by Trina M. Lee
“I warned you, O’Brien,” he said through clenched teeth. “If anything happens to me that video finds its way to every person you love.”
My growl got louder, and I snapped my jaws in front of his face, causing him to shrink back. That video should have been the stupidest blackmail material ever. But it wasn’t. It was me at my worst for all to see. For just a second I wondered if it was just safer to keep Shya’s mark and spare Shaz from having to see that video.
“Video?” Jez echoed. She exchanged a look with Shaz who shrugged. Then she looked at me and must have seen something in my eyes because she said, “Grab the car. Let’s get him out of here.”
Briggs stiffened and panic shone in his eyes. He knew the stats. Once a kidnapper takes you to another location, your chances of survival decrease.
“If you kill me, there’ll just be another to take my place, and the FPA won’t stop until you’re all fucking dead.” His panic was giving way to anger as he decided that he wasn’t going down without a fight.
“Blah, blah, blah.” Jez mocked him without mirth. “Shaz. Car.”
I had many questions for Briggs, and I intended to get answers. I was looking forward to dishing out a little torment of my own.
As we drove up to Shya’s country house, I was more certain than ever that this was what I wanted to do. Both Shaz and Jez had questioned it when I’d had Arys tell them where I wanted to take Briggs. This was my opportunity. I had to take it.
While the sun was up, Shya couldn’t take physical form. I doubted he was even on this plane. He hadn’t cared enough to lock the door though he probably wasn’t expecting anyone to show up unannounced.
Shaz and Jez dragged Briggs inside. He’d ceased fighting once we got him in the car. Crammed into the backseat with me, he didn’t have much choice.
“You’re so predictable, O’Brien,” he said once Shaz had shoved him down onto the painfully white couch. “I hope that paying your debt to a demon is worth the shitstorm that’s going to follow that video into your pathetic undead existence.”
Jez moved about Shya’s open concept living room and joined kitchen, drawing the blinds. I trotted away into the foyer, nervous about the shift back. My worry was unfounded. The shift was smooth and swift. Success.
I stood in Shya’s foyer, naked and awkward. “Jez,” I called. “Clothes?”
She appeared right away with a hoodie and sweat pants for me. The pant legs were too long for me, but I wasn’t going to complain.
“You’re going commando in my pants,” Jez observed. “Which means they’re your pants now.”
Her reference to my lack of underwear had me cringing. I grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her close, keeping my voice low and breathy so that Shaz’s keen wolf hearing wouldn’t catch our conversation.
“Briggs is a dreamwalker,” I whispered. “That’s why I brought him here. But he has something on me. It’s going to come out either way. It’s bad, Jez.”
Her hand was warm on my arm. “How bad?”
I couldn’t say it. Didn’t want the words to come out of my mouth. Because I was that stricken about it, I grabbed her phone from her back pocket, opened the notepad and typed: Falon. Me. That building. So, so bad.
She gaped at me, mouthing, “What the fuck?”
I nodded and deleted the note before handing the phone back. Telling someone who wouldn’t judge me didn’t make me feel any better. Actually, I wasn’t sure how I felt. I didn’t really feel anything at all.
Jez shook her head and patted my arm. “You’ve just blown my mind. Try not to freak out just yet.”
“Do me a favor? Get Shaz out of here. I need to be alone with Briggs.”
She nodded knowingly. “Gonna have a little succubus torture session?”
“Something like that.”
We returned to the living room to find Shaz standing over Briggs with his arms crossed. The Fed did his best to appear bored and unafraid, but he was nervous. The smell of it was on the air.
“Come on, Shaz,” Jez said, grabbing hold of his arm. She paused to squeeze his bicep. “Impressive. Anyway, we’ve got to go back to the FPA building and pick up my Jeep and Alexa’s car. You wanna give me a hand with that?”
Shaz’s green gaze landed on me as if he knew I was trying to get rid of him. “Sure. No problem.”
