by Lizzy Ford
“You’d be the first.” She raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Not true. You fight for what you believe in. Always have. There’s a saying that when change is needed, it blows in like a hurricane to sweep away the deadwood and make way for the new.”
She listened, always soothed by his low, warm voice.
“I am sad for the mess with Declan, but I have faith that things will right themselves. In the meantime, I am thrilled to see you change the world the way you are.”
At the mention of Declan’s name, she tensed. The Professor’s words sank in, and she rested the meat of her palm on one hilt. “It’s rough being the hurricane, Professor,” she admitted. “I feel like I’m doing the right thing, but if it’s the right thing, why is it so hard? Why don’t the Councils get it?”
“They understand more than you know,” he replied. “What you are running up against is politics and an old-world mentality that values the status quo, no matter how nasty it is, because they fear that change will be nastier.”
I love this man. His faith in her touched her at a level she didn’t expect, and much of the self-doubt she’d been experiencing began to fizzle. “When you say it, I sound like a superhero.”
“You are.” He smiled once more.
Embarrassed by the conviction in his features, Zoey cleared her throat. “Okay then. Guess I’ll buy a cape. Let’s go find the rest of my team.” She snatched the band off her nightstand, a protein bar from the stash next to the desk and strode towards the door, eating quickly. “Do you know the old school in –”
“Superhero or not, I can’t understand you if you talk with your mouth full,” the Professor chided.
Zoey shook her head at him and swallowed. She opened her mouth to start over when it hit her.
She froze two feet from the door, senses sharpening. “We’ve got company.” Unable to assess how many lay in wait outside the house, she was able to identify their sex magic signatures. “Cambions and succubae. What a bitch!” Anger bubbling, she whirled and strode to the computer desk. “We have an emergency … hiding spot.” She grunted and pushed the desk away to reveal a grate in the wall.
“You want me to hide.” The Professor appeared politely offended.
“Yep. And don’t back-talk me, old man,” she snapped. “This is my battle, and I won’t let anything happen to you, especially not you getting caught in the crossfire with these bastards.” She pointed to the grate and waited.
“I am here to liaise, not interfere. I have faith in you. If I need to hunker down into a dusty, cramped crawlspace, I will when the time comes. In the meantime, I prefer to sit in a normal chair and smoke a cigar while you defend me from the dragons at our door.” As he spoke, he sat gracefully and folded his legs, resting his hands on his knee.
“Fine. First sign of danger, you hide,” she ordered.
The Professor bowed his head in amused acquiescence.
Zoey drew two titanium blades with jagged edges and strode to the door. With a glance back at her calm mentor, she wrenched the door open and stepped into the stairwell leading up to the backyard. She snapped the band into place, ready to test its ability to hide her from the Cambions capable of tracking her.
Senses straining for the smallest indication that an ambush awaited her, she silently ascended, tense and ready for battle. The morning sky was clear and the sun bright, the scent of dew and danger in the air.
She stood on her tiptoes to see over the concrete wall, not surprised by the amount of Cambions awaiting her.
Thirty five. Best way to start my morning.
There were three succubae in their midst, and she didn’t give Olivia’s lackeys the time of day. There was no reason not to take them out, not when Olivia had made her position clear.
Zoey ducked back down and pulled out her phone. She messaged Chrissy and Ginny before tucking it in her pocket. Relishing the idea of a fight after her night of rest, she took the remaining stairs two at a time and launched out of the stairwell into the backyard, unleashing her pent up sex energy. Its effect on the Cambions was immediate. Those close enough to bear the brunt of the compelling magic inched forward, drawn to her.
“This is all you brought?” she taunted, lowering into a fighting stance. “Tell Olivia I said thanks for the morning workout. She has no fucking idea who she’s up against”
Chapter Eleven: Cornered
Declan awoke revitalized for the first time since he’d last slept with Zoey. A check on her through their bond revealed she was on the move – but not in blackout mode. Content to think his blast of sex magic last night helped them both get some rest, he sat up and tugged on a pair of shorts before striding across the small suite in the underground bunker to the kitchenette. He rarely, if ever, made it back to his penthouse anymore and had adopted the guest room in the dorms as his own, when he didn’t sleep in his office.
