by Kita Bell
“Let’s go,” she whispered.
Brand called Kevin again. “Be careful with her,” Eva ordered Kevin as the Tracker picked up her sister. He just nodded and, thankfully, didn’t say anything as they left the cell.
Like a magnet, Eva’s eyes followed Brand. He crouched before a boy, who was pale and blank eyed, and Eva saw him exchange words with the equally tense father. Then he moved on to the woman…
Eva stopped, surprised.
A human woman. Tilted half-mad green eyes met hers. “You were here too. Before,” the woman mused much-too-calmly. Eva shuddered, not able to hold that gaze as she turned away. Brand pulled up the woman’s bone-thin arm and healed the IV gouges in her elbows; the woman watched. Then she patted Brand’s cheek in an odd, affectionate way. “You remind me of my brothers. Too protective for your own good.”
Eva’s grip on Rainey’s hand tightened as the man – the naked man – hissed and gestured roughly at the hall. “Get back. Guards coming.” He crouched low behind the doors, having apparently decided to trust them for now.
As the others faded along the corridor, Brand turned and strode to Eva. Kevin had already pulled back into the cell, shielding Rainey. “The knife.” Brand’s hand snapped out.
Eva stared. “What?”
“The knife. Hurry, Eva,” Brand snarled as she passed it over. Then he reached up, wrapped his palm over her nape. “Now Change.”
“Why…”
“Change.” Brand’s fingers dropped down, lingered on her Marque. His thumb brushed it through her shirt, short-circuiting the tangle of Eva’s reason, confusion and fear.
Eva hissed as the impact of Brand’s touch rolled through her body…then Changed.
The fight was brutal.
Rohe’s guards hadn’t anticipated them, but they were still dangerous. Brand passed the knife to the naked man, and Eva watched as they worked together, boxing three of the guards into the corner before they killed them. The fourth guard ran for the doors, his hand going to his com unit – and, before Eva knew what she was doing, she jumped on him, ripping his throat out with her teeth.
After he died, twitching beneath her paws, she went quietly off into the corner and vomited.
She could taste the blood in her mouth. It nauseated her, but she didn’t regret killing him. The guard had probably helped torture Rainey.
And her.
Brand crouched beside Eva, running his hand through her fur as he checked for injuries; Eva felt the warm pulse of his healing ability and looked up, shaking her head to tell him none of the blood was hers. Brand’s face smoothed with relief, then he murmured, “Stay safe, silver tigress.” Eva stared at Brand, startled by the name, but he was up and moving before she could bat at him for the blood that covered his side.
And that, Eva knew, was his blood. She could smell it. Eva growled softly and padded after him, sniffing his injury as he spoke with the naked Kaspian and Kevin. The male Kaspian and his son stood by, their expressions limp and vacant as they watched. Kevin was holding her sister, so Eva butted her head at Brand’s hip until he looked down; his face softened as he dropped his hand to ruffle her fur. “It’s just a flesh wound,” he said quietly. “I’ll heal it in a bit.” He turned back to his conversation.
Eva met the human woman’s gaze. “Are you real?” the woman asked, pale green eyes full of fascination, and Eva just growled, oddly sorry for her. Humans had no place in this madness.
Brand took his hand away. “Okay, time to go. Stay in tiger form, Eva. Stick with Rainey and Kevin.”
There were more guards on the stairs. Eva pulled around, trying to stay at Brand’s side as the fighting began again, but somehow they got separated, and Eva found herself ducking sword swipes from a pale-haired Sakai. The male backed her into a corner, the blank-eyed man and his son at her side. The man looked down at Eva and observed, “We’re all going to die, you know…”
…and then he did, the Sakai’s sword through his throat.
His son started to cry and Eva panicked, feeling that same sword bite a fiery streak along her thigh, smelling the scent of her own blood in the air. Then Brand was there, ripping that knife through the Sakai’s throat. “I told you to stay safe, Eva,” he snarled furiously at her as blood sprayed.
Eva didn’t care. She nipped the now-sobbing boy’s too-big shirt, dragging him forward, but he stumbled. Then the human woman arrived, picked the boy up, and made much-too-calm sympathetic noises as they all moved for the first floor.
