by D. C. Gambel
“Actually I think I do.”
“Derek, please. Just…” I exhaled a frustrated breath. “It was a kiss.”
“Evie,” he groaned making it obvious that he wasn’t up for discussing it and began gathering his books and paper once more.
“Seriously, Derek. It’s not that big of a deal. We kissed. We got the information we needed. There’s no need to avoid me.”
“You think I’m avoiding you because we kissed?” He narrowed his blue gaze at me. “I’m a big boy, Evie. I know why it was necessary.”
“Then why? Why avoid me?”
He groaned rubbing his palm down his face. “Because the last time I kissed you, it got me a broken nose and a shaky relationship with a friend of mine. And this time I was pissed and got carried away just to spite him. He saw our reactions, Evie.”
“Derek,” I sighed afraid to hurt him but he had to know. “When I kissed you—”
His head bowed. “I know you were thinking about Cam. I felt the instant you melted.” He took a deep breath and released it. “He’s a lucky bastard, but I can’t be around you right now. My walls came down. Those feelings I have for you, that I put behind them, came flooding back. I need to get them under control, because he’ll know. Anytime I look at you with anything other than comradeship, Cam will want to bash my face in remembering that I know how your lips taste.” I swallowed hard feeling a little uncomfortable at his statement, especially with how his eyes darkened, but knew he was right. Cam had refrained thus far, because he was avoiding Derek just as much as Derek was avoiding me. If he saw a glint of lust, or anything other than how Derek looked at him or Ty, Cam would surely break his nose again.
I nodded. “Don’t leave.” I held up my hand halting his movements. “I’ll go.”
He watched me curiously before nodding. “I am sorry, Evie. I’ll fix this.”
I wanted to believe him, but I wasn’t sure if there was a way to ever get back to BC with Derek.
Alone in the library a few days later, our research still hadn’t turned up anything promising, when Ty stormed into the room startling me.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” he demanded taking in my yoga pants and tattered t-shirt.
“Dressed?” I wondered. I hadn’t been aware of any plans for the evening. The guys still believed Asmodeus wasn’t the right avenue to venture down to confirm if Shane had the blade, so research was the only game in town.
“You’re on patrol tonight,” he stated.
I shook my head. The guys knew that Derek and I weren’t in a good place right now. After our talk we’d barely been in the same room together. “I thought you were trading with me.”
“I did. Tuesday. It’s Saturday. You’re up.”
“Ty,” I called out when he tried to leave. “Derek and I…”
He held up his hand halting me. “Derek,” he yelled. My eyes widened unsure his motives. A moment later Derek walked in dressed in his armed get up. He tensed the moment he saw me, which didn’t go unnoticed by Ty. “You and Evie are on patrol.” When Derek opened his mouth, I’m sure to argue, Ty held his hand up in the same manor as before. “I know, but I’m done enabling you two. Everyone needs to get their shit together. We don’t know what Shane is up to. We don’t know what the Blade of Sin is being used for. We all have to work together. No exceptions.” He focused Derek and then me making his point clear. “I can always send Cam along with you.”
“No!” We both said in unison.
Ty’s lips twitched as he struggled to hide a smirk. “Then get it together,” he said then was out the door leaving Derek and I alone in the library.
“I’ll, uh,” I mumbled nervously, “go get dressed.”
Derek nodded curtly before following the same path as Ty.
Heading to my room, I found Cam there packing a bag of weapons. “Hey?” I asked reaching for my leather pants and jacket hanging on the back of the closet door. “What are you up to?” His gaze lingered on me, watching my fingers slip into the waistband of my yoga pants carelessly sliding them down my legs.
Swallowing hard, he met my brown gaze. “I got a lead on the vampire that commissioned Tom.” He lowered his eyes and began packing once more.
“You’re not going alone, are you?”
