Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(22)
“She fooled us at first. I thought it had malfunctioned because it would work, then not, for a few days. I had set her up to have a physical done, a sort of head-to-toe look-see of her body inside and out, when she kept avoiding me. I had one of the tech guys look into her chip, and that’s when I figured out she was controlling it on her own.” The human smiled, pride in his voice. “She did a bang up job of it, too. Might never have figured it out but for the little glitch that we found when she went through the metal detector at work. It sent a double signal. She came there so seldom that we didn’t catch it before.”
“So she is smart.” The human nodded. “I should have seen what I could have done to hold her in my services instead of you.”
The human said nothing. Lucius heard the wolf coming back and waited. He told the human to go to his office and not to return until he called for him. Pulling shadows around him, Lucius sat quietly and waited.
Deveron was drunk. His body reeked of cheap liquor as well as women. When he staggered to the refrigerator and bellowed for the human, Lucius materialized. Deveron fell backward, only just catching himself.
“Lucius?” Deveron looked around, trying to straighten his clothing. “When did you get here? Come to check up on old Kirby? The man is not cooperating at all with what I’m doing for you.”
Lucius nodded. “I can see that he is not giving you enough. How much progress have you made since I spoke with you yesterday?”
“I’ve just came back for some dinner. I didn’t get a chance to eat before I left. There was a problem that old Kirby had to see to.” He laughed, but Lucius remained serious. “He talk to you any since you’ve been here?”
“Yes, we had a nice conversation. Were you aware that he cannot lie to me? Unlike you, when he stuck a deal with me, it rendered him incapable of lying to me.” Lucius had a chair move toward Deveron. “Sit.”
The wolf sat, and Lucius stood up and moved slowly around the room. “Are you aware that wolf blood to a vampire is like a drug? It’s like one of the finest wines ever made. And even as drugged up—”
“I swear to you that I’ll find her. I swear it that—”
“Quiet.” Lucius could smell the fear on the wolf; hear it in his pounding heart and rapid breathing. “I have given you several chances, Deveron. Many more than I have shown any other, wolf or human.”
Lucius ripped back his head as he stood behind him, his eyes deeply bloodied red and his fangs long within his mouth. He leaned down, but stopped at the last second and felt the wolf relax, sagging a little in the chair. Lucius smiled and tore his throat out. Spitting his flesh to the floor, he came around the chair to face him as he died. Deveron struggled to live, but it was too late for him, much too late.
“I shan’t sully myself with a lowly wolf like you. I’d rather starve. But fortunately for me, I had my dinner before I came here. You’ll serve as a reminder as to who is boss. I will not have you or anyone else in my employment think that I am soft.” Deveron’s body dropped to the floor, the chair skittering across the room. “You’ll be an incentive for them, I believe. An incentive for them to please me more.”
Lucius called for the human and let him see what he’d done. The man sat down and didn’t move, even after Lucius cleaned up his mess. He sat beside him at the table and had him look deeply into his eyes.
“I have put another wolf into service. He will help you, but will not bother you overly much. When he reports to you, you’ll bring me the information and the girl when he finds her. I want her brought to me as soon as possible.” The human nodded. “You’ll bring her, then you’ll end your life, for you’ve nothing to offer this world, and so long as you’re in it, your family will know shame and heartache. Do you understand me, human?”
“Yes, sir. I will bring the girl to you and end my life.”
Lucius left him sitting there and took to the skies. He had plenty of work to do and very little time to do it in. He had to have Small in the White House. He was going to be the key to so much, and he didn’t even know it. As Lucius landed just outside the small, barred window that imprisoned this human, he smiled. This was going to be his greatest success.
~~~
Dylan spent most of the rest of the day on his knees in the dining room. They nearly had the floors put down, with only the little flooring that was left and the two corner cabinets yet to install to call the room complete. He glanced up at the antiques that he’d refinished during spring break. They were going to be beautiful in this room. He looked up when he smelled Jack. She looked at him strangely.
“Do you have to do that?” she said.
“Do what?” he asked.
“Look like raw sex all the time. I mean, is there some sort of meter you can turn down?”
Reed laughed but didn’t stop pounding nails in the floor. Dylan sat up on his knees and smiled at her. She leaned against the doorjamb into the kitchen. She was looking better every time he saw her.
“I don’t think that’s possible, but if you wanted to keep me a little less stressed, I can think of a couple of ways for you to do that.” She looked at Reed when his head came up. “Reed, go and find something else to do away from the house.”
He moved like he’d been shot from a cannon, laughing the entire time. He kissed Jack on the cheek before he left, and she grinned at him. She was going to pay for that. Dylan took off his shirt, tossed it behind him, and stood up.