Ahh, she’s trying to calculate where those throws could have come from.
I set my palms on the edge of the wall, the roughness of the brick scraping at my fingers.
“What is he playing at?” the blonde vampire who frequently was assigned to Jade’s team wondered. “Usually by now he would have pounced, trying to draw blood.”
She wasn’t wrong. Before I figured out the slayer on the task force was Jade, I had been a bit more…rough when playing.
But when I’d first comprehended all the fun I could have knowing Jade’s identities, it occurred to me that the road rash I’d bandaged on Jade had actually been my own doing. There was something vexing about that.
Not that Jade couldn’t handle a bruise or some pain. Her slayer blood gave her increased healing abilities that had likely kicked in and completely healed the road rash and scrapes within hours of my “treating” her.
But I was now doubly invested in Jade—she was my source of entertainment at night and by day. So, the less roughshod approach was merely to protect my best interests.
Jade’s head tilted farther back. She was going to see me any second now. I started to lean into my palms, intending to push off, when I caught sight of Ambrose’s gold ring still on my index finger. I’d forgotten to take it off when I’d changed.
Jade has seen me wear that as Connor; better hide it.
I slipped the ring off, and I barely had time to slide my hand into a pocket of my trousers before Jade caught sight of me.
At least I assumed she did because she pulled her handgun from her holster, clicked off the safety, racked it, and then pointed it up at me.
She’s so clever, I thought, smug with satisfaction. I waved to her, then pushed off the building. I landed on the sidewalk in a crouch so close to Jade that my bent knee brushed hers.
Her teammates jumped at my sudden arrival, both scuttling several meters down the sidewalk.
“Hello, Slayer,” I purred.
“Ruin.” Her voice was much steelier and slightly muffled in her mask compared to the cheerful tone she greeted Connor with during the daylight. “I’m not playing with you tonight.” She lowered her gun so it was pointed at the ground—if Jade had a vice it was that she followed rules to the letter.
“Why not? You had enough time to warn off that looney human.” I abruptly leaned into her.
Fast as lightning, Jade struck with her left hand pausing inches away from my throat so the filed point of the hair stick clenched in her hand barely pricked me. “Warning him off is part of my job.”
I cocked my head. “And I am not included in your work?”
“No,” the blonde vampire drolly said somewhere behind me. “Because you’re above our paygrade.”
“Nonsense. I believe in you, Slayer. We’re definitely on equal levels.” The words reminded me of what the insipid Auberi had said hours earlier—that Killian’s One could never be his equal. I gritted my teeth in irritation but forced a smile and forged ahead, determined not to let that idiot ruin my fun. “Or at least we’re as close to equals as I can get.”
I leaned back—getting out of range of that wicked hair stick of hers—then shifted my weight. I tapped my vampire agility, slipping to her back.
Jade, however, matched my pace and moved with me. This time, when I stopped, she held her gun to my chest.
“See?” I said, delighted.
“Stop wasting my time.” She took a step back, then another, before she lowered her gun and turned to her teammates. “Patrol?” The word came out slightly warbled, and I knew it wasn’t because she was afraid of me.
Oof. When she’s not locked into battle, she’s just as awkward with her teammates as she is our neighbors. At least she’s consistent.
The werewolf casually rubbed at his nose, but his eyes were on me. “If you think we can,” he rumbled deep in his chest.
Jade flicked the safety on her gun, but she didn’t holster it. “Yes.”
“We should report to Sarge that we took care of the pretend vampire.” The blonde vampire sounded bright, but she seemed reluctant to put her back to me as she side stepped down the sidewalk, keeping up with Jade.
“I’d say I’m surprised a human had the guts to pretend to be a supernatural.” A tap of my vampire agility and I’d caught up with Jade, occupying the open space on her opposite side. “But I fear this is a side effect of the soft weak image the supernatural community has chosen to foster.”
Jade rested her index finger on her gun’s safety—she really was amazingly trained; no wonder the O’Neils were considered elites among slayers. “You disagree with that decision?”
“No.” I tucked my hands into my pockets and studied the werewolf’s back—he was leading the group, his shoulders hunched up to his neck. “But there will always be downsides to any strategy. This is an example of one of them.”
The werewolf turned around, his blue eyes glowing in the low light of the streets. “Just how much did you see? You weren’t in the pub with us.”
“Correct,” I said. “But you ranted in great detail at the worm before letting him go.” I swooped in, trying to snag the firearm from Jade’s grasp.
She yanked her hand away from me and spun so that her left side faced me. She stabbed her hair stick upwards and I heard the click when she switched her safety off, but I’d already retreated from the range of her hand weapon.
She was so fast—and didn’t hesitate to attack. Unlike the cowardly Dracos offspring, she never backed down. It was absolutely delightful!
“Easy, Slayer. I’m just testing you,” I said.
A part of me itched to peel off her slayer mask—she was probably making an irritated face right now, her nose scrunched up in a way that made the freckles on her pale skin pop.
“Don’t,” Jade warned me before she turned to face the front again and started walking. “Brody, radio. Please.”
I ignored her warning and trailed after the trio. Auberi is a right fool. Jade is as close to an equal as it gets—I can’t even command her since her slayer powers make her immune.
Except, I belatedly remembered, Auberi had been criticizing Killian and his wizard One. He hadn’t been talking at all about Jade, and I had no reason to be upset—I’m not upset.
I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, barely registering when Jade’s team stopped too.
I’m not upset, I mentally repeated to myself. It was just that Auberi said something stupid—which he does all the time—and was being an idiot about humans. It didn’t involve me at all.
The werewolf growled something into his handheld radio, and I didn’t even hear Jade’s footsteps when she ghosted up to me.
“Ruin.”
I fixed another smile on my face. “What’s this, you’re willingly engaging with me now? Don’t tell me you have another giant snake you’re hiding somewhere that you need help killing, so you’re finally speaking to me of your own volition?”
Jade tilted her head to the left, then the right. “Did something happen?”