by May Dawson
And Jacob…. He was such a mystery. And such an ass. But I couldn’t help thinking about how he’d promised me that I would end up wanting him. It made me think that he couldn’t stand that I didn’t want him now. Did he feel the same pull towards me that Ryker and Levi did, and he was trying to hide it?
Princess. It was funny that he called me princess when he was so damn mean. But being called princess sent a strange thrill through me anyway, with its possessiveness, even though it was mocking on Jake’s lips. When I was a kid, my best friend Penny’s dad called her princess. I’d always been jealous. Once, when he’d been changing the oil in the family cars in the driveway and we’d been riding our bikes, I had grabbed the filter he’d asked Penny to bring him. “Thanks, princess,” he’d said without looking, his fingers brushing mine as he took the filter, and tears had come to my eyes. He’d turned his head and seen me crying, and said, “Oh, sorry, Ellis.”
He hadn’t acknowledged my tears. What was he going to do? I didn’t have a father of my own to call me princess. My mother told Ash and I that she had wanted us enough for two people; I’d never had a father, not even in pictures from when we were newborns, not even on the birth certificate. I’d found my birth certificate as a teenager, in my mother’s filing cabinet, and I’d pounced on it like it would tell me secrets. But it was nothing but a piece of paper that told my birthdate and hospital, the stuff I’d always known.
Funny how showers always made me contemplative. I cut off the water and wrapped myself in a towel, sitting on the edge of the sink to jerk Ryker’s comb through my snarls until my scalp was aching and my hair was clean and smooth again.
There was a quick knock on the bathroom door; Ryker’s side. “I’ve got clothes,” he said, his voice low and sexy.
I swung open the door, making sure my towel was knotted firmly in front, and saw him toss an armful of clothes on the bed. “Something in here will fit you,” he promised me. He pointed towards the shower. “I’m going to take my turn in there if you don’t mind, while you get dressed.”
I cleared my throat, trying not to think about the fantasies I’d had of him joining me in the shower. I still needed to know for sure that he could communicate with me when he projected, but that he couldn’t just randomly read my brain. Good lord, the thought was terrifying. “Yes. Absolutely.”
His shoulder brushed against mine as we crossed paths in the doorway. I grabbed the towel, making sure it didn’t drop, and I could practically feel his amusement before he closed the door between us.
I was eager to talk with the boys about what we would do next. And to eat breakfast. But while I felt safe in this house for now, surrounded by these rough men who both adored me and would kill to protect me, I worried about the Company out there somewhere. They were still waiting for us. Still dangerous. They would bring us back into captivity if they could. I felt a cold knot of dread every time I thought about how they had tortured Ryker and Levi, determined to get answers from them, and how they had been willing to hurt me as badly as it took to make my powers grow stronger.
I picked through the clothes and pulled on a gray t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans; apparently Ryker’s mom had been a jeans-and-t-shirt girl, and around my size. The clothes were comfortable, and I sat down on the bed, gratefully pulling on a pair of thick wool socks and motorcycle boots that Ryker had left at the foot of the bed. They were a little tight in the heel, but still—shoes! After being trapped in the hospital barefoot, they were a sign of freedom.
The shower was still running in the bathroom, so I let myself out of Ryker’s room and made my way back down the hall. Now, without the haze I’d been in the day before, I could see the long Turkish rug that covered the hall, and the occasional painting that hung on the walls. These were original paintings, I realized as I stared at the brush strokes that made up the pictures, which were of all of men with swords locked in battle with wolves and gray things that streaked at them from the ceiling of dark cottages. I stared at them, thinking that was a hell of a way to decorate a warm and cozy home, but then I smelled bacon from downstairs and heard the low murmur of voices, so I turned and jogged down the stairs.
