Authors: Susan Sizemore
“What the fu—!”
“How dare you!” Piper’s angry shout roared above her own.
Someone knocked on the motel room door before Dee could respond.
Chapter Nineteen
After all those hours of pain, Dee did not appreciate the sudden headache he caused from her somehow offending Piper’s delicate sensibilities. She did, however, discover how quickly a vampire could get dressed. The blur made her dizzy. Which didn’t help her aching head and strained senses.
Dee managed to climb to her feet and make her way to the bathroom as Piper crossed the room. She listened as he opened the door.
“Yes?” he asked.
He spoke so very calmly that she wondered where his anger had gone. No doubt he’d tucked it away to turn on her once they were alone once more.
She splashed water on her face, then smiled at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Though it came out more like a grimace. A few minutes ago she’d been having fond emotions about the irritating Yakov Piper because the sex had been so great. At least she was now back to remembering that her partner on this op was a jerk.
“Are you all right?”
She recognized the questioner as the man who’d rented them the room.
“We’re fine,” Piper answered. “Shaken a little. That’s all.”
The man chuckled. “Glad to hear it. I know the place looks like a dump, but I had the buildings designed to survive at least a seven on the scale. That shake wasn’t more than a four. The epicenter’s about ten miles east. Power’s out all over the area, but I’ll have my generator up soon. Reports of damage and injuries are starting to come in. You know, I forgot you two were here for a while. Sorry I didn’t look in sooner.”
Dee guessed that Piper had told the man to forget they were there. The surprise of the quake had likely shaken that command out of the man’s consciousness. Trauma could shake free the overlay of psychic manipulation from a strong mind.
“We appreciate your concern,” Piper said.
“You were heading to Los Angeles, right?” the man asked.
“Thanks for checking on us,” Piper said.
Dee tensed, aware that there was absolutely no expression in the vampire’s voice. She braced to interfere, not wanting the Prime to take his petulance out on an innocent human.
* * *
Jake was more aware of McCoy standing in the bathroom worried that he was going to rip out the talkative man’s throat than he was of the man himself.
“We’ll be leaving soon,” he told the man.
“Heading south, or east, I hope,” the mortal answered. “A sheriff’s deputy just stopped by to tell me that landslides have taken out the highway heading north.”
Their destination was to the north. Jake heard helicopters circling overhead. Media? Military? Rescue? He knew one of them wasn’t a copter sent by the Dark Angels to get him and McCoy out of the earthquake zone. A little thing like a natural disaster—if it was natural—wouldn’t get them rescued or called back to base.
“We’ll make our own way,” he told the man.
Leave now
, he telepathically ordered.
The man went.
Jake closed the door. He kept his back turned to the woman when she came out of the bathroom. He heard her open her go bag and waited until she was dressed before turning to face her.
He wanted to see her naked. He wanted to—
They needed to get back to their assignment.
“Our plans to return to Los Angeles have become a bit complicated,” he said.
“So I heard. Perhaps we should—”
Her voice trailed off as Jake glared at her. It didn’t take telepathy to know exactly what McCoy was about to say. “It is not in the interests of our assignment to volunteer our help to pull quake victims from the rubble. Worry about mortals at your leisure, but we have our orders.”
McCoy bit her lower lip. Jake knew the gesture was her way of stopping herself from making a hot, hasty retort while she considered the situation. But to him, seeing white teeth on soft pink flesh was an absolute turn-on.
Perhaps this attraction was what caused him to offer a sop to her conscience. “We’ll be more help to humanity if we get on with our job. I suspect the earthquakes are caused by the magic we’re supposed to stop.”
Her eyes widened. “Come on, Piper! It would take a hell of a witch to—a Cave Witch! We’re dealing with Cave as well as Tower magic? Not a good combination. Maybe that could be causing quakes—but what makes you think so?”
“You had a vision of an earthquake,” he reminded her.
She put her hands on her hips, and asked skeptically, “Now we’re calling it a vision? I thought it was a hallucination.”
