Fae Unchained (The Mage Shifter War Book 2)

by Ann Denton

  The new Uber driver merely chuckled. "Your boy called me, not the other way around, I can assure you."

  Bodie glared from Easton over the driver. "Just keep your mouth shut, Trey, and we won't have any problems."

  The driver—Trey— chuckled. "Easy pup, I'm not expecting a tip from you. Just get in the damn car so we can get moving."

  Bodie's hand flinched toward the handgun in his hidden hip holster and I was immediately intrigued with what their history with this guy was. Neither Bodie nor Easton seemed to like him much. So why would Drake have called him?

  We piled into the backseat and Trey peeled out into the street, narrowly missing the front end of a sports car that was probably worth more than this guy’s annual salary—tips included. Since I didn’t have an ‘oh-shit’ handle, my hands went to the cheap fabric seats and clutched on for dear life as Trey drove.

  None of the guys said anything for a while as we weaved in and out of traffic. Then the hairy ape glanced into the rear-view mirror, with a shit-eating smirk on his cocky face.

  "So, Goldilocks, how's life as an outsider? I kinda thought you'd be dead by now, living out on your own, and—"

  The telltale sound of a safety clicking was my only warning before Bodie's gun was pressed tightly to Trey's temple. My wolf shifter leaned forward and growled, "He's not on his own. He's in The Shadow's pack now. And unless you want to find out for yourself what it's like to be dead, I suggest you shut the fuck up."

  Trey swallowed, gagging momentarily before he nodded. The fucker had probably choked on his gum. Too bad he hadn’t suffocated. I realized our driver must have been part of Easton’s old pack. That would explain the instant animosity.

  I looked at Easton, concerned. He stared out the window, but I could see from his face he was upset. Of the three, he was the easiest to read. Poor guy. I leaned over against him, threading my fingers through his. He sat stiffly, but when I reached up and turned his face to mine, then leaned up to kiss him, he responded. I let my tongue gently stroke his until I felt him relax a little. Then I pulled back and smiled at him. His eyes softened as he looked down at me, but his smile was still tight. I squeezed his fingers with mine and he squeezed back.

  When I turned back to the front, Bodie still held his gun to the driver’s temple. I had no doubt that the world—and especially Easton—would be better off without the fucker behind the wheel. What kind of person said shit like that to someone they hadn’t seen in years? Oh, hey, thought you’d be dead, haha. Asshole. Someone had clearly dropped him on his head as a baby, off the side of a cliff. I had no doubt that Bodie—being the badass he was—would be able to take control of a moving car speeding down the highway without a living driver.

  My morbid fantasy came to a screeching halt as Trey swerved onto an off ramp and barreled down the street. Ahead, a colorful uber-modern building stood smoking, pieces of its orange, purple, and silver metallic walls had been blown across the street and were now wedged like shrapnel into the buildings nearby. My heart shot up my throat like a puck in one of those strong man carnival games. We wouldn't have much time before the Mage Police arrived. We had to hurry if we wanted to help the poor kids trapped inside.

  A couple of rabbits darted out the building, ears twitching as they let out terrified screeches before bolting past. A snake slithered out a first-floor window and dropped onto the grass, causing some of the humans nearby to scream. The poor children must have shifted in their panic.

  The sight of people running… the sound of the screams… the smell of smoke in the air… It all somehow triggered a long-forgotten memory…

  My mind flashed to my grandparents’ mansion, a place I rarely got to visit as a little girl, but one that I always remembered thanks to the beautiful gardens that surrounded it. It wasn’t beautiful in this memory, though. It was burning. Long orange flames licked the night like vicious whips, and the harsh sting of smoke filling my lungs.

  I clutched my grandmother’s trembling hand, scared and unsure of what was going on. Where was grandpa? Why weren’t the Mage Police coming to put out the fire?

  "He shouldn’t have done it," grandma had said, her voice quavering. "Defiance isn’t worth the price."

  "Who shouldn’t?" I’d asked. "What price?"

  But she didn’t answer. She’d simply tugged on my hand, fluttered her wings, and we’d flown away.

