“It’s no problem. I’m sleeping down there most nights, anyway.”
His lips twitched at that information. “Are you now?”
“Shut up.”
“Nice to see you guys still aren’t boyfriend and girlfriend.”
Kaleb laughed. “She’s my girlfriend. She just goes all squeaky when she says it. But give her time…”
“Oh my life.” My cheeks flamed.
Grady got to his feet and grabbed one of his bags. “Don’t worry so much, Vane. I’m happy for you. I am. And I won’t tell if you don’t that you’re fraternizing with a fellow agent against protocol.”
“Protocol?”
His eyes twinkled and my heart lightened. “You’re an asshole, Grady.”
“Takes one to know one.” He handed me his empty glass. “Fancy showing me up to my room now?”
“Yeah. I’ll show you and gather my things at the same time.”
“Great.” He hesitated. “It’s good the two of you have worked things out. And thanks for having me. I’m grateful.”
Feeling like shit, him saying something so sweet when his own love life had gone down the pan, I didn’t know what to say.
Kaleb came to my aid, and said, “Thanks, Grady.” He pulled the solemn-looking FBI agent into a one-armed shoulder bump. “Welcome to the team.”
3
“Holy shit!” Grady yelled, grabbing onto my arm. Karl chuckled at his friend’s reaction to Kaleb shifting into a wolf. No one from the group of people standing around heard Karl’s mirth, and I had to hide a smile.
Noon had hit, and when Grady finally showed his face, he looked a lot better than he had the night before. Libby had sat up and took notice, adjusting her push-up bra.
Mayra, with Zax and Libby’s help, had conjured a temporary cloaking spell over the rear garden. Zax’s paranoia of human technology had got the best of him. He’d also seemed more solemn the past day or so, and I vowed to get one-on-one time with him soon. But Kaleb being Kaleb had volunteered to go first to show his wolf-side to Grady.
He stood before us now on the grass in his wolf form, shaking his dark brown fur. I’d only expected him to part-shift. But Kaleb reassured me a full-shift was for the best and he was in control. The less Grady had to talk himself out of what he’d seen the better.
Relieved when Grady let go of my arm, I rubbed the place he’d dug his fingers into my flesh. Bernard stepped forward.
“My turn.”
Grady shifted uncomfortably. “Erm, I that’s enough—”
Bernard cut him off and extended his vampire fangs. His eyes changed, glowing, a harder edge to his face as the monster in him came forth. Grady didn’t grab my arm this time, but he stayed close.
“Okay,” he breathed, wiping his brow. “You have a wolf shifter on the team. A vampire. My brain hurts.”
“You can see the ghost of your best friend, remember?” I reminded him. On that note. “How is Grady doing so far, Karl?”
“His brain hasn’t exploded yet,” Karl replied, “I’d say we’re doing good.”
“I’m next!” Libby piped up. She waved her hands, wiggling forward.
“Be prepared.” I took a subtle step away, not wanting to be anywhere near him when he got hooked by her power. Grady’s a good guy. But not one I want to hump when Libby’s lustful gift hit its mark. And knowing her, she’d want me ensnared and wrapping myself around his toned form to cause shit with Kaleb.
Libby and Kaleb had dated, almost slept together, before me and him had become an item. Only the demon liked to remind my guy daily she’d still do him once he’d had enough of slumming it with me.
“Oh boy,” Grady groaned with pleasure. Libby put her palm on his shoulder. He placed a hand on her curves, and she purred when he shoved his fingers into her long dark hair.
“That’s enough,” I said, gulping as I felt its effects. But I’m not a believer of people experiencing something against their will—unless Libby’s gift benefits us.
I’m a hypocrite that way.
Kaleb came up behind me. He snaked his arms around my waist, leaning in to nuzzle my neck. I moaned, sinking back into him.
I’d say it was the remnants of a lust high urging him to do so, but sex deprivation may be the cause. It took me a second to grab on to sanity as the tip of his tongue licked my neck. But Mayra came to my aid. “Libby. Grady’s had enough.”
