Chapter Four

Ryker.

I meet Gabe and Drew in the meeting room a while later and we go over the strategy of attacking Marcus Lott while he's got his pants down. Drew got the floor plans to Roberts' building and a map of the surrounding area.

"We have to be smart with Fox," Gabe says, and I bristle until he elaborates. "He'll be able to smell or hear her coming or something. We are just guys out fucking around as long as we don't talk like commandos headed into a war zone, but I'm assuming his suspicions will be aroused if he senses her coming."

"How did she follow him without that problem before?" Drew asks and looks at me for answers.

"I don't know." I remember her talking about vampire strengths depending on the power of the one who turned them. "Her powers must be stronger than his. Either that or she disguised her scent or something. Don't have to watch what you say when you're alone, she would've been silent."

"True." Gabe nods. "We'll discuss it with her when we bring her back in."

"Minion has created something that will help too." They both look at me, so I elaborate, "Some sort of vampire power amplifier. She can hear more, smell more, run faster, jump farther."

"I didn't know Minion was working on that kind of technology." Gabe frowns.

"He said he knew we'd have a vampire on the team eventually." I lift a shoulder in a half-shrug to downplay it. I don't want to get Minion in trouble, and I'm not sure how Gabe will feel about it.

"What else has he been working on in there?" Gabe asks me.

"Some kind of aerosol feeding device." I frown, remembering Emma's reaction to it. "That was a bit of an epic failure though."

"Do I want to know?" Gabe raised his eyebrows.

"No." I shake my head. There is no way I'm telling these two about Emma's freak out.

At first it scared the shit out of me, because I thought she was getting ready to spontaneously combust before my eyes, and I'd be powerless to stop it. Then it was pretty amusing as her words started flowing uncensored. Then, it was just fucking hot as she rubbed up against me and begged me with her eyes to drag her out of that room and fuck her senseless.

I knew it wasn't really her though, and I didn't want to take advantage of the situation. If she had needed release, I would've found a way to give it to her. There was no fucking way I was letting her leave in a heightened sexual state to fuck whatever asshole she came across.

The thought of someone else touching her seriously pissed me off. Luckily, she rambled on about not being into randoms and how I had been a special birthday present to herself, and that was enough to pacify my irrational jealousy.

Unfortunately, or thankfully, depending on how you looked at it, the shit wore off, and she returned to normal, so I had to say goodbye before I dragged her into an empty office anyways to satisfy my own heightened sexual state just from being around her.

"So are you going to see her again?" Drew asks me, seeming to read the thoughts running through my mind.

"Sure, she's going to be working on this with us." I gesture to the maps and plans in front of us, and do my best to play it cool. I know where this is going, and I don't have an answer.

"I think he meant, are you going to fuck her again?" Gabe offers, and Drew nods.

"I don't know," I say, honestly. I'd fuck her again repeatedly if it was up to me, but I don't know how she feels about it.

I know she wants me, obviously, after her little episode, but that doesn't mean that she wants to want me. It's not like we could ever have anything more than casual sex, and I'm at an age where I should really be looking for more than casual hookups. I have a feeling that Emma would complicate that in a bad way.

She's not just a vampire though. She's a smart, strong woman, and she deserves more than … What the fuck am I doing?

I'm not the type of guy to sit around and think about his feelings and how a woman feels about our relationship. I have fun with women, I like women. I've had a couple women over the years who have moved past the casual thing with me, but it's never really gotten serious. We have fun, we get what we need from each other, we move on, no hard feelings.

So why am I so worried about what Emma will think or how she feels about me? I'm suddenly feeling like this mission is a very bad idea.

"Maybe we should call this thing off." I blurt out without thinking. "We can back burner Sato for a while and then go after him in a few months."

"Are you thinking with your dick?" Gabe snaps.

I flinch as if he's smacked me out of my foggy stupor. What the hell is wrong with me?

"You really think she'd let it go if we drop it?" Drew asks calmly. "Or would she go ahead without us. Or find a different team. One without our mad skills and winning personalities." He gives me a shitty grin, and I know he's just trying to lighten the mood.

"I don't know what I'm thinking," I admit. "But I agree, she definitely won't let it go if we say no."

"What do you think her story is?" Drew furrows his eyebrows. "I think she was one of the nurses at the medical facility."

"I agree." Gabe nods. "And she's been following the trail of destruction ever since."

My chest tightens at the thought. Emma being one of the nurses means she was raped and tortured for five days after watching them slaughter helpless wounded soldiers. The idea of anyone hurting her makes me feel protective in a way I never have before.

Equally upsetting is her spending decades, of her now immortal life, following around this asshole and wasting her life on the idea of vengeance. I know the single-minded intensity that comes with revenge and it's an ugly thing. Way too ugly for the beauty that should be associated with Emma.

