by Amber Lynn
I close up the back of the Suburban and take my seat in front. Marcus sits beside me and Jonas takes the back. We make our way back to my building without a word. The guys settle in the waiting area and I venture to my office. The computer is still on, so I bring up my document creation software and go to work. I jump around on the Internet to make sure I am not missing anything from my wording and call it good.
Having that ready to print out was my goal for returning tonight. Since I still have plenty of time, I start searching for ideas of anything I am missing to start this new business venture. My biggest issue I am coming up with is what I would do if I go after someone that doesn't deserve to die. Like if someone stole something, I would go retrieve the item, but what do you do with the thief?
The Collective have a system of trials for a person, but they really only deal with killers. I will have to talk to Sebastian and Alex and see if they have any ideas on a system for crime and punishment. In the meantime, let's hope that any purse snatchers are dealt with by other means.
I shut the computer down, not really having anything else to do tonight. I stand and stretch, popping my neck as I go. If I was still with the Collective, I would probably be on a job right now. I really hope business picks up because just sitting around is going to get boring fast.
“So guys, you ready to head back to the penthouse? I guess if you guys wanted to take in a show we could stop next door,” I say joining Marcus and Jonas.
“I like to watch my porn in the privacy of my own room, so if it is all the same to you guys, I vote to head home,” Jonas says.
“I am fine with that decision. I am pretty sure it is Beginner’s Night anyway and that usually puts me to sleep,” Marcus says standing up.
I turn out the lights and then lock the door as we exit. It's pretty cool outside tonight and feels like it may rain soon. I actually love the rain. I don't really know why, it just makes me happy. I turn around after locking the door and hear a whistling heading our way. I am sure it is just because I spent so much time tonight practicing, but I can tell that is a bullet hurdling itself in our direction. If you shoot enough of them, you get the sense for the noise they make even if you don't have super hearing.
Oddly enough, I also know it isn't aimed at me. I quickly move to push Jonas out of the way just before it reaches him and hear the glass shatter behind me. I feel a small sting in my shoulder and guess some of the glass shrapnel hit me.
“Hey that was my new window!” I yell and take off in the direction of where the shot was fired figuring Marcus can make sure Jonas is okay.
My speed is still cheetah slow, but does seem to have improved. It takes no time for me to catch up to a man running in the opposite direction with a sniper rifle in his hand. Not exactly the look of an innocent man. I tackle him to the ground and throw the rifle from us.
“Just what do you think you are doing?” I ask pulling him up by his shirt, so we are facing one another. He looks very young to me and really needs to hit the gym more. For a male werewolf, he is really small. In the dark, I cannot really make out his features other than light skin and a skinny nose to match the rest of his body.
“Oh crap, you were hit. I was supposed to kill at least one of the guards. You weren't supposed to be injured,” he says going pale while he looks at my shoulder. I glance down and don't really see anything with the dark shirt and limited lighting.
“Who wanted my guards killed?” I ask. “Why shoot at them and not me. I would think I am the much bigger threat here.”
“I would agree, but the orders are you live. Anyone that kills you now forfeits their own lives,” the man mumbles.
“Whose orders?” I ask just before I hear a sickening snap and watch as he crumbles to the ground. In his place, Sebastian is standing with a very angry look on his face. “Hey, I was still questioning him.”
“And he will live, so you can finish the job. I couldn't let the wrong he committed stand unpunished. When he wakes up I will give him back to you, for now someone will be along to pick him up. We need to get that shoulder looked at. I have a feeling the bullet is still inside you and judging by the target it is silver.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, right? Silver doesn't even hurt Alex,” I remind him.
“True, but we don't know enough about your make up to be sure it won't affect you. Let's go get it removed. The pain has dulled to a sting, but I wouldn’t mind being without it.”
“I didn’t feel a thing and still don’t. Why are you in pain?” I ask.
“Because as soon as I felt it, I decided to keep it all to myself. I might have given Alex a little, but I didn’t know the situation and I thought you would be more level headed without the pain,” he replies touching his shoulder in the spot of my wound.
“You can do that? Just take my pain. That is really weird. Why am I feeling woozy?” I ask suddenly swaying a little.
“Blood loss, my love. Here let me carry you,” he says swooping over as I start to collapse.
“You may have the pain, but I am definitely getting the effects. Why can’t I just heal like you guys?”
“Other than your father, I doubt anyone knows that answer. For now, just rest and we will get the bullet out and stop the bleeding. You will be as good as new in no time.”
Not really wanting to, but having no strength to fight it, I pass out.
Chapter 23
Power makes the world go round
“How soon before we can get some answers from Aaron?” I hear a voice ask when I finally wake up.
