Powerful Awakening [L.U.S.T. 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (19 page)

“But he’s definitely got the missing shifters in that compound?” Chrystal asked. “He’s got Calista?”

Michael softened his gaze as he looked down at Chrystal once more. “Cedric has not seen any of them as of yet, my sweet. However, he is a strong telepath and he has picked up on the thoughts of a few of those guarding the compound. The missing shifters are inside. We do not yet know who or how many there are.” He didn’t add what Cedric had told him about the were-fox’s salacious thoughts of the fragile brunette caged inside the compound or the were-fox’s excitement over the rarity of her breed.

“We know where they are. We know
who
they are.” Kahil squared his broad shoulders, his fingers opening and closing into fists at his sides. “Why are we standing around talking about them? Let’s go get the bastards and rescue the hostages.”

“That is the plan, of course. I did not send you with Cedric because I believe your powers will be better served getting to those hostages while the rest of us clear the way. Gideon will be your partner on this.”

Michael’s gaze didn’t waver from Kahil’s, but he still didn’t miss the way his brother’s chin lifted to the ceiling as he rolled his eyes. Michael rarely made decisions concerning agents without Gideon and it was even rarer for him to do so without first telling his brother. On this, however, Michael had known Gideon would not be pleased. His brother remained the only one in the agency not to embrace Kahil with open arms. Gideon thought the Panwere too unstable, an impression that had been substantiated by the vast research he and Michael had done on Kahil before recruiting him.

“Many of those we know of whom we believe are being held hostage are wolves or lycans. A couple, however, are not and may so require a, shall we say gentler, or even stronger shifter to coax them from their cages.”

Kahil could do either. As a carrier of multiple strains of lycanthropy, he could shift to vicious Lukoi or a tame were-owl when necessary.

Michael glanced at Chrystal before returning his gaze to the agents. They had talked about this and he had done his best to ensure she no longer feared those in the agency knowing what she was. “You should all also be aware one of the hostages cannot be sensed no matter the extent of your power should you possess it. Unless these terrorists have found a way to hold her in her shifted state, she will appear to all powers as human.”

“She,” Meredith repeated. “It’s a female then?”

“Apparently a rare breed of one,” Kahil commented.

“She is a were-chameleon.” Michael didn’t miss the way Kahil’s gaze slid to the back of Chrystal’s head. “Yes, she is one as well.”

Chrystal got to her feet and turned so she could face the room without having her back to Michael. “Which is why I should go in with Gideon and Kahil. Calista won’t know who she can trust unless she knows I’m there.”

Gideon lifted a nonchalant shoulder. “So we’ll tell her we know you. Only a fool would balk at being rescued, anyway.”

Chrystal planted her hands on her hips and stared Gideon down. “And what if she thinks you’re going to rescue her from that place only to take her somewhere else and kill her yourself?”

“If she doesn’t shift then, as far as she knows, we don’t have a clue what she is anyway,” Gideon argued. “As far as we’ll be concerned, she’s just another damsel in distress.”

Chrystal actually laughed at that, a quick bark of thorough hilarity. “You’ve definitely never met my cousin.”

Challenge sparked with a keen curiosity in Gideon’s eyes. “It looks like I’m about to.”

“Maybe,” Chrystal conceded, “but not before she knows I’m there.”

“Which she will not.” Chrystal’s head whipped around at Michael’s declaration and the challenge and curiosity in Gideon’s eyes morphed to sheer amusement.

Chrystal stared at him, anger starting to simmer in her angelic expression. “What do you mean she won’t?”

“Calista will know you are with us, though you will not literally be
with
us, my sweet.” Michael met her rising anger with a calm coolness he hoped would counter the flames he saw rising in her eyes. “You are staying here.”

“To hell I am.” Chrystal was livid. Andrew took a step toward her and reached for her, but she sidestepped away, turning on him. “And don’t you try to tell me I need to listen to him. That’s my cousin we’re going after along with the others.”

“Your cousin and others who are being held captive by some very ruthless shifters and who knows who else,” Andrew pointed out, his voice as calm as Michael’s had been. “Something is telling me Nikolas isn’t the whole mastermind behind this, Chrystal. We really don’t know what we’ll be walking into.”

