Chapter 15

Fightingthe current was as easy as pushing against a hurricane. I kicked hard—blinded, deafened, crushed. Rushing water burned my skin and yanked at my clothes, trying to tear strips off me.

Victor's fingers remained hooked in mine.

As mad as I was at him, he was mine. I'd made a vow. His name was in the guest book. We were in this together, for better or worse.

His fingers slipped away.

I flipped, snatched his wrist, clutched him against my chest, and kicked harder through the endless pressure, trying to regain the precious seconds I'd just lost.

At some point, the volume of water in the tank must have risen to be level with the inflow, because the force of its onslaught slowed enough for me to make headway. Or at least, it felt as though we were making progress. Sight, sound, taste, touch, none of those senses worked in the dark, heavy waters. My only advantage was that while my glamor made my body seem small and insignificant, I was in fact the opposite. But I still had to breathe.

My heart thumped a warning. My lungs screamed. In the dark, there was little way of knowing if I was swimming the right way. Out. We just needed to get out.

I broke the surface and spluttered. Glorious air filled my lungs. I grasped the edge of some kind of platform, and shoved Victor's limp body from the water. We'd emerged into another tank, this one far less tumultuous, and with a diving platform.

"Victor...?" I clambered out of the water, knelt beside him, and pressed a hand to his chest.

Oh no.

He wasn't breathing.

Straddling his hips, I grabbed his jacket and gave him a shake. "Victor!" We'd been under for a while. Hopefully, he just needed a little help to startle him back to consciousness. "Here goes..." I slapped his face. Hard.

His eyes popped open. He coughed up water and gulped air, and lay on his back under me, panting.

Okay. We were okay. But it had been closer than I'd have liked.

"Adam?" His trembling hand claimed my thigh.

I sighed. "Hey."

"You saved my life. Forgive me?—"

"Nope. Not ready to hear it." I clambered off, and ran my hands through my wet hair. "Can we go and find Tom now?"

"Indeed," he croaked.

Sodden, sore, battered, and bruised, we staggered down a metal gangplank, away from the horrible fish tanks and into a gloomy doorway. The building was a maze of dark tunnels, ramps, and interconnecting corridors filled with eerie, moth-eaten displays, broken sealife models, and creepy dark voids.

I'd had friendlier nightmares.

"Voices," Victor said, drawing me to a halt.

Low murmurings came from up ahead, where the gloom got gloomier.

Ugh. I folded my arms and tried to hug the shivering away. This was not how this operation was supposed to play out.

Victor's firm hand squeezed my shoulder, making my wet shirt squelch.

The voices faded, moving away into a nearby room, but Victor's hand remained. I lifted my gaze. In the dark, all I really saw was the outline of his face and the shine of his vampiric eyes.

"Forgive me, Adam, I am finding my way in all of this and apparently prone to missteps."

"You could start by trusting me with the truth?"

"How can I, when you do not trust me with yours."

"It's not the same." I tried to brush his hand off, but he pressed in, crowding closer "Victor?—"

"Adam." His eyes shone. "All my life, I've been a tool for others—for the royal family, for my wife. Everything I have done, it's been to better vampire supremacy. I've never known free will, to do or choose as I please. Until you. You mean more to me than my own future, or even the royal family whom I have served throughout the centuries, and I'm struggling to comprehend why that is, or what it means. But I do know one thing. I will never choose to hurt you."

"I know." I settled my hand on his and repeated, "I know, Victor."

"How do you know? How is it possible that in just a few short weeks, you have become my life? Why do you keep saving me? What are you, Adam Vex, that has my heart tied in knots and my head so confused?"

I sighed and dropped my head back. Cold, wet, and so very tired, all my barriers were down. "I'll tell you—you and Zee—I'll tell you everything, when it's time. But trust me, if I tell you now, the hotel and every name in the guest book won't survive it. People will come. Bad people. Some good people too, thinking they're doing the right thing. And everything will change, Victor. Everything." My voice cracked and my bottom lip quivered. The same old ache consumed my heart. "I'm not keeping the truth from you to hurt you, I'm keeping it to save you."

He leaned in and skimmed his fingertips down my face, feeling me in the dark. He wouldn't know the tears from tank water, and perhaps even his heightened eyesight couldn't see the pain in my expression. But his firmness was welcome, his closeness too. I needed him, and I knew what he was saying—knew what he didn't yet understand. I knew it, because I felt the same for Zee, and maybe a bit for him too.

