“Good thing I’ve already been burned.”
Their eyes held for a moment, a shared understanding passing between them. Because for all their possible differences, they had one thing in common. They both knew what it felt like to be used, abused, lied to—burned. How else could they have ended up here?
Naya nodded once and dropped Pandora’s hand, stepping out of the shadows. A moment later, she was soaring toward the top of the building in one giant leap. After grabbing hold of the upper ledge, she flipped herself over the side, somersaulting out of sight. Somehow, Pandora knew she landed smoothly on two feet, the definition of grace.
Jerk, Pandora thought, taking one last look around to make sure no one had seen her. The coast was clear. Here goes nothing.
Pandora took a deep breath.
She’d made jumps like this before…as a vampire.
As a titan? Not so much.
Theoretically, she could do it.
Enhanced titan strength, enhanced titan speed, enhanced titan agility.
But in reality, this body she had now wasn’t the one she’d grown accustomed to over the past four years. These last few hours had proved that. It was slower, more awkward, not nearly as fluid, not nearly as strong. The humanness hung off her bones, a heavy weight.
Pandora knelt, gathering her strength, preparing for the jump. A thought stopped her.
I could cheat.
She glanced up, calculating the height of the building again.
Two stories.
Two aggressively large stories.
No one will ever know.
The idea was tempting. And now that she’d goaded Naya into making what could potentially be called the most elegant forty-foot leap ever, she wasn’t sure she wanted to follow.
My little secret, Pandora thought, gathering the darkness. She was becoming a pro at this whole teleportation thing. As the onyx fog thickened, she let those annoyingly fierce amber eyes act as her guide. A moment later, she was at the top of the building—dignity still intact.
“You did that thing, didn’t you?” Naya asked in a goading tone, edges of her lips turned up just enough to imply humor.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pandora replied, settling down next to her partner. She grabbed Nay’s hand and wrapped the shadows back around them both.
“You didn’t jump,” Naya accused, superiority dripping from her tone.
“Of course I did. You just couldn’t see, because of my whole invisibility thing.”
Naya snorted, studying Pandora’s face. “You didn’t jump.”
“I—”
She was cut off by the sound of two doors crashing open and the thunder of pounding feet.
Instantly, the two girls stopped joking around.
“Stay down and don’t lose contact with me,” Pandora murmured as she flipped onto her knees. She peered over the edge of the building, watching as titan after titan raced outside. “They must have figured out that we got through the door somehow when we escaped that death wave the trident threw at us.”
Not good.
Not good.
The sound of another crashing door jolted Pandora from her thoughts. She flipped back to her butt, alarmed to see titans pouring through the roof access, at least twenty before the door finally slipped closed.
Okay, really not good.
“I knew this was a bad idea.” Naya cursed under her breath.
Pandora threw her arms over the medium, hugging her close as she reached for the darkness. “Roll up into as small a ball as you can and be quiet. I can hide us. I can save us.”
The shadows grew, billowing around the two girls, filling every bit of space around their bodies with black smoke. The veil over Pandora’s eyes thickened until she forgot the sun was beaming overhead. Her world had become night.
They sat like that for an hour.
Not speaking.
Barely breathing.
Pandora gritted her teeth as her muscles cramped, fighting to remain still. Her back ached from hunching over. Her fingers throbbed from gripping Naya so tightly. Her eyes burned from the strain of trying to see through the curtain of her power. The midday heat pierced the fog of her shadows, burning her skin. Every so often, a titan would step close, too close. Shifting her stiff limbs was an act of torture, but she did it to get out of the way as they walked by. Before long, her body was sweating, fingers trembling from the strain, but she kept fighting.
Twenty trackers.
Nearly the size of the entire North American force.
But not a single one of them was Jax, thank god. He was long gone chasing some other poor soul.
