“Where’s the woman?” Sean asked in that polished, English professor accent of his. “Did she clean up the mess?”
“Yes, she did,” Michael replied as he tried to stretch his arms over his head, but the roof of the plane was too low for that. He’d have to wait until they were off the plane. “She’s pretty good. You should have seen her.”
“Well, Con’s anxious to hear what happened,” Raph replied. “Do you know who sent them?”
“No. Maybe it was payback for Kit Blaze.”
Raph and Sean shook their heads at him as they took the leather seats across the narrow aisle.
“The Mother says no,” Sean replied. “She never uses humans anyway.”
The Mother he referred to would be the leader of the Shifter Kin. Her name was Cordelia, and she was mother to the four oldest alphas in the breeding class. She was furious over the loss of Kit, but stated, in no uncertain terms, that Alex Stone was not to blame for her death.
“Did they say anything?” Raph asked. “I mean, before the beat down?”
“Not really,” Michael chuckled. “We pretty much went from ‘hey’ to bloodshed.”
Sean reached into a backpack on the seat next to him and pulled out a laptop. After he set up the connection to Conner, he turned it toward Michael. When his face appeared, he looked pissed.
“Are you alright?” Conner said.
“Yes,” Michael answered.
“Jason says she needs stitches—what happened?”
“We were headed back to the Strip and were attacked. Two humans with short fuses, Romanian accents, and no brains. I think they were dosed.”
“Romanian,” Conner stated with a raise of an eyebrow. “That’s not at all strange.”
They all chuckled, then Conner sighed.
“Pawns?”
“Most likely,” Michael nodded. He could tell his father’s mind was filled with all kinds of questions, just not ones for him.
“Which one of you were they after?” he asked.
“Well, it wasn’t me. Not this time. I do believe this is about Alex Stone,” Michael answered with the sudden realization that she was in a lot of trouble. He wanted to ask to be sent to Romania now.
“That’s what we were afraid of,” Conner sighed. He shook his head absently and looked back at the screen. “Once you’re all home, we’ll discuss this further. See you when you get here.”
“Goodnight, Con,” Michael waved at the screen. Sean closed the laptop.
Chapter 13
Alex grunted through gritted teeth. “Jesus! I can feel that, you know.”
Surgical gloves covered his hands as Adam stitched the cut down the right side of her back with near perfect precision. The local he had given her had started to wear off. He probably hadn’t given her enough on purpose.
“One more stitch,” he said.
The sharp sting of the swaged needle as he pulled it gently through her skin forced Alex to concentrate on Jason’s hard expression as he watched from the door of the medical bay aboard the plane. They had taken off just an hour ago.
“Done,” Adam said as he secured the big bandage over his work. He removed the gloves and dumped them and the bloody gauze in a red bio-hazard bag along with her tattered shirt. She heard the thud of the needle as it landed in the bottom of the empty sharps container. “I’m sure by morning that will look like a scratch, but for now, it’s a serious injury and you should get some rest.”
That was code for no sex with Jason tonight, so kick back and fire up Netflix.
“Thanks,” Alex groaned in pain as she sat up and Adam handed her a clean hoodie to cover herself with. She sat there in a white bra covered in blood. “I’ll clean up the rest, if you don’t mind.”
Adam sat the red bag next to her on the table with a nod. “Jason, when you’re ready, we have some things to go over.”
After he was gone, Jason entered. He watched her gingerly slide one arm into the hoodie then the other. When it was zipped, he sat down on the stool across from her with an angry expression on his face.
“How do you feel?” he spoke low. Alex could feel the tension bounce off her already aching body. He leaned forward, placed his elbows on his thighs, and laced his fingers together. “Can I get you anything?”
Alex shook her head. “I’m fine.”
Jason opened his mouth but closed it without a word being spoken. His long legs stretched out and he rolled toward her. They were almost eye-to-eye—her on the table and him looking as though he was about to examine her.
“Who were they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Strategic find anything?”
“Not yet.”
His eyes dropped down to the bag next to her. When his nostrils flared, she placed it behind her in a lame attempt to keep the scent away from him. That was impossible under the circumstances, but she did it anyway. The feel of his hand as it pressed the bandage shot pain all over her body.
“That hurts,” she said as he pulled away.
“I meant for it to hurt. What you did was dumb and dangerous.”
“Yeah,” she giggled, “that’s what I was going for.”
Jason stood up straight and she had to drop her head back to look him in the face.
“This isn’t funny,” he growled, but it was weak and filled with more pain than anger. “What were you doing there?”
Alex pushed him back—the pain of looking straight up was unbearable right now.
“I was meeting with someone about business.”
“This business?”
“No.”
“Then you shouldn’t have been there,” he replied. He walked away then turned back to her from the door. “Get some rest. We’ll talk more later.”
Sebastian and Xavier appeared in the doorway as he disappeared.
