by Dana Archer
“If Uri had, my family would still be alive, and you”—Bryon leans close to Ezra—“would still be able to see.”
“That wasn’t part of the plan.”
Bryon laughs. “What plan? How to screw over as many people as possible?”
“Proving we’re worthy of heaven.” Ezra tilts his head to the side. “Uri is. Lyla’s proof. Me? I’ll find my way there. Of that I have little doubt. But are you?”
Bryon curses under his breath and walks away.
“Don’t you run from me.” I rush after Bryon. “Please. I’m begging you. Help us find Uri. I know you can do that. You have powers I can’t even imagine. Powers most Royals don’t have. Don’t let Uri—”
Bryon turns on me so quickly, I step back and press a hand to my chest as my heart skips a beat. Black flames flicker in the glowing brown eyes locked on mine. The air around me boils. Sweat beads on my skin. And every breath I take sears my lungs.
“Powers that I can’t access without losing myself…without corrupting my family’s spirit. I won’t do that.”
“But surely you can do something.” Small, weak…my voice sounds beaten even if my determination to get Uri back isn’t squelched. Bryon was my best bet, though. I don’t know where to go from here.
“A life for a life. Is that what you want?”
Bryon’s demand carries a warning. I’m not going to like the price. I know it without being told.
“What do you want?”
“Death.” Bryon raises his gaze to where Ezra’s standing behind me. “My life for Uri’s.”
“No.” Ezra and I answer at the same time.
“That’s too bad, then.” Bryon steps around me and heads farther into the alley. “That’s my price.”
“Then I was right about you all along.”
Ezra’s comment stops Bryon. He doesn’t turn, though. He doesn’t speak either. He simply stares straight ahead.
Odin trots over to brush under Ezra’s hand until his fingers meet the handle grip strapped to Odin’s back. Then man and dog walk forward. “You’re afraid.”
“Really?” Still, Bryon doesn’t look at Ezra or me. He focuses on some distant point, as if the secrets he’s sought are written among the graffiti. “What exactly am I afraid of?”
“Others seeing you as I do.”
“Ah…the blind man sees.” Bryon snorts. “Great. Tell me what you see. This should be amusing.” He mutters the last under his breath.
“I see a coward weakened by the demons you've allowed to take root in your soul.”
At Ezra’s softly spoken revelation, Bryon looks over his shoulder. “A life for a life. That’s my only offer. Take it or leave it.”
“Uri’s for saving yours.” Ezra nods. “Fine. On behalf of my twin, I’ll call in his debt to you.”
“That’s not—”
“He saved you.” Ezra cuts Bryon off. “You save him. Simple, really.”
“No.” Bryon shakes his head. “Uri can save himself. I am not saving him unless I get to die in the process.”
I run forward and grab Bryon’s hand. “Bryon, please help—”
“He can save himself,” Bryon repeats. “But for you, for what he’s done for me, I’ll help him do so.”
“How?” I honestly don’t care how as long as Bryon makes good on his promise.
Bryon walks with me, hand in hand as if he’s leading me out of the despair hanging over me. “He wanted to talk to a shaman. I’ll make sure he can do so permanently.”
Thirty-One
Lyla
No matter how many times I pace from the living room in my rental past the stairs and through the dining room to the kitchen, I can’t work off the energy leaving me primed and anxious. Each day since Uri fell from the bridge with Izzy has only managed to build the tension within me. I’m ready to snap.
No that’s not true.
After nearly a week, I’m ready to do anything to get Uri back. Even promise to sever Bryon’s head myself if that’s what it takes to convince the powerful shaman to do his mojo magic, summon a demon, or whatever it is he can do in order to find out where Cedric took the man who should be tied to my soul.
I stop walking as the consequences of such an action resonate within me.
Killing the man I call a friend in order to get my lover back isn’t something I could live with, even if Bryon swears death is the only thing that’ll release him from the demons haunting him. I’d never be able to look my honorable mate in the eye knowing I betrayed the principles he holds dear. He’s an Alexander.
And I’m his true mate.
