by Erin R Flynn
If you did, thank you. Thank you for respecting me and other authors for their hard work, understanding this is our job, and while we love it, we do deserve to be compensated for all the hours, and hours, and hours we put into it.
If you did not… Go buy one! You are a thief and your parents and grandparents and cute animals all around the world are ashamed of you. There is no justification for committing this crime because it is a crime, no different than walking into a physical bookstore, taking a print copy off the shelf, and walking out of the store without paying for it.
There is no such thing as a victimless crime. If you truly believe that, you’ve never been a victim. And the victims aren’t only the authors, but the fans who lose authors that quit over our constantly being stolen from and mistreatment. Mistreating the authors that write the books you like or read—not liking them isn’t an excuse for theft, it’s just extra weird then—that’s not a fan. Fans leave reviews to support. Fans send messages of love. Fans… Well fans are nice. Be nice.
There are lots of ways to fight eBook piracy, reporting the site even if you’re not the copyright holder is always a good option. If you want to help in the fight, Google it and you can see there are many ways.
Division Chief Seraphine Thomas is finally handling the snowballing situation in New York. She survived her first Valentine’s Day as Alpha and a whole new mess of problems, but is feeling more confident in her roles now that she’s laid a better foundation. The problem is there’s no safe way to handle what she needs to, and alone she’s not enough.
But help comes in a very surprising away.
The Alpha of one of the New York City packs sent a hitter to take care of Sera when she started forcing the system to work and he was on the wrong side of that. Though months ago, Sera still has a valid claim to retaliate. Plus, it’s the only non-human office that hasn’t been fully retrained, which is rather odd given the FBI is hiring new non-human agents to have teams in regular offices.
Add to that, there are rumors of the regular NYC office being dirty, and it might take a miracle to pull this trick off without getting everyone dead. Thankfully, lipstick can be a magical thing if used right.
1
“You dead, mother fucker!” Samuel L. Jackson said over the speakers at an excessively loud volume.
I snarled as I ripped off my FBI hat, having choice words for Noah that he was taunting people on his course along with arguing we failed it.
“What movie does he say that in?” Orson asked, frowning.
“All of them,” I answered, not the only one with that answer from the way it echoed.
He gave me a confused look. “He was so mellow in the movie I saw him in.” He held out his hands after slinging his weapon over his shoulder. “Take the blue pill and you will know nothing. Take the red pill and I will show you everything.”
“That’s Laurence Fishbourne,” I chuckled, shaking my head. The ancients getting caught up on pop culture was always hysterical. Igor hadn’t allowed it, and Apollo was a bit pompous who found it all garish, so they were having fun getting caught up on more than security technology.
“I can’t keep them all straight,” Orson sighed. I winced, worrying he meant black people or something since that was a pretty loaded statement. “There are just too many actors. I confuse Han Solo and Indiana Jones too. I could have sworn it was the same actor.”
“It is,” I promised, bobbing my head when he gave me a disbelieving look. “Both are Harrison Ford. You can Google it. I promise. Someone was messing with you.”
“Emilio, I’m going to fuck you up!” Orson snarled before storming back towards the security trailers.
Noah had jumped all over getting the estate that Apollo had gifted him on my behalf ready, but until winter was really over, he couldn’t get more than a few security trailers to handle that part of the course. He and his team had done an impressive amount over the few weeks since he’d jumped onto it, but there was still more to do, as this was our first test run.
And apparently we’d failed seconds after jumping the fences, which did not make me happy.
“How?” I demanded of Noah when I stepped into the trailer, not caring who else was around. “I call hacks. Seriously, there’s no way. What got us?”
“Land mines,” he answered, smirking at me.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “No, I call hacks.” I held up my hand when he opened his mouth to argue. “How do you have them down? Metal discs with a circuit that certain equipment would pick up?” I waited until he nodded. “And how do we locate landmines?” I smirked at him when he frowned. “Yeah, gun powder. Cheater. There was no gun powder to smell.”
“Fine, sorry, but that is the point of these test runs,” he reminded me. “I’ll get gun powder added to what we attached. They’re not working mines, or even deactivated mines. We just made them detectable like that.”
“You really hate losing,” Brian teased me.
“Pot. Kettle,” I drawled. “We get another run for our bet then.”
He raised an eyebrow at that. “We didn’t say if Noah messed up. We said whoever got a longer run.”
I mirrored his expression. “I brought the heels I bought for your Christmas present. You want me to wear them or—”
“You should get another run through,” he cut in.
“That’s what I thought,” I purred. We’d made a side bet that if his team beat mine, he got to pick where we went for our date and vice versa if my team won. I stared at him as he geared up to join his team, yanking on his ball cap backwards. I licked my lips as he slid on his vest, his muscles flexing and bunching as he did.
“Lunar cycle starts tomorrow alright,” Noah chuckled, snapping me out of it. He laughed when I cursed under my breath, understanding I’d gotten distracted by my hormones.
“Shut it, cheater,” I grumbled.
