by Unknown
“Genevieve, let me introduce you to Detective Brogan.”
Flynn put out his hand and took Genevieve’s in his, bringing it to his lips. “Jolie said you were stunning, but I thought she had exaggerated. I was wrong, and if anything, she underestimated your beauty,” he said, repeating the words and actions that Jacques was sharing with him.
In his book, it was total bullshit. The woman was attractive, but Jolie beat her, hands down.
“My, my, you’re a charming one,” she said, pausing and then stepping back. “Come in and be welcome, all of you.”
It wasn’t missed by Jolie that her friend had yet to relinquish the detective’s hand.
It didn't please her in the least.
Genevieve took in the large man’s frame and his black hair. It hung loose and swept his shoulders. “You’re almost as delicious as Jacques.” Then, she paused. “Why do you smell of our Jolie?”
Surprising Brogan, she leaned in and sniffed his throat, picking up the scent that she was searching for.
Flynn remained perfectly still, despite a vampyre hanging out near his neck. When she lapped his flesh, he wasn’t amused.
“Has your mate consented to you having a human lover?” Genevieve asked Jolie.
It was Jacques who answered for her. “Oui, I have.” It would only gain them an edge, and he was more than willing to give it to them. Besides, the man was now Jolie’s guardian, and that gave him that privilege.
“Genie, Detective Brogan is bonded to both of us,” she confirmed, and then left it at that. Let the woman assume whatever she wanted. It would only protect Flynn to have their scent and mark on him. “He now lives with us.”
“Ah, he is a fine specimen,” she purred, walking around him as if he were a piece of meat on display. “He is absolutely one of the sexiest men I’ve ever seen.” When she patted him on the ass, Brogan’s mind opened to Jolie and Jacques in protest at being pawed by the woman.
Jacques sent Jolie calm and pushed her to help their detective. He knew what the man was feeling, since this kind of thing was the norm.
Jolie wandered to him and ran her hand down his upper body, not stopping short of his groin as she showed ownership. When she went up on her toes and licked his earlobe, Brogan turned his face toward hers to meet her mouth.
Immediately, his arms went around her smaller frame, as he protectively housed her against him.
She kissed him with everything she had in her. Jolie deepened the tangle of tongues, enjoying every second of it.
Why pretend she didn't? This was her human guardian, and she was enthralled.
When she finally broke away, Jolie flashed her fangs as she pulled a fully aroused Brogan to the back of her body. To complete the show, she turned to her old friend and ran her tongue across her lips, just avoiding the fangs peeking out. “Your right, old friend. My Flynn is incredibly delicious.” Jolie waited out the next move in the vampyre’s game of chess.
Genevieve threw back her head and laughed. “Jolie, you were always a ballsy one,” she stated, leading them to her sitting room. “Come. Refreshments are served,” she offered, with less hostility.
“What was that all about?” whispered Brogan.
“That, mon ami, was two alpha vampyres in a pissing match,” replied Jacques. “Jolie had to show she wasn’t the weaker of the two women and that you weren’t up for grabs. If she didn't, Genevieve could try to claim you for her own.”
“Sorry, Flynn. She would have eaten you alive, literally,” said Jolie. “Come on, we need to get in there.” Jolie headed into the room.
Jacques placed his hand on Brogan’s arm. “You need to stay by Jolie’s side and try to stay as far from the other females as possible. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I’ve got what you’re saying. After that kiss, hell, she can use me as a chair if she wants,” Brogan teased, as he flashed the handsome grin.
When the two men entered the room, the warmth factor had dropped thirty degrees, and Jolie was facing her friend across an ornate coffee table.
Everyone looked over as Jacques walked to the back of the couch and stood behind Jolie, while Brogan did the same.
Jolie’s words echoed through the detective’s mind. “Look fierce.”
“Mistress Jolie, may I introduce you to the reason why we’re all here. This is Medea.”
Jolie focused her attention on a little woman who was maybe five feet tall with blonde curls. She looked almost angelic, but Jolie knew better. In her eight hundred years, she’d been called ‘sweet’ and ‘innocent’, and she was neither.
Medea stepped forward, smiling peacefully at their company.
Jolie wasn’t new to this game, and she wasn’t convinced. “Medea, we apologize for any inconvenience that this meeting has caused you, but we need to talk with you about the killings that have been going on.”
“I don’t see what I have to do with it,” she said calmly.
Jolie was on alert. She could see the glimmer in the woman’s eyes, and she had come across it before.
It was evil personified.
This cherub was more wicked than wonderful.
“There is a witness that said you were seen with the last three victims the same night that they turned up dead.”
She batted her eyelashes.
“They must be mistaken.”
Jolie was close enough to the woman now that she could pick up her scent. It was the same one that she’d found on the dead victims.
“Well, you touched those women and drank from them. We may not leave DNA, but you left your trace.”
“So?” she asked, with venom dripping from her voice as soon as she realized that the game was up.
“So?” Jolie started laughing. Everyone in the room froze. The energy was pulsing off her body in electric currents. “I know that you had a part in killing them. You may not have bled those women, but I think you were the very attractive lure,” she added, stalking toward the girl.
