Something Elijah was about to discover firsthand.

“You’re going to kil me,” Vash said softly, “in retaliation for the death of your friend, who died because I was seeking the same vengeance for Nikki. No…let me finish before you argue. I’m not going to renege on our agreement. When al is said and done, you’l be doing me a favor. I’l even lay my neck across a stump and make it easy for you.”

The lycan’s gaze sharpened. “Your point?”

“I’m not asking for your sympathy or compassion. I just want you to look for the same fidelity in me that I see in you. I’l come into this al iance with al I’ve got. You do the same and we’l both end up with what we want.”

“Wil we?” His tone was low and intimate, belying the anger that thinned his sexy mouth.

“If you keep your wants realistic,” she qualified drily.

“You’re dodging my question, Vashti. What does Syre expect to gain from this?”

“It’s an almost even trade.” Lifting her hand, she ran her fingers through her hair, noting how his eyes fol owed the fal of the crimson strands. She meant to tease him with what he hungered for, but instead found herself heated by the fierceness of his regard. The desire of such a gorgeous, virile beast of a man was a seduction al by itself. “We both need bodies.”

“I won’t lead the lycans into war with the Sentinels.”

“No? Stil feeling the pinch of the col ar?”

“Stil aware that the Sentinels serve a purpose,” he shot back. “They’re needed to keep the rogues in check. That’s why I think Adrian hasn’t fal en like you did, even though he’s crossed the same line. He’s the weight that balances the scale, which makes him too necessary to throw away.”

Her jaw clenched, pushing infuriating thoughts of the Sentinel leader aside because she needed to keep her head cool. “You also need money now that you’re al unemployed. The vampire nation has amassed considerable wealth.”

“You want me at a disadvantage. You want me grateful.” He unfolded his arms and stroked a hand down his chest, rubbing his palm over one beautiful y defined pectoral. Showing off his mouthwatering body. Playing her game. His voice was gravel y. Warm crushed velvet. It brushed over her like the stroke of a tongue. “I won’t subordinate the packs to anyone. We’re equals or we’re nothing.”

Her mouth curved. “You can’t afford to see this fal through.”

“I know what I can afford. And what I’m wil ing to pay. I’ve got nothing left to lose, but that doesn’t make me desperate. Take it or leave it.”

She started to turn away, hiding a smile. “I’l grab what I need and return tomorrow. Be ready to get down to business.”

“Vashti.”

Looking over her shoulder at him, she realized he could hold his own. Sandwiched between two powerhouses like Adrian and Syre, she felt little doubt that he could and would take on either side in battle if necessary. The submissive qualities she was so used to seeing—and disparaging—in other lycans were notably absent in the Alpha. Yet Adrian had kept him in service, a marked deviation from his usual practice of segregating Alphas from the others. Not only that, the Sentinel leader had trusted Elijah with Lindsay’s safety. “Yes?”

“Don’t play me.” His voice rumbled with warning, setting off a sweep of goose bumps over her skin. “I’ve admitted I want you, but I won’t be led around by my dick. Two can play the game. It won’t leave my mind that you want me, too. I don’t need to hear you say yes when I can smel it.”

“I hate lycans,” she said without heat. It was a simple fact, best laid out there in case he missed the memo. “The thought of fucking one makes my skin crawl.”

“But the thought of fucking me makes you wet.” His tone was as emotionless as hers had been. “Let’s put that on the table from the start. I’l wring you out and you’l milk my last drop, and we can stil hate each other in the morning. Nothing is going to change how this association wil play out.”

Genuine amusement slid through her. “Good to know.”

His gaze dropped to her throat. “And whoever’s been feeding off you is done. The only lips that wil be touching your skin are mine. I don’t share.”

Her fingers lifted involuntarily to the twin fang tears that were healing with unusual slowness. Lindsay had taken the bite out of her after Syre’s failed attempt to recover the soul of his daughter, Shadoe. Vash was reminded that the first time she had seen Elijah he’d been with Lindsay, protecting Adrian’s mate with his own life. “Not that it’s any of your business, but it won’t be happening again.”

