by Jenn Burke
I wanted to ask what she was, paranormal-wise—because she clearly hadn’t been a vampire—but Pike licked his lips and leaned forward again. My words dried up in my mouth.
“No!” Priya shouted.
Pike snarled. “Stay there, little girl, or I’ll tear his head off when I’m done.”
Yeah... I was pretty sure there would be no coming back from that. But I could handle the blood loss. “It’s okay,” I assured her.
She was all but vibrating with the effort to hold herself back. “Like fucking hell.”
I didn’t have a chance to say anything else before Pike struck.
* * *
“Wes! Come on, man, come back.”
Something slapped my cheek, then the other one, and I wanted to open my eyes if only to tell the asshole at the other end of that hand to fuck off, but my eyelids were attached to ten-pound weights. I could barely make my eyelashes flutter.
“The moon! Can you see it? It’s so close.”
I was pretty sure that voice filled with dreamy appreciation was Pike’s.
“Wha’ th’ fuck?” I managed. My eyes flickered open for an instant to see a familiar face hovering over me. “Ren.”
Ren glanced behind him, and I realized Pike was lounging on the floor, one arm raised as though he were trying to grab an invisible something. His eyepatch was missing and...he’d braided his hair? What the hell?
“Can you stand?”
“The walls are whispering.” Pike was still staring at the ceiling, his eyes unfocused. “They want to hear me sing.”
“Yeah, I can stand,” I decided. I’d fucking dance if it meant I could get away from Pike while he was paying the price of drinking my blood.
Ren yanked me to my feet, and the room spun around me. Hearing Pike warble out an unrecognizable song didn’t help matters any. Priya joined us, steadying me on my left side while Ren took the right, and we left the cramped office.
“What did you do to him?” Ren asked.
“’S my blood,” I said.
“Your blood makes vampires...” Ren frowned. “Is he high?”
“Yep.”
“What about Hudson?” Priya asked.
“First time only.”
“So Hudson was high on your blood once? Do you have video?”
“No.” But I wished I had. It had been seriously adorable. I mean, once we’d gotten out of the life-or-death situation that had necessitated him drinking blood from my big toe.
My floaty brain stuttered as something occurred to me, and I stopped walking. “How’d you find us?”
Ren wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I’ve no idea how long your blood-high is going to last, so we need to—”
“Ren. How did you find us?” When he still wouldn’t look at me, I wilted. “Are you working with him?”
Finally he looked up, and his face was a mask of rage and pain. “I decided to come here after you told me about Walter’s death, and as soon as I did, the bond snapped back into place.”
“Fuck. Ren, I’m sorry.”
“So am I. The only reason I can help you right now is that he’s so out of it, so please. Let me get you out of here. You need to warn Hudson.”
“He knows,” Priya said.
I let them start dragging me forward again, and luckily there were no patrons in the front of the house to pay any mind to me and my escorts. When we got to the car, I was steady enough to turn to face Ren and grab his wrist. “Come with us. Maybe some distance will help.”
“And if it doesn’t? You can’t trust me right now.” He jerked his arm out of my grasp. “You need to go. And, Wes...tell Hudson I understand if it comes down to it.”
I frowned at him, my sluggish brain trying to decipher that sentence. “If what what?”
Priya pushed me into the passenger seat. “I’ll tell him.”
I slammed a hand against the doorframe as what Ren was asking suddenly clicked. “No fucking way.”
“Wes, it’s—”
“We’re not going to kill you, Ren! Jesus Christ.”
He peeled my fingers off the metal and tucked me inside the car. “You need to do what you need to do.” Before I could say anything else, he shut the door and sped off.
* * *
“Family meeting. Discuss and plan as a family,” Hudson growled. “Do you recall these words that came out of your mouth?”
I took a sip of my electrolyte drink and laid my head against the back of the couch. “I know.”
“Because you decidedly did not wait for the family meeting, or discuss your plan with anyone.”
Priya raised her hand. “Technically it was my...” At Hudson’s glare, her arm wilted back to her side. “Sorry.”
“You should be,” Lexi growled. She reached over the couch and smacked the top of my head.
I jerked away from her, nearly spilling my drink. “Ow, watch the head.”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“Now he’s seen you—both of you. Fuck.” Hudson scrubbed his face with one large hand. “We’ve all got to run.”
Priya pressed her lips together and gave a tight nod. “I’ll help you pack.”
“Whoa. Wait. Time out.” I made a T with my hands, holding my drink awkwardly. “I’m not running anywhere.”
“Yes!” Sam fist-pumped. “You’re going to kick ass, right?”
I squinted at her. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
“It’s not even nine o’clock.” She rolled her eyes. “Come on.”
“So what’s the plan?” Evan asked from his perch on the arm of the chair Iskander was sitting in. “We fortify the house or something? Lay booby traps?”
“That’ll make the neighbors happy,” Iskander said drily.
“Let’s get all Home Alone on this shit!” Sam declared.
“No.” Either everyone needed a valium or my brain was definitely not back to firing on all cylinders yet. “None of that. Priya, you said that you knew Pike from a posting on the European TWW?”