“Evie,” he smirked. “I’m a big boy. I can handle it, but no. Ty wants to tag along. Until we know why Shane wants the Blade of Sin, we all need to be extra careful.” He eyed me curiously as I slid into my leather pants. “I guess this means you’re on patrol with Derek.”
“That’s not a problem, is it?” I asked yanking my t-shirt over my head intentionally before going to the dresser to grab a camisole. Cam’s arms wrapped around my waist, yanking me to him before I ever heard him move.
“Not at all,” he growled in my ear. The vibration of it shot straight between my thighs.
“Good,” I whispered, but it came out husky. “I’d hate to think you’re jealous.”
“Nope.” He spun me in his embrace until my chest was pressed flush against his. “Because I know it’ll be my bed you’re in tonight.”
“Cam,” I moaned feeling his fingers trail down my spine.
“You better get going,” he stated releasing me. I stumbled from his sudden loss, then took a moment to control the rush of feeling scorching through me. Lust and fury were just two among them.
“Tease,” I muttered, yanking the dresser drawer open grabbing a random cami.
He chuckled with his back to me as he continued loading his bag. “You started it with your strip tease. Plus you’ll just want me that much more later.”
“You think so, huh?” I spat pulling my shirt on. “I’ll have you know, mister, these legs are staying closed tonight.”
He smirked at me as I rounded on the bed. “Even if I do that thing with my tongue you like?”
My cheeks flamed and desire flooded me. I wanted to cave, but I held my ground. “Still no,” I said and was very proud of myself that my voice didn’t waver.
“We’ll see,” he called out after me as I left the room.
I was still trying to hold back a grin when I found Derek at the base of the stairs waiting for me.
“Ready?” he asked.
I hadn’t weapon upped yet, but he held my bag that contained them so I nodded. During the car ride in his Bronco, I placed all the weapons I could while seated. Even he wasn’t completely armed, and wouldn’t be until we came to our destination. The car ride was more comfortable that way.
“I was here with Ty a few days ago,” Derek explained the reason for the trip to the packing district. “There was a lot of supernatural activity so we wondered if they were being drawn to something here.”
“Like the blade?” I wondered.
He nodded. “Like the blade.”
It was a stretch and we both knew it, but we had nothing else to go off of at the moment.
Climbing out of the SUV we grabbed what other weapons we needed. I wanted to talk to him, to apologize for Ty putting us together, but at the same time I didn’t want to bring it up just to remind him about what happened at Phoenix. Instead I put my head into the patrol, keeping my eyes pealed for anything unusual or suspicious when something caught my attention.
“Derek?” I whispered urgently. He paused mid-step, snapping his head in my direction. With a tilt of my chin, I gestured to the horde of supernaturals. I couldn’t tell what they all were, but I could tell that none of them were the same. If I had to guess, I’d say there were two demons, a vampire, and the fourth was some kind of shifter.
“That’s—unusual,” Derek muttered narrowing his eyes at the group. We didn’t approach them instead we choose to observe.
“Come on,” I nudged him when the group began to move.
Derek gripped my elbow stopping me. It was the first time he’d touched me since Phoenix, but I shook off the thought. Now wasn’t the time. “Evie, don’t you think we should call for backup. We have no idea what we could be walking in to. Not to m
ention both our gifts are by touch, and without Cam here to expand yours—”
I shook my head. “They’re following up on a lead. By the time they get here we could lose them.”
“What if it’s Shane? What if he has the blade? We still don’t know what he needs it for—or you.”
“Exactly, Derek. If it is Shane, I want to know what he’s doing here. You stay if you want, but I’m going.”
He groaned defeated. “I’m not letting you go off on your own. Not only would Cam kill me, but I—” His mouth immediately clamped shut and his gaze darted away. Releasing my arm, I saw a mask slip over his face. If I wasn’t so use to when Cam did it, I might have missed it. “Let’s go.”
Not wanting to divulge since I was getting what I wanted, I nodded. We followed behind the group at a safe distance, lucky to be downwind from them so the shifter wouldn’t be able to pick up on our scent.
