City In Embers

by Stacey Marie Brown

  “You are more than welcome to stay here by the fire and sleep.” Robert motioned to the warm flames.

  My head responded in refusal. “Thank you, but no. I need to go find my... cousin.”

  Kettenburg looked like he wanted to say something else, but he shut his mouth and gave me a nod. I provided everyone a final goodbye nod. Andrew’s eyes looked like a puppy dog’s, hurt and disappointed.

  Ryker was where I expected him to be—high on the roof of the garage. His back was to me, his arms folded as he stared into the murky night. The moon played peekaboo with us behind the clouds. Mist hung thick along the pier, concealing the lapping water like a magician. Ryker’s head gave a little jerk, recognizing my presence, although he never turned around. I walked up, standing next to him.

  “Here.” I reached into my bag, my fingers grazing the soft fur of Sprig’s sleeping head and grabbed a granola bar, wiggling it at Ryker.

  He looked at the item bumping his chest and grumbled.

  “Hey, bitch all you want. It’s your only choice.” I continued to hold the package impatiently. “Be happy it’s plain granola. No fruit or fun goodies are touching each other.”

  He swiped it from my hold and removed the wrapper, stuffing it in his mouth.

  “A guy like you doesn’t seem like he would have issues with food. Don’t you eat gruel and bats?”

  “Are you trying extra hard to annoy me tonight, human?”

  “It’s the only thing I have left.”

  “You are tenacious, aren’t you?”

  I smirked. “Tenacious... I like it. I usually get bitch.”

  “You’re that too.”

  “And you’re a fucking ray of sunshine.”

  His lips quirked with amusement.

  “Holy shit. A smile?” Disbelief laced my words.

  Ryker’s mouth flattened. “Go get some sleep. We need to leave early tomorrow.”

  My legs shifted under my weight. “You don’t need to sleep?” What the hell? What did I care if he slept or not?

  His powerful arms fell from their fold, and he swiveled to face me. “Don’t tell me you are concerned for my well-being?”

  “Not at all,” I said.

  He watched me for a breath before he leaned above, his form overshadowing me, his forehead almost smacking mine. His eyes glinted with hate and fury. “Let’s keep this clear, human. The only reason I am here is because you have something of mine. The moment it comes back to me, I am gone.”

  Heat rose along my neck, drifting to my cheeks.

  “Yeah,” I fumed. “Same here.” I spun on my heels and jogged for the stairs. Anger rumbled in my stomach, burning up my spine.

  “Screw him. I was only being polite,” I mumbled to myself, pounding the steps on my way down.

  “Are you and yourself in a fight again?” a squeaky voice came from my satchel.

  I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and opened the flap. Sprig was snuggled deep in the corner with his adoptive stuffed goat wrapped in his arms. He was freaking adorable.

  “No.” My teeth ground together. “Man, the fae pisses me off.”

  “Faes are good at infuriating people, but he is exceptional at it.”

  “Yeah, got that.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the knots rolling under my palm like a ballpoint pen.

  “You did give him a granola bar and were all concerned about him not sleeping.”

  “So? Is common courtesy frowned upon in the fae world?”

  “Showing any signs of caring is saved for those in your own clan. Dark fae especially do not display feelings to other fae. It is a sign of weakness,” Sprig said. “What’s funny is even though you are human, I would say you really are no different.”

  Leaning back, I pressed against the wall, taking in this notion. He was right. Those terms did fit me. Or what I used to be. Daniel was the one who brought out the more sensitive Zoey, the one who cared about people beyond the two people in her clan. She was here now, and I wasn’t sure the caring part of me would go into hiding again. Whatever Daniel did, he made me soft.

  Sprig adjusted in my bag, pulling my strap harder on my shoulder. “Here.” My hand slid in the front pouch and removed another candy bar. “Sorry it’s not more, but I couldn’t pocket the beans I had for dinner.”

