Boston Avant-Garde 5: Bellicoso

by Kaitlin Maitland

  She kept expecting them to stay down, but they didn’t. How could they just keep going like possessed Energizer bunnies? It was insane! She had to do something, draw their attention, and give Malachi a chance to get Allie out of the warehouse to safety. Selena was the payday. Surely that counted for something?

  She pushed Allie at Malachi. “Go with your dad. I’ll split them up.” Her movement immediately garnered their attention.

  “Where you think you’re going?” one taunted.

  “Away from you,” Selena retorted.

  Malachi’s mouth opened to protest, but before he could say anything, she dashed in the opposite direction. She wanted him to protect Allie. She didn’t want him to have to worry about her too. She could handle herself for a few moments.

  She squeezed between two containers and ran sideways in order to move quickly. She was busy thanking God for giving her the build of a dancer when she realized the two puny Asian dudes tailing her also possessed narrow frames.

  Well shit.

  A four-way stop opened up in the container maze, and she ducked right, heading toward the sounds of Demon and Kun fighting. From the amount of clanging and grunting, someone was getting their ass kicked. Even if she had to pick up that spear-looking thing and skewer someone with it, she wasn’t losing Demon to this stupidity. Not when she hadn’t had a chance to tell him and Malachi how much she loved them both.

  The light shifted ahead, telling her the narrow passage was coming to an end. She could hear the other idiots behind her, cursing as their slightly wider shoulders scraped the harsh metal.

  Taking a hard left turn that briefly put her out of her pursuers’ sight, she realized there was an alcove above her head on the second tier. One container was slightly smaller than the others, which created a place to hide. She yanked off her slippers and tossed them up into the space. With the traction of her bare feet, she managed to squirrel her way up and into the refuge just before Heckle and Jekyll went stumbling past.

  Selena suddenly realized her new vantage point gave her a view of Demon grappling with Kun. Until that moment she hadn’t imagined violence could be such a beautiful thing.

  “Are you a martial arts black belt or something?”

  How he must’ve thought her an ignorant child when she’d asked him that! As she watched the macabre dance of death play out below, Selena wondered if it made her a sicko to find him even more attractive for his part in it.

  Blondie was already on the floor in a pool of blood with his throat cut, a discarded sword by his side. She could smell a whiff of the tangy copper scent. It made her stomach heave, but she forcefully checked her reaction. This was not the time to be squeamish.

  Kun had picked up the razor-tipped spear and was swinging it with the skill of a baton twirler bent on destruction. His other henchman had picked up a sword. Demon’s hands were empty.

  The three men circled each other warily. Demon seemed to be waiting, hands loose and ready, his gait sleek and contained. Finally the sword wielder lunged. Demon stepped out of his path, plucking the sword from his hand and making a single backhanded slash.

  The cut opened a long gash across the other man’s shoulders and back. He groaned and collapsed. He didn’t try to get up. Selena scooted to the very front edge of her hiding place, gazing in utter fascinated horror at what were obviously his final moments.

  She didn’t have long to contemplate his demise, her attention refocused by the sound of metal on metal. Demon and Kun were battling with their weapons as if they intended to decapitate each other.

  Each time Demon was driven back, Selena’s heart would clench in rank fear. He moved his feet with total confidence, scooting backward in neat patterns only to shift forward as he gained the advantage. She realized he used his leading foot for power. The sole would slam to the floor and propel his upper body forward as his hands expertly twirled the sword in and around the long pole of Kun’s weapon.

  It was like a dance, both men circling while trying to gain an advantage. Demon kept pressing in close while Kun desperately pushed him out of the sword’s reach. Tiny beads of sweat formed on her upper lip as she watched Demon’s dark hair fly back away from his face. He pivoted, his sword locking with Kun’s longer weapon. Demon levered the sword handle against the pole and then let it spin out of his grasp. The combatants broke apart, suddenly holding the opposite weapon.

  Holy shit!

  If Kun had seemed proficient with the spear, Demon was perfection. He spun it like an extension of his body, the pointed end coming alarmingly close to Kun’s face as the other man batted furiously with the sword.

