by May Dawson
At least, Garmond had tried. From what I heard, it hadn’t been much of a fight, though.
I nosed in front of Clearborn’s car, putting enough space between both cars for a fast getaway. “Where are Clearborn’s friends?”
“Maybe they tried to get ahead of him,” Lex said. “Find them. I’ll track Clearborn from here.”
Lex moved to the trunk, pulling out his sword, his 9mm, slinging his rifle over his shoulder.
Rafe hesitated, his elbow braced on the seat back but his body tense with energy no matter how still he held himself. Then he got out of the car.
“Stay with Jensen,” Lex ordered Rafe.
Rafe gave him a hard look. “Really? You’ve lost your goddamn mind. We’re going together, wherever we go.”
The two of them stared at each other.
“Don’t you dare smile at me. Good job, you successfully dragged me into your stupid shit,” Rafe warned.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Lex tossed him a sword in a sheath.
The three of us moved down the street together, trying to track Clearborn. I thought one of us should shift to try to get his scent when the sounds of violence down an alleyway caught all of our attention. The three of us broke into a furious run.
We found Clearborn surrounded by four shifters who were trying to take him down. He kicked one in the chest and knocked him down, but another one grabbed him from behind. Clearborn threw him over his shoulder.
The shifter across from him raised his gun, his finger curling on the trigger.
I raised my 9mm and pulled the trigger without hesitating, squeezing one round, then another, into his chest. The shifter who’d been on the verge of killing Clearborn stumbled back under the force of the bullets. As he fell toward the sidewalk, I put a round through his forehead, faster than thought. Two in the chest, one in the head, just the way we were taught in Clearborn’s new firearms classes at the academy.
“I thought I told you to meet me at the cemetery!” Clearborn ground out as the four of us fought together.
“It doesn’t look like you were going to meet us at the cemetery,” I said.
No gratitude for saving the dean’s life. Typical. No one ever appreciated me as much as they should.
Another truck full of shifters pulled up, the headlights blindingly bright. They had a machine gun mounted on the roof of the cab.
“That’s fucking brilliant,” Lex said, pushing me into a building behind us, blocking me with his body from the gunfire. “Subtle. I guess we’re not trying to hide from the humans anymore.”
“The door’s locked,” Rafe said. He slammed his shoulder into it, trying to get it loose, then reared back to kick it.
“I’m sure this will come as a surprise to you all, but brute force isn’t always the answer,” Clearborn said. As he reached for the door, Rafe and Lex covered us, shooting at the shifters who were aiming at us.
Flames of dark red magic flared across Clearborn’s palms.
Holy shit.
Clearborn used magic.
The door clicked open. There was no time to make sense of Clearborn having the same witchy capabilities that had almost gotten Maddie kicked out of the academy.
The four of us ran into the building.
Lex slammed the door shut just as bullets slammed into the brick outside. There were windows across the front of the building, the truck with the gun a shadow outside. Quickly, Rafe and Lex barricaded the door. Then we all dropped to the ground, crawling toward the back.
We were in a dry cleaner’s shop. The shapes of clothes hung eerily above us, swaying back and forth as if there was a subtle breeze. For a second, all was quiet.
Then bullets shattered the windows. Shards of glass crashed down in the space behind us and rattled across the floor. I gritted my teeth; the sensation of bullets flying above my head raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
Being shot at really pisses me off.
The four of us went through the dry cleaning space and through a windowless back room full of sewing and embroidery machines and metal racks of supplies.
Clearborn paused when he reached the back door. “Ready?”
We all checked our guns and nodded. He opened the door fast, then closed it just as fast, slamming it shut as bullets pinged against the door.
“We’re pinned down,” Clearborn said, hastily locking the door. He pulled a clip off his belt and slid it into his handgun, slapping it home before he racked a round. “What the hell were you all thinking? Why can’t you follow simple directions?”
“If we did, you’d be dead.” I shrugged.
“That might be best for you all, given how things are going to go when we get back to the academy,” Clearborn warned me.
If that was supposed to be scary, it just made my lips twist right now. “As long as we survive.”
The four of us barricaded ourselves into the back, planning to slow their progress and make them fight their way in.
Quickly, the four of us came up with a plan to pick them off as best as we could as they entered the room.
“That machine gun looked like it was mounted permanently on the top of the truck,” Lex said. “So at least they won’t have it with them.”
“Remember the battle of Thermopylae,” Clearborn said.
When the three of us stared at him blankly, he said, “Oh my god. I’m going to fire your teachers. You’re supposed to be learning military strategy.”
“Maybe you can tell us about the battle of Thermopylae as our punishment after we all make it back to the academy,” I suggested.
Clearborn grunted. “Wishful thinking there, son. Rafe, Lex, take the right side. Jensen, stay with me.”
We set up positions. We could hear the shifters coming our way, blasting through everything they saw. Lots of suits and dry-clean-only dresses were apparently meeting a sad fate out there.
My dad never called me son, and if he had, it would’ve pissed me off. Funny how Clearborn’s threats were almost comforting, as if he were certain we’d all walk out of here. I didn’t care about the thought of punishment waiting back at the academy as long as I ended up there safe and sound with Maddie, Rafe and Lex.
