Gus chuckled. “Once a cop, always a cop, huh?” His grin crumbled under Nathan’s withering stare.
“Government databases or not, I did what I had to do to find Solace. And the shifters who killed my parents.” Tears glittered in Autumn’s fierce eyes.
Nathan crossed his arms. “Look, I get it. Believe me, Autumn, you’re talking to one of the best in the revenge business. But even if we find Solace in there, there’s no guarantee we’d be able to escape a facility like this. ”
Autumn’s expression hardened. “We’re doing this,” she said through gritted teeth. “With or without you.”
Nathan opened his mouth to shoot back a response, then quickly bit back the words. Arms dropping to his sides, he leaned on the edge of Autumn’s desk and turned his attention to the computer screens. Maps, building plans, staff ID photos, experimental lab reports—this was all way beyond his capabilities. He was just a small-town cop who morphed into an overgrown reptile every once in a while. Except now . . .
. . . consider putting your affairs in order.
He shook his head. “Whether I help you or not, I have a feeling the person you have to convince is Sagan. This is his grandfather—his family—we’re up against.”
A heartbeat of silence passed before Sagan said, “I don’t need convincing. We can’t allow Violet and Thane’s daughter to remain with Renard Branstone.” His haunted eyes met Nathan’s. “We need to get her out of there as soon as possible.”
Everyone turned back to Nathan—again, waiting for him. To give them answers? The all-clear? Assurance they could pull off this mission unscathed?
Why rely on him so much?
An impossible weight settled in his core. If Dawn was right, there wasn’t much time left for anyone to rely on him.
Violet stepped forward. “Please, Nathan. I know that I . . . well, that this is something you don’t have to get involved in. But it would mean a lot to me if you helped us . . . helped me rescue Solace.”
Nathan’s breath hitched. Was there any point even trying to pretend he would ever deny Violet the chance to get her baby back? It was a sure bet he would need his Veniri abilities. And if it came to it, well . . . helping reunite Violet with her daughter wasn’t a bad way to end things.
“All right.” Nathan stood up. “If we’re going to do this, we have to give it everything we’ve got. We find Solace and get her out of there.”
Violet’s small smile broke through Nathan’s darkness like a rainbow; when she spoke, every hushed syllable was worth a ton of Erathi gold. “Thank you, Nathan.”
He gave a sharp nod. “We’d better get started.”
The tension in the room broke as the group scattered into action.
“First things first,” Tio called out over the chaos, “we need IDs, which means photos.” He dragged Nathan over to a wall.
“Watch it, clanger,” gruffed Nathan as he tried to unlatch Tio’s bone-crunching grip from his bicep. “What are they feeding you here? Iron?”
Tio chuckled and held up a camera. “Stop whining, slith. Now, usually I tell people to look like they just lost fifty bucks, but for you, well . . . resting I’m-about-to-kick-your-ass face should work too.”
“Resting what?”
“Don’t blame me. Violet was the one who came up with the term.”
Nathan humphed just as the flash went off.
Tio grinned down at the camera display. “Perfect.”
Just then, a shrieking alarm blared through the room, and everyone clamped their hands over their ears.
“What the hell is that?” Nathan demanded.
Autumn rushed over to her computer, and a few seconds later, the wailing stopped. “The perimeter has been breached.”
Everyone shouted at once.
“Breached?”
“What perimeter?”
“Does Mom know you installed these alarms?”
“I think everyone on this side of the hemisphere knows now. Sheesh! Did you have to make it so loud?”
Nathan pushed his way through the group to reach Autumn. “Who breached it?”
Ignoring the initial influx of questions, she continued typing. “It looks like one of the boundary lines in the forest has been tripped. Give me a sec, and I’ll pull up the live camera feed.” She paused her typing when surveillance video feeds from around the compound came up on the screens. “There.” She pointed to a couple of feeds that showed a section of forest bordering the compound. Four very large figures were weaving their way through the trees, heading straight to the residents’ buildings.
“Shifters.” Without even needing to check, Nathan knew both his elbow blades had been released.
“What kind?” Violet asked.
