Risky Bargains

by J. C. Diem

  “Are we going to go after him?” Brynn asked, her distaste at the idea obvious.

  “Nope,” Liam said. “Take us home, Emma.” We returned to the backyard of the nearby house and the squirrel took us to our base.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  IT TOOK FRANKO SEVERAL hours to return to the compound. I was sparring with Nick when the herd informed me the alpha was back. They didn’t need eyes to be able to sense someone they knew. He didn’t just press the button at the gate to be let in, he kept his thumb on it. The buzzing noise quickly became as irritating as he’d obviously hoped it would.

  Sydney climbed up to the coms room and laughed when she saw Heath on a monitor. “The alpha hole looks like he’s been for a swim in the nearest creek,” she said in delight.

  I took that to mean he was covered in sweat. She let him in and he took his time to trudge to the kitchen entrance. We didn’t bother to stop what we were doing when the rookie pushed the door open. I cut a glance at him, then had to look away so I didn’t burst into snickers. His clothes were drenched with sweat from his long run.

  “Thanks for leaving me behind, boss,” he said to Liam resentfully.

  Liam didn’t pause as he lifted weights. “You shouldn’t have taken off in a snit,” he retorted.

  Realizing he wasn’t going to get any sympathy from any of us, Franko slunk upstairs to shower and change.

  “Asshat,” Yas muttered when he was gone. She was holding the punching bags for both Syd and Brynn at the same time.

  “I wish a mission would come up,” I complained to Nick as I ducked and dodged his kicks and punches. “I’m tired of getting my butt kicked by you guys.” Nick took advantage of my momentary distraction to hook his foot behind my leg and push me over. I landed with a thump and tossed my gloved hands in the air. “See?” I whined. “This is getting really old.”

  Liam’s phone rang and he put the dumbbells down. “Be careful what you wish for, Alex,” he said with a smirk, then answered it.

  His informant spoke even before he could open his mouth. “Liam, aliens have just appeared in Georgia,” the woman said in a hushed voice.

  “Aliens?” Liam asked incredulously.

  “Beings from another dimension,” she said impatiently. “They have silver skin, so witnesses are calling them aliens.”

  “Did they hurt anyone?” our boss asked in concern.

  “Not yet. They ran away and are apparently hiding somewhere in the town.”

  “Which town are they in?”

  “Landsby,” she replied. “I don’t know what these things are, but you’d better get your fine butt here. You need to grab them before they either kill someone, or are shot dead by the locals.”

  “We’ll be there asap,” he promised, then they hung up.

  My heart started to thud hard as soon as I’d heard the informant say the strange beings were in Georgia. That was where I’d dreamed Jax was now living. Nick helped me to my feet, too distracted to notice my flushed face.

  “This mission should be interesting,” Crowmon predicted as we all halted our training. “Where will we be staying this time?” He assumed it would take longer than a single night for us to find and detain the silver-skinned people.

  “We have a base in Georgia,” Liam replied as he used his phone to look up where Landsby was. “It’s only about three hours away from the town where the aliens were spotted.”

  “What aliens?” Franko asked from the top of the stairs.

  “Grab your gear,” Liam ordered us all. “Alex’s wish has come true and we’ll be heading out in five minutes.”

  “What’s going on?” the alpha asked as we all raced upstairs.

  “Obviously, a new mission has come up,” Yas said derisively. “We’re hunting for a couple of beings who have silver skin.”

  “Are they really aliens?” Franko asked as he headed back to his bedroom.

  “No more so than I am, boyo,” Crowmon said.

  “He means they’ve been brought here from another dimension,” Nick said with an eye roll.

  Heath knew we were all still annoyed with him for trying to take over, so he didn’t bother to ask any further questions. We got changed, grabbed our gear and headed downstairs. Liam led the way to the exit to the front yard, rather than heading to the garage. I linked Emma’s mind to Liam’s so she could glean the location of our base in Georgia from him. She took us there and we emerged in front of a huge concrete building. It was identical to the other bases I’d been to.

