Destiny's Shift (27 page)

unfortunately, he felt the exact same way he did last time he had found himself in this

predicament: like a dirty whore.

He had stopped his really hard partying ways a few years back for this exact

reason. He always seemed to find himself in compromising positions when women were

around. If he was drinking with the guys, all was cool, but get some whiskey in him and

put him in the vicinity of willing women, and he was a goner.

Damn Jovan. Damn him to hell and back.

If he hadn’t been so hell bent on forgetting Liberty for a while, Blake wouldn’t

have ended up in this sandwich.

He focused on the previous night and realized that he at least had the sanity to

wear a condom.

Go him.

His eyes flew open as he realized what else had gone down last night. When they

had left the Black Cuff at closing, Jovan and the two women were getting into one cab,

while he and the blondes were getting into the other. About a block up, he saw a group of

five very large men walking in the other direction. The biggest stood a few inches above

the rest, and he recognized him as Micah.

Blake turned to say something to Jovan, but he was already in the cab being

manhandled by the two women. He debated whether to cut his party short, but decided

against it. What would he do anyway? It wasn’t like he could take them all on, sober or

not. At least they had the Intel that The Platoon was indeed in Phoenix. And it might be a

good idea to go hunting instead of being the hunted. Well, at least that’s what he would

do if he were in charge.

He had gotten in the cab, and the rest was nothing but an erotic blur of mouths,

bodies, and finally, sleep.

What time was it, anyway? And Jesus, he had to pee. He was going to have to

break this little fiesta up sooner than later.

Slowly he rose to his elbow and both girls let out a groan of disapproval.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Um . . . home.” No use trying to make his exit pretty.

“I don’t think so,” said the other girl, grabbing his shaft.

With a few strokes, his morning wood turned to stone.

He lay back down on the bed.

“You haven’t said good morning yet,” she said, disappearing under the sheet.

Chapter 58

Jovan sat in the kitchen of the mansion drinking coffee.

He had just come back from a four-mile run, and he was a sweaty mess, but

feeling good, despite the massive amount of whiskey he had consumed. He wondered

when Blake would make his way back to the mansion, and checked his cell phone again

to see if he had called.

Nothing.

For all he knew, Blake could have been fucked to death.

He debated what to have for breakfast and decided on a box of macaroni and

cheese, which made him smile as he remembered Liberty’s love for the crap, and his

heart hurt as he also recalled how he had screwed everything up with her.

As he stirred the pot of macaroni, he heard the front door open. He hoped it was

Blake, as whoever had entered was whistling. He went to the dining room and peeked

around the corner.

Yep, Blake. Whistling. Looking like he had almost been fucked to death, but not

quite.

“Hey,” he said as he heard the water boiling over onto the stove. Running back

into the kitchen, he knew he was going to have a mess to clean up.

Blake strolled in the kitchen and put a bag down on the counter. “Forget mac and

cheese, man. I stopped at Denny’s. You’ve got a real breakfast.”

Jovan dumped the macaroni in the garbage. “Nice. Thanks.”

They ate in silence at the small table in the kitchen nook.

“So how was your night?” Blake asked, not meeting Jovan’s eyes.

“It was good.”

Blake looked up at him. “No regrets?”

Jovan shrugged. Did he have regrets? Maybe. But they weren’t the regrets Blake

was thinking of. “Not those kind.”

Blake stopped chewing and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that nothing happened. I got to one of the girl’s apartment, and nothing

happened.”

Blake put down his fork. “What? Did you have a junk malfunction?”

Jovan rolled his eyes. “I don’t have a problem in that department, okay? My junk

is ready at the word ‘go.’ I just couldn’t do it, man. I was kissing this one girl, and all I

could think of was Liberty. It was a mind fuck, so I just disentangled myself, bolted, and

came back here.”

He didn’t mention what he did to his junk when he got home. Deciding the

subject had to be changed, he said, “What about you? How was your night?”

Blake smiled while chowing down on his bacon. “It was good. Haven’t had to

keep two women satisfied in a few years, and don’t plan on doing it again. I’m calming

down in my old age.”

Jovan laughed. “And what is that? Thirty?”

“Thirty-four.”

“You’re just a baby.”

“Really?” Blake asked. “And how old would you be?”

Jovan thought a moment while doing the math. “I’m one thousand and something.

I’ll live another thousand or so, give or take a century or two.”

Blake let out a long whistle. “Wow. I hope I have some of that good plasma

rolling through my veins.”

“Don’t know, my friend. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. But the fact that

Cohen can heal you without killing you is probably a good indication that you do. Not

that I’m an expert or anything.”

Jovan watched as his friend chowed through his breakfast like Pac Man through

the white dots. He had been totally honest with Blake when he described what went down

the previous night, but now he better understood his actions.

In a nutshell, Liberty had hurt him, and in his hurt, he wanted to lash out. He had

tried to do the old-and-tired trick of screwing his troubles away. Thankfully, he had

realized his mistake before he had gone through with the plan, and he realized he had

been acting like a petulant child.

Was he still pissed? Yeah, he was. For the first time in his life he had allowed

himself to open up and love a female, and on his first mistake, she had tossed him to the

curb.

That didn’t mean that screwing two random women was going to help him.

Wasn’t he just the mature and responsible grownup.

“Well, I’m glad you came to your senses,” Blake said. “I only wish I had.” The

male reached his arms over his head and stretched. “I’m going to take a quick shower and

get the slut off me, and then we need to talk about what else went down last night.”

“Look, I don’t need a play-by-play of you and the blondes. Really, I—”

“Not my intention, my friend,” Blake said. He took a long sip of his coffee. “I

don’t kiss and tell. I’m talking bright-eyed fuckers like yourself.”

