by Skye Jones
The guys hustled past us and to the stairs.
“Milly, get the door, will ya?” Jackson asked with a hint of annoyance, and my upset deepened.
He spoke to me like a spouse of thirty years.
“Yes, sir.” I mock doffed my cap at him and flounced to the door.
When I opened it, they carried the coffin type box downstairs.
“I take it Ivan is a vampire?” I asked the redhead.
She nodded. “A true blood at that, and they’ve done awful things to him.”
I watched her closely as she talked about him. Did she have feelings for him?
“Have you ever fed him?” I asked.
She flinched, and I wanted to cut my tongue out. Stupid asking such a personal question, but then she smiled and shook her head. “No, they brought girls in to do that. I only met him once. They kept us separate, but we talked… in our heads.”
“Wow, you’re a lot more advanced with your skills than me.”
She smiled, and it was astonishingly beautiful. When Sienna had talked about the other psychics at the facility, she’d mentioned a guy and a couple girls. One too homely for the tastes of the men in London, and one too worldly. Trust me to get the too worldly one staying with us.
The guys came back and closed the door behind them.
“So now Alex has a companion,” Ben said with a tight smile. “He’s going to flip his shit when he wakes up to find another vamp in his space.”
“Yeah, I think we need to get steel shutters and those windows fixed ASAP,” Jackson said. “Bring Alex up here with us and make a lot of the first floor sunlight proof. Ivan and Angel here can take the lower quarters, divide them up.”
Angel? Shoot me now. Voice like a jazz singer, body of a burlesque dancer, the face of… well, an angel and then that name? I didn’t stand a chance. She’d have my men curled around her porcelain little fingers before I knew it. I felt sick.
“You want anything to eat?” Doc asked her solicitously, confirming my worst fears. They hadn’t dragged her here against her will and shoved her alone in a room. Oh no, she got offered food and her own quarters!
“Well, I’ll leave you all to get acquainted.” I put as much ice into my voice as I could muster.
The guys stared at me, and Jackson frowned. “You don’t want to get to know Angel? We got her for you.”
She blinked at him twice. “Excuse me? I’m not a doll.”
He huffed out a short, annoyed breath. “Didn’t mean it that way, but Milly here wanted to save your ass. She thought you could help train her and that it wasn’t right to leave you there. If not for her, you’d probably still be there.”
She batted her long lashes. “Ah, and I thought you were all saving me because I’m hot.”
Ugh, I did not like her.
Jackson gave her a puzzled look, took her in and grinned. Then he shocked me. “I suppose you are, but I hadn’t noticed. This little minx here has me pussy blind.” He pointed at me.
With those crude words, and a big grin, he headed to the kitchen.
She looked at me and laughed. “My, he’s… you’ve got your hands full there.”
Doc and Ben were already heading down after Jackson.
“He’s so into you it’s cute. Head over heels that one is.” She winked at me, and went to follow the guys, but I stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“How do you know?”
She smirked. “Read his mind a bit on the way here. And Doc’s. They both like you, but”—she leaned in and lowered her voice to a dramatic whisper—“Jackson’s got it baaaad.”
I found myself warming to her a little. “I thought…” I trailed off, feeling stupid.
“Thought I’d sneak in and pinch them from right under your nose?”
I nodded because it was the truth. “You read my mind too?”
“No.” She laughed. “Just the daggers you’ve been shooting me from the minute I walked in. You’ve nothing to worry about, honey.”
“But you’re stunning!” I told her.
“You’re hardly touched by the ugly branch yourself. Anyway, I could be the sexiest woman to walk the earth, and I doubt any of these guys would notice. So put your green-eyed monster away, and sheath your claws. Can we go eat? I’m ravenous.”
I followed her down the stairs, all sorts of emotions stirred up in me.
Part of me admired her and wished I had an ounce of her sass, but part of me still worried the guys would end up preferring her. They’d get bored of me sooner or later, and then they’d want someone new, fun, and sexy. Or maybe, when Jackson decided he did want to have kids, he’d find Angel a lot more appealing than me and my useless womb.
