.Chapter Two .

Deven pulled open the heavy oak door to their home. Two steps inside and he stopped. His brother paused right behind him. Probably sensing the same thing. Something was wrong.

Their home, their safe haven smelled slightly like fear.

But glancing around, nothing seemed out of place. He motioned Zeven to his flank. "Clear the upstairs and check on Harley."

Thankfully, they had enough trust between them now to use telepathy easily. And they"d dealt with enough cases together to work smoothly as a team. As soon as Zeven slipped to the side to bolt up the long staircase, he moved forward toward the central den. That was where the scent was strongest.

He pushed open the right part of the glass double door. Quinn and Tess sat on one of the two long couches. They looked ridiculously serious. "What happened?"

Quinn patted her hand and stood. "Stay here and rest." He strode toward the entrance. Pausing only a moment at his side. "Get your brother. We"re going to LA. There"s been another killing."

The boss made it sound like they"d be leaving immediately but something still seemed off here in the den. He turned his focus onto Tessa. "Looks like you went on a real bender." He motioned at the half a bottle of whiskey sitting next to a juice glass. "Is that why you look half dead?"

She chuckled a little shakily. "I"ll be fine. Just did a little too much research."

He might believe her except that she was white as a sheet and her computer and other tech was nowhere in sight. But it wasn"t as if he could be critical of her taking a break. She"d probably worked her ass off for this newest lead. Heading to LA would likely take a couple days. If not longer. Maybe that would let her have the kind of break she needed. "He"s right. Stay here and get some rest."

He still didn"t have any idea how she got her intel. "Maybe when we get back you can give me some training on your tech. Seems like Joseph isn"t being as much help as we"d hoped."

"Don"t pick on him. He"s slowly getting the hang of it which I doubt you ever will."

"Aww, come on, it can"t be that hard. The computer does all the work, doesn"t it?"

"Seriously?" She sat up with a whimper. "You... I could train you for a month and you"d still ask me how to turn it on."

"Oh, please. I know how to turn things on..." He hadn"t meant that inuendo but once it hit the air, he added a little leer and wink.

She laughed and threw a decorative pillow at him.

A smooth dodge and he snagged it from the air and tossed it back on to the opposite sofa. Then he ducked out the door. He always kept a bag of essentials packed and ready to roll but if they had a few minutes, he"d double check the contents and then grab Zeven.

He strode back through the house, catching sight of Quinn on the phone. The few words he caught were about arranging a flight. He jogged up the stairs and hesitated in front of his brother"s room. Harley was stuffing clothing into a bag, but Zeven was taking them back out to make room for weapons.

"We"re going by plane so limit it to one bag."

He didn"t need to nag. Zeven might still be learning agency protocol, but he had no problem with mission logistics. He was solid when it came to the basics and the fighting. And the rest, he was finally relaxing into the support role and better able to follow rules at least when they were together.

His room was on the opposite side of the other end of the long hall, directly across from Quinn"s master suite. And for some reason it shared a wall with the room that Tess used. There were seven other empty rooms. He still couldn"t fathom why she"d picked that one. Not that it mattered too much. She was more likely to be found sleeping in her office downstairs.

He checked his bag, slung it over one shoulder and returned to wait by the front door. Within moments, Quinn and Zeven were in sight. Back into their still warm car and back onto the road.

* * *

Tess took some aspirin and grabbed an ice pack before moving all her notes back to her office. There was no point in leaving those out to worry the others. They were definitely classified as some darkly disturbed shit.

Once back in the office, she turned on some music at a much lower decibel than usual in deference to her pounding head. Then she settled into her super expensive, extra comfy gaming chair. Not that she had much time for gaming lately, but still. Why not be comfortable when fighting evil and saving the world?

She turned on the two desktop monitors. The computers she had left running. They were on twenty-four seven. Some of the programs running were ones that she wasn"t even sure she could replicate if she lost the connections.

What she needed now was a specific address for the LA carnage the boys were flying into. That kind of mess would be hard to keep quiet. But if she was lucky, she could intercept any police departments who might be enroute and flag the site as a high security event that fell under Division Eight"s jurisdiction. Not that they"d hand out that name on any of the business cards. That was just listed as FBI to any of the locals. And technically they were a small branch of the FBI. Just the same as the Hunt Club worked under the CIA flag. It was helpful to be under the umbrella of a unified government office, even if they often skirted around the usual set of rules.

