by Erin R Flynn
“I get why the princesses are the bosses if you can’t even hear each other and ignore me until I get naked,” I snapped, wincing when my words sank in. It felt like a punch to the gut and a knife through my heart. They ignored me until I got naked.
I scrambled for the robe as tears burned in my eyes, putting it on and dashing over to the cargo van. The van I’d gotten on my own days ago. Days ago I had been alone and had handled it all. So much had changed and now, now I was ignored unless I got naked. I closed the door and locked it, needing away from their eyes too before I totally broke down. I wasn’t me anymore.
I was a person I didn’t recognize. Not just the fangs and being around people who weren’t human, no, it was not being alone and even just dropping my robe. That wasn’t who I was. There was too much and way too fast. I slid off the seat to the floor between the chairs, facing the loaded back and hiding. Burying my face in my knees, I let out silent sobs, cracking under the pressure and crazy.
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I’d finally settled down when I heard the key in the door, unlocking it. It opened, and I let my hair hide me.
“I’m sorry, Inez,” Darius whispered. “We weren’t just ignoring you but each other as well. I’m so scared to let you go near that place I wasn’t thinking rationally or listening. I value your opinion, and you are certainly more than your gorgeous body.”
“It’s too much,” I choked out, moving my arm over my head. “All of it, Darius. I’d had a handle on that level of crazy and managed. It took me years, but I did it and on my own. I’m scared too, but I’ve been listening to you guys and working with you. I didn’t mean to throw a girly fit and cry, but the second it seemed to be going wrong so much tumbled all over me too.”
“I know, I know how that feels,” he promised. “You’ve not even broken down that you’re not human and anything else I think most would have. It is a lot, and I’m sorry we didn’t handle it as we should.” He sighed when I nodded. “Dinner’s ready.”
“I want some more time in here,” I admitted, not sure what to say when he didn’t reply. “I’m embarrassed, okay? I dropped my robe like a weirdo and then lost my shit. I don’t feel like me anymore, Darius. I really don’t know who I am.”
“You do, but it’s been too much.” He waited another few moments. “Can I at least bring you something? Please? You need to eat.”
“And I didn’t see anything, but thanks for checking on the van for us,” Jaxon added quietly. “Sorry, My Princess.”
“I’ll be out in a minute.” I sighed when they left me alone, closing the door even. Yeah, it had been a lot, and I even thought it was fair I’d cracked. I just wasn’t used to being around people or having to worry about what came next after I cracked.
Nervous breakdowns in private were so much easier and with less fallout.
“We’re sorry, Princess,” Callum said when I came back to the group, the others echoing him.
“That’s been building,” I admitted. “I don’t remember my life before the corrupted, but this has been a crazy ass week of everything being turned on its head.”
“Yeah, we do remember so we get that,” Asher said quietly. “What were you trying to tell us?”
I thanked Jaxon as he gave me a plate of steak, onions, and potatoes before answering. “That I don’t know it’s in the depository or the vault. There was a collection of coins recently, and I’ve had some before that always confused me, but normally it’s like art or ancient. I just know it’s that way. It could be in some storage box in a broom closet, and before you say no way, yes way, I found something there.”
“Which one?” Jaxon asked.
“In Poland, some sort of bobble in a trendy house that seemed like they’d gotten it handed down and didn’t know the value of and stuck it in a closet.” I shrugged. “I was trying to say that and ask if there was some way Jaxon could get me on top of the depository with all his crazy speed and skills.”
“Because then you could tell us if it was inside there or somewhere else, as you’d feel it below you.” He smiled when I nodded. “Smart. Yeah, you are so the boss for a reason.” He moaned when he tried the potatoes. “And you definitely won, these are delicious. Where did you learn this?”
“I found an abandoned farm when I was running and raided a grocery store with a couple of women who were on the move too. One said the popcorn seasonings don’t really expire and dill is just good on everything.” I shrugged. “That was the last time I had potatoes, and at the time I was tired of them since it was all I’d had for days.” My next bite was hard to swallow.
“What happened to those women?” Jaxon asked, his tone gentle.
“One got nabbed by some guys, and before we could even try and get her back, corrupted showed up and got all of them,” I whispered, shivering at the memory. “I was sure I was going to be one of them because I got scratched.”
“No, we can’t be,” he assured me. “I got a bite taken from me too when I helped some humans in Ireland. They don’t like us, but meat is meat to them.”
“They will still eat us,” Wolfe muttered. “We saw a hawk shifter go that way. There was no way to get to him.”
Dinner was pretty quiet after that, all of us lost in our thoughts and too many horrors we’d seen. Some things didn’t need to be said out loud or talked about.
15
“I feel like we should be dressed all in black with theme music in the background,” Jaxon grumbled under his breath a few hours later.
“I am all in black,” I offered, getting it was a movie sort of joke. I kissed his neck since I was riding piggyback for this mission. “I won’t self-destruct should you choose to accept me. That’s like a Bond thing or something, right?”
“Mission Impossible, and you’re adorable,” he chuckled. “Ready? I have the next group in sight.”
