by Lizzy Ford
“It wasn’t my idea,” Vikki said. “Let me say that up front.”
“Can this wait?” Zoey asked impatiently. “Lyd is gonna kill us. I think I need to drive.”
“If you’re this calm with Lyd driving, then I’m good.” Vikki took a deep breath. “First, Chrissy lied to you, Z.”
“What? You’re not blaming me for this!” Chrissy exclaimed from the back, her agitated voice coming across in stereo from the combination of sitting a few feet from her in person and her wearing a communications piece. “This was a mutual decision, Zoey.”
Zoey glanced back at Chrissy, who appeared worried rather than angry. She had a syringe in her hand. “Um, what’s that for?”
“Nothing.” Chrissy covered it with her lab coat.
Zoey eyed her. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not pregnant,” Vikki said.
“Seriously?” Zoey asked. “Do I want to know how that happened?”
“I never really was. We devised this elaborate plan to sort of test the waters.”
“I’ve got the sedative, Vikki,” Chrissy hissed.
“I can hear you, Chrissy!” Zoey snapped. “What the fuck are you guys talking about? Vikki’s pregnant and now she’s not? Chrissy’s ready to stab me with a needle?”
“So …Yeah.” Vikki cleared her throat.
Zoey caught the blur of black from the corner of her eye. “Lydia!” Her cry came a split second before the SUV smashed into the side of the van. There was a sickening crunch, and suddenly, she was flung against the seatbelt, rolling over and over, the world a blur of trees, sky and asphalt visible through the shattered glass of the windshield.
The van groaned as it slid to a stop on its side. Zoey’s ears rang, and the scent of blood was fresh in the air around her. Warmth pooled at her right side and left leg, Bruises forming from the seatbelt, she grimaced and worked on punching the release button with a bloody, trembling hand. It was jammed in place. She pulled out a knife and began sawing at the thick belt.
“Guys?” she croaked. A glance at Lydia revealed that the blond Halfling was unconscious, blood pooling around her head. “Vikki, please be there!”
“What the fuck happened?” Vikki was frantic.
“Got … hit. Lyd is out.” Cambions. Judging by the intensity of the sex magic, there were a ton of them headed her direction. Zoey hacked through the last of the belt and all but fell onto Lydia. She caught herself, shifting to see the Halfling and human in the back. “Chrissy is … I can’t tell. Cambions incoming.”
“That place is a death trap.”
“I’m in the middle.” Zoey felt for Lydia’s pulse, knowing how tough the Team Rogue members were. “Fuck, Vikki. Lyd is alive but won’t be for long if I can’t get her fixed up.”
“Take care of the Cambions. I’m headed your way.”
Zoey climbed through the mangled van back to Chrissy. Their resident mad scientist was trapped between the bench and the floor. The odd position protected her from the damaged side and probably saved her life. She was unconscious and bleeding from an arm and leg that were slashed by metal when the van’s side gashed open. Her pulse was strong, though, and Zoey moved onto the Halfling.
“One down,” she whispered to Vikki, not even bothering to check the Halfling’s pulse. The woman’s eyes were open and blank. Metal pierced her chest and thigh. Zoey lingered, sorrow tugging at her.
Did Declan go through this as a leader? Watching his people die? She’d never considered it before, just like she never wanted to think of how he felt after the incident that drove her away.
Her instincts grew in alarm at the approach of the Cambions. Zoey tore herself away from the gruesome scene in the back of the van and made her way to the front. The cut in her left calf was messy yet superficial, and the flow of blood in her side was already slowing. She tested her body briefly. A bit sluggish, though a good does of sex magic from the Cambions would fix that. She gripped a knife between her lips and stretched upward towards the busted passenger side window.
A shadow crossed above, and she pulled out another knife, tensing for a fight.
Did I get hit harder than I thought? She stared. “Vikki, you weren’t joking about the man in a mask.”
His black clothing was somewhat baggy, and the mask covered every inch of his face, down to the almost sheer eye coverings that hid the hue of his eyes. He wore gloves and sturdy boots, and was crouching over the window, balanced with catlike agility on the edges of the door.
