Saving Jace

by Rebecca Rivard

  By the time they reached the bottom, sweat had beaded on Jace’s forehead. He leaned against the stone wall as Adric opened the door to his den and then helped him into the small foyer.

  Jace’s parents had carved the den out of the bedrock long before he was born. Both of them had been soldiers, but his dad had been an engineer at heart. In his downtime, he’d built this big, solid home for his mate, their two cubs, and assorted other members of the clan. Even in the Darktime, everyone knew they always had a bed at the Jones’ den.

  He limped into the living room, a large, comfortable space with exposed stone walls and furniture that dated to his parents’ time. The floor was covered with worn throw rugs and large pillows for their animals to curl up on, and the mantelpiece held a collection of quartz that his soldier mom had brought back from her tours overseas. Other than replacing the pillows, the only thing Jace had added was the big screen TV on the wall. He’d had to rig up a solar-powered electricity system, but it was worth it.

  Now the only thing that greeted him was Tigger, a testy orange tomcat who’d moved in last year and never left. That was strange. Jace glanced around, nostrils flared, testing the air for his den mates’ scents. With four men besides himself calling the den home, it was rarely empty.

  “Everyone is out looking for you,” Adric said. “They should be back soon—I sent word we found you. But I had people searching in a fifty-mile radius.”

  He grunted. “Call out the effing cavalry, why don’t you?”

  “Shut up and get into bed.”

  Suha had gone down the hall to Jace’s bedroom. She didn’t have to ask where it was. She’d patched up his wounds more than once.

  With Adric’s help, he hobbled after her and lowered himself onto the edge of the mattress. Damn, he’d swear these cuts had been seared into his gut by Hades himself. This morning he’d thought they were almost healed, but now they felt worse than ever.

  Suha placed a small, blunt-fingered hand on his shoulder. “Lie down before you fall down.”

  He gritted his teeth and obeyed. But it was good to be home in his own bed. His muscles softened.

  Suha scanned the wound with her quartz as he stared at the ceiling. His dad had left the stone walls bare in here, too. The stone was dotted with mica, giving the dark gray rock a pretty shimmer. He could almost hear the walls humming.

  “Not bad,” Suha murmured. “They’re healing, especially the shallow one, but deep inside, they’re still open. And you’re spiking a high fever.”

  Her voice seemed to come from far away. He dragged his gaze back to her face.

  A fever. That’s why he felt so odd, as if he were floating above the bed. He dug his fingers into the sheets to ground himself.

  Adric got a chair from the kitchen for Suha and set it next to the bed. “The humans cleaned the cuts out with salt water,” he told her.

  “Within a half hour,” Jace added.

  “Thank the gods for that.” Suha frowned at her quartz. “But the iron had already spread into your blood. That’s why you still feel—”

  “Like shit,” Jace finished for her. “But I’ll heal.”

  “With help.” She fixed him with a stern look. “Now relax and breathe.”

  Jace scowled. “I don’t need your energy. Save it…” He trailed off as he lost his train of thought.

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” the healer returned. “Close your eyes and breathe. Picture your body filling with healing energy…a warm, golden light.”

  “I’ll help.” Adric moved to Jace’s other side, but Suha shook her head.

  “I know you’re strong, but you’re burnt from being out searching all night. Save your energy for yourself. I’ve got this.”

  Adric nodded but remained where he was. He gave Jace’s shoulder a squeeze. “You heard the woman. Close your eyes and let her do her stuff.”

  He obediently closed his eyes and focused on the warmth in his belly. At first it seared, the unhealthy fire of last night, but even worse. He went hot, then cold. The humming of the walls grew louder, became an irritating buzz that made him want to clamp his hands to his ears.

  He moved his legs restively. “Hot.”

  “I know.” Suha murmured something to Adric and a minute later he returned with a damp cloth. Suha placed it on his forehead, and Jace gave a hiss of relief.

  The burning changed, became a pleasant glow that infused his wounds with healing energy. The buzzing in his head receded as his own quartz’s crystals hummed louder in response, until his whole body was vibrating with an unearthly music that was both sound and magic.

