by D. Laine
“He won’t win,” Jake declared confidently. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
We all knew what Jake meant by “whatever it takes.” Someone might have to battle Lucifer, as a Watcher. It would be the ultimate sacrifice, so of course it wasn’t first on our list of options—not that we had a lot of options—but it was always in the back of our minds.
I absentmindedly started to nod my head in agreement with my partner, until I felt the tightening of Thea’s grip on my arm. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the stricken look on her face as her eyes darted between Jake and me.
“Neither one of you are thinking about doing something stupid.” She glanced at me, then Jake, and her voice rose tentatively. “Are you?”
Jake purposefully avoided eye contact as he shook his head. “Of course not.”
Thea bolted to a stand, forcing Jake and me to our feet. Though a full head shorter than her brother, she managed to make him squirm when she got in his face. “Have you forgotten about this little bond thing we have? I know when you’re lying.” Whipping around to me, she demanded, “What about you? Are you thinking about fighting my brother over the crown for World’s Biggest Idiot?”
Somewhere behind me came a snort from Maria Sanchez. “Dylan’s already the reigning champ,” she retorted. “He’s proudly worn that crown since the day he met you.”
I shot a frown over my shoulder in Maria’s direction, but she didn’t notice. She was too busy glaring at Thea. When Thea spun around to face her, Maria slowly rose to her full five feet, two inches. All one hundred and some pounds of attitude.
Thea had a feisty side to her, too. It might not rival Maria’s most days, but weeks of animosity between the two had obviously reached a boiling point. Everyone sensed the long overdue fight about to go down, but the brothers of the two had the advantage of knowing their intentions before the rest of us.
Marcus lunged in front of Maria at the same time Jake blocked Thea with a stiff forearm.
“Not today,” Jake ordered.
“Not ever,” Marcus amended. He towered over his sister, forcing her to back away from Thea with his tree trunk arms.
“We need to stick together,” Robbie said.
“This is what he wants,” Sadie added. “He wants to separate us, to weaken us. We stand a chance if we face him together. We need each other to get through this.”
“I don’t need her.” Maria jabbed a finger in Thea’s direction. “She’s caused nothing but problems from day one.”
“How, Maria? Exactly how have I caused you problems?” Thea fired back. She paused with a dramatic tilt of her head before answering her own question. “Oh, I know. Because you want Dylan, and I’m in your way.”
Maria flew at Thea with a growl, forcing Marcus to grab her by the waist. He held her back, but that didn’t stop Maria from launching a verbal attack. She voiced every complaint she had—from Thea’s limited experience to her mere presence in our lives.
I turned away from the scene with a groan. The rift between Thea and Maria was my fault. I knew that. I had set them up for conflict the day I met Thea.
Not that I regretted it—quite the opposite actually. I was crazy about the girl. I, the agency’s notorious playboy who happened to have slept with Maria a few weeks before Thea barged into my life, was hopelessly in love.
As unexpected as that development had been, I welcomed it. I wanted it.
Because I wanted her.
Despite my loyalty to the other assassins, including Maria, Thea came first.
I forced my way into the fray, dodging a dangerous combination of swinging arms and legs, sharp nails, and vicious words. Exchanging a look with Jake, I hooked an arm around Thea’s waist. She came willingly, almost gratefully, as I ushered her away from Maria and the rest of the group.
She shook from the adrenaline coursing through her body as I guided her behind the cover of a concrete pillar, out of Maria’s sight but not out of the wind. There was no escaping that. Long, dark waves of hair whipped around her face, and she swatted at them with annoyance.
“Here.” I wrestled the unruly strands into a manageable ball in my fist, which she quickly secured with a hair tie. I grinned down at her when she finally sagged against the pillar with an exhausted sigh. “I had no idea you were that scrappy.”
She huffed. “I can’t stand that girl.”
