Fury’s Kiss

by Nicola R. White

  “I just have one more question before I go,” he said easily.

  “Oh? What’s that?” Rachel fisted her hands on her hips. Graves reached out for the stopwatch hanging on its nylon cord around her neck, and a barely perceptible shudder went through her when his fingers brushed her bare skin.

  His voice hardened, losing its easy affability. “How’d a full-time waitress with no athletic training just manage to run fast enough to qualify for the Olympics? And why is she doing it out here in the dark where no one can see?”

  I swallowed hard.

  “That’s two questions,” Ruby piped up, saving me from having to answer him.

  Rachel snatched the watch out of Graves’s hand and hit reset before he could get another look at it. “You’re mistaken.” She shoved the watch in her pocket and crossed her arms. “Tara hasn’t broken any records. Not tonight, or ever.”

  “She’s right,” I confirmed. “I’m really not much of an athlete. Ask anyone. Hell, check my high school transcript—I nearly failed PE.”

  Graves tucked his hands into his pockets again and rocked on his heels. “Looked pretty fast to me.” He shrugged and turned to go. “It does make a man wonder, I’ll tell you that.”

  He walked away into the night and his voice carried on the warm air when he spoke again. “I’ll be watching you, Byrne. You too, Ms. Walker. See you around.”

  He is stronger than I imagined, Alecto whispered. He discounts Priest’s story completely.

  Frustrated, I walked away from the group. What the sweet hell was the point of being a Fury if my powers didn’t even work? I could hardly figure out who was after me if I was locked in a jail cell somewhere. Anger rose in me and I slipped farther away, putting some distance between me and the others. I needed a minute before I would be fit company again.

  Jackson followed me. “Tara.” I kept walking and he grabbed my elbow. “We need to talk about this. Graves isn’t going to stop digging for something he can use against us.”

  I wrenched my arm away. “Just leave me alone. I don’t have anything to say to you right now.”

  “Fine, so just listen.” I kept walking, not inclined to be ordered around. He cursed and came after me. “Look, I’m sorry about before, all right? This is bigger than both of us, and I shouldn’t have—” he broke off, searching for the right words.

  “Shouldn’t have what?” I turned on him. “Fucked me and then told me I wasn’t good enough for you? Would you want to see Nora or Ruby treated the way you treated me? Or do I deserve less respect for some reason?”

  Jackson looked away. “You’re right.”

  I stopped mid-tirade. “What?”

  He swallowed hard. “I said…you’re right.” His accent had thickened and he wouldn’t look at me. Was he…embarrassed about the things he’d said to me? Or maybe the things we’d done together?

  If so, it would be a first. I had yet to see Jackson Byrne admit he’d been wrong about anything.

  “I was no gentleman.” He finally met my eyes. “And I’m sorry. Even if this is just a physical thing between us, I shouldn’t have brushed you off that way. I should have treated you with more respect.”

  I sighed. It wasn’t a declaration of true love, but it was something, and we did need to work together if we were going to keep Ruby safe.

  “What brought on this change of heart?” I asked, ignoring the ache in my chest.

  “We need to get past this thing between us. There’s some stalker out to get you, someone’s apparently been after Ruby for years, and now we’ve got the FBI after us, too.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Can we just…I don’t know, call a truce or something?”

  Damn it. I was in no mood to be reasonable, but I had to agree. There was a lot more at stake than my wounded pride.

  “Truce,” I agreed grudgingly, turning my gaze up to the sky. The constellations overhead were both timeless and familiar, and the pinpoints of light comforted me. I saw a flash of something that felt like memory—another night sky, though the constellations looked different from any I had ever seen—and I knew it could only have been a gift from Alecto. A memory she’d chosen to share with me. Smiling at her generosity, I turned my attention back to Jackson.

  When I did, I was hit hard by the flare of physical attraction that always simmered between us.

  Damn it, Alecto, I thought at the Fury. Is this really necessary right now? I’d thought we were moving past this whole manipulation of my physical responses thing.

