Chapter Sixteen

So far, Collins’ information had been dead on. Kenoe had been knocked on the back of the head just outside the British Museum after following the little human boy who’d delivered the note to Alaan. Collins had followed without detection, scoped out the whole place in half an hour, and got out of there.

Seekers silently filled this hall. They’d already taken out the majority of Lowan’s security forces. Only two rooms remained. Bix and a team of veterans stood in front of one of them.

Easing the door open a crack, he spotted no one, but keen ears picked up sounds of obvious distress. Collins’ intel revealed there were only two Hatsept primes in the building—Lowan and his Second, a man named Myles. Bix’s years of combat experience told him one of the rogues was in this room. The other person sounded like they were trying desperately to bite their lip to keep from screaming. It had to be one of two people—a punished harem mate. Or Kenoe.

Just then, a gruff, scratchy voice said, “Tell me more, and I’ll stop Kimora’s torture.”

“Fuck you!”

Oh, yeah. Definitely Kenoe.

Kicking the door wide, Bix tore into the room. He and his team came to a halt just inside.

“Well, it’s about damned time,” Kenoe screeched from a chair in the middle of the floor. “Help, damn it!”

A well-built, cocoa-skinned human female knelt between his wide-spread thighs, lips wrapped firmly around his swollen flesh. His clothes, obviously cut from his body, lay tattered and shredded around the legs of the chair. And the woman practically inhaled him with loud slurping sounds while another Hatsept stood off to the side, eyeing every inch of cock disappearing into the woman’s mouth.

“Dayum!” Carin whispered in awe, eyes wide and gaze plastered firmly on the hard cock jutting out from Kenoe’s body.

“Stop looking at his dick, woman!” Bix ground out between clenched teeth as the biggest, burliest, white-haired vampire he’d ever seen left Kenoe’s side and stalked his way. While shorter than Bix, the vamp outweighed him by at least twenty pounds. Sword already free of the scabbard, a deadly, determined Seeker edged his way towards his teammate tied to the chair. The woman just kept right on giving the blowjob of the century.

“If somebody doesn’t get this woman off me, I’m gonna lose it!” Kenoe struggled and pulled against the tight ropes, squeezing his eyes shut in what looked like prayer.

Bix circled his newest prey. Alex started off to the right towards the cock-sucking female. It was no surprise to hear the snap of Carin’s voice crackling through the room.

“I’ve got this, Alex. Just back on up, sweetie.”

Who in all of vampiredom called a deadly Seeker “sweetie” except Carin?

“Why don’t you just shoot her?” Alex questioned, obviously confused.

“Because the modified rounds don’t work on her. She’s human.”

Bix rolled his eyes in exasperation. God, they really didn’t have time for this chitchat.

“Kenoe?” Bix called.

“Shit!” A particularly lusty swipe of pink tongue over the head of Kenoe’s fleshy cock. “What?” he yelled impatiently.

“Which rogue is this?”

“He’s Myles, now get my ass untied!”

Turning to his bondmate with a snort, Bix said, “Carin, just kick this woman’s ass and get it over with so we can go, please?”

Bix’s sharp blade successfully backed up a charging Myles with his first swipe. More than ready to get it on, a smile tipped up the corner of his mouth as he taunted the big Hatsept. Myles advanced again with a roar.

Meanwhile, out of the corner of his eye, Bix saw his feisty woman run over to a captive Kenoe. She dropped into a perfect horse stance and challenged the woman giving what looked like an endless round of head.

The kneeling woman ignored them all. If anything she sucked harder. Kenoe held his breath on a tense gurgle and turned from beet red to a strange shade of purple. Bix had never seen a Hatsept turn so many colors.

A second later, the harem ‘ho’s head snapped back on her shoulders, eyes wide with disbelief as a pissed off, hard-as-nails biogeneticist let a sidekick fly, then dropped back into her stance. Three more well-placed blows had the beautiful, but obviously misguided, harem babe knocked out.

Meanwhile, Bix delivered a quick half cut followed by a kendo block that sent Myles sprawling.

