by Erin R Flynn
“Does it help if half of my interest is her kissing you and you being naked together and I join in? I’m not thinking of having a tryst with her off in secret, Sera.”
Beth cleared her throat. “I offered her just that, as it’s fun to play with a friend sometimes.”
The amount of hormones I got off of both of them was ridiculous. “Maybe for your birthday, though I’m not sure you deserve it since I didn’t even get a present for mine. Nor Christmas, and you got yours early.”
“I said I’d give it to you when I got to take you out for your birthday and have a romantic evening with you to celebrate,” he reminded me. He flinched though and nuzzled my neck. “It’s not a ring, but it does sparkle, and I got it engraved because I thought of you immediately when I saw it.”
“That’s pretty sweet,” I admitted, leaning into him. “Before the boys come back, I promise we’ll find a night just for us.” I cleared my throat and realized I should ask about something, Beth nodding that she got it and left us. “What happened with Jimmy?”
He flinched and then sighed. “I’m sorry I was so cagey. I’m so, so used to keeping a tight lid on family stuff around work people. You’re still work people in my mind. It was stupid.”
“Thanks for saying that because you’re pretty much involved in all my very personal stuff so it hurt.”
“I’m sorry. They’re taking a break. I don’t know if they’ll make it, but he’s young. He’s twenty-five. I wasn’t a fan of him getting married already and to someone my age, but if that was what made him happy and she loved him completely, then let them.”
“Were you really part of the reason?”
“Yes,” he sighed, leaning his head down to mine. “I might have run my mouth a bit about how wild it is being with you and you letting me explore in the dungeon, us exploring together. It was private, not work people. Poker night guy talk. I was a bit freaked how much I liked chaining you up and watching you with other men. Apparently I was completely bragging and rubbed them all the wrong way, Jimmy especially.”
“Your little brother’s kind of a twit,” I reminded him.
“He’s grown up since you last saw him,” he defended. “He’s got a good job, was losing the partying, early twenties life.” He chuckled when I shot him a disbelieving look. “Sera, that’s normal for most in their early twenties. You were just laser focused and never did that.”
“Until almost my thirties apparently,” I drawled, gesturing around the club.
“Yeah, you own the place. That’s not the same as getting too drunk on weekends and doing the walk of shame after sleeping with someone you normally never would.”
“No, never did that,” I agreed. “That second guy I really went out with was a bit like that. I think I was just shocked someone finally asked me out like I wasn’t a freak.” I held up my hand when he went to argue. “I get it. I was unapproachable when I wasn’t undercover. I’ve been told that repeatedly now.”
“I still thought you were sexy as hell.”
“You’re still not touching Beth without supervision,” I said a few moments later, smiling when he burst out laughing.
Somedays it was laugh at the crazy or run screaming from it all. We chose to laugh that night.
8
“Chief Thomas?”
“Yeah, hang on,” I muttered from where I was leaning over writing notes down in a file about half an hour after I got into the office the next morning. We had finished with the Detroit, Green Bay, and St. Paul people the night before and sent them on their way. Minneapolis we’d kept because they had problems, not with their pack but being harassed, so we were getting into that. There were other complications though.
I felt a huge flare of power behind me, impressive truly, but nothing compared to mine. I let mine out in response and then turned it up to high and higher, glad there were levels of that now as opposed to months ago when it had been just the one.
I had the mental image of my siren smirking at me. Yeah, yeah, keeping us well fed and strong was smart. I seemed to always need to have my power ready. She was cunning in a good way and not just a bitch after all.
I looked up when I heard people gasp, watching a gorgeous man stumble away from my power, smirking when his didn’t affect me. “I haven’t even had coffee yet. It’s not smart to challenge me before coffee when I worked all last night instead of the fun I had on the docket, so who are you and…” I realized who it had to be when he and his group were vampires. Powerful vampires. “Why are you challenging me when you were invited, Councilman?”
