Zoey Avenger (Incubatti Series Book 2) (4 page)

“Paul, we’ve got their location and plan on engaging soon. Keep your Cambions clear of Team Rogue for a day or two. It’s time to turn up the heat on Zoey and see if we can’t smoke out this rat. We can’t risk her falling into a blackout and not recovering. I’d say her time is limited.”

“If she won’t cooperate?”

“There are four more,” Olivia said with a shrug. “Zoey is my masterpiece, but the others will do.”

Paul glanced towards the WWII Memorial, picking up the traces of incubus magic as well. “Good luck.” He started away at a trot.

“I don’t need luck,” she whispered in response. My time is coming. Declan wouldn’t know what hit him when it did.

Chapter Three: Intrigued

The silence in the van was tense throughout the trip to the warehouse in southeast DC where Team Rogue had set up shop a week before. Tucked among dozens of similar looking warehouses, it was a good place to hide and large enough to house the Halfling Hunters that were defecting from the Sucubatti.

Vikki halted the van behind their hideout. Zoey hopped out, eyes going to the far end of the warehouse to the barracks area.

Zoey had to figure out how to feed and buy weapons for four dozen Hunters. She’d spent many sleepless nights with the original members of Team Rogue planning and learning mundane things like budgeting, balancing manpower with missions, and dealing with issues. Because there were always issues.

Like Vikki being pregnant. She wasn’t able to summon any happy emotion for her friend, not when their own survival was so far from certain.

She entered the open bay of the warehouse. Vikki and Chrissy escorted the prisoner to the office area in one corner, a space set up with four rooms where the core members did business. Chrissy’s office was the largest, and the gadgets she made were stored in a second room. An infirmary consisting of three beds and used medical equipment was in a third and in the fourth, the cots and planning area for the original members of Team Rogue.

The infirmary was full, a reminder of another issue Zoey didn’t want to think about right now. The Halfling curse had begun to spread to those Hunters that were over twenty, and no one, not even Chrissy, could figure out why. They’d expanded the medical bay to Chrissy’s office in response, where three more hospital beds were crammed into a space opposite her makeshift lab. Zoey hopped onto the end of a bed in the corner. Aiden stretched out onto the one inches away with a groan. His blood dribbled a trail across the cement floor and formed a puddle beside the bed.

Peeling off her t-shirt, Zoey grimaced at the two stab wounds. Although there was a lot of blood, there was only little pain. Vikki shook her head, approaching with gauze and alcoholic swabs in her hands.

“He got you good,” she said, studying the wounds. “But you’ve already started to heal.”

Zoey ignored her observation, aware there was only one way for her to heal, and it was because Declan was helping her. She sensed the connection with him was open. He never spoke to her, though, not since the horrible night she’d seen evidence of his betrayal. She’d done everything she could to mentally block him, to make the connection one way by enforcing a barrier on her end.

He kept his end open and simply … helped her. Silently. Consistently. Unconditionally.

She took it as an admission of his guilt, and the constant flow of his sex energy fed her confusion and fury.

Vikki’s placed her supplies on the bed beside Zoey.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your pregnancy?” Zoey asked her best friend.

Tall and beautiful with flawless skin, green eyes, and fiery auburn hair, Vikki was usually the last person to keep a secret from her.

“You’ve got enough on your shoulders,” Vikki replied. “All the issues around here. Randomly waking up someplace.” She shrugged. “I didn’t want you to have a meltdown.”

“But I’m your best friend.”

Vikki sighed. The first swipe of the alcoholic swab made Zoey hiss with pain.

“You know Aiden is gonna tell Liam,” Zoey said. “If Aiden knew where to find us, so does Liam, which means he’ll come for you.”

“Nope. I’m staying right here.”

