Adam hesitated. “I met someone. I just thought you should know.”
I felt light-headed, as if my head was separating from my body. I mentally drew it back and straightened my shoulders. Adam had met someone already?
“You were right when you broke up with me in December,” I said. “It wouldn’t have worked between us. You’re a norm, I’m a paranorm, and our worlds would never meet.”
Adam looked at the floor and then at me. He smelled so good. Of leather and his masculine scent that I had loved so much. “I never expected to meet someone else,” he said. “Not after you, but I have.
“I know how you and I both feel about each other and always will. But we know why it ended.” He lowered his voice “I just wanted you to hear it from me, Nyx.”
“I’m happy for you,” I said and then was surprised that I meant it as much as I did. “I want you to be happy.”
“I am.” He cleared his throat. “I think you would like Keri.”
Hearing the female’s name made my stomach twist. Maybe I wasn’t as totally over Adam as I’d thought I was. Or maybe it was just hard imagining another female with him at all.
I studied his brown eyes, looking for signs of doubt. There were none. “You love her, so I’m sure I would like her.”
Adam held my gaze then started out the door. He paused and kissed the top of my head. “A part of me will always love you,” he said quietly.
“I feel the same way.” I looked down at himed down a again. “I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll still be around.” He gave me his adorable smile that showed off his dimple. “See you, Nyx.”
I nodded then closed the door behind him.
For a moment I leaned with my back against the door and closed my eyes.
Adam had found someone else. It was truly over. It was final. This was real. Adam was gone from my life, no matter what he said about seeing me around. Something told me I wouldn’t be seeing him at all.
Mentally setting aside everything that had happened tonight, I went to my closet. I pulled on black leather pants over red silky panties and a black leather top. The outfit was both durable and perfect for fighting when I tracked—and, well, beneath it all I just had to have something frilly even when I was tracking.
Maybe a battle was what I needed to get my head on straight. I strapped my weapons belt on and headed out, determined to find a good fight.
TWO
“Reese?”
Reese frowned into the darkness. The feminine voice that had just spoken his name when he answered the phone was familiar but he couldn’t place it. He mentally blocked out the sound of traffic from the Santa Monica Freeway that edged his downtown LA territory as he concentrated on the phone call.
“You’ve got him right here.” Reese squared his feet on the asphalt of the parking lot. He closed his eyes and sent his energy through the phone, his Shifter senses searching for whoever owned that voice. “Who’s this?”
Before he could identify the female with his senses, she said in a hushed, frantic whisper. “It’s Monique.”
Reese opened his eyes and straightened. His skin tingled like it always did before something bad was going to go down.
He was beyond surprised. Monique, the San Francisco Proctor, had been missing for weeks. She was a friend, someone he liked, trusted, and admired. If he hadn’t been so slammed with the volume of activity in his territory, and if they’d had enough Night Trackers to cover it, he would have gone to San Francisco to join the search for her. In a heartbeat. Unfortunately LA was short of Trackers, as were the neighboring cities.
“Mo? Are you okay?” Reese held the phone tight to his ear. “Where are you?”
“I need your help.” Monique’s voice trembled, something he’d never have thought of from the Elvin Proctor. “Something horrible is happening and I need someone I can trust. I know I can trust you. Are you alone now?”
“No one else is around right now and of course you can trust me.” Reese kept in the shadows as headlights flashed in his direction. “Where are you?” he asked again.
Her voice lowered, and he had to concentrate to hear her. “I’m near the entrance to Griffith Park on Crystal Springs Drive. Come now and signal me twice when you’re there.
“You’ve got it.” Reese began preparing himself for the shift, thinking of one of his favorite animal forms. “I can tell Curtis to meet—”
“No. Don’t bring the Werewolf.” Monique said the words so sharply that it made him pause. “I need you to come alone—you’ll understand why when we meet. I can’t have anyone know we have spoken. I’m in danger. I need someone I can completely trust to help and I know you can.”
Alone. A bell rang in his mind. A warning bell.
“All right.” Reese raised his left arm and glanced at his watch. Nearly midnight. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Thank you.” Monique sounded genuinely relieved, and he wondered if he had just overreacted. “Hurry. Please.”
“Be right there.” He snapped his phone shut and started to slip it into the holster on his weapons belt.
Instead he opened the phone again and dialed the number for one of the Trackers who covered the more-than-four-thousand-acre park. Katy answered on the third ring.
“Are you at home right now?” Reese asked.
“Yep,” Katy answered. “What’s up?”
“I need you on backup right away, just around the corner from your place,” Reese said to the Witch. He explained the call he’d just gotten from Monique and added, “Stick to the shadows and don’t let her know you’re there.”
“Gotcha.” The Witch’s soft voice belied the power she wielded in the spoken word. “I’ll leave right now. I’ll be waiting and watching.”
“Thanks, Katy.” Reese flipped the phone closed and shoved it into the holster.
Reese visualized an eagle, picturing its beauty, its strength, everything about it down to the last feather on its body.
