Fractured Slipper
Page 10
The guy with dark hair twisted, trying to get in a better position and that’s when his face came into focus and I lost all train of thought. He had glittering cobalt eyes that contrasted against his tan skin and hair, full lips, a carved jaw, and cheeks that were currently dimpled with strain from the fight. The blonde guy reached his arm around, shifted, and flipped the dark-haired guy over on the ground, hitting the back of his head on the pavement. I winced and hoped he would be okay.
The guy with blonde hair rose with a sharp smile on his face as he towered over his spent opponent. The toothy smile that looked like a row of small daggers in his mouth instead of teeth is what made me recognize him, and my stomach immediately clenched. Grog. He was well-known in the tunnels—a wraith who needed fresh blood to use his magic. Taking the blood from his victims wasn’t pretty, or painless. Everyone knew to stay away from Grog. The dark-haired guy must have wandered into the tunnels by accident—or he was just exceptionally stupid. No one was coming to save him. The tunnels had been forgotten by normal law enforcement long ago; we had to police ourselves.
The guy on the ground made a groaning noise and shifted his head. At least he wasn’t unconscious. Grog moved into his strike pose and I was racing forward before I’d even made the conscious decision to do it. And I shouldn’t be doing it. Using my magic in public with no disguise went against everything I’d taught myself in order to survive. But I couldn’t stand by and do nothing while Grog killed someone defenseless. It wasn’t in my nature. The dark haired guy needed help. I would help him.
“Grog,” I yelled, rushing toward him, my chestnut brown hair swishing around my shoulders as I ran. I could feel my golden eyes darkening as my adrenaline and anger increased.
He looked up and narrowed his eyes at me. We’d had run-ins before. The guy on the ground focused on me too, his sapphire eyes bright. I willed him to take advantage of the distraction and get up and run. He just laid there, about as helpful as a sack of flour. Maybe he was more hurt than I thought. “Leave him alone,” I snarled.
Grog looked from me to the guy on the ground. I could practically see his thoughts moving, and knew just as certainly when he’d made his decision. “No,” Grog said. “He’s mine.”
Grog leaned down, talons that looked like needles stretching from the tips of his fingers. I had mere seconds before he’d push those talons into the man. I stopped about ten feet from Grog, planted my feet, put my hands up in front of me with my palms out facing him, and concentrated all of my attention on the wraith. My vision sharpened and took on an orange hue as flames rose in my irises. I watched as the smoke started to twirl around him.
Grog halted his attack on the man and started yelling at me to stop instead. I just needed him to back off and then I’d let him go before the smoke turned into flames. “Are you done, Grog?”
“No!” he roared, and turned back to the guy on the ground.
I increased the pressure of my magic and in seconds, the smoke that had been circling around him flared to life, flames rising from the ground. Grog screamed and took off down the alley.
I dropped the flames and released a breath I hadn’t known I was holding, and then turned my attention to the guy on the ground. He was looking at me. I’m not sure what I’d been expecting as a reaction…relief maybe, perhaps a thank you for not being turned into Grog’s dinner. I got neither. The guy’s eyes flashed and fury drenched his features. His wrath was totally focused on me. “Why did you do that?” he growled as he pushed himself up off the pavement, his body rising like a finely tuned machine.
I stared at him, stunned. After several seconds, I finally found words, “Are you kidding me? Do you know where you are? Or did you wander into the tunnels by accident?” I pointed toward the alley where Grog had retreated. “That wasn’t some random person who lives down here for fun. It was a wraith who needs blood to fuel his magic. He was about to kill you! I saved your life!”
They guy reached down, brushing dirt off of his jeans and black shirt. “I know exactly who that was. And I had it handled.” His skin was pulled tight across his face and his tone was very precise. He seemed livid.
I snorted a laugh. “You were on the ground, frozen and helpless.”
A muscle ticked by his eye. “I wasn’t helpless.”
