by Jeff Hale
The expression on Aerick’s face was one of anguished rage and I bit back a cry. He was hurting, broken and confused, and I couldn’t stand by and do nothing anymore. I shook Alex’s hand away and ran forward.
“Aerick! Stop! Please!” I shouted to him. He turned to look at me, his head tilting slightly as though he didn’t know who I was, a small, evil grin playing across his lips that made me take a step back. I had the sudden feeling that I might be safer with a hungry vampire, maybe even several. Then he blinked and recognition crossed his face for a short moment.
“Guin?” he asked, the name coming from him in a voice that sounded distant and hollow, almost like it wasn’t even his.
Guin? Why do people keep calling me that? Aerick was the third person who had addressed me by that name, and while it was confusing, at the same time it felt familiar.
I didn’t have time to think about it any longer. The recognition was gone, replaced by a malevolent smile. Aerick’s ice and fire blades appeared in his hands and he charged at me. I took more steps back, preparing to shift just as Val put herself in between us, drawing his attention away from me. He caught her in the ribs with the ice blade before she had a chance to react and I heard her gasp in pain as she rolled to her side.
She came back up, a conjured whip of dark shadowy energy in one hand, and I realized that if something wasn’t done about Aerick, Val was going to die protecting me. He spun towards her, both blades coming through horizontally and she leapt out of the way, twisting her body as she flipped over him, the whip wrapping around her. She twisted again as she landed, the whip unwinding and giving it more momentum as she sent the end lashing towards him.
It connected across his back, cloth and skin actually disintegrating and I made a mental note to stay away from the shadowy weapon. It didn’t even seem to faze Aerick. He turned towards Val, striking again with both blades, only the sudden eruption of a wall of flame stopping him. I heard him cry out from the other side. I risked a glance over my shoulder, saw Alex standing near Lucien, and realized the wall had come from Lucien.
The wall dropped suddenly and I could see Aerick running for the Purity Movement building. A few guards had been the last to leave the building and they began to shoot at him, his form almost blurring with speed as he dodged the gunfire. He took them out one at a time on the way, bursts of flame and ice killing them instantly, until he got to the building and hopped up through the debris to a higher floor where the outside wall was gone and he could see the ground below.
He sent a gout of flame at the floor, looked down for several moments and then let out a howling scream. Then his eyes moved towards the fleeing occupants of the building and I felt my heart drop.
Aerick! No!
“Aerick! Listen to me!” The voice cut through the air with a booming echo and I smelled sulfur and fresh rain, felt heat at my back. Alex had backed away from Lucien, who had taken the form of a firebird the size of a small house. Power flowed out of him, pushing at my skin. I had never seen Lucien in this form and I stared, open mouthed, at him.
I looked back up at Aerick, saw that he was staring at Lucien as well. He seemed to calm down for a moment, then the fury was back.
“Lucien? Why? Why should I? Why shouldn’t I just lay waste to all these hatemongers? Why should they live after what they’re responsible for? Don’t you see, they’re just another cog in Baba Yaga’s plans! I am tired of doing everything the ‘right’ way. My way? They all die and Baba Yaga loses her army! Then no one can hurt Serena!” he raged.
“I have Serena!” Lucien called out.
He did? I looked back at Lucien, tried to see through the shimmer of his flames, saw that he had Serena wrapped in one wing, the fire from his body leaving her untouched.
“What? How?” Aerick cried out.
“Your old friend managed to find her and retrieve her. She also has her tormentor in custody as well,” Lucien said calmly. “Serena is safe, you can rest now.”
Aerick’s eyes were searching the parking lot. “No! Where’s Travis? I’ll…”
If I was going to try to help, this was my best chance. I held my arms out to show him I meant no harm. “Aerick! Please, just stop! I love you too, I’m here for you!” I moved closer to Lucien and Serena. “See? We’re both here! For you!”
Aerick looked at me again and I prepared to dive out of the way, but he seemed to know who I was this time. “Kat?”
