That made Jenna mad, not at Thea, but about her situation. Thea was blameless, utterly blameless. Why couldn’t she see it? “The RF leaders are manipulative and self-serving. They ruthlessly exploited your pain and are systematically sucking you dry. They’re dangerous, all of them. And they need to be stopped.”
Thea’s only response was a barely discernible nod.
Frustrated by her obvious failure to cheer up Thea, Jenna sighed. Maybe she should let Thea brood for a while, then turn her over to Lenore who was much better at this sort of thing than her analytical daughter. But Jenna hated to lose, so she gave it one last try. “I meant what I said. You’re honestly welcome to stay with us for as long as you like, and my mother would be thrilled to help you redefine your future.”
With an unreadable sidelong glance, Thea made it clear that she wasn’t yet ready to work through her pain. “That might be hard to accomplish because what I want the future to become is the past.”
Rather than returning to ground they’d already covered, Jenna moved her arm back to her side and looked at her mate. Drex was deep in conversation. Their link was open wide enough for her to sense who he was speaking with, yet she couldn’t hear their actual words. She was pretty sure a mating bond would give them full access to each other’s minds. Being able to understand him more fully would be wonderful, but did she want to be that transparent with anyone? That was the problem with trust. To receive it, one often had to offer it in return.
Noticing her interest, Drex expanded the transfer link, allowing her to hear his conversations. He updated General Lux, letting Sedrik know that Thea was officially cooperating and asking if he could recommend a communication specialist that could help them identify, and hopefully trace, the various signals. Sedrik said he’d ask around and send someone to rendezvous with them in New York. Jenna was encouraged by the progress, but there were still too many variables.
Thea adamantly refused to bio-stream again, so the pilot reluctantly landed in Central Park. Again Drex seemed captivated by the grassy lawns and mature trees right in the heart of the city. All Jenna could think about was basic safety. Many sections of the park weren’t safe at night, and the sun had set hours before.
Drex noticed her anxiety and slipped his arm around her waist. “I might make my living arguing with people, but I’m actually pretty good in a fight.”
His humor was meant to soothe her, but tension had been building inside her ever since they left the Bunker. She didn’t understand the cause of her trepidation, but it was too pronounced to ignore.
“What’s wrong?” He pulled her close and all hints of amusement left his voice. “I can feel your fear. Something is really upsetting you.”
“It’s not fear, exactly. I just have one of my feelings.”
He looked at her more closely and his concern became strong enough to register on the transfer link. “Is this a Sensitive sort of feeling?”
She nodded. “Something is definitely wrong, but I have no idea what set off my gift.”
“Do we need to trigger one of your visions?” He punctuated the question with a sexy grin.
She elbowed him in the ribs. “Behave yourself. This could be serious.”
“Has something gone wrong?” Thea finally asked. “Is it my grandmother?” She’d been pretending not to listen, but they hadn’t been speaking softly enough to exclude her.
“I don’t think so,” Jenna told her as they hustled along the meandering path. “It feels more like a warning, something far-reaching, almost general.”
“How do you know when the feeling is triggered by your gift and when you’re just walking through Central Park at night?”
Jenna smiled. It was a legitimate question. “Years of practice.”
Lenore threw open the door as they climbed the front stairs to the brownstone. “Thank God you’re back.” She swept Jenna into a tight hug as soon as she reached the landing. “Foster wasn’t sure how long you’d be gone.”
Jenna cringed. “I should have told him where we were going.”
“I borrowed his radio to contact Morgan,” Drex reminded. “He knew where we were.”
She turned back to her mother, confused by her over-enthusiastic greeting. “Then what’s going on?”
“Women are disappearing all over the country. It started in Virginia, up near D.C., but disappearances have also been reported in—”
“Boulder, Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada?” Drex finished for her.
Lenore gaped. “How did you know? There are a lot of people blaming this on the battle born. Are they right?”
“No.” He tensed, Jenna would sense his uncertainty and he didn’t want to damage the trust they had worked so hard to build. “At least not anyone who is acting with General Lux’s approval. There is no way this was sanctioned by Rodyte leadership.”
“Come inside.” Lenore led them back to the kitchen, then knocked on Fatima’s door and asked her to make a pot of coffee.
Fatima, their live-in housekeeper/cook, was in a bathrobe and had clearly just crawled out of bed, so Jenna motioned her back into her bedroom. “I’ll make the coffee, Fatima. Sorry to bother you.” Her mother was so old-school sometimes.
Lenore sat at the tiny kitchen table and motioned everyone else toward the other chairs.
“When was the first disappearance reported?” Drex asked, choosing not to sit.
“This was the first time it made the nightly news, but it’s been happening for days,” Lenore told him. “The newscast said there have been at least a hundred young girls reported missing in less than a week. No one realized how many there were until the incident this evening motivated police departments to start comparing notes.”
“What happened this evening?” Thea asked.
“Two young women disappeared right in the middle of a restaurant in Las Vegas. They just zapped out of sight in full view of at least eighty people. Their friend was making a video-diary for social media, so she caught it all with her cell phone. Until then, I don’t think the cops were taking the reports seriously.”
