by Amie Gibbons
“That’s okay. It was worth a try.”
But he had his lemon look.
“What is it, General?”
He shook his head. “I can’t figure out why you can’t get any visions about him. Even if it has nothing to do with the case.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Even if the demons have something blockin’ me seeing their plan, shouldn’t I still see stuff about Quil?”
“Try someone else,” he said, and held out his arm. “Try me.”
I grabbed his arm with both hands and closed my eyes, breathin’ him in, thinkin’ about his strong jaw and sharp eyes, how his face crinkled up when he smiled, how he looked when he was mad.
I opened my eyes. “Nothing, sir.”
He nodded. “Something is blocking you.”
I looked around. “How? Maybe I’m just tired from last night?”
“Yeah, maybe.” He still had that look though. “Or there could be something on the clothes blocking you.”
“So we try this away from the evidence?” I asked.
“Good idea. Come on. Sapato, you’re up here for the day.”
“Yes, sir,” Sam said.
I left my mess, promisin’ Irish I’d be back to clean it up in a minute and we went to the bathroom.
“Try now,” Grant said, holdin’ his arm out again.
I grabbed it and focused on him.
“Still nothing, sir,” I said, lettin’ him go and turnin’ my head so I could sneeze. “Sorry.”
“I don’t like this. Even after last night, you’ve never had this much trouble.”
“Maybe I really just got cooked last night,” I said. “But then why did I get that vision of Quil so easy?”
“That’s what I want to know. Is there anything that could block your powers?”
“Just the gris-gris.”
“The what?”
“Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you about that.”
He glared down at me and stepped closer. “About. What?”
“Oh ummmm, Quil got one to block me, so we could be intimate without me gettin’ flooded with visions.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to tell me this?”
“I forgot, but sir-”
He sliced his hand in front of me. “You knew about something that could block your powers, and you just forgot to tell your team about it?”
“Um, kinda, yeah.” I flinched.
“Ryder.” He took a deep breath. “How does it work?”
“If it’s in the room with a psychic, it slows our powers, can’t completely block us, but slows it.”
“Has to be in the room?”
“Yeah, that’s what Quil said. He also said not to touch or smell it, cuz that’d hurt my powers a while.”
“How long does it work for?”
“If I don’t touch it, no time after I’m outta that fifteen feet or so range. If I did, then he said something about me being out all day, soooo maybe twelve hours to a full day?”
“Shit. Ryder!”
“Sorry!”
“Did you have any visions after the one about Quil?”
I shook my head.
“Fuck! Someone there could have touched you with one in the crowd as we were leaving.”
I pulled out my phone. “I’ll ask Quil how long it could last if that’s what happened.”
Grant nodded and I called Quil. It went to voicemail so I left a message.
“Back on records,” Grant said, holdin’ up a finger. “After you clean up the mess in Irish’s lab.”
“Yes, sir.”
###
Lookin’ through Quil’s finances, he had his hands in some pretty sticky stuff. Lots of real estate, a few politicians, but nothing so obviously out there it jumped out at me as a red flag.
And if it was this personal, I was willin’ to bet it wasn’t something to do with business.
Grant was looking into his personal stuff, figured I was too close to be doing that.
Quil called me back when he got up and confirmed the gris-gris only lasted about ten or so hours, maybe twelve if it was really strong, and couldn’t do past fifteen feet as a maximum.
He also said he had a guy comin’ by with our outfits for tonight.
Grant wasn’t happy about it, but we had them checked for everything we could think of to make sure they weren’t compromised on the way to us.
The whole day, everyone in the building had to do the buddy system, which was the real reason Kat was in the main office with us and why Grant had me and then Sam in Irish’s lab.
None of us could even go to the bathroom alone.
It was daylight, the demon could not possibly be there. What did Grant think was gonna happen?
By the time we got dinner delivered, I was feeling pretty queasy about the whole situation tonight.
If it was personal, they weren’t gonna stop, and I was willing to bet it was someone in Quil’s nest.
“What about Jade?” I asked as we ate our Chinese. “They’ve got history and she knows he’d like to overthrow her.”
“But she’s the leader,” Jet said. “These attacks make her look weak. Even if she doesn’t care about humans, from what I’ve read, she’ll care about that.”
“And why would she try to kidnap Quil anyway,” I said. “Yeahhhhh. I could see wanting to kill him for suspected treason, but not kidnap.”
“We’re missing something,” Dan said.
If I’d said something obvious like that, he would’ve said something rude, like, “No shit, Captain Obvious,” but I kept my mouth shut.
See, I can act like an adult sometimes.
After we ate, Grant gave us the outfits we were supposed to wear, and Jet, Dan, Crowley and Carl from Mender’s team all made faces. They were in tight black pants and white collared shirts with purple vests. Mender and Sam were going in as party guests of Quil’s, and I of course, was Quil’s girl.
Mender and Sam were given dressy outfits that were miraculously the perfect sizes and looked fabulous on their body types. Len said he had an eye for that sort of thing, but come on, that’s just spooky. They were both pretty pleased with them, a classy black dress for Mender, and a navy blue suit with a nice pink silk tie for Sam.
