Hunting Season (Aurora Sky

by Nikki Jefford

  “Is having Fane over such a good idea?” Noel asked.

  Fane and I had already thought about that.

  “He’s going to park around the block.”

  Noel nodded. “Good, because if Valerie smashes my windshield, she’s dead.” She opened the fridge. “Sounds like we’re going to need some drinks.” She pulled out a wine cooler. “Want one?” she asked, holding the bottle toward me.

  Blood sounded better, but if Noel wasn’t having any, I didn’t want to be the one giving into cravings.

  “No thanks.”

  Noel twisted the cap off and tossed it on the countertop. The bottle lifted into the air as she tilted it back and took a big swig. Once she’d swallowed, Noel smacked her lips. “These don’t do much in the way of a buzz, but damn, they taste good.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Better than blood?”

  “Depends on the source. Blood from a bag…” Noel shuddered. “Gross. Blood from a boy…” She grinned big, eyes lighting up like twin monitors. “Delicious.”

  I snorted.

  Noel lifted her head. “I like to bite, and I like to be bitten, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.” She took another swig of her drink.

  “Which do you like better? You know, now that you know you’re a vamp?”

  Noel pursed her lips. “Hmm. Good question. I really liked being bitten, but once I learned I was a vampire it made me really want to bite people.” She took another sip from her wine cooler.

  I leaned forward. “You know, I think I will try one of those. I could use a drink.”

  “Sounds like you could use more than one,” Noel said, setting her bottle down to grab me one from the fridge.

  As she handed it to me, I said, “Thanks.”

  Cap off, I took my first drink. I’d tried champagne, wine, vodka and beer, but this was my first wine cooler. It tasted cool and fruity. I remembered Noel telling me one of her favorite perks of working for the agency was a fake ID. It was weird to think we’d never reach the official legal drinking age no matter how long we lived. The agency could have at least had the decency to let us reach twenty-one.

  I lowered the bottle and nodded. “This isn’t bad.”

  “What did I tell you?” Noel asked. “Tasty.” She pointed her bottle at me. “While we’re waiting, why don’t you spill? How did it feel sinking your teeth into Daren?”

  The sound of Daren’s moan when I bit into him filled my head. It had both encouraged and repelled me. Hunger had fueled that bite. Exhaustion. Desperation. Followed by disgust in myself. But it beat thinking about how I’d killed Randal earlier and stood by while Melcher and Jared threatened Selene.

  I grimaced. “I wasn’t thinking straight when I bit him.”

  “No kidding,” Noel said. “You were acting on instinct.”

  Tommy’s wet nose nudged my free hand. I glanced down as I ran my fingers over his silky head.

  What would Dante have thought if he’d seen me acting on instinct? Out of everyone in the agency, I pictured him taking the undead thing hardest.

  He saw himself as a superhero— a Van Helsing, not Dracula.

  When we got him back, what would I tell Dante first? That he was undead or that I had feelings for another vampire? Talk about cold.

  “What’s the matter?” Noel asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You have a funny look on your face.”

  I met Noel’s eyes. “I’m just thinking about Dante. How’s he going to handle all this?”

  “Dante’s a big boy,” Noel said. “He can deal.” She sucked down the remainder of her wine cooler and set the bottle with a hollow clink on top of the counter.

  I’d always wondered how Noel ended up at the agency—what tragic event had claimed her life, but her sensitivity on the subject had always deterred me from prying. That was until she admitted the reason herself.

  Noel had attempted to commit suicide.

  In the craze of Dante’s abduction and my undead discovery, I’d had no time to ask her about it further.

  Now here we were, standing face to face, a rare private moment without hostile vampires bursting in or rocks shattering windows… at least not yet.

  I hesitated to ask, but in the end, curiosity won. “Why did you try to kill yourself?”

  Noel frowned. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “Then why not tell me?”