I let the dark thoughts fade and wrap my fingers around the modified insulin pen in my pocket filled with Bryon’s blood. Warmth emanates from the plastic, just as it did when Bryon cut a vein to fill it. The beat of Bryon’s heart still resonates against where my palm engulfs the pen. I’m literally carrying a piece of Bryon. It’s creepy and magical all in one, but the powerful gift will allow Uri to save himself by countering Cedric’s compulsion to kill himself, according to Bryon. It’s also the only thing Bryon was willing to give us without meeting his price.
It’ll be enough. Bryon said only death would stop Uri from returning to me.
A deep breath fills my leaden chest. Pain lances me, my muscles taut and vibrating. My exhale loosens the tightness. Another slow inhale and exhale relieves more of the anxiety choking me. I focus on the mechanics of my lungs expanding and contracting until the trembling in my body ceases.
“I’m jealous.” Sam’s voice cuts through the moment of peace I carved out for myself. “Exhaustion’s the only thing that pulls me back from the edge.”
“Me on the brink of insanity is what Cedric wants.” I shake out my arms, relishing the looseness and the knowledge that for today, I’ve remained a woman worthy of heaven. “He wants to break me.”
“He will.”
Sam’s solemn tone draws my attention to where my sister is sitting on the couch. The need to go to her and pull her into my arms is strong. My sister’s not the touchy-feely type, however. She’s also not the type to give any glimpse into her emotions. In this moment, she has.
“No.” I wait until Sam raises her empty gaze to me. “He won’t break me any more than he broke you.”
“Then you’re screwed, little sister.” A raw sound escapes her. She snatches a pillow and pulls it against her chest. “He not only broke me, but left me craving the control he held over me.”
“You’re not broken.” I walk closer to my sister, taking slow steps so as not to make her feel trapped. “Bruised but not broken. And it’s not wrong or sick to crave a lover’s dominance. Just as it’s not wrong for me to enjoy knowing Uri owns me because I know he loves me, treasures me in a way no other man ever has or ever could.”
“He’s your true mate.” Sam draws her knees up, still hugging the pillow. “I don’t have one. I don’t even have a lover that I trust enough to fall asleep with.”
“You could find a man you trust enough to submit to.” I sit on the opposite end of the couch, far enough away not to invade Sam’s personal space. “You just need to start fighting for yourself instead of fighting the world.”
Sam sets the pillow between us. “Love has turned you philosophical.”
“Love’s the reason Cedric won’t win. He’ll never break me, even if he takes away everything and everyone I care about. Losing people doesn’t make me stop loving them or remembering why they loved me. It only strengthens me, making me more determined to be a person worthy of their memories.”
“Why hasn’t Cedric come after me?” Sam voices the point I can’t stop thinking about. “Because it was never Izzy’s intent to hand me over. She was waiting for Sasha to deliver his message and for you to come out and save me. She was supposed to deliver Uri, not me, over to Cedric. I was just the bait to get you and Uri to react.”
My gaze drifts to the door. Colin, along with Kade and Rick, left through it hours ago after getting a tip Sasha was se
en carrying boxes out of the Crescent Moon Tavern. It was the first sighting of the Royal shifter since he tipped us off about Izzy and Sam. Only knowing Ezra and a couple of other Alexander pride members are lingering in the neighborhood around our house stopped my demand I go too. We’re still waiting for Cedric’s next move, whether that’s to lay a trap by using Sasha to lure me into the streets or to come after me when he thinks I’m without protection.
“I don’t know, Sam.” I study the worn carpet of the rental we moved into for its location—equal distance between the city I love and Shifter Affairs—and not its condition. “But maybe I’m not really Cedric’s target. Maybe you are. Maybe he realized he never actually broke you, that you only did what you had to do to survive.”
Sam laughs and shakes her head, but she doesn’t counter my hypothesis or disclaim it. A contemplative look settles over her after a moment. Finally, she sighs. “It doesn’t matter what he wants or what drives him. This time, he doesn’t get to run. This time, he dies.”
The landline rings before I can respond. Sam rushes to the wall phone, a relic from decades ago, and answers, “Hello?”
She jerks her head to me, then to the door. It opens a moment later, revealing the man I wasn’t sure I’d ever see again.
