The Daughter Trilogy Bundle

by C. M. Owens

  “You should tell me what you know,” she murmurs with a touch of embarrassment for her earlier slip, and we both snap out of our dangerously erotic trance.

  I have to stifle my laughter for her pathetic opening. She’s a beginner. Play nice, Araya.

  “Go fuck yourself,” Hale chirps while stifling a grin of his own, his eyes catching mine again.

  He’s playing the belligerent suspect a little too well. Her temper flares as her cheeks heat. I’m sure she’s used to feeling more in control. Hale’s too hot to let a girl think straight. Welcome to my world, bitch.

  Her eyes burn with anger, and she smirks more before he suddenly grips his side, instantly writhing in pain. His face distorts, forcing me to wince.

  Oh crap.

  “What the fuck?” he strains out.

  “Tell me,” she growls, and Hale slides to the floor, his pain becoming all the more pronounced as he curls into a ball.

  “Charman,” he grunts under duress.

  She dusts her hands off very smugly, releasing him from her hold. When she struts by me, I taste the triumph she has started celebrating too soon. My stern tone halts her cocky stalk.

  “Tell me the three things you did wrong,” I demand.

  I love being a bitch.

  “Excuse me,” the bratty girl scoffs, a derisive snort following behind.

  “Watch how you address your superiors,” Hale warns while slowly standing back up.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Crush,” she says very humbly, her eyes lowering to the ground like a child in trouble.

  “It’s Ms. Crush, and I’m still waiting on an answer,” I say without cracking the grin I want to.

  Hale starts smirking despite his attempt to suppress it. He enjoys hazing the new ones as well. Clay rolls his eyes at our amusement, but I can tell he’s having a bit of fun as well, despite his very obvious attempt to look disapproving.

  “I’m really sorry, Ms. Crush, but I got the name we were looking for. You said anything goes, so I’m not sure what you’re looking for,” she says with stupefied bewilderment.

  “Let me educate you,” I tartly remark. “You don’t walk into a room and exert your dominance by inflicting pain. You need them to want to talk to you. You have to own the suspect. The first thing you did wrong was use your gift. Your gift should never be displayed to anyone without top level security clearance. Anyone else that sees it should be in a body bag by the time you finish up. Now your suspect lives, and he’ll go tell everyone the gift you possess. They’ll prepare for you, and you’ll lose your edge.”

  She lowers her eyes again to hide her embarrassment, but I’m not through berating her just yet.

  “The second thing you did wrong was force your suspect into a state of frenzy. If you do your job right, then you get the right name. If you try to force a name out the way you did, then you have someone pissed off and ready to shut you down. You didn’t gauge his eyes, his body language, or his reaction to the name. It was a lie - a false, made-up name to hinder your quest. Now you’ve wasted precious time and valuable resources on a dead end because your arrogance interfered,” I scold, and her eyes lower all the more - her body begging to sink beneath the floor.

  “And the third?” she asks curiously, not looking up.

  In a blink, Hale blurs across the wall to rip her from her slouched stance. He slings her against the wall to cause a crack in the structure, and her eyes widen in sheer terror as she stares down into the unforgiving eyes of her assailant.

  “You didn’t secure your suspect,” I murmur with a cocky smirk.

  Hale drops her to the ground, and then he walks back over to the other side of the table to take his seat for the next student. His feet prop up on the table, his hands slide up to rest behind his head, and his eyes wait expectantly on mine to meet them.

  “Now that I have your attention, I’ll demonstrate the proper way to interrogate a suspect. From now on, don’t think you know more than I do. As you can see, this isn’t class time out here. Most all of the beings that sit on the other side of that table are skilled, merciless, and they’re just waiting for you to mess up.

  “If you plan on being an interrogator, then you have to keep your eyes open at all times. This room opens up the secrets we need. This room carries more weight than you realize, and this room could be the answer to stopping or starting a war at any moment. Understood?”

