by Tessa Cole
He’d said he owed Gideon and Jacob his life and had been summoned by Michael to control the women who were being used to create the nephilim army. It hadn’t sounded like he’d been a willing party to that, and because he was someone drawn to the light, Michael must have been confusing as hell. The archangel had been vicious and cruel to everyone but those angels who’d joined his cause. Everyone else, humans and supers particularly, were a virus that needed to be eliminated.
“I’m just asking you to stay with the team. I’d rather have you than some human who grates on my senses.” The muscles in Kol’s jaw tightened and for a second his fear was crystal clear. Fear of Gideon, or rather what Gideon represented. Even if Gideon had saved him, beings with light in their essences had still hurt him, and he was asking for something that he believed belonged to Gideon. I could only imagine his horror at being manifested in the human realm with the pure energy of an archangel only to find that angel’s soul was blacker than night. And while lots of demons were older than their appearance, Kol might not be much older than his twenty-something years suggested.
How old had he been twenty-three years ago, when Michael had held him captive using his magic against unwilling women? God, he could have been as young as sixteen, just when his ability to enthrall had strengthened enough to control multiple people at the same time. And while he’d said he’d joined Gideon’s JP team, he’d also said he’d given in and joined. He needed to be around angels, but was still afraid of them. I was an opportunity to satisfy his need for light energy without reminding him of Michael.
And now I really had no idea what to say. I wanted to tell Kol it would be all right, he had every right to ask this of me and I wouldn’t let Gideon hurt him because of his request. But that would be a lie. I didn’t know if it would be all right, and if I had any sense of self-preservation, I’d keep my distance from him.
“Being part of the JP team is dangerous for me,” I said.
“I get it,” he replied, his voice flat, breaking my heart.
Shit.
“But right now I’m part of the JP team, which means I’m going to need someone to show me around the Supers’ Quarter.” Which was true, and I’d rather it be Kol than any of the other guys. Kol might have this deep emotional scar, but he hid it well enough that it usually didn’t affect his emotions, and I wasn’t bound to him like I was the others.
The freezing air warmed a bit. Was that hope? “I’m sure Marcus and Gideon would rather be the ones to show you.”
Given my reception at the school, I doubted they would. “I asked you first.”
“Then it’s a date.” The cold around me vanished, and he flashed me his breathtakingly wicked smile, the sultry incubus returning and hiding the fear and insecurity I’d just glimpsed.
I was still a little stunned by him as we drove through the park ringing the Supers’ Quarter and reached the Joined Parliament Operations Building a few minutes later.
Kol hopped out of the driver’s seat and checked his phone. “The guys are back from the crime scene and waiting for us in the cafeteria.”
My stomach rumbled, reminding me I’d just gotten off a shift and needed to eat. Well, good thing the guys liked to meet in the cafeteria. At this hour, I suspected all I’d be able to find would be cold sandwiches and salads, but that was good enough. Given how the mess with the archnephilim had gone, eating when I could was a good idea.
We headed inside and down the long white institutional-looking hall with its pale gray floor and fluorescent lighting, and past the elevator sitting in the new five-story high rise section just past the edge of the original old two-story warehouse. It had only been a week and a half since the archnephilim had destroyed the cafeteria, killing Zella and nearly killing the guys, and the back section that had been a bank of glass windows and a door leading to the patio was cordoned off with large sheets of heavy plastic hanging from the ceiling.
The rock wall that the nephilim had pulled down, crushing Marcus and blocking the entrance, was standing again, creating a separation between the regular seating and a sunroom-style glassed-in section, but it was surrounded by scaffolding, the plants missing and the water not running.
Gideon, Marcus, and Jacob sat at a six-seater table in the center of the room, and everyone’s gaze turned to me the moment I set foot on the first of the five shallow steps leading down into the room. Heat billowed around me, and I knew instantly it came from Marcus. The attraction between us zinged through me and my pulse sped up, but my gaze dragged past him to Jacob and his claim twisted in my chest.
