Rouen Chronicles Box Set

by Raven Steele

  I leapt upward and landed next to Angel. He nodded his approval. Hunched over, we scurried across the roof to the other side. We slid to our bums, our backs pressed against the two-foot ledge.

  “What do you hear?” I whispered.

  He cocked his head to the side. “Very little. This concrete is thick, but there are voices. I wish we could see inside.”

  I surveyed the side of the roof, looking for interior access. I struck out on a door, but spotted six air conditioners, all whirring at top speed. That’s a lot of cool air for a building that should only need four units at the most.

  I moved to get up to investigate further, but Angel pulled me back. I fell next to him, practically grunting at the suddenness of it. He pressed his finger to his lips and pointed below us. That’s when I heard it. Someone coming to the door. It opened a few seconds later below us.

  “—could be sooner,” a voice said mid-sentence.

  “Good. We can’t afford any more mishaps. It wouldn’t like it.”

  I recognized Brutus’s clear voice.

  “How is the rest of the pack taking the news?” he asked. They began walking away from the building.

  Angel slowly lifted up and peeked over the edge. He dropped back down just as quickly but didn’t say anything.

  “They will fall in line,” the other man with Brutus said. “They always do.”

  Their conversation changed to nothing important until we could no longer hear them. There were no other sounds, but that didn’t mean shifters weren’t around. Something told me this building was very important. As such, Brutus would have it well watched.

  We didn’t say anything for almost two hours while we waited for something else to happen. I bid my time by playing Words with Friends with Lynx on my cell phone. Angel watched over my shoulder, even helping me at one point with the word, “sexy”. He pointed at himself and lifted a corner of his mouth. The smile lit up his eyes, and I leaned into him, loving to see this relaxed, cocky side of him.

  He grabbed my arm, his eyebrow raised with a question.

  I rolled my eyes and whispered. “You know you are.”

  “Are what?” His voice was just as soft.

  I huffed, not wanting to admit out loud how incredibly hot he was, but his hand came to my chin, pulling it up so that my gaze met his.

  “No matter what you think about me, you are the epitome of sexy.”

  I blushed and glanced away. He let my chin go and we fell into a comfortable silence. I inhaled a deep breath, deciding now was probably a good time to bring up the question lingering in my mind.

  “Angel, I want to know something.” He looked at me, his head cocked to the side. When he didn’t say anything, I continued. “You keep tossing me these cryptic comments about my being special. What is it you think you know about me?”

  His eyebrows furrowed. “Do not play coy with me, Briar. You know you are something different.”

  “But I… I want to hear it from you.”

  His eyes studied mine, and he let the silence between us grow. I shifted my weight, growing self-conscious at the way he was studying me. Finally, he said, “I know you are a Komira. That is not a secret.”

  “Actually, it kinda is.”

  “Not between you and your friends. Luke knows, too.”

  “How do you know?”

  One of his shoulders came up. “I know things sometimes.”

  “Does Mateo know?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet.”

  “Why not?”

  He flinched, like he was surprised. “I would not divulge such a thing. It is for you to tell.”

  I bit my lip, considering his words. I wondered how long he’d known, and what it meant for him. And if that was the reason why he’d acted the way he did towards me. Did his knowing change anything between us? I paused, thinking. I didn’t think so. He’d been a loyal ally, helping me when he didn’t need to, even though he’d given me the Scorpion’s Breath. But I couldn’t fault him for that, not when I’d wanted it so badly. I shivered, trying not to let my thoughts linger on it too much. Time to talk about something else.

  “Tell me about yourself.”

  His eyebrows lifted. “What do you want to know?”

  “Your past. Where are you from? Family? The usual.”

  He relaxed back against the ledge, losing his rigid stance. “I’m originally from Spain. A small village near the coast. It is now called Cadaqués, Catalonia.”

  “Do you miss it?”

  He stared up at the night sky for a long moment. “I miss being human there. I would not want to return as a vampire.”

  “How come?”

  “It is too beautiful of a place for a monster like me.”

  I frowned, realizing how he felt about himself. I felt the weight in my chest again. Samira’s pain, Luke’s rage, and now Angel’s. All this had been going on around me and I’d been so oblivious to it, consumed by my own revenge.

  “You’re not a monster.”

  He reached up and hooked stray, wind-swept hairs behind my ear. “You haven’t seen the real me yet.”

