Chapter 6
Ren looked over his shoulder at Storm while Lacey flinched then spun around to stare at the gorgeous man wondering where the hell he had come from.
“You heard everything?” Ren asked curiously.
Storm shrugged, “I didn’t have to. I already know the prequel to this story.”
“Of course you do,” Ren said giving up. The day he had to explain to Storm what was going on would probably be a bad day for all of them.
Storm centered his attention on Lacey and smiled brightly, “Lacey, lovely to see you again.”
Lacey frowned recognizing him from the fleeting glimpse she’d gotten of the two men that had disappeared from the living room downstairs. Her eyes narrowed wondering if he was the one that had momentarily given Ren the power to steal her memories. It would make sense.
“Do we know each other?” she asked automatically distrusting him.
“Not yet… but we will,” Storm answered holding back the impulse he had to hug her fondly. Though, it would be funny to catch Ren's reaction if he did pull her into his arms for a full on bear hug. Deciding not to frighten the poor girl, he refrained.
When Lacey glanced at Storm with a raised eyebrow, Ren chuckled and slipped his sunglasses back on.
“Storm is a Time Walker,” he supplied helpfully.
Lacey’s lips parted and she snapped her gaze back to Storm in surprise. She didn’t give herself time to think before blurting, “I’ve heard of people offering up a huge amount of money if someone could bring them proof of a Time Walker’s existence.”
Storm leaned forward as if he was going to tell her where to find it. “There is no proof,” he said slowly then winked at her knowing that was also something Ren hated for him to do.
“Oh,” Lacey said in disappointment and silently cursed the fact that she could feel heat in her cheeks. Men that could make her blush just by leaning toward her and winking didn ’t exist… or so she’d thought.
Ren looked down at Lacey seeing the blush and quickly came to the conclusion that he would spend the day being completely annoyed… great.
“How did you get in here without an invite?” she asked, secretly wondering what color his blood was. For all she knew a Time Walker was just a powerful demon, though some stories she’d heard depicted him as a God. Her right eyebrow raised a notch remembering Ren saying he had to talk it over with a God before getting the soul orb. She’d thought he was joking.
“I never need an invitation,” Storm said with a sly smile. He almost laughed out loud when Ren's lips thinned.
“Oh,” Lacey whispered again, this time staring up at him in wonder. It was amazing how being face to face with a God could make her I.Q. take a swan dive.
“Ren,” Gypsy called quietly from behind the other counter knowing he would hear her even if she’d whispered.
Ren stopped glaring at Storm who was flirting with Lacey long enough to glance toward Gypsy to see what she wanted. He frowned when she tilted her head toward the shop window conspiratorially.
Following the hint, he noticed that Vincent was still just beyond the glass speaking with the two demons. Finally, they turned their dark gazes back into the shop, looking intently at Lacey who was now standing between him and Storm before nodding their heads and leading Vincent past the window and out of sight.
Lacey followed Ren's gaze just in time to catch a fleeting glimpse of Vincent as he disappeared. Her eyes widened when three more demons suddenly appeared as if they had been waiting just out of eyesight of the window. They passed in front of the shop, glaring down at the entryway as if they could visibly see the barrier.
“Ooh, they want in,” Storm said with bright eyes. “Shall I grant their wish?”
“Don’t even think about it,” Ren managed around his grin. If Storm teleported one of them inside without an invitation, then it would be very painful for the demon. “Until this auction is over, we need to stay on good behavior and not antagonize them.”
Storm winked out and back in, “You’re right, it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.”
Ren shook his head, “Just couldn’t pass that one up… could you?”
Storm shrugged not denying it. Those two demons deserved it for the part they had played in torturing Vincent. He winked in and out doing it again just for sport.
“Are you done?” Ren asked calmly.
“I plead the fifth,” Storm said smacking his temper down with a firm hand. Bad things tended to happen when he was mad. “Besides, we have an auction to get ready for… do we not?”
Lacey listened to them talk in riddles. She was sure she hadn’t heard Ren ask Storm to come to the auction with them but he had said that she would have some powerful escorts tonight. She had to admit that having a Time Walker on their side was pretty powerful and again she felt a twinge of hope.
“Is there any way I can get the soul orb back now?” Lacey asked not wanting to be left out or lose control of the situation. This was about freeing her and Vincent and she didn’t intend to lose the upper hand or blow her chance to save the both of them. “I’ll feel better once it’s in m y possession.”
