“But we should all be together, then. I don’t like the idea of him going off—”
“With his Prime? They’ll be fine, baby. We won’t be far away—within easy Misting distance, remember? He just didn’t want to call too much attention to himself, and I don’t blame him.”
David signed, dissatisfied and a little irritated—he hated not being in charge. “He says he doesn’t want to be coddled, but that’s exactly what he needs. We have no idea what this will do to him. Just this once, this first time, he should let us…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I don’t like it.”
“There will be guards all around the area. We’ll be a block or less out of earshot. The second anything looks wrong Dev will call us. And we’ll all have the whole rest of the night together to help him deal with whatever comes up. It’ll be fine.”
She had to wonder, falling into step beside him on the way to the garage, if his agitated mood was due to Japan, Nico, or the Moon itself—they’d both learned to manage the hunger more skillfully over the months, but it still left them both pretty miserable and stressed out. He’d been handed an extra helping of worry he hadn’t really needed…but still, there was something she didn’t like in his behavior. He was too edgy, even bad-tempered, which wasn’t like him at all. He was practically glowering by the time they reached the car.
Nico and Dev were already there, looking gorgeous as always, though Nico’s face betrayed no little anxiety of his own. Deven was staying close to him, keeping a hand on his arm, holding him steady both inside and out. Really, David had nothing to worry about; Nico had come a long way in the last few weeks, and as long as he had his Prime he’d be fine.
The ride into town was mostly silent. Dev looked from David to Miranda, raising an eyebrow; she shrugged very slightly.
“Have you spoken to your mother tonight?” Miranda finally asked to break the tension.
Nico looked at her; he, too, had been watching David with narrowed eyes. “Not tonight. As of yesterday she was doing well—they are trying to organize a new Enclave, of sorts, and want me to be the liaison between them and the vampires, which I suppose is progress.”
“They should ask you to lead it,” David muttered, eyes on his phone. “They owe you that much.”
Nico smiled. “I am not like you, my Lord—I have no desire to lead and certainly not the talent. I was never good at working in the spotlight.”
“I’ll bet you would be better at it than you think,” Deven told him.
“Perhaps. But I think I shall leave it to my mother to keep the refugees organized. She says everyone is coping surprisingly well; there have been a few emotional breakdowns, as you might expect, but the remaining Healers are watching over everyone and attending to whomever needs their help as quickly as they can. As I understand it they have been enjoying an amiable information exchange with Mo down in the clinic.”
Miranda grinned at the mental image. “How about the babies? And your baby, Dev?”
“She’s not my baby,” Deven said shortly—almost a snap but not quite. At her expression, he looked out the window for a second before saying, “Sorry. Just…I want to know that she’s being taken care of, of course, but I think it would be best if no one knew we were kin.”
“Why not?” She squeezed his knee. “You love kids—I’ve seen it. You don’t have to be her dad or anything, but you could at least have a relationship of some kind. Every kid deserves a freaky aunt or uncle.”
“I don’t think so.” He wouldn’t look at her, but she didn’t need to see his face to know what was there.
Instead she met Nico’s gaze. He half-smiled—he agreed with her. If their suspicions were correct and Deven’s mother had been taken by Morningstar to be used in some kind of blood ritual, he might never have a chance to know her; Inaliel might be all the blood kin he had left, and while he could pretend that meant nothing to him, centuries of longing to know more about where he had come from and what his life had meant to the family that had given him away were hard to shake. At least if he got to know the little one he might have a chance to do better by family than they’d done by him; it might help him gain some kind of closure, since fate clearly wasn’t interested in helping him otherwise.
She smiled back at the Elf. Let fate be a jackass; Miranda and Nico were far more stubborn.
“Here we are, my Lady,” Harlan said. “The address you asked for.”
“Thank you, Harlan,” she replied. “Okay, boys, let’s go.”
