Lacey's Luhpynes [Beyond the Veil 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (8 page)

“She’s been safe since we first partnered with her,” Zhubin said quietly as his Luhpyne side slowly faded from his eyes and demeanor. “We knew who she was right off but as we’ve got a non-interference policy with potential mates who may have other commitments, we had to wait until she gave us the sign otherwise.”

“And she, and I as well, were bound by fucking magic, dictates, and orders,” the captain said, his tone clearly pissed off. “Don’t let them play political roulette with your lives, they will fucking want to try and you know it. There is another team under my command that is much like yours, only the men are simply waiting. Well, hell, I don’t know what they are waiting for,” he added with a shrug. “Whatever it is, I hope that it’s worth it. Anyway, get out of here. Stop by the weapons locker and get Agent Rose hooked up with the weapons she will need as well as armor and then make sure that she sees medical, and that is an order.”

“I know who they are, Captain, and for them, it’s necessary,” Zhubin said, getting to his feet. “They can play their games all they want but they know they can only push so far. We have no compunction of tearing out their whiny little throats if they give us just cause.” Turning to Lacey, he held out a hand. “Come, the captain is right, you need to be outfitted for what is to come.”

Lacey nodded and took a breath. She followed Zhubin out of the Director’s office. After they were away she finally asked, “What was he talking about? I knew that they had bound him with magic, I think that they might have with me as well but who was the other team that he was talking about?”

“Later,” he said under his breath steering her by the elbow toward an elevator. Getting her inside, he punched the button to take them up two floors. “Not in the building,” he murmured for her ears only. His eyes on hers he lifted them to where the camera was and then looked to her once more. “Some things can’t be spoken of in all places with all people.”

Lacey nodded and understood immediately. “Later I will take you up on that,” she told him smoothly and exited the elevator as soon as it came to a stop. Moving swiftly toward the weapons locker, a massive room filled with weapons and protective gear, she called over her shoulder, “I will check in with medical after I have the weapons you think I will need for this little party.”

“Damned straight you will,” he muttered on her heels. “Had I not been a little more worried about you being perforated I would have protected your head when we had to make a dive.” Zhubin moved in closer and touched her cheek, “I am sorry I wasn’t more careful with you, Lacey.”

“It’s all good,” she assured him and shook her head. “You have told me time and again that I have a hard head, just proved it when I simply bounced instead of being smashed.” She waited until they were in the room and began pulling down weapons. She couldn’t let him be close, not here where so many were watching. Turning back to him however, she heard herself saying, “Would they separate us if they knew?”

“Not that,” he said, putting the large bulky weapon back on the wall. Tugging her along, he paused and passed her body armor that would mould to her shape. “Put that on under your clothing, and this.” He handed her the bottoms to the piece. “Go and get that on while I pull you weapons that will actually work. And if they knew, which they probably do, they could try to separate us. But a Luhpyne is at his most dangerous at two points, the first being the mating dance and the second during his mate’s pregnancy. We’re brutal on the best of days, but catch us during that time and you’re asking for death.”

“But we aren’t at the dance yet,” she spoke softly. “We won’t be until after I’ve spoken to Ansell, right?” Reaching out, she touched her hand to his arm, her finger running over the marking that was hidden under the golden cuff and watched him carefully.

“I’m not your typical Luhpyne, Lacey, never have been, never will be,” was all the answer he gave to her. Turning her, he bum-rushed her into the changing room, passed her the undergarments and shut the door. “Change,” he ordered before there was another sound.

“Oh, bossy.” Lacey snorted. “I will change only because I know that I need the extra protection but seriously, mister, less bossy maybe?” Although if she were honest she really, really liked him being as bossy as he was being to her.

He was standing there, arms crossed, when she came out. “Now we’ll outfit you for weapons,” he told her. “The right way. First, put this on.” He handed her a shoulder holster and then one for her waist that hooked at her thigh too. “Guns and blades.” He moved in then and started to fill the empty slots up before kneeling and strapping another blade and smaller gun to her ankle and calf. “You’re proficient with them all, so that’s why they were picked. Plus they are slightly smaller which means any Luhpyne or Vhampire is going to have a bitch of a time turning them on you to use, so don’t get all affronted at the size.”

