“You look way too happy for him to be just a friend.” Lisa returned her attention to her mug of rum.
Hope let herself bask in the moment for two seconds and then shoved the dream away. “The male has grown up nicely.”
“I would say so,” Lisa burst out. “Did you see that chest? He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Did you notice? Because I sure as heck noticed. That was one heck of a chest.”
Hope chuckled. “Yes, Paxton ended up very muscled and good-looking somehow, even though he chases butterflies around the globe.” She was grateful that he wasn’t part of her world of strategy and war. After his upbringing, he deserved peace. “But we’re friends, and we’ll always be just friends.” She knew fate had other plans for her. But the words rang hollow just the same.
Lisa fanned herself. “If you say so, although I think you’re crazy, girlfriend.”
Hope thought about explaining just as her cousin Collin strode into the room.
“We’re on go,” he said, securing his duffel bag over his shoulder. “Two women, definitely enhanced. Our first solo mission. The team is heading to the helicopter to take us to the coast. We’ll catch a plane there.”
Hope put her cup on the table near the tree, her heart beating faster. “Where are we going?”
“Paris.” Collin glanced at his watch. “We’re wheels up in twenty minutes.”
Hope thought through mission parameters. “I have a go bag and will meet you at the hangar.”
“You’ve got it,” Collin said. “Liam is acquiring weapons, and I’ll assist him. See you there.” He strode out of the room.
Lisa blew out air. “Wow. What is it with these immortal males? I mean, dangerously sexy.”
Hope blinked. “I guess.” He was her cousin, so she’d never really looked at him that way. “Lisa, you’re safe here, and you can stay as long as you want.”
“Thank you.” Lisa leaned in for an impulsive hug. “You’re going out there to save two more women like me?”
“That’s the plan.” Hope slid her phone into the back pocket of her cargo pants as anticipation trilled through her veins. Finally, she and her team would have a chance to work on their own and make a difference. She would not fail those women. No matter what.
Chapter Two
Hope reshuffled her dossier on the table in the Gulfstream jet and looked at her team. They were about seven hours into the nine-hour flight, and several had napped on the way.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ve reviewed locations, and I have a plan to take both women.” She looked at her team of four. “This is our first solo mission, and we’re going to do it completely by the book. First, I want to talk about any new enhancements you may or may not have. Libby, how’s the shifting going?”
“Perfect,” Libby said. Liberty was a feline shifter, a cougar to be exact. And she’d been able to shift since she was sixteen, so she’d mastered the skill. It was difficult to understand how humans failed to see the animal lurking inside her. Her blondish-brown hair showed a myriad of colors, and her eyes were a catlike bourbon brown.
“All right. Just remember that if you’re ordered to shift, make sure the team’s out of the way. The sonic boom you emit can be uncomfortable.” Hope barely shifted her gaze to her cousin Derrick, who was Libby’s partner.
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, let’s not forget that again, Libs. As for my skills, I’m fully prepared with fireballs, and I have been working on forming ice out of air, but I’m not quite there yet.” As a vampire-witch hybrid, his skills came from his mother, Brenna, who was a witch. Witches created and threw plasma balls by transforming air to fire using quantum physics Hope just wasn’t interested in. Even though he was mainly a witch, he looked just like his vampire father, Jase, and he had his dad’s copper-colored eyes and muscled physique. Regardless of lineage or looks, immortals normally only inherited the powers of one parent.
Hope nodded. “That’s good, though. Fireballs come in handy—we just have to be careful if we’re in the tunnels again.” She studied the twins, who sat at the far end. They were the spitting image of their father, Conn, and both had full vampire attributes, to the consternation of their mother, Moira, who was a powerful witch. The seventh sister of a seventh sister, Moira was a unicorn in the witch world. She kept trying to talk Conn into having more children so she could get a witch or two in there, and Conn was fully on board, but it could take eons for immortals to procreate. “What about you two?”
Liam shook his head. “I’m at full vampire strength, but I haven’t gained any additional skills as of yet. I feel like I should be able to halt people in their tracks the way Uncle Talen does, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“That’s okay,” Hope said, calculating how best to use his abilities in Paris. “You’re young. You probably won’t get that powerful until you’re in your fifties. What about you, Collin?”
He shrugged. “Just vampire strength and speed. I’ve been trying to control the weather a little bit like Uncle Jase, but nothing so far.”
It’d be fascinating to see what skills they picked up through the years. She didn’t have any extra strength or speed yet, but she was still hoping, although it wasn’t looking good. So far, she was the only vampire in the world who caught colds and became ill, but she wasn’t going to worry about that now.
“You’ll get your abilities,” Liam said quietly, reassuringly.
She kept her face placid. Liam was usually more about business and fighting than soothing anybody’s fears. It was nice of him.
The twins looked exactly like their father, with thick dark hair and electric-green eyes. Hard-cut muscle showed on their bodies.
Part of Hope’s job as a strategic leader was to help them fit in to a human neighborhood if necessary. It was difficult with their looks sometimes, but she had chosen clothing that should help.
“All right, Collin,” she said. “You studied the dossiers on the enhanced females we’ve been assigned. What do you have?”
Collin leaned his head back against the luxurious leather chair. “Two sisters—Natalie and Annette Toussaint, twenty-two and twenty-five years old respectively. Natalie works as an art curator at a small private country club, while Annette is a pilot for the government. We discovered their enhancements the other day after hacking into yet another of the Kurjan devices placed all around the world. However, I think the Kurjans are starting to use satellites in their hunts by tracking the vibrations of enhanced females. If that happens, we’re in real trouble.”
Hope appreciated the detailed information. “Derrick, is there any chatter from the Kurjans today?”
“No,” Derrick said. “Nothing yet. We don’t know if they’ve caught wind of the enhanced females, but considering we hacked into their technology, I’d be shocked if the Kurjans weren’t headed the same way we are.”
“We just have to be faster,” Hope said, her adrenaline flowing freely. This was their first solo mission, and they couldn’t fail. “Okay. I’m going to set up in the building on Boulevard Saint-Germain.”