The Alien Huntress Series Page 38

  Her eyes slitted, hiding her irises so that all he could see was blazing black. “My mission was to learn about him. Now he’s wondering who the hell I am, and he won’t tell me a damn thing.”

  Unless she seduced him? The implication drifted from the undercurrents of her voice, and Jaxon saw red. “You want to learn about him? Fine. Take me to his table, introduce me as your brother, and then shut the hell up. I’ll get answers. But if you touch him, even one more time…” The haze of red deepened, intensified, and he had to press his lips together before he started howling.

  “He won’t believe you’re my brother,” she snapped. “He’s not an idiot.”

  “Then tell him I’m your man, I honestly don’t give a fuck.” Jaxon’s sense of reserve was completely gone, leaving no filter for his words. “Let’s just get this shit done.”

  She sucked in a breath. Not in anger, but in…what? Arousal? She shivered then, and he knew. Oh, yes. Arousal. That would mean…surely not. That would mean she liked it when he let go, when he stopped pretending to be something he wasn’t. He’d suspected earlier, but having it unequivocally confirmed was as delicious as her kiss.

  “I told him I’m single,” she said, all hint of her anger gone.

  “Now tell him you lied.”

  “No.”

  Several minutes ticked by, and the sounds around them began to seep into his awareness. Laughter, chatter, a wild hammer of rock music, bottles clinking together, and footsteps in and out of the building. His healing corneas were still sensitive, so he appreciated the muted light forming a dreamlike haze.

  Obviously, Le’Ace didn’t want him near her target. To protect Jaxon? Or her own interests? Hell, the other-worlder was pretty enough to draw a man’s interest. Maybe Le’Ace wanted him all to herself for reasons that had nothing to do with her assignment. He didn’t arouse her, remember?

  “You know what?” he said. “I have a better idea.” He stalked around her and toward the alien as best he could. Damn wounds. He’d never been more conscious of infirmity or hated it more.

  Deciding to play the enraged boyfriend even though she’d claimed to be single, he scowled down at the Schön. “She’s mine,” he said, and there was enough truth in his tone to fool even himself. She’s mine for the time being, he had to remind himself.

  “I realized this,” his opponent said patiently, calmly. There was even an edge of intrigue in his odd, multilayered tone.

  Jaxon’s first instinct was to arrest the bastard here and now. He knew the evilness this race was capable of, had seen it firsthand, and had been forced to kill humans because of it. More than that, he liked being in total control of a situation, and having this creature in lockup would give Jaxon at least a little control. Out here, in the open, there were too many variables.

  However, he understood the need for reconnaissance before an arrest. He understood that sometimes the only way to gain answers was to watch, wait, and trick.

  More important than capturing this man was finding out where the rest of the Schön were hiding, how they operated, what weapons and skills they possessed. The last was the big one. Some aliens could move at hyperspeed. Some could dominate humans with only a thought. Some could even walk through walls.

  And, weak as Jaxon still was, he didn’t want to risk losing the battle to subdue the alien or losing a chase, thereby alerting the suspect that A.I.R. was now on his trail, possibly sending the bastard underground.

  “You are in pain,” the alien said, and motioned to one of the empty chairs. “Sit. Please.”

  So polite, so unconcerned. Not the reaction he’d expected. Jaxon allowed confusion to show on his features. “I came over here to kick your ass.”

  The alien smiled, but the expression was not smug. Merely amused. “I guessed,” he said, not stating the obvious: Jaxon didn’t look capable of fighting with his zipper in order to pee, much less the hulking giant. “However, nothing happened between me and your woman. I was in need of conversation and she provided it.”

  Your woman. Those two words stroked his sense of possessiveness, easing his anger. “You wanted more from her, though.”

  Rather than reply, the alien waved the waitress over and ordered a round of beers. “Last chance to sit. Allow me to buy you a drink. You look as though you could use it.”

  If he pushed much more, the Schön might leave. Doing his best to appear weary as well as pacified, he finally sat. Then, he kicked out a chair and motioned for Le’Ace to take it.

