Amy Blankenship - Dangerous Things

“We’re not late I see.” Steven said smiling inwardly when he saw Jewel smile at Alicia. He realized he hadn’t seen her smile until now and he instantly felt a loss when it slid from her lips.

Warren looked around, “Actually I think everyone is here.”

“Not quite,” Envy said. “We’re still waiting on Chad.”

At that exact moment the doors swung open and Chad walked in with Trevor and Zachary behind him.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Devon demanded as he stood up.

“Chad’s a cop,” Envy reminded him. “He already knows some of what’s going on and he saw the tail end of what happened at the cemetery. He’s in whether he wanted to be or not. Besides,” she continued, “he’ll be able to keep the cops off your back for a while.”

“I wasn’t referring to your brother,” Devon’s voice had taken on a dangerous edge.

Kat nodded, seeing that Envy was getting ready to mistakenly take up for Trevor as well. Not wanting a full out battle royale to take place, she stepped away from the bar to put herself in their path.

“Trevor can stay too,” she said firmly and crossed her arms over her chest. “After all… he does play well with others.” Kat finished with a wink to the blonde man who gave her a mock salute.

Quinn stood up from his chair and walked over to Kat, putting his arm around her waist to pull her closer. “I’m going to have to keep an eye on you… aren’t I?” he murmured playfully, but the look in his eyes told a different story.

“Can we just get on with it?” Kane asked from the shadows.

Everyone except Michael jumped at the voice. He’d been so quiet no one knew he was there.

“Agreed,” Warren stated. “I think everyone knows why we’re here.” He looked at Chad who nodded once to indicate he understood before moving his gaze to Trevor and Zachary. “Before we go into what happened at the cemetery, I have a question for Trevor.”

Trevor narrowed his eyes, “Like what?”

“What the hell are you?” Devon asked interrupting Warren.

“I’m a shifter just like most of the people here,” Trevor answered.

Kane snorted in the shadows making everyone look his way.

“Do you know something about him?” Envy demanded. It wasn’t like she would take Trevor's word for anything… he’d already proven what a great liar he was.

“I might, but you’ll have to be really nice to me if you want to know,” Kane said with amusement in his voice. He would have blamed his moodiness on getting up on the wrong side of the bed, but hell… he hadn’t been asleep.

Devon was on his feet and had Kane hoisted into the air by the lapels of his jacket. “I think we’re done with being nice,” the jaguar growled.

Kane smirked down at the shifter, “Aw, that’s too bad. I already told my puppy what a sweetheart you were and he was so happy about meeting a new playmate.” They both knew who the loser would be if they decided to tangle… and it wasn’t the kitty cat.

“Your puppy?” Jewel asked, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of something cute and cuddly. Her lip twitched at the thought of a dog among all the cats in the room.

“It’s an oversized dust bunny,” Michael grumbled.

Warren pinched the bridge of his nose and Quinn had to fight to keep from laughing at his jaguar brother-in-law.

“Devon, put Kane down and get your ass in a chair,” Warren rumbled. “We’ll finish the discussion about Trevor later.”

Nick, Devon, and Kat all looked at Warren with wide eyes. If the average person didn’t know Warren, they would have missed it. Warren was excited about the prospect of a new shifter in the area and he wanted to learn more about the unknown breed.

Devon put Kane back on his feet and stomped back over to his chair next to Warren. The doors opened and Kriss walked in with Tabatha latched onto his arm. Devon let a slow smile grace his lips as he glared toward the blond vampire. He might not be able to put Kane in his place, but the man that just walked in could and he knew Kriss had no love for the reformed vampire.

“Are we late?” Tabatha asked happy that she’d won the argument with Kriss to come to the meeting. Some times Kriss could be just a touch over protective… a hard touch.

“No, you’re right on time,” Envy said. “We haven’t even really started yet.”

Tabatha joined the women at the bar and took a seat while Kriss stopped near Chad.

Kane’s heart leapt into his throat when Tabatha walked in and he had to fight the urge to grab her up in his arms and take her away from here. He stepped back further into the shadows so that only his silhouette could barely be seen. His eyes drifted toward the fallen and he inwardly cringed at the glare he was getting from the man.

“We need to learn more about this demon that’s been trapped in the cemetery,” Warren continued. “We need to know what it looks like and since Dean’s absent, Kane is the only one here who's seen it.”

Kane had taken out a cigarette and flipped open his lighter. The light illuminated his face for a moment so they could see how troubled his eyes were.

Tabatha forgot to breathe as her gaze jerked toward the small flame and saw Kane. His perfect lips were curved slightly as he lit the cigarette and his eyes were shadowed by dark lashes. Shadowed or not, she could feel his gaze touch her the same as if it were his hands caressing her skin. Feeling the distraction of something brush her arm, she looked around to find Kriss now standing right beside her.

“Her name is Misery,” Kane said after a moment. “The problem is… I’m not really sure what she looks like.”

“How could you not know what she looks like?” Kriss demanded with a deep frown on his face. “You were down there with Dean for who knows how long.”

“Can you let me finish, Feathers?” Kane asked in a sarcastic tone.

Kriss narrowed his gaze resenting the insult.

“Good,” Kane retorted. “The reason I don’t truly know what she looks like is she kept changing her appearance. One moment she was a pretty little girl with one creepy as hell personality, the next a rotting corpse, a cloud of black smoke, and the last was a beautiful woman. Those seem to be her favorite forms to take. She’s extremely powerful if she could hold two fallen in that chamber at the same time.”

Kriss took a deep breath and nodded, “Some demons have been known to have that kind of power.”

“We have a demon specialist coming in right now.” Zachary said finally. “Her flight should be arriving in the next couple of hours or so. When she gets here, it would be best if everyone just leaves Misery to her.”

Kane cocked an eyebrow, “Her?”

“Yeah,” Trevor said. “Her name’s Angelica. She’s got information on just about every legend, myth, and fairytale in the world. If there’s any kind of story about Misery, then she’ll have it in her flash drive.”

Alicia sighed in frustration, “Fine, she can have the demon. I want to know what we’re going to do about finding Micah.”

“Micah can take care of himself,” Quinn informed her.

The truth was that during that last argument between him and Micah, he’d ordered Micah to stand down but his brother hadn’t obeyed and that could only mean one thing… they now had two alpha males within the cougar clan and that had never been heard of. In the past, it had always caused a fight to the death.