  He drew a deep breath and released it, and let himself float in the soothing sea of energy.

  Time passed. Ten minutes, then another ten.

  Adric touched Jace’s shoulder, ignoring Suha’s directive to add his energy to the mix.

  Jace slit his eyes. His friend squeezed Jace’s shoulder, his normally sculpted, arrogant face soft with concern.

  Suha shook her head at Adric, but allowed him to braid his energy through hers. They all knew that he couldn’t remain idle when any of his people were hurting. The vibrations swelled to an ocean of sound, peaceful and yet energizing.

  More time passed as the energy ebbed and flowed, washing the pain away. His eyelids grew too heavy to lift.

  “There,” Suha said. “That should do it. You’re going to have a couple of scars, but that can’t be helped.” She touched his cheek. “How do you feel?”

  He forced his lids to open. Suha’s pretty oval face hovered above him, her large doe-eyes narrowed with concentration.

  “Great,” he murmured. “Sleepy, but great. Thank you.”

  “Good. I want you to stay in bed for a few days, got it?”

  He nodded.

  “He’ll be fine,” Suha said to Adric.

  He briefly closed his eyes, and Jace realized how worried he’d been. “Thank you,” he told the healer.

  “You’ll stay with him?”

  “Only until his den mates arrive, and then I have to get home to Marjani. But I’ll check back later.”

  “How is she?”

  Adric shrugged. A year ago last spring, Marjani had been kidnapped and raped by a den of feral water fada. All the ferals were dead, and Marjani’s body was healed, but it was going to take a long time before her mind was whole again. It clawed at all of them, but Adric had taken it extra hard—because how do you get over your sister being hurt like that?

  Jace knew the answer: you didn’t. It was always part of you. The regrets, the what-ifs, the fucking helplessness. Because if you’d only known your sister was in danger…

  “About the same,” Adric said at last.

  Suha pressed her lips together. “I’ll come by to see her later.”

  “Thank you.” The alpha’s face was naked with the love and hurt he felt for his sister. “I thought she was getting better, but she hasn’t been outside in over a week. I can’t—” He spread his hands.

  Jace roused himself to say, “Tell her…I need a visitor.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Suha said. “Tomorrow, maybe.” She squeezed Jace’s hand. “You be good now, you hear? When I say stay in bed, I mean it. You don’t want a relapse.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  A slim black brow winged up. “And don’t think I don’t know when someone’s being evasive. Say the words.”

  He scowled, but she simply gazed back until he muttered, “All right. I’ll stay in bed. For the rest of the day.”

  He caught Adric’s smirk and scowled at him as well, but his friend returned, “Listen to the healer, Jace. I need you at full strength to help get the bastard that did this. Now, are you hungry?”

  And Jace realized he was. Starving, in fact.

  “Just liquids today,” Suha said. “Broth, a yogurt smoothie. We don’t want to stress his digestive system yet.” She gave them both a kiss and let herself out.

  With her gone, Jace took a nap while Adric went out to
a diner to pick up some food. Yogurt wasn’t his usual fare, but it was about all he could handle right now. At least it was strawberry. He sipped the smoothie and watched enviously as Adric wolfed down his own two ham-and-egg sandwiches in rapid succession.

  Jace’s den mates returned. They wandered in and out of the room to see how he was doing. Sam, a burly redhead whose animal was a Bengal tiger, was first. He was followed by Beau, a slow-moving, slow-talking bear, and Horace, a cougar who was one of the clan’s best trackers. They stood over Jace, shaking their heads and needling him about being caught off-guard by a fae until Adric told them to get the hell out and let him rest.

  The last to arrive was Zuri, who’d been directing the cleanup in Grace Harbor. A fellow lieutenant, Zuri was a tall, dark and charismatic wolf who pretty much had to beat women off with a stick. Along with Adric, he was Jace’s closest friend.

