Kiss Of Twilight (4 page)

She'd stopped shaking by the time she made it back to the mansion, but she was still jacked up on adrenaline. It was an effort to appear calm and normal. She'd have to report what had happened, but she needed a few minutes before she trusted herself to make a composed report to Winter. God forbid she run into Dupree first. She'd never hear the end of it.

Instead, she entered the kitchen hopefully. Nadia, one of the Order's hybrid historians and the other single woman living in the house, was humming at the stove, stirring something that smelled divine.

"Curry?" Kara asked, leaning forward to take an offered bite from a wooden spoon. She moaned her approval. "Excellent."

"Thanks." Nadia's face dimpled. "Mr. Tall, Dark and Menacing is looking for you."

Clenching and unclenching her hand to work out what was probably a permanent kink--come to think of it, it was amazing she'd been able to shoot without flinching--Kara suppressed a surge of annoyance. She'd only seen Dupree once after the kiss at Winter's mating ceremony, and they'd argued. He'd said that she would only have the chance to merge with a demon over his dead body. She'd been angry enough to be tempted by the offer. "What does he want?"

Did he know what had happened outside Wolf and Associates? She sure wasn't going to tell him.

Nadia snorted. "Like I would know? They invented the word taciturn for Dupree Jackson."

It wasn't far from the truth. Kara laughed. "Right. I'll go look for him."

She found him in her office, stretched out on the sofa softly strumming her guitar, and paused to drink him in. No man had the right to look that damned good. His sweat pants rode low on his hips and a bright sheen of perspiration covered his bare chest. He was six feet two with the body of a Spartan, and the attitude to match. But sometimes when he looked at her she saw the passionate man burning under all that battle hardened warrior.

She tapped on the door and strolled in. Scowling, he met her gaze and set the instrument aside. "Where the hell have you been?" he snapped.

She fired back a childish response. "Last time I checked, you aren't the boss of me."

Something carnal and dangerous moved through his eyes, and even though she was still angry with him it excited her. "Are you sure about that, darlin'?"

Her belly somersaulted at the implied sensual threat. "I work for Winter," she pointed out breathlessly.

His smile was slow and sexy. Sinful. "I wasn't talking about work."

That smile undid her and he used it to his advantage, bestowing it like a bribe whenever he wanted to control her yet always keeping her at arm's length. She fell for it every freaking time. It pissed her off. She walked into the room and sat in the chair next to him.

"There's a rumor the Grand Master is going to force Winter to lift Ben's edict," Kara said.

When Ben had become commander of the southern region he'd raised the minimum merging age from twenty-one to twenty-five. She'd heard about it possibly being changed from a friend in another region that didn't have the same age minimum. She told Dupree just to get a rise out of him. He swung his legs over the side of the couch, sat up and glared at her. Mission accomplished!

"Winter won't do it and you aren't merging."

Kara snorted. "Save the he-man routine for someone it works on, Dupree."

They'd been having this argument for years. He didn't want her to merge, was adamant that she not, but in the end it wasn't his choice. The only reason she wasn't already a hybrid was the age requirement, but she was only weeks away from her twenty-fifth birthday. It looked like she wouldn't have to wait that long after all.

The only roadblock to her plans was sitting right in front of her. Petitions to join the Order went through Dupree and there was no telling what he would attempt to stop her. She just hoped Winter wouldn't let him. They'd lost so many people over the last few weeks they couldn't afford to turn down applicants. Well, that was the argument she planned to use with Winter anyway, and it was why Gray, the Order's Grand Master, might insist on lowering the merging age. It was simply a matter of time. Not even Winter could ignore an order from the boss.

Dupree leaned forward and spoke softly, earnestly, "You don't want to do that, darlin'."

"Trying a new tactic?" she asked, arching her eyebrows. Before he'd always ordered. A couple days ago he'd yelled. Now he almost begged.

"Think about what you're asking for Kara. They're evil. They contaminate us. We have a few good decades, yes, but eventually everyone gives in to the demon. They lose control. Turn on the people they care about. You really want to risk that?"

