Chapter Twenty-Five
Cain turned in the rotating office chair and glanced at the plethora of cameras along the walls as Gabriel Santiago spoke with collected calm in his ear. The leader of the Vega clan was not a happy man. Cain could not only hear the quiet fury in the man’s forced words, he could practically feel it coming through the sound waves. But Cain also knew that most of the man’s anger wasn’t directed at him; it was reserved for Angel. She’d blatantly disobeyed orders, was putting herself in danger, and he was worried about her.
At the same time, Cain had been down a road or two like this himself over the years. And he could see where Angel was coming from too.
“I suggest we keep this incident between ourselves,” said Cain softly once Gabriel had finished speaking. “At the moment, none of your clan members are aware that she is seeking sanctuary in another clan’s territory. You were wise to keep your deductions to yourself. It would be best for everyone involved if things stayed that way.”
“Agreed.” Gabriel was a smart man. Very smart. So Cain couldn’t help but wonder why he’d kept his second-in-command in the dark on some things for so long. But that was an issue for another time. “I want her back here in three days, Cain. And you can’t let her have any part in that job.” His words were short, terse, and to the point, but they were shy of disrespectful. He’d clearly had a lot of practice giving orders while angered, and Cain smiled as he wondered how much of that experience was due to the hot-headed Angela Clemens.
Really, she was perfect. Jake was a lucky man.
“I can’t make any promises on either count,” Cain replied frankly. “You and I both know she came here because the Apex job landed in our laps and she wants in desperately. She won’t leave it be. And if I escort her back to the Vega safe house before she’s ready, I can guarantee she won’t cooperate and the trip will wind up going shanghai. You’ll have an exceedingly irate second-in-command to deal with.” And a seriously pissed off Chippewa vampire with old Native American magic at his disposal.
Gabriel was silent on the other end. Cain propped his legs up on the security desk while his eyes kept track of the cameras. Jake would be appearing on one of them any second now. Myths about vampires not showing up in film or having reflections in mirrors was just that – myth. As were the myths about them not possessing heartbeats, not being able to get drunk, and being cold to the touch. Vampires were intricately tied to blood. So they experienced any and all effects blood provoked: beating hearts, rising blood-alcohol levels, and warm – even hot – bodies.
Finally Gabriel sighed. “Cain, I have a bad feeling about this Apex.” He paused again for a number of seconds before adding, “It feels familiar.”
Cain’s gaze narrowed. He lowered his legs and sat forward in the chair. He’d been feeling the same thing. Not a familiarity so much as…. “It’s deliberate, and it’s leaving clues. Like a copycat.”
“Yeah,” agreed Gabriel. “And yet… not like a copycat.”
“You think this is someone from Angel’s past coming after her.”
Gabriel paused again. Cain could picture the tall man with his hands on his hips, dark head bent, too-vivid amber eyes staring fixedly at the floor while he tried to put his thoughts into words. “I’m having one of my wardens gather information on the backgrounds of the people the Apex killed here in San Francisco.” Another pause. Then, “There’s more than one pattern here, and I think that’s on purpose. This bastard wants us to find it.”
“Or,” Cain offered, giving voice to his own thoughts, “he wants Angel to find it.”
“Yeah. That crossed my mind too. Which is why I’m doing it first.”
Cain smiled. Movement on one of the cameras to his upper left caught his attention. Jake was here. Cain stood, turning to face the man behind him. He gave the man a nod, and the man left, closing the door to the security room behind him. The man, like so many people in cities across the nation and even the world, secretly worked for Cain.
“Santiago, I’m going to give you some advice. Because I’ve been where you are and believe me, I know the routine. You have people, human and otherwise, looking for her all over the city, and you were gutsy enough to send a few onto Monsters turf. Trust me, I noticed. I have to hand it to you. You’re the first to show such balls.”
The silence that greeted him this time was pregnant with danger.
Cain sighed. “My advice is to pull everyone off Angel’s unsolicited detail. Fall back. Let us handle this on our end.”
More silence. Santiago was a hard sell. Then again, if he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have been worthy of leading a warden clan.
