Jace (33 page)

“Ready to call it quits, were?”

“You can’t win.”

“Well, I’m sure as shit not losing.”

He jumped back as Brody lashed out. His talons caught on the pocket of Jace’s shirt. Material tore with a soft hiss as he spun away. The cool air on his mark made it burn. When he turned back, Brody just stood there, staring at him, a strange expression on his face. A glance around showed everyone else doing the same.

Crooking two fingers, he invited Brody forward, back into the fun.

It was Brac who stepped forward, frowning. “You didn’t tell us she marked you.”

Jace kept his fists up. “Probably because it’s none of your damn business.”

“When did this happen?”

“Which time?”

Brac’s head snapped up. “What do you mean, ‘Which time?’”

Jace made his smile as patient as he could. “I’m a vampire; I heal, remember?”

“Son of a bitch.”

Brody stepped back, his hands dropping. “How often?”

“What?”

Lifting his hand, Brody indicated the mark on Jace’s chest.

“How often do you go through marking?”

“About every couple days.”

Another “son of a bitch” rose out of the crowd.

What the hell did his mark matter
now
? “Do I need to remind you we were in the middle of a perfectly good fight?”

With a wave of his hand, Brody put an end to his fun. “We’re done with that.”

“The hell we are.” Jace still had a load of aggravation to work off. “C’mon.”

Brody didn’t put up his fists. “No.”

“It is against pack law to fight a man in the midst of marking fever,” Brac interjected.

“Marking what?”

“The emotional upheaval a male goes through after his mate marks him.”

“Why the hell not?”

“They’re not rational.”

Sweat stung the mark, reminding Jace of the sting of Miri’s sharp white teeth. His cock stirred, riding the rush of adrenaline from the fight.

“As Alpha I’m abolishing that law.”

This time it was Brac’s turn to look patient. “The law was set by the Enforcers. It’s beyond your reach.”

Another look around showed the Tragallions were convinced of what they were saying. “Figures.” Jace walked over and grabbed his coat off the step and drew it on in short jerks, grunting as the blows he had taken to his torso made their locations known.

“What are you going to do?” Brody asked.

“Since you’ve put an end to our fun, I figured I’d finish the roof.”

He climbed the ladder rather than levitating, annoyance demanding more aggressive movement than a soft drift. The ladder rattled as someone else climbed on. A look over his shoulder revealed Brac following.

Jace wiped the blood from his cut lip, wincing at the sting. “Whatever it is, Brac, this isn’t a good time.”

“Tough.”

Jace cocked an eyebrow at him. “You say ‘tough’ to your Alpha?”

Brac shrugged. “When he needs to hear it.”

“What in hell makes you think I’ll listen?”

“You are not an unreasonable man.”

That made him blink. “What? No qualifying that with ‘for a vampire’?”

“You can’t fit with the pack if you don’t understand the law.”

He subdued the pulse of victory and contemplated how much it was going to hurt clearing the top of the ladder. “I didn’t realize you thought of me as a permanent fixture.”

“You grow on a pack.”

That surprising tidbit came from above. Marc. Jace swung his leg over the top of the ladder.

“Like a fungus,” Brac grunted.

“You heard?” Brac looked pointedly at Jace’s chest.

“Yeah.” Marc sighed. “That could be a problem for some.”

Jace winced as his ribs screamed a protest at the need to straighten, once he stood on the roof.

Marc noticed the betraying movement. “Brody’s got a hell of a punch, doesn’t he?”

“He’s a one-man battering ram.”

“You did well against him.”

“I’d rather have finished it.”

Brac shook his head. “That won’t be allowed.”

“Because Miri marked me?”

“Pretty much.”

Jace crossed to where he’d left his hammer. He didn’t bend down, though. No sense faking what no one believed. Probing his ribs for breaks, he asked, “Either one of you plan on telling me why Miri’s marking me is putting a damper on my fun, or should I guess?”

The two men exchanged a glance and then a nod.

“Marking is a highly erotic event,” Marc began.

“No shit.”

“It leaves a man off balance for days while the hormones work through his system.”

“Hence the law,” Brac interjected. “Too many battles turn deadly when men are in marking fever. It’s never been a problem before, as it’s a onetime thing.” He eyed Jace with a combination of disgust and awe. “Or it used to be.”

“I’ve got to admit, with the usual Johnson contrariness, you’ve carried marking fever to a new extreme,” Marc added.

“I hate to break it to you, boys, but I am not the contrary one.”

“Shit, if you weren’t my Alpha, I think I’d have to kill you,” Brac muttered. “I haven’t enjoyed the experience once and you’re indulging on an almost daily basis.” He grabbed up a hammer and a handful of nails.

Jace smiled, showing all his teeth. “Eat your heart out.”

