Chapter 2 Vin
CHAPTER 2: VIN
Vin bared his teeth in a savage grin as the delightfully amusing wolf tried to glare him into submission. Letting one of his knees fall to the bed, he watched Angel’s pupils dilate as his skirt rode up, revealing an indecent amount of thigh.
The flash of wild gold in the wolf’s eyes in response was gratifying, but the flirtatious move had been as much habit as anything. He was smaller and weaker than most of the supernaturals he came across and it was only a combination of sex, smarts, and his relentless dedication to his martial arts training that let him come out on top every time. Well, except when he didn’t want to be on top.
As his gaze traced down the beautiful specimen before him, he suppressed an uncharacteristic shiver at the image that thought evoked. Angel wasn’t the biggest shifter he’d met by any stretch, but his muscles looked like they’d been sculpted by an artist. He’d bet that broad chest had just the right amount of hair to remind him Angel was an animal and probably fucked like one, too.
Most of the pack’s inner circle was related—all coal-black hair and the deep tan of Mediterranean skin. If he hadn’t already known Angel had been more-or-less adopted by Marco, he would’ve realised by the distinctive soft russet colour of his short hair. Would his wolf have that same colouring?
Giving himself a mental shake, Vin rolled out of bed to find something to distract himself in this too-cramped space. People were tools just like his body was. He used them and moved on. He was more ruthless, more deadly, than any other vampire out there, so that he would never be in a position of powerlessness again. Desire and pointless wonderings were weaknesses he didn’t have time for.
Still, there was something appealing about his Angel’s venom. He’d always loved a challenge and the past decades had been dull. One of the gifts of his age was an aura that endeared him to people. It had been a while since someone had resisted his charms quite so implacably. He’d been with shifters before, so he knew his scent was like catnip for wolves. Angel’s visceral negative reaction to him was like a flash of warm velvet across a world of cold marble. Why did he hate him so much? And why did that intrigue him? Angel was hardly the first man to despise him on sight for his occupation.
Sauntering to the kitchen, he pretended to ignore the too-tempting shifter while he inspected the cooler Angel had thrown onto the floor with far more force than necessary.
“We can take turns patrolling tonight. We have surveillance tech throughout this clearing, but it won’t help if someone like you comes knocking. Are you armed?” Angel asked him, the angry growl of his voice sending another shiver through him.
Vin bent over to check the cooler’s contents, relieved to see enough blood to get him through several weeks if needed. He doubted he could’ve convinced Angel to let him feed on him and things would’ve become awkward when he pressed the issue. Looking back over his shoulder at the big shifter, he flashed another predatory smile as he noticed the man’s beautiful green eyes darting away from where they’d been locked on his ass.
“Only with close-quarter weapons. Do you have guns here if we’re ambushed?” Vin asked, stroking the leather bracelets twined around his wrists that each hid a garotte.
He wasn’t usually one for projectiles, but he wasn’t one for dying over something he hadn’t even done either. Figuring out why Kyan was so convinced it was him who’d set the bomb and who had set him up was high on his list of priorities. A firearm would be a useful substitute for the dagger he always had strapped to one thigh, and he’d still have two more blades concealed in his combat boots.
“My pack sells weapons for a living. Of course, there are guns here,” Angel growled, manoeuvring his way around Vin to a cupboard he hadn’t explored yet and somehow managing not to touch any part of him, which was impressive given how tight this space was and how large the shifter was.
Vin couldn’t see around his broad shoulders as he opened the wooden door, but the move was followed by the beeping sound of Angel entering a pin. When the shifter stepped aside, he revealed a compact but well-stocked armoury.
“Mmmm… I love a good weapon,” Vin said, letting his voice turn husky and stepping forward to trail his fingers over the options available to him.
“Could you stop with the sexual innuendo already?” Angel snapped, sounding pained.
Vin threw his head back and laughed, spinning back to face him and cocking an eyebrow as he stepped right into the wolf’s personal space. Before he could restrain himself, he was drawing in a deep breath of Angel’s scent that was all man with a hint of the forest that surrounded them like the wild terrain had seeped into his essence. He shouldn’t have stepped so close. He wouldn’t be able to catch him by surprise like he’d done last time if Angel attacked again. If it came down to raw strength, he’d be outmatched. But it wouldn’t come down to that because Vin never played fair.
