Blue rubbed a finger under his chin. “We need them to talk to us about their fears, so we can put them at ease. The vampire programme we are running is vital for the city and to date, the vampires have followed the rules. There have been zero reports of attacks in the surrounding cities.”
“Moving forward from Isiah, boys.” Danjal changed the focus of the meeting; they had a lot to get through. “You will have received a document regarding Rebecca Hunter, and I am sure you have all read it by now.” There were several grunts of ascent from them as Danjal’s gaze traveled around the table. “Great.” He cleared his throat. “All questions you may have can be directed to Bludon and Shaiton, bearing in mind there is not a lot we know about her either.”
“So, will she be coming to David's Town?” Rorex asked.
“We have no idea what her plans are.” Danjal picked up his tablet and flicked through the screens. “Her plane lands around midnight. So Phenix, you and your guys will stake out the airport, you will not engage her.” He gave the young captain a hard stare. “She’s previously lived in David's Town and isn’t a stranger to our kind. So, for now, I don’t want her seeing us. Have I made myself clear?”
“Understood Commander.” Phenix’s nod was curt. The newest member of their team, he was eager to prove he deserved his position as a unit commander among them.
“You will report everything you see back to me. If she stands to take a piss, I want to know.”
The warriors chuckled.
“For now, we monitor her activities only.” Danjal stared at his tablet, fixated on a picture of Reba. The gray of her eyes, the fullness of her inviting lips. Fuck, she was beautiful.
“Danjal?”
Jequon called his name, breaking him from his thoughts.
“Yes,” he replied brusquely, but the silence around the table continued and the warriors wore expectant looks. “Did I miss something?” he placed the tablet down and closed the screen.
Phenix cleared his throat. “Are we sure she is not Nephilim?”
“She’s human,” Bludon replied.
“We hope she is human,” Danjal gave Blue a meaningful stare.
“And we will treat her as such until we know different,” Blue added.
“Okay boys.” Danjal wrapped up the meeting. “Let’s get to work.”
With the kitchen cleared of warriors, Cassian lingered over his coffee.
“Something on your mind, Cass?”
“That girl,” Cassian exhaled loudly, “brings back all sorts of bad memories. I suspected there was more to her relationship with Isiah than meets the eye.”
“How so?” He leaned forward, eager to learn everything he could about her.
“You really don’t remember her, do you?”
Danjal’s fingers found that knot of scar tissue in his scalp. “No, I don’t!” He opened the screen with her picture and sent his tablet spinning towards Cassian. “And it’s pissing me off because I know I should, but I don’t.”
Cassian caught the device mid-spin.
“And it doesn’t matter how long I stare at her damned picture either!”
Long moments passed before Cassian pushed the device to the center of the table. “Stay as far away from her as you can, Danjal, that’s all I’ve got to say to you.” He shoved back his chair and stood. The muscles in his tattooed forearms bulged as he leaned against the back of the chair.
“I need more than that from you, Cassian.” Danjal slammed his hand down on the table in frustration. “Tell me why you said that?”
“Sorry.” Cassian’s knuckles turned white as his grip on the chair back tightened. “Perhaps you don’t remember her for a reason. So, who the hell am I to interfere with the will of The Angel?” He released the chair and headed for the door.
“Fuck the will of The Angel!” Danjal’s chair screeched as it dragged back against the stone flooring. He stood white-lipped and seething. “Something happened between her and me, didn’t it?”
Cassian stopped mid-stride, his back stiffened, and he slowly turned around. “You bet it did. You let her under your skin, and she fucked with your head. You made some seriously bad choices because of her, and just look at you now.” He scoffed. “You’re all fucked up again, and all you’ve done is look at her bloody picture. Do not allow her back in David's Town. She isn’t good for you!”
“Christ!” Danjal’s phone screeched out the annoying ringtone he’d picked for Noah’s calls. “I have to get this.” He held a hand to Cassian. “His timings shite.” He tugged the shrieking device from a pocket, “Yes General,” he huffed, making no attempt to hide his exasperation at having to answer the call.
