by Scarlet Dawn
Isaac gripped me more tightly as I started to tremble where I stood, the heat becoming more intense inside me. He flat out ripped the blinds off the windows, the screams coming from outside to the left. All three of us turned to stare out the glass barrier.
What was there…made no sense.
“What the hell is that?” I panted as I began to sweat.
“Jesus Christ,” Jonathan hissed. “I can’t even feel that.”
“Me either,” Isaac murmured, both of them unmoving.
“What is that?” I damn near shouted, staring at what appeared to be some type of black fog pouring out from the sky down on the city. Wherever it landed, you couldn’t see past it. It was just black, the dawn of the morning not even seen through it.
“It’s trouble,” Jonathan murmured, racing back to his bag and grabbing his cell phone and dialing on it. “We need to get the hell out of here.”
Isaac shoved me against the wall, holding me there with one hand as I jerked in pain as the heat beginning to radiate inside me. Using one hand, he found his cell phone in his shirt, and quickly tapped the screen a few times, and placed it to his ear. He talked harshly to his family, ordering them to his house for shelter.
Jonathan hung up first. His forehead crinkled. “Thomas Rickman said everyone is seeing the cloud but that it’s not affecting everyone.” The Chief of Police in Woodland Creek. “He wouldn’t lie about it.”
Isaac abruptly ended his call, his glowing green eyes looking outside. “My family reported the same. It’s only hurting shifters.” His gaze flicked down to me inside his hold. “Very interesting, yes?”
I heaved oxygen into my lungs. “I’m not a shifter.”
Isaac’s lips twitched. “No shit.” But his regard casually altered to Jonathan. A black brow lifted. “But don’t you think you should still check on your girlfriend?” His lips lifted into the cruelest smile. “You know the one you mentioned to Kennedy yesterday. The one you claimed to have only gone on two dates with, the one you claim to not have been intimate with.”
Jonathan’s head whipped back as if he had been struck. He stared.
The Mayor chuckled quietly, a menacing purr. “It’s pretty damn pathetic really.”
Jonathan’s mouth opened. Closed.
He didn’t look anywhere near me as my heart seized inside my chest.
Isaac kept a firm grip on my sweating and trembling frame as he tilted toward Jonathan, his eyes glowing on his face. His Gargoyle growled softly. “I will never sleep with you again, no matter how many times you try to slither back into my bed. You were shit then, and you’re shit now.” A Gargoyle’s hiss. “I know what I want and it sure as hell isn’t a threesome with you. I let you lead yourself down your own path to destruction.” A wink as he held me closer. “When you play with a shifter, don’t expect to win. I hold the real prize in my arms now.”
My eyes never left Jonathan. “Is this true?” I shuddered as heat raced down my back, the wicked power coming closer. “Did you use me yesterday to get to him?” I blinked, my voice rising. “Do you have a fucking girlfriend?”
Isaac bared his teeth, his eyes never leaving my ex. “Get out before I lose all respect for you.” He paused. “Or you can stay right there and I’ll kill you now. Your choice.”
Jonathan’s black eyes, always so tender, narrowed to death slits. His fists clenched as he glowered at the Mayor. “You knew the whole time.”
A quiet purr of the damned. “I always do where you’re concerned.” He tilted his head at the bedroom door. “Like I said, grab your shit, and run before I let my Gargoyle out to play.”
“Jonathan!” I shouted, grinding my teeth together. I gripped Isaac’s shirt hard in my fisted hands against his chest. I shook my head hard. “Please tell me he’s lying…”
Jonathan finally glanced at me, his gaze hard set on mine. He rolled his shoulders once. Popped his neck. Eventually, he shrugged a shoulder. “It is what it is.”
My eyes widened enormously, my shriek hoarse against the magical pain making my legs weak. “But you’re a goddamn hunter! How the fuck—”
“Even hunters fall for their mark,” he cut me off, growling under his breath. His dark eyes flittered back to Isaac. His tone calmed, even as my fury escalated. “Let’s talk about this…”
“Not a chance in hell,” Isaac hissed. His tan skin began to alter to intense silver. “Get. Out.”
