by S. A. Moss
“Alex Knight?”
All eyes at the table now shifted to him.
He swallowed. “Camille… Prentice.” The words were barely audible.
“Yes. I need you to come with me.”
Jennifer looked a bit put out at this, and Seth gave a low whistle. But my focus was locked on Alex, watching the array of emotions flicker over his face.
In the periphery of my vision, I could see flashes of auras as Pearl fought the demon outside. They must be pretty evenly matched since, so far, she’d kept him from getting inside, but I didn’t have much time. No time to explain, and no time to answer the dozens of questions I knew Alex was trying to formulate.
I kept my voice steady. “Please. It’s important. I can’t explain now, but we have to go.”
“Dude, go with her!” Seth gave me another wide-eyed glance and then wiggled his eyebrows at Alex.
Oh geez. He thought I was propositioning his friend. Well, if it got him on my side, whatever.
Lowering my voice, I leaned toward Alex and spoke into his ear. “You were right. About more than you know. I need you to come with me now, or everyone here will be in danger.”
His eyes flicked to mine, so close I could see the flecks of gold in the green. My breath caught.
Finally, he gave a jerky nod. Slipping off his stool, he turned to his friends. “Sorry to bail on the party early. Seth, cover me? I’ll get you back tomorrow.”
“Yeah, of course!” Seth’s unbridled enthusiasm for getting his friend laid almost made me smile.
If only that was what this was about.
Grimacing, I shook off the thought.
Ugh—not now, brain!
Outside the window, Pearl had managed to drive the demon farther down the street. I spotted their auras in the pool of light cast by a streetlamp about halfway down the block. As Alex followed me away from the table, I whispered, “Do you know if there’s a back way out of this place?”
He nodded and inclined his head toward a hallway to my left. At the end of the hall, two doors were marked as bathrooms, and a third had no designation. I pushed on that one, and we stepped out into the alley next to the bar. Alex remained silent by my side as I crept toward the street and peered around the corner.
Pearl and the pig-demon were still fighting down the street. I hoped she was doing okay. Alex peered over my shoulder, and I was intensely aware of his body so close to mine. Of course, he couldn’t see the fight going on halfway down the block from us, so to him the coast probably looked clear.
That is, until a blast from the demon went wide and slammed into a car outside the bar. The windows of the car exploded, and the metal bent inward. The alarm started to blare, piercing the relative quiet of the night. The door to the bar opened a second later, and a few wary patrons stepped out, looking over at the car.
Oh crap.
We needed to get out of here now. If this fight went on much longer, someone was going to end up hurt… or dead.
23
“Stay close to me!” I hissed then bolted from the alley and across the street, aiming for the line of trees on the other side of the road. They’d offer the best protection and camouflage in the dark.
My pounding feet had just hit the sidewalk on the other side when Pearl’s piercing cry reached me. “Cam, watch out!”
I stopped and pivoted quickly, throwing my arms around Alex and forming a shield. For the first time, my shield actually held. I could feel the power of the blast, but the shield absorbed most of the impact. Alex couldn’t see what had hit us, but he felt the tremor in my body and looked past me, searching down the street for the source of the attack.
Now that the demon had spotted us, he’d faded in and was making a beeline toward us. Pearl chased after him, throwing a blast that caught him at the knees and brought him down for a second.
As I watched, a deep voice from behind us caught my attention. “Are we too late to join the party?”
Alex and I both turned. Two burly men were stalking toward us.
Great. Wraiths in human bodies, if I had to guess. We were sandwiched between them and the demon, Pearl was battling.
Turning to Alex, I asked, “How’s your side? Can you fight?”
His eyes shot to mine, shock registering as he realized that I knew about his injury. But he nodded swiftly.
“Good. Don’t unless you have to.” I focused on the big guy closest to me. He looked a little like a rockstar, with long hair and a strong frame. Guilt pinched me. Heck, maybe he was a rocker in real life—or had been, before some wraith had decided to use his body like a giant meat puppet. I made a mental vow not to hurt him too bad if I could help it. Not that it would make much difference in the end, since the only way for the wraith to get free was to kill him.
I threw a quick blast at the man, then aimed one at his friend. They both grunted and stumbled, looking up slowly with twin snarls on their faces.
Oh shit. I made them mad.
The taller one bum rushed me, taking me down to the pavement in one swift move. Over his shoulder, I saw the other one leap toward Alex—only to be met with a sharp punch to the face. Okay, good. Alex was all right for the moment.
I, on the other hand… was about to eat a fist sandwich. During my momentary distraction, my attacker had sat up on top of me and drawn back his fist. A wild right hook swung toward my face. Just before it landed, I faded quickly. Slipping out from underneath the man, I jumped to my feet. He looked up, his eyes scanning the street, trying to locate my invisible form.
I faded back in right in front of him. The last time I’d tried to land a kick on someone, it’d ended badly, but I couldn’t resist. Snapping my foot up, I caught him right under the chin. His head flew back and he let out a grunt, collapsing to the ground. Not dead, but definitely down for the count.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to celebrate my victory before a blast hit me from behind with the force of a speeding train. I flew forward, tucking into a roll as I landed. My entire body hurt, but I was learning to ignore the pain.