“Trust me, I am, but you’re wearing on my nerves.”

“That just breaks my heart.”

Jace’s cell phone rang. He checked the number before flipping it open. “Caleb.”

“How’s life going as lord of the weres?”

He checked the bruise on his belly. “It’s a real blast.”

His sarcasm got through. Two thumps came clearly over the line. Caleb’s feet hitting the floor. “Are you having problems?”

“Nothing twenty years or so of building trust won’t take care of.”

“Are the Tragallions turning nasty?”

Jace glared at Marc and Brac. “Apparently, I’m immune to nasty.”

“How the hell did you manage that?”

“Miri arranged it.”

“She’s a resourceful little thing, isn’t she?”

Jace’s fingers drifted instinctively up to his mark. It burned just at the mention of her name. He flipped Brac off when he smiled knowingly. “She’s just full of surprises.”

“Why do I think there’s more going on than you’re telling me?”

“Probably because I’m still working out the kinks.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“You could tell me there’s news on Faith.”

Caleb sighed. “Nothing concrete.”

Jace tucked the phone between his shoulder and cheek, blocking the spread of sound. “What exactly does that mean?”

“There’s been a lot of chatter where there shouldn’t be and none where there should.”

“Shit.”

“That was pretty much my response.”

Silence reigned for a heartbeat. Caleb wasn’t telling him the whole story. “What else?”

A heavy sigh and then, “Tobias has gone missing.”

“On purpose?”

“No one knows.”

“Who the hell are these Enforcers?”

“You mean besides being a law unto themselves?”

“Yeah.”

“I have no idea.”

“Do you think Tobias is mixed up in Faith’s disappearance?”

“To his eyeballs. I’m just not sure which side he’s going to come down on when the smoke clears.”

Jace knew. “Tobias may be Enforcer, but he’s were. There’s no way he’s siding with Sanctuary.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Weres are real big on standards.”

The ladder rattled as men began returning to their job. While they gathered their equipment and got back to work, Jace was subjected to many strange looks. And Brac was still studying him with that inscrutable something on his face. Another silence. Jace checked his watch. “If we don’t want the Sanctuary tracing this, we need to hang up.”

“I know.” Caleb still didn’t end the call, his worry stretching across the distance. “Jace?”

“Yeah?”

“Watch your back.”

“You’ve got it.”

T
HE
call came from Tobias two hours later when Jace was between the garage and the house.

“Yes?”

Without any preamble, the Enforcer broke the news. “I found Faith. They want to make a trade.”

The pain in his bruised abdomen was nothing compared to the pain of hope. “Who are they?”

“The only thing I know is they’re wolf, not vamp.”

That was a plus. “What do they want in trade?”

“Brenda Lynn.”

“Why?”

“That mystery is going to have to be solved at a later date.”

Which translated to they didn’t have much time. “When do they want us to make the exchange?”

“Tonight.”

“Not in any rush, are they?”

“It gets better.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“They want you to come along to the meeting place. Just you and Brenda Lynn. If they hear any rumors of this or they see you bring anybody else, they’ll kill Faith.”

Weres were beginning to look at him funny. He started walking again, faking a calm he didn’t feel. “Are you sure they have Faith?”

“They described her rescue from the Sanctuary to a T.”

“They risked their lives to save her and now they’re threatening to kill her?”

“I know. It doesn’t make sense. Could be she’s no use to them anymore.”

Which she wouldn’t be if she were sickly like Joseph and struggling to hold on to life. The sense of urgency inside him increased. If Faith was doing poorly, time was even more of the essence. Jace kept his voice as even as possible. “Does this mean that you found your rogue Enforcer?”

There was a pause and then an equally careful “I’m getting closer.”

“Now, why doesn’t that give me a warm fuzzy?”

“It shouldn’t. Nothing about this should give you a warm fuzzy, but there is the upside.”

“Yeah. We finally found Faith.”

“And she’s alive. That’s a hell of a lot more than we had last night.”

And it was going to be a hell of a lot less than he had tomorrow, because tomorrow he was going to give Miri back her daughter. “Yeah. Where’s the meeting place?”

“The cave’s sixty miles south of here.”

That would put the meeting place between the Tragallion lands and the Circle J. Jace could use that.

“Thanks.”

“Whatever plan you come up with, be careful who you confide it to. We don’t know who to trust, Jace. They’ve got to have somebody on the inside for them to know as much as they do about the Tragallion situation.”

Jace glanced up at the sky. Dawn was starting to push out the night.

Tobias continued, “I also don’t like the fact that somebody knows more about Brenda Lynn than we do.”

“She’s just a little girl.”

“A little girl that Travis kept close. There has to be some significance to that.”

“Whatever it is, you know it’s wrapped up in power. Everything Travis did—keeping the pack in the technological dark ages, driving out dissenters—it all fed into his love of power.”