  I never saw my grandpa again. The poor autumn fae never stood a chance against the flames that ate away his home and his bones until they drifted on the wind like the dead leaves of fall.

  Years later, I learned it was his punishment for betraying the Mage Council’s trust. He’d met with the siren king without the council’s approval, which was as bad as doing it behind their backs.

  At first, that explanation had been enough for a teen-me determined to join the MP. But now that I was no longer blinded by the council’s bullshit, I could see how incredibly fucked up it was.

  My internal thoughts didn’t matter, though.

  The memory quickly faded when I shoved my reminiscing aside.

  All at once, the shattered glass front doors of the school in front of me flew open and several adults ran out of the building carrying burnt and bleeding children as they screamed.

  Motherfucker had attacked an elementary school?

  Jesus fucking Christ...

  I saw red just before my mind went numb. My hands unbuckled my seat belt and I opened my car door before I even realized what I was doing. Easton and I were both out of the backseat before the car had even stopped moving. He landed on his feet. I hit the ground and inertia kicked in, forcing me to tuck and roll a few times before scrambling back onto my feet and sprinting for the smoldering building.

  The Mage Council might have stripped my badge, but that training was still definitely a part of who I was. More than being a princess ever had been. That was a title I was born into. But a police officer... that was who I was born to be. Helping others, saving them, was a driving force that flooded my veins. I was mixed up in all kinds of shit now, and while I knew there was no turning back from that, nothing else mattered in the moment. Right now, I needed to get in there and do something for those children.

  I passed a teacher as he ran up the stairs and I paused just long enough to grab some directions. "Where are the kids?"

  "Cafeteria," he puffed. "The attack came before school officially started. The kids who can't afford food were eating free breakfast."

  Oh my god.

  "Where's the cafeteria?" I asked as quickly as I could.

  The man pointed as he coughed. He must've inhaled some smoke during his trips in and out. "Top of the stairs," he replied. "Near the center."

  Don't think, Aubry, just move.

  As soon as I made it to the top, an arm reached out and grabbed me, pulling me into a storage closet that was big enough to be a small classroom.

  "What the fuck?" I tried to shout, but Drake merely rolled his eyes as the rest of the guys filed in and he shut the door behind me.

  "You sure you're a trained officer?" he asked skeptically. "You act like a fucking noob straight out of your mama's snatch. You gonna rush in there without a plan?"

  That fire-breathing dildo! My eyes grew wide and incredulous. "There are injured children dying! They're burned and bleeding! We need to help them!"

  Drake nodded. "Yeah, and there's a fucking psychopath on the loose. There might even be Mage Council members and Mage Police lurking around, so we need to be cautious. We aren’t the damn police, Aubry. We don’t just get to rush in there."

  I took a deep breath and shoved down the urge to break his nose. He was right. I was acting like I was still MP.

  Russ dropped his giant black bag and began handing out guns as Bodie and Easton finally caught up to us.

  "Partner up," Drake ordered us. "One person gets a kid, the other watches their six."

  "I'm with Aubry," Bodie and Easton both said at the same time.

  Drake sighed and pinched
the bridge of his nose. "We don't have time for this shit. Bodie, you're with Larry. Easton, cover Russ. I'll keep the fly with me since clearly neither of you can be trusted to keep your cocks out of the henhouse when she's around."

  Drake? I had to partner up with Drake? My eyes narrowed as I ground my teeth together. I tried to tell myself I’d had worse partners at the MP Academy. And I had—in terms of competence. None of them could handle four weapons-two on each hip and two in underarm holsters. But nobody beat Drake in the asshole department. He was the bossiest, rudest alpha I’d ever met.

  Bodie glared and shook his head as he loaded a magazine into his rifle and gave it a firm strike. "Were you raised on a fucking farm or what? Your analogies suck today."

  "Not as much as that sub did last night," Drake retorted darkly.

  I was pretty sure he said it to close down any more conversation on the subject, but naturally it piqued my interest... and my nipples.

  Bodie shook his head as he followed Russ out the door.

