Ante Up: A Sin City Collectors Novella

by Amanda Carlson

  “A what?” Neve piped in. “A master of what? Ceremonies?”

  Sofia glanced around, noting the surprise lining their faces. She wouldn’t be able to hide it any longer, since Ginger had shared her secret, so why not tell? “I’m a master spellcrafter.” She cleared her throat.

  Diesel whistled low, as his head bobbed down, a thatch of his blond hair falling perfectly over one eye as he smiled at her. “I don’t know much about witches, but what does it mean to be a master?”

  “Being at master level means you’re great at everything witchy,” Sofia began, “but being a master usually means there is a concentrated specialty. In my world, there’s a master of potions, elements, animals, fauna, and more. My specialty, however, is the body. I can manipulate the human body to do what I want. So whether it’s breaking a bone, healing something quickly, or making another person go to sleep”—she winked at Diesel—“I can do it. Technically, there’s no witch on the planet better at manipulating the body than I am.”

  Jake asked, “Is that why you were able to spell me at the casino? Hellhounds are resistant to witches’ spells. The nymph’s serum didn’t work, but your spell did—at least in the short term.”

  Sofia nodded. “Likely, but you’re a very unique supe, Jake. Hellhounds have a rare ability—one I’ve never seen in another supe. Once you have my spell signature in your body, you instantly build up a resistance to me and I can no longer spell you. Your body rejects it like a disease. It’s quite amazing, actually.”

  “Well, at least one of us is safe from your fingers,” Neve said with a grin.

  “It’s not such a great thing.” Sofia arched an eye at the dhampir. “Now I can’t help him, either. I just finished telling you I could heal you. I can even heal a fatal injury, if I get there soon enough. I’m an asset, dhampir. Don’t forget it. But I can’t help your hellhound.”

  Before Neve could form a retort, negative or positive, Diesel grabbed Sofia’s hand and tugged her away from the group, growling over his shoulder, “The sun is rising, and Sofia knows where The Sumerians are. We meet back at the bar and come up with a plan.”

  Before Sofia could argue, Diesel led her to the truck and lifted her into the passenger seat, slamming the door behind her. As they drove away, Sofia could hear Neve call, “You’re still on the clock, witch! Master or not.”

  Sofia smiled, turning to Diesel. His profile was arresting in the early-morning light, strong and chiseled. She couldn’t help remembering where they’d been just a short time ago. “She’s relentless, isn’t she?”

  “She actually likes you.”

  “I know.”

  “You do?” Diesel glanced over at her. “She’s rough on the outside, but Neve is one of the most loyal people I’ve ever met. Once she accepts you, you’re in for life.”

  “I figured that out pretty quickly, but it’s going to be my mission in life to find a way to soften her up, even if I have to pour sugar directly over her head.”

  Diesel growled. “I can think of several other missions I’d like to see first.”

  Goose bumps erupted on Sofia’s skin at his words. They drove in silence for a few moments before Sofia said, “So, are you going to tell me now why you kidnapped me?”

  Diesel waited a few seconds to gather his thoughts before he answered Sofia. He glanced over at her. She was smiling at him, waiting patiently. She was so beautiful and gracious and intelligent. She deserved to know what was on the line.

  All of it.

  He cleared his throat. “I needed to talk to you privately. I’ve decided to share the details of the job I was hired to do by the agency, because the game has changed completely for me. It’s become personal—and this not only involves you, but it involves my entire family—so I’m going to make an exception. If Louie fires me, or Collects me, or doesn’t make me a Collector, I don’t care anymore. The objective has changed.”

  “Okay,” Sofia said, straightening in her seat. “I’m ready to hear it.”

  “I was tasked to pick up Damien Stamos and bring him in for questioning, but the Collection agency wants him only to get to someone close to him—his sister.” He glanced over to see if Sofia understood. “The address I was given to track him down was yours. I had no idea Damien was after you.”

  “I understand,” Sofia said. “I’m not surprised they still want Ginger.”

  “That’s not all of it.”

