Dead City

by Debbie Cassidy

  “I’m sorry, Micha.”

  He shrugged and then lifted his cards to his eye level and fanned them out to look at them. “Not as sorry as you’re gonna be in a minute when I beat you again.”

  I scooped up my hand and took a look. “Oh, we’ll see about that, buddy.”

  We were on our eighth hand when Deacon joined us. He strode in, bringing his signature sweet aroma with him. His golden hair was loose today and tucked behind his ears, and his Protectorate black outfit hugged his lithe form becomingly. He may not have been as big and bulky as Emory or Micha, but he had a presence and charisma of his own.

  He pulled up a seat and joined us at the table. “Deal me in.”

  Micha snorted. “Scuttle off, Deacon. You’re no challenge to me.”

  “And Echo is?”

  “She hasn’t beaten me yet, but this is her first time playing me. You, on the other hand, have lost to me way too many times.”

  Deacon pursed his lips. “I get it. You’re afraid that today will be the day I beat you.”

  Micha arched a brow. “Goading does not work on me.”

  But he was dealing him in regardless.

  “Echo, I’ve arranged for you to go see your family tomorrow,” Deacon said. “Councilwoman Harker has agreed that two weeks is enough for you to have healed, and as a guardian, the general population will understand that you heal faster than a regular human.”

  My pulse picked up. “Thank you.”

  He nodded curtly. “There is another thing.” He laid his cards facedown on the table. “As you’re aware, guardians have, in the past, been permitted to split their time between these quarters and Chamber H. But as you’re our only guardian for the next nine months, it’s been decided that you’ll be living here full time.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “Your brother and sister will move in with their sitter. We’ve already spoken to her, and she’s agreed to it and—”

  “No.”

  He blinked slowly at me.

  Dia’s words came back to me. They needed me. Me. And if they wanted me, they’d have to give me something in return. “You want me to do the guardian thing solo then you don’t get to take my loved ones from me. If you want me here, then they get to come stay too.”

  Deacon watched me for a long beat and then shook his head. “That won’t happen. No guardian has ever been permitted to have family stay in the guardian quarters.”

  “Yes, well, you’ve never had only one guardian before.”

  “She’s got a point,” Micha said.

  Deacon sighed. “I’ll speak to the councilwoman later and see what I can do. Maybe we can come to a compromise.”

  It was the most I could ask for. “Fine. Now, how about we kick Micha’s ass at this game?”

  Deacon’s smile was icy and predatory. “Yes. Let’s do that.”

  The game began, but my mind was on tomorrow, on seeing Bry and Gem, on getting to hug them after what felt like forever.

  Finn’s face floated into my mind, but I pushed it away even though doing so made my heart ache. He’d shown me how much he cared by his silence and his absence. If he hadn’t been permitted to come see me, he could have sent word. But he hadn’t. Tomorrow would be about my family and closure for Tris’s aunt and the Gentrys. And then it would be time to put my foot down and demand some answers. There would be a meeting, sooner rather than later. I’d make sure of it.

  I was done being treated like a pawn.

  Chapter 4

  Tris was reaching for me, her mouth a bloody “o” while the Breed tore at her shoulder, its mouth coming away full of bone and sinew. Her scream was a gargle, and her eyes glared at me accusingly.

  “You,” she said. “This should have been you. I was meant to win. You promised you’d help me win.”

  “Sorry. So sorry.”

  “Liar. Liar, liar, liar.” Her face contorted into anger and then her eyes blazed yellow. “LIAR!” She lunged at me.

  My scream exploded from my lips, and then hands were holding me down. “No. No, no, no.”

  “Patch, Patch, it’s okay. Echo, you’re safe.”

  Micha’s scent hit me a moment before I was hauled up against his chest. The dream melted and reality pricked my sweat-soaked skin with chilly needles. My body was trembling in Micha’s embrace.

  “Hush. It’s okay.”

  Micha’s body heat finally registered as it seeped into me. His hands on my back made soothing circles. Safe. It was just a dream.

  “Just a dream, Echo,” he confirmed.

