Air of Darkness

by Rose O'Brien

  Miguel had been loaded in a van with five or six others. They’d driven to a truck stop near the border and had loaded up in an eighteen-wheeler with false compartments in the walls. Boxes had been loaded in the truck to make it look fully loaded and they’d set out. When they’d arrived in Austin, they were taken off the truck, beaten, and thrown in the cages.

  Every week, a group of adults and children would be moved out. Ages of people ranged from five to about thirty-five. Miguel had never seen anyone older or younger than that. He wasn’t sure what happened to the people who were taken from the warehouse, but he never saw them again.

  Miguel grabbed Alex’s arm as he was bandaging the newly cleaned cut and begged him not to send him back to the monsters and not to send him back to Mexico.

  “Everything is going to be fine,” Alex told him in Spanish, using his best medic voice.

  Miguel had calmed a bit and Alex handed him off to a large man with Asian features who was wearing a zip up clean suit like the kind crime scene techs wore. The last of the captives were moving toward a series of vehicles parked inside the warehouse.

  The leader of the cleanup team said that their memories after crossing the border would be wiped. They’d be given residential documents and IDs and set up in cities scattered around the southwest. It sounded to Alex like the best possible outcome for those involved.

  He looked over at Dumeril as he cleaned his hands with alcohol gel.

  “That was a hell of a move you pulled today,” Dumeril said, moving next to Alex where he leaned against a metal table they had been using to do examinations. Alex didn’t have to ask which move he was talking about.

  “Yup,” Alex said simply.

  Dumeril gave him a rueful look.

  “Seriously? What were you thinking?”

  “To be honest, I wasn’t,” Alex said. He was silent for a moment before he continued. “I just reacted with gut instinct. I was trying to protect the team, the captives and Alayna.”

  “You sure as hell weren’t concerned for yourself. You got lucky. Real lucky. If those freaky-ass powers of yours hadn’t kicked in, she probably would have torn you into little bitty confetti-sized pieces, before moving on to the rest of us.”

  Silence stretched between them.

  “When you said that it could kill her, I stopped thinking. My gut’s saved me more than once, so I trusted it.”

  Dumeril laughed and slapped him on the back.

  “I’m glad your gut is smarter than your head,” Dumeril said. “I just wanted to say thanks.”

  Alex nodded and moved to start packing up his med bag.

  Dumeril’s voice sounded loud in the now empty warehouse when he spoke.

  “You should tell her how you feel,” Dumeril said.

  Alex shot him a look.

  “And how do you know how I feel about her?”

  Dumeril laughed. “Your move today was pretty obvious there, hot shot,” he said. “But besides that, it’s written all over you. It’s in the way you look at her, the way you tense up when she’s around.”

  “You know why I can’t tell her,” Alex said. “It’s a non-starter.”

  “Is this about what happened with Dominic?” Dumeril asked. “Her whole, ‘I can’t date a team member’ policy?”

  When Alex nodded, Dumeril made a noise in his throat that told him exactly what he thought of that.

  “Dominic was an asshole about the whole thing, and it was his choice to leave. He thinks he’s freaking God’s gift to the universe, and he just couldn’t stomach that Alayna didn’t want him in that way. Furthermore, she makes the rules, she can break the rules. Girl’s just wound a little too tight, if you ask me. Too afraid to let go.”

  Alex was silent as he took this new information in.

  “I kind of also thought that maybe you and Alayna had something going on,” Alex said hesitantly.

  A surprised laugh burst from Dumeril’s throat, stretching into a long belly laugh. Wiping his eyes he said, “Oh, honey. First off, I only date men.”

  At Alex’s startled look Dumeril laughed again and gave him a look that said “you wouldn’t be on my list in a million years.”

  “Secondly, I don’t date humans. You’re all fucking crazy.”

  That drew a laugh from Alex and he felt the tension leave his body.

  “Yeah, that’s pretty accurate,” he agreed.

  Dumeril moved next to him again.

  “Look, Alayna’s been dealt a shit hand in this life and she deserves to have a little happiness. And you do too.”

  Alex didn’t look at him as he finished packing his bag.

  “I’ll think about it, man.”

  “Don’t think too long. You never know when a mission will be your last,” Dumeril said, slinging his own bag over his shoulder and heading for door.

  When they reached the van, Ellie, Lu, and Alayna were already there.

  “Well, we all survived, so that’s something,” Ellie said. “There’s just one thing we have left to do.”

  Alex mentally prepared himself. Would they need to debrief? Unpack the van? What?

  “We all need to get good and drunk,” she finished.

  “I second that,” Lu said.

  “Probably not the best idea guys…” Alayna tried to chime in.

  “This is about unit cohesion, Commander. We all saw some shit tonight. You know how we deal with that in a healthy way?”

  “Therapy?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah. My therapist’s name is Patron and he’s seeing patients on Sixth Street right now.”

  Chapter 17

  Alayna threw back yet another shot and slammed the glass down on the bar, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, and laughed at something the guy next to her had said.

