More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds)

by Vyne, Amanda

  Throwing the open file on the counter, he glowered at the picture of a brunette before rummaging through the drawers for a knife. Lining up a green pepper, he moved the knife with practiced speed, glancing back at the file. She was from Nevada. That was a little out of Defoe’s jurisdiction.

  Raife swept the green bits off to the side with the edge of his knife and squinted down at a scrawled note in the margin.

  Lost Colony Vent.

  What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  Popping a piece of the crunchy veggie in his mouth, he chewed thoughtfully as he flipped a page to continue reading the report. With a quick flash of the silver blade, he cut the ends off an onion. According to her family, she was just a decent woman who kept to herself most of the time. At least that was what the written report said. The scrawled footnotes, obviously Defoe’s added observations, said something different.

  Strange. Claims of being a witch. Psychic?

  Well, wasn’t that interesting. A witch. Could the girl have displayed some Elemental abilities that she didn’t understand? It was against the rules in most factions of the Arcane to knock up a human and walk away. It was dangerous to them all as a whole. Especially if the baby grew up to control fire with her hands or needed to drink blood and there was no one around to help her understand.

  Raife quietly pulled a pan from a cabinet and eased it to the ceramic stovetop before tossing a glance to the bedroom door. Katya was beat to hell after the last few days, and he didn’t want to wake her up. After turning on the heat and drizzling some oil in the pan, he deftly cooked his omelet and set it on the table with a new file.

  This was another female. This time the woman was a troublemaker. She had priors, most of which were for battery. The first incident occurred when she was twelve. The report said she broke her teacher’s arm when he attempted to wake her up at her desk. The charges were dropped.

  Ah…yeah, what self-respecting man would want to admit he got his ass kicked by a twelve-year-old girl? And how in the hell would a twelve-year-old be able to break a bone in a full-grown man?

  Guardian?

  Once again the same words were scrawled in the margin.

  Lost Colony Vent.

  By the time Raife was scraping the final bite of his omelet off his plate, the files were scattered all over the table, and he was pretty damn sure Defoe was on to something. Unfortunately the ex-detective turned rogue investigator probably didn’t understand exactly what that something was.

  But Raife did, and it was time to call in his team.

  KATYA WOKE TO the dull cacophony of whispering. Confused, she glanced at the window. The shades were drawn tight, but she could just make out the halo of light around them. It was morning? She rarely ever slept past sunrise, especially without having nightmares. Not only was it obviously past sunrise, but she’d slept like the dead. Sitting up, she glanced around, but there wasn’t a clock to be found. Exactly how late had she slept? She was supposed to help Tag in the lab with that equipment he’d been cursing at for the past several days.

  That was if he still wanted her help after last night. That thought brought the past twenty-four hours to painful clarity. She glanced at the space in the bed next to her, although she knew he hadn’t been there for hours. She could feel him. If she let herself, she would be able to tell what he was thinking. Even without trying, she knew he was focusing pretty intensely on something; whatever it was infused him with a sense of dark anticipation.

  The whispering hissed from the next room. Concentrating, she heard each individual whisper. The team was in her kitchen. She instinctively pulled the blankets tighter around her. What was the team doing in her suite? They usually met in a conference room downstairs.

  She knew the exact moment Raife realized she was awake. She sensed his awareness of her, felt his presence soothe her.

  “Calm down, kitten. We’ve got a possible break in this case. Throw some clothes on and come out here. We need your skills.”

  Katya frowned at the dark mahogany door, the blankets gripped in her fists. She couldn’t hide out in the bedroom all day, although the idea appealed to her. With a sigh, she threw the blankets off and padded to the sleek modern dresser in the corner of the room.

  Blindly pulling on some clothes, Katya disappeared into the connecting master bath to pull a brush through her hair and get rid of her morning breath.

  Ten minutes later, standing before the closed bedroom door, she paused, hesitant to leave the dark cool protection of the room. They’d all seen her lose it last night. Except for Tag, and he’d all but accused her of being a danger to everyone just from hearing what happened.

  And Raife.

  The memory of last night swept hotly through her, and she gasped. It had been intense, his determination and aggression feeding her own hunger to the point where she snapped. Her body tingled when she remembered how they’d come together after he’d pushed her to that breaking point. Although something had definitely taken hold of her when she bled Raife last night, she didn’t think it was solely because of her pregnancy. Taking his blood was incredible and addicting, and the thought that she may crave him so badly left her a little wary.

  Katya went still as a realization struck her. The hunger wasn’t clawing its way through her body this morning. She felt more at ease in her skin than she had in months. She felt…good.

  “What did you expect, kitten? I’m like the nectar of the gods.”

  After exhaling shakily, she pressed her forehead to the cool wood of the door. Raife’s humor soothed her just as it always had as a kid. But the feel of his mind moving in hers now was nothing like the feel of him all those years ago. Now his touch felt incredibly intimate, and she closed her eyes as she let him flow through her. “Don’t get too cocky, dragon man. Just because I didn’t drain you last night doesn’t mean it’s not still on my to-do list.”

  His laugh was low, and it reverberated through her mind to pool heavy and warm low in her body.

