Bounty

by K. N. Banet

I wandered through the house, looking through drawers and under furniture. I wanted to be thorough. If I didn’t check this house, it would have bugged me for weeks. I would have considered it a missed opportunity and would have never known if I could have saved Carter before the trade. But there was nothing and no one. They were gone, and so was any trace of them except their lingering scents.

  I sat down at the dining table, thinking about what Sinclair must have thought when he learned I had stolen the intel. It had been a bold play on my part and a direct challenge to him. It must have infuriated him, which could have driven him to take Carter. Hostages weren’t normally Sinclair’s thing—too bold, too messy. People just tended to disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. Nothing anyone could prove was him at the end of the day.

  I didn’t move for a moment as I heard a creak in the living room, just out of sight. I reached down and pulled my gun but didn’t cock it. I just wanted it ready.

  “I knew you would come back,” Sinclair said as he entered my line of sight. “You’ve played this game well, Kaliya, but I think we both know how tomorrow is going to end up.”

  “Yeah. We give you Raphael, you give us back the vampire who belongs to the Mistress of Phoenix.” I sounded like it was an easy solution.

  “Really? You’re ready to shoot me right now. We both know that won’t kill me, and that’s the only reason you haven’t. You want me dead. You’ve wanted me dead for years.”

  “If I could, I would, but you’re right. You can’t kill me either, though. Guess we’re at a bit of an impasse.”

  “You’re correct. We’re stuck in the same situation we’ve been in for…a few decades?”

  “Several decades,” I corrected.

  He nodded slowly. “Yes…”

  “Tell me, professionally, is twenty million worth this?” I was curious. I wanted to egg this man into telling me his wonderful little secret, whatever was bothering him enough to go this far this time.

  “Twenty million is a lot of money.”

  “You run Las Vegas. Twenty million is what you can extort out of the casinos in a night,” I retorted. “I’ve looked over some of the finances.”

  “Other people’s,” he pointed out.

  I rolled my eyes. Everyone knew he was at the top of the food chain. He got a cut of everything supernatural, and sometimes human, that happened in Sin City.

  “Yeah. Okay, Sinclair.”

  “See, this is why I’m tired of dealing with you. This Mygi job is going to get me beyond this pettiness with you, Cassius, and the Tribunal. I’m going to get out of the little circles I have to constantly run around you and move on to greater opportunities. I recommend you let me go, Kaliya. Your people need you alive, don’t they?” He smiled at the end, and I hissed softly.

  “Don’t you dare bring them into this.”

  “Why not? You bring them into everything you do just by being you. You’re a de facto leader, are you not? Yet you make enemies and fight against powers you have no chance of beating. I would think after so long, you would know you can’t beat me.” He rested a hand on his chest, an arrogant gesture of power and style.

  “If you knew I was coming to check this place out, why are you here?” I asked, tired of the little game Sinclair was playing.

  “Because I wanted to convince you to just accept the trade tomorrow. Don’t try anything. There’s no reason for so many people to get hurt. Carter is safe, for now, but don’t do anything to jeopardize it. It was so easy to take him, you know. My fae just convinced the humans living in the nest he wanted to visit his new boyfriend and he walked right out with Carter like it was nothing. We could have killed him out right, but again, no one has to die. This can be very easy.”

  “Why do you care?” I snapped.

  “He’s a vampire like me. Of course I care,” he retorted. “You think I liked seeing one of my own kind help you against me? I know the Mistress of this city doesn’t like me, but I’ve never actively worked against my own kind.”

  I thought about Leith, Annie-Lyn, and Terry—fae, fae, and werewolf. I thought of Paden—fae. Me, the naga, and Cassius, another fae. Raphael, the maybe-human. He didn’t even have another vampire working for him on this mission.

  Because he intends on killing his colleagues.

  “Really? That’s the line of loyalty you draw?”

  “Why do you think the vampires on the Tribunal are upset with me but don’t come after me? They could, you know. They could have brought their nests down on Las Vegas and have wiped me out a century ago. I don’t screw over my own kind, so it remains a problem with the Law and the Tribunal at large, but not a problem for them specifically, no matter how much you or the others want them to finish me off.” He was still smiling. “I thought you would have put that together already. Maybe Executioner is the better role for you. Maybe I was wrong about that.”

  “What did Mygi really offer you?”

  “Twenty million dollars. Ten for taking the job, ten for completing the bounty,” he answered, an obvious but easy lie. There was no way I could refute it without giving away my own hand.

  You want Raphael, though. The money isn’t worth this. Are you going to betray Mygi as well? Damn it, Sinclair, give me something I can work with.

  “Well, I should really go,” he declared, checking the elegant pocket watch he had tucked in the front pocket of his vest. “This has been interesting, but I tire.”

  I snorted. “Dawn is hours away.”

  “I tire of you, like most people in your life,” he retorted, tucking the watch back away.

  It’s almost funny when people I like a little make fun of me, but damn, I want to rip his fucking head off.

  “No witty remark?” he asked, giving me a curious look. “Tell me, Kaliya, if it weren’t for me being involved, would you care at all about this man? Raphael Alvarez?”

