Against the Dawn

by amanda bonilla

  Well, that was his job, after all. “It makes me feel better, too.”

  “Do you need my help?” Raif put his hand on my shoulder and he leveled his gaze on mine. “I am at your disposal.”

  Raif’s sentiment made my chest swell with emotion, but I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of shame. Tyler was bound to protect me, Xander had Asher following me around like a puppy, and he’d given me a set of magic daggers that were supposed to give me the upper hand in battle. And now, Raif was throwing his hat into the ring, offering to help me out if I needed him. Was I that much of a mess that no one thought I could take care of myself anymore? “Thanks, but I think your plate is full enough.” I jerked my head toward Xander’s study. “What’s going on, Raif?”

  “Nothing for you to worry about,” he said. “As far as plates go, you don’t need anything else on yours, either. Be careful tonight, Darian, and call me if you need me.”

  “Will do.” I tucked the box under my arm and my bones vibrated with the daggers’ energy. I doubted I’d get out the door without them tonight. “No fighting with your brother while I’m gone,” I said in my best motherly impression. “Or it’s time-out for the both of you.”

  Raif gave me a half-hearted laugh as I headed out the door. “I’ll see you on Monday. We’ll work more with daggers.”

  “Deal.” Raif was so my Obi-Wan.

  As I held the daggers, one in each palm, I realized that maybe for the first time since I’d known him, Xander wasn’t bullshitting me. Power flooded me, I felt revitalized, energized, like I could take on the world. It was a heady thing, this sensation of invincibility, and in the back of my mind, I had to remind myself that I was still fallible. That one misstep was all it would take to get my ass good and killed.

  Still, a little confidence couldn’t hurt.

  I met Lorik at the waterfront near Coleman Dock. I tried not to come down here, just standing in this spot, no matter how renovated and modernized, reminded me of Azriel. He’d come to my rescue here. Saved me before I realized I could save myself. It was here that I fell in love with him—or more to the point, fell for the act he was feeding me. Lorik was on edge tonight, his pacing had started to get on my nerves, but I held my tongue because it wouldn’t look good for us to be arguing when Mithras’s guy showed up with whatever it was we were supposed to be delivering tonight.

  “Never trust people who can’t keep to a schedule,” he muttered as he paced. The echo of his expensive loafers drove into my brain with all of the gentleness of a railroad spike.

  “If that’s the case, why are we here?” Did he seriously want to do business with people he found untrustworthy? Good god.

  “There is no honor amongst thieves, Darian,” he said with a grin. “Just because I don’t trust them doesn’t mean I won’t do business with them.”

  Yeah. Okay. That totally made sense.

  At a few minutes past midnight—an hour late, I might add—Baldy showed up with the night’s cargo. Under any other circumstances, my stomach would have sunk into the bottoms of my feet as I had an oh shit moment. But thanks to the daggers sheathed at my sides, I came into the situation with an, I got this attitude that was bound to get me into trouble. Too bad I couldn’t muster even an ounce of doubt.

  Baldy gave us an address on the outskirts of the city with instructions that the package was to be delivered no later than one a.m.. “If it’s even five seconds late, Mithras will consider you unworthy and our business relationship will end here.” I had a feeling a business relationship wasn’t all he was planning on ending if we failed, but I didn’t mention it. “Do you understand, Lorik?”

  Lorik reached out a hand and took hold of the “package.” The guy had to be at least six-eight and he struggled against a silver chain, fastened to a collar—also silver—that sat loosely around his neck. A length of rope bound his wrists in front of him and his voice was nothing more than a muffled cry through the rag that had been shoved in his mouth and covered with duct tape. I hoped Lorik got a dose of preternatural strength in addition to his eternal youth, because the dude was big enough to break Lorik over his knee if he managed to get loose.

  “Just out of curiosity, what did our friend here do to deserve such treatment?” Lorik sounded amused but I wondered if he was putting on a show.

  “Not even five seconds late, Lorik,” Baldy reminded instead. “Good luck.”

