Compelled

by D. B. Reynolds

  “You see that motel across the street?” Cyn asked, not bothering with the niceties.

  Nick glanced casually out the window. It was a pretty standard American motel—two stories in an L-shape around a parking lot, open walkways with all of the rooms facing out. A blue neon sign announced MOTEL, with a smaller red VACANCY below that.

  “I’m assuming that’s where our boy is spending his nights,” he said, signaling the waitress for coffee.

  “And this is one of his favorite restaurants,” Cyn told him.

  “Ah. Don’t you think he might be suspicious if he waltzes in here and sees that?” he asked, nodding in the direction of the bodyguards, who weren’t even pretending not to pay attention.

  “Give me some credit,” she said dismissively. “This is his breakfast spot. He likes junk food for dinner.”

  “Okay, Nancy Drew, this is your show. What’s the plan?”

  “He’s in his room. We watched him come back just a few minutes ago. So, I’m going to walk over there and knock on his door.”

  Nick blinked, his gaze shifting to Raphael. He waited for a reaction, for the vampire to shoot down the idea of Cyn exposing herself to danger like that. But there was nothing. The guy seemed perfectly okay with it.

  “What if he has a gun?”

  She shrugged while she took a bite of scrambled eggs and swallowed. “He probably does, but why would he shoot me? I’m a pretty woman who’s locked herself out of her room and wants to use his phone.”

  “Why wouldn’t this woman go to the motel office instead?”

  She winked. “Because the night manager takes his dinner break in just about ten minutes. He’ll be gone an hour.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The manager told me when I checked in. He was very helpful, offering to fix anything that was wrong with the room, too.”

  “I bet he did. Okay, so you’re in the room with Briley. Then what?”

  “Well, then I disarm him . . . literally . . . and open the door to you guys.”

  “You vamps need an invite?” he asked Raphael.

  It was Cyn who answered, shaking her head. “Not necessary. A motel’s like a public place.”

  “Do I have time for a piece of pie?” Nick asked, smiling up at the waitress when she delivered his coffee.

  “Sure,” Cyn said, finishing off a breakfast that belied her model-like figure. “Knock yourself out.”

  “You want anything else, hon?” the waitress asked Cyn. “More coffee?”

  “Coffee would be great,” she said, with a smile. “And maybe one of those chocolate cupcakes.”

  “You got it. And what about you, handsome?”

  Nick grinned. “I’ll have the boysenberry pie,” he told the waitress. “And a scoop of ice cream. Chocolate, if you have it.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Nick waited until the woman was gone. “My sources tell me the manacles were indeed sold. They’re trying to dig out the name of the buyer, but no luck yet.”

  “Briley will know, though, right?” Cyn asked. “You wouldn’t ship something like that with FedEx. It would have to be delivered in person.”

  “I’d agree with you, but Briley’s a novice. Who knows what arrangements he’s made.”

  “Yeah, but he’s hiding from someone. Otherwise he’d be home with his mommy. That tells me he knows his buyer, or at least knows enough about him to be afraid. I want whatever he knows.”

  Nick contemplated that idea. “There are a handful of collectors who’d know enough about the manacles to want them for themselves. Most are human, though there is one other sorcerer operating in North America right now.”

  “One,” Cyn said, giving him a puzzled look. “You mean there are only two of you on the entire continent?”

  He shrugged. “Two of us who have enough power to matter. I told you, we’re rare birds.”

  Raphael made a quiet scoffing noise, so quiet that Nick almost missed it.

  “You have something to say, vampire?”

  The vampire lord gave him a smug look and opened his mouth, clearing intending to say something snarky, but then Cyn shifted slightly in her seat and did something that changed his mind. He tugged the back of her hair and said, “Even if Briley has a name, it’s mostly likely false. The buyer will have used a pseudonym.”

  “True, but as long as Briley can describe him, I’ll know who he is. It’s a small community.”

  The waitress returned at that moment with his pie and Cyn’s cupcake, along with a carafe of coffee. She freshened all three cups—Raphael had a cup in front of him that was half-empty, though Nick hadn’t seen him drink from it.

  Once she was gone, Nick pulled over the packets of sugar and doctored his coffee. He’d just dug his fork into the pie, when the sound of Raphael’s chuckle startled him into looking up. The vampire was grinning as he watched Cyn eat her chocolate cupcake. She was being all proper, using a fork, but with every bite, she was making a little yummy noise that reminded him of other times and other nights. Nick coughed and took a sip of coffee to distract himself, forcing his thoughts to things that had nothing to do with cupcakes or that sound she was making. Instinct had him glancing up to find the vampire eyeing him suspiciously. Nick was sorely tempted to do something foolish. To give the big bad vamp a lascivious wink, or to grin knowingly. But common sense prevailed. It would have been great fun to taunt Raphael into coming after him, to find out once and for all who really was the stronger of the two of them. But there were too many civilians around, and, besides, they had other business tonight. Damn it.

  “Good coffee,” he said instead and focused his attention on the truly excellent boysenberry pie.