Reaching up, he placed a hand on Angel’s chest, revelling in the soft pressure of his pulse beneath his fingers, the lure of his blood, as the firm muscles beneath Angel’s shirt tensed at his touch.
“You gonna make me?” he asked, biting his lip as he looked up at the taller shifter like the coquettish, vulnerable man he definitely wasn’t.
He needed Angel to let his guard down. The shifter wasn’t going to let Vin come and go the way he needed to investigate this fucking mess and clear his name otherwise. He’d be lucky if Angel didn’t try to handcuff him to something before morning came. Vin needed to get control of the situation. Get control of Angel.
Fuck. He didn’t need the images that flashed through his mind at that thought. He needed to get control of himself as well, which was a first. Despite the fact he wasn’t hungry, his fangs ached to sink into the shifter’s veins, and he could feel them lengthening and releasing the sweet venom that would make his bite feel like ecstasy.
Angel must’ve noticed because he wrenched himself away from him with a groan and stormed out the door again, muttering about patrols and mouthy vampires. Vin grinned and turned back to the armoury to stock up.
Swapping out his knife holster for one that would hold a gun, he frowned at the unfamiliar annoyance of the loaded weapon between his thighs. He’d have much preferred a different kind of barrel there. Although maybe it would be fun to play with later… No. He sighed. He needed to focus. Feeling naked without a dagger on him, he pushed his feet ba ck into his combat boots and double-checked the blades they concealed.
With enough weapons on his person to take out at least a dozen attackers, he turned his attention to placing more strategically around the cabin—a sniper rifle and case of grenades by the window next to the front door, a shotgun and more grenades by the reinforced back door. The only other obvious opening to the outside world was the long, narrow window above the kitchen bench. The cabin was small and designed to have minimal points of exposure to ambush while giving them plenty of exits if needed.
Glancing up, he noticed a locked ceiling hatch. He could’ve broken through the lock, but that would’ve been counterproductive to their safety. Grabbing a blood bag in an attempt to get his errant hunger under control, he settled at the dining table with his phone while he waited for Angel to return. It was a burner, of course. Ditching his phone was the first thing he’d done when he realised Kyan was putting his considerable resources as leader of the Cruor Coven into finding him. His burner only had one number in it—Dar’s—and the reception was too patchy here for him to get online. With nothing better to do, he called his old friend.
“Vin, is everything okay?” Dar answered.
“You do like to test me, don’t you? A bodyguard? Really? And a shifter at that,” Vin said, drawing cool blood into his mouth from the bag he’d grabbed and screwing his nose up in distaste. Cold blood was the worst.
Dar’s laugh had him scowling just like the too-beautiful shifter he’d chased out of the cabin. “It was fifty/fifty as to whether Marco would even help. You can play nice for a week.”
“Did you find out anything from your brother?” Vin asked.
“He paid me a visit earlier, along with a half dozen of his people. We made polite conversation while we pretended they weren’t searching my home for you.”
Vin winced. Dar hated people in his space. Always had. “Fuck. Sorry.”
“Not your fault. I know where each of them lives. Revenge is best served cold and all that,” Dar said.
Vin could hear the blood-thirst in his deceptively calm words. Kyan’s grunts wouldn’t survive the month, which he’d probably known when he brought them there. He had no loyalty to his people. Bastard.
“Did he say why he thought it was me?”
“No, but my brother’s growing careless. One of his guards was young enough that I could get in his head. There was a suspicious payment made to your account after the bomb detonated. They must’ve had an in with the bank to get that info so quickly,” Dar said.
Age brought vampires increasingly unique powers, and one of Dar’s was the ability to read the minds of the weak-willed or distracted.
“Someone wanted me running fast to take the pressure off them,” Vin guessed.
“Any idea who?”
“Everyone wants a piece of me,” Vin said with a suggestive laugh just as Angel stepped back into the cabin and immediately looked like he wanted to take a bite out of him. Although, he couldn’t tell if it would be a sexy bite or a rip your throat out and watch you bleed out on the floor bite.
Dar snorted, used to his antics. “That’s true, but it’s more likely you’re just a distraction. Collateral damage.”
“Shut your mouth, Darius Valryn. How rude. I would never be mere collateral,” Vin said, fluttering his hand to his chest.
Did Angel’s mouth just twitch like he was going to smile? It totally did. The shifter had a sense of humour after all .
“It could be someone is targeting you as well. Two vamps, one silver stake,” Dar said.
