I needed her, and I wasn’t too proud to admit it.
Even if I was going to be unconscious for the better part of the next few hours, I needed her by my side. I was determined to hold firm to my promise to myself and keep her safe from the shadow.
Relenting on the issue of the car, she led me inside.
“It’s time for a quick shower and then into bed with you, mister.” Her hands were firm on my shoulders as she guided me into the bathroom.
“You might have to help me,” I murmured. “I’m just too tired to—” I yawned. I was completely exhausted, but I was also having a little fun with her. We both needed a distraction from the unspoken sorrow that hung over us.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re just trying to get me in the shower with you.”
“Would I do that?” I leaned my head onto her shoulder and nuzzled my nose against her hair.
“You would absolutely do that.”
I planted a few sloppy kisses against the base of her ear. “Are you complaining?”
She squirmed in my hold. “I—” I kissed her throat. “I guess . . .” She released a shaky breath. “I probably need to have a shower too anyway.”
“And it’s just good environmental policy to save water.”
She chuckled. “I’m okay with doing what’s good for the environment. But it’s just a shower. No funny business, okay, because you need to sleep.”
I pouted, but honestly, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do much more than shower anyway.
She gave a small laugh, which barely hid the grief that ran as an undercurrent in her voice, before tapping my ass. “Now get your butt in there and get naked.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
While in the shower, I did as she asked. I spun when she told me to spin so that she could massage her fingers into my scalp as she shampooed my hair.
When we finished, I dressed in what she gave me to dress in and headed to the bedroom when she pushed me that way. Taking orders from her, even under those circumstances, was hot. If I hadn’t been about to collapse on the spot, I would have begged her to order me around all day.
Instead, I fell into bed with a raging hard-on that I was too tired to do anything about.
Once I’d slept though, she’d be in trouble.
Or maybe I would be if my begging paid off.
CHAPTER TWELVE
A GUNSHOT CRACK and bloodcurdling scream ripped me from my peace.
With my still sleepy brain, I assumed it was nothing more than the lingering memory of a nightmare. Recalling the events that led up to the moment I crashed to sleep, I reached for Evie.
Instead of finding her soft body, my hand met no resistance and fell to the bed. Pushing myself up, I woke fully in an instant and assessed the room around me. The other side of the bed was vacant, the screams came from outside, and instead of fading with consciousness, the commotion grew louder with each passing second.
I threw back the cover as my heart pounded in my chest. Without another thought, and certain Evie was in trouble, I tore from the bed and raced to follow the sound. My heart pounded as I called out for her, desperate to confirm she was somewhere close by, and the sounds from outside had nothing to do with her. A few seconds later, I had to admit the horrid truth to myself—she wasn’t in the house like she’d promised.
Please don’t let her be hurt!
Pulling on more suitable clothing as I went, I raced outside and then sprinted with everything in me toward the forest that backed onto the property, the direction the sound was coming from. I’d barely had enough sleep to function, but I didn’t care—not if Evie was in danger. Slowing just enough to ensure I didn’t cause the situation to become worse, I trailed deeper into the forest.
I only stopped when I saw Evie, panting and desperate, with my gun clutched tightly in her white knuckles. Before I had a chance to assess the scene further or find out if she was injured, she whirled around and fired the gun at me.
“Shit, Evie!”
For a moment, I was certain I was a goner, but the bullet raced past my head and smashed into a tree beside me. My heart pounded, each beat echoing in my head louder than the crack of the gunshot had.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I snapped.
A second later, her body smacked hard into mine, and it was all I could do to catch her before she toppled us both. In a shaky voice, she kept murmuring about how she’d “got him” and my heart turned to lead.
“Christ, Evie, did you go after the shadow on your own?” Had she charged in unprepared? It was something I’d done countless times before, but I couldn’t handle her doing it, not when I could keep her safe. The blood that covered the bracken was all I could see, and even though she was safe in my arms, I couldn’t help but imagine the countless ways she could have been injured.
“I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t going to, but he was here, Clay. He was here.” Her words disintegrated into sobs. “I couldn’t let him get you.”
I couldn’t believe that she’d rushed off and risked her life in some half-assed attempt to save me. She could have killed herself—for what? My blood boiled, not at Evie specifically, but at the whole situation. She was the only one around though and copped the brunt of my rage. “How could you be so stupid!”
“W-what?” Her confusion was clear in her voice and in the way she pulled away from me.
“You can’t just run into these things blindly,” I said. I had to make her see—to understand—or we’d be back to where we’d been so many damn times before. I couldn’t lose her again. I wouldn’t. “Some things can’t be killed by bullets or by knives, or by any manmade object. There are creatures that are impervious to all manner of weapons. Others would even laugh in the face of your fire. You have to know what you are fighting.”
“I-I got him. He’s dead.”
I shook my head at her naivety. “Where’s the body then?”
“I don’t know. He disappeared. But he was bleeding. He’s hurt.”
“You have to include me in your plans. Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up to an empty bed with screaming and gunfire outside?”
She shook her head and tears wet her lashes.
