by KT Strange
“Can’t say the same for you,” I teased back. He grabbed at his chest, as if I’d shot him, and groaned. Finn chuckled, sliding one arm around my waist as he and Ace jockeyed for space around me for a moment before settling in comfortably. I relaxed between their warmth, Finn’s knuckles trailing up and down the curve of my rib-cage as Ace nuzzled the side of my head.
“Had a good time?” Charlie asked as he walked up and took one look at the few bags at my feet. “Doesn’t look like you got enough. Is that enough stuff? It doesn’t look like—"
“She’s fine.” Eli stepped around the side of the car and shot me a brief, rare smile. Finn’s fingers dug into my skin for a moment, almost as if he was possessive at the sight of his twin being nice to me, but he relaxed. “If she needs anything else, we’ll get it at the next stop. Sound check is in an hour and I want to get unloaded with enough time to relax for fucking once.”
Charlie made a noise of irritation as he pawed through the bags. My cheeks pinked up when he tugged out the strap of a bikini.
“Really?” he asked, then looked at Ace with a wicked smirk. “She try this on for you? I’m surprised you didn’t get a nosebleed.”
Ace ignored him, much to his credit, and shook his head.
“I’m sitting in the back with Darce this time.” Ace tugged on my hand, pulling me toward the van. Finn sighed and let me go, with a grumble of reluctance. Ace rolled his eyes. “You get her every night.”
“I’m not a chew toy,” I muttered under my breath. Eli’s shoulders twitched, almost, at my comment, as he scooped up the bags and slung them into the back of the van.
I stepped past Cash and up into the van after Ace.
“Oh, but we’d like to take a bite out of you,” Cash’s voice was a low rumble. His words startled a laugh out of me as Finn growled at him, but followed me into the van regardless.
The engine came to life with a low roar and I settled back, snuggling into Ace’s embrace as we drove to the venue.
“You should set up your new phone.” Ace’s fingers dragged across my bare arm as he held me tight. I bit my lip, self-control wavering, and dug the slim, smooth box out one of the bags from our shopping trip.
“I guess I just feel guilty.”
Ace had barely let me pay for anything.
“Don’t. It makes us feel good to give you things, especially things you need. And you need a phone to do your job.”
“I’m lucky I still have a job.”
Charlie made an amused noise and twisted in his seat.
“Please, we wouldn’t have anyone else with us except you. And Willa loves you even though you keep driving her crazy. Just stop running.” He held my gaze with his, and my breath caught in my throat at the intensity of his expression.
It wasn’t that easy. I’d been running since before I’d even left my home the first time at nineteen, even if it was only my spirit and not my actual body. Leaving was my instinct. This thing, staying here, with them? This was new. This was hard. I licked my lips and cracked open the box, skimming my fingers over the light up screen. The girl at the phone kiosk had already put in a sim card for me, and it was ready to go.
A new number that Daria didn’t have, that no one had except me and the guys, Willa, and as soon as I could give it to her, Max.
Maybe this was hard, but it was where I was meant to be. I felt the slight scruff of Ace’s cheek against my temple and I leaned into him, with a low sigh.
“You okay?” he mumbled into my hairline.
“Maybe. I will be. Just need some time, I think. Got a lotta stuff on my mind.”
“Me? Do you have me on your mind?” He sounded almost insecure and I looked up at him to gauge his emotions. A cheeky green spread across his face, more like Cash than his own usual expressions.
“Did you just con me into looking at you?” I asked, smacking him in the chest with a light thump of my fist. He snickered and shook his head.
“Maybe I wanted to see your face better, not lit from the glow of your phone.”
“I’ve had it for, like, a hot minute.” I couldn’t help but reach up and tweak his nose. He caught my wrist in his hand and planted a soft kiss on my skin. “I’m not like Charlie,” I continued, ignoring the way my heartbeat fluttered in my throat.
“Hey,” Charlie protested from his seat. “I am not addicted to my phone—"
“You’re damn well attached to it.” We all looked up at the front in surprise to hear Eli’s rare interjection. Cash snorted with amusement.
