by Kate Douglas
He stroked his fingers up and down her spine, working his answer over in his mind. Some of it was obvious; some of it he didn’t know the answers to himself. He hadn’t when he started; he still didn’t. He doubted that would satisfy his curious little scientist. Smiling, he kissed the tip of her nose. “Some of it is the job, I’ll admit. I don’t like to see innocent people get caught in the crossfire, and I do what I can to stop it. Also, I’d love to do anything I could to help nail Smith’s ass to the wall. If chasing you trips him up and makes him do something stupid or draws him out in the open for Cavalli to catch, then that’s fine by me.”
“I never pictured myself as terrorist bait.” She winced and shifted to try to get off his lap. “I’m glad you can—”
“I’m not done yet.” He held her in place, tightening his arms around her. “It’s not just the job. It’s not just because I can’t see your future. That’s more likely to make me turn around and walk away.” That wasn’t strictly true, because before he’d met her, the number of people he couldn’t see the future for could be counted on one hand, with fingers left over. He just couldn’t imagine approaching such a person without all the caution reserved for live explosives. “I care about you and Alex. Not just because of the job, but because of you. Both of you. And admitting that scares the hell out of me. The inability to see with you means you’ll be important to me, but it doesn’t let me know how or why. Or for how long.” He shrugged. “I made my own choices, and I’m here willingly. I would die for you.”
“I know. I saw you risk your life to go get Alex.” She closed her eyes. “I don’t want you to die for me. Us.” Her dark lashes swept up, and her gaze met his. She cupped his face between her palms. “I care about you, too. You can say it was your choice, but I would feel responsible forever if anything happened to you.”
Catching her hand in his, he turned his head and kissed the center of her palm. “I know exactly what you mean, sweetheart.”
She sighed. “I’m getting that memo. It just . . . sucks, you know?”
“No arguments here.” He dropped a quick kiss on her full lips, then went back for another, slower, longer kiss. His cock stirred, and he groaned before he forced himself to pull away. He hated to worry her more, but he had to let her in on his agenda for the day. “I’m going to need to leave Alex and you alone for a few hours while I take care of something.”
A frown drew her eyebrows together and her kiss-swollen mouth downward. She crossed her arms over her bare breasts. “Oh? What do you need to take care of?”
He couldn’t resist it—he brushed his lips over the cleavage she presented. “I need to see someone about resupplying my ammunition cache. I can only carry so much with me at one time, and I blew through some in Oregon.”
She shivered at the reminder, but didn’t shy away from the discussion. “There has to be a sporting goods place that has what you need around here. Arizona’s a red state, right? They have to have guns here.”
His lips twitched. “It’s not that simple, Doc.”
“How come?”
“Think about it. Would a regular, Normal bullet work on, say, a werewolf?”
“No.” She blinked. “Oh.” Blinked again. “Well, shit.”
He did grin, then. “There are limited places to buy the kind of ammo I need, and we need this to be off the record. We’re trying to fly under the radar, remember?”
“Yeah. I recall,” she retorted drily. He watched her brows draw together as she thought about it for a second. “You can’t possibly have a separate kind of bullet for each Magickal species. You’d never know what kind of person you’d be shooting at next. What if you were ready for werewolves with silver bullets and got attacked by elves? Silver wouldn’t be nearly as effective.”
“Head of the class, Dr. Standish.” His cock reacted as she idly stroked his skin while thinking. Since he didn’t have time to indulge himself again before he had to get going, he forced himself to lift her off his lap.
“So . . . what do you use?” She settled against the headboard, tucking the sheet around her. “There’s no known chemical, herb, metal, or alloy that effects every Magickal species.”
Grabbing his duffle off the floor, he tossed it on the bed and pulled out clothes, his extra revolver, and his last clip of bullets for his regular weapon. He’d had to drop his other spare in Oregon, but two guns meant he could leave one with Chloe and still remain armed himself. It was enough. “We use bullets that are explosive, armor-piercing rounds that have fragments of every metal, alloy, chemical, etcetera, known to ward off Magickal species.”
