with their guardians.”
“Awesome, except I’m guessing that means she’s bound to an Incubatti,” Zoey said. “That’s bad.”
“Very,” he said. “Dimitri figured it out last night, when he went to the hospital. He had the very unfortunate job of tracking down the Incubatti to come save his wife. That conversation did not go well. It’s not something I’ll be presenting to the Enforcers.”
“You’re going to lie to them?” she asked, astonished. “Is that possible?”
“I won’t lie to them if they ask. But I won’t bring it up,” he said. “If they have no reason to read my mind, they won’t.”
“What if I go before the Enforcers?”
“I suspect they won’t need you.”
Zoey studied him, not liking this discussion at all. Her best friend somehow married into the mob for a reason outside her control, and now the good guys were going to fry her for it. Never mind Zoey couldn’t lie to a Succubus, let alone a super-Incubus Enforcer. Her personal life was in the shitter. Now, her professional one was about to follow.
“There is something else.”
“I don’t want to know anything else,” she said, standing.
“The members of Team R were grouped for a reason.”
“We’re not blonde. We know. Dimitri tells us all the time,” she snapped.
“You’re marked.”
“Meaning …”
“Team R is the code name we gave to the Hunters we discover who are Incubus soul-mates or who will become one. It’s not easy finding your kind.”
She stared at him then laughed. “No way, Professor. I’m firmly on the Cambion-killing side of the line.”
“Yes way. You lied to me yesterday, Zoey, when I asked you about how you ended up on my porch the first time.”
“I was drunk. I don’t remember that night.”
He rolled his eyes, mimicking her reaction to him. “You weren’t dumped on my porch by accident. You were brought here by the Incubus that marked you as his. We chose to watch you for years to see how suitable you’d be for our kind, like we do all the Halflings, before we select who we want to recruit to become Hunters. We determined you weren’t suitable at all. The general assessment was that you would’ve been a truly gifted warrior for us but were too prone to irrationality, stubbornness, poor judgment and misdirected passion.”
Zoey wasn’t surprised. She didn’t fit in with the Succubus society, their rules or the girls they collected to fight their battles.
“But, you were intended for an Incubus who disagreed with the decision. He marked you and dropped you off on my porch swing one night. He didn’t claim you, which allowed me to bond with you as your guardian. I guess you were brought for safekeeping.”
“That’s just ridiculous. Vikki was recruited, and she’s on Team R.”
“She wasn’t marked until recently. She probably ran across her soul-mate while killing off his Cambions or something. He figured it out, and she’s feeding him all the information he needs to undermine the Sucubatti. The tension between the societies has been growing for years now. They both employ these types of tactics.”
Agitated, Zoey struggled to take in everything he told her. He released more magic. She glared at him, wanting to feel the anger he pushed away.
“I need you moderately coherent for this conversation,” he said firmly. “Has any of this made it through that hard head of yours?”
“Vikki’s an involuntary traitor, I’m marked or whatever by some random Incubus. I’m gonna have to lie to the Enforcer inquiry and my whole world went to shit in a matter of twenty four hours!”
“Good.”
“I hate my life.”
“If it helps, our assessment of you was incorrect. What we thought were weaknesses, you have turned into strengths. You’re fearless to the point of foolish, and you’re a ruthless, resourceful killer. Your judgment has improved some, though your insistence that you can live a double-life without things blowing up for you is ignorant. Perhaps, someone else will convince you, since I could not.”
Accustomed to the backhanded compliments of a creature that thought itself superior to half-breeds and humans, she listened quietly until his last, thoughtful sentence. Zoey’s gaze went from the hearth to him.
“Are you leaving?” she asked, concerned.
“No, dear.”
“Are you dying?”
“No. I am … preparing you in the case you need a new guardian to temper your magic.”
“Why?”
“You trust me, don’t you, my dear?”
“You know I do.”
He raised an eyebrow. “It took what? Years for me to win that war with you. I’ll take a victory by attrition.”
She studied him. She trusted him more than anyone else in the world, fully aware she’d