Oracles' Light [PUP Squad Alpha 8] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

BOOK: Oracles' Light [PUP Squad Alpha 8] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
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“I’ll transport Adam and Thomas directly to the safe house. You follow Dyson and Kristen, and they’ll meet you there.”

“Not a problem,” he said with a wide grin. He didn’t need to ask what Brody would be doing. The man would be going back to protect Ava. It was as clear and as simple as that. The woman might be off the assassin’s radar thanks to the fake death they’d arranged, but she was never without at least one of her husbands.

Angus watched Kristen’s small car climb a slight rise in the distance and decided it would be best to get himself moving. He’d slip travel ahead of the vehicle, wait for Dyson and Kristen to drive past and almost out of sight and then slip travel ahead once more. It would be quite nice to be able to stop every mile or so. With slip travel taking him directly from one point to the other, it wasn’t often that he got to slow down and appreciate the scenery. This assignment might actually start out rather pleasant.

 

* * * *

 

Three days of quiet, surrounded by deliciously handsome men who not only acknowledged her existence but also cared about her comfort didn’t really prepare Kristen for the realities of being a serial killer’s target. She’d never been the center of attention before and was a little bit embarrassed by how much she liked it. Of course, that didn’t stop her imagination from taking things one step further. She was well into her latest fantasy about Angus and Dyson taking turns at making love to her when an awful screeching sound filled the air.

Dyson was beside her almost instantly, his warm arms wrapped around her, holding her close as the other three men moved to investigate.

“Damn,” Angus said in a soft whisper, “we have at least two out the front.”

“Two more out back,” Adam said as he came into the living area, Thomas right behind him. “Time to follow the ‘live to fight another day’ rule and retreat.” All four men nodded in agreement.

Kristen held her breath, panic stealing through her. If they were surrounded, how were they supposed to retreat?

“Get her to Brody. We’ll follow with Dyson,” Thomas said decisively a moment before Kristen’s understanding of the world changed forever.

 

* * * *

 

Angus held Kristen close. He knew that slip travel was very uncomfortable for humans, but he’d been hoping that Kristen wouldn’t have to learn about their unusual skills the hard way. It had seemed easier just to take things one day at a time. Learning that she was an Oracle’s receptacle and currently surrounded by paranormals was something they’d decided to ease her into. Of course, that had been when they believed the safe house to be safe.

Kristen clung to him as her knees wobbled. He held her closer with one hand as he dialed his cell phone with the other.

“Brody, emergency evac,” he said as soon as the dragon-shifter answered the phone.

“On it.” A dragon vortex appeared beside them a moment later. Brody stepped through, quickly closed that jump vortex, and opened another. Angus lifted Kristen into his arms and followed the dragon-shifter. He ground his teeth together as nausea gripped him. He might have no effects from his own type of travel, but he wasn’t immune to the side effects that a dragon vortex had on nondragons. Kristen moaned and lost consciousness as he stepped into the bright sunshine in front of the alternate safe house they had set up.

Brody left and was back a few moments later with a fire demon who was unsteady on his feet and two men who morphed into wolves as soon as they hit the ground. Adam and Thomas wriggled out of what was left of their clothes and then paced the area checking for unexpected scents.

They changed back immediately as all five men’s cell phones began ringing at the same time.

Benjamin’s news was horrifying. His orders succinct.

Go off the grid.

They had a traitor in their midst, and they had no idea who they could trust.

Chapter Two

 

Angus held Kristen close as he watched the four agents with them. Brody, Dyson, Thomas, and Adam had all worked with PUP Squad Alpha for the past fifty years. Surely they could trust each other. Judging by the seemingly silent communication going on, as the only Deeks Security employee here, Angus was the one they didn’t trust.

“Let’s get her inside,” Dyson said casually as he held his arms out to take Kristen from him.