  Noel’s voice turned to ash. “I was abused by my father, okay? I let him smack me around for years until one day I couldn’t take it anymore, so I climbed into the bathtub and slit my wrists. When I regained consciousness, I was on base. Melcher took me in, trained me, and gave me a second chance to make something of my life. He helped emancipate me from my parents. He found me a place to live.”

  “And you haven’t seen your family since?” I asked.

  Noel slumped against the counter, reminding me of the vulnerable side I noticed when we first met, even when she talked tough.

  “My father found me last February.”

  “While I was still in town?” I asked.

  Noel nodded solemnly. “He showed up at my apartment. At first he stayed in his car, watching from outside.”

  I shivered. “That’s creepy.”

  “Then he got one of my roommates to let him inside.”

  “What the hell?”

  Noel shook her head slightly. “He didn’t hurt me, but he wasn’t going to leave me alone, either, so I left, only I didn’t know where to go. Whitney was grounded and Hope had just been kicked out.”

  I had a sense of where this was headed. “Why didn’t you stay with Daren or Reece?”

  “That was before I bonded with those guys.”

  “Before you knew you were undead?” I asked.

  Noel nodded. “I didn’t know who to call, so I called Fane.”

  “I wish you would have told me what was going on,” I said. To think of all the turmoil we could have all been spared if only Noel had opened up to me in the first place.

  I stared at Noel, waiting for an explanation.

  Tears suddenly swarmed her eyes. She blinked rapidly and looked down at the floor.

  “I don’t like telling people,” she said. “It’s humiliating.”

  “But—”

  “I don’t want to be a victim.” Noel squeezed her fingers into fists.

  “You’re not,” I said. “You’re an undercover vampire agent.”

  “What about if we succeed in taking out Melcher?” she asked. “Then I’m just another predator feeding on innocent victims.”

  I snorted. “I wouldn’t call Daren and Reece innocent victims. They want to be bitten. You make them feel special, as messed up as that is. We can’t help what we are.”

  Noel cocked her head to the side when she looked at me. “You feeling all right? You don’t sound like yourself.”

  I shrugged. “A lot’s changed in the last week. We’re assassins and informants, and we’re vampires. Melcher’s stuck us smack dab in the middle of no man’s land. I don’t know whose side I’m supposed to be on any longer.”

  “I don’t think we have to choose a side. We just have to do the right thing.”

  I gripped the wine cooler by the bottle’s neck.

  “We need to stop Melcher and Jared from endangering peoples’ lives. That’s the right thing to do. That’s our mission.”

  Noel sighed. “We need reinforcements.”

  “We need Dante.”

  Noel lifted her chin. “And Gavin.”

  When it came to taking down bad guys, Dante didn’t hesitate for a second. The more inner agency help we could get, the better. I couldn’t see Gavin offering much in the way of assistance. He’d be a liability more than anything else. We had enough trouble brewing between Valerie, Fane, and me without adding Noel and Gavin into the mix.

  Why did Valerie have to go manic? We needed her on our side.

  Too bad that ship had sailed—right on into the Dead Sea.

  A knock at
the door sent Tommy barreling down the hall barking.

  Security cams and a guard dog—I felt better already.

  “Good, boy,” I said to Tommy, placing a hand on his fury head as I peered through the door’s peephole.

  My heart gave a lurch that was quickly followed by flutters when I saw Fane on the porch, one hand in his pocket, jaw tight, arm flexed.

  Joss stood beside him, eyes darting around the porch.

  I turned to Tommy. “Okay, boy. These are my friends. Can you sit?”

  Tommy’s ears perked up. His tail swished from side to side.

  “Sit,” I commanded.

  Tommy’s tail stopped wagging. He sat and looked up at me.

  “That a boy,” I said, ruffling the fur on his head quickly before turning to open the door.

  My cheeks heated even as the outside air met my face.

  “Hey,” I said, my eyes meeting Fane’s.

  Until then, I never realized one word could come out so breathless and soft, like an invitation to my soul.

  Fane’s head perked up, as though startled by my tone. His shoulders relaxed. “Hey,” he said back.

