by Katie Reus
Soon. She kept telling herself that over and over.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“There’s also an exit out back if you want to use it when the show’s over.” Before they could respond, he’d turned and blended into the crowd. Though he couldn’t blend too much considering how tall he was.
“That was a little weird.” She looked up at Ian, who was still scanning the place. When she saw how tense he was, she realized how selfish she was being. “Let’s just get out of here and go somewhere outside the city. I’ll go out the front, you go out the back and we’ll meet up somewhere.”
He opened his mouth to respond and the first note of music filled the air. A saxophone. She turned, as did everyone else in the cramped place. A murmured hush fell over the crowd until the only other noises were the rustling of clothing.
As the men started to play, that changed, with people swaying side to side, some shouting out their approval with others starting to basically dance in place.
Jazz was like a language unto itself, and to her it represented America. There were a lot of things she didn’t like about the country, but more that she did—and it was why she didn’t plan to leave anytime soon. There had been so many changes in the last few years; the humans were finally having their civil rights revolutions all over the world. It was damn time she did the same—that all supernaturals followed suit.
The emotion coming from the musicians as they played the saxophone, trumpet, piano and bass was…indescribable. But she felt it all the way to her soul. As if they were speaking to her, to everyone, telling a story of sorrow but triumph. Which felt a little silly to think, but her body vibrated with energy and excitement.
Ian moved in behind her, wrapped his big arms around her and swayed in time with the beat of the music with her. She could feel his energy pulsing through him as if it were her own.
“I love you, Fiona,” he murmured against her neck, sending a shiver spiraling through her. She barely heard his words over the music but they rushed over her just the same.
“I love you too.” More than anything.
“I’m glad we came tonight.” He tightened his hold around her and for a moment she felt as if they were the only two people in the world. As if nothing and no one could touch them—as soon as Ian’s contact came through for them.
They needed to make a clean escape so there was no way to track them. She hoped that one day they got to return to New Orleans because it was where she’d met Ian for the first time.
Where she’d felt alive for the first time.
Chapter 19
Colm walked around the piles of ash, his rage growing heavier, thicker by the second. Anger consumed him as he calculated how many men he’d lost. This was not acceptable.
“Two trees have moved.” One of his warriors decided he was too stupid to see the obvious.
Colm didn’t respond, just reined in his fire. Barely. Scanning the disturbed area of the forest, it was clear that two trees had uprooted and replanted themselves elsewhere. The trees were quick when disturbed but Colm had no doubt the beings responsible for this were faster. They were long gone by now.
Given the ash, that disgusting half-breed had killed his men. And even though there were dozens of footprints mashed together where his men had been massacred, he could see a clear pattern of footprints leading down from the mountain.
Continuing to ignore the small group of men with him, he stalked north, following the footprints in reverse. There were seven sets. He’d had reports of four wolf shifters. Not to mention his sister and that half-breed. There was her vampire friend as well. He couldn’t imagine the half-breed captive working with them so that male must still be on his own somewhere.
“What do you want us to do?” one of the more skilled half-demons asked, moving up next to him so silently Colm hadn’t even heard him approach.
He’d have to pay more attention to this one. “Keep the exit guarded but we’re headed back to the castle.” From the pattern of footprints he could only guess that the group of seven were headed there. But that still left Javier, the other half-breed. Colm needed that male. His blood was incredibly valuable.
He could always find humans. They were nothing. But Javier…his blood was unique. Colm never would have known about him either if not for his other partner. A partner he planned to destroy once he’d taken over the human realm. That would be tricky, but he had no problem double-crossing that monster. Especially when that male would slice off Colm’s own head in an instant. They were simply using each other to take over the human realm, something Colm understood.
“We lost a lot of men,” the male hedged.
No shit. He sighed, running the calculations in his head. “Send a runner to the exit. Pull down another fifteen men to bring to the castle.”
The soldier nodded and stalked over to his small group of men. Once the order was given, one of the half-demons took off. That was taken care of and now it was time to head back to the castle.
He hadn’t planned to call on his partner so soon, but it looked as if he might have to. Especially since this new threat to their plan had arrived unexpectedly. He wouldn’t let his pride get in the way. Not when his brother had already been killed. No, he’d call in backup. The kind of backup that would annihilate everyone who didn’t belong.
Everyone except Javier. He was keeping that male around. Then it would be back to business as normal. He’d start killing humans on a massive level. Once they managed to make their drug in aerosol form, it would just take planning and patience. This little stumbling block would be a distant memory soon.
* * *
52 years ago
Even in his drunken state, Ian scented others entering his property. In his current mood, he was ready for a fight. A really brutal one. Maybe he’d even die.
At this point he didn’t fucking care. Didn’t care about anything. He’d gone to Fiona’s estate last night to kidnap her, to just take her away from her family. Because her bullshit story about not loving him was just that: bullshit. He knew what they had was real. That she loved him as much as he loved her. Her family must have forced her to leave him, scared her or something.
