Zoey Avenger (Incubatti Series Book 2) (12 page)

“There’s a good chance they want to dissect her to perfect the model. Or maybe they did, and all that leaves now is turning Zoey and her team into incubus-killing machines. You can’t hurt your soul-mate. There’s nothing that prevents her from hurting you. That’s another tragic story behind Rule One, but that’s for another time,” Ethan said. “The Sucubatti want a war with us, and they’ve been quietly biding their time to design a warrior capable of defeating the strongest members of our society. Once we’re out of the way, the Cambions will be less effective than a speed bump.”

Declan absorbed the information. There was quiet pain and guilt in his father’s features. The shadow of his mother’s death had never left Ethan. Torn between reassuring his father that his soul-mate’s death was not his fault and hunting down Olivia to slaughter her before she laid a hand on Zoey, Declan stood frozen in powerless anger, knowing his father was right. To rock the boat at the wrong time meant that everyone he cared about suffered.

His father, the strongest man he knew, hadn’t been able to protect his soul-mate. What made him think he could help Zoey?

The destructive thought robbed him of breath. Declan pushed it away.

“You’ve got a better head on your shoulders than I did,” Ethan added. “You’re doing what I should have and using your position to protect the woman you love. I was too weak, too angry and emotional.” The words were filled with remorse.

“Dad, I-”

“It will come to a head at some point, though, Declan.” Ethan rested his hands on Declan’s shoulders. “You need to be ready to make a tough choice.”

“I won’t lose Zoey.”

“I know. But there will be implications, depending on what route you take to protect her. Our plan can’t work right now, not until Olivia is isolated. Keep that in mind.”

The warning hit him harder than the truth about his mother’s death. Unable to summon a response, Declan nodded. His insides twisted again, the way they did when he discovered how he’d been cheating on Zoey in a drugged state. He wished they had known each other longer than three days. If so, she might have realized he never would have cheated, and that he truly believed he was with her. “Something will change,” he said at last. “Something has to.”

“I hope so, Son.”

Declan watched his father deftly go about preparing dinner, the weight of his world heavier this night, the reality of how events were unfolding enough to prevent him from sleeping ever again.

He reached into his pocket, where he’d tucked a container of sleeping pills. Doubtful he’d ever get to use them, he nonetheless kept them around, in case he reached a point where he wasn’t able to function at all or he was assured of Zoey’s safety.

I won’t be using these anytime soon. Declan leaned against the counter, the emotions he kept suppressed struggling to the surface.

Nothing and no one was going to hurt his soul-mate. He had to figure out a way to help her.

Ethan pulled his vibrating phone from his pocket. “The Council green lighted the meeting with Zoey,” he said, reading the message. “Tomorrow night. That fuck head Paul is coming with me, though, and they expect us to bring her back in cuffs.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Declan replied. “I don’t care what they tell you to do.”

“Then I suggest you plan to be there and tell her what to expect.”

Declan whipped out his phone to text her. Council will meet you tomorrow night. They want to capture you. Plan accordingly. Clicking send, he started to set the cell aside and then stopped, clenching it. It was his only real connection to her. Letting it go after hearing his father’s story only seemed to increase the physical distance between them.

She responded quickly. I’ll send coordinates and time. I could use a favor.

Surprised, he debated how to respond. His normal answer was curtailed by his guilt and fear of pushing her away. What? He texted.

“She agree to meet?” Ethan glanced up from the stove.

“Yeah. Said she’d pick the place.”

“Fine with me.”

The addresses of all the Incubatti Councilmembers. Zoey texted.

Declan lowered the phone. The information was carefully guarded, and there was a risk in leaking it that someone could piece together which of the few incubuses possessing the information had given it to Team Rogue. He hesitated only a moment longer before his thoughts returned to the fate of his mother and the fact the Incubatti Council sanctioned the murder of innocent humans.

