Angel Reborn, page 26
With gritted teeth, I forced the power back inside my body, and then I swayed, lightheaded from the effort it took.
“It’s okay,” Nick said, wrapping his arm around my waist to lead me over to the chairs at the end of the pool. “Come sit down. He’s not going to take her. We’re not going to allow him the opportunity to do something like that. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe they’re trying to gather information. That’s all.”
“I don’t want him to gather information,” I spat out, still battling to keep my emotions from unleashing destruction. “I don’t want him to have anything to do with her at all.”
“Zeck’s on it, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. The PIs had been in town for a week, so it’s possible they’d been following you and Sage before the night of the ball. Are you sure you hadn’t noticed a Lincoln or anyone lurking around?”
“No. Not at all. But it’s been a little crazy lately, even before I got shot and became a water wizard or whatever I am. They’ve been following Sage for a week?”
“We don’t know for sure. We’re looking into it. Angie’s from Pensacola as well, right?”
“Yeah. I mean, she lived there for many years before she moved back here to New York. Do you think it’s possible they were following Angie and not Sage? We have to warn Angie.”
“Let’s let Zeck do his job and get more info. Whatever it is, we’ll take care of it. But I promise you, no one is going to take Sage.”
“You can’t let them have her. I will lose my mind if some judge somewhere tells me she has to go with Mike. I will kill him before I let that happen.”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Nick peeled my fingers from around the handrails of the metal chairs, which were now mangled in the shape of my grip. Bending his forehead to mine, he said, “I will never let that happen. You have my word. Now, what do we need to do to keep you from tearing the house apart?”
“I don’t know. When I get worked up like this, it just kind of takes over.”
“Well, would this help?”
He released my hands to cup my face in his palms, and then his lips covered mine in a kiss so demanding it distracted me utterly and completely.
My heart was still racing, but for a better reason, and the warmth that was now flooding my system radiated out from an entirely different region of my body.
He stood, pulling me up with him, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my body to his.
Nick’s lips never left mine, and his tongue’s passionate plundering ignited an energy even more primal than the one I was feeling before.
Pushing up onto my toes, I pressed even closer to him, desperate to feel him with every inch of me. He responded by bending slightly to scoop his arms beneath the backs of my thighs, and I leapt against him and wrapped my legs around his waist as he lifted me.
His kiss felt as though he were trying to consume me, and I was more than willing to be consumed. I rocked my hips against his to try and ease the ache that was building between my legs, shuddering as the rocking motion rubbed my most sensitive area up and down the length of him bulging behind his zipper. Based on the depth of his groan, I wasn’t the only one driven mad by the friction of the movement.
He was still ravaging my mouth with his as he turned and began to walk us over to the granite counter of the outdoor kitchen. At first he simply backed me up against it, giving us both more leverage and resistance for pushing. But then he lifted me to set me on the counter, and I gasped into his kiss at the sensation of the cold stone seeping through my jeans.
His lips did leave mine then, trailing down my neck to linger on the tingling spot where his fangs had pierced my skin the last time he’d fed from me.
I gripped his head in my hands, tensing in anticipation of his strike, but he continued his journey down the side of my neck and along the hint of collarbone that was exposed above the collar of my sweatshirt.
At the same time his jaw was nudging the neckline down, his hands were lifting the hemline up, and I arched into his touch as his fingers grazed over my ribs and then cupped my breast. A moan escaped my lips, and he lifted his head to claim my mouth once more as he brushed his thumb across my nipple through the lace of my bra.
I pushed my chest forward into his touch, and with a movement much more swift than humanly possible, he had lifted my sweatshirt above my breasts and unfastened the front clip of my bra.
Before I could react to the chill of the night air on my exposed skin, Nick’s dark head had bent, and I gasped at the warm sensation of his mouth closing over my taut nipple.
My gasp turned to a yelp when he nipped at the tender flesh, and I threaded my hands through his hair and pulled him in closer, bracing for him to sink his fangs in harder.
But suddenly, the warmth of him was gone, and he had smoothed my sweatshirt back down and pressed his forehead to mine.
Our breaths came heavy and ragged as my eyes darted back and forth searching his.
“What? What’s wrong?” I asked. “Why are you stopping?”
“Because we have an audience patrolling the yard and the sky above it, and if I didn’t stop in that moment, I wasn’t sure I’d have enough control to stop at all.”
Oh yeah. There are guards. And drones.
“Oh. I’d completely forgotten they were even there,” I said. “So, I’d say you did a pretty good job of distracting me. But why are we out here talking when we could have privacy to continue what you started if we went in there?”
I pointed my thumb toward our bedroom, and as quick as a flash of lightning, Nick had scooped me over his shoulder, and we were on the move again.
He moved at that dizzying speed that makes the world seem to spin in multiple directions all at once, but before the nausea could kick in, he’d already tossed me onto our bed.
“I’m gonna have to see how fast I can run now,” I said, removing my sweatshirt as he flipped the privacy switch to frost the windows. “Maybe this supernatural version of me could outrun you.”
His dark eyes met mine, and his lips spread in an incredibly sensuous smile.
