by Tessa Cole
“Sure, you can survive some serious shit.” He rolled his eyes at me. “But that shit keeps finding you. I’m glad I’m not your partner.”
Abby shot him a dark look, and he shrugged and walked over to the pile of decomposing bodies.
“Do you want to give your statement now and then again when the agents of the Joined Parliament arrive, or wait and only have to do it once?” Abby asked.
And by agents of the Joined Parliament, she meant Gideon and his team, since they were the only agents stationed in Union City.
I leaned my head back against the cool cinderblock wall, agony slicing through my neck, and groaned. A part of me thrilled at the idea of seeing Marcus again… and Jacob… and Gideon… and jeez, Kol, too. The rest of me wanted to cry that no matter what I did, how good I was, fate just kept throwing me back into the supernatural world. Not to mention Marcus was going to read me the riot act — most likely yell it at me — about being in dangerous situations, and I wasn’t sure I was up for the sweltering temperature that came with that.
Of course, if they showed up, then I could vent my frustration on Gideon for doing something equally stupid. Because he had to have done something stupid to get so seriously hurt. If it hadn’t been for him, I might have gotten through the incident without a scratch and Hank might not have had his throat ripped open.
Regardless, I was going to have to face them, so I might as well wait for them to arrive to give my statement. No point in giving it to Abby and then again to the guys. That, and once Gideon and the team arrived, the case would no longer be Abby and Tim’s.
Hank and I had been attacked by vampires and the pile of bodies strongly indicated we weren’t their first victims. That meant this was a Joined Parliament case, and I was pretty sure both Abby and Tim would be happy to hand it over. This wasn’t like the Feds coming in and taking over. Union City’s cops weren’t equipped to handle powerful supernatural criminals, and a major supernatural case was usually deadly for human officers. Case in point.
“I’ll wait,” I said, feeling even more exhausted at the thought. “They’re going to take this mess off your hands anyway.”
Abby glanced at the pile of bodies. “And I couldn’t be happier about that.”
I sat against the wall watching the detectives and officers come and go, my head still whirling and my neck throbbing in agony. No one came to tell me to move, and I didn’t want to risk standing and passing out. I really didn’t want to face the guys from a hospital bed this time, and if I collapsed, I was sure I’d be rushed away.
The jagged electricity in Gideon’s brand eased completely, but the sense of bone-deep exhaustion dragging at my thoughts remained. At least that muted the stomach-churning temperature fluctuations coming from the strong mix of emotions and the increased number of people in the room.
Summer, the angel who handled forensics at the Joined Parliament Operations Building, arrived with another guy who looked familiar. I was pretty sure I’d seen him while I’d been at Operations, but I couldn’t remember his name.
They started working the scene, looking at the zip addict and the two vampires first. A little while later, the Joined Parliament Medical Examiner showed up. I recognized both guys from the motel where the archnephilim had left me a message written in his victim’s blood.
They waited until Summer released the bodies then worked on loading them into body bags and taking them away.
After a bit, the Medical Examiner guys returned, along with a contingent of officers to help deal with the pile of bodies.
The temperature fluctuations strengthened — because the number of people in my immediate vicinity had increased again — and I tried not to look like I was going to throw up like the rookie had.
The new officers stood across the room from me, waiting for Summer to say she was done taking pictures and samples and whatever else she needed from the pile as she worked it from the top down. I recognized all of them. It made sense that the extra hands would come from my precinct. And every one of them shot me dark looks.
Some hid it better than others, but once again I was the cop who’d endangered her partner. Even the cops who hadn’t been part of the precinct when the incident with Marcus had happened and hadn’t looked at me like that before looked at me like that now. The rumors had been confirmed. I was a deadly incident waiting to happen for anyone who worked with me. It didn’t matter that Hank and I had worked together safely for four and a half years. This was my second strike and the captain was going to be hard pressed to find someone happy about being partnered with me.
Which left me with what?