 

 

 

Tameth and Alaan’s fireteams streamed into the wide corridor from every direction, rushing their adversaries. There were more rogues in the building than Seekers, but being better equipped had its advantages. Those who resisted arrest got a taste of Carin’s biological agents, courtesy of silenced 9mm handguns and tainted blades. After watching their wounded comrades crumple into heaps of whimpering uselessness, puking their guts up on the floor until the contents were laced with blood, most of the rogues gave up without a fight.

No doubt they could take down these bad guys. But what they didn’t know was how many more were on the other side of these hulking, and most likely well-secured, doors. Rather than blowing open the thick, solid wood structures, Tameth simply held a gun against the temple of the vamp closest to where they wanted to go.

Alaan winked. “That’s my girl.”

“Damned straight,” she teased without taking her eyes off the vamp she was successfully intimidating.

Alaan paused outside a set of huge double doors at the end of this particular hallway and tapped his earpiece.

Bix’s hushed words eased through. “All secure here. We’ve got Kenoe and we’re on our way to you.”

“Area secure outside Lowan’s rooms. We’re going in after the target. Leaving Betas in the hallway to watch our backs. Serati, out.”

“Bixler, out.”

The doors slid silently open. With a double schwing, Alaan and Tameth’s swords cleared their scabbards. Cautiously, they entered the room, leaving the entrance so the rest of their team could guard their backs in case of a trap.

Alaan surveyed the huge layout of the sparsely furnished area and came to a fast conclusion—Lowan had an ego the size of Mars. There in the center of the room, number four on the V.C.O.E. Most Wanted list sat on a throne, a fucking throne, in the middle of a red carpet. Talk about conceited. His big head had to be the largest muscle on his pale, skinny Hatsept body.

“You’re early,” Lowan said absently, looking towards the wall of windows in his bedroom. Pale blue early morning sky was visible though the open drapes. The only exception was the panes closest to his bed, covered by heavy drapes to keep the sunlight from streaming directly onto his sleeping place. “Kenoe told us not to expect you until ten o’clock tonight.”

“That’s what happens when you trust someone who wants nothing more than to see your ass fry,” Alaan replied calmly with a glance over at Tameth. She shrugged, her focus on the four vamps who’d just eased through another doorway at the very back of the oversized room. All carried wicked-looking curved long knives and positioned themselves between the Seekers and their prey.

No problem. Two Seekers against four vampires? Almost unfair…for the rogues. Then three more vampires armed with handguns slithered in and added to the growing wall of bodies between Alaan, Tameth and their target. Okay, two Seekers against seven rogues? Now the odds evened out a little bit. At least the bad guys couldn’t cry foul play to the Council after they got their asses whipped.

“Do you want to know what I did to her?”

Alaan yawned. “Not particularly.”

In truth, Alaan would rather skewer the rogue and have done with it, but the mission was to bring the vamp back alive, if possible. And since Lowan hadn’t murdered Sher, the bastard couldn’t be punished for it. Not unless Alaan could get enough of a confession for other charges.

Lowan called to someone off to the side and behind him. The former love of Alaan’s life walked boldly towards her lover, stopped just short of the carpet and kneeled on the floor.

Alaan growled. The bastard knew they wouldn’t attack with Sher sitting right there, especially with some of them packing guns. Lowan continued as if Alaan hadn’t said a word. Alaan hated being ignored.

“I took her right out of V.C.O.E. headquarters in Vienna, right under your so-called Seeker nose. I took her into my harem, raped her, over and over again. Fucked her silly until all she wanted was more of my cock. I even gave her the chance to leave me, to return home to you and your pathetic Seeker ass.” Lowan motioned wildly, baring his fangs with a murdurous hiss. “Know what she said? She’d rather stay in my harem, service me whenever I wanted, however I wanted, than return to you or anyone like you. Soft bunch, the lot of you Seratis. Allowing yourselves to be ruled by a bunch of females!” he spat. “Sher, come to me.”

She scurried onto the carpet with more cuts and bruises than she’d sported while lying in the bed at their temporary headquarters recuperating. Though the old wounds appeared to be healing, there were new ones swelling up one side of her face. A split bottom lip and a deep cut high on her eyebrow joined a myriad of rainbow-colored bruises covering every patch of visible skin.