She expected Nico to grow tenser once they’d gotten out of the car, and she was right; he grew visibly more rigid and shrank back a little against the side of the car despite Deven’s arm trying to draw him forward.
Miranda wanted to stay with them, but they had a plan, and as she’d told David, Nico’s wishes had to be honored—if it turned out he couldn’t cope with his way and wanted all of them, he’d say so, and they had to respect that he wanted to come to an understanding of this himself.
“Come on, baby,” she said to David. “Why don’t you head east and I’ll head north, and these two can go west like we talked about.”
He basically grunted in assent and disappeared.
“What the hell is his deal tonight?” Deven asked as soon as the Prime was gone.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I’ve been wondering that all evening. Stress, maybe? But that’s a little out of character. It might just be a combination of everything. He did just lose one of his oldest friends, after all.”
“He’s not the only one,” Deven pointed out. “Jacob in particular was really tight with Tanaka. You don’t see him acting like an asshole.”
Nico finally spared a smile though he was watching the city. “I doubt anything could make Jacob act like an asshole. Even if he transformed into a literal asshole.”
Miranda couldn’t help it—she burst out laughing. Nico came off as such a serious person most of the time, but he could crack her up with the most unexpected comment…a lot like his brother.
Sudden sadness stabbed her in the chest. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Okay…um…I’ll be right around the corner looking for mine. You know where to go—if there’s trouble just think it and I’ll be here.”
She started to walk away, but a hand grabbed her arm, and surprised, she turned around and met Nico’s anguished face.
“Wait,” he said. “Wait, don’t…”
She folded her hand over his. “What do you need?”
He looked helplessly from her to Deven and back. “Don’t leave,” he said. “I know I said…but would you come with us? Just this once? I think you might…you understand.”
She hugged him tightly. “Of course I will.”
She decided not to worry about whether David would be upset that he hadn’t been asked to stay—he was an adult, surely once he was in his usual mood again he’d understand. It wasn’t that Nico didn’t want him there; he didn’t want any of them there, to be honest. But he knew he couldn’t do it without Deven, and Miranda shared his feelings about the killing—not to mention her empathy would be a grounding force and a nurturing one.
She kept a little distance, though, behind them as they left the car and headed down the street. They had a very particular set of targets in mind for tonight; David had decided that the only way to manage four murders was if they knew in advance who to hit, so he had partnered with Detective Maguire to get a list of known offenders—violent, if possible—who had slipped through the cracks of Austin’s justice system. The list was surprisingly long, and even if they made it through the whole thing, there were always more criminals wriggling out of the dark…and Texas was a death penalty state with a long backup on Death Row, another possible source of prey for the Thirdborn. Even Maguire had a hard time arguing with that idea given what a quagmire of corruption and wasted taxpayer money the prison system had become.
“Over here,” Deven said. They gathered at the corner of a building just out of sight; Miranda hung back and wait
ed to be needed.
“Do you want me to call her over?” the Prime asked. “Or are you ready to try it?”
Nico swallowed, nodded. “I’ll try. Just…walk me through it.”
“It’s easy. Just fix your gaze on her…good…and then do the same with your mind. Don’t bother with the Sight—the Web is no use to you here, this is all pure vampire instinct. Imagine you’re touching her on the shoulder, getting her attention…good.”
Miranda leaned back against the alley wall, listening, her eyes darting around to check for cameras even though they’d picked this spot because there wouldn’t be any. She’d gotten understandably paranoid about the idea.
A moment later a woman’s figure entered the alley, and Deven guided her into the shadows, one hand on her shoulder and the other on Nico’s arm. The Elf looked like he desperately wanted to bolt, but his hold over the human remained firm. Her face was pleasantly blank with no resistance whatsoever.
Miranda drew closer to provide an extra visual shield between Nico and the rest of the city. “It’s okay,” she told the Elf. “She won’t know what’s happening.”
Nico took a deep breath. “Why is this one on the list?”
