Natalie lowered her eyes. “Of course, sir.”
It was petty, but Brandon’s aggression—and the fact that he’d gone from “Bran” to “sir”—made Aziza feel better. To a point. She couldn’t give in to her jealousy now, not when there was a poor innocent being ignored on the floor. One whose suffering she’d experienced firsthand. “Will the police identify her so her family can collect the body?”
Lawrence glanced over at her hopefully, still shaken from his run-in with Brandon. “Yes, Vessel. That is, they will try. If she falls into the same category as the other victims, she may not have blood relatives to claim her body. Friends from that hinky club the exile visits tried to pick up the other two and pay for services.”
“Kinky,” Natalie interrupted softly. “Not hinky, Lawrence. The kinky club.”
The club Ram visits… “Underbridge?” Aziza looked down at the girl’s body again. What was the connection between these girls and the fetish club? Her. Was this what her Niyr had been trying to warn her about? Had Te known her presence was causing so much unnecessary loss? “We should cover her up. Show respect.”
Lawrence swiftly recovered the robe the girl had been draped in when they found her, and placed it over her body. “Yes, Vessel. And that is the name of the club. Our men at the Yard are already calling the unknown assailant the Underbridge Ripper behind closed doors. If this one’s connected too, they’ll have a hard time not spreading the name around.”
Brandon strode back to her and gripped her hand in his. “I’m getting Aziza out of here before they arrive. Natalie, you’re in charge, but remember, you report directly to me on this. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Lawrence.” Brandon’s lips drew back in a warning snarl. “Consider yourself on probation. You will not enact punishment or enforce our laws without experienced supervision, until I know I can trust you to work on your own. And I suggest you steer clear of me until I say otherwise.”
The Enforcer paled. “Yes, sir.”
Brandon guided her toward the stairs. “Let’s get you out of here, Aziza. Get Greg a cab and take you home.”
“Yes, sir,” she said under her breath.
Natalie covered her mouth and turned to hide her smile.
Aziza scowled. Oh hell no. She didn’t want any girl bonding with the bitch that always seemed to be either sniffing after her boyfriend or at his father’s beck and call. She allowed Brandon to pull her up the stairs and out onto the street in silence before she reacted.
“Stop.”
Her spine tingled and her palm burned, and she knew without looking that the world around them had ceased to exist. Greg was stopped, still waiting for her where Brandon had left him, the music in the distance was silenced and the cars on the street stilled. They were the only two people in the world now.
“Aziza…” Brandon turned to her, looking down at her hand on his arm when he realized what she’d done, “…I know what you’re going to say, but before you react in anger again, I wish you’d let me get you home so I can explain.”
She let him go and hugged herself, feeling tired and emptied out. “You don’t have to explain, Brandon. Your fellow Enforcers did fine. Three bodies mutilated by the Jiniyr—bodies meant for me to find—and you would have kept me in the dark. Kept lying to me. Telling me everything was fine while you and Natalie and that overzealous fur ball tried to pin the murders on Ram.”
“We don’t pin things on anyone, Aziza. We follow the evidence.”
When she sent him a disbelieving look, Brandon stared at her with an enigmatic expression. “The murder scenes are gruesome. My people are trained to know that mind buggery is the Shiners’ weapon of choice—suicides and the like. Physical violence? Torture and sadism? That screams Jinn.” He broke off eye contact. “And then there’s Underbridge. That club is the only connection to the victims, and it’s where Ram spends most of his nights, honing his own brand of sadism on the ignorant willing.”
“A Jinn walks into a bar and gets accused of murder? That joke isn’t funny.”
Brandon shook his head. “Our experience…my experience tells me an exiled Jinn can be as dangerous as a wounded predator, Aziza, and I have seen them do unspeakable things over the years to earn back their citizenship and go home. We had to look into the possibility. If I showed favoritism merely because he is your Qarin, I would lose my position and the respect of those under my authority.”
