by Lexi Blake
“Do you have any idea how long it takes to grow another body, you bitch?” Kall growled. He was slurring his words. I wasn’t sure if that was from the alcohol he’d consumed earlier or the fact that his neck bone was sticking out.
Jamie’s eyes didn’t leave the back door of the club. “Decide fast, Kels. Someone could be out here any minute. We don’t know Scott won’t turn us in.”
There was only one thing to do. I couldn’t leave him lying there. “Fine. We take him with us. Get his feet.” I picked up his hands and his head hung precariously.
“Nice,” the demon said. “I can see your hootchie.”
Jamie neatly stepped on his balls as he went to pick up the demon’s feet.
“Thanks, bro.” Gosh, I’d missed Jamie.
“That’s what I’m here for,” Jamie said with a grin as we loaded our should-have-been-dead body into his truck.
Kall, who turned out to be a complete wuss, complained the entire time. He didn’t like being stuffed into the trunk of an SUV. I thought it was extremely roomy myself, but there’s no pleasing some people. If Gray had been driving me and my victim home, Kall would have been exposed to the elements. The snow fell fast and hard, coating everything. It made cool patterns on the windshield as Jamie quietly pulled out of the alley and began to make his way back to the West End.
Ten minutes later, Jamie pulled into the alley behind Ether. It was almost four-thirty in the morning and I still needed to figure out what to do with Kall. It was times like these I wished there was a Hunter loop. I could see the post in my mind.
This is Kels101 and I’m new to the group. Has anyone had to deal with a demon who won’t die? He also won’t stop talking. I doubt I’ll be able to get him up the laundry chute, so I need options. Please help.
Yeah, there’s no loop for Hunters since as far as anyone knows, I’m the only one. There was only one place for me to turn. I got out Jamie’s phone to put a call into Marcus. He’d told me the academics were there for consultation. I’d had my first little hiccup. It was time to turn it over to smarter people.
“Um, Kels.” Jamie’s face had scrunched in that way it used to when we were about to get into serious trouble, and he pointed to my side window.
I turned and saw Donovan standing there, arms crossed and lips turned down. Trent stood next to him, shaking his head as though his disappointment was too much to contain.
“I told you she was up to something,” the tattletale werewolf said.
Chapter Nine
I gotta admit, my first instinct was to tell Jamie to hit the gas, but the truth is Donovan would have just flown after us. Sometimes it’s better to go ahead and rip that bandage right off no matter how much the sucker’s going to hurt. I rolled down the window. “I can explain everything.”
Donovan’s lips rose slightly as though he was trying to contain his amusement, and my chances of survival went up tenfold. An amused Donovan was a Donovan who likely wasn’t going to throw me in a prison cell. “I look forward to the explanation, Owens.” He nodded to my brother. “She drag you into this, James?”
Jamie shrugged and turned off the car. “I was already involved, Your Highness. I’ve been working the case for a month or so.”
Donovan took that news with his usual stoicism. Trent, however, was sniffing the air around him.
“Kelsey, come on. Get out of the car. What the hell did you get yourself into?” Trent pulled the door open, and I found myself outside fast.
The big were lifted me up like I weighed nothing and sat me down. My feet sank in the snow covering the alley. The stilettos were open toed and the chill immediately got to me. The minute I was on my feet, Trent was all over me. He sniffed my hair. His hands started to push the coat off my shoulders. He started to run his nose along my skin. I did what I would have done to any man who got handsy.
I punched him straight in the face.
“Fuck,” Trent cursed as he held his nose and took that all-important step back. Blood dripped from the offended appendage. “I think she broke my nose.”
I contained my gleeful giggle because he sounded like he had a horrible cold. I totally broke his nose.
Jamie was out of the car and pushing at Trent. He was in full-on big brother mode for the second time that evening. “I’ll break more than your nose if you touch my sister like that again, you prick.”
Trent’s eyes widened and he looked as innocent as he could ever look. “I wasn’t trying to hit on her. I was trying to get her scent. Damn it, Owens, that hurt.”
