Cursed

  He was silent but his shoulders were tight. She could tell by the tension in his big body he was thinking of running.

  “Don’t do it.” Charlie poked him in the ribs again with the muzzle of her Glock. “My daddy taught me to hunt when I was twelve. Used to take me out to spend the night in the deer blind, waiting for some buck to wander by. And let me tell you, buddy, you’re a hell of a lot bigger target than a lot of the game I brought down.”

  Some of the tension leaked out of the big form and the Kindred continued plodding towards her car.

  “Besides,” Charlie continued. “You’d never get those cuffs off by yourself. They’re pretty tight, aren’t they? No way to drive a car or a space ship with those on. And after a while, blood loss and nerve damage set in. Better stay with the person who has the key.” She patted her pocket with her free hand, making her keys jingle. “Right?”

  “You make a compelling argument,” he rumbled. “But I still do not see why you have to apprehend me. Despite the fact that our people are at war, I am not your enemy.”

  “Oh no? Then what were you doing skulking around at night like a skunk in the garden?” Charlie demanded. “Just out playing vigilante, making sure nobody got raped or stabbed behind the bar for the hell of it?”

  “I did not set out to interfere,” he protested. “But I couldn’t stand by while the female was attacked. I was actually trying to get—”

  “Trying to get where?” Charlie poked him again. “Go on—you can say it.

  You were trying to get to the HKR building and contact the Mother Ship, weren’t you?”

  “They have an urgent message for me,” he growled reluctantly. “If I could just speak to my superior—”

  “He’d what—give you instructions on where to plant a bomb or how to sabotage the local military base?”

  “Of course not.” He was sounding exasperated again. “Give my people some credit. We are not terrorists—we are honorable males. No Kindred would do such a thing.”

  “I don’t know what you’d do and I’m not about to give you a chance to find out.”

  They had reached the car at last and Charlie was grateful. She’d had about enough conversation with the big warrior. It was time to bring him in to the EPB headquarters—which was actually just a makeshift area inside the local precinct—for processing.

  She had to stand on tiptoes to get her fingers on the top of his head and fold him down into the back seat of her unmarked sedan. Folding was the right word, too—the big bastard was accordioned in like a piece of origami by the time she finally got him into the back but finally the deed was done and she was able to shut the door.

  Then, leaning against the side of the closed driver’s side door, she got out her cell and called her immediate superior, Agent Purvis. He answered on the tenth ring.

  “Damn it, Sayers, do you know what time it is?” he muttered sleepily into the phone.

  “One fifteen AM exactly,” Charlie answered crisply. “I wouldn’t bother you at this hour without a good reason, Sir. My suspicion that a Kindred was in hiding somewhere in the vicinity of Old Pevito Road was correct. I have caught and apprehended the suspect and he is currently in custody in the back of my car.”

  “What?” There was a flurry of sounds on the other side and Charlie pictured Agent Purvis sitting up suddenly in bed and knocking his balding head against the headboard. “You what?” he demanded.

  Charlie repeated herself.

  “By yourself?” Purvis demanded. “You went after a Kindred by yourself? Where’s Jenkins? He’d better be with you, Sayers!”

  Charlie cleared her throat. “Jenkins went home at the end of our shift. I wasn’t intending to apprehend the suspect on my own but when I saw him, I followed him. He wound up engaged in a fight outside of the bar Bad Decisions, off of Curlew and I had no choice but to take him down.”

  “He was in a fight? Great, just great!” Purvis snapped. “It’ll be all over the news by morning! Hell, it’ll be all over the news in an hour if the wrong person gets hold of it. And they’re going to twist it too—make it look like we were too late to stop him attacking ordinary citizens.”

  “How it looks in the news wasn’t my prime consideration when I arrested him, Sir,” Charlie said stolidly. Purvis with his constant attention to the media and concern about his personal image bugged the hell out of her. Sometimes it seemed he was more interested in preening for the cameras than doing his job. “I was more interested in making sure no one was hurt,” she continued. “Should I bring the Kindred suspect in to headquarters for processing?”

