Authors: Loribelle Hunt
“I have work to do,” she said, already walking away.
“This conversation isn’t over, Gia,” he said softly behind her.
Her back stiffened as she moved, as she forced her heart to harden. Yes it was. It was definitely over.
The nightwalker called Luke was not for her.
Not really.
Not forever.
Ignoring the knot in her stomach and the small, buried part of her crying out its pain, she went back to work, went back to the things she could control.
Chapter Fifteen
Feeling battered by exhaustion, Winter checked her office clock on the wall. 4:00 a.m. The sun would be up in a couple of hours and normally she’d go to bed shortly after that. Demons were night creatures and a hybrid’s schedule followed those they hunted. But not today. They’d relocated to her place hours ago, after the researchers were finished at Charles’s. She stared at the door to her left that led into her bedroom. God, she wanted nothing more but to walk in there and collapse on her bed, but that wasn’t possible. They were here to gather their things and clear out. She rubbed a hand over her face. When was the last time she’d slept? Really slept? Fifteen-minute power naps didn’t count. She didn’t even remember and it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
Marcus moved up behind her and set his hands on her shoulders. His fingers dug deep into knotted muscles, easing some of the tension. She closed her eyes and leaned back, almost moaned her pleasure. It felt so natural, so easy, to lean into his strength.
She heard the click of a phone closing and straightened, opening her eyes to watch as Gia sat down in one of the big comfortable chairs in front of the desk. Weariness was evident on her face, in the way she slouched back. She covered her eyes with her hand.
“That’s everyone but us,” she croaked, her voice nearly gone from all the talking she’d done through the night.
By
us,
she meant herself, Dupree and Winter. Every other hybrid in the region had been placed in a safe house. If someone was betraying them, and she didn’t believe that for a minute, it wasn’t an ideal solution, but it was all they could do for the moment. The good news was everyone outside of Charles’s and Benjamin’s compounds were accounted for. The bad news was only half the safe houses were usable so people were packed into them without a room to spare. She was tempted to just let the three of them stay at her place, but knew that would be inviting disaster akin to daring the cosmos to come after them. She might be going a little crazy, but not that crazy.
“We’ll have to see if we can find a suitable hotel,” Gia said.
“There’re always the caves,” Dupree added. She shivered. No way. The demons wouldn’t go near them and neither would humans except for one specific purpose. The caves were connected to the basement that was the local source for demon souls. She had no interest in sleeping near that.
“No. You’re all coming back to our house.”
Winter looked across the room where the nightwalker leaned back against a bookshelf. Luke. His casual pose, ankles crossed, hands stuffed in his pockets, didn’t match the determined glint in his eyes. Kadall stood a few feet from him, but Winter still couldn’t read him. She had no idea if he approved or disapproved of the suggestion. She met Dupree’s gaze and he shrugged, as curious and in the dark about Gia’s relationship with the nightwalker as she was.
Life was stranger than usual. After having little or no contact with walkers for her entire existence she was suddenly surrounded by them. Mitchell and Baron had headed home, but Marcus, his brother and Kadall had come with them.
She wasn’t sure why. Was too damned tired to care at the moment and as much as she hated to take Luke up on the offer, as much as she knew she shouldn’t trust these walkers, she was going to accept.
Good.
There was too much satisfaction in Marcus’s voice, but she didn’t have the energy to explore it. She was going to crash, and crash hard, soon. Leaning forward so that his hands no longer touched her shoulders, she spoke to Gia and Dupree.
“Pack a few things so we can get moving. Don’t forget the computers.”
They nodded and everyone left the office. She was surprised to see Kadall following Dupree, but didn’t say anything. Dupree would run off the nightwalker if he didn’t want company. He was good at getting rid of people.
She closed the laptops on her desk and unplugged the power cords. After retrieving a bag from the closet designed to hold both computers, she put them inside, rolling up the cords and shoving them into a side pocket.
Marcus was a steady if quiet presence. He followed her into her room, didn’t say a word as she pulled a small duffle bag from under the bed and placed the bare minimum inside. She didn’t see the point in taking much with her—she wouldn’t be staying long.
