“Now get the fu-fuck out.”
She turned to him and shook her head adamantly. “I won’t let you die here like this.”
“This will b-be for nothing if you d-don’t get away.” He knew ordering her around would do no good. Frustrating wench. So he did the only thing he knew would work. “Please, turtle.” His voice broke over the plea.
More agonized than he’d ever seen her, even when she’d laid in much the same deadly situation in his arms, her tears spilled over. A soft, keening cry came from her before she drew a shuddering breath. “I love you, Ian.”
Her passionate whisper eased the cold creeping over him. “No m-matter what, do not stand at my gr-grave and weep. That’s a p-poem. Promise m-me you’ll read it and understand.” He cupped her cheek, willing every ounce of his feelings into her. “I’ll be with you always. I love you.”
Blood streaked her face from his fingers, but he didn’t care. He needed to touch her one last time. Leaning down, she kissed him, one of her soft, tender, moist kisses, the kind that made him think of warm, cozy nights curled in front of a fire with the smell of fresh cookies in the air. His eyes stung so he kept them closed before his own sorrow made her change her mind.
“Hurry,” he said. He sensed her move away, but she’d been careful not to make a sound. When he opened his eyes, she was at the far end of the room, slipping out through the rear entrance. Good girl, his wench. He knew she’d find Dec or Ezra as fast as she could. There was still a chance he might make it to see another dusk. Maybe not much of a chance, but it was something to hold on to.
Countless minutes passed while he drove himself insane with worry. Had Alice made it far enough away? It had been a while since he’d heard anything coming from the room Otsana and Kenji had slipped off to. What the hell was involved with this ritual anyway? He had no answers as to why they would murder Immortalis, but it didn’t much matter since his death was imminent. The team was going to be fucking boring without him. Despite the pain it caused, he chuckled, but cut off when he heard a sound from the adjoining room.
His time was up. Kenji emerged from the darkened doorway.
“Finished saying your good-byes yet?” The Dominus darted his gaze around the room, and then his face scrunched up. “What’d you do with her, Tracker?”
Pain temporarily forgotten, Ian stared at him in disbelief. The ancient vampire sounded like someone had just stolen his tricycle.
“Vesania,” he said.
Kenji jerked back as if he’d been slapped. “Nnnnno.”
Yeah. Hell, yeah, it was vesania. All of this—all of the murders, Alice’s kidnapping, and a sword shoved into his back—was over a nutcase who didn’t know when to call it quits. A cluster of nutcases. His fuzzy mind circled the details of the case, trying to sort, rearrange, and fit them together.
With several of them working together, they could easily take turns gaining an alibi for at least one murder, thereby eliminating each of them from the suspect list. It hadn’t occurred to him there could be an even larger group. There had to be more of them than just these two. And Revenant, however he had ended up involved.
He needed to know what Ander’s link was to all of this. Of all of them, he’d be the untouchable one, just like Hes had been. Ian would have laughed again if it didn’t hurt so goddamned much. As if he could do anything about any of this.
When Kenji came at him with a knife that put his KA-BAR to shame, Ian couldn’t fool himself any longer.
He was about to die.
Chapter Twenty-five
Alice made it to the front of the building, her heart pounding and breaking with each beat. How could she just leave Ian? He’d never let her down, not really. All of her fears about him seemed so trivial now that she faced losing him. Tears impairing her vision, she tripped over something big and soft.
The scent of blood hit her hard, only it didn’t make her hungry but rather nauseous. There was something off about it that repulsed her. She rolled to her rear and picked the gravel from the cuts on her hands where she’d skinned them. When she saw the body her foot was propped on, she recoiled. A guard. Dead, and that was the off-putting scent. Which explained why Immortalis couldn’t drink blood that wasn’t from a living vein. It would be like chugging fouled milk—with clumps and all. A shudder passed through her.
