Angel's Touch [PUP Squad Alpha 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

“No need,” the woman said as she waved away Lilly’s earnest apology. “You’re coping with your introduction into paranormal life a lot more calmly than I did.” Three of the men in the room laughed. Two of them, who seemed to be identical twins, dragged her into an embrace between them and smiled indulgently.

“Trust me when I say
that
is a serious understatement.” A man stepped forward and held out his hand. She took it self-consciously, dipping her head in deference even though she wasn’t really sure why. He seemed to be the leader—he’d said as much outside—but there was also an aura about him that commanded respect. “I’m Xavier Cloveck. Apologies for the unfriendly welcome, but we’re not used to paranormals dropping into the middle of a claiming ceremony.”

“Paranormal?” she asked, looking around. She wasn’t even sure she knew what the word meant but she did know it applied to everyone in this room. Well, except for her, maybe. “I’m…human. At least I thought I was until I blinked a few weeks ago and found myself halfway across the world.”

* * * *

Devlin was starting to get a really bad feeling about all this.

“Lil,” he asked softly, trying not to startle the woman sitting next to him, “any chance the name on your birth certificate is Lilly Wicks?”

Her eyes grew as wide as saucers for a moment before her suspicion kicked in. But far from launching accusations of stalking, she took a deep breath and nodded her head. “Why do you ask?”

Devlin smiled at the woman’s ability to remain polite even under all this stress.

“Because, sweet thing,” Jed said, cutting off Devlin’s reply, “we’ve been looking for you as long as you’ve been looking for me.”

Devlin ground his teeth at the reminder that she’d gone looking for Jed and not for him. Of course the woman had no idea he wasn’t human. The man she’d dated was supposedly a well-trained, experienced,
human
Navy SEAL. He’d never told her about his paranormal leanings despite how tempted he’d been to spill all. If he were truly honest, he’d admit that at least part of the reason he’d left her was the fact that she was human. Maybe he’d been a coward, but he worried he wouldn’t be strong enough to watch the woman he loved age and die hundreds of years before he would. Walking away had seemed, at the time, to be the easier choice.

Being so close to her now was making things a whole lot less clear.

“So,” Lilly said, glancing around the room, “can anyone explain what’s been happening to me?”

At the risk of offending their hosts Devlin mumbled the standard line, “As soon as we have clearance, we’ll explain everything.”

“Clearance?” she asked, sounding shocked. “Clearance? As in I’m some sort of military experiment?” She levered off the sofa and started pacing back and forth. “I knew dating a Navy SEAL was a bad move. You guys have more secrets than numbers in a phone book. When? Where? How? Am I strapped to a medical bed somewhere right now? Is that what this is? Some sort of mind control brainwashing exp—”

But before Devlin could correct her wild assumptions—he never would have pegged her as a conspiracy theorist—Benjamin stepped into the fray.

“No, Ms. Wicks, you are not part of a military experiment. What happened to you is of paranormal origins. I promise you we’ll explain it all as best we can. Xavier, do you have a secure room?”

“Of course,” the leader of the wolf pack said with a calm smile. Jed wrapped an arm around Lilly’s shoulders and turned to follow Xavier. Again jealousy burned through every cell in Devlin’s body, but he ground his teeth together and managed to keep the emotion under control—for now. When this was over, they were going to talk, whether she wanted to or not.

Xavier led them through a series of hallways, finally coming to a stop in front of an ordinary-looking door. He unlocked it using a rather long password on a keypad and then stood back as it swung open.

“I think you probably need to hear this, too, Xavier,” Benjamin said as the others each took a seat around the large table. Xavier nodded, closed the door, and sat down beside Samuel. It was a measure of the man’s confidence that he sat with the rest of them and ignored the larger seat at the head of the table.

Devlin did a quick headcount around the room—Benjamin, Samuel, Skye, and Jed from PUP Squad Alpha, himself and Xavier, and of course, Lilly. Seven people in all. Devlin didn’t miss the reassuring smile that Skye gave the other woman as they sat down. Devlin had only met the young vampire a few times, but it would seem that reports of her calm demeanor and good people skills weren’t exaggerations. Now, if only he could follow her example.