“It’s our nature,” Councilman Apollo Papadopoulos lied, and I couldn’t tell it was a lie from my wolf, but from years of being in the FBI, so he was good.
It hit me like a ton of bricks. “You’re still in love with him.” His eyes flashed shock. “I’m blonde, not stupid. Why show the power? You’re here for work.”
“Because he couldn’t do it for personal, but if he was easily able to drown your power, you might be open to trading someone to keep it quiet so others didn’t come play with you next,” Monroe explained, dipping his head to the group. “Councilman, welcome to our office.”
“Is he right?” I checked, sighing when the councilman nodded. “So what did I risk by throwing my power back?”
“Nothing because he was invited for work,” Monroe answered. “He made it personal, took the risk, and lost.”
“It’s not a gift basket I get, is it?” I drawled. I bit back a laugh as a latte appeared in my hand, seeing Shaw giving me a look practically begging me not to be rude to someone from the vampire council that was supposed to be our friend.
Fine, I drank my latte and chilled on my annoyance. I was tired of the games. We were supposed to be allies. Then again, love was love and made us all stupid.
“You get all his people,” Monroe sighed, catching my latte when I dropped it in shock. “You got all of Igor’s when he challenged you, remember? That was different, but this was work, he made it personal, and you won, making him stumble. You get his people.”
“You guys are seriously rash,” I said under my breath, studying the ten people with the councilman. “Vlad is going to be pissed.”
“Screw Vlad,” Monroe chuckled. “You wanted vampires for the SWAT team idea. You just got some really old ones that are well trained.”
“Is this all you brought with you?” I checked, shaking my head when the councilman frowned. “How many more?”
“I brought twenty,” he admitted. “It seemed prudent when Igor came with ten and none of them returned.”
“Wow, you really love him,” I blurted before I could stop my lack of caffeine brain.
He sighed. “Yes, I always have. He never blamed me for the choices I made, picking the safety of many over him, but it’s always been him.”
I threw back my head and laughed, holding my side and waving them off as I calmed down, smirking at the councilman. “And even if you lost, you risked twenty people—probably your best because you could risk them as you have more—for him. That’s a hell of a gesture on many levels to show him you would sacrifice for him.”
“You truly are maybe the cleverest woman—certainly wolf—I have ever met,” he muttered, not sounding happy about it. “I apologize for my rudeness, Chief Thomas. My people are yours.”
“We’ll get to that later, but now that we’re all here and we did the power, I want the greeting to be very clear on how we really are,” I purred, handing Monroe my coffee and stepped towards the very attractive councilman. “Greet me for all to see.”
He moved to me, waving back his people and giving me his throat, only a bit taller than me. I leaned in and kissed it, moving my hands to his chest like I was balancing but also maybe open to fun. It wasn’t clear, which was half the fun and games I’d planned on playing.
He gave me a curious look as I moved away, and I just smirked at him.
“You came earlier than I thought. We have a mess on our hands.”
“My people can help keep order,” he offered. “What do you need?”
“Help would be welcome,” I accepted, eyeing him over like a juicy steak. It was part of the plan and my absolute pleasure, as he was very handsome and with yummy power. “We’re tossing around the idea of sending some of the known troublemakers back on the council’s plane with some of the people they sent since our local witches knocked them out. They’re about to wake up, and they won’t be friendly.”
“It’s a three hour flight to their facility, six round trip,” he nodded. “I can send half my people to go with them and take a load on my plane as well and still have them back before the party.”
“That could work,” I muttered, glancing at Axel who nodded. “The potion lasts eight hours. We knock out the ones we know and stuff them in the plane like sardines for all I care.” He raised an eyebrow at me, and I sighed. “My teams are training and now have to handle the problems in Grand Rapids and Minneapolis. Oh, and I’m now Alpha of Milwaukee, and we think there’s more dirty and a cartel problem—”
“I get it,” he cut in, holding up his hands in surrender. “We can’t keep it all quiet, but limit the damage if we move fast. Done and done. Do we have the potion?”
