by A. C. Arthur
“Why didn’t you bring him back here? We could have held him for ransom, or at the very least, beat more answers out of him,” Aiken said.
“That weird ass glossy crap got him too. It was thick and wrapped around dude’s body like a chain, pulling him straight down into a sewer like garbage,” Magnum announced.
“What the hell? Now we’re fighting glossy metallic crap?” Reece asked.
“No,” Theo said, pushing himself away from the doorjamb where he’d been leaning while listening to them talk.
They’d all joined in the conference room once they returned, in pairs since that was the way they’d gone out together. There was only one pair missing, or at least one part of the pair. Ziva and Shola had been together, but Shola wasn’t here. Ziva was sitting in a chair staring off into space while the others talked. Bleu had gone out alone, and he hadn’t returned yet, but Theo had been in touch with him through the communicator. He was safe and had information on the Royal Blood and Camden’s quest to be recognized.
Theo had gathered his own information tonight. Dark and dangerous information that wasn’t going to bode well for any of them, especially him.
“That metallic sludge and that eerie smoke that accompanies it is the demonic Hoan. He was banished to the Spirit Realm a thousand years ago,” Theo told them.
“Then how did he get back, and why now?” Reece asked.
“The Convergence,” Steele said. “He’s the one who wants the power to rule the realms. He’s older and undoubtedly much stronger than Camden.”
“Right,” Theo stated. “Hoan can converge the realms, he just needs enough evil support on each one to combine the power and turn it to his rule. And if he’s working with Camden he probably didn’t kill the two vamps you saw in the alley, just got them out of the way so you wouldn’t kill them.”
Aiken nodded. “So how and when do we kick his ass?”
Theo rubbed his chin and looked around the room once more. “Where’s Shola?” he asked Ziva, who still hadn’t spoken.
“In her room,” Ziva replied quietly and sat up straighter in her chair.
Theo nodded as she looked at him with expectancy in her gaze. She thought he was going to ask for more information on how she knew the vampire woman, and most assuredly what had happened in that alley after he left, because that had been the moment he’d felt Hoan’s presence the most. But he wasn’t going to ask her any of that. Not right now, anyway.
“The vampires can’t fly long distances,” he said when he was standing next to his seat at the head of the table. “They have actual bats that carry a poisonous bite, but only lords have the ability to shift into bat form and fly. About a hundred or so miles was the best he could do before floundering. Just before the wind mysteriously picked up, Camden started dipping in the air and his wings hadn’t been strong enough to bring him back up. But I lost him in a tuft of thick clouds.” They’d suddenly littered the sky, sticking together like glue and blocking Theo’s movement.
“We need to get to Camden and fast, before he’s able to do whatever Hoan has asked of him,” Magnum said.
“Right.” Theo nodded. “He’s a pawn in Hoan’s demented game and probably doesn’t even know it.” And while Camden was definitely in his top five of people he didn’t mind seeing dead, Theo wanted it at his hand, not Hoan’s possession.
“Well, if the vamp’s turning into a bat and flying around town now, that’s not going to be as simple as we thought,” Aiken added.
Theo’s gaze immediately went to Ziva.
“It’s your turn,” he said to her. “Tell me how you know Camden’s flunky and then tell me how you plan to get her to cooperate with setting him up.”
Ziva tossed him a heated glance, her eyes taking on the green hue of her dragon.
“I told you that was a long time ago,” Ziva countered.
Theo stood back from the table. He folded his arms over his chest and stared at her. “Which means there’s more to tell.”
Ziva opened her mouth to say something, and Theo narrowed his gaze at her. She hesitated for a moment, a mixture of fury and sadness on her face.
“I had sex with her. A couple of times,” she said. “Is that what you wanted to know?”
This was Ziva’s defense mode—snappy comments, simmering anger and irritableness. It all hid what was actually going on with her. Things Theo really didn’t want to know about except to the extent that it involved this current situation.
“What? How’d I miss that?” Aiken asked.
Ziva shot him a death glare too. “Because you know it’s best to bark up your own horny tree and to not go poking your nose near mine.”
“Right, because my tree is definitely different from yours,” Aiken added with a wiggle of his brow.
“You’re disgusting and ignorant,” she snapped.
“That’s partially true,” Theo added and tossed his own irritated look toward Aiken.
“Look, I liked her, and she liked me. We hooked up a couple of times. Like I told you before, she was human then. I don’t know when Warrick turned her or if he’s even the one who did it,” Ziva explained.
“You slept with that hot ass vampire that tried to suck me dry?” Magnum asked.
“It was a long time ago, and she wasn’t sure what she wanted out of life. I wasn’t inclined to sit around waiting for her to figure it out,” Ziva said.
“And now she’s a vampire.” Theo brought the conversation back to the important part. “And she works closely with Camden.”
“Apparently not close enough to tell us where he was tonight. I mean, before we bumped into him in the alley on our way out,” Ziva said.