Jonathan only stood there, not looking away from the Mayor.
His eyes held…love for the man holding me.
And none of it was aimed my way.
I had been used. A pawn to his wants.
My nostrils flared and I bellowed, “Get the fuck out of my home!”
Jonathan jerked at the sound of my voice. He blinked, coming back to himself.
“You heard the lady,” Isaac stated. He rubbed his palms up and down my back. “You’re not wanted here.”
Jonathan’s jaw clenched as he picked up his overnight bag, slinging the strap over his shoulder. His dark eyes found Isaac. “If I leave now, without you, I won’t come back.”
Isaac damn near rolled his glowing eyes. “I can only pray that’s true.”
My ex grabbed Lucy from the bottom of the bed, turning glaring eyes on me. “I’m taking the damn dog with me. She’s mine.”
I stared, trying not to let any tears fall in wrath. Though my voice was quiet. “A little dog for a little man.”
Isaac chuckled softly, a menacing grin etching his lips. “Goodbye now.”
Jonathan stared at him for all of a beat longer before he turned and marched from my bedroom. He stated over his shoulder, “I’m serious, Isaac.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he answered easily.
My shoulders jerked as the front door to my home slammed shut.
Isaac waited a moment, not peering down at me, giving me the only privacy I could have right now. His words were gentle. “You deserved to know.”
I wiped away an errant tear, my jaw setting. “I know. Thank you. Even if you could have left all this game shit aside.” I did glare up at him, though, my words labored. “Think you can take me to safety now? I can hardly breathe.”
His lips twitched, his green eyes flicking down into mine. “Oh, Little One, I can definitely make you safe.”
I stared. There was more than a little sensuality lacing his tone. “Safety first, Gargoyle. As in, get me the hell out of here.”
I was tossed over Isaac’s shoulder as he raced out of my bedroom. I shook my head, even as tears began to track down my cheeks, wanting to maul my flesh off it felt so hot. “My bag! I need my bag under my bed!”
“Is it worth your life?” he asked incredulously, halting in place.
My lips pinched. I whispered the truth. “It’s worth everyone’s lives.”
He breathed heavily and then probed curiously, “Truly?”
“Yes, dammit!”
Isaac cursed, and then dashed back into my bedroom. He tossed me on my bed and bent down, peering underneath it.
“Wrong side,” I hissed, writhing in agony.
“I can see that,” he grouched. He leapt right over the bed and me, landing fluidly. The Mayor went to his knees, his head disappearing from my view. His words were muffled under my bed. “I had wondered what this bag was. I didn’t have time to search yesterday, though.”
“Just grab it!” I shouted.
He popped up and stood straight, lifting the strap of my red bag over his head to crisscross it over his body. I was back over his shoulder in a mere blink. Isaac hauled ass from my room again and threw the front door open to my apartment. Shifters were out in the hallway on their hands and knees shouting in pain. His feet stopped moving as he scanned the individuals. “That’s interesting.”
“You’re more powerful than they are. You know it,” I panted. I pounded on his back. “Get going!”
“Still interesting, though. You’re handling it much better than they are, too.”
I cho
ked, sucking in oxygen. “It feels like my flesh in on fire. Go!”
“This is going to be a hell of a mess to explain to the press,” he growled under his breath. His Gargoyle snarled quietly. He looked left and right. “We just need to get outside.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled, my lids fluttering open and shut. “I may pass out soon.”
The Mayor hurdled over people on the floor, my stomach rising and falling to slam down on his shoulder. “I can fly us out of here.”
“Head for the stairs. The elevator is bound to be taken up right now,” I ordered. “We’ll have to go to the street. The only access to the roof in this building is a fire escape on the back end, and we don’t have time for that.” I grabbed my head…and screamed. The pain fluxed, my skin literally beginning to redden like a sunburn.
