by May Dawson
She began to prattle on about how she had been able to connect the Company with who they really were by following some kind of financial record. I did my best to listen and to ignore Jacob. He was standing too damn close to me, and I was distracted by his faint scent of bitter coffee and shaving cream, by the heat coming off his body when he was so near to me. These boys ran hot. I bit down on my lower lip and willed myself to pretend he wasn’t there, playing whatever little game he was playing—or maybe he was just happening to stand there. Maybe he was focused on Olivia the way that I was trying to be.
“Mr. Joseph,” I said suddenly. “That’s the name Parrish used.”
“Yes!” She practically bounced in her seat. She brought up a company website, clicking through to show us a man who was in his late thirties, dark-haired and altogether… nice-looking. I never would have thought twice if I bumped into him in the produce aisle at the grocery store. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to cage a bunch of kids up to see if their supernatural monkeys would dance for him.
“Andrew Joseph,” she said. “He’s the son of the CEO of Actionware. Don’t ask me how they plan to monetize the supernatural. No, I’m kidding; do ask me, I hacked into his email. But I’ll get to that later. He’s supposed to take over his father’s business at some point. Actually, he was supposed to take it over years ago.”
“So what was the hold-up on Junior?” Ryker shoved his hands in his pockets, his broad shoulders hunching slightly with the motion. His gold-specked green eyes were intent on the screen.
“That’s such a good question, Ryker!” She was a girl who spoke in exclamation points. “It’s totally relevant. You see, his pregnant wife was killed at a gas station two years ago. It was totally random. He disappeared from the public view for a while, and he’s been… erratic… ever since.”
Ryker made a get-on-with-it motion. I had a feeling Olivia enjoyed her dramatic flourishes and pauses.
“I don’t believe his daddy knows what’s going on behind the scenes. Junior has been embezzling from his own company to set up a secret branch. ‘Actionware’ bought the haunted hospital you guys turned into your vacation hideaway. And it’s funding the salaries of Dr. Parrish, who seems to report directly to Junior, as well as the fourteen people on her staff.”
I bit down on my thumbnail, trying to square the Dr. Parrish I’d gotten to know with this new information. I replayed the way she’d told me that she’d lost control, that we had to run and escape. “So you think he’s been micromanaging the whole operation?”
Olivia seemed surprised I’d spoken, but delighted. “Yes. Let me bring up some particularly fascinating email exchanges. But—there must be some even juicier stuff, because there are multiple times they say they need to finish these conversations offline. Apparently they met up at a secret office on the hospital grounds on the regular.”
Ryker nodded. “Must be where they monitored us while we were in the hospital at night.”
Olivia walked us through a series of emails she’d found. They’d been trying to find Jacob, who had gone to ground when Levi and Ryker were taken, even going as far as making contacts with some Hunter who had been willing to betray the brothers. Ryker’s jaw tightened with fury. They’d also been looking for the fourth brother, but they hadn’t been able to figure out who it might be.
One of the last emails from Mr. Joseph said, If we can’t find the fourth brother, this whole project might be for nothing.
Dr. Parrish had promised him, Don’t worry. This girl has the power, I’m sure of it—with or without the fourth. She’s unusually strong.
And then the last email from Mr. Joseph, just before our trials had begun: Then let’s see just what she’s made of.
“I don’t like these people much,” I mused out loud.
“I say we burn it down,” Jacob said, suddenly animated. “Make sure there’s no research left. Nothing for them to work with.”
“Can we see what the place looks like now?” Levi asked. “Ellis tried.”
“Oh, yes.” Olivia’s fingers tapped quickly over the keys, and she brought up an image of the hospital. It looked like nothing but a burned-out shell to me.
“There,” I said, feeling satisfied, and I glanced towards Jacob to see his reaction. After all, he’d wanted so badly to see it destroyed. A gift for you, Jacob, you ungrateful jerk.
“Have you been able to figure out where their office is?” Jacob asked. “That’s what we really need to obliterate. That’s where the records will be, whatever they found about us, whatever videos they took.”
