Authors: Abby Blake
“Skye,” he managed to say as he ignored all protocols and used his preternatural speed to leave the club. It felt like the trip back to the motel took twice as long as it should have, Skye’s terrified telepathic voice in his head spurring him to faster speeds.
Sense kicked in a moment before he burst into the motel room. Samuel did the same, a look of incredulity gracing his face as they both realized who was in the room.
“Come here, lovely,” their supervisor said to one of the women inside.
* * * *
Jennifer began to move toward him, her outward calm eerily familiar. Skye held her tight, stopping her forward movement, but it took way more effort than it should have to stop a human. Apparently being compelled by a vampire also gave the victim an inhuman strength.
“Why are you doing this?” Skye asked, hoping only to stall the man long enough for Samuel and Benjamin to get back to the motel.
“Because you have caused me way more aggravation than you should have. If those idiots had just drained you properly, there wouldn’t have been enough of you left to save, and I wouldn’t have had to go cleaning up their mess.”
“I don’t understand,” Skye said, playing her dumb-blonde card for all it was worth. “What mess?” Blonde jokes had been the bane of her existence her entire life—it was even why Jennifer dyed her hair red—but maybe this time Skye could make the common assumption that hair color somehow affected her intelligence work for her. “You know, like, I’m just, you know, confused is all. I mean, why are you such a meanie?”
She almost gagged on the out-of-character words, but judging by the guy’s derogatory laugh he was buying the act. Skye somehow sensed Benjamin and Samuel were close. She wasn’t sure if the other vampire could sense them also, so she tried to keep his focus elsewhere while her men came up with a rescue plan. At least that’s what she hoped they were doing.
“Why redheads? Is that, like, you know, your favorite color or something?”
Jennifer had stopped trying to walk out of her embrace, so Skye hoped that meant she was distracting the guy enough to disrupt his ability to compel humans. But then the vampire turned sharply toward the door, obviously sensing Skye’s makers on the other side. He lunged for her, but she was ready for it, ducking out of the way, practically throwing her sister across the room as the front door and the bathroom door opened simultaneously. Two loud gunshots reverberated through the room, but it was the explosion of the bullets on impact that tore a gaping hole in the vampire’s chest.
Skye pushed her sister into the corner, covering Jennifer with her own body as blood and guts flew through the air and covered almost everything in the room.
They were both shaking violently when Samuel touched her lightly on the back a few moments later. “Are you okay?” Skye wanted to throw herself into his arms, but Jennifer was shuddering in reaction, tears streaming down her face, her understanding of the world around her obviously turned on its head, and Skye didn’t want to leave her.
“We’re fine,” Skye said, trying to convey how glad she was that they’d arrived when they did. “Is Thomas still alive?”
“Thomas!” Jennifer said as she tried to scramble out of Skye’s embrace. Skye went with her, fear for the werewolf who’d risked his life to save theirs overriding all other concerns. She did manage to at least shield Jennifer from the gory sight of the dead vampire though.
“He’s going to be fine,” Adam said with a small smile as they crouched down near the wolf’s head. “Looks like the bastard broke every bone in Thomas’s ribcage, but nothing that can’t heal on its own. He’ll hurt for a while, but he’ll be good as new in a couple hours.”
“Really?” Jennifer asked in a soft voice. She leaned over and gently stroked the wolf’s muzzle. Skye’s sister had always had a kind heart, but it was unusual for her to get so close to a dog of any kind. Having been bitten as a child, Jennifer’s avoidance of man’s best friend was almost legendary. Of course, none of the furry critters they’d met before now had been werewolves or had been a man who’d saved their lives.
Surprisingly, Adam put his arm around Jennifer, holding her close as she sat caressing the wolf’s fur. Skye was a little taken aback to see her sister lean her head on Adam’s chest. They hadn’t even actually met, but he held her closer, and Skye realized that, for the moment at least, her sister was in good hands. She squeezed Jennifer’s fingers slightly and then let go so that she could move to where Samuel and Benjamin were standing with the rest of the team.
Benjamin saw her approach, and when she stopped a few feet away, uncertain of her welcome, he leaned over and dragged her into the space between him and Samuel. Benjamin kept his arm around her shoulder, but he pressed her against Samuel’s side at the same time. Samuel put his arm around her middle, his hesitation only momentary before he held on tight.
“Skye, is this the vampire who killed the woman the night you were attacked?” Wilson sounded so formal, and for a moment she worried what that meant.
“Yes,” she said with a brief glance at the corpse lying in the middle of the room with a massive hole in its chest. She stiffened as images of that horrific first night replayed in her head. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that they had the right vampire.
“Good,” Wilson said with a kind smile. “That will make it far easier to explain to the Judiciaries why we just killed our boss.”
“Although,” Alex said with a tight smile, “the fact that he lied about his age, and tried to kill a PUP squad member should be plenty of explanation even without eyewitness testimony.”
“His age?” Skye asked, trying to figure out what his age had to do with anything.
“That,” Benjamin said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder but not turning around, “is not the corpse of a seven-hundred-year-old vampire.”
“How can you tell?” Call it morbid curiosity, but she really wanted to know.
