Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series) (19 page)

"I never joined you."

"The facts would say otherwise."

"
This is your fault!" I screamed.

"Come here," he said and crooked his finger.

"Why?" I asked, suddenly thrown off guard.

"Come here."

"No. What do you want?" I took a few steps backward as he inched forward. "What?" I asked again, panic surging through me.

Then he lunged at me, taking me with him to the floor as he took the hit for us both.

"What are you doing?" I asked again as he kept his arms circled around me.

"I
'm giving you what you asked for."

"I didn
't ask to be tackled to the ground and hugged," I told him as I started to squirm about.

"Yes, in Jo language, this is exactly
what you were asking for. If you keep squirming, you might get everything you've been asking for."

He rolled me underneath him and h
is hips ground against mine as my breath caught in my throat. His mouth covered mine, his tongue dipping erotically into my mouth.

"I never asked for this."
The words didn't sound very convincing, said on a breathy sigh when he pulled back slightly.

"
If it's not what you wanted, then why aren't you telling me to stop?"

"Because you
're a lot bigger than I am."

His hand came up and grazed my face. "If you wanted me off of you, all you
'd have to do is ask."

His face hovered mere inches above mine, his pale blue eyes staring
into my green. I turned my face to the side. I didn't want him to leave me. He was right. Whatever this was…I wanted it. Not just sex, I craved the comfort I felt from his closeness. But after everything that had gone between us, how could I even think of letting it happen?

I kept my face turned
; I couldn't accept him and yet I couldn't push him away. I was in emotional purgatory. He leaned his face down, grazing my ear slightly with his lips. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation but knowing I should stop it.

"I don
't think…"

"Jo," his voice interrupted me. "I
'm sorry. I'd give anything to undo it." The stubble of his jaw grazed along my neck as he rested his forehead in my hair.

A knot formed in my throat as I listened to him. I knew what he was talking about but I needed to confirm it anyway. "You
're sorry you had people shot?" I asked, hiding behind a group because I couldn't confront it head on.

"No, only you." His lips pressed against my neck as he whispered again, "I only regret you."

"Why?" It was a simple question and the one I wanted answered most.

I felt his head shake back and forth. "I just didn
't know."

Of all the things he could
've said, those words skewered me.

I felt his head lift and I thought he was going to rise, but instead I felt his lips at the base of my throat. First his lips and then his teeth were grazing over my skin, inch by slow inch until he reached the corner of my jaw. I heard myself moan as he settled further in between my legs.

Push him off,
I kept telling myself, but I didn't. I turned my head instead and met his lips. I realized quickly that he'd been waiting for something from me as his lips sought mine with a deep hunger, stealing the breath from my lungs. His hips ground
into mine and I threw my head back on a moan as his hand sought my breast and his breath seared my throat.

I heard a person clear their throat that wasn
't Cormac. Like I didn't have enough issues with intimacy, I needed to get caught laying on the floor by…I didn't even know. I turned my head to see Cormac already staring at Vitor, Buzz and a strange little woman who looked oddly familiar.

"Sorry, but you said to bring anyone that had contact with the
senator in right away." For an apology, Vitor didn't sound very apologetic.

"You could
've knocked," Cormac said as he stood and offered me a hand up.

"Boss, normally you hear me get out of the elevator."

"From now on, knock." There was an edge to his voice that added
and drop it,
without saying it.

I pushed my hair out of my face as I looked at the newcomers as if they hadn
't just walked in on me laying flat on my back with Cormac between my legs. Try as I might, I couldn't stop thinking there was a certain reaction. Buzz had a slight twinkle in his eye, and Vitor looked…not so twinklish. The strange woman…she just looked odd. And where did I know her from? Then I remembered. When I had first started running the portal, she'd been one of my first travelers and had told me I looked familiar.

"This is Colie. She
's of the Fae. She knew the senator."

"That I did," she said in a strange accent I hadn
't heard from any of the Fae before. She stepped around the chair that still lay on the floor and made herself comfortable on the couch. "Strange thing, he was. Younger back then, but still an odd one."

"So he ages?" I asked.

"He's not human, if that's what you're trying to ask, but yes, he's aged."

"What is he?"

"That I don't know. But I do know a human when I see them. He ain't."

"How do you know him?"

Her eyes, with irises so dark they looked black, ran over my face. "My niece Malora brought him around a couple of times."

"Malora?" I repeated.

"Yes. I told you that you looked familiar," she said.

And that was it. No show of emotion
about finding a long lost loved one. Nothing.

"
You knew my mother?"

"Yes."

She didn't need to say anything more. I could tell the old woman had hated her.

"Are there any other relatives?"

"No. I'm it, and you should be grateful. Bad lot, the whole bunch of them. All dead now."

I wasn
't sure how to react to her words, or the chill in her voice. I hadn't known my mother. Do you defend someone you never knew? What's the point? Everybody knows you don't have a leg to stand on and right now I needed information from her. I cared more about that than defending a stranger.