I followed him to the foyer, ensuring I could still see Briggs from where I stood. Then I grabbed Shaz in a hug and squeezed tight. “I’m sorry that I can never stop hurting you.”
He pulled back and grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to meet his eyes. “What’s going on, Lex?”
“I can’t stop myself from doing things that will destroy other people. It’s so fucking hard, Shaz. I’m not sure I’m going to get through this transition without burning every bridge I’ve built.”
“Don’t talk like that. You have a war going on inside you. I know I’ll never understand what it’s like, but I understand that it’s something nobody should ever have to live with.” He kissed my cheek and turned to follow Jez out.
When they were gone, I turned to Briggs with a smile. “Looks like we’re all alone. Isn’t it funny how the tables have turned after just one night? You’re a man of many talents, Briggs, but learning your damn lesson isn’t one of them, is it?”
He stared at me with disdain and perhaps some blatant hatred. “And I suppose you’re going to teach it to me. Everything you do only serves to confirm that you’re a sadistic monster who needs to be destroyed.”
“Right back at ya.” I could barely contain my growing excitement as I crossed the room to the couch. In a bold move, I climbed onto his lap, straddling him. The deadly, seductive power spilled from me when I touched his face. “I’m going to enjoy this. And so are you.”
Briggs stiffened. With his hands behind his back and me in his lap, he didn’t have a lot of options. All of the torture survival training in the world wouldn’t help him now.
“Do you really think I’m going to fall for your tricks after watching you fuck a fallen angel?” He laughed, mirthless and bitter.
“Actually, yeah. I do.” I released my hold on the growing power, letting it crawl all over him. He fought it, as they sometimes do, and then he succumbed because, though he might be a well-trained liar, there was no training that could teach anyone to resist the nature of desire that lives in us all.
Briggs made a small noise that sounded like he was exerting much effort to resist me. Against his will his body began to respond. His impressive erection soon strained against me.
“God, how you disgust me,” he muttered, though it came out breathless and forced.
I ran a hand down his neck, over his chest, the simplest of touches that the power turned into a sex-charged caress. Wriggling just a little, I laughed. “That doesn’t feel like disgust.”
He pressed his lips tight together and shook his head, like he didn’t trust himself to speak. It occurred to me that the erection pressed against me had also touched my sister, and for just a moment, I faltered. This wasn’t about sex with Briggs or even feeding off Briggs. It was about proving myself as the dominant of the two of us. Considering all that this man had done to me, it was irrefutably necessary.
There wasn’t a single part of me that wanted him. Like most human victims, Briggs was a means to an end. He just didn’t have what I hungered for most. Sure he was human, and the blood pumping through his veins tempted me as did the arousal between his legs, but there was something missing. Power. He didn’t have it.
Kylarai had been right. She’d once told me that I was power hungry, seeking it out in my lovers. There was no denying that now. What had occurred with Falon was evidence of her accuracy.
I wanted to place some of the blame for that on the evil in the building. Surely it had driven us past the point of reason. But what if it hadn’t? What if Falon had just been a prime source of power that I couldn’t resist? Even worse, what if I simply didn’t want to resist?
I wanted to feel
guilty, but in the heat of the moment with the power raging through me and through Briggs, it just wasn’t possible.
“Tell me where my sister is,” I said, a command fueled by a force he wasn’t trained to combat.
“I sent her to Las Vegas,” he said, surprising me. “To keep an eye on your vampires there. I know that the Vegas FPA has been compromised. Juliet took a team to look into it.”
The backhand that I threw at Briggs snapped his head to one side. Blood stained the corner of his lip. I leaned in to run my tongue over it, and he shuddered. Even as he tried to be revolted, his body betrayed him, flooding me in lust and want.
“She just left town without her phone? No questions asked? Did she know you were luring me into a trap?” I ran a hand through his hair and nipped at his bottom lip.
Through glazed eyes, he regarded me with hostile desire. “No. She was instructed to gather her team and leave immediately without a word to anyone, especially not to you. I told her I would let you know she was away on assignment.”
