"Technology is pretty amazing. Until it gets you killed."
The passage he sought after talked of unhuman guardians protecting humanity from enduring the same weaknesses as their magical counterparts. Mace's Latin was a little rusty, but there was something in the text about these artifacts making humans like everybody else. As he looked over at his now-useless headphones, he realized he was in no mood for riddles.
He rubbed his hands together absentmindedly. "She could be slitting his throat. He could be slitting her throat in there and I wouldn’t know. It's like she's trying to get herself killed."
He shut out an image of the shifter on top of her in the bedroom for the hundredth time when his cell buzzed in his pocket.
"Heidi, tell me you're sending over some vodka."
He could hear her smile on the other end of the line. "You're having that much fun, huh? I found something interesting, unless you want to keep on surveillance duty for the rest of the night."
He shook his head. "I'll be there in 20."
* * *
Mace felt like James Bond as he descended the secret elevator from the alleyway down to their hideout. While he knew he traveled that path a thousand times over, there was still something very secret-agent-like about the whole endeavor. For some reason, he wondered what his dead, murderous father would think about the whole thing.
He was met with a sly smile as he entered the morgue.
"You get too tired of listening to Lyra and the Russian having sex?"
Mace grunted. "If you called me here just to make fun of me, I could just go drink in a corner alone."
"Now, now. I have something much better than making fun of you and your crush."
"I do not have a crush."
She smirked. "Fine, whatever you vampires call it when you're obsessed with someone after you drink their blood." She waved him over to a covered body. "Here, check this out."
Mace walked to her side as Heidi removed the cover from the vampire he'd beheaded a few days prior.
Mace marveled at the thick neck he'd been able to cut through with the manhole cover. "That's disgusting. Did you just want to show me my handiwork?" He let his eyes trail down over a tattooed back and the bare rear end of the motionless unhuman. "Or did you and Doug have a bet about showing me a bare butt?"
She bit her bottom lip. "It's not about his ass. Does anything seem familiar about those tattoos on his back?"
He focused his attention on the inked design. Mace looked back up at Heidi. "No, they're not from any clan that I recognize."
She raised her eyebrows. "I didn't recognize either, so I brought them into one of Doug's insanely nerdy computer programs."
She tapped on the nearby keyboard, bringing up the image of the tattoo on a large monitor. He watched intently as she hit a few keystrokes, and a small part of the image flew away. Something bit at the corner of Mace's mind that made him lean forward. When Heidi hit the same keystrokes again, even more of the image came into focus. He could barely believe his eyes. After one more set of clicks, the tattoo was clear as day. It was the same exact markings he bore on his own back.
He put one hand to the side of his head. "But that's impossible. After my father died, no one picked up the slack, and the Tuscan clan disbanded."
Heidi nodded. "At least, that's what they wanted you to believe."
"But why are they trying to stop the wolves from getting the artifact?" Mace stared at the image on the screen. "And with my father dead, who the hell is running the gang?"
Chapter 14
Nikolai blinked in the darkness. It was some kind of combination of his father's mission and having a beautiful woman by his side that kept sleep at bay. If it hadn't been for her, they might have all been bludgeoned to death by trolls. But a random blind date connected him with the one person who might actually be able to make his father's dream come true.
But are all my dreams his? Is there anything I want more?
As his body turned back to Lyra's, he saw her eyes on him.
"I can tell you honestly. You’re tossing and turning and keeping me up."
He gave a sheepish look. "I am too nervous that I will pass gas before you."
She let out a girlish giggle, which may have been the most feminine thing he'd ever seen her do. "If we aren't going to sleep, can we at least eat?"
"I know just the place."
Nikolai and Lyra settled in at the table of an all-night diner, and the former hunter dove into a basket of fries.
Her mouth worked on the salty potatoes as she spoke. "I was like you once."
"Russian and manly?"
"When I was in full-on hunter mode, I never questioned what Piers had to say. If he told me to break in somewhere and steal something, I did it without question. If he told me to assassinate some kind of murderous vampire, I didn't look him up." She licked the salt from her fingers. "I just did the deed."
Nikolai nodded. "What made you stop listening? Why did you stop doing everything he asked?"
Her head bobbed from side to side. "It was a combination of him skipping town... and how he kind of went crazy and tried to kill all the unhumans in Chicago."
Nikolai felt the bubbles from his soda almost go up his nose while he snorted. "That would probably do it for me too."
Lyra grabbed Nikolai's soda and took a sip.
"Hey, you have your own for reason."
"I wanted to try yours too." She placed it back on his side of the table. "Mine's better. Anyway, what I'm saying is you don't have to listen to your father. You know that whatever he's doing is bad news and it could get a lot of people killed."
"Possibly. Possibly." He took a fry of his own from the bowl before him. "My family has asked me to do things of which I am not proud. But there is difference in our situation."
