by J. D. Tyler
Her stomach growled, hopefully unheard due to the talking that had resumed around them. The goateed guy pushed the plates closer to her side and nodded.
“Dig in.”
“Thanks.” Reaching for the big fork on the steak platter, she dished up a piece, put it on her plate, then stabbed a potato.
“I’m Jaxon Law, by the way,” he said, and then gestured to the blonde burrowed into his side. “This is my mate, Kira Locke.”
Mate? Okay. Wolves mated, right? Did they get married, too? She didn’t see any rings on their fingers.
She addressed the other woman. “You must be the one who works with Sariel rehabilitating, um…”
Kira smiled. “Basically, we help any creature or intelligent being when they become lost or hurt and are brought to us. Right now we have a gremlin, a basilisk, two rescued shifters, and a wolf who’s—” She cut off the last part of what she was about to say at a quick shake of Jaxon’s head. What was that about? “Anyway, Nick is going to provide funds for us to build a rehab center on the grounds for that special purpose.”
“That’s really neat,” she said, and meant it. “I don’t have a nurturing bone in my body when it comes to taking care of sick people, so I can only imagine how hard it must be to nurse something that most folks don’t know exists.”
“We’re learning as we go,” Sariel put in. “We have doctors here, and Kira at least has an advantage because of her training in the medical field, especially in genetics, and she’s good with the patients. It’s not as if running a center like this has ever been done before, and certainly not in my realm, where they simply cast out anyone who’s different.” A shadow crossed his features, but he shook it off. “Still, the work is rewarding when we get good results.”
After a round of enthusiasm from the group about the project, a man with black hair a bit longer than Jaxon’s spoke up from beside him. “I’m Zander Cole, or just Zan. This is Ryon Hunter.” He waved at a blond man on his other side, this guy appearing a little younger than his friends.
Ryon smiled, open and friendly. “Hello.”
“It’s nice to meet you all.” The jury was still out on the truth of that statement, but it was the polite response. Now she was eager to get to the heart of her visit. “I suppose by now you’ve been told I’m Micah’s sister. Do any of you know him?”
Guarded expressions met her question as she took a bite of tender meat. Too bad worry for Micah took the enjoyment right out of her meal, as it had with every aspect of her life since she was informed he’d died.
Jaxon spoke first, indicating himself and his two friends. “The three of us were in the SEALs with him. Then we joined Alpha Pack together, along with Aric and Raven, who aren’t… with us at the moment.” He paused, apparently reluctant to embellish.
Rowan glanced around the group. “It’s okay. Your boss already filled me in on what this place really is and what you guys do for a living. I’m a cop and I’m used to dealing in facts, so I’m not sure I totally believe all this stuff about conspiracies and otherworldly creatures. But I’m getting there.” She shot a pointed look at Sariel for emphasis. When she did, she noticed that he hadn’t made a move to touch any of the food, but she didn’t have time to wonder why.
“Kind of hard not to believe it when it’s shoved in your face, huh?” Kira said in sympathy. “A.J. over there was the same way not too long ago. He’s a former police officer, so maybe you two will have some things in common.” She gestured to a man who sat across the room with a huge bald guy. Jaxon wrapped an arm around Kira’s waist and kissed the top of her head.
Rowan shrugged. “Maybe.”
Jaxon brought the topic back to Micah. “About your brother, all of us thought he and several other Pack members were dead because that’s what we were told, same as you. We were devastated. When Nick came on board, he knew that the bodies were missing, but he was pretty much ordered not to say anything. We’re no happier about that than you must be, but we don’t blame him. Nick didn’t know for sure whether they really were dead—only what he was told.”
Rowan shook her head. “I’ll admit I was angry with your boss at first, but I don’t blame him, either. I just want the truth, and to find my brother. Even if he’s gone,” she added hoarsely. Her appetite fled.
Reaching across the table, Zan laid a hand over hers. “That’s all we want as well. Micah was—is—a brother to us. Now that we’re pretty sure he’s being held somewhere, alive, nothing is going to stop us from getting him back. And the other guys, too, if they’re out there.”