I can do this, Pandora thought the entire time, repeating the words like a prayer, because never in her life had she held on to the shadows so tightly for so long for someone else. I can do this. I’m strong. I’m powerful. I’ve got this. I can do this. I can. I will. I am.
She did.
And when the last tracker finally disappeared inside, Pandora collapsed, still holding on to the darkness, still hiding her presence, but the majority of the shadows dispersed.
She let out a groan. “I thought they’d never leave.”
Naya reached her arms overhead, stretching, keeping her foot pressed against Pandora’s leg to remain within the bubble. “How much longer can you keep us invisible?”
Pandora sighed. Faux confidence or sincerity? Which would it be?
“I don’t know,” she confessed softly, tired of the brave face she’d been wearing all day. The weary, lonely girl was seeping out—the high of the escape had long since worn off. “But I’ll keep going until I physically can’t, until I pass out from trying.”
“That may not be necessary,” Naya whispered.
Pandora’s gaze grew sharp. “Why?”
“Because I haven’t been totally honest with you.”
Pandora shot up to a seated position, elbows on her knees. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m a medium and a necromancer, but I’m something else too, something very few people know.”
I knew it! I knew it!
Naya paused, taking a deep breath, dragging out the dramatic silence. And then she confessed, “I’m the jaguar god, the night sun, reborn.”
Her tone implied significance, authority, and, well, in classic Naya-form, superiority of some kind. But Pandora remained silent, completely confused.
Uh, what now? Come again?
If that was supposed to be a big, shocking reveal, she didn’t get it. All she could think was womp, womp as she waited, eyes blank.
Naya’s brows drew into a frown as she elaborated. “I told you my people worship a sun god, and the night sun is his other half—ruler of the underworld, responsible for carrying souls to rebirth until the sun god gifts them with a spot in his eternal kingdom. There are a lot of people who have been born demigod, gifted with various levels of his power, but my people believe I’m his true image, a goddess reborn for the first time in centuries.”
Pandora nodded slowly. “Okay…” She trailed off, pursing her lips. “I feel like that was supposed to mean something to me, but I don’t get it.”
Naya rolled her eyes, glaring at Pandora. “I’m an incredibly powerful necromancer and werejaguar rolled up into one.”
That’s the big secret? Pandora thought, realizing in an instant that it made perfect sense. The growls. The feline eyes. The claws. The catlike reflexes. She’s a werejaguar. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty cool. I’ve never met one before. But I was sort of expecting more. Then again, not everyone can have a secret like mine, you know, that they might mean the end of the world as we know it. Actually, I like her secret better. Way better.
“Sweet.” Pandora smiled appreciatively.
“Not sweet,” Naya grumbled. “Fierce. Ferocious. And it’s how we’re going to escape the trackers flooding the desert around us.”
“Go on…”
“I’ve never transformed into my spirit animal in
front of the titans. They’ve never seen me in her body, never caught a whiff of her scent.”
“And they can’t track what they don’t know exists.” Pandora’s eyes widened, lips pulling into an appropriately evil grin. “Genius.”
“Thank you,” Naya quipped. “As soon as the sun sets, we can make our move. I was born to blend into the darkness.”
“Me too,” Pandora whispered, voice hollow as she brushed her fingers against the shadows.
Naya studied her for a minute, gaze passing over the black mist circling them both. “I’ve found in my line of work that darkness isn’t evil. Quite the contrary—it can be an escape, a relief, a paradise to many,” Naya began, words strangely echoing what Sam had told her the day before. “It’s only when it leaks into your heart, when it stains your soul, that it becomes a problem, a trap, a curse.”
Pandora nodded.
“I only have one question.” Naya paused, gulping as her focus shifted from the charcoal smoke swirling around them back to Pandora. She pulled her brows in and took a deep, heavy breath. Pandora braced herself for what was to come, staring into amber eyes that seemed to know far more about life and death than any normal person should. But the medium released her gaze and turned her attention to the desert, sweeping her focus over the vast landscape surrounding them that seemed to stretch on for miles and miles without end. She sighed, shoulders slumping as every muscle in her body gave out all at once. “Do you have any idea where the hell we are?”
