by Helen Scott
But the next thing I knew, my knees were buckling anyway. Sasha swore softly right before I collapsed.
Visions quickly washed over me.
Micah, talking about how letting Doc examine the body was a desecration of the vigil. Talking about how Ambrose was weak because of me. He was getting a bunch of shifters all worked up.
And suddenly I knew--even though I hadn’t seen it in a vision--that Micah might be the murderer. He was trying to take over Ambrose’s position as alpha. For that, he’d have to challenge him. But was there more than opportunism here? Was he working up this distrust of Ambrose for more reasons than just to have a better position to challenge him from? It would be hard to challenge Ambrose without alienating the pack, who from what I knew from Tisha and Sasha said they loved Ambrose, or at least respected him. But maybe Micah had even more of a motive.
Maybe he was the murderer.
I frowned at the vision, realizing Micah was working up a crowd in familiar-looking territory.
He was right here in the abandoned part of Nightstone, somewhere. I could hear wolves snarling and growling. He was surrounded, but it definitely wasn’t all of Ambeose’s shifters; they must be steering clear of the yard because most of the shifters were still loyal to Ambrose. Still, he’d gathered enough to his side to be dangerous.
Then my vision shifted, and I could see him clearly, talking to a man I didn’t know in a uniform. It was one of the guards, with a whole lot of brass on his shoulder and a ridiculous mustache. The territory around them was a familiar sprawl of wrecked metal; the two of them had met here too. As the vision sharpened I could see something else. There was a body on the ground behind them.
Jonah.
My heart twisted in my chest. Micah was supposed to be his friend. Why would he betray him like that? My gut said it had something to do with the guard, but I wasn’t sure what or why. It certainly wasn’t enough to provide proof that Micah was responsible for Jonah’s death. After all, what could I say about this vision? I’d seen Micah standing next to Jonah’s body? He was the one that brought him to the yard, so that made a weird sort of sense and wasn’t enough to convince the shifters that one of their own killed Jonah.
They were too far away for me to hear a lot of conversation but I did hear them throw around terms like chaos, disrupt, and take out. Somehow I didn’t think they were talking about the local burger joint.
The guard left, and Micah was making his way out when he realized he wasn’t alone. He stopped and a smile came over his face as he listened to the sounds of moaning and panting. He stared into the remnants of a cell, the roof half-collapsed.
Lake and a shifter girl with long brown hair and bronzed skin stumbled apart, the looks on their faces horrified.
“It’s all right, I’m not going to tell,” Micah promised. “You two are going to be very useful to me, and we’re all going to be friends.”
Lake showed his fangs.
“If you kill me, you’ll just expose yourselves,” Micah promised. “But do me one little favor and--”
I wanted to know more about their conversation, but my vision was already pulling me along. The way I was jumping back and forth in time was confusing. I usually only saw people dying, though. Why had I even seen that? Was I controlling the visions, finally? Was what I was seeing somehow tied to this place, since it had all happened so near here?
Then the world blurred, and I was blind for a moment. Just for a second, I glimpsed Christian, covered in blood. My heartrate spiked into panic, then I saw his face was calm. I reached for him, even knowing it was a dream, desperate to protect him.
Then my vision shifted again, and for a second I was confused, thinking I was awake.
Because in this vision, I was with Sasha and Bane, and we were surrounded by wolves closing in on us. Micah stared at me as he pulled off his clothes, already beginning to shift into a wolf.
I could see exactly how the scene would all play out, how Micah would be heading to challenge Ambrose with some of the pack behind him, how he would discover us, how they’d try to kill me and Bane and Sasha. I imagined Sasha moving impossibly fast in the desperate fight.
And I could see the shiv half-hidden in Micah’s clothes as he dropped them to the ground. In his wolf form, he attacked Sasha, trying to rip her throat open as she snarled, her vampire teeth wicked when they extended, transforming her pretty face into a monster’s. He tried to protect his ribs, and I realized he must have some kind of injury. My mind noticed all those little details, but before I could see whether he or Sasha would win, a rough voice pulled me out of the vision.
I suddenly woke to see Bane’s angry face over me. I leaned up on my elbows, my head still reeling, trying to get my senses back.
My elbow sank into something soft and wet; this portion of the prison had been abandoned and exposed to the elements long enough that organic material was beginning to collect, and I’d just squished an errant mushroom. Just like for us in Nightstone, life tries to find a way.
Bane was bitching, but I couldn’t hear him. For a second, all I could hear was the blood rushing through my ears after the vision. His lips were moving angrily though.
Then the world started to move faster, my ears popping right before I could hear again.
And I could hear not only Bane’s complaints--irrelevant--but wolves snarling and growling in the distance.
Micah had just finished riling them all up, and they must be headed toward Ambrose and Christian. I thought of Christian covered in blood, and a rise of fear tightened my chest.
17
Nasima
“We’ve got to get out of here,” I told Sasha, grabbing her arm. “We need to get to Ambrose and Christian.”
She looked at me skeptically. “Hear all those furballs between us and Nightstone proper? I don’t think we’re going anywhere until they’ve finished pissing on hydrants or whatever they’re doing. The boss wants you safe.”