“They are slow,” Clearborn said, his voice irritated, as if he were judging them like he did everyone else. Maybe he wanted to get this over with in a hurry.
The room was eerily silent except for the sound of gunshots outside. He sighed, his back against the table we’d flipped for cover, and massaged his temple with the hand that didn’t hold the gun. He appeared to be irritated by the death squad that was here to kill him more than anything else. That was oddly comforting, too.
“Why are you here?” he asked in a whisper.
“Why can’t we follow simple instructions?” I asked. “You already know that’s not my strength.”
“No. Why did you come back for me?”
Oh, a serious question.
“You can’t hold this against me later if we don’t die,” I said.
Clearborn exhaled, as if he was bracing himself. “You can speak freely.”
“You’ve made the academy a better place, with some notable exceptions,” I said dryly, because I was never going to be a fan of the tawse. “We respect you. Most of the time, we even like you.”
“Oh good,” he said. “Now if all goes awry, I can die happy.”
I ignored his usual sarcasm. “Even Lex, even though you treat him like shit.”
Clearborn scoffed at that.
“You do,” I said. “And he’s a good guy.”
“The two of you being a pair of idiots is why we’re all trapped here,” he reminded me. “Lex is supposed to be beyond that kind of foolishness.”
“You don’t think they would’ve come for you sooner or later?” I asked. “This seems like a reprisal for killing Garmond.”
He jerked his head in a nod. “That it does. And/or a reprisal for trying to bring magic to the academy. But if you fools ever listened to anyone, I would’ve
been alone. The three of you wouldn’t be stuck here with me.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned at the academy,” I said, “it’s that no one has to fight alone. Even you. No matter what a mean old bastard you are.”
“Really taking that license to speak freely for all its worth, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely.” I glanced over at him in the darkness. “I’m not going to tell you how to do your job.”
“Well, thanks. Big of you.”
“But I do think you should lay off Lex. He’s not perfect, but he looks out for all of us. He’s a good leader. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
I only realized I meant the words once I said them.
“I need all of them,” I said. “Maddie, too.”
It felt like I exhaled something that had choked me, and all the anger I’d felt toward her drifted away like so much smoke. Lex, Penn, Chase, Ty, even Rafe, no matter how grouchy he was at the moment: they’d become my family over the past few months. I’d traded in my old popularity, but I had something else.
Because of her.
“She did curse me,” I muttered, and the sudden lightness in my chest was replaced with a crush of fear. I was certain she’d been afraid earlier, really afraid. She needed us. “Did you tell her to do that?”
“No, apparently your girl managed to take a council mission and find a way to put her own special bad-decision twist on it.”
I breathed out. I had so much to say to her when I caught up to her. And I also wanted to cover her lips with mine and remind her that she never had to be alone. She couldn’t destroy the love I felt for her, no matter what she did.
There are some things that even magic can’t break.
The gunfire got louder, right outside the door now.
They were almost here.
We’ll find you, Maddie.
I didn’t care who I had to go through, as long as I reached her.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Rafe
Lex and I sat behind our hastily-constructed barricade. He rested his handgun against his chest, his face calm. Lex always got calm right before things went ugly, but I had a feeling it was more than that today. Even though things were really ugly.
He broke the silence. “You shouldn’t have followed us.”
“No shit. I noticed.” I didn’t want to talk now. I wanted to focus on what we had to do, so we made it out of here.
Lex still didn’t feel like he’d done anything wrong, though. I know what Lex’s regret looked like—I’d seen it plenty of times over the years, and often enough in Maddie’s first few weeks at the academy—and his current calm, chatty demeanor wasn’t it. He got hot and angry when he felt regret, as if any bad decision threatened who he tried to be.
He claimed that I got cold and angry when I felt anything.
His calm pissed me off right now, and I rubbed my hand across my face as we waited for trouble to come.
“Here we go,” Lex muttered.
It can be swell sometimes, but it’s also a real pain in the ass to have someone in your life who knows you well.
I checked my magazine for the fifth time. “I just don’t understand why that girl makes you so stupid.”
“She makes you stupid too,” Lex promised me. “Just in an entirely different way.”
I shook my head. Bullshit. Out of the two of us, only one of us could still think clearly.
“When we get out of here,” I said, lashing out to try to wake him up, “you and I are through. I do the stupidest things because of you.”
I hadn’t meant to admit how deep our bond went, and I stumbled now that I’d said something that made me sound like such an idiot.
Lex nodded. “I’m pretty sure I’ll be expelled, so…”
His calm just irritated me more. “Really, Lex? All the years we spent trying to get here, you can just throw them away that easily? All the time we spent—” I cut myself off abruptly.
All the time we spent becoming close as brothers, and he didn’t even pause to think about what it would do to me if he wasn’t here with me at the end. I’d still leave the academy behind, leave the future I wanted behind, to try to protect him.
And he didn’t give a fuck.
“Remember how we both got here?” he asked, his voice quiet.