“Who are they?” Gus’s brow creased as he glanced around at everyone. “They could just be lost, right? They could just be out for a casual, nonthreatening stroll. Or maybe they’re . . . is that guy holding a spear?”
“There’s no need to panic.” Everyone turned to Tio, who winced. “It’s just my older brother and his, uh . . . friends.” Frowning, he added, “He’s a few days early.”
Nathan scanned the dense forest for any flicker of movement. “Are you sure this is where you said you’d meet your brother, Tio?”
“Pretty sure” came Tio’s voice a few steps behind.
“Yeah, but are we sure this is a good idea?” Gus asked for what might have been the hundredth time.
Autumn groaned. “If you’re scared, you should just go back to the house.”
“I’m not scared. I’m just . . . I’m not scared, okay?”
“Uh-huh, sure.”
“Whatever. Just shut up, Autumn.”
“You shut up.”
“How about you both shut up,” hissed Violet.
A hush fell over the group. If Nathan hadn’t been so on edge he would have been grateful for the brief interlude from Gus and Autumn’s incessant arguing.
Violet and her friends had all insisted on coming, although Nathan would have vastly preferred they’d stayed in the computer lab. Arguing would’ve been pointless. Besides, he hadn’t had enough rope on hand to tie them all up so they’d stay put—although in hindsight, he could’ve used some of the several thousand power cords lying around Autumn’s den.
“Anything?” Thane stood in Nathan’s periphery, as still as a statue.
“Not yet,” said Sagan from Thane’s other side.
“Maybe they’ve left,” Violet said in almost a whisper.
The tension in Nathan’s torso bubbled and churned. His tongue lashed out, the dimming rays of the afternoon sun glinting along the pink whip before it returned to his mouth. Mentally canceling out the emotions of his nervous companions, he focused on the flavors that remained. “Nope. They’re definitely still in there. Tio, what’s your brother doing? Why isn’t he coming out?”
“Um . . . I’m not sure. Maybe he wasn’t expecting me to have company.”
“Maybe we should just go in and find him,” suggested Violet.
“No,” said Tio, a little too harshly. “My brother might find it threatening if we go in. He needs to come to us.”
“Are you sure we’re meeting your brother?” Gus asked. “It sounds like you’re describing a Bengal tiger.”
“Yeah, well . . .” Tio’s words morphed into a groan. “My brother’s a bit of an old-school Jiovis.”
Nathan’s pulse spiked. “Well, then it would be helpful if you stopped hiding and got out here where he can see you,” he gritted out, fighting hard to prevent his elbow blades from slicing into view.
There was a soft swish-swish as Tio stepped through the grass, and half a second later, he pushed in between Nathan and Thane.
Nathan had detected the strong presence of apricot, the emotional flavor of dread, when he’d tested the air earlier. It almost certainly belonged to Tio. Only the young Jiovis knew what was waiting for them beyond the barrier of trees.
Tio suddenly stiffened.
“W
hat’s going on?” Nathan demanded.
“I’m not sure,” said Tio, “but something’s definitely put him on edge. One of them, maybe all of them, have been hurt.”
“What makes you so sure?” Nathan asked.
“Because I smell blood. Jiovis blood.”
Both Thane and Sagan readjusted their stances.
Nathan couldn’t help sniffing the air, even though he knew it was useless; his sense of smell wasn’t like that of the Jiovis and the Lycans. “You better call out to him. Assure him that we’re not a threat.”
Tio looked as if he were waiting for the ground to swallow him whole. “My brother’s going to be so pissed that I got myself kidnapped in the first place. And it’s my fault he had to go out of his way to come and get me.”
“Really?” Gus said through clenched teeth. “Is now the time you wanna sink back into your teenage insecurities?”
“Why didn’t he just send someone else to come and get you then?” Autumn asked.
Tio shrugged in defeat. “Because it’s his duty. I mean, our mother would have made him come and get me. Let’s just say, it would have been more convenient for my brother if I’d stayed kidnapped.”
Thane scoffed. “Glad I’m not the only one with brother issues.”