It wouldn’t be the only risk he took. Every time Zoey had a blackout, Declan disappeared to check on her, and he had secret surveillance on her on nights when he wasn’t there to watch over her. The idea that Zoey was doing what was right, was trying to make the world a better place, and faced the same fate his mother had made up his mind.

Declan copied and pasted the information from his records into the text box and sent it, not even bothering to add a caveat about not attacking them outright. For once, he wasn’t able to see the bigger picture, the greater good, not after learning that his mother had been slaughtered by the IAB while his father was forced to sit on the sidelines instead of reacting.

“Do you ever feel like what we do isn’t enough?” he whispered, gazing at his phone.

“Yeah,” Ethan replied. “Every day since your mother died.”

“This has to end.”

“Give it time, son. We’re on the right track.”

Declan bit back his response.

“Really,” Ethan said, a sad smile pulling up the corners of his mouth. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been. Let it go for now, Declan. I think your girl is the piece we didn’t have in our puzzle before, the person who can catalyze change. Wait a little longer and see what happens.”

The plan their father hatched long ago – of an Incubatti society without the poisonous Cambions – had been postponed when Zoey went rogue and Olivia offered a temporary truce. Politics had become quickly much more convoluted when Paul was elevated to a Councilmember. Unlike the Halflings in the Sucubatti’s ranks, Cambions held full membership in the Incubatti society.

Zoey’s Team Rogue was an opportunity to start the dirty work, the elimination of the creatures that preyed on innocent humans.

I can’t wait too long. Declan didn’t speak, too disturbed to know what to say.

Chapter Eight: Empowered

Zoey spent the next day tracking down all the Halflings, taking stock of what weapons and gear they’d been able to salvage from the fire, and replacing everything they needed that was lost to the fire. Only two Halflings had minor burns, but another seven suffered seizures during the day, brought on by the stress. She used the petty cash taken from Declan’s box to pay for horse-grade sedative and moved the affected girls to a hotel over a hundred mile away.

The core members of Team Rogue managed to buy food, weapons, high tech computer and medical equipment for Chrissy, and rent two more storage facilities, one east of DC and the other West of DC, where they divided up and stationed the healthy Halflings.

Exhausted from the day of activity, none of which included killing Cambions or figuring out how to find where Olivia was hiding the solution to the Halflings’ curse, Zoey greeted the nightfall with relish. Meeting with the Incubatti and Sucubatti Councilmembers was like a trip to the spa after her day.

She emerged from the basement that had acted as the original headquarters for Team Rogue when they first broke away from the Sucubatti. The summerhouse in northern Virginia belonged to Lydia’s adopted sister and was unoccupied.

Zoey nibbled on a protein bar, too busy to have eaten real food all day or to bother sleeping in over thirty hours. She climbed into the back of the van awaiting her on the street. Chrissy sat in back with her while Ginny drove. Two body bags were in back of the van, one belonging to the Halfling and the other to the succubus who burnt down her warehouse. She wanted to bury the Halfling somewhere off the grid but hadn’t been able to.

“Isn’t there a saying about being late?” Chrissy asked, tugging at the band around her arm.

“I think it’s what fashionable people do,” Ginny replied.

Zoey half-listened, focused on double-checking her weapons rather than her daunting task. Anger about the warehouse fueled her, present despite her exhaustion. She didn’t care at all that she was about to face off with the members of the Sucubatti and Incubatti Councils. Vikki had discreetly reported that the Enforcers weren’t pleased and the Cambions thrilled that Team Rogue was about to get itself annihilated by both societies.

“Stop messing with that, Chrissy. We have to give it back to Grant,” Zoey said with a glance at the agitated human in their midst. “Is it working?”

“Yes, I think so,” Chrissy said, tilting her head. “It feels like I’m outside right before a storm. You know how charged the air gets?”

“As long as you’re not struck by lightning,” Ginny quipped. “How’d you get him to give it up, Zoey?”

