by Unknown
“What do you know, Brogan?” she insisted.
“Nothing,” he answered, unwilling to share with her. If she’d only been a cop, he would have risked it. It wasn’t that he didn't need more help solving this, but he didn't know if she would snitch to the council. The last thing they needed was to hunt down a vampyre and get booted from another city.
Yeah, no thank you.
His family came first.
“I don’t buy that. You’re up to something.”
“No, I’m not. In fact, I am taking a leave of absence, effective immediately.” He looked down at her shocked face. “I’m heading in to clear it with the sergeant, and I’m sure the captain will give you another partner to work this with.”
“Why?” More suspicion filled her voice.
“It doesn’t involve this, if that’s what you think.” He waved his hand dismissively.
“Bullshit, it doesn’t! Are you going after the killers on your own?”
Brogan breathed in as he sought to find an ounce of patience to deal with this woman. “Fine. Do you want to know why I am taking my LOA? Or what I know?”
“It would be nice, since I’m your partner,” she snapped, digging her finger into his chest.
“The vampyre who has it in for us is in the city. She’s trying for Jolie again, and I don’t want to leave them home all day alone. That’s the only reason.”
“They can stay awake during the day.”
“Yeah, but they’re stronger at night. I can’t leave them sitting dead ducks.”
“Okay, I buy that, but what about this case?” she asked, calming down. So far, she didn't doubt that he was telling the truth. It was plastered all over his face.
“I suspect someone is playing with Voodoo.”
“That’s it?”
“What else could I know? I saw the same evidence you did, and it is squat. The gris-gris bag is the only lead, so follow it.”
“So, you’re leaving me alone in this?” she asked angrily. “You’re a cop first, and Jolie’s mate second. Has that slipped your oversexed mind?”
He glared at her for even saying her name. Immediately, the rage was there once more. “That’s where you’re wrong. I can live without being a cop, but I know I can’t live without my family. For the record, the next time you bring up Jolie and sex in the same sentence, you had better have a head start. Don’t cheapen her or our relationship, when you have NO idea what’s in my heart.”
She stared after him in amazement.
“Let’s get back to the police station. I want to talk to the captain.”
“Fine!” she hissed, moving to the driver’s side of the car. “I can’t believe you’re quitting on me!”
He ignored her. It wasn’t like that was his plan. Oh, he was going to find the killer, and his family was going to handle it.
One way or another…
∞ Chapter Ten ∞
Friday Mid-Morning
The trip back to the estate was a long one, especially since he had been forced to call for a cab. Right now, the last person he wanted to see was Lily Winters. The entire ride back to the squad, she was pumping him for information about the killings, and he didn’t trust her to not tell her mate.
Shit, his head hurt.
This all was a big, filthy mess.
Somewhere deep down inside, he wished that he could trust Lily, but until he knew that his mates were safe, he wouldn’t risk it.
Reaching for them, he hoped to feel some peace, but instead all that waited for him was their dead lifeless bodies. At that moment, all that he looked forward to was stripping down, climbing into bed, and falling asleep.
When the cab came to a stop, Brogan opened his eyes and sighed in relief.
Home sweet home.
Paying the fare, he entered the plantation, finally able to relax for the first time all day. To say that he was dead tired would be an understatement. He was three days past that, and then some.
Jolie and Jacques weren’t kidding when they first told him that he would feel weaker when they were with death. His arms felt like lead and each step was difficult.
Pushing their door open, he called to Chloe. When he saw her in the shadowy room, she was curled up reading a book.
In the dark.
Had he been more alert, he might have found that suspicious, but for now, bed was his only focus.
“Detective, you’re home early and should rest. You look like hell.”
“Thanks, Chloe. You always were a sweet talker,” he replied, stripping out of his clothes to just to his boxers.
“Everything has been fine all morning. I’ll make sure that the house remains secure.”
“If my partner shows up, don’t let her in and don’t wake me. I have nothing to say to her,” he added, pissed off.
“Yes, Detective.”
“Thank you. We’ll see you when we wake.” When Chloe was gone, he wished he could just use his mind to lock the door behind her. Brogan was sure each step there and back would be painfully excruciating.
Oh well, it sucked to be human.
Locking up, he finally made it back to the bed. After placing his gun beneath the bed, he dropped his boxers. Finally, he could now get comfortable.
Jacques was spooning Jolie, and he wiggled his way to the front of her body. Now, she was sandwiched between them. The light chill of her skin didn't faze him, simply because all he wanted was to sleep.
Closing his eyes, he prayed for it to take him, offering his worn, exhausted body the rest it deserved.
Ahhhh, blessed sleep, here he came.
Suddenly, he could smell it.
The air was thick with that dead stench only found in the bayou.
He forced his eyes open to investigate.
Flynn glanced around as he lay on the bank of the river. “Damn it! Not again,” he muttered, as he scanned the area.
“Run, human. I’m coming for you.”
“Go away, Genevieve. You're pissing me off, and I’m in no mood,” he muttered, trying to remain calm. Maybe he could talk his way out of the dream.
Okay, that was his plan.