“Are you in your study?” Noah’s voice barked from the phone.
“I’m heading there now.”
“Call me back when you have access to the database, we have something to discuss.”
“We will finish this later,” Danjal promised as he brushed past an angry Cassian.
“The plane touched down a short while ago, Commander,” Phenix reported. “A limo escort collected her from the gate. I’ve forwarded photos and its registration to Shaiton.”
“She traveled alone?”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Follow the limo,” Danjal ordered. “Keep me updated on everything it does.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Danjal tapped the blue tooth device at his ear and discontinued the call. Ever since his unfinished cryptic conversation with Cassian this morning, he was in turmoil. Who was this half-breed human female who wielded so much power over him?
Oblivious to the silent battle their commander fought, Shaiton and Rorex sat before their workstations wearing headsets, watching multiple screens at once. Danjal needed some air. Leaving his men to it, he headed for the glass doors leading to a tiny balcony.
“Where is he?” Danjal heard Blue ask the two men.
“Outside on the balcony,” Shaiton replied.
“Danjal?” Blue called as his body filled the open doors. “You okay out here?”
After a lifetime of friendship, Danjal knew there was little he could hide from Blue.
He slid his hands into his pockets. “Full moon.” He jerked his chin skywards.
“Yes,” Blue agreed, “it’s that time of the month for us all,” he chuckled wryly.
“Your sister’s plane landed safely a short while ago.”
“I heard.” Blue nodded. “Cassian and I were headed to the kitchen to grab a coffee. Why don’t you join us?”
Danjal stifled a yawn. “Sorry, Blue,” he rubbed at his gritty eyes. “I just don’t have time right now.”
“There are fresh scones with jam and cream in the kitchen,” Blue sang out in a mock childlike voice.
“Twisting my rubber arm, are you?” Danjal tried for humor.
“For the love of The Angel, you’re not duty commander tonight!” Blue reminded him, “And you know how pissy you get when Noah hovers over you.” Blue looked into the ops room, “Let Shaiton and Rorex do their jobs.”
Danjal snorted, “Did they ask you to get me out of their hair?”
“Not at all.” Blue fluttered his long lashes. “I just know how much you love jam scones.” Blue shrugged innocently.
“You never really know someone do you?” Blue paced around the kitchen table. “I’ve read Noah’s documents three times over and I’m still struggling to relate them to the man I thought I knew.”
“So many secrets.” Cassian licked cream and jam from his fingers. “Blows my mind how he managed to keep them.”
“Bludon, you’re making my head spin with all that pacing,” Danjal griped. “This business is a major mind-fuck to us all.”
“It reads worse than a bloody Penny Dreadful.” Blue huffed and pulled out a chair. “Isiah goes off to Africa, gets a human pregnant. What the fuck!” He threw his hands up and leaned back into the chair, linking them behind his head. “Then he passes the child off as a foundling to the institution and becomes he
r benefactor.”
“I wondered about that.” Cassian’s brow furrowed. “How did he fudge the Institutions DNA testing? They surely would have wanted to trace the angel responsible for fathering her?”
“He had Noah’s help,” Danjal scowled. “He can be most charming and resourceful when it suits him.”
“A trait that skipped you.” Blue’s witty response had Cassian snorting loudly.
“Fuck you both.” Danjal flipped them the bird.
“Do we know who her mother is?” Cassian wiped up a blob of cream from his plate with his finger and licked it. “I found nothing mentioned in the files I received.”
“Some seductive Nubian maiden,” Blue guessed, “who wove a spell of sex and mystery around him.”
“We can speculate all we like; we will probably never know the answer to that.” Danjal cast a quick glance at his watch and fiddled with his headset. “I want to know what he discovered about her that intrigued him.”
They sat in silence for a long while before Bludon spoke, raising another dilemma Danjal needed to face.
“And what of my father’s soul.” Blue chewed the inside of his mouth. “What if we never retrieve it?”
