“Thanks to your interruption, nothing, a failure,” he stated harshly. "I left her in my office alone for a reason – ammunition. I knew she would nose around, and I’d have it on tape. A tape that could be used to scare her into talking. But your premature interruption already gave her an out. She claimed innocence, and she’ll stick to that story. And I don’t have enough to insist that she’s lying. So,” he ground his teeth, his voice taking a guttural tone, "nothing. I got nothing. Exactly what your security team keeps producing.”
Nick’s jaw dropped. “You set her up?”
“You’re damn straight I set her up,” Cullen said. “Someone has to find out what she’s after. Who she’s working for.”
Nick grimaced, his gaze sweeping Cullen’s ring. “She was flustered when she left here. She’ll go to her contact tonight, and we will know the truth. She’ll be dealt with.”
“She is not to be touched,” Cullen ordered. “Report back to me and nothing more.” He had a strong sense that Kresley was a pawn in something bigger, and he wanted to know what. “I want her back here at work, where I can keep an eye on her myself. She is too young and naive to be acting alone. She is the key to finding out our true enemy.”
“Keeping her close is dangerous.”
“It is my decision to make.”
“You are taking risks that affect the entire pack.”
Anger slammed through Cullen. “Are you questioning my way of leadership?”
Nick glared for a moment and then cut his gaze. “No,” he said, then returned his gaze, composed, tone submissive. “I am forever loyal to this pack. I simply do not want all we have fought for to be destroyed. That ring protects us from attacks by the Underworld. The Firestarter is the only one who can fight you for its possession.”
Cullen rejected that answer. “Yet she has not. We will not act rashly. Not until we know more.”
“Then take precautions. Hide the ring. Lock it away safely.”
A lightning whip of warning shot through Cullen and not for the first time. He pressed his palms to the desk. “That suggestion grows old, Nick. Make no mistake–no one, not even that firestarter can remove this ring from my hand. Suggest again that I do so myself, and you will not be pleased with the outcome.”
Nick pulled back his shoulders, tensed. “I have been a leader in this pack for centuries, Cullen. I do nothing that is not meant for their best interests.”
Cullen narrowed a steely gaze on Nick. “There is only one leader of this pack, and that is me. Perhaps you need to remember that.” Blood rushed into Nick’s face, anger pinching his features. Cullen continued dismissively, “I’ll expect a report on your encounter with the Firestarter before the night is over.”
Nick sucked in air, expelled it slowly. “As you wish,” Nick stated, his voice raspy with barely contained fury. He turned and started for the door.
“Nick,” Cullen said with lethal calm as his head of security reached the door. Nick turned back around and did so a little too slowly to suit Cullen. “I meant what I said,” Cullen added in warning. “I decide how, and when, Kresley is dealt with. Is that understood?”
Tight-lipped, Nick agreed. “Understood.” He turned sharply to the door and departed.
Cullen snatched the key from the desk and entered the library; his keen sense of smell would have directed him to the books Kresley had touched, even had he not watched her on the camera. He’d studied humanity enough to know that they gravitated to the familiar, so her interest in the Bibles had not surprised him. But her interest in the Star of David had been unexpected. She’d studied it with familiarity, and he'd sensed her reluctance to let go of the book upon Nick’s appearance.
He reached for the leather-bound book, ran his hand over the symbol. It was a gift from a race of Fae Warriors he’d only just learned existed on earth. He’d met one of their Princes at the newly formed "Peace Council," an alliance of those who lived peacefully among humans and who had come together to face the threat of Adrian’s claim on earth. The book told of the Knights of White, of their leader who had replaced Solomon as a protector of earth, a destroyer of Demons. The Prince was rallying to include the Knights in their Council, though there wasn’t a Demon among them willing to see that happen, afraid of finding a sword against their necks.
Cullen had studied that book cover-to-cover several times. Anyone who considered Adrian an enemy was of interest, even those who might consider his own head a prize.