Eva could smell Brand’s blood, and it frightened her. She chuffed, but he ignored her, opening the door to the lobby to motion them through.
There was another pair of Rohe’s guards waiting, but the naked Kaspian killed them both, clawing out the belly of one while he bit through the throat of the other, tearing it open with his teeth while still in human form. He had a long gash in his thigh, but didn’t seem to care about it any more than the wounds Brand had given him.
Then they were out of the Asylum and running through the snow for the cover of the trees.
“You have a plan now, meu amigo?” the naked Kaspian male gasped as they broke through the pines, and Brand growled something Eva couldn’t hear. But she already knew their plan: make for the SUV and leave. Fast.
The trees rustled to Eva’s left and she whipped around with a snarl, lashing out with her paw before she recognized Joshua’s scent. Eva pulled her blow, stumbled, then rolled to her feet to resume running, Joshua at her side.
“The Winterbourne?” Brand snapped, and Eva realized that Kieran wasn’t there.
“Lost him on the second floor,” Joshua replied. “Couldn’t wait. You did a number on the guards, cousin.”
Brand grunted as they came around the edge of the trail to where the SUV was hidden. “Had help.”
Joshua set to ripping the camouflage cover from the vehicle, wadding it in his hands as Brand unlocked the doors and started shoving people inside. The human woman took the sobbing boy on her lap and climbed into the back, and the naked Kaspian swore and accepted the camouflage cover to wrap around his body as he climbed in beside her. Kevin was laying Rainey across the inner aisle as Eva Changed back to human form.
She flinched as frigid air and hard snow struck her skin, hot blood from her wound burning down her leg. Eva turned back to the Asylum and crossed her arms over her breasts, watching the trees. The sky was dark, the stars obscured.
There was no sound of pursuit.
“Brand wants you to use this,” Joshua dropped a large fleece blanket around her shoulders. Eva pulled the black material tight, grateful for the warmth. “You need to get into the vehicle, Eva. We need to leave soon.” Behind them, the SUV started, and Eva knew that Brand was already in the driver’s seat.
“We have to wait for Kieran,” she said softly, frowning at the too-quiet treeline in the darkness. “I owe him. At least that.” Much more.
It was Kieran who had left her in the snow for Brand, after all.
Joshua hesitated, clearing his throat. “Eva…”
“When we escaped, he went back for me on the road. He could have let Rohe’s guards retake me, but he didn’t.” Eva studied the dark trees through narrowed eyes; a hawk fluttered in them, rising and falling. She thought she saw a faint glow from the distant Asylum, as if the generators had kicked back in. “Just a few more seconds, Joshua.”
Her toes were frozen. The cold wind kicked snow up beneath the blanket so that it melted on her legs, trickling down her calves as ice water. Joshua’s hand settled on Eva’s arm like a lead weight, and Eva heard Brand shout an order at them from the vehicle.
“A minute!” Joshua told him. Then they both stared at the trees, waiting.
An explosion shattered the night, rumbling the ground beneath her feet and smashing her back. Eva felt it with her toes, her ankles, all the way up her legs to her spine as her hair stood on end. The low black sky above the trees lit orange, then turned a dull throbbing red.
“No…” Eva fl
inched as Joshua cursed and said, “I thought he might do that.”
Realization pooled in Eva’s chest like molten lead. She shoved forward, against Joshua’s hold. She didn’t know when he had gripped her shoulders. “We have to go back for him,” she gasped, shock and horror pulling together into a sick sort of realization, “Kieran went back for me. We can’t just leave him…”
“Eva, I smelled explosives on him earlier.” Joshua’s voice was quiet. “I doubt there’s anything left of him to find.”
Eva stared at him, then turned to swipe at his hold. “He can’t do that.” Distantly, Eva understood her voice was shrill – stunned. She clawed at the hands restraining her. “We can’t just leave him there. We have to…”
Another pair of hands found her shoulders. A different pair of arms wrapped around Eva. A large warm frame bracketed her body as she struggled…then Eva pulled the familiar scent of sunlight and freedom into her lungs, seizing onto it like an anchor, and forced herself to steady. She was shaking. She couldn’t stop shaking.
She turned around and buried her face in Brand’s chest.