  I tried to resist my body’s betrayal, but it was impossible. Jackson said my name again, bringing me back to Earth—and oh God, that mouth. I licked my lips, pheromones telling me to lean in and taste him, but I resisted the impulse. It was just a chemical reaction, nothing I couldn’t handle. Besides, we’d agreed we were going to put all that behind us.

  At that thought, I pictured Jackson behind me, and I dug my fingernails into the skin of my palms to distract myself. That whole train of thought was so, so off-limits.

  I know what you’re up to, I warned Alecto. So just stop it. I was not going to give in to the pheromones again.

  You misunderstand, she answered, amused. It is not my doing. It is…what is the word? Biology.

  I took a step toward Jackson. When she put it like that—who was I to challenge biology? I only needed one taste to get him out of my system. One…kiss.

  I stared at his mouth and knew I was fooling myself. One kiss would never be enough. I took another step. Jackson drew in a shaky breath, and I knew he felt it too and was fighting for control, just like me.

  “We agreed we weren’t going to do this,” he said. But he didn’t move away.

  I took another step. My body brushed against his, humming with desire, and I flicked off my flashlight, making us invisible to the others. “You’re absolutely right,” I murmured against his mouth. I stood on tiptoe to catch his bottom lip between my teeth. “We are definitely not going to do this.”

  He put his hands on my hips and drew me closer, deepening the kiss. I leaned into him and reached up to cup his face in my hands. My whole body tingled and a shiver went through my body.

  When I pulled back to catch my breath, I noticed something shining in the distance over his shoulder. A light flashed at the other end of the track. What was that?

  I squinted. “Do you see that?”

  “Hmm? See what?” Jackson bent his head toward mine.

  “Over there. I thought I saw…” But his mouth on my neck distracted me.

  Suddenly, he pulled away to stare in the direction the light had come from. It flashed again and his eyes widened. “That’s a scope.”

  “What?” I was still fuzzy from his kiss.

  He shoved me away and I hit the ground hard. “What are you—?” I started to say, but he took off at a run toward Ruby.

  “Get down!” he shouted at the others. “There’s a shooter!”

  Chapter 19

  I wasn’t sure if it was the angle of the flashing scope or just intuition, but something told me the shot was aimed at Ruby. I took off at a run, quickly outpacing Jackson, and leaped at her as a short zip broke the still night air. I hooked my foot around her ankles, pulling us both to the ground, my heart pounding as I twisted so my body covered the girl. The impact knocked the air out of me and I wheezed, trying to catch my breath. Jackson raced over to us, shielding us with his body, and I rolled off of Ruby so she could breathe.

  “Is everyone OK?” Jackson asked after making sure Ruby wasn’t hurt. She was still too stunned from my tackle to cry.

  “We’re OK,” Nora answered from where she lay on the ground, but her voice shook with fear. “What should we do?” I could hear the effort it took for her to stay calm for Ruby’s sake.

  “Run for the parking lot. Be careful, and stay as low as you can. Don’t use your flashlights and crouch beside the truck when you get there. Tara and I will follow you with Ruby.”

  He eased into a crouch and scanned the tree line at the far e
dge of the track. I did the same, careful not to breathe too deeply. A dull pain throbbed in my side, a sign of the big bruise surely beginning to form. Seeing nothing, Jackson tensed and got ready to move.

  “Go!” he ordered, picking Ruby up. We moved quickly, bringing up the rear, and I felt light-headed by the time we reached Nora’s truck. Too much adrenaline. I tried to steady my breathing.

  “We need to get out of here,” Jackson said. “Nora, you and Ruby get in the truck and stay down in the foot well. I’ll drive. Alex, Rachel, and Tara—pick a driver. The other two stay down in the backseat and the driver follows me.”

  “I’ll drive,” Alex offered.

  “No,” I said. “I’ll do it. My reflexes and vision are better than yours.” As I said it, though, my head swam, and I blinked to clear it.

  “Are you sure?” Alex peered at me in the dim moonlight. “You don’t look so good.”

  I pressed a hand to my side in an attempt to ease the pain and felt dampness. I looked down. My hand was wet with what had to be blood.

