by Ann Denton
She didn't seem to hear me though. She was too busy falling on her ass and shrieking over her split lip.
Suddenly, broad hands were on my shoulders pulling me away. "Are you fucking crazy? Do you want to get caught?"
Drake led me back into the school, through a maze of hallways and corridors, and into the secret tunnel below.
I eventually yanked free of his iron hold on my arms. "We need to stop this shit."
"I agree," he growled. "It needs to end."
"Then what are we gonna do?" The question left my mouth as sarcasm, but that was only because of the frustration and helplessness that were as thick and toxic as smog in my lungs. I crossed my arms in disgust.
Drake smirked, his eyes darkening as they drank me in. "Remember what our line of business is?"
I rolled my eyes. "Unlawful shipments of illegal weapons and materials. Yes, I've read your file."
"Good." His smile spread wider. "We're going to one of our storehouses, and we're going to arm the shifters. It's time we all started fighting back—not just the worst of us. These mage fucks need a taste of their own medicine."
6
Drake
Normally, I would have walked this path alone, but this afternoon, Aubry was beside me and I could feel the fury radiating off her, nearly as hot as my dragon fire. What had happened at the school this morning had both of us clenching our fists. I slowed my steps when I realized she was half-running in order to keep up with me.
When she realized what I was doing, she grabbed my elbow and shoved. "Faster," she said roughly, her voice just a scratch after all the smoke—first at the station, then at the school.
I sped up as we hurried through the tunnel I’d used earlier on my escape route. I held a tiny ball of fire I’d created in one hand to light our way. It might have been midday outside, full of car fumes and tourists and business as usual for the humans, but this dark tunnel reflected my reality better than anything on the surface ever could. Life was a narrow fucking hole in the ground and you just had to claw your way through it, hoping every second that there wasn’t a cave in, until one day you ended up buried in it.
"The Mage Police didn’t even show," Aubry seethed.
I looked over at her pissed off face. "They never do in this part of town. They didn’t come for the Skid Row fire either—"
"Yeah, but the fire brigade would have been better, the winter fae have all the water—"
"I just said, they don’t show. Ever." I shook my head. For the damned former Chief Enforcer, she was still so naive. She’d definitely drunk all their Kool-Aid.
"But those are children!" Aubry’s strides lengthened and matched mine. I glanced down to see her fists clenched as she marched, black boots stomping over the uneven ground.
Her fury on our behalf made me stop short and stare at her. "Don’t tell me you care, Princess," I scoffed.
I knew she did, though. I could see it radiating out of every pore in her body. But it was too late for her to care, wasn’t it? Too fucking late for any damn good to come out of this.
"Fuck you, Drake. Anyone would care," she pushed me, and I stumbled backward into the dirt-packed wall, dust flying around me.
She’d clearly caught me off guard, which frustrated the hell out of me, but her raw emotion was what almost made me lose my cool. I didn’t hit women, but I was so fucking furious I was almost blind. Black danced around the edges of my vision.
Three kids in Bodie’s pack were dead. Because of me. I didn’t need any more guilt piled on, and least of all by a former Mage Police murderer. I was already too close to suffocating in all this sin and secrecy…
I dragged my thoughts away from the pain of emotion and onto my surroundings. I’d used this very same fucking tunnel as part of my escape route after I’d left Union Station. I kept clothes and a couple guns stashed in the tunnel here, just like I did in a hundred different drop points throughout the city.
Some dragons were obsessed with hoarding gold. I had a share of that too, but escape routes, disguises, extra weapons... hoarding those was what had kept me alive this long. Vigilance was the one thing that had kept me out of the mages’ hands.
But I’d lost it this morning. I hadn’t been careful enough. I hadn’t been thinking straight. After the fight, too much rage had still been rushing through my system. I’d put so many people at risk…
Easton had gotten seriously injured, Bodie got made by the Mage Police, all of it because of me… because the mages wanted me. I’d been so busy thinking about how it was all falling apart, I hadn’t been paying attention.