Angry and sad at myself for ending up in situations like this again.
Sure, I’d been living just fine without a lot of close friends, but I hadn’t been completely ostracized. I’d still been able to go out and have beers with the handful of officers who’d been warming up to me.
Yeah, that wasn’t happening any more.
I hated to think it, but perhaps it was time I put in for a transfer. I wouldn’t be able to leave town without drawing Gideon’s attention, since the mating brand would make him aware of my location wherever I was, but maybe I wouldn’t be a pariah at a different precinct.
The idea of giving up stung. But knowing when to retreat wasn’t giving up. This was a fight I couldn’t win no matter how much I wanted to keep fighting. Better to retreat and regroup than risk making the situation worse.
The gut-churning temperature fluctuations made bile burn the back of my throat, and I feared if I stayed in the room much longer I would throw up.
Using the wall to keep my balance, I struggled to stand. A wave of dizziness washed over me, hints of darkness creeping over the edges of my vision, and the throbbing in my neck turned to stabbing pain.
God damn Gideon and his brand.
I blinked the darkness back, and walked — trying not to look like I was staggering — to the door.
Abby noticed and hurried to my side as I stepped into the hall. “I’m sure the JP agents will be here soon.”
Given how seriously Gideon must have been injured for the brand to pull so much strength from me, I wasn’t so sure. And I wasn’t at all sure how I felt about that. “I’m sure they will.”
“Should I tell them to meet us at the hospital?”
“I just need some fresh air.” And to get away from all those emotions.
I headed for the stairs, Abby at my side, her flashlight lighting the way. The temperature didn’t even out until I was back in the gym. I didn’t know if that was a testament to the strength of my empathy or the strength of all those emotions.
A flicker of electricity danced over Gideon’s brand, making my heart lurch that he was in danger again, but this time strength didn’t drain from me. Instead, a soft heat warmed my arm and seeped across my chest, muting everything, my empathy, my exhaustion, even my God damned buzz.
We stepped out the side door, and I leaned against the rough brick wall, unable to remain standing without help.
Abby stood beside me, her gaze on the sliver of moon peeking out from behind ominous clouds, her expression grim. “I don’t like what that room is saying.”
A hint of cold — her fear — shivered across my skin. “I don’t either.”
The soft heat in my arm grew and the ache in my chest, my yearning for a man— an angel I didn’t really know, swelled fully, replacing my buzz that was always nipping under my skin.
“All those bodies?” Abby shivered and the temperature dropped a few degrees more. “The Joined Parliament claimed our vampire horror movies were pure fiction, but—”
“That was definitely a horror show.” The yearning and heat increased, bleeding through Abby’s fear.
Gideon was close and coming closer. A part of me thrilled at that, but the rest was pissed. And I needed to focus on pissed or I was going to lose my mind. Hank was fighting for his life because I’d been frozen by Gideon’s brand.
Abby slid her gaze to mine,
her brown eyes dark in the dim moonlight. “Do you think this is an anomaly or something the Joined Parliament has kept hidden from us?”
“Why don’t you ask their agents?”
Abby frowned and a large gray SUV, the kind driven by the JP team, came around the corner. It pulled onto the curb and parked, half on the sidewalk, behind a cruiser.
The front passenger door opened, and Gideon got out.
My pulse stalled. All of me stalled and zeroed in on him, his strong, clean-shaven jaw, short blond hair, muscular shoulders and chest, narrow waist, and pale eyes. God, those eyes. They glowed with light, giving away his angelic nature, and I knew they were blue. The perfect blue of a cloudless summer sky. His soul called to me, and his brand heated my skin. All of me hungered for him, and I hated myself for that.
His gaze rose and locked with mine and even with the distance between us, I was falling into those pale depths and didn’t care.
Chapter 3
“Good Lord,” Abby breathed. “An angel.”
