Silken Inferno

by Taige Crenshaw

  “Mommy sent you this, Mr Lennox.” She held out a bottle of cranberry juice to Lennox.

  Lennox looked startled. From what Vaughn knew, it was his favourite kind of juice. Lennox looked over at Harmony. She inclined her head. Lennox took the bottle from Ebony. She held out her hand for his empty water bottle, then took off back to her mother. Vaughn watched the exchange, lifting the beer to hide his grin.

  “Not a word,” Lennox warned.

  “I wasn’t about to say a thing,” he promised.

  Vaughn straightened as Eve walked in. She gave him a finger wave and strolled over to Allure.

  “Don’t waste your time. You know Eve’s going to do as she pleases.” Lennox chuckled.

  “Shut up,” Vaughn said.

  He returned to his original position, keeping an eye on Allure and Eve.

  “You can’t keep your eyes off Ryne for a moment.” Allure laughed at Kalina.

  “Pot. Kettle. Black. You’re the same with Vaughn.”

  Allure glanced at him chatting with Lennox, then back at Kalina.

  “True. But he is such a scrumptious piece of man.” She shrugged.

  “Don’t I know it,” Kalina purred.

  “Eyes off my man.” Allure nudged her in the side.

  “Please. I’m talking about Ryne. Vaughn is nice too, but he’s not my Ryne. I’m heading over to him now. Maybe I can tempt him into the bushes.” Kalina glanced at her, then winked.

  Allure laughed as she departed.

  “You’re right. Vaughn is a scrumptious man,” Eve said.

  Allure cut her gaze to her as she walked up to her. For a moment, she envisioned snatching her bald. Eve looked startled, then threw her head back and laughed. She lowered her twinkling, gold gaze to Allure.

  “I like you, Allure. No pussy footing around,” Eve said.

  “Funny. I don’t like you much.” Allure took a sip of her beer.

  “You probably will.” Eve sounded very certain.

  “Don’t think so.”

  “Vaughn might be a scrumptious man, but he paled in comparison to Adam, his older brother. My husband,” Eve said softly.

  Allure glanced at her, then Vaughn. “He didn’t tell me he had a brother.”

  “Adam’s been gone a long time. It’s still hard for him,” Eve said.

  Allure returned her attention to her. “And you.”

  Eve shrugged. “I’m working through it.”

  They were silent for a bit. Allure drank her beer. Eve sipped her wine.

  “So I’m not up on the customs of this world yet. You want to meet for hand to hand some time?”

  “You want to fight me?” Allure asked curiously.

  “Not a fight. More of a bonding thing to become friends. Is that not how you all do it? Must be different during this time. Hmm… How do females do this bonding shit to become friends now?” Eve asked.

  “I am so going to like you.” Allure chuckled.

  “See? I knew you would.” Eve was pleased.

  “I’m up for some hand to hand. We can meet at seven tomorrow in the assassination training room,” Allure said.

  “Good. We have some plans then.” Eve patted her on the shoulder and wandered off to join Niya.

  Allure shook her head, going to Vaughn. He pulled her between his legs, continuing his conversation with Lennox. Allure listened as they discussed the leads they had been pursuing. Others came over to join them. They passed ideas around, and plans for what else they would do.

  Later, when they walked up the drive to Vaughn’s house, he tugged her with him off the path. Allure followed his urgings, and they strolled around to the back of his property. The moon reflected off the lake, making it seem majestic. Vaughn stood behind her, hugging her as they stared out at the water. Allure turned in his arms, raising her face to his.

  Vaughn kissed her gently. Allure sighed, leaning against his body. He cupped her ass, rocking her against him. She wrenched her lips from his.

  “Vaughn, I—”

  He muffled her words with his kiss. Cool air fanned over her heated skin. She frowned, confused by the breeze for a moment. Then she figured out Vaughn had stripped them. Lifting her, Vaughn sank into her pussy. Wrapping her arms around his head, she moaned. He thrust into her urgently. The friction set off an explosion of pleasure. His hard cock abraded her inner walls. His unrelenting grip on her ass pulled her harder and harder against his frame.

