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“Ah, there you are Ella, Vadim,” Feehan called out to them as they walked past his office. “Have you got a moment?”

She glanced at Vadim but he’d already obediently turned toward Feehan’s open door. She’d have to talk to him about that biddable streak of his. It was so not cool and, she now knew, so not like him.

Feehan was seated at his desk tapping away at his keyboard. The smell of his tuna sandwiches permeated the air along with the underlying hint of nicotine.

“I have the security footage from last Friday.”

“And what does it show?” Ella perched on the side of his desk.

“Nothing.”

Feehan rotated his screen to show them a view of the SBLE lobby and then one of the white marble foyer upstairs. He clicked again and showed a frozen image of her and Vadim waiting at the elevator doors, and a later one of them both exiting the building at street level.

“That makes no sense.”

“I know. No sign of maintenance, and no evidence that the elevator didn’t behave perfectly.” Feehan put down his pen. “Are you certain you were trapped? You don’t think it might be some… empath issue?”

“Mr. Feehan, I’m no empath,” Vadim said. “We were both there, and we both experienced the same thing. And there is one major problem with those pictures.”

“What?”

“Ms. Walsh doesn’t wait for the elevator. She always uses the stairs.”

Feehan nodded slowly. “That’s true.”

“I suspect someone has gone to a lot of trouble to cover up what happened. I have no idea why, or who would choose to do such a thing,” Vadim said.

“Neither do I,” Feehan agreed. “But I’ll get right on it. What do you think, Ella?”

“It definitely happened. That’s all I have to say about it.” She rose to her feet. “Are we done?” Ever since she was a kid she’d hated it when she hadn’t been believed. It felt odd to have Vadim standing up for her.

“There is one more matter I needed to pass on.” Feehan consulted a piece of paper on his desk. “Sam left me a note to tell me that Fay Roberts died just after she graduated from college. He spoke to her parents, and confirmed her death with Otherworld.”

“Oh great. That leaves three of us.” Ella shoved her hands in her pockets. “I feel like a sitting duck.”

“You’re the safest of the lot,” Feehan said far too cheerfully for her liking. “You are, Ms. Walsh. One of our team will be with you 24/7.”

Vadim held the door open for her.

“Thanks.” Fear always brought out her most pugnacious side. “I need to do some research on small, green spiky things. I’ll be in my office.”

As she left she heard Vadim speaking softly to Feehan. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep her in my sights. She’s just upset you didn’t believe her about what happened on Friday.”

She almost turned around and went back. Who the hell did Morosov think he was, making excuses for her? Just because it was true didn’t mean she wanted her boss to know about it. Had Vadim somehow picked up her earlier thought? This bonding crap could also be a gigantic pain in the ass. No one could be expected to keep her shields up all the time.

She got herself some coffee and stared at the slowly filling cup. But hadn’t Mari said something about a mate being able to share the physic burden too? Ella thought she just meant the memories she stole—which was after all, the whole point of the bonding exercise. She hadn’t realized Vadim might be able to access every thought. It made her far too vulnerable.

She picked up the coffee, jammed a lid on it and went back to her office. There was a light blinking on her phone and she dialed her passcode to receive messages. An unfamiliar voice filled the room.

“Hi, Ella, long time no speak. It’s Trini Yamada here!” Ella froze. “I just wanted to touch base with you. I’m staying at the Bay View Hotel on Embarcadero and I was hoping you might want to get together with me to celebrate.”

The door to Ella’s office flew open and Vadim stood there, his gun out, his expression lethal. She put a shaking finger to her lips as Trini gave a light laugh.

“Thanks so much for inviting me to your birthday party, Ella! It’s mine too! Isn’t it great!”

There was the sound of whispering and then Trini giggled. “Sure, I’ll tell her. The Siren says he can’t wait to see you either, so come on over! Bye for now!”

The phone went dead and Ella just stared at Vadim, who jerked his head in the direction of the door. “Let’s go.”

“She wasn’t supposed to be next, Morosov. What the hell is going on?”

Ella checked she had her weapon, and followed Vadim out into the hall. Alexei appeared in the doorway of the conference room and fell in behind them.

