by D. N. Hoxa
“They’re a lesser threat right now.”
“What if they catch you? Imprison you?” They’d almost caught me. Who’s to say that next time they wouldn’t be even more prepared than last night, especially if they even suspected that they were going against Damian?
“I’ll handle it, little thief,” he said, and again, it was almost as if he was begging me.
It broke me when he spoke to me like that. I sighed and rubbed my face, and almost knocked Hungry off my arm. “I was a fool,” I whispered, even before I realized it.
“No, you weren’t. You were trying to do the right thing. I’d have done the same in your shoes.” Liar. He was a damn liar, but it still made me feel better.
I nodded. “You don’t owe me anything, Damian. I was with you when I grabbed that amulet for my brother. I fought against the Uprising for myself. You have no debts to me.”
Slowly, he leaned his head to the side, as if he could hardly believe what I was saying. “I owe you more than you’ll ever know, but this isn’t about debts. The Uprising is a threat to all of us. Alexander Adams needs to die, one way or the other. It’s actually an order.”
I was going to ask who gave him that order, but then it hit me. “Yutain?” Just the thought of the hulk of a man with ice eyes made chills wash up and down me. I still remembered how he’d killed Mason. Vividly.
Damian nodded. “He’s my senior. He’s everybody’s senior. I brought Adams to the City and now he wants him gone.”
“Who is he exactly?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Possibly the oldest vampire in existence. Over a millennia old. He’s an air elemental.” Ah, it made perfect sense. So Malin’s mother had been right about it all. “He also takes care of the City. Which is why it’s going to have to happen in the Shade.” Right. Because Yutain had made it very clear that he didn’t want any trouble in his City.
“Is that why he came to see you?”
“Yes. It was a bit unexpected. He usually lays very low.”
I nodded. “Is he the guy who told you about the Treasure of Saraph?” Somebody had, and he’d called them a friend. Yutain had called him a friend that night, too.
“Yes,” Damian said, then smiled and looked at the door, confusing me a little.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked anyway.
I hadn’t even finished speaking when someone knocked on the door. That’s why he’d smiled. And if I’d focused on my ears a bit, I’d have heard the footsteps, too. The door opened before we even said anything, and my friends and the twin brothers walked in like they owned the place. Well, Chris did, actually.
“Sorry to interrupt. We couldn’t help but hear your conversation, and we want to know the plan, too,” Carter said, his voice light but forced. You could barely notice the difference, though.
If Damian minded, he didn’t show it at all. “Of course,” he said, and stepped to the side to make way for them. Jamie was pale as a ghost. Even Uma wasn’t making any sound. She and Malin sat on the bed, and Carter joined them. Chris remained standing, arms folded in front of him, the bulging biceps full of veins the size of my fingers.
“So what’s the plan?” Carter asked, and it almost sounded like he’d tried to imitate me.
“The plan is to kill Alexander Adams. He’s the head of the Uprising. Once he’s dead, the rest will be very easy to find and contain,” Damian started, his voice very official, like he was reading the news. “I’ve set up a meeting in the Shade with Adams for tomorrow night, and that’s where it’s going to happen.”
“Who will be there?” I asked.
“The Bane.”
I flinched. “That’s not enough.”
“We’ll be there, too,” Carter said.
“So will we,” said Malin.
“No, you can’t.” It was out of the question.
But Malin wouldn’t hear it. “It’s not an option, Sin. If we don’t kill them, they’ll kill you.”
“We’ll be enough. There’s no need—”
“There’s no we. You’re staying out of it,” Damian informed me.
My eyes almost fell out of my sockets. “You must be joking.”
“Of course he’s not joking,” said Jamie. “What if the Guild catches you?”
“The Guild is not going to catch me!”
“You weren’t so sure about that a moment ago, were you?” said Malin, narrowing her brows at me as if to ask me to remember.