“Blur on.” I closed my eyes and felt wind against my body as he moved ridiculously fast. Once they’d listened to me about not knowing what I needed to get was at the depository, the leopards had mapped out the best path to get us to sneak near it and scope out at least a location. We were already on base, and I thought my heart was going to stop when Jaxon had vaulted us off a tree and over the fence to get in.
There was a lot of barbed wire on top after all.
He stopped at the next point under the highway ramps that used to be the turnoff to the depository and visitors’ center. “Straight ahead, can you see it? The big white building with the activity.”
I snickered, swallowing a laugh. “It’s not in there. It’s at least another mile past that.” I shook with silent giggles. “It’s fun to be right when you all are new to this quest and were so sure it had to be in there.”
“Yes, we’re idiots,” he murmured, turning his head so he could meet my gaze. “But we’re your idiots, right?”
“You have seen me naked,” I teased him, smiling when he groaned quietly. “Can you get us around and past it to see if we can close in on it?”
“I think we should try and just grab it and not risk bringing you back here,” he admitted, going against the plan. We had said it was going to be a recon and report back only.
“We’ll see where it is and how awesome your ninja skills are,” I agreed. Why risk more exposure if we could easily snag it? “Though Darius might spank us.”
“We might enjoy that. Hold on.”
I hurried to do that, shaking off my shock at the idea of them touching each other instead of just me. Did I like that idea?
Was it really the time to think about it when we were on an active military base and the leopards said assholes were in charge?
“Less than a mile that way,” I told him when he stopped next, pointing in the direction. “You got this Mission Impossible?”
“I’d prefer to be Bond since I’ve got the sexy woman in my arms.”
I blushed even if I didn’t fully understand the reference. I hung on as he raced us a few more blocks, ducking behind the s
chool. “It’s that building there. There’s nothing else here.”
“This is so much easier without spotlights and electricity,” he muttered. “It’s a museum of some type. The sign’s blocked.” He smirked at me over his shoulder. “Score one for the Bond girl, huh?” He took off again before I could answer, stopping in a doorway that we were completely hidden in even from the torches now and again down the street for the patrols to see with.
Binoculars didn’t need batteries or electricity after all.
“No one’s inside,” he said as he set me on my feet. He made sure he blocked me from view as he quietly squatted down and picked the lock in seconds.
“You’re badass,” I praised. “That takes me forever to do, and I’m really bad at it.”
“It takes a lot of practice not under pressure to do it well under pressure,” he said. “How’s your night vision?”
“Not bad, but it’s going to be pitch black in there.”
“Yeah, but I can still see, so don’t let go of me.” He ducked us inside and moved his arm around me as we walked forward.
“Left,” I instructed since we’d come in through a side entrance meant only for staff or loading. A few more instructions that had to be ridiculous for him to listen to including “move about five feet forward” and “two steps or so to the right” and we found it. I leaned in and could barely make it out. “It’s this, whatever it is.”
He moved in closer too. “The spoils of war. It looks like General Patton had an elaborate medal made of an ancient medallion that someone else made into something first.”
He reached over and lifted the glass case protecting it, and I snagged the medal, sighing when I felt that relief of getting the item in my hand. He set the case back down as I wrapped the medal in the shirt I’d brought and tucked it in my bra just to be safe.
“I’m retrieving that later,” he threatened.
“Get us out of here and not shot and I’ll gladly let you,” I threw right back. I wasn’t shocked when he practically tossed me on his back and got us the fuck out of there. We stopped at the same places, stuck at the school for a few minutes when a pair of guards were busy flirting with some women who happened to be in their regular route. Right, that sounded like code for a hookup or something.
Not that I’d judged. Now that I was having sex and knew how awesome it was, I voted for everyone to have more sex, always.
When they moved along far enough they wouldn’t even catch a glimpse of us as they were facing the other way, he raced off to our next point. We hopped locations like that until we reached the escape point.
And didn’t have a tree to use to launch over the fence. Crap.
I didn’t even get a chance to ask what he was going to do before he pulled me around front of him and sped up. I realized he’d snagged something to use like a pole vaulter but not nearly as conspicuous as that. He sailed over the fence, and we landed on the other side but not as solid as before because I thought he might drop me or we were going to fall.
He ducked us behind a tree and checked out the area, waiting as if worried someone would have seen that or whatever he’d used fall.
“Are you okay?” I checked under my breath.
“I landed funny, sorry,” he murmured. “I was going to check for a way to get over and circle back, but another team was coming around the building. Luckily they reek of booze so I don’t think they caught that.”
“Thanks, I didn’t think about the getting back out part.”
“Yeah, we’ll need to work on that next mission,” he grumbled, clearly having missed that there was no tree to help this time. Then again, he probably didn’t have to do his spy missions with another person wrapped around him normally.
He blurred us back to the others and set me down… Almost falling over himself. I spun around and saw the pain in his features before he could hide it.
“Landed funny how?” I demanded.
“My knee,” he admitted, wincing when I got upset. “I sort of um, dislocated it and tore some stuff.”
