Chapter 5
Standing the in the hallway, dressed in an expensive business suit, Tyce was actually slightly annoyed at the ease with which he’d found his way to the condo housing the mark he sought. Too easy. Turning, he glanced down the hall and wondered if it weren’t some sort of trap. Monroe had made it sound like it’d be mission impossible, but this was cake.
He nodded at where Lok paced at one end of the hall before turning to see Bronco standing ready at the other end. Focusing, he contacted his team waiting outside through the Skin Walker’s telepathic means of communication known as the mist. “Any movement?”
Conn responded first with a firm, “No.”
James answered next. “Nothing on this end, boss.”
Finally, Shane gave the, “All clear.”
Hmm, curious. Tyce turned to face the door and lifted his hand, his knuckles rapping a quick cadence before he waited. When the door opened, he plastered on his friendliest smile, knowing the recently acquired scars on his face tended to immediately frighten people.
At first, he was confused when the door opened and no one was there. It took him all of a second to look down and find a pigtailed little girl staring up at him with the biggest brown eyes he’d ever seen.
“Hi,” she said, in a voice too sweet for comprehension.
Tyce’s brows snapped into a frown as he looked over her head. “Hi. Is…uh…you’re,” he looked back down at the little girl. “Is your mommy home?”
“Fena!” A feminine voice cried out. It was laced with panic and Tyce made to look up, but the little girl, Fena, suddenly took his hand, keeping his attention.
“Mommy’s dead,” she said in a sad voice. “So is daddy.”
Interesting.
“Fena!” The woman cried again, and then the child was hauled up so quickly that Tyce actually felt guilty, like he’d done something wrong.
Face buried in the little girl’s neck, the woman offered Tyce an opportunity to size her up. Stepmother? Babysitter? Nanny? Whoever she was, she was a tiny thing. She couldn’t have been more than a few inches past five feet. Strawberry blonde hair that was more strawberry than blonde hung in short satiny tresses that barely shielded her face. Straight nose, creamy skin, rosy cheeks, and full lips gave the impression from the side view that the woman was pretty.
Plastering his fake smile back into place, Tyce opened his mouth to say something flirty and witty to set the woman at ease. He knew women, knew how to speak to them to distract them. By nature women were vain…well, the women he’d had the pleasure of bedding. Playing to a woman’s ego and making them feel special was second nature to Tyce, and this woman would be no different.
Mentally sifting through his tried and true lines, he chose one he thought would work best on the overprotective whatever she was. He opened his mouth to grace her with his wit in the same instant she stepped back and lifted her face to glare at him accusatorily.
The cold silver of his eyes collided with the warm whiskey color of hers and his words died in his throat. As if in slow motion, time slammed to a halt and Tyce’s smile fell just as a gut-wrenching pain twisted his insides, stealing his breath and dropping him to his knees.
Crashing to the floor, he couldn’t pull his eyes from the woman. Even as the sound of his slowing heartbeat filled his ears, he couldn’t look away. Suddenly, in the space of a blink, his stalled-out heart raced to top speed as his insides twisted so violently that he snarled in pain. One arm clamped around his middle as he threw himself forward to brace on the other, but he still didn’t break eye contact. His eye refused to stray from hers. He just couldn’t stop staring at her…her! His fucking Angel!
Alarm swept the woman’s delicate features, but she recovered quickly. Too quickly. Just as his halo emitted a high pitched whine and blinked with an ethereal light, the woman gasped and recoiled, the child still held tightly in her arms, before the door was slammed in his face.
Rage flooded him. She was getting away and Bronco and Loc were staring at him from their places down the hall. Hell, Loc even had the audacity to holler, asking him stupid shit like, “Everything alright? You okay, boss?”
No! Fuck no! Fucking unmated idiots!
He snarled once, pain still tearing through him as his incisors punched through his gums. His animals surged to the fore, determined to chase down and claim what was theirs. He tried to speak, to direct his men to get inside and secure his Angel, but his inner beasts polluted his voice and only feral sounds rolled from between his twisted lips. Growling in frustration, he lowered his head and clenched his teeth, struggling to regain his composure as his men finally caught on that something wasn’t right and raced toward him from both directions.
Dragging in a painfully deep breath he shoved up off the floor and took two steps before he went back down. Affliction!
He’d heard Monroe drone on about it for years. There were also rumors that StoneCrow’s Chief of Surgery, Jenny, had a serum she’d been using to delay the initial onset. Tyce had wanted no part of any of it, and each time Monroe had tried to broach the subject, Tyce had been quick to shut him down. In this instant he regretted it. Right now, the urge to chase down the female and claim her was so powerful that it trumped all else. In this moment she was more important to him than his money, his Walkers, or even Apex. By the Grandfathers, what he wouldn’t give to go back and have the opportunity to ask more questions, or give even an ounce of his attention to the rumors and science of it all.
His keen hearing picked up the suddenly heightened sound of traffic and voices coming from the room before the sound faded to nothing. She’d opened a window and then closed it. Fuck! She’d gone out the window and was making a run for it!
The streets were full of people, and if he couldn’t get a hold of himself in the next few seconds he’d risk the chance of losing her. Again, he shoved up off the ground and managed to remain upright just as Lok and Bronco reached him. Still unable to speak, he jabbed his finger toward the stairs they’d come up.
“Shit! The woman!”
FINALLY!
Lok and Bronco moved instantly, but even that ripped him up. He didn’t want anyone chasing her, touching her. Lurching forward he felt his hands claw and looked down to see that sharp nails had shot through the tips of his fingers. He was in some kind of fucked-up mid-shift and he couldn’t be seen like this, not here. There were too many people, and he couldn’t risk exposing their secret, so as Loc and Bronco raced for the stairs, he turned and kicked the door to the condo open. It banked off the wall and he left it open as he limped into the room, eyes scanning, nostrils flaring. He’d been right. His Angel was gone.