7. James

JAMES

Using every finely honed vampire and special ops skill I had at my disposal, I approached the sealed room, prepared to do some serious reconnoitering. I needed intel and could not trust anyone else to either gather it or keep the secrets I was about to overhear.

I flew silently in my bat form to perch just above the doorway, and then, with my claws gripping tight, I dropped my body to hang upside down. Yes, already I could hear the words filtering through the thick wooden door. I opened my senses, searching for the one voice I’d been assigned to know everything about.

“Gold is definitely your color, Mary. But we don’t want you to look like an academy award statue. So, I suggest using it as an accent on the neck, wrists, and hemline.”

Rose’s words soaked into my mind and soothed an ache deep inside me. One taste of her lush red lips, the scent of her rich blood in my very hand, and I was an addict. Which is exactly why I’d stayed far away from her while she met with Mary and the other princesses. It had been one damn night and half a day, and I already wasn’t sure I could control myself around her.

I’d nearly lost it last night. And from last night to this evening, I’d gone from hungry to frantically starving. Yet the supply of blood in the refrigerator still wreaked of shit laced with poison. In fact, all the human staff, and even the immortals staying here at the castle, smelled. The humans had surely all rolled around in a pig burrow, and the immortals vaguely reminded me of London of years past, reeking of urine and decay.

If I stayed here much longer, smelling the sweet treat of chocolate cake I knew to be Rose’s blood, I may just break down the door and drag her away. It sounded as if they were wrapping up and I didn’t want to be caught lurking outside the door, waiting for a glimpse of her.

I retreated from the room where Rose and the Council of Princesses were working on their designs, flying low along the plush carpet, feeling the heavy burden of not knowing what the hell I was supposed. I was firm in my stance not to ask her to share her soul with me and become my immortal mate. But without a taste of her blood, and if I were to guess, a steady supply of it after to keep me topped up, I would surely devolve into utter madness.

I’d never been that guy that talked through his problems, but this problem was too big, and the consequences affected too many. I already wasn’t entirely thinking straight as it was. I needed to talk to someone who could understand the gravity of the situation, someone who would not judge me for my thoughts and emotions.

“James.” Gabriel’s voice snapped me so far out of my reverie that I literally fell out of my flight and had to take evasive maneuvers while retaking my vampire form, so I didn’t fall on my ass in front of my friend and team leader. Because First Vampire knows, I’d never, ever hear the end of that. Gabe had fucking photographic evidence of my greatest gaffs since the invention of the camera. I think he had a whole museum of schadenfreude on his phone.

“Nice save, fly much?”

“Shut up.” I paced, wondering just how much I should say to him. He was my friend, sure, but he was also my commanding officer, and could report me to V if he felt he had to. If I couldn’t do my job.

Lesser vampires than me had been retired when their performance slipped. Lives were at stake, ones I had sworn to protect for all eternity. That had to be my priority.

“You need to take me off Rose’s detail. I’m a more valuable asset in the field.” I wasn’t even sure how I’d ended up on fashion designer babysitting duty in the first place. I was a godforsaken trained killer.

“No can do. I didn’t assign you this mission in the first place. This came from the top.”

The top as in V? I’d assumed Mary O. had just called in a favor to get me. We may have a tumultuous past, but she trusted me, and I was the best, second only to Gabriel.

I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated as shit. “I can’t concentrate on anything but Rose’s safety. She’s in the heart of our world now, and yet she knows nothing about it.”

“Ah, yes, her safety. Right,”Gabriel mused, his gaze drifting towards the closed doors behind which the women were gathered. “I’ve been informed that the Council of Princesses are quite taken with her. It seems her talents have already earned their respect.”

He was giving me an out,and I was taking it.

“Indeed.” It wasn’t my place, but I felt a swell of pride for Rose. She didn’t belong in our world yet had already earned the admiration of the princesses. They didn’t like anybody but their own, and more often than not, didn’t even like each other. “But what if V decides she poses a threat? What if she finds out the truth, and he chooses to eliminate her?”

That was the reality of our jobs. Humans either joined the ranks of the few initiated, or they were taken out. This was how we’d maintained secrecy, even among the other supernaturals of the world, for so long.

“Vond,” Fleming called out to us, his voice cracking with urgency as he rushed over to us. “I’ve run dozens of tests on the blood samples you provided and researched the issue thoroughly. I’m afraid there’s no cure for your mating heat.”

“I never said it was me, F.” I don’t know why I was trying to hide anything from either of them. One look at their faces told me I was being stupid not to count them as allies.

“Sorry, chap, didn’t mean to out you. But it’s not like I don’t know the profile of every vampire on our team.” He looked down at the file he’d brought along, filled with numbers and charts. “The bonding instinct is too powerful. Any attempt to tamper with it could have disastrous consequences. If you don’t bond with Rose in the next, say, five or so days, you’ll quite literally go feral. I’ve seen the breakdown of your cells already.”

The weight of his findings crashed down on me like castle walls crumbling. I clenched my fists at my sides to keep from going absolutely ballistic.?”There must be something you can do. A serum, a shot, a surgery?”

“Believe me, Vond, I wish there was,” he replied, his eyes filled with genuine remorse. “The sooner you take her blood and get her to share her soul with you, the better.”

