by Virna DePaul
He wasn’t very tall. A little taller than Dex. Shorter than Caleb. Unlike most of his kind, he wasn’t particularly muscular. His body bordered on thin. She knew it was powerful, but a stranger wouldn’t necessarily think so. Even so, Ramsey’s appearance was instantly compelling. His face was equal parts angelic and devilish. He had classically honed features that made him look pretty on first glance until you really looked into his eyes and saw the shadows there. Not shadows of despair but of challenge. Hedonism. Desire. No boundaries. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing every dark, secret fantasy you’d ever had and knowing he was the person who could give it to you. But only, like he’d just said, if you were willing to crawl for him first.
She no longer was. “I’m a different person now, Ramsey. Emotionally balanced. Healthy, some might say. For a wraith, anyway. I’ve even joined forces with the good guys. Can you believe it?”
He straightened and shook his head. “As a matter of fact, I can’t. You never liked taking orders, Wraith, even in the bedroom. I remember how long it took to get you to break. To surrender yourself to me. Do you remember how good it felt when you finally did?”
Wraith tilted her head. “Oddly enough, all I can remember is how good it felt when I finally learned the truth about you. Because it broke the hold you had on me once and for all.”
“Not quite a clean break, I suppose, since here you are. Home once more.”
“I’m not back for long, and I’m only here for information. When I get it, you’ll never see me again.”
He shook his head and tsked. “Now that’s just mean.” He sneered at her and jerked his head toward the raised stage in the center of the room. “I’ve missed you, Wraith. You still dance?”
Dance? Strip, he meant. Memories of leering faces and sweaty palms came at her like a hail of bullets. “Sure,” she snorted. “I still let guys who get off on other people’s pain use me for their own perverted pleasure, too.”
“Hmmm.” He walked toward the stage and vaulted up to palm one of the poles. “I’ve never found another wraith who could move like you do. Show me.”
Wraith conjured up an image of herself gyrating against a pole, completely naked. But instead of remembering the way Ramsey and his customers had watched her, she imagined Caleb as the sole member of the audience. She felt a thrill of arousal, but it disappeared when Ramsey focused his gaze on her crotch. She shook her head.
“Tell you what. You strip and do a little dance for me. Then when you’re done, you can tell me what you know about felines being raped. And don’t even try telling me you don’t know what I’m talking about. Three victims, three clubs, all within a ten-mile radius of this place. You know something, all right.”
One side of Ramsey’s mouth curved up as he rested his cheek against the pole. “Still as smart as ever, my dear. And of course I know something. The question is, why on earth would I tell you?”
FIFTEEN
An hour and a half after checking into his hotel room, Caleb was at the Bureau’s Los Angeles headquarters, in a private conference room with Mahone and Dex. Wraith still hadn’t shown up.
“It’s too damn dangerous. I don’t like it,” Dex said for what seemed the hundredth time. His persistence wasn’t half as surprising, however, as the message he was trying to jam down their throats. Caleb wondered not for the first time if he’d misjudged the were—his blatant flirting with Felicia aside, Caleb had truly believed Dex viewed the Para-Ops team’s three female members in a platonic manner. Even when he’d rubbed himself all over Wraith in Korea, Caleb had suspected it had been just to get a rise out of him. Which it had.
Mahone sighed. “It’s not like I’m thrilled, either, but I don’t think you’re giving Lucy enough credit. She can handle herself. Hell, she can psychically push someone away if he gets too close.”
“You know as well as I do that her powers are limited when it comes to living matter. What more if she’s drugged up on something someone slips into her drink?”
“We won’t let someone get close enough to hurt her,” Caleb insisted, talking over both Mahone and the were. “Either physically or by spiking her damn drink with some drug.” He turned to Dex. “Besides, do you have any other suggestions? Are you going to try and pass yourself off as a female feline? Because that’s about as likely as Wraith or me being able to pull it off.”
Dex’s answer was to flip him off.
The sound of the door opening made them all jerk around. Wraith shot each of them a reproving glare. “You’re lucky Lucy isn’t hearing this conversation, or she’d knock all your heads together.” She shut the door with an audible click. Crossing her arms over her chest, she stared at each of them in turn.
