Sweeter Than Wine (15 page)

So where had she been for the past week? And how could she have healed so quickly? He knew damned well he’d hurt her bad. He’d been a little out of control, and had probably gone too far, but the bitch pissed him off. She truly did. All she had to do was breathe and he started to feel the need to slap her. Over the years he’d lost it a time or two, but nothing like that last encounter. The devil had been riding his shoulder that last time and he’d damned well intended to kill her.

In retrospect, he was glad she’d lived because otherwise he’d still be in jail. So the bitch was good for something, besides her money.

118

Jeff placed the call to Steel, as requested, surprised when Steel seemed to take for granted Christy’s new superpowers. The man was just like his name—steel. Nothing affected him, and nothing caused a reaction. Jeff wondered what it would take to get a rise out of the guy, but didn’t care to push him too far. Steel had eyes like that guy with Christy. Cold, calculating, and their icy blueness chilled Jeff to the bone.

Steel ended the call and sat silent, thinking over the possibilities. Christina Kinsey was, almost without a doubt, a vampire now. Otherwise, she never would have been able to stand up to her bully of a husband. Steel had a good idea of what had happened last week. Christy ended up in the hospital, and her friends were notified. Then suddenly she was gone. Poof. No record of the specifics of her injury or prognosis, and memories all over that floor of the hospital were suddenly fuzzy.

Steel had seen it before. He passed no judgment on the bloodletters, but for the woman he felt compassion of a sort. No female deserved to be beat up by the man who’d promised to love, honor and protect her before God and man.

Kinsey was a bastard, but he was also Steel’s best source for information at this point. Of course, Mario Gonzalez seemed to have an inside track too, but Steel hesitated before placing the call to his associate. More and more, he felt something about Mario was off, but he didn’t know quite what. Mario’s information was good and he seemed nice enough on the surface, but there was something…

Steel sighed, letting go of his reservations. He needed backup and like it or not, Gonzalez was it. Flipping open his cell phone, he dialed the number. A few minutes later, it was done.

He went out to get lunch and a thermos full of coffee before he sat down to work on his report. A good meal would go a long way toward making the necessary paperwork easier to bear. Spotting a likely deli down the block from his hotel, he got a sandwich and sat down at one of the casual tables out front to eat. It was a nice day out, but the quiet made him too introspective.

119

Steel had laid down his weapons, for the most part, several years ago. He’d resigned after a mission turned hideously bad. In a war-torn rain forest, he’d learned the real truth about the world. He’d learned the hard way about shifters and other kinds of supernaturals.

And he would never be the same.

He’d been contacted by a representative of the
Altor Custodis
not long after. How they’d gotten his name, he still didn’t know, but this band of watchers had even more resources than Interpol or the CIA. He ought to know. He’d worked with both during his long career in black ops.

All in all, this new gig wasn’t bad. Steel traveled the country at his own pace, doing investigations and sending back reports. His expenses were taken care of and he got a nice, hefty bounty for each report he sent in. The money was going straight into his retirement fund—an overseas account he’d set up with an eye toward disappearing and reinventing himself once he was too old to work and still young enough to enjoy life a little. But the AC job wasn’t that difficult. At least his life wasn’t in constant jeopardy, as it had been elsewhere.

Sure, he had to be covert. A lot of the supernaturals he investigated would take exception to being watched and documented, so there was still enough of an element of danger to amuse him and keep him on his toes. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as the old days. Steel was too good now to be tracked, seen or caught.

Or so he thought.

He’d just taken a bite of his sandwich when the hairs on the back of his neck prickled in alarm. He was being watched. No, more than that. He was being
stalked
.

Steel set aside his lunch and took a casual look around. Three marks—southwest, northwest and due east. That left him little choice for escape, but he spotted a few small alleys and driveways between the buildings that could prove useful. The three all had the look of
were
. Well, wasn’t
that
interesting?

They’d crept up on him, though how they’d managed to do it, he didn’t understand.

Sure, they were
were
, but Steel prided himself on his instincts. He’d have thought no 120

supernatural could take him unaware after the training he’d received from the AC.

Perhaps today was the day he’d be proven wrong, but he wouldn’t go quietly.

Aware of his odds, he had to make a quick decision. Flee, fight or surrender. It wasn’t in his nature to surrender right off the bat, and he wasn’t in the mood for a fight.

For one thing, he had no beef with these people. He had a few principles left and one of his cardinal rules was never to kill someone who didn’t deserve it.

He didn’t recognize any of these shifters, but could tell right off they were supernaturals. They didn’t try to hide it. In fact, they let the distinctive shift show in their eyes—about the equivalent of a muscle man flexing. It was a silent signal that said,

“Don’t fuck with me.” He saw the eyes flare on the woman heading straight for him and didn’t stick around to find out why a bunch of
were
had tracked him down. So he took the third option. He fled.

But he didn’t get far. They’d double teamed him, which meant they wanted him bad.

The second string was waiting as he fled down an alley, and this time he recognized the leader of the group, a
were
hawk named Collin Hastings. Steel knew the man’s reputation as an elite private detective and had even seen his service record.

Hastings had served in the U.S. Army Rangers. Seemed he was a natural parachutist.

If only his superiors had known the man gliding so effortlessly on the wind currents was as at home in the sky as he was on land. But the Army didn’t know everything about Hastings. They’d signed him up, trained him, and let him go when his last stint was over.

