by A. C. Arthur
“Hello, Mel. I trust you’re enjoying your stay here at the Office and that everyone is treating you well.” Theo could be diplomatic and polite, even while itching to get Duncan in custody so he could either question the vampire or kill him. Aiken supposed it was the job of an emperor of an entire realm.
“I haven’t had any problems. Well, Reese is still upset that I keep beating him in pool, but he’ll get over it.” The soft smile that touched her lips had his beast once again pressing to break free and he coughed to hide the physical jolt of his body as he attempted to push it back.
The control Aiken had created in the last eighty years suddenly seemed to be crumbling and he wasn’t liking that at all.
“Reese is the biggest trash talker around here and the messiest loser at the same time.” His words were the absolute truth but that didn’t mean he liked the spark of triumph and enjoyment he saw in her eyes because of it. How could she be so happy playing around with Reese and not look at Aiken the same way when they were alone in his suite? At those times they were both operating on high alert, stepping around each other and their beasts as if they were walking through a field of live land mines.
“Well, I promised him another rematch tonight.”
“Then let me go and give him an assignment, otherwise he’ll stay in that game room all day practicing. You two have the meeting with Montoy at five. I was going to go, but considering you’ve actually seen Duncan, I think the two of you should walk inside the Royal Blood headquarters and take a look around. Bleu will be on standby like always.” Theo glanced at Aiken as he said that last part, since Aiken had called Steele for extraction a couple nights ago, instead of alerting Bleu, who would’ve immediately notified Theo. Instead, Theo had been filled in by Reese when they were on their way back to the Office.
They had protocol at the Legion and normally Aiken was one of the main ones who followed it. Nothing seemed the same since Mel’s return.
“I thought we’d stop in some of the clubs before the crowd files in. Maybe somebody’s there during the day that can give us some information.” He’d thought about that this morning after talking to Ziva about exactly what Enes knew and why she was feeding them information. If he thought his world was shifting since Mel came to town, then Ziva’s had been on full tilt since Enes popped onto the scene. He wasn’t sure how Ziva was going to deal with what he knew was a very personal relationship with the vampire.
“That sounds good. Riya sent me a text late last night. Duncan showed up at her place last night asking questions about who’d visited her.”
He’d get to why she hadn’t bothered to tell him this sooner when they were alone, for now, there was a more pressing question. “Is she safe? Does she think he’ll come after her?”
Mel shook her head. She had done something different with her makeup today. It was around her eyes, an interesting design with a navy blue and silver eye shadow that almost looked like the peak of a star at both corners. “No. Or at least she didn’t give me that impression. I asked her if she knew how he’d found out we were there and she said he told her he always had eyes on her. She didn’t sound as freaked out by that as I felt.”
“I’ll get Magnum to pull a couple Legion agents in to watch her and her house. The last thing we want is him exacting any type of retaliation against her after she tried to help us,” Theo announced.
“Okay. Grab a jacket and let’s get going. We can stop at a couple clubs before it’ll be time to head to Montoy’s. Once that meeting’s done we’ll probably stay downtown for a while, drive the streets, see what we can see. If Duncan’s guys are out looking for us they should be easy to find. Maybe if we grab one of them, it’ll bring Duncan to us.” He wasn’t betting on that plan, but he was itching to cross paths with the shooter who’d gotten away the other night. His shoulder may have healed completely but that didn’t mean Aiken felt any better about being shot in the first place.
“Go. Check in frequently. And keep your eyes open this time.”
Ignoring Theo’s last dig, he walked away without another word. Nobody was going to forget that Duncan and his crew had snuck up on him and Mel two nights ago. Nor were they going to actually say what they knew must’ve been going on in his truck to make both of them oblivious to the fact that vampires were close by. Well, he was cool with remaining silent, because he didn’t want to think about that portion of the night either. If he did, he’d have to address the fact that Mel still didn’t want any parts of him and that hurt way too much.
* * *
“When were you gonna tell me about Riya’s call?”
She’d known he would be pissed about that, which is why she’d tried to say it in front of Theo. Having a third party, she hoped, would curb some of his anger about her delay in telling him. It had, but only for that moment. As soon as they were seat belted in the truck and driving away from the Office, he pounced.
“You were gone when I got up this morning.”
“You slept later. As I recall you were never a morning person, but the first two mornings you were here I woke alone. Last night was a late night for you.” More sarcasm on his part. The familiar behavior whenever he was pissed about something she did was half parts comforting and irritating. She didn’t want to remember anything else about their past together. Not when they’d been doing so well these last couple of days, staying within the parameters of business only.
“Reese and I’ve been playing pool.” The excuse sounded flimsy and redundant since she’d just had a similar exchange with Theo. “I did sleep later and when I woke you were gone, so I couldn’t tell you.”
“You could’ve stopped playing your little game and came to the room to tell me last night, before either of us were asleep. I mean, that’s what I would’ve done since, you know, we are trying to catch a target.”
