by Kim Faulks
I shook my head as Jesse climbed into the car behind us once more. A pang of sympathy cut through me. Mel hadn’t been nice, but then again…Jesse hadn’t ever given him reason to be.
I grabbed my cell and snapped the seatbelt closed once more. “Up ahead on your right…number six is about halfway up, by the looks of it.”
Melkor pulled out onto the street once more, sped up until we reached the corner, and turned. Older buildings towered over the sidewalk. I scanned the fronts, searching for house numbers, until I found it. “It’s there…that one.”
The brown brick building was just as old as those around it. Melkor pulled up hard against the curb and switched off the ignition before leaning down. “Looks like apartments.”
It’s exactly what it was. Young branches of a small tree hit the door as I opened it. I stepped out. The deep snarl of the sports car filled the air as Jesse pulled against the curb.
Melkor was already out, making his way to the tailgate of the truck. He yanked out pack after pack as I closed the door behind me and strode toward the bags on the ground.
I grasped the straps and heaved, balancing the pack on one shoulder, then lifted the other from the ground.
“Let me help,” Jesse said as he bent and took it from me, and something inside me didn’t like that at all.
“No…thank you,” I took the backpack from his grasp and felt the weight tip me off balance.
My muscles strained and tendons tightened. But I forced a smile, righted myself, and nodded to Melkor as he slammed the tailgate closed and locked the truck. He carried the heaviest bags, two in each hand and one on his back. Still he showed no weakness, stopping to look me in the eye. “You got this?”
“I got it,” I heaved them higher, and followed.
Jesse didn’t understand. I didn’t want him carrying the packs, no matter how heavy they were. Mel and I would do it, and we’d get used to it…
This was our life now, moving from town to town, and city to city. We’d carry, we’d fight, we’d depend on each other. Giving in now, before we’d even started, even on something apparently so small, felt too much like weakness.
I followed him up the stone stairs and then inside as he unlocked the front doors.
Footsteps echoed behind me. Melkor turned the keys over in his hand. “Says apartment four.”
Sunlight streamed through a window on the second floor. I stopped at the foot of the stairs, catching the glint on a door above. “It’s up there.” I mounted the stairs, leaving the other two behind. My palms burned, my back gave way as I dropped a bag.
“Purity!” Mel shouted behind me.
“It’s okay. I got it,” I heaved the damn bags, throwing them up the stairs two at a time, then followed them.
No matter how many damn times I ran the forest trail, no matter how many times I carried the damn packs, it was always…so…damned…hard.
My chest was on fire and sweat dripped down the nape of my neck as I made it onto the last step and sucked in the air. “Up…here,” I gasped, throwing my hand toward the door. “Like I said.”
Melkor stepped past, shoved the key into the lock, and turned it. I got a glimpse of the hallway before he blocked the view and disappeared inside.
“Wow,” he murmured. “Purity! You have to see this.”
My pulse was deafening, temples throbbing. “I’m trying,” I muttered, grasping the bags once more and headed for the door.
He met me just inside, taking a pack as I stepped through and, as I lifted my gaze, I understood why all the excitement.
“When Alma said it was stocked with weapons, she wasn’t half wrong,” Mel gloated.
The packs landed with a thud on the wooden floor. I followed his gaze to the far wall and forgot how to breathe. The wall was lined with weapons encased behind thick glass doors. Everywhere I looked there was guns, bows, swords, daggers, spears, and razor-edged things I couldn’t even name.
“Holy shit,” Jesse muttered. “You guys live here?”
“Yeah,” Mel turned, grabbed the remaining bags from my feet, and carried them inside. “Looks like we do.”
Jesse moved deeper into the apartment, staring at one wall and then the next. I closed the door behind him. I needed to get myself together, this wasn’t goddamn Disney. “I’m going to the bathroom and when I get back, we’re going to listen to what you have to tell us. But make no mistake, we’re here for the Soulless, not some Vampire who stole your cat or shifter who had an affair with your mom.”
