Mystic's Run

They led her back to the bed and she remained standing at the foot of it while they sprawled on their backs, leaving a space for her in the middle. With a sultry smile, Mystic made a show of slowly unbuttoning Roman's shirt and dropping it onto the floor. Satisfaction raged through her at how quickly heated, masculine glances of appreciation turned into focused expressions of predatory lust when she put her knees on the mattress and crawled provocatively toward them.

She stopped midway up their bodies and sat back on her heels. Her hand caressed the inside of Christian's thigh. "Pick a number."

"Five."

She circled his cock with her fingers, stroked up and down his velvety shaft five times. His hips lifted in tandem to each upstroke. His hands gripped the bed linen as if he was fighting the urge to pounce.

"We can start at five and go up by five each time the two of you switch places." She took Hawk's cock in her other hand. "Does that sound doable?" she asked provocatively.

His nostrils flared. In her mind she saw his wolf lick its lips in anticipation of the challenge. "Yes," he growled.

She rubbed her thumbs over the wet tips of their cocks. "We need to decide who goes first."

Mystic released them and went to her hands and knees again. She widened her thighs and lowered her upper body in a stance that was an invitation to play as well as to mate.

The Angelini magic rose inside her. For an instant she felt as if she possessed her own wolf and it was stretching out, pressing against her skin and enjoying this game with its mates.

Mystic licked her lips. She rocked back and forth, rubbed her nipples against the comforter and watched as their breaths grew short.

"We need to decide how to fuck, this way or with me on my back. Or maybe I'll decide for all of us." She tilted her head and kissed the mating mark on Christian's thigh. She sucked on it and his hips jerked violently. His hand went to his cock and she wanted to take him into her mouth, to suck him until he came. The game would be over with a normal human male, but not with a Were, not with an Angelini's mate. Christian would harden again. He'd hunger to plunge into her channel and spill his seed there, too.

Mystic gave in to temptation. She bit the mating mark and felt the icy-hot spike of lust go up Christian's spine. She took everything above his hand into her mouth and began sucking. It was primitive, darkly carnal to find the taste of her arousal on him.

In a heartbeat all playfulness left her. She was merciless, as savage in her pleasure as her mates were.

Next to her she heard Hawk's heavy breathing, his low growls. She felt his eyes on her, devouring her as hungrily as she was taking Christian.

He intended to pounce, to thrust inside her and fuck her until she screamed in release as soon as Christian came, the game she'd proposed only a shadow thought underneath the need to mate burning inside Hawk.

With a shout Christian thrashed, fighting against the need to come even as hot seed erupted. Mystic swallowed it down. She would have swallowed him down if she could.

The more she was with her mates the more she craved them, the more she wanted to merge so completely there was no separation between them. She released Christian's cock only when Hawk's hand curved around her waist and his low growl warned he'd waited long enough.

With barely restrained violence he pulled her down onto her back and covered her with his body. He thrust all the way into her in a single hard stroke.

Mystic had the presence of mind to say, "That's one."

He stilled. He snarled at the reminder of the game they'd agreed to play and the stakes involved. He sent a glower in Christian's direction.

Mystic felt Christian's wolf bristle. Competition flared between the two men.

She spared a glance at Christian. He was hard again, challenging Hawk with his glare to see who could make her come first.

Delicious, wicked satisfaction filled Mystic. They'd play this game again for fun, but this time she couldn't afford to lose.

She tangled her fingers in Hawk's braids and pulled his face down to hers. She captured his lips and plunged her tongue into his mouth, giving him the taste of her arousal as well as her other mate. He thrust hard and fast-two, three, four, five times in an instinctive effort to rid her of a rival's marking.

He rolled off her, growling, his face taut as Christian took possession. Mystic felt the Angelini magic starting to rise with Christian's first savage thrust. Her channel tightened on his cock. It gripped and clung to him.

The sweet bliss of joining with him made Mystic want to lock her arms and legs around him and tie him to her. He was her first mate, the one who'd cut the deepest roads into her heart.