I wanted to cry at the weak and sad sound of my name on his lips. I nodded and smiled at him, motioning him towards me. He scanned the area around the building one more time, then jumped down to the ground. The moment his feet touched the ground, he fell to his knees, the fires winking out and dying. I ran to him, tears spilling down my cheeks. I didn’t touch him, was afraid to, but I knelt next to him.
“Lucien, give me Travis. Now!” Aerick growled, and I could see he had the barest control of his emotions.
“No. He will pay for his crimes, but not at your hands,” Lucien stated. He had retaken his human form, Serena cradled against his chest as he approached us.
“I have to be the one to do it, Lucien. After what he did to… Serena?” Aerick saw Serena in Lucien’s arms and one hand reached out as though to touch her.
“She sleeps. She will live, though I should get her, and you, back to the Flame,” Lucien said, his dark eyes soft as he looked at Serena. He suddenly grabbed Aerick’s shoulder and the three of them winked out of sight, leaving me, Alex and Val to stare at the ruin around us.
THIRTY-ONE
KATELYN
I stared helplessly at the empty space where Lucien, Aerick, and Serena had been and I couldn’t help the tears that spilled down my cheeks. I looked up at Val hopefully. “Do you think he’ll be all right?”
She stared at me, almost as though she didn’t see me, then held her hand out to me to help me up. As I felt her hand touch mine, for the briefest moment I thought I saw someone else, a young man, with midnight black hair and kind blue eyes in a rugged face. Then it was gone.
“I hope so,” she said, releasing my hand.
I didn’t have time to think much on what I had seen, or imagined. Alex wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and with his comforting touch, the floodgates opened even worse and I turned to bury my face in his shoulder. He carefully guided me back to Val’s car and I heard the trunk lid pop open. When I looked over I saw Travis lying in the trunk, his arms and legs bound behind him, and a cold and murderous rage went through me. I lunged for the trunk. “Fucking prick!”
Alex grabbed my arms as I made to hit Travis, preventing me from doing so. “He’s out cold, Katie. Save it for later,” he chided.
I shrugged free of him, then leaned in to spit on Travis. Fucking bastard, you deserve to die for what you did! But Alex was right; Travis was unconscious, and unable to benefit from anything I might do to him. I stormed around the car and got into the front seat.
“Can you help me, Alex? I want to put him in the backseat, in case he wakes up. Last thing I want is this guy waking up and figuring out how to get out of the trunk while I’m driving,” I heard Val ask.
“Sure thing. I can’t guarantee there won’t be blood in your care if he wakes up, though. I’ve wanted to give this prick a piece of my mind for a while now,” Alex answered, and I felt the car wiggle as they pulled Travis from the trunk. The back door opened a moment later and they shoved Travis into the backseat, Alex climbing in next to him. Alex shifted to Aspect almost immediately, hovering over the unconscious man.
“Behave, Alex,” Val said, and his toothy grin back promised the opposite.
We were half way back to the Flame when Travis stirred. He screamed when he saw Alex staring at him and I could smell urine coming from the backseat.
“Great, now I have to get my car reupholstered, thanks, Alex!” Val complained, pulling over to glare at him in the rear view mirror.
“Glad I could be of service!” Alex threw another disturbing smile at her and I kind of got the
idea that he liked her. For some reason the thought made a little stab of jealousy go through me.
“Get this Unpure freak away from me! Help!” Travis yelled, to whom I didn’t know. I gave Val a cold smile that promised mischief and climbed over the seatback and into the back, shifting to Aspect as I did so. Val pulled away from the side of the road and continued driving.
I sat on Travis’s lap, facing him, my knees on either side of his legs, my face right up next to his. “Hello, Travis,” I whispered in his ear, just loud enough for him to hear. I held him there while Alex laid into him with his fists, breathing into his ear and running my tongue across his face, every grunt of pain a soothing balm to my senses. Alex continued to pummel Travis while I rocked my hips against his, flaring my lust aura just enough to get the reaction from Travis that I wanted.