“You’re mistaken and have no rights here.”
Jolie stopped in front of her. “How old are you Medea?” asked Jolie.
“I’m over two hundred,” she said, lifting her chin arrogantly. Gone was the innocence, and in its place was nothing but defiance.
Jolie turned her back to the woman and looked directly at Jacques. It was as if a message passed between them. “I’m over eight hundred years old.”
“So?”
“My point is that at two hundred years old, I had enough common sense not to lie to an ancient. Maybe it’s not common sense that you’re lacking, but just that you’re not too bright. Are you stupid Medea? Is that it?”
The room froze and everything moved in slow motion. Medea lunged for Jolie and before the guardians could stop her, she had her hands around Jolie’s neck, claws piercing her throat, and nails ripping into her flesh.
Brogan stepped forward to help her until Jacques stopped him.
“That was a big mistake, Medea,” said Jolie.
All of the sudden, the woman started screaming in pain, but she couldn’t get her hands off Jolie’s flesh. It was as if the blood dripping from Jolie was acid.
“She attacked me first, so I believe I have every right to continue this the hard way.”
Genevieve waved the guardians from the room. “Continue, Mistress Jolie. This is now your show as somehow I knew it would be.”
Jolie released the woman, and she fell to the floor. Kneeling beside her, violet eyes stared down into brown ones. “Are you helping the killers find their victims?”
The woman reached for Jolie’s face. Her hand froze mid swipe as the entire room filed with the crunching of bones.
She screamed in anguish.
Jolie touched her head and temporarily stopped the pain to ask her again. “Are you assisting the killers?”
Medea swung her other clawed hand at Jolie’s eyes. The hand froze again and this time blisters popped out and the skin peeled away.
Jolie glanced over at her
companions. Jacques stood still and emotionless, since this wasn’t the first time he had seen this.
The other man was a different story.
Brogan stared in disbelief and horror.
Jolie turned back to the woman and pulled her pain away again so she could talk.
“I’ll ask this one last time, Medea. Are you helping them find the women?”
The girl hissed at Jolie.
Jolie reached over and touched her forehead. “I want the truth, Medea. I command you to comply!”
“Yes!” she bellowed, as the pain once more was released into her body.
Everyone in the room stilled, surprised to hear the woman’s answer.
Genevieve sat up straighter.
“Why are you helping them?”
“Why do you care? They’re only human. They’re food for us,” she spat at the older vampyre.
Jolie stood and released the pain. She ignored the woman squirming on the floor with her burning skin and her broken hand. Jolie knew what needed to be done. “She’s involved. I call for my rights to check her mind.”
Genevieve just waved like it was now out of her hands.
Brogan reached for Jacques’s mind.
“What’s that?”
“It is not pretty, mon ami.”
“Yeah, I got that, but what is it?”
“Jolie’s going to be digging around in her head. It’s incredibly painful, especially if you try and stop it, which she will.”
Jacques knew the detective was repulsed by that idea.
Jolie returned to her position beside the woman on the floor. “Tell me who you’re helping, so I don’t have to hurt you further. I don’t want to tear your mind apart, Medea.”
“I won’t betray our kind for some worthless human. You’re no better than them!”
“Them?”
“The filthy humans who you love so much.” The woman pointed her blistered hand at Brogan. “You harbor them in your house and you sleep with one,” she hissed. “You deserve death and are an insult to our kind.”
Jolie needed to know. “You know who was in my house and who tried to kill me don’t you?”
Silence.
“Fine, I gave you the option, and now I’ll forcefully enter your mind to get the answers,” she stated, glancing over her shoulder at Jacques and Flynn.
The words whispered through their heads. “Guard your minds.”
“Be careful, mon amour.”
“Flynn, don’t look at the woman on the floor, look at Jacques. He will protect you.”
Jolie straddled the woman’s body, and she screamed but couldn’t move. Placing her hands on the woman’s face, Jolie shoved all her power into the girl’s mind. She tore through her thoughts like fire through kindling. As Jolie began searching for what she needed, the woman beneath her begged for mercy as the pain overwhelmed her.
None was given.
The deeper she went, the more she found. There were flashes of information on the killers. Jolie would save that until later when she needed it.
Most importantly, she saw the next piece in the puzzle. Jolie saw something from hundreds of years ago. There were pictures of humans betraying her family and the hunters coming to kill them.
There was hatred and rage toward the humans. All of this was because of what happened in France, so many years ago.
It was sad that she was still carrying this grudge, when all who were guilty had already paid the price of death.
Suddenly, she felt the anger growing as if it were contagious and a cancer. It slammed against her in wave after wave of intense hatred. Jolie’s body bowed and she screamed, pushing her own energy back into it.
The room rocked with Jolie’s power.
Pictures and furniture shook.
Brogan tried to move toward her, and Jacques held a hand out to stop him. If he touched her now, he would be harmed.
Jolie threw back her head and screamed again. The door flew open, allowing Genevieve’s guardians to burst into the room, ready to attack.
