The Devil's Kiss

Chapter Ten



When I landed back in Foyer, strong arms scooped me up immediately before I could even hit the ground.

“Zia,” Talon shouted. A second later, she was there, reaching out and gave me an oomph of healing.

Two breaths passed before I felt brand new again. Lord did it feel good. Having your magic drained is the equivalent to having the swine flu—horrible all around.

Willow’s rough tongue met my hand. “I’m glad to see you in one piece, but it was a stupid move. Very, very stupid.”

I smiled at her and patted her head. “It was a close one, that’s for damn sure.”

She nodded and purred into my embrace.

My gaze left hers as a body knelt down in front of me. I glanced up. Dante wore an expression of immense gratitude. “I owe you my life. What you did…” he smiled, “…was brave.”

“It wasn’t brave.” I shook my head. “It was right.”

Valor joined Dante then leaned in and kissed both my cheeks. “Consider your debt repaid. You are never to feel it necessary to do that again. Understood?”

I laughed, relieved that this night was over and my job was done. “Let’s hope we don’t have to do anything like that again.”

Zia reached down, placed her hand on my shoulder as she read my mind. Only a minute later, she gasped, appearing utterly floored. “Magnus helped you?”

“He did,” I replied.

“Why?” Zade looked about as surprised as anyone.

I shrugged deeply, unsure of that answer myself. “I’m just glad he did. I wouldn’t have survived that if he didn’t.” I gave myself a good shake. “Demons are nasty things.”

Everyone laughed.

“That is unheard of,” Brax said while he examined me with interest. “What does he want?”

Magnus’ gift to me wasn’t without consequences. The slimy bastard would always want something in return.

My gaze scanned every face here. I realized someone was missing. “Who knows? He said nothing and I never asked.”

“Where’s Kyden?” I asked Zia.

“He’s in the garden. He was having some trouble waiting for you to return,” she nodded toward the wall. It had been pummeled into pieces.

I stood swiftly. “I have to go find Kyden.”

“Wait,” Talon said quickly. “You need to tell us what happened.”

I chuckled, reached out to him and replayed the events in his mind. When it stopped, he stood there stunned. “You tell them.” I smiled, and started walking away.

Haven stepped forward and wrapped me in a warm hug. “I don’t have to tell you not to do that again, right?”

I patted her back, then laughed. “Nope. Heard loud and clear.” I gave everyone a little wave, heading out of the castle, walked quickly toward the garden.

Think botanical gardens, but better. I followed the rock path quickly as it weaved its way along the garden and halfway in, Kyden sat on the ground next to the pond. When I got close enough to him, I knelt down, wrapped myself around his back.

He reached up and grabbed my arms, hugging me tightly. “You’re home,” he whispered.

I squeezed tighter. “I’m home.”

He pulled me over his side so I was sitting on his lap, took my hands in his and sighed deeply when his gaze met mine. We sat there a moment just staring at each other.

“I have never stopped wanting to be a Guardian,” he finally said. “Never stopped wanting to live in the Otherworld until this very moment.”

“Kyden…” I whispered.

“It drives me to a place of near insanity knowing that you are in danger. Every part of me wants to keep you here, safe in my arms.”

“I know you do. I wish I could stay here too, but I can’t. This is what we’re left with. This is our life.”

He looked down to our joined hands, then slowly raised his eyes to mine. “It doesn’t have to be our life.”

That was completely unexpected. “You want to leave the Otherworld?”

“I want you to be safe.”

“Give me some credit. I made it through tonight.” There was no need to tell him just how close I came to not making it. Some things were better left unsaid.

He shook his head and concern masked his face. “I do believe in you. If I didn’t, Álainn, you would not have gone tonight. I would have chained you to a chair if I thought you couldn’t handle yourself. It is not that which troubles me.” He sighed deeply again, sounding utterly spent. “It is that I am not with you. I should be with you—always.” He released one of my hands and brushed my hair behind my ear. “You have always believed that my possession of you is a natural trait. It isn’t so. It is that I love you so undeniably, that it pains me that you are in any sort of danger. This is not the life I would wish for you. Then, on top of you being in danger, I cannot be there to protect you as I should be.”

