Mr. Reynolds.
His towering stature was once a great comfort to me…back when he didn’t want to use it to snap me in half. So long as he was near, I always felt protected. The very sight of him, of the man I used to call ‘Papa Bear,’ now only made me nauseous.
“What the hell is this?” he demanded, slamming the door behind him so hard the glass inside it rattled. “Humans can’t know about what we are. We are not allowed to take them!”
“No, you’re not,” remarked one of the men holding Carly. “You Reapers may have your own set of rules, but we, on the other hand, don’t. Hence, why Samael hired us. We do the dirty work you precious little kiss-asses refuse to. Besides, if you didn’t want us involving the human, why didn’t you let us take the boy?”
I caught a glimpse of the group in the mirror, and realized they had black covering their eyes. Demons.
“Because I said so.” An unfamiliar voice came from the entrance, but my breath caught at the all-too familiar figure that entered the room.
Reese.
I was ready to lunge forward when my brain finally processed the image more clearly.
No, not Reese.
If not for this man’s matured facial features, French cut goatee, and additional twenty pounds of pure muscle to his physique, the resemblance between Reese and him was eerily remarkable. It was more than familial. It was damn near identical, down to the same almond-shaped amber eyes, cleft chin, and warm coffee-brown hair.
“What the hell?” Blaine’s voice whispered to my thoughts.
I shook my head, as if it would make the image go away. It didn’t.
“I’ve already made a deal with Gabriel. So long as he holds up his end of the bargain, the angel’s son remains off-limits,” declared Mr. Reynolds. “Is that clear?”
The demons rolled their eyes, but nevertheless muttered their compliance.
“What do we do with her?” Syringe asked, gesturing to Carly.
“Did you at least grab Blackburn’s phone?” asked Reynolds. One of the demons nodded. “Then the plan goes as scheduled. Call her. We’ll give Kat enough time to come back to town. Let her crawl out from whatever rock she’s hiding under with that bastard. Tell her you’ll text the address of where we’ll meet up later in the evening. At nine o’clock, we’ll make the exchange. The coven should be here by then. If Kat wants her friend to survive the night, she’ll turn herself over to us.”
Coven? An all new dread seeped its way into my bones. Why would Reynolds of all people need witches?
“And in the meantime?” One of the demons stroked a hand down Carly’s arm, and she blindly threw her elbow into him. He returned the favor with a strike against her cheek. Unable to maintain her balance in her towering heels, the force of his backhand sent her to the ground.
“Put her in storage.”
They obliged, not even bothering to pull her back up to her feet as they dragged her away down another hall. Another one of the demons pulled out a cell from his pocket, and I immediately recognized the red case. It was Reese’s. He scrolled through the contacts, reading off the names, none of which were mine. But one stood out amongst the rest.
“Who has he talked with the most?” asked Reynolds.
“Some girl named Leia.”
Of all things, I bit back a smile, and Blaine just rolled his eyes.
“Seriously? That’s why he calls you Princess?”
I would have shoved him, but I wasn’t about to risk giving away our position. I settled for a smirk. Blaine’s eyes widen in horror as he seemed to realize something I hadn’t. He frantically dug through his pockets, pulling out what I realized was my cell. The jackass had it this whole time?
He hit the volume key, making sure it was turned down, but that didn’t stop the automatic setting from still letting out a low moo as it switched into vibration mode as it began ringing. The three of us may have been out of sight, but that didn’t stop the lobby from sharing in a collective set of clicks. Everyone had just checked the magazines in their guns.
Crap.
“Time to go.”
I prepared to bolt when Blaine grabbed my arm.
“Keep low.”
The three of us took off through the display areas. The building wrapped around, ensuring that we never had our backs openly exposed. I did as Blaine ordered, hearing the volley of gunfire ringing out behind us. Val didn’t miss the opportunity to return the favor, relinquishing as many rounds as he could amid our escape route. Glass exploded all around us as display cases and windows were shot out, and stuffing filled the space as bullets tore through all the various taxidermied animals.
