Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

“ W hat did you just say?” Jill asked hollowly as she watched Logan pull on a clean shirt.

“Exactly what you think you heard,” Logan said, watching her as he buttoned his cuffs.

“Bait for what exactly?” Jill asked, moving past him and picked up his ruined jacket off the floor while she debated her options.

“It doesn’t matter,” Logan murmured absently as he searched for a tie.

“Are you planning on removing their marks too?” Jill asked, watching him as she folded his jacket over her arm.

“It’s a death sentence to alter another vampire’s mark,” Logan said as she watched him hang a black tie around his neck.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Jill pointed out as she debated her options.

Thanks to the time that she’d spent locked up in a Sentinel compound, she already knew that he would never be able to remove the mark from her neck, but he could alter the children’s marks. If he marked them, he would destroy the original mark, but he would take over the claim. They’d still be shunned by other shifters, but they’d have his protection against other vampires.

Logan, on the other hand, would be painting a target on his back if he altered their marks. It didn’t matter that whoever marked the children had violated their rules, there would be Masters that would take that as an excuse to go after Logan. He would never take the risk, especially for children that he was willing to use as bait.

“Are you asking me if I’m planning on marking them?” Logan asked as Jill made her way back into the bathroom and picked up his discarded shirt.

“Are you?” Jill asked as she placed the ruined shirt on the jacket before making her way to the bathroom counter and grabbed the facecloth, placing it over the phone before she picked it up and-

“No,” Logan murmured softly in her ear as he reached around her and covered her hand with his. “You really didn’t think that I would make it this easy, did you?”

“You really didn’t think that I was going to let you hand me over to the Sentinels, did you?” Jill countered as she forced herself to ignore the large body enveloping hers and-

“You’re terrified,” Logan said, sounding genuinely surprised as she moved to push him away only to have him step away from her before she could.

“No, I’m pissed,” Jill said, needing to put space between them before old memories could surface and-

“I’m going to remove their marks when I remove yours,” Logan said, sliding his phone back into his pocket as he headed back into his bedroom. “Stay out of trouble, Angel.”

Closing her eyes, Jill grabbed hold of the bathroom counter and took a deep breath. God, she hated this. She hated the way a simple touch could take her back to a time when she would have done anything to keep her brother safe. None of that mattered anymore, Jill reminded herself, shaking her head in disgust as she slowly exhaled and pushed away from the counter.

She needed to stay focused, Jill reminded herself as she walked back into the large bedroom, noting that Logan was gone before she made her way back the way that she came. She made her way back into the living room and headed to the back hallway while she tried figuring out how she was going to get three terrified shifter children to trust her. A moment later, she walked into the bedroom and nearly sighed with relief when she spotted them huddled in the corner with the two little ones sitting with the teenage boy glaring in her direction.

“We didn’t get a chance to talk earlier. I’m Jill. What are your names?” Jill asked with a warm smile as she moved to step around the bed only to stop when the two younger children, who couldn’t be older than six, grabbed hold of the teenage boy’s arms and held on tightly as their terrified gazes tracked her every move.

“You’re wasting your time. They’re not going to talk to you,” Gray said as he walked into the bedroom carrying a large brown paper bag.

“And why’s that?” Jill asked as she watched him drop the bag on the bed.

“Because they know better,” Gray said with a look of warning that had the little boy swallowing hard before shifting that look on her. “And so do you.”

“Meaning?” Jill asked, watching as his gaze slowly ran down her body and landed on the metal cuff wrapped around her ankle with a pointed look before silver eyes met hers again.

“Go for it,” Jill said as she allowed her gaze to flicker to the camera above the door.

Nodding slowly, Gray said, “Make sure they eat,” before he headed for the door, leaving her with absolutely no doubt that he’d make her pay for that.

She’d worry about that later, Jill decided as she focused on the three children shifting nervous glances between her and the paper bag. She quickly took in their dark brown hair, matching blue eyes, and stubborn set of their chins and quickly determined that they were siblings before she took in their matching white tee-shirts and gray sweatpants ending with black cuffs wrapped around their ankles.

She watched the small red light flashing on the teenage boy’s cuff before glancing at the matching cuffs on the younger children, noting that they had the same red light blinking and that none of them were attached to chains. She briefly considered taking a closer look at their cuffs off only to decide against it since she didn’t know what would happen if someone tampered with them. She was going to have to figure out what those cuffs would do to them if they left this penthouse.

Then came the hard part, moving three marked shifter children safely through New York without catching the attention of shifters, vampires, and demons along the way. She was going to need some time to figure out how to pull this off, Jill realized as she watched the teenage boy, who kept his glare locked on her, gently pull his arms away from his siblings and quickly made his way to the bed and grabbed the paper bag off the bed before quickly returning to his siblings.

With one last glare in her direction, he shifted his attention to the brown paper bag only to frown in confusion when he pulled out several fast-food bags and several small bottles of Coke before turning the bag over and dumping an insane amount of junk food on the floor. The little boy matched his brother’s frown as he picked up one of the fast-food bags and reached inside, pulling out a burger wrapped in paper.

“What’s this?” he asked, sharing a look with his sister as he ran his fingertips over the paper.

“It’s a cheeseburger,” Jill said, watching as their expressions turned even more confused as the teenage boy reached over and took the burger from his little brother and peeled back the paper. “Have you had a cheeseburger before?”

Worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, the little boy shook his head as he reached over and cautiously poked the bun while his brother brought the cheeseburger closer and smelled it. After a slight hesitation, he took a bite and groaned only to have his little sister reach over and snatch the burger out of his hand and took a bite, earning a glare that had Jill’s lips twitching.

That was followed by the little boy pulling another cheeseburger out of the bag along with some fries, which he shoved in his mouth before his brother could make sure that they were safe. “What are these?” the little boy asked, shoving another handful of fries in his mouth.

“French fries,” Jill said, watching the little boy nod absently as he shifted his attention to his burger and took a bite while his brother shifted his attention to the Coke bottles.

“It’s soda,” Jill said, watching as he opened the bottle, letting her know that he was at least familiar with bottles and took a tentative sip, winced only to glare when his little brother stole it from him.

Grumbling, the teenage boy grabbed another burger, took a bite while his little brother took a sip of Coke, released a satisfied sigh and a murmured, “This is yummy,” before taking another sip.

“Have you guys ever had sugar before?” Jill asked as she watched the children shift their attention to the rest of the junk food.

“What’s sugar?” the little boy asked as he tore open a chocolate candy bar and took a huge bite.

That was followed by another groan and Jill deciding that this was a really bad idea. “Why don’t we put some of this away for later?” Jill suggested with what she hoped was a reassuring smile as she moved to take away some of the junk food only to have all three children snatch up as much junk food as they could and hug it against their chests while they glared at her.

“I’m not going to take your food from you, but I think we need to slow down before you get sick,” Jill explained as she reached for a bottle of Coke only to have the teenage boy snatch it out of her reach.

“It’s ours,” the little boy said, taking another big sip from his Coke before his sister reached over and stole it from him right around the time that Jill decided that it was time to have another talk with Logan.