Page 26 of Semi-Reckless

The cartoonish gulp that escaped her was embarrassing. But something told her that gulp was only a preview of the humiliations to come in her life. Because if the look on her mother’s face was any indication, she was either going to be demoted to the janitorial staff or fired altogether.

Not for the first time in her life, her father’s words seemed appropriate. “Well…shit.”

CHAPTER 13

Haven slouched in her chair in the Section 8 war room, surrounded by every authority figure who worked there, all of them eyeing her with various degrees of disappointment.

Roan figured this was all fairly new to her. She often had her opinions overlooked in staff meetings because she was the boss’s daughter and one of the youngest full-fledged hunters on staff. He’d seen it happen firsthand. After the accident, he imagined she got used to having everyone look at her like she was fragile and needed to be protected like a priceless piece of blown glass.

What she probably had very little experience with, however, was being wrong. Screwing up. Having everyone strategizing about how to clean up a mess she’d made, which was not a good feeling.

I should know.

The rectangular, solid maple conference room table was comically large and could comfortably seat twenty people. Harper always sat at the head of the table. Her husband, Riddick, always sat directly to her right.

In fact, now that Roan was thinking about, he couldn’t remember a time when he’d seen Harper and not seen Riddick by her side. He’d always just thought of them like a set. Like a salt and pepper shaker or something.

Next to Riddick was his sister Seven, who was sitting on her husband Lucas’s lap, even though there were plenty of chairs for them to sit separately. They were a set, too. Roan had always assumed it was because Lucas was a wolf shifter and couldn’t bear to be in a room with his mate and not touch her.

He supposed he could relate. Sitting here and not touching Haven made him want to crawl out of his skin, too.

As for Seven, she didn’t seem too concerned. Roan imagined after all their years together, she was used to Lucas never letting her ass touch a chair.

Across from Seven and Lucas was Benny, the wererat/vampire hybrid. He was a squirrelly little guy who didn’t look like much, but Roan had seen him in a fight, and he could be downright deadly with a switchblade. He was not to be underestimated.

Nikolai and Quinn, dhampyres who looked enough like Riddick that Roan had mistaken them for brothers when he first met them, sat next to Benny.

Hunter, the oldest vampire in existence, a guy who could tell stories about Christopher Columbus that’d make anyone question how Europeans ever made it to America, sat at the opposite end of the table, drumming his fingers impatiently on the surface. If Roan hadn’t missed his guess, he’d say Hunter was impatiently counting the minutes until he could go home to his wife, Mischa.

Roan repressed a shudder. Mischa was absolutely terrifying in a fight. He’d never seen anyone fight bloodier and harder than her. Not even Seven, and he’d been tortured by Seven before.

His brother sat at Hunter’s left. Which left him and Haven in between Gabriel and Seven and Lucas.

So…yeah…he imagined Haven was feeling outgunned and outnumbered, which couldn’t possibly be easy for her.

And to complete her embarrassment, Levi was there, too. He’d declined a seat at the table, and was instead holding up the doorframe. No one questioned him about it. As a predator, it had to be uncomfortable to be in a room full of bigger, more ruthless predators.

As it turned out, they had Levi to thank for their rescue this evening. He’d called Section 8 as soon as the rift opened. Few people knew that their response time to real emergencies was half of what 911 could pull off. And when the Section Princess was involved? Five minutes, two seconds, apparently.

Haven had already addressed the initial volley of questions. Why was Roan involved, who was the werewolf, why wasn’t she the one who’d called for backup, why didn’t Roan teleport her out of there, how had she discovered her new power, had she discussed it with the Section doctors, was she having any other symptoms or side effects…it had to be exhausting for her. For now, though, everyone was as caught up on the situation as Haven and Roan were.

Except for the whole she’s-my-wife-thing.

He still couldn’t believe he’d blurted that out. He was not looking forward to the conversation he was sure they were going to have about that later.

Harper rubbed her temples. “Hunter, did the image of the demon Haven psychically transmitted to you pop up in the archives?”

Haven perked up, and Roan immediately knew why. The Vampire Council had the most extensive library he’d ever seen. When she was a kid, Haven had always asked if her family could rent it out for birthday parties. Hunter had always shot her down. Priceless artifacts, history of all living things, oldest written accounts of the supernatural on earth, too precious to end up smeared with birthday cake…blah, blah, blah. The list went on and on. But if there was anyone that’d have the info on Haven’s new demon admirer, it’d be Hunter.

Hunter nodded. “Very briefly. Not much is known because they’ve never been spotted in this dimension before, but it would appear that Haven’s new friend is from the Kurg dimension. They’re known as Kurgans.”

Lucas sat up straighter. “Like The Kurgan from Highlander?”

Hunter blinked at him. “What in our history together makes you think I’d know what you’re talking about?”

Harper let out an impatient groan. “It was a movie. 1986. Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, and Clancy Brown. Clancy played the villain—a guy called The Kurgan. Awesome film. Shouldn’t ever be rebooted. Can we move on now?”

Benny frowned. “Clancy Brown. Where do I know that name?”

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