by Knight
He’s not what I was expecting, at all. Oh he gives me the creeps all right, but he looks old and fragile. He must be in his sixties, with short-trimmed grey hair, even a grey beard. He is almost unassuming, almost blending in with the big, muscular men around him. My eyes would skip over him in the crowd, maybe that’s the point. Even the way he walks makes him look weak, but from the look in his eyes, he is anything but.
They stop meters away from me and I panic. Do they have a code word? A handshake?
“Raymond.” The old man’s voice is clear and strong, making me re-estimate him.
I incline my head, unsure how to greet the man before me, but I shouldn’t have worried, his eyes drop to the girl at my feet and light with interest, completely ignoring me now. “What have you brought me this time?” he asks, his voice rushing in excitement.
I push the girl forward with my foot, thinking quickly on the spot. “Doc doesn’t know what she is, but he mentioned fire,” I blurt, and wince before schooling my expression when he looks at me.
“Fire?” He taps his chin before grinning. “Excellent. Load her up,” he snaps at the men.
Two walk over to us and grab her by the arms and pull her to her feet. As they bend over, two identical necklaces slip from their shirts—a large, green glowing stone on the end of a metal clasp. Frowning, I watch as they pull her away, she starts to struggle, throwing me a look as they drag her over to the old man.
“Gag her, I hate it when they talk,” the man orders, before turning back to me, the nasty look on his face disappearing in an instant.
“Your payment will be wired as usual.” He nods and turns to leave, shit.
Think Dawn, think.
“Actually, we want to renegotiate,” I blurt out and all the men freeze, looking between each other as the old man gives me a considering look.
“What was that?” he asks, his voice deadly, and he straightens up and my mouth drops open in shock at the power pouring from him. Holy fuck, he’s a supe.
His eyes change colour, his hair turns brown, and his wrinkles disappear until a middle-aged, attractive man is standing before me. “You were saying?” he demands and the men tighten around him.
I spare them a look, noticing the same strange glowing coming from every one of their chests. The woman starts to fight, screaming at everyone.
“I’m not getting paid enough for this shit!” It cuts through the air and the man’s head swivels her way, his eyes narrowing before he stomps over to her. Grabbing her head in a vice, he growls into her face as she screams.
“Paid?”
She nods, her eyes looking at me. “Dawn, he paid me.”
“Dawn?” the man questions, looking over at me with confused eyes.
“Test her.” He throws the woman at one of the men who touches her forehead lightly, his eyes closing as he concentrates. With a snarl he pulls away, spitting at her feet.
“Human, sir,” he replies.
The no longer old man looks at me, his eyes cold. “Kill her,” he orders.
One of the men pulls a gun and before I can scream a warning or move, he aims and fires, hitting Crystal right between the eyes. She falls to the ground, blood pooling around her head as I look back at the man in charge. Griffin tried to warn me, Nos as well, but I thought I could handle it. These aren’t humans and they aren’t messing around.
My arm starts to shake and I quickly hide it behind my back, knowing it means I need to change back soon.
“Care to explain, Ray, or should I call you Dawn?” he inquires, stepping closer, his men with him. They all look angry now, and hungry for my blood.
“We should kill the human and find another to work with,” one of the men suggests, and the man in charge taps his chin before sighing.
“Maybe you are right,” he mutters, sparing me a look. “He has become more trouble than he is worth. Kill him.” With that, he turns and walks back to a car and gets in. It pulls away, leaving only one car and all the man’s bodyguards behind.
They converge on me, their eyes excited as they move closer. My death is written across all of their faces.
I hear his wings before arms band around me, pulling me from the ground and yanking me into the air. He holds me close and I turn in his arms, burying my face in his chest as we fly higher and higher, so those on the ground below can’t see us. After what feels like hours, we level out and he starts away, flying hard.