  As my heartbeat slowed, my brain registered his bare, taut skin beneath my fingers and the warmth of his breath on my neck. He’d crawled onto the bed and gathered me against him, and now that the ribbons of the nightmare were slipping away, new ribbons were forming, ribbons of blooming heat that wound their way around us, pulling us closer together.

  His lips brushed the side of my neck with his next word. “Okay?”

  If I said I was okay, then he’d release me, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for him to let go just yet. What was this? This strange breathless feeling in my chest? It had to be a residue from the dream.

  “Echo?” His body rippled as he tensed, ready to pull back.

  I slid my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his chest. “Don’t go?”

  His heart beat slightly faster against my ear. “I won’t.”

  He pulled back slightly, and this time I loosened my hold a little to look up into his face. The room was dimly lit by a single lamp, and the light glinted off his skin to showcase the chiseled planes of his face. His eyes were downcast, lashes hovering above his cheeks.

  My breath caught. He was undeniably beautiful, both inside and out. “Thank you.”

  His hand slid up to the nape of my neck, fingers curling to hold me gently. The breathless feeling was intensifying, and now it was in my head. His grip tightened a fraction and then his thumb was moving lazily across my skin, creating spirals of sweet tension. This was new. This was … Oh …

  “I have to warn you, though,” he said softly.

  “Warn me?” My voice was thicker.

  His ember gaze caressed my face and fell to my lips. His throat bobbed. “I snore.”

  The strange tension that was building between us snapped.

  He sighed. “Yes, I snore, and it’s not pretty.”

  We were back again. Back to normal. I sagged in exaggerated relief. “Oh, thank goodness. So do I.”

  He smiled. “Duet it is, then.”

  He leaned in, and my pulse leaped, but he was only reaching for one of my pillows. He held it up and gave it a fluff. “Got to have a pillow.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  We lay down.

  “Wanna snuggle?” he asked.

  He lay back, his smooth, bare chest on display, yoga pants hanging low on his hips, and I was ogling. But he was more than his looks. He was kind and sweet and understanding. How the heck could the woman he’d loved have chosen to leave him?

  He arched a brow. “Are you checking me out, Patch?”

  My cheeks heated. “Like hell.” I lay in the crook of his arm. “You gonna sing me a lullaby?”

  It was a joke, but in the next moment sound was pouring out of his mouth, a low, soft melody with words that I didn’t understand, but that melody washed over me like a soothing wave, like fingers slipping into my hair and smoothing away all the turmoil and confusion, and somewhere, somehow, sleep tugged me back under.

  I woke to soft snores in my ear, an arm around my waist, and my legs tangled with muscular thighs. Micha. I turned my head slightly to see his sleeping face. Damn, no man deserved lashes that thick and long.

  A shadow fell over us. “Well, isn’t this cozy?” Deacon said from my bedside.

  “Piss off, sucker,” Micha growled sleepily.

  “Micha is not a morning person,” Deacon explained.

  “I had a nightmare.” The words popped out of my mouth.

  Deacon wan
dered over to the door. “Not my business. You can sleep with whomever you wish, as long as you do your job as guardian.”

  It was hard to tell because Deacon’s usual mode of communication was don’t-give-a-shit, but there was a definite frosty edge to his tone today.

  “Councilwoman Harker has agreed to compromise,” he said from the doorway. “Your siblings can come and stay two nights a week. Or if you’re free on a weekend, they can come to stay for the weekend.”

  Two nights? That was it?

  Micha’s arm tightened around me. “Take it, Patch. Trust me, it’s a good deal. You can always go hang with them in Chamber H when you’re not working.”

  He was right. It wasn’t the same as living with them, but unless I was seriously willing to refuse to do guardian stuff and put the Hive in jeopardy, I really couldn’t risk the councilwoman calling my bluff. I needed to save my push for the meeting.

  I nodded. “Fine. I also want a meeting. I need to know where I stand, and I need to know now. I’ve waited long enough.”

