Bureau Under Siege (3 page)

His heart went out to his mate as he saw the struggle clearly on her face. “You shouldn’t have to fight your DNA, Puff. We’ll just find different ways to deal with the situations. I’ll do my best to make everything as it should be, but, I can’t promise the twenty four-seven attention that you may crave. So I guess we’ll both have to compromise.”

Her smile was dazzling as she launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. “Thank you. I know this is a shock, it was for me too. I guess I didn’t realize the power within the ceremony that Talon performed. I never expected to fall pregnant with you, Ronan. I’m sorry, maybe I should’ve taken precautions.”

Holding her close he soothed her. “Shh, don’t think that. I’m happy, really. It’s just a shock and we need to get this thing with Creed over with and then we can concentrate on the little one. So, tell me, you said earlier about going Dragon more?”

“Yes, the more time spent as Dragon the better really, so I’ll be spending a lot of time on the roof. As soon as the light goes I’ll change and just stay there for a while. If we were in a different situation I would spend most of my time in Dragon form, but, I know that’s not going to happen now. So, I’ll just do it as often as I can. However, as the pregnancy nears the end I will need somewhere private to give birth. I don’t fancy doing that on the roof.”

Ronan shuddered, the thought of his mate giving birth on the roof of a city building not pleasant. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Puff, but rest assured you won’t be having our child on the roof. Now, give me as much information you have about all this, all of it, don’t leave anything out.”

So she did and they were still discussing things when Justin touched down just outside Denver. The small bump as the wheels hit tarmac surprising them both. “I guess we’re home.” Ronan said as he looked out the window.

“I guess we are.” Starr looked out too, as if not quite believing they had talked the entire flight.

Ronan unbuckled his belt. “We better prepare ourselves for whatever we’re walking into. I know it’s not going to be good, whatever it is.”

Starr agreed. “I know, but we’ll get through it, whatever
it
is. Come on, Fang, let’s get to work.”

Chapter 3

They were back at the offices, walking through the double doors, very quickly. Ronan’s alert senses were picking up Elite Guards and Wolves all around. As they pulled into the underground garage their driver turned around. “I’ve been told to pass on that Creed will be waiting for you in Sam’s office.”

Ronan opened the door, holding a hand out to help Starr as he addressed the driver. “Thanks, can you get our luggage taken up to our apartment, please.”

“Certainly, boss.”

Ronan cringed at the “boss” part, doing his best to ignore it as he and Starr took the elevator up to the fourth floor. As soon as he stepped into the hallway he sensed the difference in his people. They were on edge, wary, and more than a few heads turned around at their approach. Nodding a hello to a few, they made their way to Sam’s office.

A few things assaulted his acute senses as he entered. Sam sat behind his desk, Creed stood in one corner, and Charmaine sat behind a small desk set up to the side of Sam. It was to Charmaine his eyes flew, marks on her neck plainly visible and Sam’s scent all over her. Raising an eyebrow at his friend, who smiled sheepishly before shrugging his shoulders. Seemed as if the young Witch they’d rescued was indeed his friend’s mate. Interesting turn of events.

As Charmaine blushed he turned to Creed. “So, are you going to tell us what the hell is going on?”

Creed’s body was tense, held taut and anger rolled off him in great waves. “My past has caught up with me and I’m afraid I’ve put everyone in danger. For that I apologize. I don’t apologize for my actions though. I would do the same again in the same circumstances.”

Starr moved closer to Charmaine, perching her backside on the end of the desk as Ronan stared at Creed. “You need to start from the beginning and give us any and all information you have.”

Creed’s nod was imperceptible but then he sighed and started to talk. “About two centuries ago I lived in the Balkans, I was employed by a Vampire named Mikhail Karloff. He is a very dangerous and powerful being and his organization then blossomed into the Ukrainian Mafia of today. He is the head of it, runs it, controls it, and has an army at his beck and call.”

Sam swore, “Fuck! That’s not good, boss. Those Ukrainian Mafia guys are fucking crazy.”

Creed nodded. “Yes, they are. Now, when I worked for him I was just a gopher, working my way up in the organization, but then something happened to change all that. To change me.”

Ronan knew they were coming to the crux of the matter, and the reason for the danger that was apparently on its way.

