by Erin R Flynn
“Yes, Hagan told me. We have started with assembling the gift basket with items they might like best. You have quite a list for me to fill, you know.”
“Just helping my friends take over the world,” I teased as I sniffed a tester for an energizing spray. I felt my eyes go wide and tried it, gasping. “It’s like drinking five shots of espresso.”
“Yes, but it has the same side effects of needing to drink more liquids, and there’s a slight crash. It’s meant to get someone through a meeting or an event, not sustain themselves on,” she warned, giving me a knowing look. My bottom lip poked out, and I set it back on the shelf, much to her amusement. I got another reprimand as I loaded up my basket with tea. “Sera, you can come back, you know. Don’t clean me out.”
“Sorry.” I put a few back but pretty much got three of each type.
“I’m going to have to find a better route than purchasing dehydrated fruits to make the teas just to handle you,” she teased. I thought about that as I kept walking. “By the way, Jessica Powell and Connie White started yesterday. Lovely women. Young Ashley Powell is going to help stock and bag items after school. I’ve heard so much about you from that girl. You’re a true hero to her.”
I smiled as my heart hurt. It always did when I thought of Ashley and what she’d almost gone through. It also reminded me of the others that had been raped and abused before I’d taken over the pack. “I’m glad they’re working out. Let me know if there are any problems.”
“Of course. Hagan mentioned you are taking your plane to Vegas?”
“Yes, why?”
“Well, there’s actually one of my own that has a store there that I promised her some finished product for raw supplies.”
“Any eye of newt?” I teased, thinking about what Nina’s landlady had said when she’d moved in.
“No, certainly not. She has an affinity for plants, and there’s no one better I’d trust to get my herbs and flora from.”
“I’ve got work to handle tomorrow, even if it’s the Fourth of July, since I’m doing it on my vacation day they’ll be there. Thursday morning I’m doing any follow up, but we could maybe swing something on…” I trailed off as Hagan gave me an unfriendly look. “I’m not sure what that means? Are you saying no or what?”
“No, I’m saying we’ll handle that while you work. You’re only allowed to work and relax. I just wasn’t sure if you were okay with us transporting supplies for Nina.”
“Of course. Don’t break the plane, but get whatever she needs if you guys don’t mind running the errand. Might as well save on fuel and shipping if we’re already going there.”
“Excellent. I’ll give Hagan the contact information so they can arrange a meeting. Now let’s get you all settled because you have more to handle today and a full moon tonight.”
And yet, I already wanted a nap. Life was just tiring.
7
The “more to handle today” that Nina had referred to was heading down to the Port of Chicago and handling my shipping containers of Councilman Igor’s stuff that had already been loaded onto the freighter before I’d told them to not send everything. What they had already loaded was my five ancient vampires’ belongings, the sword collection Noah wanted, and any of the monies like the briefcases of cash or chest of jewels he’d had in his possession when he was here. We’d also found out about some already crated items that had been in storage after the phone call.
What surprised me then was that there were eight shipping containers. The ship had come in on Sunday, but it took a bit to unload a ship full of containers and go through who needed to sign for what. It was our day already, so I went down to sign for and handle it all… However, Noah didn’t seem too happy about that, which made me wonder what was going on or who was telling half-truths to customs.
“Hey, Noah, how’s it going?” a man with a CBP, Customs and Border Patrol, uniform shirt greeted the two of them by shaking hands. “Vlad order some more pricey stuff for Timequake?”
“No, not this time. We’ve got five new vamps moving here, and this is mostly their stuff. Plus, a sword collection for me that I’m very excited about,” he answered, handing over a bunch of papers. “You guys want to do a pallet inspection from each or a whole container?”
“I think we should at least check these swords,” the guy answered, frowning. “This looks in order, but humor me?”
“Sure. I told them to load it on the end so you guys could check it out without a fuss.”
“Who’s she?” he asked, nodding to me.
“Chief Thomas is here because the swords were actually won by her, but she’s giving them to me.”
