suction and fell face-first into his lap. Devlin fell forward also, only just catching himself from crushing her to the mattress, but smiling as he apparently managed to stay inside the heavenly warmth of her body. He very carefully eased himself and Lilly onto their sides.
The three of them lay sprawled on the bed, panting for breath as they recovered. Jed could feel a goofy smile on his lips but was powerless to stop it. He hadn’t felt this complete in all of his three hundred plus years. It didn’t matter that Lilly was human. It didn’t matter that their time together would be measured in decades instead of centuries. It only mattered that they were together now.
“I’ll just grab a shower,” he said in an embarrassingly breathless voice. “I’ll take over the first watch while you two get some sleep.”
“No need,” Devlin said as he disposed of the condom and then dragged their exhausted woman higher up the bed and cradled her in his arms. “Brody and Alex have us covered. Grab a shower and get some rest.”
Jed nodded, uncertain of the protocols of sharing a lover. Devlin must have noticed his hesitancy, or maybe shared it, because he shuffled to one side of the large bed, pulling Lilly into the middle, and leaving plenty of room for Jed to join them if he wished.
He dipped his head in acknowledgement and then headed for the shower.
Chapter Five
“Brody said you’d be needing this,” Darian said without a hint of humor as he walked into the safe house and dropped a leather bag at Jed’s feet.
Lilly looked at the bag curiously, but Devlin knew exactly what it contained. BDSM supplies. It was easy to spot a Dom when one knew what to look for. There was no doubt in Devlin’s mind that Darian was highly trained and more than capable of keeping his wife, Amber, very happy. The fact that her other husband was a vampire probably added a whole extra level of kink to the marriage.
Devlin glanced at Lilly and tried not to think of all the things he’d rather be doing than having a meeting with Ronan and Darian from Deeks Security. Technically speaking, he and Jed weren’t working with them on their current project, and as far as the Ruling Body knew Jed had no idea what the privately owned protection and security firm was working on at all.
Ronan handed over a thick folder of computer printouts as he took a seat at the small table. “We were hoping you might be able to help with some of the translation. The fewer people involved the safer for everyone.”
Jed nodded his agreement. Devlin knew that Benjamin had deliberately omitted the finding of Bethany’s journal from his reports. Considering the fact that the orders coming from various levels of the Ruling Body seemed to contradict one another, it was becoming increasingly obvious that the Judiciaries were divided in their opinions. None of the members of PUP Squad Alpha had said it out loud, but Devlin got the feeling they were bracing for the order that would end their protection of the Oracle’s receptacles. Devlin had no doubt that every single one of them would ignore such an order, but life would be far simpler working with the Ruling Body than as disgraced operatives and wanted fugitives. When it came to members of the PUP squads, ignoring the official orders of the Ruling Body could literally be deadly.
Jed flicked through the pages Ronan had given him, scanning the words quickly. He frowned, doubled back, checked a few more words, and then rubbed his forehead as if he felt the onset of a sudden headache. “It’s been a lot of years since I studied the ancient languages,” he said, glancing around the table, “but I’m pretty sure this isn’t all written in the warlocks’ ancient tongue.” He turned the pages around, pointing out several words to Ronan and Darian. “This word is Latin. It means ‘lost.’ The word before it is ancient Sumerian for ‘knowledge.’ A lot of the text does seem to be in the ancient tongue of
Learning to Kill: Stories