His mind retraced Kresley’s expression on the surveillance video, remembering the shocked look on her lovely face as she’d pressed her fingers to that star.
“What do you know about the Knights, little Kresley?” he murmured.
***
Anger rolled in Nick as he pulled his motorcycle to a stop in an alley deep inside the Dark Circle, still fuming over his confrontation with Cullen. He was sick and tired of being the yes-man to that wolf. The day Cullen met his death would not come soon enough to satisfy him. That would be the day that he, the rightful leader of the Pack, would take control. He who had the willingness to lead them to great things, to take on the Underworld, rather than hide from it. To embrace their hunting instincts rather than turn the wolves into clones of the weak, civilized humans.
And he’d made the contacts to ensure that the wolves would rise to the top of the food chain. And at least one contact that Cullen would never dare make – he’d struck a deal with Adrian. A deal that would be sure to make the pack respect him. The wolves would be second only to Adrian. With humans far below them.
But he had an immediate issue to deal with, an issue he would not allow to stand in the way of his plans; the Firestarter had somehow managed to arrange a meeting with a Seer, a near impossible feat, even for those who lived within the Dark Circle. What she hoped to achieve, he did not know. But logic said, she was after the ring, working for someone who wanted to control the Werewolves, to destroy them. Another reason why the wolves needed a leader willing to go after blood, not a figurehead like Cullen who’d lost their races' hunger for blood and battle.
He fully intended to kill the Firestarter. Right after he found out who she was working for. That ring was his. It was the key that would allow him to claim full rule over the Werewolves and have Adrian recognizing him as important. Even the naysayers would follow if he wore the ring.
He kicked off the bike as two of his followers emerged from the shadows. “Why are you out here if she is inside with the Seer?” he demanded of his followers.
“She’s not alone,” Jess, one of his most loyal followers, stated. “The Hunter has resurfaced. He is with her.”
His brow arched. “The Hunter,” he repeated. Good. Very good. He’d deal with them both at once. His jaw firmed. “Another reason you should be inside, not out here. Do I have to remind you the Seer sees all? Including our revolt against Cullen?”
The other wolf, Alexander, shook his head. “You don’t cross a Seer. She’ll curse you.”
A low growl escaped Nick’s lips as he slapped Alexander. “Not if she’s dead, you fool.” Alexander touched the blood on his lips, fury in his eyes. “You want more?” Nick challenged. Alexander expelled a breath and shook his head. “I didn’t think so.”
Nick considered a moment. Cullen was questioning him. Disposing of the Hunter would gain him favor. He flicked a look at Jess, a wolf he trusted more than any other, the one most likely to become his second in command. “Get rid of the Hunter once and for all. And consider this a test. If you can’t manage this simple task, you don’t belong by my side.”
“And if the Firestarter gets in the way?” he questioned.
"I’d suggest you choose your moment of attack wisely,” he said. “Stay out of her way, and if you can’t manage that, you'd better manage control. The girl is not to be touched.” Not yet, he thought. But soon. Very soon. As much as he wanted her dead, he had to face facts. She had the power to fight Cullen. He might need her. Until he decided otherwise, he’d keep her alive.
But not one minute longer than absolutely necessary.
***
Adrian stood on the rooftop of the bar, watching as Nick manipulated and killed to get his way. To try and gain his favor. He laughed. It pleased him to have so many chasing their tails to suit him. One way or the other, the wolf pack would fall, and that ring would be his. He wanted the ring for his second, Tezi, who would use it against the Knights of White. If Nick could not convince Cullen to take off the ring to protect it from attack, then he would simply manipulate the Firestarter into taking it from Cullen.
He snapped his fingers, and the Guardians appeared by his side in human form, their silver-covered bodies melted against his. They were able to leave the shell of the bracelets on Lucan’s arms for short periods without losing their control over him. “What say you, Guardians?”
“Lucan is not yet with the Firestarter,” they whispered together. “But when he is, they will mate. We will make sure of it.”
“And then she will be fully ours,” Litha promised. “Then we can control her mind, ensure she takes the ring.”