To be fair, Hastings had spent more than his share of time in the Army. He’d re-upped a few times, rising through the ranks to retire as a Captain. Privately Steel thought the
were
hawk would still be in, had his lack of appropriate aging not been so visible.

Even the Army would eventually look twice at a man who didn’t seem to age at all.

Steel stopped running when he saw the second team closing in. He was in an alley and
were
blocked both ends. They’d trapped him good and well. Even with all his training and experience, he knew he didn’t stand a chance against six
were
creatures, at least one of whom he knew could claim the high ground in the form of a raptor. He cursed as he raised his hands in surrender. No sense getting the snot beaten out of himself 121

by seeming to resist. These folks wanted to talk to him and they’d gone through a hell of a lot of trouble to do it. The least he could do was hear what they had to say.

“All right, you got me.” He spoke loud enough to be heard by sharp
were
senses.

“Now will someone tell me what the fuck is going on here?”

Hastings strode forward, his people closing in around Steel. “We mean you no harm, Mr. Steel. As long as you’re not
Venifucus
.”

Venifucus?
Steel started at the word. He’d been briefed about the ancient evil society, but his handlers in the
Altor Custodis
claimed the
Venifucus
were long gone. His interest was piqued. Why would these people think he was one of those long-gone bad guys? Unless…

“I heard they were wiped out a few centuries ago. You’ve got the wrong guy.”

He stared down the leader of the group, impressed with the way Hastings carried himself. Here was a man who knew the score, and how to operate in the real world. Steel respected that. He thought they might’ve even been friends had they met under different circumstances.

“Haven’t you heard? They’ve been making a comeback. Whether or not you’re one of them remains to be seen, Mr. Steel, but you’ll understand we have to make certain.”

“I’m listening.”

Hastings’ head tilted, his ears cocked. Steel knew that look. The
were
had exceptional hearing and could pick up stuff most humans would never hear.

“Not here,” Hastings said shortly. “Please come with us, Mr. Steel. We have quite a bit to discuss and I can assure your safety as long as you’re not on the wrong team.”

Shrugging, he decided to play along. They had him. Six
were
against one mortal were bad odds, even for him. They walked in formation, Steel in the center of the group, to a parking area a short distance from the mouth of the alley. Two black SUVs waited there. Hastings and two of his operatives escorted him into the first vehicle, the rest of the team taking the second. They piled in and headed out on a circuitous route. They wasted little time getting out of the downtown area, but after that, they took quite a few twists and turns to foul their trail.

122

As soon as they were on open road, Hastings seemed to relax a bit. “I regret the abduction, Mr. Steel, but as I said, the
Venifucus
are back and we need some answers.”

“So why me? I’m nobody.”

The
were
hawk leveled a cold stare at him. “Evil has followed in your tracks for the past year, Mr. Steel. Either you’re a very skilled liar or someone near you is killing off supernaturals as they find them. Through you. Just on gut instinct, after meeting you, I’ll admit my money’s on Gonzalez.”

“What did you say?” His mind spun as he realized the watchers were also being watched. This guy knew his contact’s name and claimed to have information about his movements for the past year. A chill ran down his spine though he didn’t let his apprehension show.

“Mario Gonzalez. Don’t play coy, Mr. Steel. I have another team picking him up as we speak. One of you has left a trail of bodies in your wake. Right now, I’m willing to entertain the idea that it wasn’t you, though knowing your history and training, I would’ve bet money on you as the perp before today.”

“That’s comforting.” Steel’s sarcasm was obvious.

“Come now, Mr. Steel, one old soldier to another, wouldn’t you like to hear what Mario’s been doing behind your back for the past year? I can’t believe the
Altor Custodis
advocates stringing up entire families of
were
, children included, and murdering them in cold blood. Or staking out a quiet den of bloodletters to die agonizing deaths in the blistering sun. And if you haven’t heard about it, that can only mean a cover up on the highest levels of your organization.”

Steel’s mouth set in a grim line. “Who? Who died?” His blood ran cold at the idea he might’ve been the cause of innocent deaths. All the supernaturals he’d been assigned to ferret out and report on in the past year were more or less innocuous folks who were just living their lives, quietly existing. None were killers or had done anything to earn the ultimate sanction, and several of his reports had included small children and babies. “I want proof of your claims.”

123

Hastings eyed him for a moment before nodding. “I’ve got files in the house.” He nodded out the window as the SUVs pulled up in front of a small house in the woods on the outskirts of town.

As they rolled to a stop, Steel opened the car door and was out before any of the others, but he wasn’t making a break for it. No, he was heading for the house. If innocent people had been murdered because of him and his work for the
Altor Custodis
, he needed to know.

An hour later Steel sat defeated, with his head down, resting in his hands. He’d seen the horrors of war and police actions, even terrorist hits, but never had he seen evil in its purest form. The photos of the dead ate at his soul. He knew each and every face, from the oldest to the youngest baby. He’d watched them and reported on their doings to the
Altor Custodis
, believing what he was doing was the right thing. Only it wasn’t.

Now innocent people had been killed in grisly ways because he’d outed them.

Maybe they weren’t human, but they weren’t hurting anyone that he could see. There’d been no reason to kill them. Especially not the little ones.

He would live with this on his conscience for the rest of his life.

But there was something he could do in the meantime, to at least try to put an end to such butchery. Steel’s life changed in that moment. He’d had a few of these kinds of moments in his life in recent years, but none this profound. When he’d gone from mercenary killer to watcher and guardian after being approached by the
Altor Custodis
, he thought he’d put away his guns for the last time.