“I seduced one of the agents in my cell, Alex. I overcame his inhibitions, I used him and I left him passed out in my chair when I left. I cannot and do not claim that I had no other options as any sort of excuse. There were other possibilities. That was the one I chose.”
His eyes slowly widened. His mouth fell open with astonishment. “Jesus Christ, Lorelei!” he blurted. “What the hell? With that lead up, I thought you were gonna say you murdered somebody or something.”
“No. I have never been the sort for casual violence.” She watched and waited for him to say more.
Alex frowned a little as the revelation settled. “We talked about this,” he said.
“We did. Talking about it and knowing it has happened are different things.”
“Sure,” he nodded.
“I need to know how you feel, Alex.”
“How am I supposed to feel?”
Lorelei shook her head. “This is not about expectations. I don’t want you to arrive at some preconceived outcome. I want to know where you truly are.”
“What am I gonna say? I mean, how many other women have I been with?”
“You have my encouragement and support in that,” Lorelei countered. “I have enabled your other trysts for a number of reasons-many of them quite selfish,” she noted soberly. “But I never obliged you to reciprocate. There have never been conditions, nor will I ever set any.”
“No, but you want your freedom.”
“Not remotely as much as I want you and your love. I need to know if we can do this. If we cannot, we-I-will have to adjust somehow.”
“I don’t want you to be someone you’re not,” Alex said. “I’ve never wanted that.” He pushed through his hesitation. “Who was it?”
“Bridger. Their occultist.”
“Are you attracted to him? Or was this more about convenience? I’m not mad, I just want to understand.”
“Both concerns played their part. I find him attractive, yes, and convenience played a role.”
Alex caught the tactful choice of words. “There’s more to say there.”
Lorelei conceded his point with a nod. “Initially, he was accompanied by another guard. I considered seducing them both, but it seemed inconvenient and so I sent the other man away.”
Alex blinked. “Huh.” He paused. “Did you want to get with both of them?”
“Only in the abstract,” Lorelei conceded. “My goal was our freedom. I enjoyed the tactics I used, certainly, but that enjoyment was a means and not an end.” She took his hands. “You don’t seem to be building toward anger or rejection. Are you hurt at all?”
His next questions were clearly rhetoricaclass="underline" “Do you still love me? Do you still want me?”
“Of course. As much as I might enjoy other men, I will always want you more. There is simply no competitive angle to this.” She paused. “I don’t need to elaborate on that, do I?”
Alex shook his head. “You’ll never lose me.”
“Nor will I ever want anyone the way I want you. I am a creature of lust. I enjoy what I am, and I make no apologies for it. I want to play with other men from time to time, but my desire for you runs much deeper. As I said when we first spoke on this, what binds you, Rachel and I together is far beyond magic.”
He took in a deep, thoughtful breath. “We still need to set some actual rules. I need boundaries.”
“We both need boundaries.” Lorelei turned to look toward the building and an approaching white light as she spoke.
“Can it wait ‘til after my bullshit’s finished?” Rachel asked wearily. She strode into their arms, resting her head on Alex’s shoulder.
“Sure,” Alex said, glad to be of comfort. “Is there anything we can do?”
Rachel sniffed a bit, squeezing both him and Lorelei. “No,” she sighed, “just deal with the mortal stuff here and let me deal with fuckheaded asshat Donald. And I would appreciate it if you’d go home and cuddle or sixty-nine or something until I’m back,” she chuckled. “The good vibes would help me through this.”
“Well, if it’s a chance to be supportive…” Alex grinned at Lorelei.
“Donald is in some manner of captivity, I presume?” asked the succubus.
“Yeah, he’s gone. Marvin and Jon offered to take care of it.” She didn’t bother to explain who they might be. “This is such a mess.”
“We will handle the mortal aspects of this,” Lorelei assured her, stroking her hair and her shoulders. “Do what you must. Know that we are always here for you.”
“This has you shaken up pretty bad, doesn’t it?” Alex observed.
“People died,” Rachel nodded. “Donald pissed all over his duty and his power and that’s horrible to see, but people died. Hauser may never be the same. And he tried to kill you,” she said to Lorelei. “He wanted to come between all of us.”
“He failed in that,” Lorelei replied. “Go and deal with what you must. Come to us when you can.”
Rachel nodded, hugged them close one more time and then turned to walk away. “Oh,” she said, turning back, “Alex, listen, I don’t want you to freak out or anything, but I kinda got carried away with a moment and sorta put my tongue down Drew’s throat. I mean it’s not like I wanna fuck him or anything, I was just all hyped up and… what?”
Alex buried his face in his hands, and then peeked out toward Lorelei. “Okay, so boundary number one…”
* * *
The helicopter made only a couple of passes before withdrawing, moving on to keep watch over the main entrances to the park. Its spotlight ran over the building and its immediate surroundings only once before abruptly cutting out. The group watched it from the third floor, occupying a large office not quite as shot up as the one used in the fight.
Alex broke the silence between them. “Am I crazy for feeling responsible for all of this?”
“Yes,” came the unanimous answer.
He expected it from the guys. He didn’t expect it from Lorelei, though, which left him grinning a little in spite of himself. “I’m just saying you guys go through a lot of shit because you’re my friends.”
“Shit happens,” Wade shrugged. “Ain’t like you picked these fights. ‘sides, we all hadda eat Gefilte fish that one time ‘cause we’re Jason’s friends.”
“One time!” Jason protested.
“An’ we’ll never forgive you,” maintained Wade. “Ever.”
“We definitely need a do-over on our birthday this year,” Drew decided. “We couldn’t have been at that party for even two hours before it went to hell.”
“I’m with you,” Alex said, and then paused. He glanced at Lorelei, who merely raised one curious eyebrow. “Wait, no. I can’t back that up. I missed most of the party and I didn’t enjoy having a psychotic episode or whatever, but past that I can’t complain about how my night turned out.”
Drew rolled his eyes. “Okay, maybe you had a good night, but it sucked ass for Wade and I. We need a do-over.”
“I’m sure something could be arranged,” offered Lorelei. She saw the pair of friends smile, but noted Jason’s glum expression. Her hand reached out to take his. The younger man looked back, nodded in appreciation, but said nothing.
Footsteps broke the silence. They looked toward the door to find Nguyen approaching, her weary face set in a frown. “I hate to say this, but I think you were right about Hauser being controlled somehow, Lorelei,” Nguyen began. “Someone sent messages from our captive vampire’s phone to one of the others relaying our location. No one besides Hauser had access to it. The time stamps add up. I can’t confirm it yet, but it looks like he’s the one who told them where we were.” She looked around the room curiously. “Where’d the other two go?”
“Bathroom break,” Jason grunted. “Down the hall. They’ll be back in a few.”
“Where is Hauser now?” asked Alex.
“Handcuffed to a radiator downstairs. He’s still not in good shape.”
“He may recover with time,” said Lorelei, “but he is clearly the victim of crude and clumsy mental domination. The experience usually inflicts some trauma. He was not ready for the revelations he experienced earlier, either.