Guarding Valentina [Paladin Protection Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (12 page)

“She should have been, but she didn’t stay inside. She snuck out to the parking lot for a smoke break.”

“And we didn’t ward that area because no one from Division S was supposed to go outside.”

“Exactly. We caught it on one of the security feeds. One minute she was there, and then she screamed and vanished.”

Shit
.

“Sin, we need to find out how he got to Ingrid.” Val balled her hand into a fist, aching with the need to hit something until she felt better. “She had a thing for Jake, so she probably wasn’t a random target. He’s been watching us more closely than we thought.”

Now it was Sinjin’s turn to swear. “I’ll get on that, and see if I can figure out how the hell he’s been spying on us. Are you really okay, Val? I can send someone out.”

“No, don’t. We’ve already lost two people. I’m sure he’s watching, hoping to snag someone else. I’m fine, relatively speaking. Aedan’s been keeping me safe.”

“Good. I’m not losing any more of my friends over this. I want you in here as soon as the sun is up.”

“Yeah, about that, I’m going to need a ride to work.”

“Why?”

“Christoph trashed my car. The only trip my vehicle is making is to the junkyard.”

“Petty bastard, isn’t he? All right, I’ll send someone over to grab you two come sunrise. And pack a bag. You’re going to be staying on-site from now on. If he’s going after random employees, I’m going to have to start making some phone calls. No one else is going to die if I can help it.”

“Yes, sir.” She hung up the phone after saying her good-byes and put it back in its cradle to recharge.

Aedan was watching her closely, and the moment she turned around, he asked, “What’s this about someone else being taken?”

She filled him in on the details of Denise’s abduction, pacing the room as she talked. Finally she turned and threw up her hands in frustration. “I hate this. I’m not good at waiting.”

“There’s nothing else to do, luv. We’re stuck here until morning.”

“That’s not entirely true. There’s something you and I can do in the meantime.” She walked over to Aedan and wrapped her arms around him. She lifted her face so she could look into his eyes and told him firmly, “We’re going to talk. I don’t ever want that undead bastard to be able to make me doubt you again.”

“Fair enough.” He had her scooped into his arms a second later and carried her back to the couch, settling her into his lap as he sprawled into the overstuffed cushions. “No more secrets.”

Aedan was doing his best to lock down the dhampir part of his nature, but it wasn’t going very well. Genetic hardwiring had made it almost painful for him to stay put and keep his vow to protect Val instead of going after Christoph. Adrenaline still coursed through his system, and the only thing keeping him from snapping was the memory of Val’s face as she had vented her guilt and hurt at him. She needed him to be calm. Well, as calm as he could manage, given current circumstances. He wasn’t sure he’d ever manage to be truly calm when he had Val half naked and in his arms. She made it hard for him to think straight.

He reached up to smooth an errant lock of hair back behind her ear, and she gave him the softest hint of a smile and said, “All right then, Mr. Doyle. It’s confession time.”

“Confessing all my sins might take more time than we have, especially if you intend for us to get some sleep tonight. How about I give you the abridged version?”

“Just don’t leave out anything I’ll need to kick your ass for later.”

“You’ll likely hear more than you want to,” he warned her and then settled back on the couch, his fingers still stroking her hair. “My mother died right after I was born. She succumbed to massive blood loss from what was reported as a mugging gone bad. She refused to be treated for her own injuries until they’d delivered me, and there wasn’t enough time to save us both. My da blamed me for her death. By all reports he was a bitter, angry bastard before she died. Afterward, he was worse. He had three hobbies, darts, booze, and beating on his only son. I packed up and left home when I was twelve. I figured no matter how bad the streets were, it had to be better than home.”

“Twelve? You were still a baby!” He tried to ignore the pity he could see in Val’s pretty brown eyes. He didn’t need anyone’s pity.

“I was young, but remember, I’m not human.”

“You already had your abilities?”

“We’re born with them. Itty-bitty vampire hunters from the time we take our first steps. The strength and speed ramp up as we age, but we’re freaks from the moment we’re born.”