And I did. Fuck. Barely five minutes ago, I’d been completely set on leaving at nightfall. I looked at Damian. What the hell could this man do to me still?
“You’ll be safe here,” Carter said. “We can handle it, Sin.”
“That’s not the point.” I had to be there. It was my mess.
“Then what is the point? For you to get caught?” Chris asked. I wanted to punch him in the face.
“It’s not up for debate. It’s not even your choice,” Jamie said. “Just tell us the plan, Damian.”
“But I—”
“Shut up!” Malin hissed. I clamped my mouth shut. Even Kit had no objection to that. Or maybe he was busy trying to teach his kids how to climb on my shoulders. Milky and Bear were already there. I barely even noticed, they were so tiny.
“I worked with Adams a few days ago, and I’m going to be meeting him for the same reason. He’s a Prime wizard, the strongest I’ve ever met, so it’s not going to be easy. We need to hit him when he doesn’t expect it. There will be people with him, powerful people, not like the ones who came last night, but none of them will matter once Adams is dead. The fight will be brutal. People will die.” My stomach fell. “So please think very carefully before you decide to be part of it.”
“We don’t need to think,” Carter said.
“Carter, this isn’t—” Your fight, I wanted to say, but then he reminded me that it was, actually.
“You know why we don’t need to think, Sin,” he said, for once not smiling when he looked at me.
“We’ll be there with twenty-five Level Three trained werewolves,” Chris said. Damian nodded.
“And we don’t know how to fight, but I can make potions. I can make wards, I can do magic from a good distance, and Jamie can, too. We’ll help as much as we can,” Malin said.
“I’ll put you in touch with the Bane. They’re going to need some help with the wards and can tell you the plan in detail,” Damian said. “And that is all. The second Adams dies, we all go our separate ways.”
“And if the Guild catches you? There, or afterward?” I asked halfheartedly. I wasn’t as panicked as I thought I would be because the idea of Damian and the twin brothers fighting together—and the Bane—I knew it would take an army to bring them down. But I still wanted to make sure they didn’t end up like I had.
“We tell them that we were meeting for a deal. The Uprising attacked us and we fought back,” Damian said.
“And they’ll believe us?” Malin asked skeptically.
“They will once Adams is dead. There will be no more ties between the Uprising and the Guild. There will be no proof of magic use anywhere in the crime scene, so they will have no evidence against us,” Damian said.
“And how are you planning to do that?” Chris asked, but it was Malin who answered.
“The Shade,” she said. “The Shade will cover for us. And lots of wards.” I didn’t doubt that for a second. The Shade loved Malin, just as much as it hated me. And Malin loved it back like it was a living, breathing creature she could see. I’d never understood her connection to it but it was solid. I knew it wouldn’t fail her—I’d witnessed it myself a hundred times.
Damian nodded. “And that’s all.”
I held onto the doorframe, as if that was the only thing keeping me from falling on my face. I watched Damian walk out on the street, and my heart squeezed in a very uncomfortable way. Chris stood at my side and everybody else was right behind me, and we all just watched him walk away. He didn’t rush, didn’t disappear like he usually did
. No, he took his sweet time this time, as if he knew exactly what was going on inside my head. He probably did, the bastard.
I wanted to stop myself. I thought about it for a solid two seconds, but it wasn’t meant to be. I only felt it when my legs took me forward. Even Kit tried to stop me. The little ones had stayed upstairs in the room, but he’d come with me. Maybe he, too, had known I’d end up like this. Maybe everybody knew me better than I knew myself when it came to Damian Reed.
He smelled me, heard my footsteps, my heart practically slamming against my ribcage, and he stopped on the sidewalk and looked back at me, no surprise in his face. Like I said, he knew. Kit kept squeaking weakly, pulling at the collar of my shirt, but soon he realized I wasn’t about to stop until I was right in front of Damian.
