by Bree Younger
The other two vamps moved away from the pool table so that they could keep an eye on the vampires guarding the back door.
“Oh, I’m more than prepared, Cumbest. I think you’ll find I’m a little harder to deal with when I’m not drugged and chained down by a bunch of pansy-assed dirtbags.”
Cumbest snarled and flashed his fangs at Ty, who took another step forward. A voice from behind him caught his attention for a second. “We don’t want any trouble in here, guys. Take it outside.”
Ty took a moment to pull out his wallet and flash his Shield identification at the bartender, never taking his eyes off of Cumbest. “This is official Council business. Back off.”
The bartender mumbled, “Sorry,” and Ty just nodded his head and jerked his chin, indicating that he should get the hell out. Ty heard the mad scramble as the bar emptied, and then he gestured for RJ to stand next to him.
“The Council would like to chat with you, Cumbest. So, we can do this easy. Or—and this is my choice—we can do this hard. What’s your pleasure?”
His hands flexed as he saw Cumbest raise his hands. He kept his eyes focused on the vampire’s face. Cumbest’s eyes darted around the room, confirming that there was no way out except through the vampires. He looked back at Ty with a smirk. “The Council can kiss my ass, and you, too, motherfucker.”
Ty saw the flicker in his eyes seconds before he moved, heading straight toward Ty, the broken cue stick aimed directly for his heart. He was dimly aware that the other vamps had moved toward the back door in an attempt to get away.
Ty was ready for him, stepping to one side and bringing his right hand down hard on the back of Cumbest’s arm. The vamp dropped the cue stick, but immediately turned, the other one held up. Out of the corner of his eye, Ty saw RJ step forward, but Ty shook his head. “Let me handle this asshole.” RJ nodded, backing off a few steps to allow the two vampires room.
Ty and Cumbest circled a few steps before the vamp moved. Again, Ty countered the movement, jerking the stake out of his hand and tossing it aside. He could tell the vamp didn’t like facing him unarmed, but that was his tough luck. Cumbest had underestimated his opponent, and Ty could see the surprise on his face that he had been disarmed so easily. He wanted to take the dumb fuck out, but knew he had to keep him alive. That didn’t mean he couldn’t put a hurt on him, though.
He caught Cumbest with a right hook that spun him around and almost sent him to the ground. The vamp found his balance and countered with a few punches. One of the wild hits caught Ty in the ribcage, and he sucked in, staggering back. Cumbest took advantage, grappling him to the ground. They rolled around on the floor, back and forth, each one trying like hell to get the advantage over the other.
Ty suddenly found himself on the bottom, and he caught a brief flash of silver out of the corner of his eye. The son of a bitch had a knife. It sliced down, and Ty barely managed to deflect it from his throat. It ripped a long gash in his shoulder. “Fuck. Goddammit.” Another slash, this time across his arm as he slung it up to deflect the blow. His shoulder and arm hurt like hell, but he pushed it out of his mind. He had to finish this shit before he lost too much blood and became too weak to fight. His body was already working at healing the cuts, but that was just going to drain him even more.
Ignoring the pain, he moved just as his opponent prepared to strike again, using Cumbest’s downward momentum to shove him to the floor and lay across his squirming body, pounding his fist which still clutched the knife until he heard the bones crack and the fingers released their grip. The knife fell to the floor and Ty reached over to grab it.
His fingers closed over the grip, and he raised the blade high. For a moment he was tempted—oh so tempted—to jab the thing down and into Cumbest’s heart. Rid the world of one more monster. The two men lay there staring at each other for several long seconds. Ty was vaguely aware of RJ’s voice saying something, but he couldn’t understand him at first. Finally the words penetrated. “Don’t kill him. We need him. Damn it, Ty. We need him alive!”
Finally Ty lowered his hand and tossed the knife into the far corner, slumping forward and breathing harshly from the effort he had just expended.
“Watch out, Ty!” He heard RJ’s yell just as he felt Cumbest move, his fangs too close to Ty’s throat.
