by Apollo Blake
“I will.”
I glared at him, daring him with my eyes to try anything as I stepped forward—and the next second I was flying backwards through the air. The ceiling spun above me, and I slammed onto the mattress, teeth clacking together as the door slammed shut across the room.
I rolled off the bed, breathless from the force, and lumbered to my feet. My vision tilted—I’d stood too soon. I fell back onto my ass and forced myself to breathe, dragging in one deep breath after the other until I started to feel like gravity was right again.
Hunter was gone.
Fucking cheater. That wasn’t a fair fight. Give me some telekinesis of my own and a bit of practice time and I would—
Ugh, whatever. I wasn’t just going to sit here because Jean Grey over there said so.
I wasn’t a toddler who needed a leash.
And I couldn’t believe the nerve of the motherfucker. If he came back here anytime soon I was going to clock him on the head. Except he wasn’t planning on coming back soon, was he? He was gone, and I was stuck here.
Wards can keep you in.
And I was going to go crazy. Like, serious cabin fever kind of shit. I barely functioned trapped in that tiny apartment with Mom. Being alone with myself in a room for so long would not do good things for me, especially with all of this going on.
Hunter had pulled the curtain shut across the window, blocking out the lights of the city—but I could faintly hear the occasional midnight traffic going by outside, cars slugging down King Street and turning off onto Germain, or coming up from Prince William, a hundred city streets all connected like the delicate lines of a spiderweb, pulsing with people and light.
Up here trapped above it all, I felt oddly small. I sat up and looked around the dark, still room. It was an oddly lavish cage.
There weren’t many choices to make.
If Hunter planned on keeping me here, he had to have done something to the door. How did wards work? He couldn’t expect me to actually listen to him and stay put if I could get out, did he?
When I tried the door I found it locked—as to be expected—but I wasn’t about to worry yet.
I pulled out my phone and called Riley. I waited to hear it ring—except it didn’t. I hung up and tried again, but the phone was silent. No dial tone. I glanced at the device. No reception? I was in the middle of a hotel with wifi, in a good service area. . . .
Unless Hunter had done something to block the signals from getting through? Could he do that with the ward magik? It sure fucking looked like it. So the wards weren’t just stopping me from going in or out or being tracked—they were keeping signals from passing through, too. Riley would be fascinated at the intersection of technology and science, but me? Annoyed. I was also getting more and more nervous as I walked to the desktop and moved the mouse to jostle it to life, but the first thing that came up on the monitor was a password screen, and I didn’t have that.
I tried the door a few more times, slammed my shoulder into it to try to loosen it or something, but it didn’t budge.
So that was it. I really was stuck here.
New list of options: drink all of Hunter’s coffee, masturbate, watch bad TV, pull my own hair out, try jumping out the window.
Tossing my jacket on the foot of the bed, I ran my fingers over the flesh of my arms, ignoring the cigarette burns there and trying to feel whatever was wrong with us, deep beneath our skin. In my magik, in his, some invisible tie or link. It made me sick, thinking of some kind of poison or power spreading through me, while I was trapped here with nothing to do, no course of action to take.
I fell back on the bed and shouted at the ceiling in frustration. Sitting up, I stared at the shut door and tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do with myself.
NINE
DICE & DREAMS
Stuck in the hotel room, I considered my list of possible actions. They were pretty much: do what Hunter tells you to.
Also, get drunk on his whiskey, but the sting of alcohol and the fuzz of drunkenness wasn’t what I wanted or needed at the moment. Plus, I was a vodka kind of guy. Not right now. Clarity and a goal, that was what I needed.
But I couldn’t get out of this damn room.
And while I wasn’t good at doing nothing, I couldn’t deny that Hunter was right. I’m stubborn, not fucking delusional. He was stronger than me, knew more about our situation than I did, and, oh yeah—he was an actual Charmer. He’d said my power was a coveted gift, but it didn’t seem as useful as being able to toss a grown person through the air or go off killing monsters.
I knew that my ability would still bring me some trouble: I had Jackson to deal with when this was all over. I had to find a way to tell him off without getting my head ripped off. And I had to figure out how Penn fit into it all. But right now all I wanted to was trade in my powers for something that would actually get me out of this trouble.
I was a walking, talking, human lie detector. Useless—in this situation, at least.
And sometimes I got tired of that. Tired of knowing people were lying when they said that I looked nice today, or told me they would keep my secrets to my face even when they intended on sharing behind my back. . . .
That was why I’d left school. That had been my everyday existence.
I was sick of knowing how few people I could truly count on. I was sick of not being able to count on myself.
But for now, locked away up here, there was nothing I could do about it. Instead, I would try to sleep it out and hope the guy responsible for fixing all of this was more reliable than he seemed at the moment.
