The Tiger’s Ambush

by Tate James

  “Fine,” I snapped, reaching for the door handle to exit the vehicle.

  “Remember this, boy. The plague wasn’t as black and white as you’ve been led to think. A lot of supernaturals were hit with an in-between, gray area.” Victor flipped his hood up, hiding his scarred face from view. “Not everything is as it seems, and until a Ban Dia gets full control of her magic, it’ll be bleeding out into everyone around her, whether she intends it to or not.”

  I glanced back inside the car at him. He quite clearly wasn’t saying anything further, so I slammed the door and headed back over to my jet. Glancing at the time, I remembered Kit was due to call tonight, and I couldn’t help the small surge of excitement when I thought about this new information I’d gathered for her.

  13

  Kit

  “Wait, once more?” I was laying on the grass below the oak tree with my legs in the air against the trunk.

  “He didn’t know the exact age, but somewhere around the three-hundred-year-old mark.” Vali’s velvet voice came down the phone. Wesley had presented me with a new phone at dinnertime, and I hadn’t forgotten my promise to call Vali. I was glad I hadn’t, too; he’d done some serious sleuthing.

  “So I physically can’t get pregnant for another three centuries?” I clarified, and Vali murmured agreement. “Well that’s… handy to know. Suppose it does make sense as to why no one has ever really heard of them. Us. Whatever.”

  “How are you adjusting to all of this?” Vali asked in a surprisingly soft tone. Not that him asking for my well-being was terribly surprising; in hindsight, he had been nothing but caring and protective since the moment we met. What was surprising was that he could tell, even from thousands of miles away, that my head was exploding right that second.

  “You’re feeling my emotions, aren’t you?” I asked, chewing my lip nervously. Speaking with him on the phone like this made me forget he was this scary, intimidating crime boss with a penchant toward casual murder. He just seemed like a guy... that I was a little bit into. Okay, maybe more than a little bit. It was silly though, considering I was already sort of dating four other guys, and Vali had a girlfriend. I still hadn’t forgotten Elena, with her flawless complexion and perfectly styled dark hair.

  “I am. You’re very...” He paused. “Conflicted. Guilty, even? For what?”

  Um, how about for fantasizing about that kiss on New Year’s Eve when I knew you had a damn girlfriend?

  “Nothing. You must be reading me wrong. Wait, can you feel my emotions, like... always?” A disturbing thought had just occurred to me.

  “Only particularly strong ones, unless we are speaking like this. Seems like I can feel everything while we talk, and then just spikes all the other times.” His voice was warm and amused. Damn him. “Dragă, no need to feel embarrassed; I could feel how drained you were. But I can appreciate that this new development with your magic might take some getting used to.” There was another pause on the line. “Just tell me it wasn’t my dickhead brother getting lucky.”

  “Umm,” I murmured, and he sighed.

  “I hate him sometimes.” He said it softly, and I knew that wasn’t even a little bit true.

  “You really missed him, didn’t you?” I asked, and he made a noise but didn’t reply. “Tell me about your mom,” I suggested, not really ready to hang up yet, even though he’d finished telling me everything he’d learned from Vic.

  “My mom?” he repeated. “Ah, Andrei told you about her being Romani, then?”

  “Um, yeah. Word of advice, though—if you are looking to mend bridges, you should probably call him Cole,” I advised. Cole made it pretty damn clear he wanted no reminders of his former life in the du Romane family.

  “Cole. Right. Have to get used to that.” Vali made a noise under his breath, and I could picture him running a hand through that lush dark hair of his. Damn him. “There’s really not much to tell about my mom. She died when I was only a year old, and our father remarried almost immediately. God forbid he be without a wife as arm candy for fancy occasions. All I know is what my grandmother told me, that she had the sight.”

  “Like, she could see the future?”

  “No, not quite that magical. It was just a feeling that something bad was going to happen. I never understood what that meant until you showed up in my life.” He snorted a laugh, and I found myself smiling as well.

  “Okay, I’m literally freezing my butt off out here, so I’d better head back to the apartment.” I groaned as I turned myself right-side up and pushed to my feet.