Isaac literally shoved the wailing shifters to the side, even stepping on them in the stairwell as they raced down the flights of stairs. When he bustled out of the front of my building. The streets were in pure pandemonium. Shifters raced down the streets, screaming, all fleeing the black fog that was only three blocks away now. My eyes widened at the sight as we were jostled from side-to-side in the stampede of people.
Isaac started tossing people left and right, fighting to get to the middle of the street. “Just hold on to me, Little One. I’ll get us out of here.”
I shrieked as we suddenly rose into the air at a sickening pace, the warm body under me suddenly silver and hard as stone. I watched with enormous eyes as his clothing fell to the street littered with shifters below us. My body rejected the motion, but I moved my arms and grabbed onto the strap of my red bag for fear of losing it. But it slowly dawned on me that Isaac had positioned it perfectly so that his wings could still carry us away without being hindered by the strap.
The black fog was only a block away. I was on the back of a Gargoyle. And I wanted it. My life had drastically changed. I hissed, “Fucking fly!”
I grunted as the Gargoyle dipped, air fluttering my hair against my cheeks, and then all of the oxygen rushed from my lungs as he flew hard. His wings beat the air forcefully, my body pressed down against his stone-hard frame with the force.
“We’ll be all right. Just don’t slip off me.” Isaac’s voice was rough—deeper and scarier than I had ever heard before. His solid arms tightened around my legs. “Got it?”
I wasn’t going anywhere, even if he thought I was. Though this was the ride from hell, like a nightmare roller coaster. With every flap of the Gargoyle’s wings, we would fly up...then down. My body lifting the barest bit off his solid frame before I would bash back down onto his flexing shoulder. And there was no cushion, each flap of his wings making my stomach smash into his body, knocking my breath out of me. And the rushing wind against us didn’t block the sounds of chaos and pain beneath us.
Higher…we flew higher.
I blinked as we turned, the sun seen only the barest bit before, now becoming more bright.
“We don’t have time for your curiosity,” I bellowed at the top of my lungs. “You need to fucking fly.”
He grunted, his voice garbled, rough timbered. “Are you still in pain?”
I paused. I wiggled my shoulders and glanced at my arms, now normal colored. “Um…no.”
“Then we have time.” Another grunt. “We’re far enough away from the magic now.”
“What about your family? Are you sure they’re fine?” My eyes widened as the Gargoyle turned again. The ride truly became a nightmare. His wings flapped in hard thrusts, the ups and downs horrific, and the air inside me crushed out of my body for longer periods of time. And then…there were the Gargoyle roars. Constant. Almost a warning of sorts. I was pretty sure I saw silver vapors at one point, but it was too hard to tell with the wind now drying my eyes out completely.
Our descent, when it came, wasn’t as dreadful as I thought it was going to be. It was a smooth glide, instead of a nosedive. The sun disappeared when we glided through trees; nothing else was seen but leaves for a few moments, then the dawning sun was muted through the overhanging limbs.
I grunted, a short shriek actually passing my lips when my body jarred as we landed.
Okay, not so smooth.
Isaac’s arms were wrapped around me protectively as he laid me on the softest grass, ducking his Gargoyle head down when I continued to hold onto the strap of my bag. It slipped over his left wing and his head, the red bag thumping down beside me. I lay sucking oxygen on the gentle ground, staring up at him as he shifted back into human form. Then he was standing over me, in all his muscled, naked glory.
I started sucking in large gulps of air for a whole different reason.
The shifter was simply…gorgeous. My libido kicked into high gear.
Isaac’s stunning green eyes scanned me from head to toe, peering for any lingering injuries though he paused, inhaling deeply. His gaze stalled on my crotch. His jaw clenched and a simple black, arrogant brow lifted. The Mayor knew exactly what I was doing. He probably even knew I was getting wet down under.
I didn’t even care.
That was a whole lot of man flesh to ogle.
Mmm.
There was a delicate throat that cleared to our right, a soft feminine sound.
Our gazes swiftly jerked in that direction.
All three of Isaac’s siblings stood side-by-side. They were in their pajamas.
In front of Isaac’s ‘quaint’ mansion.