  Sprig’s eyes lit up, his hand reaching greedily for the package as I unwrapped it. “Granola shrouded in sweet honey and sugar?” He yanked it from my grip and put a chunk in his mouth. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he sank deeper into the corner. “Oh, sweet honey.”

  When I got back to Robert and his family, they had settled down to sleep. I could see Andrew was still awake, talking to his aunt. I felt like I was staring from the outside at a perfect family. I didn’t belong here with them. I didn’t belong anywhere anymore.

  I veered off in the opposite direction, finding solitude in a dark corner of the warehouse. The light from several group fires reached me, but the heat did not. I tucked deeper into my coat as I snuggled on a flattened cardboard box. Sprig’s soft snores echoed from my bag, already fast asleep. I moved him closer to my chest, cradling him. His heat penetrated through the bag and soaked into my shirt. Slowly my lids lowered, and I drifted off to sleep.

  FIFTEEN

  Rain tapped gently on the roof. Glass bricks keeping the parking structure enclosed were tinted with a faint light, informing me it was only a little past dawn. Scattered fires still burned in the barrels throughout the garage. Only a soft murmur of voices hummed in the large area. Most were sound asleep. Robert and his family all cuddled around the fire and each other. It left a strange ache in my heart to see their family unit. They were so close and would do anything for each other. They had losses, but they still had each other, and this seemed most important to them. I felt more like an outsider. They knew family in a way I never did. No one had loved me unconditionally. Lexie was the closest, but I never had parents or grandparents, not even an uncle or aunt who loved me. The feeling was foreign to me.

  The only relationship I had now was an unstable alliance with a scary-ass fae, who didn’t like me, nor I him. And as soon as the need for the other ran out, the partnership would probably turn ugly fast. My chances weren’t good if he wanted to kill me. With a sigh, I got to my feet and went to find my hostile associate.

  “Zoey?” Mr. Kettenburg’s soft call halted my advance toward the stairs.

  “Yes?” I whispered. His entire family was still asleep.

  He stood and came to me, a look of concern on his face. “Who is the man you’re with?”

  “Uh...” The response lay unanswered on my tongue.

  Robert eyed me for a moment before he spoke. “Zoey, if you’re into something you feel you can’t get out of...” He let his sentence taper off.

  Mr. Kettenburg, if you only knew.

  I smiled. “No. It’s not like that. It’s complicated.”

  Robert didn’t appear to believe me. “You can always come with us if you need to.” A smile hinted at his mouth as he looked at Andrew. “Think my son has taken a shine to you.”

  “Thank you, but I’m fine.”

  He watched me, seeming to contemplate something. The silence grew into a long uncomfortable awkwardness.

  I needed to change the subject from why I was with Ryker. “So are you really going to fail me, even though our school is a heap?”

  “You know my rules.” He crossed his arms. “Test day. No excuses for being late or absent.”

  I sniggered. “Yes, sir.”

  “But I will give you a break, if you answer me one question.”

  “Okay.” Intrigued by what he would ask. “Shoot.”

  He kept his arms crossed and stared at his feet. He opened his mouth, then closed it.

  Nervousness trickled into my gut. His deliberation over the question squeezed at my lungs.

  “I want an honest answer.” His voice turned stern. One he used a lot in class.

  The hold on my chest gripped harde
r, and I licked my lips.

  “Did you...” He stopped and took a breath. “Did you see a leopard in the picture?”

  The air vanished from my lungs. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had him three years earlier for my entry psychology class. The pictures he referred to showed if you had the “sight” or not. Most students saw a woman. I got past the glamour and perceived what she really was—a shape-shifter.

  “Why... why would you ask?”

  “Zoey, I know.” Understanding ran deep in his eyes. “I know what you can do.”

  I jerked back and swallowed.

  “Keep calm. I am not going to hurt you or turn you over to DMG.” He patted my arm.

  “How do you know about DMG?”

  “I was hired by them ten years ago. They secured the job for me at the college and got me established in the psychology department. They never interceded with my teaching directly, except for the special tests.”

  “What? DMG hired you? Why? Are you even a real teacher?”

