Jogging to catch up to Dad and Eth, I led them through to my room. I debated guiding them to a different part of the warehouse, but besides the showers, there wasn’t anywhere else to go. Most of the offices were full of debris and there was no way I could convince them I’d stayed anywhere else. Besides, I knew both my father and brother were skilled enough trackers to guess which room I’d been using even if I didn’t show them the way.
When I pushed open the door, relief struck me. Evie had at least had the good sense to hide and not be standing exposed in the middle of the room. I glanced around the space to locate her, and as soon as I had, I tore my gun from its holster. Without thinking of anything but Evie’s freedom, I leveled it at my father and shouted at her to go.
Relief struck the instant she cleared the doorframe that lead out of the office. Before I could celebrate, Eth’s fist struck me hard, catching me on the cheekbone with an unexpected jab. As I tried to recover from that, he lunged again. Based on his trajectory, it was clear his goal was to knock the gun from my hand. I twisted out of his way and sent my elbow crashing against his larynx in retaliation. Around the choking sound that issued from him, came a feral growl, and he came at me harder than before. His shoulder drove into my stomach, sending the breath rushing from my body.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dad make a break for the door to give chase to Evie. Even as I tried to catch my breath, I aimed the gun at the space right in front of him. Right when I squeezed the trigger, Eth knocked my arm during a new struggle.
“What the hell?” Dad cried out.
Both Eth and I stopped our scuffle and looked in Dad’s direction. The bullet, meant for the wall beside him, had instead torn through his calf. The hit must have shifted the trajectory of the bullet, sending it directly into Dad’s path rather than in front of him as a warning shot.
Eth scrambled for the gun. Twisting away from him, I used the butt of the weapon as a weight and smashed my fist against his collarbone. A loud crack echoed through the small space and he dropped away from me with a grunt.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” I said to Dad as I threw myself across the room to help him. I might have wanted Evie’s safety, but not at the expense of any member of my family. I didn’t want them to be hurt. For all their faults, they were still blood.
I was about to help Dad—who was uttering a string of curses so profuse that it would have made a drill sergeant blush—when Eth snuck past us and into the corridor. I couldn’t let him get to Evie and I still hadn’t heard her truck pull away. Stuck with a choice between helping with Dad’s injury and ensuring Evie’s safety, there was little else I could do. I gave chase to Eth, charging into the corners as he disappeared around each one.
Turning another corner, I saw Evie standing stock still in the middle of the corridor frozen with fear as she stared back at my brother who was fast closing in on her.
“What are you waiting for, Evie?” I shouted with everything I had in me. “Run!”
I rushed for Eth, using my shoulder to drive hard against his chest and bring him to a stop.
“Run and don’t look back. I’ll find you!”
It was a promise I probably wouldn’t be able to keep. I was certain her father would hide away better than ever before once he found out what had happened. I couldn’t help uttering it anyway. I needed to cling to the hope that it was true, and I was certain Evie would too.
Watching her skid around the corners toward freedom, I inadvertently let Eth get the upper hand. His hand closed around my neck and he dragged my body across his, smashing my face against the drywall hard enough that it caused a dent. I blacked out for a fraction of a second, but when I came to, the sound of Evie’s engine filled the air.
Eth was already at the door ready to follow, but he wasn’t there yet. Pulling myself to my feet, I gave chase as best as I could to stop him. By the time the sun hit my eyes, Eth’s Hummer had already pulled onto the road and sped off after Evie.
Fuck!
I glanced around the street for a car to follow them in, but couldn’t see any. Knowing there was nothing more I could do—and hating that fact desperately—I headed back inside the warehouse to help my father with his gunshot wound. I couldn’t leave him alone with his injuries if I had the means to help him. It meant relying on Evie getting herself to safety somehow, but I had to trust her statement that she knew how to survive in a world that wanted her dead.
Dad was on the phone with Lou when I reached him. He’d located the first aid kit I’d stashed in my backpack and had already bandaged his wound. In his hand, he had a needle ready with something for the pain. Stopping in front of him, I reached for the needle to help. It was the least I could do.
“Here, let me . . .” I didn’t even get the chance to say the words before he’d jabbed the needle into my hand. A cool sensation pooled underneath my skin before flooding up my arm.
“Sorry, son, but I can’t have you interfering in this case anymore. Ethan, Louise, and I will handle the phoenix from here, and we’ll come back for you once it’s done.”
I blinked at him in shock.
“What?” I asked as I tried to make sense of what had happened. My head swam, but I shook it off. “Once it’s done?” I repeated. The words were meaningless at first, but then the terror hidden in them registered.
Evie!
My heart pounded, but instead of giving me a surge of adrenaline to rely on, it sped the rate the sleepy coldness passed through my arm. Dad drew himself up to a standing position, and I followed him to my feet.
“It’ll be best if you sit. That will take effect soon, and you don’t want to collapse onto the concrete when it does.”
His voice faded in and out and the world grew fuzzy. A strange metallic taste filled my mouth at precisely the same moment my tongue seemed to increase rapidly in size.
“What did you—” I couldn’t force the words out around my sluggish tongue.
