Falcon
Two days after the births, I awoke with three messages from the police in Washington. They wanted to meet with me at my earliest convenience about the explosions. With no real leads, it looked like I was out for the insurance. I hated cops sometimes, but in some ways, it wasn’t their fault. They had no idea that I had a deadly enemy with the power to rule the world. If I wanted to keep our lives a secret, then I needed to take their nonsense and convince them otherwise.
The last call caused Nora to stir, ticking me off. She had been up feeding Speranza just two hours ago and needed her rest. I wanted to make love to her, but my mate was running ragged for the people, the baby, and myself. It took more out of our mates because they were new vampires. They got pregnant as they became vampires and they hadn’t built up their strengths before it was challenged.
“Go back to sleep, Nora,” I told her, hoping that she’d actually listen to me.
“What’s going on?” she asked, sitting up in bed. The bed sheet fell slightly, and her milky breasts leaked just a drop; I wanted some. Feral and horny, I’d growled and left the room. I was in the shower, stroking my hard cock. I need you too, Falcon. It’s only one more day. Stroke it, for me. Goodness, I want to feel your hardness deep inside me, claiming, staking, and owning me until I beg to come.
Damn it, Nora. I love you. I’m coming.
I love you, too.
I finished my shower faster than normal because I could hear my little ray of sunshine wake up to be fed again. Once I entered our room my lovely mate had a big wicked smile for me. I took a whiff and knew it wasn’t because of our exchange.
“You can call it returning the favor.” She handed little Speranza to me, then tucked herself under the covers and rolled to her side to go back to sleep.
“I have to go to back home to Washington today,” I mentioned as I changed my baby girl.
“Why? Was that what the call was about?” she asked, rolling onto her back. She tossed off the covers, forgetting all about sleep. She got up waiting for me to respond, then she helped me with the little one. I could wield a weapon with an elegant precise and flare, but I couldn’t change a diaper without wasting thirty wipes. If there was anything that could make me feel more human, it was this.
“Yes, it was the police. They have more questions.” I frowned because I knew that they would try my patience. They didn’t like when I gave them all the answers. Hoping I’d slip up, they’d change the questions around, but it never worked. Sometimes, I had to play submissive with them in order to leave. Many of them had a complex to be the alpha dog, not knowing that superior beings lived among them.
“Goodness, can’t they just leave us alone?” she complained, wrapping up our little girl in a blanket. She cradled her in her loving arms, but then I snatched my sweet baby. I held her close to me.
“If we’d been anyone else, we’d love their diligence,” I reminded her, then cupped her cheek and kissed her lips.
“I suppose, but you’ve been busy enough.” She pulled away from me. I set the baby down in her cradle and rushed to my wife, slipping my arms around her.
“Are you feeling neglected, Nora?” I whispered in her ear, breathing heavily with concern. My heart couldn’t take that she was lonely.
She looked up at me with her lovely, sweet gaze that made it hard to leave. “No, Falcon. I just know it’s only going to get worse as the war explodes.”
I brushed my hand down her cheek, loving the way she pressed her face into it. “You are my priority. No one, and I mean, no one means more. You’re my mate. I live solely for you. If you call, I’ll be right there.”
“I know you will. I just don’t want to be that added trouble for you.”
“Love, since I met you all other things become bothersome. You, on the other hand, are all I live for. Come, Speranza’s asleep. I’m going to lay her down and then spend the rest of the night holding you. I’ll head over to meet them tomorrow. After all, they have no idea that it takes me only seconds to get there.”
I kissed her, then carried her to bed. We laid there, talking about the future, making fanciful plans after the war ended.
For the first time, we had a hope for more.
~~~~
I arrived back in Seattle, leaving Nora and Speranza with Draco and Gideon as her protectors. The thought of something happening to her made me anxious, but I knew that I had their loyalty. The city was in the midst of a hard rain storm. I hopped in the rental I pre-ordered before my arrival, supposedly by plane. “I have plans to return the vehicle today. Is there a drop off box?”
“Yes, sir. You can pull into the lot and send the keys down the chute near the door.”
“Thank you,” I said, smiling before taking the keys and heading to the police station. The ride took about fifteen minutes. Not the fastest way for me to get there, but sometimes you had to do what you had to do. The station was crowded, and thoughts ran screaming through the room into my ears. I shut them all out and I made my way to the desk where an overly worked officer who was hearing it from a woman with an ax to grind about a parking ticket. He’d just gotten her to calm down when I approached him. “Cheer up. You know she’s just trying to get out of it.”
“I know. How can I help you, sir?” he asked. At least someone’s not a dick today.
“I’m here to see…”
“Aw Dr. Lombardi, I’m so glad you could make it on such short notice,” Detective Norton interrupted, smiling as he approached and stuck out his hand. I shook the chubby hand with a little extra pressure, forcing a grimace from him.
I followed him thinking about the last time they harassed me. Interesting, he came alone. I wonder where his mistress is.
“Dr. Lombardi, please take a seat.” I did just that, giving him what he wanted—control. He took the seat across from me but kept his body open like he was preparing to pounce on me with questions and accusations. I welcomed it.
“So, I wanted to ask you about your associate, Dr. Johannsen. No one has seen him.” It took them long enough to ask about him.
“Yes, well you and me both. I haven’t spoken to him since right before the explosion,” I remarked. Technically Leonora was the one who spoke with him, but it didn’t matter.
I wonder if this fucker killed him in the process. “Why is that?” I mentally laughed, ignoring the fact that he thought I set up the explosions.