“We think he’s a good-ish guy,” Vikki said. “Hang in there. I’ll be there soon.”
The man in black extended a hand without speaking.
Zoey’s senses picked up nothing about him whatsoever. He read as human, but she doubted he’d last long if he were truly a human.
“Z…zoey?” Chrissy’s voice was weak.
“Stay here, Chrissy,” Zoey called. “I’ve gotta go kill some Cambions.”
Chrissy murmured something in response.
Zoey took the stranger’s hand and let him pull her up. The moment she had her footing, she whipped around, ready to take off his head. As if sensing her intentions, he leapt away, landing on the ground near the van.
She eyed him, and he pointed past her.
Turning, her gaze swept over the dozens of Cambions filling the road and ditches. The van had cut through the younger trees near the road before the thick trunk of an ancient oak stopped its progress twenty feet from the road.
Zoey replaced one of her knives and drew the short sword at her back.
“Zoey,” Chrissy called again. The side of the van slammed open.
“I got this, Chrissy. Stay inside,” Zoey said without turning. She twirled the sword. There was a time she’d take a moment for a quick display of pageantry, a cocky challenge to the Cambions that thought they stood a chance.
Rattled by the thought of her friends being hurt, still raw from her interaction with Declan, Zoey wasn’t able to summon any sort of smartass remark towards the creatures headed towards her.
The man with the mask drew abreast of her, drawing his own weapons.
“I don’t need help,” she said, not at all comfortable with a stranger at her side. “This is easy.”
He offered a small salute with one knife.
“Whatever. Your funeral.” Zoey started away at a jog before breaking into an all out sprint. Opening her senses, she absorbed the magic of her enemies the way she was bred to do, letting it numb her emotional and physical pain and intoxicate her until she wanted to giggle. The more of them there were, the stronger the sensations, the less mortal she felt.
Zoey dove into the middle of the charging Cambions, her lethal dance guided by pure instincts. She relaxed and let the magic take her. The half-incubus creatures fell around her, and she switched out her other knife for the second sword without missing a beat.
Vaguely she grew aware of the person working in the space beside her, where Vikki normally fought. Uncertain what to do about the crazy masked man, she assessed with no small amount of surprise that he knew exactly what he was doing. He kept pace with her, his faultless aim and effortless agility a deadly combination. He predicted her movements in a way the Cambions weren’t able to, his weapons flashing inches from her as they whirled and wove by one another in tandem.
Unable to spare her focus on him for long, Zoey decided he was good enough to hold his own and concentrated on the task at hand.
“Zoey!” Chrissy’s cry came in stereo once more.
Zoey spared a glance towards the van, where three Cambions were making a beeline towards the dazed human hanging out of the top of the vehicle.
“Shit.” Zoey buried one sword to the hilt in a Cambion and whipped out a knife, flinging it before she returned to her deadly dance.
One of the three fell, but the other two were too close.
“Cover me, V … you,” she said to the masked figure.
He nodded his head once to indicate he understood.
&nbs
p; Zoey slashed free of the fight and sprinted towards the van. She threw another knife that landed in the thigh of a second Cambion before tackling him and flinging him into the van. Shredding his throat with her sword, she clambered towards the third, who had shoved Chrissy back into the van.
Zoey grabbed him and braced her feet against the hot metal at the underside of the van, hauling him off. She finished him with a single strike and leapt onto the van, climbing to the top. “Chrissy!” she called frantically. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, god no, Zoey!” Chrissy was clawing her way back to the top. “Run! I dropped a gre-”
An explosion tore through the exposed underside of the van. Pain split Zoey’s ears before everything fell silent, and she was flying, burning, flaying wildly towards the forest …
She blacked out a moment before she smashed into the thick trunk of a nearby tree.
Chapter Twenty: Shocked
“We got Lydia and Chrissy, two dead Halflings but no Zoey,” Wes reported via the comms piece in Declan’s ear.