“Bronze for witches, silver for werewolves, iron for Fae and elves, and . . . what for vampires?” She waved a hand through the air. “They’re only allergic to daylight—oh, you’re using a sunbeam spell as part of the explosion in the explosive round.”
“Yep.” Ejecting a bullet from the magazine, he handed it to her. For most people, it wouldn’t look any different from a regular bullet, but if Chloe tested the material inside with her magic, she’d sense something entirely different. “There’s not enough to damage a Magickal like a pure round made from the one thing they’re allergic to would, but it’ll slow any Magickal down, regardless of species, and emptying a clip into someone will do the job.”
Her eyes narrowed as she focused on the bullet, turning it this way and that in her hand. She glanced up at him for a brief moment. “I’m not going to ask if you know that from personal experience.”
“Good, don’t ask.” He snagged the round from her hand, slid it back into the clip, and set the clip on the nightstand next to his weapon. He handed Chloe the revolver.
“Crap. You do know.” She checked the safety on the gun as he had shown her, ignoring the incredulous brow he arched in her direction. “The bullet I pulled from Alex was pure silver.”
“Yeah, that shot was just for him.” He’d thought of this too, had come to only one conclusion. “I’m guessing they wanted to incapacitate him so he was easier to manage while they took care of us.” It also meant they hadn’t really cared if they killed the boy, as long as they delivered to Smith one of the two people who had the information he wanted.
She swallowed, balled her fingers in the sheet, and gave him a smile edged in desperation. “Right. So. You have to have very specialized ammunition. What are you going to do?”
He shrugged and gathered his pile of clothes. “An old friend of Selina’s in the area will probably give me whatever he has lying around.”
“So, no one they could connect you to.” She laid the revolver beside her on the bed, drew her knees up, and rested her chin on them. “But stopping in Phoenix wasn’t just a random choice.”
“No, it wasn’t.” He bent to brush a kiss over her cheek, then turned for the bathroom. “But believe me, no one would connect me to this person.”
Laughter tinged her voice. “That good, huh?”
“We met. Once.” He glanced back. “It wasn’t pleasant.”
She took a breath, her face sobering. “How do you know he’ll help you?”
“I don’t.” He was pretty sure. Mostly. The vision he had of events before him was hazy, but that he could see anything told him Alex and Chloe weren’t directly involved with what he was going to do. In any case, if he was wrong, he didn’t want them with him. “If everything goes according to plan, I’ll pick up groceries on the way back. If I’m not back by nightfall—”
“You’ll be back.” Her face set in stubborn lines.
“Chloe.” He made the word a warning, an admonishment.
She averted her face, refusing to look at him. “I know what to do, Merek. I will if I have to, but I won’t have to. You’ll be back.”
Arguing with her wouldn’t help, so he left it at that and got down to business. Chloe had a grocery list ready for him when he got out of the shower, and a solemn nod from Alex was all he got from the wolf before he was out the door with a slice of cold pizza in his hand.
Time to see
the most obnoxious Normal the gods had ever cursed the earth with.
11
An hour later, Merek was circling the car around a block on the outskirts of Phoenix. The route he’d taken here had been as circuitous as he could make it, and he took his time checking out the address he was looking for.
The place was modest and unassuming. A tidy little house on a tidy little street. Nothing special or different about it except the very abnormal Normal man who lived inside.
Theodore Holmes.
The last living vampire hunter.
Or, the last one Merek had ever heard of, and only then because Selina had told him. Assuming the old bastard was still among the living, but he thought Selina would have mentioned his dying, if for no other reason than the man had hated Merek’s guts on sight and it amused the hell out of her. That he got on Merek’s last nerve amused her even more.
