Good, the Bad, and the Vampire (10 page)

Anger and confusion shimmied through Trixie. The son of a bitch knew a gargoyle had been in the area. That's why he kept going out there. He didn't care about her or her daughter.

“So this was all about revenge?” Trixie seethed. “You were only after the gargoyle. You weren't there to help me or Chelsea.”

“Woman”—Dakota's expression darkened—“you are so wrong it's scary. I knew she was in danger. You too, for that matter. This isn't about revenge. I'm a sentry for the Presidium and it is my job to keep this community safe.”

“Maybe next time you could try being honest,” Trixie shot back. “If you had, then Chelsea might not even be in this mess.”

“You wanna blame someone, darlin'?” He strode toward her but stopped short and pointed at her. “You can start with that thing that attacked her. It was after somethin' that your daughter had.”

Trixie's hand went to the coin hidden beneath her shirt and her face heated.

“Dakota is on to something,” Xavier shouted as he flew in from the lab. He landed on the floor next to Olivia and Doug. “Seems that our friend Chelsea was an avid numismatist—a collector. According to her Facebook page, she collects rare coins. Fascinating stuff. She had a photo album there full of the various coins she's gathered over the years.”

“Valuable?” Olivia asked.

“Definitely.” Xavier nodded and looked from Trixie to Dakota. “Did you find anything like that when you were there?”

Trixie opened her mouth to respond but Dakota spoke up first.

“The place was trashed, but I'll go back and have another look around.” He nodded curtly and turned his attention back to Olivia and Doug. “I would venture to say that if she had a collection like that, it would be in a bank or somethin'. The one other fact I can tell you about gargoyles is that their viciousness is matched only by their greed. Jonner stressed that above all. If Chelsea had a treasure trove of coins, you can be sure the gargoyles would want it.”

“Interesting,” Xavier said. “Perhaps other collectors in the area have been attacked. I'll have a peek into the human police database and see if there are any similar cases.”

“Good idea,” Dakota said firmly.

“I didn't know Jonner but I'd heard about him. He was known for being something of a loner.” Olivia's brow furrowed. “I remember hearing that he died not long after you were turned, correct?”

“Yes, ma'am, down in Texas. Jonner was a hell of a fighter and tough as they come, but even he couldn't escape a silver bullet to the heart. He got dusted a year after I was turned. We were out on a hunt and got separated.”

“Gargoyle?” Olivia asked.

“Unlikely. Jonner was shot with silver, and in my experience, gargoyles like to use their claws.”

“Ah, yes,” Xavier exclaimed. He pushed his glasses onto his head. “They have a poison on their claws. It has the same effect on us as silver—on the wolves too, for that matter. It can be lethal if it hits the bloodstream.”

“Don't do much for humans either,” Dakota said flatly. “Their poison may not affect humans, but the claws work just fine.”

“It makes sense,” Xavier murmured. “After all, the gargoyles
were
charged with protecting humans. Humans have typically been prey for our kind and even for the wolves, especially during, shall we say, less-than-civilized times.”

“These sons of bitches are anythin' but civilized.” Dakota's hands curled into fists. “I've never seen 'em do anythin' other than cause damage. Besides, from what I heard, a bunch of 'em murdered their own royal family to get their stash of gold.”

“I remember that story.” Olivia ran both hands through her red curls and made a snort of derision. “The royal family was slaughtered and the gold stolen. That was the beginning of the end for them. The gold vanished along with the culprits. According to legend, the gold was the source of much of the gargoyles' power. Without it, their community completely dissolved into chaos.”

“They killed their own kind and shirked their duties as protectors. You ask me, they deserve to be extinct.” Dakota clasped his hands in front of him, his expression cold. “Anyway, after Jonner was killed, there was no more trouble with these bastards around here. Until now.”

As annoyed as Trixie was with Dakota for keeping his suspicions to himself, a pang of sympathy burned in her chest when Dakota spoke of his maker. She couldn't imagine how horrible that must have been for him to be left alone so early in his vampire life. How could she not have known he'd suffered such a loss? She didn't know much about the man who was supposed to be her bloodmate.

Maybe he wasn't wrong about that whole getting-to-know-each-other stuff.

“That all happened around the last time there'd been a confirmed sighting,” Olivia said quietly. “I'm sorry, Dakota. Losing your maker is never easy.”

Olivia wasn't simply saying it for the sake of saying it. She'd lost her own maker a couple of years ago, and even though Victor had been a stodgy old coot, it had still hurt Olivia deeply.