Wraith looked as cool and confident as she always did. Under her gaze, Mahone flushed. Dex wouldn’t quite meet Wraith’s gaze. Caleb wanted to smile at Wraith’s effect on them.
“What exactly is the problem here?” Wraith drawled. “Lucy can handle parachuting into North Korea, but she’ll be in mortal danger if she goes into an L.A. nightclub? If that’s how little you think of her, why the hell did you put her on the team in the first place?”
“These aren’t just any clubs, Wraith. You know that better than any of us,” Dex growled.
Wraith feigned shock. Then she narrowed her eyes and strode brashly toward Dex. “That’s right, Dex. It’s a sex club.” Leaning toward him, she made a big show of talking in his ear, pseudo-whispering, “Where people do the nasty in all kinds of wicked ways.” Straightening, she stepped back and planted her hands on her hips. “Don’t act like the thought shocks you down to your lily-white core, you hypocrite.” Her gaze shot to Mahone and then to Caleb. He struggled to stifle a grin. “That goes double for you two morally upstanding angels, as well.”
Caleb’s amusement vanished at the pure disdain in Wraith’s voice. Sure, he’d boasted at being an unrepentant lady’s man, and would often fall back on that as his cover, but he wasn’t sexually immoral. Not by a long shot.
“We’re not talking about shocking me,” Dex said. His fangs, unlike a vamp’s, didn’t retract, and his long incisors made for an interesting sight when coupled with his fierce glower. “We’re talking about shocking Lucy.”
Openmouthed, Wraith stared at him. “You are shitting me.” She looked at Caleb. “Am I actually having this conversation? You boneheads are afraid of shocking Lucy? Where do you think she’s been living her whole life?”
“She is young,” Caleb conceded before running a hand through his hair.
“She’s twenty-two,” Wraith retorted. “Technically, I’m only ten.”
Dex snorted. “A very experienced ten. If it were you, I’d know you could take care of yourself. Hell, I’d feel more sorry for the drug pushers than for you.”
“Enough,” Mahone snapped. He pointed a finger at Dex. “You’ve voiced your concerns. Now we’re going to move past them. The First Lady is meeting with the feline Queen as we speak in an effort to ease tension between the races. The President is considering forming a task force comprised of both federal and local law enforcement in the event the Para-Ops team fails to make headway on this mission. That is not going to happen. Lucy is a member of this team. The team’s mission is to infiltrate the club scene and apprehend a serial rapist. With some makeup, Lucy’s the best feline bait we have, and she’s agreed it’s our greatest chance of making quick progress in the case. However, I agree, special preparations need to be made. Lucy herself—”
“Lucy would do almost anything if she thought it would help someone,” Dex said. “Even put her head on a chopping block, which is what you’re essentially asking her to do.”
“Where is this coming from, Dex?” Wraith asked, looking like she was confused. “Lucy has as much right to go on this mission as you do. So she’s not a super-badass like the two of us—”
Affronted, Caleb opened his mouth, but she held up her hand, cutting him off. The sight of that imperious hand made his chest puff out and urged him to
grab her by the wrist, drag her out of the room, and show her what a badass he could be—only with her, it would be in bed. With great effort, he shut his mouth and waved his hand in a gesture for her to proceed.
“When we’re on the job, we take care of our own,” she said. “And Lucy’s one of ours.”
“An interesting statement coming from someone who was ready to walk away from the team yesterday,” Dex shot out.
That shut Wraith up for a couple seconds. She didn’t look pleased, but then Dex had simply stated what everyone already knew. Wraith glanced briefly at Caleb before responding to Dex. “I’m here now. You trust me to take care of myself in her place? Then trust me to take care of her. I’m going to be right there with her. And you guys are going to be covering our backs. All we’re doing is a little low-key surveillance, trying to get the drop on a cowardly drug pusher who needs to knock out females in order to get laid. Compared to our last mission, this one should be quick and easy.”
Dex said nothing. Growling, he walked out of the room instead.
