“Lousy. You?”
He sat down on the bed and took off his boots. “The same.”
“Richard, I am a terrible person. Did you see the way SE avoided us at dinner?”
“Honestly, I think he was just trying to keep the peace.”
“I can’t believe I slapped him.” She looked down at her hands. “Am I a person that slaps people now? I can’t have a baby if I go around just smacking people.”
“Of course you’re not.” He took her hands in his. “I think the last person you hit was me when you first phased. What is that? One person every twenty years?”
Adriana shrugged her shoulders. “It’s just…I don’t trust her. But then why would the Goddess have sent her to SE? To us? I hate to question, but…”
“Look, even SE questioned it. Why do you think he forced himself to stay away from her for so long?”
“But now he’s completely bonded to her. He feels safe with her. Shit, we’ve got Diesel installing a weapons cabinet as a freaking housewarming gift! It’s me. I’m the only one with the problem.”
Richard kissed her palms. “No, you’re not. I guarantee you that. I think Reyn, when given the choice, would rather have her here where we can—”
“Keep an eye on her?”
“I was going to say get to know her again. But, yeah, that works, too.”
Adri seemed to be someplace far away from him. “All those years she was with her adopted mother at the compound she was so quiet. So, so quiet.”
“Yes, but now we know why. Remember, when we first found out she was a spy? We figured she was following Toltec’s orders. The less you say, the less you might give away.”
“And now you don’t think so?”
“I’m sure that was part of it, but what if she just never felt like she belonged? To be given away by your own mother at ten years old is monstrous.”
Adriana’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Richard, I can’t even imagine how hard and confusing it must have been for her. What happened to SE was so tragic. He deserves to be happy after all he’s been through. I just…”
Richard smoothed her hair. “Hey, you love him, Adri. We both do. Look, there’s nothing wrong with looking out for him, but you will drive him away for good if he doesn’t feel like you accept her. You don’t have to trust her. Hell, you don’t even have to like her. But you have to at least accept their mating. Do you think you can do that?
Adriana closed her eyes for a minute, then nodded. “When he first permaphased after Gabi died, it nearly killed you. He was your best friend. Instead of losing one, we lost them both. This time we have some control over whether or not we lose him. I can live with having her here. Losing him again is not an option.”
Richard gave her quick kiss. “That’s my Adri. If nothing else, it should be entertaining. If there’s one thing the Mata females have always been good at, it’s surprises.”
Adriana giggled. “Don’t remind me!”
Richard laughed. “Warm milk, female?
“Right on, my male.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SE met Dimitri in the munitions room. When he walked in, the brother was just picking up a rifle and walking to the door.
“Long range tonight?”
“Yeah, just in case. Big difference between thirty targets and two.”
As the two of them walked toward the elevator, SE cocked his head thoughtfully. “No scope on your rifle, D?”
Dimitri grinned. “Nah, I figure I’ll have Diesel put one on when they make one better than my own eyesight.”
“Yeah, that’d be handy.”
“So, what’s your new mate up to tonight?”
“Oh, God. Probably watching a bunch of zero talent douche bags on PPV and trying not to lose her mind.”
“Bound to be hard on her, not being in the field. She sure as hell ain’t the domestic type.”
“Noo. Not even close. She’ll be okay for now. We’ll just have to take it as it comes.”
They walked out of the elevator, through the rec room and into the foyer.
“Care to take the lead?” Dimitri asked.
“After you, boss.”
Dimitri dematerialized from the foyer and SE followed. They gleamed from rooftop to rooftop of Midtown. Suddenly, SE stopped, prompting Dimitri to double back.
“What’s up, SE?”
“You feel that?” SE asked, nodding toward the east.
“Yeah. But I’m only picking up on a hellion.”
“I’m gonna check out the sitch. Just be ready with that thing in case I need back-up.”
“SE—”
“What? I’m hands-on, in case you haven’t noticed. Just be ready.”
SE gleamed down into the solid darkness of Mason Street. They were there. He could feel them.
Hey motherfuckers! Come out, come out wherever you are.
He gleamed further up the street, materializing about six feet from one giant-ass hellion that obviously thought he’d found his next meal. The mutant must have been an NFL linebacker once upon a time. Not that he paid attention to football. Then again, checking out the size of this Frankenshifter, maybe he should have. The mutant nailed him in the side of the head and SE’s vision clouded for a second. He shook it off. “Where’s the new wife, asshole?”
He got the answer to that when he felt a knife cut deep into his upper arm. He heard a shot, and the shifter went down hard.
Thanks, D.
SE unsheathed one of his knives and beheaded the hellion. He turned around and pulled the shifter into a dark corner.
Dimitri materialized next to him. He looked down at the shifter’s body and shook his head. “I have a feeling I’m going to miss the good old days when we mostly fought hellions. Where the fuck are we going to hide all these bodies? Christ. There’ll be dead dudes all over town.”
SE wiped his weapon on his jeans and sheathed it. “Yeah, it’s gonna be a problem.”
“Is the arm bad?”
“Meh. Could maybe use some stitches.”
“Why don’t you head back and deal with the arm, bro. I’ll catch up to Troy and X. Gimme a holler when you come back out.”