Then, everything shifted.
The ground disappeared, and he was standing in the middle of the murky water, knee deep in sludge. “Jolie will kill you.”
The twisted laughter was even louder.
Brogan began trudging through the muck, trying to escape the vampyre chasing him. If he could keep her focused on him, he might be able to draw her away from his mates.
“It won’t work. I know where she is right now. She’s dead right beside you and her mate.”
“You know nothing, Genevieve.”
The wind started picking up and the water began churning violently as he saw there was no place to escape. The slippery embankment ahead was his only way out.
Well, it was now or never.
When he got to it, he started to drag his body up through the muck. What he needed was to wake himself up. That would be the only way to truly escape her.
“You can’t until I release you.”
“Jolie! I need you,” he screamed into the abyss. “Jacques, please!” The water churned more violently as Genevieve laughed.
“You want Jolie and Jacques? Okay, I’ll help you find them,” she offered, “or should I say, have them find you.”
Something in the mud grabbed his ankle, yanking him back down the slope and under the water. He fought for his life, struggling to the surface by kicking with all he had. Once free of the water, a hand grazed his arm. It didn't take long for the two bodies to join him.
A scream stuck in his throat as he recognized them. Oh, Genevieve was one sick bitch.
There before him were two distorted corpses, floating in the water. Their lifeless eyes stared blindly up at him.
That was all it took.
Fight or flight kicked in, and he knew he needed to get away from there. Fighting with all he had, he once more scampered up the embankment to put space betwee
n them. Behind him, he could hear them sloshing around, trying to reach him.
Bones crunched.
Decaying flesh stank up the air.
This was his worst nightmare.
Then, he glanced over his shoulder. It was far worse than he thought. They were rotting and catching up. Organs hung sickly from their bodies, and they were even more hideous, free from the water.
“What’s wrong, Flynn? You wanted to find them and here they are. Doesn’t rotting corpse Jolie get you all hot and bothered?” she asked, laughing at his fear.
“Stop it! Stop it,” he bellowed, over and over again. The two corpses crawled toward him, and he was locked in the terror. “No! God, no!”
The decaying Jolie crawled to him, holding his arms down, all the while, smiling grotesquely at him. When he didn't think it could get worse, a piece of her flesh fell from her face and landed on his bare chest.
He screamed, struggling to get away.
The sickly, overpowering stench of funeral flowers filled the air. As he struggled, decaying Jacques grabbed his legs and held him down.
Flynn stared down his body, watching dead Jolie tear away his boxers. When her hand reached for him, he screamed more. “Please, no!”
“Well, well, well,” Genevieve said, as she appeared in front of him. “I’m going to kill you now, Flynn, right in your sleep. I told you she couldn’t protect you, and I meant it.”
The decaying Jolie took him in her hand, and his screams of distress became louder.
Decaying Jolie shook her head and refused to let him go.
He was trapped.
His body remained pinned by dead Jacques, and the rotting Jolie was intimately touching him.
“Let me go!”
He was horrified when the rotting corpse of the woman he loved, leaned down and placed her decaying lips in a twisted vile kiss over his. He was helpless to fight it as her fangs pierced his lip, and he could taste his own blood.
Genevieve laughed, entertained by her prey. “But Detective, they’re dead in reality. Why does this scare you? Aren’t you turned on by her kiss?”
Dead Jolie ran her stick fingers over his erection as he fought to get away from her. Unfortunately, Flynn had no control of his body. All he wanted was to wake up and escape.
“Maybe you want to have sex with her? What do you say, Detective?”
He screamed in fear and repulsion at the idea of this corpse climbing onto his body.
“Fine. Since you don’t want her, let’s get this over with then.”
Rotting Jolie and Jacques released him. Once free, his eyes never left Genevieve, as she pulled out a dagger and pointed it at him.
“I’m going to cut out your heart and mail it to Jolie Harcourte.” Wiping the mud and muck from his chest, she searched for the perfect spot. When her hand cleared the space, she brushed something metal with her hand. Immediately, Genevieve howled in pain.
In the dark, there glinted the amulet which he wore around his neck.
Brogan felt Genevieve’s power slightly falter, and when he looked down at the decaying Jolie, she was slowly morphing. The woman he loved was fighting to get to him.
He watched her lips move, and it took a second to understand her garbled words.
“Kiss me, Flynn,” she whispered. It was still decayed Jolie looking at him, but it was his love’s sweet voice.
Gone was the stench of decay and the funeral flowers.
There was no fear of rotting flesh.
In its place, he could smell the mix of her perfume and Jacques’s musky cologne. It called to him, wrapping around his body in a cocoon of peace. Instead of fighting the corpse, he sat up, pulled decaying Jolie into his body, and kissed her with all he was worth.
Genevieve’s screams filled the air.
Everything spun out of control, as he was ripped away from sleep. When he was able to finally focus, Jolie sat on his lap while Jacques kept watch over them.
“Oh God, oh God…” he whispered, pulling away from the kiss. The words kept coming out, over and over again. “I’m so c-c-cold,” he whispered, as his teeth chattered.