Vin shrugged, even though Dar couldn’t see him. “We won’t know until we get more information. Call me if you hear anything else.”
“I’m going to need you in the coming years. Take care of yourself, Vin,” Dar said.
“Always, Sugar,” Vin said before hanging up.
He didn’t have friends, but if he did, Dar would be one. They’d known each other for a long time. Had built up something like trust because each understood what the other wanted from them. He just wished Dar would hurry up and kill his brother and take over the family business already. Dar was much better at controlling his bloodlust and he wouldn’t be caught undead trafficking humans. Vin and Dar had a code and Kyan fucking Valryn was the antithesis of it. He needed to die.
“How much did you hear?” Vin asked Angel, who was leaning against the door watching him.
“Most of it,” Angel said. “A bit careless to get framed like that, wasn’t it?”
Vin snorted and flipped him the bird. “Fuck off.”
“You said you were on a job at the time?” Angel asked, his voice carefully neutral.
Vin watched him for a moment before nodding confirmation. “Yeah. A human piece of shit. He’d been making trouble for Kyan, but not out of the goodness of his heart. I’m pretty sure he’s in the same line of business, if not worse. I would’ve tortured him to figure out what he was up to if I’d had the chance.”
“Is that what Kyan was paying you to do?” Angel asked, looking adorably annoyed at his curiosity.
“No. He asked me to kill him. But I never take my client’s word at face value, and I always make sure I know what I’m getting into. I’d been following him for weeks before I let Kyan know I’d take the job and I would’ve kept him alive as long as it took to get to the bottom of whatever his business was.”
Angel seemed surprised by his words. “You really do have a conscience,” he murmured.
“Of sorts,” Vin said with a sharp grin.
“Is he dead then? The human?”
Vin sighed. “No. I was interrupted before I could take him out.”
“Careless. Could he have gotten wind you were following him?” Angel asked.
Vin scoffed at the suggestion he’d given himself away, but then he paused. Angel was right to ask. His mark was the one who’d most benefited from the day’s events because it was the only reason the man wasn’t at the bottom of the harbour right now. Someone in Kyan’s employ could’ve let something slip. The human had to be a suspect.
“Ah fuck. I’m going to have to revisit his movements,” Vin sighed.
“You mean we . We’re going to have to revisit his movements,” Angel said.
Vin raised an eyebrow. Whatever. He didn’t need a shifter to babysit. He worked alone. If seduction wasn’t going to get him to a sleeping Angel he could sneak away from, then it was time to piss him off enough that he lost his focus or, even better, stormed out and left him for good this time.
“Sure, Darlin’. Whatever you say.”
“Don’t fucking call me that,” Angel growled.
“Darling? Why not?”
“Because I’m not anything to you.”
Vin couldn’t help but let out a long, carefree laugh again. Angel was cute when he was angry. “Why do you hate me so much? Usually, a shifter would have bent me over the table to show me who’s boss by now.”
A moment of surprise was followed by a level of white-hot rage beyond anything he’d seen on Angel’s face before.
Interesting.
“You’re lying. Shifters don’t fuck vamps. We’re enemies,” Angel spat, which had Vin laughing even harder.
Shit. This was the most fun he’d had in years. He had literal tears streaming down his face. “Oh my god. Tell your boss that, please. I called him Sugar, and he didn’t mind one bit. Just said he had something for me that was sweeter than blood. He was wrong. Blood’s always sweet?—”
A firm hand wrapping tight around his neck and slamming him against the nearest wall cut his words off. He’d been too distracted to see the attack coming, which was really fucking weird for him. He didn’t want to look at that too closely. But honestly, he hadn’t thought the quip about Angel’s Alpha’s antics would be what tipped the shifter over. He’d just been warming up to the kind of species insults that were tiresome but always seemed to evoke a reaction in an angry shifter.
A wide smile spread across his face, even as he knew it was turning red from lack of oxygen. Strangulation was uncomfortable, but it wouldn’t kill him. Only catastrophic damage to his heart or brain with a silver weapon would do that. In the meantime, the delightful shifter was jealous . There was no other explanation for the blind emotion in his reaction. Angel might hate him, but Vin could tell he took his job seriously. He wouldn’t have been trying to hurt him if he was in his right mind, and shifters were notoriously possessive when they wanted something.