She began the long walk back to the cave entrance, feeling unsettled in a way she hadn’t in…forever. Elijah was going to help her find the lycans she sought. As adversarial as their “association” was, she trusted that he’d fol ow through, if only to get his revenge at the end. That should make her feel good about working with him. Instead, she felt twitchy.

She was now dependent on the trustworthiness of a creature whose breed she’d long reviled for its treachery. The lycans had once been Watchers. Instead of taking the same punishment as the rest of their brethren and becoming vampires, they’d begged the Sentinels for leniency.

Adrian had given it in the form of indentured servitude as lycans. With transfused werewolf blood sliding through their veins, they’d lost their wings but retained their souls…and their mortality. They lived, they whelped, and they died as slaves, which is the least of what they deserved.

But now they’d betrayed the Sentinels—just as they had the Fal en—by switching al egiances again.

She’d be damned if the dogs would have the opportunity to be faithless to the Fal en a second time. Whatever she had to do, she’d make sure that if someone was going to get a knife in the back, it would be a lycan.

CHAPTER 3

“I have the right to kil her,” Rachel snapped, her eyes lit with a roiling fury. “You can’t take that from me.”

Elijah stood with his palms flat on his desktop. He kept his gaze on the schematics in front of him, fol owing the red lines that showed where electrical cables would transfer power from generators into various caverns. “I can delay that right and I am.”

Because they weren’t the only two people who had a claim to a piece of Vashti’s luscious hide. Lindsay, too, had lost a loved one to the vampress.

“Micah would have avenged you, El. Don’t forget he died protecting you. Vashti kil ed him trying to find out where you were.”

To avenge Nikki’s death, because his blood had been planted to frame him for the crime. It didn’t matter that he was innocent of Nikki’s abduction. He was nevertheless guilty of being the reason Micah died. “Micah didn’t have thousands of lycans depending on him, Rach. We need this al iance to keep us al alive.”

“Damn you. You want her.”

He lifted his head and looked at her.

“Don’t try to deny it.” She held his gaze. “It’s obvious.”

“He’s stil going to kil me,” Vashti interjected as she joined them.

Al eyes turned toward the arched entrance and the vampress who strode through it. In direct opposition to her appearance the day before, Vash had returned armed to the teeth. Katana scabbard straps crisscrossed between her lush tits, and two knife sheaths hugged her lithe thighs. She carried a smal navy duffel in her hand. Her stride was long and sure, her chin lifted high and proud. As usual, she wore black from head to toe, this time sporting skintight cotton pants topped with a leather vest that was secured with brass snaps down the front. Her hair was twisted atop her head into a bun that was secured with what he suspected were slender throwing knives.

Like the first time he’d seen her in a parking lot in Anaheim, the look of her hit Elijah like a fist to the gut. His visceral response to her was so strong he sucked in a breath to push through it, then forced himself to exhale slowly.

Rachel growled, and he glanced her way. He took her sneer as his due, knowing how he would feel if their positions were reversed.

“Vashti.” He straightened. “This is Rachel, the mate of the lycan you kil ed. Rach, this is Vash, Syre’s second.”

He watched the two women careful y, painful y aware of how difficult it must be for Rachel to face her mate’s kil er and be forbidden to seek revenge by the very man who’d contributed to Micah’s death. His hand lifted to his chest, rubbing at the ache that shortened his breathing.

Vash dropped her duffel on the floor in front of his desk. “It won’t comfort you to hear that I know how you feel, Rachel, but I do. My mate was kil ed by lycans.”

“Was he mortal y wounded and left to die over the space of several days?” Rachel asked bitterly.

“No. He was disemboweled and had his vitals eaten while he was stil alive.”

“You lie,” Rachel spat. “Lycans don’t hunt that way.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

Elijah gestured at his Beta, who worked on a laptop at an adjacent desk. “That’s Stephan over there.”

“Hi, Beta,” she greeted him. Then she smiled at his upraised brows. “Takes one to know one.”

