by L Ann
“She escaped.”
“What?”
The guard flinched. “She requested food, and I went to organise it. While I was away, she called my partner inside and hit him over the head with a vase. Once he was down, she smashed the window and went down the fire escape.” He gave an almost clinical recitation of events. “Prince I’Ane and Mr Thoth’s friend, Fallon Wylde, was returning to his suite and heard the commotion, but she’d disappeared before he could catch up to her. Lord Dasmalle has asked him to wait until you and His Highness arrive.”
Morgan swore beneath her breath. “All right. Tell Zuron that we’ll be there as soon as I can find him.”
She tried calling Taz while she waited for the elevator, but he was ignoring her calls or his phone had been switched to silent as he didn’t answer. Upon reaching the ground floor, she gazed around and then headed toward one of the help desks dotted around the club’s lobby.
“I’m looking for Taz I’Ane,” she told the woman on the desk. “His father wants a word.”
The woman gave her a look that Morgan could only describe as condescending – at least that’s the word she would use later. “And you are…?”
“Going to kill you if you play this game with me.” She palmed her hands on the desk and leaned forward until her face was mere inches away from the receptionist’s. “We don’t have time and I don’t have the patience,” she continued in a low voice. “He’s meeting a reporter in one of the clubs. Point me in the right direction and I won’t snap your neck.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “I believe he’s in the Dark Velvet Café, ma’am,” she stammered.
Morgan gave her a tight smile. “Good choice,” she replied, spun on her heel and marched toward the café in question.
Taz was still contemplating his mixed-up feelings, worrying at it like a bone – he should be feeling guilty for being unfaithful with Morgan because, for all intents and purposes he was in a relationship with Kayla and yet…
“Are you even listening?” Kayla’s voice broke through his internal monologue and he snapped back into reality with a start.
“I’m sorry, I… work is…” a shadow fell across the table and saved him from having to scramble for an excuse. His relief was short-lived, however, when he glanced up and met Morgan’s eyes.
“I’m sorry to cut your –“ she glanced at Kayla. “- thing short, but duty calls. There’s been a breach in security.”
It took a moment. A series of quick, jerky glances back and forth between both women. A feeling of guilt and conflict that shouldn’t have been there, given the situation. But soon, Taz pulled Kayla’s hand against his lips and gave her an apologetic smile, all the while imagining he could feel Morgan’s eyes boring into his skull.
“I’ll call you,” he told her, dropping her hand and left the table at a near jog, with Morgan close behind him.
“Talk to me. What happened?” he asked as soon as they’d cleared the café entrance.
“I don’t have all the details. Your friend, Fallon Wylde, is up in the girl’s suite. She ran. She sent one guard away and knocked the other out. Your father wants us up there now.” Morgan’s voice was clipped, her thoughts on the scene she’d just interrupted. Why had seeing him holding that woman’s hand annoyed her so much? It had taken every ounce of self-control not to let it show on her face. Was Taz right? Was she jealous?
A tap on her arm brought her out of her reverie and she glared at Taz. “Don’t touch me.”
“Fine,” Taz shrugged. “Next time I’ll just let you get knocked down by the drunken mob.”
Morgan looked away from Taz to where a group of raucous men staggered by mere inches from where she was standing. She closed her eyes in an attempt to balance herself. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m tired. It’s been a long night.”
Taz took a lingering look at her expression and grinned. “If you say so.” He stepped aside, allowing her to board the elevator first.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Morgan asked as he joined her and tapped the recessed button for the third floor.
“Nothing,” he said, his grin spreading into a fully-fledged smile. “It’s just that in the time we’ve been together, I’ve seen you tired. You do a good imitation of the Sphinx. Not almost bite my head off. You sure it’s just the long night?”
“What else would it be?”
“You know, I’m glad you asked that.” Taz moved closer, forcing Morgan to back away, toward the car’s corner. “I have noticed a marked change in your attitude since Kayla showed up earlier. And there was that comment you made – the one about jilted lovers. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were – what’s that word? Jealous?”