Maybe it was the aspirin, or the coffee, or possibly the sweet hum of her machines... but thankfully the headache was easing. She glanced through all the running programs and then chose one to start narrowing in on her search. And within twenty minutes she had the address and a direct number to reach the department that was trying to take charge.

"This is Theresa DeAngelo from the FBI. May I speak with Captain Kincade immediately, please."

After repeating the request three times she finally reached the captain and explained the transfer of jurisdiction. She got to make this type of call fairly often, so it wasn"t much of a challenge to push all the right buttons and use all the right names. Twenty minutes later she was calling Quinn to update him on the situation and hand off the specific address and directions to get there. Then she arranged for a rental car to be waiting at the airport. And a hotel room for in case it took more than one night to clean up the aftermath.

A knock at the door snapped her attention back.

Harley with her protruding belly hesitated at the doorway. "Quinn said I should check on you." She waddled over to the modern convertible sofa that doubled as her bed as often as not. "You look fine to me. But is there anything I should be checking?"

"There"s no need to worry. I"m just fine."

"I"m sure." Harley relaxed into the cushions making it clear she"d be staying more than a couple minutes.

She turned back toward the computers so she could continue to work while they chatted. "Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself? I can"t believe you"re lugging that kid up and down those stairs. Aren"t you due soon?"

"Two weeks still."

"Will you make it that long?"

"I hope not. Quinn is sure it"s twins, but when they get to moving it feels like about a dozen little gremlins."

She chuckled. "I can"t even imagine."

"You will someday, once you're ready to settle down with someone."

"I"m sure you"re right." She"d already picked the man, but she kept that to herself. Not that there was any point in telling Harley. Yeah, she"d be keeping her inner fantasies quiet for a while longer. At least until she made progress in getting him to notice her. Sooner or later, she"d find a way for him to see her as something more than the dozen different labels he kept sticking to her.

Harley struggled just a little but got to her feet on her own. "I"m heading to the kitchen to make some food. Not sure what I"ll find but I"ll bring some back for you.

She"d halfway expected Harley to insist on a physical exam, but very glad she"d accepted her self-evaluation. Over the last few months, she"d begun filling in as a team doctor. Not that their team suffered injuries very often, but they did work in situations where the possibility of victims was high. And she"d even started some side training as a medical examiner.

They might have been a rough fit in the beginning, but the new couple were becoming excellent team players. And it might be happening a little more slowly, but they were becoming family too.

Which was Quinn"s doing of course. The old vampire seemed to have a way about him that drew others in and offered them a place to belong. That"s what he"d done for her.

She checked the background programs that were searching for the master vampire they were hunting.

They"d been hunting him for more than a year and still knew very little. Mostly because despite the many violent murders he"d left very little evidence behind. Father Time. Despite the nickname, she wasn"t even positive that it was a male. Or that he was working alone.

What did they know? The killer was a vampire, an old or very strong one. The way Quinn described it, a vampire grew stronger as it aged or fed. But the strongest were the first-generation ones created by rogue demons. Like Quinn himself. So even though they were considering the killer an ancient, it could be a young, newly made first generation vampire.

The crimes had all been similar. Small groups of humans killed all at one time. Mostly families. One or more attempts to transition the victims into new vampires. The assumption was he was attempting to build a nest.

A nest was bad news according to Deven. She"d checked over the old reports and he and Quinn had cleaned out two small nests in the past. Both had been fairly weak but still left Deven injured. Even if she did more training with fighting and weapons, would she be helpful in that kind of a fight? Or would she just hold them back?

She"d been with them a while now. She wasn"t just an outsider looking in. She was a valuable member of the team. Quinn told her that all the time. And Deven probably would too if he wasn"t such a stubborn ass. Yeah, she was damn useful right here behind her keyboard.

The tech that she"d bought, modified or designed and built from the ground up were all making a difference.

The office door bumped open, and Harley stepped inside carrying a tray of food. "I couldn"t decide what the brats were craving so I brought a little of everything. There were four, no, five plates on the tray.

She jumped up to grab the tray and settle it onto the table. "I"m no expert on pregnancy, let alone advanced Valàfrn preggers but I"m pretty sure you shouldn"t be hauling around that much weight.

"Here I thought I"d be nag free until Zeven returned." Harley settled onto the sofa again.