  “It looks exactly like the base in Colorado,” Franko noted. The only thing that was different were the trees. Instead of being mostly pines, there was a variety.

  “Nick, Alex, Yas and Emma will head to Landsby,” Liam said. “Alex will drive.” Nick gave him a pained look, but he knew I’d get us there a lot faster than he would. Franko was annoyed that he would have to stay behind with the rest of the team. We handed our duffle bags over to the others, but I kept my backpack so Emma could hide in it if she needed to.

  Glad to have a chance to drive again, I jogged over to the garage door. Nick opened it with the remote-control Liam had tossed to him. The usual black van and two black SUVs were lined up in the slots. “We’ll take the van,” Nick said when I looked at him enquiringly. “It’s slower than the SUVs, but we don’t know how much driving we’ll need to do when we get to Landsby.” Having one vehicle we could all fit into was better than taking two cars.

  The van had seats in the back, so at least my passengers wouldn’t be thrown around by my mad dash to our location. Nick took the front passenger seat. He plugged our destination into the GPS as Yas climbed into the back. The sun would be going down in another couple of hours, so she had her hood and gloves on. “What sort of beings have silver skin?” she asked as I backed the van out of the garage.

  Nick shrugged, automatically grabbing the dashboard with one hand and the door with the other when I gunned it down the driveway. “Liam knows more about the different species the PIA has come into contact with than I do,” he admitted. “I’m more of an action guy than a book nerd.” He closed his eyes when I approached the gate at warp speed. Emma had chosen to sit on Yasmine’s lap. She almost slid off her leather clad legs when I slammed on the brakes, but the vampire deftly caught her.

  I’d never been to Georgia and didn’t know the roads as I zoomed away from our property. The unfamiliar terrain added to my thrill as I followed the directions on the GPS. Nick held on for dear life each time I took a corner too fast, or overtook someone. While he wasn’t completely drenched with sweat like Franko had been after his long run, he was definitely perspiring after a few minutes on the highway.

  “What’s the normal protocol when dealing with beings from other dimensions?” Yas asked.

  “It depends on whether they’re dangerous or not,” my brother replied in a breathless voice. I smirked at him, knowing he was desperately pretending to be nonchalant. “Keep your eyes on the road!” he shouted.

  I’d seen the truck coming towards us and deftly swerved around the car in front of us with a few seconds to spare. “Maybe you should keep your eyes closed,” I told him pityingly. His knuckles were white from holding onto the dashboard.

  Nick cut a look at me, lips almost disappearing into his face from pressing them together so hard. “As I was saying, it depends on what the beings do when they arrive here,” he said to Yas. “If they hurt anyone, they’re detained in one of the PIA facilities. If they go on a killing spree, we put them down before they can do more harm.”

  “What if they don’t hurt or kill anyone?” my bestie asked.

  “We still detain them, if we can,” Nick said. “We question them to determine what sort of skills and abilities they possess.”

  “Unless they can teleport away, like Crowmon did,” I pointed out.

  “Few beings have that ability,” he said, then stomped on a brake that didn’t exist when the car in front of us blew a tire. I planted my foot on the gas and zoomed
around the vehicle, then swerved back into our lane.

  “If these silver people ran away rather than attacking anyone, they might be harmless,” Yas figured.

  “Or they could be plotting the demise of the entire human race,” I joked. I was in high spirits at being behind the wheel again. So far, nothing else had given me a thrill like speeding along a highway did.

  “Minivan!” Nick shouted and pointed at the vehicle that switched lanes right in front of us.

  I stomped on the brakes just in time to avoid being sideswiped, then overtook the van. Yas flipped the flustered soccer mom the bird. “Watch your mirrors next time!” she shouted as we zoomed past. “Idiotic human,” she muttered dourly.