I was a fucking fool. I’d thought that since it was early in the morning, since no one was around and school wasn’t in session, it was safe to go to Ninth Street and change, emerging from the other side of this tunnel three blocks down and walking away to meet the crew.
I hadn’t noticed the mage tracking me.
Just the thought of that evil fucker…
My hands shifted to claws, the fire ball reflecting off my scales as they traveled up my arm.
Slam!
Aubry smacked me into the wall again, harder this time. "You can’t fucking shift in here!"
I dropped my fireball to the ground and grabbed her upper arms, my beast doing his best to take over. "Do not fucking tell me what to do!"
She twisted in my grasp and tried to knee me in the junk, but my claws caught her knee and shoved her back against the far wall.
I leaned in close, smoke rings coming from my still-human mouth. "Don’t even think about it, Princess."
"If you shift, you’ll collapse this tunnel on us, you stupid naked chicken," she spat at me.
She tried to hit my face too, but I grabbed her hand and pinned it to the wall. Then I pressed my body into hers so that she couldn’t keep attacking me. "I have control of my beast."
"Bullshit," she snapped. "You’re losing it."
A roar erupted from my mouth. My dragon batted my reason away.
Aubry hurled a fireball at my face. It didn’t burn me, but it did make me pause. I wrestled with my beast internally. But finally, I got him under control enough to collect myself and loosen my hold. I took a step back. Her flames danced in front of my eyes, and with them, danced memories.
My mother laughing one second, dead on the floor the next, that bitch fuck from the council, Citrine, standing right behind her. My younger self looking out across the lawn, and seeing every single one of my family members littering the ground like rubbish…
My chest cracked and my dragon roared back up, the tenuous hold I’d had on him breaking. The shift started to take over.
Whack.
A roundhouse kick to my face stopped it. Pain burst through my eyelids and sent fireworks through my brain. I whirled, scales retreating down my neck and arms as my eyes narrowed to slits. Aubry stood in the middle of the tunnel, arms held up in sparring position.
"Where the fuck did you just go?" she asked.
I didn’t answer, I just rushed her and tackled her to the ground.
She walloped me across the face. "Answer the question, lizard brain. Or is it too cold in here? Is your mind shutting down? How about I warm it up for you?"
More flames flashed across my face. Fury rose in my chest like an inferno eating a building from the inside out.
"STOP!" I raised a hand to smack her, and just barely stopped myself at the last second.
I dropped my hand and then pushed myself up. I stood stiffly, turning away before continuing down the tunnel, taking deep breaths to restore my self-control. Using a blast of flame from my lips, I created a new fireball so we could see. But... Aubry wasn’t following. When I looked back, I saw she was still on the ground, shaking. I checked my dragon, ensuring that his rage was indeed leashed before sighing and walking back to her.
"You should have just fought me," she muttered.
"No."
"Why the fuck not? We’d both feel better right now," she grumbled. She kicked out and tried to sweep
my legs out from under me, but I hopped over her leg easily and rolled my eyes.
"We have shit to do. Let’s go."
She glared up at me with a pout, and I had the sudden urge to flip her over right there in the tunnel, yank down her pants, and spank that sweet ass.
I had to close my eyes and blow out a breath. This is the damned wasp, I reminded myself. She’d already stung both my boys; no way I was letting that shit happen to me. Not even when my dragon whispered that she was fireproof.
I glanced away down the tunnel, jaw twitching as I forced myself to think of all the Mage Council fucks who’d done me wrong over the years. That British dick, Daggler, had forced my dad’s legit shipping business to fold. Delia Ferndoll had started a series of foreclosures on shifter property—
Those thoughts cleared my head enough to shove away the ridiculous, unwarranted lust I’d felt.
Aubry still didn’t move. I was forced to reach down and take her small, soft hand in mine and yank her up. "Let’s go."
"Not until you tell me what the fuck just happened."
"Flashback, okay?" I growled. "But my problems are nothing compared to these people. Let’s go."
She walked reluctantly beside me and I dropped her hand like it was a hot potato.
"My parents live in fear of the Mage Council," she said, from out of nowhere.
I didn’t respond.