“No one is really sure what rock he has crawled under. We have sent scouts out with the message and hope to find him soon,” someone answers.
“We need to know what we can expect. I don’t know that he will have the answers, but he may have some idea of where to start looking. At least she doesn’t heal in human speed. After we got the bullet out the wound closed up pretty quickly,” the first voice that I now remember is Sebastian replies.
“She would have been pissed, if she had to lie around for more than a day recovering,” Alex tells him.
“She is a little pissed to find you are still in town. I thought we said good-bye already. Am I really that irresistible?” I ask finally opening my eyes. Thankfully, I find that I am not in a hospital, but in my bed.
“Well, if she could have kept her promise about not getting hurt, I wouldn’t have had to have the pilot turn the jet around the second we landed. I wasn’t gone even three hours and you got shot,” he scolds me.
“Hey, I didn’t make any promises. I said I would try,” I defend. “Anyway, it was just a little scratch; you could have called to verify that.”
“I was too curious to see what you got yourself into, that I couldn’t not come.”
“Has my prisoner recovered?” I ask. “I want to find out who has it in for my guards.”
“That neck is probably going to take some time to heal. Usually when your head spins around a couple times, most of the bones are broken,” Sebastian informs me. “I was kind enough to spin his head to face the right way and not let it start healing backwards.”
“Next time, find a wall to punch. Someone is trying to kill my guards and I want to know who.”
“I am sure he is just a Collective operative. He seemed pretty green, so I imagine he hasn’t been in the business very long,” Sebastian says.
“Yeah he about peed himself when he saw that I had been shot. Is Jonas okay? I pushed him and then ran after the twerp. I didn’t check to see if he has been hit.”
“He only had minor cuts from the glass shards falling on him. They healed almost immediately,” Alex reports.
“The bullet though would have killed me,” Jonas says from probably the living area. The dark curtains are drawn, so I cannot really tell. “Thank you for pushing me out of the way. I didn’t even hear it coming.”
“I am glad you are still alive Jonas. It means I still have time to get you to like me. I was so shocked at the time t
hat it wasn’t aimed at me that I am surprised I had the ability to push you away. I talked with the shooter long enough to know they wanted me rid of my guards, but if I hadn’t, I would be asking who you pissed off with that shitty attitude of yours.”
The curtain moves slightly and he peeks his head in. I about faint from the sight of a smile crossing his face. “Let’s just say, I may not despise you as much as I did when we first met.” He closes the curtain and goes back to whatever he was doing.
“I knew I could wear you down,” I reply returning the smile even though he cannot see. “So, how soon before I can go survey the damage. I cannot believe my new window was broken. I loved that window.”
“You have been out for three hours recovering. It is already past dawn, but we had some wolves replace the window and clean up the glass. A new sign will be put on later today,” Sebastian says.
“Wait a minute, if I had a bullet still in me, why did the glass break? That doesn’t make sense.”
The guys glance at each other before Alex speaks up. “There were two bullets, different calibers and different trajectories. We think the one that hit the glass was from the man you caught straight across from your location. The other one came from the right and was probably fired after the first one and we are afraid that it hit its target.”
“So someone does want me dead,” I say oddly excited by the fact.
“Or they wanted to check to see how silver treated you. We checked the area out, but didn’t pick up a recent scent strong enough for us to lock in on,” Sebastian states.
“If people are out there shooting at me, then I don’t feel so bad about having the guards. Not that I want them taking bullets for me, but it is nice to have a reason for them to be around.”
“You are a very strange person, Nyx Slaughter,” Alex says.
“I imagine you will learn to live with that fact. It isn’t something I can really change,” I respond shrugging. “So it is daytime, I am supposed to be suffering from a lethal bullet wound and Alex is supposed to be out of town running from assassins, what do you say about us walking down Main Street together, so I can verify that nothing is out of place at my office?”
“Other than we should have probably checked for mental damage, I think it sounds fun,” Sebby replies.
“Good,” I say throwing off my sheet to see that I am in nothing but my underwear. Since my chest is so small, I don’t own any bras, so it is totally open for anyone to see.
I am secure enough to not huddle back under the blankets and start screaming, so I get out of bed and move to the dresser with my clothes. I slowly get dressed just to torture the guys for allowing me to lay around practically naked. As I put on my shirt, I realize the bullet was able to penetrate it. I have tested the material on a dummy before and know bullets shouldn’t just go through it like butter. That means there is something new out there.
“Tell me about the bullet,” I say as I grab my socks and boots. I sit back down on the bed and put them on waiting for the answer.
