by Dannika Dark
It was time to communicate. I lifted the radio from my hip, pressed the button, and said in a clear voice, “The sky is falling.”
I pulled Finn over my shoulder. My legs trembled, blood rushed to my head, and I stared up the ladder.
“I’m not cut out for this macho shit!” I yelled at the empty room. Thank God Finn was no bodybuilder. Small favors.
“Chicken Little, where are you?” It was Logan.
“Where there’s smoke there’s fi—” The radio tumbled from my hand to the floor. No time. I tightened my grip and began the slow ascent.
My muscles shook like crazy, and the coughing was so bad that I almost dropped him. We reached the top and I set him down, pulling up the slack of the chain. His body flopped lifelessly as I took him by the wrists and dragged him to the opening. All I could think about was how much I wanted to chain Nero to a railroad track.
The building was ablaze, and the heat intensified. Outside of the open hatch was a world of clean air and…
My blood froze. I peered over the edge of my shoes; dropping Finn from this height was out of the question. I stuck my head out the opening and screamed for help.
The cavalry never looked so sexy.
Logan and Adam rounded the corner in fatigues and skintight green shirts with every muscle locked, cocked, and ready for action. Logan’s hair was tied back, and he wore black lace-up boots. I wasn’t sure if I liked him better in those or the leathers, but he was definitely going to have to expand on his wardrobe.
I waved my arm. “I’m going to lower him!”
My eyes and throat burned from the noxious fumes. Finn’s legs sailed over the edge while I held his wrists, preparing for his weight. The chain was thrown over the edge so it didn’t catch on anything, and it scraped against the siding. I anchored a foot against the wall, leaned back, and eased him down.
“Let him go!” Adam shouted.
Trusting him, I did.
Finn dropped right into Logan’s arms. I backed up as a plume of smoke whirled around me.
“Get the hell out of there! Jump!” Adam shouted.
Our eyes met briefly and I shook my head. “Knox. I can’t leave him.”
“Silver, goddammit don’t you dare!” Adam raged.
Knox didn’t stand a chance surviving; there was only one way out, and those doors were on fire. He might already be dead—but I couldn’t leave without trying. I ran to the other end of the attic until I reached the spot above the other hall. The floorboards looked new; thin panels were nailed over the wood beams.
“Knox!” I shouted. “Knox! Answer me!”
“Down here!”
I paced to the area his voice came from and dropped to my knees. My fingers gripped the edges of the panel. Knox was punching through the ceiling from his end. I stomped my foot, but was overcome with a gust of smoke and covered my face as the heat licked at my side. I frantically pulled at the wood when another set of hands appeared, and ripped it off effortlessly.
To my astonishment, Remi pried away the nailed flooring like sheets of paper. He was a Gemini—dangerous, detached, intuitive, and yet I had no idea they were so strong. Silky brown hair fell over his face as the last board ripped away.
“How the hell did you get up here?”
Ignoring me, Remi lifted a small human girl out by one arm, but even more amazing was when he did the same with Knox. Remi lifted him from the hole like one of those claw machines that plucks stuffed animals from a heaping pile of cheap toys.
Knox was no small human.
“Thank you, brother,” Knox said, with a look of surprise when he set eyes on the lean man with the dragon tattoo.
It suddenly occurred to me that this was the reason he intimidated me—the tattoo. It was prominent on his neck, and an ugly bastard of a thing with jagged teeth and fiery eyes. I associated dragons with my ex, and that one stupid fact led me to judge him unfairly.
The human ran towards the opening and a set of massive arms pulled me off my feet. Knox had me in tow as he stormed across the attic—floorboards trembling.
“I told you to stick by my side.”
“Quit your bitching,” I coughed. “I saved your ass.”
With little finesse, Knox flung me out the window like a rag doll. As I sailed through the air, I looked down and saw it wasn’t Logan ready to catch me, but Adam. There was nothing graceful about my landing as I crashed down on top of him. It was almost comical to see his outstretched arms and the look of panic in his eyes a half second before impact. Adam crumpled to the ground like a crushed soda can, with me on top.