She whimpered when he pulled away after ten stokes, then did the same when Hawk filled her. She arched. She wanted complete intimacy with this mate as well.

As Hawk's tongue twined with hers and his cock filled her she was tempted to forget about the game. It felt so good to have him inside her.

She moaned. Her hips rose to meet his thrusts.

She didn't think she'd ever get enough of them. She didn't think she'd ever want to leave the bed again.

The thought reminded her of what she stood to lose, and gain, if she came before they did. They'd hunt the Weres while she stayed home and fucked.

She couldn't afford to give in to the cries of her body for release. Too much was at stake to yield to the Angelini need to claim a mate in a way that reinforced the permanence and thoroughness of the bond.

Hawk rolled off her and Christian covered her again. Five strokes in and she was nearly mindless with the need to orgasm. If she made it through twenty she'd never make it through Hawk's twenty-five.

Panic made her ruthless. She opened the link between them. She let her pleasure flood down the bond. She let them feel what it was like for her to have Christian's thick cock tunnel in and out of her sheath.

He growled and fought against coming. He only barely managed it.

Hawk knew he was in trouble as soon as he covered Mystic. The wolf had been driven into a frenzy not only by having to pull out each time it had tried to tie with her, but with the sight of her other mate fucking her.

The sensation she'd shared, of another male's cock thrusting into the hot, tight place his wanted to be was the final straw. He'd lost what little control he still had over his beast.

By the second thrust Hawk was no longer able to count. All he cared about was mating.

His hands held Mystic's pinned to the sheets as he pounded into her. His breathing was harsh and ragged. His reality was the wet fist of her sheath.

His hips bucked. Sweat dripped off him. The muscles on his arms rippled and the bed shook under the force of his thrusts. He nearly passed out when white-hot shards of ecstasy ripped through him as he came.

It had taken all of Christian's strength to pull out of Mystic the last time. How she'd come up with such a devious game was a question for later. At the moment he was trying to hold on, to drive her over the edge before him.

With a savagery to match Hawk's, Christian fucked in and out of her slick channel. He kissed her ears, her mouth. His lips found the mating mark on her throat. He growled against it, clamped down on it with his teeth.

The Angelini magic burned hotter and he slipped into the hidden place deep inside Mystic's body. For an instant he knew triumph. He thought victory was his. But then she raked her nails down his back and over his buttocks. The sharp unexpected pain was all it took for him to lose control. His seed spilled out in a hot rush. Only then did she clamp down on his cock and lock him to her.

Mystic smiled in contentment between her two very warm Were mates. She snuggled her back against Hawk's front as she stroked Christian's chest.

"You went by Todd Moore's apartment," she said, daring to bring up the hunt for the fledgling vampire's killers.

Christian's hand covered hers. He guided it to the mating mark above his heart and held it there. "Former apartment. He moved out before he died the first time."

"Did you talk to the apartment manager?" Hawk asked.

"Yeah." Christian sighed. "I had to badge him to get his cooperation. Let's just say he wasn't happy about being dragged out of bed."

Mystic worried her bottom lip. "Will you get in trouble for doing it?"

Christian turned onto his side. "If he calls in a complaint I'll have to do some fast talking about why I'm asking around about a guy who has no traceable connection to any of my assigned cases." He shrugged. "I didn't learn much. There was no forwarding address and the apartment manager claims he can't even picture Todd much less remember anything about him. A neighbor was coming home as I was leaving. He said Todd hung out with another guy. He thought he heard Todd calling his friend Hugh and joking about going to a high-school football game. Beyond that he didn't have anything to offer."

"The rogue Weres are asking around about a guy named Hugh," Mystic said.

"Did you get a description of Todd Moore's friend?" Hawk asked.

"Dark hair. Maybe brown, maybe black. Maybe not dark at all. Could be purple. I think the neighbor was taking a guess."

Hawk grunted. Mystic levered herself up onto an elbow and reached across Christian for the phone.

"No fair," she moaned as Christian's mouth latched on to her nipple.

