Chapter 10

 

Chris

 

I pulled on a pair of jeans and combed my fingers through my damp hair one more time before I opened the bathroom door. Walking into the living room, I went to find a fresh T-shirt, and I grinned when I saw the wrinkled contents of my duffle bag.

When Sara had told me Geoffrey’s team would be staying at the house for a day or two, I’d immediately offered up my room to Abigail and threw my things in the bag to move to the guesthouse. I wasn’t above using any excuse to spend more time with Beth.

A small sound made me straighten and turn to the kitchen where Beth stood with a coffee cup halfway to her mouth. She wore a camisole and sleep shorts, and her hair was still messy from sleep. I’d seen her all dressed up to go out, but this was by far my favorite of her outfits.

“Morning.”

She blinked, and her eyes lifted from where they had been staring somewhere below my chin.

“Hi.”

Fighting back the smirk tugging at my lips, I donned the shirt in my hand and walked into the kitchen.

“Coffee smells great. You make enough for two?”

“Yeah, um…help yourself.”

She stepped back to let me through and then walked around to sit on one of the barstools at the breakfast bar.

I hid my smile as I poured a cup for myself and turned to her. Suddenly, I had an image of the two of us living together and doing this every day. I’d never considered myself a domestic person, having spent most of my adult life on the road, but I’d never known a woman I wanted to make a home with. Until now.

“Did you sleep well on the couch?” she asked shyly.

“Like a rock,” I lied.

I’d gone to bed late, weary after a long call with Tristan and the rest of the Council. Instead of falling asleep, I’d lain awake thinking about Beth sleeping in the other room. It was a good thing I was used to functioning on a few hours of sleep, because I had a feeling I was going to suffer from insomnia for the foreseeable future.

She fidgeted with the handle of her cup. “Good.”

I took a sip of the rich brew and set my cup on the counter. “Sara’s friend Kelvan gave her the names of some local vrell demons who might know something about the Lilin’s whereabouts. I’m planning to visit them today, and I’d like you to come along.”

“Okay.” She gave me a small smile, looking relieved to be discussing work. “What time do you want to go?”

“We’ll leave at ten and –”

A ringing cut me off, and I went to the living room to find my phone beneath one of the couch cushions. Nikolas’s name flashed on the screen.

“What’s up?”

“We just got word on two missing girls in San Francisco. Eighteen-year-old twins. The parents were out of town for three days and got back yesterday to discover them gone. We don’t know yet how long the girls have been missing, but they match the profile of the other missing girls.”

I swore softly. “If this is him then he’s gone statewide. Going to be a lot harder to find him.”

“I know,” Nikolas said. “One of us needs to go to San Francisco.”

“You deal with the Council. I’ll take a team and check it out.”

“Thanks. Keep me posted.”

I ended the call and looked up to find Beth standing a few feet away, watching me with a worried frown.

“He took another girl, didn’t he?”

I shook my head. “We don’t know yet if it was him. That’s what we need to find out.” I glanced at the time on my phone. “Get ready to leave in an hour.”

“Where are we going?”

“San Francisco.”

Less than three hours later, Beth, Mason, Brock, and I left a private hangar at the San Francisco airport and drove to the home of Natalie and Nicole Thomas. The front yard of the upscale suburban house was crowded with people who looked like they were planning a search for the missing girls. The police had already come and gone, making it easy for us to enter the place without arousing suspicion.

I parked the SUV in the closest spot on the street and turned in my seat to look at Beth and Mason, who had never worked a scene like this before. Both wore expressions of barely-concealed excitement.

“Brock, you and Mason stay outside and question the people out here. Beth, you’re with me. Just follow my lead.”

“Okay.”

We entered the house, which was just as crowded inside, and found Mr. and Mrs. Thomas in the kitchen with an older black man who resembled the girls’ mother. I introduced Beth and myself as detectives, and we showed them our fake badges and IDs.

The older man gave us a wary look. “You two don’t look old enough to be detectives.”

I smiled. “We get that a lot.

“Dad, not now,” Mrs. Thomas said hoarsely, her eyes red-rimmed.

“How can we help you?” her husband asked me.

“We know someone’s been here already, but we’d like to ask you a few questions and take another look around.”

Mrs. Thomas gave us a hopeful look. “What do you need to know?”

“Tell us what you told the other officers you spoke to,” I said. I’d studied the police report on the plane, but it was always better to get a firsthand account.

