Page 38 of Semi-Reckless

Seven laid a hand on her arm. “For all of us.”

She nodded. “I’m not trying to diminish that. But I need you all to understand that I’m not fragile. And what happened to me could’ve happened to any of you. It’s all part of the job. I need you to let me do the job. It’s who I am.”

Her dad reached over and grabbed her mom’s hand. “What do you say, boss?”

Harper let out a disgruntled sigh. “I say maybe I was a little…wrong to bench her.”

Haven felt her eyes widen of their own volition, and her gaze shot over to Roan, whose almost imperceptible smile was telling her she had indeed just heard Harper Hall—the Harper Hall—admit to being wrong about something. She swallowed hard. “So, in that case…can I lead the mission to trap the Kurgan and decide what to do with him?”

Oh, her mother really wanted to say no to that request. She’d love nothing more than to assign the mission to Gabriel or Seven or anyone other than Haven. The struggle was written all over her face. But eventually, she grimaced, nodded, and said, “Fine. You’re in charge. You can handle this one your way. But Roan is still your bodyguard, got it? You keep him with you at all times.”

Which seemed like as good a segue into the other thing everyone needed to know as any.

“Speaking of that,” she said. “Two years ago, it was Roan that brought me back. Not by doing CPR, but by sharing his energy with me. In fact, he gave me half his life force. Which means technically, we’re married, which is good, because I love him.”

All eyes shifted to Roan, who looked shellshocked. “Sorry,” she mouthed to him.

It was Gabriel who finally broke the silence. He slapped Roan on the back and said, “See? I told you she’d understand.”

Riddick narrowed his eyes on the brothers. “You brought her back? And you knew and didn’t tell us?”

Gabriel and Roan looked at each other, obviously doing the mental math on which potential answers would earn them a beatdown. Eventually, Roan said, “Yes,” at the same time Gabriel mumbled, “Roan asked me not to.”

What happened next was an unprecedented event at Section 8. It was historic. Epic. Totally unexpected and would most likely never be repeated in the history of, well, ever.

Noah Riddick stepped up and…yanked Roan into a back-slapping bear hug.

Roan stood there stunned for a second or two before returning the hug.

“Thank you,” Riddick murmured before stepping back and punching Gabriel in the shoulder.

Gabriel frowned, rubbing what would probably develop into one hell of a bruise. “What the fuck was that for?”

“For not telling me I had another son-in-law.”

“Maybe it’s your violent tendencies that make people reluctant to tell you things,” Gabriel grumbled.

Seven nodded. “That makes sense. No one tells me anything.”

While Gabriel and Benny tried to assure Seven she wasn’t completely unapproachable (which was patently untrue because she was easily the least approachable person in their group), Riddick laid a hand on Roan’s shoulder and squeezed until the joint audibly popped. “You know,” he began conversationally, “that if you hurt her again, I’ll kill you. Painfully. Slowly. With so much torture.”

Roan held her gaze as he said, “If I hurt her again, I’ll let you.”

CHAPTER 19

It took a team of Section 8 nerds and at least eight of Hunter’s vampires from the Council to dig up and translate enough info on the Kurgan to pull together a complete list of strengths (impenetrable skin, dimension skipping abilities, being able to reduce pretty much anything to ash with a touch, energy siphoning, etc.) and weaknesses (um…none), along with a summoning spell.

Haven had been assured the spell was “probably” a good one, which wasn’t exactly comforting, especially since she got lucky the last time she screwed up a summoning spell. She couldn’t imagine getting that lucky a second time. Accidentally summoning, like, Lucifer himself would suck pretty hard.

So, now, Haven and Roan were waiting in the basement below the prison ward of Section 8’s central building while Hunter’s vampires gathered the last of the sacred herbs and oils needed to summon the Kurgan.

The space was, more or less, a glorified bomb shelter. It had been created to withstand a nuclear attack. Not that Section 8 was expecting a nuclear attack. Demons, vampires and all the other paranormal creatures they knew of didn’t generally need man-made weapons of mass destruction. Much like her friend from Kurg, they were weapons.

Regardless, the basement had plenty of other perks going for it. First of all, it was magically warded to prevent rifts from opening up within its four walls, which meant no one (especially her) was going to get snatched up and carried off to another dimension against their will. Secondly, it was far away from the school and living quarters on campus. If the Kurgan did somehow break containment, he was a long way from innocent bystanders who didn’t want to be melted today.

It was also a big, open space with nothing but a couple of metal folding chairs and relatively high ceilings for a basement. That meant it had great acoustics for anyone that might be tempted to belt out a Celine Dion melody.

Haven decided to let that particular urge go for today. Tomorrow, though…that was another story entirely.

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