Prologue
Eddie
“Angela!” I called out as she walked into the darkness. She carried on without turning
back, but I knew she’d heard me; the slight stiffening of her shoulders gave her
away. She probably thought I hadn’t seen the reaction, but my night sight was better
than most people could see in the day; I noticed everything around me. It was one of
the advantages of being a predator. Moving quietly, but faster than she was walking,
I soon caught her up. “Wait!” I said, reaching out to her.
Moving away from my touch, she stopped and faced me. Tears were pouring
down her face. “Happy now?” she asked roughly, not attempting to hide the fact that
she was crying.
“To see you upset? Why would that make me happy?”
“Because to you, I’m the enemy,” she sobbed. “You’ve made that quite clear
from the start.”
I wanted to fold my arms and stare at her in disbelief, but I forced myself to
appear calm on the outside. My thoughts and those of my beast were in turmoil. This
woman had indeed seemed to be the enemy; only Charlie’s mate, Lizzy, had
defended her and explained how Angela had helped to protect her before we’d
rescued Lizzy from her ex-husband. The real problem I had was that from the first
instant of seeing Angela, yes, even when I thought she was working against us, was
that my tiger was growling mate at me. That, for many reasons, was laughable, but I
couldn’t help but be drawn to her. Everything she’d told us about her situation was
bringing out feelings I’d never experienced before. She wasn’t spinning us a lie. The
way her words were said in such a matter-of-fact way gave them truth. She wasn’t
looking for sympathy, just telling us what had happened.
Seeing her upset, though, I hated it. It was tearing at me to see her distress
and I wanted to comfort her, but at the same time, I did think she was expecting a
little too much from us.
“You were in cahoots with Lizzy’s ex-husband. The company he was
embroiled in want you returned to them and have taken a hostage to make sure they
get you. What am I supposed to think?” I asked for a chance to defend why I felt she
couldn’t be trusted. I could sense the anger and despair well up in her as I spoke, but
there was something else she was keeping from me; no mean feat for a human to
withhold innate behaviour from an animal, especially a tiger.
“I’ve told you how I got caught up in the whole situation,” she said, rubbing her
hands over her face to wipe the tears away. Her annoyance with me had stopped the
flow. “I was stupid enough to believe the words of a charming man until I was in too
deep. His wife hid at the other end of the country to escape him. Do you think it was
a walk in the park what I went through once I realised what a fool I’d been?” she
demanded. I knew she was referring to violence that she’d experienced at his hands,
and I clenched my fists as my heart rate sped up at wanting to tear him apart –
stupid really, as he was dead, but it didn’t prevent the urge of protectiveness I felt
towards her. It was more than a little confusing when I knew I should mistrust her, but
instinctively, I knew she was a good person; my tiger certainly thought so.
“No. It can’t have been easy.” Now it was my turn to let out a breath and try to
get myself and my animal back under control. “Especially as you seem quite keen to
put yourself down, which would have played right into his hands.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“I’ve only known you a few hours and you’ve called yourself a geek and a
nerd, as well as admitting that you didn’t deserve to receive affection from someone
decent. Why would you do that?” I couldn’t understand her self-loathing. She was
pretty, with wide blue eyes, so pale they were almost aquamarine. Her hair was light,
but she wore it very tight in a bun, so there was no hint of how long or short it was. It
made her features look harsher than they would if her hair framed her face. My
fingers itched to unfasten the bindings and let her hair fall, but I shoved my hands in
my pockets instead of making such an inappropriate move, which I’d no doubt she
would reject anyway.
Turning away from me, she sighed and looked out into the night. “It doesn’t
matter.”
“It does to me,” I said, moving to face her. “I don’t like that you are quick to
dismiss yourself.”
Closing her eyes for a moment, she glanced at me. “I’m not worth your time.
I’m heading towards who knows what and I must accept this unexpected destiny.
Everything else is irrelevant.”
“Your destiny? Those are strange words to use, not the usual run-of-the-mill
description your average person would use. Who are you?” I was even more
convinced that she was hiding something important about herself.
“Kiss me.”
“What?” I stupidly asked like some inexperienced schoolboy.