“You’re still going on about that? Sounds more like a case of if you say it often enough, it’ll come true.”
“And in your case, it sounds more like if you deny, deny, deny you hope it won’t be true,” Taz countered, moving again to force her deeper into the elevator’s leftward corner.
“I’m tired,” she repeated.
Taz halted as the doors opened behind him. “No argument from me.” He stepped aside, gesturing toward the elevator opening with a sweep of one arm. “Tired you may be, but I’m right and you know it.”
Morgan passed him and exited the elevator, then turned around and planted her palm against his chest as Taz almost walked into her. Stiffening her arm, she shoved him back a step. “Okay. Let’s run with your theory. If I’m jealous, what does that make you? Since you’re the one who started this up again.”
“That’s easy,” Taz smiled, giving her a quick, obvious and approving head-to-toe once-over. “I’m extremely interested.”
“Not to mention persistent. You already have a playmate,” she replied. “You’re so full of shit! You can’t accept that I’m not dropping at your feet begging for your attention.” Shaking her head, she pushed him again and resumed her walk down the corridor.
“Begging would be nice,” he called after her. Then added under his breath “But begging me not to stop is more what I had in mind.”
“I heard that,” her voice floated back to him. “If I beg you to shut up, can we do our jobs?”
“It’s a start,” Taz chuckled and followed her.
~*~
There was a set of new S. O’s on the scene when Taz and Morgan arrived. The former pair were inside the suite. The one who’d been injured occupied the sitting room’s largest couch, being tended to by one of Dr. Chambeau’s on-call nurse-practitioners, while the other stood near the wet bar in hushed conversation with the club’s Chief of Security – the boss lady herself – Pantera Rydell.
A slow scan of the interior turned up no one else, even though Morgan had mentioned that his friend – Fallon Wylde – was on the scene awaiting their arrival. As he moved toward the bar, his eyes detected the partially closed balcony door, and he made his way to it. It was on the balcony he found his friend.
“There’s at least fifty feet, and two other balconies between this suite’s window and the fire escape,” Fallon said without turning around. “With a four and half inch ledge between the balconies and a good twenty-five-foot jump from the last balcony to the fire escape. Agile little wench.”
Taz grunted. “And strong for her age. Seems we underestimated her. Kane had the windows in this place custom made to keep out sunlight, UV rays and anything up to a 66mm anti-tank rocket. She used the coffee table.”
“That’s like saying an ant used a socket wrench to smash a coconut,” Fallon laughed. “That’s a lot of strength and determination for one of us. It makes you wonder…” he trailed off and turned to face his friend.
“Well, it’s moot at this point. I think she told us everything she knew – which was a lot of nothing,” Taz replied. “She’d have most likely been let go tomorrow in any case.” He moved across the balcony and peered over the railing to the ground far below. “But enough of my crap. It’s been a while since we last caught up. What’s going on with
you, amigo?”
“Business as usual.” Fallon glanced back toward the doors, noting the stealthy arrival of his friend’s enchanting dark-haired companion and honoured her obvious desire to remain unannounced for the moment. “A job coming up in a couple of weeks, south of the border. Afterwards, been playing with the idea of taking a few weeks off. Maybe visit Chimera. Always wanted to see the Eternal City.”
“You’ll fit right in,” Taz chuckled. “There’s always something dodgy going on in Chimera.”
“And you?” Fallon continued. “Or do I need to ask?” He made an obvious show of peering toward the doors, which prompted the latter to turn. With a nod of acknowledgement to Fallon, Morgan jerked her head toward the suite’s interior as her gaze locked with Taz’s.
Before Taz could reply to Fallon, Morgan spoke. “I need you inside,” she said. “Kane’s here and wants to know what’s going on.”
That said, all three moved as one, rejoining the scene to find the room all but empty except for Kane Thoth, who moved toward them from the area of the smashed window.
