“Jack! Aunt Angela, Uncle Darren!” A slender blond woman came flying out of the café and threw herself into Darren’s arms. Then she hugged Jack and Angela, shook hands with Selina and Peyton, and escorted them to a table on the patio under a big umbrella.
“Friend of yours?” Selina arched her eyebrows, a grin twitching at her lips, as she watched the younger woman croon over Grim.
“Something like that. The blonde is Holly Kerr, and that’s Erin Bates.” He waved to a curvaceous brunette who poked her head out the door of the restaurant. “My step-cousin and my bio-cousin went into business together.”
“Cousin?” For just a moment, Selina wore the same stricken expression he’d seen yesterday before she masked it. She cleared her throat and forced a smile. “It’s good you have family. When you’re around as long as me, you tend to be the last one standing.”
His mother made a sympathetic noise, but something told Jack that Selina hadn’t been telling the whole story. Another secret she was keeping. It just made him more determined to dig under her defenses and learn everything about her. He couldn’t say why he was so fixated on it, only that no woman had affected him the way she did in close to forever, and he had to figure out why. What made her different from all the other females who’d gone in and out of his life over the years?
“Holly has her MBA.” He pointed to the woman petting Grim. Then he gestured to where the brunette had disappeared. “Erin went to culinary school. They also own that new bakery over on Broadway.”
Selina blinked. “You mean Sugar Rush?”
“That’s the one.” He grinned, proud of what his relatives had accomplished.
Her mouth formed a moue. “Good congolais.”
“What?” Peyton spoke for the first time.
She shrugged. “It’s a coconut cookie biscuit thing. It’s good.”
“Do they serve it here?” A keen interest shone in his gaze, and Jack had to wonder if the wolf had a serious sweet tooth. It was certainly the most interest he’d ever displayed in anything besides work ... and Tess, but that was a topic Jack wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. He had to associate with Peyton, Tess, and Cavalli for the rest of his foreseeable career. While Tess didn’t work with them directly, since she was a medical examiner, it didn’t make it any less awkward that Cavalli and Peyton both wanted the same woman they all dealt with on a regular basis.
“I’ve heard of you, Agent Peyton. Or is it Peyton Something?” Holly quit petting Grim and stood up to face the table. She cocked a hip and propped a hand on it, her lips curling flirtatiously as she looked Peyton over. The barest flash of wolf canines showed in her smile. “One of my friends is the archivist for the pack, so she handles preserving all the pack records, and she says yours don’t indicate a first name. Just the one name, like Prince or Madonna.”
Jack snorted.
Remaining impassive, Peyton didn’t return the smile or the flirtation. “I’m afraid that’s not a question I can answer for you.”
“Top secret spy stuff.” She nodded sagely, winking. “Unless you don’t know your own name.”
Peyton just grunted, picked up a menu, and began thumbing through it.
Her laughter tinkled out at his response, or lack thereof. “I’ll be back to take your orders in a few minutes.”
“And I’ve got coffee for everyone.” Erin, his Normal cousin, bless her culinary genius heart, passed out empty cups and just left an entire pot of liquid ambrosia for them. She dragged Holly away with her.
Silence dropped over the table, and Jack sighed in relief. His mother poured coffee in everyone’s mug and then buried her nose in her menu. Under any other circumstances, he loved going out with his parents, but this seemed ready to explode in his face. He’d invited Peyton and a couple of his contacts in other law enforcement agencies in order to introduce them, establish more contacts for the wolf over in the Normal world, and have a nice competitive game of basketball at the same time. He hadn’t expected to run into Selina, or to have anyone dragged along for a warped version of
Meet the Parents.
Selina let her menu drop to the table and narrowed her eyes at Peyton. “I’d say you owe me for saving you from the nose-breaking drama back there.”
A single eyebrow arched. “Did you want me to buy your lunch?”
“No, I want you to answer a question.” She barely took a breath before she launched her little bomb. “Are you shagging Tess?”
Jack choked on his coffee, and Darren reached over to pound him between the shoulder blades, nearly collapsing his rib cage.
“Holy shit, Selina. How are you going to ask a man that at lunch?” Especially considering what a privacy Nazi she was about her own personal life.
