by Susan Hayes
“I haven’t the faintest idea. Two months ago I didn’t believe in vampires or werewolves. Now Jase is a lycanthrope and I have the fang-marks to prove vampires are very damned real. I have no idea what else might be out there, waiting for us to trip over them.’
“Thoughts like that are why I’m not sleeping well these days.” Sin sighed and then went quiet as Val reappeared on camera. She relived every second of the attack, quietly narrating her actions and the radio dialogue she’d had with Christoph. When Nick’s body crashed to the concrete, she realized the entire room was watching in silence as their comrade-in-arms fell to his death.
It was hard to watch, but harder still to see herself get attacked. Her hand curled into a fist as she viewed herself being immobilized, and when her throat was torn open she had to look away from the screen.
Sin kept his hand on her shoulder the whole time, offering her his silent support as they all watched the scene play out to the end.
“Jesus, Val,” someone uttered, and Jake paused the tape again.
“I lived didn’t I?” Val managed to sound flippant despite the sick twist she felt in her gut. “I guess he didn’t like the way I tasted.”
“All right everyone, back to work.” Sin’s voice traveled to every corner of the room, and people took the hint. “Go ahead, Jake.”
Aedan’s image appeared soon after. In fact he seemed to appear right in the middle of the screen. He didn’t walk or run in from the side. He simply materialized a few feet away from where Val had been sitting.
“Son of a bitch,” Sin muttered. “Can you zoom in at all, Jake? We need an image of his face.’”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“I knew there had to be a reason he managed to sneak up on me.” Val watched, riveted as her meeting with Aedan played out again.
Just before he vanished, she saw him kiss her and she ducked her head. Shit. She didn’t mention that in her report either.
“Are all your reports so full of missing details, Valentina?”
Sin was using her full name, and that was never a good sign. “No sir. But I didn’t think it was relevant.”
“How about from now on you let me decide what’s relevant?”
“Yes, sir.”
She shot Jake a dirty look when she caught him smirking at her. “And you, not a word.”
Jake nodded and went back to retrieving the best image he could from the camera. The result wasn’t perfect, but it would be enough to run it through facial recognition software and hope for a hit.
“This might take a day or a week or a month. It really depends on if we get lucky.” Jake submitted the picture and leaned back in his chair, still smirking. “Do you want me to e-mail you a copy for your scrapbook, Val?”
“That’s it. I’m headed to the payroll office.”
“Payroll? What’s in payroll, Val?” Sin looked at them both with confusion as Jake frantically shook his head and raised his hands in mock surrender.
“I take it back! I’ll buy you coffee for a week. I’ll fix your laptop for you the next time you break it, Val. Anything you want, just please don’t say anything!”
“Whatever is going on, I’ve decided I don’t want to know.” Sin shook his head in bemusement and squeezed Val’s shoulder one last time before stepping away from them both. “Since you’re here against doctor’s orders, you’re assigned to desk duty. See if you can’t do some research and figure out what species of mythical creature your vampire-hunting friend might be.”
“I’ll get right on that.” Val stood up to head for one of the free computer terminals and then stopped dead as an alert flashed on one of Jake’s many monitors.
“Uh, guys? I have a hit on Aedan.”
“I thought you said that could take days?” Val asked as she turned around again. “So, what do you have?”
“He’s on a security feed. Ours.”
“What? When?” Sin demanded.
“Right now, sir. He’s at the front gate.”
Sinjin’s cell started ringing, and he looked at the caller ID and swore before answering it. “Heath here. What did he say his name was? All right, give him an ID badge and escort him to one of the secure meeting rooms.” He hung up the phone before looking straight at Val. “It would appear your mystery man is here, and he’s asking for you. Let’s go see what he has to say for himself.”
“I’m coming, too,” Jase called from across the room. “I want to see Val’s new boyfriend.”
“Don’t start, dog boy,” Val snarked as she headed for the door.
“Wolf, thank you very much. There’s a difference!”