  Sofia turned her full attention to him. He gripped the wheel hard, careful not to break it. “Ginger told us the name of the leader of The Sumerians while you were out cold and his name is Mason.”

  “And that’s significant?” Sofia’s voice was calm.

  “He’s the incubus who killed my father.”

  Sofia gasped, and quickly cleared her throat. “So what you’re telling me is, this task isn’t about Louie or the agency any longer?”

  “Pretty much,” he said. “I will kill Mason. That’s my only end game. Ginger has told us that her brother is only a pawn, and I don’t know whether to believe that or not, but the agency never wanted him—they want her. Damien is no longer a priority to me. Mason is. I’ve spent too many years waiting for a chance like this, and honestly, I never thought I’d get it.”

  “How old were you when your father died?”

  “Eight.”

  “I’m in.” She sat back and crossed her arms.

  Diesel smiled. He loved a woman with no fuss, and Sofia was certainly that woman. “There’s one more thing you should know. Back at The Pond before you woke up, Ginger told us Mason is a spellcrafter.”

  “What?” Sofia blanched, swiveling in her seat to face him. “Tell me everything she said.”

  Diesel relayed all the info Ginger had given them while Sofia had been out of commission. He ended with, “A half-incubus, half-witch has to be powerful.”

  Sofia nibbled her lip, lost in thought. After a moment she said, “He would be strong—incredibly strong. I think I have a hunch. When you fought Mason, did you engage him directly when you were eight?”

  “Yep,” Diesel answered. “I was tough even back then, but turns out, not tough enough.”

  “Did your moon issues start right after your encounter with Mason?” Sofia asked. “Was it immediate? Or did they heighten once you hit puberty?”

  Diesel raised his eyebrows. “It did heighten. Before the age of sixteen, wolves aren’t fully able to shift, but yes, I had issues right after. Every time the moon was full, I was in pain. But once I came into my own, the issues became much more apparent. Once I was eighteen, the moon cycle was brutal, and I couldn’t control myself.”

  Sofia kept biting her lip. Diesel wanted to bite it right along with her. He let a low growl escape.

  Her eyes snapped to his, lust pooling immediately in their amber depths.

  “The moment this is over, you’re mine,” Diesel all but groaned, keeping his eyes on the road so he wouldn’t pull over and take her right there.

  “No, wolf, you’re mine.”

  The look on his face went immediately from lust to yearning.

  “That’s right,” she said with a sigh. “We’re going to finish what we started. And then do it all over again.”

  Sofia grinned like crazy as Diesel almost drove the truck off the road. His barely contained need was overflowing, and she was overjoyed, because she felt the same way. They’d been interrupted in the worst way. She’d woken from The Pond wanting him all over again.

  But, first, she had to deal with Diesel’s crushingly sad childhood story. His father had been killed in front of him by a spellcaster incubus—which, up until that moment, she’d never heard of before—who, in turn, had done something detrimental to his sweet body at such a young age.

  The fact that Diesel had to relive his trauma every month during the moon cycle was almost too much for her to think about. She fisted her hands while she put her mind to figuring out what happened and fixing him. Oh, they were going to get Mason. There was no doubt. But she was also
going to find a way to help Diesel, too.

  She was still deep in thought when Diesel finally turned into the parking lot of Hellhounds. It was deserted at this hour. The sun had just risen over the horizon. As Diesel put the truck in park, she turned to him. “Okay, so I’ve been thinking. Mason is unique. If he hit you with a spell, it would’ve had to have been something specific, and because your body was still growing and you were partially shifted into some kind of immature wolf, I believe something got messed up on a molecular level. Once you changed back to human after the attack, the spell also changed, possibly mutating something within your shifting cycle.”

  Diesel spread an arm along the top of the bench seat between them, a goofy smile on his face. Her heart raced. “So, do you think you can fix me, doc?”

  “I might be able to. That’s my hope, of course, but the damage was done so long ago, and even being the type of witch I am, I might not be able to reverse it.” She smiled at the handsome man sitting beside her. “But there’s no doubt I can help you. If anything, I can spell you with a Band-Aid every time the moon is out, fooling your body, at least for a while.”

