by A. C. Arthur
“But they didn’t change you.” The question was clear in Mel’s tone as she made the statement. “You’re not a vampire.”
“I’m not.” Riya shrugged. “Guess I wasn’t their type.”
“You survived when they could’ve killed you,” Mel continued before he could speak.
“They never even bit me. Instead, I was pummeled and dragged. The scar is from a blade that caused some type of infection that kept me hospitalized for seven weeks. That’s when I saw Duncan again. He came to my hospital room one night.”
“Duncan was bit and changed. You were only maimed.” It took a few seconds for Aiken to realize only wasn’t a great word to use. But in retrospect wasn’t it better to have a scar than to be turned into a killer?
“My brother was changed in more ways than I could’ve ever imagined. He left soon after I was released from the hospital. I resigned from my job because, while I hadn’t been changed into a vampire, there was something different about me. Something primal and uncontrollable lives inside me and when it’s unleashed...”
“You don’t have to explain,” Mel interrupted. “We understand and we’re sorry that happened to you.”
He hadn’t said so, but Aiken agreed. “Do you know where Duncan went when he left?”
Riya shook her head. “Not at first. But about six months after the attack he showed up here and was acting very strange. That’s when I saw him change into a bat. Freaked me the hell out, even though I’d already seen him with fangs and golden eyes.” She took a deep breath like maybe that would make this story easier to tell. “He said something about a medical program he needed money for. I told him he could stay with me, that we could live with the effects of that night together, but he was adamant he had to go to this place so they could heal him. I had to get the money from the bank, but he couldn’t wait, told me to send it to a missionary camp in Africa, a place where they could heal what happened to him because of the bite. I didn’t mind using my retirement money, if it meant saving my brother from being one of them.”
“But it didn’t work. You couldn’t save him,” Aiken told her. “That’s okay, Riya. It wasn’t your job to save him.”
“Still you tried,” Mel said, and he sensed a hint of agitation in her tone. “You were there when your brother needed you. And then I show up asking you to tell me where he is so I can turn him over to whoever it is that wants him so desperately.”
Riya turned in Mel’s direction. “When he was here, listening to him talking, seeing that look in his strange eyes.” She pressed the backs of her hands into her eyes and sighed heavily when she pulled them away. “He’s not my brother anymore. Not the way I knew Duncan. When he was on the phone and he said he would ‘take care’ of something, I knew he meant he would kill. Just like those vampires had tried to kill us. If he’s captured, he’s not hurting people.”
The logic was there and so was the pain etched in every word Riya said. Aiken wanted to offer some type of comfort but he remained still. Because while Riya was reeling from learning that her brother had become a killer, beside him, Mel was warring with her own demons, probably because she’d never been able to explain what had happened in her own past with this much detail. Maybe if she’d known why her parents chose to leave her, it would’ve made a difference. Maybe not. The quick blast of heat that shot from her body as she struggled to remain calm told him her beast was dealing with the past issues too. Mel wouldn’t like that.
“Anything you can think of that might lead us to him?”
Riya picked up the mug once more, this time taking a huge gulp that Aiken was sure burned the back of her throat. She probably needed that sting to take away the blunt force of the pain they’d dredged up with their questions.
“The car,” she said when she was finished drinking. “It was expensive and had a flag draped in the back window.”
Aiken knew what she was going to say next, but waited.
“Deep purple stripes over white, yellow circles around the edges. The moon in the center.” She’d closed her eyes, recalling it in her mind.
He stood and lifted his arm so he could type a message into his communicator. “The Royal Blood flag. Your brother is staying with the Royal Blood.”
Chapter Five
“What now?” Options circled in Mel’s mind after they’d left Riya’s house and climbed back into the truck, but this wasn’t her territory and one thing she knew for certain was that dealing with the Royal Blood wasn’t like walking into a room and arresting the biggest baddest dude inside. The Royal Blood could be savvy, alluring, even attractive, but beneath their glamorous exterior they were cold-blooded killers. Infiltrating them wasn’t easy, taking them down during what she could only describe as a feeding frenzy after listening to Aiken and Riya’s recap of what was going on, wasn’t going to be easy. Not by a long shot.
“Stakeout.” He hadn’t spoken much since saying goodbye to Riya and thanking her for her time. But he was planning. Mel knew his contemplative look well.
“We’re going to stake out the Royal Blood? And what, wait for Duncan to leave, then grab him?” Following that train of thought, she continued without waiting for his reply. “He’s been known to frequent a club called Twilight. One of the others in the house last night said that before Duncan showed up. They speculated about him meeting somebody there but didn’t say who.”
“The vampires are running that spot. We’re familiar with it. But no, too many variables there with a high human presence. The last thing we want is more human casualties. Theo and Hikeen Montoy, the Royal Blood Chief Lord, have a tenuous rapport, so I’ve sent a message for Theo to get us an official meeting. That way we’ll walk in, ask our questions and get a feel for what’s really going on inside.”