  “Probably not,” I answered with my own easy lie, but it was less obvious. Sinclair had no idea I could mate with Raphael and that he was important to my species. He had no idea my fangs dropped constantly, wanting to sink into the skin of the Catholic too full of guilt for my taste. “I just want to win.”

  “Ah, such childish motivations.” He shrugged.

  “Why do you care so much? Like I pointed out, twenty million is chump change. There’s no reason to go as far as you have for that much money. Hell, I could give you that and ask you to walk away.”

  “Your confusion as to why I’m doing this shows me just how little you truly know. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You have an investigative mind, but it never gets you anywhere. Not in your job, not in your personal life. You’ve never been able to find your way out of the dark, and I hold all the cards you so desperately desire.”

  I stood up in a rush of anger and surprise, showing that, yes, there was a gun in my hand.

  Sinclair stepped back behind the wall. I licked my lips and realized the fae was close. There was no good way for me to go after Sinclair; he had backup, and I didn’t. He could have killed me, but my initial suspicion had been right. He was going to wait until he had everyone where he wanted them to finish off this dirty mission he’d taken.

  I walked out of the house on my own two feet, unwilling to run or move quickly. I didn’t want to show any signs of fear. When I reached the car, my hand was shaking as I opened the door. When I sat down, I let his words sink in.

  He can’t know anything about that. There’s no way.

  I looked down at my passenger’s seat and saw a note, which definitely didn’t do anything good for my anxiety. Picking it up, I read it quickly.

  I propose a different deal for you. Raphael for your vampire friend and information about who murdered your family. Same time, same place.

  I folded it and shoved it into my pocket, my palms sweaty.

  There was no way. Is this his trump card to walk away without a scratch at the end of this? Does he think I’ll let him go for this?

  The only thing I knew for certain
was I couldn’t tell Cassius about this. Not any of it. He wouldn’t allow me near Sinclair, then I wouldn’t be able to get anything. I also knew why Sinclair hadn’t said anything inside. He taunted me about not knowing anything, but he left a silent offer because I wouldn’t have let him leave the house alive if he had given me this offer in person.

  My hands were still shaking as I drove away.

  I can’t entertain this, right? There’s no way. He’s bluffing and has nothing, but he wants to throw me off because he’s gotten in too deep.

  I was nearing the point of hyperventilating, so I pulled over, leaning on the steering wheel as I tried to calm down.

  Over one hundred years of searching and now, Sinclair suddenly had information on who killed my family. His face never went on The Board. For the decades I played fucking footsy with the vampire, I never had any reason to believe he knew anything about the group that came into my home that night and slaughtered my family.

  He’s old enough. He could know.

  My hands were still shaking as I thought back to what got me this deep into the mess around Raphael. An obscure connection between two people and Mygi Pharmaceuticals, who probably had nothing to do with my family…but maybe?

  Maybe. I lived my life on maybes. I made decisions to meet people, work with them or against them, hurt them, and kill them on maybes. Just maybe the next time would give me answers. Maybe next time, I could learn something.

  Maybe.

  I pulled the note out of my pocket and reread it. I knew Sinclair’s handwriting. I had helped Cassius more times than I could count look through the vampire’s files, journals, and other personal property for any sign of wrongdoing.

  Cassius was safe. So was Raphael. Carter was in the man’s hands, and I had no idea if I was going to get him back alive.

  Covering my face, I leaned over further. I was parked on a quiet, dark subdivision street, hidden for a moment. I was thankful no one was taking any notice of my car because I needed to think.

  24

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  When I made it back to Cassius’s house, I was jumpy. For some odd reason, Raphael was waiting in the garage.

  “What are you doing? Checking out the nice cars?” I asked, trying to act casual. The note in my pocket felt like it was on fire. My fangs ached as I saw the rough not-human man leaning on the wall, looking over me and the car I just got out of.

  “Where did you go?” he asked, no inflection giving away any emotion.

  “I wanted to check out a place I knew Sinclair had been earlier this hell of a week,” I explained. “They abandoned it. There’s nothing for us there.”

  “And you went alone?” He started to frown. “What if something happened to you?”

  That caught me off guard. I locked the car and walked past Raphael to put away the keys before I could bring myself to answer.

  “Would you care?” I dared to ask back. “I thought I was some heartless, soulless killer. Figured you would think the world was better off without someone like me.”

  My words hit their mark, causing his eyes to go red and black.

  “That’s…” He growled, and I watched as he struggled to string a sentence together. “You know, I might not like any of this, but that doesn’t mean I want one of the few people who have helped me in the last ten years to get themselves fucking killed!”

  “You have a funny way of showing it!” I wasn’t even sure why I was lashing out at him. I didn’t really get the point of being angry at him. He didn’t owe me his sympathy or his concern, and I should have been grateful he spared some for me. Not many people did.

  Instead, I found myself lashing out, pissed off he would even bother. That after the few days I had known him, I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I was chained to him unless I found someone better or just different.

  “What the fuck is your problem?” he demanded.

  “I…I don’t know.” I searched for something he had done that annoyed me. “Maybe it’s that you stomped off while I was trying to explain to you that you can’t be human anymore.”

