EDGE
A Serial Series Dark Lure Episodes 5-8, Season One
By
Jamie Magee aka J.M. Cole
Copyright © 2013 Jamie Magee
All Rights Reserved
Edited Todd Barselow
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.
Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book. This purchase allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the right to resell, distribute, print or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload this book to a file sharing program. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Where To Find Jamie Online:
authorjamiemagee.com
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Other Books by Jamie Magee
“Web of Hearts and Souls”
Insight (Book 1)
Embody (Book 2)
Image (Book 3)
Vital (Book 4)
Vindicate (Book 5)
Enflame (Book 6)
Imperial (Book 7)
Blakeshire (Book 8)
Emanate (Book 9)
Exaltation (Book 10)
Whispers of the Damned (Book 1)
Witness of a Broken Heart (Book 2)
Synergy of Souls (Book 3)
Redefined Love Affair (Book 4)
Derive (Book 5)
Rivulet (Book 1)
Disavow (Book 2)
A Lovers Revolt (Book 6)
~
(Adult Paranormal Novels)
Edge Series
Drakon
Deathly Royal
~
Contemporary Novels:
Impulsion
Friction
Deploy
For each that believes that we are not born to fit in, but to stand out.
The only greatness for man is immortality.
James Dean
Episode Five
Chapter One
Two days. That was the plan; for everyone to stay nice, cozy, and legit for that length of time. It had only been one and a half, but that was enough as far as Talon was concerned. He felt like a caged animal and he had far too much business to handle.
He’d spent the night and most of the morning in the garage, was covered in grease and dust. Not the way he wanted to be if he was heading out, so he made his way to the main house. He found his room empty. Again.
He really thought he had broken ground with Reveca, but since that raid she’d been just as distant—using that Gwinn witchling as the perfect excuse.
After a hot shower and a fresh set of clothes, he made his way down the hall to Gwinn’s room and knocked. He waited. He didn’t want to. This was his house in his mindset so there should be no boundaries, but with this girl, as afraid as she was of everything, he exercised patience that he wasn’t known to have.
A few seconds later Reveca opened the door and emerged from the dark room.
“Not any better?” Talon asked when Reveca came out and pulled the door closed behind her.
“She says she’s just tired. That raid messed with her head bad.”
Talon furrowed his brow. “She should be high on life not in a hole. What the hell did Jamison give you? You sure he’s not just toying with you? Keeping her that weak to hide something?”
Reveca was sure Jamison was hiding something, but going about it this way wasn’t his normal MO.
“I don’t…I’m going to reach out soon.”
Talon nodded once. “We’re heading on a charity run.”
Reveca shot her stare up at him. Charity runs were just that, the vans the garage had dropping off food and water in the communities the Sons watch out for. But they were more than that, too. Most of the scripts were moved by water, nestled in the swamp, but there were a few that were in plain sight, in the center of neighborhoods with no patrols. They didn’t use those clinics as much because they had a slower turn around, but when you’re being watched it’s not that easy to head out down some highway and disappear.
“I thought we were laying low.”
“We did. We have to get out like this so they know we’re up to our regular routine. If we wait and only leave when we make that run on Gaither, it’s going to look odd. I’ve got the boys going in and out all day today, all morning tomorrow. We’ll get the lawmen nice and bored.”
“That’s your master plan?” Reveca asked with a lifted brow. Talon wasn’t meeting her eyes unless he had to, a sign that he’s either worried about something or hiding something from Reveca.
“For right now,” he said with a slight grin as he met her stare.
Right as he reached to pull her to him, Knight’s heavy footfalls came down the stairs.
“Was just coming for you,” Knight said to Talon.
“I’m starting to doubt there’s any wolf in you. I can hear you coming from a mile away.”
Knight shook off that insult; it came too often to engage it. “We got issues,” he said, turning his tablet to face Talon. “Front page news. Another mysterious death. All the vic’s bones shattered.”
“You’re joking,” Reveca said with wide eyes.
“No. This is a shit storm. Now the lawmen look like fools because they have someone in custody for the last one—someone that the press confirmed was still in custody and who has a signed confession attached to him.”
“Is it linked to Black or anything?” Reveca asked.
“No, but I set up some gossip buzzes. One had it as a copycat; another had it as a hoax—some story to drag up tourists. They’re taking root with the public. I don’t know what to tell you about the lawmen. Most officers haven’t filed a report I can hack into yet, but from what I can see they really are clueless. The body was dead a good day before it was discovered. They’re scrambling now to put the pieces together.”
“Is this going to cause them to let Holden out?” Talon asked.
