Revealed by Desire

by Melissa Stevens

  “You're busy. I'll come another time.”

  “No.” Ricky stood and pulled the blanket around his shoulders. “I need to go home. I need a shower, clean clothes, and to try to get some sleep.” He shuffled toward the door, Rachel right behind him. She looked up at Chris with pleading eyes.

  “Just let me get him settled, and I'll be back. Can you wait a little while?”

  “I can. I've got a few calls to make, but I can wait.”

  “Good.” She followed Ricky to the door. “I'll be back as soon as I can. Make yourself at home.”

  Chris watched as she herded her brother out, followed him, and closed the door, then pulled out his cell and dialed Adam.

  “What can I do for you, sir?” his investigator said as he answered the phone.

  “I have been told Emily's dead.”

  “I'm sorry to hear that, sir. The source?”

  “An unknown, but I trust him on this. I want you to find Kyle. He's been spending time near the dam.”

  “Yes, sir. What do you want me to do once I find him?”

  “Take him into custody, along with anyone and everyone he's with. I don't care if they're dragons, djinni, werewolves, vampires, or angels, take them all.” They discussed details and disconnected, then Chris called Maggie and told her to clear his schedule for the next week, reschedule everything she could, and let him know if there was anything that couldn't be canceled, or rescheduled, without giving her any more details. He knew it was going to come out soon, and he would have to deal with Tiffany, her grief, and the funeral arrangements.

  Chris may not have claimed Emily as his sister the way she had claimed him as a brother, but that was mostly because of the stubborn nature of teenagers and males in general. Besides, by not giving Kyle whatever he was after, she had proven her loyalty to Chris. The only way he had left to honor that was to give her the farewell she deserved. Chris sat on the sofa, buried his head in his hands, and let the emotions he'd been holding back for the last hour go.

  21

  Rachel was so excited her brother was back that she nearly danced her way to the elevator on her way back to her apartment, where Chris waited. Thinking of Chris made her stumble as she realized how badly he must be hurting. She had gotten her brother back, Chris hadn’t been as lucky.

  Emily was gone.

  Rachel had stayed with Ricky while he had showered and eaten. He swore he was headed straight to bed and pushed her to go. She didn't want to let him out of her sight but knew hovering would only piss him off. Now she headed back to her apartment to try to comfort the other man in her life. The one that, if given the opportunity to, she would tie her life to for eternity. She wondered briefly if weres mated for life, like dragons did, but dismissed the thought before reaching the floor she shared with Teya and Neo. Now wasn't the time for that.

  At her apartment door, she pressed her hand to the scanner and pushed the door open once the lock flashed green. Inside, she found Chris sitting on the couch, his head buried in his hands. Cold relief washed through her. She'd been afraid he’d only told her he would stay in order to get her to go, and that he would be gone when she returned.

  She closed the door, and Chris looked up. His eyes were dry, but she could see the streaks where he'd wiped away his tears. This was good. He had let out some of the emotions he had locked away while they questioned Ricky about what had happened. Since he was a Fraction leader, that hadn't surprised her. It was much how Teya would have handled things. Now though, he could let go some, but if he trusted her enough to let her see it was the question.

  “I'm so sorry.” Rachel went to Chris and hugged him. “I had hoped we'd find them both alive. I'm sorry Emily didn't make it.” She didn't know what else to say. Chris's arms wrapped around her and held on tight for a long moment. “Do you want to talk about her?”

  “No.”

  She felt him shake his head where his face was buried against the top of her head. Chis straightened and stepped back a little but took her offered hand. Curious what he was thinking, she gazed up at his face. “I was thinking about this before, and what's happened this evening has just made me more certain.”

  Rachel's heart sunk and dread knotted in her stomach. Was he going to tell her that he didn't want to see her anymore? “What?”

  “I know it's not traditional, and there will be a lot of details we need to talk about and work out, but I want to make the mating between us work. I want you to move in with me. Or I'd be willing to move in here, if that's what you want. I don't care; I just don't want to waste any more time. I want to be with you.”

