Dangerous Promise by Gwendolyn Cease (9 page)

* * * *

Quenton entered his quarters and dropped into the chair next to his bed. Damn, he was tired. After working to get Feral and Lucian settled, he’d informed Kenshin they were in-house and had finally made it to his rooms. He hoped like hell the couple could offer some insight into what was going on with Talon and Joelle, and Charon and Aislinn. He knew one thing was certain—the women were going to live very long lives. Lucian was human, or at least, he had been, but he looked no older than thirty. Quenton wondered how old he’d been when the two men had met.

His phone chimed, interrupting his thoughts. He both hoped and dreaded that Reaper was on the line, but instead he saw Maeve’s name.

“Hello?”

“Hey, let’s meet,” she said, cracking gum in his ear.

“Huh, I didn’t know cows chewing cud could talk on the phone. It must be a miracle of medical science,” Quenton said sarcastically.

“Whatever, we need to meet and talk.”

“Where?”

“What about the library? That seems to be the big hang out spot, now.”

“I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes.” Quenton heard her disconnect and sighed. The woman had no social skills at all. He wondered why he liked her.

Feeling tired and grubby, Quenton showered and wondered what the hell couldn’t wait. He truly didn’t feel like climbing back into his normal attire and instead pulled out a pair of jeans and a tattered sweatshirt. Most people would be stunned to know he owned regular clothes, but then again, he didn’t let anyone get too close to him. He found that letting people in tended to cause hurt, and he didn’t want that anymore.

Two short raps announced his visitor and Quenton opened the door to let Maeve in. She was more serious than he’d ever seen her before. The two of them didn’t speak until he led her through the darkened library and into his private rooms. Once the door was closed and bolted, she turned and dropped into a chair.

“Dude, there’s some serious shit going on,” she said, pulling a file folder out of the bag she carried.

“Tell me.”

“Talon and Charon’s blood is definitely different than the rest of the Hunters.”

“Different how?”

“Different enough that if someone glanced at the results, they might not realize they were Ancients. In fact, they might not know what they were.”

“Are you telling me you couldn’t tell what species they were?”

“I can tell because I’m the goddess of the labs. But somebody who wasn’t as familiar might think they were looking at a new species.”

“And Joelle and Aislinn?”

“The humans aren’t quite human anymore. Their blood carries more vampire markers than human. It’s like they’re all evolving.”

Quenton removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “What about the vamp that was brought in? Did you have a chance to look at the body?”

“Uh, yeah, and he is some kind of messed up. First, he stinks and not just because he’s dead. I’m working on him in a hazmat suit and a closed lab since I don’t want any of what he’s got on me.”

“And?” Quenton prompted.

“I know he’s a vamp, but he sure doesn’t look like it. He wasn’t becoming an Ancient, either. He was something totally different and not good, either. His organs, muscles, tissue and bone are deformed. His brain has these weird growths on it, sort of like tumors, but they were changing the structure.”

“Grimm said that when they saw the thing it was literally crawling the walls.”

“I can believe it. The fingers were elongated and had…spider feet. There’s no other way to explain it. This person had hairs on their hands and feet and those hairs had even smaller hairs. In a spider, the hairs are called setules, but I got no word to describe this guy. Oh wait, creepy, that’s what I would call him.”

“Hell.”

“You said it. Once I’m done with the body, I’m going to burn it. All the samples I’m taking are locked up so only I can get to them. I don’t want to take the chance of anyone finding out more than they already do.”

“Agreed.”

She handed him the file. “Give this to the Director. It’s the only hard copy—everything else is on my personal laptop. Nowhere else. If he has questions let me know.”

Once she was gone, Quenton sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. This thing was getting more fucked up as they went. In his gut, he knew they had to bring Feral and Lucian in on what was going on because things were going to get much worse. The two men wouldn’t be as effective if they didn’t have all the information, but he had to convince Kenshin of the fact. He just hoped the Director would listen since Quenton found that his gut was rarely wrong.