  His smile made me smile, or maybe I’d been grinning from the moment I looked outside and saw him.

  Joss stomped one foot against the ground. “Well? Are we going in?” he asked.

  I opened the door wider.

  Fane broke eye contact to turn his head to Joss. “After you.”

  Joss made no move forward. His lips pursed when he looked at me. I hadn’t seen the vamp in eight months—not since I spent the night at their house, in Fane’s bed, minus Fane. Joss hadn’t liked me back then and from the scowl on his face now, I’d say he hadn’t missed me much.

  “Come in, Joss,” I said.

  He had the same ghastly pale skin and narrowed eyes underlined by dark circles. “It’s Josslyn.”

  Oh, right. Only dude in the whole wide world who would grumble at someone for failing to call him by his girly name.

  “Joss,” Fane said in a warning tone.

  Joss stuck his nose in the air. He stepped forward into the house. Fane followed right behind him, slowing as he passed the place where I stood pressed against the door. While Joss’ back was turned to us, Fane paused inches from my face and looked down at my lips.

  The hooded look of his eyes made me lightheaded. Fane leaned toward me, as close as he could without actually touching.

  “Hello, Josslyn. Hi, Fane,” Noel called from down the hall.

  Fane lifted his head toward her voice, and the moment was broken. I hurried to shut the door behind us.

  “Can I make you tea?” Noel asked.

  “That would be most kind of you,” Joss said.

  I did a double-take. How come Mr. Moody was all charm and manners to Noel but not me? Maybe because she said his full name.

  “Come on in and make yourselves comfortable,” Noel said.

  Joss followed after her. Fane lingered in the hallway.

  Fane leaned into me. “You and I have unfinished business.”

  I glanced involuntarily up the stairs.

  Fane broke out into a Cheshire grin. “That’s not what I meant, but I like the way you think.”

  I folded my arms across my chest. It didn’t hide my blush, but it helped mask the awkwardness encroaching all around us.

  Fane dropped the smile. “I’m tired of being split apart every time an obstacle comes between us.”

  Obstacle? Try juggernaut.

  As long as Melcher had me on his radar, I wasn’t free to love anyone—let alone another vampire.

  “Hopefully we don’t have to wait much longer,” I said.

  “What happens once we free your partner?”

  I met Fane’s eye. “Once Dante’s free, he’s on his own.”

  “You and I can start fresh?” Fane asked. “No more romantic feelings for your partner?”

  “I told you. Dante’s my friend. That’s all.”

  Fane’s eyebrows rose. “You never slept together?”

  My nose wrinkled. “No.”

  Fane smiled when he saw my expression. “Don’t forget, I know all about you and your stash of Trojans.”

  I’d nearly forgotten about my pit stop at the Jewel Lake Quickie Mart on my way to Scott Steven’s house. Fane had the unfortunate timing of buying smokes at the same time I was buying protection.

  “Your face turned so red when you saw me in line behind you,” Fane said. “Sorta like it’s doing right now.”

  He reached his hand forward to touch my cheek. I uncrossed my arms and batted it away.

  “That’s because I’d just come in from the cold,” I said.

  Fane shook his head. “You were embarrassed.”

  “You were an ass.”

  “Don’t forget, I offered to drive you home. Should have taken me up on it.”

  I sucked in a breath.

  Fane moved his chin back and forth lightly as though saying, you know I’m right.

  In the end, it would have been better to return home. I could have avoided the worst sex ever. I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but I was convinced it couldn’t get worse than Scott Stevens. Doing him ranked somewhere up there with stabbing a vampire to death.

  Schools ought to hire me to preach abstinence.

  “Hey guys, don’t do it. It sucks—unless you meet a nice vampire because he probably knows what he’s doing and I bet he does it really well. Plus you won’t get pregnant or any STD’s. Remember, don’t take him to bed, unless he’s undead.”

  Not only should I have accepted the ride home, I should have made Fane my first.

