Younger, Bree - Burn [All American Vampires 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (24 page)

Ty suddenly found himself on the bottom, and he caught a brief flash of silver out of the corner of his eye. The son of a bitch had a knife. It sliced down, and Ty barely managed to deflect it from his throat. It ripped a long gash in his shoulder. “Fuck. Goddammit.” Another slash, this time across his arm as he slung it up to deflect the blow. His shoulder and arm hurt like hell, but he pushed it out of his mind. He had to finish this shit before he lost too much blood and became too weak to fight. His body was already working at healing the cuts, but that was just going to drain him even more.

Ignoring the pain, he moved just as his opponent prepared to strike again, using Cumbest’s downward momentum to shove him to the floor and lay across his squirming body, pounding his fist which still clutched the knife until he heard the bones crack and the fingers released their grip. The knife fell to the floor and Ty reached over to grab it.

His fingers closed over the grip, and he raised the blade high. For a moment he was tempted—oh so tempted—to jab the thing down and into Cumbest’s heart. Rid the world of one more monster. The two men lay there staring at each other for several long seconds. Ty was vaguely aware of RJ’s voice saying something, but he couldn’t understand him at first. Finally the words penetrated. “Don’t kill him. We need him. Damn it, Ty. We need him alive!”

Finally Ty lowered his hand and tossed the knife into the far corner, slumping forward and breathing harshly from the effort he had just expended.

“Watch out, Ty!” He heard RJ’s yell just as he felt Cumbest move, his fangs too close to Ty’s throat.

Ty rolled just in time, the snapping jaws barely missing his jugular. That was it. Ty reached out and grabbed a handful of Cumbest’s hair, pulling his head up and slamming it into the ground over and over until finally Cumbest slumped down, unconscious. Ty relaxed his hold and rolled to one side, clutching at his shoulder and feeling the blood that had soaked through his shirt. As soon as he got his breath, he looked over at RJ, who had pulled out a pair of titanium cuffs. Rolling the vamp over, RJ quickly cuffed him and then stood up.

“Son of a bitch!” Ty grunted and then grinned at RJ, who just rolled his eyes. The whole thing hadn’t probably taken more than a minute or so because of the preternatural speed of the vampires. If humans had witnessed the fight, it would have appeared little more than a blur to them. He reached over and pushed back the sleeve of Cumbest’s left arm and there it was, just like Libby had said. The tattoo. Fuck.

After a couple of minutes, he stood slowly, looking over to where Quinn’s men were cuffing the other two vampires. Ty stood and accepted the rag RJ offered, wrapping it around his arm to staunch the blood flow, which had already slowed to a slight trickle. One of Diaz’s werewolves, who had witnessed the whole fight, stepped forward.

“You need blood. Please.” He leaned his head to one side, and Ty stepped forward.

“Thank you,” he said to the were before leaning down and quickly piercing the skin, making sure to blur the pain as he gulped down several mouthfuls of the strong paranormal blood. After he was done, he sealed the wound and stepped back, noticing the erection the male werewolf made no attempt to hide. Both of them accepted the arousal caused by the vampire’s bite with a nonchalance born of habit and experience. Ty could see from the expression in the were’s eyes that he would not have been averse to a more intimate connection with Ty, but though Ty had been in relationships with both men and women, he found himself reluctant to be unfaithful to Libby.

Offering a small smile of appreciation, he shook his head no. They were shrugged in understanding, though Ty thought he saw a shimmer of regret pass over the were’s face. He muttered another brief “thanks” to both of the werewolves and looked over to where Taite and Campbell stood over the other vamps. He walked toward them, leaving RJ to stand guard over Cumbest, who lay moaning and cursing on the floor.

“What should we do with these two?” Campbell kicked one of the vamps in the side as he asked the question and received a string of obscenities in response. Ty bent down and pulled back the shirtsleeve on the first vamp, immediately spotting the same tattoo as Cumbest wore. Taite did the same with the other, and it took him a couple of minutes before he found an identical tat on the vamp’s right calf.