“We need to leave, Eva,” Brand said. His voice was a low rumble against her.
“He came back for me, Brand. On the road. That night,” Eva whispered, needing him to understand.
A pause. Then gently, “I know. But I don’t think he would want you to go back for him, Eva.”
The words struck Eva, lodged through her heart like a blade. She slumped against Brand, abruptly feeling all the cold of the night, the snow in her hair. The hot tears on her cheeks. “Why would he do that?” Eva whispered, and heard the stark note in her own voice. “Why would anyone do that?”
Her mother had done that. She didn’t understand. She would never understand. Life was too important to throw away. Too amazing. It held too much, it was too full.
Brand’s head dipped and he kissed her neck, her cheek, as if he heard her unspoken thought. “Because they were broken. They could no longer see life.” His warm breath tickled her ear, pulling her toward the heat of his own body, the heat of his comfort. She smelled the blood from his injuries. “I’m sorry Evita, but we must go. Your sister needs a healer. We need to avoid Rohe’s remaining guards. We aren’t done yet. Not tonight.”
The reminder of Rainey jolted Eva. She straightened, fighting the horrible wooden feeling that was slowly invading her body. Eva took a grip on Brand’s coat, fisting her fingers into the soft leather and breathing in his necessary closeness. She tried to wrap that sensation around herself, through her.
She needed him. She needed him.
But right now, not for sex.
“Okay,” Eva breathed, a bare gasped breath as she pushed away and forced her half-frozen legs to steady. She climbed into the SUV, reaching through the blanket to grip her sister’s still, thin fingers. “Okay.” Her voice shook. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
They dropped the human woman and the Kaspian male off at a bus stop in Buffalo. The human woman insisted that she return to Chicago, and the male promised to get her there. Joshua had passed the man spare clothes from Brand’s luggage as they drove.
“You need anything?” Brand asked, and Eva watched as he sized the large male up. The pants were a bit too short, the shirt too tight. He had wrapped his feet in a shredded blanket, binding them against the snow, but they looked awkward.
The man snorted. “A hundred bucks and two tickets to Chicago. And perhaps a visit from the toothfairy so I can get this god-awful taste out of my mouth,” he grimaced, and Eva gave a small reluctant smile at his expression. “Take care of your sister, silver eyes,” the male nodded at her, and Eva gave a cautious nod in response.
“Take this instead,” Brand pulled out his wallet and passing something over.
The man looked down, and his gaze narrowed. “It’ll be a while before I can pay you back.”
“No payback necessary. Buy yourself some shoes. And some different clothes. If you live, we’ll meet again. You can worry about paying me back then.”
The male flashed a dark grin. “Yeah. I’ve heard that one before. Usually from my mother, though.”
Joshua snorted. The male turned and extended his elbow to the tiny human woman. “You ready to go, little bruxa?”
She patted his arm and gave a vague, fey smile that still managed to be wicked. “Of course, big man.”
The male choked, Joshua laughed, and Brand shook his head as they drove away.
They took the small private jet Seth had sent to Buffalo International. Samuel was waiting for them on board; Eva almost didn’t recognize him in his dark hunting boots, black military pants and a gray canvas coat. It was zipped up to a red scarf. Eva stared at the scarf before she felt Samuel’s golden eyes rake over her to settle on the boy, then Brand, and finally back to Rainey.
Samuel cradled her sister against him as they strapped in for take off. A Kaspian female that Eva didn’t know moved to fasten the boy in, but Eva mostly ignored them; instead, she watched as Samuel peeled off a glove and wrapped his fingers around Rainey’s cold thin wrist, then his gold eyes went distant and unfocused, almost seeming to burn.
For the first time in days, Eva relaxed. Somehow, she knew Samuel was helping her sister. He might not be friendly, he might not look like he was doing anything, but he was a healer.
Brand came out from the front of the jet where he had been speaking with the pilot. “You warm enough?” he asked, crouching before Eva to run a hand over her thigh. She was wearing the spare clothes she had managed to wriggle into in the SUV – Eva nodded.
She wasn’t really. But right now, she wanted to feel the cold.
She needed to – because she needed to think.
