by T. S. Joyce
Candace peeled into giggles. Of course, Torren would be up for playing. He was good at that, and highly competitive with Nox for reasons she would probably never fully understand. “Sorry, fresh out.”
She didn’t even try to open her own door. A, the moving box in her lap was full of her collection of romance books and was heavy. And B, she’d learned early on that Torren liked to open doors for her. All doors, and he pulled out her chair for her at restaurants, even if it was just a fast food place. And any chance he got, he liked to carry her things. He’d explained he would never be able to buy her a lot of material things, so he liked to take care of her in the ways he could. It was really sweet and made her feel special every time he did, so her smile stretched her face as he jogged around the front of his ride and opened her door. He pulled the box out of her lap as if it weighed nothing and waited for her to grab a stack of clothes from the back of his car. This was the last load from her apartment, so the back was stuffed with mostly odds and ends they’d left until last to transport.
“I made dinner!” Nox called as they made their way to the front door.
“I’m not eating whatever you cooked,” Torren muttered. “You burn everything.”
“By ‘made dinner’ I mean I bought pasta from that new Italian place in town. Crew dinner! Page sixty-nine in the Manners and Shit book: spring for food every once in a while.”
“Plus, I like when we all eat together,” Nevada said. “And I’m tired of instant noodles. The bills are paid this month, so let’s celebrate. We even got a box of wine. Thirty-four glasses of crisp white for eleven dollars.”
“I like crew dinners, too,” Candace admitted. “Feels like those fucked-up, dysfunctional family meals on funny television shows.”
“Exactly!” Nevada exclaimed excitedly. “That’s what I was telling Nox just yesterday!”
“Uh, yeah, I remember that conversation,” Nox muttered, staring at the open Manners & Shit book he’d pulled from his pocket.
“Lie,” Nevada called him out.
“In my defense, I’m pretty sure that was around the time you said the word ‘blow,’ and all I could think of was your mouth on my d—”
“Does your mind ever get out of the gutter, Nox?” Vyr asked from the roof.
“The gutter is the best place for the mind to be,” Nox explained primly. “It’s dark, quiet, and wet—”
“Stop. Talking,” Vyr demanded. There was steel and order in his words, and Nox choked on his retort. Tried again but failed to push a word out, so he lifted a middle finger instead.
“Someday I’m gonna bite off both of your favorite fingers,” Vyr muttered. “We need to eat fast if we’re going to do dinner.”
“Why?” Torren asked, turning toward him before he reached the front door.
His gaze was intense on the Red Dragon, who only shrugged up one shoulder and responded, “Storm’s coming.”
Torren’s jaw clenched. “What does that mean?”
Vyr’s only answer was to stare with dead eyes at Torren and point to the sky. Indeed, the clouds were dark gray and churning above them. Foxburg was supposed to get four inches of snow tonight.
Torren let off a frustrated snarl and spun on his heel, made his way into the house. But Candace still stood there, looking up at Vyr. He dragged his gaze to her and said, “Remember what I told you, Candace. Remember your role. Don’t let the devil out.” He held her trapped in that silver dragon gaze for a couple of heartbeats and then gave his attention back to the woods.
“What was that about?” Nevada asked.
Nox was frowning up at Vyr suspiciously.
Under the pile of clothes, Candace’s hands shook, but she kept her poker face and shrugged. She couldn’t say words or they would be busted as lies, so she scrambled in after Torren and hoped he hadn’t heard Vyr’s cryptic message to her.
Her role? To stop Torren from going ape-shit when Vyr disappeared. Something was wrong. Something was really wrong, and she had a gut-deep instinct that the storm Vyr was talking about had nothing to do with clouds and everything to do with the watched feeling she had felt in the woods.
She and Torren unloaded the car quickly, but in silence. He seemed lost in his own head, probably worried about his friend. Each time they passed through the kitchen to make another run to the car, Nox stopped heating up food to stare at her. The entire crew was feeling this, so when the soft hum of an engine sounded outside, it wasn’t surprising at all for her. From the somber looks on the crew’s faces, for them either.