She lifted her chin. "Does this have something to do with you being part wolf? Definitely not part wolf."
He shook his head. "There is difference between leaving trainer and leaving family."
Her eyes seemed to catch his drift. "All I'm saying is you have incredible powers that you could use for good too." She dipped another handful of fries in ketchup. "It might do you some good to spend less time with your homicidal brother. Your father might understand." She devoured the fries between her fingers. "Though it could be worth fleeing the country if he doesn't."
It wasn't as though Nikolai had never considered leaving the gang. He doubted working for another person's goals was helping him to live up to his full potential. Then again, family is family.
"I appreciate your input. More thought would be needed before I could decide."
He reached toward the bowl in the center of the table, only to come up empty. "If we were actually dating, my father would be very impressed with your appetite."
"If this is going to turn into some kind of fat joke, I'd advise you not to continue."
Nikolai grinned. "Of course not, you have perfect body. Obviously, fries do no damage to you."
Her eyes examined his face before they locked with his. "You aren't so damaged yourself, Nikolai."
When they got back to the condo, Nikolai had a strong desire to hold Lyra's hand. He wasn't sure what she'd do, but something deep down wished that whatever this fake relationship was between them could be genuine.
He placed his hand on her shoulder. "If this was actual third date, I would say I had nice time."
She looked at his hand but did nothing to remove it. "I probably would too."
"They have spirits for nightcap if you are interested."
Lyra looked away from the building at a tiny bit of sunlight that came in at the bottom of the horizon. "It's almost morning. I think I'm going to go for a quick run to work off some of those fries."
He gave a slight bow. "Suit yourself. I may drink for two."
"Thanks for the midnight snack, Nikolai. And the chat. Think about what I said."
He nodded as he watched her turn away and start to jog down the steps. He did h
is best to be a gentleman and not watch her backside as she ran down the street. He took a deep breath and wondered if Lyra would survive when the horrors of the artifacts were released.
Chapter 15
Doug stumbled through the darkness of an unused portion of the hideout. The only light source came from the tracking device, which he'd rigged to light up instead of making sound. His stomach hadn't felt right since he'd found the hidden artifact in the closet.
"Maybe it's just all a misunderstanding. This tracker could be broken and all it's detecting is something a builder left here in the early 20th century."
While he hoped his technology was on the fritz, it certainly seemed to be working well enough to light up brighter and brighter as he stepped forward. When the device reached peak brightness, he moved it from left to right and discovered the second artifact in the room's corner. It looked exactly like the first one, and Doug's nervousness grew as he held it in his hand.
"I think she's even told me not to go in here. Said that it was dangerous. But is the room dangerous, or just what I'd find here?"
* * *
Doug thought back to the first time he met Rhea. He'd graduated from high school two years early, which made him an outcast in the top-notch university he attended. It didn't help his social status much that his parents moved nearby to be a sort of base of operations for him. It made it twice as challenging to keep his secret obsession hidden. He knew that nonhuman creatures existed, well before the day the vampires went public. But every time he shared that information with his few friends or his family members, they threatened to put him on medication. He was in the school library late one night, researching the prophecy about a dragon being born from the earth, when an old woman he didn't recognize tapped him on the shoulder.
"This research you're doing is pointless."
Doug's eyes widened as he turned toward the woman. "Excuse me?"
She had a wise smile about her. "I said that the research you're doing is pointless."
Doug minimized his internet browser window and turned toward the woman. "Did my parents send you or something? They've always told me my research is pointless too."
"It's not pointless because the prophecy is wrong. It's pointless because your math is off."
He laughed. "My math is never wrong."
She leaned over and pulled the keyboard and mouse toward her and opened a browser of her own. A site about ancient calendars loaded on the screen. "You assumed that the unhumans who created this document always used the same calendar to track their dates. Only, 1,100 years ago, they switched from a lunar to a solar calendar. So, in conclusion, your math is wrong."
Doug's mouth hung open. "Unhumans? Who are you exactly?"
"Come back here every Monday at 2 a.m. for the next few weeks. I'll tell you more about who I am and who I think you could be."
With that, the first conversation he and Rhea had ever had came to a close.
His curiosity got the best of him, and he returned every Monday at 2 a.m. for the next three years of college. While his grades never suffered, he was a genius after all, his career prospects weren't terribly enticing at the end of his four years. Working with Rhea for a secret organization was the only calling that made sense.
* * *
Doug looked down at his tracking device as it picked up the signal for the third and final hidden artifact. He was so focused on his path forward that he nearly ran straight into Heidi in the hallway.
She laughed. "Jesus, Doug. You're in the zone. The sandwich zone."
Doug tried and failed to compose himself. "Hello, Heidi. Good to see you here right now."
She cocked her head at an angle. "You're hiding something. You're hiding something, and you appear to be terrible at hiding something."