  “I’m really a teacher,” he replied. “I was working at a high school in Everett when they recruited me. I thought I was interviewing for the position. I realized the two men had nothing to do with the college but were actually with the government.

  “They said the job was mine. I only had to give tests every semester, which were provided. They reasoned with my military background, I believed in duty to my country. I won’t deny the shiny car, the paid medical bills, and house they provided didn’t please my wife. We had been struggling with my teaching salary at the high school. My mother’s doctor bills had eaten through her retirement and were now going through ours. It was tearing us apart. The new job took those problems away. And I really did believe I was doing right. I trusted my government and thought I was a part of some secret testing for educational purposes. Overall, they were harmless and didn’t hurt anyone. Eventually, they had me in too deep to ever be able to leave.”

  Only a moment ago, the man before me had been my professor, far away from my DMG life. Everything changed.

  “Why would they recruit you?”

  “I asked myself the same question repeatedly. The only thing I can think of was I had a military background and was struggling for money, on the edge of divorce, and had an elderly mother moving in. I was the perfect candidate. They knew I would do it. I didn’t have much of a choice. The one time I tried to refuse their order, they subtly conveyed I should be concerned about my family. Accidents happened.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “The threat was clear.”

  “I am sorry.” I wasn’t sure why I was apologizing, but it seemed the right thing to do. “Why would you ask me if I saw a leopard?”

  “They told me what to look for, what they were testing for.” He shifted his weight. “I’ve realized for a while it was their way of trapping me in. Not too much information to be a threat, but enough. They needed me to be on the lookout for students with the sight. If you noticed, I taught every class you took in psychology, which was their doing. They told me about you, to keep an eye on you from the moment you entered my class.”

  He was the only teacher I had every semester since I began college. I thought it a funny coincidence but nothing more. Why would I? What a fool. The DMG had been controlling and watching me the whole time.

  “Wait? From day one?” My brain tossed the new information around. “The test wasn’t till late in the year. How did they know about me before the test?” I figured it was the test that put me on DMG’s radar.

  “No, Zoey. They had an entire file on you. I didn’t get to read it, but they showed me your picture before you ever set foot in my classroom.”

  DMG had a file and a picture of me before they tested me? “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “I wish I could tell you more, but it’s all I know.” He glanced around the dank, cold garage. “When things like this happen, you realize what is really important. We are going to leave Seattle.” He didn’t have to say it, but he was running from DMG and getting his family far away from its reach. It was pointless if DMG wanted to get to you, but I doubted Kettenburg was high on DMG’s list. “When I saw you tonight, I knew I had to tell you the truth.”

  I didn’t know what to do with this new information. All it did was confuse me more. Between Sprig telling me about Daniel and the DMG knowing about me way before they claimed to, I learned there was more going on than I’d thought. It meant something, I just didn’t know what exactly.

  “Robert?” A sleepy but urgent voice called. Donna, his wife, tried to sit. “Robert?”

  Kettenburg turned and moved to his wife. “Yes, honey. Are you all right?”

  “I have to use the restroom.”

  He nodded and tried to help her stand. Her leg was wrapped with bandages. She cried when she stumbled and put weight on it.

  “It’s broken?” I moved to them.

  “Yes, but the hospitals wouldn’t help us. They have far more serious cases to deal with. They told us not to even bother waiting. They wouldn’t have time to see her.”

  She draped an arm around his shoulder as he pulled her up.

  “Here.” My hand went past Sprig and grabbed the bottle at the bottom. “A heal... doctor gave me these. They’re painkillers. They should at least take the worst of the aching away.” I handed her the bottle full of the white tablets Elthia gave me. My happy place pills. They were amazing and ten times better than normal painkillers. I would be sad to see them go.

  Water coated Robert’s eyes. “Thank you, Zoey. I wish you well on your journey, wherever it takes you.”

  It was as if we were meant to bump into each other, but we understood we probably would never see each other again. Our life paths were taking us in different directions.