The couple took turns telling about how they’d gone to a bed and breakfast in Monterey to celebrate their anniversary, and the last time they’d spoken to their daughters was the day they’d gotten there.”

“I called them to let them know we’d arrived,” their mother said between sniffles. “They told me to have a great time and not to worry about them. I tried calling them again before we left to drive back, but no one answered.”

“And when you arrived home?” I asked calmly.

Mr. Thomas put an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “The back door was unlocked and no one was home. Natalie and Nicole are responsible girls. They’d never leave the house unlocked or go off without telling us.”

“Was anything disturbed?”

“Not that we can see.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Where could they be?”

“Mrs. Thomas, may I see the girls’ bedrooms?” Beth asked.

The woman nodded jerkily. “Of course. I’ll show you where they are.”

The two of them left the kitchen, and I heard their steps on the stairs. I stayed with Mr. Thomas, asking him questions about his daughters’ friends and whether or not they had boyfriends. I wanted to rule out the possibility that the girls might be off with someone they knew.

Ten minutes later, when Beth and Mrs. Thomas still hadn’t returned, I went upstairs to look for them. I found Beth in one of the girls’ bedrooms, studying photos of the Thomas twins. Tall and slender with creamy dark skin, hazel eyes, and long braided hair, they were a stunning pair, and exactly what a Lilin would find appealing.

“Find anything?”

“Yes.” She plucked something from the mirror and turned to face me, holding a piece of paper.

“What is it?”

She passed it to me, and I turned it over. It was a ticket stub for a nightclub, and when I saw the name, my eyes lifted to meet hers.

“Luna,” I said.

She nodded. “It looks like the pass I had to the club in Los Angeles. Only this club is in San Francisco.” She held up her other hand, revealing a second stub. “I found this in Natalie’s room. They’re both from two nights ago.”

I exhaled harshly. I’d held out a small hope that the Lilin hadn’t taken the sisters. But to discover he’d set up a second club here to draw in prospects told me this was bigger than we’d feared. A lot of money went into this kind of setup, and it had to have been planned months in advance, maybe longer. The most troubling fact was that this demon wasn’t keeping to one city, which didn’t match the behavior for a breeding Lilin. What else was he doing that we hadn’t accounted for?

“Good work, Beth.” I stuck the club pass in my back pocket. “Let’s go check this out.”

The address on the pass took us to SoMa, which was the perfect location to set up a trendy underground nightclub. The building was small and nondescript with no signage to indicate what type of business it housed.

My first instinct was to tell Beth to stay outside, but I stopped myself before I opened my mouth. I had no good reason to exclude her except for my strong need to protect her. Singling her out would only anger her.

I picked the lock, and the four of us entered what had obviously been a nightclub, but it looked like it had been deserted in a hurry. The furniture remained, but the bar area was empty, and there were passes and plastic cups littering the floor. The smell of stale alcohol was no more than a few days old.

“I’m going to bet this place closed the same night we raided the club in Los Angeles,” I said as I walked around the main room. I bent and picked up one of the passes, confirming my suspicions. The date was two days ago.

“You think he took Natalie and Nicole from here?” Beth asked.

“The unlocked door at their house suggests his Incubi followed them home and took them from there. But I believe he discovered them here.”

She pressed her lips together, her expressive eyes showing her revulsion for this place and what it stood for. “He’s probably taken more girls,” she said.

“I know. We had our guys start looking at other missing persons reports here as soon as we heard about the Thomas sisters.”

Her eyes grew troubled. “We have no idea how many girls he has now or how long he’s been taking them, which means he could be ready to breed any day. We have to help them, Chris.”

“We will.”

I resisted the urge to go to her and wrap her in my arms, knowing how well that would be received. Instead, I pulled out my phone and called Nikolas to let him know what we’d found. As expected, he was not happy about the discovery, and he said he’d asked our guys to search for more of the clubs.

“I don’t like this,” I said in a low voice as I watched Beth walk over to talk to Mason. “I’m already afraid to let Beth out of my sight.”

“I know,” Nikolas growled. “I tried to get Sara to go home for a visit, and she’s a little upset with me now.”

I would have laughed at his morose tone if I wasn’t in the same situation with Beth. I raked a hand through my hair. This was going to get a lot worse before it got better; I could feel it in my gut.

“It looks like they cleared out of this place in a hurry. I’m going to go over it, see if I can find anything they might have forgotten.”

“Are you coming back today?” he asked.