  Larry and Easton were next. Our old, far-less-competent Einstein-lookalike hopped around shaking out his limbs and taking deep breaths. He looked like he was gearing up for a marathon.

  Easton grinned and let Larry do his thing as he turned to me. "If you don't mind, I'd love to make you your own weapon sometime. One as sleek, lethal, and beautiful as you are."

  My heart put a metaphorical hand to her chest in adoration. Violent gifts? My entire body heated at how well Easton knew me. He was so fucking sweet. "I would love that, thank you."

  He grinned before leaning in and kissing my neck just below my jaw. "Be careful out there."

  My eyelashes fluttered as heat swirled around beneath my skin. "I will. You too."

  "Go, lover-boy," Drake growled.

  Easton shot me a wink before lifting his rifle and following an antsy Larry out the door.

  Then, only Drake and I were left.

  "You grab a kid," the moody fucker told me, "and I'll cover your ass."

  I scoffed, peering out the crack of the door as Drake clicked the safeties off on his handguns. "I don't trust you anywhere near my ass, dragon."

  Suddenly, his chest was flush against my back, heating my skin through my flimsy top, and his groin was right up against my ass just like I told him not to be. His breath was hot on my neck as he replied in barely a whisper. "I don't think that's true, Dollface. See, I watched you for weeks before we nailed down your kidnapping. I know all about your submissive tendencies, and I know exactly how close you like your doms to be to your ass when they fuck you."

  My nostrils flared at the thought of them stalking me, planning my kidnapping behind my back while I had no fucking clue. But then the fucked-up side of me reared her horny head and thought: He watched me get fucked at the club? Did he like what he saw? Had I turned him on?

  Why the fuck was I so turned on right now?

  Stupid fucking hormones. I quickly pushed those thoughts away and concentrated on the present. I was definitely messed up if I could think about anything else right now. That, or my mind just really didn’t want to accept what I knew I was about to see. Pushing the door open, I strode out into the hallway, putting as much space between Drake and I as I could. I rushed toward the cafeteria while simultaneously keeping a keen eye on my surroundings. Drake was right about one thing: if Triton was there, then there might be other council members lurking, too. We had to be careful.

  It became apparent to me rather quickly though, that no one was there anymore. No one other than injured children and teachers, anyway. I entered the cafeteria, and my eyes instantly found Bodie, standing guard behind Larry as the mage poured what I assumed to be Healing Potions over several crying kids. Next, my gaze landed on Easton, he had the barrel of his gun up and was scanning the area just waiting for someone to creep out of the woodwork and attack. Russ had a little girl slung over his shoulder and was lifting another one up on the other side. As soon as he was ready, he and Bodie headed outside to deliver the children to their terrified parents.

  Were they alive? Dead? My eyes scanned over the table shards to better study the kids. Some of them moved, moaned, and cried. Others... didn't. It made my eyes burn and sting with the need to cry, but I pushed the emotion down as I spotted a little girl clutching her arm and sprinted over to her. Drake stayed close behind me, never saying a word as I knelt down and studied the precious little face before me. Her golden locks were woven into an off-the-shoulder French braid and an Olaf toy lay a few feet away from her. It was the little Elsa girl I'd met during Easton's babysitting stint. The one who wanted him to be her marshmallow. Her chest was still, while it should have been gently rising and falling. Her skin was pale, and her lips were almost blue. She was gone.

  I couldn't help the monsoon of emotion that overcame me in that moment. Tears flowed like waterfalls down my cheeks and I sobbed as the ache in my throat became too much to bear.

  These poor, helpless children. They were innocent. They'd done nothing wrong. These kids in particular had only met this fate because they were poor, eating the school's free breakfast because their parents couldn't afford to feed them at home. Parents who busted their asses just to stay off the streets because mages made it hard for them to work in human industries.

  Mages required shifters to be monitored if they worked in close proximity to humans, making things awkward, making it appear like shifters were on fucking parole or some shit in the eyes of the humans. I’d never given it a second thought before, because I’d been so removed. But mages fucked shifters over at every turn.

