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Magic was real. That was something her father had never allowed her to know. She still felt a bit resentful at his deliberate attempts to keep her in ignorance. For now, she had to focus on the matter at hand. There was a threat to her and her friends and she was in the best position—with all this help—to end it. Finally, she’d get to put some of those protective instincts she’d been born with to good use.

Steve hated this plan. He hated sending Trisha out there into the unknown. Using her as bait. Everything about this went against his instincts, but from the moment her father had suggested it, a light had entered her eyes that he recognized. A light of battle. Of confidence. Of power.

It would crush her if he stepped in and argued against her participation. A predator to his very bones, he respected the right of every being to take an active part in their own protection. The fact that she was helping to safeguard her friends as well only amplified the need he knew she was feeling to do what she could.

If she’d been a shifter female, he would still have been concerned, but he would have had to respect her right to defend herself and those she considered friends. He had to give Trisha the same respect—even though he didn’t really understand the full scope of her abilities.

But her father had to know. The admiral wasn’t saying much, but the mere fact that he’d suggested this plan meant that he knew Trisha could handle it. Maybe he was making up, in some small way, for keeping her in the dark so long about the real world and her place in it—among magical beings, like herself.

If there was one thing that made Steve feel a little better about all of this, it was that the admiral had put forth the plan. Steve had worked with the man, and the SEALs under him many times in the past. He respected the admiral’s head for strategy and his knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of those under his command. He always deployed the best men for the job, and Steve saw no reason to doubt his judgment now, not when the man’s own daughter was involved.
Especially
when his daughter was involved.

Admiral Morrow wouldn’t risk his daughter’s life on a mission she had a slim chance of seeing through to the end. Her father knew her abilities better than anyone. He had to believe she could handle her role in the coming action. And Steve had to believe that old man Morrow knew what he was doing when he selected his daughter for the mission.

Steve followed Trisha as she walked down the Las Vegas Strip. He was at quite a distance, using his keener eyesight and sense of smell to track her among the many humans all around. The vamps were doing their thing subtly. Their kind of magic was very low-key. In fact, if Steve didn’t know they were out there, consciously working to direct the humans’ attentions elsewhere, he wouldn’t have known.

As it was, Steve could only see the small gestures, the quick aversion of eyes, the way nobody really looked at Trisha. Those small things told him the vamps were doing their thing. He’d given her an earwig—a tiny device that fit in her ear and would both transmit and receive audio signals. They—Steve, her father and brother—could hear her when she spoke and she could hear their directions as well.

She was on a separate frequency from the tactical radios the rest of the shifter team was using. Mag was their relay to the vamps. He was, at this moment, strolling down the Strip arm in arm with his vampire lady friend. Steve had met Miranda a couple of times—including the night they’d rescued her from a madman’s lair. She’d been in bad shape. Her captor had starved her for months. Possibly years. Steve didn’t really know. Mag had recognized her, let her bite the shit out of him in her frenzy and then disappeared with her into the night.

He’d taken her away from the scene so fast none of the brothers knew where he’d gone. He’d shown up a few days later, just long enough to get a couple of changes of clothes from his room and have angry words with Grif. Since then, he’d been around a little more often and he’d brought Miranda to a meeting on neutral territory so Grif could talk to them both. Steve hadn’t been in on that meeting, but he knew Grif wouldn’t have let Mag go if he thought the woman posed a real threat to either Mag or the Clan.

Steve could see Mag and Miranda walking along about a hundred yards from Trisha on the other side of the wide boulevard. Mag’s arm was around Miranda’s waist and it looked more like he was supporting her than anything else to Steve’s keen eyes. Miranda was still sickly, which surprised him. Vamps were immortal. Very little could sicken them, though starvation had to be a bad thing. She must’ve suffered at the mad mage’s hands more than Steve had realized. No wonder Mag was so secretive about the woman. The injured female must’ve roused all of his brother’s protective instincts.

As Steve scanned the crowd, he could see the way the vamps orchestrated the zone of obscurity that moved along with Trisha. It was masterfully done and he would have never known of it if the vamps hadn’t let him in on the magic. They were able to target exactly who could see the reality versus the rest of the world that saw the illusion they were creating. Only someone with very special, rare magical powers would be able to see through a vampire’s illusion. If luck was on their side, the people who were after Trisha wouldn’t have that particular skill.

Being sensitive to magic didn’t equate with being able to see through illusions. And there were many different flavors of magic. Vampires worked on a whole different level than most human mages or most shifters, for that matter. They had a charm all their own.

“Activity,” Mag reported quietly over his tac radio. “Billings. South-east corner.”

Steve moved so he could see through the crowd. He was quite a distance away—they all were—but keen shifter eyesight allowed him to see clearly. Sure enough, there was the man of the hour, moving in on Trisha from across the street.

“Stay by the rail of the lake,” her father instructed. “He coming in from the east. Jim and Rick are in the lake. They’re your ace in the hole.”

“Dammit, Dad. You spring this on me now? I can handle this on my own, you know.”

“Who are Jim and Rick?” Steve asked, too distracted by the fact that the admiral had apparently brought his own team—and opted not to come clean about them until now—to keep the channel clear.

“My brothers,” Trisha replied in a huffy tone. “It’s a regular family reunion, apparently.”

Then Steve remembered the seldom-mentioned Morrow brothers. Deke had talked about them only once that Steve could recall. They were Navy SEALs and the family wasn’t encouraged to discuss them. In fact, the one time Deke had mentioned them after a few too many beers, he’d come back the next day and asked Steve to keep that info under his hat. Steve had understood. Spec Ops had to be low key. He’d lived in the community a long time. He knew there were different levels of secrecy, and he surmised that whatever Deke’s brothers were into, it had to be way above Steve’s pay grade.