I sank to the ground as the world shrunk to a pinpoint and then faded to black.
CHAPTER TEN
WHEN I OPENED my eyes, the room was filled with blood. It washed along the once-white walls, staining them all red.
I blinked, opening and closing my eyes to try to focus on something.
Anything.
The blood . . .
No, not blood.
Light.
Red light.
I lifted my head and shook it to clear the sludge that had overtaken my vision. Grogginess still clouded my mind, and I struggled to fight it off. I watched the red slowly fade as the sun sank farther in the sky. There was something important that I needed to do, or know, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling of cotton wool that surrounded everything inside my mind as I tried to pinpoint what that was.
The awkward position I’d landed in didn’t give me much room to move, at least not with the fatigue still sapping the energy from my limbs. My head felt about three sizes too big for my neck and blood pounded past my temples making my vision pulse in and out in time with my heartbeat. The concrete beneath me was hard. Cold. The opposite of what I’d felt lately. Soft mattress. Smooth hair. Heat.
Fire and life.
Evie.
Flashes of memories of the last week filled my mind, and I smiled.
Evie. Since I’d found her, she’d surpassed even my most wild imaginings. She was the seductress I’d dreamed of while still being the sweet girl I remembered from the time before I knew the truth. The days I’d spent with her were some of the best of my life, and I was certain it could only get better. Just as soon as . . .
A new series of visions assaulted me: Evie, Lou, Eth, Dad, the needle.
Evie!
The images of her in danger were enough to force the remnants of lethargy out of my body, and I shot to my feet. My gun was missing, but my bag was right where I’d left it. I could only hope that the money I’d hidden inside would still be there too.
Slinging the backpack over my shoulder, I raced from the room. I
was desperate to find out whether Evie was still alive. Only, I had no idea where she might have gone or even what time it was. I only had one lead to go on, and that was that she would try to find her way back to her father. As long as they hadn’t already found each other and left town without me that was. The thought had me moving even faster.
What if she thinks I’m not worth the risk anymore? I was filled a sinking dread that I’d never see her again.
I couldn’t even consider the other option: that my family had caught her. If I let that worry take root and fester, I wouldn’t be able to move. She had to be okay.
The need to know more gave me speed as I ran from the warehouse, keeping my eyes peeled for any easily accessed vehicles. I’d run for almost ten minutes before I found a car that was suitable. When I did, I hotwired it and drove through the streets to her house like a madman. A two-hour walk became a ten-minute drive. When I turned onto her road, I saw the smoke long before I saw her house.
Shit, Evie!
Considering she was a phoenix, fire was a bad sign. It likely signaled her death. My stomach twisted, and I struggled to hold the contents inside at the thought.
“We’ll come back for you once it’s done.” Dad’s words circled around my head until I had to silently scream for them to stop.
She isn’t dead. She can’t be. She just . . . can’t be.
The ache in my chest grew until my heart felt like it couldn’t possibly force out another beat.
She has to be alive.
Half a block away from her house, I parked the car in a haphazard fashion near enough to the curb before wiping down my prints. Leaving it behind, and trying to stay in the shadows—away from detection if my family or any other Rain were around—I moved as quickly as I could toward her house. I had to see. I had to know.
She can’t be dead.
Smoke poured out of the windows of Evie’s house, but I couldn’t stop. I needed to know.
Surely I’d know if she was dead.
Sparing no thought for my own safety, I barged my way through the front door.
Wouldn’t I know? Wouldn’t there be an unbearable ache in my chest the moment her life left her body?
Ignoring the inferno that had already taken root in the walls and floor, I rushed through the living room, my gaze darting left and right in my search for Evie. I stopped dead when I met the gaze of a lifeless body, slumped over the kitchen counter, already surrounded by the raging fire.
It’s not her, oh God, it’s not her.
I hated myself for the surge of relief I felt when I saw David and not Evie collapsed against the counter; that it was his blood staining the doors of the cupboards red—his deceased form being licked at by the flames and not her perfect form causing them. It would destroy her to hear of his death, but at least she would still be alive.
God, I hope she’s still alive.
For a moment, I paused and met the dead eyes of the man who’d threatened me just that morning.
Was that really just a few hours earlier?
It felt like a lifetime had passed in that time. In a way, one had—David’s lifetime.
I’d seen human corpses before, enough to have lost count, but I’d rarely encountered one that I’d known as a human first. His wide, dead eyes were accusatory, blaming me for everything that had befallen him and his daughter. My guilt reflected back at me in his sightless gaze.
If I hadn’t forced myself back into Evie’s life, she wouldn’t have faced the danger she had today. I paused as the blame for those things settled where it belonged and hardened into guilt strong enough to build a fortress around my heart. If Evie was still alive, she was better off without me. That was the clear message I read in the eyes of her father’s corpse. It was also the truth.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured. Whether I was apologizing to David, Evie, or myself, I didn’t know, but the words didn’t change anything. They couldn’t.
Knowing there was nothing more I could do for David, I tore myself away from the gruesome sight of his corpse and rushed to check the other rooms. Choking on the thick smoke that filled the house, I coughed. My lungs burned and my eyes grew dry. I tore my shirt off and pressed it over my mouth, trying to stop the worst of the smoke.
