by HK Savage
“Seriously, whatever happened out there, you can’t beat yourself up over it. Mike made a bad call trying to take you on the run, especially if he’s sick. But it’s good to see him alive like he is with you. I’ve never seen him like this before.” He snorted. “He’s sure as shit a lot more pleasant with you around even if he is all overprotective vamp sometimes.”
At that even Becca had to smile. “And you aren’t all territorial wolf sometimes?” She twisted her neck to catch Ryan grinning back. “I’m sorry about you and Gabs, Ryan. And I’m sorry tonight ended before you could, uh, get whatever you needed.” She eased her butt down next to Michael’s hip.
His grin faded and Ryan pushed off from the wall, dropping his arms. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
“I know you’ll be fine. I wish you’d be happy.” She watched the pain flash in his eyes before he smiled and turned to leave.
“I’m going to check in with the admiral. I’ll let you know if you need to come down.”
She watched the door close behind him and turned back to Michael’s prone body, pulling the blanket from the foot of the bed over him. Trotting to her room, Becca changed into a pair of black sleep shorts and grey tee. If the admiral needed her tonight she could always throw her cargos on and head down. For now, all she wanted was to curl up next to the man she loved and pretend none of this was happening. When she got back to Michael’s room she flicked off the light, crawled in beside him, and pulled herself close. Sleep was a long time coming.
***
“Look at that, Captain Michael Rossi has himself a meat puppet. A cute one too.”
Becca blinked awake, feeling like she had the world’s worst hangover. Her field of vision was filled with a pair of pale green eyes the color of spring moss staring out of a caramel colored face, far,far too close for comfort. Instinctively she reared back until she was stopped by Michael’s cold, hard form behind her. Kinky hair easily a full inch too long for regulation sprang from his narrow head. Cold fear spread from the center of her stomach as Becca realized who she was looking at. Her shaky control over her sight wavered for a moment and her vision danced, then, almost without any conscious effort, her hold firmed and her vision cleared. The message remained: this man was dangerous.
“Kenneth, I presume?” By some miracle she kept her voice steady.
“The puppet’s heard of me.” White teeth flashed in a chilling smile. “I wonder what she’s heard.” There was something wild in his eyes, a hint of something inhuman.
“Kenneth, knock it off.” Gabrielle’s typically annoyed and tired voice called from beside the door. “Becca’s one of us. You can’t screw with her.”
“Becca. So cute she even gets a nickname.”
The way he rolled her name around on his tongue, letting it settle somewhere in his chest made her feel like he’d touched her. She wanted to wash her mind.
The cold chest behind her vibrated against her ribcage. “Back off, Williams.”
Becca struggled to keep her joy and relief in lockdown. The sneer that twisted Kenneth’s features into a hateful mask immediately wiped it away as she sucked air through her teeth.
“Captain.” Kenneth stood up to his full height. By comparison to the other men in the unit he was small, easily several inches shorter than either Michael or Ryan. Becca hoped that meant, if it came to it, the others could control him. Secretly, she vowed to never be alone with him.
Michael didn’t move but the sound of his intake of breath to speak made Becca’s nose burn and her eyes wet. He was awake and aware, at least at first blush. She wished she could turn around and see with her own eyes that he was really alright. “Kenneth, you should know that Captain Sauter is off limits to you. She may be human, but Admiral Black brought her in for a reason. To harm her would be to offend the admiral. And me.”
Kenneth’s nostrils flared though he remained silent.
“We just got in,” Gabrielle was directly behind Kenneth and Becca couldn’t see her. “Kenny here was supposed to go to his room. He caught this one’s scent and followed his nose.” She took a step to the side to make eye contact with Becca, oddly intent upon reassuring her. “I was just explaining the same thing about Becca’s protected status, Michael. Kenny’s not going to touch her or the admiral will have him in silver before he can say boo.”
Fear washed over Kenneth’s stoic face.
“Then, I think we’re done here,” Michael stated firmly. “I’ll be down to the war room shortly. We can talk there.”
Recognizing his dismissal, Kenneth drew himself up to attention and snapped out a salute. “Sir, yes, Sir.” Automatically, Becca marked him as former Army given the double “Sir.” Spinning on his heel, he strode from the room. Gabrielle gave a stern nod, clearly unhappy, before she followed, shutting the door behind her.
Alone finally, Becca rolled over and popped up on an elbow. Her eyes eagerly scanned for lingering signs of injury or pain. He appeared fine. Pissed, but fine, as he regarded her from his back.
“Hey.”
Michael blinked. “Hey?”
She watched his mouth set in a firm line and felt her anger mounting. Given the ears that would be all too interested to hear them fighting, she whispered her harsh words. “Don’t you be mad at me, Michael Rossi. You weredying. I couldn’t watch you die for me, not when I can stop it.” Tears pricked her eyes. “Don’t ever ask me to do that.”
“Then how can you ask me to?” he replied evenly.
His words hit her like a punch to the gut. Her mouth gaped but nothing came out. Whatcould she say?
