Amethyst Flame (Flame 2)

Emma turned toward him and kept her voice low as well. “I know. Loghry’s hand is all over this. But Vaughn, even though we agreed never to see each other again, I’m so glad you’re here. I can’t tell you how much I’ve valued all our conversations since that first night. In fact, the only reason I think I can bear what Loghry has done to these girls is because you’re beside me.”

He felt the same way and resisted a powerful impulse to haul her into his arms and hold her.

His relationship with Emma had grown complicated since the night of the rescue. Afterward, they’d gone to a bar, one of the few that served all five alter species. He’d ordered a couple of beers, then another matched set.

By the time six bottles were sitting on the table, he knew he was in tr

ouble. He’d walked her outside, then drawn her into the shadows and kissed her. When he’d suggested they go to his house, she hadn’t hesitated. Neither had she minded flying for the first time with a vampire.

The sex that had followed had been hot as hell though he couldn’t believe he’d crossed the line. Vampires and witches didn’t date.

Afterward, they’d agreed not to see each other again, but the phone had been a different case. He’d talked with Emma almost every night since. He’d call her after their respective shifts and a lot of those conversations had gone well past dawn. But this was the first time he’d seen her since the rescue. Despite the fact that she was a witch, the enemy of his kind, he couldn’t deny his powerful attraction to her or that he’d come to care about her as much as he did.

Tears shimmered in her green eyes, which made her even more beautiful than he remembered. She had thick auburn hair, the front portion pulled into her usual top knot. The rest hung almost to her waist. Her creamy complexion glowed in the moonlight and her snug jeans and t-shirt reminded him of everything he’d once held in his arms.

The pain she obviously felt about the deaths below echoed his own. Doing good in their sick, corrupt world was a rare thing, and he hated that their joint efforts to save these teens two months ago had ended in tragedy. But he had to give Emma this, she had grit and he loved that about her.

As for the author of the crime, Wizard Loghry was one of the most vicious criminals in Five Bridges. The amethyst flame addicted warlock had strong ties to the cartels that ruled the underworld of their alter society, which meant he was well-protected. He could do whatever he wanted without fear of repercussion.

He operated several sex clubs in Elegance Territory stocked primarily with teenage girls. He systematically abducted them from the human part of Arizona, then smuggled them past the border that separated the city of Phoenix from the cordoned off province of Five Bridges.

Sometimes the girls entered Loghry’s work establishments in their fragile human forms. Other times, he put them through the difficult alter process and made vampires out of them. It was rumored he liked fangs in his throat, and that he’d kept a female vampire imprisoned for years in the labyrinth below his Elegance mansion.

Emma crossed her arms protectively over her chest. “Did your boss send you out here?”

“Yep. Easton delivered his orders personally.” Chief Easton, of the Crescent Territory Border Patrol, had taken pains to make sure Vaughn made it to the Graveyard. Alone.

Emma snorted her disgust. “Donaldson came to my office himself and he never does that.”

Vaughn heard several male voices. Turning, he saw that three more Elegance Border Patrol officers had arrived and were laughing it up near the first SUV.

Vaughn jerked his chin toward them. “Any of those warlocks clean?” He was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he asked anyway.

She turned to glance in the direction of her territory’s policing force. “No. Just ignore them. They’re vermin.”

He shifted his gaze back to her. He knew she didn’t take bribes. Neither did he. Being on the take had a stench, and he could smell a corrupt officer at a hundred yards.

Over the beers he and Emma had shared the night of the rescue, she’d told him she was clean but that half the Elegance force wasn’t. He’d confessed a similar statistic for his own vampire territory of Crescent. That’s when things had shifted and he’d started seeing her as a woman he admired as opposed to a witch who could kill him with the energy she could release through the tips of her fingers.

Another burst of laughter came on the heels of the arrival of yet another Border Patrol vehicle. His survival instincts kicked in. “We should leave, Em. Right now. I can fly us straight out of here. Someone else can pick up your bike and my SUV later.”

He held out his arm to her and gestured to his foot. He’d flown her before, so she knew the drill. All she had to do was hop on and he’d have them out of danger within seconds.

She glanced at his boot but shook her head. “I can’t go. Not yet.”

“Why? We both know this is a set-up, and isn’t it bad enough Loghry got these girls? So, how about we get the hell out of here?”

“Vaughn, you know what this is like for me. It’s the way my alter power manifests. I have to tend to the girls. Their spirits are calling to me.” She started down the side of the ditch.

Vaughn’s heartrate kicked up a notch. “Emma, don’t do this. We’ve gotta go now.”

“The girls need me and it’s the least I can do after what they’ve been through.”

Vaughn didn’t try to argue with her and instead began his own descent. He might not want her to stay, but like hell he was leaving her alone in No Man’s Land.

~ ~ ~

Emma Delacey, Tribunal Public Safety officer, understood Vaughn’s concern. She felt it as well, that she was heading into a trap.