“Welcome back, by the way,” Mahone said. “Don’t walk away from the team again, Wraith. Because it’ll be the last time you do.”
For a minute, she stared at the man, her expression slightly troubled. Somehow Caleb knew the look wasn’t about Lucy or Dex or anything else that had just gone on, including Mahone’s threat. It made Caleb’s nerves jump to attention.
“So,” Caleb said, testing. “Where’ve you been, Wraith?”
She turned, her version of a go-to-hell smile splitting her face. “I told you. Looking up old friends.”
“Monroe?” he growled.
She pressed a hand to her chest, right where her heart should have been. “Is that a note of jealousy I hear, Caleb? Afraid Ramsey used our short time together to reintroduce me to the L.A. nightclub scene in all its wicked glory?” She said “wicked” in the same taunting tone she’d said “nasty” to Dex. Caleb’s need for dominance rose to the surface. He was far more easygoing than Dex or their vampire leader, Knox Devereaux, but he wasn’t a sissy-boy. It was time Wraith figured that out. He straightened and walked toward her, hearing Mahone’s weary sigh but ignoring him.
“No,” he said softly.
“Why not?”
He’d warned Wraith not to push him earlier, but obviously she hadn’t gotten the message.
“Because,” he said, even as he kept coming at her, forcing her to move away from him until her back was against the door. He planted his palms on either side of her head. “You still have the look of a female who hasn’t been fucked in a good, long time and needs it really bad. And if you’re not careful, honey, you’re going to get the fucking you’ve clearly been asking for.”
They stared at each other, neither one blinking, for what seemed like hours. Days. In the end, she blinked. She tried to cover it with another disdainful smile and a glib, “Real nice, O’Flare. Get real and get away from me,” but it was a blink all the same. He knew it. And so did she.
With a satisfied smile, he pushed away from her, not missing her mumbled, “Cocky bastard.” When he arched a brow, ready to call her bluff yet again, she turned to Mahone, who’d been watching them intently.
“So it’ll just be the four of us? You’re not bringing in subs for Felicia and Knox?”
Mahone pursed his lips, then picked up his jacket from where he’d hung it on the back of a chair. “For this assignment, four seems more than enough to get the job done. If I’m wrong, tell me now.” He looked pointedly at Caleb, who remained silent.
Forcing his gaze away from Wraith, he asked, “Why was Lucy already briefed?”
“Excuse me?” Mahone asked.
Caleb smiled. He didn’t buy Mahone’s innocent act for one second. “Why was she briefed separately from the rest of us? Granted, being used as the primary bait entitled her to a heads-up, or at least a chance to decline, but why isn’t she here now? Where is she?”
Mahone looked away and moved to the other side of the room to gather his files. “She had business to attend to, but she’ll be here soon.”
Dex walked back in the room, leaving the door open. It was clear he’d been listening the whole time from the hallway. The wolf had exceptional hearing. “What business does she have to attend to?” he asked.
Yet another uncharacteristic question. Caleb figured.
Mahone apparently thought so, too. “What’s going on here, Dex? You and Lucy got something going on that I don’t know about?”
“No,” Dex said. “We don’t. Not the way you’re thinking.”
Did Caleb imagine it, or was there a flicker of relief in Mahone’s eyes just then? Maybe, but Dex kept talking, rerouting his attention.
“Regardless, what makes you think Lucy can play the femme fatale? Or am I missing something here? She’s a virgin.”
Wraith rounded on Dex. “How the hell would you know that?”
“How the hell could you not?”
“Let me guess, you’re such a stud, you can just sense whether a woman’s been fucked, right?” Although she spoke to Dex, she glanced at Caleb, apparently including him in the question.
Caleb sure hoped it wasn’t for support. He shrugged sheepishly and said, “I’d put money on it.”
She made a frustrated sound. “And?”
“And felines, even feline virgins, are intensely sexual creatures,” he explained. “Their bodies force that upon them at an early age. Hell, once they pass the age of sixteen, they need sex on a regular basis or it causes them physical pain. Why do you think they go to these clubs in the first place?”
