by Abby Blake
“I’ll go make coffee,” she said, wriggling out from between the two men. She giggled quietly when she realized how comfortable she was walking around naked. She hadn’t given clothes a thought since Jed’s visit three days ago.
She was humming happily when she heard a short, sharp curse. Wilson was beside her in an instant. “Too many,” he said grimly as he wrapped a sheet around her at lightning speed and then lifted her into his arms. Darian had a bounce tunnel open so fast her head was spinning.
“Go,” Darian ordered as they stepped through the tunnel into bright daylight. Wilson held her tight against him and ran at speeds that hurt her eyes.
“Darian,” she cried out as she realized he would have no way to keep up with Wilson’s pace.
Wilson held her tighter but didn’t slow down. Finally he ran into an underground parking lot and slowed down. She could smell something strange, the fragrance sickly and cloying. It wasn’t until Wilson stumbled that she realized it was coming from him. Panic drilled through her as she remembered distinctly that he wasn’t wearing his helmet. Thankfully he still wore his leather pants and jacket but, judging by the smell, his face had been burned by the sun. She tried to lift her head to see, to help, to do anything other than be cradled in his arms like a damsel in distress, but he held her face against his chest.
“I’m okay,” he said even though he didn’t sound it. “I heal quickly.”
“At least let me feed you to help it heal faster.” His arms tightened a moment as he stepped into the deeper shadows of the parking lot. “Please, Wilson.”
* * * *
Wilson could barely function. He’d never been burned this badly before. His eyes were swollen almost closed, and his lips, nose, and throat felt like he’d rubbed against a cheese grater. He could barely smell his burning hair and scalp, but suspected it was much worse than it seemed to his damaged senses.
He held Amber’s head trapped against his chest, not wanting her to see him in this state.
But she was right. Blood would make him heal faster, minutes rather than hours, but it felt too much to ask. She was wrapped in a sheet, running for her life from assassins whose only way of finding them had been the one man she’d convinced them they could trust.
“Please, Wilson,” she said with a soft sob, “I need to help you.”
His arms shook as he helped her to her feet, but he kept her head against his chest as he whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Her cry of dismay was like a dagger to his heart. He’d never wanted to expose this beautiful woman to such horrors. It wasn’t fair that she’d been dragged into a mess not of her making. The least he could have done was shield her from the worst of it. At least it was dark. Her human eyes were unlikely to see the worst of the burns.
She gathered her hair in her hands, moving it to the side so that he had clear access to her throat. The pain and swelling of his burned skin was so bad that he was barely able to open his lips wide enough. She must have sensed his problem because she wrapped her arms around his waist and lifted herself closer to his mouth.
He bit down, a groan escaping him as her blood flowed into him and the healing began. He licked at her neck, trying to close the wounds, but she cried out and pressed herself closer to him. “You need more. Take everything you need.” Her arms tightened around him. “Please, Wilson. It needs to be you. If I pass out, you can carry me. I can’t carry you.” Her words sounded fast, frantic, and it finally dawned on him through the haze of pain that he’d never known her to be frightened. Two and a half weeks of living with her, protecting her, loving her, yet he’d never seen an ounce of worry or a trickle of fear. She’d always trusted them to protect her.
“Okay,” he whispered against her neck as he stopped trying to close the wounds. Instead he sucked harder, drinking down her blood mouthful after mouthful. She shook in his arms, moaning softly, obviously enjoying the euphoria that came with feeding a vampire. Finally, he could feel the skin on his face healing, the swelling around his eyes going down, his lips returning to their natural state.
He licked the wounds, healing her throat and holding her close. He hadn’t taken more than a blood bank would have, but it meant that she would need several weeks to recover. Wherever they holed up this time, he would need to have a different source of blood.
He lifted her into his arms, smiling as she snuggled sleepily against him.
“Did it work?” she asked tiredly.
“Yes, sweetheart,” he said as he slid down the wall and sat with her cradled in his lap. “Get some sleep. I need to make a phone call, but we’ll stay here until the sun goes down.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
* * * *
Darian ran about three hundred yards in the opposite direction to Wilson and Amber. He needed to get far enough away from the signature of his bounce tunnel to at least make it look like they’d been trying to evade their pursuers. Darian had sensed the warlock’s presence, so he knew their attackers were capable of following. He actually intended to take them on a wild-goose chase, and then hopefully rent a car two hundred miles south of here and drive back. Of course his plan not only relied on them being able to find his bounce tunnel signatures but to also eventually lose them a long way from here.
He shook his head as he stepped through the new tunnel. They’d sent five pixies. Five! All to kill one little human. It was true that Amber knew stuff that, as a human, she probably shouldn’t have known, but she didn’t seem a particular threat to anyone. Other humans wouldn’t believe the fantastical stories of paranormals living among them without some serious proof, and even then many would refuse to give her claims any consideration. She’d probably get locked up in a mental institute if she tried to share. She hadn’t even shown the telekinetic skills the other Oracle’s receptacles had displayed. Why the hell would pixies consider her such a threat that they’d be willing to send so many in an attempt to kill her? And why would an experienced, trusted warlock aid them in their quest?
