Kissing her forehead roughly, he shook his head. “I don’t care. You were amazing, princess.”
Her lips twitched. Why was it so much darker in the tent now? And when had she gained an audience? Eli, Rhiannon, and even Seth sat in the seats clapping.
Scarlet heat puddled in her cheeks, and she buried her nose in Cain’s neck, letting his piney scent sooth her ragged nerves.
“You must be tired.” He rubbed her back. “That was amazing, Flint.”
And he really did sound amazed. Which made her feel slightly ridiculous, because she wasn’t even sure how she’d done what she’d done. Every time she’d gotten with a teacher she’d had to think, had to work hard at not killing herself or someone else, but this time there’d been no thoughts at all.
She turned just as Adam made his way gingerly to his feet.
“I’d say”—his deep voice sounded rough and weary—“you’ve definitely found your powers, Flint.” Dusting himself off, Adam dipped his head, then gestured for Eli. “Have you checked in on Janet?”
“Just a second ago. She’s good.”
Rhi got up too and sauntered over to where she and Cain still stood. “Girlfriend, five hours of fighting. With freaking Adam no less. I seriously doubt he told you this, but back in the day, his sword rained death on our enemies. I can’t believe you lasted a second against him, let alone five hours.”
“And beat him no less,” Cain said with a wicked grin that made her heart speed.
But now that the adrenaline of battle was gone, all Flint felt was exhaustion. Clinging to Cain’s arm, she sighed. “Five hours? I can’t believe that. But it would explain why I feel like someone steamrolled me.”
Wrapping an arm around her waist, Cain patted her hip tenderly. “I’ll get you back to your trailer. We can eat and rest for a bit.”
She nodded. It’d been easy to forget what’d happened just this morning, until she stepped out of the tent and was confronted with the fact that there wasn’t anything that even remotely resembled a circus anymore.
Just about everything had been taken down and was now gone.
The trailers. All the tents except for the one she’d been in. The food stands. The carnies. Everyone, gone. The only reminders of their having been there was the crushed and dead patches of grass where their trucks and equipment had been parked.
Lips turned downward, she sighed as so many thoughts barreled through her head at once.
Rhiannon walked with them halfway before saying, “I’m gonna go into town and grab us all some dinner. No cook to take care of us now.” She muttered and then was gone in a trace of black smoke.
The eerie quiet of the place made Flint shiver and she felt like a terrified little rabbit scampering through her front door just to get away from the loud echoing silence all around them.
She dropped onto the center of the bed the moment Cain locked the door behind them.
He looked tired today, dressed in jeans and a soft, faded navy-blue shirt that clung to his massive chest. There were dark circles underneath his eyes, and he’d not bothered to shave the scruff off his face from this morning.
Pulling a chair up to the foot of the bed, he patted his lap after he sat.
“What?” she frowned.
“Give me your leg.”
Curious, but also interested to see what he was planning, she plopped her left foot onto his lap. Immediately his hard thumbs began a slow rhythmic glide up the back of her calf.
“Oh my God.” She groaned when he hit a particularly sore spot. “Cain, stop, I stink.”
But obviously he didn’t believe she meant it, because she really didn’t want him to stop. She probably did need a shower stat, though. She’d never sweat so much in her life.
Thank goodness he didn’t listen to her.
“Flint, the dream you told me about last night.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you really think you can do what you said? Make that drone talk?”
Propping herself up on her elbows, she studied him. His movements were brisk and efficient, but his mind was a million miles away.
“Yes.” She squirmed when his thumb pressed in deep, easing out a knot in her calf. “I think so.”
He looked at her. There was no haze of red in his eyes; they were as blue as the hidden parts of an ocean. Cain was worried, and that in turn made her worry.
“Cain, we’re sitting ducks here, aren’t we?”
At first she thought he wouldn’t answer. He clenched his jaw tight, his hands still working their magic on her as he nodded slowly.