"Know that I'll slaughter everyone here, if you wish it," he whispered. "Give the word, and rivers will run red with the blood of any who would dare cause you harm."

A shiver of lust shortened my breath, scorching the tears dry. "Oh, that's... sweet. But probably unnecessary." Daddy Vampire was hot when he got all stabby. "But we sort of need Agatha to be alive to be prosecuted, remember?"

"They tried to kill us, and would have succeed if you were the average, everyday, unassuming human you clearly are not." His lips brushed mine, his body now hot where he pressed me against the wall. It didn't matter that we were wet through, didn't matter that everything hurt, or that moments ago we'd been fighting for our lives. None of that mattered, only him and me and the emotion burning between us.

His hand dropped to my hip, then eased around to clutch my ass. Yeah, okay, this felt good—getting our sexy on in a villain's lair right after we'd almost died.

My wet clothes squished between us and cold water ran down my ankles. Hm, not so good.

"We should show Agatha that she shouldn't have messed with the vampire and his human assistant," I whispered.

In the dark, I caught a glimpse of Reynard's fanged smile. "And retrieve Tom Collins," he said.

"And that."

His fingers dug into my butt cheek, squeezing and separating. His mouth hovered over mine, the kiss a tease away. His other hand dropped, capturing my other butt cheek, and he yanked me close, right up against his hard cock.

"Shall we continue this later?" he whispered.

Or, could we do this here? Probably shouldn't. I bit into my lip, breathing hard, and ran my hand up his thigh, discovering a hard ridge in the way that could only be one thing. If I said yes, he'd take me in this gloomy hallway, and wouldn't care that we were in the midst of danger—maybe he'd even prefer it that way. He did seem to get all hot and hungry whenever violence happened.

A door slammed further along the corridor and the growl that bubbled out of Reynard was pure, predatory threat. Unhinged Victor had arrived.

"This operation is over," Reynard growled, and stepped back. "I'll clear a path." In the low light I caught how he ran both hands through his wet hair, sweeping it back from his severe face, and headed up the corridor, toward the door. Whoever was behind it was about to meet the raw, animal Victor Reynard, and I couldn't wait to watch.

Wild Victor was stunning. I hadn't seen him drop the reins of his control before, just hints of it. But as he flew through the door, he turned into a vicious creature made of brutal, bloodthirsty glory. Not that I was into that. At all.

The first two fae he'd met had no idea what hit them. He'd flung them against the wall and dropped them in a blur. A third managed to bark a warning into a radio, then met the same face-down fate.

We strode on, with Victor unleashing all of his savage wrath onto any living thing in his path.

Trailing behind, I stepped over the unconscious bodies. They had tried to kill us, so they deserved it, but also... several were probably a bit deceased.

Victor barged through the door into the brightly lit lab. He hissed at the glare, momentarily blinded. One of Agatha's twins fired a dart gun, striking Victor in the neck.

"Hey!" I barked. "That's my vampire."

Victor tore the dart free, snarled, and grabbed the pretty sentinel, slamming him backwards through a drywall, into an adjacent room. But then, as he turned to deal with the second twin, Victor swayed.

"Adam?" He dropped to his knees. "Run." And flopped forward.

Agatha emerged from a side door, and eyed the hole in the wall and the other twin groaning on the floor. "What a terrible mess."

I'd had just about enough of everyone's drama. "Maybe you shouldn't have tried to drown us."

Her pretty, eyeliner-enhanced glare landed on me. "Accidents happen, Mr. Vex. Especially around you." She approached the long lab table, heels clicking against the floor. "I had hoped my long-standing friendship with Victor would withstand this little bump, but it appears I was wrong. You're the annoying bump, by the way." That sensation of crow-like hunger about her grew. If I died, she'd absolutely peck my eyes out. "Who are you, to have Baron Reynard wrapped around your little finger and Gideon Cain so desperate to spy on your Sex Hotel?"

Dripping wet, very cold, and not feeling at all nice, I snarled. "It's not called that! Give me Tom Collins, let me leave with Reynard, and we never have to meet again."

"That would be one option. However, I did make a deal with Gideon Cain, and he is not a man to be crossed."

On the floor, Reynard gave a snuffled snore.

"You were willing to ditch Cain's deal if Reynard paid you," I said. There were no cameras in this room. Just me, Agatha, the unharmed twin, and the other one, climbing to his feet on the other side of the gaping hole Reynard had made.

