Tempting the Fire (2 page)

The screen filled with trees. Thick brush, vines … a jungle. The camera shooting the scene was in motion—a helmet-cam? Yes, definitely. The person wearing the camera turned to the side, and she made out two men in camouflage, their faces painted, their rifles aimed and braced against their shoulders.

She popped a piece of candy into her mouth, remembering too late to chew on the left side. Pain shot from her molar into her skull.

On the screen, one of the men made a hand signal, and the camera panned to the right. Slowly, it moved forward. The camera jolted and then focused on the 10

ground.

Sela slapped a hand over her mouth to hold in a gasp of horror. What was left of a man lay strewn about on the forest floor, his bloody mouth frozen in a terrified grimace.

And all hell broke loose. The sound of guns firing, men shouting and something screeching had Sela reaching for the volume.

The camera jerked around wildly, giving her only glimpses of the action, but what she saw sent chills up her spine. The men seemed to be fighting off some sort of creature. It moved fast, and if the film could be trusted, it had red eyes and huge fangs.

What the hell was it?

Suddenly, the camera stopped moving, its angle skewed, apparently lying on the ground. Sela saw clawed, scaly feet approaching. Her heart shot into her throat, blocking the candy as she tried to swallow. Between the thing’s legs she could see the men. Well, parts of them, lying in a growing pool of blood.

A snarl vibrated the camera, and then there was a gaping mouth, a splatter of blood on the lens … and all went black.

Sela choked on her own breath. Dear God, those men had been …

slaughtered. Dismembered, disemboweled.

Her phone rang, and she nearly bit her tongue. She’d seen some gruesome things during her career as a cryptozoologist, but nothing could have prepared her for seeing humans torn apart before her eyes.

She picked up the phone with a shaky hand. “Sela.”

“It’s Dev. You watched the video?”

“Yes.”

“Meet me at my office in ten minutes.” He hung up, and she slumped back in her chair. Something told her it was a good thing she hadn’t unpacked yet.

ANNIKA S VENSON WASN’T READY FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF

your-lover-is-an-ass with Dev, but Gabe was fucking impossible to deal with. The guy had learned to go invisible with more control, which was great, but he was relying on his invisibility to get him out of trouble. Which meant that he was slacking off on learning the basics of self-defense, combat and intelligence work.

He had yet to figure out that no matter how great your gift was, something could always circumvent it.

Everyone had a kryptonite.

Creed was hers, and speak of the sexy devil, he was just leaving Dev’s office, so things were looking up. Grinning, she waved as he started down the old military building’s steps, but he didn’t see her because he’d been accosted by Sela Kahne.

Sela’s black hair fell in a severe angle, shorter in the back to longer in front, coming down just below her jawline, but as she looked up at Creed, she tucked one side behind her ear, which was pierced all the way around. Creed, being pierced everywhere, probably loved that.

11

Not that Annika was jealous. Creed wasn’t going anywhere, and if he tried, Annika would kill him.

Simple as that.

Still, she really wanted to slap the smile off Sela’s face. Annika had never been overly fond of the woman, whom she mostly saw only in passing, but the way she was looking at Creed, with a little too much familiarity, made Annika’s electrical battery charge up. Lightning tingled on the surface of her skin, and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself. Anyone who touched her right now—

anyone but Creed—would get a nasty shock.

“Hey, baby,” Creed said, when he saw her approach.

She mounted the steps until she reached him, smiling when he hooked an arm around her neck and tucked her next to his big body. He always knew how to handle her, knew when she needed a little extra attention or needed to be left alone.

Sela nodded in greeting. “Annika.” She looked at Creed again, all smiles and exotic green eyes. “Nice seeing you.”

“You too.”

Sela headed up the steps, and once she’d disappeared into the two-story building, Annika peeled away from Creed. “I don’t like how she looks at you.”

Creed cocked a dark eyebrow, making the piercing there climb up. “How does she look at me?”

“Like she wants to lick your tattoos.” Which weren’t truly tattoos, since he had been born with every single one of the Native American symbols that covered his entire right side from head to toe.

Creed just laughed. “She didn’t lick them.”

