by Amie Gibbons
He paused.
“I would like to put this to a vote tonight,” Quil said. “We are facing demons, someone set them upon us, and we could use the help. Do I have a second for a vote?”
Everyone stared straight at us.
No, not us.
The queen.
I turned slowly and she was smirking, her pet vamps still loungin’ on the pillows at her feet but… tense.
Like they knew something was about to happen.
“Collaboration with the humans, Quil?” the queen asked, raisin’ a thin eyebrow. “My, my, that is bold. A joint investigation, where we let them see our world, our secrets. Now that’s where I have the problem.”
My heart raced and I fought the urge to look up into her eyes.
Quil put his hand on my shoulder and Len moved to stand at my other side.
Protectin’ me?
“What if instead of bringing them in here, we put one of us in their group?” she asked. “That one would be a true liaison.”
Quil tightened beside me.
What did he just figure out? What was happenin’?
“It’s a brilliant plan, Quil,” she said. “With one little adjustment. We’ll turn her instead.”
Uh-oh.
The queen’s gaze fixed on my face and I met her eyes, oxygen rushin’ right outta me.
She crashed into my brain; washed through it.
“You’re so scared, little one. Don’t you want to be safe? We can make you safe. You would have so much. A family to take care of you. You would be part of something.”
Pictures popped in my head like bubbles. Quil biting me. Me welcomed into the nest. Being part of them.
Becoming one with them.
I have a family. And I don’t want to get sucked into the Borg here.
The voice skipped away.
That wouldn’t happen. I’d still be me. Just me with power.
I could save people with power.
I have power. I do save people. That’s what I was tellin’ Mama. And I don’t answer to a tyrant.
“Who said I was a tyrant? I just want to protect my people.”
There was that voice again.
She pressed in, reachin’ for my memories.
For Quil’s treason.
She’ll kill him.
“Noooooooooo!” I screamed, jerkin’ my gaze away.
I blinked and the world sharpened into reality. Vamps stared at me, mouths hangin’ open.
Quil stared at me with wide eyes and crossed himself as I looked at him.
“What did I just do?” I whispered.
He shook his head, blinkin’, eyes bouncin’ around like he was tryin’ to think… and think fast.
“Our queen was gracious enough to back off the little psychic when she saw her mental probe was upsetting the poor girl,” Quil said. “Our queen is kind and of course would not want to turn her against her will.”
“Of course not,” the queen said, voice smooth, eyes flamin’. “We would want her to join us willingly.”
Huh?
I kicked her o…
It hit me.
I wasn’t supposed to be able to fight her off like that and Quil was coverin’ for her.
Why?
Quil squeezed my shoulder. “As I was saying before, we should vote on whether to allow the humans and my investigative department to join forces to find and kill these demons and their summoner.”
“I second the call for a vote,” Len said.
The room held its breath.
“The court moves for a vote,” the queen said with a note of formality. “All in favor of allowing Quil to work with a small number of humans in the FBI, say aye with a raise of hands.”
Ayes came out slowly, like the vamps were wonderin’ what the quack was goin’ on here too. Hands went up until almost all of them were.
So they were waitin’ to see what the queen wanted.
Yep, nothin’ fishy goin’ on here.
“Fantastic,” Quil said. “We’ll return her to her home and contact the FBI after they’re up and in the office. Until then…”
Why was he babblin’? He sounded like me.
“Now, now, Quil,” the queen said. “We can’t be having her rush out. That would be rude. The meeting is basically over. She should stay and mingle.”
She looked at me again and this time I damn well kept my eyes off hers.
“Let me get to know her,” the queen said, tongue flickin’ over her lip.
“I appreciate the hospitality,” I said. “But I couldn’t. I… um.”
“I insist.”
My breath snagged in my throat and I knew terror was playin’ with my face cuz she smirked.
“We have to work on the case, my queen,” Quil said. “She’s vital to the investigation and we have to start tracking these demons. They may have already killed again tonight, or be about to. We’re going to try to stop them before they can.”
Good excuse.
I bowed and took a step back.
Quil grabbed my elbow, holdin’ me there.
“May we be excused, my queen?” he asked. “We really must be out there trying to find them. The early hours are their time to strike.”
The queen’s smile stayed fixed and didn’t reach her eyes.
“Go,” she said with a wave of her hand.
Quil bowed and nearly took my arm off pullin’ me outta there, Len close behind.
###
I don’t think I took a full breath till we got down the hall, up the stairs, and out into the open air.
I hit my knees in the empty parking lot, arms shakin’ as I wrapped them around my middle.
“What the fuck was that!” Len yelled as Quil moved the boulder back into place. “How did she do that?”
“I don’t know,” Quil said, runnin’ his hand over his hair and holding it back as his eyes searched the night. “Ariana, do you know what you did?”
“I uh, fought her off?”
“There are vampires who can’t do that.”
“Sooooo?” I stared up at him, rubbin’ my arms.
“So!” Len said. “I… I can’t even. You have power. Power like a vampire.”