Steve sent a communication directly to the admiral. “These are
your
sons, right? Same as you?”

“Affirmative,” came the terse reply.

It made Steve feel a lot better to know that two highly trained and highly magical men were out there in the water—which was their element, after all—ready to help Trisha if she needed it. It also irked him that the old man hadn’t seen fit to disclose this information up front, and he knew Trisha was going to be royally pissed at her dad. So the news was both welcome and irritating.

Trisha leaned over the rail of the big manmade lake. There was a fountain show here every hour, but they were in an off-time now, which meant the usual crowd hadn’t gathered. Steve was glad. She reached over the rail as if to trail her fingers in the water and he could hear her soft words, directed at the SEALs who were completely hidden in the shallow lake.

“I’m real happy you guys are here, but let me handle this, okay? It’s my battle, though I wouldn’t mind a little discrete backup.”

Steve didn’t know if they answered somehow, but he got the feeling Trisha knew they could hear her. Maybe these beings who had such an affinity for water could use it somehow to help them communicate. He’d already heard the admiral’s claim that the water could provide information to him. The idea was both fascinating and a little disconcerting. Steve had never thought of water as being alive—or at least sentient in some way.

Steve approached from the west and the bad guy was coming in from the east. From across the street, at least a half dozen men were walking with purpose in their steps, directly toward Trisha.

“Incoming from the north,” Steve informed the group over the tac radio. The lake was to the south and Trisha was back up against it. Steve looked behind him and noticed a few people walking his direction. One of them had his hands in the air and his gaze was focused on Trisha. “Slade, what’s this guy behind me doing with his hands?”

“Nothing good. Take him down fast and clean, if you can. I’m coming.” Slade was across the street, at least two hundred yards away. But Slade could
see
magic.

Steve knew a lot of human mages had to wave their hands in the air to conjure. Or maybe it was just an affectation. Whatever it was, this guy was doing it and Slade had confirmed it was magic. He had to be taken out. Steve stopped moving and pretended to bend down to tie his shoe. The mage stepped around him and kept going, which was his mistake.

Steve jumped him from behind, but the man didn’t go down as easily as Steve expected. No, the guy turned the magic he’d been calling on Steve, and in the blink of an eye, the tables had turned.

Not in Steve’s favor.

Trisha felt something happen. She didn’t have the same kind of eyesight that shifters seemed to have, but she could use the water to see. The manmade lake here extended the length of the block. She reached out to it and saw Steve on the ground, held there by something that the water found evil. Impure.

Magic.

“Steve?” She wanted to run to him.

“Don’t you dare.” Her father’s stern voice in her ear stopped her from following the impulse. “He’s getting help better able to deal with this than you, little lady.”

She hated it when he called her that.

But even as she watched through the water, she could feel the purity of the magic that approached. She looked up to see Slade at the farthest reaches of her vision. She squinted as the mysterious shifter moved fast in Steve’s direction. The water liked him. It even—respected?—his magic. Steve would have good help. Her dad was right.

But that didn’t stop her worry. Or her being distracted.

“You’re a hard woman to track down.” A new voice sounded from her side, approaching fast. She turned to see a stranger approaching as if he knew her. And she realized he did. This was the man they were all trying to stop. The magic sensor—Jeffrey Billings. And he’d taken her by surprise.

She’d been so worried about Steve, the rest of the night’s mission had left her mind almost completely. Her brothers would kick her ass if they knew. And dammit, they were all watching. They probably knew. She’d never live this down. If she survived.

She had to salvage this somehow. Go on the offensive.

“So, Mr. Billings, we finally meet face-to-face.” She felt satisfaction as his step faltered just the tiniest bit at the sound of his name. “That’s far enough.” She held one hand out, using the slight mist in the air generated by the fountains behind her to form a slight barrier. He seemed surprised enough to stop about four feet away from her.

“You do have skills. I thought you were just a passive.” He frowned and his expression didn’t look quite sane to her for a moment there. Then he seemed to refocus on her. “No matter. I have enough backup this time to get you and take all your power for my own.”

Now
that
didn’t sound good. She had to stall for time and try to draw more information out of him. They needed to know why he was doing this and who his friends were. Until they knew that, the threat would still exist even if they took him out.

“Won’t your backup, as you call him, want you to share? I’m sure he’s demanding something from you for his help.”

“That’s none of your business, tramp. I’ll have you and your power. What I do with it is my business.”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong.” She was proud of how cool her voice sounded when she was trembling inside. It was all she could do to keep her knees from shaking visibly. She’d never had to confront anyone quite like this in her life. It was terrifying and kind of exhilarating all at the same time. “I won’t go quietly, and if you attempt to take me, I’ll have to object. Rather strongly, actually.”

She pretended to buff her fingernails against her opposite sleeve. In reality, it was a signal they’d worked out in advance to begin tightening the noose around their target. Every shifter on the street had been watching and waiting for that signal and they all began a slow prowl closer while the vampires held the illusion of normalcy for the sake of the human populace.

“Your parlor tricks aren’t going to stop me. In addition to being sensitive to magic, I’m also pretty much impervious to it.” He walked right through her barrier and took hold of her wrist in a bruising grip. He smiled at her and her blood ran cold. That was an evil smile if she ever saw one. “One of my little gifts.” He quirked his head to the side and seemed to chuckle.