by Alyssa Day
She had so many questions she wanted to ask him, but they could wait a while. Just for now, in the car, she would enjoy this little bubble of peace and pretend nothing dangerous could ever find them.
When she arrived at the turnoff, she signaled and slowed down and Flynn spoke up for the first time in about fifteen miles.
"Where are we?"
"There's a hiking path trailhead at the end of this little road. Almost nobody ever uses it, though, or at least not when I've been here. And certainly nobody will be here in the dark. There's a picnic table. I thought we could get out, stretch our legs, and eat."
She suddenly felt shy. What if he thought it was a stupid idea? On the heels of that thought came another, stronger one.
Why would she care?
If he were the type of person who thought her idea of a picnic was stupid, he wasn't worth her time, was he?
She smiled at the feel of another piece of her damaged soul fitting itself back into the puzzle that was Eva. Pre-Scott Eva.
Authentic Eva.
"A picnic sounds wonderful," Flynn said, sighing with what sounded like contentment. "I've never been a fan of spending a lot of time in cities and towns. Towns are full of people, and people come with problems. And if you don't have any problems of your own, they'll be glad to foist theirs off on you."
She threw a wry glance at him, and he had the sense to look sheepish. After all, he’d foisted his problems on her. But no. Not his problems. Those girls were more than just problems. They had to find them soon.
She parked and locked the car, and they walked down a path to a place that opened up and contained a few benches and a couple of picnic tables. As she’d guessed, hers had been the only car in the lot. Nobody was here, either. She picked up a newspaper that someone had left on a table and put in the paper recycling bin.
Flynn, meanwhile, was unwrapping their food.
"This smells amazing," he said, groaning. "I had no idea how hungry I was until I smelled this food. It was torture not to just rip into it in the car."
She grinned at him. "Yeah, at first I thought my engine was making another new sound, and then I realized it was your stomach growling."
He laughed and handed her a milkshake. "Maybe. But I think two double cheeseburgers will take care of that for me."
Eva started to unwrap her chicken sandwich. "Sure, if it doesn't kill you –"
She froze, her words trailing off.
Flynn moved around to sit on Eva’s side of the bench with her. "Stop it. Nobody's killing you. Nobody's dying. You’re going to stay alive and fight the good fight. We're going to get those girls out of there, as soon as we find them, and we're pretty sure that Snake is the way to do it. So let's talk about something else for a while, at least until I hear from Griffin. He's doing another swing around the area, widening the perimeter of his search, and I told him to tail Monkey and see where he goes."
She sighed and sat down. “That’s a good idea.”
He took a big bite of his sandwich, chewed, and swallowed, then took a long drink of his milkshake. "Did you know hamburgers are originally from Atlantis?"
She paused just before taking a bite of her own sandwich. "No. Really?"
A wicked smile spread across Flynn's face. "Sure. The only problem was, we had to wait for you humans to invent hamburger buns."
He burst out laughing, and she just stared at him. It took her a ridiculously long minute, but then she got it. She could feel the laughter fizzing in her belly, but she tried to fight it. The laughter was having none of that. It burst out, and she laughed and laughed until she couldn't even catch her breath.
"I appreciate it, but that joke was not that funny," Flynn finally said, in between stuffing French fries in his mouth. "You're either a really easy audience, or that was just stress relief."
"A bit of both," Eva confessed, hiccupping. "I think I needed that. I feel a lot better."
"Laughter will do that to you. Although I’d think seeing Mrs. Noel drag her husband out of the bar by the ear would have been the high point of your year."
She grinned at him. "You know what? You're right. This has been a banner day."
They finished their food, chatting about nothing, and then gathered up the trash and put it in the wastebasket. Impulsively, Eva looked up at Flynn. "I know it's dark, but are you up for a walk? The moon is so bright tonight that we can see perfectly well."
"Also, I have superior Atlantean vision," he smugly informed her, reaching for her hand.
She laughed, but she let him take her hand, and they started down the path.
“So. Tell me about you. Tell me about you before Snake and Monkey and the rest of the demon zoo. Where is your family?"
Eva's hand convulsively tightened on Flynn's at the word family. She had to call Gramps. It wasn't fair – it wouldn't be fair for her to just disappear without talking to him one more time. She trusted Flynn, she did--or at least she was pretty sure she did--but when demons and black magic users were involved, there was no guarantee that she make it out alive. And she couldn't – she wouldn't – walk into that situation without talking to her grandfather one more time, she’d decided. No matter how much it hurt.
"All I have is my grandfather. Gramps. He and Gran raised me after my parents died. I was a surly, awful teenager in a world of pain, and he made it better. Not all the way better, of course, but just enough. Just enough to help me realize that I could survive. Gran’s gone now, and Gramps is all I have left in the world."
Flynn said nothing for about another twenty feet or so, and she kind of liked that he didn't rush in to offer empty platitudes.
"You must miss him very much," he finally said quietly.
"Yes. I do, but I can't go back there until the situation with Scott is resolved. I can't put him in any danger. He's still in his own home, but he's getting more and more frail, and I don't know what the stress would do to him. The stress of me being gone is bad enough, but he thinks I’m having a grand adventure. I make sure to send him chatty postcards full of lies from wherever I go."