  Forty-five minutes wasn’t much time to track back through the city and then twenty miles out of town. And to be honest, I couldn’t figure out what was really going on here. I mean, anyone could have driven this guy to where he needed to go, so why use Lorik to do it? It was fishy as hell, but since Lorik was bound and determined to get into bed with the arms dealer, I had no choice but to ride this out and see where it took us.

  Baldy made a hasty retreat moments before the clouds parted to reveal the swollen full moon overhead. And that’s when I realized we might be in over our heads.

  Chapter Eleven

  The “package” arched his back, a pained expression cutting into his face. Every muscle on his body grew taut and he stretched the silver chains to their limits, which incidentally, had started to smoke from the contact with his skin. The sounds of bones creaking and then cracking was almost deafening as he fell to the ground. He writhed and his form twisted and shifted as it broke itself apart and then came back together, while thick black hair sprouted in places it had no business growing on a human body.

  This was definitely an oh shit! moment.

  In the past couple of years, I’d been introduced to all manner of supernatural creatures that I didn’t know existed. Lyhtans, Sylphs, Jinn, Fae, Sidhe, and shifters. But I’d never come face to face—or uh, face to snout—with an actual werewolf until tonight. The duct tape came loose during his transformation as well as the gag and Lorik watched with morbid fascination, the chain still clutched in his grip. Quiet moments followed and Lorik and I exchanged a look as the massive black wolf lay on the docks panting and whining. It would have dwarfed a Great Dane, hell, it was it was only slightly smaller than a horse. No way could we walk down the street with him; we’d turn more than a few heads.

  “Please tell me you drove something bigger than a sedan here.” Cramming the enormous animal into a compact car would be laughable.

  “No, but I’ll find something suitable. Here.” He held out the length of chain.

  “You expect me to dog sit while you go look for a bigger car to steal?” The wolf lifted his chin from the dock and growled. “Sorry,” I said. Maybe werewolves were touchy. I know I would be.

  I took the chain from Lorik’s hand. The wolf could have chomped me down in a couple of bites, but the daggers boosted my confidence. I had this. Lorik took off for parts unknown, so he could boost something large enough for us to transport a pony-sized werewolf. Hopefully he could get his hands on a Suburban or a minivan. With any luck, there was a group of soccer moms out partying the night away nearby.

  The wolf stirred and slowly rose to sit on its—well, his—back haunches. He threw his head back and let out a low and mournful howl that raised the hackles on the back of my neck and sent chills racing over my skin.

  “Sorry, buddy. Wish I could help you, but these are the breaks.” He turned to face me, his ice blue eyes piercing in the dark and his nose quivering as he scented something on the air. If I’d had it my way, I would have removed the chain and sent him on his way. Then again, not only would that ruin our chances of getting to Mithras, I wasn’t sure turning an angry werewolf loose on the city was a good idea. The chain rattled as he took a step toward me. And then another. The silver must have weakened him because I had no doubt that had he been at one hundred percent, I would have been wolf chow by now.

  I squatted down to eye level, which to be honest didn’t take much bending on my part. I knew nothing about werewolves aside from what I’d seen in movies or read in books. I figured they couldn’t be much different from regular wolves and I assumed he must have a
pack somewhere that was looking for him. Unless, of course, he was lone wolf, in which case, we might actually have something in common.

  “Hey—”

  His lip curled in a snarl and his jaw snapped down three times in rapid succession. Whoa. I lunged away, careful to keep my face clear of his large and obviously sharp canines. What in the hell was I doing, standing on the pier with an actual freaking werewolf waiting for Lorik to steal us a car? How was this my life?

  The wolf lunged at me again and I swathed myself in shadow, leaving my corporeal form behind. He skidded to a halt and lifted his nose to the air, whining as though in confusion as he picked up my scent. “I’m not the only one who can change,” I said through the veil of darkness that protected me. From their sheaths, the daggers hummed with anticipation, a figurative fist bump to my show of superiority. “Since I don’t know your name, I’m going to call you Steve.” Steve the werewolf. He could totally pass as a Steve. He whined again and slowly backed away, his head shifting warily from one side and then the other, watching for possible threats as he tried to make a stealthy getaway.