“I managed.” Dakota squared his shoulders. “All I found was his sentry dagger in a pile of dust. When I got sworn in as a sentry, I asked to keep his instead of gettin' one of my own. Seemed like the right thing to do.”

“Sorry, man.” Doug slipped his arm around Olivia's waist. “That must've been tough.”

“That's ancient history,” Dakota said evenly. He shifted his weight, clearly uncomfortable with the attention on him and his past. “Ma'am, if everyone thinks these things are extinct, I think it might be better if we left it that way. Keep the buzz to a minimum. I don't want the one that got away to know the Presidium is lookin' for it. Odds are that it has no idea I'm a sentry or that I'm on to it.”

Olivia and Doug exchanged a look Trixie had seen before, and she could tell that they were telepathing with each other. A twinge of jealousy wiggled under the surface. Part of her wanted to reach out to Dakota but he'd been so cold and distant that the idea of letting him into her head wasn't appealing. It was bad enough to get rejected face-to-face; why risk an intimate telepathic connection? Getting shut down that way would sting twice as badly.

“Okay.” Olivia nodded and slipped her phone back in her pocket. “Given your past experience with the gargoyles, I'll hold off on calling Zhao.”

“Thank you, ma'am.”

“Please, stop with the ‘ma'am' stuff.” She gave him a weary smile. “I've told you a hundred times to call me Olivia. One week, Dakota. That's it. Believe me, I'd much rather call him and tell him the situation has already been handled, but we can't risk a bigger mess than we already have. You've got a week to find the gargoyle and get Chelsea's baby back. If you don't find it by then, I'm going to have to call the emperor.”

“No problem.” Dakota nodded curtly. “I'll put it down the minute I find it.”

Panic fired through Trixie when she thought of that tiny baby in the midst of a battle between Dakota and a gargoyle.

“You're going to kill it? Hang on. That thing has Chelsea's baby.” She hopped to her feet and shot Dakota a withering look. “You are not going to go at it with guns and fangs blazing, cowboy. Not when it has my granddaughter.”

Dakota's hard expression faltered. For a split second Trixie saw empathy but it vanished as swiftly as it came. Arms at his sides, Dakota stared her down in silence. Fury buzzed in her chest, and she stalked around the bed toward him.

“Did you hear me?” she seethed. Hands curled into fists at her sides, she moved in so she was mere inches from him. “You will not put that baby girl in danger.”

“It's too late,” he whispered. “She's already there.”

Tension rippled between them and throbbed through the room. Trixie didn't back down.

“Fine.” She poked him in the chest. “Then I'm going with you. Because if you think I'm gonna let you risk that baby's life, then you've got another thing coming, bucko!”

The
Happy Days
reference probably sounded stupid, but she hoped the big jerk would get the point. His silvery-blue eyes flashed. His stubble-covered square jaw clenched as he leaned in, swallowing what little distance was left between them.

“That so?” His voice dropped to a growl. “And if
you
think I'm going to let you put yourself in danger, then all that dye in your hair has gotten to your brain. You aren't gettin' within a mile of one of those things ever again. You're gonna stay right here with Chelsea.”

“You're not the boss of me,” Trixie insisted. “This is not
Leave It to Beaver
land, dude. And if you'd let me speak, then I would have told you that—”

“Maybe not.” He poked her in the chest, cutting her off again. His narrowed gaze drifted over her face and down to her breasts, which both turned her on and pissed her off. “But I am not only a sentry, I am your bloodmate
and
your daughter is
my
progeny and—” Dakota stopped mid-sentence, his finger sliding lower along the curve of her breast.

For a second she thought the guy was actually going to try to cop a feel in the middle of their fight. But he didn't. Relief mixed with disappointment rippled through her as he reached between her breasts and pulled the coin from its rightful home.

He held the gold disk in his thumb and forefinger and swore under his breath, staring at the damn thing with nothing short of total shock. Too quickly, his expression of wonder shifted to one of fury. The dark, dangerous look in his eyes made her take a step back.

A tense heavy silence fell over the room and no one moved a muscle. Even the czars remained quiet.

“Is this the necklace you took off Chelsea before I turned her?” Dakota rasped. Frustration fired through her as Trixie stared into his angry face. “Answer me, damn it! Where did you get this coin?”

“I found it years ago, when I was human.” She snatched it from his hand and crossed back to Chelsea's bedside. “It was the only possession I had that ever meant something to me. I gave it to Chelsea when she was little.” Trixie couldn't bring herself to look at Olivia. “I know I wasn't supposed to, but I wanted her to have a piece of me with her.”