Hawk followed Christian's lead. His lips trailed kisses up her spine then over to the place on her shoulder where he'd bitten her when he took her from behind. "Who are you calling?"

"Rafe. He can hack into the school system if he needs too. He can find out if Todd had a classmate named Hugh. Maybe Marta will be there, too."

Christian's hand went to her side, steadying her. Her nipple escaped his mouth with a soft pop. "Make the call," he said before reclaiming the tight bud and causing lust to coil in her belly.

Mystic made the call. She spoke quickly as Hawk and Christian did their best to make it nearly impossible for her to think.

Her breath was coming in and out in short pants by the time she finished talking to Rafael. "I'll get even with you both," she promised but her threat was ruined by the whimper that followed it as they eased her to her back and assaulted her with their lips.

Hawk's mouth found her ear. "I vote for a rematch. What about you Christian?"

Christian's fingers explored her wet slit. His cock was a hard ridge against her thigh. "I'm up for it."

Mystic snickered but willingly spread her legs. "Different stakes." She wasn't about to lose what she'd gained.

Hawk chuckled. She may have won last time, but she hadn't dented his confidence. "This time we'll just play for fun. Pick a number."

"Ten. You go first."

Hawk settled on top of her and sheathed himself in a single hard thrust. "One," he said, lingering until her channel was rippling along his cock, clinging to it before he thrust again. "Two."

She was almost sobbing in frustrated need, arching up to meet him by the time he got to ten and rolled off.

Christian's cock replaced Hawk's. Christian's mouth replaced Hawk's. His kiss was a tantalizing, sensuous glide of tongue against tongue as his penis slowly retreated from her slit then just as slowly reentered.

Masculine confidence crowded her through the bond. This time they planned to work together. This time their wolves wouldn't be allowed to interfere. This time they meant to win.

Mystic laughed silently and opened herself to them. She welcomed them into her body. She clung to them and came for them. She lost herself in the bliss of being with them.

It was late in the afternoon when the phone pulled Mystic from the warm cocoon of sleep. She reached for the receiver but Christian's hand got there first.

Rafe. The name had her crowding closer though she could only overhear Christian's side of the conversation. She waited for him to hang up instead of taking the information from his mind.

"We've got an address for a Hugh Campbell. He was a classmate of Todd's but as far as Rafe can tell, there's no death record for him. The address is for an apartment building near where Todd lived. Rafe's still working on finding a connection to someone named Marta."

Hawk rolled out of bed and stretched. Mystic admired his wonderful masculine lines before climbing out of bed, too. "We can hit a fast food place on the way to Hugh's place," she said and felt the room fill with masculine tension.

A muscle twitched in Hawk's cheek. She looked at Christian and saw the wolf glowering at her through his eyes.

"We can call Gabe and Gabby for backup," she said in a soft voice. "But it should be safe enough without them. We don't know if this Hugh is the one the Weres have been asking about. We don't know for sure he has any idea Todd was vampire. And even if he does and he's a vampire himself, he's too young to be anything but completely suspended during the daylight hours. My fathers were both reborn in the seventeen hundreds and they don't stir at this time of day."

Christian's wolf growled down the link. She nibbled on her bottom lip and refrained from reminding him about the "fucking game".

"You'll follow our lead?" Christian finally said.

She moved around the bed and wrapped her arms around his waist. She knew what it had cost him to give in without an argument. Everything in his nature demanded that he protect and serve.

"I'll follow your lead," she said before pressing her lips to his.

He didn't open for her immediately. The wolf's pride required a show of submission.

Mystic ran her tongue along the seam of his mouth and rubbed her naked body against his. The ease with which she offered the display surprised her. It came so naturally. They were turning her into a wolf, she thought in the instant before Christian's mouth opened and his kiss made everything else fade.

By the time their lips parted his cock was a hard line pressed to her belly and her inner thighs were slick with arousal. Mystic stroked her hand down his spine and asked, "What time do you have to go to work today?"

"I don't. I took care of my critical stuff so I could take a few days off."

"Good." She gave him a quick kiss before stepping out of the embrace. If they didn't leave soon, they'd end up back in bed.