Flynn was silent again for little while, but he squeezed her hand in a gesture of reassurance. "My dad – my father was a drunk. He was a violent, abusive drunk, and my mom was a drunk, too, but she was quieter about it. I escaped as soon as I could, and I never looked back. I left my brothers, both younger than me, because I just couldn't take it anymore. I abandoned them, hoping that since he’d never beaten them before – only me –he wouldn't begin when I left. Later, though, I talked to my brother, the one who’s a ship captain, and I found out just how bad it got for them. I abandoned them to that, when I was their big brother. I was meant to protect them."
She wanted to pull him into her arms and soothe the wounded child who’d had to leave a home filled with pain. The raw anguish in his voice told her that he was in no way past it.
"They'll forgive you," she said, instinctively knowing which part of it hurt him the most. "They'll forgive you, and they'll understand. You just need to reach out."
Flynn stopped walking and turned to face her. "How could you know that? How could you know that's my biggest fear?"
"I have no idea," she said honestly. "It was just a feeling – an overwhelming feeling – that I got from you suddenly. That never happens to me with people."
"It never happens to you with people?" Flynn's dark eyes shone in the moonlight, almost glowing, fascinating her. Instantly, the overwhelming attraction between them flooded back into her body, and she could feel herself straining toward him. She wanted to put her hands on him; touch him; hold him. She wanted him to wrap her up in his strong, muscular arms.
It didn't make sense – it couldn’t make sense – but she wanted this man more than she’d ever wanted anyone else, ever before in her life.
She was trying to figure out what she could possibly say or do at that moment when Flynn made a strange noise. She looked up at him, but he was staring intently over her shoulder. She started to turn around, but he
caught her arms and held her still.
"Don't make any sudden moves," he warned her in a very quiet voice. “The local animal kingdom has decided to come visit, and I don't know these animals. I don't know their threat level."
Eva sighed. Of all the inopportune times for her gift to raise its furry head. She slowly turned around, but Flynn kept her in the circle of his arms, protecting her from . . . a coyote family. It must have been following them down the path
When Eva looked at them, they all sat down in a row. The father, mother, and three little ones all sat there calmly, watching Eva. She had to smile.
"No, they're not dangerous to us, Flynn. Those are coyotes, and normally they avoid people. They’re shy little things."
Flynn tightened his arms around her waist and pulled her back against his chest. "Sure. Except they're very clearly not avoiding people right now. Do you think they might have some disease or be under some magic spell?"
She shook her head and gently removed his arms from around her waist, although she felt a slight pang of loss when she did it. "It's not exactly a magic spell; more like a magical gift. I have an affinity for animals, and sometimes, when they feel it—feel me—they come to find me. Just to say hi, I think."
She knelt, one knee on the path, and smiled at the animals. "Go on your way and be well, little family. Keep those babies away from the eagles and hawks."
The boldest of the three babies started toward her, wriggling his little body in a way that reminded her so much of Daisy that she got a lump in her throat. But mama gently scooped up her wayward babe and, with a single glance back at Eva and Flynn, led her family off. Daddy Coyote took the rear guard, casting suspicious looks at Flynn as he herded his family away.
Eva stood and watched them go.
"They didn't like me much," Flynn said.
"Don't take it personally. Like I said, they mostly stay away from humans. Especially when they have young to protect."
"Even coyotes can tell I'm not someone to trust to protect their young," Flynn said roughly. His hands were clenched into fists at his side and Eva took one between her hands and smoothed it out until it lay flat.
"That wasn’t about coyotes. Tell me."
They walked in silence for maybe ten minutes before Flynn finally spoke. "I told you about my brothers. That was my first failure. But I've just had one far, far worse. I thought I'd made friends. Even thinking about making friends is always a stupid thing to do in this world, because it hurts that much more when they stab you in the back. I'm sure that's how Kian felt about me, too."
She stayed silent. She didn't want to spook him any more than she did any other wild creature. For Flynn was almost certainly feral, and she had no illusions of being the woman who could finally tame him.
He tightened his hold on her hand as they walked around the small loop that turned into the path back to the parking area. "Kian and his family are dragon shifters who live on the coast of Ireland. They’re having a problem. Not his family – not only his family – but all of their kind. The females--they can't make the transition easily. When they’re about fourteen or fifteen, they make their first transition into dragon shape. Most of the females don't survive it."
Harsh, biting pain underscored each and every word. "I'm so sorry. That's a horrible, horrible thing. I haven't heard anything about that in the news."
Flynn shook his head. "No, dragons are very private. They keep their secrets and guard them as fiercely as they do their treasure hordes."
"They really do have treasure hordes? That's not just a myth?"
Flynn raised one dark eyebrow. "Yes. It's just a myth. Like shifters, and dragons, and Atlantis."
"Okay, okay. You've made your point. But I'm so terribly sorry to hear that about your friend and his people."
"Thank you. He had a younger sister," Flynn began, and then he had to clear his throat.
Eva's heart sank at the verb tense. He had a younger sister. She knew what was coming, but she also knew he needed to talk about it, so she stayed silent and tried to send all of her sympathy to him through the touch of their hands.