“Take this,” she said as she handed Xavier the bag. She took the sharps container, and turned it over so the needle dropped into her open hand. After she attached it to her shredded shirt inside the bag, Xavier closed it with a knot. “Wrap it up in a towel or something and don’t let me forget you have it. When we get to Paris, I’ll dispose of it.”
He took the bag and left.
“You gonna be okay?” Sebastian asked.
Alex popped two painkillers and nodded. “Where’s my room?”
Sebastian led the way from the medical bay and past a common area that divided the plane in half, where the rest of team watched a movie.
On this flying hotel, their bedrooms were on one side of the plane, along with a conference room slash office combo and a small kitchen. Jason’s quarters were on the other side of the common area. Adam’s private space was the closest to the cockpit upstairs. Adam’s personal bodyguards and Nikki had taken an earlier flight to prepare the hotel and meeting space.
They stopped at the last door in the hall. Sebastian pushed the cabin door open and allowed her entrance. Her bags were on the bed along with fresh clothes and a tray of food—a sandwich, fruit, and a bottle of water.
“Anything stronger than water on this crate?” she grinned at him.
He returned the smile as he backed away. “Be right back.”
Alex moved slowly to the small bathroom. The shower was just big enough for her and she wondered how the guys fit if theirs were as small. She turned on the shower with a sigh. She hoped Adam’s bandages were waterproof because she needed this shower. Bad.
Stripped from the dirty jeans and hoody, she stepped inside the stall and exhaled as the warm water hit her body. The bodywash smelled like cucumber and mint. She poured some on her head then into her hands. As the grime and blood disappeared down the tiny drain, so did her pain.
With her hair blow-dried and her body wrapped in the towel, she pushed the door open to find a bottle of tequila on the bed and seven
shot glasses waiting to be filled. When she was dressed in a tank and track pants, she sat down and ate the sandwich and fruit. She’d share the tequila after she had time to think about what had happened back in Vegas.
The softness of the bed surprised her. For an airplane, it was pretty decked out, but then again, it should have been. As with everything she knew about the relationship between humans and vampires, when at all possible, they could share like good little neighbors. This massive beast was once an Air Force One. Impossible as it sounded to her, she had checked it out a couple of weeks ago and confirmed it.
Her eyelids became heavy as the mattress contoured itself to her body. She hardly felt any pain now. That could be the painkillers, she reminded herself. Going over everything in her mind from earlier, Alex’s brain stopped the instant-replay of her and the bad guy when another movie took over.
The images came out of nowhere: the antique flood lights as they rolled past her line of sight, the busted up equipment she could see as clearly as she could see the man in front of her, the smell of dried blood as if it were right under her nose. But it wasn’t her nose. And it wasn’t her eyes seeing those things.
Someone else’s eyes scanned the giant storage area. When they panned left to right, she recognized the two frats boys assigned to Cory Sims a few months ago. They were supposed to keep him safe while he acclimated back into “normal society.” The doctor had high hopes for him. He’d survived his first transition.
The dormant powers had begun to wake and he struggled at first. That’s why he’d been placed in the hospital—to help with that transition. When he was released, two handlers were assigned to him. He believed them to be his best friends since fifth grade. In reality, Thomas Hall and Wesley Bradley were military police cadets on their very first assignment. And Cory Sims was a test tube hybrid released into the wild—the doctor’s feeble attempt to create, in lab, what Alex was born as.
All of a sudden, she felt a needle at her neck, then the images were gone and she was sitting up in bed.
“What the hell?” she whispered to the empty room. Her eyes opened when she heard a knock on her door. “Come in.”
Her new team filed in, one young face at a time. With very little space to accommodate them, Alex watched them settle around the room, and Sebastian took a seat next to her on the bed. Once the shot glasses were distributed and filled, she and Sebastian settled back against the head board.
“So,” Xavier started the conversation. “What the hell happened out there?”
“We may have a third player,” she replied, then they all emptied their glasses. “Someone doesn’t like me very much.”
“I don’t suppose they introduced themselves first,” Amy wheezed as Kai took the shot glasses and placed them on the small table by the door. “I mean, before they tried to kill you?”
“No, sorry,” Alex smiled. “They wanted me to believe they were Romanian, but they weren’t.”
“How do you know for sure?” Erin jumped in.
“The speech was too proper,” Alex replied, “too polished. We’ll know more by the time we land in Paris for the night.”
By now, the wound Adam had stitched felt tender, and the sharp pain was replaced by a dull throb when she moved. It was a good sign that she’d be her old self by morning. If anything kicked off during the stop in Paris, she’d be ready.
David cleared his throat and everyone focused on him. “Dr. Carlisle would like a vid-con once we’re settled into the hotel. I called ahead and reserved a conference room.”
Alex leaned forward at the waist to stretch a little. When she flexed her feet, she felt her back muscles try to resist. “Why does he want a face-to-face?”
David shook his head. “Just said to make sure we’re all there.”
“Then I guess we should get some sleep. It’s gonna be a long day tomorrow,” Sebastian yawned and stretched as he slid off the bed. The others filed out the door with a round of waves at her.