Donovan chuckled as he watched the scene with an air of amused fascination. “I hope the CC cameras caught that. It would warm Z’s heart to see that exchange. Your dad used to do this thing where he sniffed every inch of her at least once a day.”
“He was her dedicated guard.” My father had been the queen’s personal bodyguard. It made sense that he would need her scent around him. “Trent’s a pervert.”
“I am not.” He tried to push his nose back into the proper position. “I’m trying to do my job. I’m a wolf. I live by my nose. Your uncle would have done the same thing.”
“My uncle would have asked,” I shot back. The coat I was wearing came open as I railed at Trent, and his blue eyes got wide.
“Yo, Owens, what the hell happened to your pants?” Donovan asked in that tone he used for the dumbasses in his life. I didn’t take it too personally. He used it on Quinn and the boys, too.
I rebuttoned the coat and tried not to feel like I was explaining a compromising situation to my father. The man I’d grown up with wouldn’t have given a shit. I’d been told my real dad would have cared very much. Though Donovan appeared to be twenty-one or so, it was hard to forget he was actually pushing forty with a wife, a whatever Quinn was, three kids, and an entire kingdom dependent on him. He was kind of the ultimate authority figure in my world, and usually that made me pissy with him. Tonight, it felt different. It made me realize how much I’d missed not having a dad to yell at me for sneaking out and showing back up at four-thirty in the morning with no pants on. He didn’t even know about the body in back yet.
Gray was right. I have daddy issues.
I sorta stared at my feet and tried to come up with something he could understand. I was betting that in the entire time he was the Nex Apparatus, Donovan never found himself in a thong. “I was undercover.”
“On a street corner?” Donovan asked in a low voice. His arms were crossed over that big chest of his as he studied me carefully. “Did Marcus know you were planning on running around the city in a bra and panties?” The king sniffed the air. He sighed and frowned down at me. The dude really had a disappointed dad stare going. “Damn it, Owens. Is that Sloane I smell on you? Tell me you didn’t.”
I felt Marcus walk into the alley. How to describe it? It was like a wave of calm suddenly washed over me, and I knew he was coming my way. When I turned, he was coming out of the building, still dressed in his suit and tie and still looking gorgeously masculine. Henri and Hugo were with him as well.
“You’ve already broken rule number one, Kelsey,” Hugo pointed out. Rule number one was to not get caught.
It had been a hell of a night, and Marcus was safety and comfort all wrapped up in a really attractive man package. I ran and threw myself in his arms. He caught me. I heard him chuckle.
“I knew perfectly well she was meeting with the lieutenant, Your Highness. I would, however, like a report on how she came to lose her respectable clothes.” Marcus took a peek under Sloane’s coat. His dark eyebrows rose at the sight.
Henri slapped Marcus on the back. “Don’t think too much on it, old friend. Remember Vivienne? Hugo’s poor Hunter couldn’t keep her pants on, either.”
Hugo smiled broadly with the memory. I got the feeling the academics were looking forward to my antics. “Such a lovely girl. Terribly brutal, but lovely all the same.”
“I couldn’t get into the club dressed like I was,” I explained.
“What
kind of club was this, bella?”
“It was a sex club,” I mumbled.
I could mumble all I liked. Almost everyone had superhearing. Trent huffed. Marcus frowned, and Donovan groaned.
“Jesus, Kelsey, don’t mention it to Dev,” Donovan practically pleaded. “I’ll never hear the end of it. He’s been bugging me to open a sex club since that Sanctum place turned him down. I’d never get him out.”
“Only the top level is a sex club,” Jamie explained. “The rest is a bar. It’s seedier than Ether, but along the same lines. It’s an outlier place. It opened up a month back. There were rumors about drug running, so Sloane went in undercover.”
Donovan nodded, accepting the explanation. “And I suppose it’s run by demons. I can smell them everywhere.”
Marcus kept his hands on my shoulders as I turned back to the king. “It’s run by some bigwig demon. Sloane is trying to nail him for running drugs.”
“So the shifter was on something,” the king concluded. “It has to be strong because I was having trouble holding him. Did you get some?”