The back door came in sight when the percussive torrent of a machine pistol annihilated the wall ahead. I barely managed to twist the knob of the door beside me, ushering everyone in before the shooter’s aim locked on us. Blaine and I took one look at each other and swept our hands backward. The exhibit cabinet on the other side of the room hurtled across the open space and slammed against the door, barricading it shut.
“Go!” Val ordered, motioning to the window. He drew out another pistol, ready for battle as he reloaded.
“Don’t be stupid!” Blaine grabbed him, trying to haul him away from the door, but his brother shoved him off.
“I’m staying.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
Val muttered something I couldn’t hear over the commotion outside the door. I’d never seen true anger from the Dark Mage, but the wrath stirring in his eyes was enough to turn my blood cold.
“What?”
“The one in charge,” Val roared. “He killed Danika!”
Blaine froze.
“He killed Dani.”
Blaine shook his head. “This is suicide! There’s a dozen men out there, armed to the teeth. What chance do you honestly think you’ll have of getting to Reynolds before they gun you down?”
Bullets tore through the cabinet before weight slammed against the door from the other side. Blaine finally managed to yank Val away as they met me at the window. I finally looked outside, finding that we were on the hillside of the cabin with nothing but a fifteen-foot drop awaiting us below. The only promise was the thick pile of leaves at the bottom. Blaine yanked the window open and helped me as I pulled my legs through first, feeding myself out of the window. I let go and fell into the earth, but I did not stop.
My body landed on the leaves, only to feel the ground give out as warped boards shattered beneath me. Splintered bits of wood and dead foliage rained down on me as I slammed into a cement floor.
“Kat!”
I tried to call out to say I was okay, but my lungs disagreed. I’d knocked the wind right out of me.
Muffled moans sounded somewhere beside me, and I rolled over in panic, seeing that I had fallen through the opening of some kind of storage cellar. A figured sat curled on the cool basement floor beside me, and I could faintly make out her long blonde hair in the dim light. Carly. Rasping for breath, I crawled over to her, prying the tape and gag from her mouth. Garden shears lay in the corner, and I snatched them up, slicing through her other binds. She yanked the heels off her feet, preparing to run. Carly froze though as she removed her blindfold, looking up at the hole I’d made in my fall.
A dark figure lurked over the hole, peering down at us.
“Awww, lookie who I found,” Syringe chuckled, prying open the storm shelter door despite its stiff hinges. Light poured in from above, revealing a short set of stairs going into the cellar below the hole I’d created. The Reaper whistled out, clearly signaling his buddies, as he fixed his gun on us. “Ready to meet your maker?”
“Are you?” I threw my hands up, and the revolver was ripped out of his hold. I thrust my palms forward, watching the Reaper launch backward out of the entryway, airborne. I grabbed Carly, and despite the pain tearing through my lungs, I guided her up the stairs. Syringe was lying in a heap at the bottom of the hillside, amid a collection of tree trunks, and he wasn’t moving.
; “Don’t shoot the Prince!” barked Reynolds somewhere above us. “We still need him alive!”
Glass shattered, and two bodies crashed into the grass ahead of Carly and me.
“Ladies,” Val greeted as Blaine and he pulled themselves up to their feet. Blaine hobbled on what I could only assume was a sprained ankle, and I secured an arm around him as we took off towards the closest hiking path. It didn’t take long for Reynolds’s men to catch up.
A Reaper charged at Blaine, ripping him clean out of my hold. The young Mage drove his elbow into the man’s ribcage before throwing a brutal knuckle into his jaw. The Reaper hit the ground, but swept his legs at Blaine’s ankles, forcing him down as well. The Mage’s reaction was instantaneous. Blaine threw a sharp elbow into the Reaper’s nose, knocking him out cold. His friend arrived a moment later and rushed at us before the Prince could recover to his feet. Val gladly engaged him, but I wound up having to tackle the next Reaper that arrived. Considering I only weighed about one-ten on a good day, I didn’t offer much of a fight as I locked my arms around his neck. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice, seeing as how the Reaper seemed hell-bent on shooting Val. Unlike Blaine and me, he apparently was open season in the ‘killing’ department. I wrenched the Reaper in every direction as I struggled to cling to his back.