I raised my brows and crossed my arms over my chest. “A toddler would have had more defense skills than you.”
His shoulders went rigid and his cobalt eyes flared with intensity. He focused on me as he closed the distance between us. In my haste to help save him from having all his blood leeched away, I hadn’t totally noticed his aesthetics. He was huge. And I was suddenly very aware of how incredibly attractive this idiot was. His dark hair swept over his forehead in messy chunks. He had a straight nose, full lips, and a jawline that looked like it had been chiseled by a master artist. And all of that sat on top of a body that looked like it was ninety-nine percent muscle and as hard as titanium. I narrowed my eyes. Why did all the hot guys have to be dumb?
He stopped less than a foot in front of me. I glared at his invasion of my space and held my ground. His lips stretched and suddenly, his powerful arms were locked around me, holding me in place. A spark rushed through me at his touch. I immediately explained it away as anger for the arm prison he’d put me in. I looked down to analyze his hold and how I could escape it and got distracted by his thick arms, corded with ropey muscles. I wrinkled my nose at my reaction. That kind of distraction was not an option because number one, this imbecile was ungrateful at best, and dangerous at worst. He was here. In the tunnels, where he clearly didn’t belong. He’d been fighting Grog for some unknown but incredibly stupid reason, because you only fought something like Grog if you had no sense, and I couldn’t trust that he wasn’t insane. And number two, he’d just watched me use my magic and could now identify me—that was not a good thing. I’d spent years cultivating disguises and making sure my powers were used as stealthily as possible. The only people who knew who I was, and what I could do, were the people I trusted implicitly. “Let me go,” I hissed, wriggling in his hold.
“Oh no,” he said, his arms pulling me tighter to him. “You just screwed up everything, and we need to have a chat.”
Fear rushed through me. I had no interest in spending any more time with the hot idiot currently trying to abduct me. Someone being able to identify me and turn me over to the Magic Harnessers for ransom was one of my biggest fears. I was not inclined to spend any more time with this stranger who seemed to be more enemy than friend. “I’m not interested in talking.”
“Guess how much I care,” he said. He voice was deep and his breath hot on my neck. The sensation shot traitorous electricity through me and made me really mad.
The skin on my face pulled tight with anger. “Probably about as much as I do.” I lifted my leg and stomped down on his foot as hard as I could. His grip loosened enough that I was able to move my arm and jam my elbow into his side. I heard him groan, and his grip loosened a little more, enough for me to twist out of his grasp. I turned and started to run. Just as I thought I was getting away, he reached out and grabbed my leg and we both went down on the pavement. Hard.
I caught myself before my face hit the ground, but my hands were already burning from the fall. I reached up, brushing the hair out of my eyes and turned to look back at him. He only had my ankle; I could still get away. I started kicking with every bit of strength I had, using my anger at the whole situation as fuel. He couldn’t hold on, but somehow, by some ridiculous twist of fate, he managed to grab my shoe. I scrambled away from him, one foot naked. I stared at him, my eyes wide and a baffled look on my face. That jerk took my shoe! I stalled for half a second, wrapping my head around that information and trying to decide my next move. Demand it back? Fight him for it? No. That would be dumb. I’d just outed myself as a powerful magic user to an unfriendly stranger in the tunnels. I wasn’t in the mood to stay and fight this barbarian for my footwear. I gave him a glare as I pushed mys
elf off of the ground, got up, and started to run.
My mood was foul as I looked over my shoulder. He was kneeling on the pavement, his expression one I could only describe as grim curiosity as he watched me flee. My heart was pumping with adrenaline and frustration. I was angry at myself for letting my guard down and being identified. And I was furious with the jerk who had done the identifying and, to add insult to injury, took my freaking shoe!
