by R. Lee Moore
“Bet you're just loads of fun at parties ain't ya Timmy,” Tamina responded with a roll of her eyes. “You seriously need to lighten up, but whatever. Don't say I didn't warn ya.”
Flinging her door closed to stave off Carson's response, Tamina shuffled to the back of her car, popped the trunk open, and began digging around inside. She was going to have to get more body armor, she reminded herself. The damn vampire had shredded to uselessness the one she was wearing the other night, and she didn't have any spares handy. She didn't like going into a potentially hostile situation without it, but she really didn't have a choice at the moment. She was going to have to make do with what she had.
The Hardballer she had in her shoulder rig would probably be sufficient, but she was never the type to be unprepared for whatever eventuality came up. She rifled through the meticulously organized cache of gear until she found what she was looking for. The compact little Hellcat felt familiar in her hand as she checked to make sure it was fully loaded. It probably wouldn't do much to anything nonhuman, but it was better than nothing. She secured it tightly into the slim black canvas holster, tucked it tightly into the waistband of her pants, then covered it all up with the hem of her shirt. There was a brief moment when she contemplated taking her AR12, but she figured that might have been a bit of overkill. There was a slight urge to take it regardless, but she wasn't going in there to start a fight. At least she hoped she wasn't.
She slammed the trunk shut, slid her sidearm from her holster and held it loosely down at her side. Carson's reaction was almost comical. He just stood there with his mouth open gaping in wordless horror as she strode as confidently as she could manage towards the open doors of the little pizzeria.
“Better have my back,” she said over her shoulder as she dug the badge dangling from its chain from beneath her shirt.
The two men beneath the awning stopped their card game just long enough to begin rising huffily to their feet the moment they saw the weapon in her hand. A quick flash of her badge froze them in place and allowed Tamina to breeze right past them and into the interior of the little restaurant. She was sure they were going to try to follow behind her, but hopefully Carson was enough of an Agent to at least hold the two big men up long enough for her to get what she needed.
“Department of Supernatural Affairs,” she shouted out once she crossed the threshold. “This is a raid. Everyone on your feet and keep your hands where I can see them.”
Everyone in the place stared at her with these weary, disinterested looks, but nobody moved. The three older men sitting casually around one of the tables didn't even bother to take their concentration away from the mass of dominoes splayed out in front of them. Even the kid and the older woman behind the counter barely seemed to even notice her before they went back to whatever it was they were doing.
“Well don't everyone move all at once now,” she grumbled.
The only person in the whole place that took any interest at all was the olive-skinned man with the long hair tied tight in a tail over his shoulder sitting back by himself in the corner. The second Tamina walked in, she saw him unfold himself from the position he was sitting in, rise casually up to his feet, and take a few steps closer to the men at the table. She watched warily as he casually leaned himself against the wall with his arms across the broad expanse of his chest. He was watching every movement she made with a look that seemed casual and unconcerned on the surface, but anyone with any sort of experience at all could easily recognize how focused and intent he was. If she made one wrong move, he'd be on her in an instant.
“Alright, if that's how y'all wanna play it,” Tamina said standing in the middle of the room and sweeping her gaze around her. “Which one of you meatballs is Fat Anthony? Dear god I hope it's not one of the two outside.”
She could hear Agent Carson sputtering in shock behind her, but she didn't have time for him right now. She was too focused on the men in front of her. One of the older men at the tables, thin and frail looking with hair that was more salt than pepper leaned back in his chair, and took a sip from the cup that was in front of him. He didn't look the least bit concerned about Tamina's presence nor the fact that she was armed. She'd expected that considering the way his eyes flicked over for just a brief second to the man standing against the wall.
“Meatballs?” he said with a hint of incredulity in his voice. “You know that's offensive, right? Might offend people talking like that. Hurt someone's feelings.”
Tamina shrugged her shoulders and shifted her sidearm in front of her as she turned to fully face the man.
“And?” she said. “You the one in charge here? Please tell me you're not Fat Anthony. Unless there's some sort of irony there that I'm not seeing, you're too skinny for anyone to be calling you fat.”
“It's Antonio,” he said as he crossed his legs. “How can I help you officer-”
The man left his voice trail off meaningfully. Whether it was that he was trying to be polite, or he was trying to engage in some sort of power play mind game didn't concern her. Tamina wasn't about to buy into whatever he was going for. It was best to keep in as much control as possible and not let the other guy have an inch, she thought.
“It's sergeant actually,” she said.
The man nodded his head.
“So how can I help you, sergeant,” he asked. His voice was calm and polite. Unconcerned. “Don't usually get you Supernatural Affairs types in here. The pies are good, but I wouldn't say they were supernatural. Nothing I can see you people bothering about.”
Tamina rolled her eyes.
“Can we just skip the part where you pretend you're just an innocent pizza guy,” Tamina said tiredly. “Then we can skip the whole back and forth between us where I dramatically reveal I know exactly who you are and what you do. I really ain't got time for all that, and if you make me go through it all I'm liable to shoot someone. I'm just here to talk. Couldn't care less about you and your other business activities.”
