by Trina M. Lee
He stared at me like he couldn’t believe I was foolish enough to ask. “Of course we do.”
“Forget I asked.”
“You’ll see,” Arys promised. “You will come around to my way of thinking.”
Beside me Shaz squirmed in his seat, just enough to show his discomfort. He shouldn’t be in here. I reached out with my senses, feeling the atmosphere of the club. A myriad of sensations struck me as the energy level steadily grew along with the excitement and lowered inhibitions of the patrons.
I opened my mouth to ask if Shaz felt ok but was cut off when he suddenly excused himself to the washroom. Staring after him as he maneuvered through the throng, I wondered if perhaps he felt shittier than he wanted us to know.
Despite my clear disinterest in the topic, Arys went on about Doghead. His insistence on taking over the pack needled me. The worst part, he wasn’t entirely wrong. Dayne had proven himself an unworthy leader the moment he purposely turned an unwilling teen. And how many others might there be?
“Look, Arys,” I finally broke in when he nagged me again about establishing ourselves as the reigning authority. “You need to lay off—”
My words were drowned out by the commotion that broke out near the back hall entry. Two men went at it like nothing else mattered but destroying one another.
Two men I knew well.
Most fights in The Wicked Kiss were between humans. This shit did happen though. A vampire and werewolf brawl was bound to happen eventually. Too bad it had to involve Shaz and the FPA’s infamous Agent Briggs.
An agonized shriek ripped from Shaz, assaulting my ears. Of course Briggs wouldn’t hold back on using metaphysical force. The sudden, fierce intensity of the fight, too much too soon, overwhelmed Shaz. I’d known he couldn’t handle this place tonight. What if he never could?
“Little help here,” I shouted to Arys, scurrying out of the booth.
I hadn’t finished speaking before he leapt into motion. He snapped from chill relaxation to protective companion in an instant.
I headed for the scrapping duo. A snap of my fingers tossed both men apart. I was ticked to find that Agent Thomas Briggs had incited such wrath from Shaz. What was he even doing here?
Before they could go at each other again, I grabbed Shaz by the arm, twisting it behind his back. I slammed him against the wall next to the ladies’ room door. With a flick of my wrist, I pasted Briggs against the opposite wall next to the men’s room. The small passage that housed the washrooms also led to the back hall, where the real fun was had, a disruptive location for a serious scrap.
“Care to tell me why you’re putting my patrons at risk by acting like jackasses?” I snarled, giving Shaz a small shove into the wall before releasing him.
Getting rough with him wasn’t my intent, rather making an example of both of them to anyone watching. I couldn’t be seen as playing favorites when I had to set the standard for behavior in this place. Even though Shaz was mine in every way, I didn’t let anything slide. Still Briggs bore the worst of my ire. One of my least favorite people, I hit him with a power slap that set his insides on fire.
“Are you kidding me, Lex?” Shaz, spitting mad, strained to go at Briggs again, oblivious to my presence in his path. Shouting past me, he seethed. “I haven’t forgotten what happened to me because of you, asshole. I’ll fucking kill you.”
Recovering from my assault, Briggs straightened up, tugging his lapel as if I’d rumpled his suit. Back in his pretentious federal agent duds, he had the matching attitude firmly in place. He eyed Shaz with a self-satisfied smirk. “You’ll have to get through Alexa first.”
I made a noise of disgust. Should anything happen to Briggs, a hit would go out on Kale in Vegas, his way of making sure I didn’t kill him. He’d been using that threat to make sure nobody else did either. “Good luck with that,” I muttered.
Turning to Shaz, I repeated his name several times before he broke from giving Briggs the evil eye. “Hey, I think you should go. You’re not ready for this place.”
Hands clenched in fury, Shaz fumed, oblivious to the blood seeping from his nose. “Just let me fuck him up, Lex. He’s had it coming for months now. You know it’s gotta happen.”
My stomach dropped. This could get ugly. Shaz made no effort to hide his hatred for Briggs, nor did I expect him to. But with Kale’s life on the line, this idea made me nervous. “Please don’t push yourself for this piece of shit,” I pleaded. “He’s not worth it.”