  “Have a think on where you might look for that ring too,” he reminded me, like I could forget.

  “Oh, I have an idea where to start,” I replied in a grim voice. “I just need to track her down first.”

  “ All right.” Another pause. “Will you call again tomorrow night? Just so I don’t go out of my mind with worry when I feel you’ve been exhausting yourself?”

  “Sure, I can do that,” I smiled and hoped I hadn’t just sounded too eager. Weirdly, I found myself totally comfortable talking with him on the phone in a way I didn’t think I could have managed in person. He was too damn intimidating.

  “Well then, good night dragă,” he replied softly, then disconnected the line.

  It was late; I’d been on the phone with Vali for way longer than I realized, so utilized some superspeed to get me back to the apartment in a fraction of the time it should have taken.

  When I got there, only River was still up, although Caleb was apparently out again. Doing what, I had no idea, seeing as they were all suspended from field work, but River didn’t seem too concerned, so I didn’t pry.

  “Get some sleep, love,” he murmured, standing to kiss me softly, then nudging me toward my room. “We’ll need to deal with the fallout of your healing in the morning.”

  “Ugh, I almost forgot about that.” I pouted, knowing it was going to be another morning of lying to my adoptive-father, which just didn’t sit comfortably for me.

  “Go,” River commanded. “Sleep.”

  “I’m going,” I grumbled, smacking another quick kiss on his lips, then retreating to my room.

  Once in bed, I found sleep totally eluding me as I turned over in my mind the new information Vali had gathered. The bloodstone ring seemed pretty damn vital to mastering my newfound powers, and when he had described what it looked like, a sick feeling had settled in my stomach.

  I’d seen a ring like that before, and it wasn’t one I’d likely forget. Suzette, the woman who had run the foster home I’d spent the majority of my childhood in, wore one that sounded almost identical to what Vali had described. I should know; my skin had worn the print of it enough damn times for it to be imprinted on my memory like a brand.

  After Jonathan’s agents had raided the home and rescued all the kids, Suzette had been charged and jailed, so I had no doubt she no longer had it. But she must know where to find it.

  Now all I needed to do was work out where she was incarcerated and get there to speak with her without needing to explain the whole thing to my dad.

  The soft click and slide of my bedroom door opening set my heart pounding until I saw who it was.

  “Jesus fucking Christ, Caleb,” I hissed. “You scared the damn pants off me!”

  “Oh really?” he asked with a coy smile. “I think I’m okay with this.”

  He toed his boots off beside my bed and stripped down to his boxers before sliding under the covers beside me.

  “Cal,” I murmured, as he gathered me into his arms and snuggled in. “Don’t you have your own bedroom?”

  “Uh-huh,” he said with a content-sounding sigh. “But you’re not in there.”

  “Mmm, I can’t argue with that logic.” I relaxed against him and found a comfortable place for my face on his chest. “Where have you been, anyway?”

  “Shhh, Kitty Kat,” he shushed. “Sleep time now.”

  As much as I wanted to argue and make him tell me what the hell he’d been up
to, I truly was tired. Yawning heavily, I closed my eyes and let my mind float as my nose filled with Caleb’s cookie-like scent. Dimly, I wondered if maybe his weird behavior had something to do with the healing.

  In the morning, I hadn’t been summoned to answer questions on my healing of the girl who’d fallen through the stair guard. Even stranger still was that the railing was back to normal like nothing had ever happened, and the girl was missing from class. I wanted to ask someone what had happened to her, but stupid me didn’t even know her name.

  “Maybe she’s in medical?” Lucy suggested when I told her about the strange feeling I was getting. “Even if you did convince her she wasn’t that injured, she’d be in there getting her head examined, at the very least, for thinking she’d fallen four stories and walked away unscathed.” Lucy shrugged, tossing the wooden knife back to me. We were learning basic knife skills, and I was breezing through the class thanks to my months spent training with the guys.

  “True. Something just feels...” I trailed off with no idea what word I was looking for.