I heaved my attention back to Marcus—
And I actually did this time. But it took everything I had to hold my gaze with his, and I was trembling by the time I’d gotten down the stairs, making the throbbing pain in my neck radiate into my chest and down my arm.
I let myself go back to Jacob. Fighting the claim right now just wasn’t worth it. I needed to save my willpower for when it really mattered, and preferably when it wasn’t going to cause me agony.
“So this is actually happening,” Marcus growled.
Chapter 6
The look Marcus gave me was tight with anger and the temperature in the room sweltering, and even then I could see and feel the sizzling attraction between us in his eyes.
“This is God damn happening,” he growled again.
“Unfortunately,” Gideon said, his gaze stony and fixed on the bandage taped to my neck.
His tone stung. He really didn’t want me there.
Well, I didn’t want to be there, either. “I could just quit and let you have whatever yahoo the chief decides to send you next.”
Kol stiffened and a flicker of cold snapped around me.
“That would be great,” Marcus said, his heat bleeding through the cold.
Jacob gave a slight tilt of his head to the chair between him and Marcus, the order clear. Sit. “We at least know Essie can summon divine light,” he said.
I set my bag on the table behind the indicated chair and sat. Kol slouched into the chair across from me beside Gideon, looking sexy as hell, but now that I knew what I was looking for, I could see the hurt in his eyes.
“And can you actually request to leave our team?” Jacob asked.
“I’d have to leave the force.” Except now that I was there, as much as a part of me was screaming this was dangerous, I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay beside Marcus, hell, be wrapped in his embrace and kissed breathless by him, but I also wanted to be near Jacob. Even Gideon called to me, the unwanted compulsion to draw closer to him oozing from his brand.
I gritted my teeth against all of that and focused on my throbbing neck. I’d get worse than that if they learned the truth. Why was that so hard to remember?
“So you’d lose your job,” Kol said.
Marcus shifted beside me, his feral werewolf nature darkening his green eyes and sending a shiver of desire down my back.
And that was why it was so hard.
“The chief can’t force this on you,” he said.
“The chief can and has.” Gideon glared at me, his summer-sky eyes filled with ice, but the chill didn’t change the room’s temperature. His emotions were back to being locked tight, only a fraction escaping through his gaze. “It is what it is. Are you staying, Officer Shaw?”
As much as I should say no, I’d already decided I couldn’t risk another cop’s life. “I’m staying.”
The tension in Kol’s body eased, but Marcus’s and Gideon’s tightened, and Marcus’s heat burned hotter with his confusing ferocious fear. Jacob didn’t move. It felt as if he was holding his breath, waiting for something or trying to come to a decision, but I couldn’t figure out what that meant. All I could really tell about him was that he was tired and strained, the same sense I’d gotten about him back at the school.
“It’ll be a while before the Medical Examiner has a report,” Gideon said, his tone brusque, moving on to the business at hand, “but we all know that was a f
eral vampire nest, and we can’t wait on a report to catch them.”
I tightened my body, trying to suppress a shudder and spiking more pain through my neck. “How common is this? The JP assured humanity that vampires didn’t do that sort of thing.”
“The last time I saw one was about a hundred and fifty years ago,” Jacob said. “I’d heard the previous one happened almost three hundred years before that.”
“And what? The master vampires didn’t say anything because you thought it would stop happening because humanity now knows about vampires?” Marcus asked.
Jacob sighed. “It’s the same as when a shifter goes feral.”
“Not really. Humanity knows we can go crazy.” Marcus sat forward, his body drawing ever so slightly closer to me. “You assured us—” He cleared his throat. “You assured humans that horror movie vampire stuff was just fiction.”
“So they lied,” Kol said, matching Marcus’s posture and drawing his attention. “That’s not the point. The point is what we’re going to do about it.”
“We need to hunt down every last one of them, and fast. The longer this takes, the more people are going to die,” Jacob said. “The sun will rise in a few hours and they’ll go dormant, but as soon as the sun sets, they’ll start hunting again.”
