Before the Fall

by Sable Grace

  “The silver . . . I wanted to weaken him—”

  “My sword is silver! Didn’t you see the other two die? Damn it, Shanna, you could have been killed!”

  She jerked free of his clutches, rubbing her arm and sinking back to the ground where the world was more stable. Her leg hurt like hell, but she was pretty sure nothing was broken. Just bruised like a bitch.

  “You said silver would make them vulnerable to death. I was tr-trying to help!”

  And she had! She’d saved his sorry ass and he was yelling at her?

  Shanna tried to muster the energy to feel real anger, but it wouldn’t come. He was right. She hadn’t truly thought through her actions. She’d seen him in trouble and had acted as her instincts had bidden her to do. But her instincts knew nothing of this world in which Zach lived.

  They could have died today. There was a very real possibility that they still might. If so, it would be nice to have someone who belonged to her when it happened. She had no family anymore. No friends close by. Zach didn’t belong to her anymore, either. She’d ruined that thoroughly when she’d called him insane and walked out.

  Even if they couldn’t be together again, she’d get him to finally forgive her for not believing him . . . and maybe then she’d be able to forgive herself.

  “I don’t think I can do this anymore,” she whispered. “The world’s gone crazy, Zach.”

  He knelt beside her, giving her a clear view of the blood splatter sprinkled across his neck and face. She prayed it didn’t belong to him.

  “Yeah, it has, Princess. So we’ve got to stay sane for each other. We have to stay alive for each other. You can’t do stupid shit like that anymore.”

  The anger in his eyes stilled her frustrations. He’d been worried about her. He’d chosen to get her out of the Keys. No one else. Six months hadn’t completely destroyed what they’d had. If it had, he wouldn’t be yelling at her now.

  She felt a faint smile coming on but kept it hidden.

  “Thank you, Zach,” she whispered. And as he stared at her in question, she quietly made her way back to the road without further explanation.

  Between struggling to get the SUV out of the mud and a quick stop for showers and food at a truck stop, getting to St. Augustine took another hour. By the time they finally rolled into the city limits, it was almost ten thirty and Zach’s eyes were burning. His instincts were beginning to dull, as was evident when he nearly ran right over an old woman darting across the street.

  He let out a yawn, envious of Shanna, who’d been sleeping for the past forty-five minutes. He took in the sights of the city that was meant to be their salvation. Most of the places seemed to be without electricity, and where some still existed, the sizzle of broken and frayed live wires danced in the air.

  Traffic lights swung in the wind, no power reaching them. A few stray horses had abandoned their carriages and masters, and roamed the walk around Matanzas Bay, neighing in the night as though calling out to one another. Streets that should have been teeming with tourists were quiet and empty, though he’d expected the exact opposite. Wasn’t this where the evacuees were being sent? Or had the Order purposely directed them elsewhere to avoid chaos at their headquarters?

  He swerved the SUV around an abandoned trolley, his muscles screaming in protest as the sudden movement made his body sway. But it was almost over. All he had to do now was get Shanna inside the Castillo de San Marcos and he’d finally be able to breathe again.

  “It’s too quiet,” Shanna muttered, startling him. He hadn’t realized she’d woken up.

  He watched her rub at the smear of blood on her jeans as she had been before she’d fallen asleep. Zach had hoped letting her take a quick shower at a rest stop might make her feel a little better—clean the blood off and maybe wash away some of her panic. But it hadn’t seemed to do much good. Her clothes were still stained and so, apparently, were her thoughts.

  “Where are all the people? I thought it would be safe here.”

  “Safer,” he corrected. The only true safety in the world right now would be found in other realms. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to try to explain that to her now.

  She didn’t say anything for a moment, intent on rubbing that damned spot like she was Lady Macbeth. The tightness around her mouth had deepened. As had the stress in her eyes and the shaking of her hands. She was holding it together, but just by sheer willpower—probably to keep from cracking completely in front of him.

