Seizing Darkness (Fur, Fangs, and Fairies) (19 page)

“That’s a start, at least. We’ll check that out. Are there any signs of Andrei?”

 “Who’s that?”

“He’s just an evil, maniacal vampire that wants to take over the world, nothing new. He would really like to see my father’s head on a spike. Natalya’s too.”

 “Oh I think he wants you and Dante just as badly. Don’t think for a moment that you two aren’t on his list as well. I would know since I’ve seen his list.”

“There is that. I doubt that we’ll be able to link this to Louis. That’s how it always works out. Andrei too. We’ve been after him for years. He has committed just about every horrific crime that exists. In fact I’m sure some of the laws were created because of him. I think that Louis though has finally made a mistake.”

“Oh I think they both made a few. I’m still alive and kicking ass, for one,” I reminded him.

“That you are.” Radek looked me up and down with that sly smile of his. “For now we need to focus on the people we can do something about.”

“So what do you want to do then?” I asked him, choosing not to comment on his look.

“We look for the money. Operations like this need money. We find that, we find them.” Radek walked to the front door as he talked. Madon and I followed him through the house. “I’m going to get my computers; then we can start checking out the people. We might as well stay here for now. If that’s all right with you, Madon?”

“That’s fine with me. Do you guys want some food or anything since you might be here a while?”

Madon’s scent and eyes were back to normal. He gave me a smile when our eyes met. I sighed in relief – it looked like everyone was finally calming down. I wasn’t going to need to call Val and Dante.

“That would be great. I’ll be right back.” Radek went out the door and I was hoping that the cold air would take the rest of the edge off. Madon went in the kitchen.

I sat on the couch and put my head back. That had taken a lot out of me. I was mentally tired. The whole thing was a little fuzzy in my memory. That’s how it always was when I did things that way. I took in deep breaths, letting the quiet lull me into a trance-like state. As far as I could tell, there was no one else in the house but Madon. It smelled like wolf everywhere though, so there was no telling for sure. I heard Radek come back in. I didn’t move or open my eyes as he joined me. I let myself drift to sleep.

Chapter Seventeen

My nose twitched as the scent of coffee wafted over me. My eyes snapped open. Madon laughed as he and another wolf came in the room. It was Carly, his most alpha female. I sat up fast and heard Radek laugh. “Coffee,” was all I managed.

“I took the liberty of calling in some reinforcements. I thought you could use this,” Madon said.

I could see his amusement out of the corner of my eye, but I focused on the cups of coffee. He handed me a venti peppermint mocha. I could feel Radek’s gaze.

“Good thinking, Madon. You are a gentleman among wolves.” I blissfully sipped from the cup. I closed my eyes and as the warmth slid down my throat I barely contained a moan. “Thank you Carly.” I felt content as I drank the first few drinks.

Carly was one of my few friends in the wolf pack. She was eyeing Radek. She glanced from him, met my eyes and winked. He accepted his coffee from Carly without looking at her. He was concentrating on the computers.

“You are most welcome, Nat. I heard your house was burned down.” Carly took the seat across from me.

“Yes, that’s how I ended up with this lughead as a partner.”

Radek snorted as he choked on his coffee. “
Lughead. You couldn’t come up with something better than that, Princess?”

“I thought we decided that we wouldn’t be calling me that anymore.” I glared at him as he typed away on the computer.

“I never said that. Start entering names.” He pointed me to the second laptop.

I gave him a dirty look, then started in on the laptop. Madon took the chair next to Carly. I tried to ignore them. Madon had his eyes closed and Carly was trying not to get caught looking at him. She was in love with him and he barely acknowledged her. He was so blind sometimes.

Val entered a few minutes later. “I see you two haven’t killed each other yet. That’s a start. Do I smell coffee?” I glanced up at him and he winked.

“Yes, there’s one for you.” Madon pointed to the kitchen.