I sat around for a while reading random books and puttering around the room. I tried to make myself to eat something, but I couldn’t force the food down. I kept thinking of Mom, wondering if she was worried, if she had even an inkling of what was happening to me. She’d always been a bit oblivious, and she definitely wasn’t about to win mother of the year any time soon—but we looked out for each other. No matter how mad we were, how drunk she was, how often we fought, we made sure we were okay from outside forces. Mostly. I couldn’t decide half of the time if she was my worst enemy, or the only person I truly cared about. We’d latched onto each other, for better or for worse.
I wanted to call her, to tell her I was fine. Except I couldn’t, because of Hunter’s stupid wards. Thinking of her made me think of alcohol; the burn of a drink going down, the dizzy haze. I considered pouring myself a drink. It was impossible not to think of drinking when she came into my mind, or not to think of her while I was drinking.
It was part of her identity, alcohol, in a way that scared me; the way the smell of it clung to her sour breath and her hair reeked of vomit. How I so often only saw her with a bottle or a glass in hand, eyes bleary, wearing the same sweatpants for weeks and sleeping among empty bottles and cans.
Every time I drank I was afraid I might go to far, get hooked on the same edge she had, and become her. Like I was on the tip of a dagger, playing with death.
Always pushing limits—like it was the only thing I knew how to do.
Well, that and fixate on things I shouldn’t.
Instead of drinking, I stripped down to my underwear and T-shirt and crawled into the bed, resigned to lie there sleepless for the next few hours.
It was comfier than I remembered, and the sheets smelled like Hunter, like his sharp cologne, musk, and plain soap. My own bed was on old futon we’d gotten from one of Mom’s exes, and it smelled like smoke and was lumpy as hell. This cheap hotel bed felt like something from the palace of a king. I burrowed down into the thick, warm sheets and closed my eyes, feeling drowsier than I’d expected. In the next room, I could hear a group of men playing dice or something—their booming laughter, the clink of ice. It comforted me to know that there were other people around, even if I couldn’t see them.
I needed something like that to focus on in order to fall asleep, the sound of life bustling around me.
I listened to the sound of di
ce rolling across the surface of a table as I drifted off, my mind spinning away from me, and then the sound changed.
As the blackness claimed me, what I heard instead was the crack of thunder.
~
I stood the rain on the edge of an ancient forest. It was dark, but I could see patches of indigo sky through the trees towering over me. The world was green—thick, spongy moss clinging to the tree trunks, long grass blowing against my bare legs in the wind. I was instantly soaked, and I stumbled back as thunder and lightening cracked again overhead.
The world lit up with the flash, and I saw her: A woman stood a few feet away, outside of the tree line. Her back was to the edge of a cliff, and beyond her the ocean stretched forever.
She was old. Her mahogany hair had gone mostly silver, and her pale skin was lined with wrinkles. But she still cut an imposing figure standing there in long, royal blue robes.
A milky film had developed over her powder blue eyes, but as her gaze cut into me, I knew she saw more than it seemed. She raised a single arm and pointed her finger at me.
“You hold the key to turning the tides,” she said in a surprisingly steady voice. “The bloodline runs strong—strong enough to flood the world with shadows.”
Cryptic, cryptic, and more cryptic.
“What?” I stepped forward and sharp rocks cut into my feet. “What are you talking about?”
The rain beat against me, and through the gloom I saw her drop her arm. Behind her the sea thrashed, angry and vicious in the storm. I felt something like panic take me over, blood pounding in my ears like a warning.
The woman spoke again. “Tame the serpent, and you will save us all.”
She stepped back, taking her dangerously close to the edge. A vicious smile spread over her face. A flood of warmth bloomed in my chest, in stark contrast to the storm.
She was still grinning when she backed off of the edge of the cliff so fast all I could do was watch her fall.
“No!” I darted forward, stumbling over the uneven ground and tripping to my knees at the edge of the cliff. Sharp rocks dug into my knees as I looked over the edge.
There was no sign of her, no ripples in the surface of the untamed ocean, no blue fabric clinging to the jagged cliff face. Nothing. She was gone, fallen into darkness.
I dug my hands into the ground as I peered down. Something crumbled. There was a massive shift, the earth moving beneath me, and I shrieked as I twisted dangerously. Terror poured over my head as I slid off the ledge too fast to stop the fall, too fast to save myself. . . .
I plummeted through air, drenched with rain.
Cold, empty space rushed by, and I prepared to hit the surface. Wind rushed so fast it bit at my skin.
In the blink of an eye, I jolted awake. Still falling. The ceiling spun above me as I rolled off the edge of the bed and dropped to the floor. Strong arms wrapped around me like steel bars just before I could hit the ground. I gasped at the unexpected touch, instantly full of heat as Hunter pulled my to him, our sides pressing together tightly. I recognized the smell of him. Fuck, that was not good. He cradled me, and I found his black orbs staring at me through the dark.