Jaw twitching, Shaz looked to Arys. In wordless discussion, they shared one of those moments I’d come to appreciate and envy.
With a snarl Shaz shoved away from me. Uncontrolled energy slipped from him to slam me into the wall. Briggs snickered like the asshole he was.
I pointed to the booth I’d just vacated. “Go sit the fuck down, Briggs. I’ll deal with you in a minute.” After a moment’s thought, I asked, “What are you doing here anyway?”
With a half shrug and a vicious glower, he replied, “A guy’s gotta eat. This is the place to do that, right? I’d rather not follow the grisly example you set.”
I held his gaze, trying to stay calm and keep from ripping his head off his shoulders. So he had a point. Taking him to a VIP lounge to slaughter random people had been a lapse in judgment. However, I liked to blame Arys for that one. He’d instigated the whole thing, wanting to bring Briggs into our world in the harshest way possible. Was it appropriate? Of course not, even if Briggs didn’t deserve to be handled with kid gloves.
“Sit your ass down and stay out of trouble until I get back,” I hissed before storming away.
The last thing I wanted was for Briggs to be in my nightclub. Ever. But he had me on this one. This was the place for vampires seeking willing victims. How could I possibly deny him that without being the worst kind of hypocrite?
Son of a bitch.
Yet he’d only come here to get in a dig at me. Should’ve seen that coming. I really should have left him dead.
I followed Shaz and Arys out to the parking lot, finding them next to Shaz’s new SUV. He clenched keys in one hand and the hood with the other. Sucking in slow, deep breaths of cold winter air, tremors racked him. Blood trickled from his nose.
“Shaz? Are you ok, babe?” Noting that Arys kept his distance, I was afraid to get too close.
Shaz shook his head but didn’t speak. The air around him wavered, like heat waves off asphalt. His fragmented, broken energy felt… wrong.
“He tossed me on my ass pretty good when reaching for his keys,” Arys said. “You just missed it. Kind of hurt.”
The erratic outbursts of telekinetic energy had become fewer and farther between, but the reaction had yet to cease entirely for the strongest emotionally driven outbursts. It scared me more than I would ever admit to Shaz.
“I’m fine,” Shaz forced out between clenched teeth. “I screwed up, and I just need to leave. This was a bad idea. I thought I’d be ok but I guess I need more time.”
Slowly I reached for him, wrapping my hand around his. I braced for an accidental hit. When it never came, I drew gently on his energy, trying to calm it. Taking Shaz’s energy into me felt strange. It was an odd mix of wolf and… some bizarre, tainted version of me. I tapped into the earth’s energy to ground us both and release it.
When his trembling had died down, I threw my arms around his neck and held tight. I bit my lip to keep from letting a few frustrated tears slip past my guard. Shaz didn’t deserve to suffer like this. If I could, I’d trade places with him in a heartbeat.
“I’ll make him sorry this happened to you,” I promised, unable to let go of the blame I harbored for Briggs. “I only wish I’d been able to serve you Winston’s head on a platter.”
Briggs had been the one to kill her. So many of us had wanted that kill for our own. Even after tasting Briggs’s death, I still felt robbed of hers. I doubted anything would bring me satisfaction for Shaz’s torment, short of seeing him as dust and ash.
Stro
king my hair, Shaz chuckled. It cut off with a pained gasp. “As much as I’d have appreciated that, I don’t want you to feel like you have to fix this, Lex. I don’t think you can.”
My heart sank. But I have to. “I know.” I pressed my lips to the side of his face. The masculine wolf scent of him called to my beast. “I just wish I could.”
“Willow thinks it will run its course and I’ll be done with it. Let’s just hold onto that.” Nuzzling my face with his, Shaz gave me hope when I should’ve been comforting him. “Sorry about the shove.”
“It kills me to see you suffer like this.”
Willow had said a lot of things. Not all of them had left me feeling optimistic. There had to be some way I could help Shaz. This wasn’t as simple as teaching Shaz to control it. We’d tried that. The energy surges came on sporadically and without warning. The outbursts were over before he could even try to ground himself.