Rubbing his jaw, Peyton sighed. “Yes. I’m sleeping with Tess.”
The elf reached over and socked him in the arm. “Why, you sly dog ... uh, wolf, I mean.”
A bark of laughter spilled out of Peyton, and he shook his head at her. Jack just stared at the other man. He’d worked with Peyton for several years, and he was pretty sure that was the first time he’d heard the werewolf laugh.
Peyton took a sip of his coffee, hiding a grin. “I prefer it
not
become something you speculate about at the office, which is the only reason I’m confirming it for you. Once the gossip starts, no matter how true or untrue, it doesn’t tend to stop. I trust you won’t say anything.”
“I can assure you of my discretion.” Selina leaned back in her chair.
It was a smart move on Peyton’s part. He now had two people at the FBI office and two more who were influential in pack politics who would dissuade any rumors of a sexual liaison between Tess and Peyton. Well played.
“Now you.” Angela propped her elbows on the table, gluing her gaze on the elf. “Are you shagging Jack?”
Selina didn’t squirm, didn’t flush, didn’t do anything to give a reaction away. “I don’t answer questions about my personal life.”
An incredulous sound burst out of Jack, he couldn’t help it. “After what you just asked Peyton, isn’t that a little hypocritical?”
Her mouth formed a thoughtful moue. “No ... I don’t owe anybody. Peyton owed me, remember? I don’t have to admit to anything.”
“So you admit there’s something to admit to. Ha! I
knew
it,” Angela sang out. “I knew it, I freaking
knew
it.”
Selina’s dark eyes slitted. “What exactly did you say about me?”
“Nothing! I mentioned I was working with a new woman. That’s it.” Jack heaved a sigh. How had this devolved so fast? And how had it ended up his fault? He hadn’t put anyone on the spot about their private life.
“It was the
tone
he used. A mother can sense these things.” Angela held up her finger. “I knew it. I even told Darren after you mentioned her on the phone yesterday, didn’t I?”
Darren chuckled and reached over to run a hand down his wife’s hair, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “Yes, my love, you told me.”
She grinned, cupped his face in her hands, and smacked a kiss on his lips. “I adore you.”
“Please, people. You’re going to kill my appetite before I can even get a bite of the food.” Jack groaned, teasing them as he had since they started dating in his teens.
Darren reached over and ruffled his hair, and Jack laughed and ducked away as best he could in his chair. His laughter died when he glanced up and saw sadness cross Selina’s face. Did it pain her to see people interacting with family? When had she last let anyone in enough to let them joke and play with her in public? She was so locked down, so frozen everywhere except in bed, he was always surprised to even hear her laugh. That couldn’t be healthy, and he didn’t give a damn how much older and more experienced she was, he knew repressed and unhealthy when he saw it. All he could do was loosen her up and hope she didn’t hex his ass in the process. Good thing he was a man who liked risks.
She looked away from him, offering his stepdad a smile. “So how’re things going in the packs? Your leader has some
fascinating
thoughts about the treatment for lycanthropy Chloe Standish is developing.”
Now there was a subtle topic change guaranteed to light Darren’s fire. Jack glanced around them. There was no one else sitting near them on the patio, so unless they had werewolf hearing, they weren’t going to hear an elf asking about werewolves.
Darren growled, the sound bestial enough to have Grim on his feet searching for the threat. Selina reeled her familiar in and stroked his head. Darren’s face darkened as he spoke. “They’re arguing about how to
handle
the treatment when it comes on the market. Some are even talking about rejecting it, as if they’d have that kind of say in things. People are going to be all over it no matter what. They’re chomping at the bit now, just waiting for it to make it through FDA approval. The pack Alpha is an archaic moron, and his son is even worse because he
should
know better.”
Darren was big and quiet, and he’d scared the shit out of Jack when he’d met him as a kid. But his stepfather was solid. He’d lay down his life for those he loved, and that was a bedrock Jack and his mother had both needed back then.
The pack leaders had pissed Darren off more and more the last few years, and Jack wouldn’t be surprised if his stepfather challenged the current heir for leadership when the Alpha died. The ins and outs of wolf pack politics were always a bit murky, but Jack was fairly certain challenging for leadership involved hand-to-hand combat.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about his family getting that deep into politics, but Cavalli’s father was on the Vampire Conclave, and Merek had just married into a family that ruled the Witch Coven, so Jack figured he’d be fine.