He heaved himself forward, almost throwing me clean off. I clutched his neck as tightly as I could, doing everything possible to prevent the man from centering his aim at Val. Desperate, I unlocked my grip, only to dig my fingers into his face. I could feel his skin ripping off as it collected underneath my acrylic nails. The scratches stretched from his cheeks up to his eyebrows, cutting into the Reaper’s eyelids. The man hurled his weight forward, and without my grip on him, I was thrown off his back. The Reaper blinked furiously, trying to see as his eyes teared with blood. Now lying in front of him, I leveled my foot into his groin, and he dropped instantly to his knees. I jammed the butt of his gun into his nose for good measure.
“Is it wrong that I’m totally turned on right now?”
I looked over my shoulder, finding Blaine ogling me with that devil-may-care grin. Of all things, I laughed, feeling an adrenaline rush that left my entire body buzzing. And it only heightened as more men approached. Two Reapers grabbed a hold of me as another advanced with a syringe. Blaine’s takedown moves definitely came in handy, letting me throw the first to the ground before I nailed the other in the sternum. When the third tried to strike me with the needle, Blaine’s own instincts seemed to take over, because my body acted on its own accord. I grabbed his arm, twisting it at just the right angle that I heard a sickening pop as I ripped his shoulder out of its socket. My hand chopped the Reaper in the neck and he hit the dirt instantly. Reynolds’s other men weren’t fairing much better. One of them made a grab at Carly and immediately incurred Val’s wrath as he sent the Reaper toppling off the overlook into the ravine below.
That luck seemed to run out though as twenty-plus men raced down the hillside towards us.
“Get Carly back to the car!” Blaine ordered his brother.
“What about you?”
“I’ve got an idea.”
Val and Car raced off the path, disappearing into the brush.
“You don’t actually have a plan, do you?” I panted, following after Blaine as we darted down the other way, off the trail.
“Apart from getting their attention away from my brother and your friend? Not really, no.”
The confession should have been disconcerting, but the adrenaline seemed to drown out any rational fear the harder we pushed ourselves. Our shoes kept sinking into the muck as we battled our way through the wetlands. In spite of the inhospitable trails, Oakland Leap happened to be quite the welcomed sight the moment we fell out of the brush and onto a paved trail. Rakkin River, which divided the park, rested below as we raced over the wooden bridge.
The scenery was stunning, but not overly helpful. Despite the wintry months, a lot of the trees still had leaves, given that the park was mostly made up of evergreens and pines. It was next to impossible to see anything on the other side of the river. To make matters worse, the sky was now painted in amaranth amid the overcast as the light of day sank behind the treetops. If Reynolds’s men had machine pistols, it stood to reason that they’d probably have night vision as well, leaving us at a distinct disadvantage.
“Over there!” a voice called out.
Quickening footsteps trampled across the floorboards as several Reapers raced over the bridge after us. I yanked Blaine to our left once we reached the other side of the river. The trail winded about the waterfront, and we didn’t dare steal a look behind us as we ran without objective. My feet pounded into the earth so hard it made my feet burn. Something rumbled up ahead, accompanied by a loud horn. A truck! Through the masses of evergreens obstructing our view, the vague outline of a bridge—a real bridge—rested ahead. It was only about a quarter mile away, and with our speed, we reached it in under a minute. Although, the road wasn’t even with the path, forcing us to slog up the narrow, uneven steps of concrete that led up to the bridge.
Something rang out behind us, and Blaine turned around, only to throw me to the ground as gunfire hammered into the guardrails. Either they were ignoring Mr. Reynolds’s orders, or they safely assumed we were harder to kill than initially credited for, because Reapers were shooting at us from below like we were bull’s-eyes at a firing range. To our horror, there wasn’t any traffic heading towards us in either direction, until…
Two SUVs came barreling down the road, screeching to a halt not twenty feet from us. Reynolds, along with five other Reapers exited the vehicles.
