“Cain,” said Darius. His voice was laced with warning. “I won’t allow her to be –”
“No,” said Cain, who understood clearly. Darius wasn’t willing to leave Angel alone in the Monsters safe house. Smart sentinel. Though Cain knew damn well not a man there would touch her because of Crow. “There’s a hotel nearby,” he explained calmly. “They know me and will take good care of her until I can get things settled with Santiago.”
He wasn’t looking forward to that phone call. But a clan leader’s job was never finished.
“We can’t walk through the doors of any hotel with Angel like this.” Cain understood his concern and had anticipated it. Cameras were everywhere these days. The cops would be alerted to the fact that two men were walking around with an unconscious woman in no time.
“We’re going to transport directly into the room. It’s warded against everyone but me when the boys and I are in town.”
Darius eyed him warily, but with obvious interest. “Why’s that, exactly?” he asked.
“Because I own it.”
Darius blinked, lifted his chin, and nodded. They stepped into a nearby alley, out of the view of passing cars. Then Cain drew close and spoke several ancient, powerful words that warped space and bent time around them. The street and alley blurred, their dark colors melting, then swirling together. Cain felt their change in location, the magic sending them across town. Once there, he felt the barrier of his ward press back in warning. Once it recognized him, he passed through it, making certain it allowed the safe passage of his two companions as well.
When the swirling colors re-formed and the area around the three solidified once more, Cain stood in a massive sitting room with a grand piano. It was a room big enough to double as a ballroom. This was the most opulent suite in San Francisco, and he knew the sentinel would recognize it too. Sentinels always knew exactly where they were; it allowed them to better care for their charges.
Beside him, Darius non-discreetly looked around while he stood at the center of the plush room, Angel still in his arms. After a moment, a small smile curled the corner of his lips. Cain knew he was putting two and two together. He was remembering what he’d no doubt learned of Cain from his brother Ashrim. “Of course,” Darius said under his breath. “He’s Cain, so why not?”
“Why not what?” asked Cain because sometimes it was fun to brag. He left Darius’s side to stroll through an adjoining hall that led to the master suite. “You can lay her down in the master suite down that way.”
But Darius eyed him circumspectly and remained where he was. “Why not own the penthouse suite at the Fairmont San Francisco Hotel?” said Darius under his breath. He shook his head. “After all, it’s only twenty-thousand a night.” It was clear he trusted Cain about as far as he could throw him. Fortunately, he could probably throw him pretty far.
“Exactly,” said Cain casually. He shrugged as he made his way back down the hall to the phone on a side table near him and picked it up to let the staff know he was in-house. “It’s a drop in the bucket.”
“Then… everything my brother told me about you was true.”
Cain waited before pressing the button on the phone since he knew the concierge would pick up immediately. “Not everything, I imagine,” he said with a slight smirk. “There’s only so much Ashrim knows.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Cain turned in the rotating office chair and glanced at the plethora of cameras along the walls as Gabriel Santiago spoke with collected calm in his ear. The leader of the Vega clan was not a happy man. Cain could not only hear the quiet fury in the man’s forced words, he could practically feel it coming through the sound waves. But Cain also knew that most of the man’s anger wasn’t directed at him; it was reserved for Angel. She’d blatantly disobeyed orders, was putting herself in danger, and he was worried about her.
At the same time, Cain had been down a road or two like this himself over the years. And he could see where Angel was coming from too.
“I suggest we keep this incident between ourselves,” said Cain softly once Gabriel had finished speaking. “At the moment, none of your clan members are aware that she is seeking sanctuary in another clan’s territory. You were wise to keep your deductions to yourself. It would be best for everyone involved if things stayed that way.”