“Well, you know the pack Alpha has had his hands full. Maybe caution would serve him well.” Absolute evil gleamed in Selina’s gaze as she dove headfirst into a political debate with Darren, with his mother egging them both on, while Jack and Peyton watched with amusement.
This? This was the Selina Jack wanted to see more of. When she let some cracks show in those walls of hers, she was amazing to watch. If she were like this all the time? It would be almost irresistible. Not that he minded the ice queen, but the warmer, more passionate Selina was damn fun.
Peyton apparently thought so, too. This was probably the closest Jack had ever seen the wolf come to a full-on smile. Another Magickal who could use some time blowing off a little steam. Maybe Tess would do that for him, though Jack didn’t even want to think about what that meant for Cavalli. That was a hot mess Jack wanted no part of, and he hoped like hell it didn’t spill over into the office.
Selina hadn’t admitted to anything about their affair, which didn’t surprise Jack at all. She’d said she wouldn’t answer personal questions, and that was final. Jack had no clue where things with them were going, but he was willing to strap in for the ride and find out. As he watched her yank his stepfather’s chain—a mountain of a werewolf that made most people shake in their boots—he knew he’d at least be entertained, no matter what came of this.
I like this one. She’s got grit.
His mother’s telepathic voice whispered in his head.
Yeah, that was the problem. He liked this one, too. Far more than was good for his peace of mind.
7
“W
here are you from, originally?” Jack glanced over at Selina as he drove them back to his place after dinner. They’d spent the entire time discussing work, going over details of the case. It had been a long, frustrating week and a half of accomplishing not much. Between Selina, Peyton, and Jack, they’d questioned everyone who might know anything, pored over every file until they had all the words memorized, stared at every crime scene photograph until it was seared into their brains, and they were no further ahead than they had been ten days ago.
“Where are
you
from, originally?” she countered.
“North Carolina. Camp Lejeune. Then I joined the marines and was stationed down near San Diego, at Camp Pendleton. When I wasn’t overseas, which I was quite a bit.” To put it mildly. He’d spent more time away than he had at home. “Now you. Where are you from?”
She shifted in the passenger seat to look at him. “What, I don’t sound like an American to you? Do I have an accent showing?”
“Not at all, but since you’re not Native American, it’s not that likely that you were born in the U.S.” He turned into his driveway and hit the remote to open his garage door. “Am I right?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged, smoothing the fabric on her slacks. “I lived a couple of human lifetimes in England, which is where I was born.”
“Did your parents stay there when you came here?” he prompted, because she never seemed to be willing to talk about her family.
“No. They were dead,” she said shortly, staying true to form.
“How did they die?”
Not answering, she looked out the window as he pulled forward into the garage.
He pressed the button to lower the garage door a little harder than was necessary. “Were their deaths what brought you to America?”
“No, first I spent some time in France and Spain, then decided it was time to emigrate.” She recited the facts by rote, as if she’d given this answer many times. “I ended up in New Orleans for a while, went to Georgia, then New York, then back to New Orleans, then came west to Seattle.”
“That’s a lot of moving around.” Annoyance spiked through him about how she sidestepped talking about anything that mattered to her.
“After you look exactly the same and don’t really age for about twenty years, people start to wonder why you still look so young. It used to be, they thought you’d sold your soul to Satan for eternal youth. Now they think I’ve had some work done.” She looked down at her nearly flat chest. “Though why I’d have them do my face and not give other parts of me a boost, I don’t know.”
He didn’t take the bait to talk about her breasts, which he knew she expected. “What did the rest of your family think about you leaving Europe?”
She turned to look at him. “I don’t have any family left now.”
Which didn’t answer his question at all. He’d asked about her family then, not now. He opened his mouth to call her on it when her hands reached over the console to cup his cock through his trousers. A wicked grin formed on her face, and she curled a pleasure spell around his dick.
The air whistled out of his lungs as lust slammed into him. “Fuck
me.
”
“That’s the idea.” Her grin spread, and she unzipped his pants. “I thought it was time to change the subject.”
