SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (169 page)

She clutched the badge and met the steward’s gaze. “You can protect me?”

“You’ll never be safer.”

An image of her father’s face and the satisfying weight of the metal in her hand made the decision for her. “Where do I sign?”

Clark’s lips pulled into a smile, and he reached over the desk and tapped a finger at the bottom of the first page. Evelyn took a pen from the edge of his desk and scrawled her name.

“Wonderful,” he said. “I’ll set an appointment with Human Resources for your new hire package, but the most important part is done. Welcome to Immortal Bounty, Evelyn.”

He stood and offered her his hand, and at that point, whether or not her palms were still sweaty was the furthest thing from her mind. To say the moment was surreal would be like saying The Great Collision was a tiny screwup. “Thank you, Steward Clark. I’ve wanted this for so long, and I know—”

The steward’s head cocked to the side and his gaze went distant in a way that made her miss the cellular phones of her parents’ day. At least back then you knew when you were competing with an incoming call instead of everyone using those stupid ear implants like they did now.

The steward glanced down at his desk to another stack of papers and made a
hmm
noise, seemingly moving on to the next task at hand. “Yes, give me a minute,” he said to someone, then he glanced back to Evelyn and frowned. She sure as heck hoped that frown was for the person on the phone and not for her.

“I know you won’t disappoint us, Dr. Vale.” Steward Clark turned his gaze toward the Sentinel on the sofa, and the man rose to his feet. He was massive, his muscles nearly sufficient to carry the weight of the large chip sitting on his shoulder. “Well, Commander Hayes, I’m sure you and Dr. Vale have much to discuss. Let me be the first to congratulate you on your new partner.”

Immortal Possession: Chapter Two

The high that Evelyn had been on was crashing like a plane out of fuel. Three hours of paperwork and filling out forms would kill anyone’s buzz. She knew they must have her fingerprints and retinal scans on file from her old applications, but they insisted on a full new-hire package, complete with pregnancy and blood tests.

“Ouch,” she complained when the nurse injected her with another inoculation. There were very few diseases they didn’t have a cure for these days, but the eradication of cancer continued to elude them. “I thought I was up to date on all the vaccines after that last one.”

The young nurse grinned. She’d already asked Evelyn to call her by her given name, Darlene, as though they were fast friends. “That was a birth control chip. It will be removed when your service is done. It’s in the contract, page sixty-seven. I had to look that one up myself because everyone always asks.” She picked up a chrome-plated injection gun and lifted Evelyn’s other arm. “And this—”

“Shit!” A piranha with a grudge had just taken a chunk out of Evelyn’s arm. At least that’s what it had felt like.

“—is your tracker and vitals scanner. Read your welcome packet carefully.” Darlene leaned in conspiratorially, her scrub-clad form hunching as though she was sharing a secret. “You can ask to have the chips switched to standby on your days off. And girl, I wouldn’t forget that. It’s only fair I warn you that this place is gossip-fucking-central. Your heart rate goes up too much, and every keyboard puncher at ops control is going be cross-checking your GPS and taking bets on who you’re screwing.”

“Lovely,” Evelyn muttered.

Darlene faced her, eyes wide and eager, and the undersized white wings on her back began to beat. “Why? Are you seeing anyone? Any boyfriends or girlfriends back home?”

Evelyn almost laughed. Like she would tell this woman about her personal life even if she had one. The nurse’s expression lit with the promise of incoming gossip, only to fall when Evelyn answered, “I’m afraid not.”

“Just let me calibrate these. We’re almost finished.” Darlene ran a beeping scanner over Evelyn’s arm, and the path left an itchy vibration. “So you said you’re going to be assigned to Special Teams as an investigator? Who’s your Sentinel going to be? What about your supernatural specialist?”

“Um…” Was she even supposed to be talking about this? “I, uh, haven’t heard about the supernatural specialist I’m going to be paired with, but the Sentinel is Commander Jesse Hayes. Do you know him?”

Darlene sighed dramatically, and her wings tucked into her back. “Oh, you poor thing. And for your very first assignment? What was the steward thinking?”

Evelyn swallowed, getting drawn in in spite of herself. “You know Commander Hayes? What’s wrong with him?”