They came to an old warehouse. It appeared freshly renovated compared to the surrounding ones. Derek and I studied the unusual group who stood just outside of the door. We were too far away to hear what was being exchanged when the door suddenly opened and the roar of a crowd flooded the streets. The band of supernaturals stepped inside and the sound died just as abruptly when the door closed.
“What the fuck?” Derek muttered more to himself than me. “That has to be some crazy sound proofing. Who make stuff like that?”
“Vampires?” I offered. With their ultrasensitive hearing, it made sense they’d want to avoid outside interference when in their nests. “But why have it here?”
“So passersby don’t hear whatever’s going on in there.”
“But what is going on? You think it’s a nest?” After all, with Maya expanding, it made sense; she’d need more space to keep all her underlings.
“I don’t know.” He tugged his phone out and typed up quick text. “I sent Ty and Cam our location. Come on.” He tapped my shoulder to move.
“We’re not leaving, are we?”
“No,” he smirked. “We’re going in.”
Derek and I removed all our visible weapons and shifted whatever we could so it was hidden knowing whoever was manning the door would insist on us being unarmed. We hid what we couldn’t wear underneath some discarded trash not wanting to trudge back to the car and back.
Approaching the entrance, we both scanned the area, but no one seemed to notice or care about our presence. Derek leaned forward rapping his knuckles against the metal door. It was painted a flat black so even in the moonlight, it melted away in the night like a vortex to nothingness.
A sliding slate of metal was yanked open revealing the dull brown eye of what I assumed to be a man with the bushy eyebrow that hung above it. The skin that was visible sagged with age.
“Password?” he asked.
Derek lifted his hand offering the man a hundred dollar bill. Chubby fingers reach out from the small window yanking it back greedily. The metal slid closed for just a moment allowing me to wonder if our offer were accepted before the door creaked open bombarding us with the sound from inside. It was then I realized a second door opened behind the man settling my curiosity as to why we hadn’t heard noise when he opened the window. The space he stood was too small for more than one person unless the second door was opened.
He gestured us in with a smirk. How many others had paid him off to enter? Was there even a password or was the cash exchange the correct answer? As we passed the second threshold, my eyes widened stunned shocked by what I saw. We stood at the top of an arena. Stairs led down to stadium seating, but what was going on in the pit, that the chairs surrounded, was what confounded me.
“Is that—?” I began eyeing the situation curiously.
“A dragon?” Derek offered. “Yup.”
“Fighting a vampire.” I blinked a few times trying to make sense of the scene before me, but no matter how many times I tried to refocus, the display remained unchanged. The crowd cheered when the vampire practically flew onto the back of the blue-scaled dragon with a yellow under belly, sinking his teeth into the long neck. The dragon didn’t seem bothered and I wondered if the rumors were true about their skin being impenetrable. If so, how could the dragon possible lose? “It’s a fight club.”
“Or a fight ring.”
“You think?” I wondered. Were these creatures fighting here by choice? I doubted anyone could force either being to do something they didn’t choose.
“Come on,” Derek nudged me down the stairs to a few open seats. We took them watching the fight unfold. When the dragon ripped off the arm of the vampire and ate it, I tore my focus away from them to reign in my stomach that threatened to expel, and began scanning the crowd. I was surprised by how large a turnout there was. Was this something that happened often? There was a mix of supernatural beings among the onlookers, which in and of itself was unusual. Alliances and truces had no part as the beings banded together in their similar appreciation for a good brawl.
“That’s it for Master Vlad,” the announcer appeared taking up position in the pit below. “Our victor is Flaming Drake.” The crowd’s cheer was earsplitting. The announcer raised his hands quieting them. “Now comes the time in the evening were we seek out new challengers. Who thinks they have what it takes to unseat tonight’s champion?”
“I do,” someone called out. Whispers around the crowd broke out. I guess no one ever challenged the champ or, perhaps after the display the dragon had put on, the audience believed the challenger was insane.