“I must admit, I had no idea what Sher was up to. Rather ambitious, I must say. Having one of the guards slap her around a little then plant her in that alley for your men to find was a stroke of genius.” Lowan looked his lover over with a sneer. “You could have at least cleaned her up a little.”

Alaan smirked, turned to Tameth and silently asked, “Damn, baby, did you leave any spot on her body unbruised?”

“Not me. That’s all Carin’s handiwork after the woman tried to get to little Alaina this morning.”

“So,” Alaan asked out loud, “what about the note you had delivered to me? How the hell was I supposed to comply with your wishes if you were going to kidnap Kenoe in the first place?”

“Actually, I’d planned to simply have you ambushed and killed.”

Lowan could have stopped right there. Conspiracy to murder a Seeker was all Alaan needed to lock the bastard away for the rest of his life. But the idiot just couldn’t seem to stop talking. A soft beep in Alaan’s ear let him know Iudex Judge Collins, a man with the power to convict Lowan on the spot, listened to every word.

“Note, you say? Not my style. Sher?” Lowan demanded. A white eyebrow arched upward as he eyed the woman at his feet.

Quietly, she replied, “I arranged to have the boy deliver the note. It was the only way I could think to get your brother here. I know how much you wanted him back.”

“In the meantime…” Lowan’s words trailed off with a quiet snap and a single finger pointed to his groin. Without a single glance at Alaan, Sher immediately untied the little scrap of cloth draped around the man’s hips and spread it wide.

There were now sixteen armed male vampires dancing nervously on the balls of their feet in front of Lowan, protecting him. But Alaan had what he needed. The ass kicking could now commence.

Alaan snarled low in his throat. The speed at which Sher’s lips wrapped Lowan’s quickly stiffening cock—no shame, no care—didn’t make him jealous. It pissed him off. Rankled that he’d been duped, pined for her for all those years, lost so much time that could’ve been spent loving a woman like Tameth. And all along, Sher, the one he’d fancied himself in love with and almost mated, brazenly aligned herself with a man like Lowan. The fury and shame of it all, held down to a low simmer while he did his duty, was now free to erupt and take out everyone and anyone close enough to get burned.

The bond with Tameth pulled taut and grew hot. His woman’s sentiments echoed his own, and she was beyond ready to tear someone a new one.

Slowly, Lowan’s cronies spread out and began to circle the Seekers. Back to back, Alaan and Tameth faced their enemies and relished the coming fight amidst the humming and slurping of a very enthusiastic Sher.

 

 

 

Suddenly Alaan and Tameth were surrounded as the place erupted in fierce action. Kenoe, eyes flashing white fire, streaked into the midst of the fray. Making his way to their side, each deadly stroke of his razor-sharp samurai met its target with unerring accuracy. Bix was on his heels, blade in one hand, gun in the other.

More bad guys crowded into the warehouse-sized space to aid their fallen friends and were met by a score of Seekers.

Total mayhem. Shots were fired. Blades flashed and cut. Some hurled and vomited. Others yelled, screamed…died.

One after another, Lowan’s rogue colleagues fell prey to either blade-inflicted fatal wounds or the stomach-wrenching results of the Seekers’ biological weapons.

A booming explosion rocked the building.

All eyes turned to the source of the deafening noise.

Carin stood framed in the doorway. A fierce frown knit her brow. Her thick coiled hair was all over her head, blown back by the force of the blast. A titanium crossbow armed with incendiary arrows gleamed dully in the bright light streaming in from the windows. Her weapon pierced clean through three loyalist males running for the farthest corner of the room. One behind the other, they fell to the ground sporting big black ragged holes in their chests. Stunned silence reigned as the fighting came to an astonished halt. It was just long enough for Alaan to unholster the gun under his arm and plant a round of nausea-inducing rounds into the rogues to his left.

Disgust threatened to overtake rage with a single glance at Lowan’s throne. The bastard remained seated, bare chest gleaming with sweat as he strained for completion. With a loud, satisfied yell, his back bowed up off the chair as his twitching cock erupted into Sher’s eager mouth. Pearlescent fluid dribbled from the seam of her lips as she smiled up at him. Then he petted her hair like a damned dog before settling his short kilt over his softening cock. Legs out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, he seemed completely at ease with the chaos surrounding him. But Alaan didn’t miss the almost imperceptible flash of fear in his eyes as the bodies began to pile up and his line of defense grew thin.

