by Trina M. Lee
I slammed into her hard, and we both went down. She struggled to save the vase, holding it up and extended, like a drunk saving a drink. The thing had no lid. Her back hit the ground, and she grunted. The vase tipped and a smattering of ashes hit the snow beneath us.
Having gone down on top of her, I tried to leverage my position and pin the arm holding the vase. Somehow she got a leg up under me and planted a boot in my stomach. With a strength greater than even the already impressive vigor of a shifter, Jez launched me into the air.
Alrighty, so draining human life forces gave her super strength. Good to know.
I tucked and rolled when I hit the ground. Up and on my feet with little more than a bruised shoulder, I had no time to do anything but gasp as she threw a roundhouse kick to my chest. One thing Jez had to remember was that I knew how she fought. With us vampy types she liked to go hard on the aggressive, offensive moves, anything to prevent her opponent from making a power play.
My ass hit the frozen ground. I flung my hands up, thrusting enough energy at Jez to force her back. Getting to my feet, I held her at bay.
“If you want to fight this out one on one, purely physical, then fine. I won’t use any power. But no cheap shots.” It was the best I could offer for leveling the playing field. I dropped the barrier, letting her make the next move.
She’d already set the vase down under the swing. Nothing held her back when she came at me. The fist she threw at my face grazed me. All juiced up as she was, Jez moved fast, her aim precise. I dodged the next blow and countered with one of my own. My fist connected with her jaw, and inwardly I winced.
Hurting Jez made me ache, but she had a lot of shit to get out of her system. Fighting it out might be the safest way to do that without risk of long-term regret.
She blocked my next fist, bouncing back a few feet. In the middle of Kale’s backyard, we circled each other. Other than a little sparring back when we were younger, newly employed by Veryl, the two of us had never truly fought one another.
I suspected she would kick my ass. She’d always had to rely primarily on physical skill while I’d had other skills to do most of the heavy lifting.
A tingle raced up my spine. Tense, I readied myself for the next shot. It came in the form of a good feint. I fell for it. Then she dropped me with a leg sweep.
Instinct kicked in, and I went down on my back, feet raised in expectation as she leaned down to drop another fist in my face. I grabbed her arm and jerked her close, planted my feet against her middle, and flipped her over my head. She hit the ground.
We both rolled and leaped back to our feet.
With an angry wail Jez flung herself at me. Despite bracing myself she took me down with little struggle. And then everything that had built up behind her emotional dam crashed through and drowned us both.
I raised my arms to ward off the blows that smashed down. But I didn’t fight back. Not even when she pounded my lip against my fang and sliced it open.
Willingly, I took every hit. She needed it more than I needed to not get my face pounded. Jez had months of pain trapped inside. Possibly years. Pain that she’d tried to silence with drugs and women. There was no quieting it any longer. Sooner or later, we all reach our breaking point.
Jez had reached hers.
“Why aren’t you fighting back?” she shouted in my face. “Fight back, dammit. Don’t go easy on me.”
“I’m sorry about Kale. I know you blame me for his death.” My words came in a rush, before the next fist could fall. “I didn’t mean to love him like that.”
“Don’t.” Jez’s hands were cold on my neck as she banged my head against the ground. “Don’t make this about you. We were friends. All of us. You ruined us when you encouraged his infatuation with you.”
I coughed and choked until she released me. My reflection in her ebony eyes was unafraid. “I’m sorry, Jez. I never wanted any of this.”
“Stop it. Stop acting like you didn’t make him want to die.” Her voice cracked as she hit me again.
I tasted blood. Tangy and metallic. The blood that had enslaved Kale. “And I’ll live with that forever.” I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down my face. And the words kept pouring out. “I’m sorry, Jez. I’m so sorry for everything.”
A frustrated cry, mingled with a growl, rumbled in Jez’s throat. Unable to bring herself to throw another punch, her face crumpled. She stood in a huff.
Slowly I sat up, touching my nose to see if it was broken.