Zoey studied her friend, aware Vikki was in greater danger on Team Rogue – which was being hunted by every Cambion, incubus and succubus on the planet – than she would be under the protection of the Incubatti. There was no way she’d let Vikki or her child get caught in the crossfire, especially since it was Zoey that everyone truly wanted. She had killed a full blooded incubus while under the influence of a blackout caused by the Sucubatti, an infraction whose penalty was death in both societies. If their enemies didn’t get her, there was a chance Zoey did once she slipped into zombie mode.

“I have to do what’s best for my people,” Zoey started.

“Bullshit. Don’t try to go all-leaderly on me.” Vikki cut her off. “We’re in this together. Right?”

“They’re after me.”

“They’re after all of us.”

Zoey hesitated then nodded, sensing she wasn’t going to sway Vikki this way. Too tired to know how to warn her friend, Zoey vowed to find a safe place for Vikki before things got worse.

“I say this with love,” Vikki continued. “If you want to ransom Aiden, you gotta do the deal this time. It was hell the last time. I dealt directly with Liam, and he was an ass.”

Zoey rolled her eyes. “All right. I’ll take it easy on you, because you’re preggers.”

Vikki’s eyes narrowed. “Pregnant does not mean weak or suddenly incompetent or anything else. I knew you’d react this way, Zoey.”

“React how?”

“Like I’ve been given a death sentence or something!”

“It’s pretty close.”

“Nowhere near it.” Vikki dug something out of the drawer of a dolly. “Read this. It talks about everything.” The paperback was thin, the size of a field manual.

“You read it. You’re the one who’s pregnant.”

“I already read it. We’re sisters, Zoey, and I want you to understand what I’m going through.”

Zoey picked up the book with a frown. “I suppose. You couldn’t just tell me?”

Vikki tossed the bandages beside Zoey and stalked over to Aiden. “You take care of Zoey, Doc,” she said, nudging Chrissy aside. “I’m fed up with her today.”

Zoey sighed. With complete disinterest, she forced herself to open the book, for her friend’s sake if nothing else. Sadness trickled through her as she looked at an illustration of a woman holding a child. Her best friend was going to leave her, go off with her soul-mate and their baby and be happy. While she wanted Vikki to be happy, Zoey desperately hated the idea of being alone, of never having a family or being normal enough to go out for a drink with her best friend without worrying about Cambions or who was hunting her down.

Not that it mattered. She’d be dead long before Vikki had her baby, if events continued to unfold the way they were.

“Zoey’s doing the exchange this time,” Vikki told Chrissy. “She’ll have to face Declan.”

The book slid from her fingers. Zoey’s whole body lit on fire when she thought of seeing Declan again, and her mind reeled with emotions too intense for her to sort through. The pain returned, the one with no physical source that Declan couldn’t ease with his magic.  

As if on cue, the cell phone in her pocket buzzed. She stretched back with a grimace and pulled it free. Declan normally waited until seven in the morning, and it was barely five. The calls had become her alarm, if she wasn’t already up by then.

She stared at the phone. Every day, she refused to answer, expecting it to be the last time he tried. The next day, when he called again, her heart missed a beat in relief that he hadn’t given up on her.

It’s so, so stupid! She wanted … needed to hate him, or the agony and sorrow bubbling in her breast would consume her.

“Who is it?” Chrissy leaned over to see the screen.

Zoey hung up on him and tucked the phone under her rump to prevent Chrissy from grabbing it like Vikki would.

“Wait, was that …?” Chrissy frowned, meeting her gaze. “You realize he can track your whereabouts by calling you then triangulating the signal?”

Zoey stared at her, hurt afresh by the idea he only called to ping her location.

“You’re already healing,” Chrissy said. “I’m not wasting good bandages on you. We’re almost out of med supplies, Zoey.”

“I know,” Zoey said with some frustration. “I saw your report. Medical supplies, weapon maintenance supplies, rations for missions.” She reviewed the numbers in her head, the ones that told her they had enough money to make it through the end of the week.

“We have an issue with someone.” The tired voice came from Lydia, the newest core member of Team Rogue, who peeked in from the hallway. Blonde and gorgeous, she had circles under her eyes and hollow cheeks. Her face displayed the exhaustion they all felt. It was rare for a Team Rogue member to get more than a couple hours of sleep a night, let alone the amount of rations they were used to.