“I’m fine,” he insisted, giving me a gentle push. “Go inside and bust Briggs’s balls like I know you want to. I’m going to Doghead. I’ll let you know if I get anything out of Dayne about turning new recruits.”
Even in his current hypersensitive state, Doghead was still good for Shaz. Safe. His ability to go there with little discomfort encouraged my belief that he didn’t belong with Arys and me. But he’d had several opportunities to escape us, and he’d refused them all. Of course that was before he’d discovered how Willow had tied him to us as our anchor.
Oh, how I adored my white wolf.
“Don’t let him know I’m onto him.” I kissed the corner of his mouth.
As Shaz opened the car door, Arys took a tentative step closer. “Call if you need anything, pup. I mean it. Don’t hesitate.”
They shared another look before Shaz got in and drove away. I watched his taillights disappear down the street, knowing I couldn’t avoid the bullshit awaiting me inside.
“Come on.” I tugged the sleeve of Arys’s leather jacket. “Try to keep me from tearing the head off my undead progeny.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Upon reentering the building I marched straight up to Briggs and let fly with a right hook that caught him square on the chin. Fueled by my anger and a little extra force, it flung him off his seat. He hit the floor hard.
I smiled.
Glaring up at me as he got to his feet, Briggs rubbed his jaw and nodded. “I guess I should’ve seen that coming. Get your licks in while you can, O’Brien.”
“Oh, I plan to,” I snapped, not giving a shit who saw me having it out with the vampire I’d made. “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming in here. It might be open invite for most vampires, but that doesn’t include you.”
Briggs slid back into his seat at my booth. His dark gaze passed over Arys, then me. “Pretty sure it does. That’s how good little monsters behave, isn’t it? So they don’t incite the wrath of the huntress?” When I only stared stonily, he continued. “That’s right. I know you’re working with The Circle of the Veil again.”
Ignoring his know-it-all remark, I hit right back with, “Better my wrath than yours. The FPA has no business policing supernaturals.”
“Well, now you’ve made me both FPA and supernatural. So I’d say you’re wrong.” Looking smug, Briggs settled into the booth like he intended to stay there.
I couldn’t let him get under my skin—that was what he wanted—yet keeping my cool proved trying. His face begged for another punch.
“You’re delusional.” I stared down at him from where I stood stiff beside the table. “It must be hard to accept that you’ve spent your life chasing what you thought were monsters, never realizing that all along the worst monster was you.”
Although Briggs didn’t so much as flinch, there was a slight change in his energy that told me I’d gotten to him. Good. Point for me.
Because he didn’t know when to stop antagonizing me, he stuck his chin out in defiance. “You can’t keep blaming me for what happened to Shaz. I had no part in that experiment. I’d have never gone about it the way Winston did.”
Arys shoved into the booth across from Briggs and slid over to make room for me. He patted the space next to him, but I refused to sit. I needed to stand to fuel my fuming.
“I can and I will. You’d still have gone ahead with the experiment. You and Winston, you’re the same. I only wish I’d killed you both.” Did I ever. Briggs had killed Winston before I discovered what she’d done to Shaz. I wished so badly that I could go back and do it all again.
“I’d never have been stupid enough to try it on your wolf,” Briggs declared with a raised brow, daring me to call him a liar. “Where is he anyway?”
Arys continued to pat the seat beside him until finally I gave in and sat down with a huff. He gave my thigh an affectionate squeeze. The vampire drove me crazy in every way possible. And I adored him beyond belief.
After flicking Arys’s arm beneath the table, I scowled at Briggs. “At Doghead. And for the record, if your people even breathe in the direction of that place, I’ll disembowel you and leave you for the sun.”
Briggs merely grinned, enjoying the twist our strained relationship had taken. Vampirism had made him more of a dick than he’d already been. “Well, if Dayne keeps carrying on, I’ll have no choice but to pay him a visit.” Propping his elbows on the table, Briggs leaned forward. “There’s no way he’s getting a free pass to rebuild his pack unmonitored.”
I tried to count to ten before exploding. Oh, how I tried.