I was in an expansive living room, with a big leather sectional and shelves full of leather-bound books. The room was warmed by a massive fireplace and there were soft, nubby blankets thrown over the back of the couch. Behind the living room was the kitchen, and I walked in to find Levi flipping bacon at the stove and Jacob sitting at the oak table in the corner, his big legs sprawled in front of him. Jacob was sipping a cup of coffee, but he set it down when he saw me. Golden eyes, more true gold than amber, met mine for just a second, and then he quickly glanced away from me.
I looked down at my jeans and t-shirt. It wasn’t like I was still wondering around half-naked like we’d all been last night.
“Good morning,” I said. My voice came out subdued.
“Morning,” Levi said. “Take a seat. Bacon and eggs and coffee, as promised.”
His voice didn’t give away that he had seen anything strange in the interaction between Jacob and me. Maybe Jacob was always this weird.
Levi crossed the kitchen to hand me a white mug of coffee, our fingers briefly overlapping. “Do you like milk? Sugar?” His voice was low and warm, and I felt some of the tension I felt around Jake ebb away.
“Black is fine,” I said. I’d come to like the bitter taste of coffee over the past few months. Ash and I had a standing date at Starbucks before we drove to high school. I’d been a caramel-latte girl back then. Maybe the occasional white-chocolate-mocha. But after I lost her, I’d started just drinking it black, gulping down enough coffee to keep me awake in front of the coffee maker in our kitchen, trying to chase away the constant fog I’d been in thanks to sleep deprivation. Thanks to my nightmares.
“You’re going to fit in around here,” Levi said.
Jacob snorted. The legs of his chair scraped across the hardwood floor. “Well, I’m going to get in touch with Olivia. See if she’s willing to make a house call.”
“Great,” Levi said. He carried two plates to the table, hooking a chair out with one heel under the leg and taking a seat. He pushed a plate across to me. “I don’t much feel like leaving when we just got home again.”
“Who’s Olivia?” I asked.
“She’s an old friend of ours,” Levi said. “Hacker. She’s been trying to help us dig up more on the Company.”
I felt a distinct, unpleasant thrill of jealousy when Levi said old friend.
Jacob left the kitchen, slamming the door behind him.
I looked at Levi, my lips parting in question. He shrugged. “He’s just like this,” he said.
“Half-angel,” Ryker said from the doorway behind us. “Half-asshole.”
“What’s your excuse then?” Levi said. “You’re full human.”
“If Jake had his way, he wouldn’t have anything to do with the supernatural,” Ryker said. He took a seat next to me, and I couldn’t help but feel the air dance with tension between us, even though he was doing nothing but grabbing Levi’s plate of eggs out from under his fork. He winked at Levi. “Since I’m such an asshole.”
Levi set his fork down. “I was going to get you a plate anyway. Jackass.”
“It’s more fun this way.”
“But he’s really half-angel? Why doesn’t he want anything to do with the supernatural?”
Ryker started to answer, but Levi cut in. “Like I said, sweet girl. I think you need to talk about that with him. Start to win him over.”
“I don’t know how I made him hate me in the first place.”
“He doesn’t hate you,” Ryker said. His shoulders hunched slightly over his food, digging in like he’d been starving for days. “He hates anything to do with the supernatural. Big difference.”
“It doesn’t feel different,” I said softly.
Levi returned to the table with a full plate. He thumped a glass bottle of catsup down in front of Ryker. �
�It is. Promise. No one could hate you.”
I grinned at that in disbelief. “I can give you a list of names off the top of my head. There are people who still want to kill us, right? The Company?”
“The good thing about the Company situation,” Ryker said, “Is that they think we’re valuable. They don’t want us dead. And we don’t care if they end up dead. Gives us a tactical advantage.”
“That’s not chilling at all.” I took a bite of my eggs. They were buttery, tender, melted on my tongue. I realized I’d been starving too, and I dug in with as much of a vicious appetite as Ryker.
“Sorry,” Ryker said, not sounding apologetic at all. “I don’t care about anything but you and my brothers.”
“And sometimes he’s not so sure about us,” Levi said.