  “Suspicious?” she supplied, and I nodded. “I get it, babe. You’ve had a hellish few months lately, so you’re second-guessing everything.”

  “Yeah, pretty much.” I flipped the wooden knife in my hand, and without even really thinking about what I was doing, threw it at the target across the room.

  The blunt practice blade hit the bullseye with a heavy sound, sticking straight out of the foam target, and the whole room fell silent.

  Shit. Kit, way to draw attention to yourself.

  We had not been practicing blade throwing, nor should that wooden knife have been anywhere near sharp enough to actually penetrate the target. At least, not with human-level strength behind it.

  “Sorry, Sir!” Caleb yelled, dashing over to the target and yanking the blade out quickly, disappearing it under his coat for a second before pulling out a real one. “I gave Kit a sharper one to prove she hadn’t lost her eye for throwing.”

  “Of course you did.” The instructor, a silver-haired gentleman named Instructor Pine, sighed. Caleb had begged to accompany me today, knowing it was going to be combat training. The instructor clearly had a soft spot for him, too, because instead of the screaming lecture I might have expected, he just got a frustrated reprimand.

  “Think about the safety of the recruits before handing out edged blades in the future, please, Mr. King,” Instructor Pine groused, then flicked a look at me that seemed vaguely impressed. “Good throwing, Miss Davenport.”

  “Understood, Sir. Won’t happen again.” Caleb grinned and made his way back over to Lucy and I.

  “Kitty Kat... what were you thinking?” he murmured softly, glancing around at the other recruits. “I thought we were keeping things on the down low?”

  “We are.” I sulked. “I wasn’t thinking. Too much knife throwing with you in the last few months made it a reflex move.”

  “Well, maybe try and rein in the feats of impossible strength until you’re ready to go public with your magic? I can’t say for sure if the instructors have been filled in by the director, but you know the other recruits don’t know.” He handed the knife back to me—the wooden one, that was—and gave me a stern look.

  “You think it’d come to that? Going public about magic, I mean?” I nervously tugged at my long braid. “Kind of sounds like a one-way ticket to the loony bin, don’t you think?”

  “I think the way things are going, it’s unavoidable. If Vali’s information from Vic turns out to be true, then there are a lot more supernaturals out there with full knowledge of what they are.” Caleb sighed and ran a hand over his face. He looked tired, and I was tempted to ask again what he’d been doing in the evenings.

  “Be that as it may, I’m just not totally sure I want to be the one responsible for outing them. You know?” I kicked at the blue foam safety mat we were standing on. Around us, the other recruits went back to practicing their basic knife-fighting moves, but more than one gave me a wary glance.

  “I get it, Kitty Kat. Believe me.” Caleb heaved a sigh. “Keep teaching Lucy; she sucks at this. I’ll be watching.” He threw a wink at me and retreated back to the bleachers to watch. My guardians had been advised that although they were allowed to be present, on Jonathan’s approval, they weren’t to participate in the lessons.

  “Rude,” Lucy muttered. “I do not suck.” She snatched the wooden blade from me, fumbled it, and dropped it onto her toe. “Oh, shut up you!” She yelled at Caleb, who had just barked a laugh at her expense.

  “It’s okay, Luce. You kick butt at the smart stuff, so you’re allowed to suck a bit at this.” I grinned broadly at her, trying not to tease. “Let’s start again.”

  As fun as it was to tease my bestie, knowing how she usually excelled in everything, I really did need her to learn some self-defense skills. My enemies had already proven they weren’t above hurting Lucy to get to me, and I couldn’t risk it happening again.

  14

  AUSTIN

  My teeth ground together so hard I thought they might crack. How the fuck had I not seen this coming?

  “She’ll never fall for it,” I snapped, tugging against my restraints. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t give even a fraction of an inch.

  “Children these days.” My captor, and former mentor, sighed heavily. “Have you understood nothing? You are one of her chosen guardians. She’ll fall for it hook, line, and sinker if it sounds like you’re in trouble.”

