by Honor James
“There are like three of you but yeah, I see it,” she muttered and reached out a shaky hand to find his. “But the blood kinda gave it away too.” She leaned back and sighed. “That’s going to hurt like hell when they pull it out, squeeze my hand if you need to or yell, either one,” she added with a smile.
“We have a higher pain threshold than humans do. And if I squeezed your hand I’d likely crush the bones,” he reminded her. But he didn’t pull his hand from her grip, just shifted the hold slightly and cradled it to his thigh. The EMT began to yank out the shrapnel as he sat looking down at her, his thumb rubbing slowly over her knuckles.
“Thanks,” Lacey whispered. “For saving my ass. Thank you.” She then did as the EMTs instructed, opening her eyes and wincing at the light they shone into her eyes. Finally she pushed them away and shook her head. “We have a killer to catch. I will take some Tylenol when I get home for the headache. For now, we have a case.” She had to put her thoughts, her feelings to the side or she would wallow in the feeling of having Zhubin holding her hand close, the feeling of the heat of his body close. Nope, she had to focus on the task at hand, catching a killer.
“You’re going home and resting,” Zhubin told her as he got to his feet. Scooping her into his arms he looked at the EMTs. “I’ll make sure she rests and I’ll even poke her once an hour to ensure she still knows what happened and who she is. Back off.” He growled at them, sending them running. Snorting, he headed toward their vehicle. “Humans,” he muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes at her. “Scared of the big bad wolf.”
Lacey patted his chest and laughed. “Yeah, most of them are scared spitless of you. I bet that you and Ansell just don’t know what to do with me because I’m anything but scared to death of you guys.” She felt far too much for them to be afraid of them. If anything she was only afraid of them learning her secret and pushing her away faster than they could move.
“We’d much prefer if they acted somewhere in between the two extremes,” he said, ducking under the tape. Stopping by the vehicle he eased her to her feet. “We want them to remember we’re not human, but we’re not the beasts they think we are.” Unlocking the door, he helped her inside and got her buckled up. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?”
“Yep, if I go there I will have mountains of paperwork to fill out and I honestly don’t want to deal with it. I just want to go home, take something for my headache and rest. It’s not the first time that I’ve been hit in the head, likely won’t be the last either.”
“And you wonder why I comment on how hard-headed you are?” He shook his head. Shutting the door, he walked around the vehicle but paused before he opened the door. For long moments he didn’t move and then he slid behind the wheel. “You do realize that pretty much all of our evidence just blew up in there right? And what didn’t is either long gone or ended up buried in my back, contaminating it all.”
“Yep but someone fucked up.” Lacey didn’t open her eyes, just spoke. “They tried to kill us. Knew that we were coming. The paper you lifted had my name on it,” she told him quietly. “So I have a pretty good idea who it is. And no, before you ask I don’t have a name.” Just a case long since buried, a case buried before she even came to be an AEDA agent.
Turning his head he pinned her with bright Luhpyne eyes. “What aren’t you telling me, Lacey?” He growled softly. “And don’t say nothing because that would be a lie. Which given someone just tried to kill us and my current mood wouldn’t bode well for anyone. So spill it, now.”
“When I was fresh from the Academy, before I joined AEDA,” she began softly. “I was attacked.” She pulled her scarf that she always wore from her neck and bared her neck to him for the first time, pretty much ever. “He had me by the throat, was going to kill me, but I was able to get my pistol up and between us. I was able to shoot him but not before he shook me like a rag doll and left these pretty scars for me to remember him for all time. Yep, good times. I just know that it’s him. I don’t know how I know, it’s just a feeling in the pit of my stomach. Could be because he called me some very strange things but he knew who I was, and who else would know me like that? No, I’m positive that it’s him.”
Reaching out he ran a very light finger over the scars on her throat and frowned, his eyes returning to their normal, if odd, coloring. “Those look like Luhpyne claw marks but they’re too narrow,” he murmured. Shifting in his seat he tipped her head gently and leaned in, still running a finger over the marks. “I’ve never seen anything that could do that. Do you know what he was?” he asked, looking into her eyes as he let her chin go.