“Well, I’ll tell you this—IB is a
very
small world. Most of the Marks aren’t allowed to live off campus. And it’s not like we can bring a significant other here. As you can imagine, it’s almost impossible to meet people from the real world, so, you know, you get close to everyone here. It’s just natural. But you won’t be getting close to Jesse Hayes. Trust me.”

“Why?” Evelyn all but whispered.

Darlene looked around as though the walls had ears and then met Evelyn’s gaze. “He’s a regular recluse. Mark my words, you’re going to want to figure out a way to get a new partner ASAP.”

Evelyn nodded, taking it all in. Most of the people Immortal Bounty recruited to the bounty hunting division had remarkable gifts or mutations, and those “Marks” lived in a world all their own. When you were on the outside looking in, that just added to the mystique. But now that Evelyn had signed on as the newest Immortal Bounty employee, she wondered how she would fit in here, sequestered from her family and paired with the campus recluse.

Jesse Hayes might be perfectly immune to possession, and she might need him this time around, but once this assignment was over, maybe she’d get luckier. “Thanks for the heads up, Darlene. After this mission, maybe they’ll give me someone new.”

“Yeah, it happens. Especially when you’re working with someone at Jesse’s rank who still has to supervise his men. You may end up getting switched around for different assignments.” A grin split her face wide open, and her little wings burst from her back again. “Oh! If you can, ask for Jack. He leads Red Unit and his longtime Special Teams partner just retired. He’s totally to die for. To. Die. For! I swear, he has a smile that’ll melt your panties off.”

Evelyn chuckled and sent up a silent prayer that she never got on Darlene’s bad side. Wow, that woman could talk. She glanced down at her arm when Darlene retracted the electric wand. “All done?”

The nurse grinned. “Yup. That should do it.”

Evelyn rose and Darlene put an arm around her shoulder. “We’re going to be the best of friends. I can tell already. I’ll save you a seat at lunch tomorrow, okay?”

Evelyn could swear she blushed. It was like being back in high school. “That would be great. I’ll look for you.” She gave Darlene an awkward wave as she went out the door.

She hadn’t gone three feet down the corridor when she spied black combat boots crossed at the ankles, as though the wearer was reclining against the wall. She followed the view up a thick pair of thighs and a flat set of abs. Jesse’s arms were crossed and his lips pulled down into what she could only imagine was his signature scowl.

“You ready?” he asked. His dark blond hair was tousled, and the scruffy hair on his chin looked just long enough to rub against someone’s cheek without leaving a burn. He might be an a-hole, but Evelyn had to admit that the whole bad-boy-recluse look was really working for him.

“Ready for…?” She’d been poked and prodded to within an inch of her life, and her stomach was growling loud enough to wake the dead. She was hoping they were to the portion of the evening where she got to try out the IB dining hall.

“I was told to escort you home to get a few of your things.”

She paused and really looked at her new partner—the man to whom she was supposed to entrust her well-being when she voluntarily gave her body over to a spirit. Was she stinking crazy? Was a life at Immortal Bounty worth it?

“Thank you, Mr. Hayes, but I can just run home and pack a bag. I don’t need an escort.” The bus was still running, so getting home wasn’t a problem. Getting back however…

“Yes, actually, you do need an escort. You just signed your life over to a government-contracted bounty hunting operation. Your days of autonomy are finished. They own you, Doc, and it’s my job to make sure they get their property back in one piece.”

He seemed angry about something. Or maybe that was just how he always seemed, stuck somewhere between indifferent and pissed at the world. “Commander Hayes—”

“It’s Jesse to you.
Commander Hayes
to the guys in my unit.”

Chances were Tanner Clark had already seen photos of her family’s apartment. After all, IB was known for setting the standard in thorough background checks. But if her new partner didn’t have to witness the place she called home, she would retain at least a shred of her pride. “Jesse. Really. I’ll be back in a few hours, tops.”

His crossed arms bunched at the biceps. “Not gonna happen, Eve. I don’t break rules for anybody.”

Her gaze narrowed.
Doc
was one thing, but Eve? No way. “I’m sorry. What did you call me?”

“Eve.”

“My name is Evelyn. I don’t go by Eve. Ever.”