I didn’t even know what to say. There were just too many things. I couldn’t bring myself to even focus when he looked at me like that. Like he’d missed me. Like I was just the most fascinating thing in the universe. Asshole.
“Walk with me,” he said and started walking down the street, as if he couldn’t see the werewolves walking by us and the ones inside the houses around us, looking at us through their windows. I took a quick look behind me to find only Jamie and Malin staring at me, concern clear in their eyes. The twins had already gone inside.
I turned and fell into step with him.
“You stood me up,” I started, even though I already hated myself for it. It just needed to be said, I guess. It was the worst time possible to talk to him about this, and that was probably why it felt like the right time. “Which would have been fine, you know, if that was what you wanted. But I know you didn’t.” He wanted to come to my apartment that night a month ago for our stupid date. I knew he did, I’d seen it in his eyes. I’d felt it in the way he’d kissed me.
“I wanted to be there more than you’ll ever know,” he said, his voice hushed.
“And that’s the problem. Why didn’t you come? Where were you, Damian?”
“I was in Nova Scotia,” he said, as if that was supposed to explain everything to me.
I looked at him. “What were you doing in Nova Scotia?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, way too quickly.
“Of course it matters. Tell me why you stood me up.” He always did this, he always thought that the reason behind his actions didn’t matter—he thought his actions spoke for themselves, which was probably right in most cases, just not with him.
“I had no other choice.”
“You always have another choice.”
“Not this time, I didn’t.”
“You’re a fucking prick, you know that?”
“Yes.”
“I hate you so much, my stomach turns at the sight of you.”
“I know.”
“I can’t even stand to look at you anymore.”
“I noticed, yes.”
“And how does that make you feel?”
He paused. His lips opened, but he didn’t know what to say. I wanted to slap the shit out of him. Even Kit thought he was full of shit. That’s why he jumped from my shoulder and ran back to the house. I had no idea how far we’d even gone, but I couldn’t care to look.
“How do you feel, Damian? For God’s sake, just tell me once and for all. How do you feel?” It wasn’t that hard. All he had to do was tell me the truth. The whole truth and get it over with. I just needed to know.
“Happy,” he said, taking me completely off guard. I stopped walking. He stopped, too.
“Happy?” How the hell could he feel happy?
He smiled and it did things to me, but I was getting used to it, so I paid it no attention. “You know this already, little thief. You make me happy, even when you’re not with me.”
Fucking prick. “So why the hell did you leave?” He turned his head away, but I wasn’t going to have it. “Look at me, Damian. Why did you leave? Tell me the truth or I swear to God, I am done. I am not going back from this if you don’t tell me, I promise you. I’m done.”
His eyes widened, the colors in them losing shine, as if he just realized something and he didn’t like it. He didn’t need to like it. If he couldn’t tell me the truth, I couldn’t, either.
“They were tailing me,” he finally said, in a whisper so low I barely heard it. “The Guild had started to suspect about the existence of an Alpha Prime, though they didn’t know who it was. They were following me because they believed that I was going to lead them to the Alpha Prime. That’s what I thought I was doing—leading them to someone who could easily convince them that there was no Alpha Prime, just a very, very strong Prime.”
Something clicked in my head. “Alexander Adams.” That’s why he’d gone after Adams.
“It took me longer than I’d have liked, but he’s a difficult man to capture when he doesn’t want to be captured, so I had to wait for him to come to me. A mistake, that’s all. I had no idea he was with the Uprising when I picked him.”
Picked him. A target—somebody to throw to the Guild, just so he could get them off me.
Until he said it, I was halfway convinced that he was right, that it really didn’t matter why he’d stood me up, yet again, only that he had. But now that he told me, it did. It always mattered what he said, no matter how much I hated it.
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I asked, my voice already broken.
“Because you wouldn’t have let me try to pin it on him.”
“Of course not. It’s my mess, Damian!” It wasn’t Adams’s fault—not for this.
“I don’t care whose mess it is.”