Ty looked down at them with an expression of disgust on his face. “Bring ’em. I have a feeling that Quinn will want to talk to all of them.” He left his men to it, turning and walking out of the bar, glad that they had managed to take all three of the vamps alive. Once he was out in the parking lot, he pulled in a deep breath, allowing himself to release some of the tension he’d been feeling from the moment he’d heard the vamps had been spotted. That reminded him that he needed to call Quinn and let him know what had happened.

He pulled his phone from his pocket and pushed the auto dial for his brother.

“We got ’em,” he told Quinn as soon as he answered. “We should be at the safe house in about thirty minutes.”

“I’ll meet you there. Everything go okay?”

“Fine. They put up a fight, but we handled it.”

“Good. All right, see you in thirty.”

After he hung up, Ty watched his men load the vampires in the backs of the vehicles. He turned to the werewolves who were standing nearby.

“Thanks for the help. I’m Ty Buchanan, by the way.”

One of the weres stepped forward, the one who had shared his blood with Ty, offering his hand. “I’m Jason Callahan. This is Zach Lemoyne. We were glad to do it. Scum like these guys gives all paranormals a bad name and puts us all in danger.”

“You’re right. They do.” Ty shook their hands. “Tell Diaz we owe him and that we’ll be in touch.” After a brief good-bye, he turned and joined RJ in his car. In moments they were pulling out and heading south.

* * * *

By the time Ty reached the safe house, his head was killing him. Cumbest had cussed and yammered on and on the whole way with threats and wild outbursts. Luckily, Quinn and Hawk were already there and waiting out front when they pulled into the parking lot, so it didn’t take long to get the cars unloaded and the vampires inside. The three vamps were split up and put in separate holding rooms that were specially designed to hold paranormals.

Quinn looked at him carefully. “Are you going to be able to handle the questioning, Ty?”

“If I had wanted to kill the bastard, I’d have done so when we were apprehending him. I know we need his sorry ass alive so that we can get the rest of them. Don’t worry about me, bro.”

He gave a short nod. “Good. That’s what I needed to hear. Now, what do you think? Start with Cumbest? See if he gives up anything? Or would you rather go with one of the others first? They seem weaker, probably be easier to break one of them.”

Hawk spoke up. “I think we ought to start with Cumbest. The other two are probably pretty low in the organization. Plus, we don’t really have anything on them connecting them to what’s happened. Just their association with Cumbest.”

“And the tattoos,” RJ reminded them.

“Right. Still, I’m not sure they’d know enough to help us. I think we have more leverage against Cumbest. Ty has identified him as one of the men who helped stake him out.”

Ty nodded. “I agree.”

 
Quinn nodded. “All right, Ty, why don’t you and I go and interview Cumbest. While we’re with him, I think it might be a good idea for Hawk and RJ to have a chat with the other two. You never know. They might have information we can use.”

Two hours later, when Ty and Quinn left the interrogation room, Hawk met them at the door.

“Son of a bitch gave us nothing. Not one damned thing.” Ty had held it together while he was with Cumbest, but once they were out of the room he let his frustration out. “I can’t believe it. Just sat there with that shit-eating grin on his face.”

“He’s scared of someone else more than he is of the Council. He’s not gonna talk until he thinks he’s got nothing to lose,” Quinn commented.

“What about the other two?”

Hawk shook his head. “I don’t think they know much, if anything.”

“So what do we do now?”

Quinn rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. “Let’s let ’em stew. We can hold all three of them for another twenty-four hours. Then we’ll have to release Dumb and Dumber in there. Cumbest we’ll be able to hold longer since we’ve got a positive ID on him for attempting to murder a Council Shield. Maybe a day spent in lockup will give one of them a little incentive to start talking.”

They all agreed with Quinn that that was probably their best course of action.

“RJ, why don’t you bunk here today to keep an eye on our prisoners. We’ll be back at dusk to see if they’ve had a change of heart.”

