Sun
The street reverberated with the noise of a thousand humans looking for a good time. I leaned against the rooftop railing of the building across the street from the meeting location, a “rockin’” club Cale’s contact had recommended, and wondered when in hell I’d ever been young enough—or stupid enough—to enjoy this kind of chaos. Oh yeah, never. Beside me, Cale tapped his thigh to the rhythm of the heavy-metal music pouring out the door of the club, but all I could see and hear was the logistical nightmare of keeping attention off our conspicuous selves during this meet and greet. Was it simply growing up after our migration to the New World and relative peace that had allowed Cale the ability to relax, to enjoy life without the constant fear of keeping those around him safe? Or had I simply been predestined to always carry the weight of the proverbial world on my cynical shoulders?
Probably the latter. Being the heir to the ruler of the world’s biggest—and most powerful—secret didn’t come with a lot of downtime. The only creature I’d ever dared to drop that weight with had been Arik.
Not that Cale was reckless. Young, yes, restless, definitely, but not irresponsible. He was an even better warrior than he was a lady’s man: damn good. And if this lead panned out, him being a playboy would be an asset instead of an irritant for once.
“We need this contact,” I remarked, more for my own sake than because Cale needed the reminder. Our patrols the last couple of days had turned up zip when it came to Arik or the Anigma. I couldn’t decide if that meant one or both had left town, or if the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that denied that possibility was as accurate as I feared.
No, something was coming. Something big, I was sure of it. And we needed intel fast.
“And we’ll get it, Prince,” Cale said. The use of my title told me more than anything else that Cale took this seriously. “Risk is the real deal. Even without the time I’ve spent with her, the street cred she’s earned doesn’t lie. She’s the hacker we need.”
I certainly hoped so. “Tell me again.”
“She’s a damn good lay.”
Cale never could be serious for long. I shot the warrior a quelling glance, but he simply laughed, careful to keep it quiet.
His next words were at least on point. “Word on the street is she’s inhumanly fast and intuitive; she can find anything you’re looking for, faster than you could ever hope to imagine. She delivered the test feed we asked for quickly and quietly, without a hitch.”
Inhumanly? “Any sign she’s not as human as she seems?” Chancing this mission on a possible Anigma sympathizer was not part of the plan.
“No way, Prince. I know her”—he raised his eyebrows suggestively over his usual cocky grin—“intimately. No way is she anything but human, right down to her D-cup boo—”
I cut the description off with a slash of my hand, wishing I could wash my eyeballs of the equally disturbing image of Cale’s hands coming up to cup imaginary breasts. The male’s laugh, low but rolling, said he enjoyed my disgust. I shot him a bird, but was forced to turn my head away to hide the smile I couldn’t quite keep in.
The street continued to stay clear of any unusual threats. At the agreed-upon time, we crossed the street to the line waiting to enter the club. Finding a back way in would’ve been simple, but not knowing exactly what we were dealing with, I preferred to blend as much as possible. The proximity of so many unknowns walking past, brushing against me, clustering around ruffled my phoenix’s feathers and heightened the determination to get in and out as quickly as we could.
The danger was worth it if we managed to secure Risk’s services—the Archai needed an asset like her in the coming fight. One of my people’s faults, I was beginning to recognize, was our insular nature. We had ignored the technological advances of humans, thinking ourselves superior, thinking the species that populated this planet with us was beneath our notice except as workers and blood sources. Not until “younger” Archai like Cale and Thomas had come along had I recognized the deficiency. We needed Risk now for the information she could provide on Anigma movement, but I hoped to entice her to stay on and train us in necessary skills so that, someday, we could provide our own intel, be reliant on ourselves without our ignorance to hog-tie us.
Inside the club, the cigarette smoke and fine mist from a fog machine somewhere near the blaring stage fought to blind me, but the senses of my phoenix flared out, my animal’s cry of displeasure keening in my mind at what he found.
Me too, brother. We just need to find our target and then we can get out of here.