We hit the kitchen to find the guys busy putting a ton of food out.
“When this is ready, you can see if your parents want to join us,” Doc said, and came over to me to give me a soft, lingering kiss on the lips.
I sat at the table with Angel, and Jackson placed an open bottle of wine between us and two glasses. I stared at him. “Wow, wine.”
“Yep, got a few bottles, but none of us drink it.”
I poured some and downed half of my glass, on edge for some reason. The easy rhythm me and the guys had found ourselves in was disturbed by this new woman sitting in our space. I hated being such a stupid, insecure bitch, and told myself to get a grip, but things felt… up in the air, and I’d only just gotten used to the way they were.
After taking more wine on an empty stomach and after the gin and tonics in the library, my tongue seemed to find a life of its own and started talking without my brain’s permission.
“One thing I don’t get.” I pointed to Angel. “Sienna said you were no good for the job in London, but look at you. I’m sure you’d appeal to those men. Why did she insist on me?”
Angel snorted. “Those sick fucks? Ugh, from what I learned about them, Milly, which isn’t a lot, they like innocent, naïve young females. They like to terrify them and hurt them. They get off on taking innocence and tarnishing it. I’m already tarnished.”
“How?” I looked at her flawless skin and perfect features.
“Milly.” Doc shot me a look, and I realized how blunt my question sounded. Damn alcohol.
“No, it’s fine.” Angel waved his concerns away. “When the world went to shit, I did what I could to survive. I stripped, this was before the Foamers, of course, but when the financial system was in complete meltdown and cash was king. I did more than strip at times. Also, before everything went to hell, I was into kink anyway. I like a bit of slap and tickle, nothing extreme, but someone coming at me with a riding crop wouldn’t do much to intimidate me.”
I frowned as I took in what she said. “How old are you?” She looked young like me, but if she’d been into kink before the collapse, she had to be older.
“I’m in my mid-ish-twenties,” she replied with another wink. “Maybe more towards later twenties. I forget.”
She looked at Jackson. “Can I sleep down where Ivan is tonight? I’ll feel better being near him.”
He nodded. “Of course. Do you know him well? I didn’t know if you’d spent a lot of time together.”
“Oh, we didn’t. Sienna kept Ivan separate from everyone, the way the scientists who experimented on him before had, but we can communicate with our minds. If I’m there when he wakes up, I’ll be able to soothe him because he won’t know where he is. I mean, I could communicate with him from anywhere, but physically near is a lot easier. Less draining.” She tapped her temple.
“Sure, we’ll get you settled when you’ve eaten. We’ll leave a note for Alex explaining it all.”
Jackson sat next to me at the table, bottle of beer in one hand, and draped his free arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him, and placing a kiss on the side of my head. It was such an intimate gesture. The sort of thing you imagined being reserved for couples who had been dating awhile.
It also told anyone watching that he was with me, and it went a long way to
helping calm my fears about having Angel in our lives.
It would be good to have a female friend, and she seemed like fun, if only my stupid insecurities would take a hike.
CHAPTER FOUR
Milly: The Unwelcome Guest
Angel had been with us for nearly a week, and things had found a new equilibrium.
She spent a lot of time with Ivan at night. They sat up talking until all hours, and Alex often joined them. In the day, she slept downstairs with the vamps. Jackson had found a couple guys who used to fit electric shutters and said he would pay them a shit ton of gold if they’d fit them for us. They agreed, as long as he and the guys got all the raw materials needed. The men had given Jackson a list as long as his arm of stuff they needed.
Jackson had taken Ben and gone out raiding for a couple days. They had taken what they needed to make the upstairs of our home safe for all of us, including Alex. The men then arrived and now had nearly finished their work and by the evening, Alex would be able to sleep with us all through the night until dawn.
