And he thought trying to freeze me out would actually work? I almost felt sorry for the daft sod.

CHAPTER TWO

(Jared)

Studying the abandoned bungalow – which happened to be in Ohio – I had the strongest urge to hoist Sam over my shoulder and teleport her back to The Hollow…but then she’d probably whip the f**k out of me. And not in a hot, dominatrix kind of way. That was something I knew from prior experience. She especially liked to whip my earlobes when I upset her. That hurt like a motherfucker.

With Sam being so feisty, I’d been expecting her to be pretty pissed at me for repeatedly dodging her questions. But she wasn’t. Or, at least, it seemed like she wasn’t. There had been no insults, no abruptness, no silent treatment – nothing. I’d even half expected her to say I couldn’t move into her apartment, purely to make a point of just how pissed she was. But she hadn’t.

What she did do – and was still doing even now – was watch me in a way that f**king freaked me out. Her expression was patient, expectant, and intense; like a predator waiting for just the right moment to pounce on its prey. She was sneaky like that.

I kind of liked the sneakiness, though. On anyone else, I wouldn’t. But Sam never behaved sneakily in a malignant or spiteful way. Oh she could be merciless at times, but never malicious in any sense of the word. One of the things I couldn’t help but love about her was that you always knew where you stood with her. There were no games, no lies, and no passive aggressive behaviours. She was straight, and blunt, and real.

It hadn’t been until Sam that I realised I’d been kind of lonely, hiding behind an inflated ego that hadn’t really been all that inflated. Well of course I’d been lonely – what else was going to happen if you avoided forming any type of connection with another person?

It was bad enough that I had a blood-link to Magda. That damn link meant that I could never really escape her unless I bonded with another vampire, replacing the link with another. But claiming a woman would have meant forming another connection, and until Sam, I hadn’t even considered it. But, then, there had never been anyone like her in my life before. And she was staying in it.

In the beginning, I had feared what I felt for her, feared the strength and intensity of it. But not anymore, because I knew without a doubt that if I ran from this connection, I’d never find anything like it again, I’d never find anyone like her again. That wouldn’t have meant I had to spend my life alone – I could still have had a relationship with a person who didn’t have what amounted to power over me. But honestly, what was the point of giving your life to someone if they didn’t feel essential to you, if they didn’t feel part of you?

That was what she was to me − essential, necessary, vital…which was why I didn’t want her in potential danger. In truth, my instincts told me that this wasn’t a trap, but when it came to Sam’s safety, I didn’t want to risk it. Unfortunately I didn’t have a choice in the matter, because the stubborn bitch had refused to remain behind. What I’d never tell her was that, although it pissed me off when she disregarded me like that, I perversely liked that she didn’t always give me my own way. I’d always liked that about her.

The fact was that since becoming Heir, everything had come easy to me. But Sam had never done what the other women did; she hadn’t been wowed by my position, she hadn’t thrown herself at me so she could say she’d slept with ‘the Heir’, and she hadn’t blindly obeyed me. Instead, she’d been patronising and disrespectful, and God help me, I’d found it sexy as hell.

Of course, I’d have wanted her regardless. She intrigued me on every level; had wriggled through my mental walls without either of us even knowing. She also didn’t take any of my shit, which was why she was here with me and the squad, scoping out this damn place, instead of safe at home.

“I know this probably won’t make you feel any less irritated,” began Chico, who was squatted beside me in the thin forest that bordered the building, “but I don’t get the feeling that this is a trap. Still, it’s bothering me that there are only two guards. Making a place look easy to infiltrate is one of the oldest tricks in the book.” As he always did when in deep thought, he started stroking his Johnny Depp style moustache and goatee. I noticed that he was repeatedly clenching his free hand, and guessed that he was most likely eager to use his gift and emit some poisonous thorns from his palm.