You’re going to need more than a couple of changes of clothes.
She started at the voice in her head, surprised he used telepathy to communicate with her when he was standing right on the opposite side of the bed from her. She scolded herself.
Don’t even think about the bed,
she told herself.
Don’t think about the sweaty athletic things you could be doing in it.
She wasn’t going there right now, as much as her body protested. Even if he was willing, and so far he’d been more interested in mental acrobatics than reality, she was too worn down to get the most out of it.
He moved behind her, once again kneading sore muscles with his magic fingers. She felt his smugness as he pressed his hard body against her back.
Don’t worry, baby. I have every intention of making full use of a bed when you’ve rested.
He slid his hands down her arms. Tiny goose bumps rose in their wake and she groaned, her body stirring into life despite the fatigue that rode her. He whispered in her ear.
“The others are ready.”
Nodding and stepping away from temptation, she finished with her bag and stepped back into her office where the others all waited. Marcus took both bags from her and one by one they all flicked away. She and Marcus were the last two to leave.
“Ready?” She swayed a little as she asked, but he caught her, steadied her.
“After you.”
Concentrating on the foyer in his house, she pushed herself there, felt her molecules move as she shifted through space. It was empty when she arrived, Marcus right on her heels. He took her hand and led her up the stairs, down a long hall into a dark room that smelled like him, looked like the kind of place he would sleep. She didn’t consider the implications of being led there. Ignoring him she quickly stripped down to her bra and panties and crawled into the inviting bed, welcoming the oblivion of sleep as it wrapped her in its embrace.
Marcus closed the door softly behind him and went to join his brother and Kadall. They were both waiting in his office and Luke silently handed him a glass filled to the rim with scotch. He considered ribbing his brother, reminding him he’d sworn never to take a mate, but held back when he noticed the lines bracketing his mouth and the angry look in his eyes.
“Everyone settled in?” he asked instead.
“Yes.” Luke gritted his teeth.
“His woman insisted on her own room,” Kadall added.
Ah, that explained the irritation.
“At the other end of the hall no less,” Kadall went on. Teasing, confident that his own mate was upstairs doing what she was ordered to do no doubt.
Marcus wondered if she would be influenced by the two female hybrids now in the house. He’d seen a flash of ire more than once in Marelle’s eyes when Kadall had asserted control. He shared the thought with Luke, who smiled slowly in response, a smile full of anticipation that made Kadall narrow his eyes and swing his gaze back and forth between the two of them.
“Whatever you two are planning, forget it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, old friend,” Luke said good-naturedly, slapping Kadall on the back.
“Yeah, right.”
Marcus laughed. Things were changing, his drab boring day-after-day existence looking much more interesting with every new development. He drained his glass, refilled it with considerably less liquid than his brother had added and sat behind his desk. Time to get down to business.
“What do we know?”
Kadall sat in one of the armchairs near the desk while Luke pulled the shutters closed and dropped into his customary spot on the couch in front of the window. “Not much.”
A shadow darkened the doorway. “Anyone welcome to join this little pow-wow? Or is it nightwalkers only trying to figure out who’s targeting hybrids?” Dupree drawled sarcastically. Marcus reached out to make sure Winter was really asleep. “Don’t worry. She’s out cold. Gia too. I checked on them before I came down.”
Dupree strolled into the room and went straight for the liquor cabinet, looking for all the world like he didn’t realized he’d just enraged two possessive nightwalkers in the thrall of the mating hunt. Marcus wasn’t sure how, but he knew it was an act. The hybrid waited, watched, for their reactions even if it didn’t show, even though his mind felt tranquil. He turned around and leaned against the wall, ankles crossed, one hand in his pocket while the other lifted his glass. He took a long swallow.
“Heard you warned Mitchell away.” Dupree met his eyes and Marcus got a glimpse of the steel in him. “Not the smartest move, man. Gonna piss Winter off.”
