Chapter 2: Chapter Two

Ryker.

I pace the small conference room. I've been in a foul mood for three weeks, since my birthday, since I met her. Or, since she disappeared in the middle of the night. Not that I'd expected anything less from her kind, really. I'd just hoped for more from her. I honestly don't know why. It's not like there could ever be anything between us, her being a vampire and me being a vampire hunter.

I just want to fuck her again. If I keep saying it, maybe I'll even believe it eventually.

It's just because she was able to draw me to her with one little eyebrow raise, I rationalize. The way her lithe body looked in just that black thong. The way her kisses seemed to disarm me. It was how responsive she was to my every touch and the way her pussy gripped me like a vice when she came.

It had nothing to do with the masked vulnerability in her eyes. Or whatever story was behind her spending her birthday alone in a crowded bar. And it wasn't the way she smiled at me or how she took charge and pulled me from the bar after only a half a dozen words. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

I'd suspected she was a vampire the second our eyes locked, she carries herself with a confidence and capability that most humans don't. My suspicions were validated as soon as I approached her. When she's excited, her pale blue eyes glow red from within that makes them look almost purple up close. It's subtle, and only those who know how to look for it would ever be able to pick it out.

"Stop pacing, you're driving me crazy." Gabe is my friend and my boss, but he's also a hardass and doesn't take much shit. Except from Drew and I. We goad him constantly to get a rise out of him and keep him young.

He was our commanding officer in the Marines until he was discharged. His wife was killed and turned by a vampire when he was overseas, and I don't think he's ever forgiven himself for not being here for her.

As soon as he left the Marines, he started this black-ops company, N.W.E. At least that's the name on the door and on my paychecks. He won't tell any of us what it means. We just call it The Company. Basically, it’s a police force for vampires.

Gabe stayed in touch and recruited me and Drew as soon as we got our discharge papers.

"Run this by me again," I say as I pull up my chair next to Gabe at the head of the table.

"We're meeting someone named Fox. I guess he's got some intel and wants our help." Gabe pushes the file towards me, but I don't grab it. I've already read through it twice. Not much there yet. Either Fox doesn't know much or he's holding his hand close to his chest.

"Since when do we help civilians take down vampires?" Something about this situation doesn't smell right to me. We track down suspicious murders and missing persons and usually follow our own intelligence. We're mostly Government funded with a few very lucrative private backers and severely covert operations. We've never had someone walk in off the streets offering tips before.

"We do what we need to do." Gabe studies my face, and I try not to squirm under the scrutiny.

Although he's a couple inches shorter than me and not as broad, his brown eyes see everything and his gaze is piercing. He wears his brown hair short, like mine, still in the typical military buzz cut.

"What's your problem? Need to get laid or something, gunny?" He uses my military rank, Gunnery Sergeant to address me.

Drew strolls in casually. "He's been pissy like this for weeks," he pauses thoughtfully, "ever since his birthday."

Drew and I grew up together, served in the Marines together and joined Gabe's team together. He has two older brothers who are complete losers and assholes to him. I don't think he's seen them in years. I'm more of a brother to him than they ever were. He has light brown hair that he's let grow out from the buzz cut and his blue eyes are always laughing at something.

Gabe perks up at Drew's comment. "What's the matter, Gunny? Feeling old? Couldn't close the deal with that chick you left with?"

I scowl at my friends and co-workers. "No, you idiot, I'm only twenty-eight. Not exactly stocking up on E.D. beds yet. How old are you again? Forty?"

Drew laughs, and Gabe frowns. "No, asshole, I'm thirty-two."

"Really? I could've sworn you were older. Must be the gray hair that threw me." I laugh as Gabe unconsciously brings his hand up to his head as he scowls at me.

I barely hear the knock on the door, but when Emma walks through the doorway my laughter immediately stops, and my mouth drops open.

“I’m Fox,” she says to Gabe, who stands to shake her hand. Drew stands as well and shakes her hand, a puzzled expression on his face.

She looks even more gorgeous than I remember with her long blonde hair pulled up in a tight ponytail, minimal makeup, skinny jeans and black long-sleeve shirt. She has large sunglasses covering her eyes, and I know it's for light sensitivity. Vampires aren't allergic to sunlight as some believe, just sensitive to it. A little sunblock and sunglasses and they can walk amongst us and nobody would know.

She gives me a half-grin and pushes her glasses up onto her head before offering me her hand. "Ryker, why am I not surprised that you work here?"

At least she's not pretending like she doesn't know who I am. I don't know if I'd be able to handle that right now. My entire body is screaming for me to grab her and kiss her.

Drew and Zeke are both looking at me like I've lost my mind as I gawk at her from my chair.

I finally close my mouth, stand up and shake her hand. "I don't know... Fox." I quirk my eyebrow at her.