“Get dressed. We’ll be expected now that Williams is here, and I need to visit the fridge.”
Unable to think of anything useful to say, Becca rolled off and scuttled away to get dressed.
***
Admiral Black stood at the head of the table, lording over the quiet bunch. His apparent oblivion to the heavily charged emotional undercurrent certainly an act, Black never missed anything. Ryan and Gabrielle sat beside each other in their usual places, Becca next to Kenneth, and Michael at the foot of the table opposite Black. Becca fought the urge to squeeze into the far side of her chair or maybe listen from the hallway. Ripples of nausea slapped at her insides not far below the surface, letting her know if her grip on her sight wavered she would be on the ground, vulnerable to an attack from an all too eager vampire.
“Kenneth, welcome back,” the admiral began, his hands interlocked behind his back. “I’m sure you’ve already had a chance to reacquaint yourself with your old comrades.” He let his black eyes fall on Becca, giving her skin further reason to crawl. “And our newest member, Rebecca.” Leaving no chance for anyone to speak, not that anyone would, he went on. “Kenneth, I would assume you are wondering why you’ve been called back to duty after your extended leave.” Kenneth looked like he wanted to speak but he showed some wisdom and didn’t. “I would assume there are those among us who might have noticed the increasing frequency of our recent visits to Washington.” His eyes went again to Becca. It was fast but she could have sworn his lips twitched at her.
Was he freaking kidding? After nearly killing Michael, her lover and his own second in command, he was god damned smiling at her? Becca felt the top of her head threaten to lift off. A cold chuckle beside her reined her in. She couldn’t lose it in front of Williams. The less he knew of her weaknesses the better. Instead, she forced herself to relax into her chair and affect a benign expression.
“We have a problem.”
Everyone at the table went wired.
“There are few who know exactly what we are or what it is we do for our kind, and theirs for that matter. Of those select few, most of those see us as an essential service and fund us accordingly.” Pausing, he let everyone absorb that uncontested fact. “However, there have been some personnel shakeups and, as an unforeseen complication, our budget has caught the attention of some uninitiated oversight members.”
“So initiate them.” Ryan shrug
ged.
Black eyed him patiently. “That was our initial response. Contain andexplain, if you will.” He made eye contact with Michael over the long expanse of the dark table. No one present missed it, nor did they miss the grim set of either man’s features. “It went a bit unexpectedly, you could say.”
The notion of Admiral Black sitting down and explaining anything to a normal human being, even a member of Congress, was ludicrous.
“Unexpectedly?” Gabrielle leaned in, her eyes searching the men’s faces. “What do you mean unexpectedly? Are we catching heat?”
“Afghanistan. Those wereour guns. Were they our guys?” Ryan’s quiet words raised the hairs on the back of Becca’s neck.
All eyes turned to Black. Becca held her breath, all of them praying they hadn’t killed any of their own in the raid.
Admiral Black’s lips were pressed together. Only the thinnest of white needles protruded from his tight upper lip, the glow of the overhead light shone on his obsidian eyes. The only sound to be heard was the hum coming from the computers. No one breathed. “The shooter on the hill was holding you for reinforcements. Ours.”
“Jesus Christ,” Ryan muttered, only partially relieved to have narrowly avoided a friendly fire incident.
“Shit,” Gabrielle leaned back in her chair.
Kenneth giggled.
Panic rising at the clear insanity beside her and ominous feeling emanating from her team, Becca had eyes only for Michael. His gaze met hers looking oddly relieved. This was what he’d been forced to keep from her. This and the return from exile of the mad hatter tittering beside her. Becca found herself smiling weakly at him.
Giving her a tight smile in return, Michael stood. “Obviously facing our own troops is more than troubling, it’s also a waste of energy and lives on both sides. What we’re dealing with is at least one politician looking to win votes by cutting budgets. In his defense, the one we spoke to was unaware of us specifically; he is targeting any and all covert operations he sees as unnecessary. Our efforts to educate him on our validity had less than optimal results.”
Kenneth snickered. “You scared the shit out of the old guy, didn’t you?” Michael’s silence confirmed his assumption. “Then, when you brain wiped him, you figured you couldn’t risk doing it again without leaving him a complete window licker.”
“We did do it again.” All heads turned to Black. “We tried to make our point, then had to erase his memory three separate times. We don’t dare do it again without risking lasting effects.”
Kenneth guffawed. “It’s not like anyone would notice another idiot on Capitol Hill.”
“They would when that idiot was a former Rhodes Scholar, the chair of the Senate subcommittee on budget reform, and a regular visitor to our troops abroad.”
Becca didn’t spend a lot of time watching the news outlets but even she knew who they were talking about. “Senator Chris Reese is the one you freaked out? Then wiped?”
Michael nodded and Ryan groaned.
“That guy’s squeaky clean.” The big wolf rubbed his hands over his face. “He’s all about family and God and our soldiers. We don’t have anything to hold over him, do we? Shit, should we?”