All the blood rushed out of his brain and went straight to his cock. He was rock hard in moments, and her hands dipped into his boxers, one grasping his shaft and the other moving deeper to fondle his balls.
He let his head fall back against the seat, swallowing hard as her slim fingers stroked up and down his dick. Fire fisted in his gut, and when she lit him up with a spell that felt like a thousand feathers brushing across his overheated flesh, his hips all but lifted off the seat. His knee slammed into the door, but he ignored the discomfort. No man in his right mind would interrupt a moment like this.
The rush of her warm breath washed over his cock, and his muscles shook with anticipation. Yes. He wanted her mouth on him. A groan was the only response he could make when her lips sucked the tip of his cock into her mouth. Her hot tongue flicked over the head, and he shuddered, twining his fingers in her hair and urging her forward. She scraped his skin with her teeth, and his breath hissed in. “Suck me hard.”
She chuckled and gave him what he wanted, drawing him in deep. Her hand still caressed his testicles, and then moved up to cinch around his shaft, pumping him between her fingers in time with her mouth. Every so often, a pleasure spell would streak over his skin. He couldn’t predict them, and they left him hanging on to his control by the slenderest of threads.
His hips rose to press into her, and he used his grip on her hair to push her down while he fucked her mouth. Heat pounded through him, and he didn’t think he could wait. The warm suckling, the tight grip she had on his cock, any minute now his skull would explode.
“If you don’t stop, I’m going to come.” He didn’t want to make the offer to quit, but most women didn’t take kindly to no warning before a man came in her mouth.
“Mmm,” she hummed, and the vibrations were half her and half magic.
He couldn’t hold back, his hand tightened in her hair, and he jetted into her mouth, coming in long, hard spurts. She sucked him through it all, dragging it out until he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Everything centered on what her mouth did to him. He shuddered again and again, sweat sliding down his skin, his lungs bellowing as he tried to drag in enough oxygen.
Letting his cock slide free of her mouth, she sat up and licked her lips. “Was it good for you, too?”
When he could catch his breath, he laughed. “Wow, you really didn’t want to talk about it, did you?”
She huffed out a breath, turning to face forward in her seat. “It’s not relevant, Jack. Let it go.”
“Is it that terrifying to you that someone might be curious about you? That they might know you? That they might want to be close enough to be called a friend?” Because at the moment his friends-with-benefits plan was more co-workers with benefits and not much else. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem with him, but with her ... it was. He didn’t like that it bothered him, but he couldn’t help it. “How did you get along so well with Merek if you’re this closemouthed about yourself?”
“Kingston had a past he didn’t want anyone digging into either. We respected each other’s boundaries, and it worked for us.” Her glance told Jack what she thought of his attempts to disrespect her boundaries.
Before he could retort, her gaze dropped to his phone, which had been trapped underneath her when she bent over the console. She was already reaching for it when it rang.
He frowned. “That one’s mine, not yours.”
“I know, but it’s important. Something’s wrong.” She handed him the vibrating, blaring phone. The number was one he didn’t recognize.
He pushed the button to answer and flipped it to speakerphone. “Hello?”
“Hi, Jack.” The voice was both young and grave at the same time. “It’s Alex. Nemov. Merek and Chloe’s adopted son?”
“I know who you are, Alex. I saw you at the wedding a week ago.” His mind raced, trying to sort out why the teen wolf would be calling him. “What can I do for you?”
“Uh ... before Merek and Chloe left, I might have heard them talking about a case you were taking on. Where Magickals were tortured with the metal they’re allergic to and then drained of blood.”
“Yes, why do you ask?” Only he was pretty sure he knew why. There was only one reason to call and ask about something like that. They had another one. His muscles tensed, and he pushed the button to open the garage back up. “Where are you right now?”
He heard the teen swallow. “I’m at my girlfriend’s house to pick her up for a date ... she’s running late from softball practice, but her stepdad was going to let me in to wait. He didn’t answer the door ... and something just didn’t feel right. So I walked around the house and saw him through the window. He’s dead. The way Merek described.”
“What’s the address?” He looked to Selina, who’d already reached into her bag to get a notepad to write it down. Alex rattled off the street number.