  I'd been a part of that. I was partially responsible for all that had transpired. Because I’d seen them as the problem instead of as people, just trying to get by, like anyone else.

  My tears dripped down and soaked the little girl's dress which was already dirtied with dust, soot, and specks of dried up blood. I couldn't even see through the blur as I gently scooped her up and cradled her in my arms.

  I turned around and Drake's usually hard eyes were soft with emotion. He stared at me almost like he cared, or maybe it was the child he cared about, but either way, his demeanor softened. Thank god, I couldn't handle asshole Drake right now.

  "Aubry, Doll, she's..." Drake's words cut off and he cleared his throat and looked away.

  I nodded, more tears slinking down my cheeks. "I know, but she deserves to be returned to her family. They deserve the right to a proper funeral and burial."

  When Drake turned back to me his eyes were lined in a gentle pink. "They can't afford those things. They'll mourn her death. But they’ll be forced to relinquish her body to the crematorium. Her ashes will fill another community grave."

  "No." My response was harsh and adamant. "I don't give a shit if I have to fund these burials myself, the kids who died here are going to be remembered."

  Drake swallowed hard and nodded, cocking his head toward the exit to remind me we needed to keep moving. Any minute now the human police and rescue workers would arrive. Maybe even the Mage Police, though I doubted any shifters had called them. The residents of Skid Row rarely called any kind of police. And we couldn't risk being caught. Not when we had so much work to do.

  I handed the limp little girl over to her wailing mother outside.

  "Suzie!" the woman’s sobs dropped her to her knees.

  I waited for a second, frozen as I saw her grief, before Drake gently touched my shoulder and we made our way back inside. We continued our rescue while I suppressed the ache in my chest and tried to keep a calm face for the kids I carried out. Many of the kids were going to make it, especially thanks to Larry's potions, but there were a handful that were already gone. I couldn't stand it. It was... the worst thing I'd ever seen; and I'd seen some pretty graphic shit. This was just too much. Too fucking much...

  A few minutes later, I escorted the last child down the stairs by hand—another kid I'd met from babysitting, the boy with the bowl cut hair—as Drake tagged along behind us, vigilantly scanning our surro
undings for any hints of movement or foul play.

  My heart was heavy. Broken. Thick chunks of it lay crumbled in the pit of my stomach. Some of the boy's friends had died today. This event would be burned into his memory for... eternity. Just like the apartment fires would have been burned into Suzie’s memory had she lived long enough...

  My chin quivered. Goddamn it, I was ready to kill someone over this. I'd certainly killed people over less.

  As I handed the little boy over to his parents and they showered him in hugs and kisses, I caught sight of a magical reporter setting up in front of the building.

  Reporters but no Mage Police, huh? I had always responded to every fucking call. What the hell was Candace doing? And was the council encouraging them not to respond? Leaning on the police force? Covering for Trite? What the fuck?

  Drake tapped my shoulder, but I didn't turn around, I just watched Miss Dimbat primp her hair and push up her cleavage as she prepared to go live. My teeth clenched. Children had fucking died ten feet behind her and all she cared about were her tits looking good on TV? If I had a knife, I might have thrown it. Not to kill, but maybe to give her a nice dead leg limp to go with her dead-as-a-doornail ethics.

  "And... go!" her cameraman said.

  She smiled obnoxiously wide and began her pre-prepared speech. "Thanks, Tina. We're here at the scene of yet another violent shifter attack in Los Angeles's Skid Row. The area is notorious for poverty and crime, but it's safe to say the shifters have hit an all-time low by attacking—not only children—but children of their own kind. How much longer can we allow this violence and brutality to continue unchecked?"

  Rage and fury filled me as I listened to the mage-fueled propaganda spilling from that bitch's lips. She expected people to believe shifters did this? To their own children? What's worse, people would believe it. Just as I had, for all those years.

  Without giving any fucks, I marched over there, yanked out the plug from the camera so she was no longer live, and punched that bitch in the face.

  "That is a lie!" I shouted at her, through clenched teeth. "Mages did this, not shifters!"