by Sarah Black
My feet pound against the pavement, I ignore every little nick cutting my feet. Every glass that punctures my skin spikes my adrenaline, rushing me to safety.
Poppy.
I run wildly, my arms flailing until I rein them in and pump them properly. She’s only a handful of blocks away. Down the lane. Under the bridge. I wish I had a car more than anything in this moment. She’s so close and yet so far away.
I round a corner, my feet skidding to a halt as shadows loom down the street. Shadows behind me, and shadows before me. I back up, pushing between buildings into the tightest of archways. My feet are sore and bleeding as I move into a passageway that surely leads to a backyard. City yards usually aren’t much more than a slab of concrete and, if luck would have it, a patch of grass. This one used every space as a chance to build a garden.
A tree looms over me, hiding me from prying eyes. I dart behind it as the shadow passes at the front of the passageway. Behind me, a partial wall rises with a chain-link fence extending from that wall another three feet. Mentally, I calculate where the other shadows are. To my left.
If I can climb the fence and shimmy over it, the next passageway will spit me out onto the street just past them.
I keep my fear pushed further down as I grip the mossy wall and climb. For once I’m thankful that I ran out barefoot as my toes find purchase. Keeping low, I glance beyond the tree to the head of the passage, nothing flickers past. Turning, I glance over the fence to my left where the other shadows stood. Nothing.
As quickly as I possibly can, I fling my body up and scramble over the fence, throwing myself over the top. I land with an ‘oomph’ on another slab of concrete and half in a murky baby pool. Stagnant water seeps into my worn jeans and t-shirt, my fist still gripping the baton.
I don’t move. I don’t breathe. The water calms once more. No sounds reaches my ears. Though that may be impossible, as I can’t hear past the pounding of my heart.
I roll once more away from the crinkling pool that sounds far too loud to my ears. In the dim light, I barely make out the passageway and hope like hell it’s completely open. Staying crouched, I creep toward it with my baton at the ready. A wooden door scrapes the concrete as I push it open. Ahead, I can just make out the opening.
My heart slams in my chest with each step, pebbles biting into my skin as I move. One hand lazily runs along the wall, grounding me in this dark space. An ominous pressure pushes upon my shoulders.
I’m not safe. My mind screams with it. I choke on a sob, somehow just knowing I’m no longer alone. But not being able to see the threat sends my fear orbiting. I slam my fist into my mouth, my teeth clenching down on my bones.
My head spins from one entrance to the next. I’m in nothing more than a city cattle shoot. I can’t go forward and I can’t go back as fear freezes me to the spot.
The entrances darken. I’ve been found. Whoever it is that stalks me holds a power I’ve not yet felt. It washes over me, shaking my knees and clattering my bones. Staying upright becomes my only goal in that moment.
“Come out, come out.” Same voice. Same male. Singsonging to me, his voice echoing all around.
My fear damn near betrays me. I need to get to Poppy, we were always stronger as one. I’ve been such a fool staying away from her. For needing my independence. We are two halves of a whole. She should feel me right now, of that I’m certain. Unless she’s asleep then she might think this is all just a dream.
Don’t let it be a dream, Poppy. I need you.
Until she finds me and we can work together, I’ll have to do this myself.
I have everything to lose if this fails, so I close my eyes for a mere moment, gathering my courage as I clench my muscles and run for all I am worth. The shadow looms like a sentinel in the dead of night. Threatening me with the unknown. But I am already gathering up speed. My bare feet stinging as I run over every broken crack and shard of glass.
I point my baton outward and push as though I can move through the shadow man. My body slams into a hard frame. We both fly backwards, my momentum carrying us to the hard asphalt. His head slams against a parked car. Still, no noises spew from the slumbering city and no car alarms blare. I’ll digest that later. For now, I roll and push past.
I stagger to my feet, tumbling over my shaking legs until my momentum catches up and I run for all I’m worth.