“How do you think?” Zoey replied with a shrug. “I told him he could voluntarily turn it over or I could take his arm off while he slept. He was happy to volunteer it.”

“I tested it today. It can hide the wearer from detection as well,” Chrissy reported. “It’s amazing technology.”

“Good to know. How is the device you planted in our friend here?” Zoey nudged the body bag closest to her, the one belonging to the succubus.

“Electromagnetic pulse bomb. I told you, it’s fifty-fifty at best,” Chrissy reminded her. “I set it to go off in twenty-four hours.”

“I’ll take those odds,” Zoey said firmly. “That gives us twenty-four hours to find Olivia’s lab.”

“No pressure.” Ginny gave a tight smile.

“I hope it works,” Chrissy murmured.

“You’re brilliant, Chrissy,” Zoey told her. “Everything you touch turns to magic.”

Chrissy’s expression softened. The strain of the past several weeks was clear on her face, and Zoey felt responsible for the stress they were all under. Without sex magic to help sustain her, Chrissy was the worst off and in dire need of a vacation.

“After this, you can take a real break,” Zoey promised her.

“I don’t need a break,” Chrissy replied. “I’m proud to serve with you, Zoey.”

“Tell me that when tonight’s over.” Zoey shrugged her shoulders to loosen them and drew a deep breath.

They drove in silence for half an hour, leaving the bright lights of DC for the darker forests of Maryland to the north. Ginny pulled into an abandoned parking lot. The meeting with the Councilmembers was being held on neutral territory in Rockville, Maryland, about twenty miles north of DC, in an isolated area at a campground chosen by Zoey because it was far enough away from both societies’ operations centers.

“You ready?” Ginny asked, meeting her gaze in the rearview mirror.

“As much as possible.”

“Thank god. That body’s been in the van for a day now,” Ginny said and opened the driver’s side door.

Zoey opened the sliding door and stepped from the van into the warm night.

“Here.” Chrissy handed her the armband. “I’ll keep the van running.” She moved up to the driver’s seat.

Zoey secured the band around her forearm and pulled down her sleeve to cover it. She helped Ginny heft the dead succubus over one shoulder then struck off through the parking lot to the open field where the meeting was taking place. She sensed rather than saw the sex magic from succubae and incubuses around them, a sign the societies had thought to secure the perimeter with no less than a dozen of their people.

She felt Declan’s presence long before she saw him. Despite the armband, her blood lit on fire at the idea of seeing him again. Already, the magic that drew her to him initially, that bound them as soul-mates, was stronger than last time, a reminder of how powerful he was. The armband was working but he was potent enough for the magic to creep into her system anyway.

Three Councilmembers – two Incubatti, one Sucubatti – stood in the middle of the field beneath floodlights. They were flanked by the respective heads of their security arms, along with personal guards for each Councilmember and foot soldiers.

Bred and trained to kill Cambions, Zoey’s and Ginny’s eyes were drawn to the Cambion member of the Incubatti Council and the four members of his personal guard he brought with him. The urge to fight and kill her sworn enemy was strong. Zoey forced her attention away from them, knowing she had a much more important mission this night.

She avoided looking in the direction of Declan. His presence made her stomach flutter and her pulse race in anticipation of the kiss, the touch, that would never come.

The Sucubatti Councilmember was a powerful, older women whose name, Eleanor, Zoey had heard whispered in reverent tones among the lower-level Hunters and their trainers. Looking the seasoned woman over, she was almost surprised to find her a normal succubus – and not some sort of mythical creature that sat on high judging everyone else in the society.

Olivia stood to one side, Heidi beside her.

Zoey glared at the woman Declan cheated on her with, Heidi’s presence reminding her of why she needed to hate her soul-mate.

The Incubatti Councilmembers were strong men in their prime, Paul and her father-in-law, Ethan. Declan stood to the side of his father, his Enforcer mask on. Several other super-incubus brothers were nearby, to include Ginny’s soul-mate, the largest man Zoey had ever seen, named Tommy.