I looked at Beth again, weighing whether she’d be safer here or in Los Angeles. The command center was protected by a state-of-the-art security system that included perimeter alerts and cameras. On top of that, Eldeorin had warded the place with his powerful Fae magic as a favor to Sara. The only demons that could pass through the ward were Mori demons, making the place impervious to vampire and demon attacks.

But the Lilin was in Los Angeles. He would not have driven off and killed all other Incubi there otherwise. The need to be near his captives would keep him mostly to his lair, but his sons’ fanatic loyalty to him made them a serious threat. The longer I kept Beth away from that, the better.

“I think we’ll stay here tonight, unless you need me there.”

“No, we’re good here. Let me know if you find anything.”

I hung up and called the others over to me. “The place looks empty, but I’m not taking any chances. We’ll split up into pairs and search for anything that might tell us who was here and where they could have gone. Beth, you’re with me.”

She frowned but didn’t argue, quietly following me down a short hallway to what had been the office. The two of us went over every inch of the room until I admitted there was nothing to find. The club owner had been very careful not to leave a scrap of paper behind, more proof that we were dealing with a meticulous adversary.

“Back to the airport?” Brock asked as we left the club half an hour later.

“No, we’re staying in San Francisco tonight.”

Ignoring their inquisitive looks, I called the two local safe houses to see if one of them could put us up for the night. I’d stayed at both places in the past and knew all the warriors stationed at them.

We worked it out that two of us would stay at each house. Beth was not happy when I told her she was coming with me.

She crossed her arms. “Why can’t I go with Mason?”

I ignored the prick of pain in my chest at her wanting to be with her friend over me. I knew she was afraid of her feelings for me, but as much as I hated causing her discomfort, I would not even entertain the idea of her and me in separate houses.

Mason surprised me by stepping in. “We’re just sleeping at the other house. We’ll all be together until then.”

Her shoulders relaxed, and relief flashed in her eyes before she nodded.

I wasn’t sure what had changed with Mason, but he seemed to have softened toward me in the last few days. Maybe he saw that I truly cared for Beth, or maybe he knew she still loved me. Whatever the reason, I was grateful, and I shot him a look to let him know that.

The closest safe house was in Pacific Heights, so we headed there to check in before we made plans for the evening. The previous owner of the three-story building had been a classic car collector, and he’d converted the entire first floor into a garage. The second floor was the kitchen, living area, and control room, and on the top floor were three bedrooms.

We parked in the garage and climbed the stairs to the second floor where Charles, the ginger-haired leader of the two San Francisco teams, greeted us.

“Chris, good to have you back with us.” Charles thumped me on the back before turning to the others.

I saw his eyes light with interest when they fell on Beth, and I moved closer to her before I made the introductions. I didn’t mention our bond, but Charles’s smile of acknowledgement told me he knew she was off-limits.

“Mike and Keith are out on an overnight stakeout, and you’re welcome to crash in their room,” Charles said. “Top of the stairs, second door on the right.”

“Oh…thank you,” Beth stammered. She turned to the stairs but not before I saw the blush creeping up her cheeks.

It wasn’t unusual for male and female warriors to share rooms when a safe house got crowded. Most bedrooms had two single beds, so it wasn’t as if they slept in the same one. This was one time when I wouldn’t have minded sharing a bed. I imagined sleeping next to Beth, holding her, and warmth spread through me.

“Thanks,” I replied a little too gruffly. Jesus, I was acting like a horny teenage boy who’d never been with a girl. I had to pull myself together before I embarrassed us both.

Charles led us into the control room where another warrior named Juan was manning the monitoring stations. The room seemed small and cramped after getting used to the much larger one at the command center.

“Tell us about the Lilin situation in Los Angeles,” Charles said.

“It’s not just Los Angeles,” I said, bringing them up to date on everything we’d learned so far.

Juan let out a whistle. “I’ve never heard of one of them hunting in such a large area. They usually stick to one city.”

“That’s what has us worried. This one is not behaving like other Lilin.”

We talked about the Lilin and then what we’d both been up to since we last saw each other a few months ago. Beth rejoined us as I was telling Charles about my trip to Germany and my visit with my parents.

“You guys have dinner plans?” Charles asked after we’d been talking a few hours.

“Not yet,” I said.

“We have a bunch of steaks in the fridge. How about we grill them?”

I looked at Beth, Mason, and Brock, who nodded in agreement.