“I know that.” Annika rolled her eyes. “I don’t think she’d just walk up to you in public and—” Wait. Something about the way he’d said Sela didn’t lick them … and the familiarity in her eyes …

“Oh, my God,” Annika breathed, which was difficult, because a band of jealousy had just wrapped around her chest. “You slept with her.”

Creed’s big brown eyes got a whole lot bigger. “Ah … I thought you knew.”

“Why the hell would I know?”

“Because that’s how she came to ACRO.”

This time when her body flooded with electricity, she didn’t bother tamping it down. Maybe Sela would come back out and “accidentally” touch her. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I just figured Dev would have told you back when it happened.” Creed tugged on his jacket a little uncomfortably, and yeah, Annika would just bet he was sweating despite the cool spring breeze. “Sela and I, uh … we got together for a night. Years ago. She didn’t know about ACRO, but she’s—”

“Sexually psychic,” Annika ground out. “I know. She was assigned as a Seducer when she first came here.”

12

“Yeah. She read me during sex. Found out about ACRO.”

“So … what? She blackmailed you? Said she’d spill the beans about ACRO

if she didn’t get a job?” Actually, Annika didn’t see that happening; Dev would’ve had Sela shut up if he’d believed she was a true danger to the agency.

Creed sighed. “After she left my place—”

“She was at your place? In the bed we share now?” Annika’s voice had gone shrill enough to make Creed wince, but she didn’t care. Didn’t care that she was acting like some sort of jealous fishwife either. She’d never really gotten too worked up over the scores of skanky women she’d run into who had bedded Creed, because they had been disposables who didn’t work at ACRO.

But Sela … she wasn’t one of the bar whores Creed had fucked before he’d gotten together with Annika. She was beautiful, intelligent and … right here in the same organization.

Now Annika knew how Creed had felt when he discovered her lessons with one of the male Seducers years earlier.

“Annika, it was a long time ago. And it was just the once.” Of course it was. His ghostly guardian, Kat, had never let him sleep with any woman besides Annika more than once or twice. He ran his hand through his shoulder-length hair.

“She spent a couple of days afterward investigating ACRO. I think she must have seduced a gate guard or something. She came back to my house and laid out what she knew … and insisted on meeting Dev. I arranged it, and Dev hired her. Simple as that. I hardly ever see her anymore.”

“I hate her.” It was a childish, stupid thing to say, but whatever. Annika had never been in a relationship before, thanks to her tendency to shock men to death during orgasm, and even though she’d come a long way, maturity-wise, she still had relapses. Like now.

Creed smiled, the one that made her stomach flutter, and then he cupped the back of her head and brought her in for a gentle kiss. “You have nothing to worry about, you know.”

That fast, she calmed down. “I know,” she sighed. “I don’t doubt you at all.”

“Something’s wrong, isn’t it? You’ve been restless lately.”

She had. She’d been a mix of extra-clingy and extra-distant. Their relationship had been going well, though Creed had been increasingly anxious when she went off on missions.

“No idea. I’ve just been tired, I think.”

Creed frowned. “You’re never tired.”

“I know. It’s weird. Maybe I’m getting old.”

His hand came down on her shoulder, and he bent to look her straight in the eyes. “You got your birth control shot, right? Right?”

Well, if that didn’t just chill her blood. And piss her off at the same time.

No way in hell did she want a kid, but for some reason, the way he said it, like having one with her would be a horrible tragedy, set her the fuck off.

13

“Well, duh,” she snapped. “How stupid do you think I am?”

The immunization ACRO had developed to prevent pregnancy in females, and disease in both sexes, was required for all operatives who worked the kinds of missions that might require them to screw someone. Annika had never needed it, but now that she was with Creed and sleeping with him, she’d been anal about getting the quarterly boosters.

“Whoa.” He held up his hands and took a step back. “Just checking. You’ve been moody and tired.”

“Moody?”

“Ah … well …”

“Moody?” Oh, she’d show him moody. She spun around and took the steps two at a time. The thud of heavy boots followed her, and she wheeled back to him with a snarl. Creed drew up like he’d hit a wall. “Don’t. You wouldn’t want to touch me and get me pregnant or something.”