“Do we need transport to get there?” Vadim asked as they ran into the lobby.

For a second Ella stared at him. “I…don’t know. I don’t know where that hotel is.”

“Alexei? Can you find it?”

“Yes, it’s about a twenty minute walk or I could get us there sooner if I use magic.”

“Are you okay with that, Ella?”

She nodded. The next moment both men grabbed her hands, there was a flash of light, and they were outside the neat brown facade of the Bay View Hotel. Ella fought to control the nausea magic always gave her and started up the steps to the hotel.

At the small reception desk, a young man dressed in a smart suit was tapping away at a keyboard. He greeted Ella with a smile.

“Welcome to the Bay View Hotel. Do you have a reservation?”

“No, I’ve just come by to meet a friend of mine, Trini Yamada. Is she here yet? Can you give me her room number?”

“I’m afraid I can’t give you that information, ma’am.” Vadim leaned past Ella and smiled charmingly at the receptionist. “Is it possible that Ms. Yamada left a message for Ms. Walsh? She is definitely expecting her.”

“I just came on shift. I’ll check.” The man looked flustered and searched through the various sticky notes that adorned the desk and the computer screen. “Oh, yes, there’s something here!” He read the note. “If I could just see some ID, Ms. Walsh, you can go on up.” Ella gave him her driver’s license and waited another interminable minute before he gave it back to her. “Ms. Yamada is in room 209.” He lifted the phone receiver. “I’ll call up and let her know you’re coming.”

“Don’t worry about that. We want to surprise her.” Alexei leaned across, took the receiver and put it back down. The receptionist didn’t say a word, his gaze caught in the Fae’s, his will already under Alexei’s spell.

Ella was already moving across the lobby, Vadim at her side.

He touched her shoulder. “I’ll come up the stairs with you.”

He pushed the door open and followed her, his weapon drawn, his barriers high. When they emerged onto the second floor, Vadim made her stop.

“Do you want me to go in first?”

“No, he’s expecting me. I’d rather you stayed back.”

His expression darkened. “I’m not sure if I can do that.”

“You have to.”

“I know, but something inside me doesn’t want to let you out of my sight.”

“How sweet.” She patted his cheek. “Well suck it up, buttercup. I need to do this alone.”

With a terrible sense of déjà vu, she headed down the hallway toward Trini’s room. She knew which room it was because of the pounding music that shook the insubstantial hotel door. For a moment, she leaned her hand against the door and tried to concentrate, but she could get no sense of anything apart from the Siren’s exultation.

“Do you need me to break in?”

She nodded, then Vadim touched the door handle until the green light flashed over the key card slot. He slowly opened the door and let it swing wide. The ugly blare of the music made it difficult to think, let alone examine the room for danger. She went in with her weapon held in front of her. Not that it would do much good if the Siren was Otherworld, but it might slow him down. The bathroom was to the right of the door and it was empty, the lights over the sink illuminating the empty white space.

Ella moved along the left hand wall, keeping her gun hand unencumbered until she had a clear view into the main part of the bedroom. There was only one figure there, and it definitely wasn’t the Siren. Ella let out her breath and cautiously checked the room again. The windows were shut and, unless the Siren was extremely good at hiding, he wasn’t concealed somewhere.

“Bathroom’s clear,” Vadim called out from behind her.

She walked over to the radio to turn it off. The sudden silence was shocking, revealing the patchiness of her breathing and the loud thump of her heart. When she turned around, she was confronted by the sight of a dark—haired woman sitting bolt upright in the chair, a party hat on her head and a birthday cake on her lap. The candles were still burning, and wax discolored the thick white frosting on the top, which read “Happy Birthday.”

Even in death, Trini was still smiling, her grin wide, her brown eyes fixed in eternal approval. An empty bottle of champagne and two glasses sat on the desk along with a box of matches.

“Ms. Walsh, I’m going to call Feehan and the cleanup squad, okay? We need to read this scene before the regular cops get here. Alexei’s already got the reception guy’s cooperation, and he’ll keep it for as long as it is necessary.” Vadim paused. “I assume she’s dead?”

“Yeah.”

“Is there anything else you need to do here?”

