Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
Julian
After taking a sip from my coffee cup, I sat it down on the counter of my apartment.
I’d been up all night trying to figure out where this sigil came from.
I didn’t like that someone had broken into Jack’s room to leave it for her.
When I suggested she change rooms again, she’d adamantly claimed she could take care of herself.
Logically, I knew she could, but it didn’t make the anxiety of having her away from me and in potential danger go away.
I went back to work, clicking through Hunter’s Guild website on my laptop, trying to find a match to the sigil. The guild kept a registry of all the known supernatural covens, packs, and houses.
It would have been nice to have gotten an answer directly from a witch, but with most of them inebriated last night and the one witch that Jack was friendly with MIA, I was left with scouring the guild site.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t providing any insight.
The guild didn’t have a comprehensive list of all the covens.
A lot of them were extremely private and refused to become public, let alone registered.
This one could be one of those covens or perhaps even a new one that hadn’t had a chance to register yet.
Either way, it left me back at square one.
I picked up the note and read over the words again. We know what you did. If this was someone who didn’t have malicious intentions, they would have said it in a different way or even signed the note. If they didn’t want Jack to be scared or on edge, they would have just approached her about it.
No, whoever wrote this note wanted her scared. Wanted her watching over her shoulder. That meant they had malicious intentions, intentions I didn’t plan on letting them act on. Even if I had to tie Jack to my bed to keep her safe.
The thought of Jack in my bed brought up last night’s incident.
My fingers touched my lips. It had been a year since we’d kissed. A year since I’d kissed anyone.
I should have moved on. Found someone to distract myself with. It would have made it easier to be around her all the time and yet, I couldn’t.
I couldn’t imagine kissing, touching, or being close to someone else. Not the way Jack and I used to be.
That was what I missed the most, not the sex, though the one time we were together had been wonderful. We used to be more than just teammates. More than just lovers. We were best friends. We knew everything about each other.
And now we were virtually strangers, tiptoeing around each other. Because of me.
I sighed and dragged my hands over my face before setting my glasses on the island.
At this rate, I’d always been watching her from the side lines.
She’d eventually make up with the wolf and vampire.
Knowing how amazing she was, there was no way the vampire would stay away, not for long anyway. And then I would lose her… forever.
A knock on my door pulled my attention from the computer.
Hope leaped in my chest. A part of me wanted it to be Jack. Even if it was just to talk about the mission, I wanted to see her. I needed to see her. I rubbed my lower lip and smiled, pushing up from my seat to answer the door.
I barely opened the door before I was pushed out of the way a line of vampires stalking into my apartment. Since I’d been anticipating Jack, I hadn’t grabbed a weapon.
I was left pressed against the wall, shocked by the seven men in my apartment. It only took me a moment to recognize them and then I was surprised for a whole other reason.
Clearing my throat, I moved away from the wall and closed the apartment door before walking into the living room area. My gaze moved over the seven of them, correcting my earlier assessment about them all being vampires.
One of them, I assumed Darren, sat next to the silvery blonde-haired male. He was clearly human, his skin tanner than having the usual pale tone of a vampire.
To the left of where the silver-haired vampire stood a large vampire with buzzed hair and dark skin. My prior knowledge of the Durands told me this was Marcus. The one who could move the earth, a power that had the guild nervous.
Sitting on my couch near Marcus sat twins.
The two of them were so identical it was practically impossible to tell the difference between them except the way they styled their light brown hair.
One tousled their hair while the other kept theirs slightly shaggier.
Allister and Drake, though I couldn’t figure out which was which.
On my other couch sat a red-haired male that if I didn’t know any better looked like he was barely in his twenties. This was Rayne, the mind reader.
Next to him, lounging like being there was a boring affair, sat Wynn.
He had dark hair that curled at the neck and an open-necked buttoned-up silk shirt, very much living up to the reputation as the flirty type.
I didn’t know much about his ability, but I knew it was something he didn’t use for fighting.