  “Into headquarters—you mean at the PD? No—no, of course not!,” Purvis sputtered. “Why the hell would you do that? The media vultures would be on us even quicker.”

  “Well what am I supposed to do with him?” Charlie demanded, thoroughly pissed off. “Just let him go? We’re the EPB for God’s sake—taking down any remaining Kindred is our job. Or so you told me when you recruited me!”

  “Take him to a safe house,” Purvis said quickly. “You do have safe houses here in Ashville, right?” Purvis was from the DC area and had come to town to start the Asheville branch of the EPB so he wasn’t familiar with the area. Still, his question struck Charlie as more than a little asinine.

  “No Sir, we do not have a safe house set up and just waiting for anyone who needs to use it,” she said acidly. “It’s the Asheville PD, not the Witness Protection Agency.”

  “Well you can’t take him to the precinct.” Purvis was sounding belligerent now.

  “I can’t leave him cuffed in the back of my car all night either,” Charlie countered. “He’s got to go somewhere secure.”

  “Somewhere secure…somewhere secure…” There was a clicking sound at the other end of the phone and this time Charlie pictured Purvis tapping a plastic Bic pen cap against his yellowing top teeth. It was an annoying and slightly disgusting habit he had while thinking—if what went on in his balding head could be called thinking, that was.

  Not for the first time she wondered why she’d allowed herself to be recruited away from the PD for this job. She had just made detective—one of the youngest in the Asheville PD history—and she’d had her own office and everything.

  But Purvis hadn’t seemed like nearly such an idiot when he came rolling into town with his presidential mandate and his plans to protect their country and world from the evils of the Kindred. He’d told Charlie that they needed people like her—people who had grown up here and already knew the lay of the land. After all, it’s the hound that knows the hills it’s hunting that catches the most game.

  Everything he’d said had seemed to make sense at the time. Charlie had allowed her patriotism to overcome her common sense and had quit the PD to become Charlotte Sayers EPB, Agent First Class. Of course, it wasn’t just patriotism that lured her in—it was the way she felt about the Kindred and their draft. No female ought to be forced into a sexual relationship against her will. After what had happened to Missy— But Charlie shut down that line of thought fast. It wouldn’t do to get emotional right now.

  “…kids?”

  “Excuse me, what?” She realized that she’d missed what Purvis was saying.

  “I said, do you have kids?”

  “No,” she said, wondering why he was asking. “I don’t.”

  “Or anyone else who might be put at risk?” he went on. “In your house, I mean?”

  Charlie began to see where this was headed. But surely not even Purvis would suggest what she thought he was suggesting.

  “No, Sir, I live alone. But—”

  “Excellent. Take the prisoner to your place.”

  “What?” Charlie demanded. “Sir, you can’t be serious! It’s against protocol—all kinds of protocols—for me to take him back to my personal living space and guard him by myself.”

  “Well you apprehended him by yourself, Sayers,” Purvis reminded her nastily. “And you seemed to have managed that just fine.”

  “
This male could be dangerous,” Charlie reminded him icily. “He is six foot eight and built like a professional wrestler. I’m five foot seven and he outweighs me by at least a hundred pounds if not considerably more—I’m no match for him physically.”

  “You don’t have to be. You’ve got your cuffs and your gun. Taze him a couple of times if you have to in order to show him who’s boss.”

  “Sir, this is really unbelievably irregular. The fact that you would even suggest that I take a suspect back to my private residence—”

  “Do you want to keep your job?” Purvis snapped.

  “Not badly enough to put my life in danger,” Charlie shot back. “What you’re asking me to do is dangerous and illegal, Sir.”