“Surrender now, or my men will put silver into every last one of your limbs,” the Alpha declared.
The roar of straight pipes sounded behind us, bringing this holdup to an abrupt end. We all knew they couldn’t risk being seen by pedestrians. Blaine grabbed me, readying to yank me behind him, but I threw him back.
“Kat, don’t—”
The energy inside me soared to its crescendo as my fists balled up at my sides. Every last weapon was wrenched to the ground.
“Stop!” Blaine ordered behind me. I didn’t need to turn to know he wasn’t talking to me anymore. The guttural crackling of the motorcycle came down the stretch, slowing to a halt right beside us, just as the Mage had commanded.
Reynolds stepped forward, and my Omen rune burned brighter as he fetched out a hunting knife from his back pocket. His gaze wasn’t fixed on me. It was on the Mage behind me. So much for rules… My curled hands only tightened, and a chorus of gasps and curses followed as the gravel on the roadside suddenly levitated, along with the rocks off the riverbank.
Nathan froze, seeing my arms shaking from the surge of power as I raised them up. His fingers settled on the hilt of the blade, but I didn’t give him the chance to throw it. The second he brought up his arm, I slammed my hands together in front of me. Every last stone hurled at the SUVs. The men barely had time to drop to the pavement as glass shattered and the paint was stripped off the vehicles. Debris slashed through the tires, and with a wave of my hands, the Reaper’s guns disappeared into the water below. I focused my energy at the discarded knife by Reynolds’s head as he cowered on the pavement, but nothing happened. The runes on my arm petered out, and my legs suddenly felt shaky beneath me.
“Sorry, but we need to borrow your bike,” Blaine declared. “Get off.”
I turned to see the biker beside us do as he was told, and the Prince swung his leg over, gesturing me aboard.
“You didn’t see this,” Blaine whispered to the man.
“See what?” the biker muttered numbly.
“Exactly.”
I got on behind Blaine, wrapping my arms around him. My thighs tightened around his as the motorcycle lurched before we tore off down the road.
Chapter 28
Echo
The cool breeze batted my face as I slumped against the warmth of Blaine’s body, f
eeling the muscles work in his stomach with every turn and bend in the road. Fatigue worked its way over my eyes, and the lethargy threatened to pull me under. A hand settled over mine, squeezing my fingers ever so slightly.
“Don’t fall asleep on me, love,” Blaine’s voice ordered to my thoughts.
I forced my eyes back open, but couldn’t seem to concentrate on any of the scenery until we rumbled our way up to the familiar gates.
“No, everything’s fine,” he said, turning off the engine. I hadn’t even realized Blaine was talking on the phone. “Yeah, I’ll call you a little later. Okay… Bye.”
I tried to get off the bike and wound up stumbling to the ground.
Blaine caught me before I face-planted into the asphalt. “Hey.”
He held my arms, steadying me in his hold. Before I could lift my gaze to him, his lips met mine. I wanted to pull away, but it felt so good. Warmth spread into my limbs, and the relief was immediate. It was like a shot of epinephrine, jolting me awake instantly.
Blaine pulled away, taking the sensation with him. “Feel better?”
I staggered back a step. Not out of exhaustion, but pure confusion. “What the hell was that?”
“I transferred some of my energy to you.” Before I could respond, he simply turned and trotted up to the front porch like it was nothing, disappearing inside the darkened foyer of Haven Crest Manor.
Trying to get my head straight, I followed after him, noting that my legs were no longer weak. He’d offered more than just ‘some’ of his energy.
“Close the door,” Blaine ordered, seeing me lingering in the entryway.
I did as he commanded, putting the lock into place as he disappeared down the corridor. Blaine returned a moment later with a bottle of Johnnie Walker in hand. He shrugged off his jacket and haphazardly tossed it at the chair in the corner before unbuttoning his shirt.
I could only imagine I looked like a deer caught in headlights as I openly gawked at the sight. “Uh…what are you doing?”
“Taking my clothes off.”
“I can see that. Why?”
Covetous: An Urban Fantasy Romance (The Marked Mage Chronicles, Book 2) Page 29