Wicked Game

by Susan Harris

  “I did not know she had the sight. No wonder her mind was a fortress,” Dresden mused as he walked around the table and reached out as if to touch Krista.

  A feral snarl escaped my lips, and Dresden froze.

  Krista, too, had frozen, suddenly aware she was no longer invisible to all but me.

  “Pretty little ghosty,” Dresden almost cooed. “Tasty enough to snack on. I should devour you and your magic; it would keep me sated for weeks.”

  Krista looked horrified and took a step back. “Um, no thanks. I’d prefer not to be eaten by some weird-ass fae. Now, back off before she hurts you.”

  She glanced at me, hoping it was not a hollow threat, that enough of me was left that I’d step in if he tried to hurt her.

  Dresden was obviously certain of his abilities to wreak havoc in my mind because he reached out and suddenly, Krista burst to life.

  Edison stepped back, his eyes on Krista as if he didn’t believe what he was seeing. Krista sucked in a breath, and when she looked toward Maxim, her face paled as she realized every single person could now see her.

  Krista was really a ghost. I hadn’t been imagining her. I wasn’t going crazy.

  I swung the cleaver right into Dresden’s chest. The fae staggered back, his hand forced from Krista and breaking the connection. Maxim shouted at me to stop, but I didn’t.

  Dresden tried to dodge my blows, the fae quick on his feet as I tried for brute strength and hulk-smashed my way behind him until he was backed against a wall with no escape. I dropped the cleaver, wanting to feel his death with my bare hands.

  Dresden swung for me, not at all used to fighting without magic. As he swung a fist wildly, I wrapped my hands around his throat and lifted him off his feet, his toes barely touching the ground. His eyes were wide, but for some strange reason he didn’t seem scared. There was a little semblance of peace, of acceptance, in his eyes. I wondered why he didn’t try and touch me.

  “Do it, Ryan. Kill me,” he said loudly before dropping his voice to a mere whisper. “Ask the boy, ask Adam. He will tell you what you need to know. There is a traitor inside the court of vampires, and he knows who it be.”

  Instead of listening further, I let my fangs elongate and sank them into his neck, just below my hands. I swallowed hard, his blood bitter and foul tasting despite the power I tasted in it. I pulled my fangs from his throat, my grasp tightening as Dresden managed to smile, just a little.

  Then I snapped his neck.

  A second later, the weapon used to torture me slid to the ground, his body shimmering and flickering before turning into a pile of twiglike bones. I spared him no more time or attention, turning back to see everyone staring at me with shocked expressions. Maxim was livid.

  “Ryan.”

  I gave my attention to Krista, who was fading now that Dresden’s magic had been killed with him.

  She swallowed hard. “Nickolai and Atticus are on the way. They’re coming to rescue you.”

  I snorted. I wasn’t in need of saving. But I would make sure Edison got to his brother. Then I would come back and burn this place to the ground.

  Arms encircled my waist, and I was slammed down on the table, Maxim straddling my hips as he picked up my shoulders and slammed me back down against the wood.

  “You stupid bitch,” he roared. Adam tried to pull him off me, but Maxim shoved his son away. “I have controlled that fae for over forty years, and you killed him in a heartbeat. Do you know what you have just cost me?”

  His hands wrapped around my throat, squeezing hard enough to bruise my skin and halt my breath. Pain flooded my body, and it was the kick I needed to remind me I was still alive and didn’t want to die just yet.

  My fingers reached out, touching a familiar hilt. I deftly wrapped my fingers around the sai and with one quick movement, rammed the dagger into Maxim’s chest. At this angle, I’d missed his heart, but I clawed his face as he recoiled back and fell from the table. I grabbed the other sai and their holster, then surged to reclaim what was mine.

  A hand fell on my arm, and I whirled, stopping with a sudden start as Edison’s face came into view. Undeterred by the pointed tip mere inches from his eye, Edison said, “Five by five, Callan. Now let’s get out of here.”

  He tugged at my arm, but I growled, causing Edison to stop as his eyes wandered to where mine did. He let out a sigh and bent down so I could feel his breath warm at my ear. “We need to go now. I promise you that we’ll get the sai back, but to do so you need to be alive.”

