hidden talents (8 page)

“Huh,” Tony said, flopping back on the modern couch.

Nate leaned forward as he dropped back, his graceful brown thumb and

finger pinching his lower lip. “There are a couple of demon species who don"t mind being paid in people. He could be using his discards as bribes.”

“Oh!” Ari exclaimed, popping straight in her chair. Adam wasn"t happy to discover his hackles tightened when the other men looked at her. His possessive tendencies shouldn"t be rearing their heads like this.

Nervous at the attention she"d drawn, Ari rubbed her thighs through the jeans he"d borrowed from Tony and Rick"s sister. “Okay,” she said. “First, demons are real too?”

“"fraid so,” Tony confirmed.

Ari"s throat worked, but she nodded, inspiring a flare of pride in him. “All right, maybe some of the stories people whispered about Blackwater weren"t as crazy as I thought.”

“What stories?” Adam asked gently.

God, he loved the way her eyes locked on his. The connection felt like pure warm gold being poured down his spinal cord, comforting and sexy at the same time. He was only distantly aware of Nate quietly snorting. He doubted Ari heard it at all.

“People said he"d made a deal with the devil. They said that"s how he could find gifted folks like me. One girl claimed ...” She hesitated.

“Claimed what?”

“She claimed that instead of trading his soul, he"d given Satan his dick. It"s true he never had sex with anybody. Not girls, not boys. I assumed he was impotent, and put out that story himself to make it seem scary instead of lame.

But maybe it"s true. A demon is like a devil, isn"t it?”

“Some are,” Adam admitted. “The hell dimension residents who come to

Resurrection have to have enough control over their dark sides to keep from being deported.”

Ari shivered, obliging Adam to suppress an urge to hug her. “So offering up your manhood could be a good way to seal a pact? To get yourself more juice if maybe you"d been born a Level One?”

“A damn good way,” Adam said. “And turning over burned out Talents

who"d never be reported missing might be the cost of continuing to do business.”

She shivered again, and Adam reached over to squeeze her knee. He hoped it comforted her. On his side, the contact sent heat zinging up his tailbone.

“This is speculation,” Rick pointed out. “We need evidence if we"re going to bring him down.”

Reluctantly, Adam released Ari"s knee. “I"m open to suggestions.”

Rick pulled a face to say he didn"t have any.

“Come on,” Nate broke in impatiently. “Am I the only one who thinks Ari here would make ideal bait?”

Adam"s canines slid down as his lip curled back, a snarl rising in his throat before he could stop it. Nate had
not
just suggested that.

“Whoa,” Nate said, hands lifted, palms exposed. “Just consider it before you go ballistic. Blackwater wants her on his leash again. If we let him find her, he"ll think it was his idea to yank her back to heel. It"ll never occur to him she"s a plant.”

“She"s a civilian,” Adam growled. “A human. We aren"t throwing her to that bastard like she"s a fucking steak.”

“If you"d stop thinking with your dick for two seconds -”

As alpha, Adam had more speed than any of his pack. He had Nate and his stupid egg chair flat on their backs before the lower ranked wolf could defend himself. Adam dearly wanted to tear him apart, but settled for yanking him up and slamming him into the raw brick wall between his front windows.

“Shit,” Nate gasped once enough of his breath came back.

He was no weakling and didn"t immediately submit. Right that second, this wasn"t the smart option.

“Bare your neck,” Adam barked, shaking him so hard his head snapped back.

His eyes were hot and glowing, his voice supernaturally low and thick.

“Sheesh,” Nate muttered, but he lifted his chin out of the way for him.

Claiming his due, Adam pressed his extended canines around the other man"s wildly racing pulse. Werewolves healed wounds fast. He wouldn"t kill Nate if he bit down and tore, but it might be a near thing. His more primitive side really wanted to test that.

“I"m sorry,” Nate said, his hands coming to Adam"s ribs to rub them

soothingly. “I didn"t realize how serious you"d gotten about her.”

He meant it. He wasn"t just offering empty submission. Adam shoved his

inner wolf back into its cage and stepped back. He hadn"t realized how serious he"d gotten either. He couldn"t apologize, but he did nod to Nate in acceptance.