This assignment had been far easier when he thought they were searching for “Lilly Wicks, the stranger who was now an Oracle’s receptacle” and not “Lillian Connelly, the ex-lover he missed with every breath.”

“When did you change your name?” The question was out before he really gave it any thought. Considering why they were here, it was probably also the least important detail. Lilly looked annoyed but answered the question anyway.

“My mother dumped me with Aunt Ida when I was seven so that she could run off and marry some drug dealer in Vegas. She never came back. Everyone referred to me as a Connelly because that’s Aunt Ida’s last name. It just stuck. When I turned twelve, I decided to go by Lillian because it sounded more grown up.” She gave him a look that should have melted him into goo. Considering the strange abilities the Oracle’s receptacles were developing, he didn’t even want to consider the possibility that one day she might be able to do just that. “Does that answer your question? Are you happy to learn that I was a confused and angry kid? Does it make it easier to leave me behind?”

“Lil,” Devlin started, but Benjamin cut him off.

“Ms. Wicks, we’ve identified several other women who share your sudden change in abilities. For want of a better title, we’re calling them the Oracle’s receptacles. All of you are being targeted by assassins.”

Devlin literally wanted to punch the guy for being so blunt, but he knew Lilly needed to know up front the danger she was in.

“We’re still trying to unravel the reasons why, but we believe that the Oracle who was murdered on the day you were born passed her information to six or seven babies born in the same area around the same minutes that she died.” Samuel gave Lilly a reassuring smile. For a guy with the nickname “The Iceman” he certainly wasn’t living up to it. Despite the fact that Samuel was not only sitting next to his wife but also deeply devoted to the woman, Devlin still felt his blood boil when Lilly smiled back.

Fuck, he needed to get a grip on his own rampaging emotions before he did something truly stupid.

“Don’t Oracles tell the future?” Lilly asked, ironically seeming a lot calmer now.

“Not exactly,” Skye said. “The Oracles collect the history of one or two species. They know everything that has ever happened involving every person within those species, so they can occasionally predict an outcome accurately, but it’s not a gift of foresight.”

“That sounds like one very painful migraine, but how does it relate to me somehow traveling all over the planet in the blink of an eye?”

“About five weeks ago, a human woman named Bethany Childes was murdered by a pixie assassin,” Samuel said. “We recently found a type of diary that she wrote and believe that she was the human child who received all of the Oracle’s information for witches and warlocks. When she died, that information was somehow sent to the next five or six females born on the same day Bethany was. We suspect that it was set up that way by the original Oracle as some sort of fail-safe.”

“Still doesn’t explain the blink-and-I’m-gone travel.” Lilly was obviously impatient to get answers of her own, but it was important for her to understand how this whole mess started.

“No it doesn’t,” Samuel said with a soft laugh. “We’re not sure how exactly the Oracle’s receptacles are doing it, but we believe they’re interpreting the information they’ve been given and are somehow putting it into practice. They also seem to be collecting information from every species, not just witches and warlocks.”

“So they can all travel like me?”

“Not quite,” Jed said, reaching for Lilly’s hand and holding it tight. “At the moment you seem to be unique in your ability to travel, but I suspect that once you meet the others, that will change.”

“How so?” Xavier asked, looking rather concerned by the conversation.

“It seems that they can somehow share their abilities with each other, and maybe even with a small percentage of other humans.”

“That could be problematic,” Lilly said with a wince. “I have no idea how to control it. I haven’t managed to stay a full day in one place since it started happening.”

* * * *

“Seriously?” Jed asked before he could stop the inane question. Lilly had no reason to lie or exaggerate. It even explained why she had only called her aunt once in the couple of weeks before Hannah took her place at the diner. “Hannah!” He’d blurted again before he could call back the emotional-sounding word. “Sorry, it just occurred to me that Hannah was the waitress who filled Lilly’s job after she left. Maybe Hannah stopped there for more reasons than even we realized.”