“Don’t tempt me, Angel.” His deep voice was rough with desire, making his words seem like they were growled instead of spoken. “You have no idea how enticing I find the idea of chasing you, catching you, and ravishing you.”
I found that idea pretty damned enticing myself, so I lifted my chin and smiled back at him as I shrugged off the bra he’d unclasped. “Bring it.”
My predator pounced, and I made no effort to escape being his prey.
Twenty-Eight
Nick
Zeck arrived the next morning as I was standing in the kitchen finishing off the cocktail that had been delivered earlier. I was fully satiated after feeding from Aria during our rather passionate encounter the night before, but the cocktail’s synthetic provided suppressants that were crucial to my ability to live as normal a life as possible with the humans I loved.
Humans who needed to get downstairs pronto or we were going to be late to school.
“I have good news,” Zeck said once we’d exchanged morning pleasantries.
“I love when you start the day by telling me you have great news.” I lifted a mug and nodded toward the coffee pot. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please.”
“Aargh.” Aria came storming into the kitchen and hopped up to sit on the counter. “I feel like some mornings are a preview to what the teenage years are going to be, and I am definitely not looking forward to it.”
“What’s the problem?” I asked as I handed Zeck his coffee.
“She wanted to wear the pink leggings, but they’re at the New Windsor house. I told her she’d have to pick something that’s here, and you would have thought I told her she had to go to school wearing a sheet. Evidently nothing she has here is equal in stature to the pink leggings. I can’t believe my sweet baby girl is already starting to give me attitude. She’s not even seven!”
“I’ll swing by the New Windsor house and pick up more clothes on my way home from Manhattan.” I frowned and looked toward the stairs. “But if we don’t leave in the next five minutes, she’s going to be late.”
“Tell her that. I left her in the midst of a meltdown and told her she needed to pick something to wear and get herself downstairs ASAP. Maybe you’ll have better results.”
“Sage,” I called as I walked to the foyer. “I need you to get dressed and get down here. We have to go, Strawberry. We’re going to be late if we don’t leave now.”
“I’m getting dressed,” Sage yelled back.
“Don’t dilly dally. Get a move on.” I walked back to the kitchen and shrugged at Aria’s lifted brow. “Let’s cut her some slack. We’ve all had a lot of upheaval the last few days, and it’s gotta be hard on her not being able to be home with all her stuff.”
“You’re right.” Aria sighed.
“I’ll talk to her on the way to school.” I turned to Zeck. “You were saying you have great news?”
“Yeah, so it seems the PI in Pensacola hasn’t invested enough in securing his business network. My guy was able to locate some vulnerabilities and hack their system. Hopefully, their record keeping is more effective than their firewalls, and it will be easy to determine through their billing which client hired a tail for Aria and Sage.”
“Isn’t that illegal?” Aria asked.
Zeck looked to me as if he wasn’t sure how to answer.
“Yes,” I said. “Absolutely. But I don’t think this investigator would be willing to hand over confidential client information just because we ask for it…unless, of course, we present the question in such a way that he can’t help but answer, the methods of which would also be illegal. Regardless, I have no problem breaking a mortal rule if it will help us figure out who wants to keep tabs on Sage and Angie.”
Much to my surprise, Aria simply nodded. “Okay.”
Zeck and I shared a glance and then he gave a quick nod. “Right. That’s the good news, but I do have a bit of bad news as well. The analysis of the crossbow bolt that was fired at Aria came back clean. No fingerprints, no toxins, no model number, no discerning clue.”
“Dammit,” I swore in frustration. “Why does it seem nothing in this investigation is yielding results?”
“Maybe Zeck’s hacker will get results,” Aria offered.
Zeck lifted his coffee cup in agreement. “And who knows? Maybe if we can determine who’s following Sage and Angie, then that might also give us a lead on who wanted to harm Aria.”
She turned to him with wide eyes. “You think the two are connected?”
“It’s possible. Nick mentioned you lived in Pensacola, so you have a history there. He also said you have an ex who’s already indicated he may be willing to cause you trouble.”
Aria scoffed. “Yes, but it was a Vardiyati who shot at me, and Mike doesn’t know any Vardiyati.”
“That you know of,” Zeck said.
“Oh, I’m ninety-nine percent certain that Mike neither knows any Vardiyati nor has the means and wherewithal to first of all, even know about the Blood Ball, but then to pull off having someone infiltrate the ball and attack me without leaving a trace. If you knew him, you wouldn’t even consider that a possibility.”
Zeck moved to lean against the counter directly across from Aria. “Who would you consider a possibility? We’ve been so focused on this being an angle for someone to attack Nick or Nick’s family, but maybe we’re overlooking that the connection is personal to you. Can you think of anyone, anyone at all, who would have knowledge of the Vardiyati and the Blood Ball along with the means and motive to arrange a covert hit on you?”
Aria bit down on her lip and shrugged. “No. We’ve been over this already. I have not a single clue who it might be. I’ve only just discovered the supernatural world exists, so I haven’t really had time to make any enemies, you know? I mean, other than Lily, but I don’t think she’d try to murder me, do you?”
She and Zeck both looked to me.