He parked the car several blocks away and walked back to the house. Stepping onto the porch, he kept his hands loose at his sides and in plain sight. If Holmes still lived here, he already knew Merek was there, and probably had a weapon or five trained on him.
Something wavered on the edge of his senses, an irritating scrape over his nerves. “I know you’re there, Holmes.”
“What the hell do you want?” The voice emerged from an intercom next to the door. It was gruff with age, but didn’t betray a creak of weakness.
“Your help.” Merek huffed out a laugh, glancing up into a video camera mounted to the porch roof. If anyone had told him a month ago he’d be here, he’d have told them to get their precognition retested.
Holmes’s door swung open, his sharp blue eyes sweeping over Merek and the street behind him. As Merek had suspected, there was a compact pistol leveled on his chest. “Did Grayson send you?”
“What do you think?” Merek didn’t so much as twitch, taking a long moment to look Holmes over as thoroughly as he’d been inspected. It was none of Holmes’s concern that adrenaline hummed in Merek’s veins, his heart leaping at seeing the business end of a weapon, a dozen defensive spells swirling into his mind, ready to disarm and dismantle the threat.
“I think you’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest.” Holmes lowered the weapon slightly. “There’s nothing I can do to bail you out of that much trouble.”
“Let’s make this conversation more private.” Merek nodded his head toward the shadowy interior of the house. He wasn’t saying any more than he already had out in the open.
The old man grunted. “Fine.”
Stepping back, Holmes allowed Merek to pass in front of him and shut the door behind them, reengaging whatever security systems were in place. That little pistol remained trained on Merek while they walked through the house to a small kitchen. He sat at a scarred wooden table, scanning the room for the exits should he need to make a quick escape.
Everything in the place was functional, if shabby around the edges. A feminine touch showed in some of the decorations, and Merek wondered if Holmes had ever been married. Then he banished the thought. He didn’t want to know about the man’s personal life, and Holmes would probably shoot him just for wondering.
Merek’s clairvoyance leaped at the hint of a question, and his time with Alex and Chloe had loosened his grip on his power, so a vision exploded through his mind. He saw a woman . . . years ago, when the furnishing had been new. A wife. Pretty, with a wry smile. Not a hunter, but she handed a rifle to Holmes and kissed him good-bye, so not ignorant of his profession. Sweat gathered along Merek’s hairline, his hands fisting on the tabletop. His vision dragged him into the near future, two options stabbing themselves into his thoughts. A wiry teenage girl dancing around this kitchen before hugging the old man tight. She had Holmes’s sharp blue eyes and the wife’s wry grin. Something about her face was familiar, as if Merek had seen it before, but he couldn’t put his finger on where. Merek shook his head, and the vision crashed into the second option. Selina’s dead face blew past his eyes, the same scene he’d seen the day he’d met Chloe, but now the view expanded and he saw Holmes’s broken body beside his partner’s, a neat bullet hole between the old man’s eyes.
“What do you want?” The question was just as rude and unwelcoming as the first time it was asked, and it jolted Merek back to the present.
Sucking in a deep breath, he got his usual tight-fisted grip on his precognition, and forced his hands to relax on the tabletop. “The first thing I need is Magickal ammo.”
“What makes you think I’d have any?” Holmes’s shoulder jerked in a shrug as he laid the pistol down, still pointed squarely at Merek. “Illegal for unauthorized Normals to have that stuff—that’s how you get a sweeper team to go through your house, remove your contraband, and mess with your memories.”
One eyebrow arched at that utter bullshit. As if that kind of threat had ever intimidated a vampire hunter. “I need some Magickal ammo for a Glock and a .38 Special.”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard you twice the first time.” Holmes’s chair scraped back when he stood. “It’s down in the basement.”
“I’ll wait here while you get it.” He’d also wait for the sweat to dry and his muscles to stop trembling in reaction to his intense vision.
The other man thumped across the room to the cellar door. “Watch him, Boleyn.”