Jez paced away, a hand on her forehead. “Fuck this shit. Just fuck all of it.” Then she came back and held a hand out to me. Her knuckles were bloody, cut on my fangs.
I put my hand in hers and let her help me up. She pulled me in for a hug. Together we cried. There in Kale’s backyard.
We stayed that way for a long time. Because we needed each other and, at the core of it all, we were family. I’d lost too many people. I would not lose her too.
We stayed that way until we heard the telltale sound of a gun being cocked. It shattered the stillness that had come over us. Immediately we reacted, but the trigger had already been pulled. Having come prepared, the shooter used a silencer to dampen the crack.
Jez yelped and clutched her middle. Blood seeped between her fingers.
Near the gate, gun raised for another shot, stood Wyatt.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
I didn’t think. Just reacted. A roiling blue and gold psi ball struck Wyatt in the throat, and he went down grabbing his neck while his windpipe failed him.
We were on him before he could get up. His gun fell aside, and I kicked it further away. Seeing as it didn’t make sense for a hunter to kill a leopard that could otherwise be a handsome trophy, I suspected he’d been aiming for me. Our quick movement at the cock of the hammer had thrown off his shot.
With a hand pressed to her wound, Jez didn’t let a little bullet to the abdomen slow her down. Darting forward, she pinned Wyatt with a boot on his chest. The drain of his life force was immediate. I could feel the pressure of the energy flow from him to her. Wyatt’s eyes bulged, and his skin began to shrivel. He slowly deflated before my eyes.
“Been following me, Wyatt?” I leaned down to stare into his slowly withering face.
“I was following her,” he grunted, eyeing Jez with growing terror. “Saw you and thought I’d try to take you out.”
“With a bullet? You should know better than that.” I scolded him with a finger wag and a head shake. Regular bullets rarely worked on vampires.
Wyatt coughed, and blood stained his lips. “What can I say? I wasn’t shooting to kill.”
No, of course not. Why waste a shot at two rare trophies instead of one?
As I watched he continued to deteriorate. His skin tightened against his bones as he clutched Jez’s ankle in a feeble attempt to dislodge her hold.
Jez sucked in a deep breath and released it on a soft groan. She tugged her shirt up in time for us to see the bullet emerge from the wound and hit the ground. Her skin knit itself back together as we looked on.
“Ok, so maybe there’s a bright side to all this after all,” she marveled.
“Uh, yeah,” I managed to get out, “I’d say so.” Noticing how fast Wyatt faded, I patted Jez’s arm. “Stop, I need to get some info out of him.”
Jez backed off, moving across the yard. The further away she got the slower she drained Wyatt’s life force.
Even though he was too weak to get up, I pinned him down with a foot on his chest where Jez’s had been. “What did you do with Rylan Chow? I know you have him. Talk fast and die fast. Make me work for it, and you die slow.” To emphasize my point, I held a claw-tipped finger to the side of his face.
Wyatt sucked in desperate breaths. “Let me go and I’ll tell you.”
Had to give him credit for having the guts to bargain in the situation he was in. “You’ll tell me anyway.”
Having little patience for Wyatt with far more important things going on, I hi
t him with enough thrall to drag an angel under. He blinked bulging eyes at me and stopped struggling. Instead he stroked a hand up my calf.
“Where is Rylan?” I repeated, astounded that the man could still get turned on after having half his life force drained.
“Motel on the edge of town. Keys are in my pocket.” A drunken grin spread across his face. “Now why don’t you stop talking and let me up so I can touch you?”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Give me the address.”
Once I got what I needed from Wyatt, I slashed his throat. Couldn’t let Jez finish him off. He’d be up walking around, and that would pose a new problem.
“You’re ok?” I asked Jez who’d returned to the swing to fetch the vase.
She held it out to me. “What should we do with Kale? I think we should scatter it somewhere. What do you think he would want?”
I pondered this, taking the vase carefully. “Maybe the river, in the spring.”
“I like that idea.” She smiled sadly. “I miss him so much.”
