He should have thanked Mia for aiding his escape, but at the time, he’d been pissed at her refusal to let him near Bride. Because, like Bride, she had sided with Devyn, and McKell had wanted only to punish them. So he’d ignored Mia and every single one of her summonses. Now, he felt no animosity toward her. Shocking.

“I ask you to come see me, and you snub me.” A glaring Mia stopped a few inches away from him. She smelled of the ice that was crystallized in her eyes. “I send a few people to escort you, and you hurt them. Maim then. Now you have the nerve to show up at a crime scene and—”

McKell held up one hand, silencing her. “Shall I leave, then?”

She popped her jaw. “Sans, escort McKell to headquarters. Now.”

“But he might be able to help us,” Ava said, and then launched into a speech about the merits of reversing time. “I thought Noelle told you about this.”

“Actually …” Noelle joined their circle, hands stuffed in her jean pockets. “I thought Ava and I could break the idea to you together. You know, in a calm, this-is-for-the-best discussion.”

Ava moaned. Mia cursed.

While they continued their “discussion,” McKell inhaled deeply, looking for a distraction from the memories still shrouding him. He tensed. There was something familiar spicing the air … something he’d once adored. He finished his survey of the bar, and could only shake his head against another onslaught of shock.

Think of the devil, and she would appear. Sitting on one of the pool tables were Bride and her husband, Devyn. They were focused on each other, and talking about—McKell’s ears perked—Bride’s desire for a bubble bath.

He waited for his chest to tighten as it always did when he saw them together, but … it never did. Actually, he didn’t react at all.

He recalled the day he’d raised his sword to take her head, as ordered. Recalled the way those emerald eyes had looked up at him, filled with trust and love. Recalled how he’d placed her well-being before his own.

If his plan had worked, they would be wedded now, with a child to spoil.

Would he still have craved Ava if he’d been wedded to Bride? Vampire spouses drank from each other, and—as he had proven today—sickened when they drank from someone else. Even someone human. At the moment, he couldn’t imagine not wanting Ava, even with a devoted Bride at his side.

Bride’s scent didn’t heat his blood. Her body didn’t make his hands itch for contact. The thought of her with Devyn didn’t send him into a killing rage. And what the hell was that strange man in the corner doing, eye-fucking Ava with an intensity that staggered?

McKell flashed his fangs, but the man didn’t notice. He was too focused on Ava, mentally stripping her. Kill, McKell would kill him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Ava suddenly demanded.

At first, McKell didn’t realize she’d spoken to him. Then she grabbed his arms and shook him, clueing him in. “That man.” He pointed, flashed his fangs again. “Who is he?”

Ava followed the line of his finger and blushed. Blushed. Why? If she returned the eye-fuck … “Uh, that’s Johnny Deschanel. Just ignore him. Please.”

“Who is he to you?” McKell snarled.

“No one.”

He didn’t believe her, and his claws were elongating, sharpening.

“I’m going to allow you to help us, McKell,” Mia said before he could storm over, slash, slice, destroy. Ava had never blushed before, and her denial had been too rushed. “The Schön are dangerous and unpredictable, and I need every man I can get. Especially someone with an ability like yours.”

Hack. Saw. “How magnanimous of you,” he muttered, gaze remaining on Johnny. He wouldn’t doubt if this was what Mia had planned all along. Pretend to want to incarcerate him, then offer him his freedom in exchange for his aid.

“Afterward,” Mia continued, “I’ll expect you to go to AIR headquarters and answer a few questions for me.”

He shook his head. What would pain this Johnny the most? Limb removal? Or watching his own guts spill from his stomach? “I will do so, but only after Ava helps me with something.”

“What?” Mia’s red-hot astonishment lashed him.

Had she never been denied? “I apologize if I gave you the impression that the answer was any of your business.” See me, Johnny. Fear me.

Ava and Mia gasped in unison. Noelle chuckled.

“What?” He’d apologized, hadn’t he?