He blinked. “Are you upset because you want kids?”

“Hell, no, I don’t want any little drooling rug rats!” A couple of guys dressed in the standard ACRO uniform—black BDUs—stared as they walked past, and she flipped them off. But she also lowered her voice. “But you know, you could at least pretend that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I did get pregnant.”

Except, it would be, because she’d been raised by CIA monsters to be a robotic killing machine with no morals or feelings, and she wouldn’t even know where to start raising a kid. She wasn’t mother material and never would be.

Apparently, Creed agreed, because his face markings stood out starkly as his tan skin paled.

“It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but—”

“But what?” Fuck. She had no idea what she was upset about. At all. But she kept getting angrier and more irrational by the second.

“It’s just … it’s something we should talk about,” he said quietly.

A weight settled in her gut, which had started churning. She knew he wanted kids. He knew she didn’t. It was a reality they’d have to face eventually, but she didn’t want it to be now.

“I have to go.”

“Annika—”

“Later.”

She took off as if she had a fire lapping at her combat boots’ heels. God, how long had it been since she’d walked away from Creed in a moment of anger?

A year, at least. And here she was, reverting back to her old self, and why?

Because he’d asked her if she was current on her birth control?

Of course she was … wasn’t she?

As she jogged through the little park in the middle of the base, she recalled her last visit to medical. She’d had a question for Kira, ACRO’s most talented animal whisperer, but the woman hadn’t been at the kennels or stables where she 14

usually was. Annika had had to track her down at ACRO’s day care facility, where Kira’s triplets stayed while she and Ender were working.

Annika hadn’t been breathing in the scent of baby powder and diapers for even two minutes before she’d practically run out of there and had gone straight to the medical facility, where she’d demanded a shot—four weeks early.

That had been three months ago. Three months and three and a half weeks ago, actually.

Oh, God.

Annika clutched her belly as a wave of nausea rolled through her. She was overdue.

Over. Due.

Fuck.

She glanced at her watch. She had to teach a class in half an hour. That gave her enough time to jump in the Jeep and head to a drugstore.

Five minutes after that, she should know if her world was still safe and sound.

Or if it had just ended.

SELA COULD STILL FEEL THE BURN OF ANNIKA’S EYES IN THE

middle of her back as she entered Dev’s office. He was sitting at his desk, grumbling at a PDA, which he put aside when Sela sank into a chair.

“Things were so much easier when I was blind,” he sighed, and she had to admit, he’d been scary-efficient as a blind man. Now he seemed more harried. He didn’t miss a beat, though, and pushed a file at her. “You’re going to South America. Brazil, near the Colombia border.”

“To investigate what I saw on the video?”

He nodded and ran his fingers through his spiky brown hair. “Any idea what might have attacked those men?”

“I can’t say. It looked like some sort of animal, but I’d rather not speculate until I learn more.” And animal, her ass. It looked like a monster.

His smile was slow and all-knowing in that freaky way of his. “How was Puerto Rico?”

Christ, did everyone know about her trip? “It was as enlightening as I expected it to be,” she said. “Which means I found no new evidence that suggests chupacabras are real.” She tapped the folder. “And if you’re thinking that a chupacabra attacked those men, well, that’s not likely.”

“Because they don’t exist?”

“That, and even if they did—which I don’t believe they do—the Amazon isn’t a hotbed of reported chupacabra activity.” Except, she’d checked the logs before she left her office, and recently there had been a number of sightings in the region, as well as an increase in bizarre livestock deaths.

“This is why you’re perfect for the job. You’re a skeptic, so you’ll be going 15

in without any preconceived ideas.”

Sela grumbled. She hated the jungle. “I do have a preconceived idea. I think it’s probably a jaguar or gorilla.” A deformed, superfast, superstrong jaguar or gorilla. Which was almost as unlikely as the chupacabra. “Who were the men?”

Dev sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “Well, this is where it gets interesting,” he said, as if the mysterious cryptid wasn’t the most fascinating part. “They were SEALs on a mission. Obviously, not easy to kill, but whatever attacked them took out the entire team. One is MIA, presumed dead.”