But when he’d seen her mating manifestation at her family’s estate, bright and clear for anyone in the Garden District to see, he’d wanted to die right then. She might love him, but she’d still mated with another male. Now there was no chance for them. Ever.
So he’d come back to his place and had drunk the equivalent of a liquor store in the last week. Not that it changed anything. Knowing she was with someone else, letting someone else touch her—
He unleashed a stream of fire that incinerated the couch across from him. The leather went up in flames, then quickly turned to ash, scattering across the wood floor.
Shoving up from his seat, uncaring about the destruction, he stalked to the front door at the sound of light footsteps on his porch. God, if someone was here to attack, they weren’t being subtle.
He yanked open his front door and came face to face with Fiona’s mother. The female was the spitting image of her; looked more like a slightly older sister than her mother. Seeing her made his gut clench.
The tall female held out a newspaper for him. It had been folded over, open to the marriage announcements. What the hell…
His gut tightened even more as words blurred before him. There was no picture because supernaturals went out of their way to avoid cameras, but words like Fiona O’Riley…married on… He crumpled the paper before burning it. As the flaming pieces fluttered to the front porch, he glared at the female who was still standing in front of him.
“Why are you still here?” he rasped out. She’d clearly just come over to pour salt in his wound. Well, job done.
Her lips pulled into a thin line, her blue eyes cold. “As you can see, my daughter is officially off-limits to you now. You should leave the region. My sons want you dead and you’ll only be hurting yourself further if you stay.” She sniffe
d once haughtily, cringing a little. “And you stink. You want her to see you like this, a pathetic drunk? Go find a female on your level and leave our clan alone.” Without waiting for a response, she swiveled, her high heels clicking loudly as she descended the short set of stairs to the front walkway.
He scented others from her clan nearby. It was disgusting that they’d let a female deliver a message to him. A renowned fighter nicknamed “Beast.” But they must have known he wouldn’t hurt a female unless provoked, no matter how much he loathed her.
When she reached his driveway she started stripping, getting ready for her flight, no doubt. So he slammed his door shut and stalked back inside.
Glancing around a place that had never felt like a home until Fiona had entered it, the dagger in his chest sank even deeper.
What the hell was he thinking? He couldn’t stay here now. Her mother was right; he needed to leave. The thought of seeing Fiona in town with another male—he’d want to kill the male but he couldn’t. Not without killing Fiona because of the way dragons mated. That was something he could never, ever do.
Throwing his head back, he screamed out his rage in fire and pain. All around him the home burned, destroying her scent, erasing every single memory he had of her. He wanted this place completely eradicated, the one place he’d felt truly happy. He didn’t want to remember how she’d felt beneath him, how she’d told him she’d always love him. He had to destroy everything that reminded him of her.
Almost.
He still had one picture tucked away in his pocket and he wasn’t getting rid of it. Apparently he truly was a masochist.
His throat ached by the time he was done, the amount of fire he’d released completely draining his reserves. He hadn’t even thought it was possible to run out of fire, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself. As his fire died he surveyed his surroundings. There was nothing left of the house. Not even the foundation was standing. He wondered if any of his miles-away neighbors had seen the light show. Didn’t really care. There were no sirens in the distance so maybe not.
Eerie silence descended around him, so loud it hurt his ears. Numb with grief, he stripped off his clothes and curled them into a bundle so he could carry his only remaining belongings. He didn’t care about the clothes, but he wasn’t leaving Fiona’s picture behind.
“I wish I could,” he muttered to himself, his throat raw and for some reason not healing. It was as if his fire had burned too hot for his body to fully repair. Whatever. He didn’t care if it never fully healed. His heart would not.
Letting go of his beast, he allowed his dragon to take over, to soar high into the clouds away from his past, from Fiona, from everything. Needing to escape the vicious pain clawing at his chest.
Chapter 20
Fiona tried not to inhale too deeply as they hurried along the cold, stone hallway far beneath the castle. They’d killed about twenty guards over the course of the last half hour as they cleared the floors. And they’d found cells upon cells of dead humans. Mostly males, but a few human females. It appeared as if some had taken their own lives and others had died of poor treatment. She shoved her rage back down. It wouldn’t do them any good now. She’d save it for when they destroyed every single being involved in this.
They were on the last floor, the one Javier had said he’d been taken to on multiple occasions so a human doctor could draw his blood. Fiona couldn’t believe a human was in this place voluntarily but maybe Javier was wrong and the doctor had been forced through blackmail or just brute force. Either one seemed like a strong possibility.
Now all she smelled was blood and death. The offensive scents rolled over her and she doubted they’d find anyone alive down here—but they had to try. So far they’d passed four cells, all splattered with blood. But there was no one inside and there were only two doors left.
At a scraping sound, they all stilled. Ian was camouflaged but he held her hand securely in his. Finn was taking point with Javier, no surprise.
Up ahead, Javier murmured something so quietly it must have been subvocal because she couldn’t hear him.
Finn nodded then turned to the nearest steel door and slammed a booted foot against it. It flew open, and moving in a cohesive unit, his three wolves still in human form spilled into the room, weapons up.