  “We should move before our boy changes his routine and goes out for the evening,” Cyn said, pushing her plate away. “We’ll leave the vehicles here. The noise of them arriving might make him look out the window.”

  “The sorcerer can play guard while he finishes his pie,” Raphael said dryly.

  Nick laughed. “In your dreams, vampire. I’m the only one who knows the buyers well enough to tell if Briley is lying to us.”

  Raphael snorted dismissively. “I’ll know if he’s lying.”

  Nick wanted to punch the arrogant asshole in the face. He was halfway out of the booth when Cyn interrupted.

  “Yeah, okay,” she said impatiently. “Raphael, let me out. I’m going over there to take care of business. You two can rumble in the parking lot. Maybe find a good soundtrack and turn on the stereo real loud.” She didn’t wait for a response, but got up quickly once Raphael stood to let her out. Tugging at her jacket to be sure the Glock in its shoulder holster was covered, she strode out of the coffee shop.

  Nick expected the vampire to storm after her, but he simply stood there watching her walk away, with a bemused little smile on his face, half dopey love and half pride. Nick couldn’t decide if he still wanted to punch the bastard, or if he needed to vomit instead.

  “Are you going to let her go over there by herself?” he asked.

  The vampire cut his eyes to Nick with a sneering look. “My Cyn is not your concern.”

  “Her safety on this mission in just as much my concern as yours.”

  “Jeez, you two—” A female vamp with white-blond hair whom Nick hadn’t noticed when he walked in spun away from the counter, giving the two of them a disgusted glance. “—get a room.” She didn’t look back as she followed Cyn from the restaurant.

  Raphael laughed, surprising Nick yet again. He’d dealt with plenty of powerful vampires in his long life, and he’d found them to be generally humorless, especially when it came to underlings. He’d have expected Raphael to slap the vamp down for daring to make any comment, much less one that snarky.

  Behind them, the rest of the v
ampire guards were sliding out of their booth with much creaking of leather jackets and clunking of heavy boots. One of them counted out some bills and dropped them on the table, and then they all waited for Raphael to decide what to do.

  The vampire jerked his head and started for the door, walking past Nick without so much as a glance. The guards followed, although they paid him a lot more attention. He knew how vamps worked. Those guards were all Raphael’s children—they’d lay down their lives for him in an instant.

  Nick sighed. Those damn manacles. He hadn’t even told Cyn how important they were to him. Not the whole truth anyway. But he’d have put up with a hell of a lot more than vampires to get them back. Hell, if it had been only Cyn he was dealing with, he might even have enjoyed this little adventure. But the fucking vampire was a pain in the ass, and so were all of his damn children.

  He sighed again, knowing he had to see this through, but also acknowledging to himself the real reason he’d called Cyn to help him out. He hadn’t honestly needed her help, but he was lonely. For the first time in his long life, he actually longed for human companionship. All those centuries ago, he’d never needed anyone but his brothers-in-arms, his warriors who lived as fiercely as they fought. The five of them had been inseparable, drinking and fucking and fighting. And when he’d lost them, when they’d been ripped from his side, it had left an open wound in his soul, a bloody hole in his heart. And no one else had filled even a tiny part of that void for a long time.

  But then he’d met Cyn. He’d caught sight of her across the room at one of LA’s trendy clubs, and all he’d seen was a beautiful woman that he wanted to fuck. Until he’d actually met her, and she’d been so much more than a fuckable beauty. She’d somehow become a friend, and he’d missed her.

  How pathetic was that? And, damn, was he glad at that moment that his mind was impervious to vampire intrusion.

  Speaking of which, the vampires had all left the coffee shop, leaving him standing there like an idiot, feeling sorry for himself. Shaking his head in disgust, he pulled out some cash and left the waitress a huge tip, then followed the gang across the street, where he could see Cyn already knocking on Briley’s door.

  CYN CROSSED THE main street at a run. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, but there was enough that she had to time it carefully. Elke was right behind her. Apparently, she’d left the sausage-fest back in the restaurant measuring their dicks. The thought made her smile, because she’d seen both of the contestants’ dicks, and . . . She gave herself a mental slap upside the head and shut down that train of thought, just as Elke caught up to her, and the two of them started across the parking lot.

  “Stay out of sight,” Cyn said quietly. “He’s already spooked. It won’t take much to shut him down.”

  Elke rolled her eyes. “Really? I thought we’d go up to the door together. You know, like in those porn movies where they all end up in bed together.”

  Cyn snorted. “What do you know about porn movies?

  “Hey, Mal has introduced me to a whole new world,” Elke said, referring to the Hawaiian cop who’d followed her home after they’d rescued Raphael and now seemed to be a permanent part of her life.

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  “Because he’s a sexy hunk of man who’s all mine?”

  “Exactly what I was thinking. Okay,” Cyn said, going all business. “You wait over there where he can’t see you.”

  “And after you’re in?”

  “Once I’m in, I don’t care how you handle it. Though it’s probably better if we don’t alert the neighbors. Raphael will be able to get what we need without resorting to screaming or crying.”

  “You mean from Briley, right?”