  “It’s also the only way you’ll keep both your job and your freedom,” Purvis practically shouted. “The world is at war here, Sayers. We’re under martial law and I will have you court-martialed in a heartbeat if you don’t obey my orders. Now I am through discussing this with you! You will take the prisoner back to your house and keep him there until I can figure out what kind of spin to put on this to the press. Do you understand?”

  Charlie was so pissed off she felt like she could spit nails. What Purvis was demanding of her was completely unreasonable but he wasn’t leaving her a choice. God damned idiot! What the hell is wrong with him? Why did I ever quit the PD? What was I thinking?

  “I said, do you understand, Sayers?” he demanded again when she didn’t answer.

  Charlie took a deep breath, trying to master her rage.

  “Yes, Sir,” she said icily. “I do.”

  “Good. Keep the big bastard secure until you hear from me. You’re excused from active duty until further notice. Just stay with him and keep him under your thumb.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Charlie snapped again.

  “Good.” Purvis yawned. With the problem at least temporarily solved, he was apparently done for the night. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said and hung up.

  The phone went dead in her hand. This time she pictured her supervisor rolling over and going back to sleep. Probably getting a good night’s rest while he had just condemned her to a completely sleepless night standing guard over an angry alien as big as a horse. He might as well have ordered her to bring home a mountain lion or a timber wolf and keep it in her spare room until he could think what to tell the press.

  God damned idiot! Charlie thought again, fuming. But standing around out here all night wasn’t getting her anywhere. She was going to have to take the big Kindred home and find a way to make him secure somehow, at least for the night.

  Remembering that she had been going to call in a unit to deal with the girl who had been attacked by her date, Charlie pulled out her cell again. But during her phone call, the girl had wandered back to the front of the bar and apparently called some friends. Craning her neck, Charlie could see her standing with a group of girls, talking. She looked fine but she was still going to have to answer some questions eventually.

  Walking around, she got the girl’s information and asked if she wanted to go to a hospital and get examined.

  “No, I’m okay. I was just upset.” The girl rubbed her arms as though she was chilly. “Billy really was going to hurt me—I know he was. He would’ve if that big Kindred hadn’t pulled him off. Is he…”

  “I have him in custody,” Charlie said. “He’s going to an undisclosed location.” Which was a laugh, considering.

  “Oh, good.” The girl rubbed her bare arms again and shivered. “They didn’t used to bother me but now we’re at war with them and they’re so big.”

  “They are that,” Charlie agreed, thinking how huge the big bastard was going to look in her small bed room. “I need to go now. We’ll be in touch. If not me, then another officer or agent,” she promised.

  “All right. Thanks for everything. And, uh…” The girl hesitated. “Thank the Kindred for me too. I know they’re our enemies but if he hadn’t stopped Billy…” She shook her head and sniffed.

  “Come on.” One of her girl friends put an arm around her shoulders comfortingly. “Let’s get you home.”

  Charlie left them to their bonding, trying not to think of Missy. Her older sister had always been there for her like that when things got tough. The two of them had been close—so close Charlie hadn’t felt the need for any other girl friends. After Missy was gone…

  Stop. Just stop it, she lectured herself angrily. You need to stay in the here and now if you’re going to be safe. Letting yourself get distracted is about the most dangerous thing you can do in the situation you’re about to be in.

  She stalked back to her car, trying to stay in the present instead of replaying the past. Thoughts of her older sister, lost several years ago, always made her blue. But it wasn't just melancholy over her sister that was making her feel sad. She winced as she felt a dull, grinding ache beginning in her pelvis. It stopped after a moment but she knew that much worse was to come. Just great—on top of everything else, her period was coming on. It never lasted long but the cramps could be severe. What a night Purvis had picked to saddle her with a dangerous prisoner!

  Nothing to do but get through it. Bitching and moaning won't help. Just deal with it.

  Taking a deep breath, she opened the front door of her sedan and slid inside. It was a converted squad car so there was reinforced wire mesh between her and the back seat. She could see her prisoner sitting with his arms bound behind his back and his knees practically up to his chin in her rearview.