  Sweat now coated Nick’s forehead, but he didn’t dare pry his hands away from the dashboard or door to wipe it away. I would have felt sorry for him, but this was my revenge for the embarrassment I received every time he trained me. Hiding my smug grin, I mashed my foot on the gas to see just how fast the van could go.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  WITH ME DRIVING, IT only took an hour and a half to reach Landsby instead of three hours. Nick directed me to pull over before we reached the town limits. “I’ll let Liam know Emma is coming to get them,” he said, then sent his twin a text message.

  Yas let Emma out of the van so the squirrel could retrieve the rest of our team from our base. They tossed their gear into the cargo area at the back, then piled into the vehicle. I found it weird to have Liam riding behind me rather than being at my side.

  The sun had set, so Yas took her hood off. Syd handed her a sweater to pull on over her leather top. “I guess I won’t stand out as much if I wear this,” the vampire conceded as she tugged it on, but she wasn’t happy about having to hide her beloved outfit. She could get away with wearing leather pants without raising much suspicion. She took her gloves off and shoved them into my backpack along with her hood.

  “I’ve notified the local sheriff that we’ll be investigating the silver beings,” Liam said. “She wants to meet with us, so we’ll head for her office first.”

  He gave me directions from the map on his phone. Keeping to the speed limit, I pulled over in front of a small brick building. Landsby was a medium sized town, so not everyone would know each other. Word about the strange beings had spread. Townsfolk were out searching with their flashlights in one hand and guns in the other.

  “I can see someone getting shot soon,” Nick predicted as we climbed out. We received hard stares from the locals as we filed into the Sheriff’s Department.

  The sheriff was young and pretty, with honey blonde hair up in a ponytail. She had a figure similar to Sydney’s and was more muscular than curvaceous. She glanced over at us and blushed bright red when she saw the twins. Franko smiled at her invitingly and her blush deepened. “Give me a minute while I deal with these people,” she said to her deputies. They were a mixture of men and women. The ones who were older than her wore tolerant expressions. I had a feeling she hadn’t had her job for long.

  “You’re the PIA agents?” she asked skeptically when she reached us. Her nametag said she was Sheriff Deborah Unwin.

  “That’s right, ma’am,” Liam confirmed. At his nod, we all showed her our IDs.

  She scanned them and managed to control her reaction at being faced with three tall, handsome men. Crowmon barely received a glance and she ignored us females as if we didn’t exist. “Aren’t you all a bit young to be agents?” she asked brusquely.

  “I’m sure you’ve been judged for your age, Sheriff,” Liam said pointedly. “You shouldn’t dismiss us just because we aren’t old and haggard.”

  She cracked a smile at his jab. “Fair enough,” she conceded. “What do you need to know, Agent Levine-Garrett?”

  “What can you tell us about these silver-skinned beings?” our boss asked. He didn’t need to take notes. He’d remember everything she told us.

  “They appeared from out of nowhere like ghosts a couple of hours ago,” Sheriff Unwin replied. “Several people saw them and called my office to report them. They both have dark hair and were wearing brown shirts and trousers. Apart from their skin, they apparently look like normal people. They were chased, but managed to get away.”

  “Can you show us where they went?” Nick asked, giving her a charming grin.

  “I guess so,” she said, flustered all over again.

  “The twins love playing with human women,” Syd whispered to Yas and me. “They always act like this when women are hot for them.”

  “I bet she’ll be having fantasies about being in a twin sandwich tonight,” Yas predicted. My brothers flicked a look at her over their shoulders, which made her snicker. I laughed silently as we followed our guide back outside.

  “The creatures appeared here,” the sheriff said when we’d walked a block from her office. She pointed at the middle of the road between a café and a laundry mat. “A few people screamed and the pair fled down this alley.” She trotted across the street and switched her flashlight on when it became too dark for her to see.

  “I can sense the same magic I’ve felt before,” Crowmon whispered as we followed in her wake.

  “I can’t smell anything weird,” Yas reported quietly.

  “Neither can I,” Brynn agreed. All I could smell was the scents of humans and animals. If the beings we were hunting didn’t have distinctive scents, they might be harder to track than we’d expected.