  They all salute me in unison, and then Hale grins even more upon hearing my dominating tone. I resist the urge to roll my eyes at his incorrigible behavior before turning back to the seven far more attentive students.

  “I don’t do well with a visible audience. Go stand with Commander Jude behind the glass, and don’t do anything but watch.” I instruct, and Hale’s eyes dance menacingly.

  “Would it be too easy if I said I was hot for teacher?” he says mischievously, his salacious grin only growing.

  “Yes. It would,” I grumble.

  This is going to be harder than I thought. Why am I doing this with him? I know better. I should get Clay. Damn you, Hale Banner!

  “The first thing you need to know is your suspect’s biggest weakness. With full bloods, it’s the vein. The drink they need from the vein outweighs almost any other desire. With humans it’s the chance of immortality. If you tell a full blood they can drink from a vein, you had better sell it to the point they can’t turn you down. If a human wants immortality, then they have to have the right gene for the venom to work. Otherwise, they’ll become the infected instead of the immortal, and then you’ll be the one to have to put them down,” I murmur very authoritatively.

  Hale leans back in his seat while taking in my very assertive instructions.

  “And what do you do when it’s our kind?” he interjects with a daring tone.

  I offer a wry smile while strutting toward him like a vixen on a mission. Very slowly, I pull off the blazer that has been hiding my very slinky shirt that drapes dangerously low once I undo the top two buttons.

  His eyes grow wide when I let my hair down and toss my jacket to the chair while pulling my handcuffs out of the pocket.

  “With our kind,” I murmur with pause to add suspense, “you have to find out what they enjoy the most. Is it food, kinky sex, or a dirty, scandalous blood fuck,” I crudely remark, and I can see Hale’s humor fading as he squirms beneath my very light eyes staring fearlessly into his as if he’s my prey.

  “Fuck,” he whispers to himself.

  My menacing smile grows darker as the games get closer to starting. I step over to him to cuff his hands to the protruding posts designed for restraining. The touch of skin on skin still sends that unwelcome shiver, but I brush it off before he notices my reaction.

  “This feels like our third date,” he seduces when I secure the cuff into place.

  I almost feel flustered now that he has said such a personal remark in front of so many, but I’ll pay him back for his slip up when I humiliate him in front of everyone. I refrain from looking into the eyes that are burning down at me while I cuff his second hand. That stupid, unbidden fire that courses through me with one accidental graze of his skin is almost painful this time - a longing within me growing, growling, and begging me to straddle him right now.

  “With hybrids, you have to use whatever their strongest desire to seduce a confession or valid information,” I say to the very silent students on the other side of the glass.

  I sit down on top of the table to be in front of Hale, and my feet dangle just in front of his pants that seem to be fitting a little tighter, making his arousal apparent.

  “Normally I use blade cutting cuffs lined with uranium, but since I don’t want to leave my ex handless, I’ll just stick with the reinforced steel cuffs for this friendly demonstration,” I explain, and his devious grin grows.

  “Now what?” he smolders, and I lean over to be just inches from his lips, keeping mine just out of his reach.

  “Now we look for your weakness to extort,” I murmur softly, hyp
notically… the way he likes my tone to be when I’m seducing him. My shirt falls open a little more to reveal the spot between my neck and shoulder - the spot where his blood bringers constantly broke the surface.

  He frowns when he sees the cruel game I’m playing. His body stiffens, and he leans back to escape the scent I know I have to be exuding right now… my scent - the hybrid scent of lust.

  “I don’t think this is fair. You know your suspect’s weaknesses a little too well,” he grumbles, and he stares at the place he once bled me from before taking me in the most surreal, mind-blowing ways.

  His breath hitches, but he can’t look away. I can feel his desire to take me here and now. I can taste his desire through his rasp breaths that are growing coarser by the second.

  “Then you manipulate their lust for their coveted choice, and you find your answer,” I murmur very softly while staring into the entrapping eyes.

  “How do you do that?” a voice says through the glass, and I smirk when I hear Clay.