“Please, Mr. Fawley. We don’t mean you any harm.” Antoine’s cultured voice spoke of some European country but I couldn’t place it.
“Speak for yourself.” One of the twins cracked his knuckles, eyes never leaving me.
It wasn’t their glare that bothered me. It was the intensity with which Rayne stared at me. I tried to keep my mind blank, to think of anything other than the fact that I’d had his daughter pressed up against a tree and my tongue down her throat not ten hours ago.
The redhead smirked.
Oh, God just kill me now.
Trying to give off a nonchalant air, I perched against the stool I had vacated earlier. “How can I help you all?”
The others didn’t speak, seeming to automatically defer to Antoine.
“I believe you are Jaquelynn’s handler during this mission?”
I nodded, my lands laced between my knees. “Yes.”
“And, at the guild, you’re her team leader?” He asked the question like he already knew the answer but still expected me to respond.
“That’s correct.”
“So,” he adjusted in his seat, a very non-vampire move, probably a habit to make me feel more at ease, “please update me on the status of your mission.”
I blinked at him and then cleared my throat. “Pardon me, but I have given constant updates to President Fleming. Why aren’t you asking him for an update instead of me?”
If they really wanted to know about the mission, then they’d have gone through the correct channels.
Them showing up here and ambushing me told me they were more worried about Jack than the actual mission.
They thought they could get information out of me that they couldn’t get from President Fleming.
My eyes jerked to Rayne, who chuckled.
The redhead leaned forward in his seat, elbows on his knees. “I don’t mean to be rude, but you’re thinking very loudly.”
“Liar,” the other twin snorted. “You like making people uncomfortable, not knowing if you’re listening or not.”
Before I could respond, Antoine answered my question. “Tristen will give us the specifics, of course. I want your personal assessment.”
My fingers went to push my glasses up my nose, then I remembered I wasn’t wearing them. I dropped my hand.
“I don’t know what I can tell you that’s not already in my report.”
“Are you sleeping with our daughter?” Wynn asked, cocking his head to the side.
The others looked at him some in amusement and others in a chastising way before all eyes turned to me.
My mouth dried. There was no good way to answer this question. No father wanted to hear about their daughter’s sex life. I had to wonder if they were simply asking to make me more uncomfortable, put me off my game, a way of intimidating me. I cleared my throat and contemplated how to answer them.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but no. We are not sleeping together. We have been professional.” Mostly.
Rayne arched a brow but didn’t correct me.
“Why not?” one of the twins asked bluntly.
“Drake,” Antoine snipped, but all of them looked to me for an answer, regardless.
I licked my lips and tilted my head slightly. “It wouldn’t be professional. Not only am I her handler during this mission, but outside of that, I’m her superior. I’d never use my position to take advantage of one of my hunters.”
“A bit late to put that worm back in the can don’t you think?” Wynn chuckled derisively.
I stared at him. “I don’t understand.”
Darren shifted on the arm of Antoine’s seat. “I believe what Wynn is trying to portray, quite crassly, is that we know our daughter. And up until a point last year…” He paused and then added, “After your promotion, I believe.”
I swallowed, having a feeling I knew where this was going, and it wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have with Jack’s dads. One dad was bad enough, but seven? They might as well shoot and bury me already.
“All we heard for months was Julian this, Julian that,” the other twin, Allister, groaned, shaking his head. “You were all she ever talked about for a while there and then suddenly…” He opened his hands in front of him..
“Nothing,” Drake supplied for him. “For our daughter to be all about someone one day and then suddenly not talking about them and acting pissed off—”
“Sad,” Marcus finally spoke up, his voice a rumbling growl. “She was sad.”
“Yes.” Drake pointed at him. “Something happened.”
I gaped at them. I didn’t know Jack had spoken about me to her family. Since I didn’t have any family myself anymore, it was strange to think that I was the subject of her dinner time musings. It caused a knot in my throat that made me cough.
“I… I didn’t know that,” I murmured and then figured I might as well get it over with. They seemed to know most of it already. “Yes, Jack and I were close. And we’d gotten closer. Then… I got promoted, and I had to pull back.”