My head dropped in defeat,and I struggled to accept the reality of our situation. Not only was Rose in danger from the hunters who wanted to destroy all immortals and the humans who associated with them, but she was also tied to me through an unbreakable bond. I had to find a way to protect her and keep my distance–a seemingly impossible task.

“Thank you for your efforts, F,”I muttered, my gaze fixed on the floor. He and Gabe remained silent, understanding that there were no words to ease my pain.

“You’d better report this to V. I’ll turn in my resignation after Mary’s party.” Putting an end to the only life I’d ever wanted.

“Fuck that.” Gabe slapped my back. “You’re the best operator I’ve got. I’m not losing you because you’ve found your Soul’s Serenity. Let’s see what happens when the two of you bond, and then see what V has to say. I have a feeling Ms. Primrose won’t take kindly to him getting uppity about the first vampire in hundreds of years finding happiness.”

If anyone would know what Ms. Primrose would think, it would be Gabe.

The discrete sound of the perimeter alarm pierced the air from the communicator on Gabriel’s belt, shattering my momentary sulk. My senses sprang into alert mode as Gabe, and I rushed towards the nearest window. Peering through a crack in the shutters, we spotted two men in black clothing scaling the castle wall. We didn’t hesitate. We were out the window and on the wall behind them before they could even reach the ramparts.

I scaledthe wall and nearly caught the foot of the first intruder when he jumped onto the roof, turned immediately around and jumped from the top of the building, throwing his arms and legs wide. He was wearing a fucking flying squirrel suit, and glided across the garden instead of smashing his head in.

Gabrieland I watched the two men in black glide away and gave each other what-the-fuck looks. Something wasn’t right. No hunters would give up so easily after infiltrating a vampire stronghold.

“What the hell?”I muttered, growing more suspicious by the minute. “This smells like a trap. They have to know we can easily fly along and capture them. Do we pursue?”

I could catchthem in my bat form, but Gabriel’s other form was even faster, and I’d bet money those hunters knew that.

Gabriel remainedsilent for a few moments before following my gaze back to the retreating figures. “No. This was too easy,” he said finally, his voice low with suspicion. “They didn’t even put up a fight when we confronted them. Just ran. Something else is going on here and they want us distracted and away from the castle. Let them go, and we’ll track where they went later.”

I’d never seenhunters act like this. We were about to turn and head back inside when I spotted something strange in the moonlight—a white piece of cloth fluttering in the breeze staked into the stone balustrade where they’d jumped. Curious, I motioned for Gabe to follow me as we crept closer for a better look.

When we reached it,we saw that it was a note written on parchment paper: “The Order knows who and what you are now—your time is running out.”

This message was again,strange. Of course The Order knew who and what we were. They’d been hunting us for thousands of years. This was less like enemies had just infiltrated our stronghold and delivered us an ominous warning and more like someone pulling a prank.

“We needto heighten security around the castle,” Gabe said, his confidence reassuring amidst the chaos. “No one gets anywhere near the wards without our knowledge.”

“Agreed.Who can we bring in that can get here fast?” The whole of our Black Ops team would be my preference, and maybe some of the sods from over in VI5 or VI6 playing super-secret sneaky spies all night.

“Already taken care of. I’ve got a new trainee that arrived just before I found you skulking in the hallway.” Gabriel led me to Fleming’s makeshift lab in the dungeon again, where a young vampire leaned easily against the doorway as if waiting for nothing more than his drink to arrive.

“Silas Silvanus, this is Vond, James Vond.” Gabriel introduced us with a flourish. “He’s one of our most skilled operators and is on special assignment for Her Royal Highness Mary of Orange. You’ll be helping him secure the castle.”

“Pleasure, Vond.”Silvanus gave me a small salute. “I’ve heard about some of your adventures with the Vampire Intelligence Agency. Looking forward to learning from the best.”

This kid was suave. I half wanted to ask Gabe where he’d found him, a gentleman’s club or straight out the pages of some romance novelist’s book.

Oh, wait. Silvanus, as in one of VI6’s greatest agents. Killed sometime in the last century. This kid was a VIA legacy, and one that Gabriel had been assigned to train himself. So far, all he’d done was get into some kind of mess with the Baskerville’s hound.

“Right,” I replied, offering a weak smile. “Let’s focus on our mission and ensure everyone’s safety. Sunrise is only a few minutes away, and I’d like to check on the perimeter and then our guest before we need to slather ourselves in F’s serum of sun.”

We setoff to strengthen the castle’s defenses. I didn’t like that those hunters had been so close to Rose’s room. Clearly just having me about wasn’t enough to shield Rose from the dangers that lurked in the shadows.

But what if I did bond with her and ask her to share her soul with me? Anyone trying to harm her then would have to go through me, because I would eternally be by her side.

Why wasn’t I at her side now?

And that was exactly why V didn’t have mated agents working in the Vampire Intelligence Agency. Hard to run black ops with a fragile human by your side.

The sun rose along the horizon, casting the castle into rays of burning light, the enormity of the task before me looming large. I wanted Rose so much it literally hurt. That dark, empty place inside where no soul resided, ached as if the darkness was seeping out and being burned up in the sunlight.

I couldn’t bring myself to heed Fleming’s directive, no matter how much I trusted him. The risk of revealing my true nature to Rose was too great, the potential consequences too dire. Instead, I resolved to find another way to protect her—a way that didn’t involve breaking the bond of my duty or breaking her heart.