“They’re going to find us,” I said.
“I don’t think so,” she promised. “There’s no reason they’d come this way. The place only gets more… condemned...the further on you go.”
“What are you on about, Nas?” Bane demanded. “Why are you following me?”
He stared at me from too close; I could smell the intoxicating scent of his body and feel his heat radiating off his muscular form, but that wasn’t enough to distract me from what a dickhead he was. For once. I should’ve realized he was a dickhead on day one, and then I wouldn’t be in prison.
“Oh, get over yourself, Bane. I was trying to protect your ungrateful ass, but I think I know who killed Jonah, and right now, I would like to prevent him from killing anyone else. I’m ninety-percent-sure Ambrose and Christian are torturing an innocent man and possibly his lover, so I’d like to stop that too, if you’d be so kind as to get out of my way.”
I gave Bane a shove backward--although putting my hands on that hard, muscular, heated body was a mistake because just touching him activated a throb within me--and headed toward the sound of the wolves, determined to find a way to skirt them. Ambrose and Christian needed to know what I knew, before the situation grew any more dire. And I’d like to give Ambrose a heads-up about what was happening in his pack.
Bane raised his hands to his shoulders. “So sorry I dared to question you for skulking behind me. Stalker.”
“Would you two keep it down,” Sasha hissed at Bane.
He gave her a brief once-over and an unimpressed look that I personally would never give a fierce female vampire. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Sasha. And I’ve been following you around for the last few days not murdering you even though believe me, I can see why it’s very tempting for so many people, so you can watch the dismissive tone with me. I think a little gratitude might even be in order.”
He stared at her, processing that information, then nodded. “Nice to meet you, Sasha. Why are you bodyguarding me?”
“Christian’s orders.�
�
“And he acted like he didn’t love me anymore,” Bane muttered. Then he hissed across the expanse, “Nasima! Wait!”
He turned to Sasha. “You should get her back to Christian. I’m sure you can get around them without attracting attention--you’re so fast.”
She shook her head. “They’ll scent us. I can’t guarantee I can move faster, especially if they shift.”
Howls split the air, too close for comfort, and she winced.
“It’s all right, Sasha,” I began.
She tilted her head. “No, I’m not sure it’s going to be. I can hear some of them coming closer. We need to hide you, Nasima.”
“Only if you two come with me.”
Bane frowned, and I said, “So help me God, Bane, I'm considering forgiving you for a whole lot more than you deserve, but if you die in front of me just because you’re a stubborn ass, I will never get over it. Hide.”
He stared at me, cocking an eyebrow at the thought of forgiveness, and then he headed with me toward a place to hide.
“I don’t need your forgiveness,” he told me. He moved ahead of Sasha and me, pulling open a door to the guard shack.
“Sure.”
“You were a job.” He swept his arm toward the shack, inviting Sasha and me in. It was good thinking; hopefully, the glass and walls would keep the pack from scenting us if they came close enough, and they’d assume it was old traces.
“And you’re a tool, but I don’t keep bringing it up.” I flashed a dazzling smile his way, then crouched in the wreckage, the three of us watching through the safety glass.
The first shifter loped into view. Archer--I knew him a little, but not well. Then a moment later, Micah entered.
My heart froze in my chest. Did they know we were here? Were they tracking us?
It quickly became obvious that they were searching for something, but it didn’t seem like it was us.
“Found a few,” Archer said to Micah. He held up a mushroom.
The poison.
“Awesome,” Micah said. “That should slow down Ambrose.”
The two of them shared a look, and my hands curled into fists. They were going to poison Ambrose before they challenged him. Everyone had to know they couldn’t take down Ambrose alone, and Micah wasn’t brave enough to challenge him without some help.
“Lower dose than you used with the bitch,” Archer chided.
“Lesson learned,” Micah said. “If it hadn’t been so dramatic, maybe she would have floated away while she was asleep.”
Archer imitated angel wings, and they both laughed.
I tried to steal a look at Sasha, but I noticed Bane’s face was taut with fury. For me, big guy? After everything? I would never understand that man.
Micah suddenly straightened, his nostrils flaring. “Speaking of Ambrose’s bitch. She was just here.”
“What?” Archer looked as if he had just shit himself in fear, and then he said, “She’s never far out of Ambrose or Christian’s sight.”
Micah held up the remnants of a mushroom--maybe the one I’d crushed clumsily. “Relax. Do you smell either of them anywhere around here?”
“No,” Archer admitted. “But if she’s still here, then Ambrose or Christian will show up soon, and we should probably get out of here first….”
But Micah was stalking through the rubble. Archer raked his hand through his hair, shifting his weight, obviously ready to run.
Micah turned toward our hiding place, his nostrils flaring wider, and the three of us ducked beneath the control console.
The next second, I heard metal shift outside. Fuck. We were fucked. I squeezed my eyes shut just for a second, offering up a prayer to the goddess.
I’d seen a fight play out. Maybe I’d seen this fight play out. And so maybe I could use that.
I opened my eyes just before the door was wrenched open. I turned, expecting it to be Micah opening it up ready to kill, but it was Bane.