“While we admire your work ethic and dedication to your duty,” Antoine began, his pale blue eyes zeroing in on me, “I have to question your choice to end the relationship rather than just requesting to have Jaquelynn moved to another team.”
My mouth opened and then shut, unable to come up with an answer.
“Either way,” Darren interjected, “that’s not completely why we are here, is it?”
“Correct.” Antoine placed a hand on Darren’s leg. “We wish to know about the vampire. Kyren, I believe?”
“And the wolf,” Drake added.
“I don’t know that I have any more insight on them than what we already know.
” I frowned. “Tate is Kyren’s human servant.
Kleon sired Kyren. He hasn’t been very active in the vampire or supernatural community.
He seems to keep mostly to himself from what I’ve seen during meals.
Though the other vampires seem to flock to him, trying to gain his favor, he doesn’t seem interested. ”
“Do you think he is a danger to Jack?” Allister tapping his finger on the arm of the couch.
“I…” I wanted to tell them yes, the vampire was a threat. But part of me knew that was just my own selfish want to keep him out of her life. “I don’t think so. He’s kept his distance since finding out she’s a Durand.”
Antoine hummed.
“And the wolf? Tate?” Rayne asked this time. “What do you make of him?”
“He’s… fine.” I winced. “He seems to care for Jack.”
The memory of Jack showing up at my apartment stinking of the wolf just the other day filled my head. I quickly shoved it down, avoiding the redhead’s gaze.
“How does that work?” Rayne asked, confusion pinching his face. “If he’s in love with our daughter but also the human servant of the guy she hates.” He shook his head. “That’s not going to work.”
“I don’t have any right to an opinion on Jack’s love life. So, if that’s all you want to know…” I stood and tried to gesture for them to leave.
None of them moved.
I sighed and sat back down. “I’ve answered all your questions. I’m not sure what else I can provide you. If you want to know more, maybe you should talk to your daughter.”
Drake snorted as he stood. “If you knew our daughter as well as you say you do, you’d know that asking her is the last thing we would do.”
“Yeah.” Allister stood with him, moving toward the door. “That’s a sure-fire way to make her clam up.”
“Don’t worry.” Rayne stood next, walking up to me. He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I’ve heard worse. I won’t hold it against you.”
My teeth ground together, my brows lifting as I nodded. That didn’t make me feel any better.
Wynn and Marcus moved next, the first giving me a sly smile while the other simply stared as they walked out of the apartment.
Antoine stayed where he was while Darren walked out without acknowledging me. I waited to hear what he had stayed behind to say.
“I want to be clear about something.” Antoine watched me, his posture more relaxed than it had been with his brothers. “We trust you with our daughter’s safety. It’s why we allowed Tristen to assign you as her handler and not someone with more… experience.”
“Of course.” I inclined my head. “Jack’s safety is my highest priority.”
“And yet…?” Antoine asked, implying he knew I had more to say that I wasn’t saying.
“Sometimes it’s hard to keep Jack safe from herself.”
Antoine nodded his understanding. “Yes, she gets that from her mother.” Pushing up off the chair’s arms, he stood and slowly moved toward me. “She cares for you, which means she will hide things from you, especially when she’s hurting.”
“I understand.”
For a second, I thought I was out of the doghouse but Antoine didn’t leave right away.
“Can I give you some advice?”
I didn’t say anything, letting him say what he wanted to say whether I wanted to hear it or not. I just wanted them out of my space.
“You’re telling yourself you’re trying to protect her.” He paused, eyes locked with mine. “One day, you’re going to wake up and find out she didn’t wait for you to be worthy of her. I was fortunate. The others kept me honest. You won’t be afforded that mercy.”
My mouth opened to, I didn’t know exactly, to deny him? To agree? In the end, I didn’t say anything and Antoine walked out my door.
I shut the door behind them and leaned against it, blowing out a hard breath. Between Jack and her dads, if I survived this mission, it would be a miracle.