“Just cause some of us are older than dirt and twice as salty, and also totally incompetent when it comes to electronics—" Charlie’s insults gave way to a yelp when Eli hucked an empty soda can back at him. It missed, bouncing off the side of Charlie’s headrest, but the meaning was clear enough.
“Alright, old man,” Charlie grumbled and slumped down in his seat. I watched Eli through the mirror and he glanced at me, and for a moment, I swore that he winked at me. Ace’s grip tightened around my shoulders, but I couldn’t stop looking at the rearview mirror the whole rest of the way to the venue just to see Eli’s eyes again.
The venue was packed, and it wasn’t even time for the guys’ set yet. I stood at the back, leaning up against a wall as kids lined up for the merch booth. The social media for Phoenixcry had made my new phone buzz almost continuously over the last few hours, and I knew the band was backstage, taking a breather and not letting it get to their heads.
Deep down in my stomach, though, it felt like things were never going to be the same. Each breath I took tingled in my lungs, and my skin shivered with excitement. Was this their breakthrough moment? The label had hired a small crew for the show, local merch-slingers that were known to be good to run a booth whenever a band came through. It meant I could concentrate on social media and overseeing things as opposed to having to do all the direct selling myself.
That’s how I noticed him.
Hunched down, leaning against a pillar, a baseball cap tugged deep over his face, I still knew him. There was no way he should have been here, at our show, miles and miles and states away from where he was supposed to be.
Craig Mackenzie, Max’s ex-boyfriend, slouched in a black hoodie and dark gray jeans, his eyes scanning over the crowd.
Max. Shit. I needed to call her.
“You got this? I need to go do something.” I spoke to Heather, one of the merch girls that the label had sent over.
“Yeah, we’re good,” she said, nodding at the line-up. “We’ll tear through these guys and be ready for more.”
“Great, thanks.” My eyes locked on Craig, I made a direct bee-line for him through the crowd, people moving out of my way without looking at me. The desire to slap him for the anguish he’d put Max through churned strong in my gut, but first I had to find out what he was doing at our show, and why he wasn’t on his knees, begging Max’s forgiveness and making things up to her back in Seattle.
He stole the surprise from me though, when he pushed from the pillar and turned, nearly bumping into me.
He stopped short, eyes shooting up to his hairline.
“Llewellyn, shit,” he breathed. “What are you doing here?”
“I was gonna ask you the same thing, Mackenzie,” I snapped. His eyes rolled wildly, and he looked around the room before grabbing my wrist. I bit back a yelp as he forced me through the crowd, physically dragging me. My free hand went to his wrist and scratched at him, but his grip was like an iron band. “Let go!”
He yanked me out of the main room of the venue and into a side-hall, pushing through an exit door.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, repeating his earlier question. I glared at him and yanked on my arm. He let me go. I could have sparked him, but something in me was quietly screaming not to. Maybe it was because my best friend’s ex-boyfriend. Maybe it was because he wasn’t dressed like a guy out for a good time at a rock show.
“I think maybe you better answer that question first. I’m interning
.”
“Max told me you quit.” Craig eyed me up for a moment, and shook his head. He pulled off his ball-cap and ran a hand through shaggy, longish brown hair before tugging the hat back on.
“Well, I guess she didn’t update you then.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “So, what are you doing here?” Even as I spoke to him, he didn’t look at me, his eyes searching past me instead. His behavior was making me uneasy, a trembling ball of nerves forming in my belly. “Craig, seriously.”
“Taking in the show, I like music, whatever,” he said with an exhale of breath that seemed more annoyed than anything else. Last time I’d seen Craig, his arms had been wrapped around Max as we watched a Disney movie marathon and he only got up to make us more microwave popcorn down the hall in the kitchenette that served our residence floor. He’d been all smiles then, his deep green eyes crinkling at the corners every time he gazed down at the girl in his arms. Now he looked haunted, and irritated, his gaze flicking away from me to our surroundings every few seconds. I took a step forward, up into his space.
