My gaze flicked to the door at the back of the camper that led to the bunks. Tris should be up by now. Where was she?
I nudged Mai to let me out of my spot by the window and then brushed by Kris. Damn, he had a cute ass.
“Go on,” he said. “Give it a squeeze, you know you want to.”
“Like hell. You just want an excuse to return the grope.”
He let out a bark of laughter. “Do I need an excuse?”
I pushed up on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “If I did no strings, I’d definitely do it with you.”
He stuck out his bottom lip. “You say the sweetest things.”
I slipped past him and through the door to the sleeping area. Tris was still stone, still immobile in the bunk I’d popped her into. What the fuck?
The sun had gone down a half-hour ago.
I sat beside her and touched her arm. “Tris?” Nothing. Panic gripped me around the throat. “Wake up!” I picked her up. “Now.”
Her skin began to warm slightly, and then her eyes popped open.
She stared at me. “Um … Kat? What are you doing?”
“Oh, thank God.” I hugged her.
“Urgh, chickie, you’re squishing me.”
“You can’t be squished, you’re a gargoyle.” But I did loosen my grip on her. “You scared me.”
She looked offended. “I am not that kind of gargoyle.” She sniffed. “I have been told I have the sweetest face.”
“It’s forty minutes after sunset.”
She blinked slowly. “No.”
“Yes. You were still stone. Something isn’t right.”
She rubbed at her arms. “I suspected as much. I’ve been feeling a little off. I woke up with a book clutched in my hand the other night.”
“Yeah, I remember seeing you like that when you were stone.”
“Oh, you mean when you snuck out for a liaison with Bres?” She gave me a sly look.
“Hey, do not try to turn this on me, missy.” I wagged my finger at her. “There is something off about you.”
“Nice.”
“You know what I mean. I need to call Karishma.” I hit speed dial on my phone, but nothing happened. “Bloody weather. I’m calling her as soon as we get home.”
We locked gazes, both thinking the same thing. Shimmer man.
“No,” Tris said. “We can’t jump to concl—”
The van rocked to the side as if something had barreled into it. I went flying into the wall and then back again as the van landed on both sets of wheels.
Raised voices and exclamations filled the van.
Tris climbed up onto my shoulders, and I pushed through the door into the lounge area of the camper. Kris was holding a pan, the contents of which were now all over the floor, Mai was crumpled up against the window, her body trapped between the table and the seat. Lark reached for her, tugging her free, and Logan … Logan stood at the window, his expression pale.
“What the fuck was that?” I joined him at the window.
Logan grabbed his ski mask and headed for the door. “Hunters. And they’re here for me.”
Chapter Nine
I grabbed at Logan’s shoulder before he could open the door. “Whoa, wait a second. Are you sure you want to go out there?”
“They know I’m here,” Logan said. “This isn’t your problem. Nightwatch can’t interfere. Just stay in the van.” He opened the door and stepped into the whirling snow.
Icy air cut at my skin. A noble trollblood. Who knew? But he was right, this wasn’t the Nightwatch’s problem. He wasn’t our problem. Not to mention, Nightwatch had no authority over hunter business. So, yeah, we needed to back off. Let him do his thing.
“Nightwatch can’t interfere,” Lark echoed Logan’s words. His face was pressed to the glass. “Shit, it’s two on one, and they’re big guys.”
“You’re going out there, aren’t you?” Tris whispered in my ear.
Damn, that goyle knew me too well. “Yep, and you need to stay put.” I spoke up so the group could hear. “We can’t let them take him in.”
Kris threw me my jacket. “So, we don’t.”
Lark shrugged on his coat.
“Let’s do this,” Mai said.
I climbed out of the van with the others behind me. The blizzard was calming down, but visibility was still shit.
Logan was visible a few feet away, facing off with two hulking figures dressed in black.
“I can’t,” Logan said. “Not yet.”
“You got no choice, Logan,” one of the guys shouted back. “You come easy, or we do it the hard way.”