Drumming her fingers over her thighs she considered his words. “You said you already know what’s going on—a world takeover. So, once we get inside, we grab him? Wait, if your team already knows the Royal Blood is on an active recruiting mission and planning some big coup, why is Theo dealing so diplomatically with them?”
“Long story short, Shola was engaged to a vamp. The Legion was hired to protect her until her wedding. For Shola, the wedding was a sham and her real goal was to kill the vamp because he wanted to raise a vampire army. Sound familiar?” He barely glanced over at her before continuing. “Theo selected Shola, vamp dies, love conquers all, and, at the same time they start a war between the Drakon and the Royal Blood. But neither Theo nor Hikeen are willing to stand in the streets of Burgess to battle it out. Hikeen has no qualms about killing humans or turning them into vampires, but he likes doing it discreetly. Adds an air of mystery to the otherwise cuckoo bastard. I don’t know. But, Theo’s less inclined to sacrifice more humans than have already been lost, so he’ll walk a fine line with Hikeen until he has no other option.”
“And asking permission to walk up in Hikeen’s house and demand Duncan be turned over is walking that line?” She wasn’t convinced it would work, but it was bold as hell to roll up into your enemy’s house and taunt the bastard, so she was down for that.
“For the time being it is. Theo’s been to Montoy’s house before, so Bleu has a layout of the place. But I like to do my own recognizance and that’s why we’re going there tonight.”
She remembered that about him. Whenever they were assigned a target, she was in charge of the preliminary investigating, but once they had a lock on where the target was located, Aiken was the one who mapped out exactly how they would obtain the target. Back then he was better with the tactical rollout of their plan and she’d been fine admitting that. It was one of the reasons they’d worked so well together, something she definitely shouldn’t be thinking about now. But a lot had changed in eighty years. She wasn’t the same type of Collector as she’d been back then, which was why she’d been mildly irritated back at Riya’s when he’d effortlessly taken control of the questioning. Her t
actical skills had sharpened since she’d declined taking another partner after Aiken’s departure. The use of her chameleon cloak had been refined until slipping in and out was seamless, and strategizing that power was more integral to her overall plans. Besides, this wasn’t a reunion, it was a onetime situation that she hoped was resolved soon.
“Sitting here watching the house will also give me time to think about something else that Riya told us.”
“What’s that?” She’d already replayed the full conversation in her mind at least twice, trying to see if there was something she could pull from it to get an edge on how they could get to Duncan faster.
“Only Lords can shift into bat form. And Lords are born vampires, not changed ones.”
She knew that. Learning the intricacies and legends of each species had become necessity after she’d become a hunter. Ironic that her second biggest gripe with her birth parents had turned into a prerequisite for her career.
“Right, so how’s he shifting?” Her mind was already processing possible answers. She didn’t need Aiken to give her the answer. It would actually be great if she could come up with the answer before him.
“Exactly. Because if we’re dealing with some other type of vamp this might get a little trickier than we first thought.”
Twenty-five minutes later she’d removed her seat belt but was still sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, with no logical explanation for how Duncan was shifting after receiving the bite. Aiken was just an arm’s length away and thoughts about how they’d worked so closely together long ago had taken over her mind. There’d been this energy between them, always buzzing just beneath the surface from the moment they accepted a new target. Their process had been developed early on, with Aiken taking lead—as was proper since he’d been her trainer first—and she following with her specialized skill set. The fact that they were in love and knew each other’s minds and bodies as well as their own only added to their finesse. When things during a capture went awry, which they did from time to time, anticipating the way the other person would improvise was invaluable. And watching Aiken in battle had always been arousing.
Now, she felt a bit off-kilter. They hadn’t been partners for a long time, so were they still going to work easily together? If the fight last night at the townhouse or the conversation with Riya were any indication, the answer was probably yes. The knowledge they’d had of each other was obviously still there and it was now combined with the experience they’d both garnered in the years they’d been away. That was a good thing, right? It could only make them better together...as partners, right?
“We don’t have stakeout snacks,” she said, because thinking about eating was better than wondering about their chemistry as partners, or worse, considering straddling Aiken and taking another one of those delicious kisses he’d given her last night.
“I’m not hungry.” He’d been giving snappy responses since bringing up the question about Duncan’s abilities.
His mood, combined with sitting in a parked truck a block away from the spookiest-looking mansion with soaring turrets and the darkest crimson painted door she’d ever seen, was making her cranky. At least, that’s what she wanted to blame her current state of mind on.
The spookiness wasn’t helped by the fact that there were no streetlights for the two blocks leading up to the corner house, leaving the area pitch-black as nine thirty approached. She’d used the binoculars from the glove compartment to see that every window on the house was not only closed but covered by steel shutters, no doubt to keep out any pinch of sunlight for the undead crew that resided there. There were four luxury cars parked in the driveway. Severely trimmed bushes hugged the front perimeter while taller hedges lined the sidewalk and circled around the back of the entire property.