“Not after our personally experiencing a four on the Richter Scale.”
“They don’t use the Richter Scale anymore,” she said. “The modern—”
“I don’t care.”
McCoy took a deep breath, and got back to business. “Since we can’t use the resources we discussed in LA, we do have an alternative group we can use in San Diego.”
Jake knew what she meant, but he didn’t want to hear it. “There are bound to be routes that aren’t blocked by—”
“We helped Laurent Wolf’s team. I’m sure they’d be happy to return the favor.”
He wanted nothing to do with Laurent Wolf. He especially didn’t want McCoy anywhere near another Prime. Especially the insouciant Clan Wolf Prime.
It took Jake a moment to recognize that his emotion was raging jealousy. Once he’d clamped down on that nonsensical feeling, he conceded that McCoy’s suggestion for a base of operations had some merit.
“All right. How do we go about contacting this detective agency?”
“That’s easy. Laurent slipped me his business card.”
The raging jealousy tried to rise, but Jake forced himself to be calm. He managed to only sound sarcastic when he said, “Of course he did.”
Chapter Twenty
“I did not cause an earthquake with the Burner spell. And what does it matter if I did? It worked. I’ve found my brother. Why are you bothering me?”
Leviathan absolutely loathed the tiny telephone he held to his ear. He hated that he’d agreed to the mad Cave wizard’s insistence he use this thing for communication. The wizard was adamant that telepathy distracted him—upset the balance of his humors, as the mortal put it.
Leviathan looked forward to the night he ate the Cave magician, humors and all. Draining the mortal’s blood alone would not be enough to avenge the insults he visited upon Leviathan’s pride and honor. But for now he needed the madman. And the madman needed Leviathan, which kept him from being even more arrogantly obnoxious than he could be.
Leviathan gave a thin smile, acknowledging that he was no different from the mortal. But as a Prime he had the strength to be as arrogant as he wished.
Leviathan sat within the sheltering darkness in the back of a windowless van. During the earthquake his driver had run away screaming from the rocking vehicle. Leviathan did not blame the mortal mind slave. He’d call her back to his side later. She better be calm enough to drive by then. He might not even punish her for abandoning her place by his side, but he probably would. It was important for mortals to be more frightened of Primes than of anything else in the world—even if the world was opening beneath their feet. Better for them to get used to the near future, when the universes melded and mortals would fall.
But in the meantime he was stuck dealing with the Cave wizard as an equal partner.
“Why did you call?” Leviathan demanded.
“Why did you take so long to answer?” the mortal complained.
“I was working.”
Leviathan had been concentrating on inserting his own thoughts into his younger brother’s mind. He’d been coaxing, testing, working his way through Yakov’ s strong shielding. He’d discovered that the youngest of the Leviathan Tribe seemed to have accepted the brainwashing the Family Piper telepaths had inflicted on him. Yakov was conditioned to think like a weakling, but so deeply that he saw the weakness as strength. Getting through to him was difficult, and an intermittent process at best. It did not help that Yakov was consumed by lust for a mortal woman. The fierceness of the young one’s concentration on the female also blocked Leviathan’s psychic efforts.
Well, touching the true nature buried inside his little brother would get easier in time. He would bring Yakov back to the Tribe. Just as he would bring Melchor back from the dead.
“If the spell worked you don’t have to linger in California. I need you back here.”
“I promise to bring you a proper sacrifice when the time comes. Leave me alone until you’re ready.”
“I need you for security. How can I concentrate if I have to watch the prisoner all the time?”
“He isn’t going to escape.”
“But he could be rescued. His people are looking for him. You underestimate the power of mortal magic.”
“Do you want me to spend my time standing guard over him?”
“Just be here. A vampire makes a good psychic shield against mental probes. Besides, I need you around to chase off the tourists.”
As much as Leviathan tried to ignore the inevitable immersion into anything to do with the mortal world, he did know what a tourist was.
Their base of operations had been chosen carefully. It was one of the rare places where walls between realities were thin. Where energy leaked from strange sources. The right people could manipulate it. Ordinary mortals flocking to the place made no sense.