Everything was settled quickly. The safe house was well-equipped to handle the vampires’ needs. The windows were all covered with thick sun-resistant shutters and the refrigerator was full of bottled blood. After the prisoners were secured for the night, everyone started heading out.

All Ty wanted was to get back to the casino and Libby. He imagined her there, waiting for him, all snuggled up in his bed, and he felt a sharp burn of longing in his chest. Yeah. He was in deep shit. He’d gone and fallen in love with a human.

Chapter Sixteen

Sitting on the couch in the den, Libby finally gave up on the television and turned it off. How could they have hundreds of channels and not have anything on worth watching? Ugh! She was going stir-crazy. Thank God she wouldn’t be cooped up much longer. Doc had been in earlier to examine her one last time, and he’d given her the all clear. There was still some venom in her system and would be for several more days, but the worst of the reaction was over. He had told her there was no problem with her going back to work the following night, though he did caution her to make sure that she kept eating the same kinds of foods, at least for a bit longer, and to stay out of the sun as much as possible.

While she was eager to get back home and resume her normal routine, a part of her was depressed at having to leave Ty. The past few days, he had spent as much time with her as he could, tending to her, making sure she ate and was taking her medicine. He had sat and talked with her when he’d returned from working on his case. He’d even taught her to play gin rummy early one morning when she’d been whining and complaining about how bored she was just lying in bed all the time.

And now it was all coming to an end. She’d already packed her bags, leaving out only what she’d need to dress in the next morning. She planned to grab a few hours’ sleep with Ty when he came home, and then leave a little before noon. That would give her time to get home and get everything unpacked and settled in before she had to report to work that night. She knew that Quinn had arranged for a couple of werewolves who worked security for him to keep an eye on her for the next several days until they caught Cumbest and McElroy, just in case they found out about her role in helping Ty. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that. Vampires were one thing, but now werewolves? Her life had definitely taken a turn for the strange and absurd. What else was out there that she’d always assumed was just legend and myth? She’d thought about asking Ty, but she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know the answer, so she had just stayed quiet.

Shaking off her gloomy mood, she reached over to pick up the book she’d been reading and had just opened it to the page she’d stopped on earlier when she heard the front door opening. Looking up, she smiled when she saw Ty walking into the room.

“You’re home early.”

He eased down beside her on the couch. “Yeah. Rough day at the office, hon.”

She saw the blood on his shirt and gasped. “Oh, Ty. You’re hurt. Here, let me see.”

He sat still as she pulled off his shirt and examined the two wounds in his arm and shoulder. They had obviously been tended to already and were almost closed. He met her shocked look with a rueful shrug. “What can I say? I’m a fast healer.”

She smiled at his attempt at humor but immediately frowned again with concern. “I remember. Damn, Ty, didn’t I tell you to be careful? What happened?”

“We caught Cumbest, but he didn’t want to come with us, so things got a little messy.”

“You caught him? But that’s great! Now you can persuade him to turn on his buddies, right?”

He chuckled and pulled her snugly against him, burying his face in her neck. She trembled as his breath stirred the hair of her nape and sent a hot dart of arousal straight to her pussy. “Oh, Lib. I wish it was that easy. He’s not talking. Neither are his two buddies we caught with him.”

“That sucks,” she murmured as she pulled him closer, loving the feel of his warm skin beneath her hands.

“Yeah, it does.” He kissed her neck, pulling the skin between his teeth and sucking. “I missed you, Lib.”

“Me, too.” She moved so that she was straddling his body. She could feel his lengthening erection molding itself to the crotch of her jeans, causing a delicious friction between her thighs.

“That feels good, sweetheart.”

“Umm…” She leaned back, admiring the gleam of light across the muscles of his chest. She touched him, letting her hands follow the path her eyes had just taken. “So what are y’all gonna do about Cumbest?” She bent down and let the tip of her tongue graze across his nipples, teasing it before moving to the next.