Chapter Six

Kate poured a class of wine and handed it to her best friend. The brunette with the royal blue streak in her hair smiled and took a deep drink. Tori, Kate had to admit, was as different from her as night to day. The other woman was tall and slender with a variety of tattoos and piercings decorating her body. She had a take-no-shit attitude and, to anyone who didn’t know her, they’d have thought she was lucky if she bagged groceries for a living and could speak without grunting. The persona Tori projected was so far from what she truly was that it made Kate laugh. The woman had graduated top of her class in high school as well as college and had just graduated with her PhD in computer engineering. Tori was visited regularly by companies longing to hire her and toss vast amounts of money in her lap. Her pat response was to smile and tell them to come back when they had a real offer.

“So,” Tori prompted, “talk about your date. Who is he? Where did you go? And why didn’t you call me to hang out with the chicklets?”

“I took the girls with me,” Kate said, pouring her own wine. “We went to their favorite Italian restaurant near the bookstore, and we had a really good time.”

Tori made snoring noises. “I didn’t ask for the Facebook version. So who is he? Where did you meet him?”

Kate hesitated. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell Tori about Grimm, but everything was happening so fast. She felt more for a man she’d only known a few days than she did for ones she’d dated for months. She wasn’t sure what that meant. Okay, yes, he pushed all her hot buttons, but that wasn’t it. She felt a deep down connection to him she’d never felt with anyone.

“Kate? What’s going on?” Tori put her glass down and got her serious face.

“Remember when we went out dancing, and the guy I danced with?” Kate asked.

“Oh hell yeah. Mr. Sex-on-a-stick? Who could forget?” Tori fanned herself dramatically then stopped. “Him? You went out with him? Really? How?”

“We saw him at the bookstore, and he had coffee with us.” Kate shrugged, still not sure how Grimm had gone from a guy she met in a club to…wow.

“What do the chicklets think?”

“They really like him. Olivia even lent him her
Calina the Vampire
books.”

Tori rolled her eyes. “She barely lets me look at them.”

“I know and Abby’s already asked when we’re going out on a date again.”

“Okay, so the girls like him, but what about you?”

“Truly? I’ve never felt this way about anyone.” Kate saw the look on Tori’s face and rushed on. “I know it’s fast, but there’s something there I can’t explain. He’s not like anyone I’ve ever met before.”

“I want to meet him,” Tori said. “Yeah, he’s way good to look at, but I want to make sure he’s good enough for you.”

“He might stop by tonight,” Kate replied, thinking about the text Grimm had sent her.

He wanted to see her before he had to go to work. Well, she wanted to see him, too. Sunday evenings were usually a time to wind down. The girls took baths early and settled in their rooms to read. Sometimes Tori came over for wine and girl-talk before they both started to work for the evening. Kate worked in the evening out of necessity. Tori did it because she was a night person. She hated the idea of keeping regular hours in an office. The company they worked for wanted Tori happy so they let her do what she wanted. Since the two women usually worked as a team, Kate got the hours she needed. As Tori saw it, the whole situation was a win-win.

“Would you have told me about him if I hadn’t asked?”

Kate thought about it for a moment. “Yes, I would have. You’re my friend, and I want your opinion. This thing between us is moving fast, I know it is. He seems really serious about us, but what do I know? I mean, crap, Tori, think about him. He is utterly gorgeous, and I’m me.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Tori asked, heat in her voice.

“Nothing, but he and I just don’t look like we go together. When I said something to him about it, he got really serious and maybe a little ticked.”

“He should. He’s damn lucky to have you and the girls.”

“That’s basically what he said.”

“So, doofus, what’s the problem?”

Kate laughed and shook her head. “Nothing, you’re right, nothing is wrong.”

“Momma, Momma,” Olivia yelled from upstairs, “Grimm’s here. I see him.”

“Damn, she never gets that excited for me,” Tori grumbled as they headed toward the front door.

Olivia hurried down the steps in her Monster High pajamas that proudly proclaimed ‘Fangs are Fantastic’, and her matching slippers. Her hair was still pulled back in a ponytail from her bath, and she looked ridiculously cute and tiny as she beamed and danced at the door until the knock came. She reached up to open the door when Grimm’s low voice came through the solid panel.