Splat. Just like the cartoons.
“Nice catch, Adam,” I said. “Real suave.” I dusted the dirt from my cheek and tested my shoulder.
He groaned, shoving me off. “Maybe you need to lay off the ice cream.”
“Guess you can’t say that I never fell for you.” I patted his unshaven cheek.
Remi leapt from the open hatch, landing on his feet with grace. Adam stood up, and hooked his arm beneath mine, lifting me to my feet.
“Why did you come for me?” I asked Remi, coughing into Adam’s shirt.
Gemini are only loyal to friends, and don’t have many. It’s not in their character to put their lives in danger for a casual acquaintance.
“Remember what I said to you at the Red Door not long ago? Never let go of your humanity; most who were human eventually do.” Remi’s eyes—shades of green and orange—caught brilliant shards of sunlight. “Justus told me of the lives you saved from Nero. Even now, you were once again willing to risk your life for a Shifter and a human. How many of us would sacrifice their immortal life for a human? This was foreshadowed, and I made a decision to steer fate.”
“I don’t believe in fate,” I said dismissively. I knew Justus respected his words of wisdom, but I found it hard to believe that our lives were predestined, because if that were true, it meant that destiny hated my ass.
Remi dusted his hands over his pants, ignoring my remark. “I do not turn a blind eye to a warrior in need.”
“Hear that, Adam?” I said, coughing hard. “I’m a warrior.”
I may have been coughing up black poison in the form of sarcasm or soot, but his compliment warmed me like the sun. I glanced up to see the real sun was sinking below the horizon.
On the way to the car, Adam revealed that an Enforcer lost his life. After that, all hell broke loose. They captured five guards, and Logan brought in three more with Leo’s help. In a last-ditch effort to destroy evidence, everything was set ablaze. We would never know the full extent of what was lost, and I realized capturing Nero was not as attainable as I thought.
“Where’s Finn?” I asked.
Adam popped the door open and my eyes feasted on a vision I could have gone my entire life without seeing.
Finn was face down in the back of the Jeep with Logan straddling him. They pushed the seats down to make room, and the chain was removed and lying in a pile by the door. Logan pressed his palms flat on the floor as he licked Finn’s wounds. Breed did not catch or carry disease, and I shouldn’t have been so uptight about something that was natural among his kind, but I was. My nose wrinkled until I saw the wounds healing. If Finn was too weak to shift and heal himself, Logan was nursing him to a point where he could. He was a stranger to Logan, and my heart squeezed with unexpected admiration.
“Is she okay?” Logan looked over his shoulder at Adam.
I climbed between the seats before fainting like a sissy girl.
Finn’s eyes drifted open, and I lay beside him, pressing my cheek to the floor.
“Help Finn,” I said to Adam. I could tell he wanted to help me first, but that would have been energy wasted.
The hard edges of Adam’s face tightened, and he placed his hands over Finn’s back. Finn’s cheeks splashed with color. Still, he did not move from whatever hell he endured at the hands of Nero. Adam gave him as much healing magic as his body would allow before collapsing on his elbows. His d
ark eyes were sunken in, and his skin paled beneath his unshaven jaw. Whatever magic he gave, he gave a lot.
“What about his arm?” I asked.
Adam rubbed his temples. “It doesn’t work on wounds that have scarred.”
The jeep hit a bump and we all groaned at Knox.
I touched the glass, searching for the last slice of sunlight. It was painful to cough, so I struggled to hold it in.
“I’m going to have to touch her, Cross. If you so much as hiss at me I’m tossing your ass out on the pavement, feel me?”
“I trust you.”
We both offered Logan the same skeptical look. My injuries were not severe, but it didn’t matter. Logan didn’t like seeing me hurt.
Neither did Adam, who slid his hand up my shirt. I instinctively reached up to slap him when Logan caught my wrist and chuckled. “You can do that later, my sweet… or allow me?” His incisors punched out, and I knew despite everything, he was offended.