I sat down on the opposite couch
to her; everyone else stood. As abrasive as this woman came across, I felt oddly sad for her. Even Vitor, her own kind, seemed to want to keep his distance and it wasn't from fear.

"Do you know what he was doing with Malora?" I had to concentrate to not trip over her name, feeling so odd speaking of her.

"No, but I'm sure it was no good. She had a tendency to hang around undesirables. Hanging with the wolves, and the lowest of them to boot. Always carrying on about all the secrets the wolves had. Like the Wolves knew things we didn't, hmmph.  Then she started panting after a Keeper named Hammond. She could always get any man she wanted, with her looks. More of a curse than a gift, if you want my opinion."

Again, I felt her judgmental stare on me. Was I supposed to apologize for being attractive now? I was quickly losing any sympathy I had for the woman, ostracized or not. Plus, I was relieved Dark wasn
't here right now to hear how she felt about the wolves. He'd become a staple in the penthouse.

"Malora was a tramp," she continued.

You need her information. You can tell her to get the hell out after you get her information,
I repeated like a silent mantra in my head.

"She was trying to get knocked up by Hammond."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because when she couldn
't get pregnant, she went to what you people would call a doctor to get spelled. That's when the senator guy came around. I only saw him a handful of times but she needed him for something. That's how Malora was. She didn't bother with anyone that didn't do something for her."

The idea I could somehow be the
senator's daughter ran through my mind but then I remembered the blood. I was Hammond's, and for once, actually happy about it. That was bad enough. But what had Malora needed from the senator, I wondered; I asked the woman in front of me.

"I don
't know. But she got something. He wouldn't have been around if she hadn't. My guess it had something to do with you. And Hammond."

"So what happened to him? Did he ever come around again?"

"I don't know. She disappeared right around the time I thought for sure she was pregnant. Never saw her again." The old woman looked around the room and waited. "No more questions?"

I shook my head. All the times I
'd imagined talking to a family member and now I sat here and couldn't think of a single other question.

"We
'll get in touch with you if we think of any," Cormac said.

Colie stood, paused by Vitor with her palm out and he placed a wad of cash into it. Burrom never would
've of had to pay anyone. I'd seen him with his kind. There was a reverence and touch of fear.

Cash in hand, she walked out the door without a by your leave. Yes sir, that
's my family.

"Now what?" It wasn
't exactly a question but a statement, and no one answered me. "We still have no idea what he is. We have no clue how to kill him. I think the only option we've got is to out him."

"What is that going to do?" Vitor asked.

"I agree. We've got nothing else. Let's make it as hard as possible for him," Cormac said.

"I think he
's afraid of being touched by me."

All three men turned to look at me.

"In the alley, when you got shot, it's just a hunch but I don't think he wanted me to touch him. I think he was actually afraid of me getting close to him. If we could corner him somewhere that he can't disappear, somewhere I can get my hands on him, maybe I could take him out."

"No, it
's impossible," Cormac said at the same time Buzz and Vitor said "Yes."

"She
's the only one that might be capable of closing wormholes of that size up. You want us to just walk her out there for the senator to kill her?"

"I
'm doing it," I said as I dug into my position, not sure if I was so adamant because I didn't like Cormac trying to push his way or because of the niggling fear that I was the last one in between the senator and billions of humans.

Cormac stared me down as I stood. "I
'm doing it," I repeated, then in a softer voice I said, "we don't have another option."

Dodd bu
rst into the room, just as Cormac opened his mouth to speak. "There's another one."

No one had to ask. We all knew what he was talking about.

"It took out a chunk of Mexico. This one's got about a ten mile radius," Dodd continued.

"How long ago?" I asked.

"Not more than five minutes. It's just hitting the air waves now."

I walked over to the window overlooking the strip and waited for the
panic to descend. The government had been able to keep the first, smaller one a secret so far. The NY one had created pure panic in the region but here, it hadn't been as bad. People had thought it was a localized problem. Yes, they'd been scared, but not the terror that would soon grip them when they knew it wasn't local. There would be nowhere safe.

As I watched below, I saw it begin. Humans still have a pack mentality at their core. It pops up in the strangest of places
, if you look. On a summer day, with no traffic, cars on the highway will still drive in clusters, never really spaced apart evenly. At the mall, shopping, people flock to where other people are browsing, thinking it's where they should be. In times of turmoil and stress, the instinct increases tenfold. Our natural instincts come to the fore and drive our actions.

Slowly, the people on the street started to clump together. Strangers, who wouldn
't normally approach each other, huddled together until there was barely a stray to be found. Soon, they'd start to hide indoors, probably in bomb shelters and basements, clinging to an imagined security like a child hides under their covers. I wished I was ignorant and thought I could hide from this. They were the lucky ones. We'd all meet our death, but I would watch its slow march forward.

Chapter Fourteen

"This is crazy," I said to no one in particular as we all walked down the Vegas Strip. It had only been yesterday that the latest space hole had appeared, and approximately twenty-four hours later the place was a ghost town. The casino was abandoned, with most of the staff having called out. The streets were deserted, shops were closed with handmade signs taped to the windows, declaring they were unsure of when they'd reopen.