by Tenaya Jayne
Retribution burned in his fingers. There would be no mercy for the motherfucker who’d taken his mate.
Kendrick laid Erin out on an old table. The basement of the club was the perfect place to kill her. He had hours before the sun set and Paradigm’s night life started up. If he kept her unconscious, he could do things to her, mess with her in a way Maddox would feel and understand, but still keep her feelings shut off so he couldn’t find them. He would take pictures of everything he did to Erin and send them to him.
He got hard thinking about it. There was no better way to inflict pain on Maddox. He’d done as his mother asked, so it didn’t matter if he went off-script now. He didn’t give a damn if his mother became Hailemarris anyway. Forest didn’t mean anything to him one way or the other. He just wanted Maddox to suffer.
He shook himself, remembering he couldn’t actually do anything to Erin sexually. That would leave his DNA on the body, and she was perfect as she was since Maddox had her under him all last night anyway. He’d enjoyed watching some of that. They’d been so wrapped up in each other they hadn’t paid attention to anything else. He hadn’t even had to be that stealthy to creep past them as they slept and through that handy portal to her house.
His memories of voyeuristically watching them made his blood boil. Maddox was so lucky. Why was he always so lucky? He looked down at Erin, her fiery hair cascading over the edge of the table. She was too beautiful. If only it didn’t ruin the scene he was trying to construct, he’d smash her skull in. He’d break the bones of her face into pieces. She wouldn’t be so gorgeous then.
He needed to decide what he was doing, get it over with, and get the hell out of there.
He spun the knife in his hand around his fingers. She wouldn’t be left any dignity. Taking her dignity would take Maddox’s as well. He slid the knife into the shirt she wore and began cutting it off her. She grabbed his wrist suddenly. Ribbons of gold light covered her hand. She wasn’t awake. Her eyes were shut, her body limp, except the hand that had a vice grip on his wrist.
The hell? He jerked his hand out of her grasp. Her eyes opened but she wasn’t the one looking at him. Gold light swirled in her irises. He had to finish her now. Something was happening he didn’t understand. He lifted her limp arm to cut her wrist.
A smile spread his lips and pleasure swept over him as her blood swelled out through the open line he’d just sliced. He would carve her all over, quickly, but thoroughly. He jolted as the air around him changed. A rushing filled his ears. He spun around as a blast sounded behind him, a portal opening, and Maddox charged out.
Kendrick grabbed Erin and put his knife to her throat.
“What’s up, brother?” he smiled at Maddox. “You look different.”
“I am different. Let her go.”
“I don’t think so. Back off or I’ll slit her throat.”
Maddox took a step forward.
“I mean it!” Kendrick shouted, his eyes darting to the sword in Maddox’s hands.
“You don’t have anything against her.” Maddox reasoned. “This is about you and me, isn’t it? You always want what’s mine.”
“You have no idea. You don’t know what I am.”
“Maybe not. Until now. I see you, and you’re not worth another breath.”
Maddox advanced. Kendrick pressed his knife into Erin’s throat. Gold light wrapped around his wrist like a rope, holding him back. The blade never broke her skin. He struggled against the force with all his might. The light jerked his hand up and held it immobile as more bands of light snaked around his body, lifting him inches off the floor.
He cried out as Maddox’s sword slashed his left wrist. Gold light danced along the edge of his split flesh for a second, then vanished.
“That’s for Jaris.”
Then his right wrist was cut.
“That’s for Trish.”
The sword sliced diagonally across his face.
“That’s for Selena…And this… is for Erin.”
Kendrick’s lungs froze as the black glass tip slid slowly at the junction of his ribs. Maddox held his gaze as he pushed the sword deeper, straight through his heart.
Maddox exhaled, his breath expelled in little jerks. Blood spilled from Kendrick’s mouth as his eyes rolled back in his head. He dumped him on the floor, sliding the body off his sword, and rushed to Erin.
Tremors pulled and snapped in his muscles. Tears burned his eyes as he felt her breathe against him. Relief slammed into him with a violence. So close to losing her. Her life almost extinguished before his eyes. Terror had never been more real to Maddox than in that moment. He knew he’d never shake the memory. It would haunt him the rest of his life.
His hands shook around her. He had her. She was alive. He’d made it in time. He took her out of there. She would wake soon. She didn’t need to see that.
He carried her upstairs and sent a message to his mom.
The killer was Kendrick. He’s dead now. He took Erin. I have her. I’m taking her home now. Send Redge to the main street club in Paradigm. The body is in the basement.
He opened a portal back to her house, laid her down on her bed, and sent for his dad.