  Allure gasped as she came in a fierce flood of pleasure. Vaughn roared as he joined her, filling her up. Their harsh breath echoed in the silent night.

  “So much better than the bushes. They’re itchy,” Vaughn huffed.

  “You eavesdropped.” Allure smacked his shoulder.

  “You broadcast loudly when you’re thinking of sex.” Vaughn chuckled.

  “Oh my God. Did everyone hear?” Allure asked, mortified.

  “It’s only to me,” Vaughn said.

  “Is it because, by all accounts, we’re married?”

  Vaughn stiffened, guilt on his face.

  “Oh, yeah. I know all about that, buddy,” Allure said.

  “I was going to tell you.”

  “I knew when you asked me to take your mark what it meant. I might still think along human lines of becoming a couple, but I do know what mating means to other beings.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?” Vaughn asked in exasperation.

  “I enjoyed watching you squirm, trying to decide how to tell me.” Allure smirked.

  Vaughn’s eyes narrowed. “I’m going to show you the meaning of squirm.”

  A caress tickled along her inside. The violet glow coated their bodies. Allure’s eyes widened then her lids lowered to half-mast.

  “Do that again,” she purred.

  Vaughn did. She moaned. He carried her into the house.

  * * * *

  Allure absently listened as her team gave its report. Her thoughts were on Vaughn. He was very loving, fulfilling her in and out of the bedroom. When they hadn’t been trying to track a lead on those who wanted to bring down the veils, they had rediscovered each other and had found out new things about each other. Yet each time she tried to tell him how she felt, he cut her off.

  A month of him dodging. That damn aggravating man. Allure slapped her hand on the table.

  Guiltily, she glanced up. Her team looked at her strangely.

  “Sorry. Continue.”

  “We’re done,” Tempest, the Amazonian Warrior and new agent, said.

  Allure bit off a curse, then said, “Okay. Then let’s hit the training room for some practice. Fifteen minutes.”

  The team departed. Allure stood, going into her connecting bath then quickly changing her clothes. She sauntered out of the bathroom, then out of her office. Turning left, she bypassed Kalina’s office, then went down a short hall to the assassination training room. Her team was already waiting. She waited as they finished stretching. Allure moved to the centre of the room. The team stood around her in a loose circle. She glanced from one to the other. Each practice session they worked on various things to keep sharp.

  “Displacement!” she shouted.

  In a blink, she was alone. Allure was pleased that she could not by a waver of air see any of the team. She knew some of the races did not have as strong an ability as others to cloak themselves.

  “Stealth!” she commanded.

  The air didn’t stir as Allure waited calmly. The air shifted, giving her a sense of where they were. Let’s see who is fast enough to avoid a direct hit. She slid back, conjuring paint, then threw her hands wide as she released it in a blast over the entire room. The paint dropped to the floor. Allure stopped her backward slide.

  “Reveal!” she called.

  Her team uncloaked, now standing in a straight line. Allure walked down the line, back and front, checking them carefully for any paint. Noting that there was none, even on the newer members of the team, she was pleased.

  “Hand to hand.” She paired off tea
m members.

  Standing at the sidelines, she kept a mental list of each agent’s weaknesses and strengths. As they continued to spar, Allure worked out how best to handle those weaknesses and change them to strengths.

  “Allure, we have a lead.” Vaughn’s voice came from behind her.

  “Another half an hour of hand to hand,” she told her team.

  Turning, Allure changed her clothes with thought and went to join him. She shielded their words before she asked, “What have you got?”

  “I’ve been viewing the tapes.”

  She nodded. They had reviewed them so often she could recite word for word the interrogation of the prisoners.

  “I figured out what bugged me. Each and every one of them mentioned the Seven Double S. It got me wondering why. And the more I watched, the more it puzzled me, until I watched the first prisoner’s tape and noticed he also mentioned it started in AA. Then it hit me. The Andes. What better place to hide than in the Andes, one of the world’s longest continental mountain ranges? Then I thought further to that Seven Double S. What mountain is part of the Andes, and also has an A, and is known by a bigger name?”

