Logan: Chosen Champions Book One, page 18
“Good. He’ll be out of it for a while. I’m hoping he’ll get a few hours of sleep. Do you have more people here other than the scary dude at the door?”
“We do. They’re in the lobby.”
“Good. You should go update them and send them home. The police will want to question him, but I’ll have them come—”
“I’ve already spoken to the detective.”
The nurse scowled in confusion.
“I’ve been working the case.”
Her sharp inhalation had Logan looking up and meeting her gaze. She’d quickly come to the same conclusion Logan had hours before. Bailey was here because of him. This attack was against him, not Bailey.
“Gideon.”
The nurse left, and Gideon came through. “Stay with him. I’m going to go update the others and send them home.”
Gideon nodded and moved to Bailey’s side. He touched Bailey’s arm and closed his eyes, no doubt making the same vow Logan had been repeating as a mantra for the past little while.
They were going to find this thing, and when they did, they would kill it.
Logan went out to the waiting area and found his entire pack waiting for him. “They’re keeping him tonight, so you need to head home. He won’t be awake until morning.”
After giving them an update on Bailey’s condition, Logan made sure to touch each of them gently on the neck. When he finished, the hospital doors opened, and an older couple walked in.
Logan caught the scent of other at the same time Ashley sucked in a breath.
“Mrs. Cairn.”
She darted over, and the woman pulled her into a hug. “Where is he?”
“He’s in the back. Logan can update you.”
“Logan?”
“Bailey’s… um… boyfriend. It’s new.”
Bailey’s parents. It took Logan a second to process, but then he moved closer and held out his hand. “I’m sorry to meet you under these circumstances.”
“How’s my boy?”
Logan repeated the update, still trying to process why he could scent other on them. His wolf paced inside him, not wanting anything else near Bailey.
“Please thank your other friend for driving us,” Mrs. Cairn said. “It was so nice of them to help.”
Other friend.
“Don’t ask questions.” The oracle spoke in his ear, sterner than he’d ever heard the voice sound.
“It was no trouble,” Logan said to Bailey’s mom.
Had the oracle shown up himself to pick up Bailey’s parents? Logan catalogued the unfamiliar scent and let his wolf process whatever information he could glean from it as he led both of Bailey’s parents through to the back.
The nurse gave him a warning glare, and he nodded. He wouldn’t let them stay long and disturb Bailey’s rest. Gideon stepped aside as they reached Bailey’s bed, and Logan put a supportive arm around Bailey’s mother when she got her first look at Bailey’s face. “My sweet boy.”
She sank down in the chair Logan had been sitting in and ran her hand gently over his head. Bailey’s father stood at his feet, his face set in a stern expression Logan also recognized. He put his hand on Bailey’s foot and clenched his teeth.
“He’s going to be okay,” Logan whispered to the older man.
“He told me he’d been taking precautions,” Mr. Cairn said. “That there’d been a close call with Ashley, so they were being extra safe.”
“They were.”
“What is being done to stop this monster?”
“Everything in our power, I promise you.”
Mr. Cairn looked over at him. “My boy told me he’d met someone special but wasn’t ready to talk details.”
There wasn’t a question, but Logan felt compelled to answer anyway. “He is special to me.”
Mr. Cairn nodded, then moved away from Logan’s side. He went to his wife, and they both spoke quietly to their son. Logan tuned out the words as he left the hospital room.
Detective Alfred stood outside with Gideon.
Logan didn’t need to ask if they’d found anything at the scene. The look on the detective’s face said it all.
22
Logan
Logan knelt on the sidewalk outside the theater. His wolf wanted to fight, and Logan wanted nothing more than to free him and let him hunt this monster down. It would feel so damned good to sink teeth and claws into the bastard and make him pay for hurting Bailey.
The scents in the area were less confusing than before, but still were overlaid with the scent of cop. Jamal stood behind him, giving Logan access to the scene as a favor.