Libby reluctantly pulled away because she likes Mayra. She calls them best buds to annoy me so obeying her isn’t a trial.
Grady blinked himself back to reality.
“Hey handsome,” Libby drawled.
“What happened?” he stammered. A flush of red hit his cheeks when he realized where his hands were. He snatched them away. “I’m sorry, Libby.”
“Don’t be sorry. You can touch me whenever you wish.”
He glanced over at me in appeal, his hands now in front of his trousers. Karl bellowed with laughter.
I grinned, getting a funny look from the others. Juggling hearing a spirit when others couldn’t was more difficult than I thought. It’s no wonder Grady had spiraled—something that had resulted in him getting an offer to join our team.
“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” Grady snapped toward the invisible Karl.
“Every bit.”
“Who’s next?” Mayra asked.
“I’m not turning dragon,” Zax replied. “I can’t risk it. Some other time?”
Grady nodded, looking relieved. But I saw the uncertainty flicker in his eyes at the thought of someone like Zax having the ability to turn into a snarling, majestic beast.
Zax barely looks over the age of twenty. He comes across as a college kid, with smooth brown skin, short floppy dreadlocks, and thick, black-framed glasses. His human side portrays an innocence that defies the wise dragon he can become.
“Don’t worry, Grady,” I reassured him. “You’ll soon get used to all this when we go over to Portiside.”
“Wait. What?”
Kaleb laughed. “You’ll have the clearance to do so once you sign the contract. Surely you didn’t think you’d only work over on this side, did you?”
“I…” he hesitated. “I haven’t even reached that part in my head yet.”
“We’ll wean you in,” Bernard reassured him. “Or I should say we will. You’ve met Terra, right?”
“Hey!” I reprimanded, and he laughed.
“Just telling the truth, sweetheart. But now we’ve thrown Grady into the deep end, why don’t we give him a break from the showing and tell him the rest?”
“Fine,” I sighed. “Come on inside, Grady. Let’s get you caught up on the case.”
He followed Bernard and the others, but I put my hand on Zax’s arm halting him. “Hey. You got five minutes?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Sure. You okay?”
“I’m good. Everyone seems to ask me that lately.”
He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m not the only one having to deal with shit. Are you doing okay?”
He nodded, but then hesitated. He looked toward the house.
“Fancy taking a walk?” I asked.
He fell into step beside me. “There’s nothing wrong.”
“Sure about that?”
He let out a breath. “Yeah. My dragon is struggling now. I go to Giant’s Pass when the urge gets too much and see my family in the caves. When in Portiside, I shift and let him fly for a while. And sometimes just seeing the mountains of the pass from my window is enough. I guess the longer we stay over here without that…”
“It’s driving him insane?”
He chuckled. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“Why not visit Portiside for a few days? We can do the legwork, start hunting for another lead?”
“No. I’m good for a bit longer yet.” He nudged me. “But it’s good to have the option. Thanks.”
I nudged him back. “No need to thank me. Don’t drown in all this. You’re a key member of
our team. And you’re family. We look out for each other. But no more suffering alone. Get it?”
He saluted. “Got it, Captain.” He hesitated.
“What is it?”
He halted and faced me. “It’s Mayra.” He cringed at the words, hating that they’d slipped from his mouth.
“What about her?”
“Mayra doesn’t see me as anything more than a friend,” he sighed. “And to be honest, dragons mate with dragons. That’s the way. We can have fun, play the field, but the dragon in us is too powerful to want to mate with anything lesser than it’s self.” He looked at me in apology. “Sorry. That makes me sound like an egotistical ass.”
“No,” I smiled. “It makes your dragon look like an egotistical ass. But he has every right to be. Especially if you ask Kaleb. He likes to Fan-boy over dragons.”
