Authors: Crystal Jordan
Night Games (11 page)
She whimpered, collapsing against his chest.
Another knock sounded, louder and longer this time, and both Grim and Jack growled.
“I’ll get it.” He laid her limp form on the couch next to him, watching her sigh with contentment.
He kissed her bent knee before he rose to his feet and walked unsteadily toward the door. He tugged his shirt forward to hide his erection, hoping he wasn’t about to shock some teen. Opening the door, he fished out his wallet and paid the middle-aged delivery driver, then brought the bags back to Selina. The scent of Chinese food had both their stomachs gurgling. Loudly.
“I guess we should eat.” He laughed as she slapped a hand over her belly.
“Yeah, or else my stomach is going to start digesting itself.”
“There’s a nice mental image.” Setting the bags on the coffee table, he sat down and dug through the bags until he found napkins and wooden chopsticks. He handed her a set while she sat up and snagged the white carton with the chow mein in it.
A deep moan filtered out of her when she took the first bite. “Oh, gods, I’ve had orgasms that weren’t this good.”
“Hey!” He laughed.
“Not with
you,
sheesh.” She waved her chopsticks between them. “This is
good
sex, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
you,
sheesh.” She waved her chopsticks between them. “This is
good
sex, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“I had noticed, actually.” He stabbed apiece of chicken with his chopsticks and forked it into his mouth. Not their intended use, but whatever. The spicy flavor hit his taste buds, and he groaned. The food was just as delicious as Selina had promised.
“Awesome, isn’t it?” She gave him a smug look before she took another bite of chow mein.
He nodded and stole some of her noodles, offering her his carton in exchange. They fell into a companionable silence as they ate, and it felt ... nice.
“So.” She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. “You’ve mentioned the marines. How long did you serve?”
She was curious about him. The thought warmed him in a way that it probably shouldn’t. He shut that down. She was a cop and she was stuck working with him for a while. Of course, she was curious. Even if they weren’t sleeping together, she’d want to know what kind of person she was dealing with.
“I was in ROTC in college, then I served as an officer for fifteen years. I did a couple of stints in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Cavalli recruited me, I took an early retirement from the corps.”
Three sentences to describe the bulk of his life. There was so much history piled into those years—events that had shaped the man he’d become.
“What made you want to become a marine?”
“My dad was a marine.” He rooted around in the plastic bags until he came up with their order of eggrolls. He offered her first grab. “It just seemed to fit. I always knew I was going to be a lifer in the corps. It was the FBI that was a surprise, but it fits me, too.”
“Why did you make the switch? You didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘I think I’ll join the FBI,’ right?” Her brows drew together, a thoughtful expression on her face when she bit into the flaky shell of the eggroll.
“No, I never considered it until Cavalli approached me.” He shrugged. “It was something different, interesting. It let me wash the taste of war out of my mouth.”
“How did Cavalli even find you? I mean, I know Normals who know about magic are registered with the All-Magickal Council, but—” She waved her hand to indicate she couldn’t explain it.
He set the eggroll container down without taking one. “My mom and stepdad moved to Seattle for his job about ten years ago. I came to see them when I was on leave a few years back and met Cavalli through a mutual acquaintance.”
“That tells me not much.” She nudged him with her elbow. “What kind of mutual acquaintance exists between a vampire FBI agent and a Normal marine? Is your stepdad a vampire?”
He snorted. “Exactly the opposite, actually.”
“Werewolf?” There was only one species diametrically opposed to vampires. The two fanged races had a serious hate on each other. Open warfare had existed between them for centuries until the All-Magickal Council had put the kibosh on it in the late 1800s. It was too dangerous for every Magickal for the war to continue. The hatred still remained and occasionally caused skirmishes, but they’d managed not to degenerate to that kill-on-sight kind of war again. So far. Jack was as aware as anyone else in the Magickal community how tenuous the peace was at times. He’d had to clean up the mess of their fighting before. He wanted no part in more war.
He’d had enough of that in the military to last a lifetime. War was an ugly, grinding thing.
Selina touched his hand, dragging him back to the present. He realized she was staring at him, waiting for him to answer her question. “Yeah, my stepdad is a werewolf.”
“I guess that brings us back to—how did a man in a werewolf family meet a vampire agent?” She gave him a pointed look. “That’s not usually on the vacation to-do list.”
He grinned at her. “You ask a lot of questions.”
She bit into her food, unfazed by his observation. “Comes with the territory.”
“So you ask everyone this many questions about their history? Or do you just want to know more about
me,
specifically?” Why he wanted to know, he couldn’t say. It shouldn’t matter.
me,
specifically?” Why he wanted to know, he couldn’t say. It shouldn’t matter.
“A little of both, I guess. I’ve never met a Normal in Magickal law enforcement. Not an agent, anyway. You’re unique, and that makes me want to know why. Also, we’ve had wild and crazy awesome sex, so I’m curious about you. If it were a one-nighter, that would be one thing, but for the moment we seem to have agreed to an affair. I like to know what I’m in for.” She licked the crumbs off of her fingers, and he almost groaned watching that pink tongue swirl around her fingertips. His dick took that moment to remind him that only
she
had gotten off during their little couch caper earlier.
she
had gotten off during their little couch caper earlier.
He forced himself to look away from her mouth. “You know there are Magickal branches of all public services, right? Hospitals, police, military, etcetera.”
“Yeah, I was around when that became a common practice.”
“Right, well. I did a couple of missions with some Magickal units in the marines. Force Recon. I wasn’t special forces, but I’d spent enough time in country that I knew my way around. Every now and then they’d tap me for something because I was a Normal who could play both sides, as it were. One of the guys I worked with—a vampire—introduced me to Luca.”