But it isn’t enough. A hand captures my t-shirt, flinging me against a parked car. My head cracks against the groaning metal and my vision blackens just a bit before I regain control, breathing slowly to prevent a blackout.
“Enough!” a voice bellows.
I roll off the car and onto the empty street. Cities usually never sleep, except at that very moment, this city is comatose.
“Grab her!”
I know with every fiber of my being I can’t allow that to happen. My muscles protest and the old wooden baton digs splinters into my hands. My knees buckle as I push past the exhaustion weighing me down.
Can’t have me.
“Don’t let her get away.”
Arms whip around my body, holding me in front of their owner. I fight past the panic and swing my baton up, catching my captor in the nose. He drops me instantly and I scuttle away. Steps stab my back and I wonder if their owners would allow me in.
No, even I can feel the menace rolling off of these men. These creatures. No one would open their doors right now. No matter the emergency. It’s been only hours since I remembered my childhood, and mere hours later I’m being attacked. This is no coincidence.
“She broke my fucking nose.”
“Grab her, you fool!” The other voice gets closer and closer.
But the scent of blood reaches me. The iron thick in the air. Saturating it with power that calls to me.
I don’t know which is worse, my attackers or the magic that rises within me. Whispering to me to end this fight before it really begins.
“Bind her, she’s waking up.”
How they know that, I have no clue. But the bleeding one steps toward me, his movements unsure. I struggle to stand, but my muscles buckle. My bare and bloodied feet sting every time I stand, shooting shards of pain up my body.
Magic it is.
I reach out, sensing him and the power that lives inside him. His comes at me quicker, his hand snatching my shirt and dragging my body up.
Pain explodes in my head.
“Bind her now!”
He hit me. It hurts, it hurts so damn much. Conditioning to be hit is different from actually getting hit. Nothing could have prepared me for this. My neck cracks as my head lolls forward.
I reach out, touching the blood on the man’s face, my fingertips sliding across his features. Just beneath the surface his power, his magic, what makes him him pulses. Inside of me, my magic surges, racing through my body until it spills forth with a deafening roar. Diving within as an extension of me, I pull on his power. Like veiny strands, it flutters to me, filling me. Healing me.
“Boss!”
“Bind her!”
I feel dirty and broken, left to this, this beastly magic that simmers inside me. Deadly and powerful and coveted. This I know for a fact as his power fills me. He wants what lives within me. But what they don’t realize is this isn’t desirable magic, it’s an abomination. Worse than a vampire, I can steal the blood and absorb its power. Nourishing me. It won’t heal all of the damage they are wreaking upon my small body, but it helps.
I’ve also just given myself away.
Exhausted, I collapse to the hard pavement. Stolen power fills me, easing the pain in my skull for a very brief moment until my head slams against the pavement. It’s too much pain, I’m not used to this, but I need to get away. Shadows blur all around me as grunts fill the air, they can’t touch me again.
I’ll hurt them worse than they hurt me.
I’ll absorb every molecule of their power. Making me no better than them.
My ears pop and my teether chatter as the bubble sur
rounding the quiet night releases. I crawl as lights flicker on overhead. Sounds invade my senses as normalcy creeps back in. My eyes land on my baton, and I grasp onto it with my waning strength. My body shutting down both mentally and physically.
A hand touches me and a scream tears free from my throat.
“Shh, you’re safe now.” I know that voice. My eyes peel open as my head swims. Valentino’s seafoam green gaze roams over my body. His sensual lips press into a thin line. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“Not safe,” I cry. I’m not safe, that feeling of a predator nearby shocks my system into a full body tremble.
“You’re safe, Penny Piór, I swear to it on my life. You are safe.” He lifts me in his arms.
My body relaxes slightly, the thumping in my head drawing my eyes closed. “Why are you stalking me?”
He holds me tighter to his chest, moving quickly through the night. “I keep asking myself that same question, kitten.” His slight accent slips through.