“Come on,” Derek whispered. “The guys are outside. We have to meet them before Cam comes in.” Seeing my brow knit he went on to remind me. “His power over War could influence the crowd. In this emotionally fueled area, it wouldn’t take more than a whisper of his gift to have them going ape shit.” He grabbed his phone again. I hadn’t heard it alert over the crowd. “We gotta go. They’re trying to get in.”
Derek and I stood. Without drawing too much attention to ourselves, we rushed briskly to the door.
“Done so soon?” The doorman asked with a grotesque smirk. “I figured you two wouldn’t be able to stomach it. No refunds,” he stated opening the doors for us to exit.
A pacing Cam came into sight first followed by a tense Ty.
“Evie,” Cam sighed. I smirked at him reassuring that I was all right. It took me a moment to realize the noise hadn’t cut off. I turned around to see Derek talking with the doorman, but over the thunder from inside the arena, I couldn’t make out what was being spoken. A few seconds passed and Derek crossed the threshold as the door immediately sealed shut behind him leaving the street quiet once more.
“What the hell is going on in there?” Ty wondered having heard the roar of the crowd when we exited. Only to have the noise cut off the instant the door closed.
“Not here,” Derek stated. After grabbing our discarded weapons we headed towards to the Bronco. “We think it’s a supernatural fighting ring.” Derek held up a business card. “As crowded as it was in there, it’s super exclusive. They change the location, time, and fighters. They have a call list for their followers. You get an hours notice to arrive at the predetermined location. You don’t know who’s fighting until you get there.”
“As entertaining as that sounds, what does it have to do with us?” Cam asked coming to stand beside me.
Derek shrugged but even I could visibly see the sarcasm radiating off of him. “Oh, I don’t know. A mass gathering of supernatural beings doesn’t sound like our thing at all.”
Ty sighed. “That’s not what he meant Derek. Yes, a gathering of that size does sound unnerving, but what do you propose we do? They’re not violating anything. We can’t just wipe them out for watching a fight or gambling on it.”
Derek released a heavy breath. “I don’t know. It just feels wrong.”
“I know.” Ty added sympathetically. “We’re horsemen. We’re meant to want to stop the evils in the supernatural world. I can understand your concern, but unless they’re using
humans or kidnapping supernaturals, we leave this alone. Agreed?” He glanced around at each over us. Both Cam and I replied with a nod. Derek hesitated. “Derek?” Ty pressed. Reluctantly, he nodded too.
Chapter 13
“Fuck!” Ty yelled. I was sitting on my bed with my laptop attempting to distract myself. We’d been researching for days with little to show for it. Quickly, I was on my feet racing towards the library when another resounding curse flew towards me. “Mother fucker!” Ty wasn’t one to spew profanities the way the rest of us might. So the fact that he was, made me immediately alert.
“Ty,” I called out stopping short when I saw he was perfectly fine hovering over an old book. When he glanced up at me, his eyes spoke more than any words could. “You found something?” I approached slowly as Tyler still hadn’t moved. His mouth was agape and my heart immediately sank realizing this was not a good reaction. Swallowing hard, he nodded slowly, offering me the book.
I scanned over it unsure why this was significant. “The Spear of Destiny?” I wondered squinting my eyes studying the contents. It wasn’t making sense. We were searching for information on the Blade of Sin, not a spear. I knew what the spear was. After joining the horsemen, I had become quite familiar with the bible and other holy tomes.
“Evie,” Ty began when he realized I didn’t understand the significance. “The blade is the spear.”
“What?”
“If you were trying to kill God in his earthly form, what would you have used?”
I shook my head. “Jesus was already dead when the spear pierced his side.”
“But if you wanted to be sure…”
“That’s a great theory Ty, but—”
He pointed to a passage that explained tests that had been run in secret. The spear had dated older than Crist’s death. It made its appearance briefly into the world before vanishing again. The one the world claimed was the spear was actually a fake.