She reaches for my hand, her grip punishing. “Laura, you don’t understand. It’s not them. It’s him, it’s Leon. He’s here, he’s coming for you.”
I step back and pull my arm free from her grip. Immediately rubbing the soreness, she left behind. “He’s dead mom, he died years ago.” Bitterness fills my tone. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We do not have time for this, not now. You need to get out of here, run.”
I study her again. Her cloths are new, much nicer than anything she’s ever owned, and even her hair looks healthy. But the feverish look in her eyes isn’t new.
My heart falls, she is still living in the past. “Mom, I know about Leon, what he did.” I reach out for her arm, placing my hand over her shoulder. “Let me go get the others. Ares, he’s been researching Leon and his family. He can help us understand.”
She shrugs out from under my touch and grabs my shoulder. “Everything I’ve ever done was to keep you safe. I’m sorry I never told you. I never wanted this for you. I thought if I kept you away from all of it you would be safe.” A lump forms in my throat as I try to fight the pricking of tears behind my eyes.
“Mom, let me get the guys.” She’s shaking her head in denial before the words are out of my mouth.
“I can’t let him hurt you. Especially not now, he knows you are tied to all four of them.” Her face is pinched. “Please, just come with me. Once we get away, I’ll explain everything.”
I bite my lip. “What about my Infinity? I can’t leave them. I don’t want to leave them. Let me get Dante and the guys. We have a place and it’s safe. They’ll take care of us,” I plead, not sure if she even knows what is real, and what isn’t.
“Okay, okay. As long as we go right now,” she concedes. I take her hand in mine and pull the door open, still watching her over my shoulder.
She makes a strangled sound and jerks me back, placing herself in front of me. “No, no. I won’t let you hurt her.”
I look up and find an average-looking man blocking the exit door. His hair is a muddy brown, his eyes are more hazel than brown, and he’s rather tall. That uneasy feeling in my stomach grows. I reach for the back of my mom’s shirt and pull, wanting her far away from him as possible. Something about him is wrong, off. A chill shivers down my spine. People think Ares is dark, but this is true darkness, an oily evilness that seeps from his pores, threatening to tarnish everything it comes in contact with.
“Amanda.” His voice is soft, gentle even, which makes it even worse. Can everyone feel how tainted he is? “Introduce me to your daughter.” His head tilts and his eyes examine me, and I take a step back at the greed I see reflected in his gaze.
“I’m going to kill you,” my mother sneers.
Leon makes a sound that might be a laugh, but it’s a foreign sound, like he doesn’t even know how to laugh. “Come now darling, it’s not like you haven’t already tried.” All humor leaves his face. “Laura, either you leave with me now or I’ll strip your Infinity of their powers one by one when they come looking for you. Tick tock girl, I’m sure they’re already starting to get worried.”
Fear is my only emotion. I can’t let him hurt the others. Without any thought the lights dim, the shadows are reacting to my dread.
“A shadow walker,” Leon sighs likes he found out the restaurant is serving his favorite meal. “Michael told me he saw you pulling shadows, but to see it for myself.” He looks at me again and that same greedy ownership is covering his features.
I release the shadows, realizing how important it is that he doesn’t find out how many abilities I have here. God knows how many people he could hurt. If I can get him away from here, maybe I could fry him. A sour taste fills my mouth at the thought, but I don’t care how bad I feel about it. If it will keep my guys safe, I’ll do whatever it takes.
“Let’s go,” I croak out the words.
A macabre smile lifts Leon’s lips. “Smart girl, you might be my child after all.”
My mother looks over her shoulder, and her eyes meet mine. There’s a promise there, one I don’t think she can keep, but a promise nonetheless.
“Come now ladies, I don’t enjoy being kept waiting.” His words are formal, but the threat of what might happen if we keep him waiting any longer is there.
I place one foot in front of the other, walking away from the ballroom, away from my Infinity, something I never thought I would do willingly. But I’ll do anything to keep them safe.
Thoughts of the guys, how worried they’re going to be and how angry Ares will get, fill my mind. Milo will blame himself for letting me go alone. Oh Milo, we never bonded. The strain of me being gone will be the worst for him. That gives me pause. Should I try to start a fire, or kill the power, but what if my powers don’t work on Leon? No one ever explained if they work on other Infinities. Should I scream?
I don’t have an answer before Leon leads us to a back service door. We pass a few of the waitstaff, but no one even looks in our direction, they’re all so busy with their own tasks.
I’m too afraid to let Leon know I have more than one ability right now. I might be able to shadow walk away from here, but that leaves my mom at his mercy. If nothing else I can shift, it’s only a partial shift, but my claws alone will be enough to rip Leon to shreds. I walk past Leon as he holds the door open for us. I don’t even look in his direction, I’m too afraid he’ll see the intention in my eyes. There’s a black town car waiting at the door, how long has he been planning this?
He thinks he’s the one holding all the cards, but he’s so fucking wrong. He will learn he should have let sleeping beasts lie.
Chapter 25
The sound of the door slamming behind me jolts me. Looking over my shoulder, I see a flat panel door with no handle, only a keyhole that could allow readmittance. “Hurry up, before someone notices you’re missing.” Leon crowds in close to my back and nudges my shoulder. I jerk away from him. Heat is already building under my skin as my body response to the threat of leaving my Infinity behind.
“Don’t touch me.” My voice is feral. I step closer to my mom, which brings me closer to the black town car parked a few feet away. Leon, not acknowledging me as a threat at all, steps past me and reaches for the rear passenger door handle.