“That’s why you’ve been suggesting I stop going, isn’t it?” Aziza felt unusually calm. Eerily separated. “You keep talking about your experience. Your training. Razia is still Niyr—a Shiner, as you like to call them—and he has no problem committing acts of physical violence. The Jiniyr aren’t one or the other, Brandon, but they are something Enforcers obviously aren’t trained for. As for my Qarin, you’ve made it abundantly clear how you feel about him, but you won’t admit those feelings could be clouding your judgment. That you could be wrong. All Jinn are demons, isn’t that right? You and Fido and your werewolf girlfriend are the good guys who chase away all the bad devils, protecting humanity like furry superheroes. You are Enforcers, hear you howl.”
Enforcer. She never liked to think about what Brandon did when he wasn’t with her. What he was, other than her lover. From what she’d seen, Enforcer law sucked. There was no democracy. No trial. Even now she knew there were rooms lined with iron and gold meant to restrain Niyr and Jinn who’d been “caught” without proper identification, or those who were seen as potential threats. Enforcers would interrogate them until they were satisfied, and if they were lucky, they would simply be sent back to where they came from. If they weren’t, they would be dead.
It didn’t sound like justice to her, and she couldn’t leave Ram vulnerable to that kind of abuse. They’d been through too much together. Been too intimate.
No. She couldn’t think about that either, because it wasn’t something that could ever happen again. Not outside of her private fantasies. Brandon could not find out that there were more than the two of them that drunken night in the stable—especially since Ram had lost the ability to protect himself from jealous werewolves not twenty-four hours later.
She wasn’t a fool; she understood the need for precautions. She had seen firsthand what the others could do to a human—spirit possession and unspeakable violence. Criminal disregard for the species they deemed inferior. Murder for sport. Still, not all of them were guilty. Certainly not the ones who’d defied their orders just to protect Aziza and the people she loved. Ram had saved Penn. Te had saved Greg.
They weren’t all the same.
Brandon’s jaw clenched and he reached up to grip her arms in frustration. “I don’t know about superheroes, Aziza, but yes, we are the good guys. We were keeping humans safe before your line existed. Our oldest stories maintain it is why we were created in the first place. Our purpose in the grand design. We have our shortcomings, but we’ve always fought for this world. Always put humanity’s wellbeing before our own. We fight for justice as you do. And what about you, Fireborne? The Vessel created to save humanity. Are you so blinded by his one good deed that you can’t even entertain the notion that he knows something? That he could be involved? Can you stop defending Ram long enough to protect yourself from his wiles while he fucks and fights his way through the London population?”
She flinched. “I’m not blind at all, Bran. I know what he’s capable of, the good and the bad. I also know that he’s not the only one hiding things.”
They all were. So many secrets. But hers would only affect her relationships; they didn’t put anyone’s life in danger. His had.
Brandon’s grip tightened. “You mean Natalie? She is one of the best Enforcers we have. She has keen instincts. She’s also the one who found the last two bodies and her brother is a detective on the case, helping us control the flow of information. She’s earned the right to be involved in this investigation.”
“You never told me your father’s spy was
so beautiful.”
His gaze didn’t waver. “I never noticed.” When Aziza lifted her eyebrows, he shook his head. “Never, Aziza. She’s good at her job, but that is all. The Alpha might wish it were different, but he has no say over what I do when I’m off the job.”
“You never are, not really.” She took a breath. There was no point in getting sidetracked. “I’m talking about Ram. He isn’t connected to the killings. He would die before he became a part of the Jiniyr. I think he feels the same way about the Niyr as you do about Jinn. Hell, you’ve obviously had enough people tailing him and reporting his every move to know more about where he spends most of his days than I do. Our workouts at The Hangar and my visits to Underbridge are the only times I see him anymore, since you and Hillary made it clear he shouldn’t stay with us at Penn’s flat. And I’ve told you what goes on at the club. I’ve even invited you to join me. Since that’s how the victims are connected, am I a suspect? I was there last night. Why him and not me? Why not my Niyr Te? She’s not into kink but at least we both have our unnatural abilities. Ram is powerless.”