  She couldn’t tell what color his eyes were but they gleamed like an animal’s in the dark, making her heart jump up in her throat for an instant. He held her gaze in the mirror, steady and unblinking, until Charlie had to look away. Great and she had to take that home with her. What the hell was Purvis thinking?

  Thinking about covering his own ass, that’s what he’s thinking.

  She threw the car into drive and bumped over the rocky dirt road until she got to Curlew, which was at least paved, even if it was full of potholes.

  They drove in silence for five minutes before the Kindred finally spoke.

  “I may be your prisoner but I have the right to know where you are taking me. Is our destination the local penitentiary or incarceration facility?”

  “Nope.” Charlie cast another glance in the mirror and looked away before he could catch her eyes with his again. “Not going to jail or prison.” Not now, anyway.

  “Where then?” he growled. “Unless you are planning to execute me—”

  “No, I’m not going to shoot you,” Charlie snapped. “That is, unless you misbehave. You’re going to be on a very tight leash where we’re going.”

  “But where are we going? Where are you taking me?” he demanded again, stirring restlessly in the back seat.

  Charlie sighed. “The last place I want to—my place.”

  Chapter Three

  Stavros fumed silently in the back seat. How had he allowed the little female to get the jump on him? She was tiny—her waist no bigger around than his thigh. Though from observing her as she folded him firmly into her car, he had been able to ascertain that she had pleasingly rounded hips and a plump posterior…

  No! He frowned to himself. Why should that occur to him now? The female’s physical appearance was irrelevant. The point was, she had him in her custody and he was currently getting farther and farther away from his destination—the HKR building. Where was she taking him? He’d though she said it was to “her place” but surely she didn’t mean her personal residence? From what he knew of Earth penal customs, that seemed highly irregular.

  Still, maybe she wanted to conceal him for some reason? She’d spent a great deal of time on her cell phone arguing with someone. From inside the car the conversation had been somewhat muffled Stav had caught a few angry words and she hadn’t looked very happy when she’d finished. So he supposed it was possible that she really was taking him to her domicile or as the humans called it, a house.

&nbs
p; Stav studied her in the rearview mirror, trying to gage her motivations and intentions. She had hair the color of ripe wheat but it was difficult to say how long it was as she had it scraped into a no-nonsense bun at the back of her head. Her features were finely sculpted and would have been lovely if she wasn’t wearing a perpetual scowl, as though she was intent on doing a job she didn’t like. Presumably preparing to guard him all night.

  Stavros had no sympathy for her—if she hadn’t wanted to keep him secure, she shouldn’t have taken him in the first place. And he was going to make her work too—despite her gun he fully intended to escape the moment his cuffs came off. He wasn’t going to hurt her—he could never bring himself to hurt a female, even one who was his captor. But he was certain he could restrain her and then get back to the HKR building before she got loose.

  As if she knew what he was planning, her eyes met his in the mirror again. They were large and deep brown with no other color at all. Their color reminded Stavros of the sweet confection Earthlings called “chocolate” and despite the situation he found himself in, he had to admit they were lovely, fringed as they were with thick lashes several shades darker than her hair.

  “What are you staring at?” she demanded when he caught her gaze and held it.

  “You,” Stav said quietly.

  “Well, stop it!” she snapped, glaring at him.

  Stav continued to meet her eyes.

  “Why? Does it make you nervous to hold my gaze?” He wasn’t trying to intimidate her—he had the feeling not much could intimidate this female. She had a brisk, no-nonsense way about her that had already earned his grudging respect. But he was honestly interested in the answer.

  “Don’t flatter yourself buddy,” she said flatly, looking back at the road as the car took a sharp curve. The lights of town were fading outside his window and Stav had the idea they were going out into the country surrounding Asheville.

  “I was simply asking a question,” he pointed out. “In response to the one you asked. I thought you were initiating a conversation.”