I made it to three before grabbing Briggs by his tie and dragging him onto the table so I could snarl into his face. “Let’s get one thing straight. I will deal with Dayne. Me. Not you. Your organization cut down his pack. Because of you he feels driven to rebuild it for protection. So back the fuck off and let me deal with it before you make things worse. Again.”
I released him with a shove accompanied by a power push. It slammed him back against the booth hard enough to rattle his teeth.
“And one more thing,” I hissed. “Stay the hell away from the wolves Dayne’s already turned. You may no longer be human, but your organization is, and there is no place for human interference in our world. Eventually you’ll learn that. Probably the hard way.”
Briggs straightened his tie, looking indignant. He wheezed and coughed but ultimately tried to pretend like I hadn’t just sucker punched him with power. Because he wasn’t an idiot, he didn’t try to retaliate, knowing full well he couldn’t take me. But I knew Briggs. He’d find some way to hit back.
“Speaking of the wolves Dayne’s turned, were you planning to tell me about the young man you confronted tonight?” Somehow Briggs managed to put his arrogance back in place as if he really believed he’d get away with projecting that shit at me.
I scoffed. “Of course not. I have no intention of telling you a damn thing. I agreed to work with you at my own discretion. That does not include nightly recaps. Stop having me followed, Briggs, or I’m done with this.”
The calculating expression he wore rubbed me in all the wrong places. Every night I was plagued by the guilt over not having killed him. My need for vengeance had stuck me in this position.
He glanced from me to Arys. The fearlessness he projected was merely an illusion. We all knew he ran on borrowed time. The first chance I got to kill him, I would take it.
“For the record, I had a tail on the kid. We received a report that he may be responsible for the death of his brother. Had to look into it.” Briggs shrugged. Just another day in the life of the dirtbag Fed.
“Stay away from him. I’m not asking.” I glared until Briggs held up both hands in surrender.
Briggs effected a mask of uncertainty. “I have no idea what you’re so uptight about. Monitoring supernatural activity is something that has to be done. You know that.”
Not for a moment did I believe we shared a goal. “Don’t be such a piece of crap, Briggs. We all know you’re full of shit.”
Briggs turned that blank expression on me and shrugg
ed. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.” So he wanted to play that game, did he?
I nodded. “Ok, you want to do this the hard way.”
Holding his gaze, I held up my wrist. Using my other hand, I extended a claw and held it over a vein. He didn’t even twitch, but I knew inside he cursed me. When he didn’t react I touched the claw to my skin. Still no reaction. I dragged the claw over my vein, opening up a small fount.
Both vampires stared as the blood welled up. Briggs eyed the crimson spill with sudden and obvious intrigue. I waved my wrist, ensuring the scent hit him. Brow furrowed, he gripped the edge of the table as if trying to keep his ass in his seat.
“Is this really necessary?” Briggs snarled, flashing fangs as he gritted his teeth. “I haven’t stepped foot near Doghead. Or the kid.”
“Doesn’t mean you won’t.” I dragged a finger through the blood, painting a scarlet line up toward my elbow.
Fire lit up his dark eyes. For just a moment they appeared to flash deep blue. Against his will he reached for my arm. I held him off with a push of power.
Hands clenched into fists, Briggs thrummed with frustration. “Are you going to do this shit every time I do something to piss you off?” Briggs seethed. “Because if so, I may have to change the terms of that hit on Kale Sinclair.”
“I might. And you know if anything happens to Kale, I won’t hesitate to take you apart piece by piece.”
Because we’d reached a stalemate, I taunted Briggs further by offering my bloody wrist to Arys. My dark vampire accepted the gesture with a sexy half smile. He made no effort to rush, as he dragged his tongue over the small gash and up to my elbow, capturing every drop. I shuddered, unable to deny the rush of heat to my groin at his sensual touch.
Briggs vibrated with pent up yearning and aggression. It tainted the atmosphere with the heat of his rage. He sat stiff, doing his best to appear unaffected by my little display.
Then his eyes widened. Staring past me, his jaw dropped open in a silent fuck.
Not quite the reaction I’d expected. I turned to see what had him shitting himself.