“Methinks Damon Fucking Daye has been up to no good,” Nox muttered as they all watched the blue and red police lights slowly approaching through the woods.
“Why isn’t Vyr running?” Candace asked. Out the window, she could see his leg still dangling from the roof.
“He said this was the last place he would run to,” Torren said in a gruff voice. “This is where he wants to stand his ground.”
“Are we fighting?” Nevada asked in a meek voice as three more police cruisers and a news van appeared in the clearing.
Torren growled out, “New Sons of Beasts Crew motto: fight everything.”
Nox was already peeling off his shirt before the boys got to the front porch. Sheeeyit. Candace bolted after them. The boys would go knuckles first and ask questions later, but she knew most of the police force in this town. Maybe she could talk them down. Plus, this crew couldn’t afford a repeat of Covington. That news van meant cameras. Was it even legal to have a news crew present for an arrest? This felt like a violation of privacy.
“Torren!” she called, running to catch up. The boys were speed-walking!
“Nox, wait!” Nevada called from right behind her.
It was Vyr who stopped them, though. He jumped off the roof gracefully with no impact, as if he had flown, but Vyr didn’t have his wings right now. That man hid a lot of power, even from his own crew. He blurred to nothing and reappeared right in front of Torren and Nox. “Let them have me. No more fighting, no more running. My father wants this…” Vyr inhaled deeply, and for the first time since she’d known him, Candace witnessed pain in Vyr’s eyes. “So okay. Dad wins. The humans win.”
“What? No, fuck that!” Torren yelled as a half circle of police cruisers surrounded them. “You’re fine.”
“I’m dangerous.”
“You’re in control!”
“As long as I don’t shift! It was different when I wasn’t alpha, Torren. I was different! Now I have to think about the good of the crew.”
Torren shoved him hard in the chest, but Vyr barely moved. “So leaving without a fight is your solution? That’s how you take care of your crew?”
“Yes. Because I want you to live. I don’t want war. There are consequences to being what I am, and it’s time to pay that. And I won’t pay with your blood.”
“This is fucked up,” Nox murmured, arms crossed over his chest.
“On your hands and knees!” Sheriff Butte yelled, a high-powered rifle trained on Vyr. There were a couple dozen other officers in similar stances.
“Our crew will fold without you!” Nox bellowed, his face going red.
“You’ll be fine,” Vyr argued.
“You’re wrong,” Torren gritted out. “I won’t be fine.”
“It’s one year—”
“In shifter prison, Vyr!” Torren yelled. “You get that, right? You know what that place is like? It’s not three square meals a day and working out and catching up on reading. They’ll hurt you. You won’t come back.”
“I will.”
“You won’t and you know it.” Torren’s entire body was shaking, and his eyes were such a bright green they were hard to look at. He smelled like fur. He reeked of HavoK. “If you’re lucky enough to survive it, they’re gonna change you, Vyr.”
Face blazing red, Sheriff Butte yelled, “I said down on your knees!”
“Torren,” Candace warned, sinking slowly to her knees in the snow beside him. “Do what Vyr says. He’s alpha.”
“He ain’t actin’ like it,” Nox said. “And I don’t see him goin’ down to his knees either.”
Beside him, Nevada was already down in the snow, tugging on her mate’s hand, bright gold fox eyes begging him to join her.
Two cameras were trained on them, and a reporter was narrating what was happening. What the hell? Vyr wasn’t even fighting.
“Hey! Get those cameras out of here!” Candace yelled. “That’s not right. You shouldn’t be here. We’re cooperating.”
“Fuck cooperation,” Torren growled.
“On your knees,” Vyr demanded. The order in that command rippled through their bonds and stole Candace’s breath away. Nox buckled immediately and slammed to his knees so hard the snow beneath him exploded in a plume of white.
Torren grunted in pain but stayed upright on locked legs, right between Vyr and the weapons that were trained on him.
Vyr stepped around him and held his wrists out to Sheriff Butte. “I’m not running, I’m not fighting, let’s get this done and leave my crew alone. They’ve done nothing wrong.”
