The Faerie Master (Aaron's Kiss Series) (21 page)

Garrett’s jaw was probably hurting like hell, but Gabriel didn’t care.
He waited for an answer that was almost too low to hear.
Gabriel was enjoying this more than he had anything in a long, long time.

“Yeths.
I untherstath.
Peths don’t hith me again.
Peths?
I’ll thine her.
I promiths.
I’ll thine her.”

Gabriel looked at the man in disgust as he staggered toward the door.
Garrett had become a liability and his usefulness in controlling his sister was no longer helping.
Gabriel hoped that Garrett would fail just so that he could have the pleasure of killing him. Then he smiled. Since when did he need an excuse to kill someone simply for the pleasure of it?
Moving to his desk Gabriel called in a couple of rogues that he knew would help him make the alpha understand that a new king was in town.

~~~

“I’m not sure. I guess you’d have to take into consideration that he’s been reining for centuries and no one has ever had the nerve to challenge him before.
I’m not saying I want to or even that I could, but enough is enough.”

Shawn and Aaron had been talking about Ferris Tilton for two hours and they were no closer to knowing what had to be done than before.
It was obvious that something had to be done, but what was the question.
Aaron seemed to think that Shawn could do it, while he didn’t.

“What is it that makes you think you couldn’t win against him?
You’re older and by far more powerful.
Smarter in ways that he could never obtain.
You have a great sense of integrity and you have a moral compass that would never let you do the things he’s been doing.
If nothing else, Shawn, you have to do it for those humans.”

Shawn had discovered that Ferris was snatching women off the streets and turning them—or trying to turn them anyway.
The ones that lived would be put with several males until she got pregnant.
Shawn and Aaron both knew that the likelihood of that happening was slim to none.
The chan
c
es of one of the males being a mate to the female being just one factor and the other, without the bond between them, a child could never be conceived.
After three or four months of unsuccessful attempts Ferris would give the girl to one of his butt buddies to use as he saw fit.
Most of the time they were used as a source of food or a sexual plaything that more often than not ended in her death
,
whether by suicide or starvation.
Either way, they didn’t last long.

“It’s not that I don’t think I could
n’t
win.
I’m not thinking that, but how do I clean house?
The Council won’t allow me to murder my own kind and I’m not stupid enough to think that once I am master
my life would not be in constant danger.
Now with Cade, that has just doubled my chances of having one of them try to take me out.”

The Council of Vampires was newly formed, at least to these two vampires.
It had been around for only about three hundred years.
There had always been a court of sorts before, but it was usually run by a group of men who had nothing better to do than to sit judgment on some issue brought to them.
And the side with the most money or influence came out the winner every time.
Now it was
a
set group of vampire that were paid by the queen, Mel.
She had final say on all proceedings and her judgment was swift and sound.
There had been less and less need for the Council to be brought together since she had enacted the set of rules governing them all.

“I would still take it before Mel.
She is fair and will listen to you.
It has to stop.
We don’t want to cause an all out war between us and the humans.
You and I both know what will happen if that becomes fact.
While we aren’t exactly mainstream now we can at least move within the circles of humans and not be staked at every turn.
If this gets out that we are killing humans, especially human women, for the kill then we will have major problems again.”

Shawn knew that Aaron was right.
Shawn even knew that before he came here Aaron would tell him just what he had.
The problem was, he still didn’t know what to do.
He would go before Mel and let her know, but as for whether he’d challenge Ferris, that was something he couldn’t do right now.

~~~

Cade sat at the computer and waited for Pete to give her the signal.
She was really going to do it.
She was going to take all the money out of Mr. MacManus’ bank accounts and put it into Gabriel’s.
Well, not really. The bank had worked with Pete to set up a dummy account to remove the “money” from.

“See, the numbers are almost the same except for these two numbers are reversed.
Most people wouldn’t even notice the numbers are different because the first and last are what they should be.
I’m hoping this guy won’t notice either.
When he receives the conf
i
rmation that you moved the money he’ll use the same link to move this money out.
Only it’s not going anywhere.”

“How is that going to help? I mean, won’t he notice that there isn’t any money in the account when he goes to take it out?”
Cade knew that she would notice that there was suddenly no money.
She didn’t have any to begin with so that would be an indicator to her.
She had no idea how much money was in the accounts, but she was reasonably sure it was more than she had.