Logan smoothed his hand across my forehead. I loved the way he was unabashedly affectionate with me.
Adam closed his weary eyes—concentrating. I took a moment to look upon the wave of dark, thick hair he loved to run his fingers through, the strong jaw, and masculine lines. He was the serious sort, but whenever he laughed his eyes just radiated. I always loved the little lines at the edges in particular. His light moved within me—stimulating my own—and delicious oxygen moved throughout my lungs.
Logan’s voice was a hush in my ear. “I’m not entirely happy that another man’s hand is up your shirt. I promise I’ll do my best to refrain from knocking his lights out later on.”
He smiled at me with his eyes, but something told me it was a promise he would only try to keep.
“Where’s Leo? I didn’t get to meet him.”
“You will… someday.”
“They’ll be placing an arrest warrant on Nero,” Remi interrupted from the front seat. “He’s an outlaw.”
Logan’s fangs extended. “Then let the hunt begin.”
Chapter 34
“What do you make of it?” Simon asked, running the chain through his fingers.
Justus knocked back a shot of tequila and the glass tapped against the coffee table. It was clear he had no answer.
An Enforcer collected our statements, and after an hour of signing paperwork, we had enough. Justus was right—Novis was too involved. It wasn’t required that he go, and instead of accompanying the Enforcers, he followed the other men, ready to fight. Maybe he wouldn’t admit it, but that’s what it came down to. His death could have led to severe consequences for everyone. Now he was taking in Ray and Cheri, and not just for questioning, either. They were displaced and in need of a safe house until the Council decided their fate.
“It doesn’t just neutralize our power,” Simon suggested. “It’s strong enough to prevent a Shifter from turning. Looks like it has to be circled around the skin,” he said, wrapping it around his wrist. “Holding it has little effect Feel like testing it out, Silver? Bind with me, for the sake of science.” He wiggled a brow.
I rolled my eyes and Justus cleared his throat. You couldn’t have paired two more opposite men. Simon was a chatterbox who talked a mile a minute, while Justus was a man of few words.
Simon freed his arm from the chain. “I bet those men were armed with a similar metal; that explains why Logan didn’t heal quickly. I’ve seen a lot of rubbish selling on the black market, but this takes the cake. HALO has no record of such metals?”
Justus shook his head.
“Why chain him?” I asked. “He didn’t have any power to fight back.”
Simon studied it with concentrated eyes. “They wanted to punish him without promise of healing. If Finny healed, he wouldn’t learn—he would endure. Nero wanted him to scar, to hurt, and to remember what he did. This,” he said, jingling the chain, “would break him of his disobedience. The elders see Shifters as nothing more than pets. This dates back to the era when men rode horses with steel at their side. Shifters served as guards for the villages—utilized for their abilities, but treated as animals. They’re weak in human form, except the alpha males. We’ve evolved since then, but Nero is playing by his own rules.” Simon threw up his hands and abandoned the subject. “Clearly!”
“No one else was in the building?”
Justus stroked his jaw. “Only the human you found.”
“Will they kill her?”
“No,” he sighed. “The Vampires will erase her memories.”
I strategically slid my feet further down the sofa. Justus was leaking body heat, and it was the next best thing to fuzzy slippers.
Midnight was approaching and the air held a frosty chill. Justus rarely used the fireplace anymore, and it wasn’t fair that he had his own internal thermostat. Some of us had cold feet.
“Why did Novis want Adam to keep his gift a secret? That’s a remarkable gift that could help a lot of people.”
Simon dropped the chain on the floor. “True, but you must think with a devious mind. His gift—like yours—is one many would find… useful.”
“I think it’s ridiculous that we have to live in fear of others finding out what we’re capable of. We should embrace our differences.”
Simon raised his hands like a conductor, as if I were an orchestra playing a sad song. I tossed a pillow at his head, but missed.
“I’m serious, Simon. The laws don’t offer enough protection.”
I slid my feet farther down.