  Allure shook her head. “I have no clue.”

  “Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas. It’s located in the Andes mountain range, in the Argentine province of Mendoza. It’s also known as one of the Seven Summits. Seven Double S. That has to be what it means. The Seven Summits. The seven highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Since he said it started in AA, we should start at Aconcagua. If what I think is right, we go in order by highest to lowest elevation.” Vaughn sounded excited.

  Allure didn’t follow how he had put it all together.

  “Are you sure about this? How’d you come to this conclusion from those words?”

  “It’s what a tracker does—take an obscure theory and find the relevance in it. I could be wrong.” Vaughn shrugged.

  For some reason, she didn’t think he was.

  “Let’s go then.”

  Vaughn touched her and took them away. In moments, they were there. Allure looked around the beauteous Aconcagua Mountain. From the highest peak, she saw the massive landscape.

  “Do you feel that?” Vaughn asked.

  “Yes. It’s a residue of energy, but I don’t recognise what being made it,” Allure said.

  “I do.” Vaughn was grim.

  “What is it?”

  “Let’s check the other mountains first. I want to be sure,” Vaughn said.

  She went along with him. She knew Vaughn was meticulous when he worked, getting all the facts before voicing his thoughts. They went in order of elevation to the various mountains of the Seven Summits. At each, she felt the same signature. Vaughn got grimmer and grimmer. At Kosciuszko in Australia, their last stop, Vaughn squatted down, resting on the balls of his feet. He placed his hand palm down on the ground. He shut his eyes. Allure felt the brush of energy against her skin. Vaughn stood abruptly, looking at her.

  “We’ve got to tell Christos. We’ve got a name.”

  “You haven’t told me what’s going on,” Allure said.

  “Not here. I can’t be sure if the name will bring his awareness. It has to be spoken carefully.” Vaughn touched her.

  Before she could blink, they were in Christos’ office.

  “What’s going on, Vaughn?” Christos raised an eyebrow.

  “Why was I so rudely summoned?” Lennox demanded.

  He detached from the shadows. Allure was surprised to see him. Eve popped into the room, quickly followed by Niya.

  “What’s going on, Vaughn?”

  “I have the name of the one behind the plan to make A’rm Ageddon rise. It’s Blagden,” Vaughn said.

  “No. It’s not possible.” Lennox stumbled back.

  “Who is Blagden?” Allure demanded.

  “Shadower King,” Vaughn said grimly.

  Allure glanced at Lennox, shocked.

  “He could not have become Xiruis and none of us know.” Lennox shook his head.

  From what Allure had been told, the Xiruis was the power mad, evil side of the Shadowers.

  “It’s his signature that I felt. Didn’t Kalina and Ryne say they were attacked by Shadowers?”

  “Yes,” Lennox said softly.

  “Your king has turned. When have you last been in contact with them?” Vaughn asked.

  “I haven’t been in touch for a long time. They have little use for me,” Lennox said.

  “Something is going on in the Shadow World. Why is Blagden trying to bring A’rm Ageddon back?” Vaughn demanded.

  “I know,” Eve said.

  Vaughn turned to her. Allure stared at Eve. She sighed heavily, pushing her hair back from her face.

  “He’s her mate.”

  “Blagden doesn’t have a mate,” Lennox said.

  “They never completed the meld. A’rm Ageddon turned evil before they could. He helped us contain her,” Eve said.

  “No Shadower would do that to his true shadow mate.”

  “He had to! She had already turned!” Eve cried.

  “No. If he had shadow melded with her, he could have saved her,” Lennox said.

  Eve shook her head. “You don’t get it. We are more powerful than you Shadowers. A’rm Ageddon would have used their meld to control his people. He helped contain her to save you all.”

  “So he knows where she is,” Lennox said.

  “No, he doesn’t. He was too distraught after, so we handled hiding her, then took the knowledge from all of us. It’s in the books. Without them all, we cannot break her tie or find her. That doesn’t matter now. We have no way of doing either,” Eve said. Her face was distraught.

  “He’s the one with the book in the other world,” Allure said.

  Eve glanced at her. “He is. With him behind this, we can only try and keep him from reaching the rest of the books.”