A rush of sensation washed over his skin, like ice water, followed by warmth that reached every nerve ending in his body. One moment he stood in the parking lot and the next he took to the sky, shooting up until he was high above the city. A sense of exhilaration filled him as he rode the wind until he was over the main entrance to Griffith Park.
Reese circled above but didn’t see Monique, or any other being for that matter. He let out two piercing cries to let Mo—as well as Katy—know he was there. He doubted he’d see Katy, who likely would have cloaked herself in a Witch’s glamour. Being Elvin, Monique would be virtually impossible to spot, too. But if anyone else was around, he should hopefully see them.
Monique stepped from the shadows and looked up. Reese soared downward, straight for her. He landed in human form at a jog about twenty feet from where she stopped. With a quick sweep of his gaze and an outreach of his senses, he slowed and walked to the Elvin Proctor.
Reese hadn’t thought it possible for one of the Light Elves to look so concerned that she appeared almost frightened. The Elves were known for their stoic beauty, even during the worst of times.
Monique was lovely in jeans and a red blouse, her dark curls wild around her delicate, exotic face. Her completely feminine features belied the amazing skills she had as a Tracker and a Proctor. With her Elvin strength and intelligence, she was as tough mentally as she was physically.
She looked pale yet radiant in what little lighting there was at the park entrance. It was so good to see her, and he felt a flood of relief that she was alive.
“Where have you been, Monique?” he said, “The paranorm world is on its ass about all the missing Trackers—and you, a Proctor. It’s all anyone’s talking about.”
“Reese,” she said as she moved toward him. “Thank you for coming so quickly.” She went on before he could say anything. “There’s so much no one knows. I’ve been working undercover to find the other Trackers. It had to be kept secret.”
Reese cocked his head as she neared him.
“It all had to look plausible to those who have taken the missing Trackers,” she said.
“Rumors and speculation abound on who is responsible for this,” Reese said.
Monique nodded. “I have something important to talk with you about. I need you to be a part of this operation.”
Reese raised an eyebrow but let Monique continue.
“No one can know,” Monique said. “You must turn up missing like all of the others.”
“I’ll consider it once I hear more from you,” Reese said. “Who or what do you think is responsible?”
Monique lowered her voice, even though they were alone. “You’re right in part. But this isn’t the place to get into details.”
Reese gave a nod as he studied Monique. Something stirred within him. Like the feeling of setting out on the hunt. He was going to be in on the action from the inside.
“I have a place where I’m staying near Anaheim.” Monique gestured in the direction of the city. “I want you to come with me now and meet with our small undercover team,” she added. “I want to make certain, though. You have told no one, correct?”
Reese hesitated.
“Reese, I have to know, have you told anyone?” Monique repeated.
“I’m sorry.” Reese felt a tinge of embarrassment that sent heat creeping up his neck. “You turn up missing and I get a call from out of the blue with you asking to meet me alone. It didn’t seem right with all of the Trackers missing to not ask for a backup. It’s what you would have told me as a Proctor.”
“Reese, who knows?” Monique sounded a little panicked. “Who have you told? Is there someone else here?”
“Katy, the Witch,” Reese said. “She’s watching right now.”
Monique straightened, seeming to compose herself. “Call her in.”
Reese said in a nomsaid inrmal tone of voice, “Katy, it’s all good. No danger.”
No answer.
“Katy? Are you there?” Reese turned to look around him.
“Reese, Vampires are here!” Katy’s voice resonated throughout the park. “I can smell and sense them.”
The magic in the Witch’s voice was powerful enough that Reese felt it to the soles of his feet.
“What’s going on, Mo?” His voice came out in a growl.
Monique took a step forward. “Reese—”
He stepped back.
Something was wrong. Bad wrong.
“Reese!” Katy cried out as he stared at Monique. He took his gaze off the Proctor long enough to look over his shoulder.
He gave a cry of rage as he saw Katy lying on the ground, lifeless, blood trickling down her neck, a Vampire crouched over her.
His heart beat faster. Adrenaline pumped through his veins.
The shift came over him fast and sudden, and he roared as he became seven hundred pounds of tiger flesh—muscles, sinew, jagged teeth, and three-inch fangs.
Reese sprang onto the Vampire and slammed him onto the ground. He tore into the Vamp, ripping out his throat and shaking him like a rag before flinging him aside.
His roar reverberated through the park as he stood over Katy’s body. He turned his head to look back at Monique and growled deep in his throat.
A redheaded female Vampire walked from the trees, glaring at Monique. “I don’t know why he keeps you around. Look what you’ve done.”
Monique scowled. “Shut up, Elizabeth.” The redheaded Vamp stilled, anger burning in her eyes like green fire. “We prepared for this,” Monique added.
Reese narrowed his eyes and growled again. What could they possibly do to him? Another growl rose up in him as he saw Vampires surrounding him, holding tranquilizer guns. He would have laughed if he were in human form. Norms’ animal tranqs did not work on Shifters.
But he shouted out as the Vampires started shooting him with darts, the needles stinging as they buried themselves in his huge body.
Before he could tear into the Vampires, the world started to spin around him. Darkness turned into light turned into darkness in his mind. Something different was in those tranquilizer darts.