I scoffed. “Is this what it comes back to? Piper Northsea saved both our asses, once upon a time, so you’re bound to her little sister no matter what she does?”
“That would make sense,” he said, even though it wouldn’t, “But no. The academy gave us both a chance to find a mission, to excel, to leave the past behind. Except for the parts of us we can’t escape.”
“Holy shit,” I mumbled. “I’m ready for the hail of bullets. Better than listening to you ramble.”
“I left part of myself staked in the alpha’s backyard,” he said, and despite myself, I listened more intently. Lex never talked about how he’d gotten all those scars. “No one came to my rescue. They beat me half to death, left me in the rain and cold, starving. I thought I would die out there.”
“Lex,” I began, and then didn’t know how to finish. Jesus, I’d wanted to know what really happened to him for years, but now wasn’t the time. I wanted to hear it when I could kill anyone who needed killing for hurting Lex.
“I tell myself it doesn’t, but maybe it makes me a weaker person. Maybe I left part of myself behind, some part of me that’s still shivering in the rain, chained up outside the house that’s full of light and warmth. Maybe that’s what Clearborn sees, no matter how much I’ve tried to cover it up.”
“Don’t worry about Clearborn,” I muttered.
Lex stared me down. “But what happened to you? You’re missing something too. What makes it so hard for you to admit you care about other people? That you even love them?”
The gunfire outside our room was getting steadily closer. “It’s not hard for me to care about other people. I care about you more than I should, even though you’re such a fucking moron.”
Lex grinned at that admission. I shook my head, still furious at him.
The doors burst open.
Shifters burst in, spraying bullets. They had AR-15s tweaked to be fully automatic, and Lex and I huddled down, waiting for a break. Bullets sang overhead, buried themselves deep into the barricade in front of us, and I exhaled in relief when our cover held.
The two of us sniped off as many of them as we could. They had a lot of bullets, but the truth was that we had better training.
It seemed like we had turned the tide as things fell silent. The four of us reluctantly crept from our cover, collecting their automatic weapons, checking the rounds to see how many were left.
Then as I went to kick his handgun out of reach, one of the guys on the floor sat up, raising his gun toward me. I jerked my gun into my shoulder, my finger curling against the trigger, and squeezed off a shot. His body jerked and he went down.
His gun still went off. Across the room, Jensen grunted in pain.
“We’ve got company,” Clearborn called.
“I’m hit,” Jensen said, and guilt curdled in my stomach even before I turned. Fuck, no. I was the reason Jensen got hurt. Jensen held his hand to his gut as if he were holding himself together, blood seeping through his fingers.
“You’re going to be all right,” Lex promised him, sliding his arm around his shoulders as Jensen staggered on his feet.
Clearborn looked over his shoulder at us from the door. “I’ll lead them off. You guys, get to one of the vehicles and get Jensen to safety.”
We all knew Clearborn’s odds of survival were pretty damn low in the process. Jensen’s face, already creased with pain, darkened.
Then Clearborn added, “No fucking hijinks this time. Listen for once.”
Then he was gone, darting into the alleyway. Bullets pinged into the brick, ricocheting through the alleyway, and there was the answering rat-tat-tat of Clearborn firing back in well-aimed bursts.
/> “He must be bulletproof,” Jensen muttered as an engine revved in the alleyway, then headlights briefly flashed through the open door as Clearborn led off the truck.
“We wish,” Lex said. “Come on. Let’s move.”
The three of us headed for the car. As soon as we got Jensen into the backseat, I ducked to cover his body and protect him from more fire as the truck raced past us. The three of us were silent, hiding as the truck flew past.
“Take Jensen to the hospital,” Lex said calmly. “I’m going after Clearborn.”
“You’re going to disobey another order?”
“I’m already expelled,” he said.
“Don’t,” I warned him.
At the end of the street, the pick-up truck came to a stop, then began to move in reverse. It picked up speed, hurtling toward us.
“Get out of here!” Lex shouted, jumping out of the car, raising his rifle to his shoulder. He moved to the cover of the corner of the nearest building, firing back, clearing the way for Jensen and me.
It was what we’d been trained to do at the academy—the rest of us cover while one of us makes a run with the wounded for medical care—but even though I moved by instinct, fury washed over me.
Fury. Fear. Something like that. I couldn’t lose Lex.
But I was already moving, slamming the car in reverse, backing away from my best friend and leaving him behind.
Lex hit a tire on the pick-up truck, then another, and the bed of the truck abruptly slammed into the pavement. As I flipped a quick, tight u-turn across the road, I caught a glimpse of him in the rearview. He moved toward the truck, his head down on the stock of the rifle, already sited in.
He was going in to save Clearborn.
“You’ve got to go back for him,” Jensen said, his voice weak. I glanced in the rearview mirror and it was obvious he was fading fast, blood spreading across his torso, across the seat.
“Lex knows what he’s doing,” I said, even though I didn’t believe that for a fucking minute anymore. Lex was being brave, being stupid.
But Jensen was going to die if we didn’t get to the hospital, and another shifter shot at us, the shots pinging against the back of the car, and I high-tailed it out of there.