* * * *
The whole place reeked of the military. There was dull gray paint, dark uniforms, and stern-faced guards wherever Aedan looked. “This is going to be grand fun,” he muttered to himself as he followed his assigned escort down another identical corridor. They stopped outside an unmarked door, and Aedan idly wondered how they managed to navigate this unending maze.
His escort knocked briskly at the door, and it was opened only a few seconds later by a large blond man who glowered down at him. “Come on in.”
Aedan stepped inside and tried to touch the mind of the man standing in front of him, and immediately bounced off his mental shields. They were trained to guard against psychic intrusion. Interesting.
As Aedan entered the room, he found himself facing several curious stares and one beautiful smile. Val was here, as he’d requested. Well, that was good news, at least. He took a step toward her only to feel a viselike hand clamp around his upper arm as a low growl rumbled in the air. The blond took a deep whiff of air and his hand tightened further.
“You’re not human.”
“Neither are you,” Aedan guessed and cocked a brow at the man holding him. “Now we’ve got that out of the way, do you mind letting go of me? I’m all for the rough stuff, big boy, but you’re really not my type.” A couple of quiet snickers filled the silence and then were cut off by a new voice.
“My apologies, but you’ve caught us a bit off guard.” A blonde woman stepped forward and offered Aedan her hand and a warm smile. “I’m Michelle. The fellow who was just about to let go of you is Jase. Welcome to Paladin.”
“Aedan Doyle, at your service, and I’m going to guess from the reception committee that Val told you all about our meeting last night.” He glanced over to Val and winked at her. “I told you I’d be seeing you soon, luv.”
He thought he caught a faint blush as she met his gaze, and he felt more than a little pleased to know she was happy to see him again. She looked better this morning, but he could still see the dark shadows of grief and fatigue that lingered after last night’s attack.
The grip on his arm eased up, and Jase took a half step back, still glowering. “So, what are you?”
“Dying for a cup of coffee, thanks.” Aedan grinned up at the bigger man, determined to show him he wasn’t intimidated. “Cream and sugar, if you’ve got it.”
Jase snarled and then growled again, louder this time. “Oh I see, you’re one of that species.” Aedan’s pulse quickened as he realized he was face to face with a werewolf. “I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting one of your kind before. If I had known, I’d have brought you a chew-toy.”
Jase went for him, and Aedan barely managed to sidestep the attack, using every bit of his speed to elude the bigger man. Curious, he noted that apart from a feral gleam to the eyes and a hint of fang, the werewolf didn’t transform. That wasn’t something he’d heard of before. This place was proving to be full of surprises. When Jase turned on him again, Aedan laughed and used his preternatural speed to cross the room, coming to a stop just at Val’s side.
“You’re looking lovely this morning, Val,” he quipped before tugging her into his arms and shifting them both a few feet to the left, out of the way of Jase’s incoming attack. The werewolf shot past him and came to a snarling halt, only to stop dead as commanding voice filled the room.
&nbs
p; “Enough! Waters, put the wolf back in its cage. Now! Mr. Doyle, you’ve made your point. Would you please put down my operative and we’ll try to do this in a civilized fashion.”
“Sorry, sir.” Jase stepped back, but Aedan could still see the promise of violence gleaming in the werewolf’s eyes.
Val turned in Aedan’s arms and frowned up at him, her brown eyes full of irritation as well as a hint of admiration. “You aren’t making a very good first impression, Aedan.”
“Sorry.” He was surprised to realize he actually meant it. He loosened his hold on Val but managed to keep one arm slipped around her trim waist so she stayed close. He could smell the faint, citrusy scent of her shampoo rising from her hair, and he was struck with the sudden urge to bury his nose into the soft, dark waves. Stay on target, man. Now is not the time to be distracted by a pretty girl.
