SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (174 page)

“No, I mean, do you
like
her?”

Jesse’s head rocked back. “What the hell is this, junior high? What do you mean
do I ‘like’ her
?”

Jack shrugged. “I’m just saying that something’s the matter with you. You’re not yourself, my friend.”

Maybe that was true. Self-loathing could do that to a man. “You need to tell your guys that Evelyn is off limits. No more jokes. No making any moves on her. Nothing. She may not be here long, but while she is, she gets treated like a fucking princess. Can you do that for me?”

The skin between Jack’s brows creased. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I can do that. Evelyn Vale is all yours. No one touches your princess but you.”

Jesse snickered, but he wanted to punch something. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I’d argue that point, but I don’t want to get my teeth knocked out.”

Jack looked like a pretty boy, but his mind was sharp as a tack and his ML52 mutations made him a fucking nightmare in battle. If Jesse tried to knock out his teeth, he’d probably lose a hand. “I gotta go meet my new team. I don’t know how soon we’re leaving, but we might be gone for a while. Gage has already been briefed, and he’ll be in charge of Blue Unit until I return. Keep an eye on him for me. He’s acting weird as shit since he and Luna got back from their last case.”

“Stop worrying and go. We got this. Immortal Bounty will still be here when your assignment is done.”

That was probably true, but Evelyn Vale would be gone.

* * *

Evelyn finally found Coot’s Café. She wanted a coffee but hadn’t thought to bring her backup purse…not that there would have been much money in it anyway. She commandeered a table for two and sipped a cup of ice water, waiting for her partner, trying to figure out what to say now that sanity had returned and she wasn’t salivating over the sight of his midriff.

Black combat boots filled her vision. “Hey,” Jesse said.

She met his eyes, but it was difficult. She knew her stupid, flushed cheeks were like twin neon signs, broadcasting her shame. “Hi. You want something? I could get you a…water.”

He smirked. “I’m in the mood for something a little stronger, but I’ll settle for a coffee. Want one? I’ll show you how us Marks charge stuff to our rooms.”

“Uh, okay.”

She rose, but he blocked her path, standing just a little too close. Against her will, her body responded to his scent and his heat, her nipples going hard. Knowing what he was packing underneath those black fatigues wasn’t helping her focus at all.

Jesse’s voice was low, only for her. “Listen, Doc… Let’s not give those assholes the satisfaction of making us look like idiots, okay? As far as I’m concerned, this morning never happened.”

She tried for a casual shrug. “Yeah. Of course. Screw them for playing a joke on us and sending me in there, right? We’re partners. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Nah. No biggie. I mean, we’re going see each other naked from time to time. We’re professionals. We can handle it.”

Her mouth dropped open for a second before she snapped it shut. “W-we are?” she stammered.

“Professionals? You bet.”

“No.
Going to see each other naked
,” she whispered feverishly.

He ducked his head and shrugged his massive shoulders. “It happens. Attending injuries, sharing accommodations, swapping gear. If we’re on a really fast-paced mission and something happens, we can’t worry about that.”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded like a bobble-head doll, but her mind was reeling. Seeing Jesse naked was nothing to complain about, but his noodles were fried if he thought she’d be changing so much as a bandage in front of him.

She followed Jesse to the register, watching the hourly employees clear a path for him like the commander of the Blue Unit was God’s gift. Hmm…maybe they’d seen him naked. That might convince a nun.

Taking note of how to put snacks and drinks on her account, Evelyn took the coffee Jesse handed her and trailed him to the sugar and creamer station where he added two packets of sugar and nothing more. “Where to next?” she asked.

He glanced at his watch. “Time to meet the team.”

She smiled. This was really, truly happening. “Who’s our third operative?”

Jesse looked around. “I know we’re on campus, but here’s the thing—there’s protocol to keep in mind, especially on a special case like this. So we won’t be talking about it in the halls or to other people who work here, not even to other Special Teams unless Clark gives us the okay. Got it?”

She nodded. “Got it.”

“Good. Follow me.”

She didn’t know Jesse very well, but if she had to guess, she’d say he was getting more and more agitated the further they walked into the bowels of Immortal Bounty.