“Hey,” she said before Sebastian closed the door. “I need you to do something for me.”
“Sure,” he agreed, but apprehension sat in his blue eyes as he waited.
She stood, turning her back to him. “Take that bandage off.”
His fingers were cold as they peeled the extra sticky tape and bandage from her skin. A low whistle came from him then the feel of his cold fingers touching the stitches attached to her back.
“Damn,” he muttered.
“How’s it look though?”
“Not that bad considering,” he replied. “Bleeding’s stopped, and the skin looks like it’s almost intact again. Maybe a couple more hours and you can lose the stitches.”
He tried to replace the bandage, but she stopped him. “Leave it. I think that’s slowing the process.”
Sebastian eased the door closed and put his back to it as they stared at each other. Ever since she’d told the team her secret, he’d made a mental list of things he wanted to know. From the looks of the wound, her healing was almost equal to a pure blood vampire. And as he remembered from the fight in the bar, so was her strength.
“What’s on your mind?” she asked.
“Why did you take this job?”
“The great pay.” She grinned as she bounced the small bottled water between her hands.
“You don’t need money,” he replied then interrupted the next lie she was going to tell. “And don’t say because of Matt, Ben, or even Coop, because you have enough resources to hunt for answers on the low.”
“Why use my own money when Strategic can foot the bill?” she answered.
“Bullshit,” he replied.
He watched her continue to bounce the water between her hands. She put the bottle down on the nightstand, finally, as she sat down on the bed. Sebastian slid to the floor and got comfortable.
“Someone let Tristan out,” she stated. “Someone took Ben, killed Matt, and maybe Coop too. I should have been able to get something from Matt’s blood, but I couldn’t. The more I think about it, someone may have tampered with it. Why?”
“Keep us from finding the killers?” Sebastian replied. “Give Tristan more time to do whatever he’s trying to do?”
“To bring us to Romania,” Alex shook her head at him, “where almost every supernatural group in existence will be . . . in one place for the first time, ever.”
“Why though?” he mused as he scratched at his leg. “They have to know this will be the most heavily guarded meeting on the planet.”
“Maybe they don’t care,” she sighed. “Maybe it’s not about anyone at the meeting.”
A thought rolled around in her head—he could tell by the way she chewed on her bottom lip and stared into space.
“It has to be,” Sebastian stated. “They tried to blow Jason up, remember?”
Alex shook her head again. She cracked open the water bottle and almost emptied it.
“No, his car blew up. He wasn’t inside, and he didn’t get hurt. Oren did.”
“So they suck at explosives,” he grinned. “David and Kai said the device was crude, amateurish.” He cocked one knee up and laid his arm on it. “Or maybe that was meant for you.”
“Nope,” she answered. “No one could have known I’d be in that car with him. He was going to that meeting alone.”
“Then Oren was the target,” Sebastian felt a surge of excitement at the realization. “It was meant for Oren.”
Alex grinned and nodded. “Oren was the target. So was Kit.”
“And they’re both dead now. So what’s the link?” he asked.
“I’d say Jason, but he didn’t have a link to Coop, so . . .” Alex replied before she emptied the bottle.
Sebastian stepped closer to Alex, dropped his voice to a whisper. “He kinda did.”
“What?”
“This job,” Sebastian off
ered. “This job’s been our number one priority for months. So, in a sense, we’re all connected to Jason.”
“All except me,” she answered. “How’d Jason even get my name?”
“From Coop,” Sebastian replied.
Alex sat back down, stared at Sebastian for a few seconds. He wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but she looked agitated.
“This thing between you and Erin,” she said, “it stops now.”
A quick flutter in his chest and his breath caught in his lungs. He thought they’d been so careful. Erin even bragged the other night about how maybe she wasn’t as bright as everyone said she was.
“I . . .” he began then stopped when she gave him a don’t-lie-to-me look. “It won’t get in the way.”
She leaned back into the pillows. “It stops now. This job is our priority.”
“I know that,” he replied.
“Do you?” she sighed then sat up straight again. “These types of relationships between team members—it’s not a good idea.”
“Does that mean you, too?” Erin’s voice came from the other side of the door. She opened the door without knocking. Alex and Sebastian turned their heads in her direction. She stood there with a look on her face that gave Sebastian the impression she was going to go head-to-head with Alex.
“Of course,” Alex answered. “I don’t lay down rules I don’t follow myself.”
Erin gave them a slight grin as she turned away, then turned back. “And what if we disagree?”
Alex stood slowly and Sebastian stepped back. When she was in Erin’s personal space, fear spiked the air in the small cabin. “Then when we land, one or both of you get on a plane back to the States. And, honestly, I don’t care which one of you goes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she hummed.
“Good,” Alex grinned at her. “I’m gonna go raid the pantry. When you’re done, let me know what you’ve decided.”
“We’re in,” Sebastian said as she pushed past Erin. “No problem, right Erin?”
“Right,” Erin agreed, but Sebastian could see anger bruise her mocha skin with redness as she answered.
By Blood Sworn Page 13