  The chain reached its limit and Steve jerked to a stop. He snarled and bared his teeth but I wasn’t going to let him bait me. “Look, Steve, I can see why you’d be pissed. And since I don’t know what you did to wind up on Mithras’s shit list, I’m going to assume you’re either one of the good guys, or you’re a bigger dirtball than he is and tried to double cross him somehow. So you’ll understand if I’m having trouble trying to decide what to do here.”

  In response, he thrashed his head from side to side, biting at the chain. He was stronger than I was, and holding on to him was taking everything I had. If he jerked my arm like that again, he might manage to pull free. He yelped as the silver burned his mouth, but he continued to gnaw away at it. I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was a wasted effort. He wasn’t going to bite through the links any time soon.

  “Listen, Steve, let’s call a truce, okay? You stop growling at me, and I’ll quit trying to confuse you. Deal?” I had no idea if the werewolf could understand me while he was in his animal form, but I had to take a shot. “For the record, if you don’t deserve to be here, I’ll try to help you out of this mess, but I need a little cooperation on your part, okay?”

  Steve stalked toward my voice, the chain clinking against his collar with each step. I wondered what sort of magic constructed it since it had grown to accommodate the larger neck of his wolf form. It didn’t matter how many times I witnessed it; magic still floored me. Since he was making an effort to not snarl at me, I decided it was a show of good faith. I released the shadows that encased my form and the werewolf canted his head to one side, his blue eyes narrowed.

  “Who are you talking to?” Lorik emerged from the parts unknown, a cocky smile curving his full lips.

  “Steve,” I said.

  “Steve.”

  “The werewolf.”

  Lorik responded with a bout of riotous laughter; laughter Steve didn’t seem to appreciate. He rounded on Lorik in a heartbeat, his jaws snapping together with menace. The act of aggression only seemed to fuel his fire and he double over, gasping for breath as his ridiculous guffaws damned near suffocated him. Steve yanked at his chain, lunging for Lorik with his teeth bared and front paws ready to take him to the ground.

  “I don’t think he thinks this is funny,” I grunted as I tried to hold Steve back. He was strong. “So maybe you should shut the fuck up before he decides to turn one or both of us into dinner.”

  My flippant tone sobered Lorik up pretty quick. Even Steve gave me a look. My patience was starting to run thin and now, in addition to the daunting task of carting a werewolf across the city, I needed to try and determine whether or not Steve needed rescuing. I didn’t have time for Lorik’s bullshit.

  “There’s an SUV parked around the corner.” His clipped tone was a pretty good indicator that Lorik didn’t like people raining on his parade. “Get that dog loaded up and let’s go.”

  Ah, there was nothing like being treated worse than a low-level grunt to improve a girl’s mood. “You know, Lorik, a little appreciation would be nice. You might look damned good for a ninety-nine year old guy, but I bet you still bleed like everyone else.”

  Maybe it was the daggers that made me feel so cocky, or maybe I was tired of Lorik and wanted to put him in his place. Either way, I should have known better to run my mouth off. He seemed good-natured, but Lorik had a nasty streak when he was pissed.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” He rounded on me and a low growl vibrated in Steve’s chest. I knew I liked him. “It’s funny, Darian, you seem to enjoy laying veiled threats at my feet. And whereas I found your cheekiness endearing a few days ago, it’s beginning to get on my nerves.”

  I took a deep breath and held it in my lungs. Big picture. I really wanted to tell Lorik to fuck off and go back to wherever it was he’d come from, but I needed him to get to Mithras. “I’m sorry, Lorik.” The words were about as pleasant as shards of glass in my mouth, but I kept my tone humble for his benefit. At my sides, the daggers vibrated in displeasure, practically begging for me to draw and put them to good use. “But this can’t be as easy as it seems. Did you see the way Baldy ran for the hills when he handed the werewolf over to us? Things are going to get worse before they get better.”

  “You worry too much,” Lorik said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Let’s just get the wolf to his destination and in the meantime, we’ll worry when we actually have something to worry about. All right?”