  “Already arranged. We have a meeting tomorrow afternoon. I’ll pick you up when it’s time.” He swept from the room, leaving me alone with Micha.

  But Micha, who, up until a moment ago, had been all snuggly, was now as stiff as a … My thigh brushed his … Oh, shit.

  He rolled off the bed, taking the sheet with him. “Yeah, I’m just going to …”

  “Right.”

  He was out of the room so fast he was almost a blur. So, that’s what they called morning glory? Damn.

  Bry and Gem launched themselves into my arms, almost knocking me off balance in the process. Verona waited patiently, misty-eyed and smiling.

  “You’re okay. You’re really okay.” Gem squeezed me tight.

  “Are you coming home?” Bry asked.

  I pulled back to look up into their faces. “I’m okay, but we need to talk.”

  Verona met my eyes and nodded. “How about I make some warm milk?”

  She headed off into her tiny kitchen, and I led the kids to the sofa and sat them down.

  “What is it?” Gem asked. “It’s bad, isn’t it? You look sad.”

  Heck, I obviously wasn’t doing a great job of putting on a happy face. “I’m not sad. I’m happy, so happy to be better and be here with you guys, but you know what happened to the others. The explosion?”

  They both nodded.

  “It means I’m the only guardian the Hive has now. I’ll have to do all the guardian duties on my own for the next nine months until they can recruit new guardians, and that means I’ll be really busy.”

  “You’re not coming home, are you?” Gem’s bottom lip trembled, but she took a deep breath and composed herself. “I get it. I understand.” She put her arm around Bry. “I’ll take care of Bry while you’re gone.”

  Oh, God. My baby sister was growing up. My brave girl. “It’s not that bad. I can’t come home, but you guys will get to come stay with me two nights a week. You’ll get rooms in the guardian house in the Protectorate Chamber.”

  Gem’s shoulders relaxed a little.

  “And I’ll come and see you guys whenever I’m not working, and in nine months, when we have more guardians, I’ll be able to come and stay here a few nights a week.”

  Verona returned with four mugs of milk and set a tray on the table. “Drink up, and then maybe your sister will take you out for a bit?” She looked to me for confirmation, and I nodded.

  “Let’s hit the jungle gym.” I grinned.

  “Will you tell us about topside?” Bry asked.

  Gem nudged him with a frown.

  He bit his bottom lip. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  I shook my head and stroked his cheek. “No. It’s okay. A bad thing happened out there, but before it did … It was beautiful.”

  “Did you see the sun?” Bry asked, his tone reverent.

  “Yes, Bry, I saw the sun.”

  Tris’s aunt opened the door to her unit with smudges under her eyes and hair that was in disarray. She was usually a groomed, put-together woman who worked at the textiles chamber, but she looked like she hadn’t washed or changed her clothes in days. She’d never married, and Tris had been her only family after the accident that claimed so many lives years ago, and now Tris was gone.

  She stared at me blankly for a long beat, and then her mouth thinned. “What do you want, Echo?”

  There was hostility in her tone, real anger. How could I blame her? Her niece was dead.

  “I wanted to say how sorry I am for Tris, for what happened.”

  “Really? Are you really sorry?” She stepped out of the unit and closed the door behind her as if somehow denying me access to the inner sanctum, the place that had Tris written all over it. “You were meant to help her. She told me, you know. She said it with such confidence, Echo will make sure I win, and what did you do? You let her die. Why her? Why her and not you? Why do you get to live?”

  Her hand shot out and shoved me in the chest, sending me flying back against the railing.

  “Please …” I reached for her, not knowing what to say.

  There was no defense, because she was right. Why me? Why did I deserve to live? This wasn’t fair. It wasn’t.

  But she was already retreating into her unit. The door closed firmly behind her, leaving me shaken and trembling on the metal-grilled walkway.

  I shut the door to my unit and placed Alex’s locket on the coffee table. After Tris’s aunt’s vitriol, the thought of facing the Gentrys, who’d lost four children, didn’t appeal. What could I possibly say that would make an iota of difference?

  There was no room in my heart for more pain right now. I’d grab a few things and head back to the guardian chamber and prepare for the meeting tomorrow.