  Zuri got a second chair from the kitchen and set it next to the bed. “Everything’s calm.” He propped his long legs on the foot of the mattress. “I followed Jace’s trail myself from the bar to the human’s house, and I couldn’t scent a thing.”

  “And the woman and her brother?” asked Adric.

  “I have Kara watching the house.” Zuri named a young female who had recently arrived from their sister clan in Jamaica. “She’s good at blending in with humans. Even if they see her, they won’t know she’s one of us.”

  “Excellent,” Adric replied.

  Jace nodded, relieved. He’d been going to ask that Adric see to Evie’s protection. “The woman—Evie—she’s good people. I’d hate to see her and her brother get hurt because they stuck their necks out for me.”

  Adric and Zuri exchanged a look.

  “You don’t usually go for human women,” said Zuri.

  He growled. “Who the fuck says I’m going for her?”

  His friend raised his hands, palm out. “Nobody.”

  Adric snorted and got to his feet. “Look, I have to go. I could use a shower—bad—and I told Marjani I’d bring her some breakfast.” He lifted the takeout bag. “She doesn’t remember to eat sometimes. Feel better, okay?”

  He squeezed Jace’s shoulder and with a nod to Zuri, left.

  Zuri stayed another few minutes and then started yawning until Jace told him to go to bed, he’d be fine. The other men were either in bed or in the living room watching TV.

  Jace looked at Tigger, who had stretched out between his open legs. “Looks like it’s just the two of us.”

  Tigger yawned and kneaded the sheet, narrowly missing Jace’s balls with his claws, and then settled his head on his paws. A minute later he was snoring.

  8

  “And don’t come back.” Evie slammed the deadbolt shut behind the two fada.

  Kyler was studying her as if she had two heads.

  “Damn it,” she snapped, “I am not fae.”

  “Part fae.” He leaned in to sniff her. “You smell human to me.”

  “Very funny.” She shoved him away, but he just chuckled. “Of course, I do. If I were fae, wouldn’t I know it?”

  “Maybe. But one thing we do know—if you have fae blood and I don’t, then it’s not Mom.”

  She scraped both hands through her hair. “Drop it, Kyler.”

  “So it’s Fane.”

  She heaved a sigh. “And God knows where he is.”

  Her dad wasn’t the type to leave a forwarding address—if he even had an address to leave. Fane Morningstar came and went as the spirit moved him, and Lord knew, that wasn’t often; she could count on her fingers the number of times she’d seen him in the past ten years.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t like her dad. Everyone liked him. He was tall and blond, with a laidback way of moving and talking as if time moved slower for him somehow. He always had a smile for you, and she’d never once heard him raise his voice.

  If her mom asked difficult questions, like how long he was staying this time, the man just…disappeared. Evie had learned early not to count on Fane. You just enjoyed him while he was around, and then did your best to forget him when he left.

  “If anyone has fae blood, it’s Fane,” Kyler said. “There’s that picture we found. You know, after Mom died.”

  “Yeah.” Evie set her jaw and started tidying the kitchen, picking up the bowl and coffee cups and setting them in the sink.

  They’d found the photo tucked in a cigar box along with other mementos. In it, Fane had an arm slung around their mom’s shoulders, and they were both grinning at the camera. It had to have been taken over twenty-five years ago.

  The last time they’d seen Fane, he’d looked exactly the same, right down to his wide grin and unlined face.

  “What are you going to do?” Kyler asked.

  “Make pancakes.” She took a box of pancake mix from the cupboard.

  Her brother blew out a breath. “About this fae thing.”

  “Nothing.” She measured a cup of the mix into a bowl, added milk and broke an egg on top of it. “Even if it’s true, what does it matter?” she asked as she stirred the batter. “It’s not going to change anything. If I do have some fae in me, it’s probably something like one-hundredth. It’s not like I can work magic or anything.”

  Kyler placed his hands on his narrow hips and shook his head. “My sister, a fae.”

  She pointed her fork at him. “This is between you and me, got it? You tell anyone, and you’re toast.”

