No doubt everyone would think hers and Santiago’s would be a good and fruitful pairing. Too bad he didn’t feel the same way.
Even though it didn’t make sense—Santiago was brash, hot-tempered and swore like a multi-lingual sailor—she loved him. Apart, they seemed so different, but together… Well, they just worked. Or at least, that’s how she felt. He’d made it clear he wasn’t interested in getting married or starting a family. Ever. And because she wanted what her parents had, she wasn’t about to force him.
At least times had changed and society’s rules had loosened. She could raise a child on her own. Human women had been doing that for several decades now and she’d always considered herself to be pretty damn capable. When Lily had found herself pregnant that was exactly what she’d done, even though she’d received a lot of pressure from her parents. She didn’t want to enter into a loveless relationship, so she fought their society’s conventions. It hadn’t been easy, but then what worthwhile things in life were easy? If Lily could do it with a family who disagreed with her, then surely Roxy could do it with no family telling her what to do. It wasn’t like Noah was going to turn up after all these years. Last she heard, he was in Eastern Europe somewhere.
Fifty feet in front of her the forest thinned out. She slowed her pace and stopped at the edge of a large clearing. Evergreen trees that came no higher than her chin grew in neat little rows stretching as far as she could see. Was this a Christmas tree farm or land reforestation after a clearcut? They’d passed a few places like this along the side of the mountain road and that was what Jackson had told her.
Staying within the cover of the forest, she moved along the perimeter. The scent was getting stronger but she couldn’t see a structure of any kind. Either he’d been taken underground or the place was cloaked. She sent a quick text to Jackson with her location.
As an owl hooted in the distance and crickets chirped in the bushes, she debated her options. If the place was cloaked, someone could be watching from inside the force field and she’d never know it. They’d spot her as she ran through the clearing and take her out before she knew what had hit her. And if that didn’t happen and she was able to make it, breaking through shouldn’t be a problem—even if it was set to maximum. But who knew what awaited her on the other side? A Darkblood could be standing there, ready to take her out with one chop of a blade. If they were holding Santiago underground, then there may be only one entrance, making an intruder like her easy to detect. God, these options sucked.
She inhaled the cold air slowly, filtering each of the scents and going over what she knew. The night smelled of Darkblood, but something about it had been bothering her the whole time she’d been tracking it.
Roxy reached into one of her pockets. Please let it be there. But she felt nothing. Shit. Of course it wouldn’t be there. She’d left the pawn shop ring in another coat pocket back at the field office. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was tracking the same woman.
As she waited for the team to arrive, she pulled Grim from beneath her jacket, careful not to make a sound, and she took a deep whiff. Just solvents and clean cotton and Santa Muerte silver. No Darkbloods.
She debated from which angle they should approach the cloaked area and her phone vibrated with a text from Jackson.
Gondola broke. Trying to fix. Don’t go in without us.
Shit. Her heart hammered in her chest and it had nothing to do with her recent run through the trees. They were still back at the ravine? She’d figured they’d almost be here by now. She debated asking which side of the river they were on, but she decided it wasn’t important. She couldn’t wait a minute longer to go in for Santiago.
Hurry. I’m going in now.
Jackson would be pissed, but that was his problem.
She’d have to take the direct approach and hope that no one spotted her. Pulling out one of the smaller blades she’d armed herself with from the panel van, she took one step into the tree farm when she heard a rustle in the bushes to her left. Holding herself perfectly still, she tried not to stir anything around her. A twig cracked and the crickets quieted. Shit. Who was there?
It was as if the entire forest was holding its breath as well, waiting.
One heartbeat. Two.
And then a young buck took a few steps into the clearing. She’d been so focused on tracking Santiago and sifting through Darkblood scent that she hadn’t been paying attention to the various animal scents around her. The buck raised his head and looked straight at her, chewing on a few pieces of grass hanging from his mouth. His golden coat shimmered in the moonlight as he took a few more graceful steps into the tree farm. She caught a glimpse of a doe and fawn in the thick forest behind him. Even amidst all this chaos, life could be simple and beautiful if you just knew where to look.