I noticed that Carly sat up a bit straighter when Val came back in drinking his coffee. Madon made the introductions. “This is my first female Carly. I don’t think you’ve met her yet.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Carly, my dear. Thank you for the coffee. It’s a wonder that some wolf hasn’t snatched you up as his mate.” Val kissed her hand.

I rolled my eyes.
Seriously,
I thought. “Val is really laying it on thick,” I leaned over and whispered in Radek’s ear.

He laughed quietly.

“I heard that, Natalya. Have you two found anything yet?” Val asked.

“We’re working on it. Don’t you have something more useful to do than harass us?” Radek said.

“Hey, I got something,” I exclaimed, stopping any reply from Val.

Radek leaned over my shoulder, looking at the screen. “The money came from an account in the Caymans.” He took the computer from me and typed something into it. “I have an account number. Perfect.” He kept typing.

I drank my coffee, enjoying the rich sweetness of it. Madon was still leaning back with his eyes closed. Val was messing with his phone. I observed Carly looking between the three men. They were all very attractive, I had to agree – and a little intimidating as well. That was part of their charm. I’d met very few ugly shifters in my life. Actually only one that I know of. I couldn’t help but smile at the memory.

Radek looked at his father. “The account belongs to one of Louis’s people, and get this: the money was transferred into that account from Louis himself. We got him. That’s where the trail ends for now.”

“I have people working on the paperwork. Who was the account linked to?” Val was typing into his phone.

“Our very own Joshua,” I read through clenched teeth over Radek’s shoulder.

Radek’s phone rang. “Yes, Dante?”

“Can we move on the house tomorrow night?” Dante’s voice was barely audible.

“I can arrange it. So it checks out on your end?” Radek replied.

“Yes. I’m bringing Jenna back to the safe house, then crashing. I’ll leave the planning to you,” Dante said.

“All right, we’ll meet you guys there. We have what we need to go after Louis. Now we just have to find him and Thane.”

“We went and checked it out. It looks like Thane is around.” Dante’s voice sounded deadly calm.

I didn’t know all the history between them, but I was sure that Dante didn’t like Thane one bit. From this distance, I wasn’t picking up on what he was thinking. I didn’t feel like accessing the memories either. Right now I really just wanted to shut down for a while.

“Perfect. Do you think they know we’re on to them yet?” Radek leaned back against the couch. He looked exhausted.

“Not that we can tell. They know that we’ve captured a couple of their people. It doesn’t seem they’re too worried about it. From what we heard, they only believe that Nat and I are after them. It doesn’t look like they know you or Val are in the area. ”

“That can work in our favor. Anything else?”

“They also don’t know that Gregory and Madon are involved, although I’m sure they suspect it. Most of Joshua’s pack is there with a few extra wolves that Jenna says are part of Madon’s pack. Richard has some vamps there. I’m not sure how many, but you will probably have to count on his whole seethe.”

“That’s not surprising. Do you have any idea how many we are up against?”

“If Josh’s whole pack is around, that makes about fifteen wolves. Thane is the only cat there that I could sense. Gregory said he smelled him on the last body that we found the other day. Thane shouldn’t be much of a problem. I think there are maybe a half-dozen vamps. Plus there are about ten or so humans. No sign of Andrei. Gregory will send two of his people to help us. That’s all I have for now.”

“That’s enough. We can take care of everything else. Go rest. Thanks for checking it out.” Radek hung up.

Everyone in the room had heard the conversation, so there was no need for him to repeat it. I wondered how normal humans could stand to have to repeat everything all the time.

“So that’s that then. Radek, do you have any ideas?” Val asked.

“A few. Madon, how many wolves do you think you can provide that are loyal without question?”

I could almost see Madon’s thoughts as he went through his wolves in his head before he answered. “I’m not sure who is loyal right now, but I can think of a couple. Trent and Jake. I won’t force them, but I’ll ask. You can have me of course.”

“I’m in too,” Carly said.

