Authors: Catherine Vale
Marcus
pressed his lips together. “Well, Dimitri’s the one who gave me all the
details. He’s the one who got the job and brought me in on it. I haven’t been
doing so hot with the bookie business, so I needed some extra cash, and –
”
Cole
waved his hand impatiently. “Yeah, yeah. We don’t need your sob story. So
you’re telling me that your vampire friend Dimitri told you this little stunt
was to damage the Crazy Horse’s reputation?”
The
werewolf nodded.
Angela
rolled her eyes. “Did your friend Dimitri also mention just how many fucking
bar fights occur in the Crazy Horse on a monthly basis?” She shook her head.
“That’s got to be the stupidest lie I’ve ever heard of.”
Marcus’s
face flushed. “Hey, I wasn’t about to ask questions. I was just there for the
money.”
“Right,”
Angela sneered. She looked like she wanted to say a hell of a lot more, but
Cole interjected, trying to get things back on track.
“Did
you ever meet or speak to the man who hired you and Dimitri?”
Marcus
shook his head. “His name is Bran, that’s all I know.” He swallowed hard, his
eyes darting back and forth. “I can get you the address to Dimitri’s coterie,
if that helps any. I’m really sorry about your partner. But I really don’t know
anything else.” He sounded defeated.
Angela
sighed, then pulled out a pad and paper from her jacket pocket. “If this turns
out to be a dud, I’m coming back for you. And if I do, I’m taking you down to
the station.”
Marcus
nodded vigorously. “If you need anything, call me,” he said, scribbling his
number down next to the address. “I’ll do what I can to help you out.”
“Well
that was interesting,” Cole remarked as they walked back out to the parking
lot. He tucked his hands into his jacket pockets, fingering the sharp edges of
the keys he kept nestled into the fabric. “I’m surprised you went so easy on
him.”
Angela
sighed, looking down at the ground as she kicked a rock across the asphalt,
trying not to lose it. “He’s harmless enough, and he gave us some decent info.”
Her shoulders tightened. “I’m going to run this address in the system, make
sure he isn’t sending us into a death trap.”
“Good
idea.” They climbed into the car, and Cole sat back in his seat and waited as
she called the precinct and had someone run the address. As she chattered on
the phone, he studied her, his thoughts going back to how she’d handled Marcus.
Though she’d initially been furious at the werewolf, in the end she’d shown him
leniency, even refraining from busting his illegal (though admittedly
relatively harmless) operation, despite the fact that he was partially
responsible for her partner’s capture. It seemed to be in her nature to
forgive, which explained why she’d so readily accepted him into her home last
night and offered her body to him despite knowing who and what he was.
It
suddenly made him feel like a total ass for taking advantage of that, and
worse, for spurning her after he’d been done with her.
“The
address is a residence in Sunnyside,” she told him after she’d hung up. “It’s
in a reasonably good neighborhood, so that’s some comfort, though all bets are
off once we actually go inside.”
Cole
snorted. “Sunnyside? That’s a strange kind of irony.”
“True.”
Angela started to smile, then stopped, as if she remembered that she wasn’t
supposed to be friendly with him.
Cole
sighed. “Look, Angela…” he hesitated, still not totally sure where to begin. In
the end, he decided straightforward was the best way to go. “I won’t deny that
I was a total ass last night.”
“Oh
good,” she said sarcastically, folding her arms and staring straight ahead.
“For a moment there I thought you were acting like everything was normal.”
“Jesus.”
Cole pinched the bridge of his nose. “I was just trying to move past it so that
we could focus on the mission and get this whole thing over with so your
partner is safe and sound again. But it’s clear to me that we can’t keep
tiptoeing around the elephant in the room if we’re going to work together,
especially since we’re heading straight into a den of vampires. The last thing
we need is for us to be at odds instead of at each other’s backs when facing
down a houseful of thirsty blood suckers.”
Angela
scowled, but she turned her body in her seat to face him. “Fine then. Say what
you need to say, so we can ‘move past it’.”
Cole
bit back the retort bubbling up in his throat, knowing he had no right to be
angry with her. He’d wounded her deeply, he could see that now, and it was his
time to eat crow and try to repair things. Swallowing his pride, he dropped his
gaze and took one of her hands in both of his.
“I’ve
never experienced anything like what happened to us last night,” he said
quietly, stroking his thumbs over the back of her hand. He felt her pulse jump
in her wrist, and tried not to lose himself in the silky smoothness of her skin
against the pads of his thumbs. “Or at least, not to the point that I’ve ever
followed through with anything. This connection that we have… it scares the
shit out of me because it could undo us both, and I reacted badly. I’m sorry
for taking it out on you.”
Angela
drew in a slow breath, and he looked up to see her staring at him. There was
such a myriad of emotions in her eyes that he couldn’t figure out what she was
feeling, but he had a feeling that confusion was probably predominant. “I’ve
never felt the mating pull in my entire life before this, and though I may be a
spring chicken compared to you I’ve been around long enough. Are you saying
this has happened to you before?”
Cole
nodded slowly. “It was just shy of my three hundredth birthday,” he said
softly, staring out at the parking lot through the windshield but not really
seeing it. “I was staying in a small village in Scotland, and I came across a
shifter named Laura. She was young and beautiful, all golden curls and rosy
cheeks, and she came from a small bear clan that lived nearby and came into
town once a week to sell their wares.” He could see her in his mind’s eye, so
very clearly even seventeen hundred years later. “The pull was instant, impossible
to deny, and I was too young to know better about not giving into it, so I
pursued her.”
“What
happened?” Angela’s voice was barely above a whisper, her eyes widened as her
body unconsciously leaned in closer.