“Powerless, I believe, since I saw the cuff of the exile with my own eyes, but I don’t think for a second he isn’t causing trouble. It’s what Jinn do.” Brandon looked down at her and his grip softened, turning into a caress. “Aziza, damn it, I wanted to comfort you, to be here for you and apologize for keeping this from you, not have this argument again. Believe it or not, I was going to tell you about the women, about the club connection tonight. But after I dropped you off, I spent hours following a trail that kept going cold until this pinged on our radar. I had no idea you’d have to see this before I could tell you everything. I should have told you after the second murder, the moment we realized what the victims had in common.”
“Yes, you should have. And I know what they have in common. Me. Just like before, Razia and his Jiniyr—”
“It isn’t Razia.” Brandon shook his head. “I would know his scent and that, I would have told you.”
Only that?
He paused. “But I can’t doubt that it is Jiniyr. Traces of both races were on all the bodies. You’re right, we were never trained for this. My people didn’t believe their own senses at first. Didn’t believe it even after Hillary, Devil and I gave testimony to the Alpha about what we’d seen—what Natalie confirmed we’d done battle with. We were raised on the old stories, Jinn and Niyr as enemies throughout time, with only our people and the Vessel’s treaty standing between them and the destruction of three worlds—theirs and ours. We had no idea, nothing to prepare us for the possibility of a faction of both joining together in secret. It was unthinkable.”
It was forbidden. Unheard of. Aziza had heard that before. Te had told her that the slightest hint of such a collaboration would throw her people into chaos. But the Jiniyr managed to do a lot of damage for being such a secret. Razia and his Jinn partner Harash alone had been responsible for more suffering than Aziza could measure.
They had separated her family when she was still a toddler, driven her mother crazy for most of Aziza’s life and then picked them off, one by one, until only she was left. Their intention that Aziza specifically be the one to accept the gift and become Fireborne was the only reasoning they’d given for their crimes. Someone they could manipulate. They’d had no idea how strong her grief would make her. How determined and dangerous she could be.
Harash found out.
Brandon was still talking. “And now we have the added headache of dealing with Scotland Yard. Three women brutally carved up in London in the last three weeks will have every bobby and camera in the city paying closer attention. Our men on the inside can only do so much.”
Aziza leaned into his body, craving his warmth enough to give in to momentary weakness. “She wasn’t dead.”
He stilled. “What?”
“She wasn’t dead. That’s why Greg was on the street. He was calling for help. She… I couldn’t save her. Couldn’t stop it. She’d lost too much blood. But they left her alive.”
“Oh, my love, I’m so sorry you had to see that.” Brandon slid his arms around her and pulled her close, and for a moment, Aziza let him. Inhaled his scent, sunshine and sex, with a trace of cedar. Hers. Brandon.
And then she pulled away.
“Aziza?”
She shook her head. “I can’t—we can’t do this. Not right now.”
He went as still as the frozen world around him. “We can’t do what, Aziza?”
“This.” She pointed to the both of them. “This morning we were breaking your bed in and today we fought. It happens, I know. That’s life. But tonight you want me to fall into your arms and forget you lied about this? I can’t. To protect me, or to keep me from protecting Ram, you put Greg and Penn in danger. Are you so blinded by your duty that you don’t see that? If the Jiniyr are killing again, out in the open like this, don’t you think that the one person who can actually protect them should know? That I should know?”