  Harvest was due in just over a week, and they’d likely need me to go out there and help retrieve it, but without a Hawk to bring it back, it wasn’t going to be easy. Yes, there was so much more to be focusing on.

  I’d just finished packing some essentials when there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find Finn standing in the doorway. For a moment, there was nothing—no words, no emotion—and then all the hurt and disappointment came hurtling to the surface in a flush of heat that stained my skin. I wanted to punch him in the chest, shove him away and lock the door. But what would that achieve? That wasn’t me. I was bigger than that.

  Instead, I stood my ground, arms crossed under my breasts. “What do you want, Finn?”

  His hazel eyes were bright in his face, the flecks of green more pronounced than usual. It was probably close to the full moon, close to his main shift of the month.

  “What do I want?” He stepped into the unit and closed the door with a kick of his heel. “I want to know why you didn’t respond to any of my letters.”

  Letters?

  He took another step, his huge frame filling the room with testosterone and pheromones and all sorts of scents that had my head reeling. “I put my heart on the line, and you couldn’t even be bothered to send back one word? Fuck, Echo, I know you were beat up, and I didn’t expect anything right away, but this past week they said you were mobile, up on your feet and training, and still nothing?”

  I took an involuntary step back, my mind reeling. He’d sent me letters? His hand shot out to grasp my forearm, and he hauled me against him, forcing me to angle my head back to look up into his face.

  “I didn’t get any letters. I thought … I thought maybe no word meant you were backing off.”

  Confusion crossed his features. “What?”

  “You have an obligation to your pack … I knew that, know that. I just thought … I thought it was over, not that it ever started or anything.” My voice cracked.

  Fuck, this was hard. Seeing him, feeling him, being this close to him again … He looked pissed and aroused, and fuck he was going to—

  His mouth descended on mine with a savagery I hadn’t expected. He kissed me deep and hard, his hand holding the back of m
y head firmly to prevent escape, but escape was the last thing on my mind. As he claimed my mouth, every synapse in my body lit up. I wanted this, I needed this. My heart swelled with love for him, for us.

  But there was a tiny voice shouting in the back of my mind. Reminding me that this was a dream, that us was a dream.

  I shoved at his chest and turned my head to break the kiss.

  “Echo?” My name on his lips was a tormented whisper.

  “No. We can’t do this.” I pulled away, putting distance between us. “You’re not free to be with me.”

  His jaw hardened and then flexed.

  Shards of glass stabbed at my chest, but I forged on. “You need to go.”

  I turned away before I could change my mind, before I’d say or do something stupid, and strode into my bedroom to grab my pack.

  “What if it didn’t have to be that way?” His body heat brushed my back. “What if I walk away from the pack, from the responsibility. From it all? What if I join the Protectorate?”

  Could he do that? Was that even possible?

  His hands landed on my shoulders. “I can’t lose you, Echo.”

  It didn’t matter what he said. “There is a law in place. A law that states we can’t be together.”

  “The law refers to Lupinata who are members of the four packs. Not to lone wolves. Echo, I’ll leave the pack. I’ll go lone for you.”

  He’d do that? My resolve melted, and I turned to him. “Why now? Why wasn’t this an option before?”

  His throat bobbed. “The pack is a wolf’s identity, it’s his home, his hearth, and until now … Until now I wasn’t sure I was willing to give that up, but now I have no doubt.”

  “No doubt?”

  “No doubt that I love you. I fucking love you, Echo.”

  His words slammed into me, shaking me and blurring my vision, and then his mouth was on mine again, hungry and wanton as it claimed me with open-mouthed kisses that demanded nakedness and skin. We tumbled back onto the bed, mouths fused, tongues tangling, hands tearing at each other’s clothes. His calloused fingers branded my skin as he yanked off my top and snapped my bra strap, causing my bra to fall away. His palm was hot as he slipped it down my pants and cupped my wetness before sliding his fingers into me. My cry was breathless, and then my hips were moving up to meet him, wanting more of the invasion.