“All that was left was a silver core. We don’t know what the shell was originally made of, but we are trying to get fragments from the silver to test. We should know within a day what it was,” Sebastian replies.
“And whose idea was it to let me lay around for hours without my clothes?”
“They had to be removed for us to get the bullet out. You looked so comfortable; I decided not to put them back on. Don’t worry I only fondled you a little and made sure no one else took advantage,” Sebastian says with a smile.
“Perv,” I call him as I finish lacing my boot.
“Do you want something to eat before we go?” Alex asks.
I think for a second. “Nope. I am good for now. Maybe when we get back.”
Jonas is waiting holding the front door open for me when I go to leave. “After you, milady,” he says in a mocking tone.
“Thank you, kind sir,” I respond bowing slightly and walking through the door. Sebastian and Alex flank me with Jonas catching up and leading our pack. I can smell Jake following us. He has a very earthy scent to him. Kind of like fresh mowed grass. Jonas smells like oranges or one of those orange citrus fruits. It could very well be clementines for all I know.
“Here are the keys, love,” Sebastian says handing me my Suburban keys. “I imagine when you said we were walking down Main Street together that we would drive there first.”
“Of course. Maybe we could park a couple blocks away, but I don’t really feel like walking the whole way from here,” I say taking my keys and spot in the vehicle.
“Alex can sit up front,” Sebastian says avoiding what would have been a fun argument to watch. “I was the one that got to fondle you after all.”
“You are joking about that, right?” I ask glancing in the back seat at him. He is sitting, so we can see each other in the rearview mirror.
“I cannot lie to you, so no, I am not joking.”
“Next time I find you passed out, expect the same treatment from me,” I tell him.
“I look forward to it.”
The way to my building is traveled with friendly conversation about nothing. They tell me I slept right through the rain shower I was hoping to enjoy, which is a bit of a bummer. We don’t get a lot of rain in the city, so it will probably be another month or two before the next one.
I find a parking spot a block away and pull in. We all exit the Suburban and meet in front of it.
“Should we really freak them out and hold hands?” I ask directing the question to Sebastian and Alex.
“You have a wicked mind, love,” Sebastian says taking my right hand.
Alex follows taking my left and the second he does a jolt of energy seems to move through and around me. When it passes, I shudder getting rid of its last effects.
“Tasty,” Alex says squeezing my hand gently.
“That was a nice little power boost. It really cleared the sinuses,” Sebastian says.
“Is that what it was? I felt like I was being shocked repeatedly. At first it didn’t feel very good, but in the end it kind of tickled,” I say.
“I think it was meant to tell us we are stronger together. Maybe eventually we will be able to draw power and use it to our advantage. I already know that Sebastian can transfer pain amongst us, but if we were able to harness each other’s power even when we were separate we could be a much scarier force to reckon with,” Alex says.
“I have zero to no power, so it would all be coming from you two,” I say and start dragging them down the street. We have stood out in the open long enough.
“I have a feeling that won’t always be the case. From what I have heard, with your lineage there has to be some power in you somewhere. We just have to find a way to break it out. I have some great experiments that I think would be good places to start,” Sebastian says.
“If those experiments involve us getting freaky on flat surfaces you can forget them,” I tell him knowing exactly what he is thinking.
“Party pooper,” he replies.
Within two minutes, we are standing out in front of the previously shattered window. As promised, an undamaged smoked window is in its place. My name is sadly missing from it, but it gives me a chance to actually name my business. As much as I love seeing my name in big letters, I think something niftier is needed.
“Can the sign people make a different sign? I am thinking I want to call it ParaNorm Inc. Capitalizing the P and N in paranorm. My name is awesome and all, but it may scare people away at first. I like the sound of the new name,” I say.
“ParaNorm Inc. It does have a nice ring to it. I will make the call and have them create the new sign,” Sebastian says.
“Have them include the saying from the business cards. I really like that one,” I suggest as he takes out the phone. He winks and places the call.
While he does that, I use the key to enter the building. I am curious to see where the bullet ended up and whether they left it as a souvenir. If I remembe
r right, the trajectory would have carried it into my office, so I head that way.
I examine the wall behind my desk and sure enough find the little hole that may still have the bullet inside. It is just to the left of one of my maces.
“Sebastian said you would want the hole to stay even though we had a team here to Spackle it,” Alex says taking a seat in one of the chairs.
“He is right. I see it as a badge of honor. It gives the space some extra character. Is the bullet still in there?” I ask.
“Nah. We took it out, so we could test it. After seeing the one that hit you was special, we wanted to check it out. It was just plain silver.”
“Can we put it back in the wall?”
“If you want. I am sure it is still lying around. Sebastian can have someone find it and insert it back in,” he replies.