Heat enveloped her hand, traveled up her arm to her heart. The agony in her chest lessened, and she wondered if this was Zan’s gift—easing people’s pain.
“We know Savage is,” Ryon put in.
“Yeah, the snarky son of a bitch.” Jaxon’s words held no real heat, and his tone was sad, his eyes brimming with guilt. “It’s my fault he’s not here.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Kira breathed, hugging him tight. “You’ve got to stop blaming yourself. Aric’s being taken was Chappell’s doing, not yours.”
Confused, Rowan waited for someone to enlighten her. Zan obliged.
“Jaxon’s gift, other than his wolf, of course, is that he’s a Timebender. He can literally bend time backward, but by no more than a few minutes. A few weeks ago on a rescue op, Kira was killed and—”
“No offense, but she’s looking pretty good to me,” Rowan interrupted, studying the other woman.
Zan continued while Jaxon stared at his plate. “That’s because Jax bent time back and saved her. But that caused Aric to be taken prisoner by Chappell’s minions instead.”
“Uh-huh.” Her cop’s brain balked at this one. She pinned Jaxon with a steely look that had made many a suspect squirm. “Show me.”
“What?”
She waved a hand. “If you can bend time, show me. Back up to when I walked in with the angel here.”
“Fae,” Sariel corrected.
“Whatever.”
Jax gave a wry chuckle. “I can’t. Wouldn’t do any good.”
“Why not?”
“Because you wouldn’t remember if I did. How do you know I didn’t perform it already, and we’re simply repeating the same conversation?”
She stared at him a few seconds, trying to process this, then snorted. “Damn, what a mindfuck.” The men laughed, and she supposed the joke was on her. Undaunted, however, and determined to get some sort of proof of these gifts Nick told her about, she addressed Zan. “So what’s your talent? Bet you can’t prove it, either.”
“I’m a Healer,” he said, arching a black brow. “And actually, I can. Ryon, give me your hand.”
The blond held it out. “Man, just don’t leave a scar.”
Zan turned his friend’s hand palm up, then reached into his pants, extracting a pocketknife. “This will make a cleaner cut than the steak knife.”
Rowan’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute. I didn’t mean—”
“Just watch.” With a grin, Zan flipped open the blade. Quickly, he made a swipe across Ryon’s palm. A thin line oozed red, but not too badly. “Do you see that? His hand is bleeding, right?”
“It is,” she agreed. “I think you’re both crazy.”
Without answering, Zan laid his palm on top of Ryon’s, aligning their fingers.
“Um, guys, that’s a good way to pass HIV or hepatitis,” she warned. Her cruiser was stocked with latex gloves in case she ran across someone with blood on them while on duty, which happened more often than one might think. Blood-borne illnesses were always a concern in her line of work.
Ryon winked. “It would be, if we were still able to catch human diseases.”
Before she could respond to that nonsense, Zan lifted his hand, turning it so she could see their palms.
“Now you both have blood on you. So?”
Zan took his cloth napkin and dipped it into a nearby water glass. Then he used the napkin to wipe Ryon’s palm clean and held the man�
��s hand closer to her. “Care to inspect it?”
Leaning over, she peered hard at the skin. His perfectly unmarred skin. She grabbed Ryon’s wrist and rubbed his palm with the pads of her fingers. No mark at all!
“I’ll be damned!” Releasing Ryon, she sat back in her chair and looked away from the small group as the total impact of everything she’d seen and heard in her short time here hit her full force.
Really hit. Micah was part of a paranormal black ops team, and the nonhuman type of evil truly did exist. As an LAPD cop, she faced danger every day, but even that couldn’t begin to compare to the world she’d stumbled upon and was now up to her neck in trying to grasp.
I wear a badge, carry a gun, and until today I walked around confident that I knew who the bad guys were and was sure of my ability to handle them. Then I find out I’m an insignificant bug on the stalk of the universe. Monster food.
