Teased (7 page)

Vampires. Freakin vampires. And brother? So this was the younger brother. “Chalton is a vampire, and he’s your brother,” she said slowly, her brain just not working right. Shock? Yep. That was it. She was totally in shock.

“Yes. We’re vampires, we won’t hurt you, and we can’t make you one of us. Everything you think you know is just silly legend. Pretty much.” He crossed into the field. “Come or not,” he called back.

She glanced frantically around. The Kurjan Chalton had punched was beginning to stir. Was backup really coming? How could there be real vampires? Advanced species, sure. But legends were correct?

The guy on the ground groaned.

Her feet launched into motion before her brain could even make a decision, running after Theo. She had to get away from the Kurjans, and now, more than ever, she had to know more about the species. Vampires. The only way to follow the story and stay safe, for the time being, was to run after Chalton.

Leaves slapped her, but she caught up to Theo. “So he won’t die from the bullets?”

“No. He’s strong enough to push them out of his body within an hour, probably.” Theo didn’t turn around.

A relief she probably shouldn’t be feeling washed through her.

Her heels sank into moist earth, and small rocks tried to trip her up, but she scrambled after Theo, her heart thundering. How could it be true? Vampires. Real vampires. She’d been kissed by one.

Theo’s face was longer and a bit leaner...but no less handsome than Chalton’s. He moved with predatory grace as well. Maybe it was a genetic thing.

The smell of dirt and plants filtered around her, and the wind whistled somewhere in the distance. Strong moonlight allowed her to see the path, and when Theo took a sharp turn, she followed, stopping with a gasp at seeing a dark helicopter waiting quietly.

Theo turned and grinned. “I was going to make a bunch of crop circles to mess with Chalton but didn’t have time.” He shifted his weight, slightly jostling his brother. “Would you please look through your purse and pockets for a tracker? The Kurjans found you somehow.”

She blinked and rummaged through her purse. “There’s no way they could’ve gotten a track—” Her fingers brushed a smooth metal disk the size of a small battery, and she drew it out. “Well, hell.” One of the guys in the van must’ve shoved it in there. Smart bastards.

“Throw it,” Theo said.

She nodded and chucked it over several bare stalks. Life had gotten way too weird.

Theo reached forward and opened the back of the helicopter. “Get in.”

She inched across uneven ground. Was this a good idea? Probably not. But waiting for more of the pale monsters seemed like a worse idea. So she lumbered inside and scooted to the far end on the plush leather seat.

Theo hefted Chalton in, allowing his head to drop onto Olivia’s lap.

She gasped and then settled back. Chalton had to weigh over two hundred pounds of solid muscle, and yet his brother had just carried him without losing breath. Vampires must be wicked strong.

The door banged shut, and within a minute, Theo was in the pilot’s seat starting the engines.

Quiet. The interior remained quiet. She frowned. “I’ve toured many areas in different helicopters, and we’ve always had to use headsets to talk. Why, or rather how, is it so quiet in here?”

“Technology. We have our own,” Theo responded, lifting back on what looked like a small steering wheel.

Exactly. That was why she had to expose the species...to gain that technology and save Ronni. “I bet your scientific knowledge is impressive,” she muttered.

The copter rose smoothly into the air. “We like to think so.”

“Um, where are we going?” she asked.

He didn’t even bother to shrug.

Chalton stirred, and his eyelids flipped open. “Olivia.” Said as a statement, not even a hint of a question.

“You’re a vampire,” she said, looking down at his angled face.

He lifted an eyebrow. “Humph.” Wincing, he reached for the hem of his shirt and began to tug the material up.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Need room,” he grunted.

Geez. She reached down and helped him, drawing the bloody material over his head.

He settled back down with a satisfied sigh. “Thanks.”

Moonlight cascaded in from the front, and instruments glowed around, illuminating the space well enough for her to see several bullet holes in his torso. His ripped, predatory, hard as a rock chest. As she watched, a bullet spit out near his right rib cage to clatter to the ground. The hole slowly closed.

“Holy crap,” she whispered.

He turned his head to the front. “Theo? We have a problem.”

Theo glanced over his shoulder. “One beyond the Kurjans?”

“Yes. What the hell are you doing here?” Chalton remained in place, his head rather heavy on Olivia’s thighs.