  “None of us plan for him to get them, but we can’t just sit idly by, either,” Allure stated.

  “And we won’t,” Christos said.

  “I must go to my people to see what’s going on,” Lennox said.

  “Go, but be careful. We don’t know who all is involved in this, or how the Shadower clan is doing,” Christos said.

  “I’ll find out,” Lennox promised.

  Shadows cloaked him then he was gone.

  “Eve, you’re going to tell me everything you know about A’rm Ageddon. This time don’t leave anything out.”

  She nodded abruptly.

  “You all keep looking for Blagden and anyone else who is involved,” Christos addressed Allure and Vaughn.

  They nodded, then left his office. Allure accompanied Vaughn to his office. He sat heavily in his chair. She touched his shoulder. Vaughn pulled her into his lap.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m worried about Lennox going to the Shadow World.”

  “Lennox can take care of himself,” Allure said.

  “He can, but—”

  Allure rubbed his shoulders. “If you’re so worried, we can go after him.”

  “No. He’d be pissed off if we did,” Vaughn said absently.

  “So what do you want us to do?” Allure rested against him.

  “We’ll keep looking as Christos said. Now that we know who’s behind it, we can narrow our search, speak to the right people who might know,” Vaughn said.

  Allure stood. Vaughn joined her.

  “What’s the plan?” Ryne asked, striding into the office.

  Kalina followed behind him and then the rest of the agents on the A’rm Ageddon investigation. The rise of power as Kalina muffled the sound of their discussion tingled along Allure’s senses.

  “You, Kalina, Allure and I will check with some of our contacts.” Vaughn gestured to each person as he spoke. “Cipher, I want you to take Storm and Harmony with you. Have them talk to each interviewer and interrogator. Then you, Cipher, only, talk with the prisoners. Megara, I want you to go over the t
ranscript and tapes of the interviews, then coordinate with Harmony and Storm. Compare what the interviewers and interrogators said. After, you all and Cipher go over his talks with the prisoners. The rest of you, research everything you can get me on the Shadowers and Blagden. They’re a secretive world, but find me as much as you can. Once Lennox returns, he might be able to give you more.”

  They dispersed. Ryne and Kalina stayed with Allure and Vaughn. They coordinated whom they would be talking with, then left. Allure followed Vaughn as he walked out of the office.

  Chapter Six

  Vaughn led the latest set of prisoners to the holding area. He handed them off to security.

  “Go home. I’ll meet you there,” Vaughn said to Allure who stood by his side handing off her own set of prisoners.

  She nodded, tiredly shimmering out. Vaughn sat heavily in a chair, filling out the paperwork for the prisoners. They had been hunting leads for days and were finally getting some results. Yet the more they found, and the more people they caught, it seemed as if there wasn’t an end in sight.

  “More prisoners? You guys are on a roll. Are they to be held for interview with Cipher like the others?” T’ilus asked cheerfully.

  “Yes.” Ryne sounded as burnt out as Vaughn.

  Vaughn glanced to his left studying Ryne who sat in the chair across from him. Boy, I’m really wiped to have missed him sitting there. Ryne’s face was strained.

  “More Xiruis,” Vaughn stated.

  “Yes. They were more ancient than the others. I sent Kalina home. She had to take the brunt of the backlash from my power.”

  Which Vaughn took to mean Ryne had had to go ghost. Even with Kalina as his mate, Ryne going ghost so often was tiring. Kalina tempered it, but it drained her reserves too.

  “No word from Lennox yet?” Ryne asked.

  “None. He should have been back by now,” Vaughn said.

  Uneasiness filled his gut. For Lennox to be gone this long there had to be a reason. It had been three weeks with no word from him. They’d finally got permission from the inter-council to go into the in-between after him.

  “Are the weapons ready yet?” Ryne asked tiredly.

  “Delko said give him two more days.”

  Ryne nodded. They filled out the papers in silence. Once done, they parted. Vaughn shimmered directly to his shower. He was not going to bed smelling like the prisoners. He cleaned himself on automation. His thoughts turned to Lennox.