Taz studied Kane’s approach in quiet awe. The man moved across the room as though the soles of his expensive, custom-made shoes never touched the carpet. Not so surprising, however, for a man whose life and demeanour was a finely tuned blend of illusion and reality, of myth and legend. He approached with an arm outstretched to shake first Fallon’s then Taz’s hand before lifting Morgan’s fingers to his lips.
“It bothers me when three of the most troublesome people I know are in my club at the same moment,” he said, his voice rich with amusement.
“Fate and vindictive old lords move in mysterious ways,” said Taz. “And rumour claims you’re somewhere in Europe.”
Kane shrugged, his eyes never wavering from the woman at Taz’s side. “And who do you think started that rumour?”
Morgan chuckled, drawing a brief answering smile from Kane before he turned to wave toward the bar, making brief eye contact with Taz and Fallon. “Shall we make ourselves comfortable while you good people fill me in on the situation?”
Taz assumed the role of bartender, pouring the preferred beverage of each, while Morgan laid out the events which brought the now absent Raven Topaz into the story. Then she segued into the next segment with the utterance of a single disjointed phrase that made even Kane react. “Shadow’s Fall, 1978. Pashet.”
Taz’s eyes narrowed when Morgan responded to Kane’s tension by reaching out and grasping one of his hands between both of hers. “Maybe not her, at least I hope not, but the same situation.”
Kane sighed, gave her fingers a squeeze, then slipped his hand out from her grasp. “Then the stories I’ve picked up from my sources are more than a rumour. Child vampires?”
“Yes. Only this time someone set up a witness to record it. I’ll ask Zuron to supply you with a copy of the footage,” Morgan paused, hesitated then caught Kane’s sleeve and led him into the far corner of the room. “You were there last time. You know how this ends,” she told him in a low voice.
Kane lifted a hand to stroke a finger down her cheek, then followed the movement by leaning in and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I know how the last time affected you. Don’t let that fear take root. If Pashet is behind this in some way, we’ll know soon enough.
“Although, I have always been more than ninety-nine percent sure that Pashet, Bianca Manx, Zelda Osiris and the thousand other aliases she used are long dead. Unfortunately, in the thousand-plus years of my sire’s existence, she assembled an uncountable number of aliases and loyal followers. All of whom took umbrage that we shut down her enterprise here in Seattle. It could be anyone… or several of them.”
Taz cleared his throat and Morgan stiffened at the sound, causing Kane’s eyebrow to arch upwards. “Like that, is it?” he murmured.
“Kane, don’t.” Morgan stepped away when she spotted the wicked glint in his eye but didn’t move fast enough and found herself plastered knees to breast against one of the most notorious men she knew. Kane dropped a kiss onto her cheek, gave her waist a squeeze and released her with a soft laugh.
“You’re incorrigible!” She told him, with a laugh that stopped midway when she realised that she had felt nothing, none of the heat, fire or desire she experienced when so intimately pressed against Taz and that meant… Her eyes flew to Taz, who looked furious for a second before wiping all expression from his face and turned to murmur something to Fallon in a low voice.
Frozen to the spot, for the first time she could remember Morgan felt unsure about herself, about the man who had turned away from her and about how to deal with it. The touch of a warm palm against the small of her back made her start, and she glanced back to see Kane had moved up beside her again.
“This is a new situation for you,” he kept his voice low.
“There isn’t a situation,” she denied in a clipped tone, causing Kane to vent another soft laugh.
“Okay… okay!” He raised his hand in mock defence when she glared at him. “I won’t say another word.” His hand on her back increased pressure, prompting their return to the others. As they walked, he raised his voice to include Taz and Fallon in the conversation. “Fill me in on the details, if you would.”
Morgan kicked it off, starting with the message from her father, the trip from L.A. to Seattle and the en-route attack that led to her meeting up with Taz at Shadowfall. Then Taz took up the thread; the conversation with Kayla Monroe concerning the ‘film footage vampire authentication’. Both Taz and Morgan gave condensed POV accounts of the retrieval of the footage from KOMO-TV, the attempt on their lives and the wreck of Hamish’s favourite vehicle – pausing while Kane laughed and commented about how Hamish would react when he found out – following the lead that took them to Ikon and the resulting shoot-out with Rroma agents that…
“… that introduced us to our escape performance artist, Ms Topaz,” Taz nodded to the broken window.