“That’s a good friend,” he muttered, raising an eyebrow at me.
“I currently don’t have any use for swords, but Noah installed my security system and tricked out gun safes in my new house, so I figured to each their own, right?” I had no idea if that was the right thing to say, but “we’re banging” sounded crude.
“I feel ya. Besides, Noah’s so old, swords are up his alley. I prefer guns.”
“A man after my own heart,” I chuckled. “Honestly, Noah seems to have it all in order. I’m sorry I tagged along. I thought I had to be here since—well, I have no clue how this works.”
“FBI rarely does unless they’ve had a case that led here,” he offered, no judgement in his voice, as we walked to the container Noah had referred to.
“Yeah, we normally handle the stuff that gets through somehow.” They stopped and looked at me, and neither of them were friendly. “Oh, shit, I didn’t mean it like that. There’s no way in the world everything could be caught. It wasn’t a criticism, I swear. I just mean, we’ve got everyone’s backs, just like you guys have—fuck it. I’ll just shut up and say sorry.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. “My day started incredibly bad, and apparently I’ve wanted to have my foot in my mouth since.”
“How bad?” Noah asked, concern in his eyes.
“If I tell you a funny story about a Betty White look-alike, will you forgive me?” I asked the CBP guy, seeing in his eyes he wasn’t mad after my ramble.
“Sure, I could do with funny. I rarely get funny, normally just pissed we’re checking things out.” He shrugged, and we started walking again.
“People are jerks.” I filled them in on my morning struggle with the crazy neighbor lady and the fraudulent notice of eviction. Noah was pissed, that I could tell, but the CBP guy couldn’t stop laughing, even as Noah opened the container and the large shipping crate was offloaded.
“Shit, the crap you guys have to put up with. And you’re FBI,” he commented as Noah opened the top of the crate with a crowbar. “Damn, girl, you’re forgiven and have my sympathies.”
“Thanks. I feel bad somehow, like I’m sticking Granny in an old folks’ home, but they told me she was throwing tacks in the street to stop kids biking there. A few got hurt. I can’t stop the words ‘public menace’ from flashing in my head.”
“Yeah, or crazy. We do get a lot of crazy here too. The stories I go home and tell my wife, well, she gets tired of them.”
“At least you can talk about it. I can’t even do that. It builds up most times. Though the cases are way different since I became a wolf. Kinda miss my old undercover gigs. I have some beautiful covers I spent years building up that go to waste now.”
“Hey, getting older does that to you too, not just turning wolf. Had our second kid, and the wife said no more DEA undercover assignments. So I switched to CBP, and now she doesn’t want to hear it.”
“Women—can’t live with them, can’t hide the bodies well enough,” I joked, both of them giving me another funny look. I only shrugged. I was used to guys bitching about their wives or girlfriends with me. I found it amusing to poke back a bit.
I watched as they pushed aside the straw packing and revealed the top sword in a Plexiglas holding case. Noah pulled out several, practically vibrating with excitement.
“Those are like
priceless, right?” I asked, looking in deep. Then I glanced up at Noah, and his face was almost pale. Shit. What had I said wrong?
“Nah, the purchased price from Igor’s insurance quote is on the forms,” he chuckled easily for the CBP guy. “Nothing’s really priceless. Just stuff with sentimental value.”
“Dude, this is your show. I just see used, not shiny and new like my guns,” I offered, shrugging. “I’m a modern gal. Don’t even like antiques.”
“Ah, you young, young, kids,” Noah teased, smiling for the guy but then giving me a look that said shut the fuck up.
So I did. But later, he would be answering some questions. After the CBP guy finished looking at a few other crates carefully chosen by Noah that had value, but I doubted was the cream of our crop, he stamped a bunch of papers, gave us the invoice we had to pay for the items inspected, and sent us on our merry way. And no, I didn’t really get why we had to pay to be inspected at the CBP’s orders, but Noah said that was the way it went.