There were a few shouts but they died quickly. By the time she and Ian strode through the doorway there were two dead half-demons on the floor of a surprisingly pristine lab and a…human man wearing a lab coat. The human stared at all of them, the fear rolling off the older white male potent. The acidic scent was stronger than even the blood and death. Tables had been set up on the stone floors. Beakers, test tubes with glass stirring rods, racks for the tubes, multiple burners and a whole lot of other equipment she didn’t recognize covered most of the flat surfaces.
Her heart beat a little faster, a staccato rhythm in her chest. She was getting weaker by the second and while she’d tried to hide how run-down she felt, she didn’t think she was doing a very good job of it. It had been impossible to miss the concerned looks from Ian and even Finn and Javier.
“Be right back,” Ian murmured, squeezing her hand before dropping it.
She frowned for all of a second before the human doctor was lifted off the ground by a seemingly invisible force.
The male with graying hair clutched at his throat, his eyes growing wide as Finn strode up to him with the swagger of an Alpha.
Finn crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes flecks of blue ice as he stared at the human. “You saw what we did to those half-demons. We’ve taken out a hundred of them so far and we’re not done. The hand you feel wrapped around your throat? That’s my buddy Ian. He’s a motherfucking dragon and his mate was poisoned by some shit I’m guessing you created. He’s restraining himself. If he wasn’t, you’d be missing your throat. Now, he’s going to let you down and you’re going to talk. If you don’t…we’ll keep you alive for months. Maybe years. The pain will be never-ending and you’ll wish you were dead. But the sweet release of it will never come. Not until you’re a husk.” He leaned in close, looked up at the male hovering in the air, frantically clawing at his throat as he stared in horror at Finn. It appeared as if Finn said something else but Fiona couldn’t hear him.
Whatever it was, the man in the lab coat urinated on himself. She scrunched her nose as the sharp scent filled the air. But she kept guard at the door, peering out into the hallway for a visual even though she couldn’t hear anything.
Chloe stepped out with her. “I’ll keep watch,” the she-wolf murmured.
Fiona nodded but stayed close to the door anyway. If they were attacked she’d back the female up. She might be feeling weaker than normal but she could still fight. Blade in hand, she turned to see the doctor fall to the ground and Ian suddenly drop his camouflage.
Coughing and gasping for breath, the doctor stared up at Ian—and urinated again.
“Come on dude, that’s just nasty,” the male named Solon muttered.
The human might not have even heard him. All he did was stare between Finn and Ian, two terrifying forces of nature.
Finn crouched down, and if he was trying to make himself less scary, he failed. “We’re going to start small. I’m going to ask you some questions. You will tell the truth—and we’ll scent if you don’t. If you lie…” He jerked a thumb to Ian, who stood staring like a…well, a pissed-off seven-foot-tall half-demon.
The male nodded once, the action jerky.
Fiona might have felt a little bad for the man under different circumstances but he was behind her poisoning and countless others’. She was all out of sympathy.
“Tell me your name.” Finn’s voice was low, a sharp edge to it, which was probably scarier to this human than if he’d yelled.
“Dr. Bianchi.”
“How long have you been here?”
“On and off maybe a year.”
“Are you here voluntarily?”
“No.” Lie.
> The room went eerily quiet.
Ian’s head tilted slightly to the side, the movement so small she might have missed it if she hadn’t been watching so intently. Wordlessly he grasped the male’s wrist and a snap filled the air—followed by a scream of pain. Ian did it so brutally and efficiently.
For a moment he looked back at her. Not at the Alpha. Her. As if… What, for her permission? She wasn’t sure. “We need the truth from him,” she said quietly. Not just for her but for any others he might have poisoned. She knew the only reason Ian was holding off from demanding to know about the poison right now was because they needed to get a gauge for how truthful this male was, to see what they could do to him before he broke.
She didn’t care what Ian did to this male. She wanted to live. To have the life with Ian that had been stolen from them. She refused to believe they had this second chance only to have it ripped apart. Life was such a fickle bitch she knew that she could very well die but… Hope sprung eternal, apparently. Because she hoped with every desperate fiber of her being that she and Ian got that second chance. Got to have a life together, children, a family.
So whatever he needed to do to get the doctor to talk was fine with her.
Ian nodded once, turned back to the human who was groaning, his eyes glassy with pain as he held his wrist to his stomach.
Finn made a clucking sound which under other circumstances might have been funny. Still crouching down, the Alpha shook his head. “I warned you, doctor. Now, are you here voluntarily?”
“Ye…yes,” he rasped out.
“Better. Let me guess. You did it for money.”
The male nodded.
“I’m going to need an audible answer.”
“Yes. For money. And…he promised me a place in the new world. Homes, wealth, anything I want.” His voice shook and his eyes were still glassy but he seemed to be focusing well enough.
Fiona hoped he held out through the questioning. She wanted to shout at them to get on to the questions about the poisoning.
