in a million different languages. “Can’t. Stop.” Shuddering breath. “Can’t. Go. Back.”

  “I know,” Tango murmured as he took a step towards Dell. “No one’s asking you to. It wasn’t the suit. I swear. Looked like it, but… wasn’t the suit.” Another step. “Look at me, Dell. It’s over. Nothing to worry about.”

  It wasn’t working.

  No matter what he did or how much he let Dell drain from him, it wasn’t working.

  Maddie clung to Bravo as he carried her from the room. “What’s happening?”

  “Explain later.” He raced down the hallway to her lab and set her down at the door. “Open it.”

  She did as he asked, but demanded, “Tell me. Please.”

  Door open, Bravo didn’t waste a second. He picked her up and bodily placed her inside. “Your little surprise triggered Dell to melt down. If I don’t get back in there, Dell will drain them all.”

  “Drain? Like a succubus?”

  “Incubus.” Bravo gave her a stern look as he blocked the entrance. “Close the door behind me. Hide behind as much metal as you can. Don’t come out until Tango says. Promise.”

  She nodded, then waved him out. “I promise. Go. Hurry. Fix Dell. If you need anything—”

  He nodded and moved back. “I’ll ask. Door. Now.”

  She slapped the red button to the left of the door to manually close it and it slid into place, then watched as Bravo turned and sprinted down the hallway.

  Corridor empty, Maddie sprung into motion. She went to her computer and pulled up the surveillance feed in the main rooms. One screen showed Bravo sprinting down the hallway, then turning down the where the bedrooms were. He ducked into a room, then seconds later was racing back out with a bag in his hand and heading for the main room.

  She glanced at the other screen. Van was yelling at Whiskey who had his arms wrapped around Dell as if he were holding him back. There was a strain on Van’s face as he struggled with whatever unseen force he was battling.

  Maddie yawned. Suddenly she was feeling tired. Tired enough that two brain cells fired and a page from Caliv’s compendium of others blipped across her mind.

  Incubus. Sexual creature that drained energy. Male. “Ohmigod. Dell is a nymph.”

  Dell was having an uncontrolled emotional reaction and reacting by draining everyone in the room. That’s why she was so tired! Maddie tried and failed to stop another yawn and sat down at the keyboard. She was lethar
gic. Ready to pass out, but she had to switch the camera view and start seeing the energy. She needed to see it. To confirm what she already knew. To get more data to prove that her plan would work. Button flipped, the screen changed. To the untrained eye it looked like she as running a multispectral thermal scan of all living beings in the room, but the sensors she’d installed were calibrated to read energy frequencies that were then translated by a program she’d designed to create a visual representation of the data.

  Van’s color was gold. Like a bright golden star with pulsating energy all around him and funneling directly into a huge black void in the center of the screen.

  Dell. He was that black void. A nexus that sucked in energy as fast as it arrived and… it looked like he metabolized it as he received it. No energy came out. Only went in.

  Surrounding the black void was an electric blue almost white band. Flipping back over to the actual video proved that to be Whiskey pouring everything he had into Dell to try and fill the void.

  “Ohmigod. This is bad. Very, very bad.”

  Another yawn and this time nothing could stop her eyes from closing.

  “It isn’t working!”

  Fox’s panicked words mirrored Tango’s to a tee. It wasn’t working. Dell was melting down and losing his shit. “Talk to me, Whiskey.”

  Whiskey had his arms wrapped around Dell. He too was pouring energy into Dell fast and furious. “Seeing the suit triggered his nightmares!”

  “I can see that. Why isn’t me funneling everything I’ve got into him working?”

  “Because he’s fighting it,” Whiskey yelled back.

  “Dammit, Dell, quit fucking fighting and let me fix you,” Tango ordered.

  Dell clenched his fists at his side and dropped his chin to his chest as Tango sent another wave into him.

  “Don’t,” Bravo barked. He shouldered his way into the fray. “I got this. Go deal with Maddie and that thing.”

  “What the…,” Whiskey muttered.

  Bravo opened a Ziploc bag and Dell broke out of Whiskey’s grasp, then practically ripped the contents out of Bravo’s hand.

  “What the hell is that,” Tango demanded as he watched Dell bury his face in whatever he snatched from the bag.

  “A pillow case.” Bravo held out the bag and called out, “You, too, Fox.”

  Fox sprinted in from the kitchen, snagged the bag then stuck his nose in it. He sucked in a deep breath, held it for a minute then release it. “Thanks. I needed that.”

  “What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?”

  Bravo ignored him and spoke to Fox. “K-dog?”

  Another drag then Fox answered. “In kitchen. Alive, but passed out.”

  Bravo nodded. “Bring him in. Put him on the couch.” He looked to Whiskey. “You got enough left to fix K-dog?”

  “Yeah,” Whiskey answered. “What the hell just happened? Why didn’t Dell respond like he usually does?”

  Bravo looked between Tango and Whiskey. “Dell’s not gonna draw from you anymore.”

  “Why the hell not,” Tango demanded.

  Whiskey figured it out. “Hell. It’s because of Maddie. Isn’t it?”

  Bravo nodded, then explained to Tango. “Dell’s a full blood, non-diluted nymph.”

  “I know which is why I didn’t hold back,” Tango fired at him.

  Tango’s attitude didn’t impact Bravo at all. He rolled with it and kept his voice calm and in control as he explained, “It didn’t work because he didn’t want it to work. According to nymph customs, beliefs, whatever you want to call it, it’s the ultimate act of evil to draw energy from a procreating couple.”

  Tango’s brow furrowed. “What?”

  “Maddie’s pregnant,” Whiskey said.