“No,” Olivia said. “But I know it’s there. I just can’t get any good satellite footage in terms of what might be under the trees. And the other thing is, I believe there might be levels underneath the hospital which might not have burned. I couldn’t find the schematics for the hospital anywhere—and that makes me think they were possibly, purposefully, destroyed.”
“So we need to go back there,” Ryker said. I hadn’t thought anything ever rattled cool Ryker, but he crossed his arms over his chest impatiently, like he hated the idea.
I certainly hated the idea.
Levi cursed softly. “It’ll take me a few days to get back to full strength.”
“We have a long way to go until we’re ready to go to war,” Ryker said. “Forget a few days. We haven’t even begun to—”
Ryker broke off. The awkwardness in the room was almost claustrophobic.
“Listen,” Jacob said. “Before we were the Four—well, three-quarters of the Four—we were already damn good hunters. So let’s go ahead and do the killing-and-destruction we’re already quite well versed in. This whole Lilith thing… it can wait.”
Something about that felt wrong to me. I couldn’t tell if it bothered me because I knew deep down it was bad strategy or because I could see Jacob trying deliberately to carve me out of their lives, to make me as unimportant as possible. My lips parted, about to argue, but when I didn’t know the answers to those questions myself, I knew I’d sound emotional. Not like the woman I wanted to be.
“You’d better teach me how to swing that sword,” I said.
Lilith and the Four or not, I was going to fight any war that came our way side-by-side with these guys.
Chapter 18
Next door to the office was a large room outfitted as a dojo. There was a mirror along one wall, blue mats covering the floors, and an assortment of intimidating training equipment mounted along one wall, like wooden swords, metal foils, and even throwing stars, knives and axes. Heavy and light boxing bags hung in one corner of the room, and there was a blue torso-shaped target in one corner. Ryker pulled a wooden sword off the wall and, taking the blade in one hand, offered it to me; I wrapped my hand around the hilt, surprised by its weight and the way it pulled at my shoulder.
“It’s heavier than what you’ll use in a fight,” Ryker said. “It’ll help strengthen your muscles. We’ll have to move over to the real thing fast to make sure you don’t learn to overcompensate, but that’s just because we’re short on time—these are how Levi and I got started.”
Levi took a seat cross-legged with his back against the mirror, a bottle of Gatorade dangling from one hand, and Ryker said, “We don’t need an audience.”
“Just making sure you stay on task,” Levi said. “And don’t teach her any bad habits.”
Ryker shook his head. “No talking.”
Levi raised his hands in supplication. “I’ll be quiet.”
“Believe it when I see it,” Ryker grumbled. He grabbed a sheath with leather straps that formed an X in front. “Let’s start with drawing the sword without cutting yourself.”
I had to grin at that. Did he think I was an idiot?
Ryker swept my hair away from my neck, his touch even when it was brusque sending sparks down my spine, and then helped me slip on the sheath, which I would wear on my back. He slipped his own on quickly, turning to show me; the sheathed sword dangled between his powerful shoulder blades, hanging down t
he small of his back where his waist narrowed. He showed me how to draw, and while he was still prattling on about just how to pull a sword out, I yanked the sword quickly from its sheath.
And clipped my own ear with the edge of the wooden blade.
“I’m not going to say I told you so,” Ryker teased as I doubled over, grabbing my ear; clocking myself with a wooden sword had sent sharp pain racing through my ear into my jaw. Then before I could fix my death-glare on him, he caught me by the shoulders, tugging me up slightly. His smirking mouth brushed against my smarting ear, kissing away the pain. I grabbed his biceps through the soft material of his t-shirt. I drew him towards me. His mouth on my ear was definitely a distraction. It sent a powerful thrum of desire through my body and made the sharp pain fade away.
Then I stepped behind his heel, planting my calf behind his, and used those hands I had gripping his biceps to push him back hard. He wasn’t expecting it, and with my leg braced to throw him off-balance, I tossed him to the mat.