Both men spun. Brogan reached into his jacket with both hands and pulled two nine millimeter guns with the speed of a vampyre.
Both Guardians slid to a stop, watching the human with the two weapons pointed at their hearts.
“False alarm boys,” said Brogan. “Back away from my mistress, or I’ll shoot. We have it all under control. Why don’t you head out of the room and find something to keep you busy?” he stated, as Genevieve waved them away.
Jolie sat on the floor shaking.
Genevieve stood, her face full of surprise. They were close in age, but Jolie had more power than she could handle.
The room quieted.
Jolie sat with her head bowed.
The girl previously in pain lay still.
Jacques approached Jolie to kneel beside her. He tried to touch her mind, but it was silent. Instead, he sent her calming energy.
“No more energy, Jacques. I can’t hold any more.”
“We need to leave. I have to get you home.”
Jacques helped her up and looked over at Genevieve. “We’ll be taking Jolie home now.”
“What do you want me to do with her, Jacques? Jolie can name her punishment, thanks to the council siding with her on this.”
“Her punishment should be death. Medea is useless now, so put her out of her misery,” answered Jacques, without pause.
Genevieve nodded, since there was no choice. She hated destroying their kind.
Jacques picked Jolie up from the floor and cradled her to his chest. “We’re leaving. Good night, Genevieve. Thank you for your hospitality.”
Flynn walked out the door first, his guns pointed at the ground. Once they left the house and returned to the safety of their vehicle, only then did he holster them.
“Is she okay?” Brogan asked.
“Yes,” he replied, as Jolie grinned and slid off his lap.
“How was that for getting out of her house without having to tell her what I saw?” Jolie asked, straightening her sweater. She kissed Jacques and thanked him for playing along. “I couldn’t have done it without you, mon amour.”
“That was an act?” asked Brogan, floored. “All that was nothing but dramatics?”
“No, trust me. That was incredibly painful, but I needed to get out of there without her knowing what our next move is. The girl was in her society, and she didn’t know what was going on under her own nose. That’s very troubling. I can’t trust her judgment, so I needed to evade her questions. Passing out or being close to it was the best I could do.”
Brogan just shook his head.
“You’re disturbed, Flynn?” she asked.
“Yeah, I think I am.”
“It was necessary to hurt her. I had a job to do, getting the information to save humans and our kind.”
“If you say so,” he said, continuing to drive, still unable to look back at either of them. He was unsure he could ever watch that again. It was vile and made them appear to be soulless killers in his eyes.
“What would you have me do?” she asked, as Jacques stroked her arm, trying to calm her. “Kiss her and beg for the answers I needed?”
“You practically peeled her skin off and shattered her bones. Then, I watched you rip into her mind. It’s a little disturbing, that’s all,” he said without emotion.
“I’m sorry you were forced to watch it then,” she replied softly. “I won’t make the mistake twice. You won’t be included in anything that makes me a soulless killer,” she said, giving him back the words that were flooding his mind.
“What? You know who killed all these women?”
“No, but I know who tried to kill us. If Medea was aware, then I doubt that they’re not connected. I don’t believe in coincidence.”
“What’s our next step?” he asked, reminding himself that he was still a cop.
“No worries, Flynn. Jacques and I’ll handle it. You don’t have to watch me be what I am. I’m nothing more than a
monster. Good night, Detective Brogan. Sleep well.”
It hurt that she was only using his title, and not his first name. He had grown to like that intimacy between them.
Both men watched as she walked into the house alone, the storm brewing deep within her body.
Brogan glanced over at Jacques. “I didn’t mean to upset her with what I was thinking.”
“Do you really think of us as soulless killers, Detective?” asked Jacques, getting out of the passenger seat. He too knew what was going through the man’s mind, since he had been privy to the echo through Jolie’s head. “Or do you believe everything that we do has a purpose?”
“It was just hard to watch. It shook me up.”
“Imagine how it must feel to live with it,” he said, walking away to go comfort his mate and love of his life. “You’ve misjudged us, specifically her.”
As he stood alone in the garage, there was only one thing going through his mind.
“Well, shit!”
∞ Chapter Eighteen ∞
Saturday Early Morning
Jolie went to her room and stripped out off her clothes. Everything inside her was numb. She felt dirty and desperately needed to get clean. Maybe that would wash away the horrors that were sticking grotesquely to her flesh. Being in the woman’s mind, and facing all the killing that she had participated in, had made her feel defiled.
Granted, she had tried to block out all the people and vampyres, who she had been forced to kill in her eight hundred years, but this was different. Her past was far from clean and she had done so many things just to survive. Skipping the scented bath oils, she only filled the tub with scalding water. The smell of home dragged her back to a past that she couldn’t bear to face.
It horrified her.
She kept telling herself it was all in the name of survival.
Jolie sighed as she slid into the steaming water. It wasn’t enough that she wanted to wash her sins away, but she wanted to burn them from her existence. As Jolie sunk below the surface and listened to the underwater noise, her heart ached. For now, she would just live in the solitude and peace. When she could no longer hold her breath, she pushed back to the surface to face her mate.