A shot rang out, piercing the calm like a pin to an overinflated balloon. The sound shocked her back into action. Roxy flattened herself against a tree before the echo had faded. They’d seen her. The element of surprise was gone. Bushes and branches snapped around her as the deer evidently ran off.
Now what? If she waited for the others, Santiago’s captors could execute him. Her only hope was to keep going. It would take them a moment to figure out she was by herself. Maybe she could—
Movement to her right caught her attention. The buck. He took one step and fell.
Whooping laughter erupted from somewhere straight ahead, then, as she watched, the force field cracked and disappeared. There, not fifty feet away, sat a beat-up mobile home, the no-frills kind that contractors used. And on top of it, sitting in two metal lawn chairs, were two Darkbloods, both armed with shotguns.
“I got him.”
“That was a fucking nice shot.”
“Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?”
The door jerked open and Roxy could see someone’s head. A woman. Oh, Jesus. It was the same one from the gala with the hair spray and perfume. Was this Ventra?
“What the hell are you two idiots doing?” She sounded nothing like Roxy had expected. At the gala, she could’ve sworn she’d heard the woman speak with a British accent, but this was pure American trailer park. It was as if she were a chameleon, able to blend in to various situations.
“We shot a buck. A three point.”
“Yeah and you probably alerted any Guardians in the area that someone’s here. Did you even think about that?”
As they argued, Roxy knew she didn’t have much time. If she waited to cross the clearing when the cloaking field went back up, she’d be a sitting duck, just like that deer. Her only chance to get inside was if she acted now, while they were distracted and arguing. There’d definitely be no waiting for the rest of the group now.
Following the shadows at the base of the nearest row of trees, she moved like the wind toward the back of the trailer. When she got within ten feet, a snap of electricity charged the air. She dived inside as the cloaking perimeter became active again.
She crouched near a trash can that smelled like blood. Santiago’s blood. Clothes or towels maybe, soaked in it. She ground her teeth. Don’t focus on the negative, she told herself. Only the positive. This meant he was close. She could feel his presence as clearly as if she were looking upon his face. He’d been tortured, yes, but the nature of his scent was a live one and it was coming from inside the trailer. If only there was a back window or some way to sneak in, but there was nothing, just an unbroken expanse of dirty yellow siding. She concentrated on him now and could feel his pain in tiny pinpricks all over her skin, as if it were coming from her own body.
When she got her hands on that woman, justice would be swift. Grim would be getting a workout tonight.
Roxy? Is…is that you?
Santiago? She could hear him as if he’d just spoken aloud but the words had gone straight into her head.
Where are you? Who is with you?
I’m here. At the trailer. Jackson and the rest of the team will be here soon.
Stay away,
Roxy. The place is…
The front door banged shut with a metallic clank and the whole trailer shivered as the woman went back inside. Santiago’s voice faded from her mind despite her best efforts to renew the connection.
“Bitch,” one of the guys on the roof whispered. The lawn chair squeaked as he sat down again.
“Shut the hell up. She’ll hear you.”
The first one made a sound of disgust. “That’s one fine-looking buck over there. Couldn’t just let it walk around without taking the shot. I couldn’t help myself.”
As the two continued to whisper/argue, Roxy noticed a shadow from the tall trees lying across the side of the trailer. Fighting while in shadow form was difficult, but not impossible. She melded with the darkness again and slipped up the side of the trailer.
She was on the roof now. In one movement, she stepped forward and swung Grim hard. It flashed in the moonlight right before the tip penetrated through flesh and bone. Instantly, the first guy started to charcoal.
“Whaat…”
The second one didn’t have time aim his rifle before Grim struck him in the chest. He was able to get off a shot right before the heart muscle was pierced, but it went above her head and into the trees. His body fell off the roof and began to charcoal just outside the front door.