She mustn’t have been on site at the archnephilim’s attack two weeks ago when Gideon had shown up or she would have already known the head of Union City’s JP team was an angel. And while Summer, who was already at the crime scene, was also an angel, she didn’t have the same magnetic draw Gideon had.
“Wait until the incubus gets out,” I said, not wanting to talk about Gideon.
Abby’s eyebrows shot up. “There’s an incubus, too?”
Marcus got out from the driver’s seat and the yearning in my chest turned into a throbbing ache. He was just as stunning as Gideon, but where the angel was a perfect clean-cut poster boy, Marcus was dark and brooding with a swarthy complexion and perpetual five o’clock shadow that made him look wild and dangerous.
His gaze, the night stealing all the warmth from his green eyes, jumped to me as well, and the snap of sizzling attraction between us stole my breath.
It had always been like that, ever since the moment we’d first met in the squad room and I’d been assigned to be his partner.
I hadn’t known until a few weeks ago just how combustible the desire between us was. And a few days after that, just like the first time we’d been partners, he’d left without saying goodbye, leaving me to return home to my normal human life empty and cold.
It had been for my own good.
Honestly.
I just needed to figure out how to believe that.
Except in the time since I’d left Operations, I hadn’t been able to convince myself of that.
His expression hardened, and he said something. Gideon gave a tight nod, and Marcus stormed away, heading around the side of the school, making me ache with the knowledge that he didn’t even want to talk to me. He hadn’t even gotten close enough for me to pick up a hint of his emotions.
The rear passenger door opened, Jacob climbed out, and all thoughts of Marcus vanished. My attention snapped to the vampire, completely out of my control, and the compulsion of his claim made me shift forward. I needed to go to him, please him, have him command me. I wasn’t complete until he commanded me to do something, anything.
Crap. I’d hoped with time and distance the need to have him tell me what to do would have faded.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stay put. Jacob’s dark gaze — his was actually black — held me captive, and his frown made my soul weep. He wasn’t happy. He needed to be happy. The intensity in his eyes that indicated he was a vampire — something I’d seen him hide better than what he was doing now — filled the air between us with an energy that was on the verge of physically manifesting.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Abby shift, icy fear flickering over me. Her hand dipped to the Glock at her hip then her posture suddenly relaxed, and Kol stepped into my line of sight.
My thoughts stuttered as he rushed up to me — I hadn’t even seen him get out of the SUV.
“Essie, are you all right? You’re covered in blood.” Kol’s body blocked Jacob from view, releasing me from the pull of the claim — at least it had weakened enough that him being partially out of sight freed me, and I didn’t strain to see past Kol to find Jacob.
And really, it was easy to stay focused on the incubus. He was drop-dead gorgeous. All the guys were hot, but Kol always stole my breath when I looked at him — which I supposed was part and parcel for a demon who survived on sexual energy. His T-shirt was tight and left nothing to the imagination, revealing perfectly sculpted muscles, and he wore blue jeans ripped at one thigh that I didn’t doubt showed off his amazing ass… if only he’d just stand up and turn around.
He gingerly took my blood-covered hands, sending heated desire sweeping up my arms as he examined them. His black hair veiled his eyes, and when he lifted his gaze to meet mine, a hint of hellfire simmering with sexual desire burned within their dark orbs. If it hadn’t been for that, and the small horns poking out of hair that perpetually looked like he’d just woken from the most amazing sex, he’d have looked like a human. A heart-stopping twenty-something who exuded wicked sexual grace that made me think of hot nights and even hotter sex.
Abby stared at him with blatant desire, a blush bright against her pale cheeks, obvious even in the dim streetlight. I couldn’t blame her. Even having worked with him, he was still breathtaking.
“Your vest is ripped,” Kol said. “How bad is the neck?”
“Officer Shaw is fine,” Gideon said, his voice icy and hard.
“This time,” I mumbled, the words slipping out.