  “Where do we go from here?” she finally asked.

  He drove slowly past overturned carriages and vehicles, and turned into the Castillo—steering the SUV directly to the small wall that separated the fort from Matanzas Bay—then cut the engine.

  Zach was immediately relieved at the sight of the Order’s sentinels patrolling the bastions. “I need to answer my summons. Get clearance to bring you in.”

  For the first time since all this had started, he felt a tiny bit of the tension drain from his neck and shoulders.

  He stepped out and waited for her to insist on coming with him. When she didn’t, he knew without a doubt that she was approaching her breaking point.

  “Don’t get out until I come back for you. And if anything happens, take off. Do not stop. Got it?”

  “Yeah. Got it. I get scared, I leave you. Sure.”

  Even her sarcasm sounded tired.

  “Just do it. I’ll be right back.”

  She grabbed his hand. “If something does happen, get your ass back here.”

  He smiled before closing the door. When she locked it, he turned and made his way across the old wooden bridge. Before his feet touched the crushed coquina leading to the now-working drawbridge, two sentinels appeared out of nowhere to block his path.

  “I’ve been summoned.” He turned slightly, allowing them to see the sword strapped to his back. “I’m retired Order.”

  “Reveal your beacon.”

  Zach dug beneath his shirt and dragged the chain out, cursing when the small sphere didn’t appear, too. He must have lost it along the way.

  “It’s gone.”

  Chapter Nine

  10:40 p.m.

  1 hour and 20 minutes before the fall . . .

  Sensing the sentinel was about to deny him access, Zach glared. “Look. I’ve been through a lot of shit trying to get here to answer Ares’s summons. The beacon must have gotten ripped off my damn neck when I was slaughtering Dark Breeds. How would I know all that shit if I wasn’t one of you?”

  The sentinel shrugged but didn’t budge. “No beacon, no entrance. You’ll have to wait for verification.”

  Zach was tempted to slide out his sword and force the issue, but he wasn’t stupid enough to try it when there were so many others to watch the sentinel’s back.

  Ares would have to make an appearance before midnight. He’d be right in the thick of things when Hell finally finished unraveling. All they had to do was wait, and Zach would be cleared.

  “I have a human with me. I need to get her to safety.”

  Though the guard’s stance didn’t relax, his tone softened. “If you’ve truly been summoned, you’ll be given access soon enough. Your friend can enter with you when the Witches and Mystics have finished casting their spell on the entrance. Till then, rest up, my friend. We’ve a long night of battle ahead of us.”

  “Spell?”

  “To make certain all those who look human when we let them in truly are.”

  “How long?”

  “Before midnight. They have to prepare the fort’s foundation for the shattering first. Then they’ll complete the entrance magic.”

  Lovely. They’d finally made it and were being turned away.

  Zach named off several sentinels he’d served with who might be around to vouch for him, but none sparked a glimmer of awareness in this one’s eyes. It wasn’t surprising. Sentinels tended to serve ten to fifteen years within the Order, max. Being human, they could only take so much pain and injury before being fo
rced into retirement.

  Like Zach had been.

  The guard jutted his chin toward the SUV. “That yours?”

  Zach nodded. “Yeah, the woman’s inside.”

  “Fetch her. Bring her to the Ravelin. Since it’s not technically inside the fort, I’ll see to it that you can stash her safely in there until you get clearance. It’ll be dark, but it should only be for a short while. At the very least, it will keep her safe and warm while you wait. I truly am sorry, but we can’t allow anyone in without clearance. This is all I can offer. Well, that and an assurance that you’ll be fetched when Ares arrives or the entrance is cleared.”

  Zach shook the guard’s hand in thanks, cursing himself for losing such a valuable item as the beacon. If not for that mishap, he’d already have Shanna inside, safely escorted to the portal that would take her to the realm of Below, free from this chaos surrounding them.