“You got it.”
Ana sat on the bed surrounded by papers, all of which were written in Mayan. She was typing on her laptop, making notes and arranging phrases so they made more sense. The work was incredibly tedious, but the information was vital, and she was still hoping to answer the million dollar question—What the hell did Victrixa want with the naguals? She seriously doubted she’d find the answer in the file, though. Her psycho bitch of a mother would never be that careless. Some things should never be written down.
Ana looked up as Soaring Eagle materialized by the door. “You’re back early.”
He took in the heaps of paper on the bed. “Jesus, did the Library of Congress throw up in here?”
“Pretty much.” She picked up the smell of fresh blood. “Hey, you’re wounded. Into the bathroom.” She pointed to the toilet seat. “Sit. Can you get your arm out okay?”
“It’s fine, ihkweea,” he protested.
“Uh-huh.” She pulled up his sleeve and started to clean the wound.
“I can handle the stitches.”
“Stitching your own arm is a pain in the ass. It’ll take me half the time.”
She wasn’t kidding. SE watched as his mate expertly sewed him up.
SE cocked his head. “I didn’t know you wore glasses. They’re very hot for teacher.” He grinned.
“Jackass. They’re just for reading. Actually, I think I need new ones. It’s been a while and these don’t seem to help anymore.” She checked out her stitches. “Okay, all set.”
“Damn, you’re good,” SE said, inspecting her work.
She gave his nose a quick kiss. “Thank you, my male.”
“I love it when you say that.”
“Then you’d better hurry back, and I prefer you in one piece.”
“You and me both.” He followe
d her back into the bedroom and picked up one of the papers on the bed. “This is so amazing. How long does it take to translate a page?”
“Longer than I’m giving it. I’m just looking for key words and phrases. Otherwise, I’d never leave this room.”
SE dropped the paper, leaned over, and gave her a deep kiss. “Fine by me.”
“In lak'ech,” she whispered.
“Ala k'in.”
Ana had worked until all hours the night before, but she somehow managed to meet X the next morning to do research. As they sat in the tech room, both nursing very large mugs of coffee, they looked at the glass vial that lay in front of them. X shook his head as he held a glass vial up to get a better look at it. “Damn.”
“Yep,” Ana replied.
“You don’t have any idea what kind of spell she might have used?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I wish I did. She’s been practicing different forms of magic for years. She calls on different spirits and uses them to whatever ends she wants. She always has. But I can’t imagine what kind of spirit would have the power to capture a nagual. I tried to call a nagual away from another shifter a few months back and it almost killed me. I was so sick afterward. Scared the shit out of me. I haven’t touched the stuff since.”
As she remembered being alone and sick in the Yucatán jungle, a chill ran down her spine.
X carefully laid the vial on a cotton cloth. “What if it’s not a spirit?”
“What do you mean? What else is there? Wait—you don’t mean a god?”
“Well, theoretically, it’s possible, right? I mean look at the New Breeds. We were created by the Goddess Akina. So, what if your mama’s got an immortal buddy of her own? Someone just recently added to her payroll?”
“I guess it’s possible.” A god. Huh.
Ana turned back to her translation, but she couldn’t get her mother’s face out of her mind. One word from X’s theory kept coming back to her. Recently. Where had Mommie Dearest disappeared to and what the hell had she done to end up with that scar on her face? It had to be connected to the Initiative somehow. The more Ana thought about it, the more she wondered if she’d be able to figure it out without going back in. The thought made her nervous, which was odd. The chances of Toltec knowing she had anything to do with the warehouse attack were low. Then she realized she wasn’t feeling panicky about that. Her insides were doing jumping jacks over the thought of having to tell her mate. Fuck. It was one thing to go back in, but anything having to do with Victrixa was off the table. She needed to do it some other way, but how?
An hour later she gave up on the translating and went back to her room. SE was still sound asleep. Duty had kept him out until sunrise. Ana went into the closet, turned on the light, and quickly grabbed her leathers, her crescents, and her pistol. SE wasn’t going to be thrilled about this, but she wasn’t going anywhere near her mother. She quietly changed clothes and dematerialized to Bastian’s.
“Girl! Haven’t you ever heard of a door?”
“Look, I’m in a hurry, Bastian. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“How come you never told me you could gleam? Mm-mm, that’s a hot power.”
“Exactly. Which is why no one knows I have it. Get me?”
“I getchu, I getchu. So, what brings you here today? Need a makeover to go with that new cut of yours? It’s awesomesauce, btw.”
“Thanks. Listen, I need some mini-cams.”
“With or without remote IP Internet viewing?”
“With.”
Bastian walked over to a wall covered with metal shelving. “I assume you’ll be placing these in the wall or some such?”
“Yes. And don’t you dare give me a damn nanny cam.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, handing her two tiny cameras.
“You know, you…smell different.”
She backed away a bit. “What?”
He sniffed again. “Ohmygod! You’ve been mated!”
“Shh! Jesus, Bastian!”
“Aw, honey, I’m so happy for you!”
Ana stood still while the male hugged her. O-kaaay. There was no reason to panic.
Yet.
