Sweeter Than Wine (16 page)

He’d been wrong.

Sighing heavily, he realized he’d have to use those skills he’d perfected over the years to clean house. Somehow, the organization that had been set up centuries ago to watch supernaturals and ostensibly protect humanity had been infiltrated. They weren’t only watching and recording anymore. They were killing. And they had to be stopped.

Benjamin Steel was just the man for the job.

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Sitting back in his chair, he eyed the man sitting across the room. Hastings had given him the files and left him alone. He respected that. He also respected the detailed accounts these files contained, compiled by a professional. Steel trusted his gut. Hastings was on the level.

“I’m sorry.”

Steel didn’t apologize often, but these people had died because of him and he felt true remorse. Hastings nodded once, slowly, acknowledging his words.

“You’ve got a fox in your henhouse, Mr. Steel. The question is, what are you prepared to do about it?”

He stood, flexing his muscles as his entire body prepared for war.

“I guess I’m going on a fox hunt.”

Hastings stood and grinned. “Then might I suggest you could use a pack of hounds to help out?”

Steel was taken aback, but he guessed he shouldn’t have been. Why would the
were
go to all this trouble to alert him of this mess, then leave him on his own to clean it up? If there was anything he knew about
were
creatures, it was that they were very hands on.

Wherever the action was, they were in the thick of it.

“The AC doesn’t take supernaturals.”

Hastings laughed. “They may not take you anymore after what you’ve got planned.

Did you think of that?”

“The thought did cross my mind, but this has got to be done. The killing needs to stop.”

“No argument there.”

“What do you propose?”

Hastings snapped his fingers and a group of people entered the room. Some, Steel recognized from the take-down squads that had abducted him earlier, and some he’d never seen before.

One man in particular caught his attention. He was young, but built on the large side, even more muscular than most
were
creatures were naturally. Steel knew why. This man 125

worked construction with his brothers and they were part of the reason he’d been sent to this area to do surveillance. Thank goodness he hadn’t sent in his report yet or this man and his family might very well be dead. It looked like somebody in the hierarchy of the AC was a
Venifucus
mole and was ordering hits as soon Steel’s reports confirmed the identities of the supernaturals he’d been sent to investigate.

The young man walked right up to him and held out one hand. “I’m Matt Redstone.”

Steel shook his hand, liking his forthright manner. “I know.”

Matt’s eyes went cold, then brightened as he turned to the room at large. “That, my friends, was the sound of the stakes being raised yet again.” He turned back to Steel with a questioning smile. “So you know about me?”

Steel nodded. “And your brothers.”

“Damn.” Matt shook his head. “Should we worry?”

“No, thank God. I didn’t send the report yet and after what I just saw, I never will.”

Matt ran one hand through his shaggy hair in relief. “Well thank the Lady for small favors.” He moved over to a chair and straddled it. “I’m here to offer you some help.

From what we’ve been able to discover, the one who’s killing our folk is a pretty powerful magic user. He’s killed both
were
and vampire. Even we don’t like to tangle with bloodletters, though most forms of magic bounce right off us. As a non-magical mortal, you wouldn’t stand a chance against that kind of firepower without some help.

My brothers and I are willing to extend that help.”

“Cougars, right?” Steel sat again, interested in what the other man was proposing.

Matt nodded. “My oldest brother is Alpha of the cougar clan. He’s away right now, but I’m authorized to gather the clan in case of emergency and I’d say this qualifies. I can get some volunteers to help out with surveillance, to supplement the people Hastings already has on the case. We’re going to need a small army to take down the man who did that,” he nodded with his chin to the files still spread on the low table. “If we do this though, I have to insist on one detail.”

Steel sat back, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “What?”

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“No reports. No photos. No record of any kind. I don’t want my people to be immortalized in some
Altor Custodis
file somewhere. Not when there’s the potential it could be used later to hunt them.”

“I agree.” That was a no-brainer as far as Steel was concerned. The minute he discovered his tasks for the AC had turned deadly, he’d broken from their path of watching and recording, but never interfering. The time had come to act and he’d damn well do it, regardless of what the rest of the brotherhood had done for centuries. The game was different now. The playbook had to change accordingly.

“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Matt went on. “This is bigger than you might imagine. So big, in fact, we’ve formed an alliance with a few others you’ll need to meet if you’re going to be of help to us.”

