Eternal Craving (3 page)

A short time later, as she lay in bed staring at the ceiling, Jenna was still thinking about the men she’d met. Once Kelly and she were away from this condo, she’d wring the truth from her sister, because there was nothing missionary-like about these guys. Any lost souls with a lick of sense would run and hide if they saw Fin and his crew coming. That’s what she’d do.

She finally fell asleep on the promise that tomorrow she’d check out Al’s eye color.

Al’s hair was braided today, as tightly controlled as his anger. That didn’t mean the anger wasn’t still simmering below the surface, though.

He paced the private elevator taking him up to the penthouse condo. Fin probably had security cameras watching his every move. Controlling bastard.

Lio and Ty might not have paid much attention to Al’s brief defiance last night, but Fin had. The only question was how Fin would deal with him. And deal he would. Al never doubted that.

He stepped from the elevator and strode to the hand-carved door. Pretentious bastard. The thought almost made him smile. Almost. Guess he couldn’t blame Fin for the door.

Then he stood waiting. Fin knew he was here. No need to knock. He probably also knew Al had called him a bastard twice. Fin wouldn’t care. Mad, sad, glad—emotions didn’t touch Fin.

While he waited, Al thought about what Fin might have lined up for him. Whatever it was, Al wouldn’t like it.

Ty interrupted Al’s thoughts by yanking open the door. He didn’t look happy. But then Ty had spent the night here, so he’d been exposed for hours to whatever it was that caused the Eleven’s aggression levels to skyrocket when Fin was near. Scowling, Ty gave him only a few seconds to step inside before he slammed the door shut.

Ty turned and headed for the dining room, complaining all the way. “He got me out of bed at ten. Said to meet him and the rest of you guys here in fifteen minutes. No explanation. My head didn’t hit the pillow until five. Waking up before noon puts me in a crappy mood.”

No shit. “Yeah. Hope this is important.” Al was tired too. On a whole bunch of levels.

Ty paused in the doorway to the dining room. “It’s bad when we’re all together.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I want to kill something.”

Al felt the wave of aggression from the nine men roll over him as he sat down at Fin’s fancy antique table. Ten now that he was here. Ten plus Fin made up the Eleven, men with the souls of ultimate predators. The world didn’t know it yet, but they were here to save humanity’s butt. He nodded at his partner.

Car stared at him from bright green eyes that always seemed out of place in that savage face. He rubbed his hand over his shaved head.

“Where’s the damn coffee?” Car’s usual bad attitude was set on hyperdrive today. “Whatever the big man wants, it could’ve waited a few more hours.” He swung his head to stare at the kitchen door.

Al figured Greer had better come through that door with a pot in his hand soon if he didn’t want to be Car’s main meal.

As if conjured from the lightning strikes of bad temper snapping and crackling around the seated men, Fin’s cook pushed open the door and rolled his cart up to the table. Two big pots of coffee had a place of honor on it, along with a bunch of covered plates.

Greer wasn’t a big guy, but his soul was tiger. A predator. That commanded respect from Al and the others. Too bad he was otherkin instead of a shifter. Otherkin had souls trapped in the wrong bodies, but they didn’t have the power to change. Greer would never walk the Earth in the skin of his tiger. Al felt sorry for him.

While the others were busy shoveling food onto their plates and gulping their first shot of caffeine for the day, Al glanced around the table. Fin hadn’t shown up yet. When Al realized what he was really searching for, he immediately stopped looking.

The woman wasn’t there. He refused to recognize any disappointment in that thought. Jenna Maloy didn’t belong in Philly with them. She had no place in what they were doing. Kelly’s sister was nothing more than an annoying footnote to the battle the Eleven were fighting. Still, he kind of wished the annoying footnote was here so he could watch her try to play Fin. No way would Fin believe she’d come here for a friendly visit with her sister.

Al glanced across the table at Ty. “I thought you said Kelly planned to tell her family everything. Maybe it’s just me, but I got the feeling her sister didn’t have a clue about us.”

Ty looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, well, she’s waiting for the right moment.”

“When’s it going to happen? Some night when the sister sees what she shouldn’t see? It’ll be tough then to—”

“Shut up. It’s none of your business.” Ty’s voice was a low growl. He half rose.

The men around the table grew still. Anticipation fed the silence.

Al started to rise too. “The sister is a danger to all of us.”

