She slid sunglasses over her golden eyes and rounded the hood. “I’ve got your back, babe. And your fine ass, too.”
He couldn’t help but look twice, then stare. She was wearing one of the sleek, sleeveless black bodysuits that looked like wet paint applied directly to her skin. Black leather boots covered her from toe to knee and her long, blood red hair hung loosely down her back. For the first time since he’d met her, she wore jewelry: a stunning necklace she’d picked up that morning when she was out fetching him coffee from Starbucks. The fact that she’d thought of his desire for caffeine—a desire she didn’t share—touched him. But the necklace touched him more. It was an elaborate col ar of peridot around her neck, a color she said reminded her of his eyes.
The nonchalance with which she’d told him about her selection didn’t fool him for a minute. The necklace shook up her usual stark mourning black in an unmistakable way. No one could miss the statement, and she’d chosen to make it with something she associated with him.
She’d gone on to tel him that her wings had been a similar color, putting a picture in his head of a ruby-haired, sapphire-eyed, peridot-winged angel with pale-as-a-pearl skin. Impossibly gorgeous, he’d thought, wishing he could have seen her that way. Then he’d pul ed her close and kissed her until she went lax in his arms and her dreamy smile revealed her wickedly sharp fangs. The angel she’d been was in the past. It was the vampress who held his heart. The fal en angel with a warrior’s soul. The woman who’d suffered brutality at the hands of demons and been broken only to come back stronger and fiercer than ever.
“Micah’s always going to be a problem, isn’t he?” she asked softly, absently adjusting the fit of her katana scabbards. “Or more accurately, what I did to him and what you did to his widow because of me.”
He didn’t deny it. There was no point.
“I’m sorry, El.” Reaching out, she linked her fingers with his. “Not that I did it, because under the circumstances and the information I had to go on, I would do it again. But I’m sorry that it hurt you and that it’s causing you trouble now.”
The video screen beside the door flickered, and a stern male face appeared. “Who are you? And what do you want?”
Since the feed was closest to Vashti, she approached it first. “Your Alpha is here to check the place out. A warm welcome is expected. A little brownnosing wouldn’t hurt.”
Elijah sighed. “Vashti.”
“What?” She strol ed over to him.
The thirty-foot door slid open smoothly, revealing a party of a half-dozen armed lycans—five males and one female. Vashti looked down at the multitude of red pistol scope laser sights shimmering on her chest. A wicked smile curved her lips, and she bared her fangs.
“Behave,” he admonished her before stepping forward. “Lower your weapons. She’s with me.”
“She’s a vampire,” the tal , tawny-haired lycan in the middle said with a scowl.
“Cute and observant,” Vash purred. “I’m sorry I left the Scooby Snacks back at the hotel.”
The lycan’s aim lifted to center mass of her forehead.
Elijah pul ed the sunglasses off his face. “Ah, but clearly his hearing is defective. I may need to put him down.”
“Can I watch?” she asked sweetly.
The dark-haired lycan next to Trigger-Happy holstered his weapon and came forward. His nostrils twitched, and one brow rose as he looked back and forth between Elijah and Vashti. “Interesting.”
Vash’s grin widened. “You have no idea.”
The lycan extended his hand to Elijah. “I’m Paul. We weren’t aware there was an Alpha in charge.”
Vash stepped closer, clearly protective. “Why send a messenger when he can take care of it himself? Your Alpha takes the hands-on approach.”
“We have a hierarchy here,” Trigger-Happy said tightly. “You’l respect it, or you can find another outpost to shelter you.”
She shook her head. “Definitely no treats for you.”
Trigger-Happy took aim.
In the time it took for Vash to pivot out of the way, Elijah shifted and lunged. He knocked the blond down and ripped his throat out in one fluid movement.
Gunshots fired around them. Elijah spun in a snarling crouch, prepared to attack again…only to find three of the lycans nursing bleeding trigger hands and one of the males standing with both arms up in the air and his gaze rigidly trained on the ground. Vash held Paul’s pistol in one hand and the back of his neck in the other, her arm straightened so that he was forced to his knees on the ground.