“Terry just arrived with more from Nina,” Monroe told us. “Call Havers and see if we can borrow their bus. We’ll stick them and start loading them up.” He sighed. “I really wish that potion could be done without them having to wake up first.”
“That would be too easy, boss,” I chuckled as I pulled out my phone. Brian agreed, ordering someone to drive it over and handle getting them to the airport as long as there were escorts and for as many trips as we needed.
Awesome because I had a hundred I knew were immediately going.
“Incoming,” Harris warned as he came out of the stairwell from the basement. I looked to him, but he nodded towards the front entrance.
I let my power fan out and shook my head. “Friendly. Alena sent help to stabilize Milwaukee. Theon’s leaving with a group immediately, and Hestia’s going to follow once we get people to cover for her.”
“What a clusterfuck,” he grumbled, scrubbing his hands over his head.
“Isn’t every day?” I drawled, heading to greet our new visitors. I led them to the conference room, and Theon joined us. “I don’t know your guys’ pecking order or power, but it doesn’t matter this time around. He’s my Beta, and technically Milwaukee is mine. He’s already got a visa, so let’s not worry the locals of a Greek invasion. We’re sending you back with those who came only because they were ordered to.
“We need you to check out everything there, make sure there’s nothing we need to handle or report. Keep order and hold the fort until we can formulate a real plan. Hestia will be acting Alpha once she gets there. We have no idea if any of their Betas or enforcers are clean, but it’s not looking good. I will say Milwaukee is much smaller than Chicago, but still a major city so it shouldn’t be too bad.”
“Alpha, is there a chance for permanently staying?” one of the guys asked in broken English. “No offense to Theon, but he had no chance of being a Beta in Athens, and most of us volunteered on the hope we could have such a chance here or this Milwaukee.”
“Yes, there is absolutely the chance as long as you’re looking to advance to enforcer or Beta, not Alpha . Any coup plotters will be shown the door and maybe dumped in the ocean on the way home.” That got me a lot of chuckles and most of them nodding they were fine with that. I got it, they didn’t want the crown or big title, but a chance to not be nobodies. Yeah, that was totally an option for them.
About a half an hour later, they were gone and so was the first bus of bad wolves, knocked out and loaded up with all the strong help we had. I walked into my office and realized someone had followed, glancing up at the vampire I didn’t know.
“Mistress, will you really take all twenty of us? Use us to be police like this?” he asked hesitantly, glancing around.
“First, here I’m Chief Thomas, and be careful using that term around police, as they assume it’s a BDSM thing since I’m not a vampire. They don’t get our ways.” I waited until he slowly nodded before waving him into my office, leaning against my desk. “What’s your name?”
“Nikos Manolas.”
“Well, Nikos Manolas, would that be so wrong if I wanted to? Do you have family or something back home keeping you there?”
His eyes flashed shock. “You care?”
I chuckled. “You know Goran and Zlat, right? Your council meets a lot or whatever?”
“Yes, I have known them for a few thousand years,” he muttered, studying me. “Are they truly as happy here as we have heard? They were panicked originally to be tied to the siren who—”
“Be very careful of your next words, as you guys tend to blame me for that situation.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “I was going to say you miraculously survived Igor and his madness. We all saw it for a long time. They—it was harder for them as they were always near it, used to it.”
“I get it. Talk to them. I could use people for the FBI, and hopefully you’re more useful than the guys Igor had with him.” I smiled when he snorted. “Yeah, he thought age was everything, and most of us know bullets don’t care about age and training is everything.”
“Yes, it is,” he agreed, licking his lips as he studied me. “Apollo is not a bad master. Most won’t be in a hurry to leave him, but he will always be master and us watchdogs and babysitters. Are you saying you would offer us more?”