“I suggest we all take a seat.” The owner of the commanding voice gestured for the small group to head over to a conference table. He had dark hair turning to silver, and his gray eyes gleamed with intelligence and wisdom beyond his years. “There’s coffee over there, if anyone would like to fetch our guest some?”
Aedan wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard a faint growl coming from Jase’s corner of the room.
“That’s all right. I’m fine,” Aedan said and then let Val guide him over to a chair. He sank into it, making sure she took the one right beside him. “And I am sorry I tweaked your proverbial tail, Jase. I’m afraid I’m not exactly the diplomat of my organization, but I’m the one who is here.” He gave them all an apologetic grin. “So you’re stuck with me.”
The apparent leader of the group spoke again. “I’m Geoff Remington, and I run Paladin. Sinjin here runs Division S, a specialized group that I believe have overlapping interests in whatever it is your organization does.” Geoff cocked his head expectantly at Aedan, who took the hint.
“I belong to a very old group known as the Brethren. We research, track down, and destroy vampires. We try to keep our presence something of a secret, so I needed permission before I could speak to you openly.”
He glanced over at Val, hoping she didn’t take this next bit of news too badly. “And as your resident werewolf has already sniffed out, I’m not exactly human. I’m a dhampir.”
His confession hung in the air, and he looked away from Val, not wanting to see her rejection when it came. It was something he’d gotten used to over the years, but that didn’t mean he’d grown to enjoy watching potential friends and lovers turn away from him when they learned the truth. He was stunned when the first question anyone asked came from her.
“So what does that mean? This is all a bit new to most of us. Hell, until a few months ago I didn’t believe in any of this hocus-pocus crap. I’ve been trying to bone up, but I’ve never heard the word dhampir before today.”
He turned to look at Val and was pleased to see nothing but curiosity and a little bit of wariness. Wariness I can deal with. It beats outright fear.
“There’s a long, boring medical explanation for it, but the short and dirty version is this. My mother was attacked by a vampire while she was pregnant. There’s something odd about the whole turning into a vampire thing. Hell, there are a lot of odd things about it, but specifically there’s something strange that happens when a vampire tries to turn a pregnant woman. Sometimes everything comes together in a perfect storm of weirdness, and the child survives. Children born this way are different, all the way down to their DNA. We’re born something other than human. We’re like natural-born vampire killers. We have their speed, their strength, and an innate ability to sense when one is close by.”
“So you’re a half-vampire?” Sin asked from across the table.
“Sort of, only without the fangs, blood sucking, or the inability to get a tan. Every time the medical types try to explain it to me I only hear so much and then it all turns into an annoying droning noise. I am what I am. I don’t spend too much time trying to figure out the metaphysical mechanics of the whole thing.”
“Holy shit!” Jase swore, and everyone looked at him as he stared straight at Aedan.
“Don’t you see guys? He’s a day walker. He’s Blade! The comic books were right!”
Sin dropped his head into his hands and groaned as Michelle and Val laughed.
“Penguin patrol, Waters. Don’t think I won’t send you to Antarctica just because you’ve got some new talents.” Remington finished his threat and turned his gaze from Jase back to Aedan. “We lost a man last night. I take it you know more about Christoph than we do. I’d appreciate it if you told us exactly why he’s hunting my people, and what the hell we can do to stop him.”
Chapter 3
Val’s mind was struggling to keep up. Aedan was a member of some ancient vampire-hunting group, and he was not human. Well, not completely human, anyway. She managed to look at him from the corner of her eye and then had to look down quickly when he caught her peeking and brazenly winked at her.
As she felt her pulse quicken, she gave herself a stern talking-to. She was not falling for another glib-tongued charmer, not even one as panty-meltingly hot as Aedan. She had sworn off men just twenty-four hours ago, and there was no way she could fall off the wagon that fast. She had some pride!
She tuned into the conversation still going on around her as Aedan answered another of Remington’s questions in that lilting accent, and she wondered where he was from. It sounded Irish or Scottish maybe.
“…so when you took down that vampire nest last month, you inadvertently put yourself on Christoph’s hit list.”
