GABRIEL

When this was all said and done, Xavier was going to owe me—big time.

What the hell was going on behind that door? Had we really just heard right? That demons were using the club to abduct humans and take them to the Fae realm to serve as labor slaves? Jesus! And I’d thought that getting turned on by kissing and dancing with Mikah was going to be the most fucked up thing that happened today. These Fae were sick.

Tabitha glanced between us, with her eyes wide and a crease between her eyebrows. She must have been trying to make sense of the crazy things she’d just heard. Our vampire-and-werewolf-as-metaphors bit was definitely going to come under some intense scrutiny after this, I could tell.

She yanked her hand out of Mikah’s grip and reached for the doorknob again, and he grabbed her by the wrists to pull her whole body back this time.

“What is your problem?” she whisper-yelled, trying to jerk out of his hold, and he shushed her again. Dude missed his calling; he would have made a great uptight librarian. But, somehow the image of Mikah all severe with glasses and button-downs was still infuriatingly sexy.

Mikah sniffed the air and then looked at me, completely ignoring the human trapped in his grip. “I think there are three people in there,” he said.

Tabitha frowned, looking at the vampire like he’d just grown another head. “What are you talking about?”

Yeah, this wasn’t going to end well. What had Mikah been thinking, bringing her into this? By offering to help her find her sister, allowing her to follow us instead of using his powers to send her back into that waiting room with the rest of her herd of useless humans, he’d essentially sabotaged our entire mission. We already had a thing we were trying to do: Get Xavier to his lady-mate love, Cali. We didn’t need a human crashing in and ruining anything, not right now.

Maybe she had been able to open the door for some reason, but other than that, she’d been a burden since we left that room. She was just another body to keep track of, another person to protect. She was already dragging us down, and I failed to see how things would get any better from here, especially once we actually had to fight someone. Surely the demons, or Fae or, whoever was operating this joint wouldn’t take too kindly to one of their captives running around with a rogue werewolf and a vampire. From the sound of what we’d just overhead, they were already on the lookout for both of us. Since Mikah had a soft spot for all things weak and helpless, he wasn’t going to cut this stupid girl loose, and he’d probably throw another hissy fit if I tried to dump her in that hallway.

Maybe the best strategy was to get her to leave us on her own volition. If Mikah thought it was her idea, then he wouldn’t stop her from leaving, right?

I met Tabitha’s eyes for a moment before turning to Mikah. “We have to leave the portal open for Xavier and the rest of the pack.” Let her make of that what she would.

Tabitha stopped struggling. “Pack? Like a…like a werewolf pack? That wasn’t a joke?” She glanced up at Mikah. “And you’re sniffing the air and guessing how many people are behind the door? What the hell is really going on here?”

I resisted the urge to grin. Yeah, convincing her to get lost was going to be a cakewalk.

Mikah let go of her and held his hands up, trying to placate the panicking human. “It’s alright, Tabitha. You can still go wait with the other humans. No one is keeping you here. You know the way back, and you should be able to get through the door without—”

“The other humans?” Her voice was somewhere between a gasp and whine, edged in exasperation. As if her overwrought little mind couldn’t decide whether to be shocked, frightened, or pissed off.

Not surprising, really. I did tend to have the effect on people.

“I mean,” Mikah stumbled, realizing his slip. “It was—we’re all—”

“Save it,” she snapped, stepping up to him with a fire in her eyes. She really was either reckless, desperate, or stupid; Mikah was at least six inches taller than her. “I don’t care who or what you are. Like I’ve told you for the millionth time, I came here to find my sister, that’s all. I’m not intimidated by…whatever the hell is going on here, and I’m not going back to that room to cower with the other humans. I need to find my sister and bring her home, and I’m going to do that—whether you’re a vampire or a werewolf or a fucking accountant.”

Mikah looked like she’d just punched him in the gut. “Private investigator, actually, but I see your point. Accountants are pretty intimidating.”

A joke, again. Of all the times to find this guy’s sense of humor…. We were wasting our time. If we hadn’t had this human stopping and asking questions constantly, we probably would have already gotten through that door and neutralized any threats we found on the other side. Hell, we might have even found and secured the Fae portal by now.

Xavier would be arriving soon, and we still needed to access the portal. This tiny little human was getting in the way and trying to sidetrack our actual mission by pulling us into some wild goose chase for her sister. I was so over every fucking piece of this bullshit mission.

“Can we get a move on here?” I snapped. “It’s not like time is of the essence or anything.” I turned and headed back down the stairs, jerking my head at Mikah and Tabitha to suggest that they follow. Loitering outside the door while navigating exactly how much about the supernatural world our intrepid little human needed to know was pretty much the worst idea since bringing her along.

“Let’s just get back to the club,” I murmured to Mikah, trying to keep my voice below the range of human hearing. “We can drop this girl off with the other humans and focus on our mission.”

“Hey!” she snapped. “I heard that!”

Apparently humans had better hearing that I thought. Go figure.

She stomped forward. “I already told you, I’m not staying behind and hiding while my sister is in danger!”

I’d had it with this shit. “Yes, you fucking are,” I snarled, leaning down to look her in the eyes. “You’re going to come with us back to the waiting room, you’re going to sit there with the rest of the humans, and you’ll keep your fucking mouth shut about it. Do you understand?”

“Gabe—” Mikah began.

But it turned out that the little human didn’t need a very vanilla vampire to stand up for her. She got on her tip-toes, her dark and freckled cheeks going nearly purple, her eyes narrowed at me with so much fury in them that I half-expected her to spontaneously combust. “I’m not going back there. I’m going with you two, and you’re going to help me find my sister, or so help me, I will scream. How long do you think it’d take guards to storm this place? A minute? Maybe thirty seconds?”

My fingers curled into tight fists, and Mikah pulled Tabitha away from me—a wise move since I was seconds away from murdering that little bitch.

“Okay, okay,” Mikah said soothingly. “We won’t take you back there.” He glanced at me and gave me a stern frown. “It looks like we’re in this together now.”

I growled.

With Tabitha half in front of him, Mikah led us back down the staircase to the keycard door that would take us back to the club, and I was seething every step of the way. How had this happened? How was it possible that two apex predators were being bossed around by a fucking human?

Mikah pressed an ear to the door, listening for the guards to pass by.

Tabitha turned to me, apparently not at all worried about me eviscerating her. Dumb move on her part. “So, are you a private detective, too?”

I snorted. “No. If you knew half the things I’ve done, you wouldn’t be so comfortable standing next to me right now.”

She just stared at me, unimpressed. I rolled my eyes. Fucking humans. Always think they’re invincible.

Mikah stood still at the door, listening and scenting to see how close any demon guards were to the door. “Eleven, twelve, thirteen,” he counted under his breath. He must have been counting out the steps to determine how far away the guards were and when it would be safest for us to pass through the door without being spotted.

He glanced over at me. “Stop trying to scare her, Gabe.”

“I’m just telling her the truth,” I shrugged. I’d always done things my own way—at least, up until recently. How was I supposed to know Mikah was going to tag along with me, Xavier, and Colton for so long? Or that he’d be willing to help us get X to the Fae world at all?

“Will you get the rest of the people out of here?” she asked me.

“I’m not getting paid for this, sweetheart, I only came here first and foremost as a favor to a friend. A friend who will never be able to repay me for how much of a fucking headache this has been. You are an inconvenience, and your problems don’t concern me.” I smirked. “I’m not soft like Mikah.”

Tabitha considered this for a moment. “Well, what if I became a client instead?”