  She was still standing in the center of the bar, watching him, and she had yet to mask her shock. I’ve tasted her. I’ve held her, pleasured her. The distracting thoughts formed before he could stop them. She was a vision of femininity in her tight black dress and gloves.

  “She likes to play hard-to-get,” he told the alien, his voice stiff. “But I am her man.”

  “I do not doubt you.” The Schön offered him another smile. “My effect on women is powerful and can sway even the most devoted. She would not have come to me otherwise. I knew that from the beginning.”

  He had, had he? How?

  Le’Ace joined them in a huff, settling beside Jaxon and crossing her arms over her chest. He supposed she’d opted to play the upset girlfriend who liked to pout. “Nolan, meet Jay. Jay, Nolan. Everyone knows I’m Jane. Now we’re all introduced…”

  They should go their separate ways, he finished for her in his mind. Smart move, though, working their names into the conversation so he wouldn’t accidentally blow her cover. Well, more than he already had.

  He turned away from her and focused on “Nolan.” A fake name if ever he’d heard one. As fake as Jay and Jane.

  “A fight?” the alien asked before he could reply, motioning to his cane.

  “Motorbike accident.”

  “Ah.”

  Jaxon eyed the otherworlder intently, not even trying to hide his curiosity. “What race are you? I can’t place you.” Yes, he knew the answer. He simply wanted to know if Nolan would admit it.

  A rude question, but the alien didn’t appear offended. “Your people call me Schön.”

  Again, not the response Jaxon had expected. He shrugged to hide his surprise. “Never heard of it.”

  Nolan gave a shrug of his own. “That does not mean we do not exist.”

  The beers arrived. The waitress, a hard-looking bleached blonde with smeared lipstick and large breasts not held up by a bra, paused to caress Nolan’s jawline. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

  “No, thank you.”

  The woman sighed in disappointment, her expression almost trancelike.

  “Leave us,” Nolan said, and she did.

  Jaxon swallowed a gulp of beer, eyeing Nolan over the rim. “Been here long?”

  “Only a few weeks,” was the reply.

  “Having fun?”

  Something almost sad coasted over the Schön’s pretty face. “No. Leaving one’s home is never fun.”

  “Why come here, then?” Jaxon posed the question as simple curiosity, yet he was on high alert. Was Nolan telling the truth or acting? And if he was acting, why? Did he suspect something?

  Nolan’s eyes met his. They were illuminated by hundreds of tiny stars, stars that seemed to be dulling with every second that passed. “Sometimes a location change is the only way to survive.”

  Survival.

  “Was your planet dying or something?” Le’Ace asked as she leaned forward, propping her elbows on the tabletop. She appeared enthralled by Nolan’s words.

  “Or something.” Nolan mimicked Jaxon’s earlier swig and tossed back the contents of his bottle. “Tell me about the two of you. I am most interested in all things dealing with love.”

  “I don’t love him,” Le’Ace said, staring down at her hands. There was a twinge of uncertainty in her voice, a shake that told of inner torment and confusion. “I can’t.”

  Well played. Perhaps she was a good enough actress to fool him in bed; perhaps she had never been sexually assault
ed and just liked to pretend. Jaxon knew she didn’t love him, but the uncertainty in her voice, as if she possibly could love him but didn’t want to, was masterful.

  “She saved my life,” Jaxon said. He stayed as close to the truth as possible. Less chance of a slipup that way. “Pulled me from the wreck, made sure I got medical attention.”

  Nolan frowned. “So you have not known each other long?”

  “Sometimes it only takes a second,” Jaxon said. Sadly, the words were not a lie. One look at Le’Ace and he’d become an obsessed man. From the beginning, it hadn’t just been her delectable appearance that drew him, but her complexities, the mystery of her.

  Nolan’s frown eased. “You speak true.” Surprised?

  “You have a girlfriend?” Le’Ace asked the alien, once again staring at him as if she were enraptured.

  Jaxon’s punishment, he supposed, for not claiming to love her. “Jane,” he warned.

  She batted the long length of her dark lashes innocently. “What?”

  “Trying to make me jealous is not wise.”

  “Trying?” She laughed, and the sound of it was airy, though she could not hide the sharp gleam in her eyes.