“We have Enforcers watching the flat—”
“Of course you do.” She laughed, but it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “And that makes it better? Brandon, you know what I can do. And Natalie, as you’ve pointed out, made sure the Alpha knows. If obeying him is that important to you, schedule a meeting and I’ll curtsy my ass off. I would have done it the day we arrived if I’d known you’d be keeping things from me. I’ll do whatever I have to do to make sure no one else dies because of me. But I can’t go home with you tonight, and I think…I think we need to take a few days to—”
He covered her lips in a carnal kiss that cut off her words and made her feel as if her body were melting into his. This was what she’d needed since he came down the Tube steps—to be lost in him, in desire instead of darkness. Brandon kissed the way he did everything else—with complete focus and passion and a perfection that was almost too much. Too hot. Too good. So good.
She tore her mouth away from his. No. He’d lied. About something too important to brush aside. “Brandon, don’t.”
“Stop me then,” he whispered roughly against her neck. “Tell me you don’t crave this. That you don’t respond to my touch as if you’d die without it.”
He lifted her off the ground and she held on to his shoulders automatically, her legs wrapping instinctively around his waist. His thick erection pushed hard and insistent against her stomach and she moaned. This. Her body knew his. This was what he was offering her. No thinking, just feeling. Just desire so intense she could already feel tears coming to her eyes and her body burning up from the inside out, because she knew. She knew how he felt inside her. How he would stretch her and how her tight sex would cling to him and take away his control, bringing out his beast.
She wanted to lose herself in it—in him—so much that stopping felt a little like ripping out her own heart. She dropped her legs and struggled. “Damn it, Brandon, I mean it.”
He gripped her ass and she could feel the heat of his hands through her jeans. Burning her. “Aziza, baby, you don’t. I can taste your need. I know your scent. You can’t lie about this. Not what we have between us. Not what we are to each other.”
Three girls dead.
He lied.
She stiffened in his arms, forcing herself to remain unresponsive until he groaned as if he were in pain and set her slowly back on her feet. He turned away from her and ran his hands through his hair, breathing deeply as if to calm himself.
“You’re in shock.” His voice was rough. “And I lost my head.”
She didn’t disagree. “I did too. I need Greg to take me home now.”
“Penn’s flat,” he corrected. “Not home.” He turned back around to face her, and his expression made her heart ache. “I promise you, Aziza, as an Enforcer and as a man, that I will die before I let anyone harm your family. All that I’ve done to serve the Alpha since we returned has been to protect them. To protect you.”
It rose up then, through the shock and horror of the night, through the regret—ang
er. “You lied, disappeared, told me over and over again that what you were doing had nothing to do with the Jiniyr. Nothing to do with me. How in the fuck does that protect me, Brandon? Ignorance doesn’t protect me, or keep the people I love alive. Am I supposed to thank the big, strong hero for rescuing the princess before the train hits her, or kick his ass for not telling her to look over her fucking shoulder?”
“Aziza—”
She backed away. “No. I don’t need you to fight my battles. I don’t need you to protect me from your father or Natalie or Razia, and I certainly don’t need you to protect me from Ram.” She shook her head. “You want to know something funny? That Jinn you’re already convinced is guilty has more faith in my abilities than you do.”
“Damn it, Aziza, you know that isn’t true. That isn’t why I didn’t tell you. I’ve always believed in you. Trusted you.”
“You don’t trust me.” She forced herself to speak past the tightening in her throat. “Not really. Maybe you can’t because of what I am. What your little dog said about my stink. All of them and none of them. Maybe we’re just fooling ourselves…”
His arms came up as if to reach for her, but he stopped himself. “No, Aziza. Don’t do this. This isn’t the time or place for us to say something we can’t take back. I won’t apologize for wanting to keep you safe, but this is the last thing I… We can fix this. I can fix this. And I will. That is another promise.”
Her cheeks were wet and she lifted one hand to wipe the moisture absently away. “So you’ll tell the Alpha I’ll meet him, do whatever he wants to let me in on this? That I want to know what his plan is for stopping these murders and I refuse to be kept in the dark?”
“I’ll handle it.” He walked over to his bike where it leaned against a nearby lamppost. “Please take a cab back to Penn’s straight away and call me if there is anything you need.”
Make Me Burn: Fireborne, Book 2 Page 4