Deven moved up next to him, putting one hand on Nico’s back to hold him steady. “She’s involved in a human trafficking ring,” he said.
“Don’t you want to stop all of them, then, not just one woman?”
Miranda nodded. “We’re working on it. The police have been watching her and several others—they can’t get enough evidence to arrest her. Stella’s dad gave David all the information they had, and he’s going to hunt the rest of the group down. We’ll get food, and they can free potentially dozens of girls from slavery. We’re doing what we can to make all this worthwhile.”
Nico nodded, swallowed hard again, and stepped toward the woman. Miranda could feel his hunger as much as her own—they were all starving. No doubt their own need was feeding off each other’s, which made the prospect of doing this every month even more daunting. It was already hard enough…how were they supposed to deal with four times the hunger?
Miranda pulled the human’s head to the side, baring her throat. “Go on,” she urged Nico, keeping the desperation out of her voice. She’d have plenty of time for her own hunt once this was taken care of and they got the Elf back in the car where he’d feel safe again.
She’d always hated to admit how attractive it was to watch David feed—and now she had two more insanely hot boys to gaze upon. Seeing the predator’s razor-sharp senses come over Nico made her entire body feel like it was turning to liquid. She glanced over and met Deven’s eyes—he clearly felt the same way. She could just imagine both of them after they’d fed on a normal night, that lazy satisfaction, the intense relief. It often sent her and David to the nearest hidden alcove they could find for a hard, fast shag against the wall.
Imagining Nico and Deven doing the same was almost more than she could take.
She caught Dev’s grin. Of course he knew what she was thinking. Nico probably would have too if he hadn’t been so absorbed by the matter at hand.
He leaned in and inhaled the woman’s scent. There really wasn’t time for him to put off the bite—every minute they were here was a minute closer to being discovered by the humans—but she didn’t want to rush this one. It was too important that Nico’s first experience was, if not positive, at least not traumatic.
Finally, closing his eyes, he drew a hissing breath that was a telltale sign of canines lengthening, and struck.
She and Dev both moved up close enough to touch him, her hand on his shoulder and Deven’s still on his back. “Slow down, my love,” Deven said softly in his ear. “You’ll make yourself sick, and you don’t want to have to do this again.”
Nodding, Nico slowed down his frantic swallows and Miranda felt him try, mostly in vain, to relax. She had to smile at that—even in his fear of this moment, he was trying to accept what he was, a far cry from the Nico of the last two years. The reason why was standing next to him, murmuring something encouraging in his ear.
Deven, too, had changed in the wake of their long-denied union. He’d taken up his old wardrobe and piercings, and the tips of his hair were dark purple—a shade chosen, she imagined, to match his Consort’s eyes. The old confidence had returned, though not without a subtle difference, some of the hard edges ever so slightly gentled. She knew that all these months of mourning would never entirely leave him—even Nico’s presence couldn’t make up for Jonathan’s absence. Miranda had worried about that, and asked Nico if it upset him knowing there was part of Deven that would be unreachable, and he’d looked at her like she was insane.
“Of course not,” he’d said. “I never wanted, or intended, to replace Jonathan—I want to be something new. Such a loss as his will leave an empty place that cannot be filled. My hope is to help make that place less one of grief than one of beloved memory. But that place is not mine to claim.”
She’d shaken her head. Elves.
The moment had come…Miranda could hear the human’s heartbeat coming into synch with her killer’s. He had perhaps ten seconds to choose. Miranda willed him to remember that this woman was not good, was complicit in horrible crimes and would never stop. Normally they preyed on the innocent, or mostly, but not this time, not on nights like this. This time he’d be the hand of justice when human law was hamstrung by its own—vital to the survival of society—fairness. It might not be a good thing to do, but it was necessary. She wanted him to understand that at a level that all the talking in the world couldn’t touch.