I jump from the couch and throw myself into Uri’s arms just as Ezra, along with Odin, follows behind.
“Uri!” I squeeze him tighter even as a nagging doubt creeps into my mind over his surprise appearance. “Where were you? What happened? How did you get away?”
The rambling questions speak to my unease. I can’t help it or the need to cling to this man even if he’s my Trojan horse. And if that makes me a fool, then I’ll die a happy fool. I have the man I love in my arms. Everything else will work itself out. I hope.
“I asked him the same things when he showed up here a couple minutes ago.” Brows downturned, Ezra widens his stance. “He wouldn’t tell me. He won’t let me into his mind either, but he doesn’t feel like a threat.”
“Of course I’m not a threat. I just wanted to see you as soon as possible.” Uri takes my hands in his. “Izzy injected me with witch’s salve, but she missed my heart. It didn’t paralyze me the way she expected. I was able to overcome its hold and broke out of my chains, then I went after Cedric. He’s dead, baby. I killed him, then I got out of there and came home to you just as I promised.”
Uri’s voice is the same. So are his mannerisms and his scent and his touch. Everything my heart knows says this is the man who belongs in my soul. But the whispering voices in my head stop me from blindly trusting.
My lover—my true mate—is lying to me. I swear it on my soul.
“That’s wonderful! Isn’t it, Sam?” I peek around Uri’s wide chest to where Sam is standing near the desk. Her pinched brows and downturned lips let me know she feels the same way I do. Something’s wrong.
The heavy weight of the modified insulin pen with Bryon’s blood in my pocket reminds me of my choice. If Uri is under Cedric’s influence, there’s only one way he can save himself: give him a new owner, one who won’t command him to take his own life. And that’s likely the only reason Ezra’s allowed Uri inside. We talked about the possibility of Uri coming here to kill himself in front of me.
“Yeah.” Sam crosses her arms. “Wonderful.”
“I don’t like your tone, Samantha Bradford.” Uri sets me behind him as if shielding me from a threat. “Not one little bit.”
“That’s too bad, isn’t it?” Sam cocks a brow. “I don’t answer to you.”
“But you influence my true mate, don’t you?” Uri pushes against me, a silent command to stay where I am, and then walks closer to my sister. “You expose her to danger too.”
“Do I?” Sam lowers her voice. “How so?”
“Cedric wants you back.” With his shoulders rounded slightly, Uri’s steps take on a rolling, predatory gait as he approaches her. “Not Lyla. He doesn’t care about Lyla. He wants his good girl back.” Uri’s chest heaves. “He wants the only female who satisfied him.”
Sam glances in Ezra’s direction at the same time I do. Uri’s twin lets go of Odin’s harness and takes a single step closer. Seeing his tension ups mine. I hurry to where Uri is closing in on my sister and grab a fistful of his shirt.
“Uri.” I let my demand bleed into my voice. “Come sit with me on the couch. I’ve missed you.”
Uri’s firm push against my shoulder knocks me back a step. “You’ve endangered my true mate, Sam.”
“How?” Sam raises her chin to be able to hold Uri’s stare from inches away. “Cedric’s dead. You killed him, right?”
The sound of ripping cloth and a flash of movement—Ezra shifting into his jaguar form—registers in my mind. So do the claws sliding out of Uri’s fingers. Uri thrusts his hand forward—directly toward my sister’s stomach. I ram my shoulder into hers, knocking her out of the way.
Pain lashes me. Agony as I’ve never known spreads from my side outward. I open my mouth and scream, a sound ripped from the depths of my soul. Blood fills my mouth. The coppery-tasting liquid chokes me and dribbles over my lips.
Sam’s cry and a jaguar’s snarl surround me while the rooms spins and darkness bleeds into the edges of my vision. Then I fall, landing on my knees.
Arms wrap around my shoulders and lift me, but it’s the enraged roar that draws my focus to the golden lion—the same I met a few nights ago. Uri, in his lion form, charges me. The jaguar leaps onto his back, but a swipe of the lion’s paw knocks the other big cat across the room.
The lion’s image fades. Uri’s replaces it.