“You’re not a freak.” Her hand closed around his fingers and squeezed. “If things like Christoph exist, then you’re a much-needed countermeasure.”

“You sound like one of the Brethren’s trainers.”

“You guys have trainers?”

“Trainers, safe houses, globe-trotting hunters like me, and a global network of observers, support staff, and such. They’ve been doing this for more than two hundred years. Imagine a very old, slightly stuffy version of Paladin, only without the military angle.”

“How old were you when they found you?”

“Sixteen. I’d managed to translate my rather unique skills into a lucrative career as a thief.”

“A thief? That’s the best you could think of?” She snorted with undignified laughter. That was hardly the reaction he’d been expecting.

“Hey, I was twelve. My career options were a bit limited back then.”

“So you didn’t think that perhaps you could have been the greatest soccer player to ever kick a ball?”

“Yeah, I did. But not until I was already making too much money as a thief to give it up. And I’m not even going to discuss sports with you if you keep calling it soccer.”

She stuck out her tongue at him, and the sight sent a surge of blood straight to his cock.

“If you do things like that, I’m going to get very distracted and we’re going to end up doing something other than talking.”

“Not yet.” She squeezed his hand again. “Tell me why he said you had blood on your hands.”

“I ran with a rough crowd. We played hard, and there were times people got hurt. Sometimes I was the one who hurt them. Dhampir are born hunters, and that drive is encoded all the way down to our DNA. I didn’t know what I was or why I was that way, and I didn’t have a clue what I was supposed to be doing with my abilities. It was a struggle, and sometimes things got out of control. Sometimes
I
got out of control. The Brethren found me because my name kept cropping up in arrest records.” He loosened his arm from around her shoulders, expecting her to withdraw the moment she heard the next words out of his mouth. “I’m a convict. They found me while I was doing time in jail.”

“You were sixteen. You were a kid getting by the only way he could. That hardly makes you a convict.”

He blinked. That wasn’t the usual reaction he got from that confession, especially not from someone who had spent her military career as an MP. The woman in his arms seemed determined to surprise him.

She leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek before whispering, “I got suspended for beating the crap out of one of the guys at my high school. He tried to get a little too friendly with my younger sister, and I broke his jaw.” She lifted her head to look at him. “So neither of us was a perfect angel. It’s who we are now that matters, right?”

“Right.”

Her smile grew, and she kissed him again before adding, “I’m sorry I let him get to me. My temper is something someone probably should have warned you about before you signed on as my personal bodyguard. I should have trusted you. This is what you do.”

“And this is what you do, too. We really are a lot alike.” The realization of just how much they had in common settled like a warm weight around his heart.

“Yeah, we are. But I’ll still deck you if I find out you’re keeping secrets from me again.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Ask away.” He settled deeper into the couch cushions and closed his eyes. He couldn’t remember ever opening himself up so much, but somehow it wasn’t hard to do when Val was in his arms and her warm body was snuggled against his.

“Do you know which vampire killed your mother?”

His lungs stopped working midbreath, and his thoughts derailed into a tangled wreck. When he could breathe again, he cracked open an eye to find her looking at him with concern.

“If it’s too personal, don’t answer it.”

“It’s not—it’s just I don’t think anyone’s ever asked me that before. I try not to think about it.”

“Sorry. Forget I said anything.”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t actually know for sure. Brethren records show there was a vampire in the area at the time, but it was never identified. They’re pretty sure it was a fledgling because it was making mistakes an older vamp would never make. Sloppy kills, victims left alive, things like that. And of course, there was my mother’s attack. An experienced vampire would never attack an obviously pregnant woman. They all know how dhampir are created and don’t want to accidently bring one into being.”

“So every time you kill a vampire, there’s a chance…”

“That I’m taking out the one that killed my mother. Yes.”

“No wonder you don’t take vacations,” she muttered and rested her head on his chest, right over his heart. Her words repeated over and over in his head. She was right. He’d been on the same mission since the day the Brethren had explained to him what he was and how he’d come to be.