“You idiots. I told you to—”
Roxy swung off the roof, feetfirst into the trailer, hitting Ventra in the chest with her boots. They came down on the floor together. The woman rolled to her right and something flashed silver. A blade.
Roxy dipped as a blade sailed past her ear.
“Well, what have we here?” Ventra crouched like a cat ready to spring and stared at Grim as Roxy held the blade out in front. “Ah, I see you brought my weapon back to me.”
It made her sick to her stomach that Ventra ever considered Ian’s blade as her own. “You may have had it in your possession once, but it does not belong to you. Whoever you bought it from was not the rightful owner.”
She slashed it in an arc, which was difficult in this cramped space, but the woman sidestepped away.
“How do you know I’m not the rightful owner?”
“Because it belonged to Ian O’Grady and I was with him when he commissioned it to be made.”
The woman tilted her head, her white-blond hair framing her face like a frizzy halo. “Ian O’Grady,” she repeated. “Up until last night at the gala, I hadn’t thought about Ian in years.”
Roxy was stunned. Ventra actually knew Ian?
“Oh, you didn’t know the two of us were acquainted?”
“Impossible. He was my fiancé. That is, unless he tried to kill you once and you got away.”
The woman threw her head back and laughed. “Ah, he didn’t tell me he was engaged. Funny thing is, when men are fucking women they shouldn’t, they fail to mention little details like that.”
It felt as if someone had reached inside her belly, rearranged everything, then pulled it all out. Even though she physically ached, her mind wouldn’t accept Ventra’s confession. Ian would never have cheated on her, and especially not with a Darkblood. “You’re lying.”
“Am I? People are willing to do all sorts of nasty things to feed their own addiction. Lie. Cheat. Steal. Fuck.”
Roxy’s eyes blurred with rage. She shook her head to clear her vision then lunged. Ventra sidestepped her again and swung her blade. Roxy heard the rip of fabric before she felt the sting. Shit. It was silver. Energy leaked out of her, but at a rate that told her it wasn’t Santa Muerte silver. That would buy her a little more time.
“He would never have done something like that.”
The woman’s laugh was harsh. “Then you didn’t know him like I knew him. He was desperate for some Sweet so he gave me his prize possession—that knife you’re holding. Grim. Such a fitting name for a weapon that delivers the bleakest possible outcome for its opponent. Remember that long scar down the inside of his thigh?”
Roxy almost choked. Ian had been gone for weeks on Agency business shortly before his death and when he returned, he had that long silvery scar. “A nasty fight with a vicious Darkblood,” he’d told her when she’d asked him about it. If only her senses were as acute then as they were now…
“I gave it to him,” Ventra whispered. “Things used to get a little rough when we were in bed. I liked to feed from him that way.”
She wanted to call Ventra a liar but the bitter taste on her tongue never materialized. That little voice in her head that whispered liar was silent. So Ian hadn’t been faithful either. But with…with this horrible woman? The enemy? Thank God the man was dead. If he wasn’t, Roxy would’ve killed him herself.
Ventra continued. “That’s why it’s one of my favorites.”
Roxy darted her gaze to the right. Santiago had to be behind one of the doors in the short hallway. She needed to keep the woman talking until the others got here. She had no illusion that she could take the woman down herself without the element of surprise. “Your favorite? Then you sure have a strange way of showing it. Why the hell would you have it at a pawn shop?”
Discomfort flashed in the woman’s eyes before they narrowed to slits. “You…ah…saw it there?”
Busted. Roxy was so done with this. The woman. Ian’s lies. Everything.
She lurched forward and thrust the blade. Ventra arched her back into a C-shape, narrowly avoiding Grim’s point again. Damn.
Roxy’s energy still hadn’t recovered and desperation threatened to unravel her. Where was her team? Shouldn’t they be here by now? She wasn’t sure how much longer she could last. “Where is he? What have you done with him?”
