Heart of the Warrior (2 page)

"I thought I heard gunshots. You okay?"

Sev hid the hole in his jacket. "Yep. Fucker’s aim was
worse than his judgment."

He and Malek had stumbled on these two selling
cobalt
to a couple of vampires. The vamps – two females – got away, but not the
drecks.

Sev leaned over and grabbed the unconscious dreck by the
collar and yanked him up then slapped him back to the land of the lucid.

"Who were you selling to?" he said.

The dreck sneered, but in its human form, the gesture didn’t
look as sinister as it would have in his blue-toned shifted form. "Fuck
you, vampire."

"Wrong answer." Sev punched him in the gut and the
dreck doubled over.

"Sev!" Malek grabbed his arm. "Forget it.
Let’s just take them in."

With a scowl, Sev looked between the two drecks then back at
Malek, whose long, jet-black hair hung loose to his his shoulders and blew over
his face. He had a bit of a shiner around his left eye. Looked like Malek had
scuffled with his catch, too.

"I’m going after those two vampires," he said.

"They’re long gone. Don’t bother."

"No, I want to know who they are."

Cobalt consumption was growing out of hand in the vampire
community, jeopardizing the truce between the drecks and vampires even further.
Drecks had originally manufactured cobalt in the mid-80s as a designer drug for
humans, which was bad enough, but unlike most human recreational drugs, cobalt
actually affected vampires. It was a powerful drug and highly addictive. It
hadn't taken long for vampires in need of recreational intoxication to figure
out cobalt would succeed in giving them a higher high where cocaine, heroin,
and meth had failed, and now it was becoming an epidemic.

After slapping cuffs on the dreck, he shoved him toward
Malek.

"You can wait here or go back. It’s up to you, but I
won’t be gone long. I just want to see if I can track them and find out who they
are."

"Sev—"

But Sev was already dematerializing into ether. Some
mixed-blood day walkers couldn’t make like a mist, but he could. He was
thankful for that. Going ethereal had its advantages. At least his asshole
father had given him something useful.

He tracked the trail of the two vampires through the back
alleys and out to the street. A few blocks later, the trail weakened where they
had gotten into a car and driven off. In a flash, he zipped after the faint,
lingering trail until it led him to a flying-by-the-seat-of-its-pants Jaguar
XKR-S convertible with the top down.

Yes, those girls were flying high. One of the effects of
cobalt was heat, and on a cold mid-March night in Chicago, no one put the top
down and went for a spin unless they were seriously tripping.

As he landed in the car behind the two girls and rested his
hands on the headrests of their seats, he got the sense these weren’t regular
females. These were the daughters of vampires with privilege.

"Nice car," he said.

The one who was driving screamed and swerved, and Sev nearly
careened over the side.

"Whoa! Eyes on the road, sweets. Better yet, pull
over."

She was already slamming on the brakes and Sev flew forward
between them, throwing out his right hand just in time to stop himself from smashing
into the dash and windshield.

"Fuck!" He pushed back and sat up as the car
finally stopped on the side of the road. "Damn it, female! Where did you
learn how to drive?"

The two girls were drenched in sweat, hands trembling, eyes
wide like they were seeing rainbows and unicorns prancing in the street in
front of them. Then the driver turned and looked at him.

"Who the fuck are you? What do you want? My father will
have you killed if you hurt me." Her threat rattled and slurred out of
her, but she held her head high. Sev got the sense she was a strong vampire,
highly intelligent and feisty, as well as rich as sin.

Gold hoops hung from her ears – the real shit, not the
gold-plated stuff – and a diamond and ruby brooch adorned the left breast of
her short-sleeved, pink angora sweater, which she filled out nicely with ample
breasts. If Sev had been a straight male, he would have been impressed to
distraction. Luckily for him, he didn't have to worry about that. He was one
hundred percent into guys. Well, one guy in particular, but this wasn't the
time to think about Arion.

A mink coat lay strewn over the back seat. The driver's
blonde friend wore even more high-dollar bling, and the suede coat at her feet
looked like it had set her back a good three thousand dollars. Good thing money
didn’t intimidate Sev. At least, not usually. These females were pushing the
limits of his
intimidometer,
though.