She gives a nervous glance towards Drew and Gabe, and her eyes plead with me to keep quiet.

"You two know each other?" Gabe looks back and forth between us.

Drew is nodding as if he's pieced it together. "She's the chick from the bar."

Gabe frowns. "You slept with a client?"

Emma laughs, and we all turn to look at her. She doesn't stop laughing, and we look to each other for clues to the joke. When we don't say anything she clears her throat and apologizes.

I think she's laughing because she thought the question would have been 'you slept with a vampire’, but nobody cares about that here as long as the lines aren't crossed.

We've met many vampires over the years and while none of us are philosophical enough to address the age old argument as to their souls, we recognize that they do have morals and beliefs and consciences like any human. Some are just homicidal lunatics or psychopaths, like some humans, and need a sort of law enforcement agency to take them down. That's us.

"She wasn't a client at the time," I offer, returning to the conversation.

"True." Gabe turns to Emma. "Is this going to be a problem for you?"

"I don't see why it would be." Emma smiles politely. "Shall we get down to business?"

"By all means."

Gabe, Drew and I take our seats at the table and Emma sits across from Gabe to my right. I wonder what she'd do if I rubbed her leg under the table. Then I remember to think with the head on my shoulders and push all thoughts of touching her aside.

Emma pulls a file out of her purse and hands it across the table to Gabe. "Toshi Sato. AKA Thomas Suzuki. AKA Mr. S. AKA Spider. Japanese native, turned vampire in the late eighteen hundreds, spent most of the last century tearing up Europe and Asia. He migrated to America in the last decade. He travels with a group, estimated in the dozens, outside of The Community. He lives outside of the normal rules. He reaps mayhem and destruction wherever he goes. He has no qualms about turning his victims. His men have been known to tear apart entire villages and leave dozens of newborn vampires with no direction or explanation. Nobody knows exactly where he is."

"You'd think that kind of destruction would make some noise." Drew turns his attention to Gabe. "Why haven't we heard of him?"

"We have." Gabe gets up and walks to the filing cabinet against the back wall, after a minute he pulls the file. "Sato entered the U.S. through Mexico eight years ago with his wife, Maria and his second in command, Niles Wright. He was in California for the first couple years, and then in New York for a year. Do you have reason to believe he's in Denver?"

Gabe returns to the table and puts the file in front of me. I flip open the cover to see the picture of a young-looking Japanese man with shoulder-length black hair and cold black eyes.

Emma hesitates for a minute before answering. I look up at her just as she speaks. "I saw him three months ago."

"I see." Gabe folds his hands on the table in front of him and levels a look at her. "Is this personal for you?"

Emma mimics Gabe's posture by folding her hands on the table and glaring back at him. "August, nineteen forty-five, Sato and his men overtook a small medical facility. They slaughtered nineteen wounded soldiers and two doctors. They raped and tortured six nurses for five days before finally allowing them the mercy of death. Nineteen fifty-six, a village in Africa, men, women, children, thirty-six dead, twelve turned. Nineteen sixty-one, France, fourteen dead, two turned. Nineteen sixty-eight, Italy, thirteen dead, three turned. Nineteen seventy-four, Germany, twenty-two dead, six turned. I can keep going, if you'd like."

"That's not necessary." Gabe clears his throat. "We got it. Bad guy. We will obviously look into it. But you're not going to be involved outside this room."

Emma tilts her head in a move that is inappropriately adorable to me right now. "How do you plan to stop me?"

Gabe's eyes narrow and he opens his mouth to speak, but she holds up a hand to stop him.

"Cut me out, I'll follow you. I can track you from blocks away without ever being seen or heard. Try to restrain me, I'll escape."

"We could kill you." Gabe points out, and I have to consciously force myself not to react.

The thought of killing her makes my stomach churn, and I have a sudden urge to jump up and guard her sweet little body from him.

Emma doesn't blink, in fact, she chuckles. "Nice try. I know you're not that type of killer."

"How do you know?" Gabe stares her down. "That could've been my plan all along. Let you walk right in here with dirt and not let you walk out."

Emma looks like she's going to say something snarky but snaps her mouth closed and then sighs and starts over. "Call it women's intuition, mixed in with some vampire super senses, and I've done my homework on your company's practices."

"Gunny?" Gabe looks at me.

I shrug and play it cool. "Easier than tripping on her at every turn."

Emma gives me a flat, "Thanks a lot," at the same time Gabe says, "She's your responsibility."

"Great." Her eyes roll so far back only the whites are visible. Then she reaches into her purse and pulls out another file. "Now that my babysitter has been assigned, maybe we can get back to it. Marcus Lott, a member of The Community in Denver. When I saw Sato, he was meeting with Marcus. As far as I know, this is the only connection to The Community. If anyone knows where Sato is, it's Lott." She hands the file to Gabe.