Noah had already wrangled seven of his buddies to drive semis with flat beds with him. I followed the caravan to a secured off site storage facility that looked like something out of the movies. How did I not know we had a place like this in Chicago? I mean, it was leagues above a Public Storage. I parked next to the last semi to pull in, rolling my eyes when I saw the SUV Hagan had bought after moving here and the rentals Alena and the ancient vampires were using.
“Why did everyone else come here besides me?”
“Because they listened to me when I said I would go to the Port of Chicago…” Noah trailed off and blinked at me. “Shit. I think you were in the hospital. My bad.” He leaned in super quick and kissed me. “You’re so lucky you caught on and didn’t blow everything with customs. You talk too much.”
“I’ve been told that before, but how illegal were you being that I couldn’t talk?”
“I wasn’t. There are just things you don’t say around CBP, Sera, like ‘priceless’ because then it triggers all kinds of shit. It’s like your taxes, you list your deductions, your donations, and you group it together and don’t offer more than they ask because you could get flagged, and when shit gets flagged, it gets searched way in depth. That’s when things go missing or this one or that agency gets called in with accusations of things being stolen overseas, and blah, blah, blah.”
“Fine, I get that, and I trust you, but I’m also not stupid, Noah. You were restrained to say that the purchased price was listed on the forms, not the current value. Igor was so old he could have paid for them in coconuts or whatever cavemen used for currency.”
“You’re not an idiot to think he was that old. There was real currency four thousand years ago,” Goran teased me. I blinked at him a moment and felt hot. “You didn’t know Igor was that old?”
“No, Vlad said he was the last of the Slavs. I mean, I joked about him being older than Jesus because ancient Slavs were BC, but after that, I’m not a history buff.”
“That was who he associated with, as they’re labeled as the first group to be in what’s now Russia, but he was older than that when there were only tribes, no nations or countries.”
“Oh, well, of course.” I glanced around and then went for the bumper of my SUV. “I’m not going to like what’s in these containers, am I? And you didn’t answer my question, Noah.”
“Yes, you’re not wrong. It’s what they ask, not current appraised value, and how we get around paying insane taxes on our own shit. If you knew what I could have paid in current value for family heirlooms of my human life bringing them here when I came under Vlad, you would pass out. But that’s not fair as they’re mine, I’m just old. I pay my taxes and live by the rules. Some of them just haven’t caught up with being immortal.”
“Gotcha, I think. I’ll try not to worry on it.” I glanced at the vampires and sighed. “So what’s in there that I’m not going to like?”
“Sera, you had the inventory,” Goran answered, hesitation in his tone.
“Yeah, but it was all in code, like Amenemhet III or Etruscans or Argead and a crate size. That made no sense to me.”
“Oh shit,” Zlat groaned, and I raised an eyebrow at him.
I opened my mouth to repeat the original question, but instead intense, red hot pain lanced my chest. I grabbed at where the wound was, thinking I was shot as I slid off the bumper and fell to my knees… But nothing was there. Looking down, there was nothing. And yet the pain hit me again, and I couldn’t even draw in the air to scream. Tristan’s face flashed through my mind, and I thought he was hurt. Could I feel it if he got hurt?
“Tristan,” I screamed, blood spurting from my mouth. I coughed up more, what felt like gallons as the pain kept stabbing me, people shouting around me as no one knew what to do or how to help me. God, I wished they did because it hurt so badly.
And then it just stopped. As suddenly as it had started, in a flash it was gone. It just stopped and left me there gasping for air, no residual pain as if it had been a bullet wound. Sure, I ached all over and my head throbbed, but the stabbing pain was gone.
That worried me that Tristan might be too. “Tristan, hurt,” I rasped, realizing that I was crying. “Dead.”
“I don’t think so,” Noah whispered as he wiped the blood off my face with something. “I think he’s just dead to you. Vlad gave me the agreements for you to sign, and when he knew I wasn’t his anymore, he said he’d claim Tristan today.”
“Just check,” I whimpered, feeling something was seriously missing inside of me, so much more it seemed than whatever bond we’d had. It felt as if he was missing from the world.