  Nolan, too, laughed. “You will never be bored with her, will you?”

  “No.” She was as high maintenance as a woman could be, more so than Cathy, yet he wasn’t running in the opposite direction this time. He constantly ran toward her, trying to piece together the puzzle of her. “Unfortunately.”

  Nolan’s grin grew wider and wider, until it stretched over his entire face. “I had wondered how long it would take A.I.R. to come to me. I had wondered what agents they would send after me. I am pleased with their selection.”

  At the mention of A.I.R., Jaxon stiffened, unable to control or stop the action. Nolan knew then. Had known all along. Le’Ace, too, had stiffened and stilled.

  Jaxon could deny it, could act confused. In the next instant, however, he decided Nolan was too intelligent to believe him. He’d have to attack. As he stealthily reached for the knife strapped to his waist, he said, “Why are you here? Why aren’t you running from us? You intentionally sought us out, didn’t you?”

  Nolan pierced him with a look of pure determination. “Why am I here? Let’s just say I’m weary of my life and my brothers’ actions. Why aren’t I running? The same reason applies. Did I intentionally seek you? Yes.”

  “Your brothers?” Jaxon asked, tackling one thing at a time. “By race?”

  A nod. “They are the other men you are after. The men killing your women.”

  “And you, what? Want to help us find them?” Le’Ace laughed without humor.

  “What I want to do and what I am going to do are not the same. So yes, I will help you.”

  Le’Ace rolled her eyes. “Please. I might have been stupid enough to think I’d tricked you, but I’m not stupid enough to believe you’re going to help us out of the goodness of your decayed heart.”

  “Prove you want to help us. Start by answering some of our questions,” Jaxon said, ignoring Le’Ace’s outburst. He would rather do this without her, but knew there would be no getting rid of her. “Why are you infecting our women?”

  Nolan released a mournful sigh. “We cannot help ourselves.”

  The table shook as Le’Ace slapped her hands on the surface. “Bullshit.”

  Jaxon shot her a dark look. Calm down, he projected.

  Now she ignored him. “Tell us where the others are, these brothers of yours. That’s the best way to help us.”

  Nolan laughed bitterly, revealing teeth that looked a little sharper than they had a moment ago. “You think it’s that simple? You think you can waltz into their midst and take them captive?”

  “Yes.”

  Jaxon gripped the hilt of his blade and slid it atop his knee. He twisted his body ever so slightly, positioning himself just in front of Le’Ace. If Nolan made a move in her direction, the alien would die. No question, no hesitation. But a moment later, Jaxon realized Le’Ace had done the same. That she’d had her earlier outburst so that she could better reach into her boot and withdraw a knife. She was subtly moving in front of Jaxon. To protect him.

  There was no time to ponder his unadulterated response of shock and pleasure. Nolan pushed to his feet. Jaxon and Le’Ace did the same. No longer trying to hide his blade, he allowed the silver to flash against the bar’s light.

  Le’Ace one-upped him, aiming a pyre-gun at Nolan’s heart. She fired. The blue stun beam flew over the alien’s shoulder as he ducked.

  Nolan laughed. “We’ll meet again. Of that I have no doubt.” He stepped backward, toward the wall.

  “Stop,” Le’Ace shouted, firing again.

  He managed to avoid the second azure beam, as well. When his back met the silver stone, he simply disappeared. There one moment, gone the next.

  CHAPTER 10

  That certainly went well,” Le’Ace said as she tossed her weapons onto her nightstand. Normally, she cleaned them and placed them carefully in their holders whether she’d used them or not. They were her best friends, her only friends. This time, however, she was simply too pissed to care.

  Silent, stoic, Jaxon hobbled to the bed and fell onto the edge. She hated that stoicism more than ever. Wanted to smash the unemotional mask into so many pieces he’d never be able to adopt it again. She’d much preferred his vehemence inside the bar. He’d been so wonderfully human, as human as she’d always wanted to be.

  He braced his hands on his knees and watched her. He’d occupied that exact position before, she remembered, and seeing him there again morphed threads of her anger into arousal. He hadn’t been stoic then. He hadn’t been silent. He’d been wild and tender, a pleasure giver.