“Agreed,” Benjamin said with a decisive nod. “It does seem to be a rather strong instinct to seek each other out, but Lilly’s right. If she can’t control her talent, chances are the others won’t be able to either. It’d make it rather hard to protect them if we can’t keep them still.” He scratched the side of his face and frowned. “None of them have been able to master their telekinesis or that shield bubble thing that Ava taught to her husband, Nathan.”

“And if Kali digs one more hole in my backyard, we’re going to have a swimming pool,” Skye said with a grin, obviously sensing Lilly’s tension. “Lilly, we’ll figure it out, but it probably is wise to put off meeting the others for a little while. Maybe see if you can get some control over it first.”

Lilly nodded, and squeezed Jed’s hand just a little bit tighter.

“Is there anybody who can teach me?”

“None of us have ever seen the type of travel that you’re using, but it does seem to be similar to a warlock’s bounce tunnel. As long as we’re touching, I should go with you through any tunnel you create,” Jed assured her.

“And if you don’t?” Lilly asked, her fear and exhaustion leaking through her usual calm demeanor.

He dragged his cell phone out of his pocket. “This phone has tracking and GPS. Always keep it on you. That way if you disappear without me I’ll only be a minute or so behind.” She nodded, taking the phone quickly as if she feared she’d disappear any moment now. Considering what she’d been through the past few weeks, it was also quite likely.

“Thank you,” she said, glancing around the room at all of the people. Her gaze settled on Xavier. “I’m sorry I crashed your party.”

“Not a problem,” Xavier said with a friendly smile. “I’m glad we’ve been able to help.”

“And if I know my sister,” Skye said with a warm smile, “she’ll be really annoyed that she slept through it all.”

“Okay,” Benjamin said, slipping suddenly into commanding officer mode, “let me make a few phone calls, and we’ll get you set up in a safe house. In the meantime, I want you—” He cut off his words, half laughed, and rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m about to give this order, but Jed, Devlin, I want one of you to always be holding Lilly’s hand. I’ll organize for some backup, but for now I’m assigning you both to protect Lilly.”

Devlin didn’t look particularly happy that they were assigned to protect the woman together, but it was probably the wisest choice. Lilly knew both of them. She’d known Jed for several years and was comfortable with him even in his new unwrinkled skin, and despite whatever had gone on between her and Devlin, they still seemed to have a genuine affection for one another.

“Okay. Jed, you and Lilly head back to the party,” Benjamin said in a voice that made it feel like a request even though it wasn’t. “Devlin, call Ronan, ask him if he’s got a secure safe house available.”

* * * *

Devlin nodded, reached for his cell phone, and began to dial as he watched Jed and Lilly walk hand in hand from the room. Jealousy flared again, but he swallowed it down and determinedly focused on doing what Benjamin had asked. Xavier closed the door when it was just him, Benjamin, and Devlin still in the room.

“Where does the Ruling Body stand?” he asked.

Benjamin glanced at Devlin and gave him an apologetic look before answering Xavier’s question. “That unfortunately isn’t as clear as we might hope. We’ve been ordered to protect the Oracle’s receptacles, but no one is trying to call off the assassins.” He shook his head slightly. “I suspect that the Judiciaries are divided in their opinions and we’re the political football in the middle. They’re essentially letting the chips fall where they may.”

Xavier nodded and waited for him to continue.

“We recently learned that the first pixie assassin was working under the influence of fireweed and being controlled by a woman named Victoria when she killed the original Oracle twenty-seven years ago. It seems to have been a PLA-ordered and Ruling Body–sanctioned hit, but the assassination was anything but standard.”

“We don’t want to go into details,” Devlin said, as he tried to forget the gruesome facts of one of the most disturbing murders he’d ever read about. Assassinations were usually quick, efficient, and essentially painless. The target literally never knew what hit them. But the murder of the Oracle twenty-seven years ago had been long, sadistically drawn out, and for the fire demon female who’d died, extremely painful. “We believe that a woman we know only as Victoria is a witch and an Oracle herself, and she’s the one who set up the whole thing in an attempt to steal the murdered Oracle’s information.”