“You said tourist season was over,” Leviathan said.
“There are always a few around, even in December. Your mental energy will keep anybody from discovering my cave.”
“Protect your own territory. Kill anyone who comes near.”
“I don’t have time for that,” the mortal whined. “Do you want the Walls shattered or not?”
He did. And soon.
He wanted to end what little power the Cave magician had over him.
“I’ll return tonight,” Leviathan said.
But he didn’t plan to stay long. He had so much more work to do with Yakov.
Chapter Twenty-One
“They know we’re coming,” Dee said about the people at the detective agency in San Diego. It felt reassuring to have cellular service restored. It gave her people to talk to.
Her comment were the first words spoken to Piper since they’d driven away from the motel nearly an hour ago. Piper didn’t answer her, or even act like she was there. She looked up briefly from her cellphone screen. Piper’s muscles were tense, his expressionless face looking at nothing but the road. Not only did he pretend she wasn’t there, he put off vibes telling her he found her company completely distasteful.
He certainly hadn’t complained about her taste when he was drinking her blood.
Fine. Let him sulk
, Dee thought. She continued checking voice mails and texts, intending to report only what Piper needed to know to him. Since all she could make out from furtive glances at him was indifference, she decided Piper would only have a need to know anything from her if the Zombie Apocalypse was heading their way.
And why was she being furtive about even looking at the moody Prime, anyway? She hadn’t done anything to feel sorry about. Or embarrassed, either. It had just been consensual sex between consenting adult paranormal people.
There would be teasing when the rest of the Dark Angels found out—and she had no doubt they would somehow find out—but there was still no need for embarrassment. Or, Goddess knew, regret. She’d enjoyed every moment of it, up until the end when Piper got all bent out of shape over a little love bite.
Vampires were weird.
Dee could use suffering a residual twinge of the nasty sex spell as her excuse for the fact that she wanted to have him again. Right now. In the back seat.
It was very likely he knew what she was feeling, if not thinking—maybe even what she was thinking.
After one last text she finished with her phone and plugged it into the dashboard to recharge. When a small aftershock shook her around in her seat, she didn’t let on she felt it. Maybe it was only her imagination. Piper drove on without giving any indication he felt anything.
He’d looked like this all the time a week ago, she remembered. This was the way he’d carried himself the whole time she’d known him. She hadn’t liked it then. She hated it now.
* * *
He’d tasted her blood. There was no denying his need for McCoy now. Jake had not denied it in the first place, not to himself. But now he had to back off, put some distance between them, build barriers against the craving that—
“Oh, my goddess!” she shouted, sitting forward so quickly she strained against the seatbelt.
He’d been able to keep the SUV moving straight on the road during the aftershock. Now, Jake swerved. Worry for her twisted his gut.
He kept his voice toneless when he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“You’re a vampire!”
A quick sideways glance McCoy’s way showed him she was touching her throat. On the spot where he’d bitten her. He’d hoped she’d forget about that intimacy. The memory of tasting her would be part of him for the rest of his life. Along with the urge to taste her again and again.
“It was established some time ago that I am Prime,” Jake said.
“You bit me!”
“And you bit me!” The furious words snapped out before he could stop them. How dare she—!
“I didn’t even break your skin.”
You wouldn’t be alive if you had.
Jake just barely managed to keep those words to himself.
“Apparently I did something rude by biting you back,” McCoy said.
He gave a curt nod. His hands gripped the steering wheel nearly hard enough to shatter it. Fury boiled through him. And shame. And if he wasn’t confused about why he was so upset he might be grasping her throat rather than the wheel.
“We know lots of vampires and mortals who bite each other all the time,” she reminded him.
“Dark Angel Primes are notoriously enthusiastic when it comes to inter-species dating.”
“And apparently vampires and werefolk are doing it now. Sometimes even vampires and vampires taste each other. What’s wrong with equal opportunity bloodletting?” After he didn’t answer for a while, she added, “Aren’t I good enough for you?”