Jovan went still, but his heart kicked into double time. “Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah, man. Five of them, all the size of outhouses, just like you guys.

Walking down the street of Phoenix as we were getting into the cabs. If your tongue

hadn’t been so far down that brunette’s throat, you might have seen them as well.”

Damn. It. To. Hell.

“So what did you do?”

Blake shrugged and chewed on the last piece of bacon. “What was I supposed to

do? Take them on? I am just a mere mortal, my friend, plus I had two ladies I couldn’t

disappoint.”

Jovan would have probably followed them, simply because it would have been a

rush. However, he understood others had their self-preservation widget intact. “At least

we know they’re here.”

“That was my thought exactly. After the holidays, we call in the cavalry and start

hunting them before they can get to us.”

Jovan noted the “us.” Blake had totally aligned himself with the Six Saviors.

“I’m heading for the shower, man, and then I need a nap. You up for a ride in an

hour or two?”

Jovan nodded, finished with his breakfast. “Sounds good. I say we chill for

another day and then head back to Fernley. While you’re sleeping off last night, I’ll call

Noah and let him know about the developments.”

“Cool,” Blake said through another yawn. “Just make sure I get the credit for the

visual.”

Chapter 59

The next night, Jovan and Blake went into downtown again to see if they could

find The Platoon.

“Remember, we don’t want a physical confrontation. We just want to do a little

recon, find out where they’re staying, stuff like that,” Jovan said.

“Got it.”

They parked their bikes and began walking the streets. It was Saturday night, and

the streets were crowded with holiday shoppers heading home and college kids who were

just coming out to party who hadn’t made it home for the holiday.

Jovan rubbed his eyes, the contacts bothering him, and he had a thought. “How

are they walking around at night, Blake? Are you sure it was them?”

Blake nodded. “There aren’t too many guys the size of Micah, so I’m pretty

certain it was them. As for the how, maybe sunglasses? I don’t know.”

Jovan nodded. It had to be sunglasses. They certainly didn’t have access to

technology to formulate the contacts, and chances were slim that any of them were as

smart as Talin, the creator of the contacts.

An hour later, Jovan was just about to call it a night.

“Let’s try the Black Cuff one more time,” Blake said.

Jovan rolled his eyes. “Look, if you want to get laid, then—”

“No, Jovan, that’s not it. The Black Cuff is the best party spot in town. If they’re

out and about, that’s where they’re going to be.”

Jovan reluctantly agreed.

They went inside and looked around, not seeing a bunch of guys in sunglasses

mingling among the other patrons. Just as they were about to leave, Jovan saw them.

He grabbed Blake’s arm. “There,” he said, motioning his head into a dark corner.

“There they are.”

In the darkened depths of the bar, there was a booth with five large males sitting

shoulder-to-shoulder, all wearing dark wrap-around sunglasses, and Jovan recognized

Micah right away.

Jovan looked around for a place that wouldn’t bring attention to them, and found a

small table with two college guys sipping beers scanning the crowd. Jovan approached

the table, Blake right behind him.

“Hi, boys,” he said.

They didn’t say anything, just looked at him.

“Hundred bucks for your table.”

They looked at each other, then back at Jovan. “Excuse me?”

“Pay attention, son. I give you a hundred bucks, you get your ass up off the chair

and go find another place to park it.”

The college kids looked at each other again, and Jovan couldn’t believe they

weren’t jumping at his offer. Unless they were trust fund babies and a hundred bucks

didn’t mean squat to them.

“We’re taking your deal, but just curious on why you’re offering.”

“Just need the table, dude.”

“Well, there’s one over there,” one of the guys said, pointing across the bar.

Jovan was losing his patience. “Look, I want this table and why is none of your

concern. So get your asses up, take my money, and move it along.”

The guys stood, Jovan handed them a Bennie, and they left. Jovan and Blake sat

down.

“Perfect view,” Blake said.

“Yep.”

For an hour, they watched The Platoon do a few shots, drink some beers, and get a

little rowdy with the females. It became very apparent that they weren’t sure how to treat

the females that approached them, and they couldn’t seem to find that balance between

cold fish and aggressive. Micah sat in the middle of the booth like a king on his throne.

Jovan stood. “I’m going to go say hi.”

Blake got to his feet. “Jovan, this was supposed to be recon.”

“I know.” Jovan felt the adrenaline start to run through him. Oh, yeah. He loved

that.

“Then why are we going to them?”

“I’m bored.”

As he approached the table, he smiled when he saw Micah’s eyebrows knit above

the glasses as if Micah were trying to place him.

Jovan knew when the recognition kicked in. Micah’s eyebrows took a hike for his

hairline and his nostrils flared.

“Hey, boys,” Jovan said, loving the rush of adrenaline that surged through his

body as he met Micah’s gaze.

All went silent as they stared at Jovan. As he scanned them, he noted a mix of

black, blond and brown hair. With their glasses on, he couldn’t really make out any

defining features.

“What are
you
doing here?” Micah asked.

Jovan shrugged. “Just thought I’d stop by, see how things were going, how life on

Earth was treating you. You know, a welcome to the neighborhood type of thing.”

There were grumbles around the table as the males were putting everything

together. Him asking how things were going on Earth could only mean one thing: one of

the Six Saviors.

Micah smiled and leaned forward with his elbow on the table. “Let me make a

couple of things clear, Savior.”

Jovan said nothing, but stared into the black frames.

“We are here to decimate you. You failed at your mission, and because of your

failure, your actions led to the end of our world. You, and that worthless leader of yours,

Noah, will die.”

Jovan shook his head and crossed his arms across his chest. “You’re version of

history is off, but this isn’t the place or time to talk about it.”

“Then leave us.”

Jovan glanced over his shoulder to make sure there weren’t any humans around,