by R. E. Butler
Ven chuckled. “Yeah, just checking. You’re not drinking SyBl, so it crossed our minds that you might suddenly become hungry.”
“I could go for a steak, if that’s what you mean.”
“You are a mystery, Cyrus. We’re glad you’re on our side,” Brone said.
“Hear, hear,” Ven said.
When they returned to the club, Cyrus saw Cella standing in the garage with Bellamin and Dylan as guards. He jumped out of the SUV as soon as it shifted into park and raced to his sweetheart. He caught her around the waist and pulled her close, kissing her deeply with a purr that stuttered in his chest.
“Did you miss me?” she asked with a chuckle.
“More than anything.”
“I’m so proud of you,” she said. “And surprised to hear about your compulsion ability. Mine isn’t very strong, a really stubborn human can ignore me.”
Temple clapped Cyrus on the shoulder. “He’s better than Ven and Mishka combined, I’d wager.”
“What’s going to happen now?” Cella asked.
Temple tapped the tablet in his hand. “The police just showed up at the church’s headquarters. Mishka’s waiting for us in the War Room so we can watch it live on the big screen. We also alerted news outlets. It’s going to be quite a media circus.”
He and Cella followed the others into the club and to the large meeting room, where a screen had been pulled from the ceiling against one wall. While Temple plugged the tablet into the projection device, Cyrus pulled a chair out for Cella and sat next to her. He nodded at Mishka.
“I understand you’ve inherited a more powerful version of compulsion than I have,” Mishka said.
“How is that even possible?” Cyrus asked. “Why wouldn’t my power be the same as yours or weaker?”
Mishka shrugged. “It’s how supernatural traits work sometimes. They often don’t follow any kind of logic. It might have something to do with you still being part tiger, or the combination of mine, Cella’s, and the two other males’ blood. But the power of your compulsion reminds me of my sire’s. He could compel anyone. Except vampires, of course.”
“It’s good that vampires aren’t subject to compulsion,” Rage said. “That would suck.”
“Definitely,” Temple said. “I like my free will just fine.”
Cyrus chuckled and kissed Cella’s hand. With a whisper he said, “Maybe we can test out my compulsion on you a little later.”
She grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”
* * *
Jason Finnegan swirled the tumbler of bourbon in his hand, the ice cubes clinking softly against the cut crystal. On the desk in front of him was his calendar, nearly every day filled with a meeting, phone call, or activity related to The First Church of Humanity. Next to the calendar stood framed photos of his beloved family, lost to him by the dangerous plague known as vampires. He’d always been wary of them because they were so clearly dangerous but had somehow enamored the public and human government into believing they were docile. But then his family had gotten caught up in a battle between two covens, and in the aftermath only he, his sister Olive, and his brother Sean had survived. He’d started the church to deal with his grief and help promote humans back to the top of the food chain. Vampires were animals in his opinion, and they should be treated as such – not given rights as if they were equals.
His gaze caught on Olive’s smiling image and he let out a grunt of frustration. She’d been killed by the whore of the leader of the vampire coven, who’d destroyed half his Northern Ohio church members in an unprecedented slaughter. But no matter how many times he petitioned for justice for his sister, the human government sided with the vampires, saying that she’d killed them all in self-defense.
As if there was any defense against animals who could compel humans to do their bidding!
His hand tightened on his drink and he swiveled in the chair to look at the paintings at the back wall of the office. He was underground in what had once been a fall-out shelter in the mountains of North Carolina. He’d moved to the larger, underground fortress after Olive’s death, taking Sean, his trusted assistant, Pamela, and the most loyal church members with him. They were his eyes and ears on the surface. Jason hadn’t been topside since the move, worried about being caught by a vampire and subject to their version of justice, which would most likely include turning him, and he’d rather die than become a vampire.
The serene beach scene paintings taunted him. How long had it been since he’d seen the sun?
The office door opened with enough force to crack the handle against the wall. He spun in his seat as Sean and Pamela rushed inside.
“There’s trouble, Jase,” Sean said, picking up a remote from the coffee table and pointing it at the flat-screen on the wall. “Big trouble.”
He rose to his feet and joined Sean and Pamela as the screen switched to a local newscast. He didn’t have to hear the reporter to know he was witnessing a raid on one of the church’s regional offices.
“Damn it,” he said. “Where is that?”
“Cleveland, Sir,” Pamela said.
“It’s all over the damn news,” Sean said, turning up the volume.
“As you can see, authorities in Cleveland are taking people into custody right now. A source inside the department said that they were led to the location by an anonymous source, and that the people were cooperating fully with authorities, including giving information on the reclusive leader of The First Church of Humanity, widely known to be an anti-vampire group,” the reporter said. Behind her, Jason watched his regional captain, Alvin Pierce, being led out in handcuffs, along with his staff.
“Damn it!” Jason threw his glass against the wall. “Shut that fucking thing off!”
Sean turned the TV off and Pamela hurried to clean up the glass that glittered on the floor like diamonds.
