Make Me Burn: Fireborne, Book 2 (5 page)

“Lawrence, why are you kneeling?” Brandon demanded. “Did you find something? Do you have anything to add?”

Fido remained silent, and Natalie chuckled. “I very much doubt it. The bloody idiot is still stunned, and I believe singed, as well, from his run-in with the Vessel. He thought she was one of our culprits. He won’t soon live that down.”

When Brandon’s warmth left her, Aziza opened her eyes and watched her big, sexy, bearded giant pick up the unfortunate werewolf by the scruff of his neck and shake him as if he were a chew toy.

Lawrence cried out in pain. “I didn’t know, sir. I swear it. I caught the scent and it led to her, that’s all. I didn’t know she’d smell like them.”

“You did more than smell her. You laid hands on her or she wouldn’t have defended herself. I should kill you for daring to touch what is mine.”

The guttural warning made Natalie pale. “Brandon, no. He was doing his job and she’s no worse for it. He wasn’t told. He knows the Vessel belongs to
all of us
.”

Brandon turned on the female werewolf. “And whose fault is it that he didn’t know, Natalie? When the Alpha assigned us to this case, I believe I gave you clear fucking instructions. Let’s try it once more, shall we? After you’ve dealt with the authorities, you will
personally
relay an image of Aziza along with her scent profile to every Enforcer that steps foot in London. This will not happen again or I’ll know who to blame.”

Natalie lowered her eyes. “Of course, sir.”

It was petty, but Brandon’s aggression—and the fact that he’d gone from “Bran” to “sir”—made Aziza feel better. To a point. She couldn’t give in to her jealousy now, not when there was a poor innocent being ignored on the floor. One whose suffering she’d experienced firsthand. “Will the police identify her so her family can collect the body?”

Lawrence glanced over at her hopefully, still shaken from his run-in with Brandon. “Yes, Vessel. That is, they will try. If she falls into the same category as the other victims, she may not have blood relatives to claim her body. Friends from that hinky club the exile visits tried to pick up the other two and pay for services.”

“
Kinky
,” Natalie interrupted softly. “Not
hinky
, Lawrence. The kinky club.”

The club Ram visits…
“Underbridge?” Aziza looked down at the girl’s body again. What was the connection between these girls and the fetish club?
Her.
Was this what her Niyr had been trying to warn her about? Had Te known her presence was causing so much unnecessary loss? “We should cover her up. Show respect.”

Lawrence swiftly recovered the robe the girl had been draped in when they found her, and placed it over her body. “Yes, Vessel. And that is the name of the club. Our men at the Yard are already calling the unknown assailant the Underbridge Ripper behind closed doors. If this one’s connected too, they’ll have a hard time not spreading the name around.”

Brandon strode back to her and gripped her hand in his. “I’m getting Aziza out of here before they arrive. Natalie, you’re in charge, but remember, you report directly to
me
on this. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Lawrence.” Brandon’s lips drew back in a warning snarl. “Consider yourself on probation. You will not enact punishment or enforce our laws without experienced supervision, until I know I can trust you to work on your own. And I suggest you steer clear of me until I say otherwise.”

The Enforcer paled. “Yes, sir.”

Brandon guided her toward the stairs. “Let’s get you out of here, Aziza. Get Greg a cab and take you home.”

“Yes, sir,” she said under her breath.

Natalie covered her mouth and turned to hide her smile.

Aziza scowled. Oh hell no. She didn’t want any girl bonding with the bitch that always seemed to be either sniffing after her boyfriend or at his father’s beck and call. She allowed Brandon to pull her up the stairs and out onto the street in silence before she reacted.

“Stop.”

Her spine tingled and her palm burned, and she knew without looking that the world around them had ceased to exist. Greg was stopped, still waiting for her where Brandon had left him, the music in the distance was silenced and the cars on the street stilled. They were the only two people in the world now.

