Frankly, I was ready to decimate every vampire or human who dared to kidnap us to do as they pleased with our DNA.
I crossed the room. “I’m trying to figure out who Roman thinks is worth more than me. Abbey? And then there are the Aberdeen women.”
“Given the lust wafting off you, I would guess you’re thinking of screwing one of them too?”
My jaw came unhinged. “Empath isn’t your only ability now. Do you read minds too?”
“Dude, you gave yourself away in the war room when you were talking about… what’s her name? Layla? Her name alone is givingmea hard-on.”
I dropped down on the slatted-wood bench adjacent to a closet door. “Wait until you see her.” My mind switched on a dime to her gorgeous body and those huge-ass tits. I shook my head, willing my dick to take a breather.
Tripp snagged a towel from the cabinet on the opposite side of the padded room. “I want to caution you, dude.” He wiped the sweat from his neck and face before joining me.
I ruffled my hands through my sweat-soaked hair. “For what? Wanting to screw a human?”
“Exactly. Your father will skin you alive.”
I snorted. “He’s tried a few times for other stuff. I can handle him.”
My father and I hadn’t had the best relationship. It didn’t help that he had put the military before his own children or that after my mother had died, Jo and I ended up in the foster care system with no sign of dear old Dad for years. In fact, we’d only reconnected with him five years before, which was the first time I’d been kidnapped for my DNA.
Regardless, after my father had explained his reasoning for why Jo and I had grown up in foster care, it had taken me a while to warm up to him. To make a long story short, Jo and I had been in danger with Edmund hunting us as humans. Dad couldn’t and wouldn’t tempt fate to pull us out of the foster system. He’d been afraid Edmund would find us, and he had.
After my ordeal with Edmund, in which he’d left me on my deathbed as a human, I’d understood Dad’s reasons. Since then, we were definitely in a better place in our relationship. To be fair, my old man was also one of my superior officers, so I understood Tripp’s warning.
I braced my elbows on my knees. “Let’s not forget our mothers were human.” The science was mind-boggling. A female had to have a blood type of Vel negative to get pregnant by a vampire. Which meant we needed humans if we wanted to have kids. The problem in our world was that those unique humans with that particular blood type were becoming extinct, at least according to the vampire government. They had been tracking human women for centuries.
Tripp laughed, deep and hardy. “Our mothers weren’t vampire hunters.”
The sound of a door opening and closing in the distance filtered into my ears.
“Have you ever been with a human?” I asked.
Tripp rarely talked about his personal relationships. As far as I knew, he didn’t have a special lady.
“Once, when I was a teenager and a newborn vamp, which didn’t go well. If my father hadn’t walked in, she would be dead.”
“Christ,” I mumbled.
“Take my advice,” Tripp said. “Stick with lady vamps.”
I wasn’t planning on pursuing Layla, but I wasn’t sure if I had the willpower to stay away. Her blood was tempting. I could smell cherries as if she were right next to me. Her tits were imprinted on my brain, and so was her hair. I wanted to wrap it around my hands while I sucked on her delicious essence.
Tripp grabbed a water bottle out of his bag at his feet. “And what happened to Harley, by the way?”
I lifted a shoulder, recalling the blond vamp and some of our sexcapades. “We’re just having a good time. Friends with benefits.” We’d both agreed not to get serious. Besides, I wasn’t the type to settle down like Jo. If my sister had any say in my love life, I would be on blind dates every week, which wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t see any value in a relationship. The foster homes I’d been in had been toxic. The couples were constantly at each other’s throats or didn’t speak to one another. I also didn’t see myself spending my immortal life with the same person.Not happening.
“Speaking of Harley, she says Webb has been on edge since before I relayed Roman’s message about someone worth more than me.” Harley was Webb’s assistant and Sawyer’s sister. He’d hired her recently to handle all the admin paperwork the military was famous for, something my dad should’ve done when he’d been the commander. Then he wouldn’t have been so stressed.
“Yeah, Abbey is having nightmares,” Tripp said. “And she won’t talk to Jo or Webb about them. Webb thinks Abbey is getting glimpses of something terrible that’s about to happen.”
I could almost feel the wind changing and the tides turning. The last year had been somewhat quiet with missions until a month ago when Roman had surfaced. We’d heard rumblings that someone was trying to follow in Edmund Rain’s footsteps by fabricating a serum to build an army of vampires. We weren’t surprised. We knew it was only a matter of time.
“I wonder if she’s seeing her own fate,” I said.
At the age of ten, Abbey’s abilities were growing. She was able to see more of the future either by touching someone or dreaming.
“If Roman is targeting Abbey, then he’s a dead man,” Tripp said. “Webb will stop at nothing to kill him, and he’ll have the approval of the Council of Elders, including your father. But that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, or Jo for that matter. We still have to ensure no one gets their hands on either of you.”