“I see,” Kane replied, processing the information. His gaze settled on Fallon.
“Don’t look at me, amigo,” Fallon shook his head, throwing up both hands as if to ward off an impending assault. “This wasn’t my party. I’m just gate-crashing.”
“As usual,” Kane commented with a wry grin, followed by a sip of his drink as he resumed his mental ministrations.
“Curious,” he said after a lengthy silence. “Why a situation – attacks utilising this particular method after so long? And what would someone… anyone have to gain by exposing our existence to the world? And the Rromas? What is their stake in all this?” He sipped again, then stood up.
“Taz, Fallon, Morgan – always a pleasure. Keep me appraised on what your investigations reveal.” He nodded to all of them and departed.
Morgan looked at Fallon and Taz. “Well, that was interesting.”
“Not as interesting as the parts you two left out of your update,” Fallon noted, swivelling away from the pair to pour himself a glass of the wine already open on the bar-top. “Like that nowhere near platonic lip lock I walked in on in the elevator.” He poured another two glasses and handed them to Taz and Morgan with a faint smile. “Was that part of the investigation, Taz? What were you checking for at the back of Anna’s throat? A bug?”
Morgan choked on the sip of wine she’d taken while Taz gave an easy laugh. “I was proving a point.”
“Did my interruption ruin that?” Fallon asked, leaning across Taz to pat Morgan on the back as she sputtered and gasped.
“Let’s say it’s a work in progress,” Taz replied.
“No, it isn’t!” Morgan finally caught her breath.
Fallon looked from one to the other, drained his glass and set it down on the bar-top. “Good luck, mi amigo.” Pausing next to Morgan, he grinned. “Try not to break him.” He dropped a kiss onto her cheek and left the suite.
Chapter 7
Morgan and Taz remained at the suite until the club’s maintenance crew arrived to begin work on the broken window, th
en exited and made their way toward the elevator alcove. Both had been uncharacteristically quiet since the departure of Pantera’s security team. Especially Taz, a sure sign to Morgan that something was amiss.
“I didn’t realise you knew Kane,” Taz broke the silence as they neared the end of the corridor.
“Yes, we’ve worked a few jobs together,” she replied.
“When did it become something more?”
Morgan frowned at him. “More what? What are you talking about?”
“Was it after Vegas?” he continued, ignoring her question. ”Because I know for a fact you hadn’t slept with him before that.” Taz caught her arm and pulled her to a stop. “Did I give you a taste for sex? Showed you what you were missing? Is that it?”
“What the hell? Let go of me, I’Ane!” Morgan tried to twist out of his grasp.
“No.” He tightened his grip and propelled her backwards until he had her pinned against the wall. “Was that why he put the rumour out that he was in Europe? So, you two could get together in private?”
“Have you lost your mind?” Morgan hissed. “Damn it, let go! You’re hurting me.” She attempted to bring a knee up, only for Taz to trap her leg between his and step closer, until they were mere inches apart.
“I saw how intimate you were tonight. How you let him touch you.”
“Intimate? We’re friends! Don’t you have any close friends?” She jerked again, in a pointless attempt to loosen his grip. “Oh wait! No, you don’t have any female friends, do you? I imagine you’ve fucked every woman you’ve ever spoken to.”
“That’s not true,” Taz denied. “I know lots of women I haven’t slept with.”
Morgan’s laugh was bitter. “Sure, but I bet they’re not friends either and you don’t spend any more time with them than you have to. No, women are good for only one thing with you and if they’re not friends with benefits, they’re of no use to you.”
Taz was all set for a comeback but froze, mouth open, realising that she was right. He didn’t know any woman that could, by any stretch of the term, be considered a friend.