  A lot of it.

  “Jackson.” I grabbed his shoulder with the hand that wasn’t dripping with my blood, but my strength was fading and I couldn’t hold on.

  He settled Nora and Ruby in the truck then turned to me. “What is it? We need to get out of here.”

  “I’ve got…a problem,” I managed to say as I lost my balance. My sneakers slipped on the gravel underfoot and I fell heavily against the side of Alex’s car. Absently, I hoped I hadn’t dented it.

  “Tara!” Rachel bent over me, then looked up at Jackson. I breathed in through my mouth and smelled the fear coming out of her pores. “She’s hit!”

  Jackson cursed. “We’ve got to get her somewhere safe before she bleeds out. Do either of you know any first aid?”

  Rachel and Alex looked at each other. “We both know a little,” Rachel answered, “but neither of us has ever dealt with an injury like this before.”

  He swore again. “OK, new plan. Alex, you drive while I look after Tara. Rachel, you take the truck.”

  Rachel wrung her hands helplessly. “I can’t. Oh God, I’m sorry. I can’t.”

  “She doesn’t drive,” I wheezed.

  “Shh, sweetie, stay quiet,” Alex soothed me. She looked at Nora crouched on the floor of the truck with Ruby, and took charge. “Nora, you drive the truck, and Rachel, you get in with Ruby. I’ll drive the car and Jackson will look after Tara. We obviously can’t take her to the hospital, so where do you want us to go?” She directed this last question at Jackson.

  “Go to Nora’s, I have some gear there. We may be followed, but we have no choice. We need supplies.” There was no sign of uncertainty or embarrassment in him now, just calm, cool detachment. I was seeing the SEAL he had been before his brother’s death.

  Drivers and passengers sorted out, Jackson and Alex wasted no time getting us all settled in our places. Nora took off first and Alex peeled out after her, trying to keep the ride as smooth as possible so I wouldn’t slide off the backseat. Jackson folded his big frame into the tiny passenger seat of Alex’s car and leaned back toward me. He pulled off his shirt and used it as a compress as I slipped in and out of awareness, dimly aware of pressure against my side. Alecto swirled manic colors through my mind, faster and more intense than anything I’d ever seen, and despite their psychedelic quality, they were soothing in their own way.

  Slow your breathing, she told me. Calm your body. These things may save us.

  She projected images into my mind’s eye of snakes twined together in dormancy, slowing their bodily functions as protection from the cold. I focused on my breathing and pictured my racing heart slowing to just a few beats per minute. Soon, I was barely aware of the world around me. My eyes seemed to want to stay shut, and I wondered indifferently how long it would take to bleed to death.

  “Stay with us, Tara,” I heard Jackson’s voice say. “We’re almost there.”

  The car stopped and Alex stayed with me, engine idling, while Jackson went ahead to check the house. It must have been clear, because I felt myself being jostled as I was picked up and carried inside a few moments later. Someone turned on a light and set me down on Nora’s bed.

  “Oh, my God!” I heard a woman’s voice in the distance. Alex? Rachel? I couldn’t tell.

  “There’s so much blood,” someone said.

  My clothing was cut off of me and I heard Jackson’s voice. “Help me turn her on her side. We need to check for an exit wound.” I was shifted again and I tried not to cry out. A weak moan escaped and I opened my eyes long enough to see that Alex had tears running down her cheeks while she helped Jackson turn me.

  “There it is.” Jackson turned his head to look at Rachel, keeping pressure on the wound. “Anything you can tell me about her biology?”

  “She was able to heal herself before,” Rachel said, “when Miller hurt her. But it was nothing like this.” Her voice shook with fear.

  “We’ve got to stop the bleeding so she has a chance to repair some of the damage. The bullet may have nicked a lung, so we’ve got to close off the entry and exit wounds. If air gets drawn in and her lung has been hit, it will collapse.”

  “What do you need?”

  The voices faded away as I sank back into the darkness inside my head. It was hard to concentrate. I felt heat, then a burning sensation on my side, then more pressure. They labored over me for a while longer, but I lost track of time. Finally, the people surrounding me stepped away and I heard the low rumble of Jackson’s voice.