“Sit the hell down. Both of you.” Fin’s voice sounded weary.

The pure novelty of that swung Al’s attention from Ty. Fin took the seat at the head of the table. He exhaled deeply as he sat. For Fin that was tantamount to someone else collapsing from exhaustion.

Fin didn’t waste time. “Finish your meal while I fill you in.”

Everyone began eating again, but no one talked.

“Zero’s looking for us.”

Everyone stopped eating.

“When we showed up in Houston, Zero didn’t think we were much of a threat. He took care of us sixty-five million years ago, so doing it one more time was no big deal.”

Fin’s silver eyes were flat, but Al knew that death lived behind them.

“Then we messed up his recruitment program and kicked Nine back out into the cosmos. One less immortal worker bee for him. That’s a problem. The only way he wipes the human race off the face of the Earth on December twenty-first is if he has armies of nonhumans ready to rise up and destroy everyone. His guys already have thousands of shiny new recruits spreading the word across the rest of the world. But he needs more true believers. He can’t afford to lose another one of his immortal flunkeys. Who’ll do his recruiting then?”

“Does he know we’re in Philly?” Utah glanced at his brothers. They all wore the same eager look.

Al figured the three brothers were the deadliest of them all except for Fin. He never let their spiky blond hair, bright blue eyes, and body piercings fool him into thinking they were less than they were. They were pack, and they thought and fought as one.

Fin closed his eyes as he took a gulp of his coffee. When he opened them, he looked a little less grim. “No. But he knows we’ll be tracking down his guys. So he’ll hit each of the cities where they’re recruiting. I kept his mind off what we were doing in Houston with a bunch of psychic attacks. That won’t work this time. He’s motivated to wipe us out.”

“Why don’t we stop all the freaking games and make our stand here?” Gig’s pale eyes gleamed with the same need that drove all of them.

Fin’s gaze swept the table—cold, assessing, and always with that deadly calm. “We’ve gone down this road before. Get this straight. We can’t kill them. We can only give them a one-way ticket home. And each of them has one and
only
one key to his house.”

Gig made a rude noise.

Fin skewered him with a stare that pushed everyone back against his chair. Gig paled.

“I’m the one with the visions. I know which key will get rid of each of these guys. And you’re not it. We track them down, kill their recruits, and get the key to
where
it needs to be
when
it needs to be. Any more questions?” His stare said more questions wouldn’t be a smart idea.

I’m the one with the visions.
For just a moment, a starburst of memory exploded in front of Al’s eyes.
Fin, but not Fin. Speaking the same words. Not in the same language, but the same words. A feeling of hopelessness so terrible it brought Al to his knees.
And then it was gone, fading into the fog that always rolled in whenever he tried to remember. But there was something there, something just out of reach. And Al was convinced that Fin was at its center.

He glanced up to find Fin staring at him. No emotion showed in those silver eyes, but Al got the feeling Fin knew exactly what he’d just seen.

“The numbers aren’t random, are they?” Lio evidently thought his revelation was worth the danger of asking a question. “I’ve been thinking. We don’t know the names of these immortals, so you call them by numbers. I get that. But you’re a number guy. I bet each of those numbers has a meaning to you.”

For the first time since he’d sat down at the table, Fin really smiled. And even Al was swept away by the power of that smile. It made all kinds of promises that Al didn’t believe anymore.

“You’re right.” Fin nodded at Lio.

Fin approved of Lio in a way he’d never approve of Al. Lio was cold and logical like Fin. But he was passionate enough about his fighting to fit in with the rest of the Eleven. He had the best of both worlds. Lucky Lio.

Fin leaned back in his chair, his expression thoughtful. “When the visions first hit me, they didn’t make a lot of sense. They were like dreams where things were all mixed up. I saw each key and a hint of what it would do. I saw individual numbers and understood which city went with the numbers, even though the names of the cities meant nothing.” He frowned. “The one thing I didn’t see was the final outcome.”

“Kelly was your key in Houston.” Ty sounded accusing.

Al took orders from Fin, but sometimes the head guy’s coldness made his veins ice up. The keys weren’t people to Fin. They were tools. Al wondered what he and the others were. Just weapons?

Fin nodded. “And she did what she needed to do. Kelly took down Nine in the Astrodome, but not exactly in the way I envisioned.” He shook his head. “That bothers me.”