A German shepherd came into view from down a short hallway, its nails clicking against the linoleum floor. With its odd bicolored eyes—one blue and one brown—the dog looked suspiciously like a slimmer, female version of Selina’s familiar. The thing snapped its jaws once before sitting down to stare at Merek as if he looked better than the canine’s next meal. Just as Selina’s familiar liked to do. Merek would bet Millie Standish’s fortune this was a familiar from the same litter. He’d never heard of a familiar attaching itself to a Normal. Then again, this Normal wasn’t very normal. He shrugged. Now wasn’t the time to be curious about a retired vampire hunter. He had bigger worries, and he didn’t want to invite any more clairvoyant episodes.
He didn’t hear the Normal return, but he sensed that same irritating presence approach so he turned his head to watch Holmes come up the basement steps carrying a couple of boxes of ammunition. He dropped them on the table. “Now, you wanna tell me why you can’t just get your own at work?”
A casual shrug and a mild tone from Merek would likely annoy the Normal, but he didn’t really care. “I’ve taken an extended vacation.”
Holmes grunted and resumed his seat. “Most vacations don’t end up with two people dead—one of them roasted alive.”
“He shot a teenage boy.” A blood-soaked memory that would haunt Merek for the rest of his days. He had far too many of them.
The old man’s eyes honed in on him, pinning Merek in place. “Vampire?”
Now it was his turn to grunt. “Werewolf.”
“Mangy animals,” Holmes grumbled, then shrugged. “But they don’t like vampires any more than I do.”
Merek didn’t even want to get into an argument with the man about his hatred for vampires. Hate was an irrational thing, and he wanted to get out of here without a bullet hole in his own hide. A small smile tilted up the corner of his lips. “I torched one vampire’s wings off, and a lady friend of mine ran another down with an SUV.”
“Good woman.” A rare smile crossed the man’s face, wrinkles deepening around his eyes.
“One of the best.” Merek ran a hand through his hair. “She’s the reason I’m on vacation. And the werewolf boy.”
“Vacation.” The Normal gave a derisive snort.
“I know you keep your ear to the ground in the Magickal community. How bad is it?” Merek leveled a serious gaze on the vampire hunter. He wanted the perspective of someone besides Millie and her bodyguard. Holmes’s take would be about as different as possible, and the human wouldn’t spare Merek any ugly details.
“They want you for questioning about the killings of those people in Oregon. That old Standish witch is keeping things quiet in the Council, stoppi
ng an all-out manhunt, but some strange rumblings are going on in the werewolf packs. Don’t know if it’s related or not, but things look to come to a head soon.” Holmes rolled his shoulders. “As for you . . . Most say you’ve gone rogue, and the Witch Coven is covering it up since you’re one of theirs.”
“What do you think?” Merek tapped his fingers against the table, chewing over what Holmes had said.
“Selina’d be after you herself if you’d gone rogue.” He made an impatient gesture with an age-spotted hand. “Sounds a little too much like someone’s looking for you and wants as many eyes doing the looking as possible. They had a reward out for information about your whereabouts, and now you’re wanted for questioning. The Magickal you torched wasn’t some innocent bystander. Got a record as long as my dick.”
There was a mental image Merek would have to take bleach to. He reached out and pulled the boxes of bullets toward him, opening them to check the rounds and test them for viability. They were good. “There were a couple of other operatives there. One was Gregor—”
“Shit.” Holmes sat back in his chair with a low whistle, the first real sign of surprise crossing his face. “You are in some trouble, boy.”
Merek choked on a short laugh. “I’m aware.”
A long moment of silence passed while both men contemplated the new information they had. Holmes’s gaze met Merek’s. “You better bury yourself deep. Stay away from the Magickal world. Go totally Normal.”
“We’re going to.” It was the same conclusion Merek had reached. One he wouldn’t be letting Millie know about when he checked in with her next. No more using her properties, just the cash she’d given them. Nothing related to Magickals in any way.