“But I am going to take a vacation, soon,” he reminded her. “With you.”

“Just as soon as we kill him.” She paused before adding, “And Ingrid, and Denise.”

“You won’t be killing them. They’re already dead. You’ll be saving them from a fate they never would have wanted.”

“There’s no way we can save them for real though, is there?”

“There’s three ways to make a vampire. The first one only applies to blood mates, which we’re not dealing with in this case so I’ll skip the description. The fastest way to create a vampire is to feed the victim a vampire’s blood and then kill them. They’ll resurrect as an undead creature at the next sunset. It’s quick and easy, but minions created this way are weaker. To make a more powerful vampire, the victim must be fed vamp blood and then be left alive to let it work its way through their system like a poison. In those cases, if the sire is killed before the victim’s transformation is complete, then the victim will not die and they stay human.”

“So if he’s killed them already, we can’t bring them back.”

“No, luv. We can’t. All we can do is make sure they don’t hurt anyone else.” She sighed heavily, and he wished there was something more he could say to ease her guilt at what was to come.

“How do you do this?” she asked in a voice soft and tinged with sadness. “You lead this dark life, and you do it alone. I have Paladin, and there are still days it’s hard to do this job. You don’t have anyone. I don’t know how you manage.”

“It’s what I was born to do, so I do it. I only get philosophical about it late at night when there’s a beautiful woman in my lap, asking me questions.”

“Would it be easier if I went and got us more whisky?”

“It would be easier if you stopped asking so many deep questions.” He winked at her and was rewarded with a smile.

“What if I stopped talking altogether?” She turned and nuzzled into his hand, the first flush of desire darkening her cheeks.

“Brilliant idea.” Aedan’s dick hardened instantly, and he let his hand drift down her bare back, tracing the line of her spine. “You have no idea how hard it’s been to behave myself with you topless.”

“That’s your own fault. You’re the one who tore my shirt off,” she pointed out with a grin.

“Yeah, I did. I should likely confess something else while we’re on that topic. For vampires there’s a deep connection between blood and sex. For dhampir it’s a bit different. Some of us get off on violence.”

“So when I was fighting to get past you to get to Ingrid…”

“It was all I could do not to fuck you senseless right there in the hallway.”

Her grin turned feral, and she squirmed hard against him, making him groan. “So all I need to turn you on is throw a hip check? Baby, that’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I can see makeup sex with you is going to be memorable.” He lifted his head to kiss her still-laughing mouth.

She wriggled against him again, working her fingers between their bodies and under his clothing to wrap around his cock. “Mhmm,” she hummed in agreement. She managed to stroke a fingertip over the sensitive slit at the end of his dick, spreading the pre-cum over the head. The feeling of her hand sliding over his slick skin made his cock harder still, and he broke their kiss with a shuddering groan.

“You keep this up and I’m going to be inside you before you know it.”

“Promises, promises.” She pumped his cock with her hand as she nibbled her way down his neck to his chest, biting just hard enough to entice. “You need to be naked first.”

“So do you. So, as much as I am enjoying this, you need to let me up.”

She grinned at him in challenge as she fisted his cock from root to tip. “Make me.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” He surged off the couch and caught her in his arms on the way up. He lifted her high enough he could suckle one sweet nipple into his mouth, enjoying her low moans of encouragement. He let go of her breast with an audible pop and lowered her to her feet, his hands already tugging at the waistband of her pants. She was trying to get his shirt up over his head at the same time, and both of them laughed as they blocked each other’s efforts.

“I’ll go first,” she offered as she let go of his shirt and dropped to her knees, taking his pants and underwear down with one clean jerk. With his pants still around his knees, she leaned in and sucked his cock deep into her mouth, and his legs nearly buckled at the sensation that surged through his body. She finished undressing him one-handed as she cupped his balls with the other hand, rolling them between her fingers as her tongue worked its way up and down his dick.