Chrystal cocked her head at Andrew. “And, what, just because I’m a female shifter, I can’t handle myself in Venezuela?”

“No,” Michael answered, not giving Andrew the chance. “We have lost you once, my sweet. We will not see it happen again.”

Silence fell in the office and Michael watched as Chrystal’s eyes slowly closed. His gaze skipped from her to Meredith, Kahil, Gideon, and across the other agents in the office. None of them dared to speak, but all appeared to be enjoying the show he, Andrew, and Chrystal were putting on for them.

“We’re only trying to keep you safe.” Andrew’s quiet words barely broke the silence. “Listen to us, please.”

Chrystal’s eyes opened and she stared at Andrew unspeaking for a long moment. When she spoke, her voice softened, but the flames in her eyes remained. “I listened to both of you the last time about the necklace and look where it got me.”

“That’s not fair.” The pain Michael felt pierce his chest sounded clearly in Andrew’s whisper.

Chrystal sighed and rubbed her forehead. “You’re right and I’m sorry. What happened to me, to Rebecca, to both of you, hell, to Gideon, too…” She flung an arm out in Gideon’s direction. “None of it would’ve happened if I, if Rebecca really
had
listened and hadn’t gone to Le Mort’s to return the necklace you insisted she wear.”

“Do not put the blame for that on yourself, my sweet. If not that night, then another. Eventually, Le Mort would have gotten what he wanted.” Michael paused and considered his own words. “At least in changing Gideon, Andrew, and myself into what we have become.”

“The three of you went there that night to save me,” she reminded him.

Michael nodded once. “We did and we failed.”

“You tried to save me that night,” Andrew pointed out.

Chrystal let out a half laugh that was totally devoid of humor. “And got myself killed in the process. I’m smarter than that now,” she added quickly, obviously realizing she’d just given them all the ammunition they needed to insist she stay behind. “I’m not Rebecca anymore, I’m not even human anymore, and I’m not going to sit by for the rest of eternity and watch as the two of you play your vampire and lycan games while the sweet little were-chameleon keeps the house clean.”

Michael’s gaze snapped over her shoulder to Gideon when his brother chuckled. He bowed his head, hiding a grin of his own at the picture her words had created in her mind. “Have I told you yet, my sweet, that you are a very stubborn woman?”

“More so in this life than the last is the way you’ve put it most recently, I think.”

“I do not want you to do this, my sweet.”

“
We
don’t want you to,” Andrew chimed in, his tone still soft, but laced with an authority Michael rarely heard in the man’s voice.

“You can’t make me stay behind.” Chrystal wasn’t giving an inch. She leveled her gaze on Michael. “Not unless you’re planning to pull some more of your vampire shit on me and bedazzle me, or whatever you want to call it, with your eyes.”

“I would not use my powers against you.” Michael sighed. “A fact that you know all too well.”

“Want me to put a shield around the office?” Cosby Duncan offered, speaking for the first time since the meeting had began. “It’ll keep her here until we get back.”

Michael glanced at Cosby. The wizard wasn’t the most powerful agent in LUST, but he held the most varied powers, one of which included the ability to cast an almost impenetrable shield around any area he chose. Only one being had ever gotten through one of Cosby’s shields. Regulus Le Mort had done it when Cosby had cast one around Elena to keep her safe. With Le Mort no longer in the Earth realm, Michael didn’t doubt Cosby’s shield would thwart anyone from getting to Chrystal. It would also prevent Chrystal from getting out.

“That is a tempting offer,” Michael said as he returned his attention to Chrystal. She was glaring at him now, her eyes barely slits in her angelic face and shooting sharp darts of absolute warning. “One that I am afraid if I were to accept, she would never allow me to live it down.”

“Damn right, I wouldn’t.”

Michael reached for her, half expecting her to move away as she had done when Andrew had tried. It was like pulling a tree trunk into his arms but, once her body pressed against his, he felt it slowly begin to soften. He dipped his head, brushing his lips to the tip of her nose. “I will not do that to you.”