In the distance, sirens wail, and memories of a night long ago, much like this one, rise to the surface. Why won’t it release me from its clutches? Free me from this torturous hell. Yet for once, as the nightmares threaten to take over, they wash away as Valentino holds me, and for some reason I believe he will keep me safe.
10
Voices rise and fall in angry crescendos while a jackhammer begins in my skull with each hushed whisper. Bile rolls in my gut as my stomach sours and my body spins. I roll to the side, my groans effectively shutting down the voices.
“Penny.” A hand touches my shoulder as my stomach clenches with a violent twist. “Bucket!” the voice yells.
I won’t make it, but somehow the dark bucket appears beneath me just as my stomach empties its contents. It isn’t much besides the remnants of good pie. Gone. Joe would be so disappointed.
Once the worst of the shudders pass, I flop back as poison saliva wets my mouth. “Where?” I croak, my mouth drying quicker than I can wet it.
“Sip.” A water bottle and a straw appear under me and I strain to drink it. “She can’t be moved. Not yet.”
I groan, pushing back on the strange bed as red satin sheets twist around me. My eyes strain against the onslaught of bright lights that threaten to blind me.
“Flick the switch,” the voice demands. His voice, one I know but not well. One that shows up in my dreams with seafoam green eyes that see through my soul with a devil’s twist of his lips.
“Fine.” My body calms as Aja’s voice surrounds me. The switch loud in the now quiet room.
My crusty eyes peel open to see my best friend and Valentino standing in ambient light. “I have a horrible record for waking up like this.”
“You often wake up with a concussion?” Aja’s anger spills through the room, stabbing me in the gut.
“I’d like the answer to that question as well.” Valentino’s tone is more of a demand, his eyes lit with a flicker of other that makes me wince. His power washes over me.
“No pissing match please.” I sober, choosing not to answer them as my memories trickle to through my mind. “It was all real.” My fingers shake until they reach the side of my face where someone hit me. The pain spirals out, piercing my head again.
“What happened, Penny?” Aja sits on the bed as a spicy scent drifts up to wrap around my soul in a warm embrace.
“It was real?” I look into her brown eyes brimming with tears.
“Why didn’t you—”
I slap a palm across her face, stopping the words from spilling from her lips. My eyes flicker to Valentino. An unknown. Though I may sit in his bed and he may have come to my rescue, it doesn’t mean that I trust him.
That has to be earned. As it is, I don’t know why he saved me or why he keeps showing up in my life. Either way, Aja catches on, her lips pinching together.
I slowly turn toward Valentino, mainly because if I move too fast I might vomit again. “I don’t wake with a concussion daily.” I lick my lips, sipping on the bottle of water. Again, I turn as slowly as possible and place the bottle on the side table. Flinging back the covers, I push to stand.
In the next blink, Valentino is there with a hand on my shoulder, his eyes cool. “Don’t. Move.”
I slap his hand away, warring off the dizziness that threatens to overpower me. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, Valentino, and I’m not sure why you would even believe you do.”
His silence and the hard press of his jaw tells me all I need to know.
“My cat.” I stifle a sob, refusing to allow either of them to see any of my emotions. One deserves it, the other doesn’t. And Aja and I can catch up on that later. But right now, I need to find my cat. “He saved me.” How is that even my voice? Meek and pathetic.
I push to my feet, fighting my dizziness. At least they left me in the same clothing. I’d hate to have to find something of Valentino’s. Once my feet take the brunt of my weight, small zings shoot up my legs. Peering down, I see the bloody gauze encasing my feet.
“I picked them out, cleaned you up.” For some reason, Valentino sounds unsure about that as though the act leaves him vulnerable.
“Thank you.” They are mostly healed, just a cramp here and a sting there, but nothing I can’t fight through.
The man stares down at me, his eyes burning through me, and I slowly lift my head to face his gaze. “You aren’t safe out there.”
That feeling of being near a predator prickles the hairs on my neck. “I’m not sure I’m safe here either.”
He doesn’t take that well, his eyes thundering like the roaring sea, foaming and bubbling. “It isn’t yet dawn.” His voice softens, but just a fraction, all a show.