“What of this temporary mark?” Adrian demanded. “Can you do nothing with it?”
“Oh no.” They spoke together. “The temporary marks are weak. We would need to place the bracelets on her arms.”
“We use them now to control Lucan’s beast,” Lithe said.
“We must control the beast,” they both agreed.
“They will mate tonight,” Litha said. “Then she will be ours. Then we can make her take the ring from the Wolf.”
“Then the wolves will fall at your feet,” they whispered together.
And so would the Knights of White. Before this was over, he’d make sure the Knights and the Wolves were enemies. Make sure they killed each other so he didn’t have to waste his time. He had business to attend to, government and school agencies to involve his beasts in. He wanted them in political offices, and as teachers, law officers, managers of banks and hospitals. He wanted his Beasts everywhere, because he intended to be everywhere, and everything, to everyone. One day they would all wake up to a new world – and he would be in charge.
Adrian smiled. Evil. Soon this whole damn world would fall at his feet.
Chapter Five
He’d come to the underground club, a part of the Dark Circle, at the direction of the Guardians. Kresley was here and he wasn’t leaving without her. He could barely believe that Kresley, the innocent girl he’d met a year before, would set foot into the taint of a place like this. Lucan stood in the doorway, sharpening his gaze to cut through the smoke-filled air as he surveyed the twenty or so Demons and supernatural beings mixing and mingling with just as many humans– all crowded in a small space, standing around wooden tables.
A pine scent touched his nostrils, a scent that he now knew masked a Demon drug that the club owners favored for its ability to loosen morals and pocketbooks. Apparently, Demons enjoyed human money as much as humans did. But it wasn’t just the drug Lucan could smell, it was danger, menace; and Kresley was here where she could reap the repercussions of those evils.
Lucan started walking, past several tables, the crowd parting for him, the menace of his demeanor easily read as an accurate warning. He would kill any one of them that tried to impede his progress. And he would do it without remorse.
How he’d lived three hundred years thinking Darkland Beasts were the worst evil on earth, he did not know. Or maybe he did. Destroying them had given him a reason to live on. Destroying them had meant destroying the evil that had swept into his perfect little life, where he had been a new settlement doctor with family and friends, and literally ripped the very breath from his throat. Certainly destroyed his will to practice medicine for many years after. They’d destroyed the people he loved, and he’d spent centuries making sure they didn’t do the same to others.
But the truth that this past year had shown was that the Beasts were simply the evil he knew the most intimately, not the worst that walked this earth. The Beasts historically had proven to be mindless foot soldiers, Demons that lurked in the darkness, hidden from humanity. Demons the Knights hunted and killed. But these bastards, in this place, in the Dark Circle–though their numbers were limited, they were far worse than the Beasts, because they were boldly preying on humans, living within their world, killing them as if they were here for entertainment purposes.
He paced through the main room, toward the bar where customers gained entrance to the sheltered recesses of the back rooms of these kinds of places, to the rooms where sins were fed, desires bred. Where black magic was practiced as easily as was Happy Hour in human establishments.
Lucan nodded to the bartender, indicating his interest in those sins. He passed through the hanging beads that threaded a doorway leading to the magical haven beyond. He had no intention of staying to experience its offerings. Had no idea what insanity had brought Kresley here, and right now, he didn’t care. He was too damn pissed that she was putting herself in danger, pissed that the Knights had let her do so. After everything he’d been through to see her to safety, she was working for a wolf, and hanging out in seedy Demon bars. And it was time for it to stop. He was taking Kresley out of here, no questions asked, no arguments. And he was doing it now.
***
Kresley waited in a narrow hallway at the back of the bar, red curtains covering the doorways where patrons received special services. Moans filled the hallway, sounds of pleasure, sounds of pain. Swallowing hard, she leaned against the stone wall behind her, hugging herself. She was waiting for entrance into the "Seers" room, and trying to fight the way the smoky bar drugged her senses, creating a numbing sensation. She hated this place, hated the evil that pulled on her lungs with every breath, hated the seedy scent of sex and seduction, of death and destruction. For a moment she just stood there, her mind drifting. She blinked. Was it a moment? Or was the smoke messing with her worse than she thought?