“You will not be getting your little hands on it my dear,” Storm stated with authority then sighed realizing he was still pissed. Sometimes he could be so sentimental when dealing with the hard cases and that described Vincent perfectly.
Lacey frowned up at the big blond god, “But the soul orb belongs to me.”
“No, it belongs to your grandfather,” Storm quickly corrected her. “Besides, you might attempt to take it and go to the auction alone, thinking that without us there, you would have a better chance at getting the demons to add Vincent to your deal.”
“But…” Lacey countered shaking her head in denial.
When she started to argue with him, Storm held a finger up and pressed it against her lips. He gave her a stern look so the little hot head would take him seriously. “Know this… I see all possibilities and already know which ones won’t work.” He jerked his finger away when she licked at her lips and grazed it with her tongue. Why that sexy little rebel.
Ren frowned seeing a slight blush stain the Time Walker’s cheeks and wondered what he’d missed. His train of thought did a U-turn realizing Storm had just offhandedly warned him of a possible outcome to tonight’s charades. In other words, don’t let Lacey out of his sight and don’t let her play with the soul orb.
Lacey wanted to roll her eyes at Storm for thinking up things she hadn’t even had time to think up herself yet. She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin up deciding it would be wise to stand her ground.
“Whatever,” she turned brooding eyes on Ren since she wasn't getting very far with Stormy, “you took all of the items out of the safe and I was told you were only holding on to them for safety reasons. If I am to trust you, then you could at least earn that trust by letting me see that the items are indeed safe… especially the one my life depends on. ”
“Leaving her alone doesn’t seem like a very good option at the moment so I vote that we take her with us when we go to retrieve the soul orb,” Ren offered watching Storm closely for any hint that it was not a good idea. Bringing someone to the vault was not something they did, but at the same time, what would it hurt… it wasn’t like she would ever be able to find the vault again.
“That we can do,” Storm gave in with a smile before offering his arm to Lacey. “Shall we my dear?”
Lacey mentally sighed in relief then accepted the Time Walker’s arm. It slowly dawned on her that Storm had probably teleported into the store. “I take it we’re not driving?”
“I don’t do vehicles,” Storm smirked remembering a pretty little car had recently asked him to ride in her back seat.
Lacey raised a delicate eyebrow. Her grandpa and Vincent didn’t call her a daredevil for nothing.
“I’ve never teleported before, what’s it like?” she asked fearlessly.
Storm's lip twitched as he thought about the way others had described it. “I believe most compar e it to blinking,” he supplied.
Ren gave Storm his most bored expression when their eyes met to cover up the fact that the Time Walker was seriously getting on his nerves. His gaze lowered slightly seeing the way Lacey was hugged up to Storm’s arm to the point that the side of her breast was pressed against the other man’s forearm.
“Are you leaving?” Gypsy asked with a slight frown as she approached them.
“Yeah, but I promise I’m coming back this time,” Lacey said to Gypsy and watched the way Nick walked up behind her so protectively. Gypsy had told her that he was a jaguar and suddenly she could see it in the way his body moved… so graceful yet predatory at the same time. She decided right then and there that she would have to keep a close eye on him and make sure he was worthy of her sweet cousin.
Before walking away, Ren gave the jaguar a serious look. He didn’t need to say a word. Nick would understand the silent request to keep a sharp eye out for trouble. Dismissing the couple, he followed Lacey and Storm into the back room of the shop where they all vanished without a trace.
“I wanted to go to the auction too,” Gypsy said wishfully then looked up at Nick with a pout.
“It wasn’t our invite,” Nick pointed out. “I understood that the second I read it. Besides, the last thing you need right now is more demon drama.”
Seeing her bottom lip still peeking out at him, Nick leaned forward and touched her under her chin with his fingertips. He traced that sensual bottom lip with the pad of his thumb making her inhale.
“Staying here can be just as exciting… I promise,” He said in a voice that was pure seduction.
As if on cue, the front door to the shop opened followed by a confused sounding, “Hello… may I come in?”
***** Lacey blinked when she found herself suddenly standing inside a very spacious room. She had to admit that teleporting beat the hell out of dealing with traffic any day. Her curious gaze centered on a long desk with a huge lit up map on the bare wall to the right with various colored dots all over it.
She raised an elegant eyebrow realizing that the glass surface of the desk itself was a state of the art computer system. She looked around when more screens lit up the walls, all coming on at once and running various programs simultaneously.
“Where are we… NASA?” Lacey asked pretending she was joking.