Ty rolled just in time, the snapping jaws barely missing his jugular. That was it. Ty reached out and grabbed a handful of Cumbest’s hair, pulling his head up and slamming it into the ground over and over until finally Cumbest slumped down, unconscious. Ty relaxed his hold and rolled to one side, clutching at his shoulder and feeling the blood that had soaked through his shirt. As soon as he got his breath, he looked over at RJ, who had pulled out a pair of titanium cuffs. Rolling the vamp over, RJ quickly cuffed him and then stood up.
“Son of a bitch!” Ty grunted and then grinned at RJ, who just rolled his eyes. The whole thing hadn’t probably taken more than a minute or so because of the preternatural speed of the vampires. If humans had witnessed the fight, it would have appeared little more than a blur to them. He reached over and pushed back the sleeve of Cumbest’s left arm and there it was, just like Libby had said. The tattoo. Fuck.
After a couple of minutes, he stood slowly, looking over to where Quinn’s men were cuffing the other two vampires. Ty stood and accepted the rag RJ offered, wrapping it around his arm to staunch the blood flow, which had already slowed to a slight trickle. One of Diaz’s werewolves, who had witnessed the whole fight, stepped forward.
“You need blood. Please.” He leaned his head to one side, and Ty stepped forward.
“Thank you,” he said to the were before leaning down and quickly piercing the skin, making sure to blur the pain as he gulped down several mouthfuls of the strong paranormal blood. After he was done, he sealed the wound and stepped back, noticing the erection the male werewolf made no attempt to hide. Both of them accepted the arousal caused by the vampire’s bite with a nonchalance born of habit and experience. Ty could see from the expression in the were’s eyes that he would not have been averse to a more intimate connection with Ty, but though Ty had been in relationships with both men and women, he found himself reluctant to be unfaithful to Libby.
Offering a small smile of appreciation, he shook his head no. They were shrugged in understanding, though Ty thought he saw a shimmer of regret pass over the were’s face. He muttered another brief “thanks” to both of the werewolves and looked over to where Taite and Campbell stood over the other vamps. He walked toward them, leaving RJ to stand guard over Cumbest, who lay moaning and cursing on the floor.
“What should we do with these two?” Campbell kicked one of the vamps in the side as he asked the question and received a string of obscenities in response. Ty bent down and pulled back the shirtsleeve on the first vamp, immediately spotting the same tattoo as Cumbest wore. Taite did the same with the other, and it took him a couple of minutes before he found an identical tat on the vamp’s right calf.
Ty looked down at them with an expression of disgust on his face. “Bring ’em. I have a feeling that Quinn will want to talk to all of them.” He left his men to it, turning and walking out of the bar, glad that they had managed to take all three of the vamps alive. Once he was out in the parking lot, he pulled in a deep breath, allowing himself to release some of the tension he’d been feeling from the moment he’d heard the vamps had been spotted. That reminded him that he needed to call Quinn and let him know what had happened.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and pushed the auto dial for his brother.
“We got ’em,” he told Quinn as soon as he answered. “We should be at the safe house in about thirty minutes.”
“I’ll meet you there. Everything go okay?”
“Fine. They put up a fight, but we handled it.”
“Good. All right, see you in thirty.”
After he hung up, Ty watched his men load the vampires in the backs of the vehicles. He turned to the werewolves who were standing nearby.
/> “Thanks for the help. I’m Ty Buchanan, by the way.”
One of the weres stepped forward, the one who had shared his blood with Ty, offering his hand. “I’m Jason Callahan. This is Zach Lemoyne. We were glad to do it. Scum like these guys gives all paranormals a bad name and puts us all in danger.”
“You’re right. They do.” Ty shook their hands. “Tell Diaz we owe him and that we’ll be in touch.” After a brief good-bye, he turned and joined RJ in his car. In moments they were pulling out and heading south.
* * * *
By the time Ty reached the safe house, his head was killing him. Cumbest had cussed and yammered on and on the whole way with threats and wild outbursts. Luckily, Quinn and Hawk were already there and waiting out front when they pulled into the parking lot, so it didn’t take long to get the cars unloaded and the vampires inside. The three vamps were split up and put in separate holding rooms that were specially designed to hold paranormals.