"What ever do you mean, my co-working friend?"
She shook her head. "Fine, I won't ask any questions about it. But in the future, I'm happy to give you some lessons on effective lying. My parents still have no idea what I do for a living."
He looked back down at his tracker and then at Heidi and then back at the tracker again. "That sounds fantastic. Great meeting, running into, I mean, seeing—"
"I'll see you later, Doug."
Heidi took a wide berth around him and continued in her original direction.
Doug hadn't realized he was holding his breath. "Good. She doesn't suspect a thing."
As he kept moving down the corridor, the tracking device grew brighter and brighter until it led him down another unused hallway and into a room he'd never seen before. When he closed the door behind him, he could sense more than the artifact inside.
He pursed his lips and turned the tracker off. "Hi, Rhea."
The lights of the room came up with a purple hue as the woman who set him on this path came into view.
She had a neutral look on her face. "Doug. You didn't really think I would ignore this little quest of yours, did you?"
His throat felt tight. "I don't know. I didn't really think about it. I just wanted to know for sure that we had the same kind of artifacts as the ones the Russians are looking for."
She nodded. "And do you trust I have a good reason for keeping them here? Do you trust I have my own reasons for keeping them secret?"
He blinked. "I assume so, but I also imagine that if you have artifacts just like them, then you know what it is the Russians are planning to do. And if you know that without telling all of us, then you seem to be keeping secrets from us for no reason. Is there a reason?"
Rhea's pained look spoke volumes as she stepped toward him. He instinctively took a step back.
"Do you trust me, Doug?"
"I haven't had any reason not to. But, I assume you'll tell us now what the Russians are doing. Right?"
She shook her head and continued to walk forward. His back hit the closed door behind him.
"The mechanics of the world are strange sometimes. I can't always intervene, and sometimes we just have to let bad things happen."
"I don't understand that. That runs counter to what we're doing here."
Rhea came closer until she was within an inch of Doug's face. "Do you trust me enough not to tell the others about this?"
Doug's hands were sweaty by his side. "I'm not sure. I'm a scientific kind of guy, and the evidence feels like it needs to be shared with others."
She let out a faint sigh. "I do understand. I knew you when I hired you."
Her hands began to glow a deeper shade of purple. "But unfortunately, that means I'll just have to make you forget the evidence."
As Rhea moved her hands upward, Doug could feel the room closing in on him. He let the tracker slip from his grasp and land on the ground with a crack as the darkness took over his world.
Chapter 16
Lyra and Nikolai arrived back at the hotel early that day. He'd been mostly quiet in the car ride, and she'd followed suit. While it was a little ridiculous, the fake dates she'd had with the Russian shifter may have been some of the most enjoyable ones of her life. Even if they were a part of a covert mission. At one point during the ride, she thought he was looking at her, but the moment she tried to meet his eyes, his darted away.
As Nikolai started for the lobby, Lyra caught his hand. "Nikolai, wait."
He turned back toward her, but kept his eyes focused on the ground. "My father is expecting us."
"Look, after we figure out what exactly these artifacts do, you don't have to keep going with this mission."
Nikolai's eyes slowly moved up towards hers. "It's a nice fantasy, but what would I even do?"
She smiled as she took his other hand in hers as well. "You could work with the team. Having a shifter on board would be a huge asset to us helping humans and unhumans throughout the city."
He gave a short laugh. "I don't think vampire boyfriend would be very happy at this."
"You know he's not my boyfriend. And maybe we can find a way to be both Team Jacob and Edward."
"This Twilight metapho
r has really run course, no?"
She looked deep into his eyes. "Tell me that this is what you really want. Tell me that you want to go along with whatever your dad says and I will drop it. I'll find out what the artifacts are for, and if it's a really nefarious purpose, me and my team are going to stop it. Tell me this is what you want to do with the rest of your life."
His heart beat faster in his chest. "What you say is tempting. I know life could be more than this, but I just can't give up on family."
Her heart sank as she let his hands fall away from hers. "I understand." She walked ahead of Nikolai. "Well, we better not keep your father waiting."
When they reached the suite, Lyra could feel the tension bubbling out from the room. Several of the shifters seemed ill at ease, and Vanya appeared to be pacing more than normal. He didn't even look up at her to scowl, which worried Lyra more than anything else.
Yuri nodded at his son when they entered. "You are late. I share news of last artifact with everyone before you."
Nikolai gave a sharp nod. "My apologies. Tell me what we missed."
A creepy smile spread across Vanya's face. "What you miss? There is one artifact remaining. We are this close to success."
When Nikolai's brother resumed his pacing, Lyra couldn't bear the mystery any longer. "You all don't seem very excited about it. Where's the last artifact?"
Yuri glanced at her briefly before focusing on his son. "I have dangerous mission for you. The artifact lies with our greatest enemy. The Tuscan clan of vampires."
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