  “So? She’s pregnant, not me. Dell can still—”

  Bravo interrupted. “Not happening. I’ve had a crash course on everything nymph since Daisy came on the scene and I’m telling you, it’s not happening. If Maddie’s pregnant, then you are too in Dell’s eyes.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  Bravo sighed. “Damned if I know. Way Dell explained it… nymphs don’t get knocked up easily, but when they do they have to fuck like bunnies constantly to generate the energy the growing baby needs to develop.”

  “I’m not a nymph. That rule doesn’t apply.”

  “You don’t know what you are,” Bravo fired back. “And Dell sure as shit isn’t gonna take any chances after finding out she miscarried once before.”

  Tango slapped a hand to his forehead then dragged it down his face. “He heard that.”

  “More like walked in while Fox was digging up her medical records.”

  Tango looked at Whiskey. “You saw them, too.”

  Whiskey nodded. “Yeah. No reason why she can’t have another. Or two. Her energy signature is healthy. But I can see Dell’s point. No use taking a chance if it can be helped.”

  “Dell needs fixing.”

  Bravo nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “How?”

  “Let me worry about that. You go deal with your girl and whatever shit fairy bomb she’s itching to drop on us next.” A pause as Fox carried Kenny to the couch and laid him out. “Whiskey, check on Maddie, too. Her lab has enough metal that she should be good, but—”

  “Fuck.” Tango spun around and dashed down the hallway. “Whiskey!”

  “Coming!” Whiskey ran a hand over Kenny’s forehead. “Tango being on edge is not helping,” he said to Bravo.

  “Can’t blame him given everything that’s been thrown at him,” Bravo replied. He turned to Fox. “Where’s Lily-pup?”

  Fox pointed to a doggie door. “Basement rabbit hole. Sent her down when shit went south.”

  “Fox,” Tango barked from down the corridor. “Open this fucking door! Now! Maddie’s down and—”

  Whiskey bolted up from the floor and raced down the hall.

  Fox leapt to the keyboard and in seconds was hollering back. “Passcode is Cherry bomb!” He sent a worried look down the hallway.

  “Go. I got this,” Bravo said.

  Fox didn’t need to be told twice. He was up and down the hall.

  Bravo guided Dell to a chair. “Sit.”

  Dell sat down then mumbled in an emotionally devastated voice through the pillowcase. “Sorry.”

  Bravo stood over him and looked down at Dell’s bowed head. “Shit happens. Maddie will be okay.”

  “Babies?”

  “Babies will be fine. Tango and Whiskey will make sure of it.” Bravo pulled up his sleeve and held out his wrist to Dell. “You need to drink.”

  Dell’s head whipped up. Eyes wide, he said, “No, I’m good.”

  Bravo was doubtful. “You look for shit. Take it.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Dumb. Ass.” Bravo crouched down in front of Dell and lowered his voice. “What happens to nymph warriors who abstain too long?”

  Dell sucked in a deep breath from the pillowcase. “Fuck you.”

  Bravo held his gaze. “They die. Now, take a fucking drink and keep the tongue action to a minimum.”

  “No.”

  “Do I need to make you? It’s either me or Fox and I do not need to remind you how much he enjoys it.”

  Dell glared at him.

  Lightning fast, Bravo snagged a hand behind Dell’s neck and got in his face to look him in the eye. “It’s not blood. It’s not a bond. It’s energy.”

  “Magic.”

  “I’m not an other and don’t have magic, but energy… I’ve got that in spades. Now drink.”

  “You are an other and have more magic than any creature I’ve ever met in my ninety years on this plane,” Dell replied back in a harsh desperate whisper.

  Bravo shrugged and eased his hold so he could put his wrist in Dell’s face. “Fine. I’m an other and have magic. Whatever. Bite. Drink. Now.”

  Dell gave in and bit. Drank. His eyes flashed violet, then one swipe of his tongue across Bravo’s skin a
nd he pulled back. He licked his lips. “Fucking hate it when you do that compulsion shit.”

  “It’s called an order and wouldn’t have to do it if you weren’t such a stubborn ass. Drink again.”

  Dell shook his head. “From anyone else, yes, but not you.”

  Bravo watched as the color slowly started seeping back into Dell’s cheeks. Reassured he was on the mend, he grabbed a chair and dragged it closer. So he could grab Dell in case he started freaking again. “Yeah, well that’s good. Keep huffing on that pillowcase.”

  Dell did as he was told. Somewhere around deep breath seven, he pulled back. “Daisy is an other.”

  Bravo leaned back in his chair and looked up at the monitors. “I know.”

  “Like me.”

  “You told me.”

  Another deep inhale and Dell started, “If she bites you….”

  Something in Bravo tensed. “She hasn’t.”

  “But if she does….”

  Bravo looked at him. “Spit it out.”

  “It’ll have consequences.”

  “Define consequences.”

  Another inhale from the linen. “Considering the amount of magic in your blood, nothing short of pure abstinence will prevent her from getting pregnant.”

  That was not what he’d been expecting. “That’s… good to know.”

  Dell gave a soft grunt of acknowledgement. “Other thing…,” another inhale then he lowered the pillowcase and stopped.

  Bravo waited and got nothing. “What?”

  Dell indicated the pillowcase. “Know why this works for me?”

  “Because you’re a freak with a linen fetish?”

  Dell cracked a smile. “Daisy’s in heat. Female nymphs radiate their heat magic. Clings to linen the best. Calls warriors home.”

  Bravo bit back a sarcastic retort and forced himself to think through what Dell was trying to tell him. “Daisy’s home?”

  Dell nodded. “Daisy is home.”

  “Until you get your own.”

  Dell considered him. “Yeah, until I find my own.”

  “Good, because whatever the fuck other you think I am is territorial as hell and doesn’t share. Ever.”