The Bend-Bite-Shift Box Set

by Hardin, Olivia

  Her mind whirled to her life, to all the things she had ever had and all the things that she had ever wanted. Nicky wasn’t a mistake. Nicky was the one good thing she could always count on. She could not lose him.

  And she needed to finish things with Dysis in order to be certain that wouldn’t happen. Her sister would find her, would find Nicky, if she didn’t get what she wanted. Gerry had no idea what the silver box was, but she suspected that Tylie would know.

  The file with their next rescue was on the small desk in the corner of the suite. Standing, she approached the desk and flipped the folder open with a single finger. The address was close by, according to Nicky.

  About thirty minutes later she stepped out of a taxi and tossed the cabbie some cash. He leaned his arm across the seat to look out the driver’s window at her. A street lamp cast an orange glow across his face, exposing a lascivious grin.

  “Go on. I don’t need an escort,” she muttered in disdain.

  He looked her up and down another time before he rolled up the window and drove off. Gerry turned away to look down the street and up the hill. Her destination was a large home with a brick enclosure and a wrought-iron fence. She made her way there with soft, easy steps.

  At the tall brick wall she stopped and reached out to the house with her mind. She wasn’t a mind reader, but she could feel for sentience, and her powers let her know there were only three or maybe four people currently in the home. She honed in on a particular awareness, recognizing its youth.

  She reached deeper, touching those thoughts. Cookies. Oreo cookies were the one thing that little person wanted more than anything at that moment. Gerry grinned. Definitely one of the little boys from their files. Adults didn’t have such innocent and pure wants.

  Her hand swept through her long brown locks as she considered her options for getting inside. If she was correct, the child was in an area alone, so now would be the time to rescue him. She put her hands high to test whether she could grab the top of the wall to pull herself up. As soon as her fingers curled around the edge and she prepared to leap, two hands grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down.

  She wasn’t just startled but shocked. She still had her mental feelers extended, and she should have been able to detect someone sneaking up behind her. A gasp tore from her throat and she whirled her head to find Nicky glaring down at her.

  “What are you doing?” he demanded, his frown intensifying.

  Gerry raised an eyebrow and stared back at him a moment. How is he able to block himself off from me so completely? Are my secrets that much of a wall between us? She steeled her expression and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “You left. I decided to check things out here. We have a job to do, you know.”

  He grunted and shook his head. “We had a plan to wait until early morning. Are you just trying to piss me off more?”

  She opened her mouth to spout a biting retort, but an explosion tore through the air. Gerry placed her hands over her head and crouched low while Nicky covered her with his torso and pressed them both close to the brick wall.

  “What the hell?” he muttered, crawling along the ground so he could peek inside the iron gates. Gerry slithered in beside him and saw that the house was still intact, but the corner in which she had sensed the child was completely engulfed in flames.

  Nicky found the vampire-parent, Franz, unconscious in what appeared to have at one time been his study. He figured the bloodsucker was just dazed, but before he could wake Nicky retrieved a sharp wooden leg from a busted desk and rammed it into the guy’s chest. The body fossilized into an ashen mold before collapsing to a pile of dust.

  He and Gerry had read the details about this vamp’s history with numerous magical kids; even if remorse were an emotion Nicky was used to, he wouldn’t feel it for this kill. He had no problem playing judge, jury, and executioner.

  Gerry’s powers alerted them that there were at least two adults in the house along with the child. She sent Nicky one direction while she went in search of the little boy. One bad guy down, one more to go, he assured himself. Irritation scratched the back of his mind as he recognized Gerry’s powers for what they were. It wasn’t as if sensing minds was something new. She had always been able to do it; only now he knew it wasn’t witchcraft but demonic power.

  And he decided he didn’t give a flying fuck whether she was a demon or not. In his book, dhampir still trumped demon on the low class paranormal scale, so it wasn’t that he was being arrogant about it. It was the secrecy that came close to tearing his heart out—the continued secrecy especially.

  Nicky was so absorbed in thoughts of his marriage that he almost caught a blast of energy to the chest. His senses snapped to attention just in time for him to duck out of the way as the bookshelf behind him exploded into multicolored fireworks.

  “Where’s Franz?” demanded a rail-thin man from the doorway. Nicky recalled that the file said Franz had a magical lover by the name of Marc.

  Nicky snickered as he stood to face the man. “Pudgy guy? ‘Bout five-nine? Bit of a scar on his cheek?”

  Marc’s eye twitched and he frowned in confusion.

  Still grinning from the side of his mouth, Nicky approached the skinny fellow. When he was standing in front of him, he thumbed over his shoulder at the pile of dust in the corner. “You might collect enough for a burial. Or a cool urn if you’re into that sorta thing.”

  The man’s gaze wavered long enough for Nicky to punch him square in the jaw. He didn’t have to put much strength into the move. The poor guy was a lightweight and easily felled.

  A broken chaise lounge had a gold tassel hanging loose so he ripped it away and used it to tie Marc’s hands behind his back before he went in search of Gerry. He could hear her speaking as he approached what appeared to be a bedroom.

  “Well, I can see why that would upset you. Had this ever happened before? The ‘fire thing’ you mentioned?”