“What did I miss?” Brian asked, giving me a questioning look along with several others there that I didn’t know and a few I did like Jerome Curtis, a Quantico trainer who had flown out to help us get this going.
“You’re sexy when you’re all geared up,” I muttered as I yanked off my vest.
“And she was staring at you like you were her next meal,” Remus teased me. “Like she’s gonna eat you, man, and you will enjoy every moment.”
I opened my mouth to say something mean but saw something on the monitors that made me sigh, heading out of the trailer to go play mom. I set my shit down on one of the picnic tables people had brought for when the trailers got crowded and headed over to Orson and Emilio who were fighting.
“Oi, cut it out. We’re going again!” I bellowed as I threw out my power so they flinched. “And you’re scaring the humans.” They both looked at me and then each other like they were thinking about going for one more hit. “Do I need to get the tasers?”
“Sure, they tickle,” Emilio chuckled, wiping the blood under his nose from whatever injury was already healed.
“They tickle?” someone asked from behind me.
I turned and saw the guy from Germany’s SWAT that was a trainer or some big to-do. I hadn’t gotten all into who Noah invited, but they were the best of the best. And we didn’t even have all of them, as only our FBI SWAT ranked with several other countries. I nodded and whistled to Harris who was there. He tossed me his taser, and I shot Emilio without even having to turn to aim, watching the humans and their reactions.
It was a range but all forms of shock as Emilio actually giggled like he was getting a tickle attack from someone. I shrugged as they all looked at me.
“They’re ancient,” I reminded them. “There’s not much that fucks with them like the rest of us. It doesn’t knock us out like humans, but it screws with our control over our animals, w
hich is still dangerous. They want to take over to defend us, so that’s why we’ve been pushing it not be what’s used in every situation with paranormals.”
“You could escalate the situation instead of deescalating it,” the German guy muttered, bobbing his head. “That is useful to know, thank you.”
I tossed the taser to Emilio with a look to cut the shit. They both nodded, understanding I wasn’t being a bitch about them having fun, but it was who was around. I turned when I felt the nerves coming off of Brian because of the big dogs around. I moved closer and touched his arm, smiling when I saw he wanted a good luck kiss and didn’t care we had important guests.
“It’s a course we’re all meant to fail,” I reminded him as I stood on my toes. He got the idea and leaned down.
“Mind reader,” he mumbled against my lips. “So what’s our date if you win?”
“Oh no, I’m not getting blamed if you lose because what I said made you want to,” I chuckled, giving him another kiss and pushing power into him. “We can have my date another night. I’m fine losing to you, Bri. I’ve always been a good sport like that even if I’m competitive as fuck. I don’t like losing when I know I shouldn’t or over unfair shit. Now go turn me on.”
“I fucking love when it’s the full moon now that we’ve made up,” he groaned, giving me another kiss before moving away and getting his team lined up.
“I’m glad you guys are moving past what happened,” Jerome said as he stepped up next to me. I didn’t hide my shock and saw him shrug as he checked over the estate. “He’s got friends at Quantico still, and he was destroyed. People weren’t gossiping, but I heard some of a call where his friend was assuring him there was no part of what happened that night in him.”
I nodded. “That was what my therapist helped me see too. I was human. He is human. We didn’t grow up around magic. It’s easy to equate it to what you did when drunk, and that’s part of you. I told him a demon took him over. It’s helped me to know the spell basically took everything he truly felt and made him do the opposite.”
“I didn’t realize it was that specific,” he admitted, partially pumping me for information for the insight into spells and magic, not personal.
“I really haven’t had a chance to delve into that side besides the good stuff, and the witches I know are good so they don’t do dark magic. If I ever get a free day, it’s on the list to be educated on more. Though it’s rare to have a witch that will even discuss it as most don’t want to give people ideas. Talking about how bad dark magic can go gives people ideas to push it just like any other weapon.”
“Makes sense. Still scary shit.”
“Yes, but I’ve seen it do much more good than bad,” I told him firmly. I nodded when he gave me a look like he wasn’t buying it. “Go to Nina’s shop while you’re here. I promise it will help you on settling with this. The vast majority of witches are warm and fuzzy and good juju with teas and helping people. It’s a tiny portion that go bad. I don’t get it all, but the magic being tied to the planet makes it warm.”
“I get it. There are lots of murders, but it takes a special breed to be a serial killer.”
I huffed, and he raised an eyebrow. “That’s still negative, Curtis. You’re comparing witches to murderers there and serial killers to the dark ones. That’s seriously horrible to start there. You need to think of it just like normal humans and the dark ones are like cannibals or something. The witches I know have used magic to do bad for the right reason and protect people just like you and I do. A dark witch is like a cannibal that it goes against nature.”
“Got it. I’ll think on that.”
He would, which was why I took the time to explain it. Everyone thought of stuff in their own frame of reference, and sometimes you couldn’t even blame them with all the bad press or bullshit people put out, but I had no respect for people who didn’t find answers for themselves. They weren’t people but sheep then. Maybe lemmings.