“Lily?” Zeck’s brows went up as his eyes widened. “You introduced her to Lily?”
I grunted with a scowl. “Lily was at Papa’s memorial. She introduced herself.”
“And how did that go?” Zeck looked back and forth between me and Aria.
“About as good as you’d expect,” I said.
“Yeah.” Aria hopped down from the counter. “She made quite the impression. Where is that kid of ours? You guys are gonna be late, for sure. Let me go get her.”
“Hey,” I said as a thought popped into my head. “You never told me what happened between you and Lily in the bathroom at the ball.”
“Oh. She locked the door and cornered me when I came out of the bathroom stall. She said your mother had asked her to apologize, but then she spewed out a bunch of stuff about how you’d get tired of me soon. When I asked her to step aside, she refused, so I put her on the ground.”
“You took down Liliandra Conti?” Zeck sat his cup on the counter and put forth his closed hand to Aria in a request for a fist bump. “Mad respect.”
Aria touched her knuckles to his. “Only because I caught her off guard. She wasn’t expecting it. Otherwise, she obviously could have kicked my ass. Or killed me.”
She walked out of the kitchen toward the stairs, and Zeck’s smile faded as he turned to me.
“Do you think Lily’s capable of murder? Or hiring someone to commit murder for her?”
“Lily? No.” But was it possible? Could I say with all certainty there was no way she’d ever do such a thing? “I don’t want to think she would, but at this point, it’s like you said before—we can’t rule anyone out until we’ve ruled them out.”
“Sage Angelica Gaenor, get down here this instant!” Aria called from the bottom of the stairs. “Now, missy! You are out of time, and you’re going to be late to school. And not only that, but you’re going to make your daddy late for work if you don’t come down here now.”
Aria blew out a frustrated sigh as she returned.
“You know I don’t have to be to work at any particular time,” I said, and she rolled her eyes in response.
“Yes, I know that, but this is ridiculous. What has she been doing up there all this time?”
“I’m coming,” Sage yelled, but the end of her words got cut off by the unmistakable sound of her tumbling down the stairs.
Zeck, Aria, and I took off running toward her, but Aria was closest and reached her first.
Sage was sitting up at the bottom of the stairs, clutching her arm to her chest as she screamed in pain.
“Oh my God, Sage,” Aria cried. “Are you all right? Are you okay?”
“You okay, Strawberry?” I asked as I knelt next to Aria at Sage’s side.
“My arm!”
“Let me see,” Aria said, reaching for the arm, but I already knew from its awkward angle that it was likely broken.
“No, it hurts,” Sage yelled, jerking away from her mother’s touch.
“I know it hurts, baby, but you have to let me see,” Aria reached for the arm again.
“Can you please pull the van up,” I said to Zeck, and then I turned to Sage. “You have to let Mommy take a look, all right? Do you hurt anywhere else?”
With Aria’s gentle prodding, Sage released her grip slightly, but she continued to sob.
“It’s broken,” Aria whispered to me as she laid her hand gently on the arm, and I nodded.
“Yeah, I know.” Shifting so I could run my hands over Sage’s pants legs, I asked, “I need you to tell me if it hurts anywhere else, Strawberry. Is it just your arm?”
“Yes,” she said between sniffles, and then she looked up at Aria and pulled the injured arm away. “Ouch, Mommy. Your hand is hot.”
“What?” Aria said, looking down at her hand.
“Hey, my arm doesn’t hurt anymore.” Sage lifted the arm, and I stared at it in disbelief.
The arm had clearly been broken just above the wrist seconds earlier, but now, it looked perfectly normal with no misshapen qualities at all.
Aria sucked in a loud breath and sat back on her heels, and then she turned to me with her eyes and mouth both open wide.
“Let me see your arm, Sage,” I said, reaching to gingerly press my fingers along the bone. “Does that hurt when I touch it?”
Sage’s curls shook. “No, Daddy. It did hurt. Really, really bad. But then Mommy’s hand got hot, and it didn’t hurt anymore.”
Zeck came running in through the front door. “The van’s parked right outside and it’s running. Do you think it’s safe to move her?”
“I don’t understand,” Aria said, her eyes daring back and forth between me and Sage’s arm. “It was broken. You saw that, right? You saw it was broken.”
“Yeah. I saw. Let’s discuss this later. Right now, I’d like to get her to a doctor and get her checked out in case anything else was injured in the tumble.”
“But I don’t wanna go to a doctor.” Sage started crying again. “I want to go to school.”
“Maybe you can go to school after the doctor,” I told her. “But we need to have you examined to make sure you didn’t bump your head too hard or mess up something inside you. I’m gonna pick you up and carry you out to the van. You tell me if it hurts anywhere.”
“I can walk,” Sage said, attempting to stand.
“I’m sure you can, but I’d rather carry you just in case.” Taking great care not to jostle her too much, I carried her out to the van and got her buckled in her seat.
Aria had half-stumbled, half-walked behind us, and she looked dazed when I turned to her.
“Why don’t ride in the back with Sage?” I asked, but she didn’t respond. She was still staring at Sage’s arm. “Aria?”