Dinner forgotten, overwhelmed, she rested her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands. She was in no way prepared for this. How the hell was she supposed to help Micah?
A gentle hand rubbed her back and she started, sitting up to glance at Sariel. His expression was warm, understanding. No one except Dean had bothered to comfort her in years, and the small kindness almost did her in. But she wouldn’t cry. She never did.
“It will be all right,” the Fae man said, smiling faintly. “Trust me.”
“What, so you’re a PreCog like Nick?”
“No. But you’re not without your own gifts and I have a feeling they will serve you well in your quest.”
“You mean I have some sort of talent, like Micah?” He nodded and she perked up some at the idea. She thought of the Dreamwalking thing Nick had told her about. “Cool. What’s my gift? How do you know?”
“Humans are so impatient.” He sighed, then shook his head. “How I know isn’t important, and it wouldn’t be as effective for you if I told you the nature of your gift. You must experience it for yourself to accept and use it.”
“Great. I want answers and I get Yoda for a sidekick,” she muttered.
“Who?” Sariel looked baffled and the rest of the group chuckled.
“I think she’s going to fit right in,” Ryon said.
Before anyone could comment, a Goth guy walked in who commanded not only Rowan’s attention but that of everybody in the dining area. He walked like a graceful cat and looked like a cross between a rock star and a gunslinger. Even among these men, he was unique. And no wonder—this was the man she’d seen shift to human from panther form.
“Who’s that?” she whispered to Sariel.
“Kalen Black,” he answered in a low voice. “One of the new recruits, but extremely powerful. He’s a Sorcerer and Necromancer.”
“Jesus.”
Kalen rapped on the table to get their attention. “Hey, Nick wants to see the Pack in the meeting room, pronto. The intercom’s not working, so he sent me to round up you guys.”
The guy named A.J. glanced up hopefully. “Me, too?”
“Sorry, man, not yet.”
Too green, Rowan thought. Outwardly disappointed at being excluded, A.J. heaved a breath and went back to eating. The bald man with him, however, wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood. As did Jaxon, Zan, and Ryon.
Jaxon shot an intense stare at Kalen. “We going wheels-up?”
“Yep, after sundown. He’s got the details on where we’ll find our two missing guys, and hopefully a bunch of Chappell’s scumbags, too.” Kalen’s green gaze found Rowan briefly. He nodded an acknowledgment of her presence, then looked at his friends. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” she called to them. “I want to sit in on this meeting.”
“No can do,” Jax said over his shoulder.
“This is my brother we’re talking about! You can’t just—”
“That’s exactly why we can—because he’s your family and you’re way too emotional. And if Nick wants you to know more, he’ll tell you.”
“I’m getting damned tired of that answer!” They filed out, ignoring her, and she pounded a fist on the table. Frustrated, she glared at Kira. “Tell me this gets easier.”
“Dealing with a bunch of overbearing alpha males?” The blonde snorted. “Right.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. Same macho attitude, different location.”
Fine. They’d left her no choice but to resort to desperate measures. If the Pack thought they were leaving in the night without her, they were in for a big surprise.
Rowan crouched in a dark corner of the huge hangar, waiting. Despite her training as an officer and the dark jeans and shirt she wore, there was a better than average chance that she would get caught. She was only human, armed with nothing but stealth and maybe some luck. The team, with their super-senses, might very well detect her presence and make her stay behind, something she couldn’t allow to happen.
Using one of the compound’s SUVs as cover, she peered around the back end and studied the hulking shapes of several vehicles in the dim light coming from a wall fixture far across the vast space. Among them she counted two private jets, three SUVs, a couple of motorcycles, and several cars and trucks that she suspected were owned by the team members. The crowning glory was the three big Hueys at the far end, situated under a roof hatch that would open to allow them to take off.
The main problems were not knowing which mode of transportation they’d take, and how she’d manage to stow away and hide.