Intrigued, Steel waited to hear what more the
were
cougar would reveal, but the PI’s cell phone rang and all eyes went to Hastings. The call was short and terse. He could tell something was wrong from the man’s body language and clipped questions about how bad more than one person was hurt. Hastings shut the phone with a snap.

“Gonzalez escaped. He’s our mage. No doubt about it. He toasted Kevin’s and Sarah’s asses, but they’ll be all right with time. The bastard also broke Melissa’s arm.”

“Man, she’s gonna be pissed about not being able to fly until it heals,” Matt observed. Everyone in the room felt the seriousness of the moment. “You got anywhere you have to be tonight?” Matt asked Steel.

“What do you have in mind?”

Matt stood. “I think it’s time for you to meet our allies. They’ll be rising when the sun sets.”

“No way.” Steel found it hard to believe what the
were
cougar implied. From what he’d seen,
were
folk didn’t mix with vampires and vice versa.

“Way.” Matt checked his watch as he headed for the door. He spared a moment to look back at Hastings. “It’s your house, so it’s your call. Do we go to them or do I invite them here?”

127

The PI sighed as he sank back in his chair. “Much as I hate to give up this location, I think it’s time we show a little good faith. Sebastian’s trusted us with his home. No sense we can’t show the same courtesy with a mere safe house.”

128

“Where are we going?” Christy asked as they drove down the road. Sebastian was at the wheel of one of his larger cars, a luxury SUV with dark tinted windows and lots of room in back.

“First I’m going to drop you off at the vineyard so you can visit with Lissa for a bit.

Then Atticus, Marc and I are heading out to a place Collin Hastings set up as a safe house. He’s got someone for us to meet.”

“A new ally?” She pulled the thought from his mind, but otherwise her thoughts were still preoccupied by what had happened the night before. The confrontation with Jeff ran through her mind pretty much non-stop and each time she thought of what she’d done, she felt better. She’d stood up to the bully who’d ruled her life for so long and come out the victor. All thanks to the man sitting beside her.

“It remains to be seen if he’ll prove trustworthy, but Matt said the signs are good.”

Sebastian reached over and captured her hand, drawing it to his lips for a soft kiss. “He could be of great use in tracking the killer.”

“I didn’t realize you were so involved in vampire politics.” She could see the survival of his people mattered a great deal to him.

“I’m afraid when it comes to injustice, I still have a bit of chivalry in my soul. It wouldn’t be right to sit by while a killer roams loose. Besides which, he could be coming for one of us. I’d rather we take him out first, while we have help from our allies among the
were
.”

“Is it really such a big deal?”

“That Matt and I are friends?” Sebastian shrugged as he pulled up to a heavy gate that opened automatically for him. “Actually yes. But it’s an even bigger deal that others of his kind are willing to work with us on this. Cross-species cooperation is the stuff of legends.”

129

The vineyard where Atticus and Lissa lived was gorgeous. The house was set in the midst of it all and was built on a grand scale. Lissa answered the door with a big smile and the women hugged each other in greeting. Shortly after their reunion, the men left, headed for their meeting while Christy and Lissa sat together in the spacious dining room, talking. The room opened onto a stone patio, the French doors open to let in the evening breeze.

“I wanted to visit you before now, but Atticus said you needed time. Are you okay? I mean,” Lissa hesitated, “with all this?” Her hands made circles in the air, gesturing.

“With waking up as a vampire?” Christy laughed. “It’s not so bad, actually. I confronted Jeff yesterday and personally served the divorce papers.”

“You didn’t!” Lissa beamed. “Oh, Chris, that’s great.” Lissa’s eyes were wistful as she gazed at Christy. She hadn’t quite realized how much her friends cared and how much she’d missed them. “How did he react?”

“He took a swing at me.” Christy shrugged, a gleeful smile bursting forth as she remembered again what had happened next. “I knocked his feet out from under him and he fell to the floor.”

“No way!”

She smiled at Lissa’s reaction. “Sensei Hiro’s been teaching me some moves and with my new abilities, I’m actually pretty good.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Lissa’s eyes were moist, though a smile lit her face. “I’m so happy for you.”