The old man gave her a thoughtful look, and the corners of his mouth turned up in an amused and somewhat approving smile.
“Alright then,” he said. “What can I do for you, sergeant. Always happy to help.”
“Yeah, not you,” Tamina said shifting her gaze to the man leaned up against the wall. “Why don't you and I go someplace a little more private? Got some questions for ya big guy.”
The man looked over at Antonio questioningly, which caused the older man to tilt his head to the side and give Tamina a thoughtful inquisitive look as if he was trying to figure her out.
“You mind telling me what this is about sergeant?” Antonia asked calmly.
“Nope,” Tamina replied. “Just know it doesn't concern you or your people. Just him and what he can tell me about something I'm working on. If it helps any, Agent Carson will stay here and keep you company.”
“Excuse me?” Carson interjected. “Exactly what is going on here? Wait, you just want me to stay here, so you can go and do something you aren't supposed to don't you? What do you expect me to do with that?”
“I don't know,” Tamina said with growing aggravation. “Play dominoes, order a pizza, ask these people why an innocent and totally legit restaurant owner has a Sicilian werewolf as a bodyguard. Improvise. Make friends. I know you can't have all that many.”
“What!“ Carson said in shock. His eyes instantly going wide and flicking back and forth between all the patrons nervous and suspiciously.
Tamina ignored him.
“Okay tough guy,” she said to the man against the wall. “Get moving. Gotta be an office, storeroom, or a broom closet around here somewhere. I ain't got all day.”
The man had the nerve to look amused when she brought her pistol up in front of her and aimed it in his general direction. He lifted off the wall with a smirk and casually started making his way towards a door in the back of the room. Tamina gave one last look to Antonio and his crew, then one to Carson. Antonio didn't seem concerned, Carson on the
other hand looked like he was going to have a meltdown. He'd be fine, she thought. She had work to do.
The man in front of her kept stopping on his way to the doorway, and Tamina kept having to motion meaningfully with her sidearm for him to continue. Work related or not, she needed this to be private just in case something unexpected happened. She'd learned long ago that you had to be careful with people who gave you information sometimes. One wrong word or slip of the tongue around the wrong people, and they'd very quickly be unable to provide any more information in the future. It kind of defeated the whole purpose of having an informant if you got them killed.
That didn't mean she was going to take any chances though. The man was a werewolf, so she was going to make sure to keep him in front of her and keep her weapon trained on him just in case. You never knew what was going to set one of them off. One minute they'd be all calm, the next they'd be this rampaging monster that needed to be put down.
He led her through the door, down a hallway, and into a back room that looked like it was used for storage. Oddly enough it didn't look as if anything on the metal shelves or scattered across the small tables was anything food related. Whatever was in the boxes wasn't her concern. Decker might have cared if he'd seen any of it, but she didn't. Anything Antonio and his crew did that didn't involve the supernatural world, was out of her jurisdiction.
The moment they were inside, Tamina kicked the door shut behind her. She didn't want anyone walking in on them.
“Alright,” she started.
The man in front of her slowly turned, and Tamina's pulse quickened the moment she saw his eyes. She watched them slowly bleed color, shifting away from the deep mocha brown they had been before and beginning to burn themselves into a vibrant inhuman amber.
“Oh hell,” Tamina swore. The eyes were always the first to go.
She was quick enough to raise her weapon up and thumb the safety off, but that was about it. Before she could react much more, the man had surged forward in a blur of motion. He wrapped his fingers around the wrist of her gun hand and slammed her arm against the wall behind her hard enough to loosen her grip on her sidearm. The Hardballer dropped from her hand and clattered on the floor at her feet. She let out a gasp as pain pulsed through her body. After the beating she'd taken the previous night, this was not what she needed.
The wolf drove himself into her hard enough to force her breath from her lungs. His body pressed up against her chest, his head leaning in close enough that she could see the glowing swirl in his eyes and feel the heat of his breath washing over the curve of her neck. His eyes bore into hers, and a low rumbling growl rose up deep from the center of his chest right. The sound and the rush of his breath across her skin trailing up along her neck to just below her ear sent a trembling shudder pulsing through her body. She was trapped, and there was no escape.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Her whole body ached. The remnants of last night's beating amplified by the sudden rough treatment that tore a ragged gasp ripping past her lips. A quaking tremor ran up and down the length of her body staring deep into those inhuman eyes of glowing amber. There was something bestial in those eyes. Predatory and hungered. She felt caught by them. Entranced and unable to move. She couldn't even think straight.
All of her senses seemed to flutter around in a dazed chaos. She could feel the heat pouring from his body as it pressed up against hers. The beating of his heart thumped in his chest an echo to hers. She tried to resist and fight back, but she felt as if her strength and will had drained away leaving her weak and enfeebled.