Despite her obvious sorrow, I pressed on. I couldn’t relent until she understood. “I can’t go through that again. I can’t lose you, Evie. Dammit, I just can’t.”
“I’m sorry.” She suppressed a sob.
“You. Have. To. Trust. Me,” I said through my teeth. “If I tell you to stay by my side, it’s because I have a damn good reason for it. In there, I could have protected you.”
“How?” She challenged me, denying that I would have had any greater luck in saving her, that I had any additional knowledge of the creature. She was right of course, but I had experience dealing with these sort of situations, and that counted for something.
She reached for me, but I stopped her at the last moment. I could barely even see straight with the blood pounding in my head. It was slowly draining away as my heart rate returned to normal.
“Just go inside,” I said to her. I needed to assess the situation, to see if I could find a body nearby to confirm that she had in fact “got it” and that she hadn’t just annoyed it more. There was no way I could do that without knowing Evie was safe.
“No!” Evie snapped. “You don’t always know better! You might have some training, but I have my instincts, and you know what? They work. I kept myself alive for years without you by my side. I survived despite your sister hunting me. I survived despite every single damn obstacle that was thrown at me. And there were many.”
“You were damn lucky!” I retaliated. “That’s all. Any one of those things could have killed you.”
“But they didn’t.” She pushed past me and disappeared into the cottage.
It was only after she’d gone that the things I’d said began to register. As I recovered from the shock of waking to screams and then being shot at, it grew clear that I’d overreacted.
I’d let my fear become anger and had directed it all at the one person I wanted more than anything to keep safe and happy. The fact was, she had kept herself alive for years in my absence, and that was with Lou stalking her, and more than likely the shadow too. In short, she was amazing.
And I’d treated her like a child.
I looked back up toward the house, desperate to run to her and beg her forgiveness for my anger. First, I needed to see if I could find a body. I had to know if we were still in danger.
After a fairly comprehensive search of the area around where Evie had been, I found nothing of the creature. The volume of blood that coated the ground was significant.
Nothing could have lost that much fluid and skipped off without a care. I followed the trail until it just disappeared. Chances were it had slithered off to either heal or die. Either way, Evie’s actions had probably bought us some time to rest and then getaway.
Using the last of the energy I had, I dragged myself back up the hill and into the cottage. I found Evie in the bedroom, tucked up under the blankets. When I tried to apologize, she pulled away from me. Knowing that I risked evoking her anger, which was admittedly a lot scarier than mine considering it was paired with flames, if I pushed her too far, I apologized to her back before succumbing to sleep once more.
My dreams were filled with memories of the first time I’d left her in Charlotte. I’d been so certain then that she had the tools she needed to survive, and I hadn’t been wrong.
Despite two hospital trips, a supernatural stalker, and being hunted by an elite in the time since, she was alive. Possibly her survival was against all the odds, but that didn’t matter. She’d done that by herself; she’d performed so many miraculous feats of survival. It was the slap in the face reminder I needed that she wasn’t completely fragile and if I treated her like she was, I’d only push her away.
If I hadn’t already.
WHEN I woke again, it wasn’t to gunfire and screaming but to a warm body curled against me. The feeling of Evie in my arms, even if it was just while she slept, gave me a certainty that it would take more than a few stupid words to break up what we’d fought so hard to put together. I decided to have another shower while I waited for her to wake. For the first time in a long time, I shaved and hacked away the lengths of my hair with the hunting knife in my backpack.
After I had finished in the bathroom, I wrapped the towel around myself so that I could get some fresh clothes. Creeping back into the bedroom, I was conscious about trying not to wake Evie, but she was already sitting up in bed. The expression on her face was unreadable from my angle, but she clutched tightly to the blanket.
Worried that I might face her wrath again if I wasn’t careful, I said a tentative, “Good morning.”
Her reaction was priceless and beautiful. Her face turned to look at me and lit up so bright for barely half a second before she tampered the joy back down again. My name left her lips.
I barely had time to wonder if she’d thought I’d left when she confirmed it with a voice filled with relief. One day, I would make her stop doubting me—even if it killed me.
Taking the opportunity to apologize again, I acknowledged that I’d been an ass.
“You were an ass,” she agreed, a trace of humor hiding behind her harsh words. “But you were right too. I didn’t know what I was fighting. I rushed headlong into it and it could have gotten me killed.”
I was going to thank her for seeing things my way but stopped when she charged on with the conversation.
“It didn’t,” she said, “but it could have.”
“I need to trust you more too,” I admitted. With my dreams clear in my mind, and my pride and concern safely tucked away, it was easy to admit. “I left you once because I was certain you could look after yourself better than I could protect you. I guess seeing you in the hospital, twice, made me realize you aren’t invincible.”
She apologized too, and I knew then that we’d be all right. I decided it was time to see if I could get her to take control the way I’d fantasized about the evening before. When I leaned in to kiss her, I let the towel around my waist fall away and watched as Evie’s gaze turned hungry.