  “You too.”

  His path was away from DMG.

  My path seemed to be running straight for it.

  My head buzzing with the new information, Sprig and I darted up the stairs. I crept onto the rooftop. Ryker sat with his back to me, his legs over the side of the building, the rain delicately falling on him. A deep growl erupted from the figure, discontinuing my movement toward him. I thought it was for me, a warning he didn’t want me to get any closer. His fists slammed against the tar, crumbling a chunk of stone under his hand, and he snarled again. Wow, he really didn’t want me near.

  “Fuck, Amara...” he trailed off. Her name caused my breathing to cease. All previous thoughts about my teacher went to a file in my brain. “We had a plan.” He mumbled so low I barely heard him. “You know I can’t turn the stone over to him. You were the one who made me promise... no matter what happened.” Frustration and aggravation strained across his back, flexing and coiling under his shirt. I felt like I was intruding on his most personal moment. I probably was, and if he turned and saw me, he’d probably throw me off the roof.

  I didn’t think of Ryker as having feelings, so seeing him now was disturbing. He had lost someone the night of the storm, too. Not in the way I did, but his lover was gone as well, kidnapped by Garrett. It was obvious he blamed himself, and from what he told me, he was against the wall. He couldn’t get her back without trading the stone, which was not an option. I could only imagine the frustration I would feel if I were in the situation. It was like the government’s policy—”we don’t give in to terrorists”—because of the trend it would start if they did. But at the same time, when loved ones were being sacrificed, and it was up to you to save their lives, I couldn’t imagine having to decide. If it would have been Daniel or Lexie, I would have given in; if anyone else, probably not.

  Ryker stood. His arms opened to the sky, and he let out a roar, which shook the ground. His tattoo ignited. He drew his axe and began smashing into every edge and object on the roof, bashing each one into dust.

  Air quaked in my chest as I watched the strength of the man before me. His shirt strained under the tension his muscles put it under. His light eyes glowed with rage.

  He was truly the most
frightening person I had ever come across.

  I was rigid. Too scared to run.

  His blade struck the partition again. The ledge fractured in half, the top crumbling to the ground below. Echoes rang as the pieces hit cars, dumpsters, and the street. His breath pumped frantically from his lungs as he let the axe slide from his palm. Standing for a few moments, he swallowed deep gulps. The strain fell from his shoulders, causing them to droop.

  It was time for me to leave. If he knew I had been watching the whole time—my foot took a step back, my boots making a soft squeak.

  He froze. I froze. I think even Sprig went immobile in my bag. I was so screwed.

  Ryker’s head twitched to peer over his shoulder. He then turned back to the city. We stood still for what felt like centuries. I didn’t want to speak, but his silence made me crazy after a while.

  “I didn’t mean to overhear. I came to check on you.” I cleared my throat, forcing my voice to sound stronger. “I was going to leave.”

  “But. You. Didn’t.” He spoke low with zero emotion, but I could feel the spikes under it, ready to impale me at a moment’s notice.

  “Uhh... well, I tried.” But my legs wouldn’t listen.

  His profile came into view again, his jaw clenching, an eye narrowed. “What do you want, human?”

  Why had I come looking for him again? After our last encounter on the roof, what made me think he would be open to me coming back?

  “I don’t know.”

  He whipped around so fast my eyes barely saw him, and like a bull, he came rushing at me. My feet backpedaled until my spine smacked into a wall. He got within an inch of my face, slamming a hand on my chest and pressing me harder into the wall. He moved in closer. “If you ever sneak up on me again...”

  “You’ll what?” I forced my chin to stay high, challenging him. I would not cower. He would not have that kind of power over me. “Kill me? Torture me? Do it... go ahead.”

  He peered down his nose at me. “Don’t be so flippant about torture, little human. You won’t find it such a joke when I peel back your nails or pull your teeth one by one.” He tilted his head so his lips grazed my cheek. It was a tactic to keep your enemy unbalanced, giving you the upper hand. I knew all the tricks.