He stilled, then turned. In an instant, the mood around us changed. This was real…this was what he’d come for. If he was telling the truth about the Soulless, his mom’s life hung in the balance and every minute counted.
I yanked the strap of the last bag from my shoulder and left the living room. The kitchen gleamed under the overhead lights. The thick timbers and gleaming glass cabinet doors, everything about this place was clean and perfect and expensive.
I turned right, made my way along the hallway. A bedroom was on my left, small, with a queen-sized bed made up in the middle of the room, the main bathroom next to it, and then a laundry. But it was the room at the end of the hall which drew me.
I turned right at the exposed brick wall to a mammoth bed and plush furnishings. Black and silver dominated the space. It was a masculine room, all hard edges and gleaming surfaces.
I fucking loved it.
I hurried, turned left, stepped into the black and white bathroom, and shut the door behind me, flipping the lock.
My pulse was thready, palms slick with sweat. I shoved my jeans down, catching the black steel dagger as it slipped. The wicked, honed edge glinted as the weapon tilted. I looked for a place to stash the damn thing, then grasped the hilt under my chin.
My damn leg jumped and jiggled, nerves twitched and fired. My muscles ached and my tendons howled.
I wiped and slid the dagger back into the waistband of my jeans before stepping to the basin. The mirror showed my greasy hair and dull eyes. I cocked my head, sniffed, and winced. I smelled like the forest…and hound.
The person in the mirror was barely recognizable. Once a fat girl in school, now I was a hunter. A tired, aching hunter…desperate for a decent meal and sleep. But more than anything, I wanted this to be over…for our world to be safe and for Melkor to be okay once more.
And as I stared into the mirror, I saw him.
Bloodstained hands at my throat.
Burning eyes filled with fire.
I reached up, trembling fingers dancing at my neck as Deimos filled me…
I knew who we were really hunting…him. But the Soulless were in our way…
I washed my hands and then went back to the living room. Male voices echoed along the hall. Jesse jerked his gaze toward me as I entered the room. He was pale and jumpy, glancing first at Melkor, then at me once more.
“I see you’re getting along,” I muttered and stepped into the kitchen.
The refrigerator seal sucked hard as I opened the door. The damn thing was stocked to the brim, organic milk and cream, icy-cold bottled water. I grabbed three from the shelf and turned.
A cell phone sat in the middle of the table, the screen alight…and ready. Jesse was nervously gripping the table, waiting for me to sit down.
I handed each of them a bottle, met Melkor’s gaze, then turned to the person I wanted nothing to do with. “Right. You’ve got one chance, Jesse. Make it good.”
Chapter Six
Melkor
“Jesse, don’t come home,” a breathless whisper echoed from the speaker on his phone. “It’s not safe…not safe anywhere. I need you to get out of the city, find someplace to lay low. Don’t call me…don’t call anyone. These things…these things are going to kill us all. I need…” the call went muffled and strange. “Jesse, do you understand me? I need you to…”
I lifted my gaze to the asshole at the other end of the table. Only in this moment, he wasn’t an asshole. He was a son…a son who looked
panic-stricken and torn.
I swallowed hard as pain flared through my chest. In this moment, all I saw was my brother.
Rykor with eyes so wide.
Rykor…screaming.
Rykor kneeling beside the body of our father.
Stop, Mel…don’t come any closer.
I closed my eyes as his voice echoed in my head.
“Jesse, first I need you…my work…ask for…called…did…hear me? Ask for…tell him…tell him to look inside…Jesse…Jesse! Tell him to look inside—”
A fist tightened around my throat. I lifted my hand, my nails scratched stubble. But there was no one there. No one with claws and fire…no one whispering, He’s gone, Mel. Dad’s dead…
“So how do you know it’s a Soulless?” Purity lifted her gaze from the cell phone. “Could be anything, Ghoul…Vamp...Hellhound, for all we know.”
