Amy Blankenship - Jaded Blood

“Who’s Alicia?” Tasuki asked.

“Micah’s kid sister,” Titus informed him. “He’s been a little moody since she got herself mated to a Sun God recently.”

“A Sun God?” Tasuki asked with a confused expression. That was a new one on him, though he didn’t know why he bothered being surprised. You’d think he’d be immune by now.

“Stop letting everyone know what I had for breakfast,” Micah grumbled and took out his cell phone. As he dialed the number he sighed knowing that Titus was right. He’d definitely been in a funk lately because he missed his sister and Damon was being an ass keeping her hidden for days at a time. This just so happened to be a great excuse to get to see her and find out if she was still happy with Mr. Possessive.

“You’d have Alicia come clear across town just to bring us a set of clothes?” Titus cocked an eyebrow. “Desperate much?”

“What the hell is a Sun God?” Tasuki really wanted to know so he could add it to his growing list of things to put on his mental Wall of Weird.

Micah had been about to hit send on his phone when Titus had questioned his motives. Thinking quickly, he immediately came up with an even better excuse.

“Actually, I think we can kill two birds with one stone,” Micah smirked. “Alicia told me that Damon has been teaching her how to put people under her thrall.”

He pointed to the man on the other side of the mirror. “We could probably beat the hell out of that worthless lamebrain and not get as much out of him as Alicia could with a couple simple questions. Plus, he’d have to tell her the truth where with us… we have no way of knowing if he’s feeding us a line of bull to keep his ass out of hot water with Lucca.”

“It’s okay,” Tasuki sighed accepting the fact that he was being completely ignored. “I’m sure that I’ll figure it out eventually.”

Alicia had just finished making herself a cup of coffee when her cell phone started ringing. Rushing toward her purse, she grabbed the device taking a quick glance at the caller ID. She put it to her ear with a bright smile.

“Hey Micah, what’s up?”

“Do you have some time to spare for your big brother?” Micah asked turning his back on the other two men in the room so they couldn’t see the relieved expression on his face. He’d half expected Damon to answer her phone.

Alicia shrugged, “Yeah, I guess so. Damon went out with Michael and Kane. He probably won’t be back for a while yet.”

“Good, because I really need a favor,” Micah began. “We’ve got a she-wolf in one of the holding cells here that we just rescued from a raid on the underground slave trading. She hasn’t shifted back yet, but when she does… she’s going to need a change of clothing. Do you think you can bring something down to the station for her?”

Alicia looked over at her huge closet full of clothes before nodding, “Yeah, I think I can dig up something. When do you want me there?”

“As soon as you can get ready,” Micah answered. “We don’t know when she’ll wake up from the tranquilizer.”

“I’ll be there,” Alicia said. “Anything else you need?”

“I’m so glad you asked that,” Micah said letting Alicia hear the smile in his voice. “I need you to put another wolf under your thrall and get him to answer a few questions for us. Do you think you can do it?”

“Yes,” Alicia answered a little too quickly. “Give me some time to get dressed and grab a few things for the poor girl and I’ll be down.”

She hung up the phone and a wide grin spread across her face as she rushed around getting dressed. It was nice to have something to do while Damon was away. At least now she felt useful and, with any luck, she might be able to prove to Damon that she really could do things on her own.

Throwing on her favorite pair of jeans and one of Damon’s black button-up shirts, she got out a black leather duffle bag and removed two set of clothes from the closet. One set in case she liked soft frilly things and another set that would make her feel tough and in control. Why not give the girl a choice between dressy or badass. Besides, Damon had stocked over half of her closet with bad girl outfits so she would match the bad boy act he had going on.

Once the clothes were packed, she went through some of the new undergarments she hadn’t worn yet and something for the girl to sleep in before putting them in the bag as well. She figured after being held prisoner, any girl would appreciate the little things like clean underwear, toothbrush, and maybe a little makeup.

As an afterthought, she took one last look around the room to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. Spotting her collection of hair things, she grabbed up a comb and brush along with a few hair ties so the girl could put her hair up if she wanted to.

Alicia smiled as she put the strap of the bag over her shoulder and headed toward the bedroom door. It felt good to know that she was going to be seeing Micah again even though it had only been a few days. She missed him.

The fact that he’d called for her help specifically was exciting enough. Putting someone under her thrall for legit reasons, and the fact that her target was a werewolf and not just some human would mean a challenge for her.

Humans were far easier to place under a thrall because they had no real immunity to it unless the human was psychic or wore a charm like her necklace. Damon had told her that shifters were harder to penetrate because all of their five senses were higher. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had much of an opportunity to even test it out on humans with Damon barely letting her out of the bedroom.

Alicia squared her shoulders. This was a prime opportunity for her to get some real practice in without the sexual distractions. Just as she walked out of her and Damon's bedroom, Kane stormed in the front door muttering under his breath.

“Is something wrong?” Alicia asked.

Kane didn’t appear to hear her and continued muttering about a woman named Olivia. Suddenly he froze and cursed loudly.

“Damn it!” Kane shouted. “Not Olivia… Victoria.”

Michael and Damon walked in at that very moment, both snickering at Kane’s antics.

Alicia almost groaned at Damon’s timing. While she was happy to see him back safe and sound, she’d hoped to have time to go to the police department and be back before he returned.

“So, you’re the man who remembers the name of every woman he’s ever been with,” Damon drawled.

“I do remember them,” Kane growled.

“Then who’s Olivia?” Michael asked.

“Go to hell!” Kane muttered before heading toward his bedroom.

“Guess that’s the answer to that question,” Michael stated and headed toward the stairwell but paused seeing Alicia standing near her bedroom door looking a lot like she’d just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Kane shut the bedroom door behind him and saw Tabatha standing there with her arms crossed over her chest.

“So, who’s Olivia and Victoria?” she asked.

“Damon and Michael’s ex-girlfriends,” Kane answered with no hesitation and sealed his lips over hers.

In the main room, Damon’s gaze was instantly drawn to Alicia and he almost smiled when he saw her wearing one of his shirts. However, the way she was biting her bottom lip made him frown and he slowly looked her over. His eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw the overnight bag that she hadn't zipped hanging from her shoulder.

Alicia blinked when Damon suddenly appeared less than a foot in front of her, blocking her path by putting a palm on either side of the doorframe… effectively trapping her against the wooden surface. He leaned forward and studied her without saying a word but she’d be damned if that look in his eyes wasn’t speaking volumes.