Alice stared at the guard’s open, lifeless eyes, but her mind transposed Ian’s face. That would be him. There was no way she could get help for him in time. Rubbing the tears from her eyes, she pushed to her feet. Another guard lay several feet away, curled in a fetal position. There was no use checking his pulse. So much loss. She couldn’t just leave and risk them getting away. Couldn’t let them kill Ian.
A quick search of the guards yielded no weapons. The one closest to the building had an empty holster, which was rare. Rent-a-cops didn’t often carry firearms. Then she saw the glint of light off metal against the building. After grabbing the pistol from the debris along the wall, she breathed a sigh of relief to find the magazine full.
She thumbed the safety off and went in from the back where she’d emerged earlier, taking caution with each step. Her feet were bare. Touching the filthy floor with her naked skin gave her the heebies enough, but the shards of glass, stray nails, and twisted metal in the rubble could wound her and make noise.
The sounds of a struggle came from around the doorframe into the next room, where Ian was lying paralyzed and helpless. To hell with stealth. She raced through the threshold. Kenji bore his weight down over a wicked-looking knife, while Ian fought as best he could with only his upper body to hold the steel from his throat. She swore her heart seized.
“Stop!” she screamed. Kenji jerked back on his knees and grinned. It wasn’t a pretty grin.
“Why, Ms. Capshaw, you’ve returned. I knew you’d miss me.”
“Alice, what the fuck?” Ignoring Ian’s devastated words, she focused on the source of danger in the room.
She drew closer, careful to stay out of Kenji’s reach. “You’re batshit insane if you think I’ve come for you. You’ll be executed for what you’ve done.” Her hands were steady with determination as she aimed the pistol sights on the Dominus. This is why she’d practiced endless hours at the indoor range, for the blessing of steady hands on her weapon.
“I think not.” He tossed the blade and stood with his hands up. “All I’m guilty of is kidnapping an infant and assaulting a Tracker. Nothing else will stick.”
“You make me sick.”
He giggled. “Aren’t you going to read my rights, Ms. VLO? Take me to detainment?”
“Fuck your rights.”
The gun had a stiff recoil, but her aim was true. One shot to the heart, one to the throat, and one to the center of his forehead. Triple tap—the most effective method of killing Immortalis instantly.
The shakes invaded her hands. She didn’t feel her fingers let go but heard the clash of the gun hitting the concrete.
“Oh God.” She’d just killed a man in cold blood. An unarmed man—sort of—who had all the appearances of surrendering. Welcome to the dark side, Alice. Ian was right. There’d be no forgetting this ever happened, but then no other option would have satisfied her. Kenji had been murdering her man.
Ian. She darted toward him but hadn’t made it halfway to him when a grating shriek pierced her sensitive eardrums. Rage contorted Otsana’s scarred face as the woman flew at her with fingers curved like claws ready to tear her eyes out. Alice heard Ian’s shout. Then she braced for the hit, but it never came.
In a blur of shadow and pale hair, an avenging warrior-angel tackled Otsana to the floor. The enraged shrieks transformed into the terrified screams of an animal caught in a bear trap.
Ezra.
Crap, Alice felt like screaming, and he wasn’t after her. The man was pure, unholy death. Eyes blazing the flames of hell, his fangs ripped vicious and deadly at Otsana’s throat.
The woman fought against the vamp’s hold but it was a vise
she couldn’t break. Her cries went guttural. She slipped something from Ezra’s belt. A moment later, blood gushed from her throat. It was so sudden, Alice cried out. The Domina had stabbed herself. What kind of demented desperation would that have taken?
Dec’s sudden touch on Alice’s shoulder made her jump. She clutched her chest and glanced back toward the doorway. Luc, Kade, and Izel. Guns was missing, but thank God they’d arrived. Someone had to be able to help Ian.
“Alice.” Dec gave her a little shake. Fixing her gaze on his worried face, she avoided Otsana’s gurgling death only a few yards away. “It’s all right. She deserved it. She was sneaking up on you while Kenji kept you occupied. What did they do to Ian? He’s out cold.”
“One of them stabbed him. He’s paralyzed.” She caressed Ian’s now-colorless cheek. “He’s lost a lot of blood. Can we get a donor?”