Theo turned the wheel a bit. “I was hired to find Olivia and put an end to the articles she’s writing about a species that has extra chromosomal pairs. Figured the Realm would have you on it since you’re the computer hacker, so I, ah, traced your movements and was planning to take the woman at your vacation home in the middle of corn.”

So it was actually Chalton’s place? Weird. A vampire growing corn. Olivia frowned. “Wait a minute. Add in Jared, and that’s quite a coincidence, right?”

“No,” Chalton said grimly, shoving up to sit next to her. “That can’t be.”

“What are you talking about?” Theo asked.

“Jared was also hired to get her,” Chalton said.

Theo looked over his shoulder, his face hardening. “Well, hell. All three of us on the same case? You’re right. No coincidence.”

“Call Jared and have him meet us at Benny’s,” Chalton said. “Nobody can trace the place to us, and we’ll have time to figure out who wants us all on the same case in the same place. What common enemy do we have?”

“Just Peter Libscombe’s kids, Petey and Saul,” Theo said.

Tension wound through the luxurious craft, heavy and dark.

Olivia shivered.

Theo reached forward and typed something with one hand into an odd machine in the dash. “Sent the message, and I let him know we’re being set up.”

“Who is Peter Libscombe?” Olivia asked.

“Enemy as long as we can remember. Peter killed our father; our uncle killed him and then died in battle recently. Peter had two sons, although I didn’t think they’d want to continue to fight,” Chalton muttered as another bullet pinged out of his sternum.

Theo shook his head. “Saul is in South America on a peace mission. He’d never try to harm anybody. But Petey…”

Chalton nodded. “Petey is a chip off his old man’s crazy block. Was a missionary for hire during the war because he just liked killing. But I didn’t think he’d try to take all of us on.”

Theo rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve had a watch on both of them, and Petey disappeared about five years ago. I thought he’d probably died in the war, but now I’m thinking he’s been laying low and planning.”

“Agreed,” Chalton said. “He’s two hundred years old and loves killing. Avenging his father would be fun for him and not honorable. Just fun.”

Olivia shivered. “Are Petey and Saul vampires?”

“No. Shifters,” Chalton said.

“Shifters?” she yelped. “Shifters exist? I mean, people who shift into animals? Like birds?”

Chalton leaned his head back, shutting his eyes. “Shifters exist and can become canine, feline, or multis, which turn into anything of same size. Except multis don’t seem to exist any longer and have evolved into different species of bears.”

Holy crap on a double cracker. “Can you guys cure organ failure?” She held her breath.

“Why?” Chalton opened his eyes and focused on her.

She shrugged. “Just asking.”

“Is that your motivation for these crazy articles? Your friend, Ronni?” he asked quietly.

Her head jerked back. “How do you know about Ronni?”

“I know everything about you. It’s my job,” he said simply. “As much as I’d like to help you and your friend, we are unable to cure human diseases.”

How was that even possible? “I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true.” He rubbed the now closed bullet wound. “We haven’t been much interested in science until recently, when we had to begin researching and ultimately curing a virus that harms us. We haven’t meddled with human issues.”

Issues.
“You must have some knowledge that we don’t. Or at the very least, equipment we lack. Look at this helicopter. And your phone. And your bullets.” How dumb did he think she was?

He nodded. “The schematics for any equipment the queen felt would help humans has already been leaked.”

“The queen?” she asked.

“Yes. Our queen was a human geneticist before mating the king, a vampire. Now she’s immortal.” Chalton wiped blood off his flat stomach.

“He changed her into a vampire?” Olivia whispered, her heart dropping.

Chalton grinned. “No. You can’t be changed into a vampire. You could mate a vampire, and thus your chromosomal pairs would increase to immortality, but you wouldn’t become a vampire.”

Theo snorted. “Can you imagine? Now that’s crazy.”

“Definitely. Most legends are weird, especially the
have to suck blood
ones. We only take blood in cases of sex or war,” Chalton continued.

Sex? She cleared her throat. “But I saw you...in the sun.”

“Yeah. False urban legend,” Charlton said. “Although, the Kurjans can’t go into the sun, so maybe the legend is kind of a cross between vampires and Kurjans.” He cleared his throat. “Theo, you’re full of shit. No way did you go to all this trouble, waiting for me in Iowa, on the off chance I’d been assigned to find Olivia, so tell me the truth.”