“What? You came face-to-face with him again?” Magnum asked. “Did you kick his sorry ass into giving us any information?”
“No,” Theo said through clenched teeth. “We didn’t get that far, and I ended up being face-to-face with his bat, like I said before.”
“We could have fought them though,” Ziva added. “I mean, how many times are we gonna run away when we’re supposed to be the good guys?”
“We run away so that we can live to fight another day. This is not the Far Realm, everything is not about losing your life for the greater good. We’re going to think smarter than that.” Theo believed those words wholeheartedly. At least he had up to this point. Now, he wasn’t so sure they were going to continue working, but he wasn’t ready to tell them that.
“You want to set a trap for Camden to walk into? And then what? What are we going to ask him that we haven’t already figured out at this stage?” Steele asked.
“I want to know how Hoan contacted him and why him specifically. Shola hadn’t been born when she was promised to Camden. But Camden’s not a member of the Royal Blood, so how was he even on Hoan’s radar as a candidate for this marriage in the first place?”
“Enes won’t talk to me,” Ziva said. “You saw how she acted at the club tonight.”
Theo looked at her, hoping she could see past the flurry of emotions going through her at the moment to the fact that he was only trying to get to the bottom of this situation. He wasn’t prying into her business or attempting to tell her how to live her life. Outside of this company, Ziva was on her own. What she did and who she did it with was not his concern. Unless she ended up hurt, and then, he wouldn’t hesitate to defend or avenge her if necessary.
“I saw what looked like two people with a world of emotion flowing between them. I think she’s more open to talking or any other type of persuasion if it comes from you,” he told her.
Ziva stood. She planted her palms on the table and leaned in while staring at Theo.
“Are you telling me to use sex to get the advantage over her?”
“No,” he replied with a shake of his head. “We’re above that. I expect you to be above that. But your connection with her will get
you through her door. How you work extracting information from her is up to you. I’d like a report by tomorrow night.”
“Really, Theo? Because you want a report I’m supposed to backtrack into my past and drudge up a situation I had a hard time releasing in the first place. Yeah, that’s about right,” she continued with a nod of her head. “Theo is the emotionless one of all of us. He’s the one who accepts and assigns the cases and refrains from having any type of personal life or emotional connections. Because that’s what he’s good at. His simmering anger from two hundred years ago fuels his every action. But little ol’ me, I’m just a mess with showing my emotions and expecting things from others. So I guess that makes me expendable.”
“Stop,” he said slowly, yet forcefully. “That’s not what I meant, and this outburst isn’t necessary.”
“Oh you bet your ass it’s necessary! Just like you sleeping with the little vampire hunter is necessary. But when she’s gone back to her precious village, you’ll be standing right where I am with a memory of something you didn’t have the guts to make into a real thing!”
Ziva stormed out of the conference room before Theo could respond. The others looked at him, waiting for him to explain the part about him sleeping with Shola, he assumed. But Theo didn’t speak a word on any of that.
“We need to talk about our contingency plan,” he continued and took his seat. “Because if this doesn’t go the way we want it to, we may be facing something much more ominous than we thought.”
And the choice Theo was certain he’d already made, might need to be addressed, again.
Chapter Twenty
When Theo stepped into her room, Shola immediately felt her balance returning. When had that happened? It was the same feeling she obtained after praying on her altar. The same, but different. Before he’d come to her door, she’d been filled with anxiety and energy. She wanted to go back out and tackle that mysterious sludge that had attacked her, to get back on the streets and hunt for Warrick because an impatience had begun to fill her spirit. Things needed to end. All of these dangling loose ends needed to be gone.
And then what?
As he’d walked past her and she closed the door behind him, Shola’s heart stopped racing. Her thoughts still circled around the pending matters, but her mind had cleared enough to see that something about Theo was different from when she’d seen him earlier.
The dark blue jeans and black shirt he wore were different from earlier at the club. He would have changed when his dragon returned to the Office this evening. There’d been no time for her to be in awe of the magnificent beast tonight; too much was going on. So much that it still ran races in her mind. And all of that took a second seat to the flip-flop of her stomach the moment he turned back to stare at her.
There was the difference. This balance was new and intriguing, while before she’d left the altar steady and focused.
“I needed to see you after everything that happened, but you weren’t in the conference room when I came down,” he said.
“I am not part of your team,” she replied.
He shook his head. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
He was staring at her with a slight frown. “Back down. Earlier you told me that you were either coming with us to the club or you were going in alone. I took you with us. That made you part of the team.”
Shola nodded. “And what about after the job is done?”
She hadn’t realized that was a concern until the question slipped from her lips.
“I can’t think about after until this is done and you’re safe. Camden is still out there, as well as the one he’s partnered with. I believe it’s the Dark One that your father made the deal with.”
Shola thought about what he’d just said. “Yes,” she replied. “I did not connect the two. Oya’s stories of him said he used to be able to walk the realms in his true dark form, but that for centuries he was only able to appear as smoke and liquid.”