“Sounds about right,” Thea grumbled. “Everything has to be sensationalized before anyone pays attention.”
“I need to make some calls.” Without further explanation, Drex walked from the room.
“You should probably check in too,” Lenore told Jenna. “Fredrick called here three times looking for you. Is your cell phone dead again?”
“We left so suddenly, I ran off without my purse,” Jenna admitted. Fredrick, her supervisor, was remarkably tolerant, but he expected his subordinates to respond when he called. “How angry was he? Maybe I’ll wait until tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t. Right now he’s more worried than mad. No telling how angry he’ll be if you let him stew all night.”
Her mother generally gave good advice, so Jenna decided to take it. “Can you entertain Thea until I get back?”
“We’ll entertain each other. Thea can start by filling me in on today’s adventure.” Lenore turned toward Thea, then paused and turned back around. “Can you start the coffee before you leave?”
Jenna just shook her head. Her mother had never worked a day in her life. At times like these, it showed. Jenna quickly made a pot of coffee, then went to the library to call her boss.
As she expected, Fredrick was not happy with her, but she quickly calmed him down. “My mother just told me what’s on the news. What else do we know?”
“Not much,” Fredrick muttered. “I spoke with Governor Lasenger and General Lux, they both told the same story. ‘It’s not the battle born, it’s the Outcasts.’” He recited the denial in a singsong voice that indicated his doubt. “I’m not sure I see a difference. They’re both Rodytes who need human females to unlock their magic. It sounds like the Outcasts decided not to wait for permission.”
“All of the women are between twenty and thirty-five?” If this was truly about the transfer program, then the females had to be of child-bearing age.
“They are. And they’ve all been taken from those enchanted zones or mystic breeding grounds or whatever the blazes they call them.”
“Sacred bonding grounds,” Jenna supplied. “Fairfax County, Boulder, and Las Vegas.”
“Why does Virginia get an entire county, but Colorado and Nevada only get cities?” He released a humorless laugh. “They could at least be consistent.”
Jenna knew the answer. Virginia had been the first sacred bonding ground, so it was also the largest and most powerful. But Fredrick wasn’t really asking for more information. He always talked too much when he was stressed. “Should I call an emergency meeting of the First Contact Committee tomorrow?”
“No need. As usual they want Morgan’s people to deal with this. I was just making sure you were in the loop.” Fredrick always referred to his supervisors as “they”. Jenna had no idea if there was actually more than one or their respective genders. Fredrick might report directly to the president for all she knew. And it didn’t really matter as long as Fredrick and the mysterious “they” gave her the authority, and funding, she needed to do her job.
“Works for me. I’m in the middle of something else right now anyway.”
“Anything you’re ready to explain?” Fredrick asked.
“The RF member I mentioned earlier appears to have flipped. RF leaders, likely on Abaddon’s order, kidnapped her grandmother as motivation to keep her in line. Needless to say, she’s mad as hell about it.”
“You aren’t leaving this to the locals, are you? I can sanction whatever support you need. Anyone messes with kids or the elderly and I get really mean.”
She smiled. “I’m right there with you, but both Morgan and the battle born have teams working on it. Hopefully, I’ll be chatting with Abaddon himself very soon, courtesy of my newly flipped agent.”
“You’re wasted in the courtroom. You should have been a spy.”
The praise pleased her, probably more than it should. “Espionage is too much work. At heart I’m really lazy.”
He laughed. “Yeah right. Talk to you soon.” Then he ended the call.
She looked at her call log and groaned. Calls and messages piled up fast when she didn’t stay on top of them.
Drex knocked on the open door a few minutes later. “Learn anything helpful?”
“Not really.” She looked up as she asked, “Did you?”
He shook his head. “Sedrik swears it’s the Outcasts. He has scouts searching for their ships, but they can’t patrol the entire country.”
“They don’t need to. The Outcasts are clearly hunting in the sacred bonding grounds.”
“I know.” He sounded a bit defensive. “And so does Sedrik, but even with tighter search parameters, it won’t be easy to catch them. The Outcasts have several ships with covert shields just like ours.”
“How did they even know about the bonding grounds?” She shook her head, frustrated by yet another complication. “Tandori Tribe is incredibly secretive and there has been nothing about the bonding grounds in any of the battle born recruitment videos.”
“Sedrik was puzzled as well,” Drex told her. “Apparently Kage Razel has contacts strategically placed within the battle born.”
“And I’m sure General Lux has a contact or two placed with the Outcasts. Or does his brother keep him well-informed?”
Drex shook his head. “Sedrik and Arton aren’t on speaking terms. All the other Lux brothers believed Arton was dead for years and in many ways he did die back then. Arton the Heretic is very different from the boy the others remember.”
“That’s really sad.” Jenna rubbed the back of her neck as her temples began to pulse. “This is not what we needed right now.”
He held out his hand and pulled her up then out from behind the desk. “Let’s go to bed and I’ll rub anything you want rubbed.”
She smiled despite her growing headache. So many females in need of rescuing and yet the only one they were in any position to help was Helen. “I need to say good night to Thea and Mom first.”