Theo turned the craft to the left. “Don’t get mad.”

“You asshole,” Chalton said without much heat.

Olivia glanced at him and lifted her eyebrows.

He rolled his eyes. “How? I have firewalls that I even invented.”

Theo grinned over his shoulder. “They were really good, too.”

Ah. Olivia bit back a smile. “He hacked your computers.”

Chalton shook his head. “Yeah, but you don’t realize what a big deal that is.”

“How so?”

Theo snorted. “Chalton is the best of the best. And I hacked him.” Pure brotherly pride echoed in his voice.

Chalton jabbed two fingers in a hole near his sternum and yanked out a bullet to throw at his brother’s head. “I’m glad you’ve kept up your computer skills. Come work with the Realm.”

Theo hunched forward. “Only if Jared does. We’re all in or we should be all out.”

“Aren’t you loyal, considering since you haven’t spoken to Jared in a century?” Chalton muttered.

“Eh.” Theo lifted a large shoulder. “A century isn’t that long, considering we live forever. We’ve all been busy. I figured we’d all end up working together again at some point. So we should all be in…or all out. Don’t you think?”

Chalton frowned. “It’s not that simple.”

“Yes, it really is.” Theo clicked some levers on the dash. “Let’s fight about that once we figure out who’s trying to draw the three of us out at once.”

“Good plan,” Chalton said, leaning his head back and reaching for Olivia.

She blinked as he wrapped his huge hand around hers. Warmth and an odd feeling of safety filtered through her. She didn’t know him, she sure as heck didn’t understand him, but somehow, that simple touch calmed her as nothing else could have.

Of course, that just gave her one more thing to worry about. How would a vampire react to blackmail? She, unfortunately, was probably going to find out.

CHAPTER SEVEN

After Theo had landed the helicopter on the roof, Chalton led a subdued Olivia down the stairwell to the penthouse suite of one of the legendary apartment buildings in New York. How many laws had he broken by letting her know that vampires, Kurjans, and shifters existed? Probably enough to get them both killed.

Treason had become an unfortunate byproduct of his current mission. “That’s why I stick to the control room,” he muttered.

“What?” she asked, stumbling into him.

“Nothing.” He also didn’t like the silence coming from his younger brother, who took up the rear. It was almost as if Chalton could feel the guy thinking things through. Man, he’d missed his brother. Why hadn’t he reached out before now? Fighting a war seemed like a lame excuse. He had to make things right.

They reached the vestibule, and Chalton punched in a code near the door.

“Where are we?” Olivia whispered as they entered the grand foyer of an opulent penthouse.

“Our great-uncle Benny’s New York home,” Chalton said, drawing her inside.

She glanced down at the sparkling fifties-style marble. “You have the code?”

“Sure.” Chalton pressed a button near the door, and heavy drapes swung open across the living room to reveal the New York skyline. “He’s in Europe this time of year, so his place is open for anybody needing to camp out.” Chalton waited until Theo had entered and shut the door, leaning back against it, after assisting her out of her jacket. “Talk,” he ordered.

Theo flushed. “Well, none of this makes sense.”

“Who hired you?” Chalton released Olivia’s hand, and she moved past him and headed straight for the floor to ceiling windows and incredible snow-filled view. “Time to talk, Theo.”

He nodded. “That’s just it. I was hired by, well, mom.”

Chalton stilled, the hair on the back of his neck rising. “Excuse me?”

Theo shrugged. “Mom is involved in a group investing heavily in different enterprises, and some of those are pharmaceutical facilities the Realm has used to research and manufacture the virus that formerly impacted vampire mates. Their stock has risen, mainly because of byproduct research, so mom’s making a killing.”

Chalton rocked back on his heels. “So she and her group hired you to track down Olivia? And do what? Kill her?”

Theo snorted. “Of course not. I’m supposed to bribe her to let the story go.”

Chalton frowned, his mind spinning. “Was it mom’s idea for you to go after Olivia?”

Theo frowned, his eyes sizzling. “No. Well, I don’t think so. It seems like she mentioned one of her partners suggesting we tamp down on the articles talking about possible immortals.”