The Thorndykes 1: Dispossessed (21 page)

Her blood ran cold. That might mean the death of people she counted as neighbors. Fuck, Ryan had courted her with solid purpose. “And the Wheelers?”

“Darling, we have to do it. It’s us or them. They’re fanatics, and they won’t stop coming for us until they have us or they’re dead.”

“Are they all like that?”

He pressed another kiss to her hand and then held it warmly between his own. “No. If we can, we’ll read them. Send them to the Sorcerers if we have to. Some can go free after a mind wipe. They won’t remember who they are, but we’ll give them something new, a new place to be. We don’t kill if we don’t need to.”

“Need to” meant if they threatened a Talent. Not if they’d already killed one. What good would be done if they used the eye-for-an-eye approach? Immensely satisfying but ultimately sterile, she understood the concept behind it, but when a vampire’s blood was up, he could act like a berserker. Who stood between them and the satisfaction of revenge?

“We do. Our minds. We work for control, and for the most part, we succeed. I can’t promise anything. Only to try.”

She nodded. She loved him, and more, she trusted him. He needed tonight if he was to do his job properly. “Let’s spend the rest of the night naked.”

His smile turned playful. She loved the way he could switch his mood from serious to lighthearted. “I can’t think of anything better.”

“Don’t you have to plan?”

“Tomorrow, my love.”

Tomorrow sounded good to her.

* * * *

The next day the agents arrived, or ex-agents. Jay didn’t know and didn’t care to ask. If they were working with the Department, it meant they were well trained. It also meant Cristos knew their every move, but he probably would anyway. They kept the plan simple.

When Jay questioned them, they exchanged glances, as if nobody should question the authority of a tall, scary-looking vampire with tattoos and nipple rings. Jay had spotted both when an agent had stripped off his shirt when he arrived as if it offended him. And hadn’t bothered putting on another.

Now he sat half-naked on the sofa where Jay and Lucille had made such pleasant memories. He glowered at them. “Steph and Julian go in as new guests today. We made the reservation yesterday when Beaumont contacted us. We work from there.”

Jay had to admit that was clever. With two people inside the ranch, they could scope out the place before they made a move.

“Have you ever been inside the house?” the vampire asked now. He answered to Z, and Jay suspected that was more than a code name.

Jay shook his head. “Lucille went to dinner once.”

“I don’t want her anywhere near this,” Z snapped out. “She’s compromised. They know who she is, and I want her well out of the way. Is she safe here, or do you need to move her on first?”

Jay considered his security protocol. He’d called in his party team, and two men were patrolling the grounds all day. Discreetly because he didn’t require any unusual activity reported. The agents had arrived singly and covertly, so nobody knew he had guests in this private part of his ranch. He’d miss this place.

He had to abandon all that because he was leaving with Lucille and Drew as soon as he completed what he’d vowed to. “She’s safe here. She can take care of herself.”

“Have you told the brother?”

“Drew knows.”
“The brother”
had a name. He preferred to use it.

Jay spent as much of the day as he could with Lucille, ignoring his sense of doom. He always felt like that before an operation. Always had. The difference was, this time he had someone to share with. Having someone so deep in his head took some getting used to.

Chopping a pepper to add to a salad she was serving with their steaks, she listened to him. “I’ve been a soldier and an airman. I’ve flown planes over the German lines in World War One and over the Ruhr Damn nearly forty years later. I’ve killed men face-to-face and at a distance, felt their lives snuff out. Talents too. That’s why I feel life coming to an end. It usually is. Mine or someone else’s.”

She put down her knife and smiled at him. It felt like a physical caress. “That’s why I love you. One of the reasons, anyhow. The other being your hot body.”

“What if I get fat?” He hadn’t indulged in this kind of teasing for a long time. For the past thirty years, he’d fucked women, a couple of men too, but he’d never allowed more than friendship to develop. He’d enjoyed the variety and the lack of profound emotion, even assumed he’d done with the deeper passions. He hadn’t mourned their loss.

Then Lucille arrived and took him by storm.