Of course it bothered him. Fin wanted a sure thing. Something they all wanted. Al spoke up. “So what did the number nine have to do with anything?”

Fin stared out the window. “Did you know that the first exhibition game played in the Astrodome was on April ninth 1965? Or that the last game the Astros played in that stadium was on October ninth, 1999? The Oilers played their last game there on December twenty-first, 1996. Nine, nine, twenty-one. Significant numbers. And I missed them.”

Al laughed. “Oh, come on. You can find the numbers you’re looking for anywhere. It’s not your fault you didn’t realize the Astrodome was the place where the big event would go down.” He couldn’t believe he was giving Fin an out.

“I should’ve known.” Fin sounded like he meant it.

Al added god complex to Fin’s sins.

“This time will be different. Eight is the number.” His voice was packed tight with all kinds of intensity. “And we’re looking for a bell.”

“The Liberty Bell?” Lio had taken his guidebooks seriously.

“I don’t know. Could be. But that might be too public.”

Al pointed out the obvious. “And the Astrodome wasn’t?”

Fin nodded. “Point taken. In my vision, I saw a woman reaching out to ring a bell. I couldn’t see or hear it, but the
knowing
was in my head.” He leaned forward. “I saw the number eight, and I knew it was in Philadelphia.” He relaxed back into his chair again. “But I don’t have a clue what kind of bell or where it is. It could be a damn doorbell for all I know.”

Spin’s bark of laughter sounded loud in the sudden silence. “Whoever gave you these crazy visions had a sense of humor.”

“Yeah. Ha, ha.” Gig would never be accused of having a sense of humor.

“Is that all?” Q glanced at his watch. “I have stuff to do before we hunt.”

Fin took another swig of coffee. “Oh, there’s one more thing. Car, you’re switching partners.”

Al felt like Fin had yanked the chair out from under him. “Hell, no. Car’s
my
partner. I don’t want anyone else.” Not too friendly, but Car was his pack now. Not much of a substitute for the real thing, but Car was all he had.

Car frowned. “I didn’t ask for a new partner.”

“You two weren’t together last night. Don’t think you had any problems, Car.”

Al noticed Fin didn’t include him in the no-problems group. “I don’t want another partner.” He winced. Sulky wasn’t a good sound on him.

Fin raised one brow. “Did I mention another partner for you?”

Uh-oh.

“I do what I think is best for the Eleven. Gig didn’t have a partner in Houston. He deserves one this time around.”

Al had opened his mouth to speak, but Fin held up a hand to stop him.

“Here’s the deal. I want to keep Utah and his brothers together. Can’t beat them as a team. So that means someone won’t have a partner.”

“Doesn’t seem fair to me. Letting three guys stay together and then splitting others up whether they want it or not.” Car tugged at one of the diamond studs in his ear, a sure sign he was pissed.

“Life isn’t about fair.” Fin’s power swirled around him, pushing outward, pressing against them until breathing got tough and they had to lean away from him. He might not do a lot of shouting and stomping, but Fin had no problem reminding everyone that he was the big boss. “If life was fair, we wouldn’t be here chasing nonhumans down every damn alley trying to find Eight.”

Fin’s expression never showed anything but calm. Only his display of power hinted that he might be a little ticked. “Don’t worry about Al, Car. He won’t be alone. I’m putting him in charge of keeping Jenna safe and ignorant while she’s here.” He looked at Al and smiled.

Gotcha.
That smile said it all. Fin was taking him away from the fight until he got his act together. He knew Al would hate playing babysitter; he
wanted
Al to hate it.

“Follow her whenever she leaves the condo during the day and take her with you at night.”

“Where the hell will I go at night if I can’t fight? May as well sit on the couch, get fat on chips and dip, and watch the Seventy-Sixers. I don’t get it.” Al didn’t get anything because the angry roar in his head was drowning out reason.

Fin’s smile faded. “This isn’t about you. Get over yourself.”

Al forced himself into tight-lipped silence. He gripped his coffee mug to have something to do with his hands.

“She thinks we’re missionaries. Or maybe not. But whatever she thinks, you’re going to prove that we really are trying to pull people out of the gutter and make productive citizens of them. You’ll take her with you every night, you’ll find humans passed out in dark alleys, and, by God, you’ll save them. Whether they want it or not. By the time she leaves here, she’ll think we’re freaking saints. And you’re the man who’ll make it happen.”