  Demon advanced, the staff spinning in his hands as he maneuvered on his lead foot, drawing the other up into a move that reminded her bizarrely of en pas. She could see his strategy in her mind, his careful herding of his frantic opponent as he worked his way past Kun’s defenses.

  A noise below her position made her cringe. Her pursuers had given up searching for her in the container maze and were getting ready to rush the one-on-one matchup and swing the odds in Kun’s favor.

  Selena watched their running bodies as if in slow motion, her brain gauging their position in relation to hers. They would run right beneath her perch, popping out directly below. Taking a deep breath, she thought of every last movie where she’d seen this done.

  By stunt people!

  By some amazing circumstance of luck, Selena leaped at the perfect moment. Not that she gracefully took them both down with a calculated move. She just managed to fall at the opportune time and bash her elbows into their necks. It hurt like hell even though they broke her fall. The three of them tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs. The one guy was down for the count; the other not so much. Selena struggled to her feet and thought of Demon’s leading leg giving him power. She pointed her toe and popped her right foot as if she was executing a simple scissors jump. She connected with her opponent’s face just as he tried to rise, and was gratified by his instant return to the ground.

  DEMON DIDN’T KNOW whether to curse or applaud when Selena managed to land square in the middle of Kun’s two remaining men and remove them both from action. Demon had been seconds away from planting the razor-sharp edge of the guan dao in his cousin’s stomach. Now he found himself utterly distracted. He didn’t care what happened to Kun as long as he got Selena to safety.

  “That is one crazy bitch,” Kun said appreciatively. “Yours, I assume?”

  Demon edged away from his cousin toward Selena. He shifted the pole in his hands, altering his grip to one of defense. He wasn’t fooled by Kun’s nonchalant attitude; the man would gut Selena if the chance arose. Just for spite.

  He’d never experienced this kind of panic. He loved Malachi, but his partner was fully capable of handling himself in a fight. Allie was his daughter, but that was a different kind of love, a different fear. This was an all-consuming desire to protect the woman who touched him so deeply she humbled his soul.

  Selena was edging slowly away from the unconscious men on the floor. She had managed to slam the one guy’s face into the concrete, but she’d used some kind of front snap kick to take out the other man. It was a neat trick, but one that had brought her to Kun’s attention. Not just as a payday, but as leverage against Demon.

  Kun looked as if he’d just been handed the moon. “Who would have thought Giovanni de Medici’s little fuck buddy could find such a pretty woman to pay him attention?”

  From the corner of his eye, Demon could see Selena getting her bearings. Her green eyes immediately sought his position. A quick scan of the warehouse told him Malachi had done as they’d planned and taken Allie to safety with Jace, Lucas, and Owen. Hopefully Lars wouldn’t be too far behind.

  “Does she know about that, little Chang? That you’re nothing but a traitorous slave boy we sold to de Medici? That your sister was a whore? Did you tell her you’re not even a man?” Kun snarled as he advanced.

  Once, the words would have laid him low. They woul
d have opened fresh wounds to torment the guilt he had carried for so long. Not anymore. He wasn’t Yen Chang anymore. He was Demon. A man who belonged to a family that made him feel as invincible as an ancient hero of mythology.

  Not letting his eyes leave Kun, Demon reached out to Selena. At the first feel of her slim fingers twining with his, everything inside him settled. He hazarded a glance at her face, bolstered by what he saw there. Nothing Kun could say would destroy what had been forged by fate.

  “Dance with me?” Demon asked.

  Her sensual lips curved into a smile. “I’ll let you lead.”

  He drew her close, his body reacting to her nearness even in these tense circumstances. Every fiber of his being wanted to join with hers. She molded against him as if they’d done this a thousand times. He knew right then she could match him, both of them, all of them, forever.

  Demon didn’t wait. With one arm wrapped around Selena’s middle, he attacked Kun with the ferocity of a storm unleashed. She went with every subtle suggestion of his body. They spun, his hands leaving her frame to grasp the smooth wood of the pole as he swung a razor-sharp arc around them. She lightly gripped his T-shirt and followed his pivots, moving in perfect symmetry.