“No.” Dec tightened his grip. “It’ll take more than a donor to fix this.”
Her blood pressure shot up. “What are you telling me?”
Kade crouched beside to her. “I’m going to be straight with you.”
Luc came up next to Kade. “When are you not?”
With a long-suffering sigh, the prince ignored his friend. “You have to mate him here and now. Make your choice before he’s too far gone to recover.”
Her jaw dropped and her gaze dove straight below Ian’s belt level. “Right here?” Hell, if it was her only option…
The men laughed, despite the dire circumstances.
“Not like that,” Dec said. “It’s a mating bond. If you choose him, it’s a lifelong commitment, Alice. Then you can feed him. Restore him, hopefully. Immortalis blood is no good to an Immortalis without that bond. Or family bond, but that’s another matter and Ian doesn’t have any blood family, only us.”
Something about that made her sad. She had no family either since Zach died, but they could have each other. “I don’t know how to do it. What do I do?”
“What do you feel for him?” Dec asked. He looked at her as if he already knew the answer.
“Love.”
Kade grasped her hand. “If that’s the case, you should feel something pulling at you, something in him.”
“Sounds like you might know what you’re talking about, Sir Lancelot.” Ezra came into her field of vision. His leathers were slick and shiny, and she didn’t want to think about why.
“Sir Lancelot? Stop talking to my woman, Ezra.” Kade turned his attention back to Alice. “You’ll have to bite him and grab onto it. Don’t let go. Take it into you.”
“But he’s lost so much blood.”
“He’ll either survive it or he won’t, but if you want him, you have to try.” Kade sounded heartless, but there was impatience and distress in his eyes and body language. “If he doesn’t make it, you’ll suffer without him.”
“I’ll suffer without him anyway.” There were no truer words. She couldn’t lose him now. If she had to risk his life to save it, she would. He didn’t have a chance without that risk as it was.
“Is that all? A bite?”
“Yes,” Kade said. “After that, if it works, he’ll instinctively do the rest.”
An uncharacteristic pang of shyness washed over her as she leaned over Ian, but the second she caught the scent of him, there was no one else in her world. She braced on one arm while her other hand curled into his soft chestnut hair at his nape. A faint pulse beat at his throat, and she pressed her lips against it. That force inside of him that drew her roared to life, and her heart slammed against her sternum as if it longed to jump into him through his.
Fangs extending in an effortless slide, her eyes grew warm like they did when she was hungry. Only it wasn’t hunger. A deep and humbling emotion swept everything away but Ian. He consumed her, body and soul. She cupped the back of his neck and sank her fangs into that pulse at his throat and drank him into her.
That magnetic presence in him flowed into her without hesitation, his essence, and she embraced every bit of it. She soared into a high unlike anything she’d ever experienced, beyond the joining of their bodies. Tears trickled from under her closed eyelids at the beauty of it. She wanted this to last forever. Then Dec’s sharp tug on her shoulders pulled her away.
She gradually returned to awareness. Had she taken too much? Afraid to open her eyes, she did so reluctantly. No one in the room had breathed a word. It was surreal, almost ceremonial.
Ian’s eyelids flickered and then she was gazing into his eyes. He smiled weakly at her but didn’t speak. What came next? Would he know? He must have because he pushed his fingers into her hair, and feeble though his touch was, he urged her closer. Instinctively, she offered her throat at his lips. He took her offering with a deep, satisfied sigh.
As he drank from her, it wasn’t the intense desire and arousal dropping her full weight onto him but a joining of spirit that shook her to her foundation. He was hers. She was his. There’d be no parting them. It was an unbreakable consummation. If someone had tried to explain it, she couldn’t have fully understood until this moment.
After he withdrew his fangs and sealed her wounds, absolute exhaustion permeated her to her follicles. Dec had to bodily lift her from Ian, and she could barely hold her head up. When she did finally, she was in awe. The onlookers wore their reverence on their sleeves.
“Thank you, Alice,” Dec said, his voice suspiciously unsteady.