I shook my head. “Sloane is trying to set himself up as a distributor. I’m going to this guy’s house for dinner on Sunday as Sloane’s date. He’s hoping this Winter guy will give him the go-ahead, and he can get some real insight into the operation. He wants to meet with Marcus tomorrow.”
“Yes, I would like a word with him,” Marcus remarked calmly.
“You’ll liaise with the lieutenant?” Donovan seemed eager to get a yes out of Marcus. When Marcus had been on the Council, one of his jobs had been to deal with Gray. He was Gray’s contact. His relationship with me might make things uncomfortable, but Marcus didn’t seem to mind.
“We will handle it,” Hugo assured the king. “We have protocols in place for dealing with local law enforcement. We’ve not used them in many years. We haven’t had a Hunter to train since…”
“April 30, 1945,” Henri said sadly. “Stupid Soviet Army. Our girl had done her job. She had infiltrated the bunker in Berlin and taken the bastard out. It was all covered up. I believe they said the man committed suicide.”
“Yes, yes,” Hugo agreed. “Ridiculous, of course. She got shot in the back by the Soviets. Marcus couldn’t get to her fast enough.”
Marcus’s arms tightened around me. “Which is why we take our charge’s safety seriously. We won’t be working with the government any time soon. We need to keep her existence secret. If the US Army finds out, they’ll try to ship her off to assassinate whoever is the latest enemy of the state.”
Donovan’s mouth was hanging slightly open. “Are trying to tell me a Hunter took out Hitler?”
“Oh, yes, Your Highness,” Henri said with a negligent wave of his hand. “We’re responsible for many such helpful acts. Hugo was responsible for the Marat assassination.”
“Yes,” Hugo said, patting me on the back. “Not that the bloody frogs deserved it. I was also responsible for pinning it on the Corday girl. That particular Hunter was one of my favorites. Married the girl. She was lovely, too. Now, I recall she was also wearing no pants when she killed Marat. Assassinations are a messy business, dear. Your instinct to shed your clothing proves you’re right for the job.”
I grimaced. It was time to reveal the less successful part of my evening. “You might think differently when Jamie opens the trunk.” I turned back to Marcus. “The assassination part of my night didn’t go so well.”
“Damn it, Owens,” Donovan cursed. “I told you not to kill anyone.”
“No. You told me to do it quietly. I did. No guns whatsoever. Now he won’t shut up, so I had to bring him with me.” I walked around with Jamie, who opened the trunk. “Though he’s been quiet since we pulled up here. Do you think he finally died?”
“No, but he peed himself,” Trent said, whiffing the air.
Donovan peered down into the trunk. “Damn. His head’s on backward.”
“Nicely done, Kelsey.” Henri gave me a fatherly pat on the back as he looked down at my handiwork. “That is a perfect example of atlanto-occipital dislocation.”
“If you mean the bitch tried to my pull my head off, then yes, it’s fucking perfect,” Kall said bitterly. He stared up at the king and tried to cast his eyes away. It didn’t look like Kall was happy about this impromptu meeting with royalty. “I would like to point out that our contracts are still in effect, King Daniel. That bitch had no right to kill me.”
Donovan’s fangs gleamed in the low light. “Might I take the time to point out that those contracts are between Vampire and demonkind. I believe you will find that my Nex Apparatus is not a vampire.”
Kall’s eyes flew to me. “She’s the Nex Apparatus? But that’s not fair.”
Donovan laughed, and I heard Trent chuckling beside his boss. “Trent, it’s a good fucking night. Do you know how long it’s been since I got to torture someone to get much needed information out of them?”
“Been a while, boss,” the werewolf allowed. His nose was already perfect again.
Donovan shook his head. “See, it’s the little things you miss when you get to the top. No one ever lets me torture demons anymore. They consider it beneath me without ever thinking about how much I enjoy it.” The king turned to me. “Good job, Owens.”
I gave him a jaunty salute and breathed a silent sigh of relief because it looked like Trent had been right. Now that Donovan was fairly certain I wasn’t going to massacre his friends and family, he was using a much lighter touch with me. “Nice to know I could help.”