The wolf gave another hungered growl that washed the heat of his breath over her skin, and she felt him press himself even closer until she could feel the entire length of his body melding against hers. Every part of her body trembled and tensed in anticipation that made her breath come out hoarsely in sharp ragged gasps. Tamina struggled to free herself, striking at him with as much force as her depleted strength would allow. There didn't seem to be anything she could do to regain any semblance of control. She was at the mercy of this animal. This feral beast who's every movement told her he wanted to devour her right then and there. There was nothing she could do.
He pressed forward, and when his lips met hers, it felt as if liquid fire wrapped in electricity had been poured directly into her veins. Her body tensed, then melted into an oblivion of sensation that crashed down on the whole of her being like a tidal wave. The air seemed to crackle between them, and the taste of him filled her mouth. Her eyes fluttered and her vision clouded as her body and her senses succumbed against her will. She could feel herself pressing into him. Threading her fingers through the length of his hair. Drinking him down into herself with wanton need.
Tamina's mind screamed out against the haze wrapping around it in sheer panic. She could barely hear her own thoughts smothered beneath the primal need inside of her, but what she did hear frightened her. That fear was the faintest spark of her conscious mind that she forced herself to focus on and latch onto. She was only dimly aware of the feel of his free hand slipping over her hip, gripping tight and lifting her from her feet. For a moment her visions swam and the world around her began to spin and start rocking back and forth.
That knot of fear she held onto so firmly pulsed and shifted within her mind. Fear turned to anger that morphed into determination. One of her hands was still free from the wolf's grasp. She slipped her fingers from his hair, and dove her hand down to her waist. Her hand brushed against him, and she felt his need pulsing against her. For a moment, she hesitated, Her thoughts wanted so much to focus on the feel of him against her. Within her. Her anger shocked her back to her senses. Reasserting itself and providing the needed focus for her to reach beneath her shirt and jerk her backup weapon free. In a single fluid movement, she thumbed the safety off and jammed the barrel as hard as she could up beneath his rib cage.
The effect was instantaneous. The man's body became a statue, and there was a flicker of surprise that ran through the amber of his eyes. She could see his indecision. He kept himself in place, and pressed his lips against her flushed skin sending a jolt down her spine.
She nudged him again even more forcefully with her weapon. Each passing moment seemed to chase away the fog in her mind and senses giving her more and more control of herself and the situation. When she noticed the incredulous concern in his eyes, whatever spell she was under was broken completely.
He gently lowered her back down to her feet, released his grip and pulled away ever so slightly. Just enough that she could catch her breath and regain whatever wits that remained unscattered.
“You would shoot me for stealing a kiss?” he whispered out huskily.
The tones of his voice left no doubt in her mind what was on his. Yet, even with the gun jammed up into his stomach there was still this half amused, half hungered arrogance to him. Like either he didn't believe she would really do it, or he was curious to see if she would.
“Get. The fuck. Off of me,” Tamina managed in a raw throated voice.
He backed away giving her enough distance to regain control of herself with his hands held up placatingly at his sides. Tamina swore and skittered along the wall to give herself more room away from him. Her heart wouldn't stop thundering in her chest like it was trying to burst its way free. She was shaking all over. The trembling in her hands making it difficult to keep her weapon trained center mass on the man's chest. The aching pains throughout her body that had been momentarily suppressed by whatever reaction she had to the man had come roaring back with a vengeance. She was amazed she was able to keep on her feet.
“The hell is wrong with you?” she demanded.
He offered a wry smile.
“I may have misread the situation bella,” he replied.
“You think!“ Tamina shot back in breathless anger. Her reactions to his touch has scared her more than she was willing to admit. What the hell was that about, she wondered. “Goddamn it Gio, I can't even remember why I came her
e in the first place now, you asshole.”
She could see amusement in his expression as he leaned against one of the tables, and it was adding fuel to the fire of her anger with each passing moment. It was making it easier to come to her senses and control herself in some ways, all that much harder in others.
“I do apologize bella,” the man said gently. “Could you maybe not point that at me anymore. You're starting to look like you might shoot me.”
“I might,” Tamina growled. “Still haven't decided yet.”
Inwardly she cursed herself. She knew coming here and seeking Giovanni out was a mistake. She could tell herself that she didn't have any other options, but she knew she would be lying to herself. He did have information that could help her, but it wasn't like he was the only one she could have gone to. There had to be lots of people in the city with his particular area of expertise. So why put herself through all of this? Wasn't like she wanted to see him. Nope. Not at all, she told herself. That was a line of thought she wasn't prepared to follow through with.
“The hell possessed you to even think that was acceptable?” she demanded.
“In my defense,” he said with a roguish smile turning up the corners of his mouth. “You did like it. I can smell it on you.”
Tamina's eyes narrowed, and she made a point of lowering her weapon to aim a bit below his waist in response. His response was the exact opposite of what she expected, and the smile her gave her only made it all that much harder for her not to pull the trigger just to spite him.
“Would be a terrible waste if you did that bella,” Giovanni said.
“Mhm,” Tamina replied. She wasn't going to say anything else on the subject if she could help it.
“Again, I apologize,” he said. “Wishful thinking on my part I guess to think you longed for my touch as much as I hungered for yours after all the nights we shared.”
Tamina shook her head vehemently.