I was on his property.
His house itself was heinously frightening in old architecture, the top spiraling points. It was a location I would never have stepped onto before.
Mandy’s eyes were enormous on her face as she took in the two of us. Her brother, with only a pair of holey jeans on, his chest bare. Me, in my pink camisole shorts set. Not to mention…the current time of day it didn’t help matters to be dressed as we were. Mandy’s lips pinched, and she mumbled, “Brother?”
“Not right now, Mandy,” he growled. He jerked his gaze away from them and then peered back down at me. His Gargoyle huffed quietly, then his eyes flared the smallest bit and his lips puckered. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” I muttered, standing and brushing dirt off my legs. “I’ll have bruises on my stomach from that ride, but nothing’s broken.” I cracked my back and stretched. “Really. I’m good.”
Isaac scowled a moment at me but swiftly glanced up to his family. “What’s the news?”
With his gaze traveling between the two of us, Mike spoke quietly, “The magic stopped.” He pointed up to the brightening sky. “As soon as you two flew through Hanna’s spell protecting your home…it disappeared.”
My stomach rolled, and I barely kept from heaving at the reality. “It’s as I feared.”
Isaac’s attention snapped to me. “Explain.”
I pointed at myself. “It was coming after me.”
Black brows lifted. “You’re saying all of that was an attack? Focused on you?”
I sucked in a quick breath, hooding my gaze. “It was as if the night was attacking the day.” My voice was rough. “Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. I know what I’m saying.”
He stared for a long moment. His gaze flicked down to the bag I clutched in my right hand. The Mayor hummed quietly. “Perhaps you do.” His lips twitched, and he shook his head. He peered up at the sky and lifted his fists to it, shaking them. He shouted to the heavens in amusement—and anger, “This is what you give me? The woman full of faith is a goddamn human!”
Finn ran his fingers through his hair, not even commenting on his brother’s outburst. “This is going to cause a hell of a backlash. Our town is not in a state to have this type of turmoil occur so close after the incident.”
Woodland Creek residents were going to freak the fuck out, in other words.
His gaze still on the clouds, and still naked as can be, Isaac grumbled, “Where’s Mother?”
Mike hummed. “Inside. I believe she’s making pancakes.”
>
Isaac snorted, finally peering back down. “Her normal for high-stress situations.”
Mike spread his hands far apart. “There are a lot of them.”
Isaac rubbed his belly. “I might as well eat before I have to go back into town and handle this shit with the Chief of Police.” He snorted softly. “That man has to know what the hell is up with all the problems we have here.”
My lips twitched. “He’s not stupid.”
Isaac pointed a sharp finger at me. “And you’re staying here today under the protection of my home.” A finger flick at his siblings. “Mandy and Mike will watch over you here.”
Shit.
I wasn’t ashamed to admit I hid in Isaac’s bedroom all day long. With one mere glance from Mrs. Stone at the breakfast table, her predator peeking out of her gaze, as she evaluated Isaac’s and my attire, I had been properly frightened. Mandy and Mike hadn’t needed to watch over me, just knowing they were downstairs in Isaac’s—freaking huge ass—home was enough to scare me.
As night began to fall, the door eventually creaked open. I peered over the edge of the black, ancient book I was reading—for the hundredth time since receiving it on the night my eyes were opened forever. I hadn’t forgotten the wizard’s words either. All of them. My silent regard ran over the shifter entering the room quietly, his green eyes tired, and his black hair disheveled from a rough day of work.
He loosened the tie around his throat, watching me as he removed it. He tossed the blue silk tie onto his bed and unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt. A black brow lifted on his tan face. “Evening reading?”
I closed the book calmly. “Something like that.” I placed it back into my red bag next to the chair I was sitting on and zipped it. “How did it go today?”
He eyed the bag quietly. “You’re really not going to tell me what that is?” A quiet grunt. “It smells of wizard magic.”
“Then you probably shouldn’t try to touch it unless I let you.” I shrugged a shoulder. “You know how wizards are with their belongings.”