  He’d been desire.

  “You have nothing to say for yourself?” She wanted to stomp her foot like a child and barely restrained the urge. “Why don’t you tell me what you thought you could accomplish, hmm? Following me to the bar was stupid!”

  Still, he remained quiet.

  “There were cameras there, Jaxon. There were agents watching and recording our every move.”

  “I know,” he finally said. His flat tone did not betray a hint of his emotions.

  Frustration clawed at her as she began to pace in front of him. Back and forth, back and forth, until he was a dark slash at her side. “Do you have any idea what kind of punishment I’ll be given for this?”

  His back straightened, and his stare became a hot brand, probing. “Punishment?”

  Of course he’d latch onto that little admission, the one thing she didn’t want to explain. “One, I allowed you to escape. Two, I allowed the otherworlder to fucking disappear. Yes, I’ll be punished.”

  “Well, you couldn’t have stopped the otherworlder, and we both know he would have disappeared whether I’d been there or not. He knew exactly who and what you were in a single glance. Now, what do you mean punished? By whom? Your boss? Daddy?” The single word dripped with sarcasm. “What can he do? Spank you?”

  She scrubbed a hand down her face, the bands of her rings digging into her skin. Jaxon had no idea. Had no concept of what could—and would—be done to her. Part of her suddenly wanted to tell him. The other part of her demanded absolute silence. Always silence. To speak of the things she’d endured over the years was to share her deepest humiliation with another.

  “Le’Ace,” Jaxon said. Now he sounded concerned. “Who will punish you? What will they do?”

  The resonance of her own breathing, shallow and rough, filled her ears. For a moment, she lost touch with reality. Present bled into past, images flashing through her mind. A dark, dank cell. Loneliness. Pain. Needles. Tests. Oh, God, the tests. There’d been so many.

  As a little girl, she’d spent every spare moment praying for a brother or a sister to rescue her. Parents, not so much. Her first bosses had been, in essence, her fathers. They had created her from carefully selected DNA—human, animal, alien, she wasn’t sure what parts of her w
ere what—merging the bits and pieces they desired and discarding the rest. As she’d grown, they’d done their best to discard her character weaknesses, as well.

  They’d hoped for perfection, someone cold yet malleable.

  When she’d demonstrated anything less than what they desired, she’d been locked up to “think about” her actions, or sent on a job they knew she would despise. It was part of her conditioning, she’d always been told. The best part: they thought she should thank them for putting her back on the right path.

  A bitter laugh escaped her. Once, she’d been ordered to bring a target in for questioning. He’d fired at her; she’d fired back, meaning to nail him in the shoulder. He’d tripped, realigning his body, and ended up taking the blow straight to his heart. He’d died on the way to the hospital. For that “crime,” she’d been ordered to screw information out of her next target. That way, she wouldn’t accidentally kill him.

  Once, she’d jumped from a building while chasing an other-worlder and twisted her ankle, slowing her down. Because of that, the alien escaped her. When she returned to the lab, Le’Ace was forced to learn how to fight and track other-worlders with broken bones. And yes, the only way to learn was to have her bones broken and be thrown into the wild.

  What would Estap do to her for this?

  Of all her owners, he was the worst. She didn’t have proof, but she knew Estap’s father had killed her creators to take over her “care.” They’d died too close together, too many accidents to be written off. Estap Senior had been a top-level government official and had stumbled upon her file, deciding she would be an asset. At the time, Estap Junior had been low-level, trying to work his way up.

  When his father died, she’d discovered she’d been left to him in the will. Like a house or a car. Immediately she’d been put to work to advance the bastard’s career. He’d tasked her with killing innocents who stood in his way. He’d had her steal his future wife’s savings so the woman would be more inclined to marry.

  And now, here Le’Ace was. Still a pawn. Would Estap tell her to kill Jaxon for getting in the way? Remove her from this case completely? Command her to find Nolan and allow the alien to infect her so that she could be studied? Viruses and bacteria did not live long inside of her, bless those implanted particles. But again, she found herself wondering if Nolan’s virus would overpower them. She found herself wondering if she would be infected, tested, observed.