“So we have about twelve hours before the body count rises,” Marcus growled. “Jeez.”
“And we need to figure out who’s siring them,” Gideon said. “This won’t stop until the master vampire is arrested.”
“Except—” Jacob pressed his palms to the table. His hands were wide, powerful, twice the size of mine, and yet I knew how tender he could be when he held me. “It doesn’t have to be a master to create ferals.”
“You mean any vampire can sire another vampire?” I hadn’t thought that was possible. Everything I knew about vampires said only a master, someone who’d lived long enough to amass enough power in their essence, could make another vampire. And now there were laws about when and how a vampire could be created, laws the masters had helped create.
Jacob shook his head. “Not just any vampire, but more than just a master. I doubt a master would sire a feral in the first place. Ferals are hard to control and ruled by their hunger and base instincts, and not much else.”
“So who are we looking for?” Marcus asked.
“A vampire who was a witch before he or she was turned,” Jacob said, “or one who’s claimed a witch.”
“Well, that makes it easy,” Marcus said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “Any vampire who might be connected to a witch, and within twelve hours.”
Gideon leveled a frosty glare at Marcus. “If it was easy, it wouldn’t be our case.”
“No shit,” Marcus said.
“The nest looked fairly new, so this could be someone new to town.” Gideon blew out a heavy breath. “Jacob and I will go to Rouge and talk with Victoria. She’s the master in town. Even if the new vampire hasn’t paid his or her respects, she’s the only one who might be able to sense the newcomer.”
“Are you sure it’s worth the cost to see her?” Marcus asked. “It’s always some kind of fucked up game with her. You probably won’t even get a straight answer.”
“We need to get on top of this before the ferals kill anyone else,” Gideon said. “We don’t have a lot of time and Victoria is the fastest way to our solution.”
“What about the price?” Kol asked, his worried gaze jumping to Jacob. I couldn’t blame him. The last time we’d encountered Victoria, she’d used her power over Jacob to fill him with agony and threatened to lock him up.
Gideon rubbed his face and for a second he looked exhausted, then his icy demeanor fell back into place. “If it’s too high, we’ll leave.”
But I got the impression that if he were the one paying, no price would be too high to save lives.
“We need to move now and catch her before she retires for the day. Marcus, you go back to the school and see if you can pick up any more scents. See if you can figure out if these ferals have a second nest or a preferred hunting ground. Kol and Essie, go with him.”
Marcus stiffened. “She shouldn’t be in the field.”
“Our orders are she has to be in the field.” Gideon pushed his chair back and stood.
“I think she should come with us,” Jacob said, shooting me an apologetic look.
The temperature in the room plummeted and my fear joined whoever was suddenly afraid. The last time I was in Rouge, I’d let Jacob claim me to stop Victoria from torturing him. I didn’t want to go back and find out what other things the master vampire wanted from Jacob or me.
Except the part of me claimed by Jacob was doing a happy dance at the suggestion. He wanted me near, needed me. Jeez.
“We already know Victoria won’t give something for nothing, not even information requested by the JP. Seeing Essie with my claim as strong as it is will… amuse her,” Jacob said.
Marcus growled low in his throat. “I’d rather not amuse that sadistic bitch.”
“Neither would I,” Jacob said, his voice rumbling through me, making my essence vibrate and grate against the hum from Gideon’s brand as well as my buzz. He wanted me to go with him. I had to go with him. “But I can guarantee that if I show up without Essie, she’ll be furious.”
“And it’s less than fifty-fifty that she’ll even talk to me without you present,” Gideon said to Jacob. “Fine. Officer Shaw comes with us, but she’s going to need to see Amiah. She can’t walk into Rouge with a fresh vampire bite. Be in the garage in twenty.” He stormed away, his emotions locked up so tightly the room’s temperature didn’t even shift.
Jacob stood as well. “Let’s call Amiah down. We can meet her in triage.”
