I looked at my little sister, so tiny, so fucking stoic in the face of what was about to happen. I couldn’t stop this. I had no power to do that. But I didn’t have to let her go alone.
“Danika!” Ma snapped.
As the bell tolled, as Joti crumpled onto the sofa unconscious, I dropped the vial and crushed it underfoot.
“Danika, what did you…do?” Ma swayed, and Baba caught her, dragging her to the sofa and falling onto it with her.
His eyes fluttered. “Safe…Be…safe…”
Nina’s chest rose and fell rapidly. “Dani?”
I held out my hand. “I won’t let them hurt you. I won’t let them have you. I promise.”
She took my hand.
10
An hour to get to a safe spot. An hour to hide. The streets were empty, moon harsh and bright against the ice and snow. Our boots crunched too loudly in the eerie silence.
Were they watching us? Hiding and tracking us? The hour head start could be a ruse. It could be a lie.
Nina’s fingers squeezed my hand tight as we jogged through the night. Our breath fogged up the air in hot puffs of exertion. I had to keep my pace slower than I’d like for Nina to keep up. But we had time. I was with her, and I’d protect her. Hide her. Whatever it took to get us to dawn.
Marigold’s market was around the corner. It was boarded up, but I knew a way in. I’d hidden there from the night denizens before when Killion and I’d done a warehouse raid.
It was number one on my hidey-hole list and the closest to our home.
“Dani, how much farther?” Nina puffed.
“Not long now. Keep going. You got this.”
We cut across the silent road, salted and slushy, and down the side of a house onto a street that housed the local stores that were still in operation. The market was a block away, but Nina was beginning to flag now. Limping and dragging her leg. Fuck.
I pulled her to a stop and crouched. “Get on.”
“What?”
“Get on my back. Now.”
Nina scrambled on and wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Hold on, babe.”
I broke into a run. Nina barely weighed anything, and we made it to the market in less than two minutes. I lowered her to the ground and circled around the back of the store. I had to stop to help her over the debris of toppled waste bins and the crap that spilled from them. Thank God the winter slowed decomposition, so it didn’t smell as bad as it should have.
The way in was at ground level—a broken window that looked into a basement. I’d pushed in the nails to make it look as if it were boarded up, but a hard tug and the board came away.
“Get in.” I ushered Nina through. “There’s a unit under the window. You can use that to step down. Don’t go far. It’ll be pitch black in there.”
Nina hurried through the window. There was a thud followed by a soft cry. My heart jettisoned up into my throat.
“Nina?”
“I’m okay. I’m fine.”
Thank God. The window was just about big enough for me, but a grown man or a member of the Hunt would be hard-pressed to get down here. Killion managed it by morphing into a cat.
I landed on the unit and then twisted to pull the board back against the aperture. It would have to do. Hopefully, no one would come this way, and if they did, they wouldn’t look too hard at the board.
“Dani?” Nina’s voice sounded small and scared.
“I’m here, babe. One second.” There were matches and candles in the unit. Killion and I had stocked this place and our other haunts with supplies. “Here we go.”
I lit a candle, and the room bloomed to life. Empty crates lined the wall. There was a table and a couple of chairs, an old pack of cards, a few board games, empty shelves that had probably held extra stock, and a rusty sink with exposed pipes. This basement had probably been used as a break room and stock room by the employees of the market at one point. There were bits of paper stuck to the walls—the edges of posters that had been taken down.
Nina stared at me with huge eyes. “How do you know about this place, about the candles?”
I didn’t have the energy to lie to her, and this life-or-death situation loosened my tongue. “Have you heard of the Black Raven?”
Her eyes grew rounder. “You’re the Black Raven?”
“Whoa, way to make a leap.”
“I knew it. I said to Joti, I bet it’s Dani, and she was like, no way could Dani pull that off, and I was like, but she’s always out late on the nights the Black Raven delivers and—”
“Wait up, you suspected me?”
She gave me a shy smile. “I’m proud of you, Dani. Thank you for telling me.”
“But you need to keep it to yourself.”
“I will.”
“Good. Now, let’s get comfortable. We have a long wait ahead of us.”
“You think we’ll be safe here till dawn?”
“We stay quiet, we lie low, and hopefully…”
“What if they find us?”
“Then, we run. I know other places we can hide.”
She looked down at her leg. “I’m not much of a runner.”
“But I am, and I’ll carry you.” I stroked her cheek. “It’ll be okay. I’m with you, babe.”
She nodded, pressing her lips together in determination.
“Come on. There are some magazines and snacks over here.”
I led her to the far corner of the room where some old blankets were bundled up on the ground. There was a paper bag hidden beneath them containing crisps and chocolate from our mini heists. A pile of magazines, old and discolored, was also tucked under the blankets.
I pulled everything out. “Have a seat. You want some chocolate?”
Nina smiled. “I love you, Dani.”
My heart twinged. “I love you, too.”
While stuffing our face with chocolate and cookies and poring over the fashions of the time before, it was easy to forget that we were being hunted. That outside the haven of the basement, the Hunt were reaping.