Donovan nodded at his wolf, and Trent picked up Kall with one brawny arm. The demon’s head hung limply to the side.
“You can’t torture me,” Kall yelled. “It’s in our contracts.”
Donovan thought about it for half a second. “I can’t torture a living demon. Henri, isn’t this whole head hanging on by a thread thing usually fatal?”
Henri nodded vigorously. “This body is very much dead. I would expect it to begin to rot within a day or two. I’m surprised he’s still in there.”
“I don’t know how to leave. This is the only body I’ve ever been in, damn it,” Kal explained.
“I can totally torture a corpse. There’s nothing in our contracts to stop me from doing that.” The king poked at him. “He can’t feel anything, can he?”
Henri considered the problem for a moment. “Do we still have some holy water? I assure you, if we submerge the head in a vat of holy water, we’ll get a response.”
Donovan snapped his fingers and a big grin lit his face. He was like a kid on Christmas morning. “I like the way you think, Henri. Owens, I expect a full report tomorrow night. We’re all having dinner at your uncle’s. We can meet in his office, and you can update me on your progress.”
Donovan and Trent walked back into the building carrying their new plaything. Kall was crying openly and begging the king to let him die.
Dude should have paid more attention in demon school.
Marcus slipped his hand into mine and used his free hand to shake my brother’s. “Thank you for bringing her home, James.”
Jamie grinned. “It’s always an adventure with my sis. Good night, Marcus. Go easy on Gray tomorrow.”
“I will be a gentleman, of course,” Marcus promised. “Come along, bella. It’s long past time to get to bed. Good night Henri, Hugo. We’ll meet again in the afternoon to discuss what Henri has learned about our patient.”
I quietly followed Marcus back into the building and toward the elevator that went to our floor. I was anticipating a pretty hearty fight. Marcus had been upset when I confronted Trent wearing a bath towel that had covered way more of me than my current ensemble.
“Marcus,” I began as I followed him on the elevator. He pushed the button to our floor and the car began to climb.
“Hush,” Marcus said. After we passed the second floor, he reached over and pushed the emergency stop button. He turned to me with hooded eyes. “Show me.”
I hesitated.
“You’re going to be mad.”
He leaned back against the wall. “Am I? Were you working, cara mia? Did you intend to end up in a sex club with your ex-fiancé?”
“Of course not,” I assured him.
He stared at me intently, and I wasn’t feeling a wave of calm from him at that point. Nope. Things were heating up and Marcus didn’t mind sharing that with me. Lust. He was sending out a lusty vibe. Marcus had his own kinks. He tended to get horny when I did violent things to people who richly deserved it. Marcus liked bad girls, and I fit the bill.
“Did you willingly put yourself in a compromising position with the lieutenant?” His fangs were out, his dark eyes large. His voice was like thick honey. I knew there was a bit of persuasion being pushed at me. I could push back, but it felt good.
“I didn’t do anything with Sloane that wasn’t important to our cover,” I promised him.
“Then show me,” Marcus commanded.
I let the coat drop to the floor.
He sighed, letting me know he appreciated the sight. “Very nice. It makes me feel sorry for Sloane. He was only able to look while I am free to touch.” He motioned me to come to him and then turn so he didn’t miss an inch. His hand came out to caress the bare cheeks of my ass. He gently snapped the thong against my skin. “This is quite lovely.”
I let down my mental walls so he could feel how much I wanted him. I needed this. It had been a craptastic day, and there was nothing that would make me feel better than being in his arms. He squeezed my cheeks before he pulled me against his body, his front to my back. His erection nudged insistently against my ass. Being mostly naked meant I could feel his hands on my skin, the silk of his shirt against my spine.
Marcus let his hands run up along my torso until he cupped my breasts through the soft material of the bra. His tongue licked along my neck, up to my ear where he playfully bit down, causing me to shiver with arousal.
“I missed you every moment you were gone, my bella,” the vampire whispered in my ear. “We need to make some things plain between us.”