“By the time he figures it out I’ll have him.
I’m going to track the money that’s moved out of the bogus account and then see where it leads.
We’ll be able to see what he’s doing with the money and who else might be playing with him.
See?”

Cade didn’t, but she didn’t really think anyone would.
Pete was really sweet and Cade liked her, but she wasn’t sure of most of what she was saying.
When she looked at Aaron for guidance he just winked at her.
Not a lot of help.
So when Pete told her to “jack it to the max” she turned back to the computer and hoped that she was supposed to move the money.

Touching the mouse gave her peace.
Cade had never figured out why it did, but she felt like she could do anything when she held a piece of technology in her hand.
She may not have understood the ins and outs of it, but it felt right.
Moving the mouse to the link in the bank she began the process of getting into the locked account.
Energy flowed down her arm and through her fingers.

When Cade bounced, as she’d told Pete, she literally did bounce.
Her IP or Internet Protocol address never stayed stationary.
It would alight on one address and stay for an indeterminate amount of time before moving to the next.
So that if one was trying to pinpoint where she was working from a person would have to follow her to the next place she hit.
Then by the time that person got there she may have moved on to ten or more addresses by then.
Since her mind was working the addresses and not her computer there was never a set pattern.
She vaguely heard Pete tell someone behind her that Cade had been to Paris and to Switzerland and she’d already changed her IP eighty-four times in the thirty-eight minutes she’d been working.

“If I wasn’t trying to keep up with her,” Pete said, “I’d never believe it was possible.
She is a computer hacker’s best friend and a security system’s worst enemy.
Its small wonder that this guy hasn’t tried to kidnap her and make her sit at a computer all day just moving money out of any account he wants.
Christ, when you think of what she could do if she were in the wrong hands it’s just fucking scary.”

Cade turned back to them when she was finished.
Now all they had to do was wait on the bank or Gabriel to let them know what happened next.
Cade looked over at Shawn and spoke to the room in general, but never took her eyes off him.
She needed to know his reaction.

“He did.
Kidnap me once.
I was coming home from work when he had one of his cronies pick me up in his cruiser and take me to Gabe.
I was terrified and sick when he locked me in this room.
There were no windows, nothing but a desk, computer, and a cot.
I couldn’t...no matter what he did to me, I couldn’t work.
The second time the computer exploded when I touched it he tried putting me in another place.
This one had windows, a scene out the one that was beautiful.
But my mind refused to work for him. It...I shut down.”

“What did he do to you, baby?
He didn’t just lock you in a room, did he?
Tell me what else he did to you.”

Shawn’s voice was low and hard.
She wasn’t afraid for herself
,
she knew that he wasn’t mad at her.
But fear, fear for what might happen to him if he tangled with Gabe.
When she didn’t answer right away he got up, kneeled before her, and took her hand into his.

“He said...he said that he’d kill them, my par...Garrett’s parents.
I knew that they didn’t much care for me, but they were all I had.
So I tried to cooperate, I really did.
But I couldn’t make it work.
I couldn’t even touch the computer without it frizzing out.
He was so angry, so very...he’s a wolf.
I didn’t know that before, but he was so mad at me that he changed.
I couldn’t...I couldn’t work after that.
He was so huge and he tried to bite me.”
She was startled when Shawn brushed away the tears.
She hadn’t realized she was even crying until then.
His quick kiss made her feel good.

“Baby, I don’t want to frighten you either, but when I find him, and I will, I’m going to rip his fucking throat out and feast on his blood.
Then I’m going to tear him apart.”

Shawn’s voice was so calm, so soft.
He could have been telling her that he loved her or that he was going to pick up milk on the way home tonight.
She didn’t know why, but she found this to be more terrifying than anything she’d witnessed so far.

“Are you saying that this Gabriel person is a werewolf?
And he’s here?
Holy shit! I wonder if Bradley knows.
It’s against council rules to come into another supe’s territory without asking for permission.
I think I’ll give my friend a good heads up.”

Aaron’s warning came a little too late.
The rogues that Gabriel had sent to the pack house had already been there.
And Bradley was not a happy alpha.

~CHAPTER 15~

“They actually came on my land and threatened me.
Me!
Of all the nerve.
I have the largest pack in the United States and they threatened me,” Bradley said yet again.
His mate, Airic, had heard it more than them and she was showing her need for him to move on.