“Aziza…” Brandon turned to her, looking down at her hand on his arm when he realized what she’d done, “…I know what you’re going to say, but before you react in anger again, I wish you’d let me get you home so I can explain.”

She let him go and hugged herself, feeling tired and emptied out. “You don’t have to explain, Brandon. Your fellow Enforcers did fine. Three bodies mutilated by the Jiniyr—bodies meant for me to find—and you would have kept me in the dark. Kept
lying
to me. Telling me everything was fine while you and Natalie and that overzealous fur ball tried to pin the murders on Ram.”

“We don’t pin things on anyone, Aziza. We follow the evidence.”

When she sent him a disbelieving look, Brandon stared at her with an enigmatic expression. “The murder scenes are gruesome. My people are trained to know that mind buggery is the Shiners’ weapon of choice—suicides and the like. Physical violence? Torture and sadism? That screams Jinn.” He broke off eye contact. “And then there’s Underbridge. That club is the only connection to the victims, and it’s where Ram spends most of his nights, honing his own brand of sadism on the ignorant willing.”

“A Jinn walks into a bar and gets accused of murder? That joke isn’t funny.”

Brandon shook his head. “Our experience…
my
experience tells me an exiled Jinn can be as dangerous as a wounded predator, Aziza, and I have seen them do unspeakable things over the years to earn back their citizenship and go home. We had to look into the possibility. If I showed favoritism merely because he is your Qarin, I would lose my position and the respect of those under my authority.”

“That’s why you’ve been suggesting I stop going, isn’t it?” Aziza felt unusually calm. Eerily separated. “You keep talking about your experience. Your training. Razia is still Niyr—a Shiner, as you like to call them—and he has no problem committing acts of physical violence. The Jiniyr aren’t one or the other, Brandon, but they
are
something Enforcers obviously aren’t trained for. As for my Qarin, you’ve made it abundantly clear how you feel about him, but you won’t admit those feelings could be clouding your judgment. That you could be wrong. All Jinn are demons, isn’t that right? You and Fido and your werewolf girlfriend are the good guys who chase away all the bad devils, protecting humanity like furry superheroes. You are Enforcers, hear you howl.”

Enforcer. She never liked to think about what Brandon did when he wasn’t with her. What he was, other than her lover. From what she’d seen, Enforcer law sucked. There was no democracy. No trial. Even now she knew there were rooms lined with iron and gold meant to restrain Niyr and Jinn who’d been “caught” without proper identification, or those who were seen as potential threats. Enforcers would interrogate them until they were satisfied, and if they were lucky, they would simply be sent back to where they came from. If they weren’t, they would be dead.

It didn’t sound like justice to her, and she couldn’t leave Ram vulnerable to that kind of abuse. They’d been through too much together. Been too intimate.

No.
She couldn’t think about that either, because it wasn’t something that could ever happen again. Not outside of her private fantasies. Brandon
could not
find out that there were more than the two of them that drunken night in the stable—especially since Ram had lost the ability to protect himself from jealous werewolves not twenty-four hours later.

She wasn’t a fool; she understood the need for precautions. She had seen firsthand what the others could do to a human—spirit possession and unspeakable violence. Criminal disregard for the species they deemed inferior. Murder for sport. Still, not all of them were guilty. Certainly not the ones who’d defied their orders just to protect Aziza and the people she loved. Ram had saved Penn. Te had saved Greg.

They weren’t all the same.

Brandon’s jaw clenched and he reached up to grip her arms in frustration. “I don’t know about superheroes, Aziza, but yes, we
are
the good guys. We were keeping humans safe before your line existed. Our oldest stories maintain it is why we were created in the first place. Our purpose in the grand design. We have our shortcomings, but we’ve always fought for this world. Always put humanity’s wellbeing before our own. We fight for justice as you do. And what about you,
Fireborne
? The Vessel created to save humanity. Are you so blinded by his one good deed that you can’t even entertain the notion that he knows something? That he could be involved? Can you stop defending Ram long enough to protect yourself from his wiles while he fucks and fights his way through the London population?”