  Cyn stifled a laugh. “Stop that. Go.” She waited until Elke’s pale blond head was out of sight behind a big black truck with huge tires, then unbuttoned the top three buttons of her Henley-style shirt and knocked on Briley’s door.

  It took a while, but eventually she heard movement from inside the room, including the clear sound of a slide being racked on an automatic weapon. So Briley was armed. No great surprise there. She glanced over, but there was still no sign of Elke, which meant the female vamp probably hadn’t heard the gun noise. Otherwise, she’d be over here already, shoving Cyn out of the way.

  The door opened a few inches, to the end of the chain lock, leaving a gap for Gary Briley to peer out at her. She could have slammed that door open if she’d had to, pulling the flimsy chain right out of the wood frame. But she was playing nice tonight, so she summoned her best pathetic smile.

  “Hi, I’m so sorry to bother you, but I locked myself out and my cell phone’s—”

  “Go see the manager,” he interrupted rudely.

  Cyn managed to squeeze out a few tears. “I tried that,” she said pitifully. “But the manager’s gone on dinner break, and he won’t be back for nearly an hour. If I could just use your phone, I could call and maybe get his cell or something.”

  Briley was looking her up and down, noting her skin-tight blue jeans, the generous cleavage displayed by her unbuttoned shirt, and hopefully her sad but eager expression. She wasn’t much worried anymore about the gun hidden under her jacket. He seemed quite taken with her visible attributes and didn’t seem interested in frisking her. At least not for weapons. Ick.

  Briley gave her a final perusal, then grunted, and closed the door long enough to disengage the chain lock with a hollow rattle. The door opened, and he did another head-to-toe scan. “Have we met?” he asked, his head tilted to one side, his face scrunched into a puzzled look.

  “I don’t think so,” Cyn replied. She’d been worried about this, that he might remember her from Hawaii. He wasn’t one of the guards she’d dealt with personally, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t caught sight of her before everything went to hell. “I’m sure I’d have remembered,” she said, almost choking on the flattery. But it worked. Briley stepped back in an implicit invitation, and Cyn gave him her most brilliant smile as she stepped into the room. “Thank you,” she said. “Not everyone would invite a stranger into their room. Not in this day and age.”

  Briley gave a rough laugh. “I think I’m safe.”

  That kind of pissed Cyn off. Did he think he was safe just because she was a woman? She’d show him exactly how unsafe . . . But before she could show him anything, she felt Raphael enter the room. She didn’t need to see the alarmed look on Briley’s face to know he was there. Raphael was a force of nature. He didn’t walk into a room, he displaced air, like a one-vampire storm system. She smiled as he came up behind her and didn’t stop until her back was against his chest, his hand on her hip. She’d known when she’d left him and Nick bickering in the coffee shop that he’d never let her walk into Briley’s room alone.

  “Only a fool underestimates my Cyn,” Raphael informed Briley. And if they’d been somewhere else, she’d have given him a kiss for that vote of confidence. But kisses would wait. They had business to take care of right now, and the clock was ticking.

  Nick and Juro filed in behind Raphael, and she glanced over at Briley, gauging his response. His face was hard with anger as his room was suddenly filled with dangerous people. “What the hell?” he swore, backing away as far as he could get, fear replacing outrage when Juro closed the door and positioned himself in front of it with his arms crossed. “Who are you people?” Briley demanded.

  Raphael stepped past Cyn, his gaze fixed on Briley, his movement the lethal glide of a hunter, stalking his prey.

  “You must remember me,” he crooned. “We were together in Hawaii.”

  Briley shuddered at the first words from Raphael’s mouth, the sound itself enough to trigger the part of his human hindbrain that remembered dark nights spent shivering in caves while monsters roamed beneath the moonlight.

  “I nuh, never—” he stuttered. “I never went b
ack to that room,” he whispered. “I didn’t know you were there. None of us did until you were gone.”

  “So you say.”

  “It’s true.” His eyes went wide, and he gave Cyn an accusing glare. “You! I knew I’d seen your face before. You started it all with your sad story and killer bikini. Bitch.”

  Raphael growled audibly, causing Briley to jerk back and stare at him. “You will watch your words when you speak to her, human. Your survival is not essential to my visit tonight.”

  Briley paled. “We didn’t know,” he rasped. “That woman hired us through the company. We did the job when we got there, but we wanted nothing to do with her.”

  “Mathilde,” Raphael supplied. “Her name was Mathilde, and you were right to fear her.”

  Briley was foolish enough to see that as some kind of vindication. A reprieve. He relaxed visibly, drawing a deep breath. “I don’t know anything about her. I don’t know where she is.”

  “Mathilde is no longer anyone’s concern. But then, you’re not hiding in this charming motel because you fear Mathilde, are you, Gary?” Raphael said kindly.

  Briley blinked in surprise at the use of his name, but then his expression shut down. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Raphael tsked softly. “And here we were having such a good talk.” He must have done something vampy at that point, because an invisible force abruptly shoved Briley down and into a chair. His eyes practically bulged out of his head with terror when he struggled to escape and found that he couldn’t.