“Always knew you had a crush on him, Dec,” Ezra said, sending her into a shaky laugh.
“Will he be okay?” she asked. “They can’t execute him now. Can they?”
All eyes turned to Izel, who stood statuesque behind the semicircle of Ian’s teammates. She eyed each of them in turn without an iota of expression, and then her gaze landed on Ian, who’d passed out again.
“Why would he be executed?” Izel asked blithely. “Kenji was the guilty party in the unlawful transformation, and he’s already dead through a simple matter of self-defense. Killian’s not even an adjuvant. We can go now.”
With that, she turned on a spiky-heeled boot and left the rat-infested building. Alice felt more than heard the collective outlet of tension in the room.
“Hey, Dec,” Luc called. “Isn’t Otsana wearing the same catsuit that—”
“Don’t finish that thought.” Dec glowered at him, and then grumbled, “I’m never gonna live that down.”
“Not in this century.” Ezra laughed with glee. Hard to believe that earlier he was the Grim Reaper incarnate.
“How’d you find us?” she asked.
“Someone left a trail of destruction in his wake.” Ezra waved toward Ian’s prone form. “He must have flashed like a drunkard, he ran into so many things. It wouldn’t have taken a Tracker to find him.”
Oh, Ian. Alice climbed from Dec’s arms and cradled Ian’s head in her lap. Brushing a cupid-like curl from around his ear, his adorable ears that stood out just a teensy bit, she couldn’t help tracing a fingertip around the edge of one.
Kade cleared his throat. “It’s nearly dawn. We’ve got Dec’s Escalade outside to get us back. He’ll end up sleeping a while, probably until next twilight.”
“You’ll probably sleep just as long,” Dec added. “He needed a lot of blood. You look like you’re about to fall down anyway.”
“I feel…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, and she sounded outright slurring drunk. Had the blood loss been that bad?
“Don’t worry, Alice,” Dec said. “It’s the sunrise. We’ll take care of Ian. You can sleep on the way to the Akkadian Towers. You’ll stay there tonight. And by the way, nice shooting, Tex. Remind me to never piss you off.”
Ezra lifted Ian easily and carried him out while Alice kept a wobbly pace with Dec’s support. She made it safely into the backseat and sank against the leather upholstery like a blob of jelly. Within moments, she was dead to the world.
Chapter Twenty-six
Two days had passed since Alice had nearly lost Ian. She couldn’t stand no
t having him within her sight. But they had some work to clear up before they could move on with their lives. Together.
She surveyed what little she’d accomplished while her thoughts had kept wandering. Only two small boxes sat on Alice’s desk. Wow, she’d really left her mark in this office. She hadn’t even made it a month before she was out of a job. Then again, a vampire directing the day-to-day operation of the VLO was a direct conflict of interest. Wasn’t that a kick? She was Immortalis. It still blew her mind how quickly her life had changed.
“I hate this.” Piper scowled at her from the doorway. “Can I just come work for you?”
Alice laughed. “Why are you here so late? I thought you’d left before I got here.”
“Nope. Snack run. How many times I gotta tell you, you’re like three worker bees?” Piper swayed—because there was no other way to describe the moves of her curvy hips—through the door and wrapped her arms around Alice. “I’m going to miss you so much.”
Alice returned the hug. “I’ll miss you, too.” She pulled back and took Piper’s hands. “But look at the bright side. I’ll totally kick your butt at Zumba.”
“Cheater.”
“Besides, I don’t even have a job. Again.” She hated relying on Ian, but the man was wealthy beyond her imaginings, and he insisted on taking care of her rent and mortgage payments until she could get out of her lease and find meaningful employment. He didn’t even want her to work, but she could be as stubborn as him.
“You’ll find something soon. I mean you’ve got new skills, right?” Piper laughed while Alice shoved her away. “Whew. Those red eyes. Tweaks me out that you’re a vamp. When you look at me, do you see a walking blood bank?”
Bad Cop (Entangled Covet) Page 19
