Undiscovered

by Sara Humphreys

  Maybe, Rena thought with a sigh, she was a devil of some kind, but at least she wasn’t the thief.

  Freak? Sure. Thief? Nope.

  She didn’t even know what she was exactly. Only that she was different.

  Rena let out a short laugh and shook her head as she typed another piece of information into the Excel spreadsheet. She kept her gaze on the screen because she hated to admit Pat was right. Rena had never been good at making friends, or keeping them, anyway. It had always been easier to hold most people at arm’s length. If they couldn’t get close to her, then they couldn’t hurt her. It was a survival skill she’d picked up long ago, after the first foster family sent her away. There was no point in getting attached to anyone, because once they realized Rena was different, they couldn’t get away from her fast enough.

  She had always been something of a loner, at least until a few years ago.

  “Sad but true.” Pat giggled.

  “It is sad.” Rena yawned yet again. “Jeez. I am totally wiped out. I didn’t get any damn sleep again last night, and I’ve been tied to my desk all day getting my quarterly taxes done for my accountant. Vito always took care of this stuff but…well…now it’s on me.”

  “Sorry, babe.” Pat’s voice softened. “How’s the old guy doing, anyway?”

  “He’s…the same.” Rena stilled and forced herself not to cry. Vito was the first person Rena had allowed herself to care about in years. “The assisted-living place he’s in is great, but it costs a damn fortune. Thank God business has been good, but you know what they say: there’s never enough money. I have no idea how long he’ll be staying there, so bring on the cases and the cash. Besides, you know me. I thrive on work.”

  “What are they gonna do if you don’t pay ’em?” Pat scoffed. “Kick him out? The guy is, like, almost a hundred, and he’s got full-on dementia. Is there anywhere else he can go that’s not so expensive?”

  “There are state-run places, but I wouldn’t put a dog in one of those, let alone the only semblance of a family I’ve ever had. Vito took me in when I had nobody. Hell, he taught me this business, and he’s the only person who has ever given a damn about me.” Anger shimmied up her back at the notion of taking her beloved friend out of the Sunnyfarm Retirement Community. “Besides, they have the best program in the country for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. He has to stay there…even if he doesn’t know where the hell he is from one minute to the next.”

  Rena’s heart squeezed in her chest when she recalled the vacant, lost expression on Vito’s face. It was the same one she saw every time she visited him now. No matter how many times he looked at her that way, she would never get used to it. The irony of her situation wasn’t lost on her. She had pushed people away her entire life, and the first person she opened her heart to no longer remembered her.

  Tears stung the back of Rena’s eyes, but she willed them away and cursed herself for her foolishness. The ache in her heart wasn’t Vito’s fault; it was hers. She was the dummy who had allowed herself to care about him. He wasn’t hurting her on purpose, but that didn’t make her feel any better.

  “He still sayin’ wacky stuff?”

  “Yeah,” Rena said on a sigh. “When I saw him yesterday, he thought I was his daughter, and since she’s been dead for decades, he’s obviously confused. Sometimes nothing he says makes sense, and then other times, he’s totally normal. Every time I go visit him, I’m not sure which version of Vito I’m going to see. Usually it’s the one who looks at me like he’s never seen me before, like the last few years never happened, and I’m just some stranger.”

  “Jeez,” Pat whispered. “It’s like a roller coaster, huh?”

  “Yup.” Rena rubbed at her bleary eyes before forcing herself to refocus on the computer screen. “An expensive, heartbreaking, cruddy carnival ride that nobody should have to get on. I’m only twenty-five, but lately I feel like I’m a hundred and five. My body and brain are on the fritz. I think it’s all his crazy talk about monsters that has been giving me nightmares.”

  “All the more reason you should come out with me tonight and party a little. Come on! You need a break, girl, and Dino’s Place is always fun.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “Pleeeeeeease.” Pat put her hands together as if in prayer and batted her big blue eyes at Rena. “Come on, Rena. It’s my birthday, and my cat doesn’t like going to the bars. So you’re my only hope.”