“We have to warm him up,” said Jacques, alarmed by how cold the man’s body felt. “Quickly, my love. I think our detective is in shock.”
Jolie gave him some space, until the look of fear was gone from his face. When she held out her hand, he stared at it tentatively.
“Please, Flynn, let me warm you,” she offered. When he reached for her with shaking fingers, Jolie waited on baited breath.
The second they touched, he stared up at her.
“You’re real,” he whispered, when he had her hand.
Her poor detective was scared shitless, and Jolie had to wonder what hell he had endured in sleep. Pushing him back, Jolie curled her body over his to share some warmth. “You’re so cold.”
“Oh God! It was horrible. I don’t want to ever sleep again!” He continued to shake even as her body offered him heat.
Jolie continued caressing him, leaving a trail of kisses across his face.
She couldn’t get his body temperature up enough. “Jacques, help me warm him please!” Jolie begged.
Jacques was already prepared to do just that. He quickly grabbed the detective’s jeans from the floor and pulled them on. If he was going to press his body to his, the last thing he wanted was to freak Flynn out with his naked press of flesh.
Jolie pulled him to his side, holding her body to the front of his while Jacques curled around his back. Together, they sent warm energy into Flynn, incubating him between them.
“We’re here, mon ami,” he reassured.
Brogan closed his eyes as the energy pulsing around him began offering relief. It was like being in a warm cocoon, safely protected from the world. As he lay there, pressed between them, he listened to all three of their heartbeats, and it helped relax him even more.
Jolie stroked his face, all the while murmuring to him in French. The easy cascade of words was incredibly calming. Already, his shaking was slowing down, and Flynn was getting warmer.
Jolie kissed his cheek. “It’s okay, bébé. We’re here for you and won’t leave you. Had we known you would have been home so early, one of us would have stayed awake to put you to sleep. I’m so sorry, Flynn.”
He knew it wasn’t their fault.
“Tell us about it, mon ami,” offered Jacques.
“Oh God! It was horrible,” he whispered, trying not to picture the decaying bodies which held him down. As they flooded his mind, he began shaking again. “It was Genevieve.”
“We know, Flynn. You ripped me right out of death with your screams. I couldn’t get to you. It was horrible. We heard you but couldn’t wake you up.”
“I’ll get the tub ready,” offered Jacques, sliding away from Brogan. For this, the man should probably have some privacy to share with Jolie what had happened. As he hurried from the room, he could hear them talking.
“She was going to kill me, Jolie. Genevieve said that she had a way to end my life.”
Jolie ran her fingers over his flesh, trying to soothe him as he continued his story.
“It was horrible,” he whispered, grateful that she was holding onto him. “I never want to experience that again.”
“It’s okay, my love. We won’t let her hurt you.”
Finally, he shared what had happened. It was now or never. “You and Jacques were there, but you were dead, decaying corpses.”
Jolie stopped moving, afraid of what he would say next, especially since they technically were exactly that.
Between chattering teeth and shaking body, Flynn told her how decaying Jolie had violated his personal space with her hand and mouth.
It broke her heart.
Wrapping her arms around him, she sent more energy into his shaking body. “How did we break you away?”
Brogan touched the amulet hanging against his bare chest. “She touched it, and that distracted her enough to allow you to get through.”
/> She was grateful.
“Then, I could hear you calling me. Your rotting corpse began to change, looking more and more like you. I heard you call to me, and the second our lips touched, I was free.”
“Oh, Flynn,” she cooed, kissing him more. “I can’t help but feel responsible. She’s after me and knows the only way to hurt me is through you.”
“It isn’t your fault, baby. She’s crazy, but promise me that I don’t ever have to sleep again.”
Jolie pulled him up from the bed to lead him to the bathroom and waiting tub. “I’ll promise you anything to take that fear from your heart.”
Brogan shuddered.
Jolie paused before continuing, “When you think of us, you don’t think of us as dead, rotting corpses, do you?” She couldn’t look him in the eyes. Deep in her heart, she was afraid of the answer, but Jolie needed to know the truth. If Genevieve had damaged them, she was going to weep.
Jacques watched with unblinking eyes from the ledge of the tub, wondering what the answer would be.
There were so many things that Flynn wanted to tell them. It was like the words that lived in his heart for them were locked away.
Then, he had an idea.
Taking Jolie’s hand, he pulled her toward her other mate. After placing her hand on one side of his head and Jacques’s on the other, he finally spoke. “I’m not Mr. Romance, poetic like Jacques, or suave when it comes to my words, so I need you to look inside and find that answer for yourself.”
Both understood. Silently, they swept into the man’s head to see his feelings, his fears, and what he had just lived through. Jolie saw the nightmare, and her heart broke at how he begged for them to save him. When she found no repulsion toward them at all, the weight lifted from her shoulders.
Love wasn’t destroyed.
It was only battered and bruised.
Everything housed in his mind proved that he still felt the same about their union. Genevieve’s attempt to divide them had failed, and instead gave Jolie a gift.
Inside his mind, she saw his dedication and love for her. The words floated through her mind as she felt them.