“He knows.” Neal crossed his arms. “About the mortuus and the younglings.”
Alyssa frowned as my stomach sank.
“You son of a bitch,” Caden growled, his arm sealing me to him. “You just lied to my face.”
Neal lifted a shoulder. “Like I said, I wasn’t loyal to you.”
“And you said you weren’t loyal to him,” I spat back.
“You were listening?” Neal chuckled as he looked me up and down. “And here I thought you were… distracted by his hand up your skirt.”
“Shut up,” I seethed.
“Interesting.” Aric glanced between us. “Very interesting, indeed, seeing you with her. A member of the Order. Can’t say I’m that surprised. Do you know I’ve tasted her blood? Just for the fun of it? Kind of like history repeating itself, don’t you think? Makes me think of that little bird of yours.”
Little bird?
A roar erupted from Caden. He whipped me to the side and then behind him as he charged forward.
“Don’t kill her. Not yet. She’s very useable.” Aric shoved Alyssa forward, and then drifted back as the two bald Ancients went at Caden.
He caught the first by the throat and lifted him several feet off the floor before slamming him down. The impact rattled the boxes as Caden lifted his head, his glare trained on Aric.
Alyssa slinked forward as the other Ancient caught Caden at the waist. Both flew backward, into the booth. Their weight crashed through the table, shattering it.
“He says I can’t kill you,” Alyssa said, and my gaze flew back to her. “But he didn’t say I couldn’t hurt you.”
She swung on me, but I was ready. There was nothing stopping me from getting to Aric. If I could just take him out, I wouldn’t even need to find the last one. He would be enough.
Alyssa cursed. “Oh, you’re faster than you look.”
“Yeah.” I popped up behind her. “I am.”
She whipped around, throwing out her arm. She caught me across the cheek, spinning me out. Pain burst across my jaw, but I spun back just as she launched herself at me. I threw out my right hand, catching her in the center of her throat with the iron stake. Bluish-red spit into the air.
Shock rippled across her face as I smiled. “Good thing no one told me not to kill you.”
I yanked my arm to the side, breaking free of bone and tissue. Her head went to one side and her body went to the other.
The Ancient that had tackled Caden went flying across the room and hit the stack of boxes. They toppled to the floor. Bottles clinking off one another and cracking. Liquid poured out as the Ancient dropped to his knees in a mess of broken glass and whiskey.
Neal sighed. “Do you know how much that liquor costs?”
Beside him, Aric smirked at me as he lifted his hand and wiggled his fingers.
A hand clapped down on my shoulder. I swung out, but hit nothing but air as Caden whirled me back behind him. He started forward once more.
Damn it.
My hand closed into a fist, but before I could do anything, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. The other Ancient was on his feet and in a blink of an eye, he was right in front of me.
I jumped back, but with him, I wasn’t quick enough. Gripping the front of my dress, he lifted me up as I shoved my right hand out. He caught my arm as my feet left the floor.
“Crap,” I whispered.
Then I was flying.
This was going to hurt.
But I didn’t hit the wall. Caden was suddenly there, between me and what most likely would be a whole lot of broken bones. The impact with him knocked the air out of my lungs. Pain burst along my side as he brought me to the floor. Our gazes locked.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and then pulled back before I had a chance to figure out what he was apologizing for.
Caden spun and spread his arms to the sides. Both Ancients were on their feet, coming between him and Neal and Aric. What the hell was he doing? I started to sit up, inhaling deeply and catching the scent of… the scent of fire and smoke. An orange-yellow aura appeared around Caden, outlining his entire body.
An enormous amount of heat blew backward, lifting the strands of hair from around my face. “What the…?”
The glow intensified until my eyes watered, but I couldn’t look away from what I was seeing. A flame licked out from Caden’s hand, rippling into the air and spitting sparks as the fire took the shape of a…
A sword.
A freaking flaming sword.