“Where did you find it?” Dakota asked in a quiet, almost deadly tone.

“I was on a camping trip down south with one of my foster families. I found it wedged between a couple of boulders. I was freaking nauseated almost the whole time. I guess I'm not a camping kind of girl.”

“Where were you camping?” His voice was barely audible and the color drained from his face. “Was it in Texas by any chance?”

Trixie nodded wordlessly and rubbed the cool gold disk between her fingers. Her thoughts went to the dreamscape. When she first got there it had reminded her of the place where she'd found the coin, but when Dakota arrived, it had changed to his family's ranch. Both places were in Texas…

A tickle of uneasiness whispered up her spine, and she remained pinned beneath the weight of his steely stare.

“Dakota?” Olivia said slowly. “What is going on?”

“Looks like our fates were tied together long before either one of us turned vampire,” he murmured.

“What are you talking about?” Olivia asked, her patience waning.

“That coin,” he whispered. “I've seen it before. It was only in a picture but I'd never forget that symbol. Jonner showed it to me.”

Uneasiness filtered around them like smoke, and Trixie thought she might actually choke on it. She sat on the edge of the bed and gathered Chelsea's hand in hers, wanting to protect her from whatever was coming.

“No wonder they came after Chelsea,” he said in a quiet, almost reverent tone. Dakota flicked his fierce gaze to hers briefly before turning to the czars. “That isn't just any coin. Chelsea had a piece of the gargoyles' gold.”

Dakota couldn't take his eyes off Trixie. She was sitting on the edge of Chelsea's bed fiddling with the chain of her necklace and holding her daughter's hand, looking as nervous as he had ever seen her. Not that he could blame her. The world they knew—and the one they were only beginning to know with each other—had blown up in a big, fat way.

He had wondered on more than one occasion over the past few weeks how two polar opposites like them could be paired up. But now it made sense. His fate had been intertwined with Trixie's decades before either of them had known about the existence of vampires. He'd bet his boots that she'd found that coin in or around Fredricksville, Texas, the same place he'd been attacked and where he and his maker had hunted down the other gargoyles.

“Do you remember the name of the town?” he asked gently. If he pushed too hard, she might shatter. The vulnerable woman under that hard-as-nails facade was now plainly evident. “Trix?”

“I don't know.” She sniffled and swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand before straightening her back defiantly. “It was something that started with an
F
…kind of like a guy's name.”

Dakota's gut clenched. “Like Fredricksville?”

“Maybe.” She lifted one shoulder. “I'm not sure. That sounds like it could be right. We were camping at some big state park. I remember the town nearby had a really cool building at the center of it. The town hall had been converted out of—”

“An old barn,” Dakota finished for her. “Yeah. It was originally the stable for the sheriff and his deputies.”

Her brown eyes met his and he felt the contact deep in his gut. Trixie hadn't even touched him, but she didn't have to. She was a part of him. They were tied. Their lives and destinies had been intermingled from day one.

He looked at Chelsea briefly. They were his family. Both of them. And if there was one thing Dakota always did, it was protect his family.

“Looks like you two are going to Texas,” Olivia said, tearing him from his thoughts. “If that is a piece of the gargoyles' gold, then it should be put back wherever Trixie found it.”

“Hell no.” Dakota scoffed audibly and folded his arms over his chest. “She's not going anywhere near any more gargoyles.”

“Wait, what?” Trixie shook her head and looked at Olivia like she'd lost her mind. “Not that Bossy Boots over here has any say in where I go or what I do, but why do you want us to go and put this back? And what about Rebecca? We have to find her.”

“It's the logical choice.” Olivia started pacing the room. “Before last night, the last time any gargoyles were sighted was down in Texas. We now know that they're looking for the gold—gold that you found in that same area, Trixie. They obviously attacked Chelsea to get that coin.” Olivia stopped at the foot of the bed and leveled a concerned look at the two women. “Maybe that's why it took the baby. It wouldn't surprise me if they try to use her to find out where the rest of the gold is. I say we give it back to them.”

“Makes sense,” Doug said evenly. “They probably figure that if Chelsea has one piece of their gold, then she knows where the rest is. That other gargoyle probably split with the baby because it got wind you were close by. Taking on a human woman is one thing, but facing two vampires is a different story. How the hell did they even know she had it?”

“I'll check the coin album she posted online,” Xavier interjected. He flew out of the room and shouted, “Perhaps she put it on there and one of them spotted it.”