"Sorry."

"Don"t be. It"s nice to be worried about. I really missed the nagging while I was on the run. It might even be my favorite part of being mated." She shook her head. "No, I take it back. And don"t you ever tell Zeven I said that."

She laughed. She understood the sentiment though. Her foster parents had made sure she was fed and schooled but they hadn"t ever nagged her about anything. Her success or happiness hadn"t really mattered to them. As long as she stayed out of trouble and didn"t die, they were fine with whatever happened in her life.

For a while as a teen, she"d more than half hated them for their indifference. Now she couldn"t even remember what had changed and allowed her to move past that painful emotion.

"Hmm... Guess that"s what it"s like with family."

The words had been quiet, but Harley must have heard. She paused while chewing on her mini carrot. Then she finished eating that piece. "Yeah, seems to be how Quinn thinks. I was quite surprised by how much he values the concept of family."

One of her computers gave a quiet ding. "Oh!" She spun back to the set up on the right and started sorting through the open windows until she found the one highlighted in red.

"Did you find something?"

"Maybe." She read through the data. It was a streaming search for new wedding chapels in Las Vegas. After her vision all those months ago, she"d tried to find the chapel that she"d seen but it didn"t exist. She"d known it was a vision of the future. But had hoped that finding the chapel early would give them an advantage. And here it was. A newly renovated low rent chapel in a shadier edge of Vegas. Even the advertisement for the rental just screamed sketchy. Like who on earth would want their special day with dark gothic decor? Sadly, the longer she looked at it the better it looked.

"A wedding chapel? Who"s the lucky man?"

"Good question. But I don"t have the answer. Yet." Although… She dug through a stack of notebooks and found one that had sketches in it. A few pages in and there was the guy she'd seen in the chapel. It was the same vampire who had just been turned.

"If you"re planning to invoke a vision, I was told to stop you."

She resisted replying with "as if you could because it was a juvenile response to kindness.

"I can see you"re ready to object, but is there any other way to check for more intel before you have to resort to that method?"

"Fair enough. You"re right. I should dot my tee"s and cross my eyes before I rely on the headachy kind of magic." The boys wouldn"t be back until tomorrow or the next day. She could track down every scrap of intel before then so they could strike hard, where and when it mattered. She set up a new search including the new data from the article on the new chapel. All the associated names, workers, styles, anything and everything. Looking for links and connections between anything on the case. She wasn"t even positive how this was related. But since her visions had given her the face and the identity, it was her job to find out why the baby vamp would visit the chapel.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"How much do you know about the Father Time case?"

"Not much. Zeven kept telling me to stay out of it, but I"ve picked up a little bit of it from Joseph."

"Does he talk to you? I"m surprised. He is supposed to be my acting assistant but sometimes it seems like he's scared of me."

"Joseph is a bit timid but does seem to be adjusting slowly. I think he"s still getting used to how sensitive his hearing is now. You might try turning the music lower for him."

"Really? I hadn"t thought of that." The music wasn"t particularly loud but to a baby vamp, it might be painful. Maybe he hadn"t been avoiding her after all. "About Father Time... we haven"t been able to pin down a hunting ground or a pattern at all. Basically, he kills, and we go in and clean up after him. We might as well change our agency name to the maid service. And I haven't had luck narrowing in on any useful details."

"That does not sound promising."

Truthfully, it was damn frustrating. "All my tech doesn't seem to be enough to find the bastard. But thankfully he"s been mostly quiet for months."

"Until today"s attack. That was him, wasn"t it?"

"Yeah, I'm almost certain it was. The MO is too similar to be a different vamp."

"How is the chapel related?"

"I'm not sure why yet, but I believe the newborn vampire is going to that chapel." She set up the laptop on the table beside the tray of food. A few flicks had it awake and humming along in boot up mode. "Zeven might not like it but I still want you to look over the file and see what you think." She opened the file labeled Father Time.

"Why do you call him Father Time?"

"It"s dumb but basically... A vampire is sort of living outside of natural time. And this one seems to be trying to make a family. Hence, Father Time."

Harley nodded and picked the laptop up to balance it on one knee, probably so she wouldn"t have to bend over her belly to see clearly. "Okay, leave me to it. You get busy finding more to add to the file."

She chuckled and turned back to the flashing screens. The new search engines were finding too much. She narrowed the parameters and turned them loose again.