“Okay? So psychics can-”
“No,” Quil said, kneelin’ in front of me. “Ariana, vampires, fae, gods, creatures that either were never human or are beyond them now can engage in mental battles; psychics are, at their core, human.”
“I feel like I’m missin’ something here.”
He sighed and put his hands over mine on my arms.
“Ariana, humans can’t kick a vampire out. They don’t have the skills. It’s like expecting a human to run as fast as a vampire. But you just did.”
“So she’s, what?” Len asked. “Part fae maybe? Descendant of a god?”
Quil shook his head. “You smell either of those on her?”
“I can’t smell anything but her perfume right now.”
“Take a whiff after she washes it off.” Quil focused on me again. “Ariana, can you do anything else? Do you have better than normal hearing or eyesight? Can you run faster than your peers? What about your sense of smell?”
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me, Quil!” Len said. “Not possible.”
“What’s not possible?” I asked.
“You being part vamp,” Len said. “He wants to know if you have any other powers like us.”
“Ummmm.” I looked between them. “I thought vamps couldn’t reproduce?”
“We can’t,” Len said. “And there’s no such thing as Blade. There’s no way any kind of mixing our blood, or biting mommy during birth, or whatever other bullshit Hollywood comes up with, makes a half breed.”
“You do know that movie reference is like really old now, right?”
Quil sighed. “You’re right, Len. Of course you’re right.”
“If it helps, I am a crappy runner,” I said. “I have exercise induced asthma. My eyesight is good, I don’t need glasses or any
thing, but nothin’ special. My hearing is normal. My nose is pretty good, usually for sniffin’ out food, but that’s it.”
“So, some natural power,” Quil said, more to himself than either of us, it seemed. “Psychics can’t be hypnotized like normal humans, maybe it’s an extension of that. But still… after this.”
He looked over my head at Len.
“The queen isn’t going to let this stand. She’ll kill her.”
“What!” I said, jerkin’ away and climbin’ to my feet.
“Ariana, if you can fight a mind as powerful as the queen’s, even if she was taking it easy on you, when you’re just a human, imagine what you could do if turned?”
“Um.” I looked between them. “Are you sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’?”
“Vampires have powers, levels of powers. You just showed tonight that you are already at a power level above most baby vamps. If you were turned, you would be well on your way to beating the queen.”
“And that’s why she dropped the whole turnin’ me thing so licky skippy?”
“Um… probably. What is licky skippy?”
I grinned. “It’s something my mama came up with. Kind of a mix between lickity split and pretty damn skippy.”
“Well, yes,” Quil said.
He looked down at me, takin’ my hands, and the mirth leaked outta me as I met his eyes.
“Can you, ugh, do the mental whammy thing?” I asked.
“I can. It’s what makes me such a good investigator.” He licked his lips.
“Could you whammy me, if you wanted to?”
“I could try. Knowing the queen, she was going easy on you, since you’re just a human. But I don’t know. I don’t know how much she was using on you. Maybe you could shake off a more aggressive attempt. Maybe not.”
I licked my lips without thinkin’ and he smiled.
“I never did tell you what I wanted to do to that tight little body of yours, did I?”
I shook my head. “Those things you said I was too young to hear? No.”
“Feel like growing up a little bit? After that, I know I could use some fun.”
My breath caught in my throat and I pulled my hands back, heart sinkin’.
Well there goes that.
“I’m a lady. You don’t proposition a lady. You ask her out. You woo her. You’re makin’ it pretty clear you’re only interested in one thing and men like that never last. I actually thought you liked me there for a minute.”
Quil’s forehead pinched up. “Are you saying you think I don’t like you since I just made it clear I do?”
“Makes sense to me,” Len said.
I jumped and half turned, makin’ him laugh. “Forgot you were there.”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to interrupt, but sounds like an interpreter’s needed here. I speak both genders fluently.”
“Freeze!” someone yelled from behind.
We did.
“Turn around with your hands up.”
Holy crap on a million crackers and cooked cats too!
I knew that voice.
I held my hands up and turned.
“Ariana?” Grant’s asked, arms dropping so his gun was pointed down. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
I grinned so hard it was painful. “I was invited to a vamp meeting, General?”
He cocked a finger. “You both are coming with me.”
Both?
I looked around.
Len was long gone.
So it looked like it was just me and Quil hangin’ in the park.
“I actually need to be leaving,” Quil said. “Sorry, Ariana. We’ll be in touch.”
And he blurred away.
Grant glared at me and his eyes, I sooooo was not meetin’.
“General, I-”
“Not. One. Word. Ryder,” he said, swipin’ his phone on. “Crowley, what’s going on out there?”
Grant nodded along, and glanced at me. “No, hear him out.”
He hung up and hit a few buttons. “Kowalski, stop trying to call Ryder in.” Grant pursed his lips. “She’s already here.”
I checked my phone. Jet had called six times in the past half hour.
Oops, crap, and a pile of swear words all rolled into one steamin’ pile.
“We’ll be there soon,” Grant said. “Process the scene.”
Oh no.
Grant hung up and jerked his head at the van.