“Not really, except catch the sick bastard who thinks this is amusing.”

“I wondered about that. You can feel his satisfaction in the air. It’s almost alive.”

Ella stared at him. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one who would be gaining power from their bonding.

“Do you need to touch her?”

She recoiled. “I don’t want to, but I have to make sure.” She took a reluctant step toward the dead empath and touched her throat. “There’s nothing there except his pleasure and her relief.” She frowned. “Why don’t they struggle? What does he do to them?”

Vadim put his arm around her shoulders. “We can talk about this later. If you are sure she’s dead, we need to get out of here.”

She shrugged off his attempt to lead her away, and instead turned back to the body.

“Happy birthday, Trini.” She carefully blew out the candles. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

She left then, with Vadim close behind her. There was no sense of the Siren nearby. Had he gotten bored waiting for her, and moved on? Surely not for much longer…he was running out of victims—at least in western USA.

Down in the lobby, Alexei still chatted to the receptionist. He looked up as Vadim and Ella appeared. “Hey guys, I should have called you. I just checked with Adam here, and the person we want isn’t staying here after all. The guy we want is at the Bay View Apartments , not the hotel.”

“Oh!” Ella forced a laugh as she approached the receptionist. “I should’ve checked with my secretary before we left. We’re so sorry to have bothered you.”

Adam looked confused. “But didn’t you want to see Ms. Yamada? I…”

Ella leaned across the desk, took his hand and concentrated on extracting every image he had of the three of them and what they’d asked him. When she’d retrieved the memories she smiled at Adam. “We’re so sorry to have bothered you by looking for the wrong person at the wrong hotel. But you’re okay about it. It happens so often that you don’t even think it’s important enough to mention to the authorities.”

“Don’t even remember you,” Adam repeated. “You’re not even here.”

“That’s right.” Ella pushed the memory firmly into his head. “When you look up, everything will be normal and we’ll be gone. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Count to one hundred and then open your eyes.”

He obediently began counting. Before he reached twenty, Alexei had taken her hand and whisked them all back to SBLE.

* * *

Ella went back to her office, shut the door and continued to look up information about small green Fae. Around her she could hear her SBLE colleagues dealing with the fallout of another empath murder, but for once, no one came to bother her or ask for her opinion. And what was there to say? Trini had been killed in exactly the same way as the others, her memories removed, her brain emptied of everything that had made her unique. Ella rubbed at her eyes and tried to concentrate on the screen. A knock at the door made her lift her head.

“Come in?”

Vadim appeared. “Are you okay?”

“Why shouldn’t I be?”

He leaned against the closed door and studied her. She was pleased to see that for once he looked less than perfect. His tie was askew and the starched collar of his white shirt had wilted in the heat.

“You just had to deal with another murder victim.” She opened her mouth and he held up his hand. “Ella, you can say what you like, but I know you.”

“Biblically, you mean?”

“Biblically, psychically and emotionally.” He hesitated. “I know this is hard for you.”

“Sure it is, but what good will I do anyone if I make a big deal out of it? Those dead women need me to be strong—to stand up for them.”

He inclined his head. “I don’t doubt you’ll do your best to bring their killer to justice.”

“Thanks.” Ella let her gaze stray back to her screen. “Was there something in particular you wanted?”

“Just this.” He moved so quickly she hardly had time to blink before he hauled her out of her chair and put his arms around her. He kissed her forehead and she elbowed him in the side.

“What are you doing?”

“Holding you.” He didn’t let her go, just looked down at her. She felt him enfolding her mind.

“Then stop it, you idiot.”

“No.” A corner of his beautiful mouth kicked up. She narrowed her eyes at him but he still held her.

The desire to rest her head on his shoulder and just let go was almost as overwhelming as it was horrifying. Tears crowded her throat. She shoved her hands between them and pushed at his chest.

“If you make me cry at work, I’ll never forgive you.” His shields slammed up so fast she winced.

He stepped away. “I apologize, Ms. Walsh. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I assume you’ll be putting off the investigation at the Bonettis’ for another night?”

She sat down before her knees gave way. “I’m still going. I might take Sam along. He needs to start doing more fieldwork, so you don’t have to come.”