Just like they used to, and he was right, just as he often was when they were working together. Didn’t mean she had to like it.
“Well, I didn’t. But now you know, so we can move forward. How long will it take Magnum to get other agents to her house?”
“They’re probably already en route.” He made a right turn, his tone clipped, while he kept his gaze averted.
“Will they be Drakon too?” After being at the Office for three days now, she was seeing more of the closeness between Reese, Aiken and the others. They had meals together. At least Bleu prepared meals at set times, though which ones showed up to eat in the main dining room was up to chance. Sometimes Shola and Theo took meals in their room. Steele and Ravyn lived at a place called Safeside that Ravyn had created for the outcasts of Burgess, and Steele helped her with it now that they were a mated couple. Aiken had been taking his meals in his room, an act that seemed to surprise Reese and Magnum, since—as they told her—Aiken normally spent his nights with random women.
That’s really why she’d begun playing pool with Reese. If Aiken was going to be creeping around with other women while she was here, she didn’t want to see it. Rather, she couldn’t see it, or those other women might succumb to all the working out she’d been doing.
“No. Magnum supervises the personal security division of the company. So he mainly deals with the human employees. Steele manages the home and business security clients and the rest of us fill in as needed. Since Steele has been splitting his time between the Office and monitoring the aboveground portion of Safeside, Reese and I’ve been pitching in to help with the business a little more.”
“So there are humans at the company too. Is that just to keep the façade going?”
“The façade is important. I know you think it’s best for everyone to know we’re all walking the streets with them, but keeping humans safe is a lot easier when you don’t have to fight off their ignorance.”
She continued staring out the window as he drove. “You know I understand the dangers of ignorance, Aiken.”
She hated t
hat he was aware of that and so much more about her, especially since now, it gave him the advantage to think he knew what was best for her. But Aiken really didn’t know. How could he? His parents hadn’t lied to him, or purposely kept him in the dark about who and what he was. And they certainly hadn’t sent him to the Human Realm, to live with strangers that may have done all sorts of cruel things to her had Rosilda not taken her in and decided to keep her.
“I’m sure your parents had a reason for doing what they did. They were eventually killed by demonics, so they were obviously trying to protect you.”
“There’s no excuse. How do you have a child and then keep everything that makes them who they are a secret from them? Then you send that child away before you’re mysteriously killed? It makes no sense. And if they’d just told me, taught me how to be this...to live with this thing inside me, then maybe none of this other crap would’ve happened.” The added sting was that there were no Drakon friends of her parents, or just any concerned Drakon at all, who could’ve taken her in, so she wouldn’t have had to come live with the humans. It had been as if none of the Drakon wanted her and that was something that no amount of time had healed for her.
He was quiet for a few seconds and she knew he probably presumed the “other crap” was what happened between them. It wasn’t a wrong assumption. And it wasn’t the only bad thing that had happened to her either, but Aiken didn’t need to know all that. He didn’t need to know anything else about her.
“I don’t care. It’s in the past and I can’t change it. The present and the future are all I can concern myself with.” She sighed. “Speaking of which, I’m presently starving. Sleeping in meant I missed my opportunity to join Bleu in the kitchen while he prepared breakfast.”
“Is that what you’ve been doing? Eating in the kitchen like you have to hide out?” Of course, the scenario sounded pathetic and ridiculous coming from him in that tone, but spending time with Bleu had been sort of cathartic for her. He never said a word when she accepted the daily morning call from Rosilda while she was sitting at the massive marble island watching him work.
“I’ve been making the best of an unplanned situation. What would you suggest I do?” His mood was starting to piss her off.
“We could have breakfast together. Either in the dining room, the kitchen or my suite. You don’t have to act like you can’t be in the same room with me just because you don’t want to rekindle what we once had.”
Yes. She absolutely did need to do exactly that. Unfortunately, right now she was thinking that fainting from starvation while they were meeting with the Chief of all vampires might not work too well to gather the information they needed. “If you hurry up and find someplace to stop we can share a meal right now.”
Her tone was snippy, laced with the growing irritation she felt. It was no longer comfortable being around Aiken. No longer something she thought she could handle and not just because she still wanted to have sex with him. That was the easy part. What bothered her now was the feeling that she no longer occupied her body alone had resurfaced and she either had to acquiesce or find some semblance of relief until this job was over.
Ten minutes later Aiken parked the truck and she jumped out, slamming the door as she walked quickly across the parking lot to the doors of what was aptly titled “The Diner.”
They were seated immediately. A woman with a jovial smile and tight shiny black curls gave them menus and introduced Trudy as their server. Trudy had been walking by their table holding a tray balanced on one hand above her shoulder, two bottles of syrup in the other.
“Order whatever you want.” He opened his menu and held it so that his face was no longer visible. She resisted the urge to smack it down and call him a juvenile ass because doing so would sort of make her the same.
Opening her menu, she absolutely planned to order any and everything she wanted for breakfast and Mr. Aiken the Perfect Noble Drakon, could pay for it.