Pandora broke, body shaking as the laughter worked its way up her throat, bubbling over as the tension of the past couple days fell away, a weight suddenly gone, leaving her light.
Naya joined in with her own deep, throaty mirth.
They collapsed against the scratchy concrete roof, shoulder to shoulder, hidden between swirling folds of darkness.
Hot and exhausted.
But miraculously free.
Chapter Eight
When night fell, they finally picked themselves off the roof, more than ready to leave the walls of the prison behind for good.
“Should we go over the plan again? You know, before you turn into a jaguar and can’t speak to me anymore?” Pandora asked, still gripping her friend’s hand, wrapping them both in shadow. She was beyond exhausted, but she had no other choice but to keep going.
“I know the plan,” Naya responded disdainfully, trying to shake free.
“You’re sure?”
Naya’s eyes flashed, and she bared her teeth.
“Yeesh,” Pandora mumbled. “Someone’s cranky.”
“You would be too if you spent the past few hours having someone’s plan rammed down your throat even though you don’t agree with it and think there’s another way to get the same thing done.”
You may have a point… Pandora thought, frowning. But she’d gone over all the options. Heck, Naya had given her all the other options. And none of them would work. “This is the only way.”
“You made that clear, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Threatening an innocent person, stealing his—”
“We don’t have any more time to argue,” Pandora cut in. This partnership is getting off to a great start here, she mused, releasing a puff of air. But for once, Naya remained silent, seeming to agree. “Let’s just go.”
With no further protests, Naya shifted her weight, pressing back into her heels, preparing to make the jump down from the roof. When she launched forward, Pandora let go of her hand. She watched with wide eyes as the feminine body before her twisted in the air, sinking toward the ground. The night wrapped around the medium as she flipped over, changing shape, transforming. One instant, she was a woman. And the next, she had landed smoothly on four giant black paws, barely more than another shadow in the dark as she stretched her graceful, feline body.
Pandora followed, jumping off the roof and landing next to the ebony jaguar in a mostly graceful fall. The weight of holding another person in the shadows had lifted, bringing an extra ounce of strength back to her limbs, a renewed sense of vigor.
“Which way is south?”
The giant cat by her side lifted its nose, smelling the air for a moment. And then amber eyes she’d come to recognize peered up, shining like stars, far sharper than any animal’s should be. Naya nudged her head to the side, signaling into the desert.
“Let’s go.”
They took off.
Naya leapt, muscular paws digging into the dirt as she sprang into action. Pandora slipped into her titan powers, letting her speed turn supernaturally swift as they raced from the jail under cover of darkness.
The trackers were still looking for them, Pandora had no doubt. But with her body still wrapped in the shadows and Naya shapeshifted into a creature they’d never seen, she wasn’t worried. As long as they stayed clear of any lights and didn’t set off any triggers, they’d be fine. Which is why they ran through the sand and shrubs, staying far away from the roads leading to and from the jail, and all around the compound. More government buildings spotted the area around them, but the lights haloing them were like beacons and only helped hide Pandora and Naya further, making the night look even deeper to anyone inside.
The hardest part would be getting through the fence they suspected surrounded the area. But like the roof, Naya jumped the ten-foot wall easily, sailing overhead, then landing smoothly in a sprint. Pandora melted into the darkness, using the jaguar as her anchor to teleport her way through. Within a few minutes, they were free, racing into the open night.
But they didn’t stop.
Didn’t slow.
They had a lot of distance to cover and not a lot of time before the sun rose, stealing any advantage of stealth when it did.
One hundred and fifty miles, give or take.
And about ten hours to do it. On foot.
Easy? No.
Possible? Entirely.