  “What if I hadn’t solved the case and gotten your money back for you?” Rena flicked her narrowed gaze to Pat. “Would we still be friends?”

  “Hell no,” she snorted. “Because then I’d be out my ten grand plus your fee. Besides, I knew you’d be able to do it.”

  “Oh yeah?” Rena laughed. “How’s that?”

  “My sixth sense.” Pat tapped her temple with one long red fingernail. “I get hunches, and they’re never wrong.”

  “Really?” Rena’s eyebrows raised and a smile curved her lips. “Then why didn’t those hunches lead you to the deadbeat with all your cash?”

  “They led me to you, so him taking my money was actually a good thing in the end. Shit, not all of us get the crazy, weird vibes like you do.”

  Rena stilled for a second. She’d never told Pat about the way she was able to find people. She didn’t mention the fact that when she held Tank’s old T-shirt in her hands, she had been able to see everything. All of his dirty secrets—and the guy had a few. Including a wife and three kids. Once Rena called him out on the secret family, he had been more than willing to give back the money.

  In fact, she’d never told anyone about her gift. Hell, Rena rarely got close enough to anybody to tell them the way she liked her coffee, let alone her deepest secret. And hers was a whopper. The people who sensed that Rena was different or got weirded out by her hunches always gave her that look. The one that made her feel like a Martian, and she sure as hell didn’t want to see an expression like that on Pat’s face.

  “Anyway, are you coming tonight or what?”

  “What do your hunches tell you?”

  “Screw you.” Pat laughed.

  “Well, since you asked so nicely…”

  “Excellent.” Pat leaned across the desk and planted a lipstick-laden kiss on Rena’s cheek. Rena wasn’t great with the huggy and kissy stuff, but she’d learned a long time ago that Pat was an expert hugger and kisser. “I’ll meet you at Dino’s Place at eight, and don’t be late!”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Rena saluted dramatically.

  “Bye, baby.” Pat waved before disappearing through the door and walking out into the hot Vegas sun.

  An ear-piercing squeak filled the small office as the door closed, and finally, Rena was left in blissful silence. She had always enjoyed being alone, and even though she adored Pat, Rena could only handle her friend’s energy in small doses. The woman’s vibe was something akin to a Tasmanian devil and tended to put Rena’s unusually heightened senses on overload. Her hearing had always been phenomenal, but today it seemed to be on hyperdrive.

  Rena could even hear the people in the travel agency downstairs. Not just muffled voices but actual words. She stilled and tilted her head, instinctively sharpening her focus, trying harder to hear every word. However, she swiftly pulled back and shifted her attention to the sound of the ticking clock. Just because she had weirdly awesome hearing didn’t mean she should use it.

  Eavesdropping was rude.

  Letting out a slow sigh, she glanced at the clock above the door. Two more hours. She’d call it quits at six, which would give her time to shower and change. It would be a short trip home, since her studio apartment was right behind her office, though the entrance was separate. Business was booming, and she could have afforded one of those huge McMansions that had popped up outside the city, but that wasn’t her style. She preferred her cozy, neat little apartment to a sprawling, vacant hou
se.

  Besides, having such a quick trip home would even give her time to grab a nap before going out.

  Rena shouldn’t go out tonight. What she should do was go to bed and try to get some more sleep, because the nightmares were kicking her butt and interrupting her sleep patterns. Not only did it make her physically exhausted, but it also seemed to weaken her special abilities. If she didn’t get enough sleep, her radar could get fuzzy. Rena saved the file on her computer and opened her email. She hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep for the past several months, and last night was the worst ever thanks to yet another freaky-ass monster dream.

  What was the deal with these weird nightmares, anyway?