“Yeah,” she confessed. “Don’t have a hissy when I tell you. I was ordered to never say anything, this was sealed by the highest courts and if they knew I was telling you now…Well, I would pretty much be pushing up daisies in a field somewhere,” she told him and took another deep breath before saying, “Full privacy mode.” When the vehicle’s windows all darkened she knew that they were sealed and silent. “Have you ever seen what happens to a Luhpyne when bit by a Vhampire? They turn. It’s nasty and really, really bad. They have the abilities of both races, that’s what did this to me. He was the first case in nearly two hundred years, from what I was told. Do I believe it? No way in hell, but.” She bit her lip. “The marks on the wall, the scent of Vhampire and Luhpyne, he’s creating an army and he knows that I will stand in his way. He’s toyed with me for years. Now he’s ready to just put me in the ground.” And deprive two men of their mate. “He’s a sadistic fuck and twisted and somehow I’m now his favorite pastime. The bomb surprised me, but it makes sense in a twisted kinda way. He knew I would be there and was ready for me to be eliminated. He never thought that you would do anything to save me though.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked with a frown as he eased back a little. Resting his forearm on the console he tapped a finger. “I’d heard rumors of such things but never actually seen one. Sort of like your human myths of werewolves and vampires, until you’re confronted with the truth you can push it back to stories your parents told to scare you. But back to your last comment, why would he assume I wouldn’t protect you, Lacey? Luhpynes are extremely protective of females, any female. More so for those they consider theirs of course,” he murmured, his expression giving nothing away as he let his gaze move over her face. “Homicidally so, when it’s their female.”
“How long have we been partners?” she asked quietly and leaned her head back against the headrest, exhaustion making its way into her very core being. “You asked why he thought you wouldn’t do anything to save me. Answer my question, how long have we been partners?” She watched him through barely opened eyes. “And in the time we have been a trio partnership how many times did I get gifts? Every week, without fail, for the last several years. He’s toying with me. Taunting me. Ensuring that I know just why he’s going to destroy me. He does it for kicks. He does it for pleasure. He does it because he’s a sadistic bastard.” For the last several years she had gotten a golden cuff delivered to her once a month and every week, without fail, she had a dozen black roses delivered to her, his way of letting her know just how little she meant to the men that she was partnered with, how little she meant to the men that were supposed to be something more than they were. “He didn’t think that you would save me because he wouldn’t. He simply wants me dead now that he’s tired of his games.”
“He has to get through us first and we’re mostly indestructible,” he murmured. “Four years, two months, six days, forty-nine minutes and ten seconds. That’s how long we’ve been partners, Lacey.” Shifting in the seat, he turned on the engine and, before he pulled away, he clicked on the phone feature on the dash. Hitting a button, he pulled away from the scene. “It’s me, my place in twenty minutes,” was all he said before he hung up.
“Uh, no. My place. Drop me off first, Zhubin,” Lacey muttered. “I mean it. I just want to go home, crawl into a nice hot shower and then bed to sleep for li
ke a week straight.” She was once more closed up tight, emotionally at least. “I mean it, Zhu, don’t make me get shitty with you. I want to go home.”
“You will, later. We have something to do first. Then I’ll take you to your place,” he told her as he drove through the city before heading toward the outskirts. “I’m not kidnapping you, Lacey, but we need to have a talk in a secure location. And right now, I seriously doubt your apartment is all that secure if this thing’s been watching you all this time.”
“What is there to talk about?” she asked with a frown. “I will file my report tomorrow and you can do yours tomorrow as well. I think we have pretty much reached the end of what we need to discuss right now. Besides, I need to make the Council aware of what has happened and that I’ve told you about him.” Which was going to be fan-fucking-tastic…not.