  “You don’t need to do it like this.” I tried a different angle, hoping reasoning would succeed when anger was failing. “What if you’re wrong? Then you’re seriously screwed.”

  “I’m not wrong.” Master Yoshi gave me a pitying look. “The only thing I was wrong about was the level of motivation required.”

  Shit, I knew I never should have fallen for his weak ass story about having a stroke. But fuck, what do I know? He’s almost seven hundred years old, for fuck’s sake.

  “This is insanity, Yoshi,” I snarled, straining against my bonds in a fruitless attempt to get free. “Why can’t you just leave things be? If she’s chosen me as a guardian, then it’ll happen eventually anyway.”

  If. Like I don’t know full well she has. She just doesn’t want to admit it, and I’ll be damned if I crack first.

  “You don’t get it, Austin.” He sighed, and his true age seemed to reflect in his weary eyes. “My tenure in this position was supposed to be up almost one hundred and fifty years ago. I stayed because, thanks to that fucking plague, my destined replacements each came and went in normal human lives. Without the Ban Dia power to restore magic, there was no one to replace me. Until you. I knew the moment we met your generation would be the one.”

  He was tired and fed up. I got it. But that wasn’t my fucking problem. He should have tried harder to restore the magic to one of the other destined ones in the last hundred and fifty years. Surely Christina wasn’t the only living Ban Dia with her magic intact.

  “What are you planning to do to her?” I demanded, and Yoshi raised his eyebrows at me in surprise, like I was the dumbest fuck around. But I had to ask.

  “Her? Nothing. I simply need her to restore your magic so you can take over this fucking responsibility of being the Ink Mage, and I can retire to my holiday house in Costa Rica.” Master Yoshi shrugged like he was only asking me to pop out and grab a fucking newspaper or something. Age must have finally cracked his sanity.

  “What about Caleb?” I asked, and Yoshi frowned.

  “Your twin was not my problem, but from what I understand, he’s already been changed.” He delivered the news casually, like he hadn’t just told me my brother had been injured badly enough that he’d required Christina to heal him.

  Fucking Caleb, I’m going to kill him.

  He’d called me after arriving to Omega Headquarters and told me about the accident, but he’d only mentioned Wes getting hurt. Not himself. That stupid fuck was probably trying to handle things alone because he
was too damn proud to ask me for help.

  “Was it him? Jackson?” I spat the name like it carried a bad taste. It sort of did too. Jackson was Yoshi’s twin, in the magical sense. They weren’t blood related like Caleb and I, but Jackson was the Blood Mage to Yoshi’s Ink.

  “That asshole?” Yoshi scoffed. “No. That lazy prick couldn’t give two shits about whether his replacement was restored to power. It’s not like he does anything within the community any more.”

  Yoshi was right, of course. I despised Jackson, and for good reason, he was a lazy-ass motherfucker these days and left the Mage politics entirely up to Yoshi to handle.

  “You’re supposed to be better than this, Yoshi.” I tried a guilt trip instead. “Is this really the example you want to set for mages everywhere? That their leader is a backstabbing fuck?”

  “Ah, but you forget one thing, kid.” Yoshi grinned at me like a shark. “In a matter of hours, or however long it takes your girlfriend to get here, you’ll be their leader. And not a moment too soon, I say!”

  Yoshi walked over and patted me on the head like a damn puppy, making me snarl at him as I pulled on my restraints again. Of course it was stupid to try; I was sitting inside a rune circle that strengthened the ropes, making them impossible to wriggle out of.

  “And don’t you worry about trying to kill me as soon as the Ink magic passes to you. I’ll be long gone by then.” He said it with such casual confidence, but he must be sweating a bit to have even mentioned it. There could only ever be one Ink and one Blood Mage in existence, and they represented the strongest Mages alive.

  He should be scared. Once the magic moved to me, I’d be infinitely more powerful than him and pissed off. Not to mention Caleb and I as a united force.

  “You and Jackson have been separate so long I think you’re forgetting how strong Cal and I will be together. What did you once tell me? We’d have the power to rival a Ban Dia?” I smirked at my former mentor and was rewarded with a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.