“What are we going to do?” Sean asked. “That coven is the biggest in the Midwest. They’re responsible for Olive’s death. We can’t just let them get away with taking such an important regional office down.”
Everywhere he turned, the Cleveland vampires thwarted him, from increasing security and utilizing witches for protection spells to bringing in a damn dragon shifter to read the minds of people working for him and figuring out that they were tampering with the delivery vehicles for the synthetic blood substitute. And now, after the Cleveland office had successfully set off a bomb in the coven’s nearly-complete restaurant, their entire Northern Ohio operation was in jeopardy.
He looked at his younger brother and squeezed his shoulder. “They’ll suffer, Sean. For Mom and Dad and Aunt Lucille. And especially for Olive. I promise.”
* * *
The door to the War Room opened and Naima walked in. Temple muted the news report showing the raid on the Cleveland office of the church. Cyrus had enjoyed seeing something good come from the bombing. He might be a freak of nature now, but at least he was alive and with his beloved.
“You have good news for us?” Mishka asked.
“Absolutely,” Naima said. “Authorities in the fae realm sent soldiers to apprehend the rogue fae. She’s standing trial in three days and will most likely be imprisoned for the rest of her long life, after they take her wings of course.”
“Why would they also take her wings?” Cella asked.
“It’s par for the course,” Naima said. “If she retained her wings, she might be able to devise a way to escape. Without her wings, she’s fairly powerless as far as spell-casting goes.”
“Excellent,” Mishka said.
“Did you find out how she’d been able to stay in the realm so long and keep her wings?” Harmony asked.
“It was an apparent oversight. She had the authority to leave the fae realm for a short trip, and she simply never returned. No one was aware, until the situation was brought to light again. This has also led to an overhaul of the current system to ensure that no other winged fae are traipsing around the human realm unaccounted for.”
&
nbsp; They returned their attention to the newscast, cheering as the leaders of the church’s Cleveland office were arrested and walked out by the human authorities.
“Damn successful night,” Cyrus said.
“Yes,” Mishka said. “But this was a shot across the bow to Jason Finnegan and his people. We can be certain he won’t take this attack lying down, which means we need to keep our security top-notch and our people safe.”
“What’s going to happen with the restaurant?” Rage asked.
“Midas is coming in tomorrow to inspect the building. He’ll be making a plan for repairs. Our conservative estimate is that this has put us behind by six to eight weeks,” Mishka said.
“So no Valentine’s Day party there,” Cella said.
“No,” Harmony shook her head. “We’ll have it here at the club.”
When the news report changed focus to other things besides the church raid, Cyrus stood and gave a gentle tug on his mate’s hand. “Shall we, beloved?”
She gave him a sweet and slightly naughty smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”
They said goodbye to the family and hustled out of the War Room. All Cyrus could think about was getting his sweetheart behind closed doors. He wanted to play with his compulsion power, although he was fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to convince her to do something she didn’t want to do, but more than that – he wanted to get her naked and chase the night from the sky with their pleasure. There was nothing better on this earth than Cella in his arms.
Chapter Twenty
Cella woke the following night to a pacing Cyrus.
Because they were beloveds, she could feel his emotions as easily as if they were hers, and his main one right now? Worry. She watched him stride from one side of the chamber to the other, head down, muscles taut. He was wearing jeans and nothing else, his gorgeous upper body honed from years of hard work on display.
Here she was, ogling him like a teenager, when he was clearly sorting through something.
Sitting up, she hugged her arms around her knees and watched him. It took only a few moments to consider the various things he might be worrying about and narrow them down to what the main reason might be.
“You want to see Midas,” she said, “but you’re worried about what the outcome will mean.”
He froze and turned slowly, his eyes a brilliant blue color that told her the tiger was firmly in control. He sighed deeply, and his eyes morphed to the mixed up gold and blue, when Cyrus was both creatures equally. “Yeah. First, what if I go off and try to bite him? I haven’t been around a shifter since I fed from Bridge and Tamar. I flat out don’t know what will happen when I’m around another shifter, let alone one as powerful as Midas. I’ve heard my whole life that shifter blood is more potent than human, and I don’t know what being around him will do to me.”
“I’ve been thinking about what happened with Bridge.”
“What about it?”
“Well, you were starving. When a newly turned vampire wakes up, their first thought is feeding. We often have more than one human ready to go because depending on the person, they might be ravenous and need a lot of blood. But you didn’t want human blood and I didn’t know you would need shifter blood, otherwise I could have arranged it for you.”
“What would it matter if there was a shifter there at the beginning or not?”
“Because the delay made the thirst exponentially worse. And I’ve seen it happen in humans too. If a food source isn’t readily available, it can make the vampire feel like they’re going to starve to death. Every minute that passes makes the need worse. It’s why we always have food on standby. I didn’t know when you were going to wake, so I had people ready to go outside the chamber.”
“If you’d had a shifter for me to feed from, I might not have tried to take off Bridge’s head?”