“But you can’t be. It’s not safe for you and never will be.” I equaled his sigh. “I need you to be behind me—I need your support. You’re always right with me in my heart. I’m never battling alone since I have you there.” I leaned in, and kissed his lips. “And we cannot leave the Otherworld, Kyden. They need us.”

“I don’t care what others need of us,” he ground out. “My only thoughts are of you.”

“Kyden…” I began.

Shocking me completely, he rested his hand against my stomach. “One day I want my youngling to rest in here,” he said softly, a dream of the future laying in his eyes. “And I fear that will never happen if we stay here.”

My heart clenched a little. We have never discussed a family. I put my hand over his, held him as close as I could. “I want that too, but what would the world be if we don’t stay to make it a better place. What world would we be bringing that youngling into?”

He rested his forehead against mine. I wrapped my arms around him. Nothing needed to be said. We both knew how true my words were. No matter how much Kyden might wish our life was different—safer—we couldn’t leave. This was our life. No matter how dangerous it was. It was ours.

“Come on you two,” Talon called to us in the distance.

I glanced over my shoulder, then met Kyden’s gaze again. “We have to go,” I whispered.

Just because this event with Magnus was over, didn’t mean our problems were. There was still the whole situation with the Black Witches that needed dealing with.

He nodded, stood, then helped me to my feet. “What’s up?” he asked Talon as we approached him.

“I got in touch with the FBI,”

The FBI?

Kyden laughed softly as I glanced up at him in blatant confusion. “Remember, Supes are infiltrated in all high levels of government.”

“Just how high?” I asked, suspiciously.

He winked. “As high as it goes.”

I suddenly had an urge to take a little trip to the White House just to see if the President of the United States was indeed human. Actually, now thinking of it, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Lately, anything shocking was normally supernatural related.

Hurriedly, I followed Talon and Kyden through the grounds of the Otherworld and back into the castle.

The moment we stepped through the Council’s Hall, Haven bounced over. “Yikes, that was emotional.”

“You betcha.” The whole conversation with Kyden stirred many emotions.

My gaze then lingered to the vampire talking with Zia. She was one tough chick—exactly what you would expect to see involved with the FBI. Her long black hair was pulled back into a long ponytail, and her suit looked designer. She had the body of an all-American athlete, but the face of a Victoria Secret model.

“Nexi, this is Hadley,” Zia introduced.

I reached my hand out and she shook it. “Hi.”

“Pleasure is mine,” Hadley responded. “You have become a conversational piece within the Bureau.”

“Yeah, I tend to do that,” I admitted, not too happily.

Kyden laughed, giving me a little smack on the ass then looked to Hadley. “Are you doing well, Hadley?”

She gave him a smile that was pure sexual. “I am.”

I glanced between them, instantly annoyed. They had slept together. It was written all over her face. Kyden, of course was unreadable, but a hint of amusement lifted the corners of his mouth. He knew that I knew.

I sighed deeply, not wanting to let my jealous radar creep up any higher. “Moving on.”

Kyden gave me a wink.

I shot him a dirty look.

“Tell us what you know,” Talon said to Hadley.

“A week ago, a couple new recruits joined the Bureau and told us of murders that had happened in their jurisdiction. After a bit of digging, we discovered numerous murders with the exact same M.O. have taken place within the United States.”

“How bad is it?” Talon asked.

She gave him a knowing look. “As bad as it gets. Once we started connecting them together, the number of killings is a staggering amount.”

“Why didn’t we know about it?” I piped up, asking the obvious question. If a supernatural creature killed a human, the Council should have known it immediately.

“In many of the cases, it appeared that either an animal did it or it was committed by a human,” Hadley said. “Now we know different, of course.”

This just confused me. One case I could see being overlooked, but a staggering number… It seemed odd, but I kept any questions to myself. There was no need to look stupid in front of one of Kyden’s ex-lovers.

“What have you discovered so far?” Kyden asked.

She glanced at him, her eyes twinkling. “We have our files at the Bureau. I suggest you come and have a look at them. It may help you here, and whatever helps you, helps us. We have come to a dead halt on these cases.”

“Are we allowed to come to the FBI?” I asked. “I mean come on, it’s the FBI for frig sakes. I doubt we’re allowed to just walk in.”

Hadley nodded with a grin. “I have passes for four of you to join me, and Caliana has helped with regards to the humans and assures me that we will not have a problem once you are there.”

“Caliana?” I repeated.