I ran for several blocks, taking paths I normally wouldn’t just in case he was following me. When I was certain of my safety, I went home. I came to the curved arch alcove that led to Haven, the building my people stayed in. Ancient red brick crumbled around the foundation. It was hundreds of years old and I was surprised it had held up this well with no real maintenance. The tunnels protected the basements of the buildings from weather though, so that helped. I came to the large metal door, pulled out my keys, and unlocked five different locks. Some might call the security paranoid; I called it thorough. Anyone who thought the locks were overkill hadn’t spent much time in the tunnels. I slipped inside, shut the door behind me, and relocked all of the locks. Then I leaned against the back of the door, breathing a sigh of relief.
I thought about the man. Dark hair falling over his face, all hard lines that projected testosterone, full lips that should be illegal on a man, and piercing blue eyes. My mind wandered to his big arms and large hands…hands that had been wrapped around me trying to submit me, and the same hands that had stolen my shoe right off of my foot. I narrowed my eyes at the negative turn of my thoughts, and then welcomed them because it broke the spell I’d been putting myself under about the attractive and dangerous thief.
I furrowed my brow and grumbled under my breath. Now I’d have to find another pair of shoes and I really liked those! Breaking shoes in is hard, especially when you run as much as I do.
Chapter 2
Sway was watching the news and I stood in the doorway, watching behind her. Another terrorist attack, fires destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of land, earthquakes crumbling cities and killing people. She flipped off the news as I sighed and leaned against the exposed brick wall that matched the red brick on the outside of our home. She heard me and turned her head around. “Things keep getting worse,” I said, motioning to the TV. I was concerned about the rise of violence I’d seen recently. It felt like we were on the verge of something—something terrible and terrifying. I just didn’t know what it was. Part of me wondered if mages might be helping to cause the problems—or fight them. Mages were incredibly powerful and unless they had protection from their families or other magic groups, people kept their powers a secret.
Sway leaned forward and grabbed her drink off the table. She loved soda, and loved it even more when it was flavored with extra sugar. “You worry too much, Hadley,” she said, sipping her sugar water as she twisted on the couch so she could see me better.
“Someone has to,” I answered, plopping down next to her. “Where is everyone?”
She waved her hand toward the doors. “Out. Perry had a party to go to. Lauren and Lexi had a swim meet, Jeb is working, and Monty had a date.”
My eyebrows went up. “Monty had a date?”
“I know,” she said, her eyebrows creeping up. “We were all stunned.”
“I didn’t know he was interested in dating. Who is she? Does she have magic?” I frowned as various scenarios flooded my brain. “Do I need to be worried?”
Sway gave a hefty sigh. “He’s fine. He met her at school.”
That didn’t make me feel much better, but at least I had a way to track her down if he went missing. Abductions were a cruel reality of our world. Unless you had someone protecting you, you had to constantly be on the lookout for people who wanted to use you. Magic Harnessers—people who tried to steal magic and use it for their own purposes—were real, and they were petrifying.
Sway looked at me from the side. “You put everyone else’s needs in front of your own. You need to start taking care of yourself first.”
I shook my head, snorting a laugh as I realized how much I’d fooled her. Did I like helping other people? Sure. Everyone does. Did I want to make sure people I cared about were safe? Of course I did. But she was making me seem far more altruistic than I was. My main motivation, and the reason for almost every decision I made, was to find the people who had murdered my parents, and kill them. It had become a personal mission that had turned into an obsession the longer it went on without resolution. Someone had taken my family from me, along with my only hope for a normal life, and stolen it. I was on a personal vendetta, and I would get retribution. “I’m not as self-sacrificing as you make it seem.”
She shifted and moved to the floor in front of the couch, stretching a leg out. She’d been practicing yoga and karate for years and I seriously envied her flexibility. She bent at the waist and grabbed her foot with her hand and then her face contorted into a weird expression as she inclined her head to look at me. “Why are you only wearing one shoe?” she asked, her tone full of confusion.
I screwed up my face. I was still so shocked by what had happened that I’d forgotten I only had one piece of footwear. The thief’s infuriatingly handsome face flashed in my thoughts and I scowled. “It wasn’t my choice.”
