“We only kissed to distract you,” she whispered back.
“Never, ever say that again. You enjoyed it. I know you did, and I’ll not be convinced otherwise.”
Her lips twitched.
And there it was. The one thing guaranteed to calm him. Her amusement. Helped that those lips were lush and pink, and if he leaned down just a bit, he could lick them.
Now isn’t the time. He hadn’t forgiven her for her casual disregard, he reminded himself.
A dark-haired woman stepped from the crowd of agents, her expression no-nonsense, her eyes a cold metallic blue. She was short, slim, young, and had the delicate face of a dancer. Mia Snow. At long last. He’d caught a glimpse of her once before, when her team raided the underground vampire caves and McKell escaped captivity, along with Devyn Targon.
Captivity. How he loathed the reminder, especially in a roomful of his enemy, for memories suddenly swamped him, holding him as surely as the iron bars had. He could hear the drip of water, slow, insistent, smell the dew on the crystals knifing from the ceiling, and feel the walls closing in on him. He hadn’t been fed, so hunger had gnawed at him, weakness eating at him.
Years ago, he’d been ordered to kill Bride. As powerful as she was, the royal family had feared her. And they’d had every right. Every vampire possessed a supernatural ability, but Bride, well, she possessed all abilities. There was nothing she couldn’t do. Which was why her kind were considered dangerous; which was why her kind, the nefreti, were slaughtered the moment they were identified. Always. But he’d loved her, or thought he had, and so, rather than remove her head, he’d sent her to this surface world. Anything to save her.
He’d had her memory erased, then branded his name into her wrist, meaning to find her one day, return her to their world, and finally wed her. He would have given her a new identity, of course, and no one would have known what she was, who she’d been. Only, his plan had failed. He’d returned her to the underground world, and the vampire king at last learned of his treachery, sentencing him to eternity in the dungeons.
He should have thanked Mia for aiding his escape, but at the time, he’d been pissed at her refusal to let him near Bride. Because, like Bride, she had sided with Devyn, and McKell had wanted only to punish them. So he’d ignored Mia and every single one of her summonses. Now, he felt no animosity toward her. Shocking.
“I ask you to come see me, and you snub me.” A glaring Mia stopped a few inches away from him. She smelled of the ice that was crystallized in her eyes. “I send a few people to escort you, and you hurt them. Maim then. Now you have the nerve to show up at a crime scene and—”
McKell held up one hand, silencing her. “Shall I leave, then?”
She popped her jaw. “Sans, escort McKell to headquarters. Now.”
“But he might be able to help us,” Ava said, and then launched into a speech about the merits of reversing time. “I thought Noelle told you about this.”
“Actually …” Noelle joined their circle, hands stuffed in her jean pockets. “I thought Ava and I could break the idea to you together. You know, in a calm, this-is-for-the-best discussion.”
Ava moaned. Mia cursed.
While they continued their “discussion,” McKell inhaled deeply, looking for a distraction from the memories still shrouding him. He tensed. There was something familiar spicing the air … something he’d once adored. He finished his survey of the bar, and could only shake his head against another onslaught of shock.
Think of the devil, and she would appear. Sitting on one of the pool tables were Bride and her husband, Devyn. They were focused on each other, and talking about—McKell’s ears perked—Bride’s desire for a bubble bath.
He waited for his chest to tighten as it always did when he saw them together, but … it never did. Actually, he didn’t react at all.
He recalled the day he’d raised his sword to take her head, as ordered. Recalled the way those emerald eyes had looked up at him, filled with trust and love. Recalled how he’d placed her well-being before his own.
If his plan had worked, they would be wedded now, with a child to spoil.
Would he still have craved Ava if he’d been wedded to Bride? Vampire spouses drank from each other, and—as he had proven today—sickened when they drank from someone else. Even someone human. At the moment, he couldn’t imagine not wanting Ava, even with a devoted Bride at his side.
Bride’s scent didn’t heat his blood. Her body didn’t make his hands itch for contact. The thought of her with Devyn didn’t send him into a killing rage. And what the hell was that strange man in the corner doing, eye-fucking Ava with an intensity that staggered?
McKell flashed his fangs, but the man didn’t notice. He was too focused on Ava, mentally stripping her. Kill, McKell would kill him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Ava suddenly demanded.
At first, McKell didn’t realize she’d spoken to him. Then she grabbed his arms and shook him, clueing him in. “That man.” He pointed, flashed his fangs again. “Who is he?”
Ava followed the line of his finger and blushed. Blushed. Why? If she returned the eye-fuck … “Uh, that’s Johnny Deschanel. Just ignore him. Please.”
“Who is he to you?” McKell snarled.
“No one.”
He didn’t believe her, and his claws were elongating, sharpening.
“I’m going to allow you to help us, McKell,” Mia said before he could storm over, slash, slice, destroy. Ava had never blushed before, and her denial had been too rushed. “The Schön are dangerous and unpredictable, and I need every man I can get. Especially someone with an ability like yours.”
Hack. Saw. “How magnanimous of you,” he muttered, gaze remaining on Johnny. He wouldn’t doubt if this was what Mia had planned all along. Pretend to want to incarcerate him, then offer him his freedom in exchange for his aid.
“Afterward,” Mia continued, “I’ll expect you to go to AIR headquarters and answer a few questions for me.”
He shook his head. What would pain this Johnny the most? Limb removal? Or watching his own guts spill from his stomach? “I will do so, but only after Ava helps me with something.”
“What?” Mia’s red-hot astonishment lashed him.
Had she never been denied? “I apologize if I gave you the impression that the answer was any of your business.” See me, Johnny. Fear me.