So does fucking everyone. Welcome to the party.
"I thought if I did a good enough job, they’d ease up," she continued. "I thought if I was their golden girl, the mages would reward me. I was the best fucking Chief Enforcer they ever had. You know what happened?"
"You got fired," I growled, stomping up the steps that led to the fabric store which hid my stash of weapons.
"This is the part where you share," she said drily.
"Why?" I scoffed, as I turned around and used my back to open a swinging door in the basement of the store. "You wanna hear that mages killed my entire extended family but stopped when they got to me? Wanna hear that Citrine fucking Pierce stared at me as I sobbed—I was eight—and said, ‘Oh darn. The council only let me get enough tags for seven dragons this hunting season. Don’t worry, pet. I’ll be back next year for you.’"
I didn’t look at Aubry after she gasped. I was too busy shoving down the shadows, battling to control me. I took a deep breath and willed my mind to go blank. Focus. Discipline. I needed to stay calm right now. The person who stayed calm in a crisis could weather the storm. Could win in the end. I had to be that person right now. The shifters needed that person.
I took a moment to close my eyes and meditate, gathering that calm I so desperately needed. Aubry’s hand slipped into mine and my eyes shot open. I glanced down at her. She didn’t look up at me. She just squeezed my hand and let go, moving forward up the steps to the store.
Had that faerie just tried to comfort me? Confusion mixed with guilt like creamer and coffee, blending together until I couldn’t separate one from the other, and all I was left with was a nasty aftertaste in my mouth.
What the fuck? Aubry hates me. I mean, she should hate me.
She needed to hate me. I still had to tell her… about her dad.
I scrubbed a hand down my face, then watched her ass as she climbed the stairs, clad in the black skinny jeans Bodie had given her. Fuck him. She should be dressed in a damn sack cloth that was as abrasive as her personality. Fucking hand-holding bullshit. I watched her wings disappear as she applied her glamour, and an annoying twinge of disappointment ran through me after they were gone.
Goddamn it. I was going insane.
I marched up the stairs and joined her on the first floor of the fabric store, where an old Hispanic woman had a gun pointed right at Aubry’s heart.
I eased around Aubry and stood between her and the gun-toting grandma who sometimes cleaned our hideout.
"It’s okay, Lorena," I told the sweet shifter, trying not to smile at her improper grip on the gun. I jerked my head in Aubry’s direction. "She’s with me. Can you go lock the front door please? Put the closed sign out?"
Lorena lowered her gun, eyeing Aubry suspiciously. "What do you mean with you?"
My face heated. Aubry’s cheeks flamed.
"Not that," the fae snapped.
Thank god she said it and I didn’t have to—I couldn’t even imagine why anyone would assume we were together. Ignoring my discomfort, I turned to the bolts of cloth lining the back of the room.
"You need more clothes?" Lorena asked as she hobbled to the front of the store and turned the deadbolt, then put the "Out for Lunch" sign up in her window.
I shook my head. "Nope. Need the stash. You need to take the rest of the day off. Get your family and go on a weekend trip." I didn’t explain further, but I didn’t need to because if Lorena hadn’t already heard about the attack on the school, she would soon. Shifter news made the rounds faster than a tick on a werewolf's ass.
I reached up and grabbed a red bolt of cloth from high on the shelf. The pattern was one of the ugliest Lorena sold; it looked like a seventies hand-me-down robe, all scratchy and rough, and way overpriced to ensure no one ever decided to buy it. In the center of the bolt wasn’t a thin cardboard box as usual. Instead, there was a metallic case, full of weapons Easton had custom made for us. I slid the case out and handed it to Aubry.
"Carry this," I ordered.
Of course, the nosy fae couldn’t just follow my command. As I pulled down another bolt of cloth, I heard her gasp behind me.
"What is this?" she asked.
I didn’t bother to look back. "Close it. We have to get the shit here, and then I’ve got another stash we need to hit." I grabbed three more cases before giving Lorena a nod. "Be safe. Keep your weapon on you at all times."
As Lorena nodded, I turned and went back into the tunnel, Aubry trailing behind me.