Kyden arched a brow. “She’s a vampire.”

“Oh, right.” I gave my hand a wave. “The whole glamour thingy-mi-jiggy.”

“Yes, the glamour thingy-mi-jiggy.” Hadley laughed.

I noticed she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were quickly scanning Kyden’s body—slowly ran over every curve of his muscles. My teeth ground together and my muscles flexed with jealously. “Ahem,” I said loudly.

She met my gaze, and the desire running through her eyes was fierce. “Yes,” she purred.

“Please keep your mouth shut,” Zia said sternly.

Okay so maybe I put my foot in my mouth a few times and Zia knew it. Resolved, I swallowed back my remark and looked at Kyden, who had a barely contained smirk on his face. I quickly punched his arm. “It’s not funny.”

He laughed loudly and flinched. “Oh, but I think it is.”

Hadley looked confused. “Sorry, have I missed something?”

I shook my head, sighing deeply. “No, nothing. Please continue.”

She studied me, then her eyes widened with understanding. “Are you two together?”

Kyden nodded. I remained silent, afraid if I did anything, Zia was going to be very unhappy with me.

“I hadn’t heard,” Hadley said. Then, surprising me, she took my hand in hers. “I apologize. If I had known then I would have kept my eyes to myself.” She glanced at Kyden. “One has finally stolen your heart. I never thought I’d see the day.” Her gaze met mine again as she smiled softly. “I meant no disrespect.”

My smile in return was unencumbered. It was nice to finally meet someone from Kyden’s past that wasn’t a complete bitch and didn’t rub it in my face that they had been together. “It’s fine. Sorry, I…”

She raised her hand to stop me. “Think nothing of it. I would do the same. Trust me.”

“Can we go?” Ryker grumbled off to the side. “I am about to be sick.”

Ryker’s your G.I. Joe type, rockin’ bod, handsome face. To me, though, he was just Ryker. A tough-ass Guardian. Apparently, now that this situation had upped the ante, Talon felt the need to bring Ryker onboard to help.

Fine with me! The more help, the better.

“Ryker!” Hadley exclaimed, her face lighting up. Obviously, Kyden wasn’t the only one Hadley had a fancy for.

Ryker pushed forward and stopped just a few inches away from her. “Been a while, Hadley. You are looking…” his gaze lingered on her body, “…well.”

She laughed flirtatiously. “Working for the FBI is a cushy job. It leaves the body in good form.”

“That it does,” he purred.

Now I was on the verge of being sick. “Okay, let’s go.”

“I’m going with you,” Ryker said, staring heavily at Hadley.

“I will join you also,” Zia added.

“You all need to change. You can’t go in looking like that,” Hadley told us firmly.

“What? You mean walking into the FBI half naked is inappropriate?” I said sarcastically.

She laughed and gave me a knowing look. “Nexi, if you walked in looking like that, I am pretty sure Kyden here would see just how lucky he really is, he’d spend an hour fighting off half our squad.”

* * * *

When thinking of the FBI, I think scary, dangerous. Not, your everyday white-collar business suits. Not that the building didn’t look fantastic sitting along America’s Main Street—it did. It was just your typical commercial building. The only thing that made it awe-inspiring at all was its sheer size. We think supernaturals are a problem—the fact that a government needs a building of this magnitude to control their criminals is mindboggling.

“This is the J. Edgar Hoover building?” I asked, staring at a large cement building with hundreds upon hundreds of windows.

“You were expecting something different?” Hadley asked, a hint of amusement lit her tone.

“Actually, yeah. Considering what goes on here, I was expecting something a little more brilliant.”

“It does the job.” Then, she stopped walking. “I almost forgot. Here put these on,” she handed us name badges.

Immediately, I burst into laughter. The card was obviously from the CIA. Just the thought of me being in the CIA was way too funny to keep in. I clipped it to my pantsuit and followed behind the others as they started forward, but I had to say, “Nice to meet you, Special Agent Mueller,” I laughed reading the name on Kyden’s card.

He smirked in return.

We made our way into the front entrance. Hadley passed the guard sitting at the table and gave him a little wave. He gave a firm nod back, then approached us, eyeing our identification badges. He logged them into his computer and waved us on. All business here—that was evident immediately.