I had met Ivan and spent time talking to him. He was a handsome man, or rather a handsome vampire. He possessed short, thick blond hair, light blue eyes, and full lips. There was something almost angelic about him, but then he’d shoot Angel a dark, hungry look and he’d turn from an angel to the devil himself. He wanted her, and I was sure she knew it, but they both seemed to hold back.
Mum, Dad, and Doc were out walking around the house with the dogs, and me, Jackson, and Ben had been having a little afternoon fun. I’d only finished getting dressed when a loud banging rent the air.
Jackson shot me a puzzled glance and finished buttoning his jeans before heading down the stairs. “I swear if Doc’s forgotten the code again,” he groused to Ben.
All three of us hit the hallway as another volley of bangs rang out. “Hold your fucking horses,” Jackson shouted.
He punched in the alarm, yanked the door back, and froze. His whole body went straight and still, and then he was hauling someone inside and slamming them against the wall, one meaty forearm against their neck.
I gasped when I saw Slim, his face going red.
“You must be fucking insane coming to my home after what you did to Milly,” Jackson growled, the words so low I almost couldn’t hear.
“I’m here with news to help you. Trust me, you want to know this.” Slim’s words were strained as if he struggled to get enough air to speak clearly.
Jackson didn’t let up his hold on him. “Give me one good reason why I should fucking trust you?”
“Because I need your help, and I am not stupid enough to harm those I need help from.”
“You need our help.” Ben snorted. “I say we take him downstairs and gut him. Could always use the meat.” He jutted his chin toward Slim as he addressed Jackson.
“Yes, I need your help. I feel bad about what I did to Milly.”
“You still did it though,” I said, quietly.
“I’m trying to find the cure. I need to save my sister,” Slim ground out. “I’m sorry you got in the way of that, but Sienna said if you went to London you could get the cure or at least get access to the version of the Internet those fuckers are hooked into. Then we could get the instructions for the cure. I’m running out of time; she’s getting weaker and weaker.”
“I think I’m going to go with Ben’s suggestion.” Jackson pulled Slim away from the wall by the front of his t-shirt and began to drag him toward the door to the stairs.
Alex’s words about Slim possibly being important came back to me.
“No. Wait. Please.” I shot Jackson a pleading look. “Let’s hear him out at least. There’s no one less happy to see him here than me, but we should listen to what he has to say.”
Jackson pivoted and headed for the library. He opened the door and shoved Slim inside so violently he went sprawling onto the floor.
Ben followed me in and closed the door behind us with a resounding bang.
“Speak. You’ve got five minutes and then I’m going to brain you to death with these books.” Ben pointed to the walls.
“How… resourceful.” Slim looked at the shelves full of heavy books and grimaced.
“Talk.” Jackson kicked him in the ribs and Slim flinched but didn’t make a sound.
“Okay. My sister is running out of time, and I think there are people in the Ravens who are spooked by how she is now. They are saying she’s crossed the line between alive and undead. They say she is an abomination. So far, Chris has kept them at bay because he needs me there, but he can’t hold them off forever.”
“Why does he need you?” Ben asked.
“Because I do the books, all the financial stuff, and I run the guns. I’m also damned good muscle if needed. I’m highly trained and not scared of dying, except for what it would mean for my sister. I’m fucking indispensable to Chris. I made myself that way from the start in order to have a place I could take Emily and she’d be relatively safe. The only thing I won’t do is traffic the girls and the boys they take.”
“Such a prince.” Jackson sneered. “But you’d beat Milly up.”
Slim pursed his lips and shot Jackson an annoyed look. “I hardly beat her up. I didn’t do anything worse than a mid-level session. Fucking get over yourselves. I did it because I thought someone had to help her when she went to London.”
“That’s a lie,” I interrupted him, “I saw inside your mind when you were doing it. You told yourself as much. Bargained with yourself, but the real reason you did it was for the cure. Nothing more and nothing less. Now, I’m probably the only person in this room on your side, but you lie again, and I’m done defending you.”
“Can you get in his head, Milly?” Jackson asked.
I nodded and tried, but was shocked when it didn’t happen.