Oh God, what had she missed? She’d been followed, tracked for hours of working the streets to get here now. Suddenly, fearful that the haze in her mind had dimmed her alertness to danger, her gaze flickered down the hall, toward the crowded bar. She reminded herself she was being followed. That someone taunted her with their constant, unseen presence. Thankfully, the hallway was empty; the noisy crowd, distant, muffled.
Satisfied she was clear from imminent threat, her shoulders slumped ever-so-slightly; her gaze swept the curtains. Soon she would visit the Seer, find the answers she sought to questions about the Werewolves, and maybe even about the weaknesses of the Guardians. Not without a price, though, she reminded herself grimly, hand moving to her throat, pulse racing beneath her palm as she thought of the negotiations leading to this meeting. Nothing came without a price in the Dark Circle; this meeting was no exception. She’d had to bargain, to make a promise she hoped she wouldn’t regret.
Abruptly, awareness rushed through Kresley. She shoved off the wall, turned toward the bar. She gasped at the tall, blonde male charging toward her, his long legs eating away the distance between them in a predatory stride.
“I don’t believe it,” she whispered, a second before he reached her. “Lucan! How can—"
He cut her off by snagging her hand, warmth skipping up her arm. “We’re leaving,” he announced a moment before he started back the other direction, with her in tow.
This wasn’t how she'd pictured their reunion. She dug in her feet, stumbling a bit in the process but holding her position. “No!” she insisted, grabbing a big bicep as it flexed beneath a long-sleeved black tee. “Lucan, no!”
He stopped walking, half turning. “This isn’t a discussion, Kresley." The lack of compromise in his tone and the steely set of his jaw told her to act before he, indeed, dragged her out of there. She wasn't a physical match for him if he chose to follow through with his threat –which meant she had to try other means.
She quickly maneuvered to stand in front of him. He kept his hold on her hand, and she pressed the o
ther to his chest, feeling as if it somehow kept him from moving.
“Lucan…” Their eyes locked, and she lost the rest of her sentence, heat flaring between them, scorching her inside and out. Muscles flexed beneath her palm, and she could barely breathe with the intimacy expanding between them, around them.
Finally, she whispered, “You don’t know what’s happening here.”
“Nothing, Kresley,” he said, the heat in his eyes replaced with the gleam of demand. "We’re leaving.”
She shook her head, started to back away. “No–"
Kresley sucked in a breath as he pulled her close, his arm wrapping around her waist, her hips pressed to his, legs molded against his long, strong thighs. Dark eyes captured hers.
“I swear to God, Kresley,” he whispered vehemently. "Either you come with me right now or I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here.”
Her lashes lowered, her heart squeezed. “It’s not that easy,” she whispered, wishing it could be, the little girl inside her wanting to be whisked away to safety, to have a Prince Charming carry her off and save her. And for just an instant, her limbs became heavy, melting into his big, strong body, into a façade of safety. But this wasn’t a fairy tale, and Prince Charming was possessed by Demons. There was no saving her, not without sacrificing him. She grabbed his arms, stiffened, pinned him in a direct stare. “If I leave without what I came for, others could be in danger. I won’t leave.”
His eyes narrowed. “What others?” he demanded. “What’s going on, Kresley?”
“The wolf leader—"
His gaze sharpened, body tensed. “Cullen Moore.”
“Yes,” she said, sensing a new edge of tension in him. “I searched his office and found a book in his library.” She went on to explain how she’d found the Solomon symbol engraved in the leather. “We need to know more about him. What if he’s an ally to the Knights?”
“He’s not,” Lucan assured her. “I’d know.”
She decided not to point out he’d been gone a year. “The Seer will know if he means the Knights harm,” she argued. "She can tell me how to safely remove the ring.”