“Great.” Charles stood and went into the kitchen. “Let me see what I have to go with them.”

While Charles prepared dinner, I called Nikolas again to see if they’d learned more. The news was not good. In the last two weeks, five young women between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one had been reported missing in San Francisco, in addition to the Thomas sisters. There were four missing in San Diego, two in Sacramento, two in San Jose, and another one went missing in Los Angeles last night. Those were the ones we knew about. If the Lilin had taken all of them, he had at least seventeen girls in captivity. And if Adele was right about the numbers, he needed a lot more before he started breeding with them.

The mood at dinner was somber. Beth picked at her food and only spoke when someone addressed her. Jobs like this one were especially difficult for inexperienced warriors, and I worried it might be too much for her to deal with on top of everything else she was going through. I tried to get her to open up to me as we washed dishes together after the meal, but she gave only minimal answers to my questions.

When all else failed, I did the only thing I could. I pulled Mason aside and asked him to talk to her. It stung to know she felt more comfortable talking to another male, but I’d do whatever it took to ease her mind. They spent over an hour together out on the back deck. When they came in, she was smiling, and he shot me a look to let me know she was okay.

I was trying to find a way to get Mason alone and ask him about what had been troubling Beth when Juan called to Charles from the control room. I followed Charles into the room.

“What’s up?” Charles asked him.

“Soren’s on the phone. He saw an Incubus carrying a human girl onto a boat.”

The small gasp behind me told me Beth had followed us and she’d heard what Juan had said.

My whole body tensed. “What boat? And who is Soren?”

“Soren is a vrell demon who works at the marina,” Charles said. “Sara and her friends put us in touch with him a few months ago, and he lets us know if he sees anything suspicious.”

Charles nodded at Juan, who hit the speaker button on the phone. “We’re listening, Soren. Tell us about the girl.”

“She’s dark-skinned, and she has those long braids. She tried to fight him, and he used his power to subdue her.”

My eyes met Beth’s wide ones. The girl matched the description of the Thomas sisters.

I moved closer to the phone. “You’re sure it was an Incubus?”

“Yes, sir,” Soren said. “I was close enough to feel his power.”

“It’s them. I know it is,” Beth blurted, and the air in the control room suddenly seemed to crackle with excitement and a sense of urgency.

“What boat are they on?” Charles asked. “Is it still there?”

“It’s a Sea Ray at one of the guest slips.” Soren paused for a moment. “I can see him on the boat, talking to another one of them. It looks like they’re waiting for someone.”

“This is good. Thank you, Soren,” Charles told him. “Can you keep an eye on things until we get there?”

“Sure, but hurry. They look like they’re getting the boat ready to leave.”

Charles smiled at me. “Feel like going for a ride?”

“You bet,” Beth said for us, already headed for the door.

The last place I wanted her was near an Incubus, but I had no good reason to ask her to stay behind. I followed her, already trying to figure out how to do this while keeping her out of danger.

The four of us and Charles piled into our SUV, and a minute later, we were speeding toward the marina. On the way, we discussed the best way to approach the situation. It was Charles who suggested Beth and Mason stay with the SUV while he, Brock, and I entered the marina.

“If these are the Lilin’s sons, we’ll need the strongest warriors in there,” Charles explained when Beth and Mason protested. “We’ll call you in after we neutralize the threat.”

I parked the SUV across the street from the marina, tossing the keys to Beth before I got out.

“This shouldn’t take long,” I told her as I checked my comm and made sure she and Mason were wearing theirs. “We’ll stay in touch the whole time to keep you updated.”

“Okay,” she said unhappily, and I wanted to kiss the little pout off her lips.

I understood her disappointment, but there’d be many more opportunities for her to see action. Capturing these Incubi could be the break we needed to find the Lilin, and I needed to go in there undistracted.

Charles’s phone rang as we were about to enter the marina. It was Juan calling to let him know he had Soren on the phone again. Two more Incubi had shown up with another girl, and they were all on the boat now.

“Oh, shit,” Juan said so loudly I could hear him. “The boat’s leaving.”

Charles, Brock, and I sped across the street and into the marina, where we met up with an agitated vrell demon by the harbormaster’s office. He pointed to the fifty-foot yacht easing out of its slip on the other side of the marina.

I engaged my Mori speed and raced along the docks with Charles and Brock at my heels. Reaching the slip, I moved to jump aboard the boat, but I flew backward when someone leaped off the boat, tackling me. We hit the water together and sank below the surface.