“Olivia, do not open the door. You need to let your mom take care of it.”

“But I know it’s you,” she shouted back.

Kate wondered how he knew the little girl was there. Abby raced in the room at that moment. “Momma, aren’t you going to get the door? Grimm’s here.”

“Yeah, Momma,” Tori prompted. “Get to it.”

Kate turned off the alarm, opened the door and stared. The man looked the way he did the first night she’d seen him. He was dressed head to toe in black and looked mad, bad and incredibly dangerous. Until he smiled. The smile disarmed her, and she couldn’t do anything but smile back.

“Hello, Kate,” he murmured low.

“Hi.” She smiled and was about to introduce Tori, but Grimm leaned down and kissed her. It wasn’t the hot, intense kisses of the night before. This was soft and sweet and totally melted her insides. The girls giggled, and she blushed while she let him in the door.

He caught her hand and held it as he surveyed Olivia’s dancing form. “Nice pajamas, and I like the words.”

“Fangs are fantastic,” she said, holding her shirt out. “I even have my Monster High panties on.”

“Olivia,” Abby said, “you’re not supposed to talk to boys about your panties.”

“It’s just Grimm,” Olivia said. “He won’t mind.”

As the girls talked about who should and shouldn’t be told about panties, Kate introduced Grimm to Tori. A tiny part of her expected him to flirt with Tori since every man did. Her friend was beautiful, and Kate had seen it too many times. Instead, Grimm smiled politely and shook hands with her, but nothing more.

“Grimm,” Abby said shyly.

He instantly knelt down next to her. “What do you have?”

She held out a paper to him, and Kate recognized the math test Abby had taken on Friday. The little girl has gotten a hundred percent so Kate had hung it on the refrigerator. Now, she was sharing her accomplishment with Grimm. Kate held her breath waiting for his reaction, but then realized she shouldn’t have. He carefully took the paper and studied it then smiled.

“Wow, you did great. There’re a lot of problems here.”

“I really studied. I like math a lot.” Abby took her paper back. “Momma always hangs our papers on the fridge. Did your momma do that?”

“No, she didn’t, but you’re really lucky your mom does.”

“I hate to cut this short, girls, but you need to get to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow for school.”

Two tragic little faces turned up to her, but she stood firm. Neither girl was a morning person, and she didn’t want the fight to start first thing on Monday.

“Can Grimm help tuck us?” Olivia asked. “Please?”

Kate agreed as the girls took the large man’s hands and led him up the steps.

Tori nudged her. “Wow. First, he’s even hotter than I remember. Second, he’s awesome with the girls, and he looks at you like the sun, moon and stars shine out of your butt.”

“Well that’s gross,” Kate said with a laugh.

“But true, which means I’m going to leave so the two of you have a bit of time to yourselves. I’ll call you later to get all the deets so you’d better spill.”

“Thanks,” Kate said as she ushered her friend to the front door.

Grimm followed Olivia into her room and waited until she hopped up onto the bed. He could hear the water running as Abby brushed her teeth and Kate downstairs saying good-bye to her friend. Quickly, he knelt next to the bed and pulled the phone and charger out of his pocket. Olivia’s eyes got big when he handed them to her.

“These are yours, now. To get a hold of me all you need to do is touch the big green button marked Call on the screen two times. My number is the only one in the phone.”

Olivia held the phone in her hand as if it were precious. “How will you know it’s me?”

“Why don’t you try it out?”

She double tapped the screen and instantly the phone in his pocket began to play
Believe
by Cher. He pulled it out and showed the screen with her name on it to her.

“You made it play my favorite song,” Olivia said then jumped in his arms and hugged him.

Grimm held her tight, promising himself that he would do whatever was necessary to keep her safe. He helped her climb into bed and put Mr. Tiddles next to her then tucked the two of them in. He put the phone and charger in the little nightstand next to her bed.

“Remember, if you need me call me. I can be here instantly.”

“You can?” she whispered back.

“Yep.”

“Be careful fighting bad guys. Will you have your friends with you?”

He thought about Reaper waiting for him. “We don’t go anywhere alone. So yeah one of my friends is waiting for me.”