“Yes, and if I were Adam, I’d be giving serious consideration to moving out tomorrow.”
“Where, do you think?”
“To that place you visited with Grace more than likely.”
“But my dad saw it, wouldn’t it be a bad—”
“I doubt Grace doesn’t already have wards set up all over the place. If she doesn’t want someone in there, they won’t be.”
Sitting up, she touched his hand. “Why do you sound so worried about leaving here? Shouldn’t that be a good thing?”
Dropping his hands, he stared at her. “Yeah, it is. But if we leave here, Flint, it almost feels like—”
His visible swallow made her jump to her knees, moving so that she could wrap her arms around his neck and squeeze as tight as possible while still letting him breathe.
“Don’t say it, Cain. Don’t even think it. We’re not going to lose Abel.”
His fingers dug into her back, clutching at her like she was his lifeline, his body so absolutely still that her heart shattered at the thought that he was breaking down in front of her.
Cain was always so stoic, so strong. It tore her in two to think he’d finally reached his breaking point.
They held on to each other for several long minutes before she finally leaned back, just enough so that she could look at him.
“Hey,” she said softly.
His eyes were bloodshot and shimmered wetly. He’d not actually shed a tear, and yet her heart bled for him.
“Your life is a mess too.” His voice was hoarse. “Your father’s gone, you’re a fae, you haven’t graduated—”
She snorted. “Believe me when I say graduating is the least of my worries. I should hopefully get my results in the next few weeks.”
Running her fingers through his hair, she gave him a grim smile. “My dad, well, that’ll work itself out. And being a fae… I’m learning comes with some advantages. Cain, I really think I can help. I’m going to take a spirit walk tonight.”
The muscle in his jaw twitched. “Can you control that, Flint? I thought it was hit or miss?”
She shrugged. “I have to try, right? If this is our last night here, then I have to try. Because God only knows if that cave is twice as far away from him.”
Setting his forearms on his knees, Cain stared between his legs at the floor. She hated seeing him so dejected. Hated thinking he was giving up.
She wasn’t angry with him. They’d been at this for weeks. This wasn’t as simple as a missing human. Because humans were sloppy and missed things, but after working with these monsters as long as she had, she knew this world operated far differently. There was magick to cover tracks, creatures capable of leaving not even a droplet of blood or shard of bone behind as they consumed their victims.
They had a drone and she had Graham; between the two of them, there had to be some way to finally discover Abel’s whereabouts.
So while she didn’t exactly feel hopeless, she knew their odds weren’t that great either.
“Flint?” Cain finally looked up at her.
Hearing the question in her name, she lifted a quizzical brow.
“I know this isn’t the right timing. Hell…” He gave a chuckle that didn’t sound at all humorous. “I’m beginning to suspect that with you it never will be.”
Heart galloping like horses’ hooves in her throat, she lost all her words.
“How does Grah
am make you feel? I know he’s one of your people. One of your kind, and I don’t… I don’t want to get in the way of your discovering who you—”
Shaking her head, she placed her fingers on his cheeks. “Yes, Graham is fae, and yes, I want to know more about him. I want to help him, but Cain, that’s it. There’s nothing else there.”
His jaw jutted out. “I suck at this.”
Leaning forward, she kissed his cheek and then whispered, “Just tell me.”
“You’re my compass, princess.” He clenched her fingers tight, the hold almost desperate, and it made her heart melt. “And I want to bond with you. I want to make you mine, permanently, but you’re so young, and now you’re not even human.” He snorted. “You might even live longer than me. Who knows?”
She narrowed her eyes. She’d heard of bonding of course, understood that essentially she’d be tying her life to his. That unlike Janet, who had no control, all the control rested on Flint’s decision.
She was young. So was he. What she didn’t know was just what exactly bonding entailed.
“How do you bond, Cain?”
Her question seemed to echo through the sudden thick silence between them. It took him several heartbeats before he answered.