Even though hours had passed, Bailey’s blood still stained the sidewalk. His fear still hung in the air. And they weren’t any closer to finding the incubus than they had been.
Logan had told Bailey’s dad they were doing everything in their power to stop the incubus. They weren’t, though. They had another powerful tool left. He looked over his shoulder at Dasan, who stood quietly at his back. “Make the call.”
Dasan nodded and stepped away.
“Who are you bringing in?” Jamal asked. “I don’t want—”
Logan snarled and pushed to his feet. “I could give a flying fuck what you want right now, Detective. I’m going to hunt this son of a bitch down and gut him.”
“Easy, Alpha.”
The words were accompanied by the whoosh of magic. A flaming portal appeared behind Jamal. The fae spun around as he reached for his gun.
Solomon, the alpha of the hellhounds, stood with a stranger Logan hadn’t met before. He carried what looked like a staff covered in runes. Of the two, Logan honestly wasn’t sure who was scarier, which was saying something. Hellhounds were the champions of their realm, the protectors who served through the power of one of the Goddesses. No one crossed the hellhounds and lived to tell the tale.
Logan hoped that ferocity would serve them well. They’d done everything they could do to try to find this thing. It was working with a set of powers Logan didn’t understand, though. Hopefully, Solomon and his pack would have better luck.
The stranger didn’t speak. He moved around the scene, taking it in with the same careful attention Logan and his team did. Logan didn’t question his presence and instead turned his attention to Solomon.
“I need him stopped.”
“He’s not revealing himself to his victims?” Solomon asked.
Logan shook his head. “Bailey… Bailey doesn’t know about us.”
“You haven’t informed your mate?” Solomon frowned and glanced down at the bloody pavement before looking back at Logan.
Logan’s breath hitched.
His wolf howled.
“No.”
“No magic here,” the stranger said.
“We don’t think he had time to place the runes,” Dasan said softly. “At the other locations, he had time to plan. To hunt. This appears to be a crime of opportunity.”
Logan growled again. “He went after Bailey.”
“Yes,” Dasan agreed. “But he wouldn’t have known Bailey would be on his own. He didn’t prepare like he did before.”
So either he’d been stalking Bailey, or…
“He came to the cabaret.”
Jamal’s eyes flared, and Solomon eyed the detective curiously. The fae lowered his head respectfully, but Solomon wasn’t one to give out his trust easily. He barely trusted Logan, even though he approved of the level of support Logan and his team provided.
“Why are you here?” Solomon asked.
“I’m a detective,” Jamal explained. “I’m assigned to this case.”
Solomon took another step forward, directly into the detective’s space. “You work for the humans?”
“I do.”
Solomon growled but turned away from Jamal and back to Logan. “I’ll see what I can do. I have a few other resources, but we are stretched very thin at the moment.”
“I know,” Logan said. “We’re no closer to hunting this thing down than we were at the beginning. We need help.”
It clawed at him that he’d let Bailey get hurt. He wanted to hunt, to run this thing down with his pack and make it pay. He’d sat with Bailey until he’d woken up, then while the detective questioned him. He had to give Jamal credit. He’d been a pro, getting a few new pieces of information out of Bailey.
Gotcha.
The word echoed through Logan’s brain. This fucker had taunted Bailey with the word. Logan would make him pay for that too.
“No magic here,” the stranger said. He opened a purple portal and walked through it without another word.
Solomon nodded and gave Logan another hard stare. “Keep control of yourself and your pack. Get back to your mate. I’ll see if there’s anything we can do on my end, but if this thing isn’t revealing itself as part of its attack, it’ll make things harder.”
Logan was pretty sure the incubus had figured that part out. It seemed to thrive in the gray areas. It knew them. He narrowed his gaze and focused on that.
This thing had outsmarted them so far, but Logan would find it. No matter what it took or what favors he had to call in.