“Agreed.” Gabriel was a smart man. Very smart. So Cain couldn’t help but wonder why he’d kept his second-in-command in the dark on some things for so long. But that was an issue for another time. “I want her back here in three days, Cain. And you can’t let her have any part in that job.” His words were short, terse, and to the point, but they were shy of disrespectful. He’d clearly had a lot of practice giving orders while angered, and Cain smiled as he wondered how much of that experience was due to the hot-headed Angela Clemens.
Really, she was perfect. Jake was a lucky man.
“I can’t make any promises on either count,” Cain replied frankly. “You and I both know she came here because the Apex job landed in our laps and she wants in desperately. She won’t leave it be. And if I escort her back to the Vega safe house before she’s ready, I can guarantee she won’t cooperate and the trip will wind up going shanghai. You’ll have an exceedingly irate second-in-command to deal with.” And a seriously pissed off Chippewa vampire with old Native American magic at his disposal.
Gabriel was silent on the other end. Cain propped his legs up on the security desk while his eyes kept track of the cameras. Jake would be appearing on one of them any second now. Myths about vampires not showing up in film or having reflections in mirrors was just that – myth. As were the myths about them not possessing heartbeats, not being able to get drunk, and being cold to the touch. Vampires were intricately tied to blood. So they experienced any and all effects blood provoked: beating hearts, rising blood-alcohol levels, and warm – even hot – bodies.
Finally Gabriel sighed. “Cain, I have a bad feeling about this Apex.” He paused again for a number of seconds before adding, “It feels familiar.”
Cain’s gaze narrowed. He lowered his legs and sat forward in the chair. He’d been feeling the same thing. Not a familiarity so much as…. “It’s deliberate, and it’s leaving clues. Like a copycat.”
“Yeah,” agreed Gabriel. “And yet… not like a copycat.”
“You think this is someone from Angel’s past coming after her.”
Gabriel paused again. Cain could picture the tall man with his hands on his hips, dark head bent, too-vivid amber eyes staring fixedly at the floor while he tried to put his thoughts into words. “I’m having one of my wardens gather information on the backgrounds of the people the Apex killed here in San Francisco.” Another pause. Then, “There’s more than one pattern here, and I think that’s on purpose. This bastard wants us to find it.”
“Or,” Cain offered, giving voice to his own thoughts, “he wants Angel to find it.”
“Yeah. That crossed my mind too. Which is why I’m doing it first.”
Cain smiled. Movement on one of the cameras to his upper left caught his attention. Jake was here. Cain stood, turning to face the man behind him. He gave the man a nod, and the man left, closing the door to the security room behind him. The man, like so many people in cities across the nation and even the world, secretly worked for Cain.
“Santiago, I’m going to give you some advice. Because I’ve been where you are and believe me, I know the routine. You have people, human and otherwise, looking for her all over the city, and you were gutsy enough to send a few onto Monsters turf. Trust me, I noticed. I have to hand it to you. You’re the first to show such balls.”
The silence that greeted him this time was pregnant with danger.
Cain sighed. “My advice is to pull everyone off Angel’s unsolicited detail. Fall back. Let us handle this on our end.”
More silence. Santiago was a hard sell. Then again, if he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have been worthy of leading a warden clan.
“Th
ink about it, Gabe,” Cain said, lowering his tone and focusing. Man to man. Monster to monster. “You know she’s going after the Apex no matter what. She’s afraid someone she cares about will be hurt if she doesn’t stop this here and now and personally. That’s pretty strong motivation.” I’ve used that motivation to get my way once or twice myself. “Let her take the job on this side, and she’ll have thirteen monsters as backup.” He didn’t mean that figuratively. And Gabriel knew it.
There was more silence, but this time Cain could sense an ease-up in the tension.
“Three days, Cain,” Santiago finally said. “That part’s non-negotiable. I’ll call you when I have intel on the Apex victims.”
Cain decided to let it go. Chances were really damn good it wouldn’t even come to three days anyway. There was too much up in the air right now; the situation was volatile.
“We’ll talk later.” Cain hung up. Whatever Gabriel Santiago’s thoughts were now, they were his own. Cain had other shit to deal with.