Tio rolled back his shoulders and huffed. “Let’s get this over with.” He took a step forward; called out a few clipped, guttural phrases; then waited.
“Get ready,” Nathan said in a low voice to Thane and Sagan, “just in case.”
Both nodded, and along with Nathan, they strengthened their stances, prepared to strike like vipers.
Tio called out again, this time with a slightly longer phrase. Nathan wasn’t fluent in the Jiovis language, but he recognized at least one word: friend, or rather harmless being. The description almost made him chuckle. There was nothing harmless about Thane, Sagan, or himself. Even Violet wasn’t someone to contend with.
A harsh voice shouted to them from the forest.
Nathan froze and scanned the trees, straining his ears. A faint crackle of twigs, a rustle of leaves, and then—
His eyes narrowed.
Four hulking figures traipsed out of the woods. Every inch of their exposed metallic flesh gleamed in the slowly setting sun.
“Oh no,” said Tio.
“What’s wrong.” Nathan closed in behind him as Thane and Sagan flanked Tio’s other side.
“There’s a lot of polished metallic skin.”
“Why is that bad?” Violet asked.
“It means they’ve recently taken a lot of damage,” said Nathan. “The patches of glossy skin are where their flesh has regenerated.”
The Jiovis shifter who led the group had gold flesh, very similar to Tio’s Jiovis form. Two of the others were silver—or maybe pewter—and the last was copper. Horns, skulls, needle-tipped spikes, and paper-thin blades protruded from every shifter, alongside more decorative swirls, geometric patterns, scales, ripples, and dimples. Each warrior’s pattern was unique, with the only shared feature being a solid silvery-green-tinged neck shield.
The shiny polished patches stood out even more starkly against the intricate designs. The golden shifter’s entire left arm was glossy and smooth, either due to a fresh amputation or severe flesh wounds from shoulder to fingertip.
“Oh boy,” said Gus in a hushed tone. “Who else thinks this was definitely a bad idea?”
The golden shifter’s heavy stomps halted a yard from Tio. He planted the base of his spear into the earth with a dull thud, then looked the young Jiovis up and down, peering at him from behind a fierce golden mask. Its living-metal design of sharpened teeth bordered the shifter’s mouth, and a highly detailed pair of skeletal hands framed his eyes with bony thumbs and forefingers.
Tio began to speak, but the golden shifter took no notice. Instead, he turned his gaze on Nathan, then slowly scanned the other members of the group.
Nathan glanced back at the “spear” in the golden one’s hand, and as recognition slowly dawned, the blood in his veins turned to ice.
“Nathan?” Thane said in a low tone.
“Yeah?”
“Are you looking at what I’m looking at?”
“Yeah. That’s not a spear.”
Rather than a typical blade, the spear-like shaft boasted a decorative metal head with a glowing orange orb floating at its center. Surrounding the orb were several metal semicircles and rings, like a kinetic solar system sculpture, but most striking of all was the Jiovis symbol for Jupiter etched into the metal above it. The symbol glowed a fierce orange even richer than the orb itself. Nathan recalled various rumors about the glowing orb containing the blood of the first Jiovis king; a drop of blood from each royal successor was supposedly added during every coronation ceremony.
Thane released a heavy exhale. “We’re screwed.”
Nathan slightly tilted his head. “It’s a possibility.”
The golden Jiovis finally responded to Tio, his voice a deep rumble with a rich accent. Then he eyed Nathan and directed a few phrases toward him and the rest of the group.
Tio turned, his face pinched in a grimacing smile. “So, guys”—he gestured to the Jiovis shifter towering over him—“this is my older brother. And you should probably know that, um . . . that he’s—”
“En’gorr Droth, the crowned prince of the entire Jiovis race?” Thane offered.
Several gasps erupted from the trio behind Nathan, along with a hissed, “Did he just say prince?”
Tio pursed his lips and nodded.
“No way,” Gus blurted out.
“That information would have been handy before now, Tio.” Nathan huffed, glancing between Prince En’gorr and the royal Jiovis scepter.