"Her name was Kyla. She was a little scamp.”
They walked past a row of rabbits lined up at along the side of the path, watching Eva, but Flynn only spared them a brief glance.
"She loved her big brother. And she had a huge heart, so she loved her big brother’s friend. Me. She followed us around everywhere. I never had a sister of my own, so it was nice. Nice to be part of the family, in a way. I hung out there for maybe a year."
Flynn fell silent again, so after a minute or so, Eva ventured a question. "How old was she?"
"Exactly the right question," Flynn said, so harshly that the rabbits, who’d been silently hopping along behind them, scattered in all directions. "She was thirteen when I met her. She was fourteen when she died."
Eva didn't even realize she was crying until a tear dripped off the end of her nose. She brushed them away and pulled on Flynn's hand to get him to stop. Then she did what she’d been longing to do for a while, but she did it from compassion, not from desire.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest. He stood stiffly, still as a statue, not returning her hug. But not pulling away from her, either.
"Oh, Flynn. I'm so sorry for Kyla and for her family and for you."
He took a deep breath and then stepped away from her and folded his arms across his chest, probably so she couldn't hug him again. She tried not to let him see how much that hurt her.
"You don't understand. I told her she would be okay. She was terrified of the transition, because three of her best friends died. Only two of the little group she ran with survived it. I told her she would be okay."
He buried his face in his hands and his big body started to shake. "I told her she would be okay, and she died in agony."
She pushed his hands out of her way and hugged him again, whether he wanted it or not, so tightly that he couldn't get free of her. He needed human contact just then, whether he thought he did or not. His heart beat wildly beneath her cheek, and he took deep, shuddering breaths. Suddenly, almost convulsively, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer, bending his head down to rest his forehead on the top of her head.
"I told her she'd be okay," he said brokenly. "And the last thing she said – while she could still speak at all – was 'Flynn, you lied to me.'"
Eva's heart was breaking. For the man in her arms, whose guilt and pain and loss were destroying him, for the family who lost her daughter – their sister. And for little Kyla, who cried out in pain and terror and despair.
"It wasn't your fault. You must know that it wasn't your fault. Of course you had to tell her that she would be okay. There's nothing else to say in that situation. It's a horrible, horrible thing – it's hell itself. But there was nothing else you could've done but be there for her, and it sounds like you were."
He nodded, still holding her tightly.
"You were there for her in the best way you could be. It's so awful, so unbelievably awful that she died, but it's not your fault. You need to forgive yourself, Flynn."
Flynn put his hands on the sides of her face and tilted it up so he could look in her eyes. "How do you do that? How do you know exactly what to say? Is it part of your ‘soothing the savage beast’ gift?" His voice was rough and husky, the voice of a man who'd been screaming or sobbing, even though he’d done neither.
The voice of a man who needed comfort.
Eva pulled his head down for the few inches that it took for their lips to meet. She initiated the kiss, but it took only seconds for Flynn to take charge. He captured the back of her head in one big hand, and then he tilted her head and took her mouth like a conqueror. Like a seducer. Like a pirate, ravishing her in his treasure cave . . .
She moaned, trying to climb up his body, needing to get closer. She’d never been kissed like this, like the man kissing her would die if he had to stop kissing
her. She tangled her tongue with his and kissed him and kissed him until she had to stop, gasping for air, hanging on to his shoulders so she didn’t fall down.
His treasure cave . . . why was that poking at the edge of her consciousness so much? Suddenly, she knew.
She knew.
“Flynn. They’re holding the girls in the old copper mine.”
He got it immediately. “The copper in the mine would conceal any magic being done from anybody like Griffin who was trying to detect it.”
She nodded. “Of course. Why didn’t we think of this? Black magic witches use copper in their summoning circles. It can keep demons in--"
“So it can keep nosy law enforcement out,” Flynn finished her sentence.
"You need to call your friend or teammate or whatever he is and get federal law enforcement in and set the takedown. Now."
Flynn was quiet for a few moments with his eyes closed, when he opened them, he looked at Eva and shook his head. “Jake is with Zach, who says we’re brilliant and he’ll call it in but it will still be no go on the federal takedown. They're afraid the Dark Angels will kill all the girls in the event of a raid, because the demons will still want the magical power from the sacrifices. Our best chance to save them is still to get in there another way."
Eva’s heart sank. "Using me."
Flynn nodded, his shoulders slumped. “I'm sorry. I can't think of any other way. But if you don't want to do it, you should go. Now. I'll die before I let anything happen to you, but that's not a one hundred percent guarantee of your safety. As I've told you, I don’t have a good record at protecting people.”
“I’ll do it,” she said in a very small voice, trying to be brave.
He slashed a hand through the air. “No. It's not fair of us to ask you to risk your life for this. We’ll figure something out.”
Eva started running for the car. "But if it's not me, then who? Who will stand for those girls? I know you will, and your floating magic friend, and whoever else is on your side, but if you can't get in there without setting some kind of alarm, the girls still wind up dead. I can't do it. I can't leave. I could never live with myself if I bought my own safety at the cost of their lives."