  “You can show me, you know. I won’t be afraid.”

  His mouth parted, and he searched my eyes as if seeing me for the first time. I squirmed under the intensity of his eyes.

  “Briar, I—”

  A sound erupted beneath us deep inside the concrete building. A horrific scream that chilled my bones. It was followed by another, a deeper voice this time. Even though it sounded human, there was something unearthly about it.

  I moved to jump from the roof, but Angel stopped me.

  “We have to help them,” I hissed.

  He shook his head and pointed outward. I risked a glance over the ledge. Three shifters stood afar, their bodies illuminated by faint moonlight. Four more were on the next hill over. I dropped back down. We couldn’t risk breaking into the building. We didn’t even know what was in there.

  The screaming continued. My teeth ground together, and I curled my toes. Someone or something was in an immense amount of pain. I knew because I had once screamed those same sounds. I sucked in slow breaths, trying not to think of the time when Silas and Dominic had tossed me into the well as a child.

  Other screams joined in. Over and over, the terrified sounds filled the air around me. It seemed to go on forever. I covered my ears and curled into a fetal position. Invisible walls closed in around me, tightening around my chest.

  Angel pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me. It was the only thing to keep me grounded.

  After nearly two hours, the screaming stopped. Not slowly, but abruptly as if their voices had been set to a timer.

  I inhaled a hitched breath. “Is it over?”

  “I think so. I hear nothing.”

  I slid off of him, staring straight ahead, my body still trembling. Their cries still echoed in my mind.

  Angel raised up and looked over the building. “They’re gone.” He rested back down by me. “Whatever we were hearing, it wasn’t human. I don’t think so, anyway.”

  “We should’ve helped.”

  “We don’t know what’s in there. We need to know more, specifically who is behind this.”

  “The bastard, Brutus. We need to kill him.” I twisted my hands in and out of each other until they stopped shaking.

  “I don’t think so. Didn’t you hear Brutus? He said, ‘It wouldn’t like it’. Someone else is involved, and we need to figure out who.”

  “The smoke thing-a-miggee.”

  “The what?”

  “I saw someone with Dominic in the graveyard. It was like a cloud of smoke, but it didn’t hold a shape. Dominic had created macabre paintings of this thing in his private room.”

  Angel stood and motioned forward. “Let’s go.”

  As we scurried back the way we came, he said, “I’d like to study these paintings.”

  “You can’t. Vincent destroyed them.”

  He frowned. “That’s unfortuna
te.”

  We reached the opposite of the roof and scanned the surrounding area before jumping down and retreating into the forest. There was maybe an hour until sunrise.

  “You’re going to have to drive fast to get you back in time.”

  “We’ll make it,” he said, but he looked up at the sky nervously. “We should return again tomorrow night. Something is happening and we need to be here to find out what it is.”

  As much as I didn’t want to hear those sounds again, I agreed. I just wished Luke could be with me.

  Angel dropped me off with ten minutes to spare before sunrise. “You’re cutting it close. Are you sure you don’t want to sleep in our basement?” I smiled, chuckling at the thought. “I’m sure Samira would be happy to share.”

  “I have a place nearby.”

  My eyebrows rose, but before I could ask about it, he looked off towards the sky and sped away. I shuffled into the house and headed straight to my room, exhausted. Before I collapsed into bed, I typed out the longest text I’d ever sent anyone before.

  I know you are upset, but I could use your help staking out the Linchen Pack. I’ll be going there this evening. They have a jacked-up warehouse where jacked-up things are happening. It would be great if you came.

  I hoped it was enough.

  Chapter 13

  Angel picked me up just as the moon rose over the line of trees behind the house. Luke never came, never texted back. The sting of rejection burned my chest. Maybe his feelings for me weren’t as strong as mine were for him. That realization sucked ass.

  “Is something the matter?” Angel asked as I pulled his helmet over my head.

  “My heart is being stupid.” I climbed on the bike behind him.

  “It is the most useless organ. That’s why a vampire’s doesn’t work.”

  “You may be on to something.”

  I leaned into him to prepare for his high speeds and tight corners. He didn’t disappoint. He parked in the same location as the night before. I swiveled my leg over the bike and removed a small aerosol can from my jacket pocket.

  Angel glanced down and hopped off the bike. “Deer piss again?”

  “It’s the best, right?” I sprayed myself and handed it to him.

