15. Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Rhett
T he desire to catch the human burns like a hot flame through my body. She doesn’t know we’re coming, but catching her will be our reward. It’s been two weeks since we were sent here to capture the Succubus, but we haven’t found anything, not a sliver of information to let us know she exists. Just like Killian and I suspected, it was probably a random kill that looked like a Succubus had done it.
Usually, we would’ve called Tanner and let him know it was a dead end, but we’re worried that if we do, we’ll be given another case. We want to stay here as long as possible to get to know the person plaguing our minds.
We’ve been focusing our energy more on finding the human girl than our investigation of the possible Succubus, and if our handlers find out we’ve gone rogue, they’ll extend our contract, and there will be nothing we can do about it. We are bound by the oath we gave. We’ve served for fifty years and have fifty more before they give us our freedom. If they ever do. The Arcana Society likes to extend your contract without telling you so that you’re there until you’re killed on a job.
We’re sitting in our SUV eating a burger when I message Jerry and ask him to look up Agent Cooper’s address. It might be a good place to start. He may leave clues at his home about the woman we’re looking for. It’s a long shot, but his card had to have been in her home for a reason.
We’ve been watching her apartment, but she hasn’t shown up. The place has been abandoned. We checked with the landlord and, apparently, it’s registered to a guy named Gus, but that was a long time ago. When he moved out, he left it to a group of people, and he didn’t do a background check for the new tenants because he didn’t care. He was getting paid in cash, and that’s all that mattered.
I don’t know if I believe him or not. It looks like he might’ve been glamoured by a vampire to tell this story. There’s no way for us to know if he was telling the truth.
I daydream about the faceless beauty. It makes me wonder what kind of person she is. Is she helping out a friend? Is that why she had Agent Cooper’s card? Is she in trouble and on the run? I’m curious to get to know more about her.
“Do you think we’ll find a clue on her whereabouts at the agent’s house?” Killian takes another bite of his burger.
“If there’s no information there, we can always interrogate him, but it’ll be hard to sneak into the FBI.”
He nearly chokes on his food, but the devilish grin tells me he’d be up for the challenge. We can totally get away with it, but if there’s a sliver of a chance that we might get caught, it’ll create more tension between the Arcana Society and the FBI. I’m sure my superiors wouldn’t be too happy if we did do it, especially because we’re deviating from our mission. We’re here to complete our tasks, not to find a human woman with an intoxicating scent.
Once we’re done eating, my phone dings with an address. We clean up and discard the waste in a trash can just outside my window. I put the address in the navigation, and we head out. It takes us over an hour to get there. I hate LA traffic.
We stop in front of a nice neighborhood littered with BMWs, Mercedes, and Bentleys. The houses have fresh paint, and the lawns are neatly mowed. We park the SUV a couple of houses down from the address we were sent. As soon as we get out, her scent assaults me. Well, I guess we know we’ll definitely find something in Agent Cooper’s house.
“She’s been here for a while,” Killian growls. His eyes darken in anger.
We follow her scent, and it leads us straight to the house. The same location the GPS showed us.
“Do you think this is the guy she had at her apartment?” I ask. I fist my hands in anger. I don’t even know the woman, and here I am getting extremely envious. I may only be here for a couple more days, and it’s not like we’d be able to date her, yet jealousy bubbles up in the pit of my stomach.
“I sure hope not, but it’s looking like a strong possibility.” Killian huffs, scanning the area. It’s dark out, and as long as the neighbors are human, they won’t be able to spot us.
We pull out our Radio Frequency Detector. This helps us find any hidden cameras around the property. We approach Agent Cooper’s house, making sure to keep an eye out on our device. We walk the perimeter three times before we’re confident we’ve taken care of all his cameras. With the security cams disabled, we stand outside the front door.
“Do you detect any magic? I don’t want to accidentally alert anyone or ignite a bomb after being so careful.”
“Nope. Not even a drop.” Killian gets his tool kit out and picks the lock. He pushes the door open and lets us into the home. I guess the agent either doesn’t know a witch to ward his home or he’s too cocky to care.
We immediately realize Agent Cooper must be fae when we spot the Spring Court crest on the floor.
“I hate the faeries,” Killian grumbles. “This guy must be connected to the royal family somehow to flaunt his court affiliation so openly.”
I nod in agreement. He’s likely an arrogant, uptight asshole just like the rest of the pretentious fae nobility. No wonder we couldn’t find much on this guy’s background when we looked him up. We have to tread carefully now that we know this guy might be connected. We can’t let the Arcana Society find out we’re not doing the job they sent us to do.
We search every room, saving the one with her maddening scent for last. My heart pounds as I slowly open the door, but the space is empty, devoid of the woman who drew us here. A heavy sigh escapes my lips unbidden as I take in the walls and furniture. The anticipation that has built steadily within me vaporizes, leaving only frustration. I run an agitated hand through my hair. Who is this mystery woman who smells so tempting, so mouthwatering? She invades my thoughts, and my instincts scream to hunt her down. To devour and be devoured in return . . . I clench my fists, fighting the urge to put a hole in the wall. No one has ever provoked such a maddening obsession in me before. I need to find her, to possess her, to feast on every intoxicating inch. This craving consumes me, such an exquisite torture.
“I don’t think they’re dating,” Killian says as he runs a hand over her turquoise sheets. “She wouldn’t have been in a separate room if they were together.”
Relief crosses his face, and I feel some of the tension ease from my shoulders. So, the intriguing mystery woman isn’t involved with the agent after all.
