Page 27 of Cherished by the Sinners (Sinners Never Die #4)

Brian

W ho had Brian pissed off this badly to end up where he was right now?

It had to be someone important, rich, or diabolically evil, because he was in FBI Special Agent hell. He was supposed to be undercover, but the family he was supposed to be infiltrating knew exactly who he was and what he was doing.

Instead of being intimidated or worried or afraid, they patted him on the head like he was some kind of mascot and treated him like their personal line to the FBI.

He’d told his supervisor, his section chief, and the assistant director of the FBI.

All of them had told him to stop whining and do his job.

They didn’t care that his cover story never worked.

They didn’t care that the Brezniks knew who and what he was.

They didn’t even care that Homeland Security had tried to kill him.

It wasn’t every day that agents of another law enforcement agency decided you were collateral damage and your death was justified.

All the FBI cared about was information.

He’d thought he was working for the good guys. Turns out his definition of good guys had been naive in the extreme.

He’d never really paid attention when his Uncle Rick had gone on and on about the government being corrupt and broken. The guy had been saying that shit for more than twenty years at every Thanksgiving family dinner. And as Brian had discovered, Uncle Rick had been right.

What Uncle Rick hadn’t predicted were the vampires.

There were so many conspiracy theories about the government it would take days to summarise them all. But none of them had vampires in them.

Brian had accomplished his mission long ago.

He’d discovered the most important secret the Breznik family had.

They were vampires. Over eight-hundred-year-old people who had to drink blood to survive, who healed miraculously from almost any injury, and were stronger and faster than non-vampires. People. Like him.

Fucking vampires.

He’d be laughed right out of the FBI if he told them that. They’d probably add a case study about him in their training materials about a new agent who completely lost his marbles.

So here he was, sitting in the secure computer room of the hotel the fucking vampires owned, monitoring security feeds for the arrival of more vampires.

Mason Breznik looked at him and frowned.

Brian slapped a smile on his face. Mason and his twin brother Magnus were huge, hulking guys who scared the shit out of anyone rational. It was one way Brian knew he hadn’t gone completely crazy, because they terrified him.

“You look... sick,” Mason said. He reached out and put his hand on Brian’s forehead. It was the size of a shovel. “Or tired.”

“You try keeping up with... you,” Brian said. “There’s always some emergency going on. I haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep in a couple of weeks.”

“How many hours are you getting a night?” Darlene asked.

“Four or five.”

She shook her head. “That’s not enough.”

“This is my fault,” Anna said, putting a hand on Brian’s shoulder. “Once we get our incoming guests settled, you’re going to get some rest. At least eight hours, and eat a couple of full meals as well.”

She sounded like his mother, her expression was the same too when his mother worried about him. How had this deadly over eight-hundred-year-old vampire come to see him as another member of her family?

Anna’s eyes narrowed. “If you don’t agree, I will call your mother and tell her you’ve been working too hard.”

Geez, he should add mind reader to her list of talents.

Brian put up his hands. “Okay, okay. I’ll eat and sleep. I promise.”

Mason got to his feet. “Yvgeny’s car will arrive soon.” He bent down and kissed Darlene like they were naked and in bed.

Brian had to turn his head away. Finding that kind of passion with a woman was something he had yet to experience. He wasn’t sure he could bring a woman into the strange world he inhabited.

It was dangerous, fascinating, and downright treacherous.

Mason pulled away, but not before he whispered something in Darlene’s ear.

She smiled at him and said at a normal level of volume, “I love you.”

Brian focused on the security feeds. He did not want to witness one of the most dangerous dudes he’d ever met, melt into a gooey puddle at Darlene’s feet. He didn’t look up until after the door closed.

Darlene was still smiling.

Ugh.

A black limo entered the hotel’s parking garage. It came to a stop at the employee’s entrance. The door opened and Yvgeny got out, Samantha joined him, and they hurried inside.

“Something is wrong,” Brian said absently.

“What?” Darlene asked.

“I know Yvgeny, and his body language is... too stiff, and he’s moving a little too fast.”

“Yes,” Anna agreed. “I’m going to go meet him and Sam. Neither of you is to leave this room, understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Darlene answered.

Brian echoed her.

Anna nodded and left.

“So, how much do you know?” he asked Darlene.

“How much do you know?” she asked him.

He studied her for a moment. “Mason is in love with you. Therefore, you know everything.”

She examined him in return. “Is it so terrible, knowing?”

“Oh yeah, especially when you can’t tell anyone because they won’t believe you. So, you get to think about it all by yourself until you’re convinced you’ll go mad.”

“There’s a simple solution to that,” she said.

“Really, what is it?”

“Don’t tell anyone.”

“I’m an FBI agent, I’m supposed to find out shit on people and give that info to my supervisor.” That was his job, but telling his boss about the Brezniks and the Chinese ladies, and the Japanese didn’t feel right.

“Homeland Security tried that, look where it got them.”

Dead or in jail, that’s what it got them.

“I know, I was there.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

He slumped. “I guess I never realized how alone I’d feel doing this job. I’m walking a tightrope blindfolded while in a hurricane. I can’t seem to find my balance, and the next stiff breeze is going to push me over and into a black hole.”