Snagging his phone off the counter, he glanced at the symbols indicating he had two dozen voicemails and just as many texts.
He pulled a carton of milk from the fridge and poured a glass before beginning to scroll through the messages. The tumbler was halfway to his mouth when his heart felt like it stopped and dropped to his feet.
Councilmember Ethan O’Connor is missing. The text was from the Incubatti emergency channel.
He tensed, his chest tightening and muscles poised to attack. How did the second most powerful incubus in the world end up missing?
Declan dressed hastily and left without breakfast or bothering to check his messages, hurrying through the hallways to the operations center, where handling of the crisis would be centered. Dread made his blood sluggish and his thoughts dart towards possible scenarios where maybe someone had simply gotten something wrong. He didn’t want to know who had the fucking lack of sense to draw the vengeance of a society, not to mention Ethan’s nine super incubus sons. He slowed and forced his calm façade into place before striding through the doorway into the ops center.
It was packed, with no less than three Councilmembers, a herd of Cambions whispering in one corner and two dozen incubuses, including Wes and Aiden.
“Report,” he ordered the watch commander, who sat in the central workstation, monitoring all video and communications traffic.
The watch center fell silent at his command, and Declan looked twice at his brothers. Their expressions weren’t what he expected: concerned – but wary, as if they weren’t comfortable among their own. Wes’s attention was on the Cambions while Aiden’s was on Declan.
The nagging instinct he’d refused to acknowledge when he read the news reemerged stronger, and Declan waited with restrained impatience as the watch commander’s fingers flew over the keyboard.
Still images appeared on the wall of screens ahead of them. Declan looked up, recognizing the figures. He kept his face expressionless, aware everyone in the center was waiting for his reaction.
“Show me,” he said more quietly.
The watch commander played the videos simultaneously on a loop. One was super short: that of Zoey dumping the lifeless body of Heidi, the ops officer for the Sucubatti and his former lover, in front of a store in the middle of DC.
The second nearly knocked him flat. Zoey and another woman, whose face hidden by a mask, each held the arm of his father and were dragging his unconscious body out of the back of the apartment building where the incubus society lived near Rock Creek Park on the border of Maryland and DC.
Speechless, he walked from the watch commander to the screens, watching over and over. He clasped his hands behind his back to keep from snatching his phone and sought some sort of rational explanation.
Convenient. The one night I take sleeping pills. He’d made the mistake of believing her to be safe from the blackouts because of the magic he’d pumped into her. He’d lowered his guard and slept. She’d not only gone off the map, but also dragged his father with him.
It took him a moment for the calm, cool, analytic thinker to overcome his emotions, and he be
gan evaluating what was playing before him.
She wasn’t in control; she couldn’t have been, because she never was during a blackout. She wouldn’t kill Heidi, and if she did, she was smart enough to get rid of the body instead of dumping it in a public area where it was certain to be discovered.
The kidnapping of his father was something she’d probably do, if motivated enough. He wasn’t able to rule that out, except that he saw the blank look on her face and recognized it as being a sign she was in blackout mode.
By now, the Council and every incubus in their society had heard Ethan was gone and possibly even seen the video. Declan wasn’t able to explain away her involvement or shield her this time. They wouldn’t care if she was brainwashed and someone else was in control. They’d demand swift, brutal action and the return of his father immediately.
Worse, he had a feeling it was Olivia who had Ethan. If she was willing to kill her loyal minion Heidi to frame Zoey, she’d be willing to kill Ethan as well, if the Incubatti didn’t respond the way she was manipulating them to.