“Welcome to PIT,” Ren said wishing she would let go of Storm’s arm.
Needing something to do, he walked behind the desk and stared down at the main computer with his arms crossed over his chest. He silently updated the system on everything he’d learned and received all of the information it had gained while he’d been away.
“PIT,” Lacey repeated with a nod as if she understood completely.
“NASA is actually one of our lower class branches,” Storm smirked. When she looked up at him like he’d lost his mind he shrugged, “Just saying.”
Releasing Storm’s arm, Lacey slowly approached Ren and quickly noticed his eyes glowing behind the sunglasses. Looking down at the flat surface of the desk, she saw the map of the same area of the city that The Witch’s Brew was in. The view narrowed then widened until it consisted of only one city block barely showing the edges of the surrounding blocks.
The huge museum around the corner from The Witch’s Brew lit up in outline until she could see the layout of the building like an architect’s blueprint. Lacey tilted her head when a map of underground tunnels and what looked like secret passageways within the building itself was superimposed over it and the whole screen turned 3-D before rising up from the desk in the form of a hologram.
Lacey snapped her gaze back up to stare at the glowing mercury color still visible just behind Ren's dark sunglasses and again wished he would take them off. She didn’t have to be a genius to figure out everything the computer was doing right now was somehow coming from his mind. Okay, when Gypsy had told her Ren could play with machinery… that had been a massive understatement.
Ren was enjoying the fact that Lacey's attention was now centered on him but he quickly stifled the urge to glance over at her. He silently prayed these jealous impulses he was having were just a side effect from using Zachary's power on her and would subside soon because if it didn’t… he was going to play hell suppressing what he could feel pulsating dangerously just under his skin.
The muscles in his jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth. For now he would just blame it on the fact that he was surrounded by very powerful, possessive, Alpha males that were feeding him the emotions. He suddenly had a flash back of the first moment he’d seen her lips. She’d been masquerading as a boy and covered in dirt… and he’d still been drawn to her.
“The auction is going to be held there,” Ren said after a moment and the room he was referring to lit up underneath the museum. It was massive and covered over half of the basement.
“And the level of safety for this location?” Storm asked wanting Ren to take careful notice of it.
Within seconds, red lines started tracing all the different hidden paths that led into the basement of the building then spread outward linking to several of the colored clusters that were on the bigger map.
“It’s not a very smart place to throw a party,” Ren informed him. “But we can always even up the playing field by setting up PIT teams to block most of the major routes. Some of the demons might even be smart enough to realize that we are on to them and back out of going to the auction completely.”
“Go ahead and issue the orders. We don’t want any huge battles breaking out between the master demons before our time slot,” Storm instructed.
Lacey tried to keep up with all of the different messages that were suddenly going off all over the screen on the desk but they were moving so fast that she finally gave up. Man… they really did have a lot of people working for them. Skirting the desk, she slowly approached Storm and the huge wall map that was staying stable at the moment.
Storm smiled when Lacey joined him. One of his favorite things about the girl was her unquenchable curiosity. It actually made her very smart for a human, though she was about to get a hell of a lot smarter. He’d learned a long time ago to try and give Lacey all of the facts up front so that she didn’t have a reason to go snooping behind his or Ren's back for the answers. Although, he did have to admit she was a great snoop.
“You’re familiar enough with this city to know where most of these clusters are… right?” he asked and watched her eyes brighten as she took them all in.
“Yes,” Lacey confirmed with an intelligent nod.
“Good. Unless you are with Ren, try to avoid these areas as best you can because they are clusters of paranormals… mostly demons,” Storm instructed.
Lacey's expression became serious as she studied the clusters again, this time more slowly. She quickly recalled everything that Gypsy had told her and the fact that Vincent had mentioned someone had opened up Hell’s Gate and let a bunch of demons out. She pressed her lips together realizing Ren hadn’t corrected Vincent’s rumor.
“How many demons are in the city?” she asked trying to sum it all up in her mind but the different colors were doing a good job of throwing her off.
“All of those lights aren’t just demons,” Ren quickly pointed out. “The map also depicts hot spots for everything from vampire nests to graveyards that are now missing the contents of their coffins.”
When he heard her heartbeat speed up, Ren gripped the edge of the desk to keep himself from going to her. She suddenly looked so small and fragile when she looked over her shoulder at him with wide frightened eyes.
Lacey didn’t bother pretending that didn’t scare the hell out of her, “Are you trying to tell me that there are zombies in LA?”