Oh, that hurt. There was a way to avoid that fate. It was hardly a secret. When a hybrid felt his control over the demon beginning to falter they could create a blood bond with a mate. But Dupree talked about Kara's merging and eventually going rogue as if she wouldn't create that blood bond with a man. Did that mean their being together was dependent on her
not
merging? Or he just wasn't interested in bonding with her after it was done? Because merging had to come before the bond. Two hybrids could bond successfully. There were several such couples in the region. Hell, there were families with centuries of history in the Order. But no one had ever successfully merged with a demon
after
a mate bond had been established. The new demon wouldn't accept the partner's demon and both hybrids inevitably went rogue.

"Is this an ultimatum, Dupree?" she asked softly.

"Of course not," he said, but his expression was unsure.

She didn't know whether to be hurt, angry or confused. Probably a combination of the three. He wanted her, but only on his terms, so he didn't really want
her
did he? He didn't want a strong woman, a woman who could be his equal in every way. She had to get out of here. She stood up, but he grabbed her hand before she could escape.

"We're not done."

"No, Dupree, I think that's exactly what we are," she said stiffly, trying to tug her hand free.

"It's not like you to run from a fight, especially with me," he murmured, pulling her into the circle of his arms.

"I'm not in the mood for the same tired argument."

It was hard to stay angry when he held her this close, rubbing soothing circles over her back. She rested her cheek against his chest, heard the hammering of his heart and felt his gusty exhale.

"Darlin', I am not giving up on this argument."

Of course, he wasn't, but neither was she.

"There's nothing left to talk about then."

This time he let her go.

Fuck. He'd handled that badly. Come to think of it lately that was the way he handled everything with Kara. He'd meant to make sure she was okay and ask if Contee had contacted her, then apologize for yelling at her after Winter's bonding ceremony. He had to reason with her, convince her merging was the wrong thing to do. But she tied him into knots so tight he couldn't think straight, couldn't explain. His demon side rose aggressively and he stood, fighting the urge to go after her and bury himself to the hilt inside her. To show her finally once and for all exactly what he felt for her, what he wanted from her. What he'd demand from her if she gave him half a chance.

The long day took its toll, though. He swayed and sat down hard, weakness in his extremities forcibly reminding him that he was a long way from healed yet. It was frustrating as hell to have his mind racing way ahead of what his body was currently capable of. When had everything got so fucked up? Contee dead. Gia missing. Ben rogue.

A condition Dupree was dangerously close to and he knew it. He also knew bonding with Kara would save him. But even as close to the edge as he was, he wasn't letting her make that choice without understanding what she was getting in return for saving his life. It was a hell of a bad deal for her. He wasn't blind or young. He'd lived almost eighty years now, even if he looked only in his early twenties. He knew his shortcomings. He was possessive, autocratic, jealous. Most of all protective. Bonding would likely make him worse.

His instincts were only heightened by her intention to merge. He couldn't stomach the idea of her going through with the ceremony. It made him physically ill to consider it, that the woman who was all the sweetness and light in his life would become the carrier of something so vile. He'd done it out of rage and vengeance, and he didn't regret it. But she wasn't full of the same fury. She could have a good life here with them, a nearly immortal one if he bonded with her. As long as he lived, she would.

Merging, assuming it was successful and she didn't die in the attempt, wouldn't make her any safer, either. That was an illusion he'd seen shattered far too many times. He tried not to think about Liza, the woman he'd loved years ago, but her image seared his brain anyway. She'd been such a fierce fighter and so beautiful that he'd ached every time she smiled at him. The last time he'd seen that smile they were fighting side by side. One careless move had ended her life. A life he'd expected to live with her, fifty long years ago.

It had taken decades for the stabbing pain and guilt to dull. He'd been right there and unable to save her. He'd wrapped himself in indifference after her death, only allowing himself to care about Winter and Gia, but Kara had chiseled her way through that wall with hardly any effort at all. She'd burrowed so much deeper in his heart. What he'd felt for Liza paled in comparison to what he felt for Kara. He would never survive losing her.

Maybe the truth was she didn't want to spend an eternity with him. It hurt, but it was a possibility he had considered before. The thing was he craved her to depths of his rotting soul and he knew an affair, long or short, was never going to satisfy him. He wanted her to hunger for him with the same fever he felt for her. To need him with the same ferocity. It was a wish he hated to concede he may never get.

He stood and walked down the hall to the other office hoping to find Winter. He had to debrief her, and hell, maybe she had some ideas on fixing his life, because right now it felt like a train wreck.

"What are you doing up?" Winter asked.