She laughed. “You need a therapist. But that’s probably impossible, so talk to me. We’re a couple of regular people who find themselves in a strange situation. We can be each other’s sounding board, so to speak.”

“That’s not a bad idea, but you have to tell your boyfriends about this so they don’t kill me.”

“Deal.” She leaned forward, toward the screens. “Oh, here are a couple more limos.”

Brian saw them, too. They came into the parking garage and pulled up in the same place as Yvgeny’s car had arrived.

Several people got out of the cars. Most of them were men, but there was one woman among them.

A woman with a soft, generous figure whose classic hourglass shape drew the eye.

She was wearing a dress with an apron over it.

An apron with stains all over it. He couldn’t tell from the image on the screen what those stains were.

Was she a cook?

The men were all dressed in some version of a dark suit, but the woman didn’t fit with them. The men looked all grim and dangerous, but she looked... scared.

“Those look like grass stains,” Darlene said. “They’re mostly on the bottom of her apron.”

“Yeah?” Brian asked. “Do vampires have gardeners?”

Darlene looked at him. “They have gardeners, housecleaning staff, and chefs here. I’m sure they employ all kinds of people.”

Brian focused on Darlene for a moment. “You don’t miss much, do you?”

“I had to pay attention to the little things if I was going to stay alive.” She nodded at the screen and the woman who was now making her way into the hotel with the rest of her party. “She’s different.”

“Does that make her a threat?” Brian asked.

“I don’t know,” Darlene said. “We have a lot of new guests arriving, and I think most of them are going to be dangerous. It makes anticipating their needs and avoiding conflicts difficult.”

The woman was walking down the hall now, surrounded by all those men in suits. Anna appeared on the screen. She greeted the woman with a hug and a kiss on either side of her face.

Anna spoke to her for a moment, then moved on to greet the men.

The woman moved aside and waited, wiping her face with her hands.

Was she... crying?

That was odd. He’d never seen any of the vampires cry before. It made them a little more... normal. Or maybe she was a human employee?

More cars arrived, and more vampires entered the hotel. He was beginning to be able to tell the humans from the vamps just from watching them. The vamps all wore expensive clothing and carried themselves as if they were taller than they were. As if they owned everything around them.

Only the woman was different. Her sorrow was genuine and she wasn’t trying to hide it. Whoever she was, he wanted to talk to her, understand why she was crying, and offer to help.

He wanted to find out if she really did have grass stains on her clothing.

Out of all the vampires he’d met, he only understood one of them, and that was Baz. Bazyli shunned money, power, and position, and told the world to go fuck itself daily. He didn’t care about politics or optics or the numbers in his bank account.

Did he even have a bank account?

Did this woman have anything besides the clothes on her back and an apron around her waist?

“I’d like to know what she needs,” Brian heard himself say. “She seems... distraught.”

“All the rest wear the same expression,” Darlene said. “That blank I’m more important than you look.”

“Don’t you mean the I don’t give a fuck stare?” Brian asked.

“Yup, that one.”

Brian studied all their faces. “They’re giving as few fucks as they can as hard as they can.” He shook his head. “Something is really wrong.”

Darlene glanced at him. “Is there a way you could find out if there’s anything that might be related to this influx of vampires from the FBI or Homeland Security?”

“You want me to spy on my own agency?”

“Yup.”

She wanted him to pick a side. He wasn’t sure he was ready to do that yet.

Fuck, just thinking about it meant he was halfway there.

The woman in the apron, along with three of the men she arrived with were escorted up to their suite by one of the lobby staff.

The door to the security room opened and Anna stepped inside.

“How’s it going?” Brian asked her.

“Busy.” She looked at him. “Did you see the young lady in the apron?”

“Yes, is she okay? We noticed her crying.”

“Her name is Jane and I would like you to take her to Yvgeny’s apartment. I think it’s the only space we have that might make her feel... comfortable.”

“What about the men she’s with?” he asked.

“They will be joining Mason and Magnus, but I want them to meet you, so they know who you are. I’ve told them you’re coming, so they’re expecting you.”

Brian got to his feet. For once, this was something he could do.

“Brian,” Anna said with a warning tone in her voice. “Be careful with her. She’s one of us, but she was badly hurt many years ago and has never recovered.”

“What does that mean, never recovered ?”

“She’s—” Anna paused obviously searching for the right word. “fragile.”

The word froze Brian in place. He’d heard it used to describe his mother for years. Ever since she’d come home to find his father hanging in the garage by a noose he’d tied using their bedsheets.

The cowardly bastard .

“Is she a relative?” Darlene asked.

“Yes, she’s my great, great, grand-niece. The sight of blood terrifies her. We have to put a blindfold over her eyes so she can... eat.”

“And plants are her safe place?” Darlene asked.

“Yes, quite so.”

“I get it,” Brian said. “I’ll be gentle.” He hesitated, then asked, “Why me and not Darlene?”

Anna looked at him with a small smile for a long moment. “Because you’re you. It’s not really something I can explain.”

Wow, he was going to end up with a swelled head. “Okay, I’ll do that now.”

“Let Jane fuss with Yvgeny’s plants and grab a nap on the sofa.”

He rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, ma’am.” He exited the room and headed for the private elevator that went up to Yvgeny’s apartment.

What could hurt a vampire so much that they never recover?