Skye's Trail (29 page)

“Will she remember all of it?”

“I don’t know what she’ll remember. Terach will get word to us about what he’s told her so that our stories agree.”

Rico nodded, not liking that he’d be forced to lie to the captain, but accepting it, even with humor. If Rivera wanted to cross himself at the thought of Skye, what would he do if he stumbled into Fangs and found that vampires existed?

Skye rose and came over to stand behind him. When she circled her arms around his waist and pressed against him, hugging him, offering comfort, Rico wondered how he’d ever lived without her.

Some primitive part of his psyche leaped to take advantage of the thought. “Are you going to move in?” he asked.

She stilled against his back. “Do you want me to?”

“Yeah. I want that.”

He could feel her smile against his back. “What about your captain?”

“He’ll have to deal with it. The other guys in the department will have to deal with it.” Rico turned then and met her eyes. “I won’t give you up. I wouldn’t change what we have together even if I could.”

Skye’s eyebrows went up and she teased, “Including Gian?”

Heat rushed across Rico’s face. He didn’t want to think about that too closely. Not only had the sex been intense, but the bite… Fuck…

Skye laughed.
He can tone it down if he wishes. He didn’t want you to fear it in the future.

When every nerve in Rico’s body went tight, she added,
Gian has never been interested in men, not in that way
. Her hand teased along Rico’s cock.
This is mine. There may be times when the blood exchange between you and Gian is necessary, but that’s between you and him.

Rico buried his face in Skye’s hair. “I don’t have to invite him to live here, do I?”

“No.” She laughed again. “And you don’t have to start hanging out at Fangs.”

At the mention of the club, Rico’s thoughts circled back to Caldwell. What the fuck was she thinking about jumping in front of that car?

Skye said, “There’s still time to save the girl—Marina.”

For a split second Rico was tempted to say that Marina deserved what she got, but he bit the words off. Maybe Caldwell saw something in the girl, maybe that’s why she’d tried to stop her, or maybe Cia was just being a good cop and didn’t want to see someone she was sworn to protect end up like Brittany Armstrong.

Rico felt the barrier go up between his mind and Skye’s and wondered about it until she asked, “Can you tell me about Marina?”

For a second Rico’s training warred with his new reality. Fuck. This wasn’t simple police work anymore. The rules he’d always accepted didn’t apply easily to this. He sighed, refusing to fight a battle that no longer made any sense. “I don’t know that much about her. Rich family.” He paused as his mind leaped to form a connection that he’d missed earlier. “From LA. Pacific Palisades.” He moved so he could watch Skye’s face. “You said the cases you were working on were connected to the Armstrong case. You went to LA.”

The half-smile that drove Rico crazy formed on Skye’s lips. She said, “I went to Pacific Palisades.”

Cop instinct made him ask, “Did you find the girls you were looking for?”

“I found them.”

He braced himself, he knew there was more. “Were they dead?”

She studied him for a long moment before he felt the barrier lift between their minds. In the span of several heartbeats he saw her stake two girls as they rested in their coffins, saw them flare to life then cease, awaiting judgment for the death of Brittany Armstrong. With the brush of Skye’s mind to his, he understood the trade she’d made for Caldwell’s life.

It shocked the shit out of him that he could accept it. That he could let the vampires mete out justice if he didn’t find the witch and her servant first.

Skye kept the barriers down, but spoke out loud, “I’m going to hunt at a place called Toppers.”

Rico cringed at her choice of words and at the thought of Toppers. It was a rough, dangerous place even for cops—even for Skye. His heartbeat quickened—especially for Skye now that she’d bound herself to him. She’d been lawless before—no, not lawless—but not governed by human law. Now the promise she’d made to him put constraints on her. A shot of fear rushed through Rico.

He pulled her body against his. “If you ever think your life is in danger, do what you have to do. Don’t worry about me being a cop.” He hugged her tightly then released her. “I’ll go to Toppers with you. Just let me call in and check my messages first.”

Skye nodded and moved away. He picked up the phone, praying that the captain hadn’t left orders for him to call and report on how it went at Fangs.

There was only one message of interest. The lab had gotten fingerprints and a positive ID on the driver’s license Skye had given him. David Olney. No aliases, but he did have a sealed juvenile record and a long string of arrests for assault and battery along with a notation in his file that he was attracted to cult and alternative religions. Rico grunted at the last and hung the phone up.

Skye was watching him and he realized that the barriers between them weren’t closed. Rico braced himself for her answer.
Should I bother looking for this guy, or is he dead?

She answered with a picture that had Rico’s stomach threatening to heave its contents and his soul shivering with dread. He could feel the evil that surrounded the altar and the body raped and drained of blood there.