Both of them were shaking just a little as Nate rubbed his reddened neck. They hadn"t come this close to a knock-down drag-out since the pack had been formed.

Once a cop passed his courses at the Academy, leadership was decided by combat in wolf form. Back then, Nate had thought he"d be squad alpha. When he also hadn"t won the fight for beta, the loss had been hard on him. He was as strong as Rick or Adam, and certainly as smart. For whatever reason, his genes didn"t send the same signals. Rick and Adam"s wolves had been able to control his.

“You two done?” Tony asked from the living room. “Not that watching you two go at it wasn"t ree-diculously hot.”

Nate snorted and they returned to their chairs, Tony having set Nate"s fallen egg upright. As Adam hitched up his cargo pants and sat, Ari followed his movements with rounded eyes. The part of him that was trying to watch its back with her wished he didn"t feel so satisfied that her pulse was thudding.

“Here"s the thing,” Nate ventured cautiously. “We need to get close to

Blackwater"s operation somehow.”

The back of Adam"s neck started prickling again. Before he could speak, Rick did.

“We can"t use Ari,” he said, the first time he"d used her name that Adam could recall. “We don"t know what the Eunuch is doing to the Talents who disappear. Even if we wired her some way he wouldn"t spot, we couldn"t move in fast enough if she was in trouble.”

Tony cleared his throat with a humorous flourish, and Adam felt a gratitude for his presence that was becoming familiar. Ever since he"d given up on proving how tough he was, Tony had turned peacemaker. Werewolf aggression being what it was, they could always use more of those.

“I have an idea,” the squad"s youngest member said. “One our fearless leader might actually go for. We ask the gargoyles to do an enhancement spell on Adam.

He"s already got a gift. If he could pass for another Talent from Outside, the Eunuch might not be able to resist scooping them up as a pair.”

“That could work,” Rick said, “except gargoyles don"t usually do spells for members of other races.”

“They might this time. I"m not sure how the Eunuch twisted their tails, but they hate the bastard as much as we do. Plus, the one outside Adam"s window seemed to take a shine to Ari. Maybe he"d do it as a favor to her.”

“We"d have to get the undercover work approved,” Nate put in.

“The Mayor could green-light it,” Tony said. “Outside normal channels so it won"t get back to Blackwater. Hell, considering Ari"s a Level Five, he"ll probably want to meet her regardless.”

“Hold on,” Adam said before everyone got too excited. “If the gargoyles agree to concoct a disguise for me, we don"t have to involve Ari.”

Ari made a sound of protest, then shut her mouth when he looked at her.

“You could stay
safe
,” he said emphatically.

Nate must not have learned his lesson as well as Adam thought, because he began to laugh. “Boss, have you forgotten what this girl was doing when we found her? She"s going
mano a mano
with the Eunuch whether you tag along or not.”

“Is that true?” Adam asked her.

“Uh,” she said, squinching up her face. “Yes?”

“Well, fuck,” he said, pretty much astounded. “How exactly are you hoping to get him to lay off your friends? No matter what you concede to a man like that, he"ll just ask for more. He"ll own you, Ari. And that still won"t guarantee your friends" safety.”

Ari looked extremely uncomfortable.

“Boss,” Nate said almost gently. “Ari might not want to tell you this, on account of us being cops, but I"m pretty sure she intends to fry Henry Blackwater from the inside out. She is a freaking Level Five, after all.”

“That kind of was the plan,” she confessed. “At least once I saw what I could do with my power here.”

“Well, fuck,” Adam said again. Ari was either extremely crazy or extremely brave. If she wasn"t killed by Blackwater"s cohorts, she"d spend the next forty years in jail.

“You can"t,” he said shakily. “We have to respect the law.”

“
You
have to respect it. If your way doesn"t work, I have to take him out any way I can. My friends are only in danger because of me. They saved my life when I first landed on the street.”

Her big blue eyes shone with earnest tears, pleading with him to understand or maybe not to stand in her way. Compared to him, she was a kid, and she was ready to do this thing. It was his job to lay his life down for other people - his nature, if it came to that. He knew then he"d have laid it down for her twenty times over.

“I guess we"ll have to make sure my way doesn"t fail,” he said grimly.

∞

Apparently, Adam knew Resurrection"s mayor. He didn"t have any trouble

getting an appointment for that evening, after official office hours.