“Me too.”
She pulled me into another hug. “I’m sorry, Lex. Honestly, I understand your craziness so much better now. I don’t know how I’m going to do this.”
I laughed and hugged her back the best I could without dropping the vase. “It will be ok. We’ll figure this out. You don’t have to do it alone.”
“Aw, Lex, you know I see you as a sister. Remember that when you look in the mirror. I kicked your ass pretty good.” She giggled and then sighed. “God, I’ve had a fucked up twenty-four hours.”
“You and me both, sister. We better call Smudge to send the clean-up crew. She’s worried sick about you.” I punched Jez lightly on the shoulder and pulled out my phone.
She held out a hand to stop me. “I’ll call. I’ve got about thirty missed calls from her.”
“Smudge is one of the good ones, Jez. Don’t screw it up by shutting her out. When you’re done on the phone, we’ll go see Gabriel. He knows a lot about necromancy. He can help you.”
“Necromancy,” she muttered, striding across the yard, phone to her ear. “Of all the possibilities I had to end up a zombie mommy.”
I stood watch near Wyatt’s body while she made the call. Couldn’t have a random neighbor spot him. My face ached and my head throbbed. It was all worth it if it meant helping Jez process her feelings.
We all had a lot of processing to do.
* * * *
“Ouch, son of a bitch.” I prodded the gash on my swollen bottom lip with my tongue. My battered reflection winced back at me. Jez had done a good job.
After Smudge showed up with the cleaning crew, she and Jez had gone together to see Gabriel. At my request he’d agreed to do all he could to teach her all he knew about necromancy and mastering the drain of life force. Jez was understandably afraid to venture out before she had some control.
A call to Shaz about Rylan and he’d sent a few wolves to go check out the motel. With just a couple hours left until sunrise, I’d retreated to the hotel where Falon and I often met. I’d argued with myself about it, knowing I should return to the Kiss.
To my carnival of crazy. To Arys, whom I could never escape.
Kale’s car was outside, his ashes with it. And I just wanted to forget about it. For a little while.
Hence the hotel. This was where I came to forget and sometimes to heal. But always to lose myself. Sometimes it was the only way I could find myself again.
My phone vibrated on the counter beside me. I stood in the swanky hotel bathroom with the huge soaker tub, inspecting the damage one of my dearest friends had done to my face. Still not nearly as bad as the hell Shya had put me through.
Thoughts of Shya led back to thoughts of Kale. I shoved them all aside, hoping Falon showed up while he still had time. Before sunrise chased him away.
Kylarai’s name on the screen didn’t help me escape thoughts of Kale. “Hey, Ky, how’s it going?”
Her gentle voice poured from the speaker, testing my resolve. “Oh, my God, Alexa, I’m so sorry about Kale. Are you ok?”
Gazing into the mirror, I searched my brown eyes, seeking the answer to her question. “Yeah,” I lied, “I’m ok.”
Behind me the air moved. Falon appeared, standing behind my reflection in the mirror. Our eyes locked through the glass surface. He didn’t need to ask why I’d come here.
“Liar,” Kylarai said softly. “Do you need anything? I can come over. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“No, Ky, it’s ok. I’m not sure I’ll make it home before sunrise.” I tensed beneath Falon’s keen appraisal as he looked me over, lingering on my bruised face. From behind me, he reached around to stroke a finger over my cut lip, his touch so delicate I could barely feel it. “I’ll come by your house soon. I want to see Coby too. I miss you guys.”
There was a pause and a small sniffle before she continued. “We miss you too. Kale had a good heart. I cared a lot about him. If you need anything at all, call me. Day or night. I love you.”
Falon trailed that finger from my lip down my jaw, my neck, tracing a path down the front of my body. His mouth was on the back of my neck when his hand slipped between my legs.
“I love you too, Ky. I’ll see you soon.”
In the mirror Falon’s gaze slid over me with the sinister delight of a man who loathed that which he lusted for. And I ate it up, thriving on how much he hated the way he wanted me but, want me, he did.