  The music was raging in the after hours club they were in, and she hadn’t really heard him. She was pretty sure his name was Jonathan. He was tall, well built in the way that guys who spent all their free time in gym were. He had spiky blonde hair and nice eyes. She was pretty sure he said he worked in finance.

  Not that it mattered.

  He was just her type. A little shallow, only interested in sex and clearly not interested in asking too many questions.

  She’d get a couple more drinks in him, hail a cab and get him back to his place for a little fun before the sun came up.

  Then it was back to work on this case. There was nothing she could do for the next few hours while she waited for reports from the cleanup team on what they learned from the hostages. And she’d let the surviving warehouse workers stew for a few hours before she came at them with more questions. Chances were they didn’t know much. Unfortunately, she’d turned the only ones who’d likely known anything in vampire confetti.

  No, for the next few hours she was determined to scratch a few itches.

  She had this game down to a science by now. She knew the right kind of guys to pick and she always talked them into going to their place by making up some excuse about her sister being in town.

  She knew just what to wear, too. Gone was her combat gear, replaced by a stretchy, tight tube dress in attention grabbing hot pink. It showed off her chest and legs and always attracted just the kind of men she preferred.

  As she looked around the club, she noticed that Dumeril was chatting up some guy at the end of the bar. Ellie had run into someone she knew and had disappeared into a corner somewhere. Lu had lost herself in the crowd.

  Alex was at the other end of the bar, nursing a whiskey and lost in his thoughts. Drunk women kept throwing themselves at him, and he kept waving them off. Alayna refused to think about how sexy he looked leaning up against the bar in those jeans and that tight black T-shirt.

  The memory of that kiss in the van flashed in her mind and even just the thought of it made her blush slightly. She didn’t know what had possessed her to put her mouth on him. Stupid, stupid move. It didn’t matter that it had been the single hottest kiss of her life. Just kissing him had been hotter t
han all of the sex she’d ever had.

  When she realized she was staring at him, she pulled her gaze away. This couldn’t happen. Attachments were out of the question. It didn’t matter how good he looked right this minute or how much she wanted him.

  She felt a hand on her shoulder and Lu’s voice was by her ear.

  “I know that look.”

  Alayna spun on her best friend. “What look?”

  “The look of someone longing for the thing they won’t let themselves have. I’m an addict, I’m intimately familiar with that look.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, ducking her head to avoid Lu’s gaze.

  “You know I can smell it when you lie.”

  “I’m not. I jus—”

  Lu held up her hand and pinned Alayna with a look.

  “That boy’s got it bad for you. That move he pulled today. I’m sure he spared a thought for the team and the hostages, but that hero move, it was about saving you. When Dumeril told him the rage could kill you, he was up and over that crate before we could blink.”

  Something twisted in her chest at those words.

  “That’s just it, he risked his life for mine. I can’t let this go any further with him than it has. You know why.”

  Lu sighed deeply enough that she heard it over the music. “Why are you so bad at letting yourself be happy?”

  A flare of anger surged in her chest, but she pushed it down. “I’m not bad at that. It’s that I can’t lose control, because we all saw tonight what happens when I do.”

  With that, she turned her back on Lu and began moving through the crowd. She found Jonathan—or was it Brent?—and as she did, the crowd parted, and she caught sight of Alex. A girl with long dark hair and a barely-there top had her hand on his chest, giggling. He was smiling back, his body language open, his face close to hers.

  Something painful howled inside her, but she shook it off and took a sip of the drink that the guy she was now pretty sure was named Brent had ordered for her. It was something fruity and far too sweet, but she drank it anyway as she pulled him back on the dance floor.

  As Alayna let the beat settle over her, JonaBrent mostly stood there while she ground up against him in time with the music. He began to move with her, and she liked the feel of his gym rat muscles under her hands. The flex of his arms and chest and abs through his thin shirt felt like heaven, and his cologne smelled delicious. She couldn’t wait to strip him, and if the half erection she could feel through his jeans was any indication of things to come, it was going to be a really fun night.

  And she deserved a little fun, didn’t she?

  It’d been weeks since she’d picked up a guy, and she was aching for it. She’d been working hard on this case. Alex had been a distraction to be sure. She knew there were some in the Corps hierarchy that would frown on this behavior if they knew about it, but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt anyone.

  She gave everything to the job, and one day soon she’d give her life without a second thought. But before she went, she was going to dance and get drunk (well, tipsy at least), and she was going to get laid.

  She’d never have love or a real family, but she could have this.

  Suddenly, a memory of working out with Alex popped into her head, the way he’d felt pinning her to the mat. The way his hands had felt on her sweaty skin, the way his body had felt pressed against her. He’d always been all business, but there had been moments when she’d caught him looking at her, and there had been something in his eyes that she could almost believe was heat. There had been moments when he’d touched her that she thought something had passed between them. He’d said the kiss was a mistake. Had he meant that or had he been lying? And what hope did they have for anything other than heartbreak? He wanted so badly to return to his old life when this case was over, resume the FBI career he’d worked so hard for. He deserved that, and he deserved love and happiness. That certainly wasn’t something he’d find with her.