  His tone didn’t leave much room for disagreement. He was ready to get this task over with and so was I. Mostly because if I had to spend another minute with Lorik, I was going to throttle him. But also, I wanted to check in with Ty and give him an update on the situation. If anyone could find out about a pack looking for a missing member, it would be Ty and I had to do whatever I could to get Steve back to his pack—if he did in fact have one—in the case that he was nothing more than an innocent victim.

  Lorik took off to where he’d parked the SUV and I slowly approached the werewolf, my steps precise, my eyes locked on his. When asserting dominance, eye contact was essential, and no matter his situation, I couldn’t let Steve think I was weaker than he was. He didn’t know me and he certainly didn’t have to trust me. Right now, I was nothing more than an accomplice to his kidnapping and I wouldn’t blame him if he decided I was vulnerable enough to attack.

  Steve eyed me warily. Or more to the point like I might make a decent snack. Either way it was unnerving. When I closed the distance between us to less than a foot, I bent down to his ear, careful not to touch him and said, “Okay, Steve. Let’s go for a ride. If you understand me, nod your head.” It was worth a shot, right?

  Steve bucked his head in the air, knocking my elbow. The silver chain rattled in my grip and he released a chuff of breath. “Cool. All right, so, did Mithras’s guys kidnap you?” He threw his head up again. “You could just be saying that, though. How do I know I can trust you?” Steve responded with a low growl that I felt in the soles of my feet. “Gotcha. You don’t like being called a liar.”

  “Darian!” Lorik called from somewhere up ahead. “Hurry up! I haven’t got all night.”

  I looked at Steve and rolled my eyes. Lorik was such a pain in the ass. “Here’s the deal, Steve. If I had it my way, I’d let you go right now. But if I do, it’ll be my ass.” If we failed to perform this task, Mithras would sever any hopes of a professional relationship—and probably our heads. And I wasn’t going to help anyone if I was dead. “If you cooperate, I swear I’ll get you out of this.”

  He let out a low whine that built into another mournful howl. I couldn’t say I was any more thrilled with the situation than he was.

  “Believe me, I know how you feel.” No one likes to feel powerless, and I sensed that this situation was tough for the wolf to deal with. The predator in him must have been going out of its mind. “Walk beside me,” I suggested. �
��Maybe you won’t feel so much like you’re on a leash, then?”

  His body twitched as he stood and shook out his fur. His claws clicked on the pier as he walked beside me and we headed in Lorik’s direction. There was no doubt in my mind that things were going to get a hell of a lot worse before they got better. And we only had a half an hour left to get Steve across the city to his destination point. I sure as hell hoped that werewolves were the trustworthy sort because I was about to take a huge risk in trying to get him to Mithras in one piece and set him free.

  And I was going to need the help of my genie to pull it off.

  When we got to the car, I let out a long, drawn out sigh. Lorik had to be the stupidest criminal I’d ever met in my life. “Don’t you think that’s a bit obvious?” I said, indicating the Cadillac Escalade. Jesus, why didn’t he just steal a police patrol car? “A car like that is going to have GPS tracking, Lorik, not to mention an anti-theft system that’ll have us dead in the water.” Had he never watched Bait Car before? Probably not. “OnStar is going to kill the engine before we even make it out of downtown.”

  We were already pretty conspicuous walking around with a pony-sized wolf on a length of silver chain. And for some damned reason, Lorik thought that stealing a luxury SUV was a perfectly logical decision. How had he survived for so many years? Maybe he truly was immortal and not merely eternally youthful. Because seriously, he was so clueless, he should’ve been dead a hundred times over by now.

  “I disabled the GPS. And the onboard navigation system. No one’s going to shut us down, Darian. Really, do you think I’m stupid?”

  I was going to operate on the assumption that he didn’t want me to answer that. “How did you disable it?” There was no way he could’ve done it. Cars like that were outfitted with microchips and all sorts of technology that I couldn’t figure out.

  “Don’t worry about how I did it,” he snapped. “Get in.”

  He opened the hatchback and jerked his head toward the interior. I took a couple of cleansing breaths—because I really, really wanted to poke him with something sharp—and urged Steve toward the Escalade. “Jump in the back, buddy. It’ll be okay.”