“And best of all—” Christy lowered her voice, “—there’s Sebastian. Lissa, I’ve had the hots for that man since I danced with him at your wedding. I never dreamed I’d have a chance with a guy like that, but now…well, it’s like a fairytale.”

Lissa’s eyes glowed. “I know how you feel. It was that way when Atticus found me.”

“I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me. How did you manage to hide something like that?”

130

“Well, Jeff hardly let you out of his sight the past few months, so it wasn’t all that difficult, actually. Kelly found out, but then Atticus offered her a job here at the winery, so it was okay. I mean, they don’t like people to know, so Kelly working here was a good step. Otherwise she probably would have been watched, like Jena.”

“Damn, is she the only one of us who’s
not
a vampire now?” Christy shook her head at the odd twists of fate that had visited the small group of college friends.

“Don’t forget Sally,” Lissa said with a quick grin, “but yeah, you, me, Kelly, and Carly are all living on the dark side now.” She giggled and Christy laughed with her.

An hour after sunset, cars started arriving. The
were
folk had shared a large dinner with Steel and he was amazed by how much food those people could consume in one sitting. They’d cleaned up and resumed their places in the living room when the first of their guests arrived.

The doorbell rang and Hastings and Matt went to answer, inviting the visitors inside.

The process was repeated for each of the newcomers and Steel realized the vampires needed to be formally invited into the house. He heard them chatting in the hall before they entered the living room as a group.

They were introduced to each of the
were
and made their way over to Steel last. He was glad of the opportunity to study them for a few minutes before being introduced.

Even so, he was unprepared for the power of them, or the impact they collectively had on his senses. He’d seen vamps before, since going to work for the AC, but never this close.

Now he began to understand a bit more of their power.

In a word, they were mesmerizing. They had some kind of hypnotic mojo that made it hard to concentrate. He was pretty sure most normal folks wouldn’t even notice, but he’d always been a little different. Even as a child, he’d been sensitive to currents in the air
⎯
the crackle of electricity, the scent of magic. Since being recruited by the AC, he’d received training to enhance his natural abilities. They called him a Sensitive, which meant he was able to sense the use of magic around him.

131

Why then, hadn’t he suspected Mario? If Mario was a strong magic user, and responsible for the heinous crimes depicted in that file Steel had been shown, how could he have missed it? He was better than that. Something was seriously wrong here.

He recognized Marc LaTour even before he was introduced, from the file he’d been given by his superiors in the AC. Steel shook his hand with reserve. He’d never been this close to a vampire before, and he’d never even seen one this old.

The other men with him were introduced as Cameron, Atticus and Sebastian.

Cameron had a strong feeling of magic about him that Steel had never encountered, but the other two had the same magical feel as Marc LaTour. They were definitely vampires and both had very slight accents when they spoke. He couldn’t quite place Atticus’s slightly Slavic tones, but he’d peg Sebastian for upper class English, if he had to guess.

Matt surprised Steel by sitting next to Sebastian on the couch. He looked comfortable with the vampire, though Steel well knew these two races of supernaturals rarely, if ever, mixed.

“Sebastian’s the reason we were able to track you down, in a roundabout way,” Matt said as he sipped a cup of coffee. “He recently took in a battered woman named Christina Kinsey.”

“Battered?” That was news to Steel, though he hadn’t liked the woman’s husband at all. Still, he hadn’t had any contact with either husband or wife in a week or two. He’d been busy tracking down other leads in the area and would’ve gotten back to the Kinsey file eventually. Now he regretted he hadn’t looked more closely at the man before this.

Sebastian spoke with quiet authority. “Jeff Kinsey beat her to death. Luckily for him, she lived.”

A chill went down Steel’s spine at the menace in the man’s tone. “I had some contact with Kinsey. I was investigating his wife because of her connection to Kelly LaTour.”

Steel noted Marc LaTour’s frown but he refused to be intimidated. “The AC knew about you, Mister LaTour, or should I say
Master
? When you married, they wanted to know more about your wife as well. I was sent to look into it and laid groundwork by checking out her circle of friends. Frankly, I didn’t expect anything to come of it.”

132

“I won’t see her put in danger.” Marc’s voice was cold but his agitation was clear as he stood and started to pace like a tiger on the prowl. “Don’t even think of making reports on her or her friends.”

