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"Lily, sorry, spaced out there for a moment. Must be the heat. Did you ask something?"
"Yeah, were you going to assign roles and maybe introduce our new girl?"
I looked at Sariel. That was no girl, she was all fucking woman.
"Oh course," I said smoothly. "Sariel, meet the rest of the team. Cole is our tech guy. If it's got microchips or wires, he can hack it. He can also speak about a million languages and has friends everywhere. He's also our get guy."
Sariel raised her eyebrows. "Get guy?"
Cole smiled up at her, his smile easy and charming as usual. "Get guy. If you want something, I can get it for you. Anything."
"Really? I'll keep that in mind." She didn't return his smile.
"I'm also usually the money if the Concordia funds don't stretch quite far enough." Oh, there it was. She hadn't responded to his charm, so he'd pulled out the money thing. He fancied her. I mean, he was a succubus; if it was attractive, Cole would try to fuck it. I shouldn't have been shocked that he'd already set his sights on her. He'd know he'd need to feed while he was out here, and here was a sexy woman he'd never met. I should have expected it. I shoved aside the prickle of jealousy. He'd change his tune pretty quick when he knew what she was.
"Cole owns a nightclub and hotel on the Strip in Las Vegas," I explained to Sariel. "He lives in the penthouse apartment above it, which might seem irrelevant, but we sometimes have team meetings there."
"Why?" She asked, her dark eyes fixing on me.
"Um..."
"Because he has the best take outs on speed dial, and his sofas are more comfortable than the ones at the Concordia. And Alastor's flat is a dump," broke in Theo.
I glared at him. "My flat is a dump? There's nothing in my flat! Your flat looks like a group of teenage boys live there."
"So what?"
"You're thirty two!"
Theo laughed. "Ah boss, I'm just young at heart.” He held his hand out to Sariel. “I'm Theo, I manage security teams of wolf shifters, I'm pretty good on the hacking side too, but not compared to Cole. I speak English and wolf, and the most I can get you is pizza and beer, but hey, that's the priorities sorted, right?"
"I'm not sure I'd define pizza and beer as priorities," said Sariel, hesitating, then taking Theo's hand as if it were something combustible.
"Well, then your priorities are..." Theo trailed off and looked down at when his hand held hers. A sinking feeling formed in the pit of my stomach. Oh no...
Sariel looked up at him, lips parting slightly. My heightened senses caught the catch of her breath and the quickening of her heartbeat, and I clenched my fists at my side. "My priorities are... what?" Sariel asked, her voice a little shaky.
"Um, we need to get them sorted pronto!" Theo said, a little too brightly, before pulling his hand back. Worried brown eyes flashed up to mine, and then quickly away, and I knew. I knew as she stepped back, pressing her hand against the side of her thigh as subtlety as she could. I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them again and pushed on as if nothing had happened.
"Carlisle is the only human on the team, so don't break him. He's an extremely capable doctor, and he's pretty competent in field work too, as well as being fluent in several ancient written languages." Carlisle held his hand out to shake hers, but although she nodded at him, I noticed she didn't reach out to take it
"And Lily you've already met, it seems. She's a trainee agent assigned to me, she's been with the team about a year now, and she's-"
"A badass demon who can shoot, drink tequila and knock out the rest of them. Basically, I'm the awesome one in the team." Lily grinned at Sariel. "And the one to come to when you need a rest from the bull-headed testosterone party. I also make a mean pornstar martini."
Sariel coughed. "A what?"
"It's a cocktail," I interjected quickly. "An alcoholic drink with fruit juice."
"Oh." She seemed relieved and I pressed on, noticing Lily opening her mouth again. "Team, this is our newest member, Sariel Collins. She's an angel, on secondment from London. Sariel, I believe your skills lean towards the more physical aspects?"
"I am a highly trained and decorated warrior with elite physical prowess, I can speak any human or supernatural language, and I am extremely competent in covert mission, guerilla tactics and battle strategy," she replied, her face perfectly straight and her voice emotionless.
We all stared at her for a moment, taken aback by her directness. Surprise crossed Cole’s face when I revealed what Sariel was, then disappointment, before the pleasant and polite British mask dropped back over him. Theo broke the silence.
"Well, that's impressive. So, you're basically a badass, rather than a paper pusher. That's awesome. But we won't be fighting any battles here. It's definitely more of the covert op type of mission."
Sariel gave a brief nod. "Yes, that's the impression I was under. Seek and retrieve." She turned to me. "I assume you have a plan in mind?"