We approached the elevator. Hadley hit the up button and a moment later, the doors opened and we stepped in. The doors closed behind us, Hadley pressed ten, the elevator shot straight up, and my stomach leapt with it. When the doors chimed open, a sign, which read, Criminal Investigation Department was on a large glass wall.

“Hadley,” a man said as he moved toward us. He was just a man—no supernatural here. “I have readied the files in my office for you.”

“Thanks, Mike,” Hadley replied. She glanced back to me as we walked by. “That is the Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Investigation Department.”

“Are you telling me that the vampire used glamour on every single agent here?”

She nodded, and smiled. “They think you are from the CIA following up on this case.”

The thought made me feel mildly corrupt, so I chose not to make eye contact with them. It felt a bit wrong knowing they’d all been mind-warped.

We entered the office, and Hadley closed the door behind us. There were more than ten boxes lining the wall. “Christ. These are the cases?” I gasped.

She nodded grimly. “It’s a big case. I’ll go get us some coffee,” she replied before she left the room.

“This is going to take a while,” I grumbled at Zia.

She eyed the boxes with annoyance. “Let’s get started.”

We each took a box and got to work. The first file I pulled out was of a brutal killing in Louisiana. A woman mauled to death, in what they thought was a bear attack. The second I looked at the picture my stomach turned. There was barely anything left of her. She resembled nothing of the pretty picture I had seen of her when I first opened the file.

“Here,” Hadley said, drawing my gaze to her as she returned.

She handed me a cup of steaming hot coffee. It’d been some time since I had coffee. Now, having my magic abilities to give me a boost, coffee was a thing of the past. When the smell hit my nose, I moaned in utter bliss. When I lifted the cup to my mouth and drank down the delicious aroma, I groaned deeply.

The room erupted in laughter. I glanced over the rim of my cup to see everyone watching my intense pleasure. I smirked at them. “You forget the finer things when you haven’t had them for a while.”

Kyden winked, then dug back into his box.

I put the cup down, and lifted out another file. This one was in Montana. The woman had been killed in a manner very similar to the last. A college grad abducted. After a long search, her body was discovered in the bush brutally ripped to shreds and declared a homicide. With little evidence, and no leads, the case was closed.

Case after case, all similar situations—young women taken, brutally murdered. “I don’t get it. How do you know these were wolf killings?” I asked Hadley.

She lifted her head from the file she was buried in. “Call it a hunch.”

“A hunch, huh?”

She nodded. “When I started looking back at unsolved murders, I began to find a connection between them all. All the young women were killed so brutally.”

“Yeah, I see that,”

File after file that was the method of death. Very little remained of them. “I’m confused.” I said, looking back at the file. “I thought the Council was always contacted when a wolf kills?” Needing my earlier question answered, I no longer cared if I was going to look silly. I needed to understand this better.

“They are,” Hadley answered, drawing my gaze back to her. “But that is what is so unusual with these cases. There was no evidence of a wolf doing this.”

“Ahh…sorry, but someone’s throat missing is a pretty clear indicator,” I remarked.

“You would think so, but that is not how we do things.”

I glanced at Kyden. “It’s not?”

He shook his head. “The Detectives will only contact the Council if there is a lingering scent at the scene.”

“Oh,” I said, my mind made quick work of absorbing that information. “I hadn’t thought of that. I figured in vamp cases the fang marks were a pretty clear indicator.”

He nodded, being patient as he always was. “Of course, those cases are easier to determine, but without the assistance of Haven or Zia, wolf cases are discovered only by the scent left there.”

“Even if their throat is ripped out like this? How could you come to any other assumption?”

“You can never make assumptions,” Hadley interjected. “You have no idea what humans are capable of.”

I snorted softly. “I guess I don’t.” I glanced back at the file in my hand. “So, wolves are hiding their scent?” I commented.

“Exactly,” Hadley said. “It took some time to put this all together. It wasn’t until we started poking around did the fact that wolves were involved in this emerged. The coincidences between the cases were just too high. Then, when Talon contacted me, I knew we were on the right track. The biggest concern is just how the wolves are doing this.”

“Anything is possible when using Black Magic,” Zia stated. “But the question still remains—why are witches getting the wolves to do this? What have these humans done to deserve such a horrible fate?”

“There must be a connection between them,” Kyden said, rummaging through his file. “We’re just not seeing it.”