Ren looked back down at the computer screen knowing the worst case scenario on the coming war between Deth and Tiara could very well cause a zombie apocalypse.
“Right now, the majority of the demons are fighting amongst each other over the territories,” Storm informed her when Ren didn’t answer her question right away. “The human casualties are staying at a minimum because the demons know we are watching then closely. They are trying to stay off our radar.”
“The demons are scared of you?” she asked having a hard time picturing a demon being frightened of anything except maybe a couple of the weapons she’d stolen in the past. Of course, for all she knew this PIT group had a slew of those kinds of weapons at their disposal.
“We have already killed a lot of the demons that came through the rift, and the fact that they are also fighting each other is only helping to knock down the numbers,” Storm said with a satisfied smirk.
Ren shook his head from where he was still handing out assignments via the computer network. “The real problem with that scenario is the fact that the winners of those battles are the demons we all have to watch out for because they are the strongest. Taking them on one at a time is not an option with the master demons running around accumulating small armies by taking in the underlings of the demons they kill.”
Storm nodded but again tried to point out the bright side, “There are also many good paranormals living among the humans like the jaguar, cougar, and werewolf clans… among others. They can fight some of the lower level demons, but mainly they are helping to protect the humans as best they can.”
“And you’re trying to protect the human and nonhuman population equally?” Lacey asked wanting confirmation.
Ren smiled at the question since he had also been made to come to terms with the fact that all nonhumans weren’t the enemy. “Most of the good paranormals have always been here among the humans. We even have some very powerful demons on our side. It’s the new arrivals that are so dangerous. Most of the city cops at the moment are werewolves so that when panic calls come in, the wolves can go out in groups and have a better chance of handling the problem.”
Making Ren work for Lacey’s attention Storm added, “There are also some humans like yourself that know about the sudden flood of demons and are taking proper measures to protect themselves and the humans around them. That’s the reason The Witch’s Brew is so important to PIT… it’s one of the only places that normal humans and shifter clans can go to get the proper tools.”
Lacey nodded, silently coming to the conclusion that they were only helping her and Gypsy because of the shop. Now she understood why Ren and Nick had been there the night she’d broken in, though she was pretty sure Nick had an ulterior motive… her cute cousin. Either way, she was glad they had been watching out for Gypsy.
“Grandpa was always teaching us how to protect ourselves, but I don’t think Gypsy really took it seriously,” she mused aloud.
“She didn’t,” Ren said as his mood darkened. “It took her nearly getting killed by a master demon searching for a Fallen Blade that was hidden in the safe before she really got it. That’s also why the safe is now empty. No matter how well you think you have things hidden… if a demon wants something bad enough he will get it.”
“Speaking of which, are you going to take me to Grandpa’s orb now?” she made sure to word the question right so that Storm wouldn’t correct her on the ownership again. Plus, she wanted to stay on his good side so he would let her see where this secret safe of his was. She could only imagine what kinds of treasures a Time Walker would have.
“Of course,” Storm said, “right this way.”
Ren frowned when Storm started walking toward the wall and quickly tapped into the power to read the Time Walker’s mind. It was hard to keep a straight face when Storm mentally informed him that he’d best create a very real illusion so that Lacey would think they were walking through walls instead of teleporting to the island.
Lacey looked on in confusion when Storm reached out and touched the wall behind the desk. A huge circle of light appeared in front of him and he stepped into it disappearing. She frowned when the circle of light vanished with him. Lacey slowly approached the wall and pressed her palm against the smooth stone surface.
“How did he do that?” she whispered in amazement then glared up at Ren when he chuckled next to her.
Ren shook his head, glad she didn’t have a clue that Storm was less than a foot from her and very much still in the same room.
“Here, let me help you. The spot moves constantly and only Storm can see it… or me if I’m near him,” Ren lied and laid his hand on the back of hers while bringing his body flush against her. The realistic memory of flesh against flesh slammed into him as he stared down at her. He slid his other hand up her ribs pretending to move her over a couple inches so her hand could reach the so called correct spot.
Lowering his lips near her ear he let his gaze trail across the smooth skin of her neck and whispered, “I have it trapped now.”
Lacey's stomach muscles tightened and she felt the heat caused by his breath on her neck blaze a trail south making her stomach muscles tighten and her thighs go up in flames. She felt herself melt back against him as cold chills followed the same path.
Storm felt his own heat spike just watching them and quickly reached out gripping Ren's shoulder hard to remind him that they were not alone.