“Give me a moment.” I composed myself and tried again. Shit. Nothing. Then it happened, the fracture of the world and I was in, but it was a blank. Clouds, literally white, fluffy clouds. Why was my damn gift still unreliable?
“I’m doing everything I can to block you, darling,” Slim said. “After what you did to me, I never want you in there again.”
“He’s thinking about clouds,” I told Jackson.
Slim wasn’t only picturing clouds, but he was naming the various types. Obviously, a trick he’d learned from somewhere.
“Can you push past it, dig deeper?” Jackson asked.
I tried, twice, but failed to get anything more than damn clouds.
“I bet Angel can,” I said to Jackson. “She’s better trained than me.” We’d started to work together yesterday, and she was miles ahead of me in using her gift.
Jackson turned to Ben. “Go fetch the girl.”
“Oh, you’ve got yourselves another girl here, have you? How does that work, then? Like what, four or five guys on two girls?” Slim laughed and Jackson hauled him up, punched him in the mouth, and shoved him back to the floor.
Slim let him. The guy was big. He might not win, but he could certainly try to stand his ground against Jackson, and he’d done nothing to defend himself. Why?
A few moments later, a sleepy looking Angel shuffled into the room. Jackson jabbed a finger at Slim sprawled on the floor.
“I need you to get into this piece of shit’s head.”
She glanced at Slim and then to me. “Okay.”
Slim was staring at her, his eyes alight with something I’d not seen in any of his interactions with me. I looked at her and could see why. She wore cotton sleep shorts with a lace trim around her upper thighs, and a strappy top in a matching colour. Her boobs were full in the top, spilling out in creamy cleavage. Her hair was piled on her head in messy strands of deep red. Her green eyes were sleepy and sensual. Oh, yeah, Slim liked what he saw.
“Oh, you can stop those thoughts right now.” Angel wrinkled her nose at Slim.
He grinned at her, and it was dirty and boyish at the same time.
“Why are you here instead of one o
f the other compounds or resistance groups? Two minutes. Talk.” Jackson was losing all patience.
“I want to come and stay here. Bring my sister with me. Let her stay in one of your outhouses. I don’t trust the Ravens anymore. They’re getting in too deep with Sienna, and she’s one crazy fucking bitch. I need to keep my sister safe.”
“Oh, I see.” Jackson gave an incredulous shake of his head. “You think you can simply come here, and we’ll let you stay? Why on earth would we do such a thing?”
“Because.” Slim paused. “I have the names, dates of birth, and addresses of the six men in London who Sienna was going to send Milly to be the plaything for.”
The room went silent.
“Sienna is gunning for me, so I got into Chris’ room and took all the info I needed. He knows a lot more than I would have suspected. He knows a lot more than Sienna knows he knows.” He laughed. “What a world.” Slim shook his head. “Everyone playing everyone else. Tiring. Sienna wants to go to London. Chris thinks she’ll double cross the Ravens. I think she will too, but they are going to go and find these men; either Sienna and her little corner of the resistance, or the Ravens. Or… I thought we could go ourselves. Grab one of the six, bring him back here and beat the password and information out of him for their top secret Internet. Or let Milly, your tame vamp, or this tasty new morsel have a go at the one we target, get in his head and get the info.”
“What’s to stop me from beating their names and addresses out of you?” Jackson asked him.
“Because I’d die before I told you if Emily isn’t safe.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Angel said. “On all counts.”
“Just get the information out of his head, for fuck’s sake.” Ben turned to Angel with an annoyed divot between his brows.
“I can’t, he’s not thinking about it.”
“I can’t block you from getting in my head,” Slim said with a glance at her. “And you can get past my clouds. You’re more powerful than Milly. But I can make sure I don’t let the addresses of those men into my mind. I can’t stop you from trying to beat it out of me, but you won’t.” He turned to Jackson. “Let me join you. Let me bring Emily. I’ll help you. We’ll work together. This, getting the cure, it’s bigger than anything in the past.”