Ryker poured catsup out onto his eggs, smacking the bottom of the bottle with the heel of his hand. “So we’re going to attack back at the Company. Convince them it’s not worth it to come after us again.”
I nodded. I hated the idea of hurting anyone, and I hated the idea of coming anywhere near Tom and Burly and the rest of them again, but I didn’t want to live in fear either. There had to be a way to get free from them.
“What about our other enemies?” I asked. “The… what? Dark-something?”
“Dark-siders,” Levi said. He and Ryker shared a quick glance that I didn’t much care for; they were gauging how much to tell me. I wish I could convince them that I wasn’t going to break just because the news was unpleasant. He saw my face and I could see he recognized how I felt. “They’re demons, Ellis. There’s nothing they hate more than angels. Except maybe the Four and their Lilith.”
“Why’s that?”
“Dirty humans—they despise humans—carrying a bit of the angels’ glory they’ve lost?” Ryker shook his head. “They’re a jealous bunch of bitches.”
“Ryker.” Levi glanced at me, looking scandalized.
“Oh come on. I’m not worried about her virgin ears,” Ryker said.
I rolled my eyes. Virgin made me think about my birthday. It was just tomorrow. So close. And here I had been thinking I could use a giant count-down calendar.
Not that I planned to do anything about the powerful lust I felt for Ryker and Levi; I just couldn’t stand them pushing me away because I wasn’t eighteen yet.
Jacob came back in. “Olivia’s driving up now. I’ll meet you guys in the office.”
Ryker glanced across the table at his cup, still steaming slightly. “You aren’t going to join us? Finish your coffee?”
Levi leaned back in his seat, clearly watching the two of them with amusement as Ryker instigated.
Jake glared at him and came into the kitchen just to grab his cup of coffee. He whirled and headed back out of the kitchen.
Ryker shook his head. “All right, we’ll let Mr. Sensitive over there meet up with Olivia. After we’ve talked with her, we can do some training.”
“I don’t love the sound of that,” I said. “Not after what happened before.”
“Don’t worry, Firestarter,” Ryker promised me. “We’re going to start with the practical stuff. How to swing a sword without putting your eye out.”
Chapter 17
When we’d finished up breakfast, I was surprised that Ryker stood and grabbed my plate and Levi’s, dumping it on top of his own plate, and then he carried them over to the sink.
“What?” he asked, as if he’d caught me looking. “My mother may have been a demon-hunting trollop with questionable morals and a whiff of dark magic, but she didn’t raise me to be a slob, either.”
“I’d love to hear all about your mom,” I said. “She seems fascinating.”
“Why?” Ryker nodded at my shirt. “You like her choice of band tees?”
I pulled the t-shirt away from my body to look down at the graphic on the front. “I didn’t even notice. I never heard of it.”
“They’re some underground punk thing. I don’t know, she loved music,” Ryker said. “Taught Levi how to play the guitar.”
“That’s cool,” I said. “I’d love to hear you play sometime.”
“Careful what you wish for.” Ryker turned the water on in the sink and began to scrub the dishes.
“I meant,” I said, “That your mom raised you in the Hunter life, right? Why did she choose that?”
“Born to it,” Ryker said shortly. “None of us had much choice.”
“So how did she know what you guys were? That you were part of the Four?”
Ryker sighed. There was tension visible in his shoulders, but he had promised me answers, and I saw him decide to soldier on even if he didn’t care for the subject much. “The Four. It’s a funny thing. They want… one woman. And they want her completely. No one else.”
“All of you want… one?” I asked. Trying to leave aside that the one happened to be me. “Doesn’t that make things a little… tense?”
“No,” Ryker said. “We don’t get jealous of each other. We just…” he shrugged, as if it were hard to go on. He looked up at me across the kitchen, as if he were appealing for pity.
“Ryker hates to talk about his feelings.” Levi had his arms crossed over his chest, and he leaned back in his chair, balancing it on the two rear legs, clearly relishing Ryker’s discomfort. “You’re torturing him. He’d probably rather be back on the waterboard.”