With confirmation of Jed’s treachery only came more questions.
There was more to this situation than they knew.
At least more than he’d been told.
He opened a bounce tunnel into Hannah’s abandoned apartment and used the phone to call his boss.
* * * *
Amber woke with a start. She was cozy and warm and being held close to Wilson’s familiar leather jacket, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had something she was supposed to do.
“Darian,” she said, shocked that she’d forgotten he wasn’t with them. She lifted her head so suddenly that her vision swam and her stomach revolted.
“Shhh, stay still, sweetheart. Darian will meet up with us soon.”
“You planned this?”
“Of course,” he answered, seeming perplexed that she would ask the question at all. “We had several different emergency scenarios planned.” He laughed softly. “Forgetting my helmet wasn’t in any of them.”
“Are you okay?”
“Thanks to you, yes.” He stroked his hand through her hair. “The sun is almost down. I need to make a quick call to my CO and then I plan to buy you the biggest steak sandwich I can find.”
She nodded, her stomach rumbling at the idea of actual food. She’d never been a big meat eater, but two weeks in the jungle living on protein bars, rations, and the jungle idea of a salad and she was ready to sink her teeth into something more substantial.
“Will it be safe?”
“It’s not ideal, but at least after dark in a big city like this means fewer children on the street. Seven-year-olds should be tucked safely in their beds, so it will make it easier to spot any pixies.”
She glanced at the sheet wrapped around her.
“Could be worse,” she said with a shrug. Wilson grimaced and raised an eyebrow, apparently waiting for her to explain. She grinned, and leaned up to kiss him. “I could have a plug up my ass.”
“Good point,” he said with a laugh
.
* * * *
It took Darian several hours of bounce travel and car time to get back to the city where Wilson and Amber were waiting for him. He was very relieved to find them safe and unharmed, but unfortunately the information he needed to share wasn’t going to do them a whole lot of good.
“Benjamin said to stay off the radar.” He handed over Amber’s suitcase, the one they’d had to abandon at the first safe house. It had seemed an appropriate stop. Wilson smiled when he caught the helmet Darian tossed his way.
“You’ve had a busy day,” he said as they shielded Amber from view so that she could get dressed. “Benjamin told me the same thing.” Wilson wore a grim expression and seemed to hesitate a moment. “Did you get the impression that he’s holding something back from us?”
“I did. At first I thought it was Hannah, but we only have Jed’s word for it that she’s alive, and well, he just proved his word is worth nothing.”
“What the hell would make the guy turn against everything he’s ever fought for?”
“Maybe he hasn’t,” Amber said quietly. “You told me PUP stands for Paranormal Undercover Protection. Your primary objective is to keep the knowledge of the paranormal world out of human hands.”
“But this is different. You have the Oracle’s knowledge.”
“And besides,” Wilson cut in, looking very disturbed, “we do make exceptions. Skye’s sister for example.”
When Amber looked confused, Darian helped her to the car as he explained. “Skye is a recently made vampire and married to Benjamin and Samuel. Her sister Jennifer knows all about her new life. She’s human, but it was deemed necessary for her to know. No one is running around trying to kill her.”
“But she doesn’t possess any of the skills the Oracle’s receptacles do. Jennifer only has an outsider’s knowledge of a different world. With our ‘knowing’ skills, the six of us have something more.”
“So you reckon it’s something that you ‘know’ that’s the reason for Jed turning against us?” Darian asked, feeling sick to his stomach. What the hell could an Oracle pass on that would have the pixies so scared?
“No, I mean yes, I think it’s something we ‘know’ or maybe a skill we’re not aware of yet that is the reason for the traitor and the pixie attacks, but no, I don’t think Jed is the traitor.”
“Sorry, princess, but it was pretty obvious that he was behind the attack on us. No one else knew where we were, and there was definitely a warlock with the pixies. Thanks to him they managed to chase me across half the world before I finally lost them.”
“But you weren’t able to identify Jed personally.”
“No,” Darian said. He didn’t want to upset her, but everything pointed to Jed. In this case, Amber’s skill of “knowing” stuff seemed to be overridden with her own wishes. She’d said that the traitor wasn’t anyone she’d met. Maybe that was just her unconsciously trying to relegate the bad guy to a stranger, someone who hadn’t promised to protect her.
“Do you guys know a place called Sugarvale?” Amber asked quietly.
He shouldn’t have been stunned to hear her use the name of the town all of the Oracle’s receptacles had been heading to, but somehow he was. Somehow inside his mind he’d decided if she was wrong about Jed, then her skills were flawed in some way. Her utterance of the word “Sugarvale” only served to make him more confused.
“We do,” Wilson answered for them both. “Sugarvale is where we have PUP Squad Alpha’s headquarters.”
“I need to go there,” she said, making it very clear that it wasn’t a request.
“No,” Darian said, slipping into his Dom personality. He wouldn’t let her risk her life or dictate the terms of her protection.