  “Hell no!” A boy of about twelve was saying as Nicky entered the room. Noticing the newcomer, the child flinched and cleared his throat. “I mean, no, ma’am.”

  Gerry tossed a quick glance over her shoulder at Nicky then returned her attention to the boy. She was squatting down with two fingers pressed to the tile floor to steady herself. The room looked like a kitchen, though the explosion had thrown one wall through to the adjoining room. A huge pile of rubble lay smoldering.

  “Adam was wise enough to get a fire extinguisher and put the fire out,” Gerry explained. “He was very angry with Mr. Franz for not letting him have Oreos after dinner. Apparently Franz believes that particular type of cookie is undignified.”

  Nicky snorted and reached his hand down to her to help her stand. She looked at the offering a moment before taking it and letting him pull her upright. “You won’t have to worry about Franz anymore. We’re gonna take you someplace where there’s other kids. You’ll like it there.”

  Gerry piped in. “And there is someone there who can help you learn about your firestarter powers. You’re special, you know.”

  “I know he’s dead,” Adam said with a tremble in his voice. “I saw his body after I put out the fire.”

  Nicky saw the guilt flaring in the young man’s eyes, and he knew he couldn’t let the child believe he had killed his surrogate father. That type of remorse could eat at a young person, leaving him damaged. He’d seen it on the streets of New Orleans in the lost souls who eventually went to work for guys like Penny-Pete.

  He reached down and chucked Adam on the chin. “I took care of Franz. You didn’t do anything. Got it?”

  The boy’s eyes widened, glistening with unshed tears. After a moment he nodded and wiped his dirty hands on the sides of his pants.

  Nicky sensed Gerry’s eyes boring into him even before he glanced back at her. She had a curious look on her face. He couldn’t tell what her thoughts might be, and it pissed him off that she might be reading his without him even knowing it. After a moment her lips turned
up just a little. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it before the words could come.

  Reaching for his cell phone, Nicky quickly dialed Langston, relating their location to the big guy. Just as the golden door opened up before them, Adam spoke again.

  “You’re the ones Tylie told us about. She told us you’d come to get us.”

  And without any prompting, the young man stepped through the door and into the hospital where Langston was waiting.

  Gerry had been in a pensive mood since they delivered Adam to the hospital. Where as it had been their habit to release the children into Langston’s custody and move on after each rescue, that one was different. She followed the boy through the door and took him aside to speak to him. She had to find out what he knew about Tylie.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t know much. The only thing he could relate was that he met the girl “a long time ago” at a get-together for all of the “families,” as he called them. It was a huge gathering of the adopted parents and magical children. Tylie gathered the older children together and told them a woman and man would come for them to send them through a golden gate.

  “It makes no sense,” Gerry muttered to herself as she cut into her steak. “I hadn’t even met the girl yet.”

  She shoveled a huge bite into her mouth and chewed slowly as she considered the meaning of things. She could tell Nicky was watching her with a piercing gaze, but her mind was focused on the riddle of Tylie.

  When the bottle of steak sauce arrived beside her, she grabbed it, poured a huge dollop beside her steak, and continued hacking into her meal. She was ravenous with hunger.

  They were catching a meal before a lavish party planned at the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Bittner tonight in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Bittners had not one but three magical children in their home. They were long-standing customers of the Org and some of the wealthiest. It was a certainty that they had heard about the recent raids to steal away the children, but Mr. and Mrs. Bittner never let anything disrupt their parties.

  Nicky wasn’t any good at high-brow behavior. They had tried it a few times over the years, and if anything he always came away smelling like “new money.” Gerry told him that these people wouldn’t stand for that sort of thing. So, with a forged resume, he got a job with the catering company and would be replacing a sick food server later tonight.

  Gerry took a long drink of her iced tea. She grimaced and set the glass down. Within a few moments a glass of lemonade arrived at the table and she took a swig, smiling with pleasure. She was still working on her side salad when little cups of extra butter, sour cream, and cheese showed up. She sprinkled all of them onto her baked potato.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Nicky shouted, tossing his silverware onto his plate and searing her with a demanding glance.

  “What?” she whispered, looking around the restaurant and feeling a blush creep into her cheeks when she realized everyone was staring at them.

  He leaned close to her and spoke softer but just as vehemently. “You haven’t spoken a single word but you’ve had the waiter at your beck and call all night. He’s brought stuff to you constantly through the meal.”

  She felt confused, her mind foggy as she tried to reflect on what he was saying.

  “You’re using your damned powers!” he hissed.

  Gerry shook her head to deny his words. “That isn’t possible. It doesn’t work that way. First off, I’m not using my powers at all. I’m eating. Second, I can’t just force my own will on someone. They have to want in some part of them to do it, too.”

  He sat back in the chair and gave her an incredulous look. “Well then I guess the poor schmuck wants to be your lackey cause he’s ignored every other customer all night and is waiting just on you.”

  Looking at the table, it seemed his words might be true. There were assorted condiments, dressings, and glasses of different drinks all strewn in front of her. This wasn’t how her powers worked, so she was at a loss to figure out how it was happening.