Ryker landed on his back, his fists slapping the mat to help break his fall, and Levi’s bark of laughter filled the room. I bit my lip for just a second, anxious that I had misjudged Ryker and he might not find it as funny as I did, but he was grinning when he jumped up to his feet. “Look at you, Firestarter. You dangerous little thing.”
The nickname Firestarter, being called dangerous, all of that would have hurt my feelings just a week before. It would have reminded me of why I had become an outcast. But it all sounded so affectionate on Ryker’s lips. The words echoed with their negative connotations from before, but they didn’t burn in my ears like they might have.
Then Jacob wandered into the room. He had a cup of coffee in one hand, the smell strong in the cool, recycled air down here, and he took a seat next to Levi. I could have sworn the temperature dropped ten degrees when he came into a room.
“We’re busy,” Ryker said. He scooped to pick up the practice sword I’d dropped to clutch my ear and then grabbed the belt for my sheath, pulling me bodily towards him to slide the sword back home. The casual way he touched me made me feel like I should be as cool as he was when we touched, but there was something about that familiarity that felt like home, that felt like things were safe and easy with him, and that made me feel anything but cool.
“I’m just watching.” Jacob said.
“You’re a distraction,” Ryker said bluntly.
Jacob took a sip of his coffee without answering.
Ryker turned to me. “He’s been such a jerk. Is being such a jerk. Do you want me to kick his ass?”
“What’s your malfunction?” Jacob asked.
“Says the malfunctioning angel,” Ryker said.
Levi sighed audibly.
Jacob was on his feet in a flash. “What’s your problem? You came back from that place different.” He glanced at me as if he knew just what Ryker’s problem was.
“Hm, maybe,” Ryker said. “I’m not impervious to things like torture and killing and, oh, human emotion.”
“It’s not emotion you’re feeling.” Jacob said. “It’s like a curse.”
“I know you’ve never done it before,” Ryker said, “But I promise you, it is definitely not a curse.”
Levi raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Even so, it’s not just sex. It’s all right to have human emotions. To fall in love.”
Jacob shook his head. “You’re both morons.”
“Probably,” Ryker said. “But that’s not really relevant to today’s discussion. Anyway, we’d like to go back to training. Can you go sulk about your humanity elsewhere?”
“You’re not going to try to kick my ass?” Jacob asked innocently.
“I mean, if you want to.” Ryker took another sword-and-sheath from the wall and tossed it to his half-brother. Jacob plucked it nimbly out of the air. “I’m always up for a little practice. Show Ellis how we train.”
“A little beating?”
“However it turns out.” Ryker said. “I think you might be surprised. Half-super though you might be…”
Levi buried his face in his hands as if he were exasperated. And sure enough, that seemed to be some kind of trigger for Jacob, who pulled the wooden sword from the sheath and tossed the sheath on the mats.
“Didn’t Mom teach you better?” Ryker asked, glancing at the abandoned sheath. “Take care of your weapons, you want them to take care of you.”
“Ryker—“ Levi broke off, but he shook his head.
Ryker half-shrugged one shoulder. There was tension held in his lean, powerful body, and I realized that he was angry at Jacob because of how Jacob had acted towards me. Levi was trying to keep the peace. But from what they’d already said, Jacob hadn’t grown up with their mom. I wondered if he’d been raised by their dad or by someone else entirely.
“You know damn well she didn’t,” Jacob said, and then suddenly he launched himself across the room at Ryker.
Ryker side-stepped him agilely. Jacob turned quickly, taking a step back onto his heel as he whirled past Ryker so that his back was never to him. Wooden sword met sword with a shock.
They were both tall and muscled, and their bodies were quick and agile as they parried and counter-attacked. Their fight brought them back and forth across the room, and although I could tell there was no real rancor between them, they still fought aggressively. When their swords were locked together and they closed in with each other, they threw punches into each other’s ribs like they intended to hurt each other, and then suddenly broke away, each of them whirling, taking up a new position a few feet away. They were both breathing hard now.