“Maybe not that far.” Ryker hung up the dish towel and, as he passed behind his brother towards me, casually knocked into spindled back of the chair. Levi sat up in a hurry as the chair went out from under him, catching the edge of the table with one hand and bolting to his feet.
Levi turned on his heel, and said without rancor, “I swear I said I’d kick your ass once we didn’t have to worry about Beefy and Burly doing it for me.”
“Let’s see it,” Ryker said, grinning back at him. He pushed Levi’s shoulder playfully. “Nah, I don’t think so, brother. You’ve got to rest up.”
“Nice excuse,” Levi said.
“I don’t want to beat up an invalid,” Ryker said. “No glory there.”
“Can we go talk to the hacker?” I asked lightly, taking one of their hands in each of mine. I swung their hands between mine playfully, blocking them from each other and their fight.
Ryker shook his head slightly, as if he didn’t care for what I was doing, but he didn’t tell me no. “Sure, Firestarter. Let’s go.”
We walked back through a formal dining room, which had been turning into an armory, with all kinds of equipment for hunting ghosts and more books everywhere, the long dining room table clearly used for study and not for dinner parties.
“Is that a blood stain on the carpet?” I asked.
“It’s not ours,” Levi said. “Wraith got into the house once.”
“Okay,” I said. “That’s comforting. Thanks for that, Levi.”
He opened the basement door for me, and the three of us walked down a steep set of stairs to a long, cool room where there were several laptops at long tables and a row of big-screen monitors mounted on the wall. One of them ran CNN, but the rest were blank.
“This is where we do our planning,” Levi answered my question before I could ask it. There was a low rumble of a police scanner in the corner, and then I realized it was rapidly cycling through different scanners. He nodded at it. “We have a program that looks for keywords—things that are hard to explain. Our job as Hunters has always been to kill the Baddies before law enforcement can try, and get themselves hurt.”
There were voices on the stairs, and I saw Jacob’s legs descending the stairs in jeans, and a girl’s slender legs too. I could hear the murmur of their voices. Jacob’s English accent sounded warm and roguish when he wasn’t near me, and he laughed at something she said, a pleasant rumble of a sound.
Then he came into view, and when he saw me, his handsome face clouded over.
I was getting about done with this.
“Hi!” The hacker said. She was young and cute and re
d-headed, and she held her hand out to me, her face brightening when she saw me. Well, that was a nice change. “I’m Olivia.”
“Ellis,” I said, shaking her hand back.
“It’s so neat to finally meet you,” she said, pushing some springy red curls back behind her ears. “I know these guys have been looking for you for ages.”
I nodded. She had known them for ages. She knew they’d been looking for me. She knew what they were. What I was. She might know more about that than I did. I was still figuring out what it meant to be the Lilith and to be with the Four.
And she was so darned cute.
“Okay,” she said, moving over to one of the laptops and pulling up a swiveling chair. “So I finally had some breakthroughs. I can’t wait to tell you about them. Take a seat, you guys.”
She seemed bubbly and excited and completely unaware of the tension every time Jake and I were in the same room.
“So this nameless Company,” she said. “Oh, Jake. Go turn on that monitor for me, okay?” She pointed with perfect, pink-painted oval shaped nails.
And Jake did what she said, heading over to turn on the monitor. Then he came back and stood next to me, with his hands jammed in his pockets. It felt like he was shooting rays of intimidation without even looking at me. I crossed my arms over my chest and straightened my spine, refusing to give into the impulse to lean away.
She began to prattle on about how she had been able to connect the Company with who they really were by following some kind of financial record. I did my best to listen and to ignore Jacob. He was standing too damn close to me, and I was distracted by his faint scent of bitter coffee and shaving cream, by the heat coming off his body when he was so near to me. These boys ran hot. I bit down on my lower lip and willed myself to pretend he wasn’t there, playing whatever little game he was playing—or maybe he was just happening to stand there. Maybe he was focused on Olivia the way that I was trying to be.