With the grace of a dancer, he spun with the sword, and a flash of bright light rippled out as the sword arced high. I caught a glimpse of Neal. His eyes widened as he stumbled a step, backing into the wall. He said something in their native language.
“Well, hell,” Aric drawled. “That changes things.”
And then the light and heat were too much. Throwing my arm up to shield my eyes, I scooted back against the broken booth. Only when the heat pulled back did I lower my arm and open my eyes.
The two Ancients were dead, heads separated from their bodies, and Caden and I were alone. Aric and Neal were gone.
There was also no sword.
Slowly, Caden turned to me and those eyes of his—the same amber color of the fire—glowed. And as I stared up at him, I had no idea what I’d just seen, but I knew it was something big.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I was still sitting on the floor, arm frozen in the air. “Are you?”
Caden nodded, but as his gaze shifted away from mine and the muscle along his jaw ticked, I didn’t think he was telling the truth.
At all.
Chapter 24
“I didn’t trust Neal, but I didn’t think he would be stupid enough to work with Aric.”
I somehow resisted the urge to point out that I had thought the name Rica was suspicious as hell from the moment I saw it as we hurried down Decatur Street.
Caden’s hand was wrapped firmly around mine as we cut around groups of people strolling on the street. When we’d left Thieves, I expected everyone to be running screaming from the building since the fight had not been quiet, but when we slipped out the back door, I could hear the conversation from the bar area. Those people had no idea that a fight to the death had just taken place with a freaking flaming sword.
Caden stopped suddenly, beside a sleek black SUV parked a block from Thieves, and opened the passenger door. “Get in.”
I looked at the SUV and then at him. “You have a car.”
One eyebrow rose. “Is that so surprising?”
“Not as surprising as the flaming sword,” I muttered.
He shot me a bland look, and I climbed in and buckled up. I watched him jog around the front of the SUV. He was behind the wheel in seconds, glancing over at me as he hit the ignition button. The moment our gazes connected, they held and I let myself just for a couple of seconds really think about what had just happened.
Who I’d just seen.
“It’s him,” I whispered as the engine rumbled. “Aric was the Ancient who attacked me and my mother.”
Caden reached over and cupped my cheek. He didn’t say anything as he drew his thumb along my jaw.
“I can’t believe it.” A messy, raw knot of emotion formed in my chest. “It was him.”
“I’m sorry. I really am,” he said quietly. “And I know how badly you want to hunt him down, but you need to stay away from him. I don’t say that because I doubt your skill or determination, but he is deadly and he is dangerous. He is as old as me, Brighton, and I’m positive he hasn’t spent a day fasting.”
A horrible thought occurred to me as his words sunk in. I pulled back. “Did you… did you know it was him?”
“No.” He looked away, his gaze flicking to the rear view mirror as he pushed the SUV into reverse. “I’m not surprised. The bastard is sick and cruel, but I did not know.”
I wasn’t sure if I believed him and I didn’t know how to process that right then. I didn’
t even know how to deal with coming face to face with the Ancient who’d ripped into my mother’s throat and torn through my skin while laughing.
“We’re going to have to involve the Order in this.” He eased away from the curb. “With Aric behind the missing younglings and using whatever the hell mortuus is, we’re going to need all hands on deck.”
Hell. I knew what that meant as I shifted my gaze to the window. “I can’t promise you that Miles will listen to me. They don’t think I’m very… useful.”
Caden was quiet for a moment. “What if the information came from Ivy?”
“They would listen. I can call her. Tonight.”
“We also need to go to Tanner.”
“Now?”
Caden clutched the steering wheel as he focused on the narrow street congested with cars and people. “Now. Call Tink. We’ll pick him up.”
I glanced down at myself as I pulled my cellphone out of my clutch. “Do we have, um, time for me to get changed?”
“Yeah, we’ve got time for that.”
Calling Tink and getting off the phone quickly wasn’t exactly an easy endeavor since he had a million and one questions, but I managed to get off and then I called Ivy.