  “Move in?” Rachel blinked at him a moment, stunned. Her heart jumped and she couldn't breathe for several seconds. She nodded. “Eventually, I'll want to bind the mating, but I'll take moving in for now.”

  Chris pulled her close and kissed her hard. She returned his kiss with as much passion and enthusiasm as she had in her. It was no small amount.

  “Bind?” he asked after the kiss. “What do you mean bind the mating?” Rachel stared at Chris a moment, unsure if he was serious.

  “Yeah, bind. Dragons have a spell that binds two mates together so that, should one mate be a normal, they don't die after a normal life span, leaving the dragon alone for generations to come. The spell lets both mates live long lives together. The downside is, that being bound together, when one dies, the other dies as well. Do weres not have something similar?” Rachel frowned. How could weres not have some way to bind mates?

  “I don't know.” Chris looked away for a moment then turned back to her. “Obviously, my parents weren't mated. Later, Dad was involved with Tiffany, they said they were mates, but she's still alive, and he's gone. I've never heard anything about weres binding to mates. That doesn't mean it's not done, just that I don't know anything about it. I wonder if your spell will work on me?”

  Rachel's heart raced. Chris had said will work, that meant he would be willing to try. “I'm willing to find out if you are.”

  22

  Chris looked around as he let himself into his penthouse apartment, wondering what Rachel would change once she arrived. Not that he cared. He had gotten rid of a few things when he’d moved into the apartment and had them replaced, but more because he didn't like the memories they evoked than him liking the new pieces. Rachel was welcome to do whatever she wanted to their living space if she was willing to share it with him. Heading for the bedroom, he thought about what he needed to do get done before the meeting he'd scheduled with Teya that afternoon to discuss a treaty, which would formalize an alliance between the two Fractions. The in-house phone rang as he stripped out of his shirt.

  “Walters,” he picked it up.

  “It's Adam. I'm at your office.”

  “Come on upstairs, I'll buzz you in.” Chris grabbed a clean shirt from the closet and pulled it on as he went to let the other man in. “Tell me what you know,” Chris walked barefooted into his kitchen while his visitor followed. Chris started a pot of coffee then stared into the refrigerator, not really seeing what was inside.

  “I have Kyle and a couple of our other wolves, there was a demon working with them, but I was unable to catch him.” Adam shook his head a moment.

  “Have they said anything?”

  “I've not questioned them. I threw them in a cell down stairs, and I haven't been back. They're not talking to each other though; I've been watching them through the cameras.” Adam was quiet a moment. “You sure she's dead?”

  “As sure as I can be without a body. Considering Kyle is the one behind the black market for human flesh, we may never find her body.” Chris shook his head and filled a mug with coffee. He lifted the pot in Adam's direction. “Want a cup?”

  “Sure.”

  Chris poured a second cup and passed it to him, and then told him about Ricky's call and about what he had told Chris and Rachel the night before.

  “Any idea what Kyle wanted from her?” Adam asked after a while.

  “Nope, but I'd l
ike you to try to find out. Question him, torture him, I don't care. I just want answers. If you can't get them, I'll go talk to him myself.” Chris clenched his jaw as he thought about what Kyle had done to Emily and how badly he wanted to see that Kyle suffered the same fate. But revenge wasn't always the smartest move, even if it would be satisfying.

  “What's your next step?” Adam sipped his coffee and watched Chris.

  “Now that we have Kyle and the others, I go talk to Tiffany and let her know her daughter won't be coming back. Without a body, we can't have a big funeral. It would raise questions from the human police, but we can still honor her for what she did. I'll have to work that out with Tiffany.”

  “I don't envy you that one.”

  “I'm not looking forward to it, but it has to be done.” Chris sighed. “The sooner, the better too. I need to be back by six to let Rachel in. I don't think she'll bring too much to start, but she'll be moving in before long. That reminds me, as soon as we get the Kyle situation taken care of, I need to talk to you about the security here.”