"I need to go talk to Minion." I change the subject. I don't want to theorize about Emma's history. I want her to tell me. "Are we done here?"

Gabe nods, and I head out. Drew follows me. When we're a ways down the hallway, he puts a hand on my arm to stop me. "What's up with you?"

I don't know what he's asking exactly so I just shake my head.

"Is it because she's a vampire?"

"No." I say without hesitation. Then I think about it for a second. "I guess it plays a role. I mean, it's not like I can date her, right? We have fun and then what? What if I really like her? I can't marry her."

The words are out of my mouth before I can really process them, but now that I've said them, I can't take them back. I already like her more than I've ever liked a woman. I already want her and crave her. I want to grab her with both hands and never let go.

Drew's eyes are wide, and he looks taken aback. "Wow. Okay. Fuck. It's like that?"

"Yes." I stuff my hands in my pockets and look away. "It's like that."

"Okay." He pauses and tips his head in thought. "So the traditional relationship shit is out. So what? You could marry her if you wanted to. You can definitely date her. If she makes you happy, then why the fuck not?"

"Brother, I appreciate your insight." I put my hand on his shoulder. "It's just complicated right now. I barely know her, and I just need to figure out what I want."

"I understand," he says. "I just don't want it fucking with your head. And I want you to know that no matter what, I support you."

"I know." I pull him into a one-armed hug and then push him off. "Are you done? Can we get back to work?"

"Sure." He tilts his head back towards his office. "I gotta make a couple calls. I'll catch up with you later. Wanna grab a beer tonight?"

"Not tonight." I shake my head. "I've had enough male bonding today."

He chuckles and heads down the hall.

I keep going and pull open the heavy steel door for the gadget lab. "Minion!"

"Hey, Ryker." Minion greets me as if he hadn't given Emma poison that could've killed her, and I had no right to be angry as fuck. "What can I get for you? Heading out into the field? Night surveillance? I got good stuff for that."

"No, Minion." I glare down at him. "I came to discuss this afternoon."

He doesn't look up at me. He's taking apart the very inhaler that I want to crush to smithereens. "What about it? I already talked to Fox, and she gave me all the answers I need to revise the aerosol. She's really something, huh? Wow. She's very knowledgeable too, she must have some sort of medical background. She knew that the clinical data was important, and her assessment was very informative. She's really something."

My mind spins, as it often does when I speak with Minion, and I don't know what to respond to first. I start with the obvious. "When did you talk to Fox?"

"Oh, she called me about an hour after she left." He has the aerosol apart and is putting data into his laptop. "Said she wanted to wait until she was sure she was clear-headed. Gave me a full play-by-play of how the aerosol affected her, and said she'd call back to tell me how long it holds off the thirst. Apparently, the iron in it curbs the appetite, but it's not like it could be a meal, more like a replacement in a pinch, like when you're in the field. Like a granola bar for vampires, you know? Cool, huh? I hadn't thought about it like that."

I don't know what else to say about this right now. Then I remember her ramblings. "Are there drugs in your aerosol?"

"No. Of course not." He pauses in typing and frowns. "Maybe some of the same chemical components, but definitely not drugs. I was as surprised as you by all that."

"All that," I mumble and replay the scene in my head. I clear my throat and hesitate before spitting out my next question. "Is there some kind of libido enhancer?"

"No." He chuckles. "I don't think vampires sexualize their feeding either, like you read about in books, you know? I think that was just her reaction to being all am ped up. Or her reaction to you, magnified by the aerosol."

I run my hand through my hair and the collar catches my eye. "We might be trialing the collar in the field. I mentioned it to Gabe. Can you program it with a remote? We need a backup kill switch."

Minion's eyes widen. "Kill switch?"

"Not to kill her!" I hurry to assure him when I understand his confusion. "Just to shut it off."

"In case she goes bad?" He gives me a dirty look, and I stuff my hands back in my pockets to stop myself from smacking him upside the head.

"No, Minion." I shake my head and go with simple words. "Just in case the bad guys get it somehow."

"Oh!" He nods frantically. "Yep. Yep. Yep. Fox said I should have some kind of shut off too. I thought she meant like here at home base, but I can program you a remote so you can shut it off anytime and render it useless."

"Good." I nod and start towards the door.

"Do you want a kill switch too? Like, a little explosive?" He's getting excited and completely misses the horrified look on my face. "Then if it does get into the bad guys’ hands, it's just a little button and boom, problem solved."

"No!" I shake my head and wave my arms back and forth to stop this train of thought. "No explosives. We're not putting an explosive on Fox. She will be wearing the collar the whole time. I'm just saying that if something were to happen and it did come off her neck, we need to be able to shut it off so nobody else can use it. Okay?"

He nods but looks deflated. "Yes, fine. I understand."

"Good." I open the door and leave the room.

The things Minion could create if given the motive could wipe out the entire world as we know it.

Thank God he's on our side.