Trudy arrived just as she decided on the last item she wanted and before the younger woman with bright pink cornrows could get her pen and pad ready, Mel began rattling off all that she wanted.
When she was done, Aiken simply added, “I’ll have a grilled cheese and bottled water.”
If Trudy thought Mel was a greedy freeloader, she didn’t show it. While the smile she offered Aiken was brilliant, she didn’t really look at Mel again before walking away.
“Hungry?” he asked when they were once again alone.
“I told you that already.”
He smirked. “Bleu tends to cook a lot. Giving us way more selections than is probably necessary. It’s easy to get used to.”
He wasn’t lying. Last night Bleu had cooked a meal that rivaled all the holiday meals she’d ever had at Rosilda’s, and the pot roast was delicious.
Sitting back against the vinyl covered bench seat she resigned herself to the fact that it probably wasn’t her stomach grumbling at all. It was the beast.
“We’re not enemies.” Aiken spoke when she remained silent. “We don’t have to act like we are by snapping at each other every chance we get.”
Wasn’t he always the mature and level-minded one? Well, of course he was, Mr. Damn Perfect.
“I didn’t start the snapping today, you did. And me not telling you about Riya’s call wasn’t intentional. I knew I needed to mention it to you because it directly affects our job.” And that was the most important thing, not the thing inside he’d awakened with his delicious kisses and magical hands.
He looked like he wanted to say something else, but instead, kept his lips drawn in a tight line, before finally nodding. “Fine. That’s done. From now on, we share all information as soon as we get it, no matter what time of day or night it is.”
“Fine.”
Thankfully their food came quickly and she began eating. The hunger she’d thought was the current priority was quickly overshadowed by another question that she wasn’t sure she should ask. Actually, she shouldn’t care and yet, watching Aiken with his wavy black hair, devilishly defiant eyes, egged her on.
“Since we’re sharing all information, when’s your next date?” When a look of surprise flickered over his face, she shrugged. “I don’t want to mess up your schedule or keep any women waiting, so maybe we can plan our work around it?” Of course that was the most ridiculous idea she’d ever come up with. The immediate stinging of her skin signaled she wasn’t the only one who thought that wasn’t a great idea.
Aiken didn’t get a chance to answer, because as soon as he opened his mouth to speak, his phone rang.
Mel had no idea what he was going to say in response to her question. What if he told her his next date was tonight? What was she going to do then? Roam around that fortress of a house trying not to think about getting in some woman’s face to tell her to back off her man?
She’d just picked up her second glass of orange juice before she sat it down with a definite clank. Aiken wasn’t her man and there was no need for her to stake any claim on him, not the way he’d been so determined to do with her.
“We gotta go,” Aiken said abruptly.
Forgetting her silly question and the train of thought that followed, she stared at Aiken, noting that everything about him spoke of danger which instantly put her on alert. “What happened?”
“Three witches were slaughtered last night, and their bodies were just found.”
“Vampires?”
“Probably, let’s move.”
Chapter Nine
Death had a strong pungent stench that crept through the nostrils and lodged in the throat. Aiken stepped into the apothecary shop on the corner of Baldwin and Grand Road feeling grim and exhausted before any questions had been asked or answered.
Mel walked in behind him, an audible gasp escaping when she saw the body draped over the countertop, blood still dripping down to form a puddle on the floor.
“Who the hell are you? This is a crime scene, you can’t just waltz in here and...”
He reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and flipped it open so the gold badge flashed quickly in the enforcer’s face.
“Aiken French, Legion Security and licensed private investigator. The owner of this shop—Natalia Gionni—was our client. We got the call that the alarm system was disturbed so here we are to investigate.”
Only the senior agents of the Legion were licensed as investigators. It was another layer of authority Theo had thought might come in handy for them at some point. That point was obviously today. Legally, he could still be asked to leave the premises until the enforcers were finished with their official investigation, but from the frazzled look on this guy’s face, Aiken was sure he’d be more than happy to turn this mess over to someone else.
The enforcer caught a quick glimpse of the badge before Aiken clapped the wallet shut and shrugged. “The detective in charge is over there talking to the medical examiner. You gotta put these on, though, before you go any farther.”
Following the direction in which the guy pointed, Aiken saw the box of booties and immediately reached for a pair. Today’s boots were once again imported leather, but of a sturdier variety than a few nights ago. They were steel-toed and laced up past his ankle. Still, the memory of that hideous sludge the shooter had vomited on him the other night rang clear in his mind and he pulled a powder blue booty over each booted foot.
Mel did the same. “We should probably put on the gloves too.”
He shrugged and grabbed a pair of latex gloves that were in a box beside the booties. “Use your senses, that way nobody tries to figure out what you’re thinking or what questions you might be asking.”
She hesitated briefly and he met her gaze. “Just focus on your sight and scent. Let your hands remain at your side and use only those two senses to guide your mind.”