If it was a trap, we’d soon find out. Denny, as one of his animal-mimic abilities, was able to make his body go soft as liquid much like a sea cucumber. Stuart, as a Shredder, was able to explode into molecules and travel in that form. This made both squad members excellent spies, and gave us a huge advantage at times like this. “We’ll know more when Stuart, Denny, and Damien get back.” Well, technically Damien was with us – in body, anyway. His astral self, however, had gone for a wander.

“I know it’s not exactly strange for vampires to want privacy, but this is isolated even for them,” observed Salem.

Chico nodded. “Unless they’re happy to survive on the blood of each other and the local wildlife, they must have to travel miles before reaching any humans.”

“In my experience, the usual reason for someone to isolate themselves so thoroughly is that they have something to hide.” Sam growled as she elbowed Salem. “For God’s sake, will you keep bloody still.”

Salem just grinned. Much like David, he had an inability to keep still at times like this – like a boxer loosening up before a fight, he’d roll his shoulders and c*ck his head this way and that way. While with David it was nervousness, it was anticipation and excitement with Salem. As such, the gift of having a psychic punch that could knock a person into unconsciousness suited Salem just fine.

One might think that David was nervous of the situation. In actuality, the youngest of the squad was actually nervous of his gift. The ability to produce a psionic boom that caused extreme pressure on the skull, completely overwhelming the brain and leading to a temporary coma, was undoubtedly a weighty one to have. If the blast was strong enough, it could even cause death. Sam’s coaching had helped him dramatically, but he still feared accidentally harming or killing one of his fellow squad members.

“Hey, here comes Stu and Den,” announced Max quietly, as he hopped down from a tree. I frowned at the flirty f**ker who, as usual, sat too close to Sam for my liking. While once-upon-a-time he did it because he thought he had a chance with her, now he just did it to piss me off. It worked. If he wasn’t such an asset to the squad in that he had the gift of sensory paralysis, I might have transferred him to another squad. Actually no, I couldn’t have. Sam was protective of them all and would never have allowed it. She was good at getting her own way.

A trail of molecules and a small puddle of mush suddenly approached where we were hiding. Seconds later, the molecules reformed into Stuart, and the mush was once again Denny.

“I’ve done a lap of the perimeter of the forest,” Denny informed us. “There’s no one around other than us.”

I nodded. “Okay, what about inside?”

“The inside isn’t exactly well kept, but it’s liveable.” Stuart flicked his shoulder-length blond curls from his face. “There are four vampires; one female, and three males. They’re not alert. Two are lounging around playing poker and watching T.V, and the other two are f**king. There’s also a basement.”

I didn’t like the tone he used when speaking the latter words. “And?”

“This is where it gets bad. Down there are two rooms and eight cells.”

“Cells?” echoed Sam. “Could you see what they contained?”

Stuart took a long breath. “Vampires. Three are females. Five are males. And they are all deformed and crazed.”

“Deformed and crazed?” I repeated. Unease spread around the entire squad. “You can’t deform a vampire. We’re immortal, we don’t change on a cellular level…so how the f**k could they be deformed?”

Stuart shook his head and shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. There was only one who was relatively lucid. A female Sventé.”

“Long dark hair and green dress?” asked Sam.

“That’s the one.”

Now I really, really wanted to take my stubborn female back to The Hollow. “What about the rooms in the basement?”

“The first room had four male vampires inside – I got the feeling they were scientists by the terminology they were using. I didn’t really understand much of what they were saying, other than they were disappointed that their latest ‘experiment’ hadn’t been successful, and they would have to find a new ‘subject’ soon.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” the telekinetic Harvey muttered, anxious.

Max looked at him incredulously. “Dude, none of this sounds good.”

Suddenly Damien’s head snapped up and he exhaled heavily.

“Hey, welcome back,” said Reuben, slapping Damien’s back.

“Well?” I prodded.