Cliché much? “Hey!” I joined Logan. “How about we head over to the local café and talk this through.”
Kris, Mai, and Lark joined us.
Logan shot me an annoyed glance. “I’ve got this.” He looked back at the two hunters who’d been sent to retrieve him. “This is Brie we’re talking about, guys. Little Brie.”
“You broke protocol,” one of the guys called back. “You took the oath. Nothing above the hunt, and you broke it.”
Logan’s hand went to his holster. “I don’t want to hurt you guys.”
“And we don’t want to hurt you.”
Shit, the last thing we needed was a shoot-out in the square. Even with the universal glamour, blood and bullets would be hard to explain.
I stepped between Logan and the other hunters. “If you mean it, if you don’t want to hurt him, then just leave. You can say you couldn’t find him.”
“I just need some more time,” Logan added with more than a hint of desperation. “Another week.”
“No can do, Logan,” the bigger guy replied. “Your retrieval is time-sensitive.”
Logan tensed.
“Time-sensitive?” I threw him a quick look.
“It means they get paid more the quicker they bring me in,” Logan said. “Fuck.”
“Can I step in now?”
“They won’t listen.”
“Then we make them listen long enough for you to make a run for it.” I nodded at Kris and Mai. “When you hear the budgie scream …”
Lark rubbed his hands together, a sign that he was ready to get freaky with his weaver mojo.
“Hey!” I raised a hand. “Logan is under Nightwatch protection.” I took several steps toward the hunters. Close enough to make out vague features. “You can have him back when he’s done assisting in our investigation.”
“Fuck you,” the guy on the left spat. “You have no rights on a hunter.”
I was right up close now. Close enough to reach out and touch him.
I smiled sweetly up at him, blinking against the kiss of flakes on my lashes. “Really? What about now?”
I grabbed their balls, squeezed, and twisted.
They both let out a strange sound, part yelp, part scream. I released them and backed up, drawing my dagger, ready for retaliation.
It didn’t take long.
They were charging me, teeth bared, but Kris was a shadow to my right and Mai to my left. Power hit the air, electric, as Lark expelled a jet of energy that knocked both guys off their feet and onto the ground.
Nice.
I turned to look at him. He staggered back and clutched his chest. Crap, that shot must have taken a lot out of him. There was no sign of Logan. He’d done the smart thing and used the distraction to make a run for it.
Time to give him a little more of a head start.
The wind kicked up, and ice cut at my skin. I stood, feet planted shoulder-width apart, dagger at the ready as the hunters recovered from Lark’s attack and approached.
“You’re making a mistake,” the smaller one said. “Nightwatch should not interfere in hunter business.”
I shrugged. “Oops, too late now.”
They attacked, and damn, they were fast. Kris fought one off while Mai and I took on the other. Their glamour slipped as they fought. They were using an extra layer like Henri did. A layer to lie to supernatural ey
es. But in the heat of battle, they were unable to sustain it. A flash of red, a hint of green.
Trollbloods like Logan.
A fist connected with my chest, sending me flying backward. I hit the ground in an explosion of snow that knocked the wind out of me.
Lark hauled me back up. “You okay?”
“I’m good,” I wheezed.
“Shit, Mai!” Lark ran toward the trollblood, who had Mai in a lift over his head, ready to throw her.
“Hey, you put her down!”
The trollblood grinned and then threw her right at me. Shit. Mai hit me, taking me down.
Urgh. Was that her ass in my face? We both scrambled apart and came to our feet.
“You okay?” Mai asked, her eyes wide with concern. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, just a little ass to the face. I’ll live.”
She winked at me. “Let’s take down the hulk.”
“Allow me.” I slipped into blur mode and hit the trollblood hard in the chest, taking him down.
The trollblood went for my throat with his meaty fists, but I got in a sharp jab to his nose first. Blood sprayed everywhere. “Look, now you’ve ruined all the pretty white snow.”
He cupped his face.