“Oh, we’ll be notifying the Council, soon enough,” he said, shooting her a look. “But there is a hell of a lot more to discuss first. Sit back, relax and stop being so tense, Agent Rose. This may actually help us figure out who the asshole is after you, which I would have thought you’d like to figure out. You know, before you’re fucking dead?” The last came out on a deep rumbling growl.
“I’ve been trying to figure him out, you ass,” she muttered. “Dying doesn’t exactly rate up there on my list of things to do anytime soon you know.” She shook her head and sighed. “I happen to really like living. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than being dead.”
Shaking his head, Zhubin took a deep breath and slowly pushed it out, his hands clenched on the steering wheel. “At least you don’t have a death wish, which, given you haven’t mentioned this before I’d have thought otherwise. As to the gifts, we just figured it was your boyfriend and you were pissed at him so he was trying to suck up. Being non-human, we figured we shouldn’t be nosey in our partner’s life. Especially since we all know most of you don’t want us here in the first place.”
“Yeah, that’s something I haven’t had in four years and some change.” Since meeting the men and sudden realization hitting her, she hadn’t had a boyfriend or man in her life. These men had walked into her life and took her breath away. They ruined her for any other. “I haven’t mentioned it before because I was under strict orders to not say a fucking word to anyone. When the Council seals your fucking lips you keep them shut or you end up in the ground. You know that as well as I do.”
Grunting at her words, he stayed focused on the road, the silence filling the vehicle. It wasn’t exactly comfortable but neither was it wholly uncomfortable. Odd, really. Finally he turned onto a road that looked to vanish into the trees and wound through until he pulled up to a gate. Leaning out the window he’d just rolled down he put his thumb to the pad and the gate slid open, silently.
Parking before the huge, two-level home, he got out and moved around to her side of the truck. “Come on, we’ll get you something for the pain and some water. You need to hydrate and this won’t take long hopefully,” he said, looking around, his nose in the air as he was clearly inhaling deep.
Chapter Five
Leading her up onto the porch he opened the door and let her step inside. Hitting the lights, he moved in front of her when there was the sound of nails scrambling on the flooring. “Sit,” he said sharply and two wolves slid into view on their rumps, their tongues lolling, giving the impression they were grinning up at them. “Lacey, meet Demon and Devil. And their names fit, given the trouble they tend to get into. Do not let their innocent looks deceive you, they are mischievous and devious.”
Snickering, Lacey held her hand out to the large wolves and asked, “Please don’t gobble me up if you wouldn’t mind. I get enough of a chewing from your master on a nearly daily basis,” she teased, smiling up at Zhubin as she said it. “Demon and Devil, huh?” she said as one of them sniffed her hand and then headbutted it to demand affection.
“They know who’s boss in this household,” Zhubin told her as he moved deeper into the main floor. He was flicking lights on as he went, “And they only bite those that are uninvited, unlike me. I bite anyone that pisses me off.” He reappeared a moment later and handed her a glass of water and two tablets. “Did you want something to eat? We won’t be long but it will be a little while, at least.”
“No thanks. I just want to have this pill take effect as soon as possible. How are you doing by the way?” she asked and swallowed the pills followed by a drink of her water. “Your shoulder, you okay?” Worry colored her words as she spoke.
“Already healed for the most part,” he said and waved a hand. “Grab a seat. I’m going to change my shirt and I’ll be back in a minute. Or feel free to wander around,” he told her as he headed for the large staircase. Jogging up, he disappeared from view. “And don’t let those two suck you into belly rubs!” he called out.
“Too late,” she shouted up after him with a grin and got down so that she could sit on the floor with the wolves on each side of her. “You two are just a couple of lovers, aren’t you? I think that he named you the wrong names. You are Demon and Devil are you? No you are just a couple of lovers,” she said as she scratched bellies and behind ears.
“They are always on the lookout for someone they can suck in to give them a scratch,” a voice said. Demon raced off and leapt up to be caught by Ansell as he stepped in from the kitchen. “Lacey.” He tipped his head to her as he held Demon to him while the wolf slathered his face with his tongue at rapid speed.