  “Yes, sir.” Adam lifted one brow and watched Chris but didn't say anything more as he sipped the steaming coffee.

  “I don’t know what I’m gonna say.” Chris shook his head and set his mug on the counter. “It’s not going to be an easy conversation to have with Tiffany, but I guess I’d better get to it.” He finished his coffee, showed Adam out and went to break the news to his step-mother.

  23

  Rachel stepped into Chris's penthouse apartment for the first time and was dazzled by the lights of the city below. It was a view she only saw when she was flying high over the city. She had to be careful about that these days and hadn't flown anywhere near the city in years for fear of being seen.

  “What do you think?” Chris asked, anxious. “Do you like it, could you live here?”

  “I love it.” She turned away from the breathtaking view out the glass wall and faced him.

  “Are you sure? You can change whatever you want. I don't care what the place looks like.”

  “I don't either,” Rachel moved close and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I care that I'm here with you.” Craning her neck back, she smiled up at him. “This place could be a cabin in the woods, or a shack in the desert, and I wouldn't care as long as you were there too.”

  Chris chuckled, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed the end of her nose. “I'm glad you feel that way, but I'm serious. This going to be your home, I want you to be comfortable. Do with it what you will.”

  “All right. But first, give me the grand tour.” Rachel winked. “Especially the bedroom.”

  “I can do that.” Chris picked her up, swung her into his arms, and carried her into the bedroom.

  NEXT BOOK IN THE COLLECTION

  THE FIGHT

  by Savannah J. Frierson

  Order Now!

  Was it possible for an angel to get too old?

  Dominion angel Jaie pondered this from the bottom of a seven-mile hole in the middle of the Mojave Desert, the stars gorgeous in the midnight-black sky above him. He’d just gotten his ass handed to him by a damn daemon lackey! It didn’t matter if he’d ultimately vanquished said daemon, Jaie wasn’t supposed to go out like this.

  Groaning, Jaie carefully raised himself on his elbows, hissing as one of his wings hung grotesquely along his back. He hissed. He’d injured this very wing not very long ago in a much quicker, yet much more fraught attack. Nevertheless, the wing hurt worse now than it had then.

  “Great,” he muttered to himself. He definitely needed to take a break.

  Sighing, he climbed up the hole, his wing moderately healed by the time he crested the lip. He shot to the sky, the hole and crater he’d left closing up behind him. Luckily, he’d crashed far enough away from the city that it would only feel tremors that were easily ignored. The last thing any of them needed was “Breaking News” addresses about an unanticipated earthquake in an area where there were no fault lines.

  Jaie stretched out his wings as he flew, one only able to spread completely, and grasped his scepter tightly in his least-injured hand. He was incredibly sore, exhausted, and irritated—things an angel of his age and caliber also shouldn’t feel.

  I told you not to provoke it, but you went looking for a fight anyway.

  Jaie pursed his lips as he landed on Aminata’s balcony. She was already there and waiting, a healing kit at the ready.

  The fight found me, Jaie argued back, but then groaned at the fact he was arguing with Aminata Fisher in his head when she was standing right before her. In fact, she arched one of her eyebrows in silent judgment. He simply grinned and kissed her forehead for a long, lingering moment.

  “Did you vanquish the foe?” Aminata asked in a very bad RP accent.

  “It took longer than it should have,” Jaie admitted, scowling at her attempt to mock him as he folded his scepter back into the ring he wore on his right thumb. Through the balcony glass doors he could see her dog standing at attention, her tail wagging in anticipation of greeting him. He smiled and touched his nose to the top of Aminata’s head.

  “We must go inside so I may greet Bot.”

  Aminata chuckled and wrapped a small arm around his waist. “Yes. We gotta finish patching up that wing too.”

  He let her guide him inside. Bot was an excellently trained canine, so she didn’t bound up at him once he was fully in her sights. Instead, the dog waited for her mistress’s permission to greet the angel. Upon receiving it, Bot gingerly hopped up on the couch and cuddled into Jaie’s lap, letting out a lusty sigh that seemed to convey relief.