“Hey there,” he said in a husky voice.
Nope, no way could I form words right now. Terror and lust warred in my head. My brain was going to short circuit.
Why was he so attractive?
Heat sparked between us, and I felt fear start to fade out, replaced by something almost more powerful. My heartbeat slowed—barely. Hunter kept staring, not moving, and heat filled my face, which made me hate myself. “I. . .uh. . .I fell.”
His expression softened, a touch of amusement lingering, and he shook his head. I could feel his breath when he spoke. “Go back to sleep, Sky.”
“Mmm,” I was already halfway there.
He lifted me up and set me down on the middle of the mattress, tossing the blanket over my legs. He pulled the warm sheets over me, tight and snug. My brain nagged at me, telling me there was something I was supposed to ask him, something more I was supposed to say.
I peered up at him through stinging, tired eyes where he stood next to the bed, watching me. If I weren’t so tired I would have told him to stop acting like Edward Cullen and do something useful, but the world started to blur, and even in my haste to speak to him, to remember what was important, I was powerless against my exhaustion.
He was still standing there when my eyes finally fell softly shut and I drifted away, back into the dark. I was dreaming again in seconds and Hunter was gone along with everything else.
TEN
BROKEN WARDS
I woke in the morning to a hellish banging noise somewhere in the distance. Thunder?
I groaned and rolled over beneath the thick blanket, my legs tangling in the sheets. After a second the racket stopped, letting blissful silence creep back in. I closed my eyes, content—and then shot straight up in bed at the sound of the door opening.
“Hello? Housekeeping?”
One of the housekeepers stood in the doorway of the darkened room. She was a short woman, dark ponytail shot through with elegant lines of silver, and behind a pair of black and pink hipster glasses, her round eyes widened in surprise at the sight of me. She halted there, awkwardly, and gestured back to the hallway with her hands.
“Sorry!” she gushed. “There was no sign on the door. I called in, but no one answered. Should I come back later?”
For a second I just sat there, half-asleep, staring at her. Then I launched myself out of the bed. “No!”
Falling onto the floor, I scooped my jeans, jacket, and boots off of the ground and swiped my phone from the bedside table. The housekeeper watched me curiously as I scrambled around her and her giant cart full of cleaning supplies, smiling like a total maniac.
“I was just heading out,” I assured her. I was aware that I probably looked and smelled like a groupie who’d slept in a tent, but I wasn’t staying in this room another second if I had a way out.
How had she opened the door? Some kind of loophole in the wards?
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Definitely,” I said over my shoulder.
The maid called after me, “Have a nice day!”
Not in my nature, I thought as I retreated. Coffee would be great right now.
In the hallway I walked a ways down from the door, just glad to be out of there, and stood in place to shove my legs into my pants. I pulled my wallet from my jacket, shoved it in my pants pocket with my phone, and slung the coat over my shoulder. When I looked up an older man was staring as he walked by, probably scandalized.
I didn’t even care; the plain patterned carpeting and wallpaper of the narrow hotel hallway were the best things I’d ever seen, a sight out of heaven.
Sweet, sweet freedom.
I headed for the elevator. In the silence of the ride down, I tried to sort out my hair in the mirrored walls, and wondered where I might find Hunter. I could just go home—he could always track me down again later—but I decided against it, unless it was just a quick stop to grab some new clothes and check in, make sure Melissa was still breathing. And not locked up somewhere.
What I really needed to do was either find a way to help break the bond, or learn more about it in general. I just had no idea where to start.
I did know that we had to figure out how to get rid of this bond thing. Hot or not, I didn’t want Hunter reading my mind for the rest of my days. The last thing I needed was another person to tie me to this place, or to give someone a front-row ticket to see my insanity unfold firsthand.
It basically sounded like the magik version of matching BFF bracelets—including power sharing and some seriously fucked up connections. Hunter had said I may even be able to get a sense of his emotions. . .and vice versa.
Cool. And good, kind of—show someone else how much a lie hurts for once. Let me blast some fireballs around.
But the rest? I so did not want a permanent spiritual link with a guy I
’d known for all of two days—and honestly wasn’t even sure if I wanted to kiss or kill.
For now, I was stuck playing Charmer, after all. Where had Hunter gone after he’d left last night? He could be anywhere in the city—or even outside of it.
I had no idea where to find him, and no idea what to do without his help. But if I could tap into his telekinesis like I had on the street the other day, I should at least be able to protect myself if I needed to.
I didn’t plan on running into trouble: I was the trouble.
In the lobby I nodded at the receptionist as I headed for the mall. I paused before the sliding glass doors, peering out into the spot where just two days ago I’d seen a Hound lurking in the shadows. There was nothing there now.