Crimson Dawn (25 page)

Marcus grunted and shoved his hands into his pocket. "That's the problem, Trumaine, you almost did! I've spent the last three weeks getting my ass chewed out in every possible way the higher-ups could think of.”

I shrugged my shoulders and twisted the top off a bottle of water. "And? Sentinels get hurt every day in the line of duty. What's the difference?"

Marcus dropped his head slightly, as if he didn't want to continue the conversation but didn't have much of a choice. "There's a difference, Valeria, and it's time we stopped pretending that there isn't.” He rolled his shoulders, the fabric of his jacket stretching over his frame as he steeled himself to continue.

"The media have been camped out all over the city since you were transported home. You're like royalty, a princess! You are a prominent member of both The Fourth and The Fifth. This has been a PR nightmare. You've made the front page of newspapers worldwide on a daily basis since the story first broke that you were in ICU back in Charleston. Hell, you've been the number one trending-topic for two weeks and Twitter crashed for three days after you were hurt. Thanks to all the fuss your mother and brothers have been making, the competency of the CMS has been called into question."

He stopped again and dropped his head down, unable to look me in the eyes. When he began again, his voice sounded hollow and automatic. "It is the Council's decision to remove you, not only from your present assignment, but to place you on inactive duty for an as yet undetermined length of time."

I felt as if he had knocked all of the air out of my chest. For a moment, I couldn't hear anything over the rush of blood in my ears as my pounding heart pushed the liquid through my body. I couldn't believe what I heard, but the only words I could get out were, “Has Priest made any progress?"

"There've been no new leads since you were hurt. It's as if he dropped off the face of the planet. Valeria, I tried to sway their judgment, but everything has gotten out of hand.” I had never seen Marcus look as bewildered as he did while he spoke. If I weren't so damn pissed, I might have tried to spare him some of the anger that rapidly pushed me to my breaking point.

I held my hand up in the air to cut him off and pointed an accusing finger in his direction. “Don't! Don't do that! Spare me both your apologies and the tales of how you fought for me! You, who won't have anyone dictating how you run your cases? I guess that went out the window, huh?!” My temper spiked and I completely shifted without even noticing.

Marcus let out a gasp as he took a few steps away from me. "Trumaine, you need to calm down and realize that the decision wasn‘t mine to make. It's out of my hands."

I hissed and slowly began circling him. "Bullshit, Marcus. You're no better than that bigot of a police chief if you're actually going to bench me."

I could see hurt and confusion dance across his face, then give way to shock as he began to realize exactly how dangerous a situation he was in. "I didn't have a choice," he said as he sent a surge of Alpha energy at me in an attempt to make me back down.

An Alpha has the ability to force shifts upon members of his pack. It comes in handy when training pups, and defusing volatile situations. I guess he was hoping his energy would have the same effect on me, but not so much. I felt the warm charge dance across my skin, but instead of it wrapping around me like an Alpha's energy should, I took it into myself and let the warmth settle deep inside me where my power was stored.

The warm heated my feral nature and pushed it further until I felt my wings spring out of my back. "There are always choices, Marcus, and you just made the wrong one. They can't get close to Tristan, and I can. Everyone you send after him will fail more miserably than I did."

Marcus held up both his hands in a show of submission. "Bringing you in was a mistake, point blank, and there's nothing you, or I can say to change the outcome. If you don't cooperate now, you'll be lucky if you can even keep your job."

My hands shifted into claws as I continued circling, herding Marcus towards a corner and trying to cut off any possible avenue of escape he may have been able to find. I knew in my mind that I was preparing to kill one of the few males that I truly respected, but I was helpless to my nature to stop it.

When Marcus spoke, all traces of the by-the-book C.O. that I knew were gone. The man in front of me was the Alpha of the Black Paw pack, and he was prepared to defend himself. "Stand down, Trumaine. Stand down now, before you push this too far.” The deep timbre of his voice resonated with power. Within his pack, it would have forced everyone to their knees in submission, but here, it did nothing.

I bared my fangs and settled into a crouch, preparing to spring at Marcus, when the sound of broken glass caught both our attention. We both jerked our heads towards the intrusion and found Irulan standing in the doorway, her packages from the store lay in ruins at her feet. "Marcus," she said slowly, "it's time for you to leave."

Marcus began to move slowly towards Irulan with a determined look on his face. "I’m not leaving you here alone with her while she's like this."

I scuttled forward on all fours and stretched my wings to their full ten-foot wingspan earning another gasp from Marcus and yet another burst of power. My knees finally buckled under his prowess, and I was forced, face down, onto the gym mats on my floor. Marcus pressed the advantage and hit me with wave after wave, knocking me down each time I tried to get up. He continued to hit me with the volleys, but their effectiveness was waning. Soon his power was flowing into me, and I was able to stand again.

Irulan rushed to stand in front of Marcus and ordered him again to leave. "Get out of here," she said. "Can't you see you're only making the situation worse?"

Marcus tried to push Irulan aside to take the front position, but she refused to move. "If I leave, you leave with me. I‘m not leaving you alone with her like this," replied Marcus. Irulan immediately went from concerned, to pissed. With a wave of her hand, she sent Marcus sailing through the open door and ran over to latch it behind him.

I watched Irulan through new eyes and was briefly amazed. Whatever was happening to me allowed me to see through her glamour. For the first time in my life, I was able to look upon her true form without pain. In my right mind, I would have found the sight extremely beautiful, but my feral mind saw the swirling fire of her hair and the powerful aura that surrounded her as danger.