Stephan acknowledged her with a brisk nod.

Vashti kicked at a rock on the floor. “I love what you’ve done with the place, El. You take rustic charm to a whole ’nother level.”

The look he shot her said everything he needed to say about her sarcasm.

She stepped closer, looking down at the schematics with a wry twist to her mouth. “Cute. But you can put those away. We’re not staying here.”

He sank into his chair and reclined, waiting for her to get to her point.

She half sat on his desk. “I’m not sticking my guys on cave-watching duty. They’re not going to be happy about this al iance as it is. Besides, we need more power than generators are going to provide. No way you’ve got Internet or cel reception in this hole in the ground, and you’l need both to have the information and communication necessary to pul the packs together. And I need the same to keep track of my men and my agenda.”

“Which is?” Elijah glanced at Rachel, and his voice softened. “Let the others know we’l be vacating shortly.”

“Just like that?” she asked, wide-eyed. “She says jump and you do?”

“Look at it however you want.” As much as he regretted the position he was forced to put her in, he wasn’t going to argue his point with anyone.

His word had to be law if they were going to survive. “You can stay here, if you prefer. Tel the others they can stay with you or come with me—their choice.”

Stephan rose to his feet as Rachel stomped out. “I’l see to it, Alpha.”

“I’l have you fol ow up. For now, I’d like your input here.”

Vash shook her head. “I hope you can keep a lid on the drama. We have enough on our plates.”

“Such as? The time for showing your hand is now.”

She hesitated a moment, her lips pursing slightly as she considered whatever it was she had on her mind. “We have a situation.”

“Tel me something I don’t know. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

“I need to run some background checks, and I need bodies pounding the pavement during daylight hours. I don’t have enough of the Fal en to cover the ground necessary in the time we’ve got to work with.” Her fingertips drummed on the desktop, betraying her restlessness. “I’l cover your ass and provide safe passage for the lycans fleeing the other outposts. In return, you put those lycans to work helping me dig for information.”

Elijah waited for her to elaborate. In the interim, he took her in, noting the fine texture of her creamy skin and the darkness of her thick lashes. The amber of her eyes, a trait universal among al vampires, was striking against the brazenly bold hue of her hair. He wondered what she’d looked like with the flame-blue eyes of a seraph angel. Like a china dol , he imagined. There was an elegant fragility to her that wasn’t immediately apparent and total y lost at a distance. Her penchant for black leather and Lycra distracted one from noticing how softly feminine she real y was.

With a sigh, she capitulated and withdrew a flash drive from her cleavage. “This wil explain everything better than I can.”

Stephan retrieved his laptop from the other desk and set it up in front of Elijah, who plugged the drive in. Shortly, a video began to play. It was clearly surveil ance video of a cel in which a vampire with foam at the mouth and bloodshot eyes bashed his head against a brick wal until it burst.

“I’ve seen an infected vamp like this before,” Elijah said.

“You have?” Vash stood and faced him, her focus razor sharp. “When? Where?”

He leaned back again. “The first time was in Phoenix, about a month ago. I believe she was the friend you wanted to avenge—brunette, petite, a pilot.”

“Nikki.” Vash took a deep breath. “Jesus. I thought Adrian was ful of shit when he said she was fucked up.”

“We cleaned out a nest in Hurricane, Utah, two days later. Half the occupants were foaming at the mouth like that.”

Bending down, she dug in her duffel and pul ed out an iPad. She typed as she spoke. “We don’t know what the hel this sickness is, how quickly it’s spreading, or where it started. That’s what we need to determine and what we need you for—we have to work night and day. We can work in shifts.”

“Maybe this is population control.”

Her head lifted. “Don’t play me. I don’t play nice.”

“Have any of the Fal en been infected?”

“No.” She set the tablet in front of him, revealing a map of North America dotted with multicolored spots. “The red spots are the first reports. You can see Nikki’s appearance in Phoenix was part of the first wave. Orange is second. Yel ow is the most recent.”