“And then raced all the way here with me?” I worried, hurrying to get a chair for him. I pushed him to sit and knelt down, rolling up his pants, but they wouldn’t go that high. “Take them off.”
He snickered and undid them, sliding them off but then hissing at the movement. “It’s fine, I’ll heal in a bit.” He looked past me. “She was right, it wasn’t in the depository. It was the Patton museum, and it was totally clear when she located it, so we got it. All done.” He turned to look at the leopards. “I suggest sneaking back in and getting what you can. We should get her out of here as fast as we can.”
“Agreed,” several voices mumbled.
“I’ll go with so you can toss me over whatever,” Darius offered.
“Yeah, that works,” Vance agreed. “We don’t have much, a rucksack each basically.”
“And I’m buddies with the regular night guard so he won’t worry about me taking a walk and saying hi, but I’ll just dart past him instead of back to base,” Callum added.
“Be careful,” I worried.
“We’ll come back to you, Princess,” he promised. “We were already plotting to take off anyways. They were being dicks and expecting the impossible while not being smarter. We hate that shit.”
Yeah, I would too, and I wanted to ask what he meant by not being smarter, but they needed to get going. I gave Darius a quick kiss and then was alone with my patient.
I blew a raspberry. “I have no medical training or not even ice. I have no idea how to help you.”
“I’ll be fine, but there’s something I’d love my princess to give me if she’s willing,” he murmured, giving me a heated look. I was about to tell him there was no way we were messing around when the others were going back in and I hadn’t taken a bath given where we’d stopped. “Let’s get some sleep. I desperately want to feel my princess naked and lying on top of me as we sleep.”
Yeah, I could do that given there was no way I could have gotten the medal without him and he’d gotten hurt bringing me out safely. He smiled brightly when I agreed and even let me help him get to the bed. His gaze was all fire when I undressed. I moved over him, putting my legs between his and yanking the sleeping bag over us.
“Is this okay?”
“Perfect, My Princess, it’s perfect just like you,” he whispered, hugging me to him. “I really needed to hold you after being so scared you might be in danger.”
“You kept me safe,” I praised, my eyes feeling heavy now that the adrenaline rush was over.
I woke with the sun and a debate going on around me.
“You shouldn’t have done it,” Jaxon grumbled quietly.
“Look, I want to keep her safe too, but the guy on the gate would have gotten in serious shit,” Callum replied. “And others on duty if we just disappeared. Darius cut a slit in the gate before we blinked, and we were already miles away so he easily caught up.”
“They’ll search for us,” Vance added… Whose lap I was apparently sitting on in the semi as we drove along. “Fine, the note we left was a bit snarky, but leaving to search for family is a valid reason to ditch out.”
“Not that we should have had to,” Wolfe bitched. “We didn’t enlist or sign up. Reminding them when they invited us in that no one said we couldn’t leave again was a good point to bring up like we weren’t up to something other than escaping them. Those people can’t leave, Jaxon. They were auto renewing contracts no matter what people said or wanted.
“They’ve been tightening the fist, and it went way over the line. Shooting deserters for mutiny? It’s not an active war, and the two I saw they found were supposed to be out years ago. They’ll send teams to head west thinking that’s where we’ll head, and when they can’t find us, it will be over.”
“What do you think, sexy bite?” Vance asked, letting everyone know I was awake.
I didn’t answer right away, not wanting to go against Jaxon. “I don’t know which was the corr
ect thing to do, it’s not mine to judge, but I get not wanting to drag others into your shit. Everywhere I went, every settlement I stopped at or hid, guilt would eat me if corrupted would come for them too. I do think leaving them a ‘trail’ is a better play like Darius did when I arrived to throw Clarence off.
“Otherwise they could be on like a list or hunted all the time, crazy people assuming they walked off with the nuclear launch codes that no longer work. Fine, maybe they get implicated in the medal we stole if someone pieces that together, but yeah, so what, they took a gold medal? People aren’t filling in the blanks logically anymore, and not giving them a reason could start more trouble.”
“You’re right,” Jaxon agreed. “I just don’t like it could make you more in danger or on someone’s radar. We took off the moment they were back, and we’re taking county highways and whatever roads to avoid Lexington and then avoid Cincinnati on the way to Columbus.”
“You didn’t see, but they also took over all of Louisville as part of the base,” Vance explained. “They have outposts at Lexington and are working on trying to clear Cincinnati, but way too slow.”
“Got it. I just have to bury the medal before we get to Columbus.”
“Do you still need to now that we’ve got awesome wheels and storage?” Jaxon checked.
I closed my eyes and took stock of what I was feeling, sighing. “Yeah, I want to bury it. I get this need to hide them and not let them be together until there’s a safe place for them all to be. I get we’re doing better, but it’s not like we can take on any baddies if they come for the truck or whatever.”
“We’ll get as far away as we can and then we’ll bury it somewhere completely random and out there so one of us can blur to sneak in and retrieve it later,” he decided. “Go back to sleep if you can, Inez. We’ve got a few hours of driving still, and we’ll need you to charge it all up.”
“Can we get a bathroom break?” I asked. “Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to go before—”
“It’s fine, of course we can stop.”