  He grinned and raised his hands. “Okay, okay. Don’t shoot me with a fae ball, sis.”

  “Very funny. I mean it, Kyler Ferris.” She gave the batter a vicious stir. “Just get the plates out, will you?”

  “Hey, don’t be so touchy. At least you have a dad to visit you. I don’t really even remember mine. I probably wouldn’t know him if I passed him on the street.”

  Evie bit her lip. She ached to hug her brother, but she knew from experience he’d shrug her off. Their eyes met.

  “You’d know him.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Kyler opened the cupboard and took out two plates.

  After breakfast, Kyler went to school and Evie finished cleaning up. She double-bagged Jace’s bloody T-shirt and, then, recalling what a good sense of smell the fada had, threw it into a dumpster on the next block. Meanwhile, she washed and dried the sheet he’d used.

  In a short while, there was no trace that Jace had spent the night on her couch. She’d almost believe she’d dreamed the whole thing, except she didn’t have that good of an imagination.

  How was he doing? She bit her lip. He was the kind of man who’d do too much, too soon.

  Not my business, she told herself. He had his friends to take care of him now. The best thing was to forget they’d ever met.

  Her mind turned to what Adric had said about her being part fae. He’d seemed so certain.

  If only there was some way to get hold of her dad. But the last time she’d seen him was two years ago, right before her mom died. She wasn’t even sure how he’d heard her mom was sick, but he’d arrived in time to say goodbye. Her mom had been alert enough to smile at him, and Evie would always be grateful for that.

  Fane had stayed through the death and, to Evie’s surprise, had even taken charge of the arrangements, including paying for the memorial service and cremation. On the third night he’d said, “You seem like you’re doing okay, Evie love,” and the next morning he was gone, leaving only a glittering stone on her night table…which turned out to be a diamond worth close to ten thousand dollars.

  Trust her dad to give her a gift that caused even more trouble. She’d been afraid a jeweler would ask awkward questions, so she’d pawned it instead. But the pawn shop had given her five thousand for it, and she had to admit the cash had helped.

  Evie shook her head and took out her laptop. She had homework to do.

  That afternoon she ate an early dinner with Kyler, and then headed to the Wine Bar, an upscale restaurant on the water where she was a server. Grace Harbor was a small, historic city bordered
on two sides by water—the Susquehanna River to the north, and the Chesapeake Bay to the east. This time of year, the streets were filled with boaters and weekenders. It was Friday evening, and the restaurant was packed.

  She should’ve been too busy to think, but Jace kept popping into her head at odd times. That curious smile as he’d been hurt and bleeding next to her stoop. His broad shoulders and cat-like grace. The way his eyes changed from hazel to green…

  “Excuse me.” The man at the table before her spoke. “Miss? Is that our food?”

  Evie blinked. She was standing in the middle of the restaurant, a plate in each hand. “Sorry about that,” she said with a smile, and slid the plates in front of the man and his date.

  He closed his mouth on whatever he’d been about to say and gave her a brief smile back. She smiled at the woman he was with as well, because it was low class—and bad for tips—to flirt with a guy in front of his date. “Can I get you anything else?”

  “No, we’re fine.” They each waved a hand, eager to assure her there was no problem. She’d always had a gift for soothing people’s feathers, making them smile. It was why she was such a good waitress.

  But was there more to it than that? Her mom had said Evie’s way with people came from Fane.

  Damn it, she was not going to think about it. Fae or not, what did it matter? It wasn’t like she could do anything useful, like change straw into gold. Now that would be a real Gift.

  She got off work a little after eleven. She’d taken her car this time, because after last night, she was wary about walking home after dark. Now she came out of the restaurant to find a light rain falling.

  Hell. She hadn’t brought either a jacket or an umbrella. She grabbed her keys and her backpack and hurried through the lot to where she’d parked her ancient blue compact under a street light—just in case.

  At least it was a warm rain. Evie swiped the water from her face and started the car. The ignition sputtered and went dead. The car had been her mother’s, and it had grown cranky with age. It especially didn’t like wet weather.