  My eyes stayed on the weapon that Maxim was in the process of slowly pulling from his chest. As if to emphasize Edison’s point, the pounding of footsteps came rushing from outside the banquet hall.

  I let Edison tug me with him, a piece of me not wanting to leave without my mother’s prized weapon. I felt incomplete without the pair in my grasp—which should have been ironic since I didn’t feel complete in my mind.

  Surprise washed over me as Edison grabbed Adam in a chokehold and backed us out of the room. Kicking the doors closed, Edison let Adam go for a minute as they pulled a large supply cabinet in front of the doors.

  I followed blindly as Adam steered us down a winding corridor that had me feeling a little dizzy. Krista followed us silently, her eyes on me as my own eyes darted from side to side, as if waiting for this dream to come to the punchline and drag me down to hell again. With every corner, Nickolai haunted and taunted me, my heart shuddering as I pictured myself sliding a blade into his chest over and over again. Rogue Nickolai only laughed at me.

  We came to a stop by a heavy steel door with a keylock code. Adam tapped it in quickly and opened it up, and I almost lunged into the clean, crisp scent of rain in the night air.

  “It will take them a while to go round the other way. You should be able to get clear before they realize you’ve slipped out the back door. Take this in case they come for you.”

  Adam handed Edison a gun. When I growled, he turned and handed me one, too, with a smile. Turning back, he extended a hand to Edison.

  Edison shook the rogue’s hand. “Come with us, man. I’ll vouch for you.”

  Adam gave Edison a shake of his head. “Better to have me here for now. I’ll help when I can.” Squaring his shoulders, Adam took a deep breath and jutted out his chin. “Make it look real, St. Clair.”

  Edison curled his hand into a fist and punched Adam square in the jaw. Adam slumped to the ground. As Edison steered me out the door, Krista, who had been slowly fading, vanished entirely.

  Once outside, I hesitated, gulping in the scent of freedom before I followed Edison’s lead. We bolted across the open field and plunged into the dark of the forest beyond, no idea where we were or where we were going as we traipsed through unfamiliar terrain.

  The moment we slipped into the forest, lights flooded the field behind us and the sound of barking dogs filled the air. Edison headed north, as if he knew where he was going, so I followed him even as I heard the barks coming closer and closer.

  I sucked in a breath and growled softly. Edison turned back to face me as I lifted my gun and pulled the trigger. The dog that burst through the trees behind him hit the ground without a sound. Had I not shot; it would have lunged for Edison’s throat.

  Edison grinned, motioning with his head. “The Americans will be extremely impressed. But then again, you told them you’d be good at it.”

  I blinked in response, causing Edison to sigh, as if he’d expected me to simply go back to being Ryan once we escaped Maxim’s grasp. I heard the sound of boots crunching from the direction we were headed and froze, unsure if it would be friend or foe.

  After glancing at Edison, I bolted toward the sounds. Edison called my name, hurrying to catch up with me. I must have run for an age until I heard once-familiar voices ahead, and I stalked to the edge of the clearing and waited.

  11

  His voice called me forward, and I couldn’t stop my feet from moving as I used the cover of darkness and shadows of the tree can
opy to stay hidden. I knew he’d come to kill me, to tear me apart heart and soul, and I needed to end him before he could unravel me.

  The wind was in my favor, my scent not carrying across the clearing and giving away my advantage. Nickolai was standing in the center of the group, nodding as someone spoke to him. There were a limited number of royal guards with him, or rogues—I was pretty sure they were rogues, but I couldn’t see their eyes with their backs to me.

  Brandishing katanas and short blades, I wondered how many I could take out to get to him, to end the suffering before it began. I would not allow others to be hurt like I was. I noticed the vampire standing beside him, Atticus, eyes heavy from lack of sleep. His face looked strained in a grief that he seemed to be anticipating. I stared for a moment, and when his eyes didn’t flicker red, I was satisfied that Atticus was not a rogue. Edison would be safe with him.

  However, I couldn’t resist looking back at Nickolai. Part of me wished to linger in the darkness just so I could pretend this was real and I’d found them—found him. Part of me was terrified I was locked in Dresden’s dreamscapes, that I was being drenched in hope and would awaken to find that I didn’t kill him and was still tied to a table with little chance of escape.