I ended the call and turned to face him. He dragged me hard against him, hands splayed on my ass. He kissed my sore lip but not so hard that it throbbed. That kiss made me whimper, mourning the man I would never kiss again.
“Make me forget,” I begged again, a plea uttered to a lover who knew the desperation that consumed me.
Pawing at his clothes, I sought to feel him. The firm lines of his abdomen. The velvet softness of his skin. The faint line of hair that trickled down to disappear into his pants. What I sought most then was the sensation of a lover brimming with lively desire. Someone present there with me.
A lover who could not die.
Falon took me against the bathroom wall. Bracing me against the hard surface, he thrust into me. Hard and deep. I threw my head back and closed my eyes. Face to face felt too intimate in my moment of pain.
The wet heat of his mouth on my neck had me clawing at his back. Sunrise would steal him away from me. As it should. So I clung tight, getting as high on him as I could in what time we had.
Falon slowed just enough to grasp my chin. “Look at me, Alexa. I want those pretty wolf eyes on me when you come.”
My eyes snapped open, and I searched him, recognizing this request to be a deviation from our usual manner of doing all we could to avoid any semblance of intimacy when we screwed.
“Pretty wolf eyes?” I repeated, gasping as he plunged especially deep.
“Don’t talk. You know your voice annoys the shit out of me.” A loud rustle of feathers and Falon’s wings flared wide behind him. One hand under my thigh, his other held my jaw, making me meet his inquisitive silver stare. “Just scream. I like that.”
Falon had decided he wanted to watch me get off on him, literally, and he wouldn’t be deterred. I didn’t want him to study me so intently while he fucked me to absolution. It made me feel naked and raw. Exposed. Which was what he wanted.
Revulsion peered out at me like a possessing entity rather than an emotion. A part of Falon truly hated himself for doing this. Here with me. Now and every time.
Because Falon had come to enjoy it. To look forward to it. Maybe even to need it.
In the beginning I think we’d both believed it to be a passing fling. That it would burn out once we’d gotten it out of our systems. Instead we’d become more deeply entwined. Popping each other like Xanax to get through the night.
But this kind of drug was so much more addictive.
Perhaps it had been a fling when it started. But it had never been temporary. Whatever this wa
s, it wouldn’t be ending any time soon. Jez had been right. Falon had become a steady lover. And I hadn’t let myself notice.
Shadows lurked in Falon’s eyes. His dark side called to me, inviting me to play. He watched my face with every thrust, his expression deadly serious. I jerked my chin from his grasp but didn’t look away or close my eyes.
I stroked a hand over a wing, revelling in its softness. So silken it almost felt like I touched nothing, until I gently rubbed a feather between my fingertips. Because Falon had insisted on eye contact, he couldn’t keep me from seeing the pleasure he got from that simple touch. It wasn’t a sexual thing though, rather having someone marvel over him. Like he was a thing of great wonder.
The words tumbled out, a passion driven truth that wouldn’t be contained. “Falon, you’re beautiful.”
His brow arched and he snickered. “And I’ve officially fucked you senseless. Guess it had to happen sometime.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he silenced me with a kiss. Only when he felt me clench around him did he pull back to watch me again. I came hard, head thrown back, a cry wrenched from me.
Falon studied my face, like he committed it to memory. When he came it was with a hand in my hair and my name on his lips. A throaty murmur, it sounded more like an exhalation of acceptance. Or defeat.
He pulled away, and my first reaction was to reach for the robe on the back of the door. Falon intercepted me, slapping my hand away. “We’re not finished yet. There’s more than an hour until sunrise.”
I let him pull me out of the bathroom to the bed where he flopped onto the soft duvet. That was my go to move to cover up. Part of my inability to see this as it was, most likely. That had started to change.
Keeping some distance between us on the king-size bed, I sat against the soft headboard with my knees up and dragged a pillow onto my lap. “Have we reached the portion of our encounter where you order room service on my credit card and annoy me with questions?”