“Anything interesting show up last night?” Angel asked once he’d settled at the dining table with toast and coffee.

Vin stretched his arms up, arching his back until it cracked, before sitting up to face the shifter. Angel was holding a piece of toast halfway to his mouth, his gaze locked on Vin’s torso.

“My eyes are up here,” Vin teased.

Angel let out another growl and turned his focus firmly on his food.

“Nothing of note,” Vin said, answering his earlier question.

The ring of Angel’s phone broke through the awkward silence that settled between them.

“Alpha,” Angel said in greeting.

Vin could just make out the conversation, but Angel had the volume turned right down, probably to avoid supernatural eavesdroppers. So, naturally, he sauntered over and dropped himself onto Angel’s lap to hear better.

“What the fuck—” Angel said, before hurriedly apologising. “Sorry, Alpha. Not you. Vin is being… difficult.”

Marco’s familiar laugh rang out from the phone. “I put you there because I thought you were the least likely to fall for his charms, Angelo. Have you succumbed already?”

Vin leaned forward and spoke into the phone, which had the added bonus of bringing his lips very close to Angel’s. “Hi, Sugar. It’s been a while. Remind me—how long did it takeyouto succumb?”

Angel growled and unceremoniously shoved him to the floor a moment later. Vin flipped himself back to his feet with a chuckle as the shifter turned his body away and pretended to ignore him.

“Vin needs to chase down some leads in the city to figure out who’s behind this. Is it safe to come in?” Angel asked, his voice sounding strained.

“Give it a couple of days. Kyan’s still got people everywhere,” Marco said.

Vin sighed. He doubted there’d be any evidence left by the time the shifters agreed to a city day trip. “Marco. Sugar. I’m grateful to have somewhere safe to sleep, but it’s literally my job to be invisible. I’ll be fine.”

“Grab the spark plugs out of the truck so he can’t leave without you, Angelo. I’d hate to find him in one of Kyan’s warehouses. I have an annoying soft spot for him,” Marco said.

“What kind of soft spot?” Angel asked, voice too neutral to be convincing.

Marco laughed again, but there was an edge to it this time. “That’s twice this week you’ve wanted to challenge me, Angelo. Watch yourself. We’ll pretend you’re asking so you don’t step on my toes, though. Rest assured, I have no desire to jump back into bed with our charming assassin, as talented as he is.”

Vin snorted. “As if it was an option. I don’t do repeats and we didn’t even use a bed,” he told Marco, before turning to Angel and patting his cheek. “Cute that you’re jealous, though, Angel. I’m going to take a nap. Wake me when something interesting happens.”

The rest of the day passed much the same, with the two of them switching out between the cabin and patrolling the grounds. The waiting sucked, but Dar had told him to stay put, the same as Marco. Vin was willing to give it an extra day for the hunt to calm down.

It was three in the morning when they struck.

Vin had been calling his contacts to figure out where to start with his hunt and the first he knew of trouble was Angel’s bone-chilling howl echoing through the night from somewhere outside. Don’t ask him how he knew it was Angel’s. He just did. He was moving before he’d even processed the sound, grabbing a rifle and jumping to pull himself up through the ceiling hatch into the defensive position on the roof he’d found the day before. Clever design hid the way the almost flat roof met with the walls to create a solid steel perimeter of cover broken by a series of sniper holes. The perfect place to watch the surroundings and deal with any attackers.

Taking a deep breath, he lined up his sight and exhaled slowly as he took three quick-fire shots into the darkness. His finger was a gentle caress on the trigger as each shot smacked dead centre between a vampire’s eyes. Too fast for even their supernatural speed to avoid. The bullets were specialised rounds designed to cause maximum trauma and releasesilver nitrate into the wounds. His targets wouldn’t be getting back up unless they had some serious age and healing power. He didn’t feel the slightest bit of remorse. Anyone stupid enough to come after him knew what they were in for.

As he scanned the darkness, he was aware of Angel taking out another two of their would-be ambushers, slipping between the trees half-shifted to slash their throats with his claws. It was messy but effective. Angel was good. And with a little luck, one of them would heal enough to be questioned when they were done.

A scatter of tapping sounds on the roof beside him had him looking down.

“Fuck.”

He threw himself over the side just in time to miss the worst of the grenades that had landed beside him. It wasn’t fast enough to avoid the blast that slammed him back first into the dirt road of the clearing, cracking several ribs and gifting him a concussion courtesy of a stray rock he didn’t want to think about. The crunch of bone when he landed had been something else. He’d heal. But in the meantime, it was making it very difficult to get to his feet.

Dammit.He was not going down from a fall, of all things. Even if it had been off a roof propelled by explosives. How embarrassing.

In perfect coordination, the two attackers converged on his position before he’d done more than roll to his side. Vin braced himself to dodge the bullets he knew were coming, hoping his compromised speed would be enough as he kept the two men in his blurred vision. These guys were here to kill, not capture.

“Touch him and I will fucking end you,” Angel growled from nearby.