"Oh, I just wanted see what it was worth to him," Agatha said. "It turns out, not much. But to you? That's a different story, isn't it? Whatever this spybot saw has you concerned, Mr Vex."

"This might be a good time to point out that anyone who has crossed me in the past few weeks has regretted it, including Gideon." Although, I'd mostly mildly inconvenienced him.

"Hm, I'm intrigued. What can a little human boy like you do to me?"

I checked Reynard, out cold on the floor, and the two twins, now ready to pounce into action. Granted, I didn't look like a threat. But that was the point. "I don't think you want to find out. Give me Tom Collins, and you can go about the rest of your life knowing you dodged a bullet here."

Agatha tilted her head. "I'll take my chances. Cohen. Shoot Mr. Vex." She snapped her fingers. "Then bring them outside. We'll throw them both in the bay. I have a meeting with Mr. Cain."

Cohen raised his dart gun and fired. The dart hit me clean in the arm. "Ow..." I swayed, closed my eyes, and flopped forward.

As we'd learned at the restaurant, one dart did little more than make my head a bit fuzzy. Still very awake, I allowed Cohen to heave me over his shoulder, thinking I was as unconscious as Reynard. A quick peek confirmed the other brother had Reynard draped in his arms. Good.

Outside, I'd have more room to maneuver and it would be easier to escape while carrying Reynard.

The fae's handsome shoulder wasn't the worst place I'd been slung, and his expensive cologne did smell kinda nice. After some huffing, the warm, dusty, San Francisco evening air tingled on my tongue. I could smell the salty ocean, baked grass, and hot asphalt. Distant traffic hummed. Finally, we were outside where I could stretch abilities I definitely did not have.

I lifted my head. "As surprisingly comfortable as this is, you should definitely put me down."

"Fuck!" Cohen flung me down with as much care as a sack of potatoes. I smacked the rough asphalt with a heavy oomph.

He fumbled with his dart gun again, trying to whip it free and reload.

"I really wouldn't." I got to my feet and cracked my neck muscles. The twins and Agatha stared. "It'll just make me angry, and I'm already grumpy."

"Huh." Agatha remarked, approaching. At several feet taller than me in her heels, she still didn't see the threat. "What kind of human withstands enough tranquilizer to drop a vampire?"

"The me kind." I held out a hand toward Agatha. "Hand over Tom Collins and you all get to walk way."

The breeze rattled the rusted fence and gusted through dusty dried grass. I couldn't escape my glamor—Daisy had been right about chains holding me restrained—but I could stretch it, as the three demons outside Razorsedge had learned. And the duke.

As Agatha was about to discover.

A missile shot from the sky, knocked Agatha onto her back, and pinned her down. She barked a cry, then abruptly fell silent as a seven-foot-tall, metal-tipped-leather-armored, Stetson-wearing demon stood on her chest, wings splayed, tail thrashing.

"Helllloooo, Tinkerbell," Zee grinned. Agatha writhed under Zee's boot like a worm on a hook. "This is Shareen." He stroked his sword. "Fifty inches of Fuck No. If you don't recognize me, because of the hat, my name is Zodiac." He tipped his cowboy hat with holes cut out to accommodate his horns. "From classics such as The Fucked The Furious and I Did the Demon Next Door. An underrated masterpiece."

"I know who you are, demon," she snarled, sounding less than impressed by Zee's resume. "Get your cheap boots off me."

Zee pointed his sword's deadly tip at Agatha's chin, then beamed over his shoulder. "Kitten, do you like the hat?" His horn-ring glinted, his leather armor creaked, and his sword was always impressive. The Stetson should have looked out of place, but as with anything he wore, he made the look his own.

I sighed with relief. Zee was here. Everything was going to be alright, and I didn't have to get messy. "I really do." I squelched over to him. "It's been awful. We were trapped in a tank, the water came in, I got all wet, and?—"

"Were there frogs?" His face paled.

Thankfully, I didn't recall seeing frogs. "I... don't think so." Just other sea creatures. Were frogs sea creatures?

"Well, that's a fucking relief. I looked them up. Frogs use their fucking tongues to strangle prey. Can you believe that shit? Their tongues! All this time, they've been among us." He shuddered and checked the shadows around the lot. "Everywhere."

"Get them!" Agatha gurgled, gesturing for her twins to attack.