  The sudden roar of a motorcycle rumbled outside, and Rena winced as the shock of it pulled her from her memories. A shudder whispered up her spine as she recalled the energy signature from the man in the dream. The dreams typically lingered, but this one was practically alive around her in the air. She easily recalled the man’s voice; it was deep and gravelly and seemed as though it had imprinted on her brain or something. She couldn’t shake him, or the memory of him at least.

  Powerful. Dark. Seductive.

  This was nuts. A disembodied voice in a dream—a voice that belonged to nobody other than her own subconscious—got her more hot and bothered than any living, breathing guy. Maybe Pat was right and Rena needed some nookie. Would some no-strings-attached sex with a hot stranger help her snap out of—

  No. She answered her own question before she even finished the thought.

  Rena closed her eyes and sucked in a deep, cleansing breath in an attempt to clear her head. Weird dreams aside, she had work to finish, but with no new cases on the horizon, she would likely have plenty of time to analyze her crazy subconscious later.

  “I’m being ridiculous,” she muttered under her breath. “Sex with a stranger is the last complication I need…and now I’m talking to myself.”

  Rena grabbed the glass of water on her desk and was about to take a sip when she spotted a layer of dust floating on top. She grimaced. How long had it been sitting there? Gross.

  Letting out a sigh, she rose to her feet with glass in hand, but as she rounded the desk, a hauntingly familiar spirit stream curled around her. Dark and erotic, the ghostlike tendril made her stop short, and all the breath rushed from her lungs. Rena’s body tensed, and a shiver of lust mixed with surprise and excitement sizzled beneath her skin. Warmth seeped through her chest, and her eyes tingled—an odd pins-and-needles sensation—and her breath came in quick, jagged gasps.

  Rena’s entire body went into some kind of haywire overdrive that she had zero control over.

  The spirit stream grew stronger, and sweat broke out over her skin. Rena’s fingers curled tighter around the glass. Her mind raced, fighting to break through the myriad sensations and identify the source of the spirit stream. Who could possibly be having this kind of effect on her?

  Mine.

  The gruff, gravelly voice rumbled through her mind as the glass shattered between her fingers and sliced her flesh. She barely felt the pain or the blood, hot and wet, as it dripped from her hand, because at the same instant, the door of her office flew open and a towering man filled the space. Light from the setting sun glared behind him, blocking out everything but the massive size of him, and in that moment, Rena realized the voice in her dream, the man she had heard—he wasn’t her subconscious at all.

  He was real…and he was here.

  * * *

  Zander Lorens had traveled the entire globe over the past five centuries, and Las Vegas was one of his least favorite places. The city was saturated with greed and layered with the worst aspects of humanity, traits he had gotten to know all too well during his time on earth. He never thought anyone or anything would get him to come back here, but then again, he hadn’t expected to find his brother’s mate living in Sin City.

  Shit. He hadn’t expected to find her anywhere. Ever. He had all but given up hope. Zander had resigned himself to their cursed fates long ago, and with the five-hundred-year anniversary fast approaching, he thought they were both done for.

  Six hours after waking from his dream, he arrived at his destination, but he still didn’t have a damn clue about how to approach her.

  Zander slowed his Harley and pulled up to the curb of the small office building, the rumble of the engine echoing around him in the narrow side street. He kicked the stand down and shut off the bike with a hint of apprehension glimmering in his chest. Slipping his hands into his pockets, he curled his fingers around the piece of red quartz. The familiar feel of his family’s spirit stone tumbled against his palm, instantly putting him at ease.

  The lumpy rock from his clan’s land was all he had left of his former life and his people. It had always been his most prized possession but now more than ever. A knot of apprehension curled in his gut as he stared at the small, brick building. She was in there. Her energy signature pulsed and throbbed from the second-story office. Thick and humming with a soft musical lilt, it curled around him like smoke.

  A sudden rush of lust shot through him, making his blood hum.

  “Shit,” he hissed under his breath.

  Mating for the dragons, as with the Amoveo, had always been predestined, and his father had said it was the universe’s way of helping their people avoid base emotions like jealousy. Dragons had naturally fiery dispositions, and jealousy did not serve them well.