“Maybe they’re just roommates,” I muse as I observe her belongings filling the room.
“Even so, I still want to rip this guy’s head off for being so close to her,” Killian says with a nod.
The thought of another man being near the alluring mystery woman makes my blood boil. Roommate or not, the agent’s proximity to what I’m rapidly coming to think of as mine enrages me. We need to find her before anyone else tries to claim her. How is it that this human woman has us all frazzled?
“How do you know she’s not a supe?” I give him a pointed look. “I can’t smell it on her either, but it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
I walk back downstairs to the agent’s office. The lock is more complicated to pry open than the front door, but Killian has an affinity for breaking and entering. Agent Cooper definitely doesn’t want people in here. Fifteen minutes later, the door finally creaks open.
When I approach his desk to look through his case files, one that says Zelyah catches my eye. It’s laying right on top of the pile, and I get a tingling feeling that this is the girl we’re looking for. I run my hands over the folder, bracing myself for the information I know I’ll uncover. I open the top slowly and gasp as an image of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen assaults my vision. Her wrists are chained to a desk. The crease in her forehead says she’s angry to be there. I mean, who would be happy about being detained? I run my fingers over her plump lips, imagining what it would be like to kiss them.
Why would a fae agent detain a human, but more importantly, why would he let her live here? Does she know about the supernatural world? Is she living here freely or is she in his custody, and if she is, why would she be detained here and not in jail? None of this makes sense. I should probably stop going through her file. I feel kind of guilty for snooping. For all I know, whatever is written here might be biased. I’d like to hear her side before I read his notes. I close the file just as Killian takes notice of it in my hand.
“What do you have there?” Killian crosses the room and stands in front of me.
I look down at the brown folder in my hand before meeting his eyes again.
“It’s a file on a woman named Zelyah,” I say, savoring the way her name sounds on my tongue.
“Who’s Zelyah?” He leans forward, trying to see if there’s anything I pulled out.
“That’s the name of the human girl we’ve been trying to track down.”
He rubs his chin, processing what I just said.
“How do you know the girl in the file is the woman we’ve been looking for?” he asks curiously.
“Come see for yourself.”
He walks around and settles in the agent’s chair. I’m glad he’s not a shifter. He would be able to smell Killian on his property and hunt him down to rip out his throat. Well, at least he’d try to, but I know he wouldn’t be capable.
“Do you think the fae want to play tricks on her and he’s using her?” His brows furrow in anger. They like to mess with humans. They lure them with their looks and voices and the humans melt for them.
“Let’s hope not, but if he is, I don’t mind making him disappear.” We both laugh like maniacs. We’re very good at making people go away.
He runs his hand over the brown folder. “Just the photo—” But before I can say anything else, he’s already opened it.
His eyes roam over the woman in the picture, and I know his heart skips a beat just like mine did.
“She’s beautiful.” His face lights up with excitement before a scowl takes over.
“Why is she in cuffs? And why is she here? But more importantly, why was she detained if she’s not supernatural?” I shrug, I have the same questions running through my mind.
“No clue. I’m wondering the same thing.”
“Well, let’s find out.” He flips to the next page to a gruesome picture of a woman’s body. Killian keeps reading before he looks up at me, lifting his brow. My brain thinks up the worst-case scenarios. “It says she was a suspect in the murder of two supernatural women. There’s other information here, but it’s been redacted.”
My jaw drops. “Is our girl a killer? Let me see the file.” He flips it around to show me, and I forget all about giving her privacy as curiosity gets the best of me.
“Killian?”
“Yes.”
His eyes don’t waver from mine. “Apparently, she got cleared by the Truth Seer, Radnor.” If he cleared Zelyah, she must be innocent.
“It also says here she’s supernatural,” I continue, shock reverberating through me. She doesn’t smell like one at all.
“No way,” Killian responds, sounding as stunned as I feel. His eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
My pulse quickens as I try to process this new information. What kind of supernatural could she be to give no indication of her true nature? A dizzying wave of curiosity and intrigue washes over me. I need to know everything about this mysteriously, alluring woman.
“Yeah, it says it right here.” I flip the file back to him and show him.
“We have to find her,” I declare vehemently. The compulsion to unravel Zelyah’s secrets consumes me utterly. She will be mine, no matter the cost.
“Huh,” he says looking back up at me. “I never suspected.”
“It says that she’s a shifter but got kicked out of her pack because she couldn’t shift.” My anger boils to the surface. I’m livid on her behalf.
“That still doesn’t answer the question of what she’s doing with an FBI agent when they’re obviously not dating, and she was cleared of the suspected murder charges.”
“There’s one way to find out,” I tell him.
“What is that?” Killian asks, smirking knowingly. We know each other too well.
I pace the room, my mind racing. We can’t leave without Zelyah, but how do we extract her from an FBI agent’s home? And one connected to fae royalty no less? But the thought of abandoning her to that pompous agent makes my blood boil.
“We’ll wait here for them to return,” I declare. “And we’re taking her with us. I’m not leaving this house without her.”
Killian grins, mischief glinting in his eyes. My muscles coil with anticipation. She’s ours, and I’ll annihilate anyone who tries to stop us from claiming her. But how far will we have to go to make that clear? Are we ready to ignite a war between agencies, courts, and kingdoms to possess one irresistible woman? My fingers curl into fists. For her, anything. We’ll bring the world crashing down if that’s what it takes.