“I don’t know. He wasn’t there, and I couldn’t get a hold of him afterward.”
“Maybe he’s the one who bombed your home,” he suggested even though I knew he didn’t believe that theory.
“Perhaps. I don’t know. Are there any other questions you have for me? You’ve dragged me away from my family in Italy to be here.”
“Yes, about that. How long are you planning to stay there?”
“It depends on how long it takes to find the person who is attacking me.” I wasn’t lying about that. As soon as I found Stavros this would all be over.
“We’re working on it, but you haven’t been very cooperative,” he informed me with an accusing stare, his fingers tapping on the table. I tried to stay calm, but his inner thoughts had a very negative tone to them.
“I haven’t been cooperative? I just came all the way across the damn ocean for a meeting that could have happened over the phone. I told you about those enemies that were already arrested. I don’t think there’s anything else to add. I have a lot to do while I’m in town. If that’s all you needed, I’ll be going.”
This fucker thinks he can just leave he’s got another thing coming. I’m going to get his smug ass on something. It’s not right that someone like him continues to get away with shady things. His thoughts were tempting me to lose my calm temperament.
I make to stand up, but he said, “Not so fast, I have a few more questions.”
“Okay, get on with it, please.” I needed to get a hold of my temper or I might rip this guy’s head off.
“While going through your property after the fire, we found an arsenal of swords and blades. Care to tell us about that?” This guy was up to no good. With swords like that there must be a bunch of dead bodies hiding around somewhere. Maybe that’s why the missus isn’t with him. She probably tried to leave, and he butchered her.
Now, I was seething. Talking about my mate like that was despicable and I wanted to drain him dry. He was lucky that this place was loaded with cameras. “They are a part of my collection. Is it a crime to collect old weapons?”
“No, but you had more than that. Sets of armor were in the home as well,” he accused, scooting his seat closer and leaning in as if the pressure would break me.
I shrugged, rolled my eyes, then sat back in my seat. He was lucky that I didn’t hunt humans, or he’d be on the menu. “Again, I like those types of things. I wonder if you collected my things. I’d love to have them back.”
“Most of them are being held in our evidence,” he admitted with a smirk.
“Most? They shouldn’t be in your evidence room at all. They weren’t part of the bomb, so they have no relevance and don’t belong in your custody. In fact, they were in a very different location away from the bomb.”
“Yes, but we wanted to look into if you have ties to mobsters. We have every right to explore the entire house. That included the secret room.” This bastard needed to learn I’m the law and chill with the attitude.
I laughed thinking that he hated me more than necessary, but if he wanted to be an asshole then so would I. “Oh, so since I’m Italian you presume that I have ties to gangsters? Interesting.”
He threw his hands up, leaning back against the chair. “I didn’t mean it that way. We have mobsters in the area and well, getting on their bad side has been known to cause real blowups. Of course, we could never prove it was them, but it’s the nature of their business.”
“I don’t have any affiliation with mobsters that I’m aware of.” As far as I knew that was the truth. The bad guys I knew were a thousand times worse.
“May I retrieve my weapons?” I asked him.
“Yes, you’ll have to sign an affidavit and have a safe space for them.” Some of them you won’t be getting back. He mentally laughed. Some may have fallen off the evidence truck. Shit, this guy was something else. If he came after me at all, dug any deeper into my life, he was going to be discovered with missing evidence even if it wasn’t him who let them fall off.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have them transported back to Italy,” I informed him.
“Is that where you’ll be living.” He had to be guilty. Fleeing the country.
“For the time being. It’s my family’s ancestral home, and it’s being renovated with modern technology, so I may just live there instead of rebuilding here.”
He nodded his head before standing up and walking to the door. “Very well. Follow me to the evidence room. The items are wrapped for protection. Some of the blades are very sharp.”
“I’ve restored some of them.” I stood up and let him take the lead down to the evidence room. The place seemed to calm down, but outside the skies continued to rain down heavily.
“They are very nice even with the explosion. The room they were in had been well protected.” He had to be doing something illegal.
“Thank you, Detective Norton,” I answered, refusing to talk any more than I had to. I was annoyed. I had a much large arsenal and a personal blacksmith at my disposal. My weapons could easily be acquired. Besides, I didn’t cherish things that were old because they were old, but because they were well crafted. It is still the one trade where you can get quality without worrying about factory line builds.
They had a room specifically holding all the weapons they’d confiscated. I saw only twenty-five of my weapons here. There were nearly a hundred of different varieties. Most of them wouldn’t have been destroyed by the fire.
“So for a room that was well protected, these were all the ones you could attain?”
“Considering everything else was charred, I’d say you were lucky to get these,” he said with an intimidating tone. Well, intimidating to anyone but my kind. As if somehow, I would be bothered.
“Okay. Well, is there something I can use to wheel these all off to my rental car?” I asked. My patience had been at an end. I wanted my Nora. Spending time with this guy had been less than ideal, painful actually. I nearly bit my tongue several times, literally.
“Sure, let me call someone to help. You’ll need to sign off on these.” This big motherfucker can take that shit out himself. He doesn’t pay my people to do the heavy lifting.
I spent the next thirty minutes filling out release forms, then I loaded my weapons into the back. As soon as I was out of sight and in a remote location. I teleported the weapons back to the castle. Once they were secure in the dungeon storage, which survived the attack, I teleported back to Washington to return the car. As soon as I dropped the keys in the nighttime lock box, I walked off into the distance away from the cameras and disappeared into the night.