Thea was fiddling with her transceiver when they walked back into the kitchen. Lenore must have gotten it back from the security team.
“Sedrik is sending us an expert named Sental,” Drex said. “According to Sedrik, Sental has a way with technology. He’ll be here tomorrow morning. I’d rather you not use that until he’s looked it over and run some tests.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” To prove her point, she handed it to him. “Anything I’d say to Abaddon right now would be counterproductive to our plans.”
“Do your friends know anything more than what was on the news?” Lenore asked him.
Drex shook his head. “They know who’s doing it and why, but General Lux isn’t sure how to stop them.”
“Well, the battle born are the only ones who can,” Lenore stressed. “Humans can do little more than stand on the ground and shake our fists at the sky. The battle born cannot give up.”
“We won’t,” Drex assured her. “It’s not a Rodyte’s nature to surrender.”
Lenore’s only response was a stiff little nod.
“We’ll get this ball rolling first thing in the morning,” Jenna said, more than ready to be alone with her mate.
They walked to her bedroom hand in hand, each distracted by the crisis raging around them. They couldn’t plan a rescue until they discovered Helen’s location and their best hope of accomplishing that was Sental. Communication devices were far outside of Drex’s field of expertise, and Jenna knew even less than he did. Which meant they were stuck for tonight. There was nothing to do but relax, if that was possible, and get a good night’s sleep so they would be rested and sharp in the morning.
Still, Jenna felt a twinge of guilt as they reached her bedroom and her blood began to heat. Their lovemaking had decreased the intensity of the pull, but it was far from extinguished. Her pulse leapt and her core melted every time his hand brushed her arm or she looked into his eyes.
“If you need to rest, I understand.” The obvious bulge in the front of his pants assured her that he wasn’t looking for a way out. “I’ll rub your tension away, and then we’ll go to sleep.”
“I need you.” She kicked off her sandals and reached for the zipper at the side of her dress. “There’s no way I’ll fall asleep until I’ve worked off some of this frustration.”
A slow, wicked smile parted his lips as he sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off his boots, stuffing his socks down inside. Then he peeled off his shirt and let it drop to the floor, his smoldering gaze never leaving Jenna.
She let the straps of her dress droop onto her upper arms, but supported the loosened bodice. The dress had a built-in bra, so as soon as she let go, she’d be naked except for her panties.
His gaze narrowed, gleaming with the sort of possessive passion that set her body on fire. She might not have accepted his physical claim, but they both knew she would. They both knew she was his already. And he was hers.
“Show me.” His voice dropped, becoming a sensual growl that tightened her nipples and bathed her core in liquid heat. She pulled one arm free of the strap and then the other, allowing the bodice to slip until the tops of her breasts were visible to his hungry gaze. “More. Take it off, then kick it aside. I want you naked.”
Her first impulse was to rebel whenever he started barking orders, but some darker, more elemental instinct held her in palace and made her heart pound. The intensity in his gaze and the demand in his voice revealed her power over him. The transfer link pulsed with longing, his and hers, making it impossible to disobey.
She wiggled the dress past her hips and stepped out of the pool of dark green material. Her panties were sexy without making her feel cheap, emerald green with black lace accents.
“Those are so pretty, you can leave them on—for now.” He crooked his finger at her, then pointed to the floor between his spread legs. “Sit down. I owe you a massage.”
The tension coiling thorough her now had nothing
to do with their circumstances and everything to do with her mate’s obsession with foreplay. He loved to touch her, kiss her, and taste her until she shook with the need to be filled. Only then would he join their bodies and release the stranglehold on his own desire. She didn’t mind his games, in fact she enjoyed them immensely, when he was in the mood to let her come. However, just as often, he’d tease her unmercifully, bringing her right to the brink of release over and over before he finally ended her misery. His dark eyes shimmered, phitons softly glowing, but she couldn’t tell which way he was leaning tonight.
One of his brows arched as she hesitated. “Sit down and let me rub away today, or take off the panties and get on your knees. I’m good with either.”
Again, she was tempted to rebel, but her defiance would only rob her of a nice long massage. She moved between his thighs, then pressed her breasts against his chest as she reached beyond him for one of the pillows. “Floor’s hard.”
He cupped her butt with both hands and bent to sample her mouth. She returned the kiss for only a moment, then wiggled away and dropped the pillow on the floor.
“You’re going to be trouble tonight,” he muttered. “I can see it in your eyes.”
Letting her actions speak for themselves, she turned around and sank to the pillow. She folded her legs in front of her, pulled her hair over one shoulder and fought back a smile as she said, “You may begin.”
One of his strong, warm hands curved around her shoulder, but the other swooped down her front and caught one of her nipples between his thumb and forefinger. He didn’t squeeze, just held her prisoner, a hair’s breadth away from pain. “Are you sure you want to challenge me, mate? I’ve yet to prove myself strong enough to claim you. Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she lied, pressing her teeth into her lip to keep from grinning.
“Do you want me to wrestle you to the floor and hold you still while I end this battle once and for all? It won’t be gentle, but it will leave no doubt that we are meant to be together.”
Defiant (Battle Born Book 13) Page 20