“No,” Angus said, tightening his grip on Kristen. She was shivering from the cold of traveling through his slip path, but was thankfully still unconscious. “You heard Benjamin. We need to go off the grid. Brody, you need to get back to Ava. We’ll protect Kristen, but if there is a traitor in our ranks, he’ll know that Ava isn’t dead.”

Brody glanced at the other three men, nodded once, and was gone.

“The pixies can’t follow the dragon vortex path,” Dyson said, “so we should be safe for a few minutes. Give me your cell phone.”

Angus complied, wincing as Dyson melted the plastic and metal into a gooey mess. It was obvious that Dyson didn’t trust him, but they were also evenly matched. If Angus stepped through a slip path, Dyson would be able to follow easily. If Dyson attacked with fire, Angus could counter with ice and vice versa. If nothing else, it meant that neither of them would have the upper hand and Kristen would be safe as long as the three of them were together.

Dyson melted all of the phones, and Adam dug a hole under the tree, buried the mess and covered it over with dead leaves. If pixies or the traitor did visit this particular safe house, they wouldn’t find any evidence that Kristen had been there.

“We don’t want to leave a traceable slip path,” Thomas said. “We’ll get to a heavily populated area before the next slip. That’ll make our trail harder for anyone to find.” He glanced at his fellow werewolf. “Adam is going to go borrow a vehicle, but in the meanwhile, we should probably put as much distance between us and this ‘safe’ house as possible.”

Angus nodded, lifted Kristen higher against his chest and started walking toward the highway. Dyson looked ready to wrestle the unconscious woman from Angus’s arms, but Thomas gave him a small shake of his head, and the man backed down. Fifteen minutes later, the five of them climbed into a car that seemed to have more rust than actual metal and headed toward the nearest town.

 

* * * *

 

Dyson sat in the backseat with Angus. Kristen was strapped into the seat belt between them, but they both held on to her. It was obvious that the combination of slip travel followed quickly by a trip through a dragon vortex had seriously upset the woman’s equilibrium. He was actually considering finding a human doctor for her when she finally woke up.

“Welcome back, sleepyhead,” Angus said affectionately. He touched her face with his fingertips and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Either the woman had become important to the ice demon in the past three days or Angus was the world’s best actor. Dyson grimaced at that thought. In some ways, he was glad that Jason was on leave. To have the same suspicions about his usual mission partner—a man he’d worked closely with for fifty years—just seemed wrong.

But Angus seemed to genuinely care for the woman between them, and it went a long way to calming the suspicion that Benjamin’s announcement had evoked. Dyson knew that part of his conclusion was coming from wishful thinking. He didn’t want to believe that any of the men he’d worked with were capable of betraying the very ideals they’d sworn to protect, but it truly didn’t seem possible that Angus was trying to hurt Kristen. Of course, that didn’t mean Dyson was going to give the ice demon, or anyone else, the chance to hurt her.

“Kristen, are you okay, sweetheart?”

“Terrific.” Her tone of voice sounded mildly sarcastic, but in a humorous sort of way. Dyson laughed softly as he entwined their fingers together. It wasn’t really necessary to hold her while the car was moving, but just like Angus, Dyson seemed to have fallen for the woman’s sweet personality. “What happened?” she asked quietly.

“That’s probably an explanation that can wait until after you recover from the headache,” Angus said with a worried glance at Dyson. Maybe they should have gotten around to explaining the whole paranormal thing sooner.

She cracked open one eye and peered at Angus tiredly. “How did I end up with a headache? Am I sick?”

“No, sweetheart. It’s a side effect. Kind of like travel sickness.”

She opened her mouth as if she planned to say something else, but closed it as the small amount of color she’d had in her face drained away once more. It was obvious that the woman was suffering, but it was also obvious that she didn’t want to bother anyone by pointing it out.

“Look for a motel,” Angus said, apparently noticing the same things that Dyson did. There was no way Kristen would be up to another slip travel today. She needed rest. She needed food. And she needed explanations. They should have told her who they were from the beginning, but now they would just have to deal with the situation and explain as best as possible.