* * * * *

The moment Skye stepped out of Rico’s truck, she smelled the tainted blood. It was faint, the scent scattered by time and by the people that had entered and exited Toppers. “He’s been here recently,” she said as Rico joined her.

Rico looked around with cop eyes. The sun had set on their way over and only a handful of lights illuminated the parking lot, not nearly enough for the kind of crowd that hung out here. It was a crime scene waiting to happen. “How long ago?”

Skye shrugged. “I don’t know.”

They moved past the bouncer and paused in the entrance of the loud, smoky nightclub. It was easier to use the mental link than to talk above the noise.
I don’t see him
, Rico said.
Let’s aim for the bar, there’s a good view of the place from there.

The scent is scattered. I need to walk around before it dissipates completely.

Rico’s hand gripped her upper arm.
I’ll stay with you.

She laughed softly. It warmed her that he was protective, that both of her mates were protective. Even now she could sense Gian getting closer, coming to her.

Her body reacted and she momentarily forgot that she was hunting as memories of the three of them together flooded her mind.

Rico’s hand tightened on her arm.
Don’t think about that!

She could feel his swift arousal, the blood pounding in his cock as it strained against his jeans. Along the bond with Gian, she felt the same need, the same desire.

Reluctantly, she forced her mind away from her memories, but there was no instant relief from the demands of their bodies.

Later, we can seek our pleasure
, Gian whispered in her mind.
Brann comes with me now, as does your mate’s partner.

Rico’s relief and hope flooded the bond.
Cia’s okay?

She is well
, Gian said.

Rico hesitated then dropped his hand from Skye’s arm.
I’ll wait here.

Skye nodded and moved deeper into the club. It was a rough place, worse than many she’d hunted in, but not as bad as some.

Lust and anger and desperation filled the air as thickly as the cigarette smoke did. Violence hovered, ready to explode into existence at the slightest provocation.

Skye weaved her way through people and tables, moving cautiously even when she knew that Gian and the others had arrived. She could smell the guns that some of the patrons wore and knew that others carried knives. This was a place to tread lightly.

Several times she hit pockets of the scent she was tracking, as though her quarry was close, but she didn’t see him. In the periphery of her mind she monitored the conversation between Rico and his partner and was satisfied that Caldwell seemed…normal.

Gian’s amusement found her.
Jealous?
he teased.

I do not worry that my mates will be unfaithful.

Gian laughed.
She is no longer unclaimed anyway.

Skye had maneuvered to the hallway that housed the bathrooms and led to the emergency exit but Gian’s comment had her stopping and turning to look across the club to where Cia and Rico had their heads together in conversation. Unerringly her eyes went to the pendant that Caldwell now wore around her neck.

Fury rippled through Skye, but before she could say anything, Gian said,
We do not view our companions as our slaves. You bargained only that she not be enslaved. I did not know that Terach intended this. When I found out what he’d done, I ordered that he stay away from her until justice has been meted out. After that he must…court her…and gain her willing acceptance of the companion bond.

And he’ll obey you?

He is my creation.
A hint of amusement crept down the bond
. In this he has chosen to obey rather than to risk the wrath of my Angelini mate.

Skye shifted her gaze to Gian, and next to him, Brann. If she was to live in this world, then she needed to learn its intricacies.

Caldwell moved then. Her gaze clashed with Skye’s and her lips disappeared in a familiar frown of disapproval and suspicion.

Skye’s earlier anger melted into amusement. Let Terach deal with the consequences of his actions.

Instinct snapped Skye’s mind back to the hunt as the smell of tainted blood grew stronger. She turned, her eyes drawn immediately to the slowly opening exit door. She felt Gian and Rico moving quickly toward her. But before they could reach her, the stench of evil-fouled blood rolled over her as the bathroom door opened and the man she’d been hunting stepped out. She saw his instant recognition, his knowledge that she wouldn’t be here alone.

Chapter Eighteen

Years of fighting and surviving had made Skye smart and fast. She had her knife out within a second of seeing him.

He attacked immediately, swinging his thick, meaty arm at her head as he reached for a weapon. She slashed out, cutting through his shirt and deep into his arm. Blood gushed from the wound.

In a heartbeat she smelled the metal of a gun. It glinted in the dim hallway and she ducked instinctively, slashing out at his stomach as he fired.

The sound exploded in the small space. The strip club filled with screams and shouts and the wild scramble of people trying to get out of the way.

As blood soaked the front of his shirt, he struggled to take aim again and Skye saw it in his eyes that he knew he was a dead man and that he intended to take her with him. She slashed again, this time feeling the searing hot pain of a bullet along her side.

The roar of his gun deafened Skye to the report of another gun. But just as she would have lunged forward and struck again, her attacker’s head rippled, blood and brain matter spraying across the walls and Skye, painting them with the foul taint of evil.