“Thank you.” She turned her head, extended an arm toward Andrew, and lifted a brow. “What about you?”

Andrew moved closer, letting her draw him in at her side. “You’re pissing me off for the first time in more than a century, but the powers it would take to keep you here aren’t ones I possess.”

Chrystal chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. “Hmm, I guess I should be grateful for small favors then.”

Michael tightened his arms around her, absorbing her heat and the extraordinary feel of having her against him that never went away. “I cannot live another century without you.” He shifted his gaze to include Andrew in the statement. “We do not like it. However, if you insist on going, we will not stop you.”

Becoming a vampire had made Michael less stubborn than he had been as a human. Chrystal hadn’t told Michael as much back in the office but, now that she remembered so much of her life as Rebecca, she knew it to be true. The human Michael would’ve never allowed her, either as Rebecca or Chrystal, to accompany him on such a dangerous mission.

And accompany is definitely the right word
. So far, Michael hadn’t let her out of his sight. She gazed down from the tree branch where she’d climbed to get the best view of the compound and found him looking up at her, question and deep worry darkening his already ebony eyes. She’d told him she would be safe up here. Rather, she’d
tried
to tell him. Getting him to listen, however, proved to be a whole different task they simply didn’t have time for.

Andrew wasn’t doing much better. He’d shifted as she had as soon as they hit the jungle outside the compound, planting himself barely ten feet on the opposite side of Michael from the tree in which she had climbed. He looked up at her, the gold nearly consuming the hazel of his eyes, his dirty-blond hair now a mass of thick, gleaming fur all over his wolf-like body. In a word, he was gorgeous and obviously had far more control over his beast than he liked to admit.

He snarled at her, baring fangs that could easily pierce straight through her, whether in human form or chameleon. That simple show only proved two things to her. The first definitely cemented her belief in his control over his wolf. The second let her know he was still angry with her for taking her were-shape and going about her merry little way into the tree. He’d argued with her on that point, insisting she didn’t need to take the chance on revealing what she was, but she’d held her ground. Wouldn’t she stand out like a sore thumb amidst all the jungle brush and trees in her human form? As a were-chameleon, she could use her power to blend. She could camouflage herself and fade into her surroundings. He’d known she was right. She’d seen it in his eyes. That hadn’t kept him from putting up a fight, one she had won in the end.

Chrystal stuck her tongue out at him, wishing for the first time in her chameleon life that it were longer than five and a half inches. A little more added length and she could’ve slapped him with it. Maybe it would’ve knocked some sense into the lycan.

Her tongue rapidly returned to her mouth, bringing with it the taste of the humid jungle air. Below her, she heard a soft snicker and glanced down to see Michael’s lips curved in an amused grin. That grin faded in an instant as movement at the compound caught his attention.

Chrystal camouflaged herself as she turned, creeping into a position on the tree branch that afforded her a better view. She trained her eyes on the two shifters pacing back and forth in front of the compound, focusing one eye on each. Calling on her monocular depth perception, she brought the farthest shifter into clearer sight. In his human form, she couldn’t determine what kind of shifter he was, but judged him to be fierce if the linebacker build and hard expression on his face gave any indication.

Remy tells me they are holding the hostages in that room on the right side of the compound.

Chrystal heard Michael’s voice in her head. She glanced down and saw Andrew turn to look at the vampire and knew Michael was speaking to him, too. Telepathy wasn’t a power she possessed, but the deep connection between the three of them had opened her mind to Michael’s powers.

Remy will take out the shifter guard there and open the way for Gideon and Kahil to get inside.

Remy Elliot. Michael had given her a quick rundown on the man back at the office. A former US Army Ranger turned FBI turned LUST agent, the were-rat wouldn’t have any trouble taking out the slighter shifter Chrystal could see from her place on the tree branch.

She wasn’t sure if her ability to hear Michael in her head afforded her the power to speak to him in the same way, but she gave it a shot.
I’m going over there. When Gideon and Kahil go in, I’m following.

She waited, looking down at Michael and not seeing any sign he had heard her. His attention was focused straight ahead, his stance on his bended knees stiffening as he prepared himself for what came next.