Kol’s eyes narrowed, close enough to hear me, but I shot a glance at Abby, hoping Kol would understand the look. I didn’t want this to be discussed, not while she was near. I didn’t want her to know I was permanently bound to Gideon or that I had other connections with the team. I didn’t want anyone to know, because then I’d have to accept the truth of my situation: that no matter how much safer it was for me to have nothing to do with the supernatural, it had pulled me in again.
Jacob stepped up beside Gideon, almost a head taller than him and twice as wide with his massive, muscular chest. With his black calf-length duster, one hand resting on his hip and the other on the grip of his Beretta, he looked every bit the part of a Wild West gunslinger. Given that he was older than a hundred, he very well could have been a gunslinger. His frown had deepened and his expression was tight with worry… or strain? I wasn’t quite sure which.
Abby’s gaze flickered back to Jacob, her fear cold on my skin. More sensual heat radiated from Kol’s hands and slid up my arms, making me ache with desire, but I got the sense his enthrallment wasn’t intended for me.
And just as I thought that, Abby’s fear warmed and her attention turned back to Kol.
“Abby McLellan,” she said, holding out her hand to Kol, her voice breathy. “Detective.”
Gideon took her hand instead and gave it a firm shake. “Your precinct called in a vampire attack.”
She shuddered. “More like a horror show.”
“And Officer Shaw’s involvement?” Gideon didn’t even glance at me, which stung more than I wanted it to.
“Do you have time for Officer Shaw’s statement?” Abby asked, pulling a notebook from her pocket.
“The JP M.E. and forensics are already on site.” Gideon now turned a frosty glare at me, not even a hint of warmth in his eyes. Yeah, he wanted to be permanently bound to me for the rest of his life as much as I did to him. Of course, I couldn’t blame him. He was in love with someone else and had just buried her, or whatever it was angels did with their dead.
His emotions were completely locked down so I wasn’t getting a sense of anything from him, but that was probably a good thing. It meant I wouldn’t be swamped with uncomfortable temperature changes from him or surrounded by mist from his grief for Zella’s passing.
“Go ahead,” he said to me.
I opened my mouth to speak—
Except I didn’t. The thought didn’t reach my body, because the command hadn’t come from Jacob.
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Jeez. I tried to fight through the compulsion to say anything, even just make a sound, but nothing came out, and all I managed to do was set off more agony in my neck with my straining.
Gideon’s eyes narrowed. “Well, officer?”
“Your statement,” Jacob said, his voice a low rumble, and the compulsion released me. Relief and joy and need swelled through me. And I hated a part of myself for having that reaction.
I gave a detailed statement, which included my observation that the female vampire hadn’t been using enhanced speed, that a Taser at its highest setting and regular ammunition hadn’t even made her stumble. The only thing I left out were the affects of Gideon’s brand. That didn’t need to go in anyone’s report. As much as I was pissed that the brand had endangered my life and Hank’s — and I really wanted to yell at Gideon for that — I had to accept that he had no control over it. Just like I didn’t. And I couldn’t tell him to stop getting hurt. His job was more dangerous than mine. Getting hurt was an inevitability in his line of work. I just had no idea how I was going to handle it if his job kept endangering me.
Which was just great. So much for venting all my frustrations on him.
Although if he kept up the frozen shoulder and the brand kept making me feel like my soul was breaking every time he talked to me in that icy tone, I might just snap anyway.
Thankfully Jacob didn’t ask me if that was everything, because then I would’ve had to mention getting shocked by Gideon’s brand and being unable to stop the vampire from biting me.
Abby was back to looking too pale and the guys were grim.
“So it’s your case, right?” Abby asked, her voice shaky, her fear again cold on my skin.
“Without a doubt.” But Gideon didn’t sound happy about that. Which I couldn’t blame him for, either. A pile of bodies and two crazed vampires looked bad for the supernatural community.
“Good.” Abby shoved her notebook back into her pocket. “If you’re done with Officer Shaw, I need to take her to the hospital to get stitches.”