“Hold tight, we need to get far away,” he screams and I nod, not trusting my voice in case the wind sweeps it away. I feel the change come over me, and I let it. I clamp my mouth shut so not to distract Griffin until I sigh, finally back to myself again. Griffin’s clothes hang loose around me, so I reach down with shaking fingers, and tighten the belt on the pants to keep them up.
We don’t talk as we fly away, at least for ten minutes or so, and when I peek down all I can see is the dots of the city’s lights below.
Looking up, I meet his hard, angry eyes.
“What the fuck were you thinking? I knew this was a bad idea,” he yells and I glare, starting to get mad. That had been close, too fucking close.
“I’m fine, I knew you had my back. That’s what mates do, right?” I joke, and he turns to stone against me. His eyes glitter in the night sky, flashing down on me like lightning as he focuses his intensity on me.
“You trust me too much,” he warns. “Remember, I’m an assassin. I have no loyalty.”
“Liar,” I goad. I don’t know why, but I’m sick of him talking about himself and this connection like this. There is only so long you can lie to yourself and I’m tired of seeing him wallow with the pity dick in his mouth.
“I warned you, vasculo.” He opens his arms and I scramble to keep hold of him, but it’s no use. The wind pulls me away as I plummet to the city below.
He watches me, beating his wings to keep him still, looking so much like an angel watching a human fall to their death. His beauty, his anger—his everything.
In his eyes I see the truth, he is testing me. He’s pushing me away because he still doesn’t believe he deserves a mate. If I fail the test now, again, I will only be proving him wrong and he is wrong. I do trust him, more than he trusts himself.
He thinks he’s crazy, and he is. He thinks he’s nothing more than a monster, which he is, but I see something beyond all that—I see him.
I stop struggling and let the wind take me. I let myself fall, my arms and legs floating, my hair whipping around me as I keep my eyes on him while he grows smaller and smaller. I don’t scream, I don’t even look down. I keep my eyes up—I keep my eyes where I know my savior is.
My heart is racing. Inside I’m fighting, but on the outside—I’m calm.
The seconds pass by in a blur and I know I’m growing closer to the city below, even with my healing and strength I don’t think I can survive this fall. My life is in his hands. His to take, his to save. The assassin with a choice, because if he chooses to save me, then he is choosing me. Choosing life.
I refuse to close my eyes as I feel the ground rushing up to me, but like an avenging angel, he breaks through the darkness above. He holds his wings to his chest as he spirals down to me, shooting through the air, his hands stretched out to grab me. Beaming, I hold my hands out, hoping he will get to me in time. Inside my heart leaps in happiness and I nearly purr.
He grows closer and closer, but I can see the panic and regret on his face and I know he isn’t going to make it. Blinking hard, to get rid of the water from the wind, I smile sadly at him.
“It’s okay,” I mouth at him and he growls loudly, like thunder splitting the night, and tucks his wings in closer, diving for me.
If he doesn’t pull up now, we will both hit the ground. He will be hurt, maybe even die.
“Griffin, it’s okay. Pull up,” I shout, but he ignores me.
His eyes glitter like stars from the determination within, his face hard and unreadable.
I stretch my hands higher as he reaches ou
t, our fingertips brushing. I can hear car horns now, smell the ground. He screams and I close my eyes.
I feel his arms wrap around me, knocking my breath away, and my eyes fly open. Looking down, I spot the ground mere meters away and I glance back up to see his face strained as he beats his wings, trying to get us up and away from the ground. He yells, his arms tightening as we shoot upward.
He falters in the air from the strain and we drop again, but this time he turns mid-air, keeping his back to the ground I can see rushing towards us. He grunts when we hit the roof of a building, sliding slightly before stopping.
Both of us are breathing heavily, staring at each other in amazement before his expression clouds over and turns to anger.
“What the fuck, Dawn!” he yells, like I was the one who dropped me.
I snort and lean down, dropping a kiss on his parted lips. He freezes and I pull away, rolling to the roof next to him. I stare at the sky and work on slowing my heartbeat.