“False statement, Red,” Sheriff Butte said, handing his weapon to the lady officer beside him. He approached with a pair of massive handcuffs. “Torren Taylor, you are under arrest for an illegal fighting and gambling ring. We’ve got video proof. Now your people betrayed you, like you betrayed them.”
“What?” Vyr asked.
“We’re not here for you, Dragon. We’re here for the silverback. Dax Meyers sent us clear video footage of an illegal shifter fight at the old mill. Two boars have come forward and made statements too. He’s been setting up fights for months. We’ve taken pictures of the blood on the floor. Taken evidence. You’re fucked, HavoK.”
“No, no, no,” Vyr snarled. “He only fights because he has to. He didn’t set up an illegal ring. He has rights.”
“He’s a shifter,” Butte argued.
“So are you, you fuckin’ traitor!” Nox yelled.
“Get up,” Vyr ordered the crew.
Candace gasped when her body lurched upward. Vyr was backing away, hand across Torren’s chest to bring him along. “It’s me you want, not Torren.”
“Nope, we’re really here for the gorilla. Get on your fucking knees, Torren.”
“Please, please,” Candace begged, pushing on Butte’s chest. “He can’t go behind bars. He won’t do well in there. He needs the crew.” Torren would go straight HavoK in a cell. It would be torture.
Butte gave an odd, wild smile in the moment before he wrenched her hands behind her back.
“Ow!” she cried as her shoulder ripped and burned.
“Get your fuckin’ hands off her!” Torren bellowed.
And then all hell broke loose. Nox shot up in front of Torren and shoved his chest back hard, but HavoK was already unstoppable. The silverback ripped out of Torren, and it was all Nox could do to get himself and Nevada out of the way as he charged at the sheriff.
The sound of gunfire popped off. Two bullets hit HavoK’s massive arm, but he didn’t slow at all. More gunfire, but this had a different tone. Candace screamed as a dozen red-feathered darts hit Torren’s body. Nox and Nevada were hit too, and in an instant, all three hit the ground.
“Change and I’ll kill you,” Butte murmured against Candace’s ear as he wrenched her arms back at a worse angle.
She hissed at Butte as her eyes watered. “Torren!” she screamed. He roared and arched his back against the ground, face contorted with pain.
His body was breaking slowly, bones snapping, muscles twisting and reshaping.
“Oh, my gosh,” she whispered in horror.
“Give them another round, but don’t hit Vyr,” Butte demanded. His voice went strange when he said loudly, “The meds won’t suppress his dragon.”
“Lie,” she called him out.
He ripped her arm upward, and she grunted in pain, but she didn’t lose her train of thought. “Vyr, he’s lying. They aren’t darting you on purpose. What’s happening? Vyr!”
The dragon shifter was standing on the edge of the chaos, his eyes drifting from Torren, to Nox, to Nevada, and back to Torren as they writhed in pain. Vyr looked bigger, all puffed up, veins sticking out on his arms and neck. His face was red with fury, and his eyes were silver with elongated pupils. A deep rumble emanated from him and shook the ground beneath her feet.
“Get ready,” Butte said quietly into a radio at his shoulder.
Who the fuck was he talking to?
Frantically, Candace looked around. She squinted and searched as far into the woods as she could. There was movement everywhere. Vyr’s Mountains were full of people dressed in black with thick vests, helmets, and high-powered rifles. The rumble of heavy equipment drowned out the forest sounds. Tanks? Shit.
“Candace,” Torren choked out. He was halfway through the Change the meds were forcing. Whatever they’d shot him with was Turning him human again. He looked like he was in so much pain, teeth clenched, face strained, body contorting, breaking. Breaking like her heart was to watch him in agony. Four officers ripped him off the ground. “Candace,” he tried again. “They’re going to kill him.”
And everything made sense now in this moment of perfect clarity. They didn’t care about arresting Torren for fighting. That was the ploy. They were using Torren to poke the dragon. To agitate him into Changing. To turn into the Red Dragon so they could have the excuse to unleash Armageddon on him.
They weren’t here to arrest anyone. Vyr wasn’t going to shifter prison. They were here to eliminate him.