“It’s not. It’s one of those things.” Jesse reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper.
It was a drawing. A crude sketch of a ghostly thing with wide, blood-filled eyes…above it a name…The Soulless, underlined and circled, scratched out until the lead punctured the page. I stared at the words and felt my stomach roll.
“What is she trying to say?” I murmured.
Purity jerked her eyes toward me, questions crowding her gaze.
“I think she’s trying to get me to find someone she works with.”
“Why?” I stared at the cell. “And who?”
“I don’t know,” Jesse grabbed the phone from the table. “I don’t know anything. That’s why I need help.”
“She wanted you to go to her work. Why? What does she do?” Purity unscrewed the cap on her water bottle and drank the contents dry.
“I dunno, she manages people…ships boxes.” Jesse gave a shrug and reached for his water.
“She ships boxes, like a courier?” Purity murmured as her brow furrowed.
“I dunno,” he muttered, and lifted his hand into the air. “She doesn’t really talk about her work, and I don’t ask.”
“Only care when the allowance comes, huh?” Purity looked away.
He was losing her…but this wasn’t about contempt and anger. This wasn’t even about loyalty. This was about life…and death, and that fraction of a moment which divided the two. “Who does she work for?”
“Some company called Varday,” the guy looked rejected. “Look, she ships boxes, that’s all I know.”
“Do you know where it is?” I grabbed the water from table. “This Varday?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, suddenly desperate to find the answers we needed. “I think I can find it. Mom’s used my car before, so it’ll be listed in the GPS.”
I looked at Purity as she stared at the drawing on the table and then lifted her head. “Then let’s go. If this is what you say it is, then we need to try to find someone who can help her.”
I turned toward the door as Jesse grabbed the drawing and followed. “We’ll follow you.”
“Okay, yeah…let’s do this.” Jesse muttered.
I held the door as he strode through. His skin was pale, borderline ashen. I had to remind myself he was mortal…and not used to us in his world. Purity’s steps echoed down the stairs as I flicked the lock and pulled the door closed behind me.
We moved fast, down to the foyer and then out of the building. The sun was already sinking as I made for the driver’s side of the truck and hit the lock. Purity and I moved as one, climbing into the front seat.
Jesse started the sports car and pulled out ahead, and as he passed, the dimming sun gleamed off the side of the sleek, black paintwork…of the car I’d almost destroyed.
He’d not said a word, even when Purity left us alone. I met his gaze, gave him time to do something other than stare at my hands. I scared him. But did I scare him enough to tell us the truth?
I guess we were about to find out.
Purity fastened her seatbelt as we pulled out onto the street. I punched the accelerator, following close behind as he wove in and out of the suburbs, bypassing the congested main road out of Harbor.
People were fleeing as fast as they could. Pretty soon, the immortals would be the only ones left. Houses gave way to corporate buildings the further south we went. Towering steel gates fronted soulless concrete exteriors. We passed place after place and still kept driving.
“I don’t see a depot, do you? If she’s in shipping, wouldn’t you see trucks?” Purity turned toward me.
“Maybe it’s not that kind of shipping?”
“He said boxes. I don’t know what other kind there is.”
A mammoth building sat in the distance, surrounded by a field of manicured lawn. I glanced at the towering fence line, and the CCTV cameras covering every square inch. Jesse pulled into the driveway, stopping at some kind of guard hut.
A man dressed in military greens stepped out, with a semi-automatic rifle in hand.
“What the fuck,” Purity murmured. “This is no depot.”
Varday Corporation, the bold name sparkled on the front gate. Purity reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and started typing.
“Varday Corporation, an American global, aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. Shipping my goddamn ass,” she muttered and lifted her gaze.
The guard talking to Jesse through the car window shook his head, gave a command, and then stepped away. The black sports car backed out of the driveway, swung the ass end of the Lamborghini wide, then pulled forward, stopping alongside us.