"And just who might your father be?" Sev tapped
the driver's seat headrest as he eyed her. "And I wonder how he would feel
if he knew you were buying cobalt from a dreck on the South Side. Because it’s
obvious you’re a North Sider with this swank-ass car and all the fancy
rocks."

The female’s lip quivered and Sev wasn’t sure if she was
angry or just tripping off the cobalt, but he got the feeling it was a little
of both and that she didn’t want to reveal who her father was. He could see her
mental processes sorting through the drugged haze in her brain as if she was
trying to assimilate what was real and what was drug-enhanced so she didn't say
anything incriminating.

"Forget it," she said. "Just tell me what you
want. You want money? I can pay you. Or…I can…I can give you a blow job."
Her voice wavered nervously. "Will that make you forget you saw us? I can
do that."

Sev got the distinct impression that she had never given a
blow job in her life, so offering one to him showed just how desperate she was.
Her friend nodded in agreement, and Sev got the same impression about her.
These girls were young and untouched sexually. Yeah, daughters of privilege –
progeny of members of the king's council, no doubt. That would explain their
apparently intact virtue. Members of the king's council tended to live by the
old ways, which included keeping their daughters chaste and marrying them off
to approved suitors.

Still, both females reached for his belt.

Sev grabbed their wrists and batted them away. "Stop!
Hell no. I’m not into bribes, Barbie. You’re not my type, anyway." Hell,
they weren’t even his gender.

Sev's mind shot unwittingly to Arion again. Ari was another
member of Sev's enforcement team, and just the thought of him made Sev's heart
skip a beat.

No, better not go there, Sev ol’ boy. Not now. Head in
the game, head on your job. You can think about Ari and that heartache later.

The busty brunette behind the wheel huffed and sat back in
her seat, dejected. Her blonde friend did likewise, avoiding his gaze.

"So, what? You gonna bust us? You’re an enforcer,
right?" The short high seemed to be dissipating as the two girls turned
and looked out the windshield.

"Maybe. Maybe not. What are your names?"

The two exchanged glances, their long hair hanging in sweaty
ribbons over their faces and down their backs.

"I’m…Candy, and this is…Sue."

"And I’m the Tooth Fairy," Sev said. "Now, what
are your real names?"

The brunette behind the wheel shot a glance at him as if she
couldn’t believe he had caught on to her lie, but really? Candy and Sue? How
obvious could she be? Of course those weren’t their real names. No sane vampire
within the king's inner circle named their progeny such ordinary names, and Sev
would bet everything he owned that's what he had on his hands here.

He cocked his head at the driver, waiting, but she only
stared back, her lips pursed tightly.

With a sigh, he looked away. He wanted to bust these girls,
but something told him to let this one go with only a warning. Otherwise, their
high-powered parents might drag this into a major issue that wouldn't be worth
the energy. Maybe this was enough of a scare to sober them up and keep them
from making any more late-night buys or equally bad choices. Probably not, but
he would give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Look, girls. I won’t take you in this time, but if I
catch your asses buying or using again, I’m hauling you in, and then you’ll
have
to give me your names. Your
real
names.
And
your daddy’s."
The last he said to the brunette. That seemed to get quote-unquote
Candy’s
attention.
"Understood?"

The two nodded.

"So, you’re not going to arrest us?" The blonde
gaped at him as if she had just fallen under a lucky star.

"Not this time, but consider yourselves marked. I’ve
got your scent right here." He tapped the side of his nose. "I
will
be looking for you. Rest assured. Now, do yourselves a favor and get off the
cobalt."

Sev met the brunette’s eyes and held her gaze for a long
moment before hopping over the side of the car. "Now get out of here
before I change my mind."

The two girls glanced at each other as if they couldn’t
believe their good fortune, and without another word,
Candy
threw the
car in gear and took off, leaving him standing on the sidewalk.

Shit. He needed to be less of a softy, but he liked giving
people a break. One get-out-of-jail free card was all they got, though. He sure
hoped he didn’t see Candy and Sue, or whatever their real names were, again,
but he probably would. Oh well, they had been warned. Next time, he wouldn’t be
Mr. Nice Guy.