  Sheriff Unwin led us a few streets away and came to a stop at a fenced backyard. “They climbed over the fence and haven’t been seen since,” she said. “My deputies and I have searched the area, but we didn’t find them. My gut tells me they’re still here. They must be hiding somewhere in town.”

  “We’ll find them if they are,” Liam vowed as he peered over the fence. It would have been too dark for humans to see what was on the other side, but we had excellent night vision.

  “What will you do when you find them?” the sheriff asked.

  “We’ll talk to them and see if they’re dangerous,” Brynn replied.

  The sheriff barely bothered to glance at her. She looked expectantly at Liam for his answer.

  “We’ll do exactly what Agent Bailey just said,” he verified.

  “You won’t shoot them on sight?” Sheriff Unwin asked with a hint of disappointment.

  “We’re not murderers, lass,” Crowmon said in exasperation. “We don’t kill anyone who doesn’t deserve it. If these creatures are peaceful, we don’t have any right to take their lives just because they have silver skin.”

  “All supernatural creatures should be eradicated,” the officer said in distaste. “We don’t want or need them on our world.”

  Yas almost bared her fangs at the woman, but I elbowed her in the side to remind her to control her temper. She settled for a glower instead.

  “We’d best begin our search,” Liam said. “I’ll let you know when we find them.”

  “What do you want my people and me to do?” Unwin asked.

  “Keep the townsfolk calm, so they don’t accidentally shoot us, or each other,” he replied. “Let us deal with the aliens.”

  She nodded brusquely. “If you have to shoot them, I won’t question you about it,” she said. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.” With that, she turned around and trotted back the way we’d come.

  “What a lovely woman,” Syd said with her upper lip lifted. “She’s barely biased about supernatural creatures at all.”

  “She doesn’t seem to like other females much, either,” Brynn added in annoyance at being ignored.

  “She liked us well enough,” Franko said, pointing at himself and the twins.

  “I’m sure she’d change her mind if she got to know you,” Yas said, then grinned at him smugly when he didn’t have a comeback for her insult.

  “How are we going to find these beings?” I asked. “They don’t seem to have unusual scents for us to track.”

  “Can you follow the trail of magi
c?” Liam asked Crowmon.

  “Aye, lad,” the deity confirmed. “At least until it dissipates, which will be soon from the feel of it.”

  Heath gave Crowmon a sharp look at the fact that he could detect different types of magic. He knew our consultant could teleport, but he still didn’t know exactly what our colleague was. None of us trusted him enough to tell him, so he would continue to remain in the dark.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  CROWMON TOOK THE LEAD this time. The trickster god followed the fading trail of magic past several backyards without us needing to enter the properties. He paused when we reached a crossroads, then turned left.

  People pointed their flashlights at us suspiciously as they continued to search their town for the intruders. A shot rang out somewhere in the distance and screams of pain and alarm sounded. “I’m right again,” Nick said, unhappy that his prediction had come true. A siren wailed as the sheriff went to investigate the shooting. From the lack of shouts, we figured the victim wasn’t one of the silver-skinned beings, so we continued our search.

  Acting like a magical bloodhound, Crowmon led us on a crisscrossing path through Landsby. The creatures had panicked at suddenly finding themselves in a foreign world. They were looking for a place to hide, but they were probably unfamiliar with the buildings and landscape.

  “I wonder what their world is like?” Brynn mused as we neared an old church.

  “Who cares?” Franko muttered. The alpha didn’t seem to have an imagination, or any curiosity about the beings we were hunting.

  “We care,” Sydney said in annoyance. “It’s interesting to learn about the other dimensions that exist.” He gave her a tolerant look that changed into a sneer when she turned away.

  “Shh,” Yas said, holding her hand up to make us all come to a stop. “Can you hear that?” she whispered. We all listened hard to try to pick up what she was hearing.

  “It’s voices,” I murmured. “They’re talking in a foreign language.”