Declan managed not to curse aloud, throw his phone or rip open the throat of Paul, who sat across from him in the Town Car as they made their way back to DC from the secret underground lab of Olivia’s. Still buzzing with adrenaline from the ill-fated raid, he’d been forced away for the search for Zoey when his brother warned him that Paul was headed to the battle scene. The mask was wadded in his pocket, his clothes in the back.
Zoey’s mind was blank, a sign she was either knocked unconscious, dead or in blackout mode. Worse, she wore the armband, so he had no idea where to find her.
“Anyone in any shape for interrogation?” Paul asked.
“Lydia is out. I’m not sure she’ll make it.” The clipped note in Wes’s voice hid an emotion Declan understood all too well. As intended soul-mates, Wes and Lydia hadn’t been able to commence their courtship yet because of all the drama with Team Rogue. Declan’s heart ached for his brother at the idea of losing a soul-mate. “Chrissy is awake,” Wes added.
“Ah, the human. Good.” Paul’s smile pissed of Declan even more. “I imagine a couple of my Cambions will be enough to make her talk.”
“Getting her to talk is my job, not yours,” Declan said calmly. “You are welcome to watch, but you will not participate.”
“You want her taken to interrogation?” Wes asked.
“Yeah. Send in Aiden. No Cambions.”
Paul’s smile faded. “How is your father, Declan?”
“Better. Out of his coma, but still weak.”
“Good. I had thought we might need to discuss you getting another promotion if he didn’t make it.”
“But he did make it, so there’s nothing to discuss.” Declan didn’t look away from the Cambion with eyes of two separate hues, not about to give Paul the satisfaction of having the last word. They both knew the Cambion leader had a hand in the abduction, except Declan couldn’t prove it yet and was forbidden from calling out the Paul-Olivia alliance by the politics of his position. He was about to say something he’d probably regret, when the connection to Zoey opened.
She was alive and drawing heavily off their bond, a sign she was hurt badly. Declan resisted the urge to turn the car around and find her. Wes was on site. If he didn’t find her, the Cambions wouldn’t either. She needed space to heal, even if that meant Declan was left in a state of agitation and worry fifty miles away in DC.
“Congrats on the successful raid,” Paul added. “I didn’t think you had it in you to turn on your soul-mate, but kidnapping your father must’ve been a real eye opener.”
“You have no idea,” Declan replied.
Paul appeared content with the response, and Declan was happy for them to sink into silence. He couldn’t stand the Cambion in the car with him, more so because the raid wouldn’t have gone off until Declan was certain Zoey was clear, if not for Paul forcing his hand.
The progress he made with Zoey on the personal front wasn’t going to matter if he was the reason her people ended up dead. Unable to sit back when he was expected to execute a raid, he had warned her via text without considering she wouldn’t be able to receive it underground. She was supposed to be gone before he arrived.
No part of him thought he’d escape the blame for the dead Halfling and the injuries of Chrissy and Lydia. He may have left a favorable impression on his own people, but he knew the opposite was true of Zoey.
They arrived back at Site Z a short time later. Declan headed to the interrogation rooms, located outside of the small prisoner holding area in one wing, not about to let Paul have the chance to confront the pure human. He stopped first at his office to release a deep breath and checked his phone for texts.
Nothing from Zoey. Declan let loose a loud curse, furious at himself for the raid. He took a moment to calm his temper, grabbed a bottle of water and strode out, headed towards the interview rooms.
A member of the security forces opened the door for him into the observation booth, where Liam stood, arms crossed and watching. Vikki’s mate, Liam was every bit the overbearing older brother – and Declan’s best friend.
“Wes is in sick bay,” Liam said. “Lydia’s bleeding internally.”
“If I need to put our preferred doctor in there, let me know,” Declan said, referring to the physician that had a history working with the mother of the nine brothers.
“I think he can handle it,” Liam said, amused. “Aiden on the other hand …” He shook his head.
Declan peered through the one-way mirror into the interrogation booth, pitying the human stuck in a small room with a super-incubus.