The twins glanced at each other, second-guessing their life choices, then back at us.

"Do it!" Agatha screamed.

"Touch us, and Zee will turn your boss into spaghetti," I warned.

The twins blinked. They weren't going to go toe to toe with an armored demon, not even with that tranquilizer gun.

"Kill them!"

"Hush, Tinks," Zee warned her. "Anyone who is not an expert in frogs does not get to speak. Are you an expert in frogs?"

"Frogs?" she panted, confused. "What's a frog?"

"Bad, bad, vicious monsters that haunt your dreams."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, hoping to distract him from bad-frog thoughts.

His shoulders wiggled, wings rippling. "Pfft, Vampire Daddy is not the boss of Cowboy Zee—unless he does the voice," Zee affirmed with a finger point. "Then imma get on my knees. But outside of all that bottled-up sexual frustration, which we will definitely be exploring later, I go where I like, and it just so happened I liked to fly in this direction—and there was your car headed the exact same way. I hid behind the creepy clown sign." He flicked his hat, cocked a hip, and smirked. "Told yah I can do subtle."

My smile grew, and so did my heart. He'd always planned on coming along, proving he should have been included in the plan from the beginning. "You just happened to be wearing your armor while flying in this direction?"

"I know, right. What are the fucking odds? So, who are those spicy twin lollipops of faeness?" he asked, gesturing to the twins, one of whom was still carrying Reynard.

Cohen bolted. Then his brother dropped Reynard and sprinted after him.

"Was it my enormous sword?" Zee's gaze dropped to Reynard, crumpled on the floor but clearly breathing. "Is he dead or asleep?"

"Tranquilized."

"Fuck's sake. What is the point in Daddy Fuck-Hard if he can't stay awake for my grand entrance?" He turned his attention back to Agatha, under his boot. "If I let you up, you gonna behave, Tinks?"

"Tinkerbell is an offensive fae slur," she muttered.

"Oh no, then maybe don't put my fucking friends in fish tanks." Zee unpinned Agatha.

She climbed back to her feet, brushing down her fancy pant suit while muttering expletives. "This suit cost more than you make fucking holes in a year, demon. I have a meeting to attend. Get out of my way."

Zee slung his sword up, and rested it on his shoulder. "Cool your jets, emo fae. You're not going anywhere until Adam says so."

"Give us Tom Collins," I ordered, losing all patience with everyone and everything—apart from Zee.

"She's got Tom Collins?" Zee asked. I briefly explained how Gideon had hired the syndicate to plant a modified Tom Collins in our hotel and she had Tom's backup. The more I talked, the more Zee's eyes narrowed and his tail knotted.

When I was done, Zee's wings had expanded, his threat level increasing.

"I'm not your enemy." Agatha raised her hands, sensing she was about to get up close and personal with Zee's big sword. "I'm just doing business."

"Hand over the Tom Collins backup," I said again. "And this ends here."

"Alright, alright. I left it inside, on the lab table."

I eyed the gloomy, run-down, abandoned aquarium building, and really, really did not want to go back in there. The fae couldn't lie, so if we wanted Tom back, we had to go back inside and get him. "Alright, fine, lead the way. Zee, can you carry Reynard?"

"Can I? Yes. Will I? Hm, let me think. No."

"We can't leave him out here."

"Why not?" He glanced around. "He's fine."

"What if someone takes him?" There wasn't anyone around, but leaving him didn't feel right.

"Oh no, how terrible," he drawled in a monotone voice. "However will I console myself?" He tapped a finger on his chin in thought. "Wait. I won't have to, because I don't care."

"Zee?"

Zee thrust a hand at my face. "I'm immune to the Adam Vex sad face."

"Zee, c'mon?—"

"My heart is stone." He peeked through his fingers and clutched his heart. "Fuck. Ugh. I'm such a simp for you." His wings flopped. He stomped to Reynard, sheathed his sword, scooped him around his middle, and slung him over his armored shoulder. "Save Daddy Vampire, Zee. Stop being amazing, Zee. Lick my feet, Zee."

Agatha arched an eyebrow. "Feet?"

"I didn't . . . haven't . . . we don't . . . with the feet . . ." I sighed. Again. "Never mind. Let's go get Tom."

The worst had to be over, right? We'd been thrown in a deep freezer, arrested for murders a pixie committed, shot at by a Rick Astley superfan, and then dumped in a fish tank and almost drowned. What else could go wrong?