“I’ll love you anyway.” She started on another pepper. “And feed you more of these and less of that.” She motioned toward the grill where their steaks were broiling.

They laughed, totally in accord. Dusk was coming, but in this part of the world, the sun wouldn’t set for another half hour. Then they would move. The faster the better. A nice, clean takedown, Z had said. Low body count because the Sorcerers wanted to talk to the Wheelers.

Jay felt a mixture of disappointment and relief, both for the same reason. He wouldn’t have to kill. Whatever he’d said to her, his blood was up, and he wanted revenge—the primitive emotion vampires once thrived on. It made them feel alive when centuries of living had deadened everything else. Not that Jay had lived that long, but he’d begun to skim past the fleeting emotions that differentiated one day from another.

They had time to eat. Then he showered and changed after making a nearly silent Lucille swear not to leave their suite. Better to protect her in a smaller environment, and with Drew next door, the guards could concentrate their efforts here. Two Talents, two mortals, plus the two guards on constant patrol. And the electronic wizardry defending him and the people he cared for most. That should do it.

Lucille wanted to come. She knew how to handle a gun, but she wasn’t stupid. When he explained that the Wheelers could use her emotions and her knowledge, that they’d target her if they saw her, she agreed to stay behind, although reluctantly. Then he pointed out that Drew needed someone to take care of him. Because although his recovery was almost complete, he still had an edge of sluggishness. Moreover his youth meant he hadn’t much experience with violence. Jay didn’t have to remind her that went for her too, but she made him promise to teach her how to handle one of the blades he was strapping to the inside of his arms, his waist, and his ankles. He’d used them for years and appreciated their quiet, clean approach. Not that he didn’t have a firearm or two about his person as well.

As the man who knew the terrain best, Jay took charge. Before he left, Lucille had allowed him to access the memories of her one dinner at the Wheelers’. That gave him a fair idea of the interior layout, which he transmitted to the others. To be sure, they carried secure cell phones. If they became separated, or if the Wheelers had a sensitive on their side who could detect telepathic communication, then they might be safer using that method.

Z’s plan—simple, brutal, and effective—seemed the best.

They arrived on the perimeter of the ranch and moved in. They swept the area mentally, ignoring the faint traces that indicated the presence of Talents, knowing now what they were. Their dead. They’d see to them afterward, ensure they were cared for and buried the way they would have wanted.

Four on the outside, three on the inside. Seven was always Jay’s lucky number.

The two new guests relayed that they’d been invited to eat with the family.

“Is that usual?”
Z asked sharply.

“It is for many dude ranches. Eating around one big table, a ranch experience.”

“Gets them further in,”
the taciturn griffin shape-shifter, a woman called Alexandra, said. She was one scary-ass woman, tall, slender as a reed, strong as whipcord. Jay was glad she was on their side. The other members of their team moving in from the perimeter were a virgin Sorcerer with a strong telekinesis power, and a jaguar. Paolo had sleek muscles like a swimmer’s, skin like bronze. The shape-shifters wore loose clothing, easily shed or split if they needed to shape-shift. Jay had chosen clothing in a fetching shade of matte black. Fashion gave way to expedience sometimes. He’d have worn a dress if that meant he could work better.

But he still appeared decent, and he’d hidden his weapons well because he was the vanguard. For once he wished he could carry a sword by his side as he had in some parts of his life. He understood swords, what they could do, how to hold them and strike hard. Maybe he should take to using one again. Although the blades he carried had a lot of uses.

He quelled his murderous thoughts, changing them to calm affability as he walked up to the house where Nathan was staying. Only two ranch hands were on duty tonight in the small apartment above a garage. It was placed close to the stables so they were available if the horses needed them.

As he strolled out to join him, Nathan assured him his colleague was asleep and not likely to wake for a good twelve hours.

“What did you do?” Jay demanded, keeping his voice steady.

“Slipped him a mickey. I had one with him. A little weaker but the same stuff. I let it enter my bloodstream, but I shifted to stop it working.”

“Clever.”

Nathan shrugged off the compliment. They walked slowly toward the stables, then turned in the direction of the paddock, empty at this time of the evening. “Most evenings a few are out here, but I made sure they were fed and put in their stalls.”