Cole
clenched his jaw so tightly, his mandibular joints actually started to ache.
“She tried to kill me once she found out what I was, in order to break the tie
between us. And when that didn’t work, she killed herself.” Grief swelled in
his throat, and he struggled for several seconds, trying to get the rest of the
words out, but they wouldn’t come.
“Oh
Cole.” Angela’s gem-like eyes were brimming with sympathy, and she reached for
him. “I’m so sorry – ”
“Don’t!”
He slapped her away, then sucked in a sharp breath at the hurt that flared in
her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “I just can’t help myself. You can’t
get close to me. If I had left town, if I had run far, far away from Laura that
day instead of trying to seal the bond, eventually the pull would have faded,
and she would have had a chance at happiness with someone else, with a
full-blooded shifter who could give her the life and family that she wanted.
But because of my selfishness, I took all that away from her.” His throat ached
from the unshed tears, tears he thought had already been shed hundreds of years
ago. “That’s why I keep pushing you away. That’s why I can’t have you.”
Chapter Seven
Angela
didn’t know a heart could ache so fiercely, but when she looked into Cole’s
grief-stricken eyes, she was surprised hers didn’t just completely shatter into
a million pieces inside her chest. She couldn’t possibly imagine what it must
have been like for Cole to watch the woman he love kill herself in order to be
rid of him, because it had to be a million times worse than the pain she was
feeling now – and that was just completely unfathomable to her.
No
wonder he has intimacy issues.
She mentally shook her head in amazement.
She was astounded he’d even let her touch him at all last night.
As
the seconds stretched by in silence, Cole let out a bitter laugh and looked
away. “I’ve struck you speechless, have I?” His lip curled in disgust. “Then
again, I can’t really be surprised that you’re horrified at me.”
“Horrified?”
Angela echoed.
“That
I drove the woman I loved to her death.”
“No.”
Angela reached out and touched his arm. “That wasn’t your fault. She was the
one who decided to end her life, and that was after she tried to end
yours
.
You have no blame in this.”
“I
do
.” He clenched his hands so hard she heard several of his knuckles pop.
“I should have stayed away from her. I knew better. I knew that hybrids like me
don’t have a place amongst shifters, and that my only place amongst mages is as
an amusement at best, or a science experiment at worst.”
Rage
choked Angela on behalf of him, and she tightened her grip on his arm without
thinking about it. “That’s total bullshit,” she hissed.
He
snapped his head up, his eyes glowing blue again. “I speak nothing but the
truth.”
“I
know. And that’s
bullshit!
”
Before
she knew what she was doing, Angela yanked Cole against her chest and captured
his mouth in a bruising kiss. Instantly his massive arms banded around her,
crushing their bodies together as he battled with her for control, their
tongues clashing, teeth nipping, fingernails digging into taut muscle and
curves. But what began as a punishing battle of wills soon melted into
something more passionate, their harsh grips turning into smooth caresses,
their teeth gently nipping rather than biting, their tongues gliding instead of
tangling.
“I’m
not saying none of that stuff happened to you,” Angela murmured against his
lips, taking a moment to catch her breath. “I’m just saying it’s wrong. I’m not
so blinded by prejudice and irrational fear that I would rather kill myself
than give into what’s clearly the most natural thing in the world.” She ran her
fingers through his chestnut curls, enjoying loving the dense, yet silky
texture of his hair against her skin. “In case you haven’t noticed, I chose to
be a Protector instead of sticking with my clan. I’m standing a little ways
outside the box, too.”
His
glowing eyes faded slowly back to violet as he searched her face. “You really,
really don’t care that I’m a hybrid?”
She
shook her head. “Your reputation made me a little nervous, I have to admit, but
now that you’re here in the flesh…” she ran her hands down his chest and gave
him a tiny, but wicked grin, “I find I don’t care in the slightest.”
He
groaned when her palms scraped across his nipples. “If you keep doing that I’m
going to strip off your clothes and fuck you right here in the parking lot.”
Her
panties grew damp at the very idea, but she checked her watch with a sigh. “As
much as I’d love to try that, we’ve got a vampire to track down.” She settled
back in her seat and strapped herself in, then looked up at him. “I’m not
saying that we have to go through with the mating pull,” she said quietly.
“Ultimately we’re in control of our own lives, regardless of how our bodies
feel about it. But I’m not going to rule out the possibility just because
society says I should hate you.”
Nodding,
Cole shifted the car into reverse and backed out of the spot, then put the car
in gear and pulled onto the road. Angela relaxed with a sigh against the seat,
relieved that most of the tension seemed to be gone. “You know where you’re
going?”
“I
will as soon as you punch in the directions.”
Smiling
a little, she leaned forward and entered the directions to the coterie into the
Camaro’s GPS. She had a feeling that just a few minutes ago, Cole wouldn’t have
let her near the controls of his car, not even the radio, and took the sign of
trust as a step in the right direction. Her emotions more settled now, she took
out her phone and pulled up the profile she had on Dimitri, which the Order’s
database had provided.
“Dimitri
Devine, seventy-two years old, hails from Richmond, Virginia.” She pursed her
lips. “It says here that he’s a member of the Devereaux Coterie, but that’s in
Baton Rouge so that’s clearly not updated. Good thing our friend gave us his
current location.”
“He’s
young for a vampire.”
“True.”
She considered that for a moment. “Generally vampires don’t leave their sires
until at least one hundred years of age, so it says something that he’s on his
third coterie right now.” Her expression darkened. “Either he’s got really bad
luck with roommates, or he likes to stir up trouble a bit too much.”