NB: As always, thank you to
wildheartedangel
for helping me edit the chapter. I'm really sorry it took so long but for those of you who have patiently waited --thank you.
***
Keona sat stoically in front of the man she thought was harmless; her mind sharpened to kill him with a thought should he even dare to say anything to piss her off. How could she have missed this?
His lack of scent should have alerted her immediately.
"Keona." He sounded almost apologetic. Son of a bitch!
"Riley," she replied through clenched teeth.
She had been told that he was a high ranking Vanguard --a trained assassin --and he would be her trainer as well as the source of information for her to hunt down the person trying to track him.
Keona would rather that person track Riley down and slaughter him.
A sudden multiple knife stabbing sensations hit her brain the moment she thought of that.
"Don't fight me Keona," said Riley gently. He had seen the pain etched on her face and knew she was probably thinking of killing him --a counter thought to her given mission.
"Just tell me what to do," she forced the words out.
"Whoever's looking for me left a trail and your job is to find this person and terminate him or her. You have exactly forty-eight hours to do so."
"Then get me the hell out of here."
"I can't." Patient eyes stared into hers. "You need to be briefed on how to pull up an ability from your mental cupboard and how to minimize power consumption to avoid blackouts. You are only half as strong as a Vampire."
"At least I would never sell out the ones I love," she whispered; a tone so low only he could hear.
Riley made no change in his expression; his face set in constant seriousness as he slammed the files in front of her. "First up, to maximize your energy consumption, you need to rearrange the abilities in your mind to a specific sector in your brain. So when you need to use it, you only need to focus on that part of the brain."
"How?"
"Like this." He took her hand and placed it at his temple; knowing full well she could see straight into his mind as her uncle Draven could. "The remaining brain activity functions at a minimum while allowing that one sector to attain perfection. Now, your turn."
Her ability to mimic meant there was no need for second tries.
"Good. Now, Kendall's going to help you compartmentalize."
"Who's he?"
The focused look faded slightly, replaced by a gentleness that Keona understood as love.
"He's my brother," he whispered as he turned to look at the door. As though on cue, the Vampire named Kendall walked in --the same handsome one who had read to her during the first abilities test.
The brothers hardly looked like each other.
"Hello," he greeted her. "I hope we can be friends."
Keona preferred Kendall. He had eyes that spoke of much innocence and the fact that his ability was not combative made him even less of a threat.
"Come, let's start. The clock is ticking."
***
Eian didn't bother knocking. As an Alpha, he had the right to be in absolute control when it concerned the pack's safety and as a father --well, that gave him the right to be just a little hysterical.
"Alex!" The command was all wolf.
"Alpha."
Sharp green eyes stared into beads of onyx. "Where's my girl?"
Alex knew his Alpha was going to be less than rational at the moment but he was firm as he answered, "I have tracked her as far as I could but her scent ended deep beneath the snowy mountains. The feral wolves are still continuing their search but they're not meant for tracking down hybrids. Keona's scent confuses them."
"I can smell her on you damn well Alex. I could kill you for that alone."
Alex would have protested except that the wolf before him was not just the father of his mate but his Alpha. Alex had no doubt that Eian could break every bone in his body without even breaking a sweat.
"With all due respect Alpha, she is my mate."
The anger in Eian's eyes faded slightly; replaced by a look of amusement and disbelief. "We will have this talk another time. Right now, I want you to find her and Marine. Alaron's already on the verge of a rampage. I'm surprised he hasn't come here yet."
"He has."
Everyone turned towards the voice at the front door to find Alaron; arms braced on the door frame, looking murderous.
"Get me that damn friend of yours and I'll rip him apart with my fangs!"
"Alaron..." This warning didn't come from Eian but from the only other Vampire in the room --Draven.
Alex looked at all the men in his room and wondered why no blood had been shed yet. A distressed Alpha, a frantic Vampire, two Beta wolves --his dad and Dominic --and then there's the Pureblood Draven.
An unlikely ensemble but a task force nonetheless. Alex felt puny.
Everyone was asking him information; barking at him for what he
should
have done, criticizing his lack of judgment and all the while arguing amongst themselves on what should be done next.
A room full of dominant males meant that everyone wanted to take the reign and no one would concede.
"May I make a suggestion?" Alex put his hand up.
"What?" snipped the other males.
"We could divide the search into three teams --two for each of the missing people."
Eian frowned then nodded as he considered the suggestion. The young wolf never failed to impress him --but since he dared to touch his princess, he ought to get bloodied a little.
"Fine, Alex and I will search for Keona. Alaron, you go with Dominic to look for Marine and Draven will be with Mike to look for this Riley fellow."
"How come I can't go after him?" asked Alaron. "I promise I won't bite... hard."
Draven who was leaning lazily against the wall explained, "Alex thinks he's some high ranking Vampire disguising as the real Riley. The ability to hide one's scent is meant for combat. I think it's better for me to handle him."
"Keep him alive so I can kill him."
"Let's not be quick to judge now," warned Eian.
"Fine," he said stubbornly. "But I want all of you to use my house as our base. This place is... well, hardly fit for headquarters," he said looking at the messy one bedroom apartment. "I have a proper living room big enough for all of us."
Eian was pleasantly surprised. Alaron never offers anything unless...