“It seems years since I rode.” Jay tipped his hat back, letting the evening breeze touch his face.

“Have you used a Western saddle?”

“I’ve had the ranch ten years. What the fuck do you think?”

Nathan chuckled. “Yeah. You were some horseman back in the day.”

“We all were,” Jay said. “It was a requirement in our set.” They were to chat and keep the atmosphere calm while the others scanned the house for presences.

“A new group of dudes is arriving tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” One reason they’d waited the extra day before going in. “Bet you were glad to see the back of a couple of them.”

Nathan grimaced. “All of them. An extended bachelorette party. Not even the excuse of a wedding, just a reunion. Apparently they do this every year.”

“Did they do you?”

“Mind your own fucking business.” Nathan smiled, a knowing gleam in his eyes. “They tipped well.”

A note sounded in their minds, the signal to move in.
“There are seven of them and two visitors.”

“Our visitors?”

“Nope.”

“Shit.”
They hadn’t expected that. Still, nine mortals were no match for the Talents currently converging on them. Jay contacted the two in the house.
“Are they all PHR?”

“I think so,”
Alexandra replied.
“Six highly organized minds, three organized chaos.”

“Target the three first.”
If they could create the illusion of normal mortal minds, then they were the more dangerous.
“Everyone in place?”
He received the notes of affirmation. Two Talents on the roof, one vampire on the other side of the house. From Z’s casual approach to violence, Jay wouldn’t bet on anyone getting past him. “We’re to take all we can alive,” he murmured to Nathan.

Nathan stared at him in disbelief.
“After what they did?”

“They’re going to the Sorcerers.”

Nathan said nothing, but the smile he gave Jay chilled his blood. These bastards deserved it.

“I thought the PHR preferred cells of six,”
one of the shape-shifters broke in.

“This is a family. Or we could get lucky and trap a daisy from another cell.”
That was Z, cool, with an underlying serving of menace.

“Here we go.”

As Jay and Nathan moved toward the back entrance, Z knocked at the front door.

That split the group. Someone went to answer the door while the Talents on the roof were gaining access through upper windows. They didn’t bother with locks, just sliced the panes of glass with diamond-sharp claws and eased the pieces aside. They’d partially shifted to acquire their strength and some of their powers. They’d go the rest of the way in a flash if they considered it necessary.

Meantime Z was bleating about his car breaking down. An old excuse, but it worked a treat, especially in a house full of people who would consider themselves safe. Armed people. One of the dude ranch’s offers was for gun lessons, particularly with weapons of the old West. They worked just like most other guns, especially the replicas. Not that they would help them.

Jay was in. He sent the prearranged signal. They had five people inside. Nathan had stayed out of the house to act as point. The Wheelers had never allowed him inside, but since he was an itinerant worker only employed on a temporary basis, that didn’t surprise anyone.

One sharp kick changed that. The back door burst open, and they walked in. It was on.

Someone came at Jay, and he moved without thinking, delivering a hard punch to the woman’s jaw. Did he regret hitting a woman? Not when the woman was aiming a practiced karate kick at him. “Stupid fucker,” he said without compunction, passing on to the main dining room.

Screams and the sound of shattering crockery came from inside the room. Their people creating confusion. They should have the place under control soon. Easy.

He’d be home with Lucille, making their plans before too long. Two hours, tops.

Nathan stood by the dining room door while Jay smashed it open, timing his entrance with Z’s equally dramatic one from the other door. The two shape-shifters were locating the computers in the house. They prepared to send the contents to the Department, then remove the laptops and the hard drives from any towers they found.

Jay didn’t give a shit about that. He wanted these people out of commission.

He scanned the area, chose the group of people on the left. A flash distracted him, but not enough. Then someone slashed a blade down and stabbed toward his stomach. Before it reached its target, Jay met it with one of his own. He knocked the weapon aside before spinning the person around and, in one smooth move, securing him with one of the flexi cuffs he carried from a loop at his waist. One down. This was simple, just like he’d assumed.