“You saw him?” Concern and a touch of anger were evident in his voice.
“When we tried to drive away, the liquid or sludge that had been on the ground wrapped around my legs. Ziva got us away from it but when I looked through the rearview mirror, it was a man. Or at least the form of a man in a hooded robe.”
It seemed to click into place at that moment. If that was the Dark One, it made sense that he would want her, if he knew that she was sent to stop his plan. Shola thought about how that knowledge made her feel. Confused. Angry. Anxious all over again.
She walked across the room to where she’d set a picture of her parents on the dresser, right next to the nine-loop bracelet she sometimes wore and her seven-day candle. Lifting the frame, she ran her fingers over the face of Joku and Ejaita, the two who’d raised and loved her. Neither of them knew of her connection to Oya or the dark task her birth had bestowed upon her. Yet, a piece of Shola was certain they would be proud. She was standing for what she believed and doing what she knew was necessary for her people. With that thought, she touched the pendant on her necklace, reaching out to Oya.
“My father just wanted my mother to live. That is why he made the bargain with the Dark One. He made a mistake,” she said quietly. “But how many people live their whole lives and avoid doing that?”
“I don’t know,” Theo replied. “My life is not like yours or theirs. My world is totally different.”
With those words, Shola turned to face him. She dropped her hand from her necklace and looked at Theo, the man. A light brown beard covered his strong jaw, and his shirt hung on muscled shoulders, pants wrapped around toned thighs. To the human eye, he was one of the sexiest men she’d ever seen, but as one who was more than human, magickal as he liked to call her, Theo was a born leader. He possessed a levelheadedness and calm demeanor combined with his ability to listen as well as dole out assignments with a tone that brokered no argument, and did not ruffle any feathers while doing so, that were attributes of someone in charge. He was more than a guard, and she had a feeling, much more than any other dragon on the Far Realm.
Tonight, however, he was troubled.
“I can help,” she said.
“You are helping,” he told her before dragging his hands down his face. “Now that we know about Hoan, it’ll be easier to figure out how to approach this. Getting to Camden is still a priority, and Ziva’s going to help with that. Bleu also found out some things about why Camden isn’t accepted in the Royal Blood, so we might be able to get some help from them in getting rid of him. But you’re a piece of this, Shola. A very big piece.”
He was standing near the leather couch that was situated ten feet from the end of her bed. The couch and two high-back chairs were situated across from a flat-screen TV embedded in the wall. There was a plush navy-blue-and-cranberry-colored rug in the center of that floor and a table at each end of the couch.
“I meant that I can help you right now.” She walked away from the dresser, stopping when she was in front of him.
He touched a finger to her chin and then up to her cheeks. “I’ve never seen a woman with sexy dimples before,” he told her. “I think about yours all the time.”
Shola reached up to take his hand. She kissed the back of it and smiled up at him. “Come with me.” In her mind, the words “my love” echoed at the end of her sentence.
Theo followed her around to the front of the couch while she pushed those words out of focus.
“Have a seat.”
He sat and Shola moved to her altar where she poured from her bottle of oil. She whispered a quick prayer and rubbed the oil lightly in the palm of her hand. Going back to the sitting area, she stood behind the couch and placed her oiled hands on Theo’s neck.
He sighed heavily the moment her skin touched his.
“Close your eyes,” she told him.
“Why? Do you have a big surpris
e for me?” he joked.
Shola smiled. It was odd how much she could still manage to smile considering their situation. But there was light here, in this moment. There was joy that had spread from the flopping of her stomach seconds after his entrance, to right this moment.
“I want to give you solace,” she whispered in a low, rhythmic tone. “Solace and blessings for one who carries so much.”
“I’m just a man.”
“No, Theo Masters, you could never be just a man.” Shola continued moving her hands over his neck, massaging the sacred oil deep into his skin. When her hands moved beneath the collar of his shirt to massage his shoulders there was a low moan from him and a soft smile on her lips.
“Ibùkùn. Ibùkùn. Ibùkùn.”
He grabbed each of her hands. “What are you saying?”
His tone was alarmed, but his grip on her hands gentle. So much on him, a weight much heavier than she thought she’d ever carried. It saddened her and opened her heart to him further.
“Blessings,” she said. “I’m praying for blessings upon you, Theo.”
“For what?”
“For everything. Whatever you need to go through and conquer. Whatever you feel or do not wish to feel. Blessings for it all.”
She didn’t expect him to pull her hands up to his lips and kiss each one of her fingers. Nor did she anticipate the shock of warmth that soared through her when he did. In the days that she’d been at the Office, Shola had grown accustomed to the cooler temperatures. So much so that she stopped wearing socks to bed at night. When she was in the cave where she had at first been very cold, the moment Theo’s dragon appeared she had warmed and her body had held that temperature even after leaving the cave.
He tugged on her arms until she pulled out of his hold and came around to the front of the sofa. She was about to sit down when he grabbed her by the hips and directed her so that she was sitting across his lap instead.