“Whose choice was it?”
I had a slew of colorful names for him, but tried not to swear around my friends who were younger and impressionable. “A jerk’s. I met him on the way home in the tunnels on Vine Street. I thought he needed help. Turns out, he didn’t. And then the dummy attacked me for trying to save his butt.”
She looked as offended by the whole thing as I had been. “That’s not very nice. Did you ask him why?”
I pressed my lips into a line. I’d been trying to escape the chat he wanted to have, not prolong it. “He was aggressively persistent about not letting me leave. I decided not to stay and have a discussion.”
One of Sway’s eyebrows went up and she looked at me like she was seeing something other than what I was trying to project. “Was he hot?”
His dark hair, deep blue eyes, and wide shoulders flashed into my mind. So. Hot. And I wasn’t going to admit that to a single soul, ever. I had a hard time even admitting it to myself. “I’m not going to answer that.”
Her lips spread into a grin. “So he was way hot!” she paused, her head tilting and eyes going up to the ceiling like she was weighing her options. “I think I would have stayed to see where things went.”
I waved a hand in front of me like I was giving her permission. “Feel free to try it if you’re ever being accosted by a dimwit the size of a gorilla.”
She gestured toward my foot. “So why are you walking around half barefoot?”
I narrowed my eyes as the scene replayed in my head. “Because the jerk stole my freaking shoe.”
Sway gave me a look. “He stole it?”
I nodded.
“Like, off of your foot?” she asked, a wrinkle forming between her brows. “You let him get that close?”
I glared. It wasn’t that hard to imagine. Hand-to-hand combat wasn’t easy. You used the weapons you had available. “I was trying to get away from him and he grabbed my leg. We both fell. I kicked at him, but he was able to hold onto my foot and pull my shoe off.”
She frowned. “Why didn’t you take it back?”
“Because he’d seen me use my powers and could identify me. I thought I should get away as soon as possible.”
“Why didn’t you just start him on fire?”
I’d asked myself that same question. Thanks to my stupid heroics, the stranger knew I had elemental fire magic and he could easily give someone my physical description. I should have neutralized the threat. But I hated hurting people. It wasn’t in my nature unless the person had done something to deserve it. I still didn’t know what the shoe thief’s motives were. “It’s a shoe. It wasn’t worth the energy.”
She rolled her eyes. “You could have just singed him a bit.”
She made a hmmph noise. “Fair enough. Hopefully you’ll never see him again.”
I nodded in agreement. “Fingers crossed.” A heavy weight seemed to settle on my chest as I said it, and I had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case.
It had been three days since the incident with Grog and the shoe thief. Despite feeling like I constantly had to look over my shoulder, which wasn’t an unusual feeling for a rogue mage anyway, things had been normal. I’d been busy at the shelter on a forty-eight hour shift. The long shifts always wiped me out and I was happy when I got to go home where I could relax. It was getting colder outside at night so the shelter was overwhelmed with people looking for a hot meal and a warm bed. I hadn’t run into Grog since I’d set him on fire, and neither had Sway, Perry, Lauren, Lexi, Jeb, or Monty...that I knew of. I hadn’t been home to talk to them, but none of them had texted me about it.
At the entrance to the tunnels, I said hello to Kerry and made my way down the wide pathway. I glanced in the direction of Grog’s makeshift house, various metal pieces in different states of decay patched together to make a living space. I didn’t see him there, but I still watched my back as I continued to Haven.
I opened all five locks on the front door and breathed in the scent of sugar as I pushed into the house. Someone had been baking something. I shut the door behind me, locking us all in, and walked across the painted concrete floor into the kitchen. I grabbed a chocolate chip cookie off of the counter and broke it apart. The inside was still gooey and the chocolate melty—my favorite. I was about to take a bite when I heard a commotion from somewhere down the hall and I was accosted by Sway, Perry, and Lexi, who came from the other room at a run, and barely stopped before plowing me over.