Because when Naya had asked if Pandora knew where the heck they were, they’d laughed for a solid fifteen minutes—pure relief fueling the reaction. But the truth was, Pandora knew exactly where the jail was. All titans did, and most humans did too.
The jail was in Area 51, about one hundred and fifty miles north of Las Vegas in the deserts of Nevada. Where better to hide a supernatural prison than in plain sight? The multitude of conspiracy theories surrounding the top-secret site only acted as additional security for the titans. After all, the humans who vocalized them were labeled as lunatics, and that was enough to keep most sane people from saying anything at all. Naya hadn’t even believed Pandora at first, but of course, that was the whole point.
And while her friend had been reacting with stunned silence, Pandora had been doing her favorite thing—scheming. Because she couldn’t hold on to the shadows forever. Eventually, she’d need to sleep, to rest. Eventually, the trackers would be able to pick up on her location, but she hoped to be far away when they finally did—aided by a little thing she liked to call modern technology.
Hence, Vegas.
Because hidden somewhere between all the alcohol and gambling, between the strip clubs and magic shows, between the players and the fools, was the key to their escape.
So, they ran.
For hours.
The orange glow on the horizon was their guide. Not the sun, but the strip, where hotels and foolhardy hope lit up the sky.
By the time dawn had finally started to unfurl, Pandora and Naya were close enough to see the glass on the hotels turn to fire as bright rays caught them just right. They held on to their relentless pace for as long as they could, but once the stars disappeared and the air grew hot, they finally stopped, crouching behind the corner of a building on the outskirts of town.
“When you turn back, the countdown is on. Are you ready?”
The jaguar nodded and knelt, curling into a tight ball. Muscles jerking and bones bending, a girl slowly emerged from the fur. Naya was on her feet within seconds, still dressed in the same tan prison clothes Pandora had on too.
�
��Phew,” Pandora commented, a twinkle in her eye. “I was worried you’d show up in the nude. Then again, you’d probably fit right in. After all, this is Vegas.”
Naya wrinkled her nose. “I’m not a common dog.”
“I know a few werewolves who’d resent that.”
She tossed Pandora a pointed glare. “My spirit animal and I are two separate beings who share the same soul. I’m a goddess, not a shapeshifter.”
“Touchy,” Pandora murmured, teasing.
Naya didn’t bother to respond. And the silence reminded Pandora that they weren’t on a joyride or a fun adventure. They were running for their lives.
She coughed, focusing on business. “You will come back for me, right?”
“We made a deal, my freedom in exchange for a conversation with your mystery ghost. So I’ll stick with you until we’re even, whether I like it or not. I gave you my word.”
Pandora snorted. “I’ve heard that before.”
“Not from me,” Naya told her softly. “And if you knew me at all, knew who I really was, you’d know I don’t break my promises.”
Everyone does, Pandora thought. No matter how honorable, no matter how sincere, we’ve all let one promise slip through our fingers and crash into a thousand shattered pieces.
But she didn’t say that. She didn’t say anything. Because it wouldn’t make a difference. Naya hadn’t earned her full trust yet, despite the daring escape, but right now, she didn’t have any other choice but to believe her.
“Then I’ll see you in half an hour,” Pandora said instead.
Naya nodded resolutely. “Half an hour.”
They split.
The plan was on.
Naya walked casually out of the alley, moving swiftly but not drawing attention to herself. And when she disappeared from sight, Pandora took a deep breath, drawing circles with her fingers, dispersing the shadows, watching the inky smoke swirl.
The second she let the darkness fall away, the trackers would pounce. Now that she was a titan again, remaining two steps ahead would be doubly difficult. As a vampire, her scent had been dulled, diluted, because the titans hadn’t known what to look for—they’d been searching for one of their own, not a member of the undead. But she didn’t have that protection anymore. And the trackers chasing her were people she’d grown up with, people she’d known all her life, people like Jax, who’d be able to pick up on her location the second her powers dropped. The very idea was nerve-racking.
Freeze Page 8