“When a vampire dies the body tends to decay very rapidly. The older we are the faster it happens. At seven hundred years of age the corpse and all of its bodily fluids should have decayed to dust practically before it hit the ground. As you can see by the mess, that didn’t happen. He was probably closer to seventy or eighty years old, give or take a few years.”
“So he wasn’t who he said he was?”
“No, baby girl, he wasn’t,” Benjamin said as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. But then another thought occurred to her and she looked around the room frantically.
“What about the noise? Shouldn’t we be preparing a story for the police? Surely someone heard the bullets.”
“Relax, sweetheart, we used silencers. The sound would only have seemed loud because of your vampire hearing. We’ll call a pixie cleanup crew to take care of the mess.”
“Pixie?” she asked in a small, squeaky voice.
Samuel must have heard how overwhelmed she was feeling just by the tone of her voice. “We’ll leave the explanation of that for another day.”
“Let’s get the paperwork done,” Benjamin said as he squeezed her gently and then turned to check on Thomas. “I think we should all plan on taking some time off. Samuel and I have been considering a long holiday anyway, but with the mission turning out the way it has, we’re probably all liable to be stood down from active duty while the Judiciaries review the mission briefs.”
“True,” Adam said with a happy smile. “It’s probably about time I took Thomas home to his mama. That mean old lady’s liable to rip me a new one if I don’t get him home for Thanksgiving this year.” The wolf that was Thomas growled low in its throat, but by Adam’s happy smile it seemed that it was probably a long-running joke. “And besides, I’d rather be on leave than have to face a desk job while the Judiciaries take their sweet time dottin’ eyes and crossin’ tees.”
The others all murmured in agreement.
* * * *
Skye woke to her sister’s smiling face.
“Wow, when that sun comes up you really go down for the count. They weren’t kidding.”
Skye glanced around her and finally realized that she was in her sister’s guest room. “So you believe me now?” she asked unsteadily.
Jennifer smiled and shrugged. “Seeing a man morph into a wolf in front of my eyes kind of squashed my skepticism.”
“Is Thomas okay?” Skye asked. She remembered Adam’s reassurance from earlier, but a lot could have changed in the eight hours that she’d slept like the dead.
“He’s going to be fine. Adam called a few hours ago to let Benjamin know they’d arrived home safe and sound.”
“Where’s home?” Skye asked. There was just something about the way her sister’s smile softened and her eyes glistened when she spoke about the two wolves that made Skye wonder if she’d missed much more than just their departure.
“Their families live in a gated community at the top of some mountain about an eight-hour drive from here,” Jennifer said quickly, as if it were no big deal.
“You like them,” Skye said with a smile on her lips.
Jennifer gave her a lopsided grin, but then released a breathy laugh and shook her head. “What’s not to like? They’re gallant, protective, arrogant, good-looking sweethearts who are way out of my league.” Skye opened her mouth to correct her. Jennifer was an amazing woman who deserved to be happy, but she held up a hand to stop Skye’s words. “And they are werewolves who live a long way from here and spend most of their time traveling around the country on one mission or another.”
Skye smiled sadly. Her sister had a point. Even if she could accept and overcome the paranormal aspect, there was still the fact that she’d barely see them anyway. A fact that suddenly hammered home to Skye the possibly bleak future she herself faced. It didn’t matter where the initial attraction had come from. She was irrevocably in love with both her men, but without a shadow of a doubt Benjamin and Samuel’s lives were far easier without her hanging around.
“Where are they?” she asked her sister with a heavy heart. Maybe they’d already left. They’d taught her what she needed to know to be a good little vampire. Her hometown had more than a few of her kind so she wouldn’t be without assistance if she needed it, and the mission was complete so she was no longer in danger. Despite what they’d said about taking time off, it was quite possible they’d gone onto their next mission without a backward glance.
“They’re at the motel making sure that the pixies did their jobs properly.”
“Oh,” Skye said, feeling a little less downhearted just knowing that they were still in the area.
“They had hoped to be back before you woke up.”
“They did?”
“Of course they did,” Jennifer said with a strange smile on her face. “I got the impression that they were both in love with you. Why wouldn’t they be here? Don’t you like them?”
“Of course I like them. Hell, I’m in love with them, but…” She had to swallow that stupid lump of fear crowding her throat before she could force out the rest of the words. “But, they…they’re only attracted to me because they made me a vampire.”
“So what does that mean? Do they have other women? What about the vampires who made them? Holy hell, does that mean that every vampire they make is going to fall in love with them? Shit, no wonder vampires have an image that includes orgies and sexual deviancy.”
“Don’t believe everything you read,” Benjamin said as he and Samuel walked into the bedroom. Skye had been so focused on her own fears that she hadn’t even sensed them coming into the house, but she was very grateful to see her men. She just hoped that they weren’t coming to say good-bye. “The very fact that our own maker was able to resist us proves that the base attraction connected with the change can be denied. We only know of a handful of new fledglings, but only one of them, as far as we know, has a romantic relationship with her maker.”
“Oh,” Skye said, cringing at the nonword that was coming out of her mouth far too often lately.
“Baby girl,” Benjamin said, “please don’t leave us. We know it’s not going to be easy to build a relationship with all three of us, but can you please just give things a chance?”