But my outfit took the cake.
It was a red party dress with a wide, ballerina-like tulle skirt that fell about my knees, and a tight corset bodice with gold tulle over it that tied at the base of my neck, leaving my arms and shoulders bare and the top of my chest pushed up and thinly veiled.
Two guesses who actually picked out the dress and what he was thinkin’ with.
And mine came with accessories, soft red slippers that accentuated my tiny feet, wrap around gold bracelets for my wrists, ruby earrings, a gold hair clip, a pure silver push knife in its own holster with a clip, and a lace and velvet red garter belt.
He picked out stuff down to the undergarment. Was that sweet or weird?
The rest of Crowley’s team was going to be on surveillance around the perimeter outside, armed with automatics loaded with silver bullets, mace, and grenades.
And they had no problems makin’ fun of the guys who would be going in looking like waiters in Vegas.
I hit the bathroom at the end of the hall to get ready with Kat’s help.
There was no physical way I was tying that top by myself.
“I get the shoes and the jewelry to go with the dress, but what’s with this?” She held up the garter with a dirty grin that didn’t belong on such a sweet looking face.
I grabbed it from her. “He likes my thighs.” I slid it on quickly then loaded up the real accessories.
My gun went on the belt around my waist, with the silver knife and extra magazines on the other side, the wide skirt hidin’ them perfectly.
“It’s kind of like a little private joke,” I said.
“Not very private anymore,” Kat said. “I think it’s more like him buying you underwear, and I hope Grant didn’t see it.”
She kne
w full well Grant and both lab techs went over the clothes and accessories before letting any of us put them on.
“What did he say?” she asked as I put on the camera necklace.
“He just handed them over, the garter on top of course, and gave me one of his looks.” I frowned. “You know, the look?”
“I’ve only gotten that look once, and that’s when I was flirting with the Metro PD’s coroner at a crime scene. We’d already examined the body and loaded him up, but apparently it was still inappropriate.”
“I don’t see why. You guys were just hopin’ to get lucky while you were staring at a dead body,” I said with a completely straight face.
“This coming from the girl who actually got lucky with a dead body?” She kept her face straight too.
For about three seconds.
Then we burst out laughing.
“Okay,” I said after calmin’ down enough to talk, “I stepped into that one. But you have to admit, he’s a really hot dead body.”
“They’re all hot. I think it’s a rule.”
I nodded. “They usually don’t change people unless they’re attracted to them, and also, once you’re a vamp, there’s a confidence and power… I don’t know, aura about them, and that makes anyone look better.”
She nodded and I pulled my long hair back into the clip, still wondering when last night I’d lost my original gold one.
“What are the chances tonight will go well, we’ll kill the demon, catch the summoner, and set the vamp world right again, all without me ruinin’ this outfit?”
“Slim to none.”
I sighed, starin’ at myself in the mirror. “Probably.”
I looked fantastic, like a princess.
Which was maybe the point?
I put in the earrings, did up my makeup, the dress matched the red velvet lipstick I’d picked for tonight, and we went out to meet the guys.
And I burst out laughing all over again when I saw them.
They didn’t look bad. Really the opposite. They looked fancy, spiffed up to the nines… okay, maybe a little gay, but that’s just cuz everyone knows gay guys have the best taste.
“Tell your boyfriend I’m going to kill him,” Dan growled as he marched past me back to his desk and strapped his gun to his belt before covering it with the loose vest, lookin’ like he’d rather be shooting the vest instead of putting his gun under it.
The beads glinted under the harsh lights and I slammed my hands over my mouth to keep the laugh in this time.
Beads! How did I miss the multicolored beads on the vests!
I pulled my phone out of my purse and snapped a quick picture of Dan as he finished fiddlin’ with the vest to make sure the gun wasn’t printing.
“Actually, that outfit is all Len,” I said as I tucked the phone away, not bothering to correct him.
Two nights does not a boyfriend make, but I didn’t want to get into it.
“Well at least we look good,” Jet said, giving me one of his beautiful smiles. The purple really did look good against his dark skin. “Len does know we’re just supposed to be servers, not any of his boys, right?”
I shook my head and pulled out a case of mints from my purse.
“Here.” I tossed the canister to him. “Just in case.”
He laughed and swooped me into his arms. “I’m going to call you Fairy Princess from now on. You look beautiful.”
I hugged him back. “Thanks.”
“Done?” a cool voice asked from behind.
Jet set me down and I turned, the dress swishing around my knees. Grant was spiffed up to the nines too, and actually made the slightly gay outfit look like a masculine daring fashion statement.
His face softened as I met his eyes.
“You look great,” he said after a moment.
My breath stalled in my pounding chest and I cleared my throat. “You too.”
“Okay,” he yelled at all of us, makin’ me jump.
Wow, if I didn’t know better, I’d think we’d just had a moment.