“He said visiting hours are over. We have to come back tomorrow.”
I glanced at the guard, who just stood in the middle of the driveway and watched us.
“The thing is,” Jesse muttered, and looked away as he spoke. “I don’t want to go back there…to the house, not when Mom’s not there. It’s just us now…and I...”
I turned to Purity, and it only took her a second before she gave a slow nod.
“You can stay with us,” I turned to him, catching the widening of his eyes as he met my gaze.
“For real?” He shifted his gaze to Purity. “You’d really let me stay with you?”
“Yeah,” Purity muttered. Her hand snaked over to catch mine. “We would.”
It wasn’t ideal, not for the first night we were alone…in the same place…like alone…alone. Heat rushed, tearing through my body, welling inside my chest.
Jesse gunned the engine and smothered a smirk. “In that case, last one back cooks dinner.”
Tires howled and the engine screamed as he took off, speeding away.
“Oh hell no,” Purity snapped. “He did not just do that.”
I bit the insides of my mouth to stop from smiling. “I think he did.”
She slipped her hand from mine and gave me a playful punch to the shoulder. “Well…what the hell you waiting for, Mel? You got this, let’s see what this baby can do.”
I shook my head, shoved the truck into gear, and spun the wheel. Reflex took over, hands worked the stick, my feet the pedals…my Hound was in full flight. He might not be running, but he knew the chase just the same.
“Go...go…go,” Purity slapped the dashboard and urged.
Her hunger was infectious, tearing a snarl from my lips as we raced along the street. She gripped her phone, fingers dancing across the screen.
“Take Greenvalley Way,” she directed, pointing at the street in the distance. “It’ll be quicker.”
I jerked my gaze toward her, downshifted as the turnoff came at us fast. Tires howling, the truck tilted, until I gave it some gas and sent the wheels against the asphalt.
I followed her directions and the closer we came to the apartment building, the louder she became.
“Turn here…now there…at the next corner, make a right. Come on!”
I swear this mortal woman was part Demon, because the Devil shone in her eyes.
I turned the last corner and caught sight of the black be
ast turning in from the other end.
“You got him, Mel,” Purity snarled. “I am not cooking that asshole dinner.”
The body of the truck swayed. I mounted the curb at the last second and cut across the grass of the house on the corner before the truck touched back down.
Seconds was all it took as I slammed my boot against the clutch and the rear tires caught. I spun the wheel and worked the gears.
The sports car was all power…but it didn’t have a Hellhound behind the wheel.
I yanked the wheel and slipped around a car, before the Raptor surged ahead.
The Lamborghini’s engine roared, as I caught sight of the parking space in front of the building.
“You got this,” Purity urged. “You got it.”
We were going too fast, the speedometer climbed, engine roaring. I yanked the wheel with one hand, and the hand brake with the other.
Tires slid and then gripped as the rear of the truck skidded and spun…and we slid into the car space a second before Jesse.
“Hell yeah!” Purity screamed. “That’s my man!”
Elation roared, and adrenaline followed. Purity reached over, eyes wild with excitement, grabbed my face with both hands and turned me toward her.
The kiss was fast and hard. The feel of her soft hands melted me under the yearning of her lips.
I forgot all about winning.
Forgot all about the race.
It was never for me anyway…it was for her. Every…single…moment. I leaned toward her, pushing her backwards, lifting my hand, fingers brushing her cheek.
Her kiss softened, turning from a hard, brutal beast into desire. A fire blazed inside me, the flames reaching higher as I moved across the driver’s seat and into hers.
Her hand went around my back, splayed fingers pulling me…closer…against her, and I was consumed by this woman.
Utterly…
Emotionally…
Physically…
Her mouth opened under mine, chest against chest, hearts beating mere inches away. I knew the moment I neared the line…the moment her tongue darted into my mouth and a tiny moan slipped free from the back of her throat.