Travis had been keeping his eyes closed, trying to block the sight of both Alex and me from his mind, possibly trying to work his way through the pain. Now, his eyes popped open as he felt my clawed hand tug at his pants, slipping inside to stroke his flesh while terror flashed across his face. I grasped that part of him with my right hand and at the same time I grasped his chin, forcing him to look right at me while Alex ran his own talon tipped fingers through Travis’s hair as though he were caressing him.
I smiled at Travis and whispered, “Serena sends her regards.” Then I kissed him on the nose and twisted the hand in his pants down and in a half circle.
A shriek of agony broke from Travis. I threw my head back, letting the sound twang across my nerves in pleasure, then changed my position so I was sitting with my legs draped across Travis’s lap, my right arm hooked around his neck while Alex leaned on my knees and tapped his claws on Travis’s chest.
When we got to the Flame, Alex and I stayed in form and escorted Travis in, turning him over to one of the Cyclopes that Lucien liked to keep as security. We went with them to Lucien’s office, the Cyclops knocked, and Lucien called us in. He gave Travis a cold and sad look.
“The holding cell is ready, you can take him to it,” Lucien told the Cyclops. He nodded and took Travis away. I wasn’t sure if Alex and I should go with them, but Lucien just shook his head as the door closed behind them. I shifted back to human, Alex doing the same.
“Katelyn, dear,” Lucien said, “you said you wanted to talk to Aerick. He’s going to need someone, someone he can feel safe with, someone he trusts.”
“Whoa, I’m not sure that’s me.” I held a hand up. I wanted to help Aerick, I did, I just wasn’t sure he would even acknowledge me. “He’s thrown a lot of hate my way the last month or so.”
Lucien shook his head. “He still loves you. He needs someone who knows him, someone he can feel he’s able to share what happened to him with. Are you willing stay here for a while and help him?”
“You know I am,” I told him, nodding emphatically.
“Darien won’t like it,” Alex said, sighing.
“He doesn’t have to.” I gave Alex a look that pleaded for understanding. “I dropped everything to be there for Darien when he needed us this last spring, do you expect me to do any less for Aerick?”
“No.” He looked down at his feet, then back up to me. “Just stay safe, okay?”
“I will.” I hugged him. “Share a cab back to my apartment with me? I need to get some stuff if I’m going to be here for a few days. I need to tell Kris too.”
We called a cab and headed out of the club. Alex gave me a sad look as he pulled his Miata out of the apartment complex a little bit later to drive back out to Darien’s.
“How long are you going to be gone do you think?” Kris asked me as I tossed clothes into a duffel bag. The apartment was blessedly cool; the air conditioning had been fixed while I was gone.
I had told her everything that had happened, that something incredibly bad had happened to both Aerick and Serena, even if I wasn’t completely sure of what it was. I knew that Travis had kidnapped Serena and that he had hurt her, but that was about the extent of it so far.
I dropped a couple of books, some notebooks, my CD player, and my laptop into the bag, then went in to the bathroom to grab some of my toiletries. “I really don’t know, Kris. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, might be a day or two, might be a week.” I glanced up at her. “Is that okay?”
“Yeah, you know it is. I’ll be fine, me and the kitty both.” She scratched Angel’s head. The cat was sitting on my desk in the middle of a pile of papers. “I can come down there and visit though, right?”
“Sure, just don’t bring Nina with you, okay?”
She laughed. “I’m not sure how much we’ll be seeing of her. Her mother showed up earlier to take her back home.”
“Really? I’ve never met her mother.”
“You don’t want to, believe me. That woman is scary, as in supernatural scary, even to other shifters. Darien said something about her reminding him of someone named Grimm?”
“Shit.” No wonder Nina was different than I was. “You’re right though, I’m glad I didn’t meet her.”
By the time I packed up the stuff I needed, then remembered that neither Kris nor I had a car anymore (Kris was waiting on the insurance check for hers) and got a cab over to the apartment, a few hours had gone by. I gave Kris and Angel both a hug, then went out and put my stuff and myself into the cab.
As we pulled out of the complex, I could have sworn I felt someone watching me, but I put it down to nerves. When I got back to the Flame, I paid the cabbie, grabbed my bags, and headed inside. I stopped at the door, turning to look over my shoulder, that feeling of being watched coming over me again.