  “I don’t know, Kat; I think you drained me pretty damn good.”

  The voice moving through her mind was a deep suggestive rumble, and she felt a smile tug on her lips as her anxiety eased. “That’s not what I meant, you pervert.”

  “I’m a pro, baby. A provert, not pervert. Now stop dragging your feet and get that sweet ass out here. We’re on to something big. I need you. We all need you.”

  She wanted to question that. To ask if all of them felt that way. She wanted his reassurance, to feel him tuck her under his arm and walk her through it, but she refused to be that weak. This was going to be her life now. She couldn’t hide from it. She had to stand on her own two feet. She would be working with these people. Hell, she liked them and felt like she belonged. That’s what made it so difficult. There was this voice in her head that taunted her—what if last night changed the way they saw her? She pressed her clenched fist to the door next to her head.

  That voice could just shut it. She wasn’t a single tiny point of life in a dark room anymore. She had to stop being so pathetic and just walk right out there. Raife was waiting. She turned her head and looked at her wrist where the silver bracelet had been last night. He’d taken it off—trusted her to stay and face whatever came their way. Together. If nothing else, he would stand by her; that she was beginning to believe in. It was a solid foundation. Besides, if the scent that was wafting to her was any indication, he was cooking. As if on cue, her stomach growled.

  With a sigh, she reached down and pulled the door open before she could worry herself out of it again. The whispering skidded to a halt, and she felt the weight of all their stares. Silence hung heavy in the room for a long moment.

  “It’s about damn time, chickie. The rest of life started hours ago,” Kel commented drily from where she lounged on the back legs of a kitchen chair, one foot braced against the edge of the table.

  “Not everyone gets up at the ass crack of dawn like you, short stack.” Raife laughed and tried to toe the chair out
from under her. She slammed it down on all four legs and shot him a dark look.

  “You appear well, achoti.”

  Katya smiled at Gideon where his inscrutable dark gaze appraised her over some files he had fanned out in front of him.

  “Thank you. I feel…better,” she said, her eyes drawn to Raife as she walked across the room. A thin distressed brown T-shirt was stretched taut across his wide chest, and a pair of faded jeans, torn at the knee, rode low on his hips. His thick brown hair was tied back at his nape; an escaped strand brushed behind his ear. She couldn’t help but let her gaze travel down his back and over the firm swell of his butt to his bare feet as he turned to retrieve a plate from the cabinet.

  “Nice shirt, kitten,” he murmured, his voice saturated in awareness. The ass knew she was admiring him.

  Katya dropped a startled glance to her shirt and felt heat flare in her cheeks. Kel had bought most of her clothes, since she wasn’t permitted to risk being out in public. She hadn’t looked too hard at what she’d pulled on, so preoccupied with having to face everyone. Now she wished she’d put a little more attention into her details before meandering out into the light.

  She was wearing a pale yellow baby-doll T-shirt with the image of a dragon on the front. In dark red lettering it said “dragon rider.”

  Kel pursed her lips and nodded in satisfaction. “That one was my personal fave.”

  “Bitch,” Katya shot playfully at the other woman as she rounded the table to take the seat Raife was holding out.

  Kel chuckled as she rocked back on the back two legs of the chair and raised her hand in the air. “Guilty.”

  As Katya settled into the chair, she cast a quick look at Tag, who sat on the other side of the table. He had yet to look up from his laptop or acknowledge her in any way, and she felt the coolness of his silence. Of all of the team members, she’d come to lean on Tag the most. His rejection hurt.

  Taking a deep breath and pressing down her bruised feelings, she forced a smile. “So what are we looking at?”

  “Eat first, and then we need you to do your magic hack trick,” Raife said as he set a plate in front of her. His big hand slid lightly over her head, and she could feel a spike of anger in him that wasn’t directed at her.

  Katya picked up her fork and cocked one brow at Raife. “Magic hack trick? I’m not a magician at a birthday party.”

  Raife folded his arms across his chest with a smirk, his gaze roving over the front of her shirt. The heat that rolled between them had her squirming in her seat. She knew he was remembering last night.

  “Now you can really say you’ve been there, done that, and got the T-shirt, kitten.”

  “Stop and just tell me what you found.”

  Raife chuckled and then cleared his throat, a smirk still playing around his lips. “I found some files hidden in Defoe’s fireplace. All missing persons. What was in the files was pretty generic, but Defoe must have gone back and interviewed the families again, because his notes are a little more detailed.”

  “His notes create a profile of the missing people that indicate they may be crossbreeds,” Gideon added and slid a couple of the files down the table to her.

  “Crossbreeds?” Katya cast a surprised look at him and picked up a file. “These are the files from the police department, right? They’re all humans.”

  “At first glance.” Raife nodded and pulled the chair out next to her. He spun it around and straddled it, folding his arms across the back. His shoulder pressed against hers when he leaned over to point out a note on the file she held. His body heat and that heady male scent that was all him added to the sense of easy intimacy that clung to them this morning. “We’re thinking they’re not aware of what they are. They all have human lives, but there are these things that stand out—a little stronger than they should be or claim to be psychic or a witch. Defoe was heading in the right direction; he just didn’t know what he was looking at.”