“In werewolf culture, power comes through the females.”

“I thought of that, but Brenda Lynn does not have the D’Nally golden eyes.”

“What does her scent tell you?”

“That she’s overly fond of the scent of lilacs.”

“Lilacs?”

“The kid smells like she bathes in the stuff.”

“Interesting.”

The kid’s daily choice of stench took on new meaning as Jace glanced across the compound to where Brenda Lynn’s house resided. Only one light was on, in one of the bedrooms. As he watched, it went out. Werewolves had very sensitive noses. They wouldn’t wear such a strong scent unless they were trying to cover another scent. He remembered Brenda Lynn’s complaining once of itchy eyes. Too dry contacts caused itchy eyes. “I’ll get back to you, Tobias.”

“What do you want me to tell our little party of kidnappers?”

“Tell them I’ll be coming for them at the appointed time.”

“With Brenda Lynn?”

“Tell them I’ll be coming with what I need to get my daughter.”

Jace pressed the off button and snapped the phone closed. They’d found his daughter. He pulled up her mental image, stroking her little cheek in his mind.
I’m coming for you, baby girl. You just hold on and tomorrow you’ll be back home with your momma.

He didn’t include himself in the promise. Odds were he wasn’t going to get out of this alive. The caves were the perfect place to set up an ambush. Lots of dead ends, lots of hiding places. Too many for one man to manage. Maybe not for two. He crossed the compound, heading for Marjorie’s house and the answers he needed. If he was right, Marjorie was more than just another pack member and her daughter possibly more to the Tragallions’ future than just another little girl.

He flipped his cell phone open as he crossed the street. Before he did anything else, he needed to make a call. He hit the send button. Caleb answered on the second ring. “I need your help.”

LYING
to Miri was the hardest thing he’d ever done. Jace could feel the probe of her energy against his, searching for what he wasn’t telling her as he checked his weapons before loading them into the SUV.

“Why won’t you tell me where you’re going?” she asked for the third time.

“Because it’s not important.”

“It’s important enough for you to turn yourself into a walking arsenal.”

“I’m a cautious man.”

“You’re an evasive man.”

“For a reason you should respect.”

Her arms folded across her chest. The gold of her eyes heated with her frustration. The same gold of Marjorie’s and Brenda Lynn’s eyes when one removed the contacts. The D’Nally eyes that Travis had planned on exploiting through a biddable Brenda Lynn once it became clear that Marjorie wouldn’t play along with a man who would sell out his female Alpha to the Sanctuary. Brenda Lynn would be Travis’s ace in the hole to finagling ascension once he succeeded in getting rid of Miri and Marjorie.

“I don’t respect what I don’t understand.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. She didn’t melt like she usually did. “Some things have to be taken on faith.”

He realized it was a poor choice of words as soon as he said it. Miri’s brows snapped down as puzzle pieces fell into place. “You’re going after Faith, aren’t you? That’s why you won’t give me any details.”

Jace slid his revolver into his hip holster before reaching for the knife harness.

“I told you I’m not talking about it.” Not to her, because if she got an inkling Faith was near, she’d be all over it regardless of the danger. And she was too important to him and her pack to be anywhere near the mess this rescue was going to become.

On a “Stand back” he hauled the energy shield cover off the SUV.

The material was heavy with the energy it had absorbed from the vehicle. Too heavy for even him to lift. He let it slide to the ground, jumping back before it could crush his foot or leg. It would be a couple minutes before it would lose the energy it had absorbed and become light.

“I love you, Jace.”

The words encompassed him with the softness of her energy, the underlying edge of desperation not diminishing the impact. He absorbed both, her love and her fear, relishing the former, working to diminish the latter as he turned to face her.

She was so achingly beautiful in his night vision. The stark black and white highlighting the purity of her features, the rich black of her hair, the tempting fullness of her mouth, the thickness of her lashes over those incredible eyes.

He’d always imagined the first time he heard those words from her would be in bed, when she was drawn past her inhibitions by the force of their passion, but here was okay, too, seeing as it might be his last chance to hear them and if things went bad, he was selfish enough to want the memory to hold on to when he passed to the other side.

“Thought you were saving up those words.”

“I thought you were going to share with me.”

She rubbed her hands up and down her arms and took a step closer. “Why aren’t you taking anyone with you?”

Jace nudged the shield with his foot. It was still too heavy to move.

“Because bringing someone along would complicate things.”

“We’re in the middle of a war, Jace. No one leaves the compound without reinforcements.” She took another step closer, close enough that he could see the sheen of tears in her eyes. “That’s your own rule.”

He took the step that closed the distance between them, cupping her cheeks in his hands, rubbing his thumbs over the fine skin of her cheekbones, calluses rasping on the scars. He’d rather tear his heart out than see her hurt again. “You know I’d do anything for you, right?”