I felt better when Brian’s team didn’t make it to the house either, tripping a pit trap. There was some bitching about that, but it was the German guy who said it was something they found often, and Brian backed it up that it was a normal trap in the Middle East. A few more tries from different teams, and mine got the furthest by getting to the second floor balcony, but there was still no way to get in the house and bypass the alarms.
“When I told you to go all out, you went all out,” I praised Noah as we wrapped up. “I mean, for real, that place is sick. The alarm is like nothing I’ve seen, and I think Jennings is going to pull out his hair trying to bypass it.”
Noah shrugged. “If he does, we have others. We basically got all the models and systems that are top of the line and black market since we can get at places you can’t as FBI or law enforcement. Milo was a big help with that too, so even if Jennings gets past this one, he won’t all of them. The whole point is to keep mixing and matching and screwing with everyone, as that is every mission.”
“Amen,” several people said at once.
I went to say something else, but something that felt like a freight train crashed into me, sending me flying a good twenty feet. I managed to flip and land on my feet, sliding a few more feet on the rocks of the fancy driveway as I reached for my gun.
“Don’t!” I called to the others as I moved my hand away from my weapon and slowly stood up from a crouch as I studied the woman who’d hit me. “She’s a Dorcus. She’s Alena and Zeno’s daughter. It’s why I didn’t sense there was danger.”
She clucked her tongue at me as she pushed her stunning waist length hair over her shoulder. “Being family does not mean they are your friend, little sister.”
“You’re right, and I thank you for the lesson,” I accepted, waving the others to back up or down. “She’s got diplomatic immunity.” I felt her anger I wasn’t letting them all play and picked a few images from her. “And I’m the one she’s pissed with.” I shrugged when her eyes flashed shock. “You touched me when you crashed into me. Not smart to do to a clairvoyant when you’re agitated.”
“I thank you for the lesson, but it will not deter me from taking the pound of flesh I am deserved.”
“I didn’t think it would, but either way, I am sorry for your loss. I did not want Bernard dead.”
“Do not speak his name to me!” she snarled, her eyes flashing power. “You took my baby brother from me, hurt our family by so publicly outing his misdeeds. You have wounded our family and our standing.”
“No, your brother did that,” Brian argued. “And I was the one who assigned her the task, so it’s not Sera’s fault.”
“Shut up,” I hissed at him.
She glanced between us and smiled brightly, realizing there was fun to be had after all. “He is handsome, little sister. I understand why you forgave him. Grandmother thinks he would be a strong, fierce wolf.” She studied Brian in a way I didn’t like. “Her vote is to mate him into our family, but she did not specify you be the one.”
I was in front of him before either of them could blink, snarling at her. “He is mine.”
“But he is not,” she taunted. “You have not claimed him or even made him one of us.”
“He doesn’t want it.”
“Do you not want to be like us, human?” she asked him.
“This is not the time or place,” I cut in. “I know there are rules about bringing up wolf or paranormal matters in front of work people. Your beef is with me, and I understand that. You don’t want to believe the stranger who received the gift of becoming one of you, but I never wanted it. And I can prove to you that I didn’t mean for any of this.”
“You cannot,” she snapped. “Vlad was on your side. You could have been lying and—”
I snorted. “No one could pull a fast one like that on Alena or Eva Dorcus.”
“There is always the exception, and some of us believe you being a clairvoyant can make it so.”
I bobbed my head. “I’ve never thought of that.” I eased do
wn a bit. “I do not love Alena and Zeno more than my own birth parents.”
Her eyes flashed shock, and I figured it was because I would get so personal in front of work people, which was why I did it. She wanted me humiliated and more. I could take that hit. “That is a good base. Give me another lie to make sure.”
“I would not retaliate if you touched Brian.”
She smiled brightly. “Oh, you are as much fun as Grandmother said. Yes, you would absolutely come after me. You would die if you challenged me though, little sister.”
I studied her a moment and shook my head. “No, I don’t believe that. You’ve got more power than me, maybe even twice as much, but I have had some of the best training available, and I train regularly. I don’t think you could call it like that since I’m immune to a lot of your power as you are mine.” I held up my hand when she opened her mouth to argue. “And I can show you what happened. I have a fairy sworn to me, remember? I have shown him.”
She opened her mouth but then closed it. “I have never experienced that, only their tricks.” She smirked at me again. “Though I hear your fairy’s tricks are very nice indeed. Legendary even.”
“Yes, but he is also mine.”
“I could make him mine.”
I sneered at her. “You would shame Alena and Zeno with that sort of shit?”
“No, but good you understand that, as they were clear you did not understand our ways or lines.”
I shrugged. “I don’t get all of them, but they would never force someone. Playing games is one thing, but that’s just too far.”
“True as he is tied to you. This human is not.”
“I love her,” Brian said firmly. “I love her enough to go as slow as she needs after all she has suffered, including being infected by your brother. I am sorry for your loss as well. None of us wanted him dead. We still are fighting to catch the ones he was involved with because him and his crew died that day. He almost killed Sera though, so it was absolutely in self-defense, and he attacked after he was caught.”