“Always a party with you,” he muttered, and I knew he’d meant it to sound like something he could have said to Micah, but he meant it for me.
Sasha was already grabbing me, preparing to move us out of here at lightspeed while Micah was distracted with Bane. Somehow the two of them had worked out this plot without speaking aloud, and I hated it.
“No,” I said, pulling away. I had to get to Ambrose and Christian, but I couldn’t do that at the price of Bane’s life.
But Bane frowned. “They’re leaving,” he said.
“We have to get back,” I said. “Now.”
“Take her,” Bane urged. “I’ll find my own way back.”
Sasha clearly made a split-second decision that I was far more important than Bane. She grabbed me and the two of us flashed through the rubble.
Then she stopped abruptly, so hard the two of us both jerked, and I stumbled into a wall.
“What happened?” I demanded.
She looked meaningfully at the door ahead of us.
It was blocked.
“No,” I said, my eyes widening. “We have to get to them.”
“Come on, there are other ways, it’s just going to take us longer. We can take the same anti-short-cut Bane took.” She led me back the way we’d come.
“You really love them,” she said as we started back toward the area we’d come through. “You want to protect them.”
“Of course I do,” I said. “People really doubt that?”
“They’re not easy men to love. If the factions come to believe you all really love each other, well, it makes that alliance between Christian and Ambrose look a whole lot more permanent.”
A tall, muscular figure was outlined in the passage ahead of us. Bane, moving toward me.
I really had a thing for men who were hard to love, honestly. But no matter what Bane said, he’d come charging after me as if he’d do anything to protect me.
“I’ll sing them some cheesy love songs at karaoke night and get their names tattooed on my body,” I promised. Despite my glib words, my heart was racing. I didn’t know what I’d do if Ambrose was hurt and killed because he had to fight for his alpha position while toxins were pumping through his body.
I had to get to him before Micah challenged him.
18
Ambrose
It took a long time--long enough that one of my shifters had the sense to bring food and a bag of blood for Christian--but Lake was finally giving in and confessing that he’d poisoned Nasima, when chaos in the hall outside reached me.
Christian gave me a quizzical look, then said, “Don’t do anything rash.”
“Are you trying to tell me not to kill him?” I growled, and Lake paled even more. “Because if I did, it wouldn’t be rash.”
Christian looked weary. “Just… please don’t. You know how Nas is.”
“Nas isn't in charge around here,” I muttered as Christian flashed outside to check on the sound. I wasn’t entirely sure that was true anymore though; the girl certainly had control of my wolf in a way no one else ever had.
Christian was back a second later. “I think Micah is here to challenge you for alpha.”
“What?” I asked.
“I thought it was ill-advised too,” Christian said. “But…” He shrugged, the gesture encompassing how ridiculous shifters could be.
I walked outside to find Micah looking cocky, although he did a double take when he saw me. I wondered what the hell he’d expected. Then I realized I was still shirtless and covered in splatters of Lake’s blood. I’d have to wash up before Nas saw me again.
“What?” I growled, pushing the thought of her mischievous mouth and dark eyes away. You don’t want to do this. And I don’t feel like wasting my time teaching you better.
“I, Micah, challenge you for alpha.”
I ran my hand through my hair. “Really?” My voice came out as impatient and disgusted as I felt. I didn’t get too cocky; all a fighter needs is a bad day, a distracted moment, and everything can change. No one i
s immortal in the ring; there’s a limit to how good anyone can be.
But Micah was not a match for me on one of his own good days. He’d have to hope he got lucky. I swallowed, my throat feeling thick. Well, it did seem like maybe I was coming down with a cold, because my throat was beginning to get sore. Maybe it was his lucky day after all.
“Make sure you come back alive,” Christian murmured. “I had plans with you and Nasima.”
I flashed him the briefest smile. “Wouldn’t miss it. Definitely not for that guy.”
Still, I could feel myself being slightly off as I headed toward the yard.
When I walked in, I saw a bunch of his friends scattered around, as if they’d been waiting. Of course. I tilted my head back, letting my alpha power ripple through my voice as I called the pack, and several of them cringed. Even Micah’s jaw rose defiantly, as if he were fighting to keep from submitting to my power.
“Not too late to let this all go, Micah,” I told him. I didn’t mind fighting if I had to, but it would give me no pleasure to spill the boy’s blood. We’d already lost Jonah.
Of course, he probably wanted revenge for Jonah’s death, and he thought I was in the way of getting it. I pulled my shirt over my head as the doors opened and the pack began to trickle in.
“Micah has decided to challenge me for alpha,” I told the assembling pack. I met Micah’s gaze. He was studying me, and I could’ve sworn there was fear in his gaze. That look made me offer one last time: “Last chance. Submit and I won’t hold this against you.”
“I’m done submitting,” he snarled at me, clearly too cocky to accept.
“Then we’ll fight to death or submission,” I said calmly. I knew for me, the only option was to win or die; an old alpha can’t remain in a pack even if he survives and is defeated. But I had nowhere to go. “You know the rules.”
I was sure my voice carried to all the shifters. I nodded at Micah. “Let’s begin.”