“Yes.”

There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in her voice. “Good. I want you to remember that. Right along with the fact that I love you. Have since the moment I saw you and that won’t ever stop.”

Fingers encircled his wrists like delicate chains that made him want to forget everything happening later that day. “That sounds like good-bye.”

“A good-bye would imply I’m not planning on coming back.”

Her gaze met his and held it. “Are you?”

“Always.” No matter how remote the possibility, he would do his damnedest to make it back to Miri and his daughter.

A flicker of sensation along his consciousness alerted him to an intrusion. Miri was attempting to read his mind. He snapped his mind closed. Had he closed it in time? Nothing in Miri’s expression changed; nothing showed she’d slipped past his guard.

Jace glanced out the window of the garage. It was full dark without even a hint of moon lighting the black. Prime hunting time for vampires. The lack of light would give him an advantage over the werewolves, as their vision would be compromised. It was a small advantage, but he chose to take it as a good omen. He gathered up the shielding material and tossed it into the back of the SUV.

Miri came up behind him and put her arms around his waist and squeezed tightly, her cheek resting against his back. “Don’t do this, Jace.”

He turned in her embrace, cupping her head in his hand and pressing her to his heart.

“Whatever it is you’re going to do,” Miri whispered, “whatever it is you’re planning on sacrificing yourself for, it’s not worth it.”

He rested his cheek on the top of her head, memorizing the feel of her in his arms, relishing the way her heart beat in synch with his, feeling her strength, her determination, knowing the pain of loss that ate her alive. Pain he’d created. Pain he could heal. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

He tipped her face up, allowed himself one last look into her eyes, one last kiss, one last “I love you.”

Then he turned on his heel and got in the SUV.

JACE
waited until he was out of sight of the compound before taking the dummy he’d built and buckling it into the passenger side of the front seat. From the distance, he figured it would do to make whomever was watching think he had the little girl with him.

He sensed a presence and looked up. Tobias stood beside the car. Jace blinked. The powers the Enforcer wielded were impressive. Almost as impressive as the determination illuminating his cold eyes. Jace rolled down his window. “Nice of you to make it.”

The door locks on the SUV popped open. Tobias glanced over at the dummy then back at Jace. He raised his eyebrows and opened the back door. “Do you think that’s going to fool anyone?”

“As long as no one gets up close and personal, it will do the job for as long as I need it to.” Especially since no one expected a vampire to have a moral code and therefore wouldn’t expect him to have any compunction about sacrificing a child for something he wanted.

The door closed. “Got a minute to talk about what exactly the job is?”

“Getting my daughter back.”

“I figured that. The question is in the how.”

“I’m counting on luck.”

“Funny, I got the impression this was a suicide mission.”

“I’m not suicidal.”

Tobias leaned back in the seat. “Just reckless.”

Jace shrugged. “Only a little.”

“I know the goal is to get Faith back to Miri, but did it ever occur to you that without you, that’s not going to be enough?”

“It’ll be enough.”

“Miri’s right. You don’t understand weres. Miri will never accept your death. She’ll follow you to the grave.”

That was not part of the plan. “Slade will find a way for her to live for our daughter.”

“Uh-huh.” Tobias motioned to the road. “Shouldn’t we be going?”

“I believe I was told to come alone.”

“You were. But I told them the cost of bringing me in to broker a deal is they get to have me there when the deal took place.”

“They didn’t object.”

Tobias smiled a cold smile. “I think they’re planning on killing two birds with one stone.”

Jace met his gaze in the rearview. “You’ve got to admire their efficiency.”

“Yeah. You do.”

“So what do you think this is going to get them?”

“Brenda Lynn, because for sure they aren’t going to think you won’t bring her to trade.”

“I considered it.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly decided I have scruples.”

“I’ve always thought you had scruples. Who do you think suggested to Ian to let your mating to Miri stand?”

“I wondered why no one just took me out.”

“You can thank me by not getting killed now and upsetting Miri.”

“That’s not in the plan.”

“As far as I can see there isn’t much of a plan.”

Jace put the SUV in motion. “If you don’t like it, you can get out.”

“There’s always plan B. I’m just going along for the ride, to protect were interests.”

“Which would be?”

“The Tragallion Alpha.”

“I’m thinking there aren’t too many that would be sad to see me go.”

“Miri would. She loves you.”

“And I love her.”

“And it’s definitely coloring your thinking.”

Jace steered the SUV around a rut in the road.

“What? You believe vampires can feel love?”

“I believe the Johnsons are capable of a lot of things most vampires aren’t.”

There was a series of clicks. Jace glanced in the rearview. Tobias held a cell phone in his hand. He glanced at the screen. A small smile touched his stern lips.