“I met a young woman, a Witch, and well, we fell in love. She was my true mate. We all know not all of us Vampires find ours and I was overjoyed to have found mine. But with finding her came problems. She knew about my job, who I worked for. To say she didn’t like it is an understatement. She told me she couldn’t mate with someone doing that kind of work. She’d seen first-hand the damage that Mikhail did, killing indiscriminately and without mercy or remorse.”

Creed stopped, a distant look in his eyes.

“Go on,” Ronan encouraged.

“So, Darya and I argued, a lot, but her influence on me changed me, as a person. Deep down inside me she broke through and made me care. About her, about others and I soon saw she was right. I couldn’t continue to do what I had been doing. We made plans to leave the country. In fact we were going to leave the fucking continent. Travel here, to the Americas.”

Creed’s voice hitched and it was clear for them to see he was fighting for control. “I think you can guess where this is headed but I’ll tell the story. This one time only, I will not speak of Darya again.”

His eyes met each of theirs, as if making sure they understood. “Mikhail had sensed a change in me so had me followed. They soon found Darya and my frequent visits to her, together with her unhealed bites, told them all they needed to know. Mikhail was furious. None of his men left...ever. Well, not alive anyway. So he did what he does best, he ordered his men to kill her. But, his little pet, Oleg, decided to take charge of the hit.”

Creed stopped again, clenching his jaws so hard Ronan thought he was going to break some teeth. Taking a deep breath in, the Elite Guard continued. “Mikhail is gay, Oleg and he had been together for a long time. Oleg convinced Mikhail to let him deal with Darya and he agreed. Oleg, however, isn’t or rather, wasn’t gay. We all knew this but none of us ever said anything. Mikhail would, most definitely have ‘killed the messenger’ and none of us were that stupid. Oleg was with Mikhail only for the position, for the money, the power, so getting let loose to go after Darya he decided to have some fun. He beat her, raped her, beat her some more, sodomized her and then ripped her throat out.”

“No!” Starr exclaimed as both Sam and Ronan cursed loudly.

Creed’s eyes met Starr’s and for the first time they all saw the hurt he kept hidden deep inside.

“Yes, he was still lapping her blood from his fingers when I arrived. I think you can also guess what happened then. I killed him and it wasn’t pretty. At first I just sat there, waiting on Mikhail’s men to come looking for Oleg and find me. I wanted to die and thought going down fighting was the best way to do it. Then I heard a sound, from the large oak wardrobe. I ripped the door off and found Darya’s little sister sitting sobbing hysterically.”

Charmaine gasped, the sound loud in the room, where, Ronan was sure, a pin dropping would’ve sounded like an explosion.

“It was at that moment that I sensed more of Mikhail’s men closing in. So I did the only thing I could, I grabbed her and ran. I couldn’t let Darya’s fate be hers too. We only just made it out but didn’t stop running until we reached Australia.” Creed stopped, taking several deep breaths.

Ronan was the one to ask the question everyone else was thinking. “Australia?”

Creed nodded. “Yes, I took her sister there hoping that if they had wind of my plans to run to the Americas that it would put them off. I found a coven that agreed to take her in to keep her safe. I’ve never uttered her name to anyone, nor told where she was. As soon as she was safely hidden, I moved on. Always moving, looking over my shoulder expecting to see Mikhail or one of his men. Finally, I ended up here and although I’ve never forgotten Darya, I thought I had escaped. Appears I was wrong. Mikhail will be on his way and he won’t come alone.”

Ronan closed the distance between him and Creed, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll take them on and this Mikhail will know the wrath of the SEB. Everyone here will fight for what is ours and we’ll fight together, Creed. So, tell us, what do you think he has planned?”

Creed’s face changed, now he held the cold, hard countenance they all knew so well. “He’ll bring plenty of men and he’ll fight dirty. He won’t come at us front and center. He’s more likely to try and pick off people that are vulnerable, on their own, and he’ll torture them, make them suffer and throw their bodies on our doorstep. He’ll do that with the hope of making us weak, fearful, so he can get the upper hand.”

A knock at the door had every one of their heads whirling around, finding a very pale faced Matthew standing there. A look of shock on his face telling them he had heard some, if not all, of Creed’s words. Starr motioned him inside “You got anything for us?”