Then a light bulb went off in my dense head. It would happen sometimes¯when my mind put pieces of a puzzle together¯not often, but on a few occasions. “Hadley, do you know if the girls were raped?”

“Couldn’t say. There have been five cases of young women in the past week. We never did a rape kit on them since there wasn’t much of their bodies remaining.”

“What are you thinking?” Kyden asked, intrigued.

“I don’t know. I was just wondering if the cases were the same as Rynn’s attack. If there is a connection, a similar story.” I pulled the first box over again. “The odd thing is that Rynn survived.”

Kyden arched a brow at me. “Good thing she did.”

I waved it away, knowing his misunderstood me. “No, I know it is a good thing, but why? All of these women were basically eaten. Rynn was bit, yes, but she survived. He didn’t destroy her completely.”

“She does make a good point,” Ryker added. “If all these cases were so similar why did Rynn’s attack veer away from that?”

“Could it be another change in the pattern of attack?” Zia said, but it was clear she was thinking aloud.

Hadley looked shocked, her eyes wide with excitement. “This girl survived the attack?”

“Indeed she did. The Patriarch is looking after her as is his Beta.”

“Did you talk with her?”

“No,” Kyden replied.

“Hmm…maybe I should pay her a visit,” Hadley said.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I said quickly. Hadley snapped her head toward me. “That wolf has been through enough. Having someone from the FBI come in and interrogate her is the last thing she needs.” Hadley looked about to speak, but, I continued. “Besides, what can it help? Even if we knew more about the wolf who attacked her, it isn’t going to help any. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. Our best bet is these files. A name, a witness, anything that gives us a lead.”

With that, Hadley resigned and we all dug back into our files, searching, hunting for anything to solve this mystery.

After another five hours of receiving endless paper cuts and drinking enough coffee to give me the jitters, I was pretty much at the same point I started with. Nothing really connected. Yes, all the crimes were very similar, but that was about it. No names, no witnesses—nothing.

Zia sighed deeply. “This is far worse than I imagined.” She looked around the room at the boxes. “All the cases I have seen have the same M.O. Young women killed for no apparent reason. No evidence, no contacts, simply cold cases.”

Kyden sighed, and threw his file back into the box. “I have nothing here.”

“Me neither,” Ryken commented.

“All my cases run exactly along the same lines.” I sighed. “All young women—brutally murdered.” I started putting the files back into the box. “What do we do now?” I asked Zia when I was through.

Her gaze met mine, worry etched across her face. “I am not sure. Even if we captured a wolf, they would not be able to tell us anything about who is behind this and why. You have seen them. I doubt they will be eager for conversation.”

Kyden added, “Which brings a question to mind about who these witches are and why did they choose Dante to be turned to the darkness? He has authority. It was a risk to take him. Seems odd that whoever is behind this would go after such a powerful wolf.”

“Oh, I know the answer to that,” I said, hastily. “Magnus took Dante to get to me.”

Kyden’s face darkened. “Did he now?”

“You got it. He knew of my relationship to Valor. And because he needed to use my magical abilities to get rid of Pye, he used it to his advantage.”

“Pye?” Hadley looked interested at the mention of his name.

Ryker smiled, and nodded toward me. “She took him out.”

He appeared oddly proud. Once he gave up on annoying the hell out of me, or Kyden, with his charming attempts, we had actually become friends.

Ryker was a lot like Kyden—hence why the two of them had a hard time getting along. They were too much alike, but with my helping hand, their relationship was slowly improving.

Hadley looked stunned, shocked, scared—any of those s words fit the bill.

I waved away her expression before she asked any of the questions I could see were running through her mind. “This is old news and I really don’t want to relive it.”

Zia’s sudden gasp startled me. When I met her gaze, her eyes were wide full of comprehension. “If Magnus gave up Dante’s name,” her words came in rapid speed, “then he knows who is behind this.”

Christ! I hadn’t put two and two together. “You’re right.” I smacked my head. “With all that happened I just never thought about it. Do you think he is involved somehow?”

Zia shook her head. “No. Magnus wouldn’t bother with such things.”

“But his followers would,” Kyden quickly added.

Zia nodded.

“That only leaves us with one option.” I stated.

Kyden slowly met my eyes, and sighed deeper than I had ever heard come from him. “You only just got back from there.”