“I’ve got to call this in. And I am going to look for Nathaniel. You can argue or you can come with me. Your choice.” She grabbed her bag and headed out the back door.
Thomas took a deep breath. His bride was not hunting a demon-ridden werewolf. Especially while she was still recovering from an injury. He was also certain that she hadn’t stopped for a moment to absorb what had happened since she walked in the house. He followed her to the back porch and turned her to face him. He cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Breathe,
She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. When she opened them, his heart clenched at the plea he saw there. “Please.”
That’s all she said. One word. He didn’t even know what she was asking, but she asked. Unable to deny her, he said, “I’m here. Whatever it is you wish.”
She nodded once then turned her head so he was forced to let go. Stepping away from him, she pulled out her phone. A scowl marred her features and she reached back in the house and flipped the light on. Several dark shapes dotted the lawn. It took him a moment to realize they were pieces of her motorcycle.
“Cursed demon,” she muttered and turned the light back off so she wouldn’t have to look at the destruction any longer. She turned on her gift so she could see if anything tried to sneak up on them. Not that it would be any help with the demon, but it made her feel more secure.
She called Ben’s cell phone. “It trashed my house.”
“Wasn’t it warded?”
“Of course, it was warded. It was warded up the ass. If they went off, they didn’t do anything to deter them. I think the demons shut them down.”
“You better come in. I’ll tell Doc to get a bed ready for you.”
“Find somewhere else.”
“I’m not sure there is anywhere else.” His tone was distracted and she knew he was running through a mental list of all the beds in the Agency.
“It doesn’t matter.” She waved a hand through the air in impatience. “Figure something out. The bike’s in pieces, too. I’ll call when I need a portal.”
“I’ll send one now.”
“Not yet. I’m going after Nathaniel.”
“Damn it, Norris.” Ben paused, probably calming himself so he didn’t scream. “I’ve already got enough people crawling all over me because of you. Come in and get some rest. You said you wouldn’t go after him for twenty-four hours. Actually I believed I ordered you not to.”
All the more reason to do it. “I’m fine. Besides, I’m not alone.” She hung up. The phone began to vibrate. She ignored it and looked at Thomas, daring him to deny her.
He opened the passenger door with a bow. “Your carriage awaits.”
Thomas started the car and looked at Juliana for direction.
“Just drive,” she told him. Since it wouldn’t help her find Nathaniel, she shut down her gift. She’d already used it much more than she should have in the past couple of days.
“Should I assume you have a plan, or is that too much to hope for?” Thomas asked after she directed him to turn for the fourth time.
“We’re driving around hoping to run across a demon. Is that a plan?”
He sighed. “No. That’s more of a vague idea.”
Her phone vibrated again. She pulled it out. Jeremiah. “Talk to me.”
“You promised you wouldn’t go after him alone.” His voice was tired, strained. She didn’t know if that was because Ben woke him up or if dealing with her wore him out.
“I have no idea where he is, Jeremiah. Not a clue. What good would it do to have half the Agency roaming around with me. I was going to call if I found anything. Besides, I’m not alone.”
“Ben said as much, but as I am at home and Nathaniel is...incapacitated, who are you with?”
She glanced at Thomas who tried to look like he wasn’t listening but failed. “My vampire.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile that quickly disappeared.
“Your...you are with Thomas Kendrick?”
“That would be the one, yes.” It wasn’t as if she went around claiming a lot of vampires.
There was a long silence. “Very well. The vampire will suffice. Just be careful. I had another reason for calling. Someone reported a 1062 in Devil’s End.”
That made her pause. “No one ever reports anything in the End.”
Thomas turned around and headed back in the direction they’d come from.
“That’s why I’m passing it along,” Jeremiah said. Devil’s End was the rundown and desperate part of town and it was far closer to her house than she liked to admit. She was going to have to move in a few years if the borders kept creeping out. She’d live near the End, but she wasn’t going to live in it.
“What’s a 1062?” She never could remember the codes.
“Rogue shifter,” Thomas and Jeremiah answered in unison.
She arched her brows at Thomas, wondering just how he came to possess that bit of knowledge. “Set up a perimeter around the area. Keep it wide and tight. Call in the locals if you have to. I don’t want to risk losing him again and I don’t want anyone going in there with guns blazing either. I’m the primary. Please advise them not to shoot the vampire either.” She hung up the phone and turned in her seat to study Thomas.
“What?” he asked when she just continued to look at him.
“Would you care to tell me how you know Agency code?”
He slid to a stop alongside a curb just outside the borders of the End. “I am a very old vampire,
“That didn’t answer my question,” she grumbled. With a sigh, she followed him into the darkness.
She reached in the back, pulled out her bag and dropped it on the trunk. He scowled, but she ignored him and unzipped the bag. “What do you want?”
He reached under the driver’s seat and came up with a gun identical to hers. It wasn’t a coincidence. Thomas taught her to shoot and bought her her first gun. It was still the one she was most comfortable with. He also dropped something around his neck. Something that looked very much like a badge. She studied it more closely. Correction...something that looked exactly like a badge. A star with eight points, to be exact. He was a Warden of the High Order. The blood drained from her face. “Are you kidding me?”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “No,
She nodded but was still stunned. The Wardens traced their origins back to Stonehenge. An intimate group whose purpose had always been to keep the Altered from discovery. After the Rending, that purpose had shifted to more closely mirror the Agency’s purpose without the government involvement. Freelancers with connections all over the globe, they worked with all branches of law enforcement and government, both human and Altered. Among the Altered, the Wardens were the ultimate authority though the humans still thought it was the Agency. And if it came down to a public dispute, the Agency did supersede the Order’s authority. Later, when no humans were watching, the Wardens would impose the Order’s justice.
Leave it to her vampire to be a Warden. Shaking her head, she turned back to her bag. She pulled out one clip of blessed ammo and one clip of silver ammo for each of them. After a moment’s hesitation, she handed his over. No matter the reasoning behind it, she was still outfitting them to hunt one of her friends. Sometimes she really hated her job.
She cleared her throat. “Don’t bother with the silver unless I tell you it’s not Nathaniel. He’s immune.”
Thomas’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “A werewolf immune to silver? How does that happen?”