I thought of my sister in Las Vegas, spying on Jenner and Kale. Then I considered what Jenner would do if he caught her. He’d made no secret of his interest in her.
“Las Vegas is not safe. I want you to get her back here. Like now.”
He shook his head and mumbled something that I had to coax him to repeat. He was falling a little too far under my thrall. “I can’t. I ran the assignment order through head office. She’s scheduled to be there until the Vegas FPA is running smoothly again.”
“Too bad. Send someone else. Bring her home, Briggs.”
“It doesn’t work that way. Every agent is considered equally capable and equally at risk. Juliet can take care of herself.” The fact that he said it while under my spell meant he really believed it. Still, it didn’t make me feel any better.
I smacked him again, a closed fist this time. Some people might say abusing an unarmed man with his hands cuffed behind his back while mind fucking him was sadistic and evil. Well, some people were wrong.
“If I have to go there and drag her home myself, I’m going to make sure that Shya makes what’s left of your pitiful life a living hell.” My tongue darted out to catch the next bead of blood that welled up from his lip. His blood was rich and strong, thrumming with vitality.
Briggs turned his head to kiss me, caught himself mid-action, and pulled back as far as the couch would let him. He was a fighter. I liked that.
“I sent her there to keep her from ruining her career,” he said, as if he couldn’t hold the confession back. “If she got caught helping you, her entire life would be ruined. I care about her. Would be nice if you acted like you did as well.”
I grabbed his face and forced him to meet my eyes. “I made the mistake of trusting you because of how much I care about her. I turned myself in when I thought she was in trouble.”
Briggs laughed, but it was a drunken sound. “So you did. Maybe you have a heart after all.”
“You have no fucking idea.”
Because I was infuriated and insulted, I turned up the heat and flooded Briggs with the drug-like force that would make him mine. And just when he’d begun to murmur, “Please,” over and over, I targeted the unblemished side of his neck and bit deep.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fucking love feasting on Agent Briggs. Though he lacked the power rush I craved, his rich, strong blood and virile lust more than sated my bloodlust. It appeased my personal need to victimize the stuffy Fed too.
My dark side wanted to take this all the way, to leave him a bloodless corpse with a smile on his face. The dragon on my forearm reminded me why that wasn’t the plan.
The softer side of me was disappointed that giving Briggs to Shya would mean some new agent to take his place and be a royal pain in my ass. There was a gamble in what I was doing. The new agent could be much worse than Briggs, if that were possible.
I sat back and regarded him with the appraising stare of a predator admiring its catch. His expression somehow conveyed both pain and pleasure. That injured wrist of his couldn’t be feeling too great.
“You should not exist.” His breath came in gasps. The man was hovering on the edge of climax, my bite mirroring the one from Arys he still bore, and somehow he still managed to muster a vicious remark.
I smiled. “You know what? To show you I’m not a total asshole, I’m going to heal that wrist for you. And while I do it, you’re going to tell me what kind of things you’ve got going on in that lab.”
With a little push of power, it was easy to heal the damage Jez had done to his wrist. As I’d commanded, he began to talk, telling me tales of study and experimentation right out of a horror film. The FPA was studying us, all of us. Not a surprise in itself, I’d expected that.
The way Briggs told it, he’d learned early on that it was better to be the one studying than the one being studied. They wanted to know what made us different. They sought to isolate it and find a way to use it. But their biggest priority was finding a way to control us. As Arys had said, they wanted to turn us into weapons.
“What about you, Briggs?” I asked, breathing in his masculine human scent. Spending the day with him while waiting for Shya was going to be fantastic. “Do they use you as a weapon? Do you do a lot of walking in the dreams of others for the greater good?”
“I do what I have to do. Just like you.” There was a defiant glint in his eyes.
Oh yeah, it was definitely going to be a good day.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The day passed quickly. Much of it was spent tormenting Briggs. As sunset approached I eased off, freeing him from my thrall. He reminded me that in just a few hours that video would be leaked when he didn’t show up for work.