The Incubus wrapped his arms around me in a choke hold, and his strength surprised me. I had to fight harder than I would have expected to break his hold, and my punches did little to slow him down. My first thought was of Beth and how glad I was we’d made her and Mason stay with the SUV. There was no way either of them could have gone up against this demon.

My feet hit bottom, and the Incubus lunged for me again. It became clear when he tried to get me in another hold that his aim was to restrain me, not kill me. Both of us could hold our breath longer than a human, so we were in no danger of drowning, but he had to know by now he wouldn’t win this fight.

He was a strong bastard all the same, and it took several minutes and well-aimed strikes to subdue him. I could have used the knife at my hip to end him, but I wanted him alive.

I kicked off from the bottom, dragging the limp body of the Incubus with me, and sucked in a lungful of air when I broke the surface.

Brock shouted my name, and I swam toward the dock that was a few yards away. He grabbed the unconscious Incubus by the arms and pulled him up onto the dock, where two more lay. One was dead, but the other appeared to have been knocked out. Brock sported a cut on his cheek and another on his leg.

I hoisted myself up to the dock and looked at Charles, who was binding a bloody gash on his stomach.

“You okay?” I asked him.

He grimaced. “Yeah. Bastard blindsided me and nearly gutted me.”

“I’ve never seen Incubi fight like that,” Brock said from behind me. “They came at us with blades and fought like warriors.”

“Did we get them all?” I turned to see an empty slip. In the distance, I could hear the fading sound of a motor.

I jumped from the dock and ran along the jetty in time to see the boat speeding north toward the strait. Once it passed the Golden Gate bridge, they’d be in open water and those girls would be lost.

Racing back to the others, I jumped aboard a small runabout and had it hotwired in less than a minute. It wasn’t as fast as the Sea Ray, but I only needed to keep them in sight until we could call in reinforcements.

Brock leaped into the boat as I cast off, leaving Charles to deal with our captures. He was on the phone, calling in his team as we pulled away from the dock.

I reached for my radio and came up empty. It was probably at the bottom of the marina.

“Tell Beth and Mason to stay put until backup arrives,” I told Brock as I steered the boat through the choppy water.

“Beth, Mason, you copy?” Brock called over the engine and spraying water.

Someone must have answered because he said, “Chris said to stay there until backup gets –” He paused. “You’re what?”

I shot Brock a sideways look and saw him watching me warily.

“What?” I asked with a sinking feeling.

“They’re headed for the bridge, following the boat.”

I swore loudly. “Tell Mason to turn around immediately.”

Brock repeated what I’d said and gave me a helpless look. “Uh…Mason’s not driving.”

“Goddamn it.” I motioned for him to give me his radio and to drive the boat while I donned the earpiece.

“Beth,” I said in a commanding voice. “Stop whatever you’re doing and go back to the marina.”

“I’m doing my job,” she replied.

“No, you’re going back to wait for backup.”

“And let them get away?” she bit out. “Not happening.”

“We’re losing them,” Brock shouted.

He was right. The Sea Ray was getting smaller by the minute.

Beth’s voice came over the radio again. “You know what will happen to those girls if we lose them. I’m not letting them go.”

I cursed myself for giving her the keys to the SUV and for not realizing she’d do something like this. I’d seen how affected she’d been by the news of the missing girls. I should have known better than to bring her into this situation.

“How do you plan to stop them?” I asked her as the boat rocked on the waves and frigid water sprayed my face.

“Beth?” I called when she didn’t answer me.

Nothing.

“Beth,” I roared.

“She turned off her radio,” Mason said hesitantly.

“Mason, where are you now?” I demanded through clenched teeth.

“We’re on the bridge.” There was talk in the background, and then he came back. “We can see the boat. It’s headed right for us. Shit…hold on.”

The background noise got louder, and I could hear traffic and Beth’s raised voice, followed by the slamming of doors.

“No way, Beth,” Mason yelled over the wind. “You’re out of your damn mind.”

“You have a better idea?” she challenged.

Fear coiled in my stomach. “What’s going on?”

“It’s too far,” Mason shouted, ignoring me.

“It’s the only way, and you know it.”

Understanding dawned, and my heart leaped into my throat. I gripped the top of the windshield so hard it cracked.

“Beth, don’t you dare,” I growled. “Do not jump off –”

“Fuck!” Mason bellowed. “She jumped.”