“You can bring Detective Grayson with you, right? She’s there with you.”
Jack froze, his hands poised to turn on the car. Selina hadn’t said a word, so how had the kid known that? “She’s working with me on the case, yes, but it’s after-hours. What makes you think she’s with me?”
A short laugh came through the line. “I may have been eavesdropping when Merek told Chloe he had a vision of you two bumping uglies.”
“Nice.” Jack hit the gas to back out of the garage, and punched the button to close the door behind them the moment they were clear. The sky had opened up while they were inside, and rain poured down on the car. He flipped on the windshield wipers.
“So she’s with you, right? Or should I call her, too? I haven’t called the cops yet.” The wolf sounded annoyed with himself for not thinking to dial the police’s number. “I should call them.”
“We can take care of that, Alex,” Selina replied. “We’re on our way.”
“How did you get my number?” Jack asked, mostly to keep the kid talking, to keep him distracted from the fact that he was a few yards away from a stiffening body.
“Merek said he had a feeling I might need it someday.” Alex snorted. “When Merek has a
feeling,
you listen and you program the number into your phone right then.”
“Good point.” One didn’t argue with the premonitions of the most powerful precog alive. “Sit tight. We’re not far. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Sooner is better. I’ll be waiting.” The line went dead as Alex hung up.
They pulled to a stoplight, and Jack braked and fastened his pants, while Selina clipped her seat belt into place. He had no memory of her taking it off, but considering what her mouth and hands had been doing to him, he wasn’t that surprised. “Looks like I’ll have to make it up to you later.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Her gaze flashed naked heat for a brief moment before she masked it. “Let’s go.”
“Put the light up, would you?”
She grabbed the portable blue strobe light, put it on his dashboard, and turned it on. Jack pressed his foot on the gas, speeding through the streets to get them there as quickly as possible. Selina stayed on the phone the whole way, calling people to let them know where to go and what they needed.
She hung up as he turned onto the correct street. “Peyton is going to be awhile. He’s out in Renton doing something for Cavalli that he can’t give specifics about.”
“With those kinds of assignments, it’s best not to ask questions.” The car fishtailed on the wet pavement a bit as he skidded to a stop at the curb.
Alex was already on the sidewalk waiting for them, his face far more composed than any teenager’s should be in the situation. “Hey.”
“Thanks for calling.” Jack offered him a hand to shake.
Selina nodded to him, tugging on a pair of latex gloves. She pulled another pair out of her bag and handed them to Jack. “We’re going to go in and check things out. Wait out on the porch for our backup, would you?”
“I already saw everything, Selina. Don’t worry about me having a meltdown.” The young werewolf cocked an eyebrow and followed them anyway. “I’m pretty sure the flashing light and messed-up park job will clue them in on which house it is.”
Instead of arguing, Jack loped up to the house. The front door was open. He glanced at Alex. “You went inside?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “The shield spells were down, and Merek showed me how to pick a lock. Other than checking for a pulse, I didn’t touch ... the body.”
“What’s his name?” Jack squeezed the kid’s shoulder.
“Jason Mathison.” The wolf put his hands in his pockets. “I’ve been going out with his stepdaughter for about a month. His wife is pregnant. She’s going to have a son in a couple of months. She’s Normal. He’s an elf.”
Jack frowned, stepping inside the house. It looked like a regular house, nothing strange, except he could already sense that creepy sense of stillness. Quiet where there should be noise and life. “Jason Mathison. I know that name.”
“Shield Security Consulting,” Selina murmured.
He blinked. “They installed my security system at home, using bespelled talismans because I have no magic.”
“Mine, too. The electronic system, that is. I do the shields myself.” Selina turned to Alex. “You said the shields were down when you got here?”
A bathroom off the hallway was where the carnage started. It looked like Mathison had been shot there and dragged to the bedroom, a thick blood trail pointing the way.
“Yeah, which has never happened before.” Puzzlement filled the teen’s voice. “Even when he knows I’m coming over, I have to wait on the porch for him to open the shield circle and let me in.”
The bedroom was the same as before. Only worse. The wreckage was just as bad, the splattered blood, the body draped facedown on the bed, the twin holes ripped into the neck, flesh festering from the application of iron.