“So, who’s the lucky male?”
She tapped her boot impatiently. “Like I’m gonna tell you that.”
He smiled. “I know. Can’t blame a girl for tryin’. Now, holla back if you don’t get a decent picture. Those cams are non-interference.”
“Thanks, Bastian.”
The male did his best to look all WTF? “I’m sorry, did you just say thank you? Mm! That must be some male.”
Ana rolled her eyes and gleamed out.
Materializing just outside Victrixa’s office, Ana stopped and listened for a moment. She could hear Victrixa’s voice down the hall, so she gleamed in, held the camera in her hand and gleamed it behind a crack in the plaster. She pocketed the other camera and gleamed back to the closet at the mansion.
And found herself standing face to face with SE.
He leaned against the doorjamb. “Hi. Have a good time?”
Damnit!
Her mouth dried up instantly. “I…”
But her mate didn’t say anything. He just turned and walked out of the closet.
She followed him. “SE?”
His back to her, he shook his head. “You know what? Don’t…don’t tell me where you’ve been. I’m not sure I want to hear it.”
“What? Like you have to know where I am every second of the day now? I was gone an hour!”
“No.” He turned around slowly. “You weren’t just gone an hour. You were gone and you left fully armed!”
Oh, God. This was so not good. This isn’t what she’d wanted. “I went to see my tech guy to pick up some equipment I thought we could use.”
“And then where did you go?”
“What?”
“I sincerely doubt the pistol was meant for your tech guy.”
Her chest was heaving like she couldn’t get enough air and her legs were slowly going numb. But she would not lie to her mate. “I put a mini cam in Victrixa’s office.”
The sound of his roar and the crunch that followed were so loud she wasn’t sure what they were at first.
“Fuck!” SE yelled, shaking out the hand that just seriously injured the wall.
Ana’s body went cold and she started to shake all over. Only she wasn’t afraid of him. She was afraid he would leave. The thought was so raw it made her nauseous. She covered her eyes with her hands and cried.
SE flexed his hand a few times and looked over at his female.
“Aw, come here.”
“I’m really sorry,” she said, collapsing into his arms.
“I know,” he said gently.
“I don’t…I’m not…”
“Shh, it’s okay. I’m sorry.” Jesus. Sorry was right. He could write a freaking book. How to Scare the Shit Out of Your Female in Three Easy Steps or some shit like that. He’d gotten so damn wound up after searching the house for her that he’d gone off like a bomb. Getting a handle on New Breed instincts was turning out to be a real bastard. He picked her up and carried her to the bed, then sat her down on his lap and waited for her to cry it out. When she picked her head up off his shoulder, he dried her cheeks with his fingers and waited for her to speak.
She stared down at her lap and fidgeted with her hands. “I didn’t think. I should have known that when you woke up, you’d miss me and worry. I just…”
“Hey, I get it. You’ve never had to think about anyone else before. It’s a big change. It’s just…I thought you were with X, so when no one knew where you were, I just lost it. Why, Ana? Why would you risk going anywhere near her?”
“I don’t know. I knew the job would only take a few seconds.”
“Seconds? You didn’t place the camera?”
“No, I did.”
“But that takes time and tools.”
Ana shook her head. “Watch.”
She opene
d her hand and the TV remote appeared in her palm.
SE jumped. “Ihkweea, did you just gleam that?”
She nodded.
“How long have you been able to do that?”
“Actually, I don’t know. Last month, sometime, I was starving from fighting all night, but I didn’t have any cash. Then I gleamed a Snickers from a vending machine without meaning to.” They both grinned. “That’s the first time it happened. I wasn’t hiding it, honest. I never really use it. So, see, it was just a few seconds.”
She put her hand in her pocket and brought out a mini cam. “I brought the other one back here.”
SE slid his hands along her jaw. “Repeat after me. I, Ana Mata, will never go near my batshit crazy mother again.”
Ana smiled. “I, Ana Aguilar, will…what you said.”
Hearing her use his father’s surname made him so proud, he could have wept right there. Shifters didn’t usually bother with formalities like taking a mate’s name, but he knew what she meant. She was saying she was his. He pulled her to him. Goddamn, he couldn’t have stayed mad at her if he tried.
“Oh, your hand,” Ana said, lifting it to inspect it.
“It’s fine. You know what? I slept through breakfast. Can I interest you in some lunch, female?”
“Hell, yes. Just let me change real quick.”
He looked at the wall where he’d hit it. “And then I think I should probably fix Dimitri’s wall.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SE watched Diesel concentrate on his next shot. The brother’s long, sandy blond hair was tucked behind his ears and his dog tags swung freely as he checked the angle with his cue. SE took another swig of his beer and tapped the wall as Nine Inch Nails poured from the sound system.
“Want another one?” Ana asked as she pulled a bottle from the bar.
“Absolutely. Thank you, female.”
He took the new cold one, kissed his mate’s temple appreciatively, and turned his attention back to the game. “Jesus, Diesel, how long are you gonna take to line up that shot? And where the hell is Troy?”
X laughed as he checked his cell. “Just got a text. He’s out.”
Forbidden Call (New Breed Novels, Book 1) Page 12