“Yes, if you wanted this path and I take you if you’re useful, you would still help me and the pack at times. We all pitch in. Some of you would have a detail now and again to guard the bunnies I adopted, but I don’t—my people aren’t slaves to my will. I’m boss. They get that and follow the rules, help out, and I don’t care what you guys do otherwise. You guys talk to Zlat and Goran and they’ll tell you.”
He got I was politely dismissing him. “Thank you, Chief Thomas. I will and suggest the same to the others who are a bit panicked at the idea of being forced to leave all we know.”
“Yeah, the way vampires trade you guys like fucking Pokémon cards is seriously disconcerting,” I admitted, rubbing my tired neck.
“More so to be one of the cards,” he agreed before leaving.
Yeah, that would be tougher for sure.
Another hour and we had a lot more done. Cooper was heading out with a team to Minneapolis to handle the crap we discovered there and their local wolves that were cleared that would head home. We only found one dirty one there we would hand over to the council. Honestly, he was the most uncomplicated criminal I’d found in the paranormal community so far… A thief. That was it. He was a thief. A burglar.
“Harris, Davis, you’re in charge while I’m gone, keep sorting and taking reports,” I ordered as I grabbed my bag and jacket, heading for what was next. “Axel, you’re with me.” I stopped by the councilman and smiled. “Want to have some fun?”
“Your idea of fun might not be mine.”
I nodded, accepting that. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure this will be your kind of fun. Besides, you’re only watching.”
“I prefer to participate,” he murmured, grabbing his jacket still and coming with.
“I’ll just bet you do,” I chuckled, letting him open the door for me. A few of his people came with, and I filled them in on what we knew and warned them of the rules on the way. They seemed intrigued, and I was glad they weren’t assholes like Igor’s security.
I just wasn’t sure where to put the councilman. I hadn’t expected him to challenge me like that, but he wasn’t pissed he’d lost, so he had honor then? I wasn’t sure, and he definitely wasn’t sure of what to do with me.
I pulled into the regular FBI parking garage when we got there and signed them in as my guests, the councilman looking amused they had to wear badges saying that. We headed up to the right floor to get everything set up for our new prey that had wante
d to purchase the boys… Except another wrench was thrown in my day when I saw Brian talking with people who screamed to be big dogs.
And I recognized Deputy Director Galvin from his picture when he turned around.
“Oh crap, be cool,” I said at a level the humans wouldn’t hear. “We’ve got big wigs.”
Galvin’s eyes flashed shock. “You really do talk to your people at a level we can’t hear. I thought that was bull someone just accused you of.”
“No, it’s not, sir, but apparently I need to work on hiding it better,” I admitted, extending my hand. “And these aren’t my people, which is why I was warning them of the change of plans. This is my contact with the Global Shifter Council, Axel, and Councilman Apollo Papadopoulos of the International Vampire Council who arrived a bit early to see our office.” I gestured to each of them in turn. “This is Deputy Director Galvin of the FBI.”
“The gentleman who helped push so hard for the new training facility and expansion for you to do your job as you should,” the councilman said, nodding. “It is a pleasure, Deputy Director. I did not realize you were coming into town as well.”
They shook hands and then he did with Axel. “There’s been a situation that’s developed in a close area. Chief Thomas and Chief Monroe have proposed an idea of an advanced team of vampires, as they can’t accidently infect anyone, and this might be a chance to try the idea out.”
“I didn’t know that,” I promised the councilman. “It’s why I invited him to see our office and the training facility so he could understand the idea better, hopefully get his support. Right now I invited them both to come with as Chief Havers has someone in custody I need to interview and probably hand over to the shifter council.”
“Is that so?” Galvin muttered, looking at Brian. “Is this the situation that happened last night you alluded to but didn’t fill me in on?”
“Honestly, sir, I’m not sure you want to know about all of that,” Brian admitted, scrubbing his hand over his head. “I only know because I played ref for the shifter council because they’ve met me and Chief Thomas was involved, so she couldn’t be their eyes.”