  Already the winds whipping off the bay were broken by the howls in the distance and the cries of humans unable to fight. Shanna wasn’t going to be happy about being closed in a dark space where they wouldn’t be able to see what was going on, but it would be better than remaining in the car like a sitting duck, and they’d be warned if danger approached.

  He turned to head back to the car when one last name popped into his head. She was a bitch, but she was local. “Kyana Aslan?”

  The guard sneered. He definitely knew that name. “She’ll return before midnight as well.”

  Zach knew when he was being dismissed. “If she arrives before Ares, will you point her in my direction?”

  The guard agreed and Zach made his way back to Shanna. He eased onto the hood, staring out at the water as he considered his options. He didn’t really have any. He couldn’t get into the fort without clearance—couldn’t get Shanna inside until the protection spells were completed. He was going to have to wait it out. There was just under an hour and a half until midnight. Hopefully the Order would be ready by then.

  Behind him, he heard the car door open, heard it shut again. “So, do we get to go inside or what?”

  Forcing the tension from his face, Zach smiled. “I lost my beacon. They’re going to let us stay beneath the Ravelin until we’re permitted inside.”

  “Great.”

  “Grab the weapons. They promised to let me know when Ares arrives. They’ll let us in, then.”

  As she stepped around him, he explained about the spell being performed, knowing she wouldn’t be happy about the humans who’d likely show up for protection as soon as they caught wind of what the fort had become, being turned away, too. She listened, scowling, obviously as unhappy about relying on strangers as he was. She pulled the weapons bag from the car and he took it, slung it over his shoulder before reaching for her hand.

  As they passed a group of sentinels, the one who’d spoken to Zach stepped forward to escort them to their holdings, a blanket in his arms. He passed it to Zach, opened the tiny Ravelin door, and ushered them inside.

  “Here,” he said, handing Shanna three white candles. “They’ll offer you light and maybe a bit of warmth.”

  Shanna silently took them, and by the time the door was shut behind them and Zach made his way through the low-ceilinged structure, she was already curled up under the blanket, shivering like they were in minus-thirty-degree weather instead of a Florida winter.

  He lit the candles, hoping they’d offer more light than the small loopholes near the ceiling did. “Come here,” he whispered, stretching out beside her and pulling her chest against his. He pressed his chin to her head and rubbed her back.

  She rolled away slightly, staring up at him. “It just hit me that things are never going to be the way they were, are they?”

  He shook his head. “But that doesn’t mean it won’t be okay.”

  “Okay? It’s not okay for the people out there dying. For the kids who lose their parents in all this, or worse: the parents who lose their kids. How is that okay?”

  He didn’t know what to say to that. Mostly because, growing up in the foster care system, he’d never had parents. And he most certainly didn’t have kids—who’d be born dedicated to the Order whether they chose that path or not. But he did have people he cared about. A lot. And the one foremost in his mind at the moment was staring up at him with such pleading in her eyes, he died a little.

  “Shanna, I—”

  She pressed a finger to his mouth and shook her head. “Whatever you’re going to say . . . just . . . don’t.”

  Shanna sat up, slipped her shirt over her head and lay back down—on top of the blanket this time—teeth chattering. She pressed as tightly to Zach as she could get, needing far more than his warmth to get her through what was to come.

  Even when they’d been apart she’d never been able to let her feelings for him go so she could move on with her life. That was one mistake she couldn’t repeat this time. She didn’t belong in his world. Didn’t want to belong in it for a second longer than it took for those he trusted to make things right again. And this journey—the things she’d seen—had proven to her that he didn’t belong in her world either.

  She didn’t know what tonight would bring or what they’d feel tomorrow. But right now, she was going to tell him she loved him in the only way she could. With her body.

  Chapter Ten

  10:55 p.m.

  1 hour and 5 minutes before the fall . . .

  Shanna kissed Zach with all the longing and all the regret that had been living inside her for the past six months. She traced his lips with her tongue, saying all the things in her head she wished she had the courage to say to him.