We were two hours off dawn. Two hours. We could do this, right? If they hadn’t found us yet, then we were safe, right?
“Dani…I need to pee.” She made an apologetic face. “I can’t hold it any longer.”
Shit. “Okay, let’s see…Oh, there’s an old mop and bucket on the other side of the room.”
I led Nina over and then stood with my back to her with the candle raised so she could do her business. The sound of her pee hitting the bottom of the empty bucket was too loud, and I couldn’t help but wince.
“I’m done,” she said.
We were halfway across the basement when the sound of breaking glass cut through the silence like a knife.
I froze and canted my head. The thud of boots overhead followed.
Someone above us.
Someone was inside the market.
11
Nina’s eyes were wide with horror as we listened to the clomp of boots overhead, and then a wail drifted down to us followed by loud gusty sobs.
Fuck.
“Someone’s hurt,” Nina whispered.
And they’d invaded our hidey-hole and were making shit loads of noise, which meant that the fucking Hunt would be here any minute.
I gripped Nina’s hand. “We have to—”
“Help them,” she finished.
She headed for the door, and I hauled her back. “No. We leave now.”
“It’s a kid. Hurt, scared. We can at least get them down here and hide them before we leave.” She implored me with her eyes. “We have to do something.”
“Fucksake, Nina, this isn’t a joke. It’s everyone for himself out here.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Then why did you become the Black Raven? Why help others and put yourself at risk when you could have just pilfered enough for us?”
Fuck her smart brain and her morals and reasoning.
The sobs had quieted now, but my survival instinct told me
to get her out immediately. My morality, however, agreed with her assessment. We had to try.
“Fine.” I tipped my head to the side and listened. Silence. “You stay here.”
She opened her mouth to argue but snapped it closed when she saw the look on my face. It was my way or no way. I handed her the candle. I couldn’t risk taking it with me, but there would be enough moonlight streaming in through the gaps in the boarded windows for me to see by.
My stomach quivered with apprehension as I opened the basement door. The slight creak of the unoiled hinges was too loud, and my wince hurt my face, but then I was through, and climbing up a short flight of stairs. There was a door at the top and then a corridor. Left was to the toilets, straight ahead was to the shop floor.
The door to the corridor opened without a creak. The world beyond was gray and dark, but enough light filtered in through the glass portion of the shop door to allow me to see.
A soft sob drifted to my ears, and then a coppery scent filled my nose.
“Please, please, please,” the intruder moaned.
Fuck, it was a kid, probably the same age as Nina. He sat with his back to the wall, legs sticking out, hands clutching the bloody wound that was his abdomen. So much blood. Too much. There was nothing we could do to help him.
“It’s a kid,” Nina said from beside me, making me jump.
I glared at her and mouthed, Get back.
She shook her head, chin jutted stubbornly. “We have to help.” She patted the pack around her waist. “First aid supplies.”
Fuck, I’d only brought my daggers, but she’d come prepared with medical supplies? Smart, but her bandages wouldn’t help this kid.
I grabbed her shoulders, my voice an urgent whisper. “Listen to me. That kid is bleeding out, which means they’ve wounded him, and they’ll have his scent. We need to get away from him.”
“But we can help stop the bleeding.”
“No, we can’t.”
The boy sobbed louder, as if our presence had given him renewed strength. If the Hunt didn’t have the kid’s scent already, they’d hear him wailing a mile off.
“Shut up, dammit. Do you want them to find you?”
He lifted a tear-stained face to look at us, his body trembling. “Help me.” His words ended in a wet sob.
Nina looked at me, helpless tears clinging to her lashes. She knew it was useless. That the wound was fatal.
“Please…” The boy coughed, and blood spattered all over the place.
I managed to pull Nina out of the spray radius. “We have to go.”
Nina didn’t fight me this time.
The boy hiccupped, eyes rolling in pain. “I don’t…I don’t want to die.”
“I’m sorry.” Nina’s voice quivered. “I’m so sorry.”
The blast of a horn galvanized me into action. They were here. “Now.” I pulled my sister up, and we ran.
“Don’t leave me, please…”
He was someone’s brother, someone’s son. I shut down the thoughts.
I had no choice but to leave him.
The Hunt was here, and here was no longer safe.
We made it into the basement, but the thunder of hooves beat the ceiling.
“Dani?” Nina was shaking. “What do we do?”
“We get out.”
I’d pulled the board off the window, allowing the moonlight in. They were after the boy, so we had time to slip around them and get away. I’d have to carry her. I’d have to be fast. What if I wasn’t fast enough?
“Nina, get up here.” I tugged her up onto the unit beside me. “I’ll go first then haul you out. You get on my back and hold on. Got it?”
She nodded, fear etched into every line of her face. No time to talk it through. We had to get the hell away from here. I hoisted myself up and out of the window, wriggling until I was free before stopping to check out the terrain.
A shadow cut to my left, and I flattened myself against the wall, heart in my mouth. Fuck, this was too close.
The horn blared again, so loud it competed with the sound of the blood rushing in my head. Raised, excited voices drifted around the side of the building. Something growled and bayed, and my bowels clenched.
Nina.