Wonderful. For all the trouble I’d gone through to avoid Amiah, I was being ordered to let her heal me anyway — even if Gideon’s argument did make perfect sense about walking into a vampire dance club with a fresh wound.
Jacob’s compulsion took over, and I stood whether I wanted to or not.
“I’ll take her,” Marcus said, standing as well.
“But Jacob wants—” I snapped my mouth closed. I was not going to let the claim make me argue with Marcus. I couldn’t even ask for a change in orders, could only think of Jacob’s initial command. This was going to become a serious problem if it didn’t ease up soon.
The words to agree with Jacob pressed against my lips. But Jacob said we could meet Amiah. We.
I clenched my jaw. God damn it. We could mean me, Jacob, and Marcus.
“I’ll call Amiah.” Jacob gave a tight nod. “You can take Essie to meet her,” he said to Marcus.
Marcus cleared his throat and shot a glance at the fridge sitting near the cafeteria’s metal serving counters. If its selection hadn’t been changed when it’d been replaced after the fight with the archnephilim, it would have prepackaged sandwiches and salads.
Jacob pursed his lips, his expression strained. “Eat something, too,” he said and hurried away.
I sagged back onto my chair, the pressure of Jacob’s claim easing the farther away he got. I’d known working with the team was going to be hard, but this was a disaster.
“I’ll—” Kol jerked his thumb to the stairs. “You know—” He shrugged, grabbed my bag from the table, and rushed after Jacob.
Marcus turned and towered over me, his eyes hard, his arms crossed. His heat — my best guess was that it was a mixture of fear and desire, because fear wasn’t usually hot — turned humid.
“What the fuck are you doing here? Didn’t you listen to anything I said?”
Jeez, really? I shoved to my feet so he wouldn’t be glaring down at me. “It’s not like I volunteered for this.”
“Yeah, but I bet you tried so hard to avoid it or protest the reassignment,” he said, his tone mocking.
“You don’t know what I did because you weren’t there.” And that hurt more than his anger. The desire between us might be combustible, but that didn’t mean anything g
ood could come from it. I ached for him and he still avoided me. “You ran the moment you saw me.”
“I was respecting your God damn wishes.” He jerked closer, and his lips pulled back in a snarl.
The memory of those lips on mine, his kiss ferocious and commanding, sent a shudder through me. I’d fantasized about kissing him since I’d returned home, replaying the moment in the elevator over and over again where he’d brought me to climax.
Jeez, I was still fantasizing about him.
“You wanted your life back, wanted nothing to do with me and my world,” he said, his gaze boring into mine, daring me to deny it. “That was your choice. You made it perfectly clear.”
“And you just gave up. You didn’t even try to fight for me.” Which was what had really eaten at me in the week and a half since I’d woken up after the fight with the nephilim. I’d thought he’d given me a gift— Hell, he’d probably thought he’d given me a gift when he made sure I could go back to my normal human life, but the more I thought about it, the more it hurt that he’d just left. Again. “You could have at least said goodbye.”
“If I had, my wolf wouldn’t have been able to let you leave,” he growled. His gaze dipped to my lips and his pupils dilated.
My pulse picked up, and my ache for him swelled.
“You had to leave. And now you’re back.” His expression hardened and he stepped back from me. “You’re a liability on the team, and worse, you’re fucking up my life. I had a perfectly good life before you crashed back into it.” He raked his hands through his dark locks. “Stop being a fucking idiot and leave the team before you get one of us killed.”
“And you think some other human cop would be better?”
“I know he would.” He waved at my neck. “You got bit tonight because you can’t handle a fight with supers.”
I got bit because of Gideon’s brand, not because I couldn’t handle a fight with supers.
“I took down an archnephilim that handed you your ass. Twice. I’m not a complete pushover.” And that was something I had to remember. I’d had the grit to stand toe to toe with the archnephilim, which meant I had the grit to handle this. “Stop being an asshole, and be a partner in this. I don’t want to do this without you.”