“The only outdoor guards are the two vampires you can see standing on the roof,” said Damien. Although the bungalow was a fair distance away, our enhanced vision allowed us to see them. “They’re not very vigilant, so I think it’s safe to say that they don’t think anyone of any threat is going to come along.”

And wasn’t that dumb of them. “Good, they’re no more prepared than the ones inside.” I looked again at Stuart. “What about the other room in the basement?”

“I couldn’t get inside it. The door and wall were both made of steel, like a panic room. I couldn’t hear any movement at all. It was soundproof.”

Well now I really, really, really wanted to take my stubborn female back to The Hollow. Clearly she sensed it, because her voice was then in my head.

If you want to keep both of your bollocks, behave.

If you get hurt, I’ll spank your pretty little ass and strap you to the bed when we get home. All I got in response was an amused snort – probably because she happened to like it when I did that.

“Do you think these scientists have been trying to come up with some kind of drug that can severely harm us, like chemical warfare or something?” asked Butch, his tone casual. But that was the thing about Butch; he could stand there plotting someone’s death while looking as cool and calm as if he were watching a movie. He liked violence even more than Salem did, he just hid it better. I imagined that it therefore galled him to have a defensive gift as opposed to an offensive one − even though the ability to negate and deflect anything that came at him was a substantial gift to have.

Although Butch’s theory wasn’t a bad one, considering how many vampires liked to battle over territory – particularly the High Masters – I found myself shaking my head. My instincts simply weren’t in agreement, but nor were they offering any theories of their own. “Reuben, I need you to do your thing on David, Salem, and Chico.”

With a respectful nod, the highlander lookalike – who I had to agree with Sam wasn’t the brightest bulb – used his gift of power augmentation to amplify those of three of his squad members. Using only the briefest touch, Reuben had made Salem’s psychic punch, David’s psionic boom, and Chico’s poisonous thorns all fatal.

“Good. Stuart, give me a layout of the bungalow.”

Having drawn a rectangle in the dirt with his finger, Stuart explained while sketching it. “The place has a side entrance. When you open the front door, you’re in a hallway. The first room on your left is the living area, the second on your left is the dining room, and the one directly ahead of you on the opposite side of the bungalow is the kitchen. There’s only one right turning, which is parallel to the dining room, and it’s actually a continuance of the hallway. Once you make that right turn, you have a room on either side of you – one being a bathroom, and another being a tiny bedroom. You also have two doors in front of you. One of them is the master bedroom, and the other is just a standard sized bedroom.”

“And the basement?”

“The hatch is in the kitchen. There’s actually a back entrance to the bungalow and it leads straight into the kitchen, so we could just sneak—”

Easily reading where his thoughts had taken him, I raised a hand. “No, we need to eliminate all the guards before entering the basement. Where exactly are the poker-playing vampires lounging?”

“The living area.”

“And the other two?”

“If they’re still f**king, they’re in the master bedroom.”

Sam asked, “From what you’ve seen, do you think it’s possible to save the vampires that are contained in the cells?”

Stuart blew out a breath, shaking his head. “No, Coach. The Sventé from your dream is lucid, but she doesn’t seem stable, she looks like she’s deteriorating fast.”

I felt the disappointment that travelled through Sam, but I resisted trying to give her any comfort. With the guys, she was ‘Coach’, and she wouldn’t like showing any weakness in front of them.

“Reuben, Damien, Harvey – I want you guys to cover the back entrance, just in case anyone from the basement tries to surface and make a run for it.” I doubted that anybody would. If these vampires were here to guard and hide something, the last thing they would do was run before at least trying to fight us off. “Chico, Salem, Denny, Stuart – once we’re inside, I want you four to deal with the vampires in the bedroom. Before we do anything, though, Salem and Chico – I want you both to deal with the guards on the roof. Do it quickly and quietly. We want the whole thing to be over as quickly and quietly as possible. We have no idea what kind of gifts the vampires in that place have. We can’t afford to give them any warning that we’re here.”