Standing up and turning around, I saw that Alex had wrenched the blond man’s arm behind his back and was attempting to use him as a shield against the pig-demon advancing slowly toward them. Oh crap. That wouldn’t work. The demon would definitely kill the guy to get to Alex.
As if cued by my thought, that asshole of a demon threw out a blast of energy toward the two of them. The blond goon bore the brunt of it, and his body shuddered as he let out a weak cry. He went limp in Alex’s arms, unbalancing them both. I threw a blast at the demon, hoping to at least draw his attention, but he barely even flinched.
Alex let go of the goon’s body. I couldn’t tell if he was dead, but he had to be close. And in about two seconds, Alex was going to share the same fate.
But instead of running away from the demon, Alex started to charge toward him. No! Did he have a death wish or something? He’d just seen what it could do.
I sprinted toward the demon too, actually managing to overtake Alex as Pearl made a beeline from the other side of the street. The sight of three bodies converging on him was enough to distract the pig-demon for a second and saved Alex from a blast that would’ve crushed his bones.
“Grab him, Cam!” Pearl screamed at me, as she flung her body at the demon’s legs. I followed her lead and went high, nailing him around the torso and clinging on for dear life. As the three of us toppled over in a heap, scrabbling for a dominant position, Pearl called out again. “Fade out and keep fading! We have to bring him to the Shroud!”
I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I knew what fading out was, so I concentrated on doing that. With my arms wrapped tightly around his chest, I closed my eyes and imagined spreading into the ether—but this time I went past the usual stopping place I used when I faded out, where I was half in and half out of this reality.
Slowly, the city street around me began to fade, the glow of street lamps and neon signs replaced with the cold light of a
full moon. The temperature dropped, and huge trees and plants with giant leaves began to appear around us. I glanced down, and saw Pearl clutching the thrashing demon’s legs, her face screwed up in concentration.
“We’re here!” I cried. “Now what?”
“On my count, drop him and fade back. We have to be quick. And don’t let him touch you while you fade!”
I nodded, barely avoiding taking a demon elbow to the face. “Got it!”
The demon was slowly worming one of his arms out of my grasp, grunting loudly. My hands, which were locked together tightly behind his back, started to slip apart.
“Three…”
The demon roared, wrenching his body back and forth in rage.
“Count faster!” I screamed, holding on by just my fingertips now.
“Two, one—NOW!” Pearl finished in a breathless rush. We both let go and flung our bodies back from the demon. His hands flew up as soon as he was free, but for once, I was quicker. I threw a blast of energy at him even as I started to fade back to Earth. He ran toward me, but Pearl blasted him from the side, throwing him off course. The last thing I saw before streetlights and cars replaced the wild foliage around me was his angry, blazing eyes. His growl echoed in my ears as the sounds of Chicago at night filtered into my awareness.
Panicking suddenly, I spun around. “Alex!”
I spotted him a few feet away from me. He was standing over the bodies of the two collapsed wraith-puppets, staring at me slack-jawed. Pearl had materialized next to me and was scanning the street for any new threats.
“We have to get out of here,” she muttered under her breath. “Get back to the Haven.”
“I can’t!” I turned to her, trying to pretend I couldn’t feel Alex’s gaze like a physical sensation. “I can’t leave Alex.”
She turned to me. “Guardians are being attacked! We can’t go back to his flat. Whoever was behind this attack clearly knows that you’ve been watching Alex.”
“I know.” I chewed on my lip. We felt like sitting ducks out here on the street. We couldn’t go back to any of Alex’s haunts because the Fallen would definitely look there. And my old apartment was surely occupied by a new tenant by now. That only left…
“Wait. I might know a place we can go.” My stomach twisted as I said the words, but it was the only choice I could think of. “You don’t have to come with us. If the Haven is safer, you should go back.”
“Certainly not! I’m sticking with you. The only reason we were able to bring that demon back to the Shroud is because there were two of us. A demon of his power would’ve been impossible for a single Guardian to banish.”
I shot her a grateful look, but she’d already moved on to our next problem. Her eyes focused over my shoulder at Alex. “Is he all right? Will he even come with us?”
My gaze shifted reluctantly back to Alex’s pale face. I couldn’t read his expression, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Despite the urgency of our situation, my feet felt like lead as they dragged me toward him.
When I was a few feet away, I stopped. What was I even supposed to say? Pull a Terminator and tell him, come with me if you want to live? Actually, that didn’t sound half bad. The only problem was that when Arnold Schwarzenegger said it, you tended to believe him. Me? Eh, maybe not so much.
I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.
“Cam! Look out!” Pearl’s voice cut through the tense silence.
Saved by the wraith.
Behind Alex, the blond man’s body was twitching. A spindly wraith began to pull itself out of the corpse. We needed to leave before it got all the way out; I did not have it in me to fight another freaking Fallen tonight.
Fortunately, whatever Alex might think about me—and my sudden appearance in his life—he was definitely on the same page about avoiding another fight.