  That was probably why identical twins were practically unheard of among their kind. As Zander and Zed discovered, being identical twins messed up the natural order of things.

  Zander released the stone and tore his hand from his pocket. He would not allow history to repeat itself. It had simply been far too long since he’d felt the touch of a woman, and it was obviously beginning to grate on him.

  “Hey, handsome.”

  An older blond woman winked at him as she slipped on a pair of oversized black sunglasses and sashayed off the steps of Rena’s building. She pulled a pack of Virginia Slim cigarettes from her pocket and waved.

  “Got a light?”

  Zander nodded and snagged the Zippo lighter from his back pocket. Still seated on his bike, he flicked the flame on as she leaned in and puffed away, quickly lighting her cancer stick. The blond peered at him seductively over her sunglasses before taking a long drag.

  “Thanks, kitten.” She stuffed the pack into the pocket of her satin jacket and smiled broadly. “I’ve never seen you around here.”

  “Passing through.”

  “That’s too bad.” She jutted her blond head toward the building behind her. “It’s my birthday, and my girlfriend and I are going out for drinks tonight. Sure would be fun to have a handsome fella like you join us.”

  She looked like Las Vegas come to life. Satin and leather covered most of her limbs, and she wore a heavy layer of makeup. Many men found that attractive, but not him. He preferred a natural beauty to the overglamorized type. Zander turned his gaze to the door at the top of the staircase.

  The name emblazoned on the window in large, white letters immediately captured his attention.

  FOX INVESTIGATIONS

  Interesting name choice for her business.

  “Your friend works for that investigation place?”

  “Works for it? No way, baby. Rena owns it. Well, she took it over when old Vito lost his marbles.” Her high-pitched voice bounced around him in the air. “The girl is better at it than the old man ever was. She found my deadbeat ex and got me back the ten grand he split with. Rena has an uncanny sense and can find almost anybody. Never seen nothin’ like it. Vito said she was a natural.”

  Bingo.

  Zander dragged off his Ray-Bans and hooked them in the collar of his T-shirt before giving the woman a smile. Her cheeks pinked and, for an instant, the older, worn-out woman looked like a young girl, flirty and full o
f life. He sensed excitement from her, but there was no attraction for him. Truthfully, he couldn’t remember the last time a woman had turned him on. He was so damn bored and tired of living, not much got him excited anymore.

  “Your birthday, huh?” He stuck out his hand, and she shook it delicately. “I’m Zander. And you are?”

  “Patricia,” she simpered. “So whaddya say, Zander? You wanna join me and my friend, Rena, for a drink or two tonight? We’re meeting up at Dino’s Place around eight. It’s not far, just about two blocks from here.”

  “I’m sure I can find it.”

  “Yeah.” She laughed. “You can Google it.”

  “Right.” Zander nodded.

  He had a phone but barely used it. He wasn’t a fan of technology.

  “Great.” She took another drag and smiled. “Catch you later, kitten.”

  Maybe the universe was giving him a break after all. He had found Rena and even got an invite for drinks. He let out a low grunt of appreciation as Pat disappeared around the corner. His gaze skittered back to the second-story window of Fox Investigations.

  If Rena was a finder of the lost, then this woman could not have been more perfect, because nobody needed to be found more than Zed. A plan began to come together. He wouldn’t have to tell her who she really was, because once she found Zed, like he was going to hire her to do, she’d figure it out for herself. Zander ran both hands through his windblown, shaggy brown hair before climbing off his bike. After ensuring his bike and bag were secure, he trotted up the steps toward what he assumed was Rena’s office.

  Inside this building was the answer to his long-unanswered prayers. He stopped, his hand hovering above the doorknob, as a flicker of uncertainty filled him. It had been centuries since he’d encountered an Amoveo face-to-face. He’d bumped into a vampire or two and even crossed paths with a few of the fae, but not an Amoveo, the dragon’s closest relative. Probably because there were so few of them left.