She answered on the second ring. “Hey, Bri, what’s up?”
“Um, a lot. Like a lot.” I started quickly telling her about what had just gone down. “We’re heading over to Hotel Good Fae now to talk to Tanner and Faye.”
“We’re actually a couple of miles outside the city now,” Ivy replied. “We’ll be there shortly after you.” There was a pause. “And I hope we find some time to talk later.”
“About…?”
“You’re going to play coy with me, Bri?” Ivy snorted. “You and I need to talk about how you’ve been working with the Prince.”
“Uh.” I looked over at Caden. He didn’t seem to be paying attention. “Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. See you in a bit.”
I slipped my phone back into the clutch, unsure of what I was going to tell Ivy when I wasn’t even sure I knew what I was doing—what we were doing.
“Is everything all right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, Ivy and Ren are almost back in the city. They’ll be there. I guess your brother is with them.”
“Perfect.”
And after that, Caden didn’t really speak and even though there was a ton of stuff I wanted to talk about, like everything, right now didn’t seem like the… appropriate time. The curious thing about this trip was the fact that Caden didn’t need to ask directions to my house.
“Do I want to know how you know where I live?” I asked as we pulled up to the curb outside my house.
He slid me a long look as he turned off the ignition.
“All right,” I sighed, opening the door. “Probably don’t want to know.”
Stepping out of the SUV, I crossed the sidewalk and opened the gate. I took one step and Caden was suddenly in front of me. Cursing under my breath, I shook my head. “You’re going to give me a heart attack if you keep doing that.”
Caden didn’t respond to that as he took my face in his hands, cupping my cheeks. He stepped into me as he tilted my head back. My gaze flew to his. “Is… is everything okay?”
Instead of answering, he lowered his mouth to mine, stopping a fraction of an inch from making contact. Was he going to kiss me? My breath caught. His forehead brushed mine and then his lips touched mine.
The kiss….
There was nothing sweet or soft about it, not like most first kisses were. Oh no, this was fierce and powerful, consuming in the intensity. My lips parted as the tip of his tongue touched mine, and the entire world seemed to slip away. When he finally lifted his mouth from mine, there was a swelling motion in my chest, like I had just taken my first real breath of air.
Caden had kissed me like it was our first and our last.
His fingertips slipped off my cheeks as he stepped back and to the side, and as my gaze focused, I saw that my front door was open. Tink stood there—full-sized Tink. It was always jarring to see him at his full height and wing-less, which was almost the size of Caden.
“Let’s head inside.” Caden touched the small of my back.
More than just a little out of it, I nodded and walked forward. The closer I got, I could see how wide Tink’s blue eyes were. I expected him to say something funny. Call me a hussy or point out that I was just making out with Caden in the front yard, but he didn’t say anything. He was staring at Caden like he’d never seen him before.
Tink stepped back into the foyer as we climbed the steps and he didn’t speak until we were inside my house, the door closed behind us.
Tink looked like he was about to faint as he stared at Caden. “Should I… should I bow?”
I frowned at him.
Caden shook his head. “No.”
I had no idea what any of that was about. “I’m just going to get changed real quick. Make yourself comfortable.”
Caden nodded as I hurried to the stairs and when Tink started to follow, he stopped him. “Can we talk for a moment?”
Figuring it was about what happened, I raced up the steps, nearly tripping to my death over Dixon, who sprawled out on the top step. “God,” I gasped. “Really?”
Dixon lifted his furry head and meowed loudly as he stretched out his legs lazily. Rolling my eyes, I stepped over the cat and hurried to my bedroom, prepared to strip and scrub my face so fast I’d break records, but as I soon as I stepped into my bedroom, I came to a complete stop. Raising my hand, I pressed my fingers to lips that felt swollen.
I… I was feeling some pretty silly stuff. Perhaps it was everything that had happened in the last week causing me to think and feel like I…. Goodness, I didn’t even know.