Syrus was there in a second.
“Go see to her dad. He’s in the other room. He was barely hanging on.”
Syrus didn’t ask questions, he just turned and went. In a few moments, he was back, looking in at Maddox.
“He’s fine. I fixed him up.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
Syrus came closer and reached for his hand. Then he tipped his chin so he could look into his eyes, his smile growing broader by the second. “Look at you. How?”
“Rage.”
His dad laughed, touching the gold light on Maddox’s arm. “You are like me. But your power is different. It’s not wild like lightning. It’s a drift… a current.”
“It came in a rush when I needed it.”
“I didn’t get to choose my mage title, and neither will you. You are The Torrent.”
Maddox grinned. “I can live with that.”
Syrus looked down at Erin. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah. Drugged. She’ll be okay soon.”
Maddox told his dad quickly about Kendrick, and he sent for Kindel to come and bring a team to deal with Jaris’ body. His father loomed around and talked with Nathan.
Erin was still out, and Maddox realized she was going to have a hard time surfacing. This was still the wrong place for her to wake up, with Jaris dead in the next room. He opened a portal and took her out of there.
Twenty
Forest waited and watched, invisible inside Fortress, her watch on silent. Something was happening. No one knew exactly where she was, but she could see Kindel was looking for her, surreptitiously. She followed him down the hall toward her office and had to side-step to avoid colliding with Catarina.
“Kindel, I need something from Forest’s office,” she said. “There was a file she left for me to handle while she was gone, and I forgot about it till now. And since you said she will be back in a week, I need it today if I’m going to get it finished for her by the time she returns.”
“Okay,” he said vaguely. “Do you know where she put it?”
“No.”
She followed him into Forest’s office. Ena wasn’t there. Kindel checked a message on his watch, his face pulling in anxiety. “I have to go. Ena will be back any minute from her break. She’ll help you.”
“Thank you,” Catarina said as Kindel rushed out.
Forest would have followed Kindel, but she stayed still, watching Catarina. She was lying. Forest hadn’t asked her to do anything while she was gone. Ice swooped into her stomach as intuition sparked. Surely not…
As soon as the door shut behind Kindel, Catarina moved around Forest’s desk and began rifling through the files on top. She grabbed Maddox’s file and scanned through it. Forest didn’t breathe. Then Catarina spotted the bag from the lab with Maddox’s watch inside it. Her eyes li
t, and she slid it into her pocket. She made to close the file and straighten the pages so they looked undisturbed.
Forest grabbed her letter opener and stabbed it straight through Catarina’s hand, pinning her to the top of the desk before dropping her invisibility.
“Forest! I…” her face blanched in pain, and she spluttered. “Why would you do this? I was just—”
“Save it. You’re under arrest.”
Catarina tried to lash out at her. Forest sucker-punched her in the face. She went down to her knees, awkwardly, with her hand stuck to the desk.
“It’s too late for your precious baby boy. He’ll never recover from the damage I’ve done to him. And neither will your family’s reputation.”
A message pinged Forest’s watch. She looked at it and then sneered at Catarina. “No, it’s your son who’ll never recover, not mine. Kendrick’s dead.”
Erin felt her lungs fill, but she knew she was gone. Thunder rumbled. She felt her body, cradled in his arms, but she knew she was dead. She had to say goodbye. Would he be able to hear her? She didn’t want to leave. Rain drops kissed her face. She looked up into his eyes. His strikingly beautiful eyes, not grey, not green but both colors mixed. Hers. Her generous shadow. His heart of gold encased in a fantasy of masculine beauty and strength. It was a dream. None of it was real. She floated, her soul adrift. This was a trance. He wasn’t holding her. She was dead, their connection destroyed. How could she let go? It was impossible. She would never let go. She didn’t know how, and she didn’t want to know. She had to tell him.
“I can’t stay. I don’t want to leave.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I love you, Maddox. It turns me over and breaks me all the way down…makes me something new. I never thought I would feel this. I surrender to it. To you. To us. I’m sorry I have to leave.” Her voice was weak and sleepy.
“I’ve got you, Erin. It’s over.”
She sobbed, her vision wavering like ripples on the water. His hand held her cheek, gold filling her eyes.
“You took me over…” she breathed. “Don’t ever doubt your worth or what I would have done for you... Don’t forget me and don't hide your real face again.”
Thunder rolled louder all around, rain falling harder on her. She blinked. They were in the garden. Where they began.
“You’ll wake soon,” he said.
“Wake me, Maddox…If I’m not dead, wake me.”