Vin reached up and stroked a gentle finger down the scruff on Angel’s cheek, tracing his jawline before pressing a thumb to his lips, his eyes daring Angel to suck on it. He didn’t. But the shifter didn’t bite it off either, despite the fact Angel had clearly lost control of his wolf again—his eyes burning golden, his canines lengthening. He must be a born shifter, not turned, to give off alpha vibes like that and be able to hold a partial shift, especially when he was so angry.
“I hate you because someone just like you took my family from me,” Angel growled in answer to his original question and then immediately stumbled back away from Vin, looking shocked by his own admission.
Vin tipped his head to the side and watched Angel’s confusion. His poor shifter didn’t know why he’d revealed such personal information to him. It was probably best not to tell him that one of the vampiric powers age had gifted Vin was a persuasive, charismatic aura that worked much more strongly when someone was touching him. He hadn’t purposefully used it on Angel, but he would’ve had to focus to block it, and he hadn’t. The shifter was dominant enough that it shouldn’t have worked so well, but whatever emotions he was feeling were making him vulnerable. He suspected Angel might try to actually murder him if he realised what had happened.
“A vampire?” Vin asked, using just a touch of his charm to keep Angel from running off, not enough that he’d notice.
“A vampire assassin,” Angel clarified.
“Who did they take from you?”
“Everyone. My parents. My twelve-year-old sister.” Angel’s eyes had narrowed with suspicion as he spoke. The shifter knew he wouldn’t usually give this information away. “What are you doing to me?”
“I’m making conversation, Angel. Do you know who it was?” Vin asked.
“Why? Do you think he’s a friend of yours? I’m going to find that fucker and when I do, I’m going to make him scream until he begs for death. And then I’m going to give it to him.”
Vin straightened from the wall and frowned, disappointed despite himself that Angel still thought he had no morals. He ran through a list of assassins who could’ve been responsible while he watched Angel’s nostrils flare as he panted only two steps away with his fists clenched and an endless growl sounding from deep in his muscled chest. He was struggling to stay human.
“I don’t associate with child killers. Was it Bane?” Vin asked.
He'd always hated Bane, the slippery bastard. The guy’s birth name was Charles, but few remembered that now. The asshole had changed it to seem scarier, and he took the jobs no one else would for the same reason. Bane was old, but nowhere near as old as Vin or Dar. Vin should’ve taken him out years ago, but there was a code among assassins and taking out a colleague without even being paid was a quick way to get to the top of everyone’s hit list.
Angel’s eyes narrowed, and he jerked his head in assent. “Do you know where he is?”
Vin considered the question. He could certainly find the vampire and if he sent Angel off after him, he’d be free to figure out his current predicament without interruption. But as strong as Angel was, he wasn’t nearly ruthless enough to take on someone like Bane. Oh, doubtless Angel had killed plenty of times before. Probably even made it painful, too. He was a predator, after all. But Angel didn’t think like someone who’d lived in the worst shadows their entire long life. He’d never get close enough to Bane, and he’d likely die trying. Why did that bother him?
Vin should’ve just said no and left it at that. But he couldn’t. He really, really despised child killers. He was a vampire born, but he’d been powerless as a child—taken when his parents were murdered, much like Angel’s had been. Only they hadn’t tried to kill Vin, too. Instead, he’d been kept and used by people who treated children like disposable toys. Vampires don’t break the same way human children do. Vampires could take far more abuse. It was why they’d risked taking him. And they’d tested every limit of what his body could take for the years he’d spent in that hellhole.
If he’d gotten word of this hit on Angel’s family at the time, he would’ve taken things into his own hands already and dealt with Bane. Adults were fair game, but children were precious. No one had ever looked out for Vin. He’d had to save himself. Had to take his own revenge for him and all those children lost. And he’d kept taking it long past when all those involved in his captivity were dead. It was probably the only thing that had kept Kyan on the 18+ side of the trafficking business all this time. The vampire mob boss knew what Vin would do if he strayed, but he’d been chafing at the constraint, his ‘stock’ looking younger and younger. This set-up with the bomb was all the excuse Kyan had needed to finally take Vin out. It was entirely possible Kyan knew he’d been framed and just didn’t care.
“I’ll look into it,” Vin said, forcing his voice to nonchalance and his hands not to tremble with the memories he usually kept locked away.
Angel looked surprised, and his breathing finally calmed. “Really?”
“I don’t say things I don’t mean,” he said, frowning in annoyance. “Do you know who paid for the hit?”