  He gained momentum, following Kun’s rapid steps backward as his cousin tried to digest this bizarre new twist. Demon could see the battle play out in his head, each sloppy strike of his cousin’s sword, each lunge, every movement. He caught the sword against the staff, the blade skidding down and catching on the curved edge of the guan dao.

  Demon leaned forward, and Selena followed, bending backward and baring the pale column of her neck without a moment’s thought, her trust absolute. Kun went for the bait, lunging wildly. Demon spun the polearm tight and fast around his body and across the back of his neck in a lethal 360. The razor edge buried itself to the hilt in the joint of Kun’s shoulder and neck, sticking fast.

  Selena’s fingers tightened against Demon’s skin when Kun’s unearthly shriek echoed around the warehouse. Other than that telltale movement, she didn’t outwardly react. Demon wrenched the weapon from his cousin’s body and spun a quick arc to hold it ready at his side.

  He needn’t have bothered. Kun crumpled to the ground, choking on his own blood. Still holding the guan dao, Demon wrapped his free arm around Selena’s body and pulled her even closer to his chest. “It’s over,” he whispered.

  “I love you. I want to tell you before something else happens.” She brushed tentatively at his hair before sinking her fingers into the tangled mess and pushing it back so she could cup his face.

  He reveled in the sensation of her touch, gazing down at the beautiful face that had become so precious. “Malachi?”

  “I love you both, and Allie, and please God I just want to live long enough to make a life for us all.” She buried her head against his shoulder and sobbed.

  Demon watched his cousin draw one last breath before he shuddered into the silence of death. Tossing the guan dao to the floor, he held tight to the lover he’d never realized they so desperately needed.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Selena! Oh my God!” Desiree grabbed on and squeezed as soon as Selena walked through the front door of the Brookline estate. Selena was a little surprised her older sister was being so openly enthusiastic. “Don’t ever scare me like that again!”

  Yeah, there was the bossy older sister Selena was used to. She glanced around and saw Lars appeared a little sheepish. She gave him an arch look. “Interpol? Really? You couldn’t have mentioned that?”

  “Demon told you, huh?” Lars’s gaze drifted to the man standing behind her left shoulder, close enough that his body brushed hers.

  She turned and realized his black eyes were staring right back. Her belly clenched reflexively. Why in the midst of all this was she unable to think about anything else but getting him and Malachi back into bed?

  “Where’s Malachi?” she asked.

  “Right here, sweetheart.” He strode into the foyer and swept her off her feet.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay!” Selena wrapped her arms around his neck and inhaled his familiar scent. “Demon told me you both agreed to get Allie out right away, but I was so worried when you weren’t waiting outside!”

  He squeezed her tightly. “Don’t you ever do that again. Promise me! I swear you took ten years off my life.”

  “I just wanted Allie to be safe, Malachi.” Selena realized she hadn’t seen Allie. “Where is she?”

  “Your mom took her upstairs to get a shower and some warm clothes out of your closet.” Malachi chuckled and looked at her bare feet. “Aren’t you freezing?”

  “Demon carried me. He kept me plenty warm.”

  His slate eyes turned to molten silver. “It’s all I can do to keep myself from dragging you upstairs.”

  “Why stop yourself?”

  Malachi had already started to move when Demon’s hand shot out and caught his arm, anchoring him in place as Erik stomped in with Nicolai hot on his tail.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Erik looked about as disgruntled as Selena had ever seen him. “I said I’d wait for an explanation until they were safe. They are. So can someone explain?”

  Selena groaned. “Can we go in the kitchen then? I’d die for some of Mrs. Tinsley’s hot chocolate.”

  “Come on, Erik.” Nicolai nudged him back in the direction of the estate’s huge kitchen. “Give the kid a minute.”

  To Selena’s shock, Nicolai winked at her. Winked! When had her sister’s burly husband developed a sense of humor?

  When did I?