Black let the table murmur for another moment before calling them back. “His mind will not allow him to believe in our existence without declaring a holy war. He believes we are demons and our presence marks the end of days. Therefore, we cannot allow him to know what we truly are. However, we must have our funding in order to operateand we must rid ourselves of the burden of any further internal policing that draws the focus of the NSA and CIA to our operations.” He let his eyes wander to Becca and Kenneth. “Which brings us to the two of you.”
Finally getting why Becca was on board, Kenneth squeaked. “You replaced me with a human?” He sounded genuinely hurt. And pissed. “Ahuman?”
Yep, definitely pissed. Becca turned to see his fangs had descended and his eyes bled to black. The angry vampire was leaning into her space looking way bigger, and vastly more frightening than he had an hour ago. The minor menace in the wakeup visit was nothing to the serious animosity rippling off the vampire at that moment, a bite away from ending her life. Becca knew she would be no match, less even than a month ago when Michael’s blood still offered her enhanced strength and speed. Now she had her sight and that was it. And all that little warning system was giving her was a major case of cramps and occasional increasing blindness.
“Stand down, Williams.” A firm,verycold voice commanded. When Michael received no immediate response, his tone went frigid. “Stand. Down. Now.”
Kenneth snarled and looked like he was going to push the issue. Something Becca knew Michael couldn’t handle. Not in the condition he was after last night, and she had no idea what state that arm of his was in. She calculated how long it would take her to get to the weapons supply on the far wall.
“Kenneth.”
All faces turned to their leader. The look on his face was enough to make Becca wet herself were it directed her way. Thank God it wasn’t.
“In case you have forgotten how this unit is run, let me remind you. I am your Commanding Officer. Michael is my second, andyour superior. Michael speaks for me. Never do you question a direct command from either one of us.”
The mad or incredibly stupid Kenneth opened his mouth to argue.
“Never do you question one of us,” the admiral restated in the same clear, calm voice. “Is that clear? Or would you like to have a discussion in private so that I might further clarify the meaning of chain of command for you?”
Kenneth’s deliberate head shake seemed to satisfy the admiral, the nasty little vampire was backing down. For now. Becca didn’t breathe any easier. She wondered if she could swipe one of those little whatchacalit weapons that popped out a big ass silver needle at the push of a button from lockup and sleep with it under her pillow. She’d never gotten to use one, but there was always at least one in her bag on each mission. That sort of thing was one hundred percent lethal to a vampire, no matter how much bigger and stronger they were.
“As I was saying, we are currently moving on to another plan of attack given our initial efforts’ failure.” Admiral Black let his dark stare shift from Kenneth to Becca, as if he was speaking only to the two of them. “Both of you were recruited because of your sight. Although visions of possible future outcomes are helpful, they are not our primary requirements from you on this occasion.” He paused, though it was without need. No one was going to interrupt; they were all waiting silently to hear what was expected of the two witches. “Kenneth, when you turned, your nature altered your sight so that you could hear a man’s thoughts in that moment with only a touch.”
Becca tried to catch a glimpse of Michael out of the corner of her eye but couldn’t. When she turned her head, Black caught it and raised his voice minutely, speaking her name as a summons.
“Rebecca, your witch’s nature allows for you to enter another’s mind, see through their eyes. Thus far it’s been limited, but should you succeed in expanding your hosts, we have far greater use for you. Either one of you is the perfect spy.” Black eyes pinned her to her seat. “Provided your talents can be used on command.”
His threat was clear. Only Michael knew she could not only jump into one mind, but into two at once. Michael had kept it from him by not thinking about it. In that moment she knew what she must do. Michael would be furious. She couldn’t think about that. The alternative was nothing but pain and possibly death for him. It wasn’t a choice anymore. It wasn’t enough that he’d asked her to deny it when Black insisted she learn to jump into any head. It was time to end the wait.
Becca kept her expression mildly interested, giving nothing away. Again, she thought she saw a hint of a friendly smile in the admiral’s ghostly face. Did he know? Did he know and was pitting more than just Kenneth and her against each other? This time, she had no trouble keeping the lid on her temper. There was too much happening she didn’t understand.
“We will meet with a senator who is a staunch ally. He was formerly a colonel and still has high level clearance, which will allow you access to those we need to bring into the fold.” He let his gaze take in all five parties in a long, slow sweep. “Is everyone clear on our mission?”
“Sir,” was the answer from five mouths.
“Excellent. Wheels up at nineteen hundred. Any information on members of the committee including those of special interest will be available on the plane. Everyone has a weakness. Find theirs. I will determine what to do with Senator Reese.”
Chapter 10
The last to rise, Becca forced her body up from her chair. All but Michael were already halfway to the stairs. Feet stopped. Michael, a few feet behind the rest, lagging for her, froze.
“Sir, can I have a word?”
“Of course, Rebecca,” Black didn’t look surprised at her request.
Becca cleared her throat. “In private.”