I held him down. “Enough. It’s over. Logan is gone. It’s over.”
He glared at me through red-rimmed eyes. “Nightwatch scum.”
I climbed off him, my lip curling. “At least Nightwatch have each other’s backs.”
“We don’t hunt one another for money,” Mai said.
The trollblood rolled to his feet, one hand still holding his broken nose, but he didn’t attack again.
His companion joined him. “You shouldn’t have interfered.”
The two of them backed up into the storm.
A strangled cry cut through the howling wind. Someone was hurt, but Mai and Lark were beside me.
Kris?
Where was Kris?
Shit.
“Kris?” Mai called out.
I spotted a figure a few meters ahead of us. “Kris!”
But wait, it wasn’t coming toward us, it was moving away.
A gray blur raced across the ground and slammed into the figure. Tris? She was latched on to the figure’s arm while he flailed about trying to shake her off.
Not Kris.
Tris wouldn’t attack Kris.
I blurred and made a grab for the figure just as Tris lost her grip. A pair of violet eyes locked onto me, and then the figure vanished.
“Kris? Oh, fuck.” Mai fell to her knees by the figure on the ground, the figure I hadn’t even noticed.
Kris lay in the snow with a bloody gash decorating his forehead and a dazed expression.
Lark helped him up while I scooped Tris out of the snow and hugged her close.
“What happened?” Kris rubbed the back of his neck.
“Weaver power,” Lark said. “I can feel it … faint, but it’s weaver mojo.”
“The hunters brought a weaver?” Mai said. “Low.”
“Hey.” Lark shot her an offended look.
“You know what I mean,” Mai said.
“Wankers,” Kris said. He rubbed the wound on his head, which had stopped bleeding now.
It would be healed in a few hours. Still, it had to hurt.
The ice pelting had let up, and the snow was falling in a light blanket now.
Pretty. But not enough to make me want to stay. “You know what, I’ve fucking had enough of this town. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
* * *
I woke up to the buttery warmth of the sun. The clock said it was a quarter to two in the afternoon. Fifteen minutes before my alarm usually went off. The alarm I hadn’t set because after two days of being awake, I needed sleep.
I rolled onto my side to see Tris in her stone form, a book on her stomach. Again?
I really needed to get hold of Karishma. As soon as the sun went down, I’d give her a call. Her and Gramps. I needed to check in with them both.
In the meantime, now that I was up …
I swung my legs out of bed and pulled on my robe.
Breakfast with Bres was calling.
The door was open, and the smell of coffee drifted out to greet me. Bres was lying on his bed, reading a book. There was no dust jacket, so it was impossible to tell what it was.
He slowly lowered it to his inked chest as I entered. “Jay told me you were back, but I wasn’t sure you’d be down to see me.”
“I guess my body has gotten into a habit.” I wandered over to the coffee pot. “You brewed coffee, though.”
“Habit,” he said.
“Or maybe you hoped I’d come see you?” I shot him an arch look.
“Do you want me to want to see you?” There was no teasing in his tone now.
I put the coffee pot down and turned to face him, my throat suddenly tight. “Yes.” The truth hit the air like a silent explosion. “I do. I like this. I like being here with you. It’s the favorite part of my day.”
His eyes flared, and then his lips curved in a sardonic smile. “It’s the only part of your day.”
“You know what I mean.”
He stood and padded over to me. “I know what you mean, raspberry girl, but do you? Do you know what you mean?”
I lifted my chin to look into his eyes. His gaze flicked from my eyes down to my lips and then slowly back again in a seductive look that made my knees weak and stirred something warm and new inside me. He leaned in, placing his hands on the counter on either side of me, trapping my body with his.
“What is it you want from me, Kat?”
Everything. The word bloomed in my mind and settled on my tongue. Where had that come from?
“I don’t know.”
He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath as he fed on my lie. His mouth was a half-smile as he pushed away from me and walked back to his bed. “Make the coffee, raspberry girl, then tell me about the mission.”