“I know she can be difficult to—”
“Difficult?” Thea’s hands balled into fists at her side, and I glimpsed a flash of beautiful, white teeth when her lips curled into a snarl. “She has been horrible to me from day one for no good reason, other than maybe jealousy.”
It was wrong how turned on I was right now. So, so wrong.
“I think it’s more than that,” I said in an effort to stay on point. “Maria’s used to being on top and getting her way. She feels threatened by you, because you’re strong. You don’t back down from her.”
“Never will, either.”
My eyes drifted across Thea’s face before zeroing in on her mouth. The sexy snarl was gone, replaced with an even sexier pout. Her determinedly pursed lips practically begged for a kiss.
“That’s my girl.” I leaned in, only to come up short at the sound of a throat clearing behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to find Jake approaching.
He had that authoritative, I-mean-business look in his eyes. “Stay away from Maria,” he ordered Thea.
“I’m trying. I—”
“No.” He came to a stop beside me and shook his head vigorously. “I mean it. Stay away from her. Something isn’t right.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. Marcus told me she’s been having weird dreams.” Jake turned a pair of worry-lined eyes on me. “Of the Watchers.”
My eyebrows shot up. “She’s dreaming about the Watchers? Why—how—what—?” So many questions, I didn’t know where to begin.
“I don’t know.” Jake collectively answered all of them with a shrug. “But we do know how Maria feels about the others—especially her.” Jake jabbed a finger at Thea, then asked me, “You remember what she said about the Preppers?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
Though we had all been surprised to learn that we were vessels, capable of hosting a Watcher, no one had taken the news as badly as Maria. The moment she learned the Preppers had been tagged with a dose of demon blood in an effort to protect themselves from the Watchers, and now considered us their greatest threat, they became enemy number one in her eyes. Knowing that Thea had been tagged, and thus considered a part of the Preppers’ army, had not settled well with her. It was just another reason for her to hate Thea.
“Wait. What did she say?” Thea inquired.
“She wasn’t exactly thrilled to rescue you guys from the agency.”
“She would have preferred to let us rot there?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” I turned to peer over my shoulder, where the rest of the group had assembled. We were evenly matched—four tagged Preppers to four pure-blooded vessels. The tension between the two groups was visible when I took the time to see it. Maria was the only one who made it blatantly obvious.
As a Prepper, my sister was included on the list of Maria’s untrustworthy allies. Maria claimed she had my back, but how far did her loyalty stretch? If I had to choose family and love over friendship and loyalty, I would. No doubt in my mind. But I didn’t want it to come down to that.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the Watchers,” Jake said. “We don’t know what her dreams mean, if anything, but I think it would be best to steer clear of Maria until we get a handle on things.”
“If we ever get a handle on things,” I muttered.
Lucifer sure wasn’t going to make it easy on us.
“We will.” Jake nodded enthusiastically. “We just have to remember to work together. We won’t succeed if we turn on each other now.”
“Mmm hmm.”
My eyes narrowed on Ewing’s back as he talked to Sadie. His shoulders blocked my view of her, but I saw his hand reach up to touch her. I grimaced when his head lowered to hers.
Jake followed the direction of my gaze and barked out a laugh. “How does it feel?”
“What?” I turned my scowl on Jake.
“You’re getting a taste of how I felt.” His head tipped in Thea’s direction. “It sucks, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, come on.” I wagged a finger over my shoulder. “I’m not as bad as him.”
Thea snorted.
“Seriously?” I gaped at her as she tried to stifle her laughter. “You think I’m—”
“I don’t think anything.” She placed a reassuring hand on my arm. “But you are a hard pill to swallow for any brother trying to look out for his sister.”
I glanced at Jake, and he nodded.
“Fine.” I caved with a shake of my head. “I get it. It sucks.”
I glanced over my shoulder again, and groaned when I saw them making googly eyes at each other. Thea and I weren’t that nauseating—were we?
“Does she love him?” Thea asked.
“I think so,” I admitted reluctantly.