“Why didn't it take that piece?” Olivia asked quietly. “The one that got away with the baby… Why didn't he take the coin?”

“I think it burned him,” Trixie said quietly. “Before she passed out, Chelsea said, ‘It burned him.' I wasn't sure what she was talking about, but now it makes sense.”

“That must be why the injured gargoyle went into hibernation,” Dakota said with his gaze pinned to Trixie.

“Why would it burn him?” Doug ran one hand over his head and let out a growl of frustration. “Shit. My guess is that other one is gonna hang on to the baby until they get what they want without getting burned. What do you think, Liv?”

Dakota had a damn good idea why that thing took the baby. No more stalling. He had to tell them, tell
Trixie
, what he'd discovered.

“I don't think that's why he took the baby,” Dakota said, immediately silencing everyone else in the room. All eyes were on him, but Trixie's reaction was the only one he really cared about.

He slipped his hand in the pocket of his coat and curled his fingers around the framed photo before pulling it out and handing it to Trixie. Steeling his resolve and knowing there was no way around the truth, he threw a prayer to the universe before finally coming clean.

“Is this guy in the photo Chelsea's boyfriend
and
Rebecca's daddy?”

Trixie rose to her feet with the frame clutched tightly in her ring-studded hands and studied the picture intently.

“Yes. That's him. That's Gatlin.” She nodded slowly, a wistful smile curving her full pink lips. “Chelsea looks so happy here… They both do. I didn't see her with him very often, but whenever he was around, she always had a smile on her face.”

“That's what I was afraid of,” Dakota murmured.

“Why?”

“I'm sorry, Trix, but I saw
him
in Chelsea's blood memories.” Dakota clenched his jaw and took a moment before forcing himself to tell Trixie the truth. “That man isn't a man at all. Gatlin is a gargoyle, and if he's the baby's father…”

“What? No way!” Trixie shook her head furiously and shoved the frame into Dakota's hands. She backed up and pointed at him accusingly, her voice thick with the tears he knew she was fighting. “That's
bullshit
. That can't be true because that would mean…”

Heavy silence, swollen with the unfinished statement, flooded the room and no one moved. Dakota's chest clenched and something inside him broke as tears streamed down Trixie's face. All the heavy makeup had long since been cried away, revealing the youthful face she hid beneath it.

How old had she been when she was turned? Eighteen? Twenty? Whatever it was, it was too young. All he wanted to do was make the hurt go away, to protect her, and yet he seemed to be making it worse at every turn.

“The baby is a hybrid,” Olivia said with pure awe. “She's half-gargoyle and half-human.”

“I'd say that complicates things,” Doug murmured. “Especially if it's the Presidium's policy to put down gargoyles.”

“We don't have a policy on gargoyles,” Olivia said wearily. “They weren't well liked and they kept to themselves. We thought they were pretty much extinct. Therefore, a non-threat and no standing policy.”

“Well, not exactly,” Dakota said evenly. Orders or not, the cat was out of the bag. “How do y'all think they got that way? Jonner's mission was to wipe out any that he encountered.”

“You're telling us that Emperor Zhao ordered the slaughter of the remaining gargoyles?” Olivia asked quietly. “That was your top secret mission?”

“Yes. It was highly classified.” Dakota nodded and finally admitted the truth. “That's what Jonner was training me for before he died. Even the czar of that district didn't know about it. Only Emperor Zhao was read in, and I was instructed to
only
discuss it with him. Given everythin' that's happened…well…looks like it's no longer classified.”

Olivia and Doug exchanged a look of confusion right before Trixie pounced.

“You're not going to hurt her!” Trixie shouted. Fangs bared, eyes wild, she flew across the room and grabbed the lapels of Dakota's coat. “You won't harm one hair on her head, do you hear me? I don't care if Rebecca is a fucking fairy-werewolf-demon-gargoyle-freak or descended from a line of vampire hunters. She is
my granddaughter
.”

Trixie pounded on his chest in a fit of rage and screamed through her tears, fury and frustration lacing every blow. Dakota stood there and let her attack him. She needed to get it out, to expel her outrage at the injustice of it all. Olivia and Doug made a move toward them to stop her, but he held up one hand and shook his head.

“You can't kill her,” she wept and pleaded with him. Trixie sobbed and buried her face against his chest, her body sagging against his. He could feel her anger shifting to utter despair. “Please, Dakota,” she said through her tears. “She's just a baby and she's my family.”