“We"re set for seven,” he said, shutting the phone that looked pretty much like hers, the only difference being that its logo said
Elfnet
.

They stood on the shady pavement outside Nate"s loft. The others had gone their separate ways. Ari"s body felt very aware of Adam"s, too aware really. She wondered if Ethan and his grandparents were still at Adam"s house.

Adam rubbed the back of his neck. “You want to walk a bit?”

She nodded and he set off without a word, seeming as tongue-tied as she was.

Ari took in the neighborhood: the convenience stores and cafes, the dry cleaner with the blue-skinned man in the turban behind its high counter. The subway entrance resembled the ones at home, down to the chewed gum squashed in the cement steps. Ari made a mental note to return on her own if she got a chance, so she could study the subway map. That made her feel untrusting and ungrateful, which maybe was what pried her mouth open.

They"d reached a little Greek restaurant with an old striped awning and a collection of chairs and tables roped off on the broad sidewalk. It reminded her so much of Mikos that she stopped in her tracks.

Adam stopped as well and put his warm hand on her shoulder. Ari didn"t pull away. She liked the way it felt.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. “Do you want to go in?”

“I was a hostess in a restaurant like that one.”

“Were you?”

She felt him watching her face but didn"t turn to him. At the nearest table, a paper napkin fluttered in a metal holder. If she answered, would it count as sharing? “I worked my way up from busgirl. I liked it. It was peaceful.”

“I can"t imagine working in a restaurant as peaceful.”

“Mikos had its dramas, but they were never very important. Two months ago, Blackwater told the owner he"d beat him senseless unless he fired me.”

Adam"s hand stroked her spiky hair, though he said nothing. Ari fought the tears that wanted to rise in her eyes. “Mr. Mikos was a nice man. He"d save things from the kitchen for me to take home to my roommates. Little treats he knew we couldn"t afford. Max was addicted to their baklava.”

“Did something happen to your boss?”

“No,” she said, grateful for it. “I just can"t see him anymore. He wanted to go to the police, but I knew they couldn"t protect him from someone like

Blackwater.”

“Ari.” He turned her to him, making her look at him. “I"m not the sort of police you"re used to. My men and I are going to make sure this turns out all right.”

Maybe he would. He certainly seemed to believe it.

“I"ve never met anyone like you,” she confessed.

He smiled, a hint of wistfulness in it. “That makes two of us.”

He was beautiful to her then. Ari was pretty, she supposed. She did what she could to make her looks interesting. Adam seemed interested at least. When his fingers slid around her face, his eyes turned heavy and followed them.

“Ready to go home?” he asked.

His voice was husky and - God - the lust that tightened inside her was

powerful. It heated and clenched not just her pussy but every muscle from head to toe.

Ari had thought she was a normal woman when it came to sex, but clearly more than half of her had been asleep until now. She nodded, unable to answer.

Adam must have sensed why. His eyes flared at their backs, and he caught her hand in his before turning back toward his house. The part of her that had never had a romantic boyfriend loved how sweet and unthinking the gesture was. Adam liked her, and therefore he held her hand. Of course, the way he squeezed her fingers made her worry she"d combust.

“Where do your parents live?” she asked, fumbling for a distraction.

“They"re dead,” he said. “They worked together in Portal Management.

Something went wrong and they were caught in an explosion.”

“I"m sorry,” she said, surprised how much she meant it. “Were you close?”

“Yes.” His fingers tightened on hers again. “I feel lucky for that. They"ve been gone for a couple years.”

His profile was sad but calm. He grieved, but it hadn"t destroyed him.

Awareness tugged at her mind. Maybe the loss hadn"t destroyed him, but it had done something.

“You said it"s been a couple years since you had a girlfriend,” she blurted. He turned to her in surprise. “Sorry, I shouldn"t have -”

“No,” he interrupted. “I guess that probably is the reason I haven"t dated anyone seriously. My parents ... my parents had the kind of relationship people write love stories about. They defied their folks to marry each other, and to go into the work they did. Portal Management is too close to
doing
magic for most weres. They consider it contrary to our heritage. But my folks felt it was their calling, the way they were meant to serve.”

“Were they good parents?”