“I’m damn well coming.” Vadim stalked toward the door, his expression icy. “Don’t try and skip out on me. I don’t want to use our bonded link, but if you try and shut me out, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.” He shut the door so hard it rattled the frame.

Ella stared after him. She’d offended him but what had he minded most—being shut out of her next mission, or out of her mind? With a groan, she rubbed her hands over her eyes. Didn’t he see that she couldn’t cave at work? Did he expect her to cry all over him? She had no experience being in a relationship, especially not one with an OCOS supplied mate who could read at least some of her thoughts without even trying.

She opened her desk drawer and found a bar of chocolate. It looked a little battered, but it would do. When she’d fortified herself sufficiently, she’d go and find Sam and update him on the Bonetti case. Vadim would be accompanying them; she had no doubt about that. A flicker of remorse made the chocolate suddenly tasteless. This mating business was new to Vadim too and he hadn’t asked for this. Crap. She probably owed him an apology.

* * *

Vadim slammed the door of the small conference room and briefly closed his eyes. His flexed his hands. The temptation to blast something into oblivion tingled in his fingertips.

“What’s up, Vadim?”

Liz was sitting on Alexei’s vacant desk, long legs swinging, coffee cup in her hand.

“Ah, hi, Liz. I didn’t realize anyone was in here.”

“I saw that.” She cocked her head to one side. “Let me guess. Is Ella driving you mad?”

“She…” Vadim hesitated and Liz looked at him expectantly. He reluctantly concluded he could share some of his frustration, even if it was just about work.

“She what?”

Vadim sat down. “I went to see if I could offer her any help and she wouldn’t let me near her.”

“That sounds like Ella.”

“I tried to be sympathetic and respectful but she wouldn’t give an inch.”

“She’s a very private person.”

“I understand that. I’m the same.”

“So how would you take it if someone tried to comfort you at work?”

Vadim thought about that. “Not very well.”

She clucked her tongue at him as if he were a child. “Then why are you surprised Ella was ticked off?”

“She’s always ticked off with me. That wasn’t a surprise at all.” He contemplated Liz for a long moment. “She’s insisting on going out to work the Bonetti case tonight.”

Liz finished her coffee and threw the cup neatly into the trash. “That doesn’t shock me either. Ella’s remedy for avoiding emotional stuff has always been to work and play harder.”

“I’m going with her.”

Liz’s faint smile faded. “You must go with her. In fact, you must stay with her as much as you can.”

“Is that an order?”

Liz’s Fae-Web shimmered around her and her eyes turned gold. “Yes. You need to face this danger together. Your destinies are linked.”

“Not a problem.” Vadim hesitated. “Does Alexei know what you know?”

“Not in quite the same way, but he’s probably got some idea of the bond between you and Ella. Why?”

Vadim switched on his computer. “No reason.”

“What don’t you want him to know?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“He’s your friend.”

“He’s almost one hundred percent Fae. He’s no one’s friend . He was sent here to report to our boss in Russia.”

“So he told me.” Liz nodded. “But I don’t think he’s going to have you sent back now. You’re far too central to this investigation for that to happen.”

“Don’t count on it.” Vadim clicked on the SBLE website page.

Sam came bounding into the office. “Hey, Liz, Ella’s taking me out on a case with her tonight! Isn’t that sick?”

“It’s great, Sam.” Liz smiled enthusiastically at Sam, who blushed. “Just remember to pay attention and don’t get in Ella’s way.”

He made a face. “It’s okay. She’s already read me the riot act.” He paused at the door. “Do you think she’s intending to hand over all the cases to me before she…?”

Liz frowned at him. “I have no idea. Just take what you can and be grateful.”

Sam gulped. “No offense, Liz.”

“None taken, but don’t say that to Ella, will you?”

Sam disappeared and Liz grimaced at Vadim. “He’s such a kid.”

“At least he’s honest.”

She slid off the desk and headed for the door. “Tell Alexei I was looking for him, will you?”

“I will.” Vadim settled down to research the SBLE files for little green men. Ella might not want him there, but he was determined to be as well prepared as he possibly could.