“I didn’t bring this up to force you into it. That’s the last thing I want to do. Honestly, Flint, as much as I want to do this with you, this isn’t the time. We have to focus on Abel.”
Scooting forward on her knees until her body pressed so tight to his that she was warmed all over, she said, “I love you, Cain. And as young as I am, I know I always will. This isn’t a crush for me, or even a game. But I am scared, worried that this instinct you feel isn’t real. That it’s maybe just a product of nature, something out of your hands.”
He grabbed her hands, squeezing them tight. “Yes, it’s instinct, but it’s real. It’s all real. I sensed it from the moment I met you. I ran from you, Flint, because I didn’t want to do that to you. Didn’t want to drag you into my dangerous life.”
“But I’m here now.”
“Yeah. You are.” He kissed her fingertips. “You’re here. And every second, every minute I’m around you, it’s pain.”
She winced.
“Not like that,” he was quick to assert, “it’s just…” He sighed, “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
“I’m not leaving you, Cain. Not for anyone.”
He tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “Just ignore me. I’m in a weird mood right now. Why don’t you go take a shower before Rhi gets back with dinner?”
Flint walked into the shower, confused by his sudden about-face. He was hiding something from her. She wasn’t sure what, but she was pretty sure that if she asked Eli, he’d probably know.
And yeah, maybe that was her being nosy; then again, she refused to pretend he was okay. She wasn’t a child—she knew a brush-off when she got one, and she refused to let Cain do that to her.
48
Flint
After a quick bite of food—only two cheeseburgers and a medium soda—Flint felt full and a little weirded out by the fact that she hadn’t made a pig of herself.
“You’re done?” Cain asked, clearly thinking the same thing as he wiped his mouth off with a napkin.
“Yeah, I know, right?” She chuckled, eyeing the milkshake and pack of fries she’d left untouched.
He tapped her stomach and she snorted.
“Maybe things are finally starting to settle down with me now.” Relief swept through her at the thought of no longer needing to be a slave to food.
Rhiannon, Eli, and Seth had all joined her and Cain, sitting slightly scattered around her trailer on the grass as they’d talked amongst themselves. The mood had been thick and pensive. Adam had remained back at Janet’s trailer.
Rhi was the first one to break the silence between them. Daintily tossing her wrapper into the empty fast-food baggie, she dipped her head. “Well, are we doing this or what?”
Wetting her lips as a sledgehammer full of nerves battered her insides, Flint nodded. “I… I guess so.”
Beside her, Cain went tense and gripped her fingers tightly. Glancing over at him, she lifted a brow.
“Flint, you don’t have to do this.”
Because he sounded so worried, she gave him a soft smile. She was nervous. To deny it would be an outright lie. Did she want to do this? No way. Was she scared that what she’d seen that fae do in her vision had nothing at all to do with her? Of course.
She was like the blind leading the blind, and it made her want to vomit all the delicious food she’d just eaten. The only thing keeping her dead set on doing this was the fact that there were no other leads left. “Cain, I have to help. Any way I can.”
Nodding, he stood and held out his hand to her. “Then let’s go.”
As if that was the signal everyone had been waiting on, they all stood, moving effortlessly so that they flanked her.
Heart pounding in the back of her throat with each step she took, she fought an internal battle not to have a freak-out of massive proportions. She’d not gotten close to another drone since the day Tamara had nearly blown her to pieces.
They were just about at the trailer now, so close that Flint could see dirt and dried water streaking the darkened windows. Moving like an elite force of trained fighters, Eli, Rhi, and Seth broke ranks and surrounded the trailer, one on each side and the back, while she and Cain approached the only open spot in the front. That was where she knew Cain would stand at the ready should the drone try anything stupid.
Swearing under his breath, Cain pulled her to a stop. His knuckles grazed her cheek.