“I can handle Winter,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
Grinning, Dupree lifted his glass in salute. “Good luck with that.”
They were the exact words Mitchell had used and just as irritating when delivered by the hybrid. Dupree turned to Luke. “Gia’s not as bad, but I wouldn’t try to push her around either.”
Luke stood, his aggression radiating off him. Marcus knew Winter had never been involved with Dupree and was able to rein in his possessive instincts a little, though he didn’t want to share her at all with anyone even an old friend. He didn’t know if Gia and Dupree had ever been involved though.
The other man held his hands up, all casual grace and easy charm. “Hey, man, don’t look at me like that. I’ve never been involved with Gia like that. With either one of them. I like my women a little more…tractable.”
Kadall snorted. “Those two sure as hell aren’t.”
“No, they aren’t,” Dupree said and Marcus knew this was the real man. Serious, reserved. Marcus made his decision.
“Have a seat. You can fill us in.”
Dupree sat, one ankle crossing over his knee as he leaned back in the chair with that easy charming grin, but when he spoke his voice had bite. “You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
From his spot by the window, Luke snarled. The hybrid didn’t acknowledge the sound at all. No flinch. No change in his eyes or demeanor. He just sat and waited for Marcus to answer him.
“Kadall,” Marcus said, ordering him to make his report. The soldier waited half a second, met his eyes before nodding slightly.
“We’ve been running increased patrols and studying their reports. The demons don’t appear to be near our homes any more than usual. They are in our patrol areas more, but the major increases seem to be mostly near hybrid compounds. Without seeing yours or the lupine’s reports, however, I can’t say for sure.”
Dupree ignored the unvoiced request. “So they are targeting us.”
“So it would seem. Why? How are they finding you?”
Dupree shook his head. If he knew, he wasn’t saying.
“What about the demon half of you? Could it be giving you away?” Luke asked.
“No,” Dupree replied curtly then clenched his jaw as if to hold back more words. Marcus waited him out, let him come to his own decision about how much to trust them. “We merge with the soul of a demon, y’all already know that. What you might not realize is that these are demon souls without a body. They have nothing to communicate with. They don’t even communicate with us outside of feelings. And those are primitive. Rage. Blood lust.”
“Then you have a traitor,” Kadall said softly.
To his surprise, Dupree didn’t argue.
“Could be. Could be one of us or one of the lupines or one of you.”
Marcus stiffened in outrage, felt it mirrored by the others in the room, though he didn’t blame the hybrid for being suspicious.
“It wasn’t us.”
Dupree arched his eyebrows. “Really? You can account for every single move all of your people make? I’d like to learn that trick.”
Damn. He’d never admit it, didn’t even want to consider it, but the hybrid had a point. Not that he was right.
“It wasn’t one of us.”
“You don’t know that.” Dupree shook his head. “The only thing that is clear is we are the target. The question is why. And how.”
There were no takers for either question.
“What about your researchers? They were out there tonight.”
“Nothing yet. They haven’t even identified everyone from the commander’s compound yet.”
Marcus was surprised they hadn’t made more progress. It must have shown.
“You saw Charles’s today. A lot to sift through.”
Marcus nodded, trying to ignore the clenching in his gut and failing. The place had looked like someone tore through it and shredded everything that stood in its path. That could have been Winter. He was never letting her out of his sight again.
“Anything else?”
Dupree shrugged. “I don’t have anything right now.”
Marcus stood. He had a half-naked woman in his bed who’d be more than willing when she woke. Which probably wouldn’t be for several more hours, but in the meantime he could hold her. Make sure she was safely secure in his arms.
“Tomorrow then,” he said as he left the room to jog up the stairs and to the woman who turned him inside out.
Chapter Sixteen
He snarled his frustration and flung the desk against the wall. She’d been here, the Order rooms she called home. Winter. The woman who now ruled the hybrids. He could smell her, almost taste her blood on his tongue. How had she escaped him? And all the others. He threw his head back and roared. All of the hybrids were gone, all of their places empty. They’d scattered to safe houses.