Once again I didn’t see anything odd, so I nodded to the Cyclopes and went downstairs to the room that had been mine the last time I had stayed here. It wasn’t there, or at least I couldn’t find it. None of the doors had my mark on it, so I went back upstairs to find Lucien.
I left my bag in a corner and headed across the empty club to Lucien’s office. Before I even got there, Aerick came running out from the alcove that led to the stairs from the upper rooms, a wild and determined look on his face.
“Serena!” he screamed desperately, coming in my direction. He stopped when he saw me, eyes narrowing suspiciously at me. “Where are you hiding her, Kat?” His voice was low, a dangerous whisper, and his hands flexed.
I could see Lucien coming from the direction of his office, Dave with him. Lucien motioned Dave to head upstairs while he moved in behind Aerick.
“We’re not hiding her anywhere, Aerick, I promise,” I said, holding my hands up, palms toward him. He must have seen my glance at Lucien, or sensed the demigod coming up behind him, because he suddenly whirled around to face him.
“I don’t understand!” Aerick’s voice almost broke on the word. “Why won’t you let me see her?”
The raw agony in his voice pulled at me and before I could stop myself I put my hands on his shoulders. Both of his blades flashed into existence, and I saw the alarm in Lucien’s eyes, heard Dave’s yell from somewhere upstairs that he needed Lucien now.
I flared my aura just a little, heard a hiss escape Aerick’s lips as I indicated with my head that Lucien should go to Dave. He moved towards the alcove, eyes still on me and Aerick.
“Sshh,” I whispered, sliding my hands down Aerick’s upper arms. He shivered at my touch and the blades winked out of existence. I dropped the aura.
“Kat?” he said, back still to me, my name spoken on a breath of pain.
“Sshh, I’m here.”
He turned suddenly, his head falling forward so his face was pressed against my neck, arms going around my waist, his hands fisting into the cloth of my shirt so hard I thought he would tear the material. I stroked his back, his neck, his hair, anything to help soothe him. His whole body shuddered against me.
“I failed her,” he whispered miserably. I could tell he was crying. “I failed her, Kat.”
I heard movement in the hall, looked past Aerick’s shoulder to se
e Lucien moving very carefully, Val limp in his arms. A surge of fear went through me, that Val might not be all right, something deep inside me scared that she was dead. From all the blood and the odd way her upper torso looked, she should have been, but somehow I knew she wasn’t, although she had been mortally injured.
I also realized that Aerick had been the one to injure her. I pressed my cheek to his, felt the wetness on his face. His knees gave out and I caught him, lowering us both to the floor as Lucien disappeared somewhere with Val.
That’s when I saw Dave. He was looking at Aerick as though he didn’t know him, as though the person in my arms was not the same friend that he had known for over a decade. He was scared, not for Aerick, but of him.
I hurt for Aerick at seeing that look in his best friend’s eyes, and I hurt for Dave at being forced to feel that way. Dave’s eyes caught mine and sudden shame burned in them. He ducked his head and hurried off to another room.
“C’mon, the floor here isn’t all that comfortable, let’s get you back to your room,” I cajoled, managing to get my knees under me despite the fact that Aerick wouldn’t let go, and, pulling strength from my Aspect, standing with him. He didn’t fight me, just let me lead him numbly back up the stairs to his room.
His room was a mess, furnishings destroyed, possessions, what few he had in here, scattered, a dark pool of blood staining the white carpeting. I took us gingerly around the blood and got Aerick to his bed, where I laid us both down. In minutes, he was sound asleep against me. He twitched almost uncontrollably in his sleep, soft moans of distress coming from him, as though, even in sleep, whatever evils that plagued him would give him no respite.
Bathroom issues and hunger woke me later. I lay there for a few moments, trying to get my bearings, remembered that I had fallen asleep in Aerick’s room.
Aerick.
I sat up immediately, looking around for him. He was sitting on the foot of the bed, staring at the wall. I put a hand on his shoulder and he didn’t even register my presence. He was so quiet it almost seemed like he wasn’t breathing. I left him there to use the bathroom.