Steel eased back in his chair, taking the man’s measure. This vamp loved his wife.

That much was obvious. And Steel hadn’t been able to turn up anything negative in his recent history. He was a good businessman, respected by the community and seemed to be on the up and up. He also seemed to keep the other bloodletters in line, which was a key position and not something he wanted to mess with. There was no reason to threaten the man, or his wife, and every reason not to piss him off at the moment, while Steel was essentially at their mercy.

“I haven’t finished my investigation, so the report hasn’t been sent. If all of this is on the level, it never will be.”

“I assure you,” Hastings spoke from his chair at the side of the room, “we’re on the level. You won’t have any reason to make further reports.”

“That remains to be seen.” Steel leaned forward. “What I don’t understand is how Mario Gonzalez could be a magic user. I should tell you, I’m what they call a Sensitive.

Always have been. And the AC honed that natural ability with training. I don’t see how I could’ve missed it. Every time I’ve seen him, I’ve never felt a thing.”

“A truly powerful magic user can hide his light even from one as sensitive as you, laddie.” Cameron spoke for the first time as he stood. “Watch carefully now.”

He snapped his fingers and his magical energies winked out as if they’d never been.

Where before, Steel’s senses had been bombarded by the most potent magical energy he’d ever felt in one being, suddenly it was all gone. As if it had never been.

“How’d you do that?”

Cameron leaned in and winked, a devilish light in his twinkling blue eyes. “Magic.”

There were a few chuckles as the man straightened and reversed whatever spell he’d wrought. As before, in the blink of an eye, the magic was back.

“What are you?” Steel couldn’t help but ask.

Cameron smiled in a cunning way. “Fey.”

133

“No way.”

“Don’t you know it’s never wise to contradict the fey?” Atticus teased drolly as Cameron sat back down.

The presence of this most magical of all the supernatural races changed things a bit.

Fey didn’t enter into the affairs of mortals, vampires and
were
lightly. If this man was part of the operation, it was serious indeed.

“So you’re telling me Mario Gonzalez is able to hide his magical energies from me?”

Nods all around were his answer. “You think he actually has enough power and skill to do that? I mean, he’s definitely a mortal, and certainly not fey.”

“Mortal he may be, but he’s been tapping into the magic of other realms otherwise he wouldna live so long.” Cameron chimed in.

Ian spoke for the first time. “I met him briefly about a hundred years ago. He was a thief then and it looks like his crimes have only escalated. Judging by the caliber of his current offenses, he’s learned quite a bit in the intervening years. If he can take down that many supernaturals single handedly, it’d be nothing to hide his magical energies from you, Mr. Steel.”

Steel digested that, sitting back in his chair. It felt right, but he was chilled to think he’d been duped for so long. He marveled at his own blindness.

“You can drop the ‘mister’. Just call me Steel if we’re going to be working together.”

And just like that, a new alliance was born.

Lissa and Christy sat out on the stone patio enjoying the night air. It was crisp, but not too cold. A great night for stargazing. And sharing secrets.

Lissa had brought out a bottle of one of the vineyard’s award-winning vintages.

Christy was glad she could still enjoy wine in her new life. She hadn’t felt the need for food and frankly didn’t miss it unless she thought about it, but she’d always enjoyed the flavor, bouquet and sheer romance of a good bottle of wine.

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Now however, the experience was something more. There was something almost magical about the fruit of the vine and the healing liquid it produced. Christy could feel the wine effervesce in the most delicious way as it hit her bloodstream, making her tingle with warmth. It also tasted a thousand percent better than it ever had. The crisp vintage settled on her tongue like air, tart and dry in a way she had never fully experienced before. It was as if her taste buds had only just been awakened.

The women talked about their men and the way their lives had changed as they sat under the stars, drinking their wine. It was an idyllic moment for Christy, who hadn’t known such camaraderie since her college days, or such peace since her childhood spent in the mountains of Oregon.

“Are you happy, Lis?” Christy gazed at the stars until she realized how rude her question might’ve been. She looked at her friend, seated at her side. “I mean, you seem happier than I’ve ever known you to be, but do you have any regrets?”

Lissa smiled. “My only regret is that I didn’t meet Atticus sooner. That man makes my life complete in a way I never expected and even though I’ll never have a tan again,”