  Diesel grinned at her as his hand snaked behind her neck. “You can fool with my body anytime.” He pulled her into a possessive embrace. They shared a long kiss, which melted her insides. “But that means”—he nuzzled her neck—“you’ll have to share all the moon cycles with me from now on. Maybe Jake can give you a waitress job at the bar.” Before she could protest, he slid her onto his lap and nestled her firmly against his chest, kissing her again soundly.

  She broke, gasping, her body hot and fluid, her hands fisted in his hair. She wanted him so badly. “I would love nothing more than to spend every moon cycle with you”—she gave him a string of small kisses—“but waitressing is not on the list.”

  “Professional bar hag then?”

  “Very funny—”

  The tangling of their tongues was so deliciously hot, neither of them noticed when Nevada’s car swung into the lot. That was, until she lay on the horn.

  “Hell, that dhampir has bad timing,” Diesel groused as Sofia slid off his lap and demurely tried to adjust her robe where it had fallen open.

  “She has great timing, because my first time with you will not be in the front seat of a truck,” Sofia said. “Plus, we need to track the incubi right away. They won’t stay put for long.”

  Diesel ignored the last part of her statement. “This is a vintage truck, lovingly restored. What’s not to like? The front seat is plenty cozy.” He patted the space between them and winked.

  “Well,” Sofia said, trying not to laugh, because she was fairly certain he was serious, “for one, the front seat is limiting for what I want to do to you. And for another, I’d like to not feel like a teenager the first time we’re intimate. I’ve spent way too much time thinking like a teenager around you as it is. I want to feel like an adult.”

  His eyes shot to her mouth. “Run that first part by me again.”

  Sofia laughed. “The first part would take much too long to explain.”

  “Try me—”

  “Enough playtime, kiddies,” Neve announced as she popped the passenger door open with little fanfare. “Witch, I have clothes inside. Since you’re bigger than me, the most you can hope for is tight, but they’re better than tromping after a bunch of sex demons in a silk teddy.”

  “This is not a teddy…” Sofia managed lamely, but the dhampir was already across the parking lot, heading into the bar with the rest of the group.

  She turned to meet Diesel’s hot gaze before she got out, tucking the ridiculous robe around her once again. He grinned. “I thought it was a little short for a nightie.”

  “Don’t even start.”

  Diesel was trying to focus on what Jake was saying, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of Sofia. She’d just come out of Jake’s office wearing the dhampir’s leathers, and the sight was nothing short of completely mind-blowing.

  The outfit was tight—in all the right places.

  Her hips looked amazing, curvy and full, but he couldn’t stop staring at her cleavage. She had the dhampir there by a long shot. The vest was buttoned, but the vee in between beckoned him like a bee to nectar. He couldn’t turn his gaze away.

  “Yo.” Neve snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Stay with us, wolf. The hangar is twenty-eight miles out of town. Did you hear what Jake just said? No, you didn’t, because we all know your mind was in Ta-Ta Land. But we need you to focus if we’re going to catch these guys, and I want them caught.”

  “I’m not catching anyone,” Diesel muttered firmly as he sat back and crossed his arms, trying to avert his eyes away from Sofia. “Mason isn’t leaving the hangar.”

  Sofia had described a deserted airport storage facility, and after a few key landmarks, they’d pieced together where The Sumerians were holed up. They were about thirty miles south.

  There weren’t a lot of undetectable places in Nevada around Vegas, short of digging new tunnels or caves in the mountains. It was all barren and open. The Sumerians had just landed in town, so it seemed they’d taken the easiest route possible to stay out of sight. The old hangar was only a few miles from a tiny airport outside of an even smaller town. The incubi had probably flown in under the radar and likely thought they’d already have Sofia and be back on their way before anyone knew they had arrived.

  “Fine, you get Mason,” Neve said. “But Ginger’s brother is wanted for questioning, so we’re bringing him in.”

  “No.” It was the first word the succubus had spoken since entering the bar. She had taken a seat a little farther away from the rest of the group.