Love doesn’t show in his expression, however. Hatred does. He raises his gaze from mine to look behind me. Sam’s gasp paints the picture I can’t see.
My predator has focused on his prey.
Uri shoves Sam away and catches me as I fall. He lowers me to the ground at the same time he swipes his free arm out, grabbing the handle of Odin’s harness and flinging the dog into the path of Ezra’s charging jaguar.
My heart stutters. My muscles burn. Still, I force my hand to move, slipping it into my pants pocket and pulling out the syringe pen. My choice is made. I can’t let my true mate betray his honor.
Uri crawls over me, and I move, shoving the syringe into his gut and depressing the button.
And then the world slips away, shadows replacing life along with the realization of why Cedric didn’t go after Sam. He wanted me to see Uri kill her.
Thirty-Two
Uri
Fire burns in my gut.
On a scream of pure agony, I fall to my side, then roll to my back. Ezra looms over me. Then he throws me, my side connecting with a bookshelf. Books tumble off the shelves and smack into my body, dozens of small thumps that don’t come close to the flames racing through my veins.
I ignore the fiery burn and listen for Lyla’s voice. Only my thumping heart and screams surround me. I don’t know if she’s safe. I don’t know if I eliminated the threat against her.
“You are the threat.”
The words spoken into my ear cut through the pain eating at me. I turn my head, looking for the bear Royal I once saved. Only shadows surround me.
“Bryon?” My lips move. No sound comes out.
“I can’t see you, clan mate. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Clan mate. The term isn’t right, yet I can’t deny it. The reason why keeps slipping through my grasp. Fog obscures the truth, my thoughts not my own.
“Exactly. Cedric’s messed with your head and offered up your soul as payment. Now tell me what he wants you to do.”
“Protect Lyla.” The overwhelming urge to eliminate the threat to her returns. “She betrayed her once. She’ll do it again and again until Lyla’s gone.”
“Who is she?”
“Sam.” My tiger’s growl becomes mine, and the demand I hunt returns. “Sam’s here. She was going to hurt Lyla. I had to stop her.”
“What did you do to Sam?”
&n
bsp; Sam’s widened blue eyes show through the fog in my head. They hold betrayal, shock, and…fear. “I…hurt her.”
“How?”
Another image flashes across my mind: Sam’s hair spanning across my vision, the nearly white-blonde strands turning golden. Lyla shoves her sister out of the way. My clawed hand sinks into flesh.
“Lyla.” I groan her name as Bryon’s presence slips away along with the shadows surrounding me. He took them with him.
My gaze strays to where Ezra and Odin are crouched near a woman’s body. I can’t see her face, but I know who it is. I know who I hurt.
My gift from the heavens.
The knowledge of what I did slams into me, threatening to choke me with guilt. The sound of a crying woman adds to it. Ezra’s voice comes next, a calm and dominant force. “Call for help. Right now, Sam. Lyla is dying.”
Lyla’s dying…because of me. Because I failed her. I hurt the woman I was supposed to protect. I don’t deserve to live. I don’t deserve heaven.
But I have Lyla.
It’s not what I did. It’s what I do now. Lyla helped me realize that. And I won’t lose my true mate because of guilt.
On a curse, I claw at my stomach, pulling the needle from my gut, and toss the syringe away from me. Then I move, shoving the books off me and scrambling forward. Ezra turns, pulling his torn wrist from Lyla’s mouth, and lunges at me with modified lion claws tipping his fingers.
I grab his forearms, stopping him from digging the deadly weapons into my chest, and fall backward, my twin’s body blanketing mine. “Ezra, wait!”
The force of my twin pushing against my hold leaves my limbs trembling and my bones on the verge of snapping. I pull my legs up and kick him away, tossing his body in the air as he did to me. Then I crawl to where Lyla’s unmoving body lies in a pool of blood…blood spilled because of me…because of what Cedric compelled me to do.
Rage rises. Cedric will die for this.
Ezra’s on me before I can fix my mistake. He rams into my shoulder, spinning me away from Lyla before lunging at me a second time. Again I grab at his wrists, but the clawed tips sink into my chest, right over my heart.