  “There’s nothing more I can do. The rest is up to her.”

  Alecto hissed something at me and I struggled to understand her, but it was too hard. I drifted away. She hissed again. Ambrosia.

  Yes, that was a good idea. Maybe some medicine would help. I opened my mouth to relay Alecto’s message, but I couldn’t speak. I struggled, gasping for air, and gave up when the pain came rushing back. Better to just relax and focus on my breathing. Alecto showed me an image of the door that separated us in my mind. I knew that door. It was the barrier that kept us apart, that kept me in control of my body.

  Let me out, she urged, working on the locks I’d put up. I was too weak to help her, but she managed without me. I heard the sound of tumblers turning, and then Alecto was in control. Strands of hair slid across my face, but my body was too enervated to go full-on Furious, and the bloody tears I felt sliding down my cheeks were the only signal that Alecto had surfaced.

  “Ambrosia,” she rasped in my broken, gasping voice. There was a strange, sucking feeling in my chest when she spoke. Rachel and Alex rushed from the room while Jackson stayed behind to watch over me. My eyes slid closed and my body stilled.

  “Alecto, I hope you can hear me in there,” Jackson said. His voice moved closer as he crouched down next to the bed. “I know this isn’t a great time for a heart to heart, but there’s something I need to say to you.”

  Alecto stayed silent, conserving our energy. I was too far removed from the situation to feel anything more than dim curiosity.

  “I don’t know what it’s like to be trapped in someone else’s head,” Jackson went on, “and I don’t know exactly what you are…” He paused. “But if there’s anything you can do to save Tara, I’m begging you—do it. Please.”

  Disembodied and on the edge of death, Jackson’s words were a slim thread tying me to the world. He needed my help to keep Ruby safe, but what he’d said had to mean he cared about me, at least a little. Didn’t it?

  Thanks to Alecto, I was disconnected from the pain shooting through my nerve endings and the pressure in my chest, but I did feel a glimmer of hope. I longed to reach out and touch Jackson’s arm, to tell him I was there listening, but I couldn’t move.

  Finally, Rachel returned, carrying a brimming coffee mug of the disgusting yellow potion. She’d put a straw in it so Alecto could drink from our prone position and the Fury raised her head weakly to accept it. When the mug was empty, Alecto let my head fall
back against the pillows and I watched Jackson fade away as my eyes slid shut of their own volition.

  He was the last thing I saw.

  Chapter 20

  When I woke the next morning, I was weak but back in control. Alecto’s presence swirled sluggishly in my head, exhausted from her efforts to keep us both alive, and I knew I owed her. If not for her, I wouldn’t have woken up at all.

  I sat up slowly, stiff and sore all over, and batted aside the sheet that had been laid over me. I was naked from the waist up and had a serious, hospital-looking bandage stuck to me, but nothing seemed to be leaking or oozing underneath. I took a deep, experimental breath and there was no pain or wheezing. A good sign. Next, I swung my legs around so I sat at the edge of the bed with my feet on the floor. I gently peeled back the gauze taped to my rib cage. There was a piece of saran wrap taped underneath, though I couldn’t think of any good reason for it to be there.

  Footsteps approached and I looked up. Jackson stood in the doorway with a coffee mug in his hands. I grabbed the sheet and held it up to cover myself. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before, but sitting there on the bed half-clothed made me feel vulnerable.

  “You’re awake.”

  “I hope that’s not more ambrosia,” I tried to joke. It wasn’t funny, but he gave me a half-smile, anyway.

  “Just coffee. It’s been a pretty busy couple of days. We’ve been taking turns watching you and keeping a lookout in case whoever hit you tries again.”

  A couple of days? “How long was I out?”

  “Two full days since you were shot. This morning would have been the third.” He set his mug down on the dresser and came over to inspect my side. “How are you feeling?”

  “Sore. Kind of stiff.” The memory of our uneasy truce—and the kiss that had followed it—came back, but I didn’t mention it. “What happened?” I asked, trying to keep things casual.