He paused in front of a dense metal door and leaned toward the retinal scanner. The lock disengaged and he led them inside. Seated at the end of a large glass conference table was the steward himself, and to his right sat a beautiful woman with a long black braid down her back. She smiled warmly at Evelyn, but directly in front of her, a black handgun was laid out on the table. Would Evelyn be expected to carry one of those?

Tanner Clark rose to his feet. “Dr. Vale, welcome. May I introduce you to one of our best supernatural specialists, Ms. Sasha Wright.”

“Hello. It’s nice to meet you,” Evelyn said automatically, but her gaze kept returning to the gun.

“Likewise,” Sasha told her. “I’ve heard so many great things about you and your research into abnormal parapsychology.”

Evelyn blinked. “Really?”

Realizing what she’d said, she wanted to thunk herself in her forehead with her palm. It didn’t project much confidence to admit that she was surprised Sasha had heard of her. It was just that most people on the college campus had seen Evelyn as simply the chick who made coffee, but they paid no mind to her studies or her research. The one class she’d been invited to teach last semester had been freshman-level parapsychology, but it had been cancelled due to low enrollment.

“Please sit,” the steward told her. Jesse directed her to a chair by pulling it out for her. “I’m happy to tell you that your paperwork is processed and your clearance came through this morning. You’re officially ready to start on Special Teams.”

Evelyn’s lungs expanded with an even mixture of air and pride. “Thank you, sir. That’s great news.”

“You need to sign this confidentiality agreement—” the steward shoved a thin tablet and a stylus toward her, “—and initial where it states that for this caliber of work with the Governing Body of Greater America, if you break this agreement, it’s considered treason.”

When Evelyn poised her pen at the signature line, Jesse added quietly, “Do you always sign things you haven’t read?”

The steward smiled, but there was something sharp in his gaze. “Good point, Commander. Take as long as you need, Ms. Vale, but I assure you, it’s the standard agreement. The Commander himself signed something similar in order to take the lead on this case.”

Evelyn looked up at her partner and he nodded. “Yeah, I did,” he agreed. “Your contract should be pretty standard. And we already discussed your signing bonus…”

“My signing bonus?” she echoed.

Clark shot Jesse a strange look, but Jesse continued, “I thought we went over that when you met with the steward yesterday. Sorry. Well, it shouldn’t be a problem, right, sir?” He cast a glance at Clark, then his attention was back on Evelyn. “Most new Marks get a hefty bonus when they sign on to a special case like this one. It isn’t contingent upon passing your probation, and if something were to happen to you—which it won’t—the money would go to any surviving family members.”

Goose bumps broke out over Evelyn’s skin. She figured Jesse knew her situation well enough to know exactly how much that would mean to her and her family. “Wow. No, we didn’t discuss that yesterday. Do I qualify for the bonus?” she asked the steward.

Clark’s nostrils flared, but he smiled. “Of course you do. If I hadn’t mentioned it, it was simply an oversight. You qualify for twenty thousand dollars, not contingent upon passing probation. Hand me the tablet so I can make sure that page is added to the contract.”

Evelyn could have kissed Jesse in that moment. There was no doubt in her mind that Tanner Clark hadn’t ever planned on mentioning the bonus. When he finally handed the tablet back to her, she read more carefully now knowing that the steward wasn’t above keeping things from her if it served his bottom line.

After fully reviewing the document, she signed her name and initialed by the highlighted section. The page flashed “signature accepted—awaiting scan” and told her to lift the tablet to her eye for retinal confirmation. She did, blinking hard after the red light finished probing her eye.

She slid the tablet back to the steward, and he reached across the table, taking it from her and offering his hand. “Welcome to Special Teams, Evelyn.”

“Thank you, sir.”
And thank you, Jesse.

The steward punched a button and the room went dim. Then a projector illuminated the white wall behind him. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

An image of a dead body flashed onto the screen. It was a young woman who couldn’t have been much older than college age. “Body trafficking isn’t news to any of us, but as Commander Hayes has already been briefed, there are reports that a new organization has set up shop in Parkfield County. Many of the victims of these traffickers are not hosting for long before their demise. Our forensics team believes the victims are of two varieties—those hosting higher-level spirits than they can reasonably accommodate, and those used for sex acts which result in death.”