  “You said I lost my humanity.”

  “And you took it as something completely different than what I meant. You’re in a world where it’s not just humans and animals anymore, Raphael. You don’t get to go back to the life you thought you had. You’ve lost that humanity, not your fucking moral compass. That much is clear.” I waved a hand at him. “Then there’s the judgmental bullshit I’ve gotten about the shit going on. Sorry, but I don’t fucking need it or your concern, or anything else from you right now. Try to do something nice for once, and my life has fucking imploded, and my few friends are getting hurt.”

  I stomped off, dealing with the conflicting feelings I had toward the note and the ache in my fangs. I went straight for Cassius’s office, knowing he would be there, but stopped short.

  I thought I had decided on the drive back, but I stood there and realized I was a long way from making any sort of decision.

  I could give away Raphael and get the information I needed to find who killed my family. Maybe. It would at least get rid of the fucking stress of having him around and the implications of him being here, in my space.

  Or I could keep Raphael and hope to get a break in the case later.

  With a heavy sigh, the ache in my fangs won. I opened the office door and walked in to find Cassius deep in papers, reading through stuff. At a glance, I realized it was the photos of the Mygi intel I copied from Sinclair.

  “Sinclair showed up.”

  His head popped up, his eyes narrow and suspicious, but also full of concern. When I didn’t say anything more, he got up and walked around his desk, grabbing my shoulders and looking me over.

  “Are you hurt? Did he try to attack you?”

  “No and no. We chatted. He figured I would go back to see if he left anything useful.”

  “You chatted?” Cassius seemed confused, but I knew he was just processing. His mind was probably working out the thousands of ways the conversation could have gone.

  “He offered me a deal. Not to my face. When I got back into the car to leave, after he left, there was this.” I fished the note out of my pocket and had to force myself to give it to Cassius. It was so hard showing it to him, knowing I was giving up on taking the trade the way Sinclair intended. If I wanted Sinclair’s information now, I was going to have to capture him and somehow get the information out of him, which could prove impossible.

  Cassius read the note several times. I watched his eyes flick across it, his expression growing darker each time.

  “Thank you for showing me this,” he whispered. “I know it was hard for you.”

  “I had a chance to get rid of Raphael, so the other nagas wouldn’t expect me to become a breeder. I had the chance to get intel from Sinclair.”

  “Do you honestly think he knows anything?” Cassius asked, almost disbelieving.

  “You know I don’t leave stones unturned. That’s what gets me into trouble most of the time. I’m giving you this to stop me.” I needed someone rational. If it were just me, I would be questioning whether to take the deal until I was at the meeting place.

  I knew I was willing to give up everything—Cassius, Carter, Paden, even Raphael, who could help me save my kind. I knew I needed one of my friends, the most powerful of them, to stop me from doing something terrible.

  It’s finding justice for my family, though. Who passes up on an oppurtunity to do that?

  “Adhar should stop trying to make you feel bad for not wanting to take that route in life,” Cassius whispered, stepping away from me. “He’s an ass for treating you like that.”

  “It’s okay. He treats all the other male nagas like that too. We’re either having kids, or we’re doing it wrong.” I shrugged. “Either way, this is me making my choice and sticking with it. Does it surprise you that when I first saw it, I thought about not showing you?”

  “I’ll never be surprised by your dedication…no,
that’s not right. I’ll never be surprised by your obsession with finding out who killed your family.” He sounded sad, and that sadness leaked into his eyes.

  “It sucks when the only thing you can bury is pieces,” I mumbled, looking away from him, thinking about the closet in my secure office. The few boxes I had there.

  “Let’s not talk about it right now. With this, we know Sinclair is desperate.” He lifted the note with two fingers and waved it around. “He’s hoping he can get one of us to betray the group to get what he wants.”

  “It doesn’t change anything. He’s going to try to kill all of us, and we’re going to try to kill him.” I tried to say that with confidence, but the little voice—the little desperate, obsessed voice—told me I wanted to take Sinclair alive. If I couldn’t trade him for the information, I had to get it some other way.

  Cassius must have seen something on my face or came to his own realization.

  “Capturing him would be hard, but it might put you at ease. We know some of the best torturers in the supernatural world. Maybe we can get the information he’s offering. It would also save us if the information is a dud. You wouldn’t have to feel guilty for handing over an innocent man to him.”

  “Yeah, but…if it’s not easy, we just go for the kill. I’m not going to let him escape. He knows where I live. He could completely disrupt my life. I mean, he already has…”

  “I don’t think he came to Phoenix to disrupt your life,” Cassius said with some diplomacy. “I think you jumped feet first into this situation, and now, you’re paying for it. It’s fine, though. You’re going to live with me until your home is secure again.”

  “Yay…”

  “We need a plan. What if you pretend to betray me and Raphael?”

  “I’m not doing that,” I groaned. “Stop bringing it up.”

  “When you left, Raphael asked Leith to bring him to me. He was upset you were risking everything to protect him when you didn’t owe him anything. He’s a man who likes to fight his own battles. Sound like anyone we’ve met?”