“He makes little vampire families for himself?” Remington spoke the word “families” as if it left a sour taste in his mouth.
“He does. He creates fledglings and then teaches them until they grow into their vampire powers and are well in control of their abilities. Then he helps them get established in the world once they head out on their own. His sire did it for him, and so he continues on the tradition. It’s almost unheard of. Vampires are notoriously antisocial. The only ones they usually tolerate being around for long are their blood-bonded mates, and that’s only if they are lucky enough to find one.”
“Vampires have mates?” Val couldn’t imagine the creature who attacked her last night having a loving wife stashed away somewhere.
“It’s exceedingly rare, but it does happen.” Aedan turned his head to look Val in the eye, and she caught a flicker of something that might have been yearning deep in their hazel depths. “It’s the supernatural version of a marriage, with no option for divorce.”
“And without the usual ‘until death do us part’ bit,” Val jokingly added.
“A bond like that starts with the mate’s death.” Aedan’s voice was cool, and there was no humor in his eyes. “And that brings me to another bit of news you all need to hear. Before Christoph killed your man last night, he turned him.”
“What?” Val’s stomach twisted, and she wanted to scream at him that it wasn’t true.
“I’m sorry. I know that’s not an easy thing for any of you to hear.” Aedan’s words included everyone, but he never took his eyes off her.
“So he’ll become a vampire now?” Val asked as the others reacted.
“We can’t let that happen,” said Remington.
“How do we stop him coming back?” asked Sin.
Aedan glanced around the table and raised a hand for silence, and Val caught herself admiring him again. He had the hands of an artist, not a killer. His long, strong fingers should be holding a paintbrush, not a stake or whatever the hell he used to kill vampires.
“It’s being taken care of. His soul will be at rest. You have my word,” Aedan said, his tone sincere.
“What exactly does that mean?” Remington asked. His trademark scowl was in place, and Val knew he wasn’t pleased by what he was hearing.
“His medical examination is being overseen by someone in the Brethren’s employment. It was expedited, and by sunset tonight he
will have been cremated and the ashes blessed. That’s all.”
“I’ll not have his body desecrated.”
“He will be treated with all due care and respect. Better a hurried preparation than an unholy resurrection.” A note of pain entered Aedan’s voice. “Trust me when I tell you, you do not ever want to have to face a fallen comrade who has returned to fight for the other side.”
Val’s fingers twitched as she fought her sudden need to touch him and offer him some sort of comfort.
Sin asked the question they all wanted to know the answer to. “Why would he do that to Nick?”
“Several reasons and you’re not going to like any of them.” Aedan ticked off each point on his fingers as he went through the list. “First, he intended to knock you all for a loop. If he’d managed to bring Nick over to his side, it would have caused you all a great deal of grief. You can’t tell me it would have been easy for any of you to destroy Nick if you had to face him again. He would still look, sound, and act like your friend. Secondly, he clearly wants to gain access to Paladin. If Nick had risen as a vampire, he’d still have all his memories from this life, and none of his former loyalties. He’d have given up every name, code, and snippet of information Christoph needed. Knowing Christoph, though, his biggest reason would be outright revenge. I’ll bet that Nick was part of the crew that went to Oregon to take down that nest. Am I right?”
Val nodded. “He was part of a five-man team.”
“And you were the leader.” Aedan made it a statement, and she wondered how much he already knew. “Which is why he’s going to leave you to last, Val. He wants you to feel what he did. He intends to make you suffer the loss of the people that were under your protection.”
“Over my dead body,” she vowed.
“I’m hoping it won’t come to that. In fact, I intend to stick around and help, if you’ll have me. There’s a lot I can teach you about hunting vampires.” He looked directly at Jase and grinned at the other man. “And I’m sure there’s a few things you lot can teach me, too. The Brethren only hunt one type of monster. I’m damned curious to know what else is out there that I don’t know about, yet.”