My phoenix stilled deep in my chest. Sensing my animal’s sudden focus, I turned my head only, body motionless, toward a dark corner of the room. What I saw there hit me like an arrow to the heart.
The human was beautiful. Even at this distance, I could clearly see the way her thick blonde hair shifted around bare shoulders that rivaled the purest cream. I followed the sight of that naked skin down to a tight corset, an equally tight skirt. When I reached the floor, I reversed the journey, needing to see every inch—and there was plenty to see. This female knew what she had, and she wasn’t afraid to share it.
She was also definitely not my type, no matter what my body and my animal were screaming. Thin, garishly red and blue locks striped the luxurious mass of hair, a match to the delicate metal circles looped around one femininely flared nostril. Tattoos dotted her warrior’s body, outlining the muscles that screamed don’t mess with me. Only the parts of her that were covered showed the soft femininity I enjoyed, poured into clothes that left nothing to the imagination, including the hardening tips of her rounded breasts. She stood, silent, alluring, letting me look my fill, her deep blue eyes fixed on me where I stood in the shadows opposite her.
“There she is,” Cale said.
I turned, but when I followed Cale’s gaze, it led me right back to the female in the corner. The female I’d been ogling. The female my cock strained against my fatigues for—that Cale had been fucking for months.
Shit.
Stunned, I allowed Cale the lead as we rounded the dance floor to meet Risk.
“Cale.”
The summons reached our ears when we were still a few feet away. Not with a girlish squeal or siren’s seductive lure; Risk’s voice was feminine but rough, as if the speaker had smoked heavily for years, ravaging her vocal cords. I grimaced at the image and stopped a couple of feet behind Cale, who went immediately to the female and dragged her into his body. I watched as Cale’s hands pushed roughly over the female’s hips and his head bent to nip the base of her neck. Over the male’s shoulder, Risk met my eyes once more. The depths of her navy gaze held mysteries, secrets, not the least of which was why her body yielded to Cale’s aggression while her expression remained empty of emotion, including passion.
And then her lashes swept down, her head tipped to the side, giving Cale better access, and I decided I must have mistaken what I saw—or didn’t see—in her eyes.
“Hey, baby,” Cale said. Stepping back, he turned to present Risk to me.
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“My pleasure.” Her husky voice held just a tinge of come-hither that crawled along my nerves. Granted, she wasn’t outright coming on to me, but she belonged to Cale; even a hint made me uncomfortable. As if the strange attraction I’d felt at the sight of her across the room could drag me under without warning, and her voice would be the trigger.
She reached out a hand, and I was forced to clasp it in mine. Her fingers felt delicate despite the long red fingernails that tipped each one. The moment our palms met, an electric charge hit my body hard enough to rock me up on my toes. White lightning froze everything, a single second in time, before jolting me forward into the next.
Not only her voice, then. God.
Sound returned. My grip tightened. My phoenix leaped into my throat, wanting out. The shock forced me to suck in a breath, and Risk’s scent coated my tongue as my groin flared to even harder life. And all the while, those blue eyes were glued to mine, the expression fathomless, a brick wall between me and everything my body screamed for.
Damn it.
This human was aptly named.
A coaxing tug on my hand made me realize I still held her fingers in a ruthless grip. I forced myself to release her, my jaw clenched. What the hell had I walked into?
I pushed my brain to shift from my crotch to my people’s situation as Cale and Risk led me to the very back of the room, zipping away the guilt over my reaction to Cale’s woman. I could examine the strange intensity another time. Not like I was planning to do anything about it, and we had much more important things to focus on than an unrequited hard-on. Even if I wasn’t the prince and head of the Archai army, I would never betray a fellow warrior. I’d had enough experience with that 900 years ago.
Cale got right to business as we settled into a corner booth. “Sun is the man who wants to hire you, baby.”
Risk bumped the male playfully in the side. “I’m not that kind of girl, Cale. You know that.”
I winced inwardly at the implication that I would have to resort to hiring a hooker. “Do I look that hard up?” I asked Cale silently, ignoring the male’s not so silent laughter. My animal squawked with offended pride.