“I’m not worried at all about the size, as long as they are deadly. That’s what I’m looking for. Size doesn’t matter, how you use it does.” She then groaned. “Good lord, I can’t believe that I just used that line. Shoot me now please,” she muttered and shoved another weapon at her back holster. “All right, any more for me?”

“Uh-huh, I’m going to remind you later you used that line,” he said, straightening up and passing her an arm guard. Zhubin walked around her and nodded, “Now you’re ready,” he told her as he moved to arm himself. Pulling on his holster he withdrew his blade, spun it around and slid it into the sheath on his spine. Sliding his guns into place and then his other, smaller blades he looked to her. “Let’s go and see what they managed to salvage from the warehouse and find out what we can, we need to figure out where this asshole is and end him.”

“And let’s go and let the medical team poke and prod me so that I can get my clearance to go back out on the field.” She hated going to medical. Truly hated going to medical because they liked to poke and prod and hurt. She hated it.

Frowning, he touched her arm when she was close enough, “What’s going on in that head of yours, Lacey?” Catching her hand, he pulled her to a stop when she would have gone past. “Lacey, why are you making that face? What are you not telling me?”

“I hate medical,” she admitted. “You know that I bruise easily, well they tend to poke, prod and I end up with more bruises when I leave medical than before I was in there. They will also likely want to run a CAT scan or MRI which always give me headaches. Just par for the course, right?”

“They poke you once and I’ll rip them to shreds,” he said with a shrug. “Problem solved.” He smiled slightly and moved her toward the door. Punching the button for the elevator he walked in with her and they went up the three floors. Moving right at her side into medical, he looked around and singled out a doctor. “Clear her, yesterday,” he said, eyeing the female with a clear warning not to waste time written all over his face.

The doctor nodded and looked to Lacey. “Yes sir,” she said and then looked to Lacey once more, “All right Agent Rose, let’s have a look at you shall we?” she asked and led the woman to a medical bay bed and then began to check and test her. “It says that we need to run an MRI and CAT scan, are you going to be okay with that?” Lacey nodded and she gave her ear plugs. “Put these in and we will go ahead and get you ready okay?”

Standing to the side, Zhubin shook his head as he took all the weapons he’d just strapped on her. “This is not exactly what I had in mind.” He growled softly, eyeing the doctor. “You’d better give her something for the headache you’re about to create by doing this. Because I really don’t want to have to put up with her when she’s bitching you all out for the rest of the night. Not that I won’t put up with it, but I won’t be very happy the next time I come in here.”

“Right, I will give her a painkiller but with her allergies it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to take what I would typically give, so what I have to give her will make her very sleepy. I would suggest that she go home for the day and sleep them and the headache off.”

“No, we will just do the scans another day then,” Lacey said as she began to grab at her weapons once more. “Dammit, Zhu, give me my weapons back.”

“You can’t go into the field without being cleared, Lace,” he said, shaking his head at her. He held the weapons out of her reach. “Get the scan, I think I have a better plan to rid you of your headache and get you working faster. Do it, Lace.” Zhubin looked down at her with a gentle expression.

“Dammit. All right, fine. I will do it but you should know that I will be very, very cranky if I’m not able to go and hunt this bastard as well. Just for your own self-preservation you need to keep that in mind.”

“Trust me, I fully understand.” Zhubin gave her a slight bow. “I’ll just be outside when you are finished with the scan. Don’t tarry,” he said, stepping out of the MRI room.

Nearly an hour later she walked to him, a hand to her head and a snarl on her lips. Zhubin just put a hand on her back and guided her into an empty room. He set the weapons down, then he moved her to the exam bed and helped her hop up and then lie down. “Close your eyes,” he said softly as he moved to the head of the bed. His fingers came to rest on her temples a moment later and lightly rubbed.

She sighed when he began to rub at her temples, and let her body start to relax somewhat. “That feels spectacular. Why in the world didn’t you tell me that you could do this before?” Likely because she would have torn his fucking head off. Yep, she was a total bitch. “How in the world have you kept from shooting me all these years?” she muttered angrily, more at herself than anything or anyone else.