  “No?” Neve twisted her head toward the succubus, looking incredulous. “Louie is family to me. Diesel has a job to do, and even if it takes all of us to get it done, we’ll do it. The Sumerians are a much bigger threat than the agency even knows. Based on the information I got from my friend, what they’re into is heavy. We preempt it. That’s our job.”

  Ginger leaned forward. “I have enough intel on The Sumerians to bury the organization forever, but I get my brother out first, that’s my line.” Her voice was hard, showing her grit. “Diesel kills Mason, and good riddance, but I get my brother. I’m giving him a chance to redeem himself. Once I get him somewhere safe, we’ll call in. I fully plan to cooperate with the agency, but only on my terms. I told you all before, I have nothing to hide. I run my organization above board, and I’m not risking a Collection. I’m innocent.”

  Luke stepped in, turning to Ginger. “I’ll go with you. In order for the agency to back down for a while, you’ll need me. I’ll be the go-between with Louie and the agency while we figure this out.”

  Diesel raised an eyebrow at his brother, but didn’t comment on Luke’s ready offer. Instead, he rested his powerful forearms on the tabletop and got down to business. “Damien is not who Louie wants.” He waited until he had everyone’s attention. “He wants Ginger. Whatever The Sumerians framed her with is still ongoing. The agency thinks she’s behind it all, and once they find out she’s the head of Dossier, there will be further complications, there’s no doubt.” Sofia had briefed him on Ginger’s line of work when he’d told her about Mason being a spellcaster. “I agree with Luke. Ginger has to have some time, but we make an agreement right here”—he jabbed a single finger into the tabletop—“that she comes in no matter what.”

  Luke eyed his brother. “Ginger’s innocent. She can’t come in until Louie grants her a pardon or she risks a Collection.”

  “I’m not disagreeing with you,” Diesel said. “But we’re walking a tricky tightrope with Louie and the agency right now by making a choice to go after The Sumerians ourselves.” It was a unanimous vote to do it themselves without involving the agency. If they did, Diesel would lose his chance for revenge. “If you agree to go with her, and subsequently bring her in, we might get a pass. But we have to agree to produce something for Louie at the end of all this.” Diesel glanced at Gin
ger. “How long do you need?”

  “One month,” she said without missing a beat. “If my brother doesn’t come around by then, it’s all over. I’ll also need that time to gather everything I can for my defense. I won’t agree to meet with this Louie, or anyone at the agency, until I have their word they will look at my evidence objectively.”

  “I can handle my uncle,” Jake interrupted. “If you’re innocent, we can work with that, but Diesel’s right. We need to make an agreement right here and now. Louie gave him a job to do, and we’re changing the game. I agree we need to do this, but Diesel owes the agency once we’re done. How about one month from today? Do you agree to come in voluntarily by that date?”

  Ginger nodded once. “Yes.” Her voice was resigned. “I will come in.”

  “I’ll make sure she does,” Luke added. “We’ll stay in full contact with Diesel throughout.”

  “Fine,” Jake said. “Then we’re solid.”

  Neve had stayed quiet throughout the discussion, her face set in a hard line, her intelligent eyes taking it all in. The dhampir didn’t miss much.

  “Now, we head out to the hangar.” Jake rose out of his chair. “Between the six of us, we should have no issues taking the incubi down, especially if they aren’t expecting us.” Jake met Diesel’s gaze. He knew how important it was to Diesel to finish this so he could close the chapter on his vengeance. Jake knew the full story behind the death of Diesel’s father. For supernaturals, retribution in the form of a life for a life was a hard and fast rule. There would be no trial for this.

  “I believe we carry the advantage if we move soon,” Ginger said as she stood, pushing her chair in. “If Mason runs his organization the same way he used to, The Sumerians cleanse for two hours around dawn every day. It’s a ritual that leaves them open and vulnerable. It’s likely why they haven’t tried to attack Sofia again. Mason likes to call it a recharging, but I know what he’s really doing. In order for his power to stay strong, he secretly sucks energy from his followers daily. It weakens them and makes him more powerful, and he does it each morning without fail. Being in Sofia’s mind had to have drained him, so he will be seeking to reboot his power, no matter what.”