  Malachi let her slide to the floor, and she felt a telltale bulge in the crotch of his cargos. Right then she knew both he and Demon had utterly changed everything about the way she saw the world, for the better.

  Demon swept her back into his arms, making her squeak. She laughed and twined her hands into the hair at his nape. “I can’t walk?”

  He sent a pointed look at her bare feet. “No shoes.”

  “You could’ve let me go get my slippers.”

  “There was no way I was letting you climb back onto those containers just to search for fuzzy bunnies.” His uncharacteristically lighthearted smile made her belly flutter.

  “Climb containers?” Two tiny creases appeared between Malachi’s dark brows. “I’m not going to like the rest of this story, am I?”

  “Nope.” Demon left it at that and carried her the rest of the way into the kitchen.

  The massive center island was already filled with platters of Mrs. Tinsley’s cherry popovers, blueberry muffins, carafes of coffee, and mugs of hot cocoa. The round matronly woman with the gray bun and blue eyes had been in charge of the kitchen since Selena’s girlhood.

  “There’s my girl.” Mrs. Tinsley put Selena’s favorite pink mug in her usual spot and plopped two oversize marshmallows on top.

  Demon settled her on the padded bar stool and took the spot on her right while Malachi sat on her left.

  “Thank you.” Selena reached out and clasped the older woman’s hand.

  “We’re just glad you’re safe, pumpkin.” Mrs. Tinsley put her other hand over Selena’s and gave it a pat. “And this time you’ve acquired a new charge who reminds me an awful lot of a certain princess when she was thirteen.”

  Selena pressed her palms to her flaming face. “I’m going to have my hands full, aren’t I?”

  Mrs. Tinsley placed a featherlight kiss on Selena’s forehead. “Like I told your mother, it’s worth every minute.”

  Erik perched tensely on a stool across the island, Nicolai and Desiree taking seats beside him. “Okay, we’re sitting, you have hot chocolate. Now”—he glared balefully at Demon and Malachi-- “Care to explain what the hell is going on?”

  Dispensing with all propriety, Selena picked up one of the melt-in-your-mouth popovers and stuffed half in her mouth. She chewed briefly and then shrugged. “I’m not really sure I know, to be honest. Lars?”

  Lars had occup
ied the end stool. He looked tense and uncomfortable. “Erik, I can’t exactly discuss the details of an ongoing investigation.”

  “Okay,” Erik snarled. “Start with, ‘Hey Erik, guess what? I signed up with Interpol!’”

  “I’d like to hear that,” Selena agreed.

  The kitchen was warm and the bar stool was comfortable, but Selena was so tired. Not surprising since it was practically dawn. She slumped forward and braced her elbows on the cool granite countertop. While Lars got his thoughts together, she picked up her cocoa and inhaled deeply. She was just soaking in the full effect of the killer sweetness when she realized Demon and Malachi had shifted their bodies closer. With both of them pressed against her, she was as warm, toasty, and secure as she could ever recall.

  I want to spend the rest of my life like this.

  She looked up and realized Lars was gazing at her, a soft smile on his face. Her heart understood that her childhood playmate was giving her unconventional choice his full support. It made anything else irrelevant.

  “How long?” she asked him.

  “They approached me in my last year at Oxford,” Lars admitted.

  She rested her head against Malachi’s shoulder, which allowed her to stare down the length of the island and get a better look at Lars’s expression. “Do you like it?”

  “Love it.”

  The cotton of Malachi’s T-shirt was warm and soft, but not as satisfying as his silky skin. She was ready for bed, which meant this conversation needed to hurry along. “Then I love it too. Enough said.”

  “Wait! What?” Erik stared at her as though she’d grown a second head. “And what the hell is going on with you and these two? They look like criminals, Selena. I know we’ve had our differences, and you’ve been going through a rough time, but—”

  She sat up straight. “Stop right there.”

  Her sister leaned around Nicolai and pegged Erik with a hard glare. “I think you need to remember to take that stick out of your ass and quit judging books by their cover. Remember what happened the last time you did that?”