Solomon disappeared into a portal after giving Logan a stern glare.
Jamal leaned against the wall and let out a breath. “Holy shit.”
“What?”
“What do you mean, what? The alpha of the damned hellhounds is on your speed dial. You summoned him and he showed up.”
Logan frowned. “Summoned? No. Asked him to come, yes.”
“Same fucking difference. Do you know what he could do to us? Holy shit.”
Logan had forgotten how terrifying the hellhounds were to everyone else. He’d felt the same way when he’d first met them, but it had been a little while. Sure, they were scary and could kick his ass from here to hell and back without breaking a sweat, but they were also the heroes of their realm, the ones who kept the peace. And once Callie and Vice had started training with them, the terror eased a bit.
“Huh.”
Dasan grabbed Jamal by the shoulder and gave him a little shake. It seemed to snap him out of the hellhound-induced stupor he’d entered.
“Let’s go,” Logan said. “We’re not going to find anything else here.”
Dasan led Logan down the sidewalk to the spot where they’d lost the scent of the incubus. At least Scout had tracked it for a short distance this time. It gave them more than they’d had before.
“It had a car here,” Logan said. “So we weren’t wrong in thinking it came to the cabaret.”
“There was a definite police presence, though,” Dasan added, “which would have put a damper on its plans. The parking lot was full of cops, and none of the students were walking alone. Security patrolled the lot with a bunch of the frat brothers. They’d only stopped twenty minutes or so before Bailey’s attack, once the audience members had left.”
“So it waited.”
Dasan nodded. “But was it targeting Bailey, or was it targeting anyone from the event to prove a point?”
Logan growled. “Either way, we need to figure out a way to hunt it down. This can’t happen again.”
After another quick update with Jamal, Logan headed back to the hospital. They planned on releasing Bailey in another couple of hours, and Logan wanted to be there when they did. In fact, he didn’t plan on letting Bailey out of his sight for a while.
He thought about Solomon’s assumptions—Bailey wasn’t his mate. Wasn’t even part of his pack, really. He didn’t have a pack.
Except—
Logan stuck his head firmly back in the sand and ignored what both he and his wolf had managed to do. He itched to run, to abandon what he’d unintentionally built and would no doubt destroy.
But he couldn’t.
23
Bailey
Bailey winced as he went down the stairs from Logan’s apartment. Even after ten days out of the hospital, his ribs still hurt if he stepped the wrong way. Everyone was in the conference room working, though, and Bailey was over this whole “resting” thing they all insisted he needed to do.
And sure, maybe he wasn’t sleeping all that well, what with the bruised face to match his bruised ribs. And maybe he still had little moments of panic every time he heard a noise, especially if it came from behind him or sounded like the metal of the dumpster lid closing. But that didn’t mean he was an invalid.
The therapist he’d been seeing assured him his reactions were normal. He was in a state of hyperawareness, and probably would be for a little while until he felt safe again. Although, funnily enough, he didn’t seem worried about that at all when he was at the warehouse with Logan and his team.
They hadn’t left him alone since he’d gotten out of the hospital. Logan had even managed to convince Bailey’s mother it was best for him to come to Logan’s house instead of spending his recovery at his parents’. If Logan and the team were out on one of their mysterious jobs, Bailey’s friends came to hang out with him.
He made it into the main area before a door opened upstairs. Logan came out and leaned on the railing with a smile. “You’re up.”
“Yeah. Can’t seem to settle. I thought I’d make a snack.”
“A snack?” Aleron appeared behind Logan with a smile. “I could go for a snack.”
Logan growled at him. “You could literally leave the premises and go for a snack.”
“I mean, I could…”
“I’ll see what we have,” Bailey offered. “I want something to keep me busy, anyway.”
He made his way over to the other set of stairs, but then he heard a sound behind him and panicked. Logan leaped over the railing and landed with a pretty spectacular roll before he was back on his feet and at Bailey’s side.
