Chapter Nineteen
Byron
The warehouse loomed in the distance as Wilder and I sat and watched the men from the comfort of the blacked-out SUV. This one was mine, not Damyr’s. He’d finally figured out to lock all his keys away—not that it would stop me from stealing his cars. But I’d give him a reprieve.
For now.
I’d parked us some distance away and brought binoculars like this was some old-school police stake-out.
I’d thought about leaving Wilder at home but part of me didn’t want to be away from him and the other part hadn’t had the willingness to refuse him.
I wasn’t sure being here was going to do him any good, but at the first sign of him being uncomfortable, we were going to leave and go home.
I didn’t care if Damyr wanted answers, Wilder was my priority.
There wasn’t much happening over there. I could make out a couple of bodies walking around the outside of the building, but I had no idea what was in there. “Want to go inside?”
Wilder’s head flicked towards me, shock widening his pupils. “What?”
I didn’t like how withdrawn he’d become since his conversation with Damyr earlier.
He’d disappeared into the safety of his mind, overthinking everything as usual.
But at least his hood was down. That meant he was comfortable enough in the space with me that he didn’t feel like he needed to hide away.
“I want to take a look inside the warehouse. Doesn’t seem to be too much security around the place. Aren’t you curious?”
He turned to look out of the car window again, his eyes watching the building down the street. “Sure. What have we got to lose?”
I snorted. “Only our lives, but I don’t think it’ll come to that. Come on, let’s go see what we can find.”
Wilder was silent as he got out of the car.
He pulled the collar of his coat up and put a dark beanie on.
I didn’t like the way he covered his hair, but it was chilly out tonight.
There was a strand of hair that he’d missed tucking under the hat, so I reached out and brushed it back under the edge, tugging the hat further down his ears to keep warm.
“You stay close to me and do everything I say. I mean it, Wilder.”
He nodded, his head bobbing a few times like he was buying himself some time to refuse, but he replied with, “Yeah. Of course.”
I cupped his jaw in my hands and grinned at him. “Let’s go have some fun.”
Wilder huffed a laugh and smiled back which settled something jittery in my stomach. I’d never felt edgy heading into a target location before, but just having Wilder with me made me feel like I had something precious to lose.
“Okay, kitten. Let’s see what you’ve got,” he replied, and it fired me up in a way that made me want to show off.
I grabbed his hand and dragged him behind me towards the building.
We stayed low, skirting the shadows and keeping our footsteps quiet.
I was impressed at how light on his feet Wilder was.
If this was a success, perhaps we could make this a regular date night activity.
Nothing says ‘dedicated couple’ than a night of breaking and entering, a threat of murder and being each other’s alibi.
We reached the wall of the building, and I pressed up against the bricks, tucking Wilder close into my side. I slipped a small vial out of the bag on my hip and drank it down. It tasted disgusting, but it was one of my favourite potions.
“What’s that?” Wilder asked, his voice a low whisper in my ear.
“It’s a potion to heighten my sense of hearing. Handy when I don’t really know the layout of the building and going in a bit blind.”
“One of Astrid’s concoctions?”
“Absolutely.” I didn’t trust anyone else enough to put their potions in my body. I really hoped she didn’t decide to stop supplying me.
“Impressive,” he said. “I’m almost tempted to ask what other things you ask for.”
I grinned at that. I always asked for interesting things. The two guards I’d clocked earlier were walking further away. Now was our chance to step into the warehouse undetected.
I tugged lightly on Wilder’s hand, and he followed me around the corner and through the door.
It closed softly behind us, and we found ourselves in a corridor with some low fluorescent lighting.
I listened for a moment, the potion starting to take effect.
Wilder’s heart beat an elevated rhythm but at least it was steady.
Maybe I could have some fun with that later.
try to see how fast I could make it race.
I wonder what his pulse sounded like when I squeezed his neck and cut off his airway.
Fuck, my dick was getting hard just thinking about it.
Focus, Byron. You can think about his dick later.
I could hear another two heartbeats close by, and some deeper in the building but they were too far away to hear clearly.
“Two up ahead, more close by,” I whispered to Wilder.
“Okay,” he replied, his voice steady. “Ready when you are.”