“Okay, if that’s what you want,” he murmured. I watched him pull out his phone as someone dragged me onto their lap. I glanced up to see Reagan and fear so deep in his eyes I wondered how what I’d gone through had looked to them. “Remus, it’s Noah. I need Vlad now. It’s Sera. She thinks Tristan’s hurt or dead.”
“No, they’re rebonding him to Vlad. They’re in the other room,” I heard Remus say.
“Check. Something might not have gone right. She was—it’s bad. Something’s wrong. I’ve seen vampires change masters, and it’s never been like this.”
“Vlad, I’m coming in,” Remus called out, and I could hear it as clear as if he was there, plus a bit of echo since my head still hurt. “Did everything go okay? Nothing odd binding Tristan?”
“Of course not. I have sovereigned hundreds of you,” Vlad snapped. “I am not an idiot or helpless without Noah. Do not be a bother and—”
“It’s Noah on the phone, Vlad. Something happened to Sera. She thought Tristan was dead, I don’t know much else.”
“What has happened?” Vlad inquired, suddenly on the other end instead of Remus.
“Don’t,” I told Noah, reaching for him. “He could—weapon.” God, why couldn’t I get more air in my lungs or stop crying?
“Swear to me you won’t ever, not ever use this against her or tell anyone about this. You said you’d never tell someone she was a siren, but you did,” Noah demanded.
“You have my word, I swear it.”
“She collapsed, grabbing her chest, coughing up blood, screaming Tristan’s name. The only time I’ve seen anything like it is when someone we turn is killed. She thought he was dead. You only broke their sovereign bond, right? She won’t stop crying.” Noah sounded a little hysterical, and I worried that something was more serious than I thought.
“Perhaps her bond was deeper, as she did not have to metaphysically die human as we do for it to be allowed,” Vlad offered after a moment. “I do not know. I have never seen that, either, other than when ones we make perish.”
“I’ve never turned anyone. How long does this last? You’ve had one of yours die.”
“Yes, I experienced their death and the dark hole that was left in place of the life I had given them. I cannot say how long it will last. It is different for each master depending on the depth of the bond and the feelings for the person. In Se
raphine’s case, it might be alleviated if she were to lay eyes on Tristan and know he is indeed fine, simply mine again.”
Noah gave Vlad the address we were at, and Vlad said he’d send Tristan there right away.
“His promise is shit, Noah,” I mumbled, shivering in Reagan’s arms. “You’re right, he promised never to tell anyone I was a siren and did it anyways.”
“Yes, but unlike you, if he breaks a promise he makes to me and one that would hurt you, I will take his head and everything he has. He knows that, so he won’t risk it,” Noah assured me, kneeling in front of me. “Dear god, Sera. If this is what happens if the bond is broken, what if one of us die on you?” We both glanced over to Alena at the same time.
“I have never sirened or sovereigned a vampire, but you’re reacting very much as I did when the one who made you died. We born wolves of our line have a tighter bond with our offspring than can be put into words. Also, there was a wolf I accidentally sirened before I mated Zeno when I was young. The wolf intentionally pushed my siren to invoke that response and thus, tie himself to the Dorcus line, thinking I would be trapped into mating him. Instead, my father took his head. I felt something to what you do now, I believe.”
“God, it’s awful,” I whispered, still with tears rolling down my cheeks. What was going on with me? I tried to push myself up, but it wasn’t happening. I looked up to Reagan and hoped he saw in my eyes I needed to move or not be like I was anymore, a mess on the ground.
“Sera, it was like you were dying. Please, just give yourself a bit longer.”
“I got something for her to drink,” Leo announced as he came racing towards us. Shit, I hadn’t even seen the boys there or what had happened with them. I reached for the bottle of water but didn’t have the strength to hold it. Reagan caught it for me and opened it, helping me sip it so at least I could rinse my mouth of blood. Then I took a few gulps, and that was enough for the moment. “Better?”