To her immense pride, she felt him make the choice and draw harder from the wound in the woman’s neck. Five…four…three….
Suddenly Nico lurched backward, dropping the human on the ground and startling Miranda so badly she didn’t have time to grab him. Luckily Deven was faster and had an arm around Nico with lightning speed.
“I can’t,” the Elf panted. “I don’t understand…”
“You were doing so well,” Miranda lamented, snatching the discarded scarf from the human’s neck off the ground and using it to wipe the blood from Nico’s face, trying to hide her disappointment. “Just a couple more seconds, and—”
“No,” he breathed, looking dizzy and confused. “I did not change my mind. I was ready. But something isn’t right. Can’t you feel it?”
Miranda and Deven exchanged a glance and, both frowning, sought after the part of the Web that would show the Pair’s new and black-threaded hunger.
She realized then that in the last minute or so her own need had faded, though she’d been too focused on Nico to notice…and now it was gone. So was Deven’s, and Nico’s.
“Where did it go?” Deven asked. “It hasn’t disappeared, it’s…it’s been sated. How is that possible when none of us killed?”
Miranda shook her head, having no answer for him, and said to her com, “Star-One.”
There was no reply. That was strange. “Star-One, this is Star-Two…David, are you there? Something weird’s going on.”
Nothing. Heart starting to pound, she tried his phone. It went straight to voice mail.
Her hands were shaking with foreboding as she pulled up the sensor grid on her phone and said, “Locate Star-One.”
The grid zoomed in, turned east, and showed the dot that represented David, just like normal.
“Vitals,” she said.
Elevated heart rate. Elevated temperature.
“Come on,” she said urgently. “We have to find him.”
No argument from the boys. They followed her out of the alley and down the street—as per the plan, he hadn’t been far away. She wasn’t sure what the environment would be like—most likely a hidden alcove like their own—but without knowing what it looked like she couldn’t Mist there.
The feeling of dread increased the closer they got. Nico, too, was pale and fearful; she’d forgotten that as a Consort he’d have precog now, even more than what he’d had as a W
eaver. Clearly it had kicked in.
“Wait,” Deven said as they reached the dark space between the backs of two restaurants. It wasn’t quite big enough to consider an alley, but she had no idea what else to call it. “Let me go first. Is there anyone else in there?”
Miranda looked at the grid again, but nothing had changed. “No. One set of life signs.”
Dev drew a knife from…somewhere…and gestured for them to stay put. Even if there were no other signs, they didn’t know if the Prophet would show up as an Elf would, and there was no way to rule out some other kind of creature—at this point, who the hell knew what was out there?
She heard him quietly call David’s name, and announce his own. She could see his little dot on the grid moving into the alley as she saw him swallowed by the darkness.
Then she heard him gasp. “Jesus Christ.”
There was something way too close to genuine fear in Deven’s voice. That was all Miranda could take. She charged into the alley, ready to draw Shadowflame but unsure whether there’d be space or having a sword out would be a liability.
Deven grabbed her arm and pulled her back before she could pass him. She started to protest but he inclined his head toward the back of the alley and said softly, “Look.”
She turned and did as he’d said, and shock hit her so hard she could not make sense of anything she was seeing.
There were bodies everywhere.
Dead humans, all with gaping eyes and blood all over their necks and torsos, all looking abjectly horrified at whatever they’d seen last.
And there, up against the wall, was David. He was curled up in a ball on the ground, and the hand she could see was wet with blood.
She heard Nico swear in Elvish, then whisper, “There are four.”
She stepped over the humans and dropped to her knees beside her Prime, not sure where to touch him—there was blood all over him but he hadn’t shown any signs of injury on the grid.
“David,” she said, and to hell with the blood; she eased one hand in to help uncurl him. A moment later Deven and Nico joined her, each on one side, all six of their hands touching him, offering comfort even if none of them really understood what had happened here.
Shadow Rising (The Shadow World Book 7) Page 5