Jacob Crow was Cain’s second-in-command and Crow was in a bind. He was falling hard for a warden, and not just any warden, but a second and a healer. Worse yet, she had a past with vampires and it wasn’t pleasant. Things were going to get worse before they got better. But… given what Angel had whispered just before she’d passed out in her Jeep, Cain had a feeling they would get better. Jacob’s feelings were not one-sided.
Regardless, Cain could only see one viable ending to this scenario. To reach it, the game had to be played carefully. The ending had to be finessed. Otherwise, the entire bloody mess would blow up in his face.
Cain sensed the other vampire drawing near, and he met Jake in the hall. Jake was wearing mirrored sunglasses. Paired with the thick black hair, black leather jacket, jeans, and boots, they made him look like a movie star fresh off the set. Cain almost laughed. He sorta wanted to snap a photo and send it to Angel for her to wake up to.
What was he, twelve?
He shook off his impulse to match-make and led Jake into the security room. Ironically, it was the only room not filmed by cameras.
When they were alone and the door was closed, Cain turned to Jake. He could feel waves of untapped power rolling off his second-in-command. So Cain started in right away. “Before you say a goddamn thing, shut up and listen. Angel is safe and she’s sleeping peacefully. She’s in the penthouse suite under strict security. No one’s getting anywhere near her without my permission, and she’s not going anywhere I don’t want her to go.”
Jake didn’t say anything at all, actually. But when he slowly removed his sunglasses, his green eyes were glowing like street lights. They weren’t red yet. He’d managed to tamp that much of his beast down. But there was a definite lava flow of fury moving through him at the moment.
“I also don’t want you anywhere near her right now,” Cain said next.
Jake’s green gaze shifted to yellow, then orange, and flickers of fire erupted in their pupils. Cain held up his hand. “Like I said, she’s sleeping. If anyone ever needed rest, it’s Angela Clemens, and I doubt you plan to give her any.”
Jake smiled a seriously mean smile, and with poisonous calm he said, “I think I’m offended that you believe I’m so hard up I would force myself on an unconscious woman, Cain.”
Cain had known he was going to say that. “What I think you’re hard up for is answers. And you won’t think twice about drilling her for those the moment she shows any sign of waking. You want to know why she ran from Gabriel. You want to know if he threatened her. That makes sense. But I think what you really want to know,” he said, narrowing his gaze so it burrowed into Jake’s soul, “is whether she feels anything romantic for him.”
Jake’s face remained expressionless. But Cain heard the evidence of his spoken truth in his friend’s heartbeat. Jake broke eye contact and looked absently at the computer screens. “I have no fucking idea what to do right now, Cain. She hates what I am. How am I supposed to get around that?”
Cain felt a pang of something deep in his chest. It was an old scar. “You just will.” He turned away from Jake to sit back down in the leather rotating chair. “Right now, I need you to trust me. Go back to the safe house. Do something to take your mind off this shit, but stay there.” He waited while Jake remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the screens. “Will you do that?”
Jake swallowed, his Adam’s apple sliding as he did. He slipped the sunglasses back on, faced Cain one last time, and nodded wordlessly. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a clear plastic bag of various pills, tossing them onto the desk in front of Cain. “These are Angel’s. She’ll need them when she wakes up.”
Cain glanced at the bag gratefully. He nodded. “Thank you.”
Jake didn’t say anything further. In a few short strides, he’d made his way out of the office, closing the door again behind him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
There was no blaring alarm, no haunting nightmare. There was no sweat-inducing heat or shiver-causing cold. Nothing unpleasant forced her from her bed this time. For once, as Angel left the realm of sleep and rejoined the world of the living, it was because she wanted to.
When she opened her eyes, light streamed gently into her vision, filtered by the soft veil of a gauzy curtain at the bedroom windows. They were floor-to-ceiling windows, framed by the most beautiful drapes Angel had ever seen. She blinked as uncertainty set in. She didn’t have curtains like that. She didn’t even have windows like that.