I grabbed her wrist and hauled her out before swinging her onto my back.
A shrill scream cut through the air, but I was already in motion, running toward the chain link fence ahead. I leaped, grabbed hold, and climbed with Nina clinging to my back like a monkey. Thanks to Killion’s training, I was able to sail over the fence and land neatly on the other side. I pushed off and ran, diving into the darkness of an alley up ahead. The next hidey-hole was five minutes at a run. I could do this, I could—
The bay of a beast and the clatter of hooves had me skidding to a halt. A huge shape galloped past the mouth of the alley. Nina’s grip turned into a chokehold as I inched my way toward the end of the alley.
Shit, shit, shit. I needed to get across the road to the alleyway opposite, but snarls and whoops told me it wasn’t safe to break cover. Still, I needed to see what the fuck we were up against. Luckily, I had a trick for that. I pulled a compact from my pocket, flipped it open, and held it out so I could check out what was happening via the reflection in the mirror.
The backs of two huge beasts were visible; corded tails tipped with barbs swished from side to side. Hooves beat the pavement, and mist curled up into the air. The riders were hulking figures. One was cloaked and hooded, the other was naked from the waist up, a quiver filled with arrows strapped to a broad back crisscrossed with scars. Antlers rose up from his dark head. The cloaked figure flicked his wrist, and a glowing crimson whip lashed at the ground, leaving a hissing trail of smoke in the snow.
I tilted the mirror and spotted a massive hound.
Baku.
The three of them had someone pinned, but it was impossible to see who. Not my problem. I just needed them to move away, get up the road a little so I could make a break for it.
“Please, don’t hurt us. Please.” The voice was female.
“Don’t beg. Don’t you dare beg,” another female voice said.
“I like this one.” The antlered figure turned his head to the hooded one. “What do you think?”
“Considering the fact Bres has killed a female and a male already, we don’t have much to play with.”
“We only need to bring in six alive. The rest are disposable,” the antlered one said. “And this one has fire. I like fire.”
“I like snuffing it out,” the hooded figure said. “And you owe me.”
“Very well.” The antlered one sounded resigned.
The whips lashed, and crimson painted the snow. Screams tore at the night as the baku growled and pounced. I lowered the mirror, not wanting to see, not wanting these images burned into my mind. But there was no blocking out the sound of tearing flesh or the horrific curdling screams. My jaw ached from clenching it.
Be over, please, be over.
The screeches were cut off by the thud of blade on flesh. Nina made a choked sound and pressed her face into my shoulder, her body shaking with fear.
Silence.
I pressed my back to the wall and held up the mirror once more. The street was empty of beasts, riders, and hounds, but the snow was a churned-up mass of blood and flesh.
“Don’t look, Nina. Hold on, and don’t look.”
I broke cover and ran.
We huddled in the sewer pipe, hidden by shadows. Yes, not the most pleasant hidey-hole, but the closest. I rarely used this spot because—
“Oh, God, it smells,” Nina said, covering her mouth and nose with her hand.
Yeah, the stench clung, and the last time I’d come home reeking, Ma had threatened to burn my clothes. I’d lied and told her some kids had set off a stink bomb in the library. Luckily for me, she’d bought the lie.
But right now, the smell could be our salvation. “The stench will mask our scent. We should have come here first. Your nose
will get used to the smell soon.”
She nodded and huddled closer.
The pipe was unused now, the water dried up. It extended from the old Warner mill that was now used as a government warehouse. We’d be safe here.
Only an hour till dawn. Just an hour, and then we could go home.
“If we make it till sunrise, they’ll let me go?” Nina asked. “They won’t want me, will they? I mean…my leg…”
There was no evidence to support that theory, but rumor had it that the shining ones wanted strength and perfection in the teens they chose to adopt. Six… They only wanted six. The rest they were permitted to kill. Had Nina heard them talking?
“I won’t be one of the six,” she said.
Well, that answered my question.
“The game ends with sunrise. They can’t hurt you then. They can either take you or let you go.”
“They won’t want me.” She said it with a confidence that made my heart hurt.
Did she really think so little of herself?
“I’m glad of my bad leg,” she said. “So glad.”
I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and tucked her against me. “Rest, babe. Just rest. I’ll keep watch.”
The hour inched by, filled with distant screams and the sound of angry hooves. Gusts of icy wind blew into the pipe periodically, and we huddled closer to stay warm. Not long now.
We’d almost made it, and then a shadow passed across the tunnel entrance. I was alert, dagger in my hand in an instant. Nina shrank back as I shielded her with my body, and then a pair of familiar blue eyes lit up the darkness.
“Fuck, Killion.” I sagged as relief rushed through me.
He was here. He’d come to help.
“What are you doing?” he demanded. “Are you insane? If they find you, they will kill you, Danika. You’re breaking the law.”
Nina made a soft sound of distress and grabbed hold of my arm. “What…What is that?”
“It’s all right. This is my friend, Killion. He won’t hurt you.”
“Danika…” Killion slipped closer. “Come with me now. I’ll get you home unseen.”
Taste My Wrath (The Iron Fae Book 1) Page 7