She cocked her head. “TWW?”
“TechnoWitchWeb.”
“Oh. Yes. I think they were calling him the Butcher of Brussels, or some such.”
“So he’s very wanted.”
“I’d reckon so. Last I heard he was on the hook for a dozen murders—some human, some not. Interpol might even be on him, I don’t know.”
I could probably get that information from Kat, but it was irrelevant. “I wouldn’t want to hand him over to them, regardless. But the Order of the Onyx Shield would probably be interested, eh?”
“I bet they would, at that.”
I leaned my head back to look at Lexi, and even upside down, I could tell she wasn’t happy. “Don’t, Wes.”
I righted myself and huffed out a breath. “Okay, here’s the thing. I made a deal with the Order to turn you in.”
Priya froze, but Hudson exploded. “You did what?”
“Give me a chance to explain.”
“Why? Why should I? Clearly you’re all about making decisions on your own these days. Jesus Christ, Wes.” His eyes glinted yellow, which told me exactly how angry he was. Plenty. “We’re supposed to be partners.”
“We are.”
“But you’re making decisions that affect my family—”
I glared at him. “We’re all your family, Hudson. She might share your blood, but she’s also a demon host. I’m sorry—everyone else in this room takes priority, and that’s why I took action.”
Priya looked down and quickly swept a thumb under her eye. “I get it,” she said softly. “It’s all right.”
“Like hell it is!” Hudson roared. “You don’t get to make those kinds of decisions, Wesley! You’re a fucking god, but you’re not God.”
“If you think it was an easy decision,
you can fuck right off,” I snapped back. “I made the best decision I could at the time with the information I had. And it’s all a moot point because I’m not going to follow through with it. Not like how the Order is thinking I will.”
“Explain,” Iskander said.
“I’m meeting them on Saturday at 10:00 p.m. outside Alleys. We’ll still show up, but instead of handing Priya over, we’ll suggest we help them catch a different target. A bigger, better one.”
“Pike,” Hudson said, his voice calmer, though anger still simmered across our bond. “How are you going to make that work?”
A confident smirk curved my lips. “I have a plan.”
Chapter Nineteen
Though Hudson listened to my plan—and even approved of it, have mercy—I knew as soon as we were in our bedroom upstairs, the shit would hit the fan. Again.
The door slammed behind me and I fully expected Hudson to lay into me again—and honestly, I knew I deserved it, both for running off with Priya to hunt down Pike without a plan and for the...well, planned betrayal of Priya to the Order. Though the word betrayal made me wince.
But the tirade never came. Hudson stormed into the bathroom and closed the door.
I heaved in a breath and eyed the suitcases splayed across the bed. Despite saying he would leave Toronto, he’d started packing up my stuff. I wasn’t sure if that meant he’d decided I should go instead, like he’d first planned, or if we were going to go together.
I tapped lightly on the bathroom door. “Hud?”
“I don’t want to see you right now.”
I leaned against the jamb. “If that was true, you would’ve stayed downstairs. Or gone to one of the guestrooms.”
“Maybe you should go to one of the guestrooms, seeing as you’re the one who fucked up.”
“Can we not do this through a door?”
He jerked it open. “There. Better?”
Not with him glaring at me like that, no. “What can I do to fix this?”
“You do get that you damaged my trust, right?”
I closed my eyes briefly. “I know. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing. Lexi and I discussed—”
“Oh, I’ve got Lexi to blame for this too?”
“She’s my oldest friend. I’ve been with her longer than I’ve been with you, even counting our eighties dating days,” I reminded him. “I trust her judgment implicitly.”
“But you don’t trust mine.”
“You weren’t objective!”
“And you think you and Lexi are? Seriously? You look at Priya and see Julia.”
“Yes. Okay. I mean, it’s pretty hard to hear demon and not think of the creature who almost killed you.”
“But she’s not Julia. My gut is telling me—screaming at me—that she’s not evil, Wes.”
“I know.”
“You—That was not the answer I was expecting.”
“I know that too.”
“What changed your mind?”
I moved over to the bed and shoved a suitcase aside so I could sit. “She didn’t leave me. When Pike knocked me out, she said he threatened to hurt me if she tried to leave. When she told me that, I reminded her I could survive a lot, and she said yeah, but it would still hurt. An evil creature wouldn’t have given a shit if I felt pain. She did.” I sighed. “Look, I’m living—so to speak—proof that people fuck up no matter how old they are or how much experience they have. The main thing is, can you forgive me? Because I’m pretty sure I’m going to fuck up again, and again, and keep fucking up forever. I mean, if I haven’t figured shit out by now, I’m probably not going to, right?”
“Wes?”
“Yeah?”
He walked over, grabbed my shoulder, and pulled me up and into his arms. “Shut up.”
I tilted my head up for the kiss I hoped was coming, and I wasn’t disappointed. Hudson kissed like he did everything else—with a single-minded focus that could be intense and all-consuming, or sweetly overwhelming. He played with my lips and my tongue, nipping, sucking, licking, the feel of his caresses completely different with my beard but still amazing. He continued until all I could feel was that drugging sensation of his mouth on mine, and thoughts, sensations, the world, fell away.