Reese felt himself falling out of the shift … his body returning to his human form.
The moment he became human, Monique grabbed him in an embrace, startling him.
Fangs and a flash in her eyes told him all he needed to know. Monique was one of them.
It happened too fast.
his v> >So happy you came,” she said, right before she sank her fangs into the vein at the side of his neck.
Confusion followed by survival instinct sped through Reese. He struggled, but almost immediately felt like all of his strength was being drained from his body. He went slack and was shocked to realize that Monique was strong enough to hold his weight.
Monique was some kind of Elvin Vampire. No … No. The thought didn’t truly compute in his mind.
She stilled. Reese’s mind swam. He’d never felt so weak in his life. The Elvin Vampire slid her fangs out of his neck and licked the spot she had just pierced.
The strangeness of it all made everything feel surreal. Monique let go of him. He dropped to his knees and fell forward. He managed to land on his palms so that he was supporting himself on all fours.
Reese shook his head, trying to knock the fuzziness from his brain. Katy screamed. The sound cleared his mind. He was aware of more than one being around them. Several beings.
“We know what your weakness is, Shifter. You have no choice but to join us,” came a smooth, deep male voice. “We had a special tranquilizer made that was formerly known only to Shifters.”
Reese’s mind swam.
“In twenty-four hours I shall be the one to bite you and turn you. And then you shall be in my control. Yes, you will actually want to obey me. Hard to believe, isn’t it? But true.”
Reese barely was able to move away from Katy before he collapsed. Vaguely he heard voices. The voices turned into a murmur, and he faded away.
Two for the price of one.
Volod smiled as he looked down at the Shifter, who’d transformed from an enormous tiger to his significantly smaller human form. He was still a big male, probably two hundred pounds, all muscle.
The Witch was a bonus. Seth was the only paranorm from his super-team who hadn’t succumbed to the Witch’s voice. A Shadow Shifter, Seth had transformed into shadow before the voice could affect him. He shifted back into human form beside her, just in time to take her down without her having a chance to say another word. Thereby freeing everyone else from her thrall.
“Excellent.” Volod gave a nod of approval to the recently made paranorm Vamps circling him. The Shifter Tracker, Reese, and the Witch Tracker, Katy, made up a total of eleven for his “dream team.” One Proctor, ten Trackers.
As soon as Reese and Katy were fully turned, Volod would have them trained with the others.
And then the conclave. Volod would reveal his team and his plan when the group of head Master Vampires in the United States gathered for their quarterly meeting.
With the conclave’s backing, Volod intended to take back his New York territory—
And exact revenge on those who had destroyed his world. Revenge against those who had murdered his brother, Danut.
height="0" width="1em">The Drow bitch and the mightier-than-thou Elvin Proctor wouldn’t be so smug when he was finished with them.
They would be his and serve his every command.
It was a far more satisfying thought than simply killing Nyx Ciar and Rodán. Far more satisfying.
THREE
SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES: NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING, BUT THEY STILL BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN YOU PUSH THEM DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS.
“What are Slinkies?” my brother, Tristan, asked as he looked from Olivia’s T-shirt to me. The early-evening wind tossed his cobalt-blue hair around his face. With his equally blue skin he would be difficult for New Yorkers to see at night, as long as he stayed to the shadows.
I laughed. �
�I’ll get you a Slinky of your own.”
“And then I can demonstrate,” Olivia, my PI partner of almost two years, said with a decidedly evil look in her dark eyes.
“Only with the Slinky.” I elbowed her. “Not by pushing Tristan down the stairs.”
“What’s the fun in that?” Olivia looked at him then at me again, devious expression still intact. “If not Tristan, how about we push Colin—”
“Not.” I lightly punched her shoulder.
Olivia was six inches shorter than my five-eight, but a dynamo of a petite package. A martial arts expert and former NYPD officer on the SWAT team—not to mention that she’d grown up with five sisters—Olivia DeSantos was a force to be reckoned with.
She gave a nod in Tristan’s direction. He had tilted his head back and was scenting something on the night breeze. Probably a lot of somethings, since this was New York City.
“He won’t stop looking at my boobs.” She put her hands on her hips. “I feel objectified,” she added with total innocence in her voice.
I laughed and gestured to her melon-size breasts. “They don’t grow them that big in Otherworld.”
With her flawless dark silk skin and her exotic looks, that probably wasn’t the only thing Tristan had been looking at. Olivia was half Kenyan and half Puerto Rican, a stunning combination. I’d noticed Tristan watching her when he didn’t think she was paying attention.
Olivia’s penchant for wearing T-shirts with amusing sayings, as well as jeans and Keds sneakers, didn’t take anything away from her sensual looks. Once she started talking, though, everyone saw Olivia in a far different way—a tough streetwise cop turned private investigator who jumped into everything as if she were bulletproof.
“So …” Olivia gave me a sly look. “How’s the fire-breathing hunk?”
My cheeks burned as if the fire-breathinng g hunk had scorched them with his flames. I turned away before forcing myself to look at her again.
“I’m not sure I want a relationship right now.” I cleared my throat. “I have a lot to think about.”
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