“I’m sure Jay has already filled you in.”
“Yes, but I prefer the sound of your voice.”
I carried my coffee over to his bed and curled up in the chair stationed beside it. “I’d rather hear about you. Tell me about your childhood.”
He stretched out and stared up at the rune-riddled ceiling. “Ah, disclosure breeds intimacy.”
Shit. “There are various kinds of intimacy, Bres.”
He smiled. “Very well. Let’s see … I was named after Bres, the Tuatha king whose father was fomorian. Bres loved his fomorian kin more than his Tuatha kin, and the stories of his valor were prominent among my people at the time. So, my parents named me Bres.”
“Where did you live as a child?”
The harsh lines of his face softened. “A farm. My parents were farmers. We could have been more. My mother was a truthseer, what you’d call a walking lie detector, and could have worked for the crown if she wished, but she kept her gift a secret and bid me to do the same with mine. I didn’t understand why, but I obeyed. But as I got older, it began to bother me. The farm was struggling, we were starving, and a job with the crown would pay handsomely—why couldn’t I reveal my skill? Why not use it to give us a comfortable life? My mother was adamant I needed to keep our secret.
“Then my father fell ill. The herbs mother usually employed didn’t work. We’d need medicine, the kind only found in the city, the kind that came at a price we couldn’t afford.”
“So, you revealed your secret?”
“Yes. I signed up to serve the crown. A contract of a year. My mother begged me not to. She warned me that once the crown knew of my ability, they would own me. I didn’t believe her. I signed up, and my father received the care he needed and recovered.”
“So, it worked out.”
His smile was bitter. “My father recovered but died six months later in his sleep. His heart had been weakened by the ailment. When my year came to an end, the royal guard came to my home and conscripted me into service of the crow
n. There was no freedom for me. No free will. My mother had been right. My life belonged to the crown. I went where they sent me, and my ability to put enemies of the crown to death made me a force to be reckoned with.”
“You were powerful and feared.”
He made a small sound of derision. “Oh, yes. No one wanted to be around someone who could catch their every untruth. Someone who fed off their lies.”
We sat in silence for long seconds. Lonely … He’d been lonely, and now he was trapped in this room, confined to lonely days and tiny bites of time outside this room. My heart ached for him.
“When the war came, it was a relief. My ability no longer mattered, all that mattered was that I could wield a sword.”
“Lark will find a way to set you free.”
He turned his head to look at me. “You believe that?”
I smiled. “Yeah. I do.” I glanced at the clock. An hour before sunset. I held out my hand to him. “In the meantime, how about we take a quick walk outside?”
He gripped my hand. “I suppose I best put on a shirt then.”
I raked his chest over. “Nah, you’re good.”
There was a knock on the door, and Jay walked in. His hair was mussed, and his eyes behind his spectacles were haunted.
Bres was on his feet in an instant. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Something’s coming.” Jay clutched at his chest as if trying to claw something off. “Something really bad.”
Shit. Jay was never disheveled, never out of control.
He buckled, but Bres caught him. “Bres, we have to stop it.”
“Then maybe it’s time to break the rules,” Bres said. “Tell us what you saw.”
Jay looked up at him and shook his head. “That’s just it. I can’t. I can’t see it. All I see is endless darkness. All I see is death.”
Chapter Ten
Jay paced back and forth across the floor of the lounge. “This event I saw … it’s big and powerful, and if it wins, there’ll be nothing left. Nothing.”
“And this is different from your other visions how?” Kris asked from his favored spot by the window. “You’ve foreseen shit before, bad shit, but not told us. Why break the rule now?”
Jay rubbed his chest. “This feels different. Usually, there are pathways, options. Usually, there are loopholes to divert the negative outcomes. I nudge and direct, but I don’t intervene, but this time … this time the danger is linear. I can’t see the loopholes. I can’t see the pathways. It feels … inevitable.”
Ghost at the Feast: The Nightwatch Book 3 Page 6