  I hesitated in the shadows, held captive by his eyes—two pools of cerulean blue that had always enslaved me. For a moment his eyes moved over the shadows, and I held my breath for fear he would see me. The moonlight caught the side of his face, and my heart skipped a beat. The wind changed direction suddenly, and his eyes snapped in my direction as he caught my scent.

  How did he hide his sanguine eyes?

  My name formed on his lips as I stepped into the clearing, stalling until the perfect moment when a captive strode past the edges of the gathering, taking advantage as a mass of reddish-brown hair stepped into my field of vision. With a snarl, I pressed the gun right between his shoulder blades, and Jack’s body went rigid before he chuckled.

  “Hey, kiddo.”

  His words were spoken with such kindness my chest hurt. I pressed the gun even harder against his spine when he stepped forward, a growl filling the clearing as Nickolai lifted a hand to stop the advancement of soldiers.

  “Easy, now, kiddo. No one here will hurt you. Just lower the gun and let us look after you.”

  The vampire changed direction, but whatever was in Jack’s expression made him halt his advancement. Edison burst through the trees behind me.

  Atticus let loose a sob that had me tilting my head as he came forward, and I stepped closer to Edison to protect him. I wasn’t entirely convinced this Atticus was the one I needed to reunite Edison with. Edison tossed his own gun to the ground before he nodded to Nickolai, who was watching me with heat in his gaze.

  I closed my eyes for a minute as I felt his lips on mine, his hands on my body, and the way in which I responded to him. My eyes darted open as I whimpered, my hands trembling as Edison stood in front of Jack—all the while keeping eye contact with me.

  “C’mon, Callan,” Edison said, holding his hands up. “We’ve been waiting for months to get to go home. We joked about this, remember? How you and I would get our own asses out of Dodge before all the pretty boys came charging in? You got us out. You told me you couldn’t wait to get one of Jack’s hugs. You love Jack. Hakuna Matata.”

  My hands trembled even more at his words because I knew going home meant safety, but I didn’t feel safe. I was confused and terrified.

  Rogue Nickolai stepped into the clearing, a monstrous smile toying on bloodred lips.

  “Have you ever wondered, Ryan, what it would be like to drink from a human until their heartbeat slowed, to drink from them until you felt their heartbeat no more, and then to drink even more?”

  With a snarl of frustration, I whipped the gun from Jack’s shoulders and fired off a shot at rogue Nickolai, my stomach clenching as the bullet embedded in a tree. Edison pushed Jack out of the way as my head throbbed. I let the gun fall from my grasp as my knees buckled and Edison caught me under the arms.

  Our knees hit the ground together as Edison hugged me to him. There was wetness on my skin, and when I touched my face, I was taken aback to feel tears falling from my eyes. Edison shifted me into his lap, a familiar position as I rested my head on his shoulder and inhaled his scent.

  “I’m gonna let Jack come closer, Callan. Close your eyes and inhale his scent. Remember how Dresden couldn’t mess with how we smell? You got us out of there, now let me look after you.”

  When I didn’t say anything, Jack came forward. A growl rumbled in my throat, and Edison slowly, carefully closed my eyes. I opened up my other senses, breathing in the scent that was uniquely Jack’s, one that was ingrained in my life. With my eyes closed, I reached out with trembling hands, not daring to open my eyes yet. My fingers grazed his cheek, then traced his jawline, the place where I’d clawed his face the night my parents had died.

  Jack was here. This was real. He was real.

  “Hey, kiddo. Can I take you from Edison? I know someone who is dying to give his baby brother a hug.”

  Edison got to his feet before he handed me off to Jack, and I watched as Atticus engulfed Edison in an embrace. Atticus wasn’t even trying to hide his tears of joy. Edison muttered something to Atticus, who laughed in response as he stepped out of the embrace and ran his eyes over his younger brother.

  Was that what love looked like?

  Jack held me like I was as fragile as glass, my head nestled in the crook of his shoulder. I could not stop the rapid beat of my heart as Nickolai approached. My body tensed, and I dug my nails into Jack’s neck.