“Ah. Okay.” She drummed her fingers on her leg. “What about your dad?”
He blinked at the abrupt topic change, and realized this was how she kept her suspects off guard when questioning them. He wasn’t sure how to take that—being grilled like he’d committed a crime instead of giving her multiple orgasms. “What about him?”
“Well, your mom remarried to a werewolf, right?” She propped her bare feet on the coffee table, and he grinned when he saw the fire engine–red toenail polish. Such a great metaphor for her—she kept the fire hidden where no one else could see.
“Yeah.” He decided if he was going to be treated like a suspect, then he was going to be an uncooperative one. Let her ask what she wanted, but he wasn’t volunteering. It would be interesting to see what she wanted to know about him. How much was personal and how much was professional. So far, it had been pretty even, wanting to know about his career but also wanting to know why he’d made the decisions he’d made. Could go either way.
She shot him a look, telling him she knew he was being difficult. “Which means your dad wasn’t in her life anymore ... right?”
“He died when I was a kid. Cancer.” He winced when he said it. Decades later, and that word still stung, that life-stealing diagnosis. “It was totally out of the blue. He was a marine, so he went in for a routine exam, and they found something weird, so they checked it out and ... boom. Cancer. One day he was fine, and within a couple of months, he was gone.”
Sympathy shone on her face. “It had to be rough to lose him so young. I’m sorry.”
“It was rough for everyone.” An understatement. He’d spent a long time devastated and more than a little pissed off at the world. It was only a matter of time before everyone left him behind—his wife had more than proved that—but that first lesson in reality had been harsh. “My mom managed to hold things together for me, but I know she took it pretty hard. It took Darren a long time to get her to go out on a date with him. Good thing he’s stubborn, or Mom probably would have stayed single for the rest of her life.”
“And now she’s a werewolf.”
It wasn’t a question, but maybe it didn’t need to be. As far as he knew, if a fanged Magickal—the only two races who could turn Normals to Magickals—married a human, they turned them. He’d never heard of a husband or wife turning down the opportunity. No, only one stepson. He almost smiled, remembering the shock in his stepfather’s family when they learned he’d decided to stay human. They loved him, but they didn’t get it. No one did.
“Yep, for about twenty years now.” And his mother seemed happy with that. He was happy for her. She deserved it after losing his father. “They waited until I was eighteen before my stepfather Changed her. Wolf magic can be unstable, and they didn’t want to leave me an underaged orphan.”
“Sounds like a good way to handle the situation.” Her gaze turned thoughtful. “Do you like your stepfather?”
He shrugged. “I love him. He makes my mom happy.”
“He changed your life forever by making you both aware of magic,” she pointed out. “You don’t ever wish you didn’t know about this flaming hot mess that is the Magickal world?”
A direct hit. He chuckled. “Our lives will never be the same again, but I think we’re both okay with how that turned out for us. Though I have to admit it’s been a big relief for me since Chloe’s project has had such a breakthrough. When her treatment hits the market, I won’t have to worry about either of them dying at the full moon.”
The less he had to worry about the people he loved dying on him, the better. He’d had enough of that, and working in the field he did made it even more likely that those he was close to might meet a tragic end. He accepted it for himself and those who chose this life, but his parents were just regular people. He’d be just as happy not having to stress during the moon cycles.
Her eyebrows drew together. “Are you considering letting your stepdad Change you, now that lycanthropy is becoming stabilized?”
“No.”
Now her dark brows rose. “You haven’t even considered it?”
He folded his arms over his chest. “It wasn’t the danger that made me turn it down in the first place, so no, I haven’t considered it since the first time I said no.”
“What was it that made you turn it down, then? Most Normals I’ve met over the centuries either fear or crave the powers of Magickals once they know they exist.” She tilted her head, scrutinizing him. “You don’t seem to fall into either category.”
A smile that he knew was just a little bit mocking crossed his face. “And that bothers you, that you can’t fit me into some neat category?”
“It makes me curious.” She waved a dismissive hand. “After this many years, I’ve found that the only thing you can expect from people—Magickal or Normal—is that they’ll surprise the shit out of you. So you’d better expect the unexpected or you’ll get caught with your pants down.”
He flashed a grin. “I like you with your pants down.”
She pursed her lips. “You’re a pain in the ass. Are you going to answer my question or not?”
“I’m sorry.” He shook his head, exaggerating a baffled expression. “I’m still stuck on the mental image of you with no pants. What was the question?”
“Why did you decide you didn’t want to be a Magickal?”
“Because I’m not a Magickal.”
“Is it really that simple?” The incisive look she gave him didn’t waver for a moment, and he was damn glad he wasn’t a criminal. He’d hate to face her in an interrogation, though he’d be glad to use her when they found a suspect for this murder.
“Not everyone wants to live forever, Selina.”
“Five hundred years isn’t forever.” A wry expression molded her features. “Especially when you’re in that final century.”
“It might as well be forever to me. I’m looking at a hundred years, max.” He sighed, as unsure how to explain it as he’d ever been. “I was born Normal, that’s what I am. Everyone always asks ‘why not?’ But my question is ‘why?’ Why do I have to want to be something other than what I am?” He spread his arms and gestured down at himself. “There’s nothing wrong with what I am. If I’m okay with it, why can’t everyone else be? Magickals may see mortals as inferior, but ... this is who I am, and I’m good with that. I don’t want to be anything else.”
“Most wouldn’t resist the offer of power, no matter what its form.” She tapped a nail against her knee, still watching his face for any breaks.
“I don’t crave power, never have.” Not even as a teenager, when he’d first been given the offer. At first, staying human had been a small tie to his father, something to connect him to the life he’d had before he’d known about magic. But now? His stepfather’s offer still stood, he knew that. Now he was just... fine the way he was.
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