But instead of obsessing over Aric, over what he’d taken part in, I was wondering if… you could fall in love with just one kiss?
Chapter 25
When I came back downstairs, dressed in the leggings and tunic I’d had on earlier and face scrubbed free of makeup, it was only Tink waiting for me, and it was jarring to see him full size. When Tink was what he liked to call “fun sized,” he was just adorable, but fully grown? There was no way you could help acknowledging how attractive he was, and that just made me feel weird.
Frowning, I looked around the foyer. “Where’s Caden?”
“He went ahead and is going to meet you in Tanner’s office,” he said in a voice so much deeper than what I was used to. “He left his car here for you to drive us.”
“Oh.” That was weird. “Did he fill you in on everything?”
“Most of it.” Tink stepped toward me. “He… he kissed you.”
Heat immediately smacked into my cheeks. “Yeah, he kind of did.”
“He didn’t kind of kiss you, Lite Bright. He looked like he was devouring your mouth.”
It had kind of felt like that.
“Brighton, I….” Tink trailed off as he slowly shook his head.
A kernel of dread took root in my stomach. “What?”
“Nothing. We should go.”
We really did need to get going, so when Tink handed me the keys that would allow me to drive Caden’s SUV, I took them. That kernel of dread grew though when Tink was unnaturally quiet as he sat in the passenger seat. And Tink, even when he was full sized, was never quiet.
And he was almost never full-sized around me, not since, well, two years ago.
When we arrived at Hotel Good Fae, Tink headed off to the cafeteria while I went to Tanner’s office and waited for Caden. I had no idea how Tink stayed as fit as he did when I swore if he wasn’t talking, he was eating something.
Must be brownie metabolism.
Taking a shallow breath, I roamed around Tanner’s office, too antsy to sit down. Okay, I wasn’t antsy. I was….
I was feeling a thousand different things. Disbelief. Anger. Shock, and then under that, under all of that, there was also anticipation.
Anticipation that had everyt
hing to do with Caden.
I rolled my eyes as I walked over to the window, ignoring the dull twinge in my side. There was a bubbling giddiness that made me feel at least a decade younger. Was that what love—
“Stop,” I told myself and then I laughed, because telling myself to stop thinking what I’d already thought was kind of pointless.
I smoothed my hands over my hair, which felt weird against my neck. I was so used to wearing it up, but Caden had said….
He’d said he liked my hair down.
Actually, he’d used far more eloquent words than that. What had he said? My hair was like—
The door opened in that moment and I spun toward it.
Caden walked in, closing the door behind him, and as he looked over at me, seeming to know exactly where I stood, I got a little lost in… well, in staring at him.
Shamefully lost.
He’d changed, too. Wearing a white dress shirt tucked into a pair of tailored black slacks, he actually looked like a prince—a mouthwatering prince.
And he’d kissed me—really kissed me.
How crazy was that?
Totally insane.
Biting down on my lower lip, I tried to stop the grin from racing across my face so I didn’t look crazy. I lost that battle as I started toward him, wanting to hug him—okay, I actually wanted to kiss him again. And I could do that, right? He’d kissed me and, well, he’d done more than that earlier, and—
“Do we have a moment?” he asked, and my smile slowly slipped from my face as I stopped. There was something… off about his tone. Empty. Cold? And his expression was utterly blank.
The sense of dread from the car ride rose as I swallowed. “Yeah, we have a couple of minutes.”
His gaze flickered over my face before settling on the window. “I just wanted… to make sure we have an understanding between us.”
“An understanding about what?” The dread gave way to a strange buzzing in my ears, adding a surreal element to all of this.
“About us.”
I started to sit down, but found I couldn’t move. “About us?” I repeated dumbly.
Still not looking at me, he nodded. “I know we have shared… intimacies, mostly under extreme circumstances, and we share this attraction.”
The Summer King Bundle: 3 Stories by Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 18