We walked over and I hopped in my side. Grant started us up and I opened my mouth to ask why they were over in this parking lot when he shook his head.
“Dead girl. No ID. Same MO. Why were you here?”
“Quil woke me up around four, General. He said he needed my help because… well, they have leaders in areas and the queen here is a real tyrant. She’s abusing her people and is pulling a serious big gov move with them and-”
“The point?” Grant said.
“Okay, he said we had to get the queen to agree for us to work together and I had to go in to talk to them and couldn’t bring you guys cuz you’re just humans and she’d kill you and now we’re going to work together and learn all this stuff about the supernatural. And the queen agreed to it. We’re gonna set up a meeting to talk about this all and… and I think I’m done.”
“That’s it?”
Tellin’ him about the whole queen mental whammy and me fighting her off was not gonna happen.
“Yes, sir.”
“You didn’t think to call in backup?”
Uh-oh, that was not a good tone. When I get mad, my voice heats up. Grant’s the exact opposite. His drops to Arctic.
Judgin’ by the fact that I suddenly wanted a sweater, I was in serious trouble.
“I did! Quil told me I couldn’t, that he had to ease everyone into working with us and that meant just me. If we tried to go in with more than just one, they wouldn’t have reacted well and we all could’ve died.”
“You could have told us what you were doing.”
“He told me not to.”
“You don’t answer to him, Ryder. Until I fire you, you answer to me.”
“Until?”
We pulled into the next lot in the park and he parked and turned to me.
I stared down. Geez, still couldn’t look him in the eyes.
I was able to look a-who-knows-how-old vampire queen in the eyes, but one minute with my boss glued my gaze to my lap.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Ryder?”
“You would have told me not to go, sir.”
“You’re damn right I would have.” He slammed his fist sideways into the dash, makin’ me jump.
Grant grabbed my chin, yankin’ it up. “You ever pull this shit again, I’ll do worse than fire you. This stupidity and immaturity is unacceptable. You do not go off on your own. You do not make that call. You are green and fucking stupid. You got that?”
“I didn’t-”
“Only words coming out of your mouth right now should be, ‘Yes, sir.’”
“No!”
His eyes narrowed.
“No. I’m not a child. You want to yell at me, sure, but let me go. You wouldn’t do this with anyone else.”
He tightened his grip on my chin, pullin’ my face close.
“If you were anyone else, Ryder,” he whispered, “you would never have gotten this job. Even if you did, you would be fired right now. You have no sense, no judgment, and no respect, so if I want to grab your chin, I will. If I want to spank you like a child to get the lesson to stick, I will.”
“Don’t make promises you’re not gonna keep, sir,” I said.
What the frick has gotten into me! Did I really just say that to Grant?
Grant let me go, face locked up tighter than a chastity belt.
“We are going to get one thing straight right now, Ryder. You’re a child and you act like it. You and I are never going to happen. It was cute at first, but get over it. I need an agent, not a groupie. Stop pouting, twirling your hair and batting yo
ur eyes. Grow the fuck up and do your job.”
He got out of the van, grabbing his pack and slamming the door.
Just in time too.
I curled up on the seat, cryin’ out shards of my heart as Grant marched past the trees into the park without lookin’ back.
###
When I got to the crime scene just beyond the tree line, the place was already hoppin’. The guys had already bagged and tagged the scene and Kat and Grant were zipping up the body.
The woman was a tall brunette, pretty like the other two, dressed in a pair of undone grey pants and a blue silk top. And she had no panties or shoes. Par for the course by now.
Grant nodded at me stiff jawed and I knelt and touched the body without a word.
Flash.
She walked arm in arm with a large guy. I couldn’t see his face.
“I love the ring, baby.” She waved her hand in front of his face, a large diamond engagement ring shining from it.
She drifted to one side. “Whoa, I’m dizzy.”
He wrapped an arm around her back.
“I really don’t feellll wegrtlll...”
She slumped and he scooped her up and carried her past the trees.
It was the same as the first. He pulled down her pants, ripped off her underwear, slipped on a condom, and raped her unconscious body. He took her shoes and put them in his pocket, and leaned over her.
He shoved two small prongs into her neck and the blood flowed out into an attached vacuum. He tucked that into his pocket once he was done.
I jerked outta the vision, shakin’ as I leaned back.
Into nothin’.
I looked up and Grant stared down at me.
Wow, he really was done.
I said what I saw, stood up, and dusted my knees off.
We wrapped up the processing pretty fast.
Jet asked where my car was. I told him, and Grant took my arm before Jet could say anything else.
“Right,” Jet said. “Grant will take you to your car and I will see you later.”
Grant pulled me back to the van and I didn’t even try to fight it. We got in without a word.
“General?” I asked as he started it up.
“I am so mad at you right now, Ryder,” Grant said, voice chipped ice. “I can’t fire you. You know that. But you have to learn.”
I looked up as the van started to move.
Was there an end to that statement?
Did I want to know?
“You have skated so long without consequences,” Grant finally said after a freakin’ long two minutes.