  “I told you not to ask questions. Araya has always been a bigger fan of show than tell,” he admonishes.

  I climb down to straddle Hale’s lap. He exhales slowly, his lips tightening as I go in for the first bit of the ploy - playing with my prey before going for the kill. His neck is inches from my lips, and I intentionally let the heat from my breath stroke it.

  His breath hitches again upon my sudden descent, and I feel the desire he has for me begging to burst free from his pants. With a slow caress, my hands begin to run up and down his chest, drawing out the moment of allure. I rip his shirt open to reveal his incredible body, and it’s all I can do to stay with this charade now.

  His golden abs and toned chest shine under the dim lights of the cold room, and I feel my temperature rising from its normal temperature - one hundred and five degrees - to at least one hundred and ten A sizzling sound emerges to remind me I’m overheating. His temperature rises too, making his clothes start to singe.

  “This isn’t fair,” he whispers in a nearly muted tone.

  “I’ve never played fair in this room,” I say with an enigmatic smirk, and he shows the excited fear in his eyes as I lean over to let my lips graze his chest.

  His hands try to move, the steel cuffs rattling against the metal of the poles as he does.

  “Damn it,” he groans, and I smirk against his chest as my lips trail up to be just below his collarbone - the place I bled him most.

  My blood bringers unsheathe and graze against the pressure point I know gets to him, and he almost gasps for air when I threaten to break the skin. Very teasingly, I pull back and move to my second favorite spot on his shoulder, and again my teeth bear down just enough to threaten his strong, almost impenetrable skin - our sharp blood bringers being one of the few things strong enough to offer penetration.

  “Oh, this is torture,” he exasperates in a tormented tone.

  His lips seek mine, and I pull back to be just out of reach again.

  “I need the name,” I smolder out.

  I see him wanting to cave. His eyes tell the truth, his secret barely hanging on.

  “I don’t think so, Ms. Crush. You’ll have to work harder than that,” he mocks, but I can hear the shakiness in his tone he’s trying to mask with confidence.

  My lips scale down his neck again and back to his chest to bear down once more. I press too hard and a small drizzle of blood expels from his chest. I pull back instantly before the taste enters my mouth. The erotic trickling taunts me, and I almost feel compelled to end the game that has promised to go awry.

  Fuck. That could have been so, so, so bad.

  His eyes burn with excitement, danger, and desire as the warm stream trails his chest. I hear the impossible snapping of the strong metal, and suddenly I’m on my back against the table as his soft, supple, amazingly perfect lips engulf mine.

  I taste the pent up frustration from three years pouring into my mouth, and my hands grip the back of his neck to pull him even closer. My blood bringers retract, but his threaten to emerge from their sheathe to rush the finale that can’t happen.

  His erection grinds between my legs, and it’s ungodly tempting to just fuck him here and now despite all of the eyes on us waiting for me to show them how to grill a suspect. Instead they’re getting a lesson in Araya and Hale - the fucked up hybrid counters.

  I finally break free from the kiss, and then I push the panic button strapped to the bracelet on my wrist. Just like in our interrogation room, the restraints emerge from the wall and wrap him up to pull him off me. His head flops back in defeat, slightly thudding the wall behind him, when he feels the numerous chains holding him back.

  “Damn tease,” he whispers.

  I force a smirk, one of composure, triumph, and control, but in all reality, I’m feeling just as teased as he is.

  Damn it. I wish Brazen was here to bring me back to sanity.

  “I’ve only begun to tease you,” I mock, and my teeth graze the side of his chest that doesn’t have blood drizzling from it.

  “Fuck,” he huffs in tortured exclamation, his will breaking under my touch. “It’s Stackham. The name is Stackham,” he quickly releases, and I walk over to uncover the name hidden inside the envelope on the table.

  I hold it up for all to see I’ve just cracked the captain of the Seminole, and then I hear gasps ringing out from behind the glass.