His lips brushed against her forehead making her look to him. “Because you are my mate and you’re allowed to have whatever feelings you wish,” he told her quietly. His hands moved to cup her cheek and held her face lightly. “I could no more hurt you than I could myself or Ansell. You are a part of me, Lace, always will be no matter the outcome of our lives.” He brushed his lips over hers lightly before he drew back. “Close your eyes again and just let all the stress and strain pour off you.”

She sighed and nodded. “I know. I’m hopeful that the outcome will be us together. For now relaxing sounds good after that fucking nightmare of a time. Thank you,” she whispered and caught his hand with hers. “Can you stay with me for a few? At least until I can walk without seeing two or five of things?”

“Not going anywhere, little mate,” he promised with a smile. “Close your eyes, I’m not yet done with helping you rid yourself of the headache. But it works better if you are relaxed, at peace and pushing all negativity out. So, eyes closed, push all pain and negativity out of your pores and just breathe slowly and deeply.”

Doing as he instructed, Lacey forced herself to calm, forced herself to relax and instead concentrated on the happy feelings that he made her feel. The calm, the peace and the intense rightness of being there with him as she was.

His fingers moved at her temples, then slid down to her neck to massage the muscles there. Slowly he worked down to her shoulders and rubbed. Eventually he worked down each arm before he had her roll to her stomach. His fingers dug into her back muscles finding each ache and pain, pushing them all away.

She sighed as she felt her whole body relaxing at his touch. “God that feels absolutely amazing.” She whimpered at his touch and felt like she was turning to putty in his hands. “God I think that you can continue this for as long as we both shall live.” She teased, but only a little.

Laughing softly he moved her shirt up and pressed a kiss to her spine. His tongue slid over her flesh lightly. “Any time you want, little mate. Absolutely any time you want,” he whispered, his breath causing goose flesh to rise along the damp portion of her skin. Then he pulled back, “How’s your head doing?” he asked quietly.

“Good.” She was panting now though. God she had never gotten so hot, so fast before in her life. “I seriously think that we need to talk to Ansell because at this rate I’m going to be the frustrated bitch who shoots her mates so that she can attack them. Sorry babe, but you are killing me here,” she teased.

“I can help ease you if you want,” he offered helping her to roll onto her back again. “I can’t be with you fully but I can ensure you aren’t so frustrated. If you want that is,” he said with a slow smile. “I’d hate for you to have the urge to shoot me because you’re so horny you ache.”

“I would rather ache and share that with you than you hurt even more because of easing my pain. This will just make us get our asses in gear and talking to Ansell sooner. The sooner the better in my opinion. I want you, I need you and I know that you want and need me too.”

“I’ve been tamping down the need a long time Lacey, but if you’re sure.” He stepped back and held out his hands. Pulling her up to a sitting position, his eyes were focused on her like a laser. Finally he nodded, obviously satisfied with whatever he saw there. “Weapons back on and let’s go. We have to hit lock-up and see what they managed to save. Then we should go and talk to the coroner, see what she’ll tell you about the bodies.”

“Let’s do this.” She began to pull on her weapons and before they left the room, took his hand in hers. “Thank you. Seriously, thank you for everything. Now, let’s go and talk to her and then we have to track Ansell down so that we can talk to him. I want this to all begin so that we can figure out just what we are going to do with our lives, and if there is a ‘we.’”

“There is definitely a ‘we,’ Lacey,” he said softly. Helping her back into the weapons, he pressed a kiss to her cheek lightly. “Come on, you get to talk to her since she pretends I don’t exist. I think she doesn’t like me.” He chuckled rolling his eyes at her.

Lacey laughed. “I think that is only because you scare the hell out of her.” She paused and then frowned. “Wait, you mean I know something that you don’t know about someone? Seriously? You really don’t know why she’s so afraid of you, do you?”

“I didn’t know she was,” he said, staring right back at her. “She’s always around a body so I can’t pick up scents like I normally would, Lace. It’s hard enough blocking out the smell of the dead let alone picking up other scents. Why the hell is she scared of me? I’ve never done anything to her damn it.”