“Craig, look at me. Does Max know you came to this show? Does she even know where you are right now?”
“Max doesn’t need to know anything,” he said, the emotion shuttering down in his eyes as he frowned at me. “And you need to not be here right now.”
“Uh, yeah, no, that’s not for you to decide. You’re the one who dragged me out here in the first place.” I frowned at him. His lips pressed together in a thin line.
“I meant at this show, period. Do you trust me?”
“After everything you’ve put Max through, breaking into her house, and that weird thing you’re doing with your eyes right now… not really, no.” My fingers tightened on my biceps. Because I had no reason to trust him. He was acting like a bird in a houseful of cats, shifting his weight from foot to foot. I narrowed my eyes at him.
His lips parted, and he licked them for a moment, inhaling sharply.
“Mack!”
I jerked back at the strange voice and looked over my shoulder. A young woman with short, slicked back, pale ginger hair was walking up to us. She had a leather jacket on, with a black tank underneath it, and a pair of skin-tight black jeans. She looked more like a show goer than Craig did.
“Mack?” I mouthed to him, but he shook his head sharp and short. I fell quiet. Something not right was ticking in the back of my mind as I watched the girl, and the sway of her hips. Her lips were slicked with red, matte color and she smirked at me as she walked up to the two of us.
“Mack, the guys are waiting out back,” she said with a jerk of her head toward the way she’d come, a side-entrance to the venue. She slung an arm around Craig’s waist and bumped her hip into his, grinning at me. “Who’s the chick?”
“Friend of a friend,” Craig said. “Ran into her by accident. It was good to see you, Christine, but I gotta go meet the guys I came here with.” He eyed me up as he said the name ‘Christine’, and I took the hint.
Mack. Christine. Fake names. Right. Okay.
Something was seriously not right about all of it. Was he cheating on Max? They weren’t really together anymore, so was it even cheating? The girl let her gaze linger over the side of Craig’s face, like she wanted to eat him alive, and I had to bite back a snarl. He wasn’t Max’s anymore.
He wasn’t who I’d thought he was, either. Sure, it had been a few months since I’d last seen him, but he’d apparently changed beyond all recognition.
“Nice to meet you Christine,” the girl said, standing up on her tip toes to brush a messy, red kiss over the side of Craig’s face. I fought back the urge to growl and stepped back.
“Good to see you too, Mack,” I replied, ignoring the way he glared at me. He was the one keeping weird secrets and hanging out with weird women.
I turned to leave.
“You should take that advice,” Craig, Mack, whatever he was going by, called after me.
“What?” I looked back over my shoulder. The girl was mouthing down the side of his neck, but Craig looked like he didn’t even notice.
“Your friend that you talked to, earlier today, who told you that the music wasn’t your thing and you wouldn’t like it, that you should probably head home,” he said, his voice strained. His eyes flickered toward the girl sucking on his ear like it was her job. My stomach lurched. He was Max’s. I felt a familiar flutter, now that it had happened a few times, and I knew without a doubt that if I stayed in the hallway, the lightning buried deep inside me was going to make a spectacular, and unwanted, appearance.
I needed to be with the band. I bolted back into the music hall in the venue, leaving Craig and his new… girl, behind.
Nineteen
Finn
The green room felt like a bomb shelter, with all of us crowded in it. The guys from Glory Rev and Chelsea were in their bus. Cash was in the small bathroom off to one side, the last of us to shower after our drive to the venue.
Something wasn’t right. We were all feeling it. The air cracked and tingled along my skin, and the burning desire to shift was howling inside of me. The other guys were coping with it each in their own way. There was a tense energy, like something was about to happen, something bad, and—
“Hey.” Eli’s hand came down on my shoulder. “Head in the game.” I looked at him through the mirror as he stood just behind me. My twin’s face was calm, steady, the exact opposite of how I felt.
“I’ve got this, Elias,” I said, shrugging off his hand. He sighed.
“This show is important.”