Danjal knew Blue hid his pain behind a wall of humor and bravado. Warriors didn’t mourn when death came to their kind, they celebrated the life lived, secure in the knowledge the afterlife was one of peace.
Cassian drummed his fingers on his mug. The leather of his boots squeaked as he rearranged his feet beneath the table. None of them knew how to answer Blue’s question.
Danjal cleared his throat. This painful thought played on repeat in his head all day.
“I will use every available resource to hunt down and capture his killer, Blue.” His forefinger tapped against the table. “I will stop at nothing!” he vowed. “The Angel had his reasons for choosing me to lead David's Town.” His fist thumped at his chest. “He knew dark days were coming, and we’d need someone to dance with the Devil. And I,” he looked between the two warriors, “am not afraid to do that.”
“Christ!” Cassian’s top lip curled into a snarl. “You’ve spent years in penance,” he flicked an angry hand in Danjal’s direction, “for giving into that reckless side of you.”
“My father would never want that from you,” Blue argued.
“But my father would,” Danjal insisted. The headset at his ear began crackling, and he tapped it, tilting his head to the side as he spoke. “Phenix, what’s up?”
“Commander, the limo just took the Basildon turn off.”
“Basildon!” Danjal stood abruptly and pushed his chair in. “Are you sure?” He listened for several more seconds before saying, “I’m heading back to the ops room now, stay on the line, and tell me everything they do.”
Danjal beckoned to Cassian and Blue as he hurried from the room, and they followed at his heels, chattering with excitement that Reba was heading to the neighboring city. Basildon was just across the river.
“What if she’s coming to us?” Blue lengthened his stride to keep time with Danjal. “What if Isiah got a message to her, and she’s coming here to us?”
“No one riding a limo ever came to David's Town, Blue. Surely she’d have taken a taxi,” Cassian suggested with a rather droll edge to his deep voice.
“If that’s the case, it will certainly make things easier for us,” Danjal said. “I for one want to know what Isiah discovered about her.” At the entrance to the ops room, he stopped and glanced at his watch. “I want you both on standby. Perhaps she just has a hotel booked in Basildon and will head there for the night. So, cool your heels, and get some rest for now.”
Blue bristled and Danjal saw the heat suffuse his face. A tiny vein throbbed at his temple and his lips moved in protest.
“I want to be in there with you.” He gestured at the door. “That’s my sister out there, Danjal. I want to know what’s going on.”
“Bludon, that was not a request.” Danjal’s smile was cool as he met Blue’s fiery glare head on. “There are three of us in there already, I will keep you posted.”
Blue’s nostrils flared, and he pulled himself to his full height.
Being two inches shorter, Danjal was undaunted by the bigger warrior’s posturing. He reached for the door handle, pulled it open and stepped over the threshold. He stood in silence for a moment, his gaze raking over Blue before he quietly but firmly closed the door.
Reba
Reba settled into the back of the empty limo, kicked off her shoes and buckled up. The champagne and single red rose smoothed the edges of her disappointment. Rupert should have been here to pick her up. She ignored the note attached to the rose, reached for the chilled bottle, and poured a glass of the amber liquid. Her nose wrinkled as she sipped.
“Eish.” She groaned, giving a small shake of her head. “So bloody expensive and tastes like piss!”
Rupert knew she didn’t care for champagne, caviar, and limos, but that was his lifestyle. It had its perks though. She groaned happily. The first-class flight to London had been fan-bloody-tastic.
“Oh, what the fuck,” she snorted. “If you can’t beat them, join them.” She replaced the glass, grabbed the neck of the bottle, brought it to her mouth and took several large glugs. The bubbles burned her nose, and she sneezed loudly.
“Now that was classy.” She sniffed at her indelicate behavior before settling into the plush leather seat. If she was going to meet Rupert’s upper crust parents tomorrow, she’d have to up her game and be on her best behavior. It might be hard sitting with her legs delicately crossed, listening to them speak as though they had a hot potato up their arse. She shouldn’t be so judgmental of them. Reba wriggled her shoulders, getting comfortable. She had a thing for men with posh English accents.