When she moaned against my mouth, I shifted her toward the center of the bed and kissed her until she was panting beneath me, and then I pulled away. With a whimper on her lips, she moved to drag me back against her body, but I resisted. Her eyes opened, and she gave me a questioning gaze.
“Tell me what you want,” I said.
“I want you.”
Shaking my head, I chuckled. “No, tell me specifically what you want.”
She drew back from me, and for a moment, I thought maybe she wasn’t interested in the game. Then her lips curled up, and I saw that she was more than willing to play. “Kiss me,” she started timidly, but then warmed up. “Kiss me here,” she finished firmly as she pointed to a spot on her neck just beneath her ear.
With a knot of desire building in the base of my stomach, I obliged.
“And here.” She brushed her finger against the curve of her collarbone.
I continued to follow the paths that her fingers trailed. True to my word, I kissed the places she directed, but that was all. It took everything in me to keep my hands by my sides rather than on her body, but I wouldn’t touch her until she ordered me to.
She growled in frustration as I lifted my lips. “Clay, please?”
“Please what?” I feigned ignorance.
“Hold me.”
I wrapped my arms around her. “All you have to do is ask. Today, I’m your slave.”
“My slave?” She raised her eyebrow at me.
“If you can handle the responsibility of a slave, that is?” I teased.
“I can definitely handle that. At least, I can if it’s you.”
I touched my lips to hers again.
“In that case, slave, worship me.”
Fuck me! “With pleasure.”
“Oh, there better be.”
My cock throbbed at her statement. I licked my lips before attacking hers.
Once again, the instant our bodies were joined, the connection between us sparked in my heart stronger than ever. If I’d ever doubted what we had was right, then that sensation was enough to shake it.
AFTER A few hours, where I worshiped her and followed every direction I was given, Evie went for a shower as I checked out the cottage in a little more detail. While she was under the water, humming a tune to herself, I heard a light snapping noise out in front. Being careful not to make any sounds myself, I crept over to the window and pulled back the blinds a fraction. Out the front of the cottage were three police cars. A number of officers were milling around Zarita’s car and more still seemed to be pouring onto the property. In a few minutes, they’d have us surrounded. A few more after that and we’d be captured.
That knowledge made one thing clear. We have to get out of here!
As silently as I was able, I packed our things up into our bags. Thankfully, because some habits were hard to break, Evie’s bag was mostly packed anyway. Just as there was a knock on the front door, I pushed my way into the bathroom and threw Evie’s pack at her, explaining the situation. Although we were careful to try to avoid being spotted, eventually someone saw us making a break for it through the back door and gave chase.
Hand in hand, we raced into the forest.
We disappeared into the foliage of the trees and ran as fast as we could into the depth of the forest. Before long, it was like we’d disappeared into a fairy tale. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Hansel and Gretel skipping along dropping breadcrumbs to guide them safely back out the way they came. We needed to find a new path; a trail that would lead us away from the danger the police posed.
Being taken into custody didn’t scare me. I had faith that, despite everything, my family would bail me out if I needed it. However, Evie wouldn’t fare as well as me, especially not if there were any Rain operators or sympathizers
in the precinct. We ran for hours, long after the noise of the chase had faded into the filtered light behind us.
When the trees thinned, I hoped we’d found a town and a chance to steal a car. I didn’t want to be caught in the forest overnight. We’d be sitting ducks waiting for the police dogs to track us.
Before long, we emerged into a small village that looked like something off a postcard with the little brick and lattice chalets dotted around the gently sloping streets. Desperate to keep moving after our close call, I pointed out a car and set to work getting it started while Evie kept watch.
“We’re just like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde,” Evie said with a forced smile after she’d climbed into the car.
“Don’t,” I said.
She paused and turned to me with a look of shock on her features.
I hadn’t intended the word to hurt her, but I was worried I had. I just couldn’t bear the thought of Evie dying amongst a storm of bullets. It cut too close to home because I could see the Rain setting an ambush like the one that ended the career of Bonnie and Clyde if they thought Evie was still alive.
“Just don’t compare us with them. Their story doesn’t exactly have a happy ending. Besides, we’re nothing like that. We’re not just doing this for shits and giggles.”
“I know.” She traced her fingertips over my cheek. “I was only joking.”
The image of Evie facing a firing squad of sorts wouldn’t leave my mind, and I couldn’t concentrate. We needed to disappear.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said, and I’d never been more willing to follow her directions, not even during our game earlier.
After the close call in Germany, I ensured we didn’t stop again until we were so far from civilization there was no hope of anyone hearing us, seeing us, or accidentally stumbling across us.
Only once we were deep in the Norrland area of Sweden was I satisfied we were safe.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A TINY RUN-DOWN shack we'd stumbled across became our home and, for the first time in a long time, we believed we might be able to settle in one place and live something of a stable life together. No one knew where we were, and it was unlikely Eth would even give away the secret that we were in Europe. After all, living in the middle of nowhere, with a roof over our head, would be a breeze compared to how I’d spent my time in Europe alone—especially if it meant I could keep Evie safe and at my side.
Court the Fire (Son of Rain #3) Page 13