Hugh's apartment building didn't look promising as a vampire's home. It was well lit and busy.

"What floor?" Mystic asked.

"Fifth," Christian answered.

They used the elevator to get there. There was no answer when Hawk knocked on Hugh's door.

Christian pulled a small black case from his pocket and opened it.

Hawk gave a soft whistle. "Nice set of picks. Police issue?"

Christian chuckled and along their bond Mystic could feel the camaraderie starting to form between her two alpha wolves. She wanted to pull them both into a hug and tell them how happy it made her. Instead she let them feel her contentment, what it meant to her to have them getting along instead of growling and snapping.

Hawk turned away from the door. He cupped her cheek with his hand and leaned in to nuzzle and press soft kisses against her mouth. Amusement and tenderness filled the link. Some fighting is inevitable when wolves gather to form a pack. But we'll work things out. Neither of us wants to be banished to the doghouse by our Angelini mate.

Mystic laughed. The longer she was around Hawk the more she realized she'd misjudged him at the Zevanti compound. She'd seen him as an ultraserious alpha whose only goal was to gain a pack of his own. Now she saw his humor and playfulness, his vulnerability and pride, his willingness to compromise when necessary.

The click of a lock yielding drew their attention back to apartment door. In an automatic maneuver Hawk positioned her behind him.

Christian said, "I'll go in first and make sure we're clear. You stay with her."

"Go," Hawk said.

It took only a minute for Christian to search the apartment and wave them in. Mystic went right over to a small desk. "We've got the right Hugh, here's a photo of him with Todd. There's a girl in it."

Hawk and Christian joined her. Hawk turned on the desktop computer while Mystic took the picture out of its frame. There were no names on the back. "Do either of you have a cell phone with a camera?" she asked, remembering how casually Skye had managed to record Todd Moore's driver's license.

Christian shook his head. Hawk said, "No."

Mystic looked down at the photo. If she could get it to Rafe he might be able to find out who the girl was and whether or not she went by the name of Marta.

The computer finished booting. Hawk made quick work of looking through the desktop files. Hugh was a gamer.

"Looks promising," Christian said. "Most of it's magical role-playing. A guy like that would be interested in vampires."

Hawk clicked on the browser option and went to the history file. Nothing. Either Hugh didn't surf the web or he was careful to clean out his cache before shutting down.

Mystic opened the desk drawers. Office supplies. Gaming manuals. Financial records. No research files on vampires.

Christian knelt down and pulled the most recent bank statement from a labeled folder. He scanned it before picking out another one.

Mystic felt his interest spike even before he reached for a third statement midway between where the first two had been. She knelt down next to him. "You've got something?"

"Maybe. Or it could be nothing." He showed her the first statement. "Here he's got two direct deposits going in, one in the middle of the month, one at the end. He's got a job. Now look at the number of withdrawals. Lots of checks, lots of debit card usage. Looks pretty much like the activity in most people's checking accounts."

Christian put the first statement down on the carpeted floor and showed her the most recent one. "Big change. Just enough money going in to cover the checks for rent, utilities and car payment, and all of the deposits were made using ATMs."

Mystic glanced at the third statement. It was dated four months ago and had very little activity.

Hawk leaned against the desk. "Looks like he's trying to ease himself out of having a paper trail, maybe so he can disappear without an official death certificate. Every human in Vegas is a walking ATM machine for a vampire, even a fledgling."

Christian pulled more statements from the file. He spread them out on the carpet by date. "Or he's involved in some criminal activity and doesn't want to leave anything behind for the IRS or the police to confiscate or use against him if he gets caught."

Mystic compared the statement. The change from lots of activity to minimal activity happened over a period of time starting five months earlier, two months after Todd Moore's human death and burial. She glanced around the apartment. Despite the furnishings, it had a rarely used feel to it.

Christian put the bank statements back in the drawer. Mystic hesitated before sliding the empty picture frame into a file folder.

"He might guess someone's been here and spook," Hawk said.