Brand looked at her and seemed to sense the lie. He touched her cheek, then sat in the seat to her right, pulling her hand into his larger one as he looked out the window.
There was a distance between them, as tangible – yet surmountable – as the plush armrest. But the decision to cross that distance, Eva knew, was hers.
As the plane took off, bumping steadily down the runway, Eva studied Brand’s profile. She noted the clean sculpted lines of his jaw, the strength of his arms and face as he sat beside her.
Eva contemplated. She examined herself, her life, and compared it to the past weeks. What do I want? Really, truly want? No, not want – need.
Eva leaned back and closed her eyes. She touched her fingers to the Marque on her breast and tightened the fingers of her left hand within Brand’s own.
Stupid question. She already knew.
Eva woke to the sound of her sister screaming, and immediately pulled herself out of the chair and into the infirmary bed to wrap her body around Rainey’s. She had fallen asleep.
Rainey cried out, jerking away, and Eva shushed her, stroking her fingers over her sister’s short, cropped hair. It was cut even closer than hers had been. “Rainey. Rainey, it’s me. Eva. Smell me, see, it’s my scent,” she waved her wrist before her sister’s nose, waiting until Rainey found her scent, then caught her sister as Rainey convulsed, groaning as she almost rolled from the bed.
Her sister’s eyes were half-open, glazed with a dull misery that caught and ripped Eva’s heart. Rainey didn’t know her. Her.
“Rainey,” Eva hissed again as her sister whimpered and rolled away. God, Rainey looked so much like their mother.
Terror flooded Eva. It was acidic, powerful. Frightening.
Eva closed her eyes, tears burning behind the lids.
She was so tired of being afraid.
There was a clatter on the other side of the bed, startling Eva so she looked up into the pinched white face of Brand’s sister. Nikandria gave a bare ghost of a smile. “Glad you’re back,” Nikandria whispered as she raised the arms on the hospital bed, locking them into place around Eva and her sister.
Rainey was still now as she stared blankly up at the ceiling. It was obvious she wasn’t aware of anything. Eva shuddered at that look, then sat up to kneel
beside her sister; she raised her fingers to close Rainey’s eyes.
“What’s wrong with her?” she dropped her hand to tug aside the cotton gown. Rainey’s skin was fresh pink where Samuel had healed her. “Is she…does she need more healing? More rest or time? What does she need?”
Eva had never needed to be healed like this. She’d never had injuries like Rainey had. Not even from Rohe. She didn’t know what to compare this to.
Nikandria hesitated, looking as if she were about to speak, then reached out and tugged Eva’s fingers into her own. “Come on, Eva. This isn’t a good place to rest. Let’s take you back to your room.”
A stark dread crystallized in Eva’s chest. “What did Rohe do to my sister?”
The words emerged a thready hiss, not the growl Eva intended. She tightened her grip on Nikandria’s hand, fingernails sinking into flesh so she smelled blood.
“Tell me. What did Rohe do…”
Nikandria raised her free hand, cradling Eva’s face in the same way Rohe had.
The gesture sent a jolt of pure white fear through Eva’s mind, so that her breath choked in her throat and everything spun to a halt.
The next she realized, she was half out of the bed, gripping Nikandria’s silk shirt in her fist so the neckline was torn. The old fear clawed like a feral beast through the pit of her stomach, fighting to escape.
“I’m sorry, Eva,” Nikandria whispered, sounding so genuine that it arrested Eva’s thoughts, and then Brand’s sister stroked her thumb along Eva’s cheek in a gesture that – wasn’t – Rohe’s. No, the gesture was so like Brand that Eva found herself caught in an entirely different way…
Nikandria closed her purple eyes, tightened her grip on Eva’s jaw – and all of Eva’s terror drained away until all she was left with was a dull, numb, achy feeling in her heart, as if she had just finished a long bout of crying.
Nikandria had taken Eva’s fear.
Eva’s breath rasped from her lungs. She sat, half-hanging over the rail of the hospital bed.
Maybe it should have frightened her. But, in that moment, Eva was just relieved. Because, finally, she could think. I haven’t been able to think in so long…she needed to think. It was like she was awake, like all of the fear and worry that had been blotting out everything else in her life had faded enough that her own thoughts could just…fall into place.