Kenoe’s voice rose over the din. “I see an opening. I’m taking it.”

“No!” Alaan yelled.

“What? Screw that, Alaan. I’ve waited my whole life to kill this bastard.” Kenoe’s tainted blade sliced the ear off a tall, muscular rogue dressed in tactical gear. The male’s blade dropped to the floor, followed by his body as he crumpled in a heap, heaving and gagging.

“We have our orders, damn it.” Alaan cut a diagonal slice through the chest of the closest criminal.

“Fuck you, asshole!” Kenoe spun around and planted his blade just above the kneecap of an approaching opponent.

 

 

 

Tameth couldn’t believe it. Two elite Seekers stood in the middle of a fierce battle arguing over a criminal. It was obvious they trusted her and their teammates to guard their backs. If it hadn’t been so serious a situation, she would have planted the tip of her bio-treated blade into the perfectly lacquered floor and watched them fight it out. Either that or cut them both, then refuse to give them the antidote until they admitted how ridiculous they were.

A hardbodied, six-foot, athletically built Kenoe glared unflinchingly up at Alaan’s six-foot-five, heavily-muscled frame. Perfect, sparkling white locs whipped around his head as he and a wicked blade motioned his intentions towards Lowan’s throne. The other hand poked at the center of Alaan’s right sculpted pec. And Alaan poked right back as the fighting continued around them.

Their ridiculous exchange took seconds off the opportunity to secure Lowan. And neither of the knuckleheads noticed the bad guy had pushed Sher away and headed their way with a perfectly bronzed replica of a sharpened, ancient Egyptian Temet Axe in his hand. One direct pass of that deadly weapon could sever their numb skulls from their bodies.

Tameth shook her head with a snort of disbelief. Men.

With two steps, Tameth executed a precise, controlled slice across the muscle in Lowan’s shoulder and rendered his arm useless. The ax thunked to the floor as the loss of blood and the introduction of foreign bodies from her tainted blade took effect. Sher rushed to his side and wrapped her arms around the shivering, vomiting, cursing, pale-skinned rogue.

Alaan and Kenoe both shot Tameth a stormy glare as she calmly wiped the well-used, bloody weapon on a thick cleaning cloth.

Careful not to touch the blade or the soiled area on the cloth, Tameth resheathed the three-foot piece of steel beneath her trench coat. Moving towards the door to make room for the arriving mop-up crew, she glanced over her shoulder and asked, “Can we go now?”

 

 

Mopping up the crime scene was relatively easy. With very few dead vampires to dispose of, Collins, standing in his office as Iudex Judge, handed down sentences on the spot. The wounded were patched up and airlifted to the private airstrip where Stealth One waited to shuttle them to V.C.O.E. headquarters in Vienna.

This had been, by far, one of the cleanest missions in Seeker history, courtesy of the nasty coating on their blades and ammunition. As for the harem members, all were given the option to return to their previous lives or go to other more traditional Hatsept harems for some gentle retraining.

Body count: One. Myles, skewered on the end of Bix’s katana during Kenoe’s rescue from a fierce nonstop blowjob.

Sher’s voice reached above the hushed efficiency of the mop up crew. Screeching wildly, she yelled and clawed at her captors.

“No! Please don’t take me away from him!” she screamed, fully submerged in hysteria. “I need him. Please!”

The one male who’d been her life’s anchor was now secured and on his way to prison. And she would join him there, though it was doubtful they would ever actually see each other again.

Her desperate gaze landed on Alaan. “I hate you! I’ll never forgive you. He is four times the man you are. You’re nothing without the Matriarchy. Nothing!”

Her anger and loathing pierced Alaan’s heart. Not because he wanted her, but because he felt so sorry for her.

His gaze followed her trembling form as she was bustled out the door. Tameth’s slightly calloused hand slipped into his, followed by an even sweeter telepathic caress of love along their bond. A bond he’d never experienced with anyone else.

The most destructive and hurtful period of his life was finally dead and buried. For real, this time. And he and Tameth had ushered each other into a new life together.

Finally, it was over.