“Think about it, Gabe,” Cain said, lowering his tone and focusing. Man to man. Monster to monster. “You know she’s going after the Apex no matter what. She’s afraid someone she cares about will be hurt if she doesn’t stop this here and now and personally. That’s pretty strong motivation.” I’ve used that motivation to get my way once or twice myself. “Let her take the job on this side, and she’ll have thirteen monsters as backup.” He didn’t mean that figuratively. And Gabriel knew it.
There was more silence, but this time Cain could sense an ease-up in the tension.
“Three days, Cain,” Santiago finally said. “That part’s non-negotiable. I’ll call you when I have intel on the Apex victims.”
Cain decided to let it go. Chances were really damn good it wouldn’t even come to three days anyway. There was too much up in the air right now; the situation was volatile.
“We’ll talk later.” Cain hung up. Whatever Gabriel Santiago’s thoughts were now, they were his own. Cain had other shit to deal with.
Jacob Crow was Cain’s second-in-command and Crow was in a bind. He was falling hard for a warden, and not just any warden, but a second and a healer. Worse yet, she had a past with vampires and it wasn’t pleasant. Things were going to get worse before they got better. But… given what Angel had whispered just before she’d passed out in her Jeep, Cain had a feeling they would get better. Jacob’s feelings were not one-sided.
Regardless, Cain could only see one viable ending to this scenario. To reach it, the game had to be played carefully. The ending had to be finessed. Otherwise, the entire bloody mess would blow up in his face.
Cain sensed the other vampire drawing near, and he met Jake in the hall. Jake was wearing mirrored sunglasses. Paired with the thick black hair, black leather jacket, jeans, and boots, they made him look like a movie star fresh off the set. Cain almost laughed. He sorta wanted to snap a photo and send it to Angel for her to wake up to.
What was he, twelve?
He shook off his impulse to match-make and led Jake into the security room. Ironically, it was the only room not filmed by cameras.
When they were alone and the door was closed, Cain turned to Jake. He could feel waves of untapped power rolling off his second-in-command. So Cain started in right away. “Before you say a goddamn thing, shut up and listen. Angel is safe and she’s sleeping peacefully. She’s in the penthouse suite under strict security. No one’s getting anywhere near her without my permission, and she’s not going anywhere I don’t want her to go.”
Jake didn’t say anything at all, actually. But when he slowly removed his sunglasses, his green eyes were glowing like street lights. They weren’t red yet. He’d managed to tamp that much of his beast down. But there was a definite lava flow of fury moving through him at the moment.
“I also don’t want you anywhere near her right now,” Cain said next.
Jake’s green gaze shifted to yellow, then orange, and flickers of fire erupted in their pupils. Cain held up his hand. “Like I said, she’s sleeping. If anyone ever needed rest, it’s Angela Clemens, and I doubt you plan to give her any.”
Jake smiled a seriously mean smile, and with poisonous calm he said, “I think I’m offended that you believe I’m so hard up I would force myself on an unconscious woman, Cain.”
Cain had known he was going to say that. “What I think you’re hard up for is answers. And you won’t think twice about drilling her for those the moment she shows any sign of waking. You want to know why she ran from Gabriel. You want to know if he threatened her. That makes sense. But I think what you really want to know,” he said, narrowing his gaze so it burrowed into Jake’s soul, “is whether she feels anything romantic for him.”
Jake’s face remained expressionless. But Cain heard the evidence of his spoken truth in his friend’s heartbeat. Jake broke eye contact and looked absently at the computer screens. “I have no fucking idea what to do right now, Cain. She hates what I am. How am I supposed to get around that?”
Cain felt a pang of something deep in his chest. It was an old scar. “You just will.” He turned away from Jake to sit back down in the leather rotating chair. “Right now, I need you to trust me. Go back to the safe house. Do something to take your mind off this shit, but stay there.” He waited while Jake remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the screens. “Will you do that?”
Jake swallowed, his Adam’s apple sliding as he did. He slipped the sunglasses back on, faced Cain one last time, and nodded wordlessly. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a clear plastic bag of various pills, tossing them onto the desk in front of Cain. “These are Angel’s. She’ll need them when she wakes up.”
Cain glanced at the bag gratefully. He nodded. “Thank you.”
Jake didn’t say anything further. In a few short strides, he’d made his way out of the office, closing the door again behind him.