“Kiss me like you’re never going to see me again,” she said, taking a step
towards me, moving her arms up my own and around my neck.
“I need to know that I will see you again,” I admitted, wrapping my arms
around her waist and pulling her towards me. I shouldn’t be touching her; she was
using the offer of a kiss as a distraction. I was sure of it, but the draw I’d felt towards
her made me want to take any opportunity I could to touch her. I might be a weak
fool, but I’d never felt a pull like this to anyone else and I couldn’t walk away from
her. I wasn’t senseless enough not to make her a promise though. “We are going to
find you.”
“I’m not worth it. Trust me on that. Just do me this one thing and make this
kiss count,” she demanded.
And I did.
Chapter 1
Eddie
Three months later.
I was getting nowhere and it was driving me mad. I could hack into every computer
system I wanted across the world and manipulate machines to do as I pleased
remotely – the secret services very often took advantage of this skill, but I couldn’t
get into one business. Every avenue I pursued to find a weakness in the company,
Corinthian, led to a dead end. The fact that they were performing illegal experiments
on shifter DNA and the authorities seemed unable or unwilling to stop them wasn’t
helping. They were experts at covering their tracks, ruthless, willing to kill and
seemingly unaccountable to anyone.
The only small breakthrough I’d had was that my vampire godfather, who just
happened to be head of the secret services, had taken on Corinthian in a subversive,
sneaky-beaky kind of way. I had no idea if his operatives were gaining any useful
information; I wouldn’t be told such highly classified information, so I could only try to
do my bit on the sidelines and wait.
It was nearly killing me because I’d handed over the woman whom I was
convinced was my fated mate to that same company, and I’d had no contact from
her since. My tiger raged at me every time I had to admit I’d reached another dead
end, and for once, I couldn’t argue against him. I was annoyed with myself.
Trying to focus on the business I had set up with my two best friends and
fellow tiger-shifters, Charlie and Ben, there were mundane tasks to complete. I was
very much the operative behind the scenes, while the more outgoing, investigation-
experienced Ben and Charlie did the work I couldn’t do from my base at my home in
Bath.
Charlie and Ben had recently set up house with their own fated mates and
we’d had a rethink of how we were going to work. Instead of having one base on the
outskirts of London as we’d first thought, we’d since decided to have my home in
Bath as the base and they would be active remotely. It meant Charlie could remain
with Lizzy and his aunt Jean in Hampshire and Ben could remain with Kerry in the
north of England, so they could easily reach Kerry’s nephew, who was living in
Scotland, during school holidays.
It was all very organised and was working well. Our business was growing
quickly, and we had already established a good reputation. Even a few police forces
had contacted us about jobs they couldn’t afford to throw manpower at, but could
pay us for our time. As I had little else to do other than play with my computers, I was
able to trawl through lots of CCTV footage to find missing people or discover where
difficult-to-find criminals hid out. People forgot that, with everything they did, there
was usually a trail they left behind, whether electronically, via CCTV, or on paper,
and with Charlie and Ben on the ground, we were usually able to find most people.
It kept me busy during working hours and long into the night, and instead of
relaxing and trying to have some sort of a life, in any spare moment I had, I
continued to try to uncover what I could about Corinthian.
If I was put side by side with my godfather, I wasn’t sure who would be taken
for a vampire as I could probably pass for one without any effort I was so pale. It was
only to exercise my beast that I went outside, not healthy, perhaps, but necessary if I
was to keep working on finding Angela. Something I had to do, no matter how futile it
sometimes felt.
Settling down with yet another ready meal, in front of a bank of computer
screens, I glanced at my mobile when it rang, picking it up quickly when I saw whose
name was flashing on the screen.
“Hello, Luke, how are you?” I said in greeting to my godfather.
“I would be better if I stopped getting hard problems to solve,” came the deep,
gruff voice of the scariest vampire I had ever met. Even my animal was wary of him,
no mean feat when you’re a four-hundred-pound tiger.
“You’d only get bored if you didn’t keep busy.”
I heard a growl on the other side, which made me smile. He was intimidating,
but I had known him all my life and knew he valued those who stood up to him, even
though it still made my heart race a little. He always brought out the fight-or-flight
response in me.