“That’s your job,” Vikki grunted. “You’re better at that politician shit than we are.”

“This one is uh … human,” Lydia replied.

All eyes turned to her, then to Zoey.

“That means I’m up,” Zoey said and hopped off the table. She stretched for a drawer and pulled it open to grab a spare t-shirt. “Vikki, how much do you think they’ll pay to get Aiden back?”

“Enough to get us through the next six months,” Vikki replied.

“I hope so.” Zoey snatched her lucky knife, cell and followed Lydia out of the office area.

Armed Halflings were gathered near the side entrance, whispering and peering out curiously.

“The human is here?” Zoey asked, alarmed.

“Um, yes,” Lydia replied. “Move, girls.” She waved the half-succubae crowding the doorway aside.

They parted wordlessly for Zoey. Bloodied, yet sure footed, Zoey was accustomed to the looks that bordered on fear or awe. They’d seen her fight and sustain injuries that should’ve killed her. They thought of her as immortal, which amused her.

Then pissed her off. She was only alive because of Declan, the man she wasn’t able to forget or eject from her life the way she wanted to.

Lydia slid out of the warehouse into the cool, early morning. Two of the Hunter sentries stood behind a tall man in a suit who appeared out of place among the warehouses on the ghetto side of DC.

The flood light on the corner of the warehouse bathed him in a pool of light. He was unarmed and appeared to have been thoroughly searched already, if the unbuttoned suit jacket and rumpled shirt beneath were any indication. Tall and handsome with curly, blond hair, he was in his early thirties, muscular of build with laugh lines around his eyes and mouth. His gaze was never still, and he gave off the ever ready, confident air of an ex-soldier.

Zoey studied him, taken aback by the fact he was still on his feet in spite of the sex magic of four half-succubae floating around him.

“I’m Grant Brown,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Zoey Alexander.” Zoey wiped her palm on her t-shirt to rid it of the blood, then shook. If he noticed her torn up condition, he didn’t acknowledge it.

“I’m talking to the right person then,” he said with a quick smile. It was much like him – professional, assured – as if he’d walked into a business meeting to close a deal instead of standing in the seedy side of DC with a bloodied half-succubus at an hour that no one legitimate would conduct business. “May I speak to you in private?”

Zoey lifted her chin at the two curious sentries, who were edging forward.

They left. Lydia remained, as was common for the core Team Rogue members.

“Who are you?” Zoey asked. “How did you find us?”

“Trade secret.” A mischievous gleam lit his gaze. “As for who I am … I’m the official liaison to the supernatural for the mayor and city council. I guess you could call me the bridge between you all and the local human population.”

She listened, intrigued and surprised to learn that the leaders of the city knew about the supernatural subculture operating quietly among the human populace. “I didn’t know there was a human liaison.”

“You weren’t in a position to know,” he replied. “My role is to work with the leaders of the Incubatti and Sucubatti and now, Team Rogue, to ensure that the human population as a whole remains unaware of you all and preferably safe. It takes a great deal of effort and coordination on my part to cover up some of the larger incidents we’ve seen recently between the two societies.”

“So you’re the one who told the media there was a terrorist attack on the Sucubatti college campus?” she asked.

“Not my greatest campaign,” he admitted. “But the magnitude of that incident required extreme measures to keep people scared and off the compound until all traces of the succubae were successfully removed.”

“Wow,” she murmured, impressed by the size of his operation, yet leery that he admitted to using fear to control the people of the city.

“Yeah.” He seemed uncertain how to take her response. “Anyway, here’s my card.” He held it out to her. “If you get into a mess - or cause one - that might draw the attention of the human authorities, call me immediately. I don’t ask questions, and I won’t dime you out to the others. I keep strict confidence, no matter who asks and who tells. My job is to contain situations and protect my people.”