Or not. She sat on the edge of Marcus's desk and gave him a withering look that would have made everyone else wince. Dupree didn't feel chastised in the least. He'd been watching out for Winter and Gia since the three of them became friends over sixty years ago. Until a few weeks ago Dupree had been afraid he'd lose them both to their demons and that was enough to make him break out in a cold sweat. He'd lost too damned many people over the years. His brothers and his parents. Friends. Liza.

But Winter was stable now with her mate, Marcus, and if--when--they found Gia, she had her lover, Luke, to ground her. The nightwalker fed off psychic energy and relieved the pressures of Gia's demon without having to form the blood bond. He hoped like hell wherever she was she'd be okay until she could return to Luke. Her disappearance was tearing the walker up.

That left him the most unstable predator among them, but he refused to give in before he ensured everyone, including Kara, would remain safe. It would rip his heart out but the best way to do that was to keep his distance. Somehow he'd get her to promise not to merge, find Gia and make sure she was taken care of, and then do the honorable thing and take his own life before he lost what was left of his soul to the demon.

"Dupree?"

Right. Winter had asked him what he was doing up. Paper rustled as he clenched his fist.

"Going through patrol reports." Which were so not his highest priority right now. "The demons are back to moving in three to four man packs, and the attacks are few and spread out. We dealt them a major blow."

She smiled. "Yes, we did."

But they both knew it wouldn't last.

"The quad leaders mentioned that a couple of the nightwalkers don't play well with others," he said as Marcus came in and sat behind the desk.

"Get their names to Luke," Marcus said. Dupree nodded. The three races had formed an informal Alliance back in the fifties. But centuries of animosity didn't disappear overnight. The secretive, reclusive nightwalkers were the worst. Winter and Marcus were determined to change that so the hybrids had begun running patrols with the walkers and lupines. No one dared suggest the lupines and nightwalkers team up, though. That rift was too ancient to breach so easily or quickly.

"What else? You have that look."

"What look?"

"The expecting all hell to break loose look," Winter joked.

"Oh yeah, it's going to. This afternoon I did a swing by of some of the compounds we're selling and found Baas Contee dead in Ben's old office."

"Holy shit, Dupree, you should have called me," Winter barked. He could feel her anger, sharp and pulsing in the air for a few seconds before she got it under control, and didn't blame her one damned bit. But he'd had his reasons for waiting to tell her in person.

"You never know who's around here these days and you couldn't go running out if you were in the middle of something. Until we have details to take to Gray, this needs to stay quiet. You rush out of here and people will talk."

"As it happens, there wasn't anyone here," she grumbled but let it go. "What do we know?"

"Not much. It definitely wasn't Ben and Timothy says the wounds weren't demon claws, but it looked like the work of a demon until Tim got him back in the lab." He gave her a minute to digest that. "He was unrecognizable. I knew him because I've seen the tattoo on his arm. I found his wallet hidden outside."

"There's no way it was random. No one had any reason to be there, certainly not a councilor who isn't even from our region. Any chance his attacker was a vagrant who'd broken in? We haven't been there in weeks."

He shook his head. He'd thought of that too. "No signs of a break in and the alarm was turned off. Either someone let Contee in or he had the codes." He shrugged. "That's a possibility. Ben had all the codes. He might have passed them on to the council."

They both knew that wasn't likely though. Dupree hoped like hell they didn't have another rogue on their hands.

"This needs to be handled in person."

He nodded. He'd expected that.

"Yeah. There's something else." And damned if he wasn't reluctant to tell her. What the hell was wrong with him? "He had two numbers on a pad in his hotel room. Our downtown switchboard and Kara's private cell."

"Why would he have Kara's number?"

"I don't know," he said wryly. "I pissed her off before I could ask."

Winter's shrug didn't seem to match her thoughtful expression. "She was Ben's and Gia's personal assistant. Maybe Contee wanted to find out something business related."

He'd considered that, but it felt wrong. "I don't know. When we get the DNA back, I'll go up and do the notification. That'll take a few days. In the meantime, I'll see what I can find here."

He'd have to drive to the little town in north Georgia where the Order currently kept its headquarters--they moved it every decade or so--and inform Gray in person.

Winter glanced at Dupree. "Maybe you should take Kara with you."

He growled. "No way. I'm not putting her in danger."