We stepped slowly down the dim lit corridor to the double doors at the end.
I looked through the small glass windows and into the main area of the warehouse.
There were large crates stacked on top of each other and several containers stacked in a neat little row at the far side.
Two men patrolled the space, but I couldn’t see any guns.
That usually meant they were supernatural.
Their heartbeats weren’t slow like vamps so that most likely meant they were shifters or witches.
My money was on shifter. Probably wolves or big cats.
They were the most common types that I came across when it came to security work that wasn’t necessarily above board.
“What can you sense?” I asked Wilder, curious to see what his power could do.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Shifter energy but wild. Something that runs fast.”
Big cats then.
“I can also feel pain and despair.” He cocked his head to the side as if he were listening to something. “There’s a lot of magic around the crates and containers. Cloaking spells and silencers. Whatever is in there, my father doesn’t want anyone to know about them.”
Jesus. What the hell was going on here?
I waited until the guards were far enough away and pulled my gun out. Twisting the silencer on the end, I hit Wilder with a firm stare. “Can you take care of yourself? If not, stay here. I don’t want to be distracted.”
He tipped his chin up, his eyes fierce and bright. “Yes, I can handle myself. I promise I won’t be a distraction.”
“Good.” I pressed a quick, savage kiss against his lips. “When we go through the doors, I’ll go left, you go right. Hide any bodies out of plain sight, if you get stuck send out a flare or something and I’ll find you.”
Wilder pulled his magic to the surface, the purple lightning arcing between his fingers and surrounding us in a violet glow. His eyes brightened and his face lit up with a wicked grin. “Perhaps you’ll be the one who needs rescuing.”
I adjusted myself in my pants, my cock painfully hard. “You’re so fucking hot right now, baby.”
His grin turned into a cocky little smirk and his magic grew brighter. “Time to play, little killer.”
Fuck. Me.
I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed the mischievous, troublemaker version of Wilder but his confidence was turning me on. The sight of him primed and ready to take out some shitty bad guys had the base of my spine tingling with the threat of an orgasm.
Holy fucking hell.
I was about to cum in my pants.
“We’re going to have to make a move, because I am one saucy look away from fucking you in this dingy corridor.”
Wilder’s smile grew, the corner of his mouth twitching as if he were tempted to push me to act on my threat. “Come on then. Let’s go get some bad guys.”
I took one last, lust-filled look at him before I dragged my gaze away and slipped through the double doors.
I crouched low and signalled for Wilder to head right.
He gave me a single nod and disappeared down the length of the walls and into the shadows, the faint purple glow of his magic the only way I could tell where he was.
Fuck, I hoped he was alright.
No, I trusted him to take care of himself.
He wasn’t helpless. I’d seen him in action before several times, and I knew he’d be fine.
It was just now that I knew what I could lose, there was a part of me that just wanted to follow him and hide him away from the world.
But then I wouldn’t be considering his feelings, and I was trying my hardest to do that.
Even if that sucked balls and went against everything that I felt.
I headed towards the far corner of the warehouse, following the steady heartbeat of one of the shifters. Pressing my back up to one of the larger crates, I slowed my breathing and waited for him to creep closer.
The idiot was humming under his breath, his fingers tapping away idly on his phone. Honestly, you’d think someone like Lawler would hire better security.
Unless they were only here because they were expendable.
One more step and he’d be right where I wanted him.
I grabbed one of my nova-crack potions and leapt out from behind the crate.
The guy looked at me, then his phone, then back at me, confusion tugging at his thick brows.
I didn’t give him a chance to figure out whatever was puzzling him.
I launched the small, round glass jar at his feet and it exploded with a cloud of silver dust.
Shifters hated silver just as much as vampires did.
He yelled in agony as it burned his skin and he fired his gun, the bullets flying in any direction.
I cocked my gun and fired two silver bullets, each one landing in a knee cap.
The guy collapsed with another pained cry as the silver dust cloud dissipated.
In the distance, I could hear Wilder engaged in tackling the other goon, but his laughter kept me from going over there to help. My baby sounded like he was having fun and it was inspiring all sorts of other ideas for date nights.