No part of him was angry with Zoey. If anything, he empathized with her. There was a time when his world was very black and white: good and bad, clear lines between the two supernatural societies, family and non-family.
Those pretty lines had begun to blur, if not shatter, when he met his soul-mate and realized she didn’t belong to either world. He had been drugged and manipulated into cheating on her. It became even difficult to balance his heart, conscience and duty as the days passed.
Olivia had done him a favor by drugging him, he realized grimly. If he hadn’t experienced the brainwashing first hand, he wouldn’t be able to view the videos before him and see what was going on beneath the surface.
Zoey was a tool, a weapon, and nothing more, one that knew how dangerous she was and also who could help her.
A trickle of anger slid through him, aimed at himself for sleeping last night and at her for not having the sense to come to him and knowing that he cared enough to do whatever it took to protect her from Olivia.
If he didn’t act, he risked being removed from the position of Chief Enforcer.
Turning to face the silent room waiting for his decision, he directed his attention first to the watch commander. “Issue an order to bring in Team Rogue. Alive. We need to question them to uncover my father’s whereabouts. Wes” he faced his brother “contact Tommy and have him do some digging. I also need an appointment with Olivia.”
“To coordinate efforts?” The eldest Councilmember, Chandler, asked.
“Yes and because I suspect she had a hand in this.” He glanced at Paul as he spoke. The Cambion leader was a little too smug. If he weren’t on the Council with the ability to block his efforts, Declan would haul the asshole into interrogation and beat the truth out of him.
“That’s quite an accusation, Declan,” Chandler said gravely. “Tread carefully.” He didn’t, however, forbid Declan from pursuing, a subtle sign Declan took to mean that the Council had their suspicions about the kidnapping.
“I always do,” Declan said. “Everyone out.”
The Incubatti members trickled out, except for the center’s staff, his brothers and Chandler. The Councilmember approached, assessing Declan’s features.
“I mentioned it before, but I am not the only to have a concern about your conflict of interest, Declan.”
“There is no conflict of interest,” Declan replied coldly. “I will find my father and who is behind this.”
“The videos seem pretty evident to me.”
Fear slid through him. “Eliminating Zoey will not stop what’s happening. The Sucubatti are playing nicely in the sandbox on the surface while they’re working hard to undermine us, even working with the Cambions to do so. This struggle isn’t new. It’s been this way for a hundred years,” Declan continued. “Our world is changing, Chandler. It’s a reality neither Council wants to admit. We’re already at war, and this is another stage.”
“If that’s the case,” Chandler replied, moving close enough for only Declan to hear him. “Then Olivia is winning. The Councils will never openly declare war for fear of what happened a hundred years ago. Keep that in mind when you talk to Olivia. Any conflict between us will never elevate, and you’ll not have the Council’s support, if you decide to accuse the IAB openly of conspiracy with the Cambions. If anything, they’ll replace you. Expect me to be in your business until your father is returned. I know you will do what you must to have him returned.”
Declan clenched his fists. His father had warned him that the politics of being the Enforcer Chief were muddy. Just how messy was becoming clearer.
“One final thought, off the record,” Chandler continued. “Don’t let Olivia win. We won’t declare war, and the Sucubatti don’t want to admit they’re in the middle of an angry hornet’s nest. Someone has to deal with this shit and make it disappear, and that someone is you.” The Councilmember offered a smile and headed towards the door. “I’ll expect progress reports twice daily.”
“Yes, sir,” Declan replied. He waited until the door closed behind the Councilmember before releasing a loud curse. “Fuck!” He wiped his mouth, edgy, restless, worried.
“You are so good,” Aiden said. “You don’t want to know what I would’ve told that asshole.”
Declan ignored his brother, struggling to rein in his emotions before he did or said something stupid. He faced the videos again and checked Zoey’s mind.
There were no lingering emotions that indicated she knew what happened, which meant she’d have no idea where Ethan was. His anger dampened, and he cursed himself once more for taking a sleeping pill instead of remaining aware to prevent this from happening. Every time he lowered his guard, Olivia pounced.