From the corner of her eye, she saw a faint glow. Startled, she whipped her head around to watch as a ball of neon blue light grew brighter, larger. Edging backward, she gaped as the ball shimmered into the form of a man—or rather, Sariel.
Crouching, he grinned at her, his beautiful wings spread. “Hello.”
“All right, that’s going to take some getting used to. What are you doing here?”
“Establishing myself as your partner in crime, of course.”
She appreciated the irony, considering. “Hey, that’s nice of you, but I don’t want you to get in hot water with Nick.”
The man looked alarmed. “He would wish me to bathe with him as punishment for assisting you?”
“No.” Rowan choked, not quite stifling a laugh. “‘Hot water’ means to get in trouble.”
“Oh.” He waved a hand. “That doesn’t concern me. What can he do to me, after all?”
She studied him thoughtfully. “True. But why do you want to help me?”
Amber eyes returned her gaze in the darkness, turned sad. “Because if I had anyone who loved me as much as you love your Micah, I’d want her to come for me.”
Aw, shit. Sudden moisture stung her eyes and she blinked it away rapidly. Reaching out, she touched his face. This gentle being’s words and that simple act forged the beginnings of a real friendship. She felt it to her soul. “That’s a good enough reason for me. So, how can you get me past the wolf squad?”
“Simple. I’m going to cloak your presence and you’ll accompany them without them even knowing!”
“How?”
He shrugged. “An easy invisibility spell that even the youngest of Fae children can perform. Causes quite a ruckus around the palace, I can tell you.”
Picturing it made her snicker. Good thing human kids couldn’t do that trick. “Okay. If you work your magic on me, how long will it last?”
“The farther you travel from the source—me—the weaker the spell will become until it fades altogether and you’re revealed. No matter where you are, though, it will only last a few hours at most.”
“I’m impressed.” She thought about it. “I think that’ll work. By the time it wears off it’ll be too late for them to bring me back here. I hope.”
“That’s the idea.”
Staring at her intently, Sariel laid a hand on top of her head and uttered a soft incantation in a language she didn’t understand. After a few seconds he released her, apparently happy. “Is that all?” she asked.
“Yes. I can see
and hear you, but nobody else will for a while.”
At that moment, the hangar door slid open with a loud screech and multiple male voices echoed in the cavernous space. The moment of truth was at hand, and she would have been lying if she’d said she wasn’t nervous. The noises of the men preparing to leave, opening more doors and gathering equipment, reached her ears. Hesitating, she glanced at her new friend.
“Go on,” he urged. “Before it’s too late.”
“You sure this will work?” A stupid question to ask a magical fairy, maybe, but understandable.
“Positive. Go!”
Pushing to her feet, she gave Sariel a nervous smile. “Thanks. See you soon.”
“And with any luck I’ll get to meet this brother of yours.”
Emotion clogged her throat, so she opted not to answer. Instead, she heaved a deep breath, stepped around the back of the SUV, and began to walk slowly toward the group that was gathered next to two of the Hueys, busy holstering guns and strapping on knives. Part of her was relieved to see some good old-fashioned artillery in the midst of all the crazy I’m-not-human crap. The other part was worried that Sariel was wrong about the spell working around these guys.
But no one noticed as she walked right up to the group. What a freaky trip. Damn, she’d love to use this trick on the guys back at the station.
Nick slung a pack over his shoulder. “Kalen, you and Hammer ride with me.” The Sorcerer and the bald man, who she guessed to be Hammer, answered in the affirmative. Jaxon, Zan, and Ryon headed for the second copter.
Four pilots climbed into the copters, a pilot and a copilot for each. Since they hadn’t been introduced earlier as team members, and weren’t armed, she figured they might be hired as needed per mission. This would leave the rest of the team free to deal with whatever they were facing.
Rowan hovered as the two groups of three separated and began to board the copters. Just as she took a step, Nick whirled and gazed in her direction with a frown. Heart pounding, she froze. He searched, and at one point his eyes actually met hers, causing the spit to dry up in her mouth. How the hell could he sense someone there when the others hadn’t?