  His arms tightened around her waist, but when he tried to ease her onto her back, she stopped him. She wanted to take her time, to explore every inch of his body. To burn him into her memory in case it was the last time she saw him.

  Fisting his shirt, she tugged it off, then pushed him onto his back. She straddled his waist and ran her hands over his smooth chest before following with her lips. Though his skin was hot to the touch, tiny goose bumps danced across his chest, causing her hands and lips to tingle.

  She unsnapped the button of his jeans and tugged slightly. Zach lifted his hips, allowing her to pull the denim off his body. Revealed to her, she drank in the sight of him—the scars she knew as well as her own, the bruises he’d sustained over the last few hours. All visible, even in the dark, cramped quarters they’d been given.

  She kissed each mark, loving them tenderly with her tongue. Not even the ragged scar on his arm missed her ministration. He tensed as she tended the puckered flesh, but he didn’t pull away. She didn’t know how he’d gotten it, but knew it had been the reason he’d left his old life behind. She loved the wound as much as he seemed to hate it. Had he not been hurt, she never would have met him.

  When she moved to a scar on his ribs, Zach sighed her name. She smiled, empowered by the tiny quivers of his muscles and the faint perspiration dampening his skin that she was sure had nothing to do with their confined space.

  Satisfied that she’d found every tiny wound, she worked her way back to his belly. His hands gripped her shoulders, the graze of his callused thumbs sending spirals of heat all the way to her toes.

  Zach tightened his grip on Shanna’s shoulders and pulled her up his body so she covered him. He knew exactly what she was up to—taking power in a situation she could control, unlike the one raging outside. But he wasn’t going to play her game. She was going to receive as much as she was giving—whether she liked it or not.

  He ran his hands lightly over her back and cupped her ass. He wanted to fill her, claim her, brand her forever as his.

  He stroked her ribs, the side of her breasts. Tiny shivers of desire caused her to quake. He pulled her legs forward so she rested on her knees, then leaned in to capture her nipple. Her soft whimpers were like fire to his blood.

  Tightening his arms around her waist, he rolled them so he was cradled between her thighs. She rocked against him and
he cursed the denim that kept him from losing himself in her heat.

  Zach claimed her mouth. There were so many things he wanted to tell her, but with the world literally crashing down around them, now wasn’t the time. Instead, he gripped the snap at her waist and slid the fabric down her legs, kissing the milky white skin he exposed. Once he had her naked, Zach took a moment to drink in her beauty.

  Shanna reached for him, but he kissed her palms before turning his kisses to her body, loving every cut and bruise she had sustained on their journey. The scrapes on her ribs, the skinned knee, the bruised ankle, and every mark in between. Just as slowly he made his way back up her body, pausing to circle her navel with his tongue. He trailed his lips over her belly.

  “Zach,” she panted his name as she reached for him. She rocked her hips against him. “Please, Zach. Now.”

  He wanted to love her as thoroughly as she’d loved him, but he couldn’t deny her the release she begged for. He gripped her hips and buried himself inside her before she could utter a single protest.

  Her sigh warmed his lips. Her nails raked his back. All he could think of was her name and the way it felt when his mind spoke it to his soul. He moved in a rhythm that was both intense and slow, thrusting with each buck of her hips only to ease back out torturously slowly. Burying his face against the pulse at her neck, he breathed in the scent of her, the scent of them together, so perfectly fit and wet and hot.

  “Faster,” she breathed against his ear.

  Zach obeyed. She cried out, gripped his hips as her legs wound more tightly around him.

  When she came, her scream made his ears ring, but the fact that it was his name she called out eased the pain. He slowed, this time diving so deeply he could barely breathe. Shanna gripped his shoulders, her teeth sinking into his lower lip as once again, she called out his name.

  He came with a rush he hadn’t felt in years. He collapsed on top of her, his body spent yet still ready for another round.