Elijah shifted forms and walked toward his discarded clothes, admiration and respect for his woman fil ing him in a heated rush.
Vash glared at the female lycan. “Close your eyes, bitch. No peeking. You see any part of your Alpha but his face and you won’t live to regret it.”
He pul ed on his jeans first, for Vash’s sake, then used his shirt to wipe the blood from his mouth and chest. “I’m lenient about many things,” he said to the group at large. “But I won’t tolerate disobedience or threats of any kind against Vashti. Are we clear?”
Two of the males shifted forms at the mention of who she was, unable to restrain their agitation. The snarl he shot them had them sitting, if shifting restlessly. “Let Paul get up.”
Vash released the man, but kept her gaze trained on the others.
Paul straightened, raking Elijah with a sweeping glance. “I’ve never seen a lycan shift so fast.”
“Betcha never seen a lycan who’s nailing a vampress either,” Vash said. “Syre’s second, no less. It’s a whole new world.”
Elijah arched a brow at her. “Didn’t I tel you to behave?”
“I don’t take orders from you when I’m not naked.”
He decided not to give her any more ammunition. “I need access to your data center, Paul.”
“Yes, Alpha.” Paul gestured through the gate. “I’l show you where it is.”
Elijah was deep into working on the data when Vash’s cel phone rang. Excusing herself, she stepped out to the hal way and answered, managing a smile when Syre’s face appeared on her iPhone screen.
“Vashti,” he greeted her. “How are things faring in Huntington?”
“I don’t know yet. They’re digging for the goods now.”
“What is that on your neck?” He frowned. “Is that…jewelry?”
She flushed. “Yeah. What’s up?”
“Have things smoothed out between you and your lycan?”
“I’m keeping him.” She figured it was best to get that out of the way.
Syre’s smile revealed his fangs. “Excel ent.”
Her fist clenched at her side, her mind’s eye seeing the fork in the road ahead and the decision she’d soon be forced to make between the two most important men in her life.
“Can you speak privately?” His smooth, soothing voice had the opposite effect, making her hackles rise.
“Not yet.” Vash glanced up at one of the lycans on guard duty in the hal way. “Nearest soundproofed room?”
He jerked his thumb down the hal , his gaze cold and hard. “Two doors down on the right, bloodsucker.”
“Thanks, Fido.”
Once she was inside alone, she cocked her ears and listened for anything other than her own breathing. She kicked the wal s one by one, listening for the tel tale sound of a pocket where a bug could be hidden. When those checks come up clear, she nodded. “Okay. I’m good. What’s up?”
“I’m heading with Raze to Chicago now to fol ow up with his contact there. Torque is covering for us while we’re in the field.” Syre leaned back in his chair. “As for your lycan…there’s something you need to know.”
Her heartbeat skipped at his tone. “Oh?”
“His blood caused a remission in that wraith yesterday for a reason—he’d just drunk filtered Sentinel blood through Lindsay. When Grace tested Lindsay’s blood via the needles and other paraphernalia that you had the presence of mind to retain, she found the effect to be even more pronounced. It’s highly likely that pure, undiluted Sentinel blood—or perhaps al angelic blood—is the key to a cure for the Wraith Virus.”
She heaved out her breath and nodded grimly.
“You suspected that,” he noted.
“I knew it had to be something major in order for Adrian to let Lindsay come with me.” She ran a hand through her hair and paced, her heels clicking across the tiled floor. “Fuckin’ A. This could explain why he took my blood. He probably figures we might stil have similar blood properties.”
“I’ve sent Grace blood samples from me, Raze, and Salem. We’l see what she turns up. With any luck, this trip to Chicago wil prove fruitful and we’l be able to get her the help she needs to speed things up.” He paused a moment. “Also, there was an incendiary device found in the wreckage of the pickup truck. It’s possible it was set off by remote.”