  “My liege, perhaps we give Ryan a little time before…”

  Nickolai ignored Jack, continuing forward as I ducked my head, not wanting to get lost in cerulean blue eyes. Too many sensations, too many emotions were bubbling to the surface and wrapping around my ankles, threatening to drag me down to hell. Electricity shot through my veins when Nickolai reached for me, and I snarled, swatting away his touch. I was not so certain I could cling to any semblance of sanity if he touched me.

  “I would never hurt you, Ryan.”

  Oh, and he believed that. He told me he loved me and then called me crazy. He came back into my life as our enemy and I killed him.

  I killed him.

  I killed him.

  Over and over and over and over inside my head.

  I grasped my head with both hands as searing pain overwhelmed me, my memories a jumble of glass shards I could not separate from fiction. I could feel the slickness of Nickolai’s blood on my hands, the press of his lips on my spine, the goosebumps on my skin when he told me that he loved me. It was torture and pleasure at the same time, and I was drowning.

  Nickolai went to reach for me again, and I leapt out of Jack’s arms and took Nickolai to the ground, unleashing my pain and anguish on his face. I wasn’t trying hard as he snatched at my wrists with his fingers, but his touch burned my skin and I hissed, snapping my teeth at his throat like a wild animal.

  “Ryan.”

  Edison said my name, and I cocked my head as if I were listening.

  “Nickolai doesn’t understand what happened to you yet. He doesn’t know that Maxim had a fae bastard who messed with you head. He doesn’t know that the reason you snapped out of the Dresden’s dreamscapes was because you knew it wasn’t Nickolai. That you fought like a goddamn warrior until Dresden made you kill Nickolai.”

  A hand fell on my shoulder, and I knew it was Jack without having to lift my gaze. I knew he wanted to steady me, as if he knew I wasn’t truly tethered to the world. I knew what Edison was doing, though. He was trying to remind me of what had happened, why fact and fiction were blurry.

  “Nickolai,” Edison continued, “he doesn’t know that you haven’t said a bloody word to me in weeks. That I’ve watched as you were haunted by demons you couldn’t fight—and we all know you fight until you have nothing left to give. I know what Dresden gave you in the end—he told us as you
dreamed it. He gave you the happiness you craved more than life itself, gave you back your parents and Krista, gave you a future, and then he took it all from you.”

  Everyone in the clearing was still, watching in silence as I sat back, suddenly conscious of how I was straddling Nickolai’s waist. I lifted my eyes to Edison’s, and his own eyes mirrored the pain I felt bleeding from my own.

  I scrambled back, cradling my head in my hands as I sat on the cold, wet grass. Edison was safe now. I could go back and burn Maxim to the ground, even if it meant my death. I knew deep within my bones I could never feel as happy as I had in my nightmares.

  Rushing to my feet, I turned toward the forest as if I could burst free and go hunt down Maxim.

  Edison stepped into my path. “You don’t go without me. I’m not losing you to this, Ryan.”

  My brows shot up as if daring him to try to stop me.

  Edison chuckled softly, then strode right up to me, taking my face in his hands. “If you can still give me that haughty expression, then you are still in there, Ryan Callan, and we cannot lose you. I cannot lose you. You are my goddamn sister, and I’m not losing you.”

  I knew then that if I darted off, Edison would follow me, which defeated the purpose of my plan. My hand dropped to my sai as I considered what to do, and my eyes widened when I remembered I had left the other one behind to save Edison.

  As if reading my thoughts, he reaffirmed his earlier pledge. “We will get it back. I promise you; we will get your sai back.”

  Nickolai had gotten to his feet, and I backed away from him, digging my palms into my eyes to block out the near-identical monster that stood next to him. Rogue Nickolai grinned as he placed a hand on my Nickolai’s shoulder, blood dripping from his fangs.

  “Kiddo?”

  I dropped my hands, and my shoulders slumped as Jack cautiously approached me. I took another step back, and Edison intervened again.

  “You’re having some trouble knowing who is real and who is not, right?”

  Barely nodding my head, I was sure I was supposed to feel grateful, but I couldn’t feel much of anything. Shame punched though me, though, as someone gasped at my revelation. Suddenly I realized everyone was watching me fail and become weak.