In the minute it took Bailey’s heart to stop pounding over the death-defying feat Logan had performed, someone knocked on the door. Aleron opened it to reveal an incredibly attractive man who greeted him with a beaming smile before getting all up in Aleron’s space. “Well, hello, stranger. I’m told you’ve been looking for me.”
“Taj.” Aleron’s sultry grin right back at the stranger had Bailey more curious than ever.
Until, that is, he heard another sound from above. He looked up and found Gideon staring down at them. His hands gripped the railing so hard Bailey was pretty sure he heard it buckling under the pressure.
“Get out,” Gideon said.
Aleron spun away from the man at the door with a scowl. “Gideon, this is the inc… uh, friend I was telling you about.”
“I know exactly who Taj is, and he needs to leave. Now. You aren’t going to be anywhere near me and mine ever again.”
Taj nodded, but he looked incredibly sad. “My apologies, Gideon. I hadn’t heard you were working with Aleron. I wouldn’t have come otherwise.”
Gideon made his way down the stairs, but he was practically vibrating with anger. Bailey had never seen him act like that before. He’d always been so cool, calm, and collected.
Logan seemed surprised as well.
“Gideon, with me,” Logan said. He gave Bailey a gentle squeeze before heading off into the back of the warehouse with Gideon at his side.
Aleron stared after them, his face still set in a scowl. He turned back to Taj and crossed his arms over his chest. “What did you do to him?”
Taj smiled sadly and shook his head. “It was a long time ago, my friend.”
“Aleron,” Bailey said, “this is the person you called to help with the case, right?”
Aleron nodded.
“And he can help?”
“I think so.”
Bailey moved closer and held out his hand. “Hello, my name is Bailey. Thank you for coming. Is there any chance we could… I don’t know, get your number or something? We do need some help finding the person who attacked… me.” Bailey managed to swallow around the sudden surge of bile in his throat. “But Gideon is important to us, and having you here is upsetting him, so I’m afraid you’ll have to come back when he’s not around.”
“I don’t have a phone,” Taj said softly. “I’m sure Aleron knows others of my kind who can help.”
Bailey frowned. “Of your kind?”
Taj glanced at Aleron, his eyes wide, then back at Bailey. “I must go. My apologies to the alpha.”
Alpha?
Bailey frowned and watched Taj back out of the door.
Aleron closed it behind him and covered his face with his hands. “Well, that complicates things.”
“I would say so. Logan!”
Logan came barreling out of the back and skidded to a stop by Bailey’s side. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. You and Aleron go talk to Taj. We need answers, and if this guy can help us, we’re going to have to figure it out. I need this to be over, you know?”
Gideon stepped out of the shadows. “I’m sorry, Bailey. I wasn’t thinking.”
“No, no. You don’t have to apologize. Gideon, whatever your history is with that dude, it’s serious. You don’t have to be around him, so I’m thinking I’m going to make you my sous chef, and we’re going to make dinner for everyone while Logan and Aleron talk to Taj. Sound okay to you?”
Gideon gave Aleron a hard stare. “Don’t go there, my friend.”
“I won’t.” Aleron put his hand over his heart.
Bailey heard the promise in the words, and they seemed to be enough for Gideon.
“Are you sure about this?” Logan asked. But he wasn’t looking at Gideon. He was watching Bailey.
“I know we’re running out of options. I mean, we have nothing, right? Unless you aren’t telling me about some clue or something?”
“No. We’ve found nothing,” Logan admitted.
“Then maybe Taj can help. It’s been almost two weeks since he got me. I… I’m afraid he’s either moved on or someone else is going to get hurt soon.”
Logan hooked his hand around Bailey’s neck and pressed their foreheads together. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Bailey relaxed into Logan’s touch and then pulled away with a smile. “Gideon, are you sure you don’t want to help?”
He looked torn and pushed his long dark hair away from his face. “I do want to help.”