When the next picture appeared on the screen, Evelyn had to look away briefly.

“Oh, shit,” Sasha said under her breath, looking as affected as Evelyn by the sight of the nude woman bound in chains at her wrists and ankles.

Evelyn had studied this in abnormal parapsychology, but these images weren’t simply scientific study, these were real young women who had died heinous deaths right here in Parkfield.

“What can you tell me about this, Dr. Vale?”

Evelyn blinked. She hadn’t assumed he’d want her opinion, but she rallied fast. “Well, I think your forensics team is right. This sort of thing usually happens in underground clubs. It’s organized. Spirits—or their human partners—with a taste for rough sex can indulge in whatever form of play they like, and when the host’s body gives out, they can simply transfer to a new one.” She paused, getting her bearings, remembering what she had learned and what she had researched.

She rose, went to the screen, and pointed at the woman’s ankle. “My guess is this triangle here is a brand that’s been burned into her skin. Some trafficking cartels have been known to brand their ‘stock,’ especially in the rings we’ve seen in Northeastern Greater America and south along the border.”

“Go on,” Clark told her.

It was surreal having the steward of Immortal Bounty Central actually listening to anything she had to say. Luckily, the disturbing subject matter kept her from grinning like an idiot.

“Their victims are marked,” she continued, “like chattel, and while your photos are of women, I wouldn’t be surprised to also find male victims. Statistically, thirty-two percent of body-trafficking abductees are males under the age of forty, and if you further break down the numbers, eighty-one percent of those are under the age of twenty-five. Have the other victims also been branded?”

“Yes,” Jesse answered, his jaw hard.

Evelyn nodded and returned to her seat. “Traffickers are generally in it for the money, so we can’t assume too narrow a scope or that it’s only about the underground clubs. Basically, they’re going to sell bodies to whoever can afford them and have a reason not to go through legal channels. I think the first step in finding the traffickers is figuring out who their target clientele is.”

They were still listening, so she continued. “So…uh, clearly there is a segment of the clientele who is in it for the kink, and that segment seems to be responsible for the bodies you’ve found so far.”

The steward raised his brows, as if to say
no shit
, but she pressed on. “But we may also be looking for couples with at least one deceased spouse who has a fairly high joules rating. Those spirits can take a toll on their host, and some may be looking to replace bodies they’ve burned through. We also can’t dismiss individual spirits working through a representative that are having trouble contracting a body. There are so many possible scenarios, but the unifying factor is going to be wealth. It’s not going to be cheap to buy these bodies.”

“Very good,” Clark told her. “Commander, please fill in Dr. Vale and Ms. Wright with the details of what our forensics team has discovered so far.”

Jesse took the tablet and forwarded to the next slide. “In a nutshell, this investigation has come down to dirt.”

“Dirt?” Sasha echoed.

Jesse nodded. “Yeah, stay with me on this…” The next slide he showed was the magnified image of a woman’s fingernails. “First of all, the victims have been from different parts of the country, and so far, we haven’t found a pattern of where they’ve come from. But computer analysis shows that three of the four bodies that have been discovered in Parkfield County have had dirt of a variety that is only found in the Rio Nuevo desert in Southern California under their nails.”

“So they’re killing them in the desert?” Sasha asked.

“It depends,” Evelyn said, and then she turned to Jesse. “What state of decomposition were the bodies in when they were discovered, and does your team think they were moved after they died?”

“Both the bodies and the dirt under their nails were relatively fresh,” Jesse replied, “so we had to start looking at how and why they would be exposed to this particular substrate. What we discovered is that there is a certain fill dirt company that gets their dirt from a quarry in Rio Nuevo and now delivers exclusively to Starbright Construction. Have you heard of the Star Ridge development in North Parkfield?”

Sasha’s brows rose. “I’ve driven past it. Those homes are something else. Custom mini-mansions in a master-planned community.”