Beyond the limo’s windows, the city lights flashed by and Reba’s thoughts drifted back to another time when she’d lived not too far from London. Images of gargoyles peered down from the city’s gothic architecture and statues of angels guarded every street corner, their ancient faces stoic through the passage of time.
The bottle’s rim bumped her teeth as she brought it to her lips and drank again. Ten years would never be enough time to erase the pain that was David's Town.
A sigh trembled at her lips as she lowered the bottle and laid her head back, permitting herself to tread the minefield of memories she’d carefully compartmentalized and dissociated from years ago.
Chewing at her lip, she scrambled through the taboo files, and heat pooled in her core. Amber eyes watched her through a veil of thick lashes. Dimples framed lips, lips she ached to kiss again, but knew she never would. Moaning softly, her hips moved restlessly in the confines of the seat as she murmured his name.
“Oh Danjal…” she whispered as pain sank its icy fingers into her broken heart. She’d been so young and innocent back then, but he’d taken that from her, and taught her wicked and delicious things. Things not even whispered about in the convent dorms where other teenaged girls like her had dreamed of their future and lovers they’d yet to meet.
Danjal had been insatiable in his desires and she’d submitted to his demands, loving the rasp in his voice when he’d go all alpha male on her. “Why do you bother to wear panties around me?” he’d growl against her ear as he’d rip whatever scrap of lace she’d be wearing from her body. Or the way he’d whisper, “Touch yourself, baby,” when he’d push her thighs apart, his eyes black with desire as he watched her obey him. “You know how crazy that makes me.”
Sometimes her fantasies were so real, she could almost taste the flavor of his mouth and tongue as it plundered hers. As she lost herself in her memories and dreams of a love lost, a pale mustard snakelike mist unfurled from the carpet around her feet. Slowly, insidiously, it wrapped its fragrant fingers around her ankles and calves as it advanced.
The ominous mist was at her thighs when Reba caught sight of it; dumping the half-empty champagne bottle, she tried to unbuckle the seat belt. The release
button jammed. In her panic, she tugged at the belt that crossed her chest. Its grasp on her grew tighter as she struggled. Kicking out her legs, she screamed at the unseen driver behind the dark partition.
“Stop the car, help me, help me!” Reba tossed her head from side to side, thrashing in her confines.
The seatbelt pulled painfully across her chest and hips, restricting her ability to move. All the while the mist danced eerily before her like a cobra poised to strike.
“No!” Reba shrieked, batting at it with her hands, but they slid uselessly through it.
Trapped like a fly in a web, the pungent mist tunneled its way into her nostrils and all the fight drained from her body as she slumped unconscious against the seat.
“It’s always fascinating listening to your dreams, my sweet.” Rupert lounged in the seat opposite her, a glass of champagne dangling from his fingers. “It’s sad though, the name you always call out is his and never mine.”
“Rupert?” Reba squinted into the darkened interior of the limo. “Where did you come from?” She shook her head to clear the cobwebs. “I must have dozed off for a moment.”
“Or the champagne got to you.” He kicked the empty bottle nestled on the carpet at her feet.
There was something in Rupert’s voice that made the fine hairs on Reba’s neck stand on end. Her eyes felt gritty, and she moved her hands to rub them, but metal chinked softly, preventing her arms from moving too far from the seat beneath her.
She sucked back a loud panicked breath. “Rupert, what is this?” She tugged furiously, realizing the seat belt still held her in its unrelenting grip.
“All part of my surprise.” Rupert winked suggestively. In the dimly lit interior, shadows played across his face and ominous lights danced behind his eyes.
“What surprise?” she tugged at the cuffs, but they held her hands fast.
“Don’t be so impatient, my darling,” he dangled a key between his fingers, “it’s all part of the game.”
Run Angel Run: A Steamy Dark Fantasy Romance (The Angels of David's Town Book 1) Page 3