Without a word, the three of us turned and sprinted down the street. Alex’s legs were longer than ours, but it was surprisingly easy to keep pace with his quick stride. I guess that was a perk of being supernatural; my endurance had gone way up since I died. I let him take the lead, since he seemed to know this neighborhood better than I did anyway. We careened around a corner, and I glanced back. I couldn’t see any wraiths following us and didn’t pick up any auras either.
“Cab!” I called to Alex. “We need a cab!”
He nodded, sprinting too hard to speak, and led us toward a busier street. As we approached, I put on a burst of speed and threw myself into the road. An approaching cab screeched to a stop. Wrenching open the door, I practically shoved Pearl and Alex in the back seat before diving in myself.
“Evanston,” I told the driver. “Northwestern Campus.”
He grunted and hit the gas, seeming barely fazed by our obvious panic.
As we drove away, I peered anxiously out the back window. Just as we rounded a corner, I saw the wraith dart out into the street behind us, its sallow, semi-transparent yellow skin glowing in the streetlights as it looked around wildly.
Then it fell out of sight.
24
The cab ride was silent. I could tell Pearl wanted to talk about what had just happened—and I had a million questions for her, too—but with Alex sandwiched uncomfortably between us, neither of us had much to say.
At least I wasn’t adding to my track record of stiffing Chicago cab drivers. When we pulled up outside Sarah’s apartment, Alex took out his wallet and paid the driver before we all piled onto the sidewalk. Trying to act like I had even an ounce of confidence in my decision, I turned to Alex and Pearl.
“Let me do the talking, okay?”
Not waiting for a response, I pressed the buzzer. A moment later, Sarah’s voice crackled through the small speaker. “Hello?”
“Sarah? It’s Cam. And a few… friends. Can we come up? We need a little help.”
Considering I’d already told her I was in some kind of witness protection program, I could only imagine what thoughts were running through her head right now. It was a testament to the Southern hospitality in her blood that she hesitated only long enough to process what I’d said before her next words came. “Of course. Come on up.”
The door buzzed open, and when we arrived at her second floor unit, she was standing out in the hallway waiting for us. She hugged me tightly. “Oh my gosh! I thought you said that time at the hospital was the last I’d get to see you.”
I noticed Alex’s eyebrows pinch together at her words. Shoot. So much for denying it had been me at the hospital—although that was probably a faint hope at this point anyway. He’d seen too much tonight to be placated by anything but the truth, or at least a large chunk of it.
I returned Sarah’s hug, saying wearily, “I almost wish it had been the last time. I only seem to see you these days when I’m in trouble. I don’t want to drag you into my problems.”
She brushed that off with a sniff, then released me.
“And who are your friends?” She smiled at Alex and Pearl.
I made quick introductions before Sarah ushered us inside her apartment. As soon as she shut the door, she went into full Southern hostess mode.
“Can I get you all something to eat? Drink? Oh, I can take your jacket,” she offered, holding out her hand to Alex. As he drew his jacket off with a wince, her eyes widened. “Oh my gosh. You have a little… is that…?”
Her voice trailed off, and I looked over. A patch of red colored his beige Henley shirt. Dammit. Had his stab wound reopened? He’d just gotten his stitches removed last week. He shouldn’t have been fighting at all tonight. A wave of guilt washed over me.
“Um, do you have a first aid kit or anything, Sarah?” I asked. She nodded, her concerned gaze flicking between the three of us. When she headed toward the bathroom, I gestured for Alex to follow. Sarah pulled out a cute little box with a red cross on it—probably a gift from her mother, a helicopter mom even from several states away—and left us in the bathroom. As I closed the door, I heard Pearl oohing over the cute déco
r of the place. I thought Sarah and Pearl would get along really well, and I was grateful to Pearl for seeming to understand that Sarah probably needed some normal conversation right about now.
Unfortunately, that left me stuck alone in a very small bathroom with Alex, whose intense gaze had once again settled on me. I cleared my throat, unable to meet his eyes.
“Um, can you lift up your shirt?”
He did as I asked, and I peered at his side, grateful to have something to focus on besides his face.
I was wrong—the old wound hadn’t reopened. He’d gotten cut again. This time it was a very thin line across his abdomen, like he’d jerked out of the way of a knife swipe just in time. It wasn’t deep enough to need stitches like his last wound, but it needed cleaning and bandaging.
I grabbed a couple of cotton swabs and started wiping away the blood. My fingers brushed over the ridges of his abdomen, and I felt him tense.
“Who are you?” His quiet voice was strained.
I didn’t look up from my task as I answered. “Camille Prentice.”
“Yeah, I figured that part out,” he said, with a short laugh. “But who are you?”
I sighed. I was sure the Council would tell me to keep my damn mouth shut, but they weren’t here right now. And given everything that was going on right now, trying to keep this whole thing a secret seemed pointless. Besides, Alex deserved the truth.
“I’m your Guardian. I’m supposed to watch over you.” I dabbed a bit of disinfectant on a pad and wiped it over his cut. I really wished we could’ve had several feet of space between us for this conversation.
He was silent for a moment, but I wasn’t dumb enough to hope he’d drop the subject and leave it at that. Instead, I could tell he was measuring what I’d just told him against everything he already knew.