"What's the plan?" she asked, as we walked through the dark. Both of our hands were full, so neither of us could spark up a light.
"We're done taking it up the ass," I growled, letting my nose and my familiarity guide me through the tunnels. When we came to a fork in the road, I headed right. "We're gonna give every shifter the means to protect themselves from this shit."
"Just protect themselves?" Aubry sounded uncertain.
I paused. Do I tell her the truth?
If she really had a mate bond with both my friends, then she couldn't really betray us. And based on the fucking orgy that I'd walked in on this morning, she at least thought the bond was real... or maybe she was just that kinky. She did go to Syn.
The thought of the depraved things she'd done at the sex club filled my mind in a seductive haze. Those images, coupled with the hot sight of her naked body this morning, temporarily derailed my thoughts. I had to park, reverse, and backtrack my mind to get on the right road again.
"You're going to attack them." Aubry took my silence as my answer. "But... you don't have enough magic."
She didn't need to tell me what I already fucking knew.
Irritation grumbled in my chest, muttering all kinds of useless things. Until my guilt swung back in and sawed me in half like a magician so that my stomach dropped out.
We didn't have enough magic because Larry had used a shit ton of potions defending us last night at the station. We didn't have enough magic because I'd failed to get the damn mage jewels the last two times we'd tried. We didn't have enough magic because the fucking Mage Police had been after me. Me. For killing... I couldn't even finish that thought.
I'd killed a lot of people and I'd never regretted it.
I definitely didn’t regret shredding that wasp's wing. But the thought of telling Aubry—of seeing her face twist up in grief and pain like I'd just backhanded her...
That made me regret everything.
And it made me pissed that I’d even feel that way. I mean, what the fuck? I was trying to protect the innocent. Trying to stop those mage fucks from treating us like nothing more than a damn spic
e, just a little sprinkle of murdered magic to toss in their potions to strengthen the flavor.
So I'd killed a man. So what? A Mage Councilor? Even better.
Then why did I feel as nauseous as if I was back at the La Brea tar pits?
I should just tell Aubry and get it over with, I thought. Do it while we're in the dark so I don't have to worry about looking her in the eye. And by the time we're out of this damn tunnel, she'll have her mask back on. Just like I would.
Because, deep down, I knew she and I were the same. We both used shells like they were shields. Sarcasm like swords. We breathed in anger like it was air. Because it fueled us to do better and fight harder. Not for ourselves. But for others.
My heart cringed a little, but I shut it down. I didn’t allow it to make any decisions for me; my mind was the one in charge. And I’d own the consequences of breaking her heart like the fucked-up man I was.
"Aubry, I—" I opened my mouth to say the words, to confess.
But just then, Easton burst down a set of stairs in front of us, carrying a flashlight. "Drake, you’ve got to hurry! It’s a madhouse up here."
My fast walk turned into a sprint. "What’s going on?"
"The parents and the betas are riled up. I left Larry behind so I could find you because so many of them are ready to riot. They’re pissed, Drake. We’re lucky they peeled off and came to the warehouse, because Corey has half of them ready to attack the Mage Council."
I took the stairs two at a time, vaguely aware of Easton removing the cases from Aubry’s hands and escorting her up like a gentleman behind me. As if she needed any help. She could fucking walk on her own. I mentally rolled my eyes before I took a deep breath and pulled down my alpha mask.
When I burst through the door of the warehouse—this spot held an even bigger stockpile of weapons than the fabric store; this location was one that most shifters knew they could buy black market weapons from—my face was calm and collected. There wasn’t a hint of anxiety on it, despite the concern raging through my system. I made my face as cold as ice.
I scanned the interior of the industrial metal building. Afternoon light streamed from the windows on the left and cut across people’s torsos. The room was packed with shifters; some of them had half shifted in their anger, and some of them were sobbing. I was somewhat shocked to see over fifty shifters spread throughout the crates in the room. I’d expected word to travel fast, but not quite this fast. My blue gaze grazed over every angry face in the room. I scented their fury, their desperation, their fear. It was a sour thing.