Series Firsts Box Set

by Laken Cane

  Rhys steepled his long fingers, his brown eyes bright and amused, and gave me a wide, white smile. And still, I saw the darkness in that smile. He would never be able to hide it from me. I wasn’t sure why, but there it was.

  Maybe he knew it, maybe he didn’t. I wasn’t going to tell him, though, or ask him what sort of monster he was. It wasn’t like he’d tell me, anyway.

  “Two of his exes are moving back in,” he said. “If things aren’t loud enough already with his many children and their nannies, two ex-girlfriends in the same house? It’ll be a circus. I almost feel bad for our Angus.”

  “He didn’t tell me that,” I said. “I’m not sure even Angus’s house is big enough for that.”

  “No one’s house is,” he agreed. “And after they deliver the new babies, they’ll likely find the situation unacceptable and walk away with fistfuls of cash and fresh resolutions to stay away from the irresistible bull.”

  “It’s insane,” I murmured. “So many babies.”

  He shrugged. “Angus loves two things above all else—fucking and fighting. He satisfies his love of fighting with his occasional nights in the ring, and all the other nights, he is spreading his seed far and wide. Someday, one of the children is going to hunt him down and kick his ass.” He beamed.

  “But birth control,” I said.

  “Angus doesn’t use birth control. He seems to think he’ll burn in the fires of supernatural hell if he wastes his seed, and that he’d be dooming a potential life to eternity on earth as a spirit, forever unloved and abandoned and alone.” He leaned forward, his fascination with the workings of Angus’s mind obvious. “He’s a crazy shifter, but he loves his children.” He grinned. “And some of his women. I can only imagine how many kids he’d have if most of his partners weren’t handling the birth control issue.”

  I shook my head, torn between awe and disdain. Then I frowned. “What do you mean he fights in the ring?”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Do you know anything about your boss, Trinity?”

  “More now than I did a few minutes ago.” Then I waved my hand, impatient. “Never mind. I don’t have time for this. I have to go out with…Shane in a few hours. Can you help me find a place in Bay Town?”

  He considered me, and he had the good manners not to mention the fact that I’d stumbled over Shane’s name like it was a big, handsome rock in my path. “Yes. Absolutely. What are you looking for in a home, Trinity?”

  “I don’t have a lot of furniture. Or…any.”

  “Something furnished. Got it. What else?”

  “Two beds. Two baths.” I shrugged. “That’s about it, I guess.”

  “Neighbors?”

  I shrugged. “It’s Bay Town. They’re not going to care what I do.”

  “True enough.” He grinned. “I have some properties in mind. I’ll take you around to look at them in a couple of days.”

  I stood, then reached across his desk to shake his hand. After a moment of surprised hesitation, he took my fingers in his, almost gingerly.

  “Thanks, Rhys.”

  “Happy to help.” He squeezed my fingers before releasing them. “You be careful out there tonight.”

  “I will.”

  “If you need help,” he said, as I opened his door, “you call me. Understand, Trinity?”

  I looked back at him. “Yeah, okay.” But I wasn’t really sure I did understand. He seemed to be trying to tell me something, but I had no idea what it was.

  When I left his office, I headed next door to Stark’s Pizza. I missed the place, but I wouldn’t be going back to work there. My future was secured. At least, I believed it was. I’d take Gray to Captain Crawford, and soon, I’d have more work than I could handle.

  A thought struck me and I stood still, staring into the distance as I considered the possibilities. I’d need an office, and there were empties in the business park. As soon as I could, I’d lease some space and hang my shingle. Even though the captain had no plans to give me a badge, I was a legitimate hunter.

  I’d squeeze myself in beside the necromancer, and—

  “Trinity!”

  As though I’d summoned her by thinking about her, Miriam appeared in the doorway of her office. “Come here.” After she delivered the order, she ducked back inside, absolutely certain that I would follow.

  I’d forgotten her request for “girl talk,” and I wasn’t looking forward to it. But she’d done me a favor, and if all she wanted in return were details of Shane’s prowess as a lover, she should prepare to have her mind blown.