  He searched my eyes. His lower lip puffed out. In his eyes, I saw concern. What happened that afternoon wasn’t something I wanted to dwell on, and I didn’t want Fane to worry about it, either.

  “It’s all in the past.” I waved a limp hand in the air.

  “Not us,” Fane said.

  My mouth opened slightly. Our eyes locked. He cupped my chin gently in his hand. His fingers were surprisingly warm.

  “Not us” echoed through my head over and over like a wild drumbeat. If Noel and Joss weren’t waiting in the kitchen, I would have grabbed Fane’s hand and dragged him upstairs to my bedroom.

  My inexperience couldn’t hold a candle to my desire to take Fane inside of me. I craved that kind of closeness. I wanted more between us than rubbing and kissing. I wanted to connect body and soul.

  I also really wanted to please Fane. Not that I imaged that was too difficult to do. It wasn’t as though sex required instructions.

  Insert man part here. Rock hips and ride partner until you are both moaning and screaming your heads off. Do not stop until you reach climax and release. Take as much time as you need to do it right.

  Yeah, I think I had it pretty well figured out. I just needed practice.

  “What are you thinking about?” Fane asked.

  He spoke gently, as though he knew his words had touched me on a purely romantic level. If only he knew the true direction of my thoughts. I had to bite down on my lower lip to keep from laughing.

  Fane straightened. “What’s that look? Now I’m curious.”

  Fane was a hard person to take off guard. I went for it.

  “I was thinking about you naked.”

  His jaw dropped. Good, he hadn’t been expecting that. I shot him a cheeky smile and headed past him into the kitchen with Tommy at my heels—Fane a close second, hurrying to catch up.

  10

  Hunting Party

  “Damn it!” Noel said after I shared what I’d learned from Melcher at our morning meeting on base. “Now what?”

  She sat at the dining table beside Joss with another wine cooler. Joss sipped his tea and set it down. Tommy’s head lifted briefly off the floor after Noel cussed before lowering it once more and closing his eyes. The retriever had followed me to the end of the table and laid on the floor beside my chair once I sat down.

  Fane stood, gripping the ba
ck of a chair. “We can’t allow Henry to go to the palace Friday,” he said. “If Valerie takes him in, the gig is up. He’ll tell your boss the names of everyone involved in setting up the party.”

  Fane was right. Henry knew too much.

  “We can’t cancel the party, either,” Noel said. “How’s that going to look to Melcher that I reported it taking place then all of a sudden, nope, cancelled?”

  Fane’s frown deepened. “You’re right. One way or another, there has to be a party.”

  I looked at Fane. “You can’t go, either. Not when they’re sending in Valerie.”

  Noel released an exasperated breath. “Then who the hell is going? This party isn’t going to throw itself.”

  “I’m going.” Fane let the chair go and straightened up. “When Valerie shows up, I’ll deal with her.”

  “No way,” I said. “It’s not worth the risk.”

  Fane folded his arms. “I wasn’t asking.”

  A flash of hurt, followed by anger shot through my body. It festered inside me like an open wound. Friday night filled me with enough dread already. The body count at the lodge would be substantial with Levi, Mason, and I upstairs, and Mr. McCreepy and his team down below.

  I had enough to stress about without having to worry about Valerie and Fane going head to head at the palace.

  Noel looked from me to Fane and cleared her throat. “It does seem really risky.”

  Fane gave Noel the same hard stare. “Not half as risky as going into Diederick’s tasting to kill every vampire inside.”

  A hush fell over the room. What could I say to Fane? He was right. My neck was on the line in more ways than one. There’s no way he’d be content to sit back doing nothing while I entered the lion’s den. The one thing that had pacified him was coordinating the trap for Jared at the palace. Fane was like a missile that had been fired, and there was no calling him off.

  Joss set his mug on the table roughly. “We need to leave the state.”

  “Here we go again,” Fane said.

  “Better yet, the country.”

  “Leave?” My heart fell. I turned my head toward Fane. “You can’t leave.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere until this matter is settled.”