Storm of Sin - Patricia D. Eddy Page 0,54

can see the realization in her eyes.

“It was a message. They are coming for me, Zoe.”

“You. Not me,” she says.

“The easiest way to get to me?” I bring her hand to my lips and brush a kiss to her knuckles before releasing her. “Would be to go after you.”

Zoe

The sun is flirting with the horizon by the time we return to Bureau headquarters. I’m exhausted, and all I want to do is spend an hour or two with Sin in private so we can talk. Really talk. The short bursts of time we’ve spent in the car haven’t been enough to have any sort of meaningful conversation.

“The easiest way to get to me would be to go after you.”

When he said those words, I wanted to smack him. The man runs as hot and cold as the ancient pipes in my apartment. But when he’s hot, he’s positively smoking. Possessive, protective, and about as alpha as they come. Yet still one of the most respectful men I’ve ever met.

The bullpen is nearly deserted. Kunchin waves from his desk, and I nod towards the break room. I need to talk to someone other than my partner-slash-lover-slash-most-annoying-demon-on-the-planet. And I need coffee. Now.

I can feel Sin’s eyes on me as I walk away from him, but when I toss a glance over my shoulder, he quickly turns to look at his computer screen.

“You all right, Zoe?” Kunchin asks, then hands me the carton of sweet creamer. “Velma was a powder keg waiting to blow. Good riddance. And I haven’t said that about any other agent in my five years here.”

“I’m fine. Just a little sore.” In truth, my neck aches like a motherfucker, but I managed to cover up the redness with some foundation and powder, and we’ve been so busy interviewing people today, I’ve mostly ignored it. “Is she…?”

“We don’t tolerate that shit here,” he says. “She’s headed to the vamp prison on Alcatraz.”

“There’s a vampire prison on Alcatraz? No, wait. Of course there is.” Shaking my head, I lean back against the counter with a sigh. “I’d ask you to pinch me, but your hands are twice the size of mine and you’d probably break my arm totally by accident.”

His laugh sounds almost like a bark, but it’s such a happy, joyful noise that I forget he’s a yeti and join in. So gently I almost don’t feel it, he bumps my shoulder with his fist. “I may be big, but I’m a gentleman.”

“Can I ask you something?” We stand side-by-side, staring out at the bullpen, and I can’t look at Kunchin or Sin at this point, so I pin my gaze to the assignment board on the far wall. I’m not sure how I missed it before, but the San Francisco office of the Bureau only has a dozen agents. The rest of the people working here are all support staff. Crime scene investigators, Mem-Wipe technicians, researchers.

“Anything. I’m an open book.” Kunchin turns and fills our mugs, then adds a truly unhealthy amount of creamer to both of them.

“You’re like seven feet tall and covered with white fur. You don’t…live here, do you?”

“Here? At the Bureau?” His ice blue eyes widen, but then he chuckles and pulls a small black box from his pocket. With the press of a button, the yeti’s entire body seems to blink and vibrate for a split second, but nothing else happens. “Perception filter,” he says. “Works on all humans.”

“Um, I think it’s broken.”

Kunchin cocks his head, then shakes the box. “Dammit. If this thing’s on the fritz again…”

My stomach clenches, and I brace my hands on the counter. “You said it works on all humans. But what about others? Does it work on them too?”

“Nope. It’s coded for human eyesight only. Well, and human recording devices. This is the age of the cell phone video after all.” He peers down at the box and fiddles with the buttons as I pull out my phone and snap a photo of him.

“Oh, shit.” I show him the picture. In it, a tall, very well-built man with pale skin and snow white hair stares at the box in his hand. His very human hand. “It’s working just fine.”

I can’t breathe, and my heartbeat roars in my ears. I need to sit down. No. I need— “Sin!”

He’s at my side faster than I think should be possible, and he and Kunchin each take one of my arms to help me to my desk. “Zoe, what is it?” Sin