  She took a deep breath, and when Nicky picked up his fork again she too returned to her meal. Even as she met her body’s demands that she eat, her mind whirled with the new quandary of this spontaneous exercise of her powers. And underneath all of the raging questions remained the one riddle she was most compelled to solve. Where the hell is Dysis?

  ~oOo~

  It was like stepping inside a beehive. Emotions and thoughts whizzed through Gerry’s mind at alarming speed. She sashayed into the Bittner ballroom on gold-plated stiletto heels. They set off the ruched gold gown that hugged her body. It wasn’t her body actually, but instead the petite and lithe body of one Lady Margaret Alvey.

  Lady Alvey was a regular guest of the Bittner parties when she was in residence at her United States home. The rumor mill revealed that she rarely if ever RSVPed for the affairs, but instead would arrive in grand style. Further investigation found that Lady Alvey flew to England just the week before to escape the aftermath of an uncomfortable breakup with her last lover.

  Gerry slid a perfectly painted red nail under the line of the gauzy veil that draped across one shoulder and wrapped around her like a sheer toga. That finger trailed down toward her cleavage as she scanned the crowd. Eyes turned to her from all directions, and the hum of thoughts became a low rumble.

  This heavy mental assault was unusual— normally the mixed minds in a room caused no more than a buzz of sounds in the back of her brain. She could choose a specific prey to manipulate to her needs and thereby access their thoughts more deeply. Tonight it was as if the minds themselves were probing her. She thought this might be what it was like to be nibbled to death by ducks.

  She found Nicky across the room with a tray held over his head as he cut his way through the crowd. He didn’t spare her more than a cursory glance as he offered hor d'oeuvres to a group of guests.

  A diversion was what she was after. She needed someone to coax off the floor so she could sneak upstairs. It was impossible to tell if any of the children were here now. The thoughts assailing her head were too many to decipher.

  Men parted the crowd on all sides of her. They followed her like the metal files under the screen of a Magna Doodle follow the magnet pen. The urge to run and hide was nearly overwhelming. Instead, she brushed Margaret’s blonde hair from her face and approached the bar.

  “Martini,” she told the bartender in a low voice, rubbing her thumb along her lower lip as she glanced to the side at a handsome young man. He licked his own lips, and without looking at the bartender again she added, “Make it dirty.”

  A moment later she was still giving the young fellow to her a right the sultry look when the bartender brushed her fingers with his as he handed her the drink. She cut her eyes to the guy behind the bar and grinned.

  Gerry pushed herself away from the bar and slinked off into the crowd, men and even a few women still following her from every direction. Her stomach churned but she tried to quash it without losing her hold on her magical disguise. The sensory overload brought on by all of these men and their emotional onslaught was almost too much to bear. She swallowed and fought to remain focused.

  As she stepped between two eager gents in tuxes, she came face to face with a striking black haired woman. Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked at the image of Lady Margaret from top to bottom. When her eyes met Gerry’s again she raised an eyebrow with a come hither look.

  Gerry had her target. She licked her lips and grinned. The dark headed woman reached a porcelain colored arm to her right and took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter without releasing her gaze. Her thoughts were brazen, erotic, and clear. They channeled their way through the cacophony of men’s thoughts.

  Focusing on the woman allowed Gerry to cut off all the men in the room, and she was tempted to giggle with relief. Instead she took a sip of her martini, playing with the olive-speared toothpick dangling in the glass.

  “Your gown is lovely. Marchesa?” the woman queried, drinking the champagne with
an open mouth so Gerry could watch the bubbles slip between her lips.

  “You know your fashion for such a young woman,” Gerry quipped. “Too young woman to be making bedroom eyes at a duchess.”

  A laugh that strummed like the sound of a violin came from the woman’s lips and caught the attention of others in the room. She pretended not to notice. “A duchess, a queen, a maid... doesn’t matter. I like what I see.”

  Sassy, Gerry thought. Try as she might, she couldn’t get past the sexual thoughts the girl was streaming to her. She wanted to know more about the woman before she slinked off into the night with her. Her face was young and glowing, but her eyes looked older and hard.

  Gerry finished her martini and used a long red fingernail to slip the olive from the stick and onto her tongue. After chewing slowly and swallowing, she turned up the side of her lips and motioned to the woman. “I have a feeling you’d like to see more. Isn’t there any privacy to be found in this place?”

  When the dark-headed woman broke eye contact with her, Gerry became disoriented for a moment, but she stepped forward on her heels and followed the woman. They made their way through the throng of people, the men still eyeing Gerry with eager looks. She didn’t see Nicky anywhere, but she knew he’d be watching for her to leave.

  Her admirer led her out of the room, down the hall, and up a back set of stairs to the second floor. When she reached her desired destination, she opened a door and motioned Gerry inside while she kept watch.

  Gerry flipped a light switch and smiled to herself, pleased to have found her way upstairs where it would be easier to search for the children. Just as she started to turn around to immobilize the woman, a savage grip twisted her arm behind her back. Her attacker’s other arm gripped her around the neck, a knife held to her throat.

  “What the hell?” Gerry hissed, reaching to pull the woman’s arm away from her but unable to break her hold.