"If he knows Todd Moore is missing or the Weres have been asking about him, he might already be spooked," Mystic said.

Christian closed the drawer and looked around the apartment. "For all we know, the Weres already hunted him the same way they did Moore."

Mystic nodded. Hawk said, "Let's finish looking around and get out of here."

There was a cocktail napkin from Wolfsbane in a trashcan next to the bed. Mystic remembered Roman adding the name to the list of clubs and saying it was a place with a mixed crowd. "Maybe we should check this club out tonight," she said.

Her statement was met with stony outward silence and subvocal growls. She ducked her head to keep from smiling but couldn't resist saying, "If we go after dark, Roman can go with us. We should be safe enough then."

The bristling outrage of alpha wolves flooded the bond. She instantly regretted teasing them with her other mate. The last thing she wanted was disharmony.

Hawk pulled her to him. His mouth found the place he'd bitten each time he'd mounted and taken her from behind. His teeth clamped down, sending a pulse of need straight to her cunt. You're asking for trouble. Do you want us to prove just how capable we are of seeing to all your needs, including your safety?

She shivered at the sensual threat in his words. She closed her eyes and melted into him, appeasing his wolf with her submissive yielding. "I know I'm safe with you," she said to the man.

Hawk chuckled and her spirits lightened. He nuzzled her neck before releasing her.

A hasty glance at Christian and she relaxed completely. Apparently both her mates had taken her teasing in the spirit it was meant.

Christian picked up a pad of paper left on the nightstand. He turned on a table lamp and tilted the pad of paper underneath it.

Mystic could see the faint impression of numbers. "Find a pencil?"

She felt his surprise and lifted her eyebrows in response. "I do watch CSI."

He laughed. "Find a pencil."

There was one in Hugh's desk in the living room.

Christian rubbed the lead over the impression left on the paper. "Looks like a phone number."

"Call it from here?" Hawk asked.

Christian shook his head. "No landline. Hugh probably uses a cellular. Unfortunately he doesn't keep his phone bills so we don't have a number for him."

Mystic touched her finger to the edge of the tablet. "Rafe might be able to use his computer skills to find out more now that we know this Hugh is the one the Weres have been asking about."

Christian's eyes narrowed. Mystic couldn't resist the urge to lean in and press her mouth to his. It's better this way. Let him do the hacking so you can keep a low profile. You're a policeman in this city.

Cops aren't in the habit of using lock picks, Christian said, but she felt how much it meant to him that she wanted to protect his reputation.

They left the apartment and the building without incident. Her cell phone rang just as she was sliding into the front seat of Hawk's car. It was Gabby.

"You're okay?" Gabrielle asked.

Mystic grinned. At the risk of riling her wolves up again she said, "You can't beat vampire blood."

Gabby snickered. "Well, I can think of a lot more pleasurable ways of getting it besides being gutted."

"Me, too. Are you and Gabe at the hotel?"

"Just finished eating in one of the restaurants. Is Hawk with you?"

"Yes." Mystic took a minute to fill Gabby in on the visit to Hugh's apartment.

Gabby said, "Gabe and I came up with an idea." There was an uncharacteristic hesitation. "Maybe I should talk to Hawk."

Mystic was torn between smiling and frowning. It made her happy to think Gabe and Gabby viewed Hawk as their alpha and might be part of the pack he intended to form. But at the same time, she hated losing the easy camaraderie she'd always shared with her friends.

"Talk to me first," Mystic said, "in case he's inclined to veto your idea."

"Gabe and I want to go back to Bangers. We don't know for sure the rogue Weres left in a car last night. I'm not exactly terrifying in my fur. If I was wearing a collar and leash, I doubt many people would think wolf when they saw me. Maybe I can pick up a scent."

Mystic laughed as excitement charged through her. "That's a great idea! If I'm holding the leash even fewer people will notice." She checked the sky though she knew just by the feel of the day that it was approaching sunset. "We'll head to Bangers now."

Audible growls met her pronouncement. Mystic calmly closed her cell phone and met the wolf stares of her two mates.