  I grinned and jogged to her office, but promptly lost my grin when I spotted Clayton standing behind her chair.

  She beckoned lazily. “Sit, darling. Let’s have that talk.”

  I avoided Clayton’s stare and sat in front of the desk, feeling a little like an unruly student called to the principal’s office.

  “Would you like some coffee?” she asked. “A cold drink?”

  “No, thanks,” I replied, crossing and uncrossing my arms. I shifted from one hip to the other, and finally, I slouched in my chair and studied my fingernails.

  “For pity’s sake,” Miriam said. “Get her a Xanax, Clayton.”

  “No, thank you,” I said when he moved immediately to do as she’d bid. “What do you want to talk about, Miriam?”

  She waved Clayton away and stood, then came to sit in the chair beside me. “Tell me everything.”

  I glanced at Clayton and could feel the heat climbing my cheeks.

  She followed my glance, then threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, honey! He has so few pleasures left in life—let him stay. Let him listen.” She leaned across and grabbed my hand. “He’s not allowed to have sex—not even with himself. And he’s not allowed the pleasure of another person’s touch. Well,” she amended, “except for mine, and my touches are not pleasing, are they, Clayton?”

  “No,” he answered.

  “Do you know,” she continued, her voice a conspiratorial murmur, “what the absence of touch can do to a person?”

  I only realized I was squeezing her fingers too tightly when she grimaced, but she didn’t attempt to pull away.

  “Don’t, Miriam,” I said. “I don’t like the monster in you.”

  She pursed her lips. “When you were attacked by the incubus, and you climbed naked into his arms, you became the first person to touch him sexually, lovingly, or otherwise-ly since I ripped him from his grave.”

  “I couldn’t help it,” I muttered.

  “Oh, I know that, Trin. If I thought you’d done it deliberately, why, I’d have scratched out your pretty gray eyes.” She grinned.

  She wasn’t joking.

  I let my gaze wander to Clayton. He stood without emotion, patient and blank, slender and innocuous, but dangerous nonetheless. It was a restrained danger—restrained by Miriam. I wasn’t sure what kept him from exploding.

  I’d have killed her in her sleep.

  “Why do you have him protecting me?” I asked her.

  “Why? Because I can. Because you’re a hunter—a bloodhunter—and that makes you precious to the supernaturals, Trinity. Hunters are the only ones standing between the hideous vampires and world domination.” She smiled, but something lurked in her eyes. Fear, maybe.

  Then she patted my hand. “You look so serious. Tell me a story. Let’s lighten the mood.” She was earnest, her eyes large and sincere, the corners of her mouth turned up in a hopeful smile. “Shane has been a fantasy of mine since the day I met him.”

  I could understand that, despite the fact that he wasn’t exactly my favorite person. There was something about him that went far beyond physical looks. “How long have you known him?”

  She squinted. “Hmm…about, let’s see…ten or eleven years now.”

  “How long were you with his brother?”

  “Three years. Then I had to kill the son of a bitch.” Her laughter pealed joyfully, and I wasn’t sure if she were joking or telling a scary truth.

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nbsp; “He was human,” I realized, finally, dryly. “I doubt you killed him.”

  She shrugged. “Let’s not talk about me. Let’s talk about you and my sweet Shane.”

  “Sweet.” I snorted. “Not even a little bit.”

  “I know what happens when new hunters get swept up in the emotion of the fight,” she said. “And the kill. But what is so delicious is the fact that Shane is not new. And he doesn’t like you. But he did you anyway.” She leaned toward me, her bright stare devouring my face. “Didn’t he?”

  I felt a streak of pity for her. I wasn’t sure why—but it made me talk, that pity. I gave her what she needed. “After the vampires were destroyed…” I shook my head, remembering. “I was overflowing with…emotion, I guess. With passion. It was almost like having the Foam of Aphrodite on my body. Even worse. There was this need so huge, so extreme, that I couldn’t control myself.”

  “Oh,” she said. “What did Shane do? Did he hurt you?” She was breathless, eager. Her lips were parted, and she darted out her tongue to wet them. She ran her hand up my forearm, then back down to entangle her fingers with mine. “Tell me.”