Placing myself between him and my mom, I square my shoulders. I’m not getting in that car with him, neither of us are. It’s too risky. I have no idea how he stripped Wyatt of his powers, but there is no way I’m letting him get close enough to me to let that happen.
I let the heat I’m barely containing under my skin rise to the surface. I can feel the loose tendrils of my hair that have escaped my messy updo raise. The static electricity coursing through me is enough to make my bones ache.
Leon looks back and his brows furrow like he doesn’t understand why I’m not clambering to get into the door he just opened. Something he sees has him releasing the door and standing at full height, his head tilting to the side. “Well, well, what have we here?”
“Leave.” I nod my head at the car. Everything inside of me is praying that he’ll climb into the car and leave us alone. But I know it’s a wasted effort.
Movement catches my eye as Leon runs his fingers over his thumbs at his sides. My mother takes a step like she might try to get in front of me, but I lift my arm to stop her. “You don’t want to do this,” I bluster, still hoping I can get him to leave without using my abilities on him.
“I really can’t think of anything I’d like more, actually.” His eyes go unfocused as he tilts his head again. He looks completely calm, but I’m reminded how deceiving appearances can be. Ares wears his refinement easily, but he doesn’t hide the danger that lurks underneath all his fancy cloths.
Leon looks the part in his navy blue suit and matching tie, but the crazy in his eyes can’t be missed. He looks almost desperate when he takes one step forward. In response I step back, forcing my mom to do the same. Leon’s lips tighten, and he looks over my shoulder at the d
oor separating me from the ballroom full of people, namely four men who would probably do anything to protect me, just as I would them.
“Get in the car before I make you.” Some of his coolness slips away. I shake my head no. His desperation confirms I’m making the right choice by not following his orders. I’m starting to think that maybe he’s using the threat to the guys as his way of coercing me to go with him, but it isn’t going to work.
“We aren’t going anywhere with you.” While my fingers are still aching with the energy I associate with Ollie, I think about Dante. About the beast he calls out of me. My jaw aches, and I open my mouth to allow room for my teeth to elongate. I can’t manage the full shift like Dante, but I know that my nails are enough to rip through him if he tries to force me into the car.
“You’re just full of surprises,” Leon mutters in an awed whisper.
“Laura,” my mom warns, not sounding nearly as confident as I would hope. I know the guys have to be looking for me at this point, since I’ve been gone well over ten minutes. I need Leon to leave, or I need to make sure he’s not a threat if the guys find us out here.
“I’ll kill you before I get in that car. It would be a kindness considering what they will do to you if they find you.” I don’t need to elaborate on who they are. My Infinity is the only they I could be referring to.
A smirk tips up the corner of Leon’s thin lips. “Too bad your mother took you away from me. I would have liked to see what you could have become if she would have stayed.”
A little of the fear causing my hands to shake fades, making room for simmering anger to bubble up in its wake.
It’s his fault I lived my life on the run. His fault my mom is a shell of a person. His fault I didn’t know what, or who I was.
I take a step forward and darkness falls over my shoulders like a shadowy cloak. All three of my borrowed abilities are churning together. Shadows inch forward from my feet, closing the distance between Leon and me.
Leon’s eyes jerk down as the inky tendrils curl their way toward him across the asphalt, seeking. He takes a step back, his eyes coming up to meet mine. “If you don’t leave, I’ll make you.” I use the same threat he tried on me only moments ago. I don’t hesitate this time, there’s no room left for doubt. It’s either him or us, and I’ll be damned if it will be me and mine.
“Dammit,” Leon curses, before taking one last step forward and sneering, “You’ll regret not coming.” Leon looks at the door behind me as it bursts open.
I turn to see Milo standing in the doorway, his wide shoulders filling the entrance and heaving with exertion. He reaches his hand out to me, but his eyes are focused on Leon as he flees. I hear a car door slamming followed by the squeal of tires, and when I look back it’s to see the taillights of the black town car turning the corner and driving out of sight.
“Laura?” my mom’s voice, again unsure, calls to me. I still have so much energy filling my veins that as I turn, my hair floats to follow me. She’s staring at the open doorway, now blocked by Dante and Ares, while Ollie comes sliding up at the last second.
“That was Leon,” I say needlessly. “And this is my mom.”
Milo spares her a glance then rushes to my side. His wide palms land on my cheeks as he turns my face side to side as he inspects me. “Are you all right?” His hands run down my neck and over my arms, until they reach my sides.
“I’m fine Milo.” I don’t meet his eyes, or any of the guys’. I don’t need to have Ares’s ability to touch on emotions to know they are royally pissed. Milo continues his path all the way down to my ankles. “Really, I’m fine.” I don’t know what I was thinking following him out here. Fuck, I’m going to be in so much trouble.
Also by Albany Walker
InfinityChronicles Book One
Infinity Chronicles Book Two
Get To You
Becoming His
Coming Soon
Infinity Chronicles Book Four
About Albany Walker
I am, a mother, a wife, a reader and a writer. In that order. My truth, I believe in real life happily ever afters, but you have to work for them.
I write what I want to read, romance. Be it hot and steamy or slow burn, crossing several sub-genres.
If you enjoyed my book, or any other consider leaving a review.
For updates:
[email protected]
https://albanywalkerauthor.wixsite.com/mysite
Infinity Chronicles Book Three Page 25