“It won’t be that easy. He signed a confession. His prints were legit found at the scene. And the lawmen have to know if they let him go that he’s going to be at risk for crossing us. The news outright called him an undercover officer.”
“Did you ever figure out if Thames pushed thoughts into Holden saying that he was there days before that night?” Reveca asked. She’d left that task to Talon, hadn’t really left the floor she was on for the last day or so.
“That night, yes. Before, no. But that doesn’t hold much water. You were the one that told me he was desperate to get out of this undercover gig, if he heard Newberry had some evidence, his approaching Newberry would make sense,” Talon said.
“None of it makes sense.” She looked to Knight. “We have to figure out how to do our own questioning. Can the boys shift and talk to him?”
“I don’t know, I mean he’s got a lot of eyes on him.”
“You need to ask your sister who we covered that murder for or, hell, just tell her to make them stop killing people. We have enough to deal with,” Talon said with a bite in his tone.
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“On my list,” Reveca shot back.
Talon gave her a stiff nod, then cracked a smile. He pulled her close and let his lips brush across her forehead before he made his way down the stairs.
Knight went to follow him, but Reveca grabbed his arm. “Find anything?” she whispered.
Knight was clearly uncomfortable. The way he wouldn’t meet her stare said as much. “Still digging.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that there are no news reports, or rather there are none now. Days are missing from the archives. I’m trying to track that back so I can restore them. In the meantime, I’m going through the high schools, through social media, looking for key words.”
“You’re not saying something.”
“No, I’m just not going to say anything until I’m sure. I think it’s clear that we are all a little trigger happy right now with this stress. I say what I know, not what I assume.”
“Right,” Reveca said as she reached to squeeze his arm.
Knight gave her a slight smile and went to follow Talon.
Outside, two large black vans were nearly loaded.
While Talon waited for that to be done, for the others to get ready to ride out, he made his way into the lounge. Everyone has vices and the smell of coffee was one of his. He never got a rush off it, but the taste allowed him to fool himself, made him believe that he was calming himself down before the rush of a ride.
He sensed her come in not long after him, but he didn’t care to engage so when he turned with the pot of coffee in hand he wasn’t surprised to find Tisk sitting on the bar, with her feet rested on the counter just before Talon. Once again she was in a short skirt, a halter top, that wild, dark, curly hair of hers everywhere.
“You have a death wish,” Talon said without expression. He wasn’t in the mood.
“Now that’s not a secret,” she said as she casually opened her legs then swayed them side to side like an innocent schoolgirl.
Talon reached under the counter for his favorite mug, poured his cup, then put the pot back in its place.
When he turned back to his mug Tisk was leaning forward. Her legs now further apart, her skirt hitched higher. Clearly she wanted him to see that she had forgotten her panties that day.
“Cream…sugar?” she said with a sultry smile as she reached down between her legs and lifted both from the counter. “I have both, in excess.”
“I like it black.”
“I thought pink was your color.”
Talon laughed a dark laugh. “You know, for a tiny thing you have a lot of nerve.”
“Just trying to fit in.”
“Independence is a virtue you need to learn,” Talon said, and as he went to move away, Tisk extended her leg to halt him. It wasn’t much of a barrier for anyone to pass but he decided to humor her. “What is it, Tisk?”
“You look tense. I can help with that…seems like someone is not taking good care of you.”
Talon set his cup down, put his hands on the counter, and leaned forward between her open legs. He nearly chuckled when he saw her suck in a breath, saw her skin blush. “I don’t know how you don’t understand this…” he said as his dark eyes dipped down to her push up bra which was working overtime to make it look like she had some kind of chest. “Reveca is the one that brings souls back from the dead. She is the creator of immortals. Fucking me…that will kill you for sure, but you wouldn’t come back, sweetheart.”
“I bet it’s worth it,” she said as she reached for his kut.
“What’s your angle?” Talon asked rather coldly.
When she didn’t say anything, when he could feel her energy shutting down, putting up barriers, he leaned back and reconsidered his approach. He knew every enemy had a weakness. Tisk’s wasn’t hard to figure out.
His hands started at the base of her ankles and moved up slowly. That defensive energy of Tisk’s faded instantly. It was all he could do to not grin; he knew she’d take it the wrong way.
Right as he reached the back of her knees he spoke again. “Angle.”
“Talon stop teasing me,” she said as she moved her ass closer to the edge of the bar.
“Why do you want to be immortal,” he asked as he slid his hands just a bit forward. His long fingers were mere inches from the bare heat of her.
“Because I would rock at it.” She reached for his shoulders, tilted her head slightly. “Because I know you would help me through my transition.” She puffed out her chest. “Because I’d rather a Son change me than a Rouge…I belong here.”