“Santiago? Oh, he’s here. He hasn’t told me what I need to know yet, but he will. Especially now that his wife has arrived.” She said it like a dirty word. “I’d say that’s the ultimate leverage.”
What specific information was Ventra trying to get from him or did it even matter? As the region commander, he had knowledge his enemies would kill for. “He’ll never cave.”
The woman’s smile was one of the evilest Roxy had ever seen. “He’ll bend all right. Just like Ian did. Let’s see. Were you the girlfriend in London, Key West or Milan? He spoke highly of all three of you.”
A bitter taste instantly filled her mouth. The woman was lying. She was attempting to shake Roxy up but Roxy wasn’t biting. The knowledge that she could see through this woman’s lies bolstered her confidence.
“You’re sadly mistaken about so many things. Namely, Santiago and I were never married. It was just a sham in order to find the source of the leak and we did. What have you done with him?”
Insecurity appeared momentarily across the woman’s face then, just as quickly, it was gone. “Let’s just say that I was really pissed off at him and took out some of my frustrations. I’m feeling much better now. Does it bother you that I’ve got another one of your men right where I want him?”
Roxy lunged again. Grim was heavier now as she swung it. Something flashed, clanked against her blade. Grim flew out of her hand, hit the floor and spun away.
The woman jumped at her. Roxy tried to move, but her foot caught on the edge of something and she tripped. Like a vulture, the woman fell on her chest and pressed her blade to Roxy’s throat. Just the feel of the silver on her skin weakened her further.
“How many are with you?”
“What?” Roxy croaked.
“How many of your little Guardian friends will be knocking at my door?” She let the tip of the blade dig into Roxy’s flesh. More energy poured out and her hands dropped from the woman’s shoulders.
“A dozen or more are coming.” A slight exaggeration maybe. But would they get here in time?
Roxy? What’s going on?
Thank God, Santiago was still alive. Had he been unconscious? Was that why she hadn’t heard him again till now?
I’m sorry, Santiago. I’m not a trained fighter anymore. I’m just a teacher. She’s more skilled than me.
She felt a pulling deep inside her body and her fingers flexed. A faint snick sounded off to her right. Ventra didn’t seem to notice it because she raised her weapon over her head, ready to land a death blow.
Something touched Roxy’s hand.
It was Grim. She didn’t ponder how that had happened. With the last of her strength, she grabbed it and swung hard, just as the woman’s arm came down. A sizzle and dull thud sounded as the blade made contact.
Ventra screamed. “Fucking bitch.” She fell backward, holding her arm at a strange angle as blood poured from the wound.
Had the limb been severed? Roxy pulled herself up using the edge of the counter.
The woman’s gaze darted around the room. With an awkward, shuffling gate, Ventra retrieved a dirty towel near the sink and held it to her arm. Roxy saw a flash of white. Bone?
She needed to get the woman to leave. If she attacked, Roxy wasn’t sure she had the strength to lift the heavy sword again. “I’ll bet you’re tired, your energy seeping out quickly. Much more quickly than me since Grim is made from Santa Muerte silver. Frankly, I’m surprised you’re still standing. Guardians will be here any moment and if you’re still here, justice will be swift and merciless.”
“Justice? What is justice?” The woman spat the words like chewing tobacco. “Is it upholding laws…that not all of us believe in? Is it…penalizing those…who chose to live our lives honestly, as we were meant to live? I don’t call that justice. I call that tyranny.”
Roxy couldn’t hide her disgust. “Tell that to the man you killed at the hotel or to the sisters you just abused, because what they experienced was about as far from justice as you can get.”
“I’m not…talking about humans.” The woman peeked at her injury under the rag and hissed. “What’s a few of their lives anyway? They’re able…to reproduce and repopulate…more quickly than we are. They’re like…goddamn rabbits. And just as expendable.”
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