  Taking a bite of the omelet off her plate, she set aside one file and picked up another, frowning as the same note appeared on the new one.

  “What is ‘lost colony vent’?”

  Tag cleared his throat and turned his laptop around so she could see it. “The Lost Colony Venture.”

  Katya flitted a look to his face before concentrating back on his screen. He still felt closed and cold to her, and she just didn’t have the courage to call him on it. “What is it?”

  “It’s a research project that is investigating a theory about the Roanoke Island Colony.” Tag’s green eyes were shadowed as they met hers. “Jamestown wasn’t the English settlers’ first time trying to create a colony in America. They tried to create a settlement on a little island south of Jamestown in modern-day North Carolina.” He clicked a button, and a map of the East Coast appeared. He moved his mouse over the narrow strip of land. “They didn’t do very well, and in 1587, the governor went back to England to get supplies for the colony. When he returned, the entire colony was gone. Just vanished without a trace.

  “So this Lost Colony Venture is a group of historians and archeologists who’ve set up shop in the area to try to determine what happened to those settlers. A couple of years ago, they created a sister program called the DNA Venture.”

  Katya jerked her head up and met his shadowed eyes. “They’re doing genetic testing on people?”

  Tag nodded, looking away to pull his laptop back in front of him with a frown. “The bastards sent a call out for volunteers who thought their ancestors came from that area to offer up their DNA for testing.”

  “Defoe made the connection,” Kel continued, sliding more of the files from Gideon to Katya. “Every single file has the same note. He must have discovered that the one element all of the missing people had in common was that they participated in this project. That meant those assholes were looking for a specific type of person, and they were using this research project as a means to find it.”

  Katya pushed a file off the pile to frown down at another one. “They were looking for humans with Arcane genes.”

  “Exactly,” Raife boomed before pushing up from his seat to pace. “This Lost Colony Venture checked out—just a bunch of history nerds—but they use an independent genetics firm for the DNA profiling called GenTest.”

  “GenTest?” Katya echoed woodenly as the bite of light and fluffy omelet she’d just shoveled into her mouth turned to ash on her tongue. She had to muscle it down as a chill tightened over her skin.

  “Kat?” Raife stopped pacing to look down at her in concern.

  Katya pushed away the last quarter of the omelet, since the part she’d already eaten now felt like a rock in her stomach. “It’s the Triumvirate.”

  The legs of Kel’s chair slammed down onto the floor. “And you know this how?”

  Katya could feel Tag’s distrust swell against her. Even the thick, dark mist that shrouded Gideon’s emotions curled in suspicion. She slowly pushed her chair back, and the muted grunt of the chair legs dragging across the tile bounced off the expectant silence.

  They wanted her to explain. Most of them had been dealt a raw deal by the Triumvirate at some point in their lives. Kel particularly had a major hate on for any traditional Arcane structure.

  They deserved an explanation. She carried her dishes to the sink and scraped the remnants of her brunch into the garbage disposal before setting her plate on the counter. She kept her movements precise and controlled.

  “What is this bullshit?” Raife snapped, glaring at each of them. “You think she’s in league with those fuckers?”

  Katya mentally reached out to soothe his anger. “No, it’s okay.” Turning around, she braced her hands against the countertop behind her and met their stares. “Before…everything, my uncle used to proctor contracts for me to create unique security software and hardware. I was given the specifications. I developed it and sent it on. A lot of it was for the Triumvirate. I wasn’t supposed to know who the work was for, but…” Katya shrugged one shoulder
. She’d been innocent but not ignorant. “I designed the security software for GenTest. It’s definitely Triumvirate. The Bay House as well as most other Houses use it to perform their genetic testing. Blood purity is important to many of the old Houses, and they used GenTest to weed out anyone with…anomalies.”

  Kel’s eyes warmed, and she came to her feet with a sigh. “That’s how they nailed you. Pureblood bastards.” She walked over to stand shoulder to shoulder with Katya, crossing her arms over her chest as she eyed Gideon and Tag. “All the females in a high-and-mighty House have to get tested to decide if they are pure enough to be brides or whether they only make the grade to be walking blood banks. My guess Kat here lucked out on both counts.”

  “That’s an understatement.” The laugh that slid past her lips was dry. “Females get tested once they reach sexual maturity, but they must have been testing me from the beginning. I thought it was normal, and no one ever said anything about it. They were profiling me from the start.”

  Katya cast a glance at Raife where he hovered with his arms crossed over his massive chest, his gaze hard as he stared at his friends. Kel and Raife flanked her on either side, their irritation and loyalty providing a buffer against the distrust.

  Those amber eyes were intent when he dropped his gaze to her.

  “You were right all along. My uncle is responsible for this.”

  The pain of it sliced through her. All of the bloodwork she’d received as a child. They were experimenting on her.

  He wrapped his arms around her and buried his lips in her hair. “I’m sorry, Kat.”

  “I should be the one apologizing to you. I blamed you, when you’re nothing like them.”

  “I should have checked on you. I could have spared you all these months of hell if I hadn’t been so weak.”