“You’re certainly not going to be bored,” he responded. “I’ve decided to give
you an early birthday present. It’s going to be delivered by the postal service.”
“Thank you,” I replied without missing a beat. My birthday was months off, so I
knew he was talking in code. Luke didn’t trust technology; it was because he was
alive before it was invented, but he was right to mistrust it in many cases. Corinthian
had proved they could use it to their advantage, just as much as we did.
“You’re welcome. I know you appreciate quirky gifts, so I picked this one
especially for you. Look after it.”
“I will. Hope you can visit soon.”
“Yes, I’ll check my diary and get back to you. Bye.”
Our conversations weren’t always so abrupt, which set me on the alert. If
Luke was being extra cagey, something was afoot. There would be an
indecipherable note attached to the present, which would eventually give me my
instructions. I’d done quite a bit of work for him over the years; it was interesting and
something different from the programming and inventing computer games which I’d
done as an official job until setting up in business with Ben and Charlie. The gaming
side of my work was the one that had made me the most money, lots of it, but in
recent years, it hadn’t been the challenge it once was.
Finishing my pretty tasteless meal, I cleared away my dish and grabbed a
beer from the fridge, when a knock sounded at the front door of the house. Putting
the beer aside, I moved to the hallway, checked the camera covering the door, and
recognised one of the operatives my uncle had used before. I moved to open the
door quickly; they wouldn’t appreciate being stood outside for long. Any time in the
open was too much when you were constantly watching over your shoulder as these
operatives were.
Three people were standing outside, two with heads down. I stepped aside
when I’d unlocked the door and they all entered the wide hallway of my Georgian
terrace.
The moment I set eyes on one of the bowed heads, I knew without a doubt
who it was. “Angela?” I asked in utter disbelief.
“Let’s get settled,” Will said. I’d met him previously and these men weren’t the
type to introduce themselves. I closed the door behind them and set the electronic
locks.
Leading the way into the lounge, I turned to my unexpected guests and waited
for one of them to explain what was going on. Trying to keep my eyes from staring at
Angela, I was having difficulty keeping the anger I felt from bubbling to the surface.
She looked terrible. Forcing myself to focus on the other two, I didn’t have to wait
long for an explanation.
“We’ve extracted Miss Woodward and the boss wanted her delivered here. He
said you have the resources to keep her safe until the company is eradicated,” Will
explained.
“Surely she’s more protected in a safe house?”
“No.” Will looked uncomfortable and received a nod when he glanced at his
colleague. “There’s a mole in the organisation. The extraction was difficult enough;
we lost two operatives.” We all saw Angela wince at his words. “The boss didn’t think
the safe houses were secure enough at this point. He said you were good at
disappearing if needed.”
I nodded. There had been times when I’d needed a quick escape, usually
because of work linking back to my godfather. If I wasn’t sure of his affection,
sometimes I could be forgiven for thinking he wanted rid of me, with some of the
situations I’d been in.
“What happens now?” I asked.
“You wait for further instructions. Is there a back way out of here?” Will asked.
“Yes.” I led the way downstairs into what had historically been the kitchens
and servants’ area. It had all completely changed now, thanks to my reconfiguring of
the house; any lingering ghosts wouldn’t recognise it.
The two men left as quickly as they’d arrived and I set up extra security
around the house. I wasn’t paranoid, but at certain times, it was useful to have more
protection than the average household. Usually, I was guarding against an
opportunistic thief who might think all their Christmases had come at once if they
stumbled upon a lot of computer equipment.
I returned to the lounge and noticed Angela hadn’t moved since I’d left the
room. We looked at each other in silence. The awkwardness stretched out between
us, neither seeming to want to break it. I don’t think I’d ever felt so uncomfortable
and for a computer geek, that is really going some. Eventually, I realised this was my
house; she looked terrible, as if she’d been through hell, she’d lost weight and
looked sickly and I needed to look after her. I needed to do something to help her,
my tiger was ready to destroy whoever had hurt her for one look in her eyes and I
could tell she’d been hurt.
She just stood, holding a small bag in front of her, looking lost and haunted. I
had to offer her comfort, to try and take away some of her pain.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” I asked. ...
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