Her mind felt fuzzy, but it was oddly comfortable. Her entire body was comfortable, in fact. Deliciously so. She looked down at the bed.
These weren’t her covers. She didn’t own embroidered silk duvets and… what was this, thousand-count sheets? “Oh… my….”
Memories flooded her all at once, as if a dam had been broken and her head was now flooding. She remembered the Apex case, her argument with Gabriel, her drive from the safe house into Monsters territory, and she remembered pulling over… on the side of the road….
Where she passed out just as someone was taking her from the Jeep.
“Oh gods, who –”
“I’m a little loathe to admit it, but apparently you’re in good hands,” came a voice to her left. Angel cried out in surprise and sat up like a shot. Her hair flew all around her like it always did when she sat bolt-upright in bed, but she shoved it hastily out of her face.
Darius was seated on the edge of some sort of plush chaise lounge, the kind you’d find in a prince’s room. His elbows were on his knees, and his fingers were laced. He was watching her calmly through his beautiful pumpkin fire eyes. His smile was genuine.
It took Angel a few seconds to process what he said. She looked around. The room was beyond opulent. It had that impression about it that it was very old, around a hundred years old or so in fact, and had been kept in perfect condition since then.
That made her nervous. She didn’t know anyone this wealthy. Did she? The air was fresh, clean, and lightly scented. It reminded Angel a little of a luxurious bath bomb scent. She could hear the sound of gently lapping water somewhere nearby. The furniture was the kind of solid carved wood stuff only the most excruciatingly rich could afford.
It all made her wary. But Angel looked down at herself to find that most unnerving of all was that she had been stripped to her underwear. “Shit.”
Out of habit because she was a warden, she quickly turned her wrists over and felt her neck to search for bite or claw marks. But she was clean. In fact… all of the bruises, cuts, and scrapes she’d acquired over the last few weeks were gone. Her skin was smooth and unmarred, as if she’d cast heal on herself.
Angel blinked a few times. Now her confusion was so great, she was starting to feel a little numb. She knew Darius was there with her, which steadied her nerves enough for her to look around. On the other side of the bed was a bedside table. Atop it she found her emergency stash of medicine and supplements.
She kept the emergency med
icine in a plastic bag in one of her backpacks at her apartment. Someone had obviously found it. And now it was here.
Wherever here was. “Darius, where am I?” she asked, slowly turning back around to face the handsome sentinel.
“You’re not going to believe me when I tell you.”
“Try me.”
He smiled, laughing a little. “Very well. You’re in the penthouse suite of the Fairmont San Francisco hotel.”
“I don’t believe you,” she quipped. He grinned. But actually… she did believe him.
She looked away toward the double doors at one end of the room. “Okay, so I guess you know what I’m going to ask next.”
“It was Cain.”
Angel started. Her body actually jerked in surprise as her head snapped back around to face him. Her heart felt strange. Oh… maybe I’m still dreaming. That would explain it.
“You’re wide awake Angel,” Darius said as if he could read her mind. Really, he just knew her that well. “And it was the leader of the Monsters clan who brought you here last night.” He stood up and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “He owns the damn room.” He laughed, shaking his head in slightly offended bewilderment. “And in fact, it was Cain who saved you too. You’re alive because of him. If he hadn’t shown up when he had, pulled you from the Jeep, and –”
“Wait. Wait a minute.” She closed her eyes, touching her forehead. “You mean, that was him?” She remembered being pulled into strong arms. But she’d thought they were her sentinel’s.
“Yes,” said Darius.
Angel was still trying to process the fact that Cain had been the one to find her first when she remembered what he’d said about the penthouse suite. “Wait. And he owns this room? What do you mean?”
Monsters, Book One: The Good, The Bad, The Cursed Page 15