Justus circled his fingers around his temple. Something vexed him. “Why did you risk yourself for a human? You could have burned alive.”
“How can you ask a question like that? I did it because it was the right thing to do.”
“It was foolish.”
“Sometimes smart and right aren’t always in the same zip code. How many times are we given a choice that matters? I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try.”
“You barely know him.”
I puffed out a breath, “I don’t have to love someone to value their life; he would have done it for me.”
“Are you so sure of that?”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
Simon chortled, “Do it, Justus. Please? I’d love to see the look on Gigantor’s face when you challenge his integrity.”
“I want tickets to that show, too,” I laughed, as Simon made a face.
A hand caught my ankle when I started to curl up my legs.
“Give them here,” Justus said.
He lifted my feet, covering them with his large, warm hands for a brief moment. My soul released a heavy sigh. Justus drove me crazy, challenged me, kept his distance physically, and yet one touch meant the world. I hid my smile because his affections came around as often as Santa Claus.
“You should have bought me slippers for my birthday.”
He lowered his brows, sharpening those blue eyes. “What?”
“My birthday was last month.”
“No it wasn’t,” Simon interjected. “Your human life is over. We don’t recognize those birthdays. Just a few more months before your first year as a Mage,” he said with a sly smile.
“What’s the tradition? Sparklers?”
Justus couldn’t mask his smile. “No fireworks for you. The house is liable to burn to the ground.”
I dropped my head on the sofa and groaned. “Why does everything have to happen to me?”
Simon arched a brow. “Are you seriously pulling the ‘woe is me’ card? For pity’s sake. Well, I’ll see your barn and raise you the gallows,” he sniffed. “Don’t even get me started on the firing squad.”
Simon acquired a sour expression as his thumbs were beating up his phone.
“Who are you texting?”
“He had a date tonight,” Justus revealed.
Dating would be a step up from the one-night stands he usually had. “With a real live girl, or do you mean the fruit?”
“Jealous, love?” Simon inquired, cocking a
n eyebrow without looking up.
“Not really. I just didn’t think you were dating anyone.”
“I am of the male persuasion. It’s what we do by nature: hunt, eat, kill things, and shag.”
“Simon has a girlfriend,” I sang.
“She’s not a girlfriend. Just a lovely lady with a lovely bum.”
“What’s this about a girlfriend?”
Levi didn’t just enter a room—he owned it. I guessed it was in the genes, because the Cross men knew how to make an entrance. The steady way his eyes soaked in everyone gave it a personal touch. His legs swept forward as if he were carrying something large between them. Stopping short of the sofa, he tucked his fingers in the slit of his jean pockets. Levi possessed a distinct look that was different from Logan. His face was fuller, frame wider, and his body hair thicker. Not much, but I noticed the details.
Levi’s gaze slid over to Simon, who crossed one leg over the other, feigning indifference. Didn’t matter. I could tell the Chitah made him nervous.
“Now I’m jealous,” Levi remarked with a secretive wink. I curled my hand over my smile.
Simon’s eyes narrowed, never missing a beat. “Mind cluing me in on the inside joke?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, honey,” Levi said, falling over the arm of the leather chair. He stroked his lower lip with a wide thumb.
“I’m going to go check on Finn,” I announced. “Is he doing any better?”
Levi laced his fingers behind his neck. “Messed up. He still thinks Nero owns him. No clue that owning a Shifter has been illegal for a century. You can’t find that on the Internet. That mark on his arm is better, but he’s always going to have a scar. It was too deep. He must have shifted at least once and started the healing before they chained him.”
I had heard enough and left the room.
It was so still inside of my bedroom that you would have thought the candles made a clamor. The air smelled of fresh citrus from a reed diffuser on a small table by the bed. My eyes adjusted to the low light and there, on top of Goliath, was a blanket of men. Logan draped himself over Finn’s legs. He helped a person he had no reason to trust—because of a promise. The circumstances of how I met Logan became irrelevant in those moments that I watched the way he offered a Shifter warmth and compassion. I found him to be a remarkable man.