“Tonight we are going in to get information. You all know your roles. Don’t ask questions. The demon’s seen our faces, it knows us, and it will be there. It will tell its master who we are. It’s your job to watch and figure out who that is. Don’t worry about trying to listen in on phone calls, we’ve already got the forensics team set up to tap any cell phones in that area in case the demon calls. Other than that, we are all cover for Ryder to get visions until she finds out who’s behind this.”
So, no pressure or anything.
He was only resting the entire case on my bare shoulders.
He tapped on his headset to talk to the teams already at the club setting up. “Backup, you’re our eyes in the sky. Count every single body, dead or alive, going in and out. No one goes off anywhere without two or more partners. If something goes off outside the perimeter, it’s irrelevant or a planned distraction. Any questions?”
No one was stupid enough to have one.
“Good,” he said.
You wouldn’t think anyone could be commanding and threatening while dressed like a Chippendales waiter, but Grant pulled it off.
We went in cars, just in case anyone was watching the club. Kat and the two lab techs went in her car to join the van to plan backup.
Poor Irish wasn’t gettin’ his date tonight.
Sam, Mender and I went in Mender’s car. The guys posing as servers went in Dan’s old Crown Vic. Servers showin’ up together like they drove from the caterer’s office hopefully wouldn’t be too suspicious. We knew the demon wasn’t there since it was still daylight, but others could be watching.
I rubbed my stomach as we walked to the club’s back door.
The shot up roof let light into the middle of the main part cuz it was still daylight for another half hour.
Even so, I swear I felt eyes on the back of my neck and I rubbed it as Mender opened the door.
We crossed into the dark back room and my eyes didn’t even have a chance to adjust before strong hands wrapped around my waist.
“Ah!” I yelped, hand flyin’ down to pull my gun before familiar lips found mine and the hands around me pulled me in.
I slid my hands up Quil’s arms and kissed him back, enjoying his cool mouth mingling with my all too warm one, before pushing him back.
He pulled me into a hug that lifted my feet off the ground like Jet always does.
“Which thigh?” he asked into my neck.
“The right,” I whispered. “But, Quil, now isn’t the time.”
No one said anything as we held onto each other, but I knew what they were thinking.
“Yes, it is,” he said, words barely a brush of lips on my neck. “If either of us suspects the other is the demon, we’ll ask ‘which one?’ and the other will know to say right.”
“That’s why?”
“That’s the main reason. I, of course, have ulterior motives.”
He kissed my neck and set me down.
“I will keep things appropriate for the night,” he said. “But all of you playing our humans will have to act the part, and I don’t want one word to Ariana about kissing me or anything just because we aren’t going to be acting. Is that understood?”
Wow! He sounded like Grant for a second there.
“You don’t need to tell us,” Mendor said in her prim way. “We know our parts. As for Agent Ryder, what she does is her business and Grant’s.”
I flinched. Now why did she have to say that?
Quil nodded, his face cool and impassive. “Agent Grant already knows all this. He’ll deal.”
He’d have to.
Quil showed us to the office, where the others were settin’ up.
Kat cleared her throat as we entered the room and mouthed, “You’re smeared,” when I looked at her.
I pulled out a mirror, tissue, and the lipstick from my purse, and wiped and reapplied.
I looked at Quil, and sure enough, his mouth was smeared with my
lipstick.
It looked kinda like fresh blood in this lighting.
“Quil, that color looks wonderful on you, I approve,” Len said when we were all squished into the office.
It was large, but Crowley’s team, the two forensic techs and Kat were already in there, so we were packed in tighter than those clowns in the Volkswagen.
“Excuse me?” he asked Len.
“Your mouth.” He pointed to Quil’s face. “And Ariana,” he stood up from the desk I was practically squashed into and pulled me into a hug over it.
He gave me a kiss on the mouth and I pulled back with a squeak of surprise.
“Sorry, darling, I know how testy humans can be about all this, but it’s what we do.” He gave me a smile. “Besides, you look ravishing and I couldn’t help myself.”
“When a gay guy says he can’t help but kiss you, then you know you look good, so I’m going to take that as a compliment,” I said. “And by the way, the shade looks good on you too.”
He giggled with me and wiped himself off with a handkerchief.
“You aren’t going to try kissing any of us, are you?” Sam asked.
He’s a perfectly nice guy, not at all homophobic really, but I guess even the open minded ones have a problem with gay guys kissing them on the lips.
“No, although I would love to get my lips on you.” Len gave him a dirty smile and poor Sam went as red as my dress, his complexion no more up to their jokes than mine.
“I’m joking, darling,” Len said. “No. But the visiting leaders may kiss you hello when you’re introduced, it’s only polite. No one from our nest has been holding up the custom since you are all so touchy, and we don’t need to in front of the visitors to keep up pretenses because we supposedly see you all the time. I just kissed Ariana because she’s practically one of us.”
I was?
“If you guys keep this up, I’m going to spend all night reapplyin’,” I said as I checked myself in my cosmetic mirror again. My lips were fine since it was just a graze.
“Where are our servers for the evening?” Quil asked. “They need to be here soon to set up with the real caterers so none of them suspect anything.”
“Won’t the caterer servers know the guys don’t work with them?” I asked.