Ryker made a little come-hither motion at Jacob. Jacob, sure enough, went. He ran hard to Ryker, who ducked impossibly low and threw his own sword up. He knocked Jacob’s sword away, and Jacob desperately lunged after it, fingers straining through the air a second too late. The sword flew through the air towards where Levi and I sat against the mirror.
Levi lunged for the flying sword, intent on making sure it didn’t hit me, and his fingers closed around the hilt. Right before he doubled over, wincing, his elbow pressed into his side.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, throwing a look at Jacob and Ryker. Ryker dropped his sword over his shoulder, fixing a cocky grin on Jacob. The gesture would have been sexy as hell if I hadn’t been exasperated with him. The two of them closed up close to each other, hand-to-hand now, grappling.
“Guys!” I barked. Ryker turned, glancing at me, and when he saw that Levi was hurt, he immediately put his hands up. Jacob, after a glowering second, put his hands up too.
“I think I popped a stitch,” Levi said. He bit down on his lower lip. “No big deal.”
“No big deal,” Jacob said. “It is a big deal. Took me two hours to sew you up yesterday.”
“Sorry,” Levi drawled.
“Your turn.” Jacob said to Ryker, crossing his arms over his chest. “I already slipped around in his blood last night while you were cuddling the girl. I’m done.”
Ryker clapped Levi’s shoulder. “Hey, I’m going to go get this guy fixed up. Again. Be right back.”
“Okay,” I said.
Ryker and Levi headed out of the room.
And that left Jacob. He turned his back on me, collecting the wooden swords from across the mats.
I hesitated, because I was desperately eager to get away from him and the chill that he cast over me whenever he was around. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to steel myself.
Jacob hung the training swords back on the wall. He was a picture, tall and leaner than Ryker, almost thin, but there was such an elegance in the way he moved and in his perfect regal posture.
“That’s fine, princess,” Jacob said without turning around to look at me. “I’ll clean up. Just take a rest from those arduous few minutes of watching other people work.”
“I’m not cleaning up,” I said crisply, “Because I’m not done. Will you…?”
He turned around abruptly, crossin
g his arms over his chest too, his posture mimicking mine. “Will I what?”
Not making this easy. I guess I should have expected that.
But I was going to go into the fight with these boys. Doing my part to make sure we all came through it alive was more important than my ego.
Still, my voice came out rushed and flat when I said, “Will you teach me, please?”
Surprise was written across his face, just for a second, before his expression resolved back to its usual condescending expression.
He pulled two wooden swords from the wall and tossed one to me. I caught it awkwardly; even with a blunt wooden edge, the blade stung my hand. I flipped the sword around so I held the leather-bound hilt. God damn it; now I’d gotten what I wanted, but what I wanted was going to bring me into close contact with this insufferable jerk for the next hour.
“Let’s work on parries,” he said. “Kid stuff.”
Whatever. I wasn’t feeling like I had much ego after the ear-incident. “Sure.”
“Face me,” he said. “Left leg forward, right leg back. Hips towards me.”
I nodded and faced him, holding the sword in front of me. He stepped forward and pushed the blade of the sword up. “Just hold this at the ready for now.” Impatiently, he reached out and pushed my elbow up slightly. “Blade up, not resting on your shoulder, child—remember it’s got pointy edges.”
“Pointy edges, got it.” I said drily.
Jacob snorted. “We’ll see. We’ll start off with what I learned in third grade, as an oberhau, a basic overhand attack.”
“You must’ve gone to a harsh elementary school.”
For a second, there was a flash of humor in his golden-hazel eyes, but he quickly glanced away from me to the blue mats underfoot. “The harshest. Now step forward and to your right. Think about the reach of my blade. Try to step out of the way of my counterattack as much as possible while still being in reach yourself. Just try to make it awkward for me to gut you, if you can.”
Methodically, he taught me a series of simple attacks and parries with a longsword. Although Jacob was clearly unhappy to be there with me, he was also a good teacher. Everything he told me was clear and logical. My stomach was a pit of nervousness in close quarters with him, but I couldn’t deny that I was learning.