Quinn looked at him carefully. “Are you going to be able to handle the questioning, Ty?”
“If I had wanted to kill the bastard, I’d have done so when we were apprehending him. I know we need his sorry ass alive so that we can get the rest of them. Don’t worry about me, bro.”
He gave a short nod. “Good. That’s what I needed to hear. Now, what do you think? Start with Cumbest? See if he gives up anything? Or would you rather go with one of the others first? They seem weaker, probably be easier to break one of them.”
Hawk spoke up. “I think we ought to start with Cumbest. The other two are probably pretty low in the organization. Plus, we don’t really have anything on them connecting them to what’s happened. Just their association with Cumbest.”
“And the tattoos,” RJ reminded them.
“Right. Still, I’m not sure they’d know enough to help us. I think we have more leverage against Cumbest. Ty has identified him as one of the men who helped stake him out.”
Ty nodded. “I agree.”
Quinn nodded. “All right, Ty, why don’t you and I go and interview Cumbest. While we’re with him, I think it might be a good idea for Hawk and RJ to have a chat with the other two. You never know. They might have information we can use.”
Two hours later, when Ty and Quinn left the interrogation room, Hawk met them at the door.
“Son of a bitch gave us nothing. Not one damned thing.” Ty had held it together while he was with Cumbest, but once they were out of the room he let his frustration out. “I can’t believe it. Just sat there with that shit-eating grin on his face.”
“He’s scared of someone else more than he is of the Council. He’s not gonna talk until he thinks he’s got nothing to lose,” Quinn commented.
“What about the other two?”
Hawk shook his head. “I don’t think they know much, if anything.”
“So what do we do now?”
Quinn rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. “Let’s let ’em stew. We can hold all three of them for another twenty-four hours. Then we’ll have to release Dumb and Dumber in there. Cumbest we’ll be able to hold longer since we’ve got a positive ID on him for attempting to murder a Council Shield. Maybe a day spent in lockup will give one of them a little incentive to start talking.”
They all agreed with Quinn that that was probably their best course of action.
“RJ, why don’t you bunk here today to keep an eye on our prisoners. We’ll be back at dusk to see if they’ve had a change of heart.”
Everything was settled quickly. The safe house was well-equipped to handle the vampires’ needs. The windows were all covered with thick sun-resistant shutters and the refrigerator was full of bottled blood. After the prisoners were secured for the night, everyone started heading out.
All Ty wanted was to get back to the casino and Libby. He imagined her there, waiting for him, all snuggled up in his bed, and he felt a sharp burn of longing in his chest. Yeah. He was in deep shit. He’d gone and fallen in love with a human.
Chapter Sixteen
Sitting on the couch in the den, Libby finally gave up on the television and turned it off. How could they have hundreds of channels and not have anything on worth watching? Ugh! She was going stir-crazy. Thank God she wouldn’t be cooped up much longer. Doc had been in earlier to examine her one last time, and he’d given her the all clear. There was still some venom in her system and would be for several more days, but the worst of the reaction was over. He had told her there was no problem with her going back to work the following night, though he did caution her to make sure that she kept eating the same kinds of foods, at least for a bit longer, and to stay out of the sun as much as possible.
While she was eager to get back home and resume her normal routine, a part of her was depressed at having to leave Ty. The past few days, he had spent as much time with her as he could, tending to her, making sure she ate and was taking her medicine. He had sat and talked with her when he’d returned from working on his case. He’d even taught her to play gin rummy early one morning when she’d been whining and complaining about how bored she was just lying in bed all the time.
And now it was all coming to an end. She’d already packed her bags, leaving out only what she’d need to dress in the next morning. She planned to grab a few hours’ sleep with Ty when he came home, and then leave a little before noon. That would give her time to get home and get everything unpacked and settled in before she had to report to work that night. She knew that Quinn had arranged for a couple of werewolves who worked security for him to keep an eye on her for the next several days until they caught Cumbest and McElroy, just in case they found out about her role in helping Ty. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that. Vampires were one thing, but now werewolves? Her life had definitely taken a turn for the strange and absurd. What else was out there that she’d always assumed was just legend and myth? She’d thought about asking Ty, but she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know the answer, so she had just stayed quiet.