It took me a minute to realize he’d pulled away, but I clued in when I heard the shower start. I blinked at him and suggested hopefully, “Bed?”
He looked at my shirt and arched a brow, and I followed his gaze. Oh, right. Pike had helped himself to a lot of my blood, but a bunch had stained my clothes and skin too. I’d sort of forgotten.
I modified my suggestion. “Shower, then bed?”
“That’s my plan.”
“I like your plans better than mine.”
“That’s because I actually plan, and you just say you do.”
That was very accurate. “Point to Hudson.”
The hot water kneading my shoulders felt amazing. I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed to reconnect with Hudson until he was soaping me up and rinsing me, pressing kisses to my newly clean skin. Every touch, every caress, renewed our bond. It could have turned sexual—I could feel his desire reverberate across our connection—but that wasn’t what I wanted or needed right now. My dick didn’t stir, even when Hudson got on his knees to soap up my legs. I leaned on the tiled wall to hold me up and let my eyes close for a second, a smile on my face...
And woke up as Hudson was tucking me under the comforter.
“For the record,” he said as he got under the covers and wrapped himself around me, “yes, I forgive you. Yes, I know you’re not perfect—believe me, I know. Yes, you’re going to mess up again. And yes, I love you anyway, because I know all the same is true for vice versa.”
Awkwardly worded, which is how I knew it came from Hudson’s heart. “Never change, Hud.”
* * *
I parked my car in the darkest corner of the lot next to Alleys. The spot was a good hundred feet from the door, and there were no other cars close by—but that didn’t count for anything. The Order had melted out of the darkness before, and I wasn’t sure if that was a paranormal talent or sneaky training.
I turned the key and the engine cut off, pinging as it cooled. “Ready?”
“Jet won’t let them take me.” It wasn’t the first time Priya’d told me that. More a warning, a plea, than a threat.
“I won’t let them take you.”
“But you originally wanted them to.”
“And I know I’ll probably never apologize enough for that. All I could go on was my previous experience with a demon—and you have to admit it wasn’t good.”
“No, I understand that.”
“But I grasp now that you’re different. Both you and Jet. You’re not evil.”
“I’m not good, either.”
“Who of us really is?”
She let out a long, slow breath. “Right then, let’s do this.”
Simultaneously, we got out of the car. Neither of us moved any farther away than necessary to close the doors—and almost instantly, armed and armored soldiers descended on us, utterly silent. Shouting would draw attention, and none of us wanted that.
“Hands up,” one of the soldiers ordered.
Neither of us complied.
“Who’s in charge?” I asked. “Is Kurt here?”
A figure separated itself from the others. He wore the same gear—helmet, combats, a vest with a small arsenal, a mask that covered his lower face, and goggles that covered his eyes. He lowered his gun, but didn’t release it. “I’m Kurt. Our agreement was clear, Mr. Westerson.”
“Change of plans.”
Behind his goggles, Kurt’s eyes narrowed. “I think not.” He nodded sharply at the soldiers nearest Priya.
From the shadows, low growls sounded.
I smiled. “Li
ke I said, change of plans.”
Two wolves slipped out of the darkness to the right—Sam and Iskander. To the left was a pair of foxes—Juanita and Victor, I assumed, though I’d never seen them in their animal forms. At the door, the bartender/owner, Don, and a few others gathered—I’d given him a heads-up about the confrontation happening in his parking lot, and he was happy to show his support in exchange for us buying a round of beer afterwards. Hudson and Evan flanked Priya and me, their eyes glowing and their fangs and claws out and ready for action. Lexi was with them, magic sparking at her fingertips, and beside her was Katrina Li...who casually nudged her jacket aside to display her badge and gun.
She arched a brow. “Don’t suppose you fellows have the necessary permits for those weapons? Oh, wait—there are no permits you could possibly have to allow you to openly carry fucking assault rifles in Canada.”
Kurt took in my reinforcements, the skin around his eyes pinched, then waved to his soldiers to lower their weapons. “What new deal are you proposing?” he asked reluctantly.
“Instead of giving you Priya, we give you—what’d they call him again?” I asked her.
“The Butcher of Brussels,” she supplied.
I snapped my fingers. “The Butcher of Brussels, that’s it.”
Suddenly I had all of Kurt’s attention, though I got the sense he was trying hard not to show how interested he was. “How do you know—”
“That he’s in town? He thought I would make a good snack.”
“So this is revenge?”
“And justice, maybe even a dash of vengeance, and a metric fuckton of rage.” I let some of my own power out to give weight to my words. “He’s hurt people that are mine.”
Kurt considered me for a moment, then two, and I wondered if, despite everything, we were going to end up with a fight on our hands. I hoped not—I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but I especially didn’t want to saddle Kat with the epic cleanup of paranormal shenanigans again.
Finally, Kurt gave a slight nod. “Agreed.”