“You’re not the only one on this stakeout.” She could’ve added “impromptu” but that didn’t matter. She’d suggested they stop at a convenience store before settling in for the night, but he’d ignored her request. That was so like Aiken as well. Whenever he was on a hunt, he was one hundred and ten percent focused on their target. Getting him to think about anything else, such as food—not kissing—which was still dominating her thoughts, was like pulling teeth.
“I saw a store a few blocks down. I can walk and be back in fifteen minutes.”
“You’ll freeze.”
Riya had said that the temperature was going to drop tonight. She hated Burgess, or any other area where cold weather ruled in the winter months. Probably why she’d made Florida her home.
“I’m sure you have another jacket in that bag on the backseat.” Because Aiken was always prepared.
“If you’d stop being so stubborn you wouldn’t need it.”
The light mood shifted in a direction Mel definitely didn’t like. Why did he always have to do that? No matter where they were or what they were doing, the fact that she was a Drakon who refused to be a Drakon always came between them. It was like an invisible wall that they could sometimes ignore but which stood between them like a fortress. Counting down from twenty only worked to quell some of her irritation. Enough so she only asked, “Can I wear your jacket or what?”
“No.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I said no.”
“You’re being an ass, Aiken. I can’t wear your jacket because I won’t see the world through your narrow dragon vision.” And adopting his vision of who and what she should be meant giving up the person she’d been forced to become on her own. Losing any piece of herself to be with him wasn’t a pill she’d ever been able to swallow.
“You’re not wearing my jacket because you’re not getting out of this car to walk two blocks to get a candy bar and soda. It’s freezing outside and you’ve buried all of your Drakon senses so deep your teeth have been chattering for the last ten minutes.”
He wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t mean she had to like any of what he’d said. “Okay, so that means the gentlemanly thing to do would be to give me your damn jacket. Or you get out of this truck and go buy me a candy bar and soda.”
Every word was spoken with the heat of anger building slowly within her. Aiken would know he was pissing her off and the idiot wouldn’t care. Still, when she turned to see him staring at her through the only eyes she’d ever seen like his, she wasn’t prepared for the jolt of desire that thumped in her chest. The brown of his eyes now appeared in slashes as a fiercely bright orange wavered through the orbs. What did he see when he looked at her through his dragon eyes now? Was it the same intense passion and longing he’d once told her he saw before? That thing that he’d sworn had been his first signal that she was the woman for him?
“You’re a dragon. That’s the equivalent of all the heat in all the realms. Damn, you’re stubborn!” Reaching back behind the seat, he yanked the zipper on that bag and pulled out a jacket.
When he tossed it at her, she caught it, accepting his agitated tone as a reason to discontinue thoughts about how Aiken felt about her now, because none of that mattered anymore. She had no idea when or why he held on to the other end of the jacket, but when she went to put it on, he tugged at it so that her body leaned in partially over the console.
And just like that her thoughts were back to straddling him, kissing him, all the physical things they’d done together and how wonderful they’d made her feel back then. “What are you doing?”
“What are you doing, Mel? You’re irritating the fuck outta me and turning me on all at the same time and it’s driving me crazy. Why the hell can’t I stop wanting you?”
So, he did still see the passion between them, and from the irritated tone of his voice he didn’t like it any more than she did. Now, she was confused—did she want him to want her? Or was this entire situation a big-ass mess that was bound to eventually blow up in their faces? His mini tirade ended when he dropped the jacket and cupped her face with his hands.
And she was speechless. Something that didn’t normally plague her, but there was a first time for everything.
“I...” She cleared her throat. “I don’t know what to say.” That was the honest truth. She didn’t know what to say to the intensity of his words or the desire that streaked through her simply because his hands were on her face. It’d never felt this strong and potent before.
“Don’t say anything,” he snapped. “Just close your eyes.”
She didn’t immediately comply with his demand, and he frowned.
“Close your eyes, Mel.”
It was probably futile to keep fighting him, especially now that he was touching her, because for some odd reason, that touch was doing something to her. Dismissing that anomaly, she closed her eyes.
“I want you to focus on two things: my voice and what it makes you feel. Voice and feel, that’s all.”
Figuring he didn’t want her to speak since that hadn’t been specified, she only nodded. What he was trying to prove with this little exercise she didn’t know, but she couldn’t pull away. It was like something kept her rooted to that spot, in that position.
He waited what seemed like an eternity before he spoke again. “I miss kissing you awake in the morning.”
She wasn’t a morning person. Jumping up out of his bed at six this morning had been an act of preservation because she hadn’t wanted to face him in his bedroom again after their kiss. Now, a featherlight touch of his lips landed on her forehead. Another one on the tip of her nose and then one on her chin.