“Yeah,” he smiled in return. But then it slipped away from him. “I’m crushing on her big time. And it’s getting worse. I thought I could get a control on it, but every day it deepens. What am I going to do?”
“You’ve spent a lot of time together of late. Decoding her spells. Maybe you need some space? You might find the crush lessens a little and give your heart a break.”
“I understand nothing will come from it. My head knows. And my heart to some degree. But when we work closely together, other parts… well…”
I bit back my laughter. He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Go ahead. Laugh it out.”
I couldn’t do it to him, so I swallowed it and patted his arm. “Have you thought about talking to her about it? If she tells you she’s not interested, then at least you’ll know. Head, heart, and, erm… balls.”
“Terra!”
“What? You’re like a brother to me, Zax. It feels weird saying dick or penis.”
He cringed with embarrassment and stamped his foot. “I need the damn ground to swallow me up now.”
Laughing, I said, “I’m sorry, dude. But just try it.”
“It will make things weird.”
“Not if you do it before you leave for your time in Portiside. Release it. Spend time away, then connecting with your dragon might be all you need to get it out of your system. When you return, you can both talk about it without the emotion involved. And you know Mayra. She won’t stop being a friend to you for anything.”
“You really think she’s not interested?” It was a desperate plea, and he knew it.
“I’m not sure. Personally, I’ve seen no signs pointing in that direction. But what do I know? I walk around with my head in my butt or own drama half the time.”
“You’ve had enough shit thrown at you. You don’t need my petty crap added to the plate.”
“Oh yes, I do. And this isn’t petty crap. Zax, you’re a badass. A total badass. And we all underestimate you. Not with your computer skills. But when you don the scales, you’re more powerful than any of us combined. But that’s also your saving grace. You’ve already said dragons won’t mate with anyone other than a dragon. So tell yourself that you wouldn’t want to take things further with Mayra because you couldn’t commit. Why throw away a friendship over a quick bang?”
“Bang?”
“You really want me to say, ‘Fu—’”
“Okay, I get it! And you’re right.” He waved me off, a weight lifting from his shoulders. “I need to get my damn priorities in order. And I’ll do that. Go home, that is. I don’t think I’ll say anything to her yet and upset the dynamic unnecessarily. If nothing comes up, I’ll go back for a few days soon and let my dragon sort me out.”
I draped my arms around his shoulders. “I feel sorry for you, buddy.”
“Why’s that?”
“You’ve just taken relationship advice from me. Things must be bad.”
He laughed and wrapped an arm around my waist. We walked back to the house. “You and Kaleb seem to have sorted things out.”
“Yeah, but I’m getting extremely frustrated, and Kaleb’s wolf is getting more agitated by the day.”
“Why?”
“The claiming thing, remember? Until we do that, we can’t have sex.”
He groaned out loud. “Please do me a favor?”
“What?”
“You said you think of me like a brother, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then think of me as your younger brother. The younger brother you never, ever want to have sex discussions with.”
My laughter echoed along the breeze. “That’s a deal.”
4
From the driver’s side of one of the FBI assigned vehicles, I said to Grady, “So, how about a catch up now it’s just the two of us? Or three if we include Karl. Is he riding in the rear seat?”
I couldn’t see the attractive black man who’d beamed from the photograph Grady had shown me before. But from the image, and what Grady had told me, I knew his friend oozed confidence from his beaming smile. And that he thought a lot of his former Hostile Rescue Team buddy.
“He’s not here,” he replied from the passenger seat. We were heading to the FBI offices after receiving a cryptic call from Dan. Not only did he need to see me, but he said to bring Grady along when I’d explained he’d accepted the IET offer. He wanted both him and his signed contract along for the ride.
After that, I’d updated the others, Grady signed his life away, and we were on route.
“Is he doing his guardian angel thing again?”
“Guardian angel,” he half-smiled. “Yeah. Karl would love that description. But no. He’s popping up more frequently to help me deal with both my relationship and career drama. But the more I’m around you, the more my gift is behaving strange. He’s trying to protect me from all the spirits who think I’m a human communication device. He has to go into some form of stasis to keep them at bay.”