“It was during the last war. Marco already took care of that when he accepted me into the pack. He just couldn’t find Bane.”
Ah, that explained the devotion Angel had for his Alpha. The shifter took a step closer to Vin and then rocked back on his heels, torn between the push and pull of whatever was happening between them.
“I’m going to shift and patrol again. Get some sleep while you can. You can take the next round,” Angel said, turning away.
Vin nodded and watched with interest as Angel pulled his fitted t-shirt over his head, revealing miles of tanned, muscled skin. His back was crisscrossed with old white scars. They must’ve been from silver weapons, not the dominance fights shifters seemed to love, or they wouldn’t have left lasting marks. Vin licked his lips and couldn’t help but let out the softest of moans as Angel reached for his belt buckle. The shifter glared over his shoulder at him, something unidentifiable burning in his eyes. Shifters never worried about nudity, but Angel paused in his motions as Vin gave him his best wide-eyed innocent expression.
“You’re staring. It’s rude,” Angel growled.
“It’d be rude not to. Look at you,” Vin teased back, and it didn’t escape his notice that Angel’s arms flexed at his words, making his biceps pop deliciously.
He really needed to stop taunting the guy. He’d survived this long by avoiding any attachments. The electric tension between them was better left unexplored. Angel was already proving more of a distraction than he should be. Vin didn’t need that kind of trouble.
Shoving himself up from the table, Vin took a long loud slurp from the blood bag he was still holding and smirked at the wince Angel couldn’t quite hide. Turning away from temptation, he shoved the now empty bag back into the sealed cooler to keep the scent of blood from lingering in the cabin. When he turned back, a stunning, waist-high wolf was watching him. His ears were pricked toward Vin, laser-focused, but he wasn’t snarling or threatening him.
“You beautiful thing,” he whispered to himself before he could think better of it, and he could swear the shifter looked smug.
Angel’s wolf was clearly an alpha—large and intimidating—proving Vin’s theory that he was shifter born. As Vin had guessed, his fur was a warm reddish, russet colour that matched his human hair and the five o’clock shadow he’d been sporting. The colour faded down to white at his jaw and chest. Gold eyes stared at him unblinking, and his tail was long enough to brush the wooden floor behind him, showing neither aggression nor excitement.
Vin could swear there was a silent conflict going through the wolf’s mind and he couldn’t help but smile when the wolf’s mouth dropped open and his tongue lolled between his sharp teeth in a lupine grin. Lunging forward, the wolf licked a wet stripe from his chin and up his cheek. Vin huffed out a laugh and let his fingers sink into Angel’s dense fur as he shoved the heavy weight of the wolf’s raw power away from him. He’d slept with plenty of shifters, but he’d never spent any time with one in wolf form unless they were attacking him.
It wasn’t terrible.
“Gross. Get your wolf under control, Angel,” he said, wiping saliva off his face as he walked to the front door to let him out.
The wolf rubbed against his leg as he slunk by him and out into the darkness. Vin couldn’t resist letting his hand trail along the fur of his back as he went. He banged his head on the door as soon as it closed behind Angel, trying to knock some sense into himself. He did not need to start something with a shifter who hated him. Even if Angel’s wolf seemed disturbingly and inexplicably fond of him.
The keys to the ceiling hatch were in Angel’s discarded jeans, so Vin helped himself to them and spent the rest of the night checking out defensive positions on the roof and adding to the weapons stashes he’d started around the cabin. When a scratching at the door signalled Angel’s return, he waited only long enough to confirm the shifter hadn’t found anything suspicious before slipping out into the night to run his own checks of the perimeter. This might be the wolf’s territory, but Vin never left his safety in someone else’s hands. Or paws.
He didn’t bother swapping places with the wolf again that night. When he’d drifted back close enough to the cabin, he’d heard the deep calming breaths of Angel’s sleep. He didn’t need as much rest as the wolf, so he kept watch in the surrounding forest instead, making a mental map of each camera, sensor, and trap around the property.
Everything was designed to funnel an attacker onto the single road entrance instead of through the trees, but Angel had been right that a vampire wouldn’t have trouble avoiding them. Their body temperature was naturally lower, barely noticeable on thermal imaging. They also didn’t show on normal camera images and once they hit four or five centuries, they could move in short bursts fast enough to foil the motion sensors.
It was safer if he or Angel were out here scenting the wind for the telltale smell of blood that his kind could never quite shake.