Torren was in his full human form now, and he pushed upward, eyes on Vyr as he tried to reach him, but there were too many holding him back. More and more officers piled on him as he inched his way toward Vyr. More were throwing themselves on Nox too, and Nevada was pinned down by the lady officer with a handgun trained on the back of her head.
“Vyr!” Torren yelled. “Don’t Change! Vyr! Look at me! Don’t. Change!”
Inch by inch, Torren was being dragged backward toward a black SUV.
Don’t let the devil out. That’s what Vyr had told her, but the only devil she saw was in Vyr’s eyes as he watched his crew under attack.
Torren was being restrained by eight people but was still making ground toward Vyr, his face desperate as he begged his best friend not to Change. As he tried to save Vyr’s life. They probably had a dozen missiles trained on the Sons of Beasts right now, just waiting for the Red Dragon to rise up.
Nox was fighting hard too, struggling against the pile of humans detaining him.
Nevada’s face was still shoved in the snow, but she was screaming for Vyr not to Change, over and over. “Don’t Change, they’ll kill you. Don’t Change, Vyr. Do you hear me? They’ll kill you!”
Torren would never be okay again if they killed Vyr. He was the keeper of the Red Dragon, and she was the keeper of the new Kong. She had to do something. She had to do anything.
Vyr’s chest heaved, and he blasted a stream of fire from his human mouth to the nearest police cruiser. It exploded with a deafening sound, but not even that drowned out the awful sound of his enormous, tattered, fire-red wings ripping out of his back. Vyr lifted his clawed hand into the air, and then he flicked his fingers and the second police cruiser slammed into a tree with such force, the impact vibrated through her chest.
What the hell? Vyr could control matter? No, no, no, he shouldn’t let the humans see this. Shouldn’t let the cameras capture his true power.
“Vyr!” she screamed. “Stop!”
Fucking polar bear that kept her pinned. She had a plan, but it was going to get her hurt and possibly killed. But there was a chance she could stop this if she was fast enough. Vyr was fighting the Change, but the Red Dragon was coming out of him whether he wanted it or not.
“Torren, do you remember the first time Vyr burned you?” she called out. Please, let him understand.
“Yes, I remember! Candace!” Torren yelled. There was understanding and desp
eration in his eyes in the moment they locked onto each other. “Do it.”
“Get a dart gun!” she yelled. She didn’t know if she was throwing that order out there for Torren, Nox, or Nevada. It didn’t matter who got to one, just that one of them did. “Shoot him!” Candace kicked backward as hard as she could, and gasped at the impact her foot made with Butte’s shin bone. His grip faltered as he bellowed in pain. She ripped out of his hands and spun, slashing her claws across his face viciously.
She bolted, because Vyr wasn’t himself anymore. There was no humanity in his gaze, just the promise of cold-blooded vengeance. Time slowed to a crawl as she sprinted for him. His crimson wings, tattered on the edges, with rips and holes as though he’d been in a hundred battles, stretched across the entire clearing. His body was shaking, blurring, right on the edge of the Change, and she was running out of time. He beat his wings and was airborne in the moments Candace reached him.
She could feel Butte right behind her. Feel his breath on her skin and hear his growl. She wasn’t being chased by a man anymore. If she turned around, she would see a monster polar bear hunting her.
Monster behind her, monster in front of her, and she had to choose a death—teeth or fire.
The fire was hers in a way though, right? It belonged to her alpha, to her crew, to her mate. And she would do anything for Torren.
Fire it was.
“Don’t let the devil out,” she gritted through clenched teeth just to keep her courage.
She leapt through the air just as Vyr’s body swelled and his clothes ripped, and blood-red scales covered him. She was good at jumping, thank the tiger. And she was good with her claws as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his body as best she could.
And she recalled Torren’s story, recalled the dream, and she said the words that had stopped his fire all those years ago. “Stop or you’ll hurt Torren! You’ll hurt him, and he’ll never be your friend again. He won’t be your friend, Vyr. He won’t!”
The wind was deafening as he lifted them higher, and something exploded with great force right above them. A missile? Vyr’s dragon rippled out of him, growing impossibly big. Candace screamed and held onto the slick scales of his elongating neck, clawing desperately for purchase.