  I glanced at Clayton. He stood frozen and pale, but he was staring at me, and the look in his eyes was vast and dark and hot and so very, very hungry.

  “Yes,” I murmured, and put my attention back on her. “He was brutal. But brutal was what I needed at that moment.”

  She let go of my hand and threw herself back in her chair. “Oh,” she said. “God, I am so jealous of you right now.” She blew out a long breath. “I may try again with our Shane. He is so very fuckable. I’ll wear him down eventually.” Then she sat up, a hand to her chest. “I am going hunting with you tonight.”

  “What?” I said. “No!”

  “Oh, yes. The only thing I’d like better than catching Shane full of death and sex would be catching Shane and you full of death and sex. We would have a wild, wild time, Trinity.” Her eyes shone, matched by her smile. She clapped her hands. “Clayton!”

  “Yes?” His voice was hoarse.

  I kept my stare firmly and determinedly on Miriam.

  “Would you like to watch me with Shane and Trinity?”

  “I’d rather not say.”

  She dropped her smile. “Clayton! Answer the question.”

  Finally, I looked at him, unable not to.

  He closed his eyes in a long, slow blink, then answered her question. “No.”

  She gaped at him. “What?”

  “No,” he repeated. “I would not.”

  She tilted her head, then nodded, slowly. “I understand. Would a starving man like to watch another feast if all he could do was smell the food?” She stood and walked back to her desk. “That would be very difficult for you. Torturous, even.” She smiled, happy. “We must make it happen.”

  And once again, the hope bled out of Clayton’s eyes.

  I stood. “You’re not going hunting with us, Miriam, and I am not going to lose control if I have to battle the vampires again tonight. There’s going to be no…” I waved my hands as I headed for the door. “No orgy. So forget it.” I yanked open the door, then turned to face her. “And please, please don’t tell Shane that I told you about all the crazy hot sex.”

  She put her little hands over her mouth and burst into laughter. Genuine laughter.

  I stared at her, confused. “What’d I say?”

  “It’s not what you said.” She wiped her eyes, smiling. “It’s who you said it to. I won’t have to tell Shane, darling. You just told him yourself.”

  And when I jerked my head around, dread filling my heart, I found Shane standing just outside the doorway, watching me.

  “Oh hell,” I said. Then I added, for good measure, because I was just that uncomfortable, “Sneaky bastard.”

  I brushed past him and stomped away, Miriam’s bubbly, delighted laughter following me all the way to Stark’s Pizza.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “When are you coming back to work?” Derry asked, after giving me a hug. “I never see you anymore.”

  “I live with you,” I told her, though that was about to change.

  “Yeah but you’re never there. And you’re never here, either.” She scowled.

  “You look so much like your father,” I told her, grinning. “Especially when you frown like that.”

  “Then I’ll smile from now on.” She flounced away.

  The place smelled so good I thought about sitting down and having a meal, but decided I’d talk to Angus first. If I still had an appetite afterward, I’d get an early dinner before Shane and I hit Raeven’s Road on our quest to track down Gordon Gray.

  Captain Crawford had called me to offer up a few of his uniforms to help with the search, but I turned him down flat. Not only would the cops likely be killed by vampires, they’d only get in my way. And if I got excited afterward and jumped Shane again—not that I would—and they witnessed that…

  I shuddered.

  No. Just no.

  I pecked on Angus’s office door, then pushed it open and stuck my head in. “Do you have a minute, Angus?”

  “Trin,” Angus roared, as though he hadn’t seen me for a year. He half stood and waved me in. “Come. Sit.”

  But I didn’t want to sit. I paced around his office. “Angus, I’m moving out. Rhys is going to show me some houses.” I stopped walking and looked at him. “I wanted to thank you for taking me in.”

  He nodded. “What can I help you with? Furniture? Extra cash?”

  “No, nothing.” I hesitated and looked around the room. “I won’t be coming back to work, either. I’m…” I shrugged. It felt strange saying aloud what I’d decided to do. To become.

  “Of course you won’t be coming back to make pizza,” he said. “You’re a hunter, my girl. That job will be more than you can handle.”