She flinched. “I’m not blind at all,
Bran
. I know what he’s capable of, the good and the bad. I also know that he’s not the only one hiding things.”

They all were. So many secrets. But hers would only affect her relationships; they didn’t put anyone’s life in danger. His had.

Brandon’s grip tightened. “You mean Natalie? She is one of the best Enforcers we have. She has keen instincts. She’s also the one who found the last two bodies
and
her brother is a detective on the case, helping us control the flow of information. She’s earned the right to be involved in this investigation.”

“You never told me your father’s spy was so beautiful.”

His gaze didn’t waver. “I never noticed.” When Aziza lifted her eyebrows, he shook his head. “
Never
, Aziza. She’s good at her job, but that is all. The Alpha might wish it were different, but he has no say over what I do when I’m off the job.”

“You never are, not really.” She took a breath. There was no point in getting sidetracked. “I’m talking about Ram. He isn’t connected to the killings. He would die before he became a part of the Jiniyr. I think he feels the same way about the Niyr as you do about Jinn. Hell, you’ve obviously had enough people tailing him and reporting his every move to know more about where he spends most of his days than I do. Our workouts at The Hangar and my visits to Underbridge are the only times I see him anymore, since you and Hillary made it clear he shouldn’t stay with us at Penn’s flat. And I’ve told you what goes on at the club. I’ve even invited you to join me. Since that’s how the victims are connected, am I a suspect? I was there last night. Why him and not me? Why not my Niyr Te? She’s not into kink but at least we both have our
unnatural
abilities. Ram is powerless.”

“Powerless, I believe, since I saw the cuff of the exile with my own eyes, but I don’t think for a second he isn’t causing trouble. It’s what Jinn do.” Brandon looked down at her and his grip softened, turning into a caress. “Aziza, damn it, I wanted to comfort you, to be here for you and apologize for keeping this from you, not have this argument again. Believe it or not, I was going to tell you about the women, about the club connection tonight. But after I dropped you off, I spent hours following a trail that kept going cold until this pinged on our radar. I had no idea you’d have to see this before I could tell you everything. I should have told you after the second murder, the moment we realized what the victims had in common.”

“Yes, you should have. And I know what they have in common. Me. Just like before, Razia and his Jiniyr—”

“It
isn’t
Razia.” Brandon shook his head. “I would know his scent and
that
, I would have told you.”

Only that?

He paused. “But I can’t doubt that it is Jiniyr. Traces of both races were on all the bodies. You’re right, we were never trained for this. My people didn’t believe their own senses at first. Didn’t believe it even after Hillary, Devil and I gave testimony to the Alpha about what we’d seen—what Natalie confirmed we’d done battle with. We were raised on the old stories, Jinn and Niyr as enemies throughout time, with only our people and the Vessel’s treaty standing between them and the destruction of three worlds—theirs and ours. We had no idea, nothing to prepare us for the possibility of a faction of both joining together in secret. It was unthinkable.”

It was forbidden. Unheard of. Aziza had heard that before. Te had told her that the slightest hint of such a collaboration would throw her people into chaos. But the Jiniyr managed to do a lot of damage for being such a secret. Razia and his Jinn partner Harash alone had been responsible for more suffering than Aziza could measure.

They had separated her family when she was still a toddler, driven her mother crazy for most of Aziza’s life and then picked them off, one by one, until only she was left. Their intention that Aziza specifically be the one to accept the gift and become Fireborne was the only reasoning they’d given for their crimes. Someone they could manipulate. They’d had no idea how strong her grief would make her. How determined and dangerous she could be.

Harash found out.

Brandon was still talking. “And now we have the added headache of dealing with Scotland Yard. Three women brutally carved up in London in the last three weeks will have every bobby and camera in the city paying closer attention. Our men on the inside can only do so much.”

Aziza leaned into his body, craving his warmth enough to give in to momentary weakness. “She wasn’t dead.”