Blake, Abby - Vampires' Witness [PUP Squad Alpha 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (12 page)

“What do you want?” Samuel asked in a grumpy-sounding voice. They’d been on vacation for less than three months.

The investigation into the case had been closed a few weeks ago even though they hadn’t been able to trace the e-mail that had originally tipped them off. Considering that the unknown sender potentially saved dozens of lives, the Judiciaries had decided to leave well enough alone—for now. The club owner had also been found innocent of making a false report. He hadn’t even been at his bar that night, so he was unlikely to be the one who made the call. They were still piecing together who their former boss had actually been. The current theory was that he took on the identity of his maker after the vampire had died and that was how “Ritchie” had been able to work his way into such a high position in the PUP teams. Who he’d been before becoming a vampire was still unknown.

Samuel, Benjamin, and the rest of PUP Squad Alpha had already been cleared of any wrongdoing and were approved for active duty once more. But it was because of the woman heading over to them that they’d decided to take the full six months’ leave. Sure, they’d ironed out most of their issues in the first month or two, but just spending time together uninterrupted had been what Benjamin, Skye, and Samuel had been enjoying the most.

“Sorry, Skye,” Thomas said as he greeted her with a brief hug, “but we have a situation developing, and we could really use your husbands’ help.”

“Sure,” she said with a bright smile to hide the worry he knew she was feeling. “I’ll just go grab something to drink.”

Benjamin wanted her to stay, wanted to call her back so he could hold her in his arms, but he also wanted to hear what his squadmates had to say before upsetting Skye needlessly. It was obvious by Thomas and Dyson’s demeanor that they had a serious problem on their hands.

Samuel arched an eyebrow as he moved closer and then waited for Thomas to explain.

“Human police have reports of three murders in the past two days. All of them are victims of pixie assassins. The victims have all been human, Ben.” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t quite believe the information himself.

“They’ve always restricted their activities to paranormal beings. Why would they suddenly go after humans? It doesn’t make any sense. Do we know who hired them?” Pixies never worked for free, so it was very likely someone else was paying for the assassinations.

“We’re not sure,” Dyson said, looking very uncomfortable. “None of the human victims had any paranormal contact. They didn’t know each other. All three were from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The only thing they had in common was their age, twenty-seven, and their gender, female, otherwise the attacks seem completely random.”

“Do we know how much the human police know, yet?”

“Wilson is working on it, but at the moment there seems to be very little information available in cyberspace. We’re not sure what that means, either. It could be a deliberate attempt to keep the information out of cyberspace and protect it from hacking, or it could simply be the lead detective is slack with his paperwork or a klutz with computers.” Thomas ran a hand through his hair, his agitation quite clear to someone who knew him as well as Benjamin did. “The one bit of good news is that Ronan Deeks is involved. He knows one of the police detectives assigned to the case, so we should be able to learn what the human police know as they discover it. We don’t have a hope in hell of containing this situation, but we need to find out what’s going on and shut it down quickly.”

“I agree,” Benjamin said, already wondering how he was going to explain to Skye why he was cutting short what was essentially their honeymoon. If it had been any other case, he would have handed over the mission to his team and trusted them to get it done, but with human victims piling up and their prime objective—protect paranormals from human discovery—being compromised they needed everyone on board.

What the hell were the pixies thinking? They might be indestructible beings, but even they relied on the paranormal community’s secrecy for their way of life.

Benjamin glanced over at Samuel, realized they were in agreement, and nodded to Dyson and Thomas. “All right, is everyone back on active duty?”

“Not yet,” Thomas said with a grimace. “The new boss is requesting that she have the top three squads at her beck and call. Messengers have been sent to everyone currently on holidays.”

“Her
beck
and
call
?” Samuel asked, clearly not liking the idea. “Who took over?”

“Cassandra Lipton,” Dyson said with a tight smile. Dyson and Cassandra had history—ancient history—if Benjamin’s memory served him well. He hoped like hell that it wasn’t going to cause trouble for his squad. It wasn’t unusual to find a woman or two on the PUP teams, but it had been a very long time since any of them had taken orders from a female. If nothing else it was going to be an interesting adjustment period.

“Okay, give us a couple of hours to explain to Skye.”

Dyson and Thomas nodded, and a moment later seemed to step through an invisible doorway and disappear.

Skye spoke as soon as she saw their faces. “It’s okay, I can go stay with my sister,” she said trying to smile bravely. “Jennifer won’t mind putting up with me for a while.”

“Is that what you want?” Samuel asked quietly, studying her face closely.

“This isn’t about what I want,” Skye said still with that overly bright smile. “You guys have a job to do and it would be far easier without me tagging along.”

“Actually,” Benjamin said, pulling the woman he loved into his arms, “we were wondering if maybe you’d consider joining the squad.”

“Joining the squad? What as? A cheerleader?”

She squeaked as Samuel’s large hand connected with her bottom. “No, smart-ass. We mean as a fully trained member of the team.”

“Seriously?” she asked in an excited voice.

“You’d have to do a crash course in weapons and defensive training, and you’ll probably spend the first couple years doing the paperwork. Most squad members learn on the job, kind of like an apprenticeship, so it wouldn’t be like you were getting preferential treatment or anything. We’d insist, of course, that you be assigned permanently to our squad, but otherwise your training would be like anyone else’s.”

“Seriously?” she asked again with a wide smile. “I can actually do something with my life? I don’t have to sit on my ass waiting for you two to save the world over and over? I can actually help?”

Benjamin couldn’t help the silly grin that covered his face. Without even realizing it, she’d already proven in the past few months that she was more than capable of being a valued member of their squad. She was smart, quick thinking, intelligent, and reasonable. What more could they ask of a new recruit?

“Yes, baby girl,” Benjamin said as he gathered the woman into his arms. Samuel pressed against her back, trapping her between them. “As long as it’s what you want, then we’ll make it happen.”

“I love you,” she whispered, reaching up to press a kiss to his lips and then turning slightly to press one to Samuel’s mouth. “How long before we need to report in?”

Samuel leaned in and whispered all the things they had time for before they needed to leave. Skye laughed, wriggled out of their combined embrace, and raced toward their room on the second floor. “Gotta catch me first,” she said, almost breathless with laughter.

And as they chased her into the room and gathered her once more in their embrace, Benjamin realized a truth he’d not noticed until now. Despite a rewarding career, despite having friends all around him, despite enjoying the first two hundred and three years of his life, now, he was truly happy. Now, he was truly living.

He may not have planned to create a vampire that night, but it was without a doubt the best decision he’d ever made.

THE END

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