With Marcus removed from the picture, I focused on Irulan and the threat I perceived her to be. "You shouldn't have come here," I groaned, trying to fight the urge to attack.

Irulan crouched down and settled on her haunches in an effort to look less threatening. "Valeria, your body's going through a lot of changes. I know that has to be unnerving, but I need you to focus. The only thing you need to concentrate on is me."

"You can count on it," I yelled, just before I launched myself in her direction with both claws poised to make contact with a spot right above her heart. Irulan yelped and dived sideways, moving out of my way at the last second. She'd been holding out on me. I was moving in a full flash, there was no way I should have missed. I hit the wall, knocked some plaster loose, and managed to get tangled in my wings. By the time I set myself right, she sat on a column of air, perched high in a corner, across the room.

She tried to reason with me, "Val, please, you've got to fight it. Focus on my voice, and come back to me.” I hissed and prepared for another attack. "You don't want to do that," she said. "I've got the tactical advantage. You’ll never get close enough to land a single blow. Please just try to...” She never got the chance to finish her sentence because I used my wings to propel myself forward. I didn't get halfway across the room before she hit me dead on with one of her energy bolts.

The blast sent me sailing backwards into the damaged wall, bringing more plaster and drywall down on my head. Irulan was on me before I had a chance to recover. She dropped to her knees and straddled my waist as she held out a palm in an effort to keep me stationary with one of her barriers. That warm place inside me latched onto her barrier and began to draw it into me. I could feel it as it melted away, starting at my head, and slowly working its way down my body. Once my head was free to move I jerked forward, snapping my fangs at any body part within reach of my mouth.

Irulan brought the other hand forward and threw more energy into the barrier. "Please, baby, try to fight the changes. Control them, don't let them control you.” I wasn't sure what changes she was talking about, but I understood what she wanted me to do. As much as I understood, the part of me that was reveling in the strength of my new nature refused to be caged again. I tried to stop myself, but my head once again flew forward seeking a target for my teeth to latch onto.

She pulled her head out of the way and sighed as she came to a decision. "You want me that bad, Valeria, take me," she pulled her hair out of the way and tilted her head giving me access to her neck. "Take all of me.” The image of her in my eyes faded slightly, then, seconds later, became strong and clear again. Focusing on the artery that lay right beneath the skin of her neck, I grabbed her around the waist and rolled, placing her under me. I fought against it, but in the end, lost. I did manage to utter 'Sorry', right before I sank my fangs into her neck.

The first spray of blood that hit my tongue tasted unlike any other. The rich flavor was familiar, bringing to mind the one sample that I had back in Charleston. Even though it came from the same source, it paled in comparison.

I drew in a deep breath, greedily pulling the elixir of Sidhe blood down my throat. The more I took, the more I felt like myself again, until finally my features began to return to normal. I pulled away from her neck, panting as I looked down at her. Blood ran down my face and fell in small puddles across her chin and lips. My eyes focused on the small trails they were making across her skin when I realized that I heard her, in my head.

“
Take more Valeria
,” she said. "
I know you have the ability to drink emotions when you feed. Take more blood and feel what you do to me, what you've been doing to me for years now
.” She reached up and guided me back to her neck. This time I was able to make the decision without a lack of control hampering me. When I bit into her neck, it was because we both wanted it, not because I had no other option.

As I took her into me, I saw how I looked through her eyes, and felt the wealth of emotions that she'd fought to ignore. I saw flashes of women that she'd bedded over the years, and felt her disappointment as she compared them to me and they all came up lacking.

I pulled my fangs out of her skin and tenderly pressed my lips to her neck in the gentlest of kisses. She tilted her head - further exposing the flesh of her neck, and I began running my tongue slowly across, lapping up the blood that was smeared there. Irulan's moan was barely audible, even to my ears, but the soft noise sent a rush of desire racing through me that was so strong, I knew that after sharing her emotions, there was no turning back for me.

I backed away from her neck and brought my lips to her chin to claim the blood that had fallen there. I carefully licked the thick crimson liquid from her soft skin until it was gone. A soft purr escaped her lips, and I pulled back to look into her eyes. The green pools danced and swirled beneath me, lit up with desire and happiness.

"I want this, Irulan. I want you…us, and everything that goes with ‘us’. But right now, I just want you.” My chest heaved in and out with the admission. Since we'd kissed that day in the hospital, Irulan had refused to bring it up. Anytime I tried to talk about it or us, she brushed me off and told me to worry about getting better. The only other reference she made to 'us' was that she didn't want the catalyst for our relationship to be what had happened in Charleston. She actually thought that I was ready to fall into her bed because she'd saved my life.

I looked down at the smile on her face and waited anxiously for her to say something but it never came. She just laid there with a goofy lopsided grin plastered to her face. Just as I was beginning to doubt whether we were on the same page or not, she huffed, stretched provocatively, and softly kissed me. "Alright," she said. "I can handle that. I think I've made you suffer enough."

Irulan pushed me backwards so fast I would have fallen if she hadn't reached out and grabbed me by the remains of my tattered tank top. I snapped forward into her waiting arms and settled into the dip her crossed legs created. As she circled her arms around my waist, I wrapped my own around her neck and smiled. "You are just as impossible as I am, so don't put all this on me. You could have told me years ago how you felt."

Irulan's hands trailed down my back until she reached the soft globes of my ass. Her soft fingers were surprisingly firm as they spread out, dug into my hips, and pulled me closer. "I don't think you would have exactly been open to my doing this a year ago."