She shrugged. “I think so. There’s no way to know for sure, of course, because that didn’t happen. But it seems highly plausible to me. As far as attacking any shifter, I really don’t think that’s going to happen. Whatever it is about you that made you into a tribrid instead of a full vampire means that you’re in control of yourself in a way that other newly turned vampires aren’t. Your vampire isn’t going all gung-ho and trying to feed from anyone he can, he’s tempered with your tiger and human sides. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be cautious, but I don’t think you should worry about hurting someone.”
He hummed and rubbed his temples, then sat on the edge of the bed. “I want to know more about what I am.”
She gave his shoulder a squeeze. “I know. I have the codes to Mishka’s off-site storage facility. We can go there once the sun sets.”
He rolled his neck and sighed. “I’m sorry I’m being such a pain in the ass.”
“You’re not.”
“Of course I am. Aside from being an asshole when I first woke, I’m obsessed with what I am. I mean, I didn’t even ask you how your night went. I feel like I’m failing on all fronts right now.”
She chuckled. “You’re allowed to be obsessed about the situation because it’s important you figure out exactly what you are, including your strengths and weaknesses. And you could always ask me now about my night.”
He stretched out on his side and propped his head up on his hand. “Tell me about your night, beloved.”
“I had interviews for the food manager position.”
“How’d they go?”
She shrugged. “Meh. Of the three, two were wholly unqualified, and one asked right away how soon she’d be turned into one of us.”
His brows rose. “Humans really just ask that kind of thing?”
“Pretty much. You’d be surprised how many humans are just looking to be turned. They generally don’t know anything about us, only what they’ve read in books or online. It’s frustrating to be glamorized like that and not know if you can trust people.” Her mind flitted back to Quaid and how wrong she’d been about him.
“Humans can be like that with shifters, except we can’t actually turn a human into one of us. I wish I could help you find someone to take over the job.”
“Thanks. I’ll find the right person at some point. I just wish it would be sooner rather than later.” She didn’t mind working with the food, but it ate into her other responsibilities, not to mention how out-of-touch she felt with the family because she wasn’t in her regular office.
“I’m going to video chat with Midas,” Cyrus said.
“I’ll take a shower and get ready for us to head to the off-site location.”
He sat up enough to kiss her, brushing his fingers lightly over her skin until it goose bumped. She shivered and hopped from the bed. “If you do that kind of randomly sexy thing, neither of us will get anything done tonight.”
“I wouldn’t say we wouldn’t get anything done,” he drawled.
“I’m lucky you can’t compel me,” she said with a chuckle, remembering how he’d attempted to compel her several times over the course of the day. He never asked her to do anything she wouldn’t have wanted to do anyway – a sexy strip tease, for example – but she’d felt no extra push in her subconscious from him. She didn’t think there was any vampire ever who’d had the power to compel other vampires. It seemed to be a supernatural fail-safe of sorts, and she appreciated it. Even if it was fun trying.
She picked clothes out of the closet, choosing casual ones that she’d be more comfortable in for digging through Mishka’s collectibles. The moment she reached for the bathroom door, it locked, and she rattled the knob.
“Cyrus! Really?” She looked over her shoulder at him.
“I’m still testing out my powers,” he said, wiggling his brows.
“I thought you were going to call Midas.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, making a motion with his hand so the door unlocked.
She walked into the bathroom shaking her head at her beloved. By the time she showered, dried her hair, and dressed in leggings, a long top, and ankle boot
s, Cyrus was dressed and sitting on the couch with the tablet propped up with books on the coffee table. Cyrus waved her over and she sat next to him, smiling at Midas.
“Hello,” she said.
“Nice to see you again, Cella.”
Cyrus said, “I was just telling Midas about how different I feel, but also still tied to my tiger, and what that might mean for you and me and the ambush.”
Midas nodded. “I suggested we meet in a neutral location, and if all goes well, then he can come into ambush territory to meet with his parents, with me there of course, and then we’ll see where we stand.”
Cyrus looked at Cella. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s smart to meet somewhere neutral so you’re not surrounded by shifters. I’m confident that you’ll be fine, but I’m probably a little biased.”
“A little?” Cyrus snorted.
“You’re going to do some research?” Midas asked.
“Mishka believes he has some information on tribrids, but they’re so rare he may not have much, if he has anything at all,” Cyrus said.
“You could also check with the wiccans.”
“Why?” Cyrus asked.
“One of the Corners likes to read about shifter histories. Since the tribrid is technically a shifter, she might have something more than whatever Mishka has.”
“Do you know which Corner?” Cella asked. She’d met the North Corner, Lorene, years ago, but hadn’t met any of the others.
“Off the top of my head, no, but Lorene would know.”
“Thanks,” Cyrus said. He picked up his phone and poked around on the screen, and then a whooshing sound came from it. “I just texted you the location of a park about halfway between us. We can meet you there tomorrow, an hour after sunset.”
“Fine,” Midas said, picking up his phone and looking at it. “Good luck with your research, and feel free to take pictures of anything you find that will help us understand you better and send them my way.”