“Never doubted you,” I joke.
He jumps to his feet with his hands in his hair as he paces, muttering to himself. I sit up and place my head on my knees. He screams and turns to me, his whole body shaking with the power and anger running through him.
“Why do you care? Why are you pushing this so much?” It sounds angry, but underneath I can hear him struggling to understand, and that’s when it hits me. He probably has never experienced love, he doesn’t know why or how. For him, I’m just another person in a long line waiting to hurt, betray, or use him. My poor Griffin. Jumping to my feet, I face him and lay it all out, it’s the only way he’s ever going to understand.
“You forget, I was alone when I died. I met death and no one cared, no one even stopped...no one noticed. So whatever the fuck this is, fate, dumb luck, even just chance, I don’t give a shit. I’m going to grip it with both hands and let it warm me through, because I never want to feel the cold, dark touch of death and be alone again. I would endure any pain, any wrath. Let your rage wash over me, face your crazy and hurt, and still stand. Now, the question is, why don’t you want this so much?” I ask, finally letting the hurt into my voice. I know I’m not the best mate, hell, I’m a monster, but I’m the only one they are going to get and it hurts that he keeps turning away from me so much.
“Are you really going to give up a chance of happiness, or having someone there, someone at your back, because you’ve been hurt before? Boo fucking hoo, shit happens. Not loving someone, or being alone doesn’t stop that person from getting hurt. It just means you aren’t there to see it. You’ve seen cities built, technology advance, and yet you’re too dumb to realise the only thing we have in this fucking world is each other,” I finish, my chest rising and falling quickly as I get everything out before he tries to speak.
I suck in a breath and shout, “Yes, call me all the names you want Griffin. Curse me, leave me to do whatever you want to make yourself feel better. To make sure your walls stay up and you never get hurt. In the end, it won’t matter. What will is who’s beside you when the end comes. Like I trusted you just then, I knew you would always catch me. You need to learn to trust me because, baby, I am never going to drop you,” I promise.
The panic on his face is adorable as he watches me like a lost little boy and his wings droop behind him as he faces down his worst fear—trusting someone.
“Why, why, I need to know why!” he screams, stopping before me, his eyes filled with his own special brand of Griffin madness. I embrace that too.
Stroking the side of his face, I let him see the truth in my eyes. “I know you don’t believe me, not yet, but you will. We stick together, us monsters. I will never judge you, not for your madness or your anger, and you will stand by me like you did tonight. You asked me why, it’s simple. You are my mate.”
It’s the wrong thing to say. He growls and pulls himself away before jumping on the roof ledge, his wings spreading out. I follow him, hopping up next to him and balancing there as I grab his arm.
“No, I lied. It’s not that simple. It’s because even though you don’t know me, you saved my life more than once. It’s because of the anger I see in your eyes whenever I mention my ex-husband. It’s the fucking good I see in you when you saved those women when you didn’t have to. It’s because of the beauty you craft with your hands and hide away so no one can see. It’s because, even though you’re angry and driven to madness, you take pictures to show your view of the world. Everything for you is dark, but if you let me, I will be your light,” I vow.
He swallows hard and turns to face me, with the night sky and the drop to the ground to our right, and the rooftop to our left. “And if I can’t?”
“What does it hurt to try?” I ask seriously. I reach out my hand and leave it in the middle, waiting for him decide. I won’t force him.
My heart races and my palm turns sweaty for those agonising seconds he leaves me waiting, but he slowly places his hand in mine before using it and dragging me to him. Looking up at him from the circle of his arms, I smile.
“It doesn’t mean I won’t be an asshole, just not all the time,” he warns and I laugh.
“I never expected anything else from you,” I admit and he chuckles, and the sound makes me grin, because there is true happiness ringing there. He stops, his eyes sparkling, and I reach up on my tiptoes and kiss him gently before settling back on my feet again.
“You call that a kiss?” he scoffs.