“If I didn’t know better—that rape is about power, not sex—I’d almost wonder why someone is even bothering raping felines,” Dex muttered. “When in heat, felines aren’t often sexually discriminating—”
“God, you’re sounding like someone I heard on TV the other day. Are you actually saying what I think you are? That these felines deserved to be raped because their race is sexually promiscuous or—”
Dex’s eyes widened. “No!”
“—that a feline rape isn’t a big deal?”
Caleb’s eyebrows shot up. Where the hell was that coming from? Because neither he nor Dex had said that, and neither had anyone else in this room. “You’re way out of line, Wraith. That wasn’t what Dex was—”
Wraith turned toward him. “Of course, you know only too well the benefits of sleeping with a feline, don’t you, Caleb? And not just any feline, but the feline princess.”
Caleb, Dex, and Mahone fell silent. Ever since Wraith had stepped into the room, things were going from bad to worse, and Caleb wasn’t even sure why. With her last statement hanging in the air, Wraith shook her head. “I . . . I don’t know why I—”
“Look,” Caleb interrupted, wanting to calm Wraith. “I know what Dex is getting at. It’s not so much what the felines need or are looking for when they go to those clubs. It’s about the guys and what they’re looking for. What they’re expecting. Which is uncomplicated sex with someone who wants it just as much as they do; otherwise, they wouldn’t be there in the first place. Those guys aren’t going to beat around the bush or make the kind of effort to get laid they might at other places. They’re going be all over Lucy. Hell, they’re even going to be all over you.” He held up his hands at the way she narrowed her eyes in affront. “You know what I mean, Wraith. The second you or Lucy stiffen up, you’re going to be made and our drug-touting rapists are going to head for the hills fast. Then the team’s usefulness is toast.”
“Again, what’s your point?” Her gaze tore to Mahone’s. “Because I know we’re not wasting words for nothing. Tell me.”
Mahone rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, if Lucy really is a virgin . . . And you’ve been—well, on your own for a while—maybe you could . . .” He cleared his throat.
“Get in some practice beforehand?” Wraith sneered. “Is that what you’re saying?” Her gaze bounced to Caleb.
“I’m talking training—somet
hing akin to touch therapy or role playing—not the four of you doing the actual deed, Wraith. You’d split into pairs and—”
“And let me guess who we’d be practicing with. Lucy with Dex and me with Caleb, right?”
Even though Caleb was just as surprised by Mahone’s apparent plans as Wraith was, he couldn’t ignore the way his pulse began to race at her words. Not that he wasn’t without conflict. Hell, he always wanted to touch Wraith, no matter where he was or who he was with or how damn fucking pissed she made him. But . . .
“Actually, I was thinking it would be the other way around.”
“What?” Caleb felt the sudden rage wash over him. He probably looked all squinty-eyed, but he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t know when the conversation had turned to him and Dex pimping themselves out for the sake of the mission, “doing the actual deed” or not, but now that it had, he was damned if he’d listen to any talk of Wraith being with anyone but him.
“Who the hell’s bright idea was this, anyway?” Dex grumbled, although he sounded slightly amused by everyone else’s reactions. Again, telling. Unlike Caleb, he showed no preference for bedmates; hell, Mahone could just as easily have suggested he and Dex pair up, and Dex would probably have the same indifferent reaction.
“Actually,” a soft feminine voice came from the doorway. They all turned as one to see Lucy, chin up and mouth trembling. “It was mine.”
Caleb closed his eyes and felt his stomach drop.
Shit.
SIXTEEN
VAMP DOME
PORTLAND, OREGON
Knox awoke by degrees, but he knew instantly that Felicia was no longer beside him. Panic beat its familiar wings within his chest before he sat up and forced the feeling away. He hadn’t imagined it, he assured himself, taking in the things she’d left strewn about the bedroom—her perfume and hairbrush set. Lotions. Jewelry. The framed picture from their wedding day.
Felicia was inside the Dome. They’d been in bed for the better part of six hours, and she was either enjoying a long soak in the spa tub she loved so much or gathering snacks in the kitchen for the both of them to eat.