“And what is it about the dawn, Valentino?”
His eyes shutter as he begins to close down. “Stay.”
“I can’t.”
“Please.” His voice cracks with the word as though he doesn’t often speak it.
I can’t help it, I laugh at how hard it was for him to utter that word. His cheeks wince in pain and his lip sneers.
I pat his chest, feeling a little steadier than I had a moment ago. I allow myself that small moment of respite before sobering my thoughts and killing my laughter. “Valentino, why do you care?”
He only grinds his teeth. Not answering me.
A whirling sound echoes from the opposite side of the room as music blares from Aja’s phone. It takes me a solid minute to recognize the song, and when I do my eyes widen in surprise and humor.
“Every Breath You Take” by The Police blares around us, and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Her insinuation is clear, she doesn’t like Valentino and views him as a stalker.
“Ain’t nobody got time for your bullshit, Valentino.” Aja cocks out her hip and stares at the man before me. I’m not sure who will win this power play, but Aja does play dirty. “I can do this all day. Wanna know which song is next?” Her head waves a little and my lips twitch.
Valentino takes a step back, nodding in defeat to my troublesome best friend, his lips twitching slightly. Damn, I love that woman.
“Damn shame, I had Ms. McLachlan up next.” She shuts off the music.
“The woman with the puppy commercials?” Valentino takes another step back, eyes wide and smile gone. Aja could kill with torture.
Which makes me wonder just what my wayward best friend is, because she definitely feels other. My own magic is still trickling in one day at a time. Practice makes perfect, or in the case of magic, use helps it to evolve.
Her smile is cruel with a hint of pointy teeth. No? She can’t be... I’d know. Wouldn’t I? I never really looked at her teeth before, but now they stand on apparent display.
“Come on, boo. We still gotta ride down to the station and let Joe know you’re okay.” She grips my hand, tugging me toward the door.
But I pause for just a moment, biting my lip before she tears me out of Valentino’s home. “One sec.”
“Oh, hell no. Hi
s voodoo magic is already working on you and I won’t have it.” She stomps her foot. I hold back my amusement, though I’m sure it’s apparent in my eyes.
“One minute, Aja.” She lets go far too quickly and I stumble back into Valentino’s arms.
“Mm-hmm,” she hums, shaking her head. “Voodoo pheromone magic.” She marches out of the room, leaving me with a man at my back that I’m sure isn’t a man at all. My magic just has yet to tell me what he is.
Tension leaves my body as I push away from Valentino, my eyes rolling all over him.
“You should stay.” He looks so sincere, but the truth is I don’t know him or anything about him. It doesn’t matter how comfortable his arms feel wrapped around me.
That’s why I ignore his words. “Thank you.” I mean it, too, I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t shown up. “I guess I owe you.”
“Then stay.” His hands fist in my shirt. “You’re safe here.”
Yet I doubt I’d be safe from him.
He must see it in my eyes, in the tight line of my lips. “Then you will owe me.”
My lips kick up at the teasing in his voice. “Guess I’ll owe you.”
“I’ll stop by your place tonight.” Unrelenting.
I roll my eyes and step away, distance is good. I can’t think around his scent. Why does it draw me like a moth to a flame? His arms drop to his sides as we stand three feet apart. It isn’t enough. “Valentino.”
“No, allow me this. Aja can protect you during the day, allow for my protection at night.” His fists clench and his pulse thumps in his jaw. For whatever reason, this is important to him. My reflection glints in his eyes as I try to understand him.
“Why?” But I know why. The reason still pounds through my head, and at this point I’m only being trite. It’s the crack of guilt that slips in, telling me a story that he may know more than he’s letting on. For that he has to make up for it.
Then again, I could be completely wrong about this. I’m just guessing.
The look he gives me says it all. I realize he has shadows under his eyes and his cheeks look dark and pale. As though he hasn’t slept in a long time. “You should rest. Looks like the night life is catching up to you.”