Johnny straightened and smoothed the wrinkles from his shirt. McKell once again stepped forward, but Ava tightened her grip on his arm. Would have taken only a single tug to free himself, but that would dissuade her from touching him again, and he didn’t want to dissuade her.

If you won’t see me, see this, he projected at the man as he wound his arm around Ava’s waist. She. Is. Mine.

Mia recovered quickly. “Fine. Don’t tell me what you have planned. Ava and I can discuss it later. Meanwhile, if you hurt one agent, just one, I won’t hesitate to slice your throat.”

“What happens if I hurt two?” Another man approached Johnny, slapped him on the shoulder, and then he, too, focused on Ava as if he had every right. So. Two would die this night.

“Don’t fucking hurt anyone,” Mia shouted.

Temper, temper. Seriously. He’d been nothing but polite. “Very well,” he said. “But I should warn you, I’m not an easy person to slice. People tend to lose fingers when they try.” See. Polite. He hadn’t threatened her as she’d done to him. He’d merely stated a fact. “Now, if you want to save your agents from my wrath, tell those two to mentally zip their fucking pants.”

Johnny finally noticed him. McKell flicked his tongue over his fangs. A warning. A promise. The agent paled.

“McKell,” Ava said, exasperated. And, if he wasn’t mistaken, just a little happy. She hadn’t once protested about his arm being around her, either. Sweet progress

You can concentrate on your woman now. He looked down. A mistake. Ava stepped away from him, and he mourned the loss of her heat.

“Will you please pay attention,” she muttered. “You’re causing a scene.”

“Yes, he is.” Mia glared at her. “He’s your responsibility, you know.”

She sighed as if the weight of the world had been placed on her shoulders. “Yeah. I do know.”

A grin. “I always knew you were a smart one, Sans, so I probably don’t even need to say this next part, but good job,” Mia said with an approving nod. “You did the impossible. I’m impressed.”

Ava’s chin lifted, pride filling her eyes. “Thank—”

“Hey, dumbass! I didn’t give you permission to test anyone’s blood,” Mia shouted to another agent, already pounding toward the dumbass in question, Ava forgotten. That didn’t lessen Ava’s reaction. So much pride … still growing …

So. She responded well to praise. He made a mental note to praise her. Often. Only until he was done with her, of course, and he had everything he wanted from her. But oh, he liked that look on her. And anyway, she had deserved the praise. She was the most resilient person in the bar. She backed down from nothing, even her boss.

Noelle propped her hands on her hips and regarded Ava intently. “Did you ask him about the time-reversal thing?”

“Not yet.” Ava massaged the back of her neck. “He’s in a bad mood.”

He loved when they discussed him as if he weren’t in the room; he really did. “You expected me to reverse time? Sorry, but I’ve never had the ability.” He’d tried. Many times. Always he’d failed. “Now, Noelle. I have a question for you. Ava, you are not to answer for her.”

“Wait. You can’t reverse time?” Noelle asked with a pout. “Not even a little?”

“No. Now. Who is that man to Ava?” He pointed to Johnny, who was wiping the lint from his shirtsleeve.

“There goes my genius plan,” Noelle said, disappointed, but she followed the line of his finger and scowled. “Oh, him. He’s a bad memory.”

Ava groaned. “Don’t you dare—”

“She slept with him.”

“What?” He hadn’t meant to shout, but the volume of his voice had been uncontrollable in the light of Noelle’s confession. “When?”

“A few months ago,” Ava whispered, another blush in full bloom. “It was a mistake.”

Death and pain weren’t good enough for the bastard. Only total ruination would suffice. McKell would ensure the man suffered eternally. No one touched Ava, his woman, without his permission. Ever. Even months ago. When he hadn’t even known her. Irrational, but his sense of possession was so great, time offered no kind of barrier. And if Ava protested his logic, well, he would give her permission to ruin the life of every woman he had ever slept with.