Matthew stepped into the room, a folder in his hands. “Yes, here’s everything I could get on this Mikhail Karloff. He is super rich, private jets, plenty of men and has his hands in a host of different businesses. Some appear legit and others are so far from lawful that it’s amazing he’s still free. Something that I think we need to take heed of is his ability to get his hands on explosives and guns are the norm for his men.”

Starr’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Explosives? Surely he wouldn’t use those here?”

Creed’s snort of derision took everyone by surprise. “Yes, he would. That’s what I mean when I say he’ll fight dirty. He doesn’t have the same code that we have. He’ll use whatever resources he has to weaken us before he’ll attack head on. I think we should put in place some kind of curfew and have every possible person on duty. Three shifts, on watch, patrolling and nobody should go off on their own until this is over.”

Sam cursed again. “For fuck’s sake! What kind of man would use explosives in buildings where there are women and children?”

“One that has no soul,” Creed answered quietly.

“This isn’t good news. Suggestions?” Ronan asked.

Matthew stepped forward. “I have a few. I can set up electronic monitoring around the area. If you allow me to hack into traffic cams, security cameras, and stuff like that, then I can have eyes all over the place. I can have men keeping watch for blocks in any direction. We should be able to spot any danger before they get here. I can also tweak our alarms and broaden the motion sensor areas, again, that’ll give us a heads up.”

“Good,” Ronan said, “get that done and you have my go ahead for any hacking you need to do. Just try and not get caught ‘cause I don’t want to have to explain to the ‘boss’ that there’s yet another supernatural threat. I know he was on the edge of deploying troops and we can do without them here. They’d just get in the way and probably killed so we’ll deal with this ourselves.”

“I’m sorry,” Creed said it so quietly that they barely heard him. “I was going to give myself up to Mikhail but I know him too well and he would still try and attack here. I thought I would be of more use helping but I am sorry for bringing this down on you all.”

Sam stood up. “No need for apologies, Creed, you’ve saved our asses more than once and this Mikhail guy sounds like he’s someone we should take out anyway. So, I say we get to work and have several meetings in the rec hall to give everyone the heads up. We can’t get them all in there at once so if we do three different meetings, one after the other, then we can focus on keeping us all safe.”

“I agree,” Ronan turned to Starr, “can you get notices sent out to everyone? First meeting will be in an hour and then on the hour the following two hours after that. First one will be all Elite squads and mission squads, second will be the remaining Wolves and Vampires, third is for everyone else. I want every single person to be at one of the meetings, including mates who don’t actually work for us.”

Starr walked to the door. “I’ll get started now.”

Ronan looked at Matthew. “What are you still doin’ here? Go, get started on whatever electronic magic you can come up with and be at the first meeting to let us all know what you’ve managed.”

Matthew blushed. “Yes, boss,” he said as he scurried from the room.

“Will you
stop
calling me boss!” Ronan exclaimed.

Sam chuckled, “Hey, if the cap fits ‘n all that. So, what say we three go over what we should do?”

Ronan frowned, hating being called boss but failing miserably in getting folks to stop. “Yeah, so, I’m going to put a curfew in place, nobody, and I mean nobody, goes out after work hours. In fact, I think I’m going to say that from today we are on lockdown. Nobody in or out. We can get supplies ordered online and delivered. Any movement between buildings is done either via the underground garages or only with guards in place. We need to keep everyone as safe as we can and if this Mikhail is as bad as we fear I can’t think of a better way to do it.”

As Ronan started pacing, his mind working overtime, Sam sat back down. “Ronan, we’ll do all we can to keep folks safe but I’ve a feeling there’s gonna be casualties. I’m hoping they’re all on Mikhail’s side but we need to be prepared to lose some of ours. Especially if this fucker is dirty enough to use explosive devices.”

“No!” Ronan spun around. “I’ll not lose any of our people to scum like this. We’ll just have to be better, harder, faster. Simple as that.”

“His men are all battle worn,” Creed’s voice was grim as he spoke, “they have plenty of experience in this kind of situation. We need to have warning of them and strike before they even know what’s happening. Otherwise, we
will
have our own casualties.”

“Well, it’s our job to make sure we don’t.” Ronan’s voice was firm and confident as he looked at Sam then Creed. “Let’s go to the conference room and we can hash out specifics. Creed, I want you in charge of all the Elites, set their teams, shifts, areas, the whole damn lot. And I want it done with military precision, we
are
better than this damn mafia and we’ll show ‘em just how much better we are.”