  Damn it. She tried to push the memories away, but they kept flooding back. She wanted Alex, but she couldn’t risk it. Her time was limited; she’d always known that, and she wasn’t going to break anyone’s heart when she left.

  She turned and flung her arms around JonaBrent’s neck and kissed him, slipping her tongue past his lips. He responded by pulling her close and grinding his erection against her.

  She opened her eyes and looked past him as his fingers tangled in her hair. Alex locked eyes with her. His face was expressionless, even though the dark haired girl was laughing at something he’d said. The moment stretched between them. The music seemed to fade until it felt like they were the only two people in the club.

  Alayna broke eye contact first and grabbed JonaBrent by the hand, dragging him toward the exit. She didn’t dare look back at Alex or she would lose her nerve.

  ***

  Alex tossed and turned in Alayna’s guest bed. He’d lain down a few minutes before, and every time he closed his eyes, he saw that look Alayna had given him in the club before she left with that blond douchebag.

  It had been a message. She’d been clear almost from the beginning. No dating team members and she considered him one. Every interaction with her played through his head. That first night in the alley, that mesmerizing embrace in the locker room, all those work outs where something would pass between them with a touch or a look. That crazy sex dream he’d had about her. And, God, that kiss in the van. He’d thought his skin was going to catch fire.

  In his head, it all added up to one thing: she wanted him. Maybe as much as he wanted her. So why the message tonight?

  If she was trying to say that she didn’t want to have anything to do with him by dragging some random guy off to fuck him, he’d received that message loud and clear. As he tossed restlessly, the sheets tangling around him, he decided something. She was pushing him away. For what reason he didn’t know, but he was going to let her. They had no business getting involved. He’d wait until dawn, when she was sure to be asleep, pack his stuff and move into one of the rooms at headquarters.

  The two of them needed some distance. And they needed to wrap up this case as quickly as possible. The sooner he got back to his old life, his real life, the better.

  He heard Alayna’s front door open and close and the sound of her soft bare footsteps moving through the house. She’d taken off her boots to avoid waking him. Was it sad that he could identify the sound of her footsteps?

  He glanced at his phone. It had only been forty-five minutes since he’d left her at the club. Must have been one hell of a fast quickie. He did some mental math. With the time it took to get a cab at this time of night and the distance out to her place on the west side, she must have gone home almost straight from the club. She wouldn’t have had time to go home with that guy.

  The sound of the door to her bedroom/porch closing reached Alex’s ears and he sat up in bed. He could hear her getting ready for bed, and after a few minutes he could hear her tossing and turning, too.

  One question kept echoing in his head: why hadn’t she gone home with that guy?

  The insidious thought kept coming back to him. What was she doing? What were they doing?

  He tried for several minutes to calm his mind, using his tricks from his Army days to shut out the noise in his head. Instead of trying to cancel out bomb blasts, he was trying to quiet the nagging voice that was telling him to go to her right now.

  He threw the covers back and slid from the bed. If neither of them were sleeping, he’d tell her about his plan to move out in the morning. Maybe then he could get a sense of what was going on here.

  He moved toward her bedroom, raising his hand to knock on the screen door, when he saw that she wasn’t in her bed. He looked up and his breath left his lungs in rush.

  She wore a white satin nightgown that clung to her curves. Her feet were bare as they moved across the grass of her backyard. She moved through a complicated series of movements. It was a mart
ial arts form, but she made it look like the most delicate dance. Her eyes were closed and the dew collecting on the grass clung to her feet as they whispered across the ground.

  He stood frozen, spellbound for a moment, before his feet started moving as if pulled by some magnetic force.

  As he drew closer, he could feel and see air currents around her, dancing in little swirling eddies and vortices. Bits of grass, tiny spring wildflowers and pieces of dried leaves danced on the air around her. It was, quite simply, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

  Several sets of golden eyes glowed from the darkness, and Alex realized the trees were full of owls and night birds that were silently watching her. Off to his right, a little heron stirred near the pond. They were all as transfixed by her as he was.

  Creatures of the air were drawn to her magick, her beauty, her power. And she didn’t even realize the hold she had on all of them. On him.

  Without realizing it, his hand lifted toward her and her name left his lips on a whisper. “Alayna.”

  She spun and dropped into an elegant fighter’s crouch at the sound. One leg, tucked beneath her, the other extended to the side. One hand came down to rest on the grass, the other was extended to her side, ready to strike.

  A couple of the birds startled and took flight, and the plant bits fell around her, the spell broken along with her concentration.

  Embarrassed, he stepped forward quickly. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  She rose gracefully when she realized it was him. Her arms came across her chest and she rubbed her biceps, not meeting his eyes. She seemed a little embarrassed too, having been caught in a private moment.

  “It’s okay,” she said quickly. “I couldn’t sleep,” she added, trying to explain.

  “Me either,” he said.

  Silence descended between them and they locked gazes for a moment across the empty expanse of grass.