She looked surprised by his monosyllabic answer, but then as if she understood his concern, smiled and leaned over to touch his cheek affectionately. He grabbed her hand and held it trapped against the stubble of his unshaven jaw.
“No,” he said again, realizing that he’d somehow lost this argument before it had even gotten started. “Don’t even think of going anywhere without us. I’ll have you tied to a bed so fast your head will spin. Are we clear, princess?”
“I don’t want to go anywhere without either of you, but I need to go to Sugarvale.”
“Why?” Wilson asked, sounding nearly as freaked out as Darian was feeling.
“Because Kali, Ava, and Hannah are there.”
“They can’t be,” Darian said. “They were told to go off the grid. There’s no way they ignored a direct order and simply stayed home.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Amber said, sounding just a little freaked out herself now. “I just know that I need to meet them. Ava has something for me. A gift, I think. I’m not sure what, but I know it’s important.”
“A gift?” Darian asked, his voice rising in anger and surprise. “Princess, I will buy you whatever it is you think you need. There’s nothing Ava can gift to you that Wilson and I can’t provide.” Even as the words were coming out of his mouth, he realized how irrational they were. It was obvious that Amber wasn’t talking about the type of gift that came in a box with a bright bow.
Fear for the woman’s safety was messing with his head. It had never happened before. He’d been doing security and protection type work for more years than he cared to count, but it was this one woman who made it personal, whose life was intimately entwined with his and Wilson’s. He couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not when he finally understood that they deserved a long future together.
“Amber,” Darian said softly, “I love you. Please don’t risk yourself like this.”
Tucked between them inside the cabin of the truck he’d rented, Amber first glanced at Wilson before climbing onto Darian’s lap. It was an awkward fit with the steering wheel, but he held her close and let all the warm memories of their time together in the jungle swirl through his mind. It didn’t surprise him to realize that she’d become more important to him than breathing.
* * * *
“I love you, too,” Amber said as she rested her head against Darian’s heart. “And I love Wilson.” She wanted a future where the three of them lived as happily as they had the past two weeks in the jungle. But this was the real world. Was it even fair of her to ask them to make their sweet and sexy interlude a permanent thing? And what if that wasn’t what they wanted? Sharing on a permanent basis was fraught with all sorts of problems. Could she make a happy life with only one of them if the other walked?
“Amber,” Wilson said, grabbing her hand and holding it tight in his cool grip, “we both love you, but even if we didn’t, our job would still be to protect you. Even if I didn’t love you, I still wouldn’t want you walking into the middle of danger. It’s not safe to go to Sugarvale.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “Stay with us. Stay safe.”
“Marry us. Have our babies,” Darian added.
She felt her eyes widen. “Marry both of you?”
“It’s not as unusual as you might think,” Darian said with a wide grin. “Marry us, love us, stay safe.”
“I’m not going to marry you just to stay safe, Darian Hawkes.” He looked upset by her apparent rejection, but she leaned back as far as the steering wheel would allow and added, “I will marry you both because I love you both with all my heart.” Darian grinned and then kissed her like the world was about to end. They’d barely come up for air when Wilson leaned over, dragged her off Darian’s lap and onto his own.
“I love you,” he said after a brief kiss, “but we need to move. Get you to a safe place.”
She turned around, leaning against the dashboard in an effort to see both of their faces. She wanted to agree with them, to let them decide what was safe and what was not, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to be in Sugarvale.
“I know Sugarvale is a safe place. The instinct to protect goes both ways. I wouldn’t ask you to take me there if I thought it would put you at risk.”
Darian a
nd Wilson looked at each other for a moment and then nodded.
“Okay, princess, we love you and we trust you. We’ll do things your way.” Darian glanced at Wilson again before adding, “For now.”
* * * *
The drive to Sugarvale was long, boring, and seriously uneventful. It was almost anticlimactic. Five miles out Wilson saw the shimmer of the first protection ward as they passed through it. Whoever was still in town would definitely know they were coming now. Chances were someone would be dropping by to check who was intruding on their little slice of paradise.
Neither Darian nor Wilson had mentioned their destination to Benjamin, even though they were literally about to land on the man’s doorstep, but it seemed safer to keep their plans to themselves. Even secure phone lines had a way of being overheard—especially with some of the technology Wilson usually took for granted. He glanced at the woman asleep with her head on his shoulder and smiled. She was the reason he hadn’t missed his technogeek equipment. He was so head over heels in love with her that he could probably live without it all if only he had her by his side.
Darian slowed the car as they reached a series of twisting corners and dogleg bends. At the top of the mountain pass there was a fallen tree across the road. Wilson wasn’t really surprised to see a warlock’s bounce tunnel open in front of them, but breathed a sigh of relief when it wasn’t Jed who stepped through.
Jason waved and smiled in greeting as he headed to the car.
“What brings you three back to headquarters? I thought you were on protection detail. Is this Amber?” He leaned in the window and reached for her. Wilson grabbed his arm and pushed him away rather forcefully. Jason looked surprised, mumbled something like, “I just wanted to see her face,” and then stepped away from the car with his hands in the air. “Fine, I get it. You saw her first. You get first dibs.”