“Any trouble?” Zhubin asked as he jogged down the stairs, pulling on a tee.
“Unlike you, you mean?” the other Luhpyne asked, lifting a brow. “No, boring night. What’s up?” he asked, putting Demon back on the floor.
“Let’s go and sit, we need to make a call and let someone else in on this,” Zhubin said, moving to Lacey and held out a hand. “I thought I told you not to give in to their pleas for belly rubs.”
“Yeah you tell me to do a lot of things that I still do.” She took his hand and let him pull her to her feet. “I’m ornery like that. If I ever did as you instructed you would likely have a freaking heart attack, you know it as well as I do. I don’t listen well. At all.” She never had and never would. She looked at Ansell and smiled. “I can’t believe he named these animals Demon and Devil. They are the sweetest animals ever. Loving and affectionate. Don’t strike me as the type of wolves that would attack anyone.”
“Then you’d be wrong,” Ansell said, shaking his head. “They might act like the family pups but they are just as lethal as a Luhpyne.”
“Demon, Devil.” Zhubin leaned down until they were all nose to nose. “Guard,” he ordered on a growl and the wolves went into a hunch. The hair went up on their backs and low growls slid out before they slinked off into the shadows. Looking to her, he smiled faintly. “Don’t let their sweet nature fool you. They were wild animals when I found them and they still are. They just know that they got a good deal in this house.” Moving past her he went to the wall plasma and hit a series of buttons on the side before moving to stand before the sofa.
“Come on.” Ansell touched her shoulder lightly he waved her ahead of him.
“Uh, what are we doing?” she asked with a frown as she watched the video conference screen come up. “Who are we calling? You both know that I really hate surprises so come on, guys, out with it. What’s going on? Sooner rather than later would be preferred if you wouldn’t mind, please.”
“We’re calling our Regent,” Ansell said softly as he stood up straighter and looked to the screen.
A moment later the screen flickered and a man came on-screen. “Well this is a surprise, Zhubin. Ansell, good to see you. And who is this?” He lifted a hand slightly.
“Agent Lacey Rose, meet Thorin, Regent of the Luhpynes. Sir, our partner and mate,” Zhubin said to him. “There is a threat against her, has been an active threat for five years now I believe. The Council kept this quiet from us because it involves a Luhpyne who was bitten and is now a crossbreed with a Vhamp
ire.”
“Is this true, Agent Rose?” Thorin looked at her.
Lacey could barely breathe. “You knew?” she whispered in shock. “All this time you fucking knew?” She then growled. “God I’ve been trying so goddamn hard to ensure that you weren’t pulled into this damn mess and you knew?” She shook her head and took a deep and calming breath, knowing if she didn’t she would break down and begin to blabber like an idiot. Finally she looked to the Regent. “Yes sir, it is. Five years ago I was just out of the Academy and assigned a partner. The attack nearly killed me but I injured him. The Council met and sealed everything as tight as air. Files were handled through Regent Montrose’s office in DC.” She told the larger-than-life man that filled the screen. “It was deemed as a necessity. If word got out that Vhampire could turn Luhpyne then there would be utter chaos. While Vhampire and Luhpyne are typically very analytical and intelligent beings what was created is nothing but a sick and twisted monster. He, however, knew that I was destined to become their mates. I don’t know how but he knew. Every month for the last several years he’s been sending me golden cuffs…” She trailed off and turned. “Fuck me. That’s why he sent them isn’t it? He’s been taunting me all this time, telling me just how I could find the marks on you by sending them to me.” She looked down at the cuff on Zhubin’s wrist. “God I’m such a fucking idiot.”
“We need to access the full records of all the events, Regent,” Zhubin said, holding out his hand to Lacey as he popped the cuff off his wrist. Pulling it away, he let her look while he kept talking. “That they’ve known of this for the last five years, especially the threat to her, is unacceptable. It needs to be handled and I seriously doubt you would want me to handle it, sir.”