“Never-ever?” His words threw her, but his expression was as serious and stone-cold as always.

“Never. Ever. Not Eve and not my first initial.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because my last name is Vale.”

“So what?”

“What do you think kids call you when they put those words together fast?”

“E. Vale…” Jesse frowned, thinking for a second, and then he burst out laughing. “Evil?”

“You got it. Sounds close enough when you’re in grade school. College kids seem to like it, too. It’s fun stuff to have a possession threshold as low as mine and get called Professor Evil when your back is turned.”

“Okay, then…what should I call you? It’s not every day I get a new Special Teams partner coming in off the street.” He allowed his gaze to run from her head to her toes, as though taking her measure. “Let’s see… Doc? Short stack?”

“Ah!” Her mouth fell open in affront. How dare he comment on her stature? And besides, the shoes she wore added three inches to her 5’1” frame, easily taking her into average height territory. “To a behemoth like you, I’m sure everyone looks short.”

He held his cross-armed stance and stared down his nose at her. “Some more than others, Doc.”

She huffed out a breath, ready to tell him where he could shove his attitude, but his lips parted in a grin. Jesse Hayes might have the reputation of being a loner, but he was clearly a loner who liked to laugh. She was never going to get dinner at this rate. “Fine. You’re welcome to follow me home and wait while I gather some things. Let’s get started.”

He nodded. “Sure. And by follow you home, I hope you mean put you in front of me on my motorcycle. I don’t do buses.”

He knew she rode the bus? She stuffed down her visible reaction to his words. She wasn’t surprised that Immortal Bounty had kept tabs on her, was she? No, now that she knew they had selected her for a particular task, she wasn’t surprised at all. “I can’t carry much back on a motorcycle.”

“How much do you have?”

“You mean, like furniture or just general stuff? I haven’t seen my accommodations yet, so I’m not sure what I’ll need.” And if she took any furniture from the apartment, that wouldn’t leave her father with much.

“Human Resources didn’t show you where you’re staying yet?”

“No, but I’m assuming it’s one of the apartments I’ve heard about—a one-bedroom on your first year, right? With the possibility to upgrade if your performance scores come in above eighty-five percent?”

His brows rose. “They told you that, or you saw it on a bounty hunter show?”

Her shrug probably looked more like her shoulders had eaten her neck in mortification. “I don’t remember. It could have been
Bounty Baddasses
. Maybe. Does this branch do it differently?” Her shame was complete when her stomach growled so loud it almost drowned out her last word.

“Shit. We’re already behind schedule, and I don’t have time for a grand tour. Have you had anything to eat since you got here?” She shook her head, and he let out an irritated sigh. “Come on, short stack. I’ll show you around, but first, we eat.”

She trailed behind him, averting her gaze from his very firm, very well-shaped backside. If she noticed that her partner’s body looked hard enough for her to crush cans on, it was purely an academic observation. It wasn’t as if Jesse Hayes was special. Every Sentinel in the place probably had a body honed to perfection.

“There are a few places to eat here,” her new partner told her, ducking around the corner and venturing through a set of double doors, “but the main cafeteria is where most of the Marks eat. You see that?” He pointed to a separate buffet line on the far side of the room. The sign above it read
Special Teams
. “You eat there. They’ll want to monitor and record your intake and cross-check your nutrient requirements against your vitals scanner. You try to sneak into the other lines and you’re gonna get your ass handed to you. At least for the first few weeks.”

“They tell you what you can and can’t eat?” Suddenly dinner wasn’t sounding so appetizing.

His massive shoulders hitched. “Not exactly. You’ll see.”

She felt a dozen pairs of eyes track her progress across the room. The cafeteria looked like it could hold a couple hundred people, but there were probably closer to fifty finishing their meals. Employees seemed to congregate according to department, or at least it looked like that because they had on similar uniforms at certain tables. When she spotted the table with the Sentinels, her eyes widened. These men were so broad at their backs and shoulders, they could only fit three to a bench at the long rectangular tables.

She lined up behind Jesse and grabbed a tray. “So there’s usually one Sentinel, one investigator, and one supernatural specialist per Special Team, right? Is that how the steward runs it here, too?”