"Where are you going? Were you going to tell me?" He turned to see Kara standing in the doorway and as usual the sight of her made his heart race. Her hair was loose, a curly red mess that framed her striking face. She had high cheekbones and a pert nose, but it was her lush full lips that he found so damned tempting. Especially now that he knew what they felt like, how she tasted. He had to force his mind back on task before he got distracted wondering if the rest of her body was a sweet.

"In a few days and yes, I would have told you before I left."

"Let me get this straight. You get bent out of shape about not knowing where I was today, but can't even be bothered to tell me you're going out of town?"

"It's just a couple days, Kara." How had this been turned around on him?

"Why are you going?"

He pressed his lips together and looked at Winter.

"Right," Kara said sarcastically in that way that made him want to kiss the irritation out of her. "I remember now. You can keep secrets but I can't. I have no idea why I put up with you. It's not like I'm getting anything out of it."

Winter choked back a laugh and looked at Marcus. "I think that's our cue to leave. I'm going to grab some coffee. Fill her in, Dupree," she said. "Kara, this stays between us." Marcus joined her as she left the room.

Kara turned back to Dupree and cocked an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

"A council member was murdered tonight," he told her reluctantly. He had a bad feeling about involving her in this.

"So?"

Sighing, he rubbed a hand over his face. "He was killed at Ben's compound. It looks like a demon kill but the lab thinks it isn't."

"Who was it?" She only paused a moment before rushing on to another question. "Does the council know yet?"

"Baas Contee. And no. We thought it would be better to tell them in person. No one informed us he'd be here, and there's been too much weird shit going on lately."

"Baas?"

"He had your number on a piece of paper in his hotel room." Dupree hesitated, loath to involve her in this current mess. "I didn't know you knew him."

She gave the slightest shake of her head. "I don't really. I met him a couple times."

"What did he want?"

"I don't know." She sounded curious, which put up his guard. He did not need her investigating on her own. "He never called."

He needed a quick distraction.

"Where were you all day?" he asked Kara as Winter returned.

"At Wolf and Associates signing all the real estate paperwork," Winter answered before Kara could. "I feel for her. That was twenty properties we bought today."

Winter gave her a sympathetic look. "How's your hand?"

Kara flexed her right hand. "I'll live. And since I was gone all day, I'm sure I have a ton of messages. Do you need me?"

Winter shook her head. "No. Go on. And don't forget to eat."

Kara gave her a saucy grin. "Yes, mom."

Dupree waited until she was gone before turning to Winter.

"Who did you send to guard her?"

"I didn't. The lupines have got security in and around that building locked down tight."

Dupree snarled. "I don't care if it's as secure as Ft. Knox. I don't want her going anywhere alone."

Winter just cocked an eyebrow and he struggled to get his emotions back under control.

"She said Gray is considering ordering you to lift the edict."

"I should have known she'd hear about that. She has better sources than Gia." Winter snorted. "Well, close. Give her another twenty years."

Dupree clenched his jaw hard enough to pop. He wouldn't be here to see her in twenty years. If he had anything to do with it she'd be happily married somewhere, raising her children away from the Order and this demon Mecca it protected, Camden, Georgia.

"So? The edict?"

She sighed and he knew she didn't want to answer. His stomach dropped. This could not be happening.

"He's considering it. I'm sure he will, Dupree. Resign yourself to that fact. We lost over a hundred people and they're going to be very difficult to replace."

He knew that. Recruitment wasn't what it used to be. Americans were obsessed with the paranormal. They loved vampires, werewolves and most of all people who hunted them. But they didn't believe anything that went bump in the night on their TV screens had any basis in reality. It made convincing good soldiers to join a secret society of knights to fight demons damned near impossible. He'd given the task to Lance, one of the quad leaders who was considered their most charming and persuasive, but even he was having problems.

"Speaking of, anything from Lance?" Winter asked.

"No," he answered. "But he just started. Give him a few weeks. Gray can at least do that."

"I'll ask but you shouldn't hold your breath."

He nodded. He knew that. Weary, he stood, not even bothering to attempt the stairs, and teleported up to his room, but when he opened his eyes he found himself standing outside Kara's door. He lifted his hand to knock. He still owed her that apology, but growling at his own stupidity he forced himself to back off and walk down the hall, vowing to keep his distance from her.