He kissed her, so soft it couldn’t be real. She jolted as his blood filled her mouth. All she could see was gold light. It raced under her skin, lighting her up. He lifted her up so her head was on his shoulder. Her fangs throbbed. She needed more. She sank her teeth into his neck. More heat, more light flowed into her.
She broke away, her head thrown back to the rain, gasping. “What are you?”
He held her head in his hands and searched her eyes, then he smiled. “You’re awake now.”
She was. Erin had never felt so awake. All her senses sharpened. “What are you?” she demanded again. “How could your blood do that?”
“I transformed when I thought you were going to die. I’m a mage now.”
She touched his hands and ran her fingers over the light on his forearms. “I like this.”
“I like it, too. I wouldn’t have been able to save you without this power.”
The connection was tearing her up inside. She'd never needed him like she did right then. She needed him to touch her everywhere, and she had to touch him. A thirst built in her throat and burned in her mouth. She had to consume him, absorb him, dissolve into him so they could never be separated again.
“Are we alone?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“I want to mark you. Now. Here. Just you and me.”
“You don’t want a ceremony?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not like most have. I just want you. And it is a ceremony. Every second of it will be sacred. I don't want to wait. I want it now.”
“You really don’t care that no one is here? You don’t care what you’re wearing?”
She looked up at the sky, rain falling on her face, and smiled. She slid out of the clothes she wore and began to grab at his.
“As it was the first time.”
She winded him.
“I don’t deserve you,” he said.
“Whether that’s true or not, I’m yours. You’re stuck with me.”
They made love again outside in the rain in a celebration of life and memorial of their first time. He filled her spiritually and physically before running his tongue along his incisor, filling his mouth with blood, and biting down into the top of her shoulder. She gasped as his blood ran into the bite mark, sealing inside her skin as her flesh closed, leaving a traditional, crescent, lovers mark behind. She shivered around him, looking into his eyes as she touched the scar he'd just put on her.
Her smile was warm and her eyes bright as she pulled tighter around him. She kissed his neck once and breathed, "Forever," against his skin before she bit down, repeating the same process on him. He touched his new scar when she pulled back. It was warm and added yet another layer to his commitment to her.
His heart sang in exultation. She wasn't ashamed anymore. She'd marked him and taken his mark. The scars were visible to the world. Erin was his, and she would stand by him in the light. Every second of their very private ceremony was sacred and beautiful, just as she'd said it would be. Their hearts and souls entwined along with their bodies. Their love unbearably soft and passionately savage at the same time.
Later, after they’d laid down in his room for a while, just talking, he told her all about what happened. She cried over Jaris a little as he thought she might. It didn’t hurt him. He held her through it, and she grew quiet.
“Where do you want to live?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Us. We can live anywhere you want. I want you happy. We can be rural like this, or further out like Tesla and X. We can live in the middle of the city. Or we could go to the coast like where Melina lives. I don’t care, sweetheart. You decide.”
“That’s a big decision.”
“I’ll make sure your dad is somewhere new if that’s what he wants. If you want him to live near us, I’ll arrange that.”
She touched his face. “Are you just going to throw money at this problem?”
“Absolutely. Do you mind?”
She smiled. “Not this time. I want to live somewhere nice. We need a very private garden for when it rains and a really killer shower in our house for when it doesn’t.”
He chuckled and snuggled into her. “Agreed…I’ve been thinking about what I want to do. Would you mind if I worked with you?”
“What? You mean crafting adoptions?”
“Not exactly. Maybe I could work finding the adoptive parents. I think more people would be willing and interested in bringing kids into their lives if they were just more aware. I could use my celebrity status for that. I could make people listen. I could show them…I want to find a great family for that little tike, Alora…My sister says I’m lucky. Maybe I can spread that around more.”
Tears filled Erin’s eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing at all.” She grabbed his hand and placed it over her heart. “Destiny doesn’t make mistakes.”
They slept through the afternoon. Maddox roused slowly, faintly aware Erin wasn't next to him. He blinked and rolled over. Evening was fading into night, casting shadows all through his room. Her side of the bed was cold. Where was she?
His heart sought hers out, and all he felt was sorrow from her. He got up and dressed quickly. Where was she? He could feel the distance between them. His heart, that had been so light before, now pulled down with darkness.
He strode outside and let their connection lead him to her. He would have messaged her, but she was in a quiet state that stopped him. She wasn't far, but the closer he got, the more he worrie
d. He found her sitting next to Selena's gave, talking quietly to the dead. He didn't know if he should just turn around and leave her alone or not. He frowned, looking down.