Though I had done my best to stay out of Sadie’s head, even as the bond between us grew and strengthened, I had sensed flashes of emotion when she was with Ewing that mirrored the way I felt about Thea. Her feelings for him had done nothing to lessen my dislike of the guy. He had rubbed me the wrong way since the moment I met him, and I didn’t see any sign of that changing. Despite how he felt about my sister.
“If she loves him, you need to learn to be okay with it,” Thea advised me.
“I’m a pro at it by now. I’ll give you some pointers.” Jake patted me on the back. “Now come on. I believe we were about to discuss a plan to find more food and water before Maria’s mouth got in the way.”
We started toward the rest of the group, Thea sandwiched between Jake and me where we could spare her from the worst of the wind. Some of the gusts were strong enough I feared she would get blown away if we weren’t careful. Lucifer would probably get a kick out of that.
As if the son of a bitch could read my mind, the wind suddenly picked up. It blew as if he had his own personal Hell-sized fan pointed directly into this parking garage. With the gust came a cloud of ash and sand that forced me to lower my head to avoid getting blasted in the face. Precious packages of food and bottles of water tumbled across the concrete. Everyone scattered in a desperate attempt to salvage what we could.
Gripping Thea’s fingers tightly in one hand, I plucked a rolling bottle of water off the ground and shoved it into my coat pocket with the other. Facing the group, I shouted over the roar of the wind, “We need to get out of here and find somewhere else to take shelter.”
“There is nowhere else,” Maria countered.
“The vehicles can withstand the wind,” Jake yelled. “We can’t. Someone is going to get hurt out here.”
As if the wind storm wasn’t bad enough already, the grand manipulator from Hell had to throw another obstacle at us. At first, I thought I imagined the shrill wail carried to me by another strong gust. I considered blaming it on the whistle of the wind as it sliced between concrete pillars. Then I saw the first human-shaped shadow darting through the shadows that blanketed the parking garage, and I knew that bad was about to get a hell of a lot worse.
“Tags!” I warned the others.
Marcus already had Lucifer’s flesh-eating spawn in his sights. He gunned down a pair with two quick shots as the others in our group scrambled to gather our supplies and rations. Gun in hand, I stood shoulder to shoulder with Marcus as the first big wave of tags rolled over the waist-high concrete barrier that bordered the garage. It didn’t slow them down.
“Everybody to the cars now!” Marcus barked.
No more time to collect our shit. Cans of soup weren’t worth dying over.
My finger was pulled hard on the trigger as I fired into the horde. I glanced over my shoulder only long enough to make sure everyone else was climbing into the vehicles.
Ewing’s feet cleared last, and Maria’s head popped out the open door. Along with the barrel of her rifle. “Got you covered! Move!”
Two guns opened up behind us. Marcus and I backpedaled, unable to take our eyes or guns off the swarm of tags despite the cover fire. They ran at us like a pack of rabid wolves, snarling mouths open to show us their blood-stained teeth. They stopped only when a bullet pierced their skulls. There were so many, killing two dozen of them in a matter of seconds didn’t slow them down.
Finally reaching the cars, I glanced away from the tags to nod at Marcus. We separated simultaneously—him racing toward one open car door while I lunged for the other.
The prattle of cover fire echoed all around me, challenging the pounding of my heart for the title of loudest sound in my ears. Cutting in there, overtaking them both in the final stretch, was the snapping of teeth as the tags closed in.
One snagged the collar of my coat, its jagged nails piercing the curve of my neck as it yanked me backward. My fingers bit into the frame of the car, saving me a fall to certain death. It was still a possibility with the tag clawing at my back, its teeth gnashing dangerously close to my flesh.
A long, sharp blade shot out from the open car door, narrowly missing me before sinking into the tag. The hit to its gut didn’t kill it, but stunned it enough for me to slip free.