“I know.” Uncaring that the czars were a few feet away, Dakota wrapped her in his embrace and held her quaking body firmly against his, wanting to calm the storm. “And that makes her my family too, darlin'.”

To his great relief, she curled her arms around his waist and clung tightly, sobbing quietly against his chest. Pressing his lips against her hair, he touched her mind with his. The moment he did, it was like getting water after a drought. Orders or not, there was no way he was going to do anything to put that child in danger.
I'm not going to hurt her, Trixie, but I am gonna find her and bring her home to you. I promise.

“Do you swear?” Trixie sniffled and pulled back enough so she could look him in the eye.

“Yes, ma'am.” Dakota cradled her cheek and swiped at the tears with his thumb. “I gave you my word, didn't I? And I told you before that I only make promises I can keep.”

“I guess the telepathy kicked in.” Doug wagged his eyebrows. “Just wait, dude. The bloodmate thing? It gets better.”

“Amen to that.” Olivia winked as Doug pulled her into his arms. “Trixie, no one is going to hurt the baby. First of all, I don't toss out execution orders at the drop of a hat. You should know me better than that. Besides, if Gatlin is her father, it's unlikely he's going to hurt her. The more I think about it, the more it seems unlikely he took her hostage to get at the gold.”

Relief fired through Dakota and he tilted his head in gratitude. Hell, he would have dropped to his knees and kissed the woman's feet, but he was trying to maintain some kind of dignity. He'd never been happier to be part of such an unorthodox coven in his whole damn vampire life.

“I know.” Trixie sniffled and shifted in his embrace. “But if she's a gargoyle hybrid…”

“Hey, this coven isn't exactly standard issue.” Olivia let out soft laugh and shook her head. “Doug has an angel bloodline and Sadie is bloodmated to a werewolf prince. What's a little gargoyle thrown into the mix? Let's take this one step at a time. All we know now is that Chelsea's daughter has been taken and we have to get her back. After all, Chelsea isn't only your daughter but part of our coven now. That makes her family.”

Olivia pulled her cell phone from her pocket and started punching buttons. “If we can make nice with the werewolves and the Amoveo shifters, why not with a few lone gargoyles? I know that you said you were the only one to know about this, but I think it's time I call Emperor Zhao.”

“With all due respect, ma'am, are you sure that's a fine idea?” Dakota didn't like challenging the czar, but he was wary about taking this to Zhao. “What if he isn't as understandin' about the little girl's bloodline? After all, he's the one who ordered their execution.”

“I know, and that's what confuses me. I've known and worked with him for over two centuries, and an order like this seems way out of character.” Olivia raised one eyebrow. “This is the same Emperor Zhao who approved the mating of a vampire and a werewolf. I think it's safe to say that he's gotten more open-minded recently.

“Anyway, I was a sentry for over a hundred years, served in several districts, and I
never
heard about any gargoyle hit squad. And I was privy to some shit that would curl your toes. If there was some kind of secret gargoyle task force that is obviously no longer in service, then I'm sure Zhao will want to know what's going on. And you don't survive as long as he has if you can't keep a secret. Trust me, he'll keep a lid on it.”

Dakota held Trixie a little tighter.

“And no matter what, I would never let anything happen to a member of my coven. Regardless of her parentage, Rebecca is now a part of our family.”

Dakota nodded his agreement but a tickle of wariness crawled up his back. If Olivia, a czar and seasoned sentry, had never even heard of the gargoyle project, maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. But the horse was already out of the barn. Besides that, he had a baby to find. Playing nice with politicians was no longer on his priority list.

“I'll run a quick background check on the boyfriend.” Dakota kept Trixie's body tightly against his and noted how perfectly she fit in his arms. “It's doubtful that Gatlin went back to his old place, but it might give us something else to go on. We'll see what else Pete and Xavier found on Chelsea's computer that might help.”

“Fair enough.” Olivia's brow furrowed as she hit Send. “
Then
I think we should follow the Texas lead and get that coin back where Trixie found it.”

“But…I can't remember where I found it,” Trixie said quietly. All eyes turned to her and she lifted one shoulder. “It was a long time ago and I was so freaking sick the whole time. Plus, most of my human life is a blur.”

“Well, all the more reason for you to get down there and figure it out,” Olivia said firmly. “That gold has to go back where it belongs, and it sure as hell doesn't belong here with us. We should check out the rest of her collection, if we can find it, and make sure there aren't any more of those particular coins.”

“But what about Chelsea?” Trixie asked. “She's going to wake up from the transition in a day or so. She's probably going to be frightened.”