  I almost gave them a lesson in voyeurism as opposed to educating them on the art of interrogation.

  “That was so fucking hot,” one girl whispers, but they don’t know how adept our hearing is at our age.

  Newbies.

  The glass offers a reflection to show me a twenty-three year old woman at most. The years I’ve lived through stay hidden under my very slowly aging skin. My dark hair sweeps across my chest, falling just below my bra, and the stains of a tortured past etch themselves in every expression and look they can. How can anyone want me with all the scars hiding so close to the surface?

  Hale is released from the wall, and he does his best to shrug off the remaining jitters I’ve left him with.

  “Thanks. I love a good tease before an important meeting,” he whispers into my ear. “Everybody important within the United will be there, and here I am sporting a very obvious erection.”

  “I suppose there’s probably someone here to actually give you a blood fuck,” I snark, my mind finally coming back down from the lustful hypnotizing.

  “I haven’t done that, you know? Not since you,” he says so genuinely, his eyes swearing he’s being honest.

  I remove myself from the physical contact immediately. It’s too hard to do this. It’s hard enough without seeing him. I swish out of the room to the applauding students, and Hale walks up with forced smile as he joins in on the clapping.

  “We have some teaching strategies to run through right now, so you guys will be escorted to the arena to practice your gifts in private and absolute secrecy,” Clay announces to the students.

  I cordially smile while walking away, and the breeze stirs when Hale is suddenly at my side again.

  “So what was that?” he asks softly, seriousness very clearly pronounced in his tone.

  “That was a damn good interrogation,” I joke, trying to veil the truth with humor.

  His eyes stare at me expectantly as he steps in front of me to halt my retreat. His hand slides on the wall beside my head, his body inches in closer, and I’m so worried I’m about to kiss him out here… in the real world. In that box it’s not wrong, but out here it would be. Brazen would hate me.

  “Hale, I’m eng-”

  My announcement is cut short when I see the face that has been missing from my life for two very long months. His pale blue eyes are verging on white, and his light brown hair is a messy piece of delicious artwork. He’s talking very fervently with a group of people when his eyes lock on mine, and in a blink his lips are on mine, claiming me as he completely disregards the hybrid’s eyes still on us.
/>   “Hey,” he murmurs breathlessly through our kiss.

  I ignore the pleasantry, my carnal desires bypassing the need for anything else. My hands grip him tighter, tangling in his hair until I can hear Hale grumbling.

  “Oh,” Brazen says with an embarrassed grin as he pulls back. “Sorry. I haven’t seen my fiancée in a couple of months.” His eyes dismissively cut away from Hale to turn back to me before saying, “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

  “Fiancée?” Hale asks in disbelief.

  I feel a pang of guilt when I see the aching consume him. I never meant for him to get hurt. I never meant for things to get carried away in the interrogation room either.

  “Yes. I’m Brazen Mordel. And you?” he prompts while proffering his hand.

  Hale sighs out loudly while accepting the handshake, his eyes darting to me once before returning to him, and then he mutters, “Hale. Captain Hale Banner.”

  Their eyes now become locked in an entirely different way, and the handshake becomes more of a strength test when they both begin squeezing tighter.

  Oh good grief.

  “Okay. Hale, now you’ve met my fiancé, and Brazen, now you’ve met my ex fiancé. Let’s go to the meeting,” I grumble.

  Brazen’s eyes gauge Hale’s busted shirt, and then he stares at the dripping trail of blood from the already healed wound on his chest. He glances to me, and then shakes his head, his mind running amuck with terrible visions of what could have transpired.

  “Interrogation? Did you-”

  “Of course not,” I snap. “It was just a show for the newbies.”

  Hale smirks deviously, and I know he wants so badly to say something to start a fight between my full blood and me. I scold him with my eyes as a girl walks up with a fresh shirt for him.

  “Thank you, Wendy,” he says very gingerly.

  “You’re welcome, Captain,” she giggles out, and I have to roll my eyes at her lingering gaze.