Johnny must have realized they were discussing him in a negative way, because he glanced up, scowled. Then he made another fatal mistake. He clapped his hands, demanding attention, and said, “Look, everyone. Ava brought in the big, bad vampire. I wonder how she convinced him to … come.”

Several agents snickered.

No, total ruination wasn’t good enough.

“McKell,” Ava began, suspecting his intensions. “Don’t.”

“Must.” With only a thought, McKell stopped the clock. As everyone froze around him, unaware of what he was doing, he stomped to the puny human, punched him in the face, heard cartilage snap, and returned to Ava’s side. He wished he could freeze time for a longer period of time and inflict more damage, but he couldn’t. When he tried, he only weakened himself. A bar filed with AIR agents was not the place to weaken himself.

Soon, though, he’d get Johnny alone. Nothing would stop his wrath then.

The clock restarted, and he watched as Johnny grimaced and rubbed his now bleeding nose, having no idea what had caused the break. And were those … tears in the agent’s eyes? McKell sharpened his study, grinned. They were.

He nearly beat his chest in satisfaction. I caused that.

Why had Ava willingly stripped for such a bastard? Why had she allowed him to tease and taste her?

A growl rose from McKell’s stomach and churned in his throat. He stopped the clock again, closed the distance, punched the man again, cracking jawbone this time, and once again returned to an unsuspecting Ava. And this time, when he restarted the clock, the bastard dropped to his knees, moaning in pain.

“McKell,” Ava muttered.

“What?” he asked innocently.

Her lips twitched, surprising him, before she turned her attention to Noelle. “So what have you learned so far?”

“No one remembers seeing the Schön queen, but that man—” She pointed to a very pale human male, who was hunched over in his chair and clutching his middle. Three guards pointed guns at his head. “He’s already exhibiting signs of the disease.”

“Why hasn’t he been quarantined, then?”

“He’s not stunnable, and everyone who approaches him, he tries to bite. And as you know, biohazard suits don’t stop the disease from spreading, so our clothing certainly won’t.”

Ava was in danger, McKell realized, and that he wouldn’t tolerate. “Allow me to take care of him.”

“McKell, wait—”

For the third time that evening, he manipulated time. He approached the diseased man and slammed his head into the tabletop in front of him. When McKell restarted the clock, the man remained unconscious, slumped over the metal surface. “Now you can cart him wherever you want.”

Ava spun, clearly confused by his seemingly instant change in location. “You have to stop doing that! And don’t you dare touch him,” she said, rushing to his side to tug him away. “He might be bleeding.”

McKell performed a quick scan of the tabletop. “No droplets.”

“Thank God.” She shuddered with the force of her relief. “Contact with infected bodily secretions is what spreads the disease.”

“Between humans, perhaps.” Human illnesses never affected him. Still. He allowed her to usher him the rest of the way without protest. “You aren’t to go near him again. No matter what. Understand?”

Ignoring him, she instructed the guards to carry the man out of the building and into a cell at AIR headquarters. She proceeded to ignore McKell for the next hour, in fact, helping Mia, talking to the other humans. When one of the females—one who reeked of guilt—refused to answer her questions, Ava glanced around to ensure no one watched her, before pressing a blade to the woman’s thigh.

The woman began babbling, spilling details about stealing money from the register. Not helpful, but that explained the guilt. Guilt Ava had sensed, even with her inferior human senses.

She was a competent soldier, he thought. If she couldn’t get what she wanted the conventional way, she found another way. He liked that. He liked her.

Do not soften. Any more than he already had. If he did, she would constantly lead him around by his ever-randy swim team, as he’d heard Devyn Targon say once.

A few times, lucky-to-be-alive Johnny Deschanel tried to edge to Ava’s side. McKell always stopped time, punched him, then pushed him to the other side of the bar. Finally, the guy caught on and gave up. Soon after that, Mia Snow called it a night and told the agents to go home. They’d sort through the acquired evidence tomorrow.

Ava approached McKell rather than Noelle, and he found that he liked that, too.