Lashes fluttering and feeling oddly like her tongue had just swollen to twice its size, she gave him a short nod. “I’ll be fine, really. I can fight now—”
“With a sword, Flint, something you can’t use inside that small space—”
She grinned. “Yeah, but I can run really fast.”
“I think you should try to talk to it through the window.”
She gave him a cross-eyed look because his worrying was only exacerbating her own fears. He’d already suggested this not half an hour ago, to which she’d firmly and staunchly said no. In the vision, the fae had stood right in front of its victim, which meant so would she.
“Cain. Stop for a second and just look at me. Look.”
His jaw clenched, but he did as asked. His hard gaze roved up and down her body twice before his nostrils flared and he gave her a look that said Yeah. And?
“I’m not saying I know everything there is to know about being me.” She sighed. “But I’m not that girl who almost died back at the dance, okay? Now, I’m gonna go in there, and I’m gonna have a nice chat with that bug and see if maybe, just maybe, I can actually be of some help to you guys.” One good thing about getting angry was that she suddenly felt much less nervous.
Cain sucked in a sharp breath, and she knew he was getting ready to give her a list of reasons why it was a bad idea. Reasons she’d heard a million times already. Gently she placed her palm over his mouth.
“Cain, I love you. But you’re not my dad. You don’t get to tell me no. I’m doing this. So you can either stay and guard the front door or you can leave. Up to you, but either way, this is happening.”
A low huff emanated from between his lips, but it quickly turned into a disgruntled chuckle. “You’re killing me. Fine.” He dropped her hands. “I can’t stop you; you’re right. Just, whatever you do, don’t get too close. Don’t let it bait you. Ask what you need to ask and—”
She kissed him.
Hard.
Of course she didn’t want to go in there with a drone that looked as though it hadn’t fed properly in months. But that wasn’t the point. The point was Abel needed any help he could get. And if that meant putting herself in the line of fire, then so be it.
She really did wish she could have her sword though. If it hadn’t been for the memory of the knife nearly seve
ring her toes off, she’d have gone with one of those instead. But at this point, she didn’t quite trust herself not to fumble things.
Cain’s fingers curled gently around her bicep, and a low groan spilled from his throat.
He wanted to ask her to stay, but he got brownie points for keeping that thought to himself.
“Eli?” she called.
The surfer-boy berserker glanced her way, giving the thumbs-up that everything looked good on his end. Rhi did too. She’d have to trust that if something were up on Seth’s side, he’d call out to her.
Giving herself a final mental shake, Flint turned and walked up the steps.
They’d left the drone chained up and bathed in darkness. Flicking on the light switch, Flint felt a moment’s sympathy for the creature when it hissed, squeezing its eyes shut and curling in on itself as though trying to run away from the source of brightness.
Flint tried taking small breaths. The place smelled gross. Like mold and rotted wood. But the odor wasn’t coming from the trailer itself. The drone was dressed in tattered clothing—a blue shirt that was two sizes too large and covered in holes, and jeans that were threadbare at the knees and ankles with loose threads dangling in every direction. Its hair was hacked off right at the ear line and matted with weeds, dirt, and stones. The drone reeked, its washed-out skin obviously peeling from its pending metamorphosis into something far more sinister than it was now.
And even though the trailer was clean, Flint found herself not wanting to touch even the walls lest death infect her too.
Tapping her finger to her bicep, she wondered how to start this interrogation. In the vision, the fae had been standing over the monster, not saying anything really, just sort of glaring at the creature, and it’d wet itself in its haste to do whatever it could to please its captor.
“I told you, I know nothing!” the drone spat in a voice thick with disuse.
The sound of it grated on Flint’s ears, and she cringed to hear it. The thing glared, blinking double-lidded eyes back at her. Heart beating a rapid rhythm in her chest, Flint was overwhelmed by her desire to take a step back, to get closer to the safety of the open door and Cain’s waiting arms.
The Complete Tempted Series Page 54