The word Rouge would have been a mood killer if Talon was even thinking about going after a piece of ass, but he wasn’t, so he stared on.
“Then you need to learn to play nice with my woman. It wouldn’t take much. Letting her know her BFF was MIA would’ve been a stellar start.”
“I was scared,” she said with a pout on her lips.
“You don’t look scared to me,” Talon said with a glance over her body which was all but begging him to dive in and take it for a ride.
“What do I look like? A girl trying to figure out what your taste is? Because that’s what I’m doing.” Talon never changed his expression. “You like them fierce like Reveca, but you like them innocent, too, like to know that a girl can play dirty and clean up nice. I can be that. I’m good at secrets. You take care of me and I will make sure that frustrated look stays off your face. You’ll never know what want is.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“She really is holding out on you if you don’t know what want is.”
Talon swiftly removed his hands from her thighs and gripped her arms. “What was that innocent bullshit?”
“Amber…I saw the way you looked at her the other night as she danced with me…the school grad...you want us both? I could give her a call. We’re tight like this,” she said as her short legs squeezed around his waist. The strength she had in the grip with her legs might have shocked Talon if he wasn’t so focused on glaring at this little witchling that had more nerve than she should.
Right then Judge walked in, stopped short. “Uh…rolling out, boss.”
Talon took his time dropping Tisk’s arms, his glower was firmly on her. He moved away from her without a word.
“Let me know if you want me to send an invite,” Tisk shouted after Talon.
Judge shook his head at Tisk as he walked out, as he silently cursed himself, saying he needed to hesitate before he made a grand entry into a room. He had walked into too many tense moments lately. No one liked it when Talon and Reveca were on the outs, and it would take a fool not to see that hell coming right at them. Of course Judge saw more, with his dual vision. Sometimes he saw when he wasn’t even trying to, and lately he had seen both Talon and Reveca daring to go down a less traveled path. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see the result of where that would lead them, he just knew it would be a bumpy ride, long and hard, before any happily ever after was reached.
Talon and Judge were the last to mount their bikes. Everyone else was idling, waiting on them. The Prospects Red and Hoss were driving the vans.
The pissed off look on Talon’s face didn’t faze any of the other guys. That was his normal stance when he wasn’t joking around, when he was doing business.
Talon and Judge led, the vans followed, then the other guys. Thrash, the most skilled rider, manned the backdoor of the pack.
Every one of them revved up their engines as loud as they could as they passed the utility vans that had been working on the same light pole for the last day and a half. It had to be the worst undercover the lawmen had come up with thus far. The Sons acknowledging them should give them a clue to that. If not, Talon would stop and have a chat with them on his way back.
As soon as the bikes roared into the lower wards, kids and adults alike came outside. As the bikes coasted, the kids ran and the adults waved. The adults that didn’t wave, the ones that ducked inside, they had good reason to. The So
ns were a clear threat, and they had cleaned this neighborhood out long ago. If they were forced to repeat themselves it wouldn’t settle too well, to say the least.
They didn’t demand any payment for protection, or tell anyone they had to follow them. But the ones that did, the ones that had the Club’s symbol somewhere on their home, they were taken care of. Enough so that even if a few bad eggs still resided in the neighborhood for the simple fact that they didn’t have anywhere else to go, they followed the silent rules the Sons laid down. No dealing to kids. No stealing. No fucking with anyone under their watch.
The convoy of bikes and vans finally stopped just before a dead end street which led to a community center that was doing its best to work through renovations. Instantly they were surrounded. All the guys knew most of the people by names and were quick to shake hands, pull them into one-armed hugs.
When the vans were opened it got even more insane. Knight was the one organizing what went where and how. His insane tech skills also made him structured. You had to be out fighting for a life, working to make your own way to get a handout from the Sons. No exceptions. That notion, others seeing the rewards those out there making their own were getting, pushed more and more people to do the same.
Talon nodded for Thrash to follow him. One of those nods that said a million words yet nothing at all.
Through the crowd which reached back to the community center, Talon made his way to the chained doors with Thrash a few paces behind him.
By the time Thrash reached the door, Talon was already in, waiting on him. Thrash stayed put at the door, as a guard, and Talon moved through the dark building.
He passed the front desk, continued down the hall, past offices, the pool, then went into the gym, all the way back to the women’s locker room.
Once inside, he went to the farthest row and moved the lockers aside, pressed in the code on the door, then entered.
The only power in this entire place was in this one room, this lab where meds were sorted and repackaged. All the lights were on but he only sensed a few souls inside. Which was what he expected. They didn’t give this lab much to contend with because they wanted to be able to pack up what was there nice and fast if they had to.