I watched the sun drop beyond the horizon from a shuttered window. Jez and Shaz hadn’t returned, which I found strange. I needed a ride.
“Do you have your phone handy?” I searched Briggs, finding it shoved into the back pocket of his pants. In a cheeky move, I squished close to him on the couch and took a photo of the two of us. Then I sent it to my own phone. “That one is for Juliet.”
“Giving me to Shya will only solve one of your problems.” Briggs let his head fall back against the couch. He looked exhausted. I hadn’t taken it easy on him. I also didn’t allow him to achieve any kind of release. Poor bastard. “It will just breed more though. I don’t think you’re thinking this through.”
Ignoring him, I called Jez. No answer. So I called Shaz whose voice was thick with sleep.
“Jez told me to head home and get some sleep,” he said. “She said you’d call when you needed a ride.”
“Did she now?” That didn’t sound right. It gave me a bad feeling. I had a pretty good idea of what would make Jez disappear for a while. “Do you want to come get me? I’m just waiting for Shya, but I don’t want to stay here a second longer than I need to.”
Shaz promised to come as soon as he could. I hung up and turned the phone off so it couldn’t be traced. When Shya hadn’t shown his stupid face nearly half an hour after sunset, I began to grow impatient.
“It’s not too late to strike a deal, O’Brien.” Ragged and weary, Briggs maintained his stiff agent persona. Always business.
“Pretty sure it is.” I eyed him, curious as to what Juliet saw in him. “Why the hell would you want to make a deal with me after what I did to you all day? You had fun, didn’t you?”
Briggs sighed and rolled his head to the side to meet my eyes. “Between you and Shya, you’re still the lesser evil.”
“Oh, well good for me,” I quipped. “Too bad you’ve violated any chance of me trusting you ever again. I don’t make a habit of believing liars.”
Annoyed that Shya was absent, I rolled up my sleeve and dragged a claw through the dragon marring my skin. The demon would sense it, and it would draw him like a lion to a lamb. I was anxious to get this deal done with and be rid of this damn mark.
I watched blood well up from the cut I’d slash
ed through the dragon’s tail. It was a minor wound that started to heal right away. I counted the seconds. Thirty-three seconds passed before I felt the air ripple. Finally.
“What the hell took you so long?” I demanded, beating Shya to the first snarky remark. “I’ve been waiting all damn day for you.”
Shya stood in the middle of the living room. His red gaze darted from me to Briggs, and he raised a brow in intrigue. “Have you brought me a gift?”
I stood in front of Briggs, unwilling to let Shya too close until my mark was removed. “I brought you your damn dreamwalker.”
The demon stared hard at Briggs, his mouth curving in surprised pleasure. “Well, this is interesting. Agent Briggs, I had no idea. That is a secret you guarded well.”
Briggs sat stiff now, using what was left of his strength to brace for what might come next. He didn’t speak a word.
“Not well enough,” I said, extending my arm. “Now, let’s make this snappy. My ride is on the way.”
Shya made a show of adjusting the cuffs of his suit jacket. He was stalling. “I must say, Alexa, I’m both pleased and disappointed. I never really thought you had it in you to hand over a human being to me.”
“Disappointed? You never really wanted me to bring you a dreamwalker, did you? You were just fucking with me.” Fury started to spin its web, stretching one thread to another. The demon hadn’t wanted the dreamwalker as much as he’d wanted something to hold over my head.
“Oh, make no mistake, I still have use for him. However, it was nice having you on a leash, so to speak.” Shya chuckled, constantly amused with himself.
Keeping calm was going to take me farther than losing it and hurling the expensive vase from the coffee table at Shya’s face. So I concentrated on keeping my voice smooth and even. “I upheld my end of the deal. Now get this thing off of me.” I thrust my arm out again as if that would hurry him up. It didn’t.
Shya clasped his hands together and regarded me thoughtfully. For a moment I thought he was going to refuse. Then he sighed, a sound heavy on the drama. He shouldered me aside, approached Briggs, placed a hand on Briggs’s head, and closed his eyes.