  “She’s a much more emotionally sensitive dog now,” Aminata said matter-of-factly, feeling her way across the Braille labels of the bottles to find the ones she needed. Jaie’s fingers twitched with the urge to assist her, but he remained in place. The entire reason he’d given her this healing kit was so he didn’t have to go back to the angel realm’s healing chambers unless absolutely necessary. That meant she would have to learn what was what and how to apply the salves to him on her own. There might be times he used the entirety of his focus and energy coming to her and wouldn’t be able to help at all. And although this hadn’t been one of those times, practice always made perfect.

  “Or is it you are more sensitive to the fact she has always been?” Jaie countered with a raised, inky eyebrow.

  Aminata found the bottle she sought but her fingers stilled as she considered the thought. “Perhaps. That makes sense. I gotta say, Jaie, that ever since I’ve come fully into these Gifts, things have been very overwhelming.”

  “That is to be expected,” Jaie said, carefully pulling off his shirt so Aminata could apply the salve. Her hands were warm while the salve was cool. He didn’t flinch at the warring sensations. Instead, he sank into her ministrations, his wing drooping as the muscle beneath relaxed.

  “I got it, by the way,” Jaie said after a few moments of quiet between them. Bot was dozing in his lap and he drew his hand along the dog’s soft fur.

  “I told you that you would defeat the daemon,” Aminata said, completely unsurprised. “What would have been different is you getting hurt. Again.”

  “What is a little pain when I have you to soothe it away?”

  “Hmm,” Aminata intoned. Her hands moved from his shoulder blades, where his wings began, down his flanks. “You don’t have to hurt yourself for me to touch you.”

  He froze and heard her inhale sharply. He stopped petting Bot and slowly removed his hands from the dog, hands that were now clenched in fists.

  “Do I not?”

  Her silence roared in his ears. He turned to look at her, but she didn’t meet his gaze. She could, though. She could see him because he made it so, despite her blindness. She could see everything she needed to see regarding how he felt about her, but she couldn’t handle the truth. Or, perhaps, it was he who couldn’t.

  “You are fighting the inevitable,” Jaie said softly, sensing that fact deep in hi
s soul.

  “I’m trying to keep you alive,” Aminata countered, standing now and gathering the healing kit. Bot lifted her head from Jaie’s lap, sensing her mistress was on the move, but the rest of her remained in place. Jaie settled a hand on the dog’s flank, feeling the soft, warm fur rise and fall with Bot’s breathing. Nevertheless, his eyes were completely on Aminata as she placed the healing kit in a cabinet in her kitchen. He could see the slight tremble in her hands, the minute furrow of her brows. Her face was full of scars now, some that were still iridescent gold while most were iridescent blue. She’d been using her gifts with much greater frequency and she must be in excruciating pain. She was granting too many wishes, all in an effort to fight a battle that didn’t really belong to her.

  All because he’d asked for her aid all of those months ago.

  He patted Bot in a signal. The dog yawned, stretched, then left Jaie’s lap to trot to one of several doggy beds in the condo. Aminata lived in La Cascade, one of the oldest and most lucrative casinos on the strip. Orion, the oldest and most powerful vampire Fraction leader in Las Vegas, owned the property and was Aminata’s boss. Not only had he generously offered Aminata and her friend, Melody Marshall, housing in addition to their salaries for broadcasting their radio program “Clarity with Amie,” Orion had also renovated Aminata’s condo to make it more accommodating for her blindness. Granted, this renovation didn’t happen until after the daemon attack that had shaved millennia off Jaie’s life, but better late than never.

  He couldn’t help his shudder at the memory of it, however, and he refused to feel shame about that. Seeing that amount of power from an untried djinni on his behalf was among the most humbling experiences of his very long life, one he would never forget or take for granted. She’d gotten into the daemon’s mind and confused it, had it questioning orders it’d been automatically following; and in that moment’s hesitation, Jaie had had the opening he’d needed to defeat it.