“How would the person with the remote know to activate it?” Her mind scrambled ahead. “Unless they were watching.”
“We found pockets of C4 al over the wraith house. It was a trap.”
“Why didn’t the house go up? If they saw the truck pul out, they definitely saw us in the house.”
“We don’t know. Perhaps your double had the remote for the house in the truck. Or the receiver was defective. Salem is leading a team through the property now. Torque is working on tracking the purchase of the C4. Hopeful y we’l have some answers soon.”
Vash rubbed at the icy lump in her chest. “Until we’ve got a better handle on this, watch your back in Chicago. And keep an eye on Raze. There’s something between him and that lab tech you’re visiting.”
“I caught that. Keep me posted.”
Syre’s austerely beautiful face faded to black and she blew out her breath in a rush. She turned when the door opened behind her.
Elijah fil ed the doorway and the fear that had been sliding through her eased its grip.
He held his hand out to her. “We’ve found what you’re looking for.”
Vash squeezed Elijah’s shoulder as she read the data on the massive van-sized monitor on the wal . “Three lycans,” she said. “Three against Char and Ice. They shouldn’t have been able to win.”
He looked at her, studying her face, wishing he knew who she’d been on the phone with and what they’d told her. Her usual vivacity was subdued, concerning him. “Do you believe the accusation that Charron’s fledgling incited an attack?”
“It’s possible.” Her troubled gaze met his. “Ice was problematic. He was struggling with bloodthirst and he lacked self-control. I was leaning toward putting him down, but Char thought he could turn the kid around. I was so busy with my duties as second that it was hard for me to deny him something that gave him pleasure and kept him occupied.”
Elijah read between the lines. They hadn’t been equals, not as he and Vash were. “But Ice survived the attack—”
“Only by hours. He’d been burned too badly by the sun.”
“—while Charron was brutalized.”
She nodded. “The attack was especial y vicious. So much so that I thought maybe the demons had gotten to him before I arrived. But the body reeked of lycans, and the disemboweling had been done with lycan teeth.”
The demons. A chil moved through him. Pul ing her close, he placed his lips to her ear and asked, “How soon after Char’s death were you attacked?”
She yanked back. “Who said I was—” Then she scowled. “An hour. Thereabouts.”
“An hour…” He crushed her to him, squeezing her so tightly, she gasped and struggled. “I’m going to find a way to raise them from hel and kil them al over again.”
“Elijah.” She softened and let him love her, pressing her lips to his jaw. “Always avenging somebody…except when I get in the way.”
He turned back to the monitor, keeping an arm around her waist. He spoke to the lycan named Samuel who manned the keyboard. “Can you pul up their histories and display them side-by-side?”
Samuel typed in the necessary commands and Elijah studied the results. “Same month and year of birth for al three,” he noted.
“And they al died the same year,” Vashti murmured. “Within a few months of each other.”
“Same litter, Samuel?”
The lycan frowned at the monitor. “We don’t have many triplet births, but let me pul up their breeding charts…Huh. There aren’t any. That’s weird.”
“We can check their blood,” Elijah said. “Send someone to cryostorage to pul their samples.”
Samuel picked up the phone embedded in the workstation and passed along the order.
Vash’s fingertips kneaded restlessly into his hip. “Would that be unusual for brothers to hunt together?”
“Depends.” His gaze remained on the monitor. “At a younger age, no. But these were breeding-age males. They should have been spread around among the outposts.”
“Widening the gene pool,” she fil ed in drily. “How romantic.”
“Explains why their information is so similar. Doesn’t explain why they died. Samuel, why isn’t there a notation as to cause of death?”
Shrugging, Samuel said, “Depends on the situation at the time and the thoroughness of the tech. Remember, this room was Sentinels-only before the revolt, and most of them don’t give a shit how we die.”
Elijah pul ed his ringing phone from his pocket to silence it, then noted Stephan’s name and took the cal . “What’ve you got?”