The look Madon sent her would’ve cowed a lesser wolf. Not her though. She glared right back at him. “Don’t even think about mentioning that I’m female in your argument. I’m just as good as Trent and Jake, so don’t even think about it, Madon.”

Madon stared at her for a moment. He didn’t like sending his females into battle; I could see it plainly on his face. “Fine, you’re in. Call in Randy and Chester. They can watch over Tain. You’re not to say a word to anyone about anything. Valdimir, Radek and Natalya, you go ahead and leave. It’ll be best if they don’t see you here. I’ll brief Jake and Trent. I’m sure that they’ll be in as well.”

“That should work. Call when you’re ready. Until then everyone should get some rest,” Val said. “Come along, Natalya and Radek. We’ll let Madon get his wolves in order. After this is all over, we will take care of your pack, Madon.”

“Thank you, Val. Some of them need a little cooling off time anyway. I’ll see you this evening,” Madon said.

Radek and I packed up the computers and followed Val from the house. Val drove off in his car. I went to the driver’s side door and held my hand out. Radek stopped in front of me and raised an eyebrow. I was hoping he wasn’t going to ask me about earlier. So far he’d acted like nothing unusual had happened.

“You think I’m going to let you drive my car?” His eyes burned into mine, his lips turned up in a sexy half-grin. If he was teasing me, it couldn’t be that bad. I’d only let out a little of my inner assassin, after all. He’d known what I was. Maybe he hadn’t heard my other name. I couldn’t believe I’d actually used it. That had been stupid. There were too many witnesses. One of the rules we lived by was not letting anyone know our real names. Most of us had several identities.

“Yes I do. Come on. I promise I won’t scratch it. You know you want to let me,” I said, holding his gaze. He had a predatory look. He stepped closer. He was close and he smelled so good.

“Is this what I have to do for losing our bet earlier?” He backed me against the car. Our faces were only a few inches apart. He put a hand on either side of my body. The car was cold against my back. His heat warmed me. I gazed up into his golden eyes. I saw something that had my gut clenching. I had to fight the urge to cover the distance between us and kiss him. He was so close his breath was caressing my cheek. I wanted him, but I knew it was a bad idea.

I swallowed and gathered my nerve. My voice came out harsher than I’d expected. “Nope, you’re going to let me because you like me.”

“Who says I like you?” he asked in a whisper against my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

“Your eyes say that you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t tease me so much.” I slipped my hand into his front pocket, retrieving the keys. His
eyes darkened with lust. That was something that I would always recognize. “See? You let me get the keys. Now if you would kindly move back, we can head to the house.” I put my hand on his chest, pushing against him.

“As you wish, Princess,” he whispered. He brushed his lips against mine. Then pushing from the car he made his way over to the passenger side. I let out the breath I’d been holding. Just that brush of a kiss had started a fire deep in my belly. I got in and started the engine. The car roared to life. He glanced at me and I gave him the biggest smile I could muster. I was glad he didn’t say anything on the way there.

It didn’t take us long to get there with me driving. Dante’s other car was there. I figured the sun was about an hour from coming up. We went into the house together.

“I can’t believe you actually let her drive your car.” Dante greeted us at the door with an amused smile. I tried to block him out of my head.

“Just shut up, Dante. Why don’t you just go play dead? We can discuss everything tonight. I’m not in the mood. We only have maybe twelve against at least thirty,” Radek snapped at him.

“That’s about three apiece – that’s no big deal. You’re right though, I need to get some sleep. So do you, for that matter. You sure are a grumpy fur ball.” Dante dodged as Radek took a playful swing at him.

“I think we all need to rest. I’m beginning to rethink letting the three of you work together,” Val interrupted them.

I tossed Radek his keys as I passed him. He caught them and winked at me when he caught my eye. I went to the back of the house to the room with the eight beds and collapsed onto one of them. Man, I was tired. Jenna followed me in and did the same.