“Something’s off.”
“Yeah, and let me handle it,” his voice dropped down low, the subtle hint of command threading through his words. I narrowed my eyes and turned with a shake of my head.
“Don’t order me around,” I snapped. Eli’s brow furrowed, and he opened his mouth to speak but hesitated.
“I’m going to go find Darcy,” Ace interrupted us, shrugging into his hoodie. “She’s got that whole crew of merch girls working and, I dunno, but I’d rather she be close by.”
“See, even Ace is feeling it.” I jerked my head toward our youngest. Ace rolled his eyes.
“I’m young, not dumb,” he countered. “Something’s wrong.”
Cash stepped out of the shower, towel wrapped around his waist.
“So, what is it? I can’t figure it out. Whatever it is, premonition, specter, hunters, whatever, we’ll deal with it when it shows up.” Cash rubbed a hand through his wet hair, the flicked locks standing on end and curling around his ears. “If you’re worried, go bug Glory Rev. They’re fucking unicorns. They should have better senses than even us.” He crossed the room and grabbed a clean shirt out of his backpack and shrugged into it. I sighed and looked at my twin. His dark blue eyes were steady on mine.
“Whatever it is, I’ve got it.”
“Yeah that’s what you said in Metz,” Cash growled, finally fully dressed and combing his hair back out of the way. Charlie finally put down his phone from where he lay, sprawled on a green room couch, and glared at us all.
“What did we say about the war references? Can it.” He sat up, irritation in every line of his body. Ace nodded in agreement.
“You guys never talk about it, just drop stupid humblebrag hints about what hot shot warriors you were,” he chimed in, crossing his arms over his chest. Cash raised an eyebrow, swinging from looking at Ace to Charlie.
“Is that fucking so?”
The door opened and we all snapped our heads to look, bodies tense. Darcy stood there and relief washed over me as I took in the soft fall of her curls, bouncing around her face and down over her shoulders. I really liked it when she wore her hair loose, for all she complained about the knots and frizz. Girls were too obsessed with frizz. Didn’t they know a guy never paid attention to that kind of thing when he had a pretty face to look at and curves for days to touch?
Then I stepped back as the scent chasing her hit me.
Ash. Ash and blood. I
t clung to the back of my tongue, thick and heavy. Eli growled and Charlie shot to his feet.
From the look on her face, Darcy wasn’t even surprised to see our tense reactions. Ace walked right to her and slammed the door, throwing the lock on it, before turning.
“Hunters,” she whispered, taking a deep breath. “I thought it might be but I can’t—”
“You can’t smell them like we can,” I finished for her, taking a few paces and enveloping her in my arms.
“You met one?”
“I think so,” she said, her voice shaking, and I was filled with the desire to pound whoever had scared her right into the ground.
“What happened?”
She lifted her gaze up to meet mine. Ace crowded into her side, the other guys holding back.
“We have to cancel the show,” Cash murmured to Eli.
Darcy stared up at me for a moment and looked away. She pushed against my chest and I let her go. Ace brushed a hand over her shoulder.
“I’m fine,” she said, clearing her throat. “I’m just… mad.”
“Mad?” My eyebrows hiked up and I looked at my twin. Eli shrugged one shoulder.
“I’m fucking pissed,” she said. “This isn’t supposed to be happening, none of it. Not to any of you. Not to us.”
Charlie had his phone out and was furiously texting.
I lifted my fingers to trace them down the side of Darcy’s face. She was right, she was angry, not scared like I’d thought. I reached down to kiss her, and she sighed, leaning into me. I felt Ace brush up against us both and relaxed somewhat. She was safe. The pack was with her. We’d keep her safe.
“We can’t cancel. Willa’s pissed at me for even asking. This show is huge, apparently some big agent is here in the crowd tonight—"
“It’s not worth it, Charlie,” Darcy interrupted him, pulling away from me. I let her go even though I ached to tug her back into my arms. “None of this, nothing that can happen here, is worth it. What if they kill you? Or Ace?”