The automatic door slid open, and Liam walked in, fire in his eyes. “Vikki’s gone,” he reported of his soul-mate. “She flipped out after she saw the video. I explained to her that you wouldn’t jump to conclusions, but she didn’t listen.”
“Can you track her?”
Liam nodded. “Once she leaves the compound, yeah.”
“Zoey knows about her condition. She won’t let Vikki get hurt.” Declan glanced at his watch. It was tracking his soul-mate the way it should.
“Condition?” Liam repeated. “Is she ill?”
Declan looked up, surprised his brother didn’t know the real reason why Vikki was there. He hadn’t told anyone but his father. It wasn’t his place to reveal Vikki’s secret.
Apparently, Vikki hadn’t said anything either.
“That’s for her to discuss with you,” Declan said.
Liam frowned. “Declan, what’s wrong? Is it the Halfling curse?”
Dammit, Vikki. There were days he wasn’t certain whose soul-mate was more stressful: his or Liam’s. “Talk to her, Liam. It’s nothing life threatening, or I’d tell you.”
Liam appeared ready to argue, when Wes interrupted.
“Tommy says to show up today. It’s chaotic over there and Olivia won’t risk turning you away,” he reported, lowering his cell phone.
“Meet me up front. I’ve gotta grab my cell.” Declan strode towards the door, not looking forward to the talk he had to have with the woman who was almost certainly behind all of this.
He trotted back to his suite, unable to sort through his feelings about what to do about Zoey. He could locate her no matter what. But what did he say when he did? How did he keep Olivia and Paul, both of whom were waiting for him to slip up, from finding out, if he hid her?
Stepping into his room, he stopped inside the doorway, senses picking up on the presence of someone who didn’t belong. Vikki was in the far corner. The door slid closed behind him.
Accustomed to working around predators and being one himself, Declan assessed she was wound tightly enough to snap. He slowed his motions out of instinct and forced his energy to stay as calm as he was not.
Crossing to the crystal tumblers and decanter of vodka on the tiny breakfast bar of
the kitchenette, he waited until he’d poured himself a shot before facing Vikki. The Hunter was tense, her pretty features stormy and green gaze on him.
“She didn’t do it. I don’t care what’s on the videos,” she started.
“I believe you,” he replied. “But she has a problem that’s only going to get worse.”
“It’s not her fault!”
“Vikki, I understand.”
She waited. When he didn’t expand on his words, she sighed in frustration. “You’re going to hunt her down anyway, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he replied. “She’s dangerous to herself and everyone around her. I understand acting while not in control of one’s actions, and I know my people want her in chains or dead. I can’t let that happen.”
Vikki was studying him. “So it’s true. You didn’t know you were fucking Heidi. Olivia drugged you.”
“I was not in the right mind, no.”
“Why didn’t you tell Zoey?”
“Why didn’t you tell Liam you’re pregnant?” he countered and then sipped his vodka.
Vikki’s blank look made him cock his head to the side. She was hiding something.
“This is different,” she said, recovering. “You need to tell her. Do you have any idea how much she’s hurting?”
“Every minute of every day. Just like I am,” he replied softly. “I don’t want to lose her. What’s your rationale?”
“Liam doesn’t want kids.”
Her candid answer surprised him. “Why did you ask him? Just tell him you’re having one,” he said, unable to help the amusement that slipped into his tone. His older brother could be overbearing, even towards him. “Isn’t that usually what Team Rogue members do anyway?”
“Sometimes it’s not that easy.” Vikki appeared troubled for a moment. She shook her head, refocusing on him. “If you do anything else to hurt her, I will still hunt you down and make your life hell.”
“You would be hard pressed to outdo my current hell.” Declan opened a drawer in the desk near the kitchenette. “I issued an order for you all to be brought in by any means necessary, which includes my brothers hunting down their mates.”