“He’s a good guy.”
“Yeah he is.”
“That’s why he gets the guardian angel badge. How are you dealing with everything?”
He didn’t answer straight away. I glanced over to see him pondering out of the window. Brown floppy hair fell over a handsome face. He’d removed his tailored jacket to the suits he often wore, the austere shirt rolled to his elbows. He always looked so severe, as if he couldn’t function without rules holding him in place.
“I feel like I’m in a dream,” he sighed, giving me his attention. “But I’ve taken that leap off the cliff, now. There’s no going back.”
“And you and Cassandra?”
“She threw me out, didn’t she? What more is there to tell you?”
“Let things die down for a while. Give her time to think on it.”
“No,” he scoffed. “She made her feelings clear. Even when she tried to manipulate me into speaking to my father about my trust fund. He cut me off when I dropped out of law school and joined the military. And even though I’ve only spoken to him a handful of times since, she still wanted me to grovel to him for my money. The old Cassandra understood how much such a thing would cost me. But not now she wants her hands on the cash to inject into her new business. She wants me to become her silent partner.” He choked on a laugh, and I recalled him mentioning Cassandra building a fashion blog. I couldn’t see it—Grady deciding what fashions made up the fall line. He exhaled. “It was a low-blow, and she knew it, acting like the injured party when I refused. She told me she’s keeping the ring. The apartment. Half of our savings. I told her I didn’t want any of it. If money made her so happy, she could have it all. Do you know what she said?”
“What did she say?”
“Her eyes lit up, and she said, ‘Fine. Leave the paperwork.’ Then she spun on her heel to pack my things. She had the locks and security changed only an hour after I’d left. Guess how I found out.”
“How?”
“I returned to the apartment out of guilt. I hoped I’d got it all wrong and we could make a go of it.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, maybe. But she’s not to blame for it all. I work stupid
hours, more so to stay out of her way because of the ghost thing. I shut her out. No point me crying about it.”
“You’re hurting.”
“Yes, I’m hurting!” he snapped. “I loved her. I wanted to marry her, to work on things, even if we’d grown distant. I had faith in us. We’d been together for two years, wanting to make a life together and now it’s all gone. It’s gone because I got shot while trying to play the hero in the HRT and Karl died!”
Letting him hash it out, aware the guy needed it, I stayed silent. The anger emanated from him. He’d gotten lost and lacked direction, and for a man such as Grady, unsure of which way to go, it would frustrate him to the depths of his soul.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a short while. “I didn’t mean to direct my anger at you.”
“You didn’t. You vented. There’s a difference.”
“Don’t let me off the hook, Vane.”
“I’m not. Trust me. I’ll kick your ass if needed. But you’re part of a team now. One where we’ve all needed to vent one time or another.”
He blew out a breath, took a moment, and opted for a change of subject. “What about your recent case? Kaleb said you’d had a time of it.”
Thinking of the shifter lands we’d recently returned from—one where I’d stirred up a shit storm—I gave him a high-level summary. “We walked onto pack lands, a place where people like Kaleb live. A reptile shifter, one of the escaped prisoners, was running around loose. We caught him, and he was eager to go back to prison, not wanting to harm anyone anymore. But Kaleb’s son of a bitch brother shot the shifter after we chained him up. After that, you could say that we poked the hornet’s nest of Kaleb’s father—a big deal who has even bigger deal friends. And pissed him off enough that he may come for my badge.” I shrugged. “You know, the usual.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “Only you, eh?”
“Yeah. And we still have to catch six other bad guys before we can put this to rest.”
“A mage, an incubus, a water fairy,” he recalled from earlier. “And an assassin wolf shifter?”
“Don’t forget an evil elf lord, and a dark witch. Your average Portiside criminals.”
Death Be Rising (The Terra Vane Series Book 7) Page 2