“Suck it up, buttercup,” Cale sent back.
Grumbled words escaped under my breath. I must seem like a stodgy old male compared to the two people sitting across from me.
“You are a stodgy old male,” Cale supplied.
Of course. I was a male with a long history behind me, a history entwined with Arik’s. Thinking of my equally old friend stirred my anger, and I took a deep breath, held it, then allowed it to release, slow and sure. Still, my words came out sharper than intended. “So why should we trust you, Risk?”
The flirtatious grin on the female’s face melted away. In that instant her expression flickered, and I caught a brief glimpse of something dark in her eyes before Risk straightened, leaned forward.
Steel, that’s what I saw in her eyes.
“You shouldn’t trust me, Sun,” she said in that husky voice. “We all have secrets; no one can convince you they don’t, and if they try, they’re lying.” She eased back against the wall of the booth. “I can’t prove I’m trustworthy; that comes with time. All I have to point to is my reputation, which speaks for itself.”
It wasn’t enough in the given situation, and if not for Cale being ready and able to stay on top of the female—literally, I thought with a grimace—I wouldn’t accept it. But Cale was, and we’d already put boundaries in place to ensure the clan’s safety in the event Risk proved unreliable.
I studiously ignored the whisper of my animal deep inside, proclaiming me the best male to watch over Risk—in every way.
Cale was smoothing things over with his usual skill. I stayed quiet and let the warrior outline what we needed. Risk nodded her head at significant points—whether in agreement or understanding, I wasn’t sure—and only balked at the money we offered.
Her snort vibrated the delicate rings in her nose. “Oh, big boy, I don’t think so.” The number she spoke was twice ours, and negotiations began. We ended up somewhere in the middle, almost exactly where I had expected.
“I’ll take half up front.”
“Not here, you won’t,” I growled. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Risk searched my face, and I swore I felt a brush of psychic energy across my mind. Instinct flared, slamming down thick walls of protection hard enough to reverberate painfully back through the connection, but Risk never flinched. Someone else, then? “Cale?”
The griffin’s yellow gaze scanned the club before he jerked his head in a negative. “Nothing.”
“Get her moving.”
Cale did, with me bringing up the rear. The strobes surrounding the dance floor flashed a series of still-shot images across my sensitive eyes as our small group trekked toward the front: a female curling her pierced tongue around her partner’s earlobe; the back of a bald head bisected by a green mohawk; a couple entwined from feet to groins to lips; a pair of glowing red eyes staring into mine across the darkness.
Abruptly everything around me faded, leaving only the awareness of those shifter eyes shining at me out of the dark. Anigma; I could scent it, and this one wasn’t alone.
“Sun?”
I turned to Cale, sending a quick picture of what I’d seen, what I smelled faintly on the air. “Anyone you recognize?”
Cale shook his head.
“Take her,” I told him. “Get her home safe. You know what arrangements to make.”
Cale’s agreement shone in his eyes before he turned back toward the door. He reached behind him to grip Risk’s hand, almost dragging her behind him. No male would confront an Anigma threat with a female in the danger zone.
Just before I turned my head to locate the enemy, Risk looked back. Her stare arrested me. I couldn’t decide what it was I witnessed in those eyes—something vulnerable, something…needy. For the first time that night, something genuine. It contradicted every bit of the front she’d presented since we met, and drew me to her in a way that was even deeper than the physical need that had racked me from the moment she’d appeared. That look was dangerous; it was soul-destroying, calling me to counter all the instincts I’d been born with, the honor I’d clung to even as a boy.
Desire and duty warred in my chest for a brief second before I turned away, refusing to look back. I had a job to do. The hunt was beginning, and I would lead it.
My phoenix let out his battle cry, urging me farther into the darkness at the back of the club and out of the rear exit. My animal peered from my eyes, searching. Scanning.
There. At the end of the alley, the heat-reflective images of five bulky males. I sucked in a single deep breath to still any lingering desire, and then I moved to follow the enemy, careful to stay out of their sight.
Aptly named, indeed.