Chrissy was curled up on the floor in tears. Aiden had replaced her armband, probably to help buffer the effect he had on her. He seemed a little out of place, though, and glanced towards the window with a shrug.
“Ever think about how we don’t have a fucking clue what to do with humans if we’re not fucking them?” Liam asked, sounding equally bemused. “How do they work?”
“I don’t think we really can deal with them, or we wouldn’t be segregated as a society.” Declan pulled out his cell and texted Grant Brown. “Wes say anything more about Zoey?”
“Nothing. Vikki isn’t talking to me again.”
“Is she safe?”
Liam was quiet, and Declan imagined him checking through their link the way he did Zoey. “Feels like it.” Liam faced him. “You wanna tell me what all that talk about her being sick is about?”
“Not sick. Pregnant.”
Liam tilted his head. “Vikki?”
“Yeah. It’s why Zoey sent her here.” Expecting his brother to react poorly, the way Vikki seemed to think he would, Declan was puzzled by the amused look that crossed Liam’s features.
“Those girls got issues,” Liam said and shook his head. He returned his gaze to the worst interrogation Declan had ever seen and leaned forward, clicking on the intercom between the two rooms. “You’re scaring her, Aiden. Come on out.”
“I’m not scaring her,” Aiden replied. “I was there when Zoey told her to curl up in a ball and cry if she ever got caught by one of us. She’s playing me.”
Chrissy’s crying paused, and she sneaked a glance at him.
Declan saw it. Zoey always tried to take care of her people.
“You see?” Aiden shifted to point. He was grinning. “I caught you, Chrissy.”
The human Zoey had adopted for reasons Declan didn’t fully understand sighed and pushed herself into a sitting position. Her eyes were bleary, and her shallow wounds had been bound. With cocoa skin and warm, brown eyes, she was the height of a succubus but bore the baffled innocence of a human.
“Chrissy, what exactly do you do for Zoey?” Declan asked through the intercom.
Her eyes lifted in his direction, taking on a dreamy quality at the sound of his voice. The band was strong enough to neutralize the influence of a super-incubus, but even Grant went a little smiley whenever Declan was around.
“Whatever,” she murmured. “Doctor
, scientist, engineer.”
“Chrissy’s a genius,” Aiden supplied, sitting down in the folding chair beside the table at the center of the room. “Dropped out of MIT and Yale, right?”
She nodded. “I have an IQ of two-twenty and a photographic memory. I can learn anything by reading. Zoey says being smart is my superpower.”
Declan leaned back, not sure why he was impressed when he knew how effective his soul-mate was. Zoey thought with her heart and overreacted to most challenges, but she was calculating enough to know when and where she needed help.
“Where’s the rendezvous?” Aiden asked.
“I don’t know. The five core members of Team Rogue were the only who ever really knew all the details. They never left me alone.”
“How did you even meet these girls?”
“Zoey saved me from Cambions,” Chrissy said, hushed. “I owe her my life. I told her I’d do whatever it took to help her protect others the way she did me.”
Warm emotion stirred within Declan. He knew how huge Zoey’s heart was, and Chrissy was a glowing representation of how much good Zoey did.
“Did I blow her up?” Chrissy squeaked, tears in her eyes.
“No. She’s fine,” Declan replied.
“Lydia, too?”
“We’re not sure yet.”
Chrissy choked back an audible sob.
“We’ll fix her up,” Aiden added more gently. “We need you to answer a few questions, and we’ll set you free.”
“You will?”
“Grant’s headed down. He’ll keep you under watch as a neutral party,” Declan replied. “Your association makes you a target for Zoey’s enemies.”
Chrissy didn’t look pleased by the information.
“What were you doing in the lab?” he asked, hopeful she was able to fill in the story behind Zoey needing incubus samples.
Chrissy hesitated, torn. “I don’t want to tell you,” she whispered, more tears in her eyes.
“Look, Chrissy,” Aiden moved from the chair to sit down beside her, his back to the wall and hands resting on bent knees. “Behind the glass is Declan and Liam.” He lifted his eyes to Declan. “Anyone else?”