“You still should have told me. You wouldn’t have had to…” Go after Adams, or anyone, for that matter. But he already knew this.
“You would have insisted that we run away together, from the Guild, from everyone. You would have convinced me easily, and I couldn’t let you do that. You’re not just going to throw your life away for any reason.”
“Goddamn you,” I whispered.
“You’re going to be fine, little thief. Just sit tight and wait for this to be over.” His voice had gone soft again—my favorite version of all.
“And then what? What happens when this is over?” I wanted to ask him what was going to happen to us, but I was a fucking coward. Everything had changed now.
“What do you want to happen?” he asked, and it messed up all my thoughts instantly.
I shook my head. “I just want you.” That’s all I’d ever wanted since I met him.
The next second, he was right in front of me, his hands framing my face, the tip of his nose touching mine. I grabbed him by the wrists and held on tightly, to make sure he wouldn’t move away. God, how I’d missed him. With every fiber in my body. My life was falling apart all around me, everything I’d worked for, everything I thought I wanted was in ruins now, but I couldn’t even remember. I couldn’t bring myself to even think about it when Damian was here because in my mind I believed with all my heart that as long as we were together, there was nothing we couldn’t do.
“You already have me,” he whispered against my lips. “You always have, little thief. I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I would do it all again because the day I stop trying to protect you is the day I die.”
I closed my eyes and just breathed for a second. He never let go of me, never moved away. The fact that we were in the middle of the Pack’s territory didn’t seem all that important right now to either of us.
“I know I’m a difficult man to deal with, but I can learn. Just don’t be…done.” I could hear it in his voice when he smiled, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that he was. “And since you like truths so much, here’s a simple one: I love everything about you, even the things I don’t like. You were made for me, Sinea Montero.”
Boy, did I like the sound of that. Before I knew it, I was smiling, too.
“That kind of makes sense actually,” I said breathlessly. “I always knew I was made for a higher purpose.” What higher p
urpose was there than Damian Reed, really?
His shoulders shook while he laughed in silence, his eyes squeezed shut, his face barely containing his smile. I loved that look on him so much. And his laugh, even when it was silent.
“If you don’t—” kiss me right now, I was going to say, and follow it up with a threat that involved his balls, but I didn’t need to. His lips pressed onto mine kind of took away my ability to speak. He kissed me like he’d waited three hundred years for this moment, and it was even better than the real first time. His lips were just as soft, just as warm, just as fucking delicious, but now my mind was full of words, beautiful words in a beautiful order that made sense to me more than anything ever had. I love everything about you, he’d said, but to me, it was the sound of the world coming back together again. It didn’t matter if the Guild knew. If the Uprising knew. If anybody knew. We were going to get through it because we still had a date to go on and a life to live after that. Together.
Chapter Eleven
I called Sonny on Malin’s phone before they left. They’d wanted to spend the night, but I insisted that they needed to rest properly for tomorrow night, and they finally agreed. Talking to Sonny was swallowing a glassful of nails. I could barely keep my voice from shaking. I didn’t tell him anything, not over the phone, but I just wanted to hear his voice, know that he was okay, tell him that I was okay. I missed him so much already that it hurt me physically, but I tried to keep my attention elsewhere.
I scratched the hell out of the card in my hands and looked at the twin brothers. We were sitting around the dining table in Chris’s kitchen, pretending to play cards, but none of us was paying any attention. We were just passing cards around, and I couldn’t even tell you why we were bothering. Maybe just something to keep our hands busy?
“What exactly did he tell you?” Chris asked after the suffocating silence became my new normal for the past half hour. “You know who he is. You can’t trust him.”
I looked up at Chris. Most of the lights were off. We’d only left two lamps in the living room on, but I could still see his expression clearly. The sky was pitch black outside, and I couldn’t see the moon from where I was sitting. It was ten p.m. I wanted to congratulate him for holding it in this long.