When we stopped at a light at the off-ramp, she whispered to me, “This is the warmest and most comfortable motorcycle ride I have ever been on. I don't think I can go back to not having my heater.” I hid my smile as I kept my face forward, but I felt my wolf puff up his chest and strut around, proud that his mate was comfortable and warm.
I looked at Dino, who slid next to me, idling on his bike as we waited for the light to change. Even with his helmet on, I could feel his eyes staring at her, but as soon as either of us turned his way, he would face forward.
It took me a while to like Dino, to understand him. I would watch him, analyze him, and quickly come to the conclusion that I should just stay out of his way and leave him alone. I didn't want to be caught in his crosshairs as his fury was on fire, and his anger scorched the ground he walked on. Then one night, the five of us all got drunk. We had a hard job that caused casualties, and we really just wanted to wallow in our sorrows, but Rabid wouldn't let us do that alone.
We all bunkered down into that pool hall, locked the door, and drank until we were all silly and couldn't see straight. It was then that I found Dino in the bathroom, clutching the sink, as his teeth clenched and a single tear dropped from his eye. He looked up as soon as I hiccupped, and I thought he was going to punch me, instead, he told me his story. Then I knew, I understood where all that fire came from, and I had tolerance and compassion for his pissy attitude.
The light changed, and we zoomed off, going into the direction of the swanky part of the city. I figured that it would be something like that. I was picturing some high rise or some building that she owned, but when we rolled up to a small townhouse squeezed between two buildings that towered over it, I was, again, surprised by her.
As soon as I kicked the stand out, she hopped off. I instantly missed having her pressed up against me. As soon as she left, I felt a shift in me. Almost like my body was off kilter. I felt my anxiety come back in full force. My wolf started pacing back and forth in my head, making noises in the background.
I looked up at the red brick, black-shingled, two-story townhouse with a black rod iron gate surrounding a small green yard in the front. As she skipped up the steps onto her wooden patio, Dino scrambled off his bike and towards her, telling her to wait for us, but I was in no hurry.
I looked around for a second. I noticed the construction crew fixing some of the infrastructure in the building next to us. I noticed a few people on the other side of the street sitting in front of a coffee shop. I saw a prissy old lady clutch her pearls as she passed by me, walking her dog. I even noted some of the parked cars that were close to us, but the one that caught my eye was the one that just parked down the street, facing us, with blacked-out windows.
My wolf growled, and I let him know that I saw it and that we would keep an eye on that car, but we first needed to join the others. Maybe convince them to go faster to get out of here quicker.
I stuck my hands in my pockets as Celine called, “G! Are you coming in?”
G? Did she already give me a nickname? A piece of my heart turned into goo as my feet moved towards her like she had an invisible leash that she yanked on, and I wore it willingly. Man, I was in trouble.
I made my way up the steps and noticed that the door had no door handle, just a black pad in place of it. I lifted my eyebrow in question at her.
“To keep the little rascals out." She smiled brightly as she waved me in, making me think that she had to deal with that more than not.
I walked into a pitch-black house, bumping into Dino before she shut the door and turned on the lights. I was impressed to see that, on the inside, it was quite homey. There was a sitting room to the left, a hallway, and stairs that led up to the second floor. The only indication that this was not your average home was the metal shields that covered each entry point.
I walked up closer, seeing the specific sheen that said this was tungsten shields. I heard her say behind me, "Yeah, I keep the house on lockdown when I'm not here. I can open up the windows. Just give me-"
"Don't." My mind immediately went to that blacked-out car on the street. "Keep them up. We shouldn't be long anyways." Celine eyed me suspiciously as Dino turned around.
"So, where are they? This house doesn't look like it could handle much machinery." She narrowed her eyes at me, almost like she was telling me she was watching me, before she motioned down the hallway.
"Over this way." She took the lead and brought us to the kitchen. It was a state-of-the-art kitchen with shiny appliances that barely looked used. I wondered how many times she had used this house. If she doesn't live here, where does she live?
She went to the pantry door and opened it wide as she moved a few boxes. Dino looked like he was about to yell at her, and I gripped his arm and pointed at the boxes, showing him that she was moving them around into a pattern from shortest to biggest. As soon as the smallest box was put in place, I heard a series of clicks, locks overturning, and a whooshing sound came as a door slid open to an elevator.
She looked back at us with a smirk. I'm sure seeing our stunned faces as this was straight out of a spy movie. It was fascinating and exciting, my human side enthralled by all of the new tech I was getting the opportunity to ogle. My wolf didn’t care in the slightest.
She walked in, waving us in like little kids about to ride an elevator for the first time. “Come on. This is just the door. Wait until you see what I got down below.” We hurried to shuffle forward, boxing her in between us, and I saw her lip move slightly, almost like she was biting it from the inside. A hopeful thought took over my brain, maybe she was just as affected by this mate thing as we are. Maybe she felt this pull to us, too. Wouldn't that just make this whole thing a lot easier.
She took a deep breath before she bent forward and pressed the down button. The door slammed shut, and a voice came through.
“Access Code.”
She rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “1569837558.”What the hell kind of access code was that?I was starting to get the feeling there was more to Celine than her just being a world-class assassin.
The elevator started to descend, and both Dino and I stiffened. "Oh, relax. If I wanted to kill you, it would've been sooner, not in some stupid elevator shaft." She laughed it off, but the way Dino's eyes met mine, he didn't know if that was entirely true.
It felt like a long way down, much farther than a basement, when the elevator finally jerked to a stop and the door slid open. Celine walked out first and turned around with her arms wide open. "Well, boys, let's go shopping."
Both Dino and I stepped out, and our jaws dropped. I didn't realize how much my earlier words were true as this could definitely be defined as a lair.
She flipped on a breaker, and the whole place lit up. Light by light, it showed rows and rows of weapons. She started down the main hallway, pointing down each aisle like she was some librarian showing us how the books were cataloged.
"Down this way are all the items to fight mages. There are anti-magic shields, magic piercing bullets, and magic corrupting spelled weapons." She pointed to the other side. "Down here are the spelled weapons against Fae/wild magic, then down here," she paused as she pointed down a different aisle, "down here are the weapons laced with wolfsbane, magically impenetrable nets, and tranquilizer weapons for shifters."
Both of us paused in that aisle. Dino looked down it like she was going to end up using those weapons on us someday, while I was just interested in the mechanics. She quickly continued to the other side. “And this one is the vampire aisle. I have UV-coated ammo, guns that shoot out a burst of sunlight, and crossbows that come with rosewood stakes.” She leaned up against the metal shelving unit, looked at a silver knife, and snagged it off the rack. She looked down the aisle, expecting us to go down for some gear, and yet I noticed there was quite a lot of space behind her.