"Why don't you ask him?" Drew asks, finally pulling his tongue back into his mouth and joining the conversation.

"I tried." Emma hesitates. "It didn't go well. I can only push so hard without raising suspicion and getting myself killed."

"So you want us to ask him?" Drew gives her a half-grin.

"Something like that." Emma winks.

Drew's grin takes over his whole face, showing his dimples. I scowl at him, but he's too busy admiring Emma to notice.

She turns her attention back to Gabe and the file he's holding. "His schedule, his entourage and his women are listed there. He visits a human girl, Eloise Roberts, every other Friday night. That's where he's weakest. His men drop him off and come back for him after a few hours."

"Is he due for his visit this Friday?" Gabe opens the file and shuffles through the papers.

"No, next," Emma answers before he finds the answer himself.

"Good." Gabe nods. "That'll give us some time for recon. Lott isn't on our radar, is he not a key player in The Community?"

"No." Emma shifts in her seat and crosses her legs. "He's not exactly Mr. Popularity. The only person Marcus cares about is Marcus. Nobody with half a brain would give him any kind of influence in The Community."

"Looks like a weaselly little bastard," I murmur, looking at the picture in the file in front of Gabe.

"An apt description." Emma smiles in amusement.

"Drew, find out what you can about Eloise Roberts. Gunny, why don't you take our guest on a tour of the offices before she leaves. Make sure Jenny has her contact info." Gabe dismisses us as he reads through the file on Lott.

Jenny is the office manager, administrative assistant, secretary, and general go-to girl at the office. Her parents were killed by vampires when she was young. She went through the system for a while before ending up on the streets.

Gabe saw her being attacked by a vampire a few years ago, he saved her, and she'd been with him ever since. They're not together romantically, I'm sure Gabe's not interested in going down that road, but she sticks to him like a groupie.

Emma, Drew and I stand and walk out of the meeting room. Drew looks down at Emma and asks, "Can you really track us from blocks away?"

"Sure." She shrugs. "A vampire's strength depends on the purity of the vampire who turned them. Some even have unique gifts."

"Who turned you?" I ask.

Her eyes narrow slightly, and she hesitates. I think I already know the answer anyway, but I want to see if she'll tell me.

"A very powerful vampire." She looks from me to Drew, waiting to see if we'll push.

"So, can you impress us with your skills?" Drew asks excitedly.

We don't get the opportunity to just have a friendly talk with vampires very often. Obviously, we know about the super strength and heightened senses, but we don't know how acute they are. I'll admit that I'm curious too as I watch her think it over.

"What? Do you want me to beat you at arm wrestling or something?"

I laugh because that would be awesome, but Drew shakes his head.

"How about this, then? Gabe is grinding his teeth right now. The receptionist keeps a bag of M&Ms under the files in the bottom drawer of her desk. Your janitor thinks that you run some kind of alien hunting task force. Oh, and you said that Ryker has been pissy since his birthday."

I remember Drew saying that as he entered the meeting room, several minutes before she arrived. I try to remember what the hell else we said about her, but I can't while she's giving me that sassy little smirk.

Then she turns back to Drew. "Or I could tell you what type of deodorant you wear, the toothpaste you used this morning and that you are wearing the same socks you wore yesterday and tried to mask it with a foot powder."

I wrinkle my nose and look at Drew for confirmation.

He looks chagrined. "I need to do laundry."

She nods and pats his arm. "It'll be our secret."

I laugh as Drew shifts uncomfortably.

Then she leans in to whisper, "If it makes you feel any better, Ryker hasn't washed his sheets since he hooked up with me three weeks ago."

I stop laughing immediately as my mouth drops open. Drew eyes me, and it's his turn to laugh at my discomfort. I'm about to ask how the hell she knows this, but she supplies the answer.

"I can still smell just the tiniest bit of me on your skin. I'm assuming you've showered numerous times in the last few weeks and your clothes are clean, so that leaves the sheets."

"That's pathetic, dude." Drew chuckles, and laughs again when I punch him on the arm and scowl.

"Don't you have work to do? Show and tell is over." I take Emma's elbow and lead her toward the 'offices’, which is actually a munitions locker, a surveillance room, a medical room, a gadget lab and a gym. A couple of us do have offices, but most of us spend most of our time in the field.

"Come on, Fox."

"Nice to meet you." Drew yells from behind us as I drag her down the hall. Drew's like a brother to me, and I know I don't have to worry about his shameless flirting or clueless questions, but I don't want these two to rub off on each other and gang up against me.

I also just want an excuse to touch her and be near her. One night with her and I'm addicted. I'm in serious trouble.