He leans down and covers my mouth, and I part my lips and he sweeps in. Groaning, I reach up and grip his shoulders as the kiss turns hard. All fighting tongues and clashing teeth, our need exploding between us. Between both near misses and our fight, this had been brimming for a while.
He grips my ass and drags me closer before groaning into my mouth and picking me up. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I hold on to him hard, giving as good as I get. Loving the hard way he grips me, not like I’m fragile, but like I’m an equal.
I gasp and pull away from his mouth as he lifts us from the roof, his wings flapping to get us above the city until we are floating in the sky. There is no rush this time, nothing to run from or a fight to be had. Instead, I look around me in awe, loving the freeing feeling of flying.
I laugh and lean back in his arms, holding my arms out to side and letting the air flow through my fingers. Looking back at Griffin, I see him smiling softly, for once just happiness on his face.
“I have always wanted to try something,” he teases, and I lean into him with a wicked grin.
“Well, come on then, do tell, wing boy,” I quip.
“Why don’t I show you?” he snarks back, as one of his arms stays around me, but his other snakes under my top and cups my breasts, the loose male shirt billowing around us as he untucks it. It’s not like I could wear a bra in male form, so his warm palms covers my hard nipple and he starts to roll it between his fingers, making me gasp.
“Griffin,” I moan, when his hand leaves my breasts and travels down my stomach, leaving fire in its wake as he touches me. He reaches the trousers, the only reason they have stayed up is the belt, which he undoes, and unzips them before slipping his hand inside. My eyes go wide as he nudges past the boxers I borrowed from him and cups my pussy.
“You can’t be serious.” I laugh.
“Deadly, unless you’re scared?” he taunts.
Grinning, I grip his shoulders harder. “Don’t drop me this time, Fallen,” I order as he rubs my clit, making me moan.
He leans in and kisses me. “Never again,” he whispers, as he wrings moan after moan out of me and into the night sky.
The car stopping has me springing up in my seat. The driver looks over at his shoulder at me. “Sorry, sir, I need to visit the bathroom and get fuel.” He nods at the station we are at and slides from the car.
Groaning, I slide from the car as well and stretch my body. My muscles are cramped from being in that small space for so long. Leaning back against the black car, I eye the station we have stopped at. It�
��s busy at this time of day, with cars parked out front and at the pumps. People have pulled up on the side at a picnic area, and seem to be relaxing.
Scanning the cars, my eyes linger on a nondescript black van, but when I see the woman and man heading to it with laughter on their faces and food in their arms, I shrug it off and look away.
Night is setting, you can feel it, and with it brings a cold chill to the air, but that isn’t the reason I find myself slipping back into the car. Something is off. Growling under my breath, I palm my swords and wait.
The driver eventually makes his way back to the car and he takes one look at my face before jumping inside and speeding off. Staring out the back window, checking to see if anyone is following us, I relax when I spot nothing.
Once we are a couple of miles away, I relax back into my seat and look at the driver. “No more stops, we are being hunted,” I order.
He nods, his hands gripping the wheel tightly. “Should I call master Carmichael?” he offers, his voice surprisingly calm.
“No, I’ll handle it when they decide to make their move. Just keep your eyes on the road and get me where I need to be,” I demand before sitting back, my swords ready in my lap. Waiting.
Being the hunted, the prey, doesn’t sit well with me, so I am just waiting for their first move so I can flip it on them.
I’m more relaxed now that I know the tracer is broken, even if the witches’ words keep rattling around in my head. Even my dragon is on high alert, sensing an issue. I pull over when it gets dark and try to connect to Dawn, but nothing happens. Frowning, I carry on driving, planning to try again later.
Pressing down on the gas, I speed up as something urgently pushes me to reach my mate. When I pull over a couple of hours later and I still can’t reach her, I start to get really worried. It’s possible she is not sleeping, that she is busy, but my dragon roars inside of me. A warning, or a threat?