A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking space out front of a cheap motel. It wasn’t classy by any means, but it was off the main road and backed onto a woodland area thick with trees. It was a viable escape route if they needed it. Thomas nodded to Adam, who quickly disappeared into the brush. A few moments later, a soft wolf’s howl filled the air as he reported the all clear to the occupants of the car.

Thomas turned to peer at them from the driver’s seat. “Get her settled. I want both of you to stay with her at all times. Understood?”

Dyson and Angus nodded and then turned to help Kristen from her seat belt. It was clear that none of them knew who to trust, but as long as they only had one traitor, then protecting the Oracle’s receptacles in pairs was the wisest choice. The idea of there being more than one teammate betraying them wasn’t something Dyson wanted to think about. Not knowing who he could trust left him feeling ill in ways he couldn’t describe. He’d worked with the men in PUP Squad Alpha for five decades and for years on and off with many of the operatives from Deeks Security. They’d survived countless dangerous missions together and had always watched each other’s backs. Learning that there was one among them he could no longer trust was damn near soul destroying.

But the one thing he knew for certain was that he wasn’t a traitor. If he could only rely on himself for this mission, then that’s what he’d do. He pressed a kiss to Kristen’s temple and silently vowed to protect her from anyone meaning her harm—no matter who that person was.

Somewhere between the highway and the motel she’d lost consciousness once more. She was still quite pale, but at least she seemed to be sleeping comfortably this time. Trying not to wake her, Dyson half lifted, half dragged her across the backseat. Angus followed her out, his hand never letting go of Kristen’s. They followed Thomas to the door of the room. He unlocked it, did a quick visual sweep of the small space, and then stood back to let them enter.

 

* * * *

 

Angus tried to stay out of the way, without actually letting go of her hand, while Dyson placed Kristen in the middle of the king-size bed. Considering their current orders—to be close to her at all times—it was a relief to at least have space enough to stretch out. He was unlikely to get a lot of sleep over the next few days, but at least by lying down comfortably he’d be able to get a measure of rest.

Kristen moaned quietly as she woke, and both he and Dyson moved to comfort her. Dyson’s actions certainly didn’t seem to be the behavior of a man with something to hide. If he’d truly meant the woman harm, he’d had ample opportunity to hurt her over the past three days. They all had. He was probably going with gut feeling on this one, but it seemed unlikely that any of them who’d been on assignment could have somehow organized apparently simultaneous attacks on all three “safe” houses at the same time. In fact, Angus hadn’t even known where Amber had been housed at the time of the attacks.

“Thomas,” he said as the man walked back into the room, “Benjamin definitely said the attacks were on ‘safe’ houses, didn’t he?” Thomas nodded and Dyson lifted into a sitting position to watch him more closely. “Who would have known the location of all three? I mean, I knew where Hannah was being protected—we all did—but who knew where Amber was?”

“Only a handful,” Thomas said, rubbing his head like he had a headache. It couldn’t be easy for the guy. He’d been second in charge of PUP Squad Alpha for the past fifty years. To have any doubts about the loyalty of the men he’d worked and fought side by side with for so long must have felt awful.

In some ways, Angus had it a lot easier. Yes, he’d worked with most of the squad at one time or another over the past decade, but it wasn’t like he’d made any lasting friendships. If anything, he was the guy most likely to be able to see the actions of a traitor simply because he had very little history or emotional memories of these men to fall back on.

“It narrows it down,” Adam said as he stepped in through the doorway. “With the wards on at the safe house there was no way to get messages to or from anyone other than by cell phone. And no way to turn off the wards without alerting the others. Cell phone records are fairly easy to trace, so we should at least be able to eliminate some suspects.” He gave them a half smile and added, “That’s of course assuming that we’re dealing with only one traitor.”

“You think there might be more than one?” Dyson asked in a voice that made it obvious he was struggling to hide the shock.

BOOK: Oracles' Light [PUP Squad Alpha 8] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
2.85Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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