“Yeah, Tio. Why didn’t you tell us?” Thane asked. “Or should I say Prince It’thio Droth?”
Tio’s bottom lip protruded in a mournful pout. “I hate it when people call me by my full name.”
En’gorr spoke again, and he and Tio began to converse. Nathan’s Jiovis translation skills were getting a thorough workout, but before he could make much sense of anything, Thane groaned.
“What now?” Nathan asked.
“Uh, well . . .” Tio winced. “My brother’s not really impressed that I’m . . . how should I put it? That I’m mingling with sliths and Erathi.”
“No kidding,” growled Thane.
The prince jabbed a finger at Sagan, and Tio rubbed the back of his neck. “He’s especially confused as to why there’s a hunter with us.”
“Confused wasn’t exactly the word he used,” amended Thane.
Sagan slowly raised his hands. “Tell your brother I’m not here to harm anyone.”
In reply, En’gorr curled his lip into a sneer. He stepped forward until he was eye to eye with the hunter. Without even a flinch, Sagan raised his chin to expose his neck—the Jiovis’s customary sign for submission—and steadily held the prince’s fierce gaze.
For several agonizing seconds, En’gorr stared Sagan down.
Tio translated En’gorr’s vicious statement: “The Erathi whose men slaughtered my warriors looked a lot like you.”
Sagan stood solid, even as En’gorr’s eyes began to glow a vibrant orange and a crackle of amber electricity ignited all over the prince’s head.
Nathan grabbed Thane’s shoulder to hold him back just as Tio clasped En’gorr’s arm, speaking urgently in the Jiovis language too fast for Nathan to have a chance at deciphering. Tio gestured to Sagan, then at Nathan and Thane.
En’gorr’s eyes never left the young hunter, and for several long seconds, every muscle in Nathan’s body braced for the worst possible outcome.
Finally, the raging electricity died down. Even the intensity in En’gorr’s expression diminished. He eyed Sagan for a second longer, then with a tsk, took one step back and turned his attention to Thane and Nathan. They also raised their chins to expose their necks.
En’gorr spoke as Tio translated. “My younger brother tells me it was
you who helped him escape from the hunters’ prison. To express my thanks, my warriors and I extend our peace to you”—he shot a venomous glare at Sagan—“for today.”
Nathan nodded. “Tio, tell your brother—”
He cut himself off as Thane responded in the Jiovis tongue. Nathan’s eyebrows shot up, and even Tio’s face slackened in shock. It was difficult to see the prince’s expression behind his mask, but Nathan could sense his surprise. It was one thing to understand the metal shifters’ language, but when had Thane learned to speak it? More importantly, who taught him?
The prince inclined his head slightly when Thane finished.
“What did you say?” Autumn whispered to Thane.
En’gorr’s attention abruptly shifted to Autumn, the intensity in his gaze almost palpable. After a moment, everyone else in the group warily turned to her too.
“Uh, Autumn, why is he looking at you like that?” Violet asked.
Autumn’s jaw hung open. “I don’t know.”
The Jiovis prince spoke, his gaze still locked on Autumn.
Tio translated: “A few days ago, a large group of Erathi hunters ambushed and raided our camp. Many Jiovis shifters lost their lives, but so did many of the Erathi filth. Eventually, myself and three of my warriors were all that remained, and we were overpowered and chained. But before my three warriors and I escaped, Matthias, the leader of the hunters, spoke to me.”
Nathan, Sagan, and Thane all readjusted their stances.
“He was looking for something,” En’gorr continued. “He believed the object he was after was in my possession, but his men turned our camp upside down and never found it. He screamed and threatened, demanding I tell him where it was hidden. To begin with, I didn’t understand. But soon I began to realize what he was looking for. Up until that moment, I had assumed the heirloom he described was just another trinket, passed down from father to son.
“The hunter and his men did not find it because it was stolen from me many months ago.” Tio paused the translation as En’gorr pushed past Nathan to stand toe to toe with Autumn. “Stolen by you.”
Gus groaned and dragged a hand down his face.
Flames of Mars (Celestial Shifters Book 2) Page 21