The heat was so intense I could barely think of anything else. Sweat poured off me, and my eyes stung. Despite it all, the overwhelming feeling I had was one of relief. Although I’d searched every room, I’d been unable to find Evie. It was entirely possible that wherever she was, she was still in danger, but the simple fact that she wasn’t the cause of the house fire was enough to give me sanity—for the moment.
The sound of sirens filled the air, piercing through the fog in my mind with obnoxious, shrill wails. When the fire consumed the curtains in the living room, red and blue flashes mixed with the smoke in a macabre disco and warned that they were closer than I expected.
I had to get out of the house, or I would be stuck when they arrived. Charging past David’s now burning remains, I rushed out the back door and vaulted the fence into the neighbor’s yard. Keeping to the shadows, I headed for the end of the road just in time to see a coroner’s van drive past to join the fleet of emergency vehicles converging in front of Evie’s house. The sight confirmed that my family had been involved in David’s death—as if there’d been any doubt before. Only their influence with the Rain could have sent a coroner out to collect a body before the fire trucks had even unraveled their hoses.
Free of the suffocating smoke and heat, and certain that the commotion was far enough away that I was safe from discovery for the moment, I took a moment to catch my breath. As I did, the true horror of David’s death settled over me. I could already imagine what Evie’s reaction would be—could picture her smile falling and her body warming with fear. I tugged my smoke laden shirt back on and sagged against a fence for support as all the air rushed from my lungs at the thought of having to tell Evie what I’d seen.
How am I even going to find her?
Panic struck me again, and I struggled to get oxygen into my body. Shivers overtook my body, and my heart smashed against my ribcage. Every part of me ached. For a moment, I pictured the worst-case scenario. I was certain Evie had been killed, and I was experiencing the torture I’d thought that situation would bring to me. I had no other explanation for the wracking ache that radiated from my chest and overtook my limbs, forcing me to the ground.
The night was black, the air cooling, and the fire was all but out up the street. Smoke still clung to everything though, blanketing the night with a cloying presence. After some time, my breathing had returned to normal and the ache that had torn my heart in two was subsiding somewhat, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.
A few moments later, I saw the outline of a girl in the distance. The height and build were right for the one I wanted to see most. I considered whether I was hallucinating. The closer she got, the more I could see it wasn’t a fantasy. If she was a vision, she wouldn’t have appeared so sullied. She’d always come to me at night pristine and immaculately dressed, not bedraggled and staggering blindly through the darkness.
Mud clung to her as tightly as I wanted to, coating her as if it were a second skin. It was caked over her hair and beautiful face, but through it all I could see that she was unhurt or at least mostly so. By some miracle, she’d escaped a pursuit by an elite Rain team. It was an impossibility, but she’d done it.
In that moment, I was in awe of her.
Her strength and ability to survive were second to none, for which I would be eternally grateful. I called out to her, desperate to have her in my arms again. Even if it could never last.
The elation in her voice as she called my name, before racing back to my side, made my heart sing and weep all at once. She was pleased to see me, but only because she was yet to discover the blow she’d been dealt in this battle between my family and her kind.
When she grew closer to me, her smile turned to a frown. At first, I thought she must ha
ve seen the house in the distance, but then I saw she was watching me carefully.
“What happened?” She brushed one of her fingers over my skin in a delicate pattern. Her touch burned and ached as the guilt over her father’s death increased with her presence.
I pulled away from her; I didn’t deserve her comfort. Not after what I’d cost her. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You got hurt saving me; of course, it matters,” she said with a smile. “Don’t worry though. Dad’s very adept at first aid. There was a time he was going to be a doctor, you know?”
Fighting down the nausea that threatened to overtake my body again, I looked at the joy dancing in her gaze. I was going to destroy it. In a few moments, I was going to shatter her world—and possibly mine—completely. My actions would be far worse than anything I’d ever done before, but I couldn’t simply forget her father’s death.
“I came here as quickly as I could. I hoped you’d come back here even though it was dangerous to return. I had to know you were safe, especially considering—” I couldn’t finish as bile rose in my throat. I had no idea how to tell the woman I loved that her father was dead. How could anyone do that? Worse, that his death was my fault.
“Considering what?”
My heart sped and ached as if it were bleeding my love for her into my chest. I was choking on it, would drown in it. I couldn’t find the words I needed. A lump of emotions swelled in my chest, making it hard to concentrate on anything besides forcing my breath in and out. I struggled to even look at her for more than a few seconds at a time. I’d destroyed everything she had, and my punishment would be to never again meet her perfect lilac eyes without guilt rushing through me.
“Hey, it’s okay,” she reassured me.
She placed her hands on either side of my face and brought her lips to mine. Again and again she placed small kisses against my lips, and it was enough to break me. Sobs, unwanted and unbidden, stole my voice. I was a coward. A fucking coward who couldn’t find the words to ruin her.
“I had a close call,” she continued, as her soft touch skimmed my aching cheekbone. “But I’m safe. We both are.”
Besieged by Rain (Son of Rain #1) Page 10