Shaking off her gloomy mood, she reached over to pick up the book she’d been reading and had just opened it to the page she’d stopped on earlier when she heard the front door opening. Looking up, she smiled when she saw Ty walking into the room.
“You’re home early.”
He eased down beside her on the couch. “Yeah. Rough day at the office, hon.”
She saw the blood on his shirt and gasped. “Oh, Ty. You’re hurt. Here, let me see.”
He sat still as she pulled off his shirt and examined the two wounds in his arm and shoulder. They had obviously been tended to already and were almost closed. He met her shocked look with a rueful shrug. “What can I say? I’m a fast healer.”
She smiled at his attempt at humor but immediately frowned again with concern. “I remember. Damn, Ty, didn’t I tell you to be careful? What happened?”
“We caught Cumbest, but he didn’t want to come with us, so things got a little messy.”
“You caught him? But that’s great! Now you can persuade him to turn on his buddies, right?”
He chuckled and pulled her snugly against him, burying his face in her neck. She trembled as his breath stirred the hair of her nape and sent a hot dart of arousal straight to her pussy. “Oh, Lib. I wish it was that easy. He’s not talking. Neither are his two buddies we caught with him.”
“That sucks,” she murmured as she pulled him closer, loving the feel of his warm skin beneath her hands.
“Yeah, it does.” He kissed her neck, pulling the skin between his teeth and sucking. “I missed you, Lib.”
“Me, too.” She moved so that she was straddling his body. She could feel his lengthening erection molding itself to the crotch of her jeans, causing a delicious friction between her thighs.
“That feels good, sweetheart.”
“Umm…” She leaned back, admiring the gleam of light across the muscles of his chest. She touched him, letting her hands follow the path her eyes had just taken. “So what are y’all gonna do about Cum
best?” She bent down and let the tip of her tongue graze across his nipples, teasing it before moving to the next.
“Hmmm—ah—damn, Libby.” He choked as she pulled one taut bud into her mouth, suckling it as he often did hers. “We—ah—we’re gonna let him—stew—a bit—” She bit down lightly, and his hands came up to grasp her head. “Fuck.”
Loving his reaction, she leaned back and smiled up at him. “Stew?”
“What?” His glazed eyes met hers. “Are you hungry? Now?”
She laughed and shook her head, pleased that she could make him as wild with desire as he often made her. It was a heady feeling knowing that you could do that to a vampire. “Only for you, baby.”
She scooted off his lap and reached forward to unfasten his pants. With his help, she had them tugged off and thrown to the side along with his boxers in no time. His erection was stabbing up toward her in bold demand, and she reached out her hand to clasp it in a tight grip.
He thrust up as she stroked him. “Suck me, Lib.”
Bending forward, she swiped her tongue across the tip of his cock, relishing the hot, tangy taste of him. She dropped a trail of wet kisses down the rigid length, her lips lingering over the veins that traced a sensual pattern on his flesh. Her hands reached down to gently close over his sac, rolling the balls between her fingers until he groaned. Then she took the head of his cock in her mouth, sucking on it and stroking her tongue against the underside. Again his hands went to her head, digging into her hair with a tight grip and pressing her down. Obeying his silent command, she took more and more of his cock into her mouth, until she felt it bump the back of her throat, making her gag slightly.
Marking the spot with her fingers, she pulled back, looking up into his eyes as she moved down again and again. His hand directed her in a steady rhythm as she continued the erotic play.
“That’s it, baby. Fuck, that’s so good.”
She loved the blank look of desire that crossed his face as she picked up the pace. She pulled her mouth off his cock, using her hand instead for a few moments, pumping him up and down before slapping his erection against her tongue, against her cheek, and then taking it into her mouth again. He groaned, harshly. She could feel herself responding to his arousal, her pussy damp and aching to be filled.