I launched headfirst onto the front seat, toppling over Thea in my haste. The door slammed shut behind me. Tags threw themselves at the windows, shrieking and pounding against the glass.
“At least the agency did something right when they built these,” Jake said.
I flinched from a particularly heavy hit on my window. I looked in time to watch a Thor-sized tag reel its bloody knuckles back in preparation for a second strike. “I don’t really want to stick around to test the agency’s car designing skills, if that’s alright with you.”
Apparently, neither did Jake. He cranked the engine, and blew out a breath when it turned over. “Let’s see how much battery life we have left in these things.”
He punched the gas, tossing tags to the ground as he cut the wheel. With the second car on our ass, we rolled over anything foolish enough to stand in our way. We headed into the open once again, where we had the illusion of safety. But we all knew the truth.
Nowhere would be safe until Lucifer was defeated.
2
THEA
The time we spent crammed into the car always passed painfully slowly. This time was worse, curtesy of the cautious pace Jake was forced to drive in the poor visibility.
An hour into our aimless wandering, the windstorm abruptly stopped. The howling and patter of sand assaulting the windows cut off so suddenly, I could no longer question Dylan’s claim that it wasn’t a natural phenomenon.
The blinding cloud of ash that surrounded us slowly drifted to the ground, permitting us the advantage of sight. Except it was still night. With nothing but a pale moon and a handful of dull stars to assist us, I suspected we had several more hours of darkness ahead of us.
On one hand, I was grateful we no longer had to spend the rest of it fighting the wind. On the other hand, I worried that Lucifer had something else up his sleeve. Something worse.
I wasn’t the only one who had come to fear Lucifer’s moves.
“I wonder what’s next,” Jake grumbled from the driver’s seat. He cautiously accelerated as the road appeared in the car’s bright headlights.
“Maybe he’s taking a nap.” Dylan yawned beside me.
Neither of us had moved from the position we had fallen into when Dylan dove into the car an hour ago. Despite the tight space in the front seat, I hadn’t considered moving into the back with Sadie and Ewing. Dylan’s tight grip around my waist, securing me at his side, suggested that he wasn’t about to let me go anytime soon.
“We still need to get some provisions, or we won’t make it f
ar,” Ewing reminded us.
“Motherfucker.” Only I was close enough to hear the muttered curse come out of Dylan’s mouth. Speaking up loudly enough for everyone to hear, he returned a curt, “We know that.”
“I’m just wondering if you think we should scope this supermarket out, or wait for the next one,” Ewing fired back with equal contempt.
“What super—”
Dylan’s mouth abruptly slammed shut, and I turned the follow the direction of his gaze out the window. Barely visible through the thinning cloud of sand and ash was a building. I could now see that we were angling across its parking lot. Above us loomed a sign announcing our inadvertent visit to a Kroger store.
“Where in the hell are we?” Jake pondered.
“Let’s check it out,” Dylan said. “Maybe they have some food left, and we can find out exactly where we are.”
“Go inside?” I gaped. “There’s no electricity. It will be dark in there.”
Dylan shot me an amused smirk. “That’s what flashlights are for.”
“But—”
“We need more food,” he insisted. “We’re heavily armed and well trained. We’ll be fine.”
He always said that, and so far, we had managed to escape the tags every time they found us. Mostly because we never ventured far from the safety of the vehicles. To go inside a large, dark building at night was asking for trouble, no matter how prepared we were.
No one shared my opinion. Not even Jake, who sent me ripples of reassurance as he turned toward the front of the building. The bond was of no help to me this time.
The parking lot and store reminded me of a war zone. Lines of abandoned cars created a maze for us to navigate through on our approach. Though I refused to look closely, I suspected the flashes of color I spotted in my periphery were all that remained of the dead.
The wall of windows that lined the front of the building had been shattered. The tires crunched over fragments of broken glass before coming to a stop directly in front of the entrance. The other vehicle pulled alongside us, and three inquisitive faces peered out the windows.