Dematerializing, he misted back to the alley and found Malek
waiting in the Suburban.

"Hey." He hopped in the passenger seat and yanked
the door closed. "Thanks for waiting."

"Well?" Malek put the Suburban in gear and they
started out of the alley.

"Two females in a Jag. Money falling out their asses.
If I had to guess, I’d say they were recently-transitioned."

Recently-transitioned could mean they were anywhere from
twenty-eight to sixty years old. By vampire standards, anything less than sixty
was young.

"Damn. Makes sense, though. It’s the young ones who
seem to get tangled up in the shit these guys were peddling." Malek jerked
his thumb toward the back seat.

Sev turned around and inspected the shackled drecks behind
the iron grate separating the cab from the passenger seats. "How you boys
doing? Comfy?"

The one with the home run swing sneered. "Fuck
you."

Sev grinned and rubbed his shoulder. The bitch hurt like a
mother fucker. "Maybe later." He turned back to Malek as they hit the
main road and headed toward AKM. "Did you get names off them?" He
bobbed his head toward their catch.

"Nah, just call them Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum. Or
Dumb and Dumber. Although I don’t know which is which."

Sev chuckled and looked out the window.

"So you didn’t bust the girls?" Malek glanced
sideways at him.

Sev snorted. "Hell no. With all the money in that car,
I had a feeling busting them would end up a nightmare of monolithic
proportions. Nah, I gave them a warning this time."

"This time?"

"Yeah. I marked their scents. I’ll be looking for them,
and if I catch them pulling this shit again, I don’t care who their daddy is,
I’m hauling their asses in."

"Is that the real reason why you let them go,
bro?" Malek arched an eyebrow at him.

Sev shook his head. "I know what you’re thinking Mal,
but I wasn’t even remotely interested in tapping either one of them,
okay?" He thought about Arion again and wondered if he would ever get the
male off his mind. He had been thinking a lot about Arion. Too much, actually.

Honestly, Sev was surprised at Malek's suggestion that he
would be interested in the girls. Malek didn't normally talk about females. It
was common knowledge that he had lost his mate centuries ago and had never
fully recovered. Consequently, females weren't a big topic of discussion with
him. He never dated, and he never even looked at a woman in that way, except
for on the one night each month he went to the Black Garter. Even then, he only
looked, didn't touch.

Maybe Malek was just growing more comfortable with him and
opening up more. Sev was the new guy, after all, and now that he and Malek were
patrolling together on a regular basis, conversation flowed more easily. Who
knew? Sev just wasn't used to hearing him talk like that.

Malek let the subject of the two girls drop, and they rode
in silence for a couple of minutes.

"So, what are you doing after your shift?" Malek
said.

Sev inspected his fingernails. "I don’t know. Maybe hit
the training center then go home."

"You should come with us to Four Alarm."

Us: Malek, Io, Micah, Trace…and Arion.

Sev knew Arion would be at Four Alarm and he wasn’t sure he
could handle that. Ari was easily the finest-looking guy on the team, and he
attracted enough females to prove it. Women, both human and vampire, gravitated
toward him like bees to honey. And wasn't that just swell? Ari and his best
friend, Io, another member of the team who was equally popular with the ladies,
were quite the crowd pleasers at the team's regular hang-out. Going and
watching that dagger-through-the-heart shit would prove just how much of a
masochist Sev was, and masochism wasn't something he normally ascribed to. That
shit worked well and good for the likes of Micah's old friends, from what he'd
heard, but Sev didn't float that way.

"I'm not sure, Mal. I should really just go home."

"Come on. It’ll be fun and you deserve a night to
celebrate. You haven’t taken any time to hang and have fun since Tristan
promoted you to full status."

As the newest member of the team, Sev had only recently come
off probation.

He glanced back out the window. Part of him wanted to go,
but seeing Arion would kill him. Had it really been over a month since the night
Micah brought his mate, Samantha, into AKM after giving her his venom to save
her life? Arion and Micah had argued that night, and in his emotionally-charged
state, Micah had beaten the crap out of Arion. Then Sev had taken Ari home
and…Sev's heart hiccupped as he remembered what happened in Ari's kitchen. Oh,
the things they had done to each other in that brief, heated interlude.