  “Thanks,” I said, dryly. “You have such confidence in me.”

  He studied me soberly. “I do, honey.” He grinned and shrugged. “I don’t want you to stop needing me, though.”

  Finally, I sat down. “I’m not one of your kids, Angus.”

  His chair creaked ominously when he leaned back in it. “I told you I don’t think of you as one of my kids.” His eyes darkened, just the tiniest bit. “And when you’re ready, I’ll prove it to you.”

  My face heated and I silently damned my tendency to blush at his slightest sexual innuendo. And Angus, who seemed to not so secretly delight in provoking such a reaction, wasn’t quite finished.

  “I hear Shane Copas bent you over a pile of vampire corpses and had his way with you.” His grin was huge but the look in his eyes was just a little…heated.

  I stood. “Okay, that’s just great. Goodbye, Angus.”

  “Trin, wait. I have something for you.”

  I stopped at the door, curious despite myself. “What?”

  He opened his desk drawer, pulled out a small box, and then tossed it to me. I caught it automatically.

  “Condoms,” he said, as though I wouldn’t know, and roared with laughter.

  “Thanks, Angus. I needed these.” I stuffed the box into my coat pocket. “You know. For all the sex I’ll be having.”

  He traded his smile for a scowl, and with a bounce in my step and a grin on my face, I left his office.

  Putting a scowl on Angus’s face always buoyed my mood. But I remembered something I needed to do, and I slipped into a corner of the hall to make an appointment with my OBGYN.

  I ate my dinner surrounded by Angus’s kids and a few regulars, relaxed and happier than I could remember being in a good long while. I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want to question it too hard.

  Maybe it was the calm before the storm.

  Shane came into the restaurant and sat down across from me, and just like that, my moment of peace ended.

  “You want something to eat?” I asked him.

  He eyed the two remaining slices of my fourteen-inch pizza. “You eat a lot for someone so skinny.�
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  I shrugged. “Fast metabolism.”

  “Enjoy it while you can, honey,” said a chunky, middle-aged human sitting across the aisle. “It doesn’t last. I used to be almost as skinny as you, once upon a time.” Her gaze touched upon my chopped, uneven hair and my scars and she pursed her lips. “Or…are you sick, sweetie?”

  The two women sitting with her leaned forward to get a look at me, and suddenly, it was like I had the attention of everyone in the place.

  Two young women behind me giggled. “Ouch,” one of them murmured.

  Embarrassed, I lifted my hand to self-consciously cover the scars on my face, but Shane leaned across the table and grabbed my wrist. Gently, he pushed my hand back down to the table.

  “Fuck no,” he said.

  Derry hurried toward me. “You okay, Trin?”

  “I’m fine.” And I was. “But Shane needs a really big sandwich. My treat.”

  Derry peered at him. “You want to order, Mr. Copas?”

  “No.” He didn’t look away from me.

  I was caught for a moment in the deep mystery of his eyes, in the gruffness of his voice. And I was caught also in the memory of his body, of the way his smooth flesh had felt beneath my fingertips, the way his skin had tasted, the way his lips had moved against mine. The way he’d grabbed my hips and shoved himself inside me, the way he’d scraped his teeth against the side of my neck, the way he’d hoarsely whispered my name when he’d orgasmed.

  I drew a ragged breath, and when the look in his eyes went from slightly blank to knowing and hot, I jumped up from my seat, gave the surprised Derry a quick hug, then told Shane I’d meet him in a couple of hours. “We need to get Gray tonight,” I said.

  It wouldn’t be full dark yet, but by the time we reached the woods, dark wouldn’t be long in coming.

  I climbed into my car. The evening air was fresh and cold, but I didn’t bother with my heater. I needed the cold air to cool the heat in my cheeks. I squirmed in my seat. And not just the heat in my face.

  The Thanksgiving Day Massacre memories weren’t the only things I’d suppressed. I’d had sex once in six years—an unsatisfying and juvenile fumbling in the living room of my date’s house. I’d closed down my physical needs because I hadn’t felt like I’d deserved the pleasure. I hadn’t even realized that fact at the time.