  “I admit, it seemed to be effective.”

  “Same plan as last night?” I moved into the forest, with him by my side. It was cooler than last night, but the good kind of cool, like how the air feels after stepping out of a hot shower.

  “We need to know what’s in the building.”

  “Maybe I can cause a distraction. I’m good at that.”

  He eyed me sideways. “It may be too risky with just the two of us. We can’t risk getting caught.”

  “Maybe we could—”

  He lifted his hand in front of me, stopping me cold. “Do you hear that?”

  I closed my eyes and tilted my head. In the distance, the rumbling of a large truck’s engine grew slightly louder. “What about it?”

  “In all the time we’ve been here, when’s the last time you heard a vehicle in this part of the woods?”

  “Good point.”

  We continued on, both of us on high alert. Our footfalls across the forest floor were a mere whisper in the night. Shards of moonlight occasionally found their way to us. One of them captured the green in Angel’s eye, illuminating his cat-like predatory glare. I shivered.

  I froze at the sound of another truck lumbering up the road. Angel had gone perfectly still at my side, his eyes narrowed.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  We darted through the forest, toward the dirt road leading to the Linchen Pack’s residence. Just before we reached it, we crouched low and watched as two large semis drove down the dirt road. They were so wide, their sides broke tree branches as they went.

  I glanced at Angel. “What the hell could those be for?”

  He pressed his hand at the small of my back. “We had a good position last night on top of the concrete building. Let’s return there again. I’m certain it’s their destination.”

  We both stood and turned around. I sucked in a breath at the sight of Luke standing before us.

  “You were together last night?” His cold gaze focused on Angel's hand that had just been touching me.

  “You came,” I stuttered.

  His gaze slowly shifted to mine. So much hurt and anger lurked in those dark blue eyes. A storm close to breaking.

  My eyes traveled to the miles and miles of forest surrounding us. “How did you find us?”

  “I followed the scent of deer piss, a trick I’m sure you learned from Samira.”

  Angel looked down at me. “This must be the cause of your stupid heart.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  Luke’s nostrils flared, and he glanced back and forth at each of us. He held his body stiffly, and I sensed everything in that rigid stance: control of absolute rage.

  His break from the pack hadn’t helped him.

  “Are you okay?” I tried to go to him, but he stepped back.

  “What are you doing with him?” He spit out the last word. “The vampire who was too happy to get you hooked on drugs.”

  Angel cleared his throat. “I asked for Briar’s help. Pallets of our drugs have gone missing, and we think the Linchen Pack is behind it to continue Dominic’s work.”

  Luke snorted. “You could’ve asked anyone else to help you find your missing drugs.”

  “That’s not true, Luke,” I said gently to calm his anger. “We’re trying to keep this on the down low. We have no idea who Dominic was working with. You could’ve been a part of this. I invited you to the meeting with Angel and Mateo, but you’ve had other things on your mind, understandably.” I sucked in a breath. “But you’re here now. Will you help us?”

  Luke clenched his jaw, looking past us to where the trucks were headed. His gaze returned to mine. “What are they doing?”

  Tension left my shoulders. “We’re not sure. They have a huge warehouse deep in the woods. Last night we camped out on the roof, trying to find the opportunity to sneak inside, but it never came. Instead, we heard screaming for hours from something inside.”

  “Why didn’t you just bust in?”

  “Would you have us fight the whole pack?” Angel asked Luke.

  “If that’s what has to happen.” Luke said the words matter-of-fact, as if it were easy fighting dozens of shifters.

  “Let me clarify,” Angel said slowly. “If you were here, you would’ve fought all of them with Briar. Just the two of you.”

  Luke stared into the dark forest, his face an extension of the darkness.

  I tentatively stepped toward him. “I know you want to murder them all for killing your brother. Believe me, Luke, no one understands your rage and pain more than me. But this is bigger than that. Whatever’s inside that building is dangerous. I want your help, Luke, but only if you’re in the right frame of mind for this.”

  His gaze returned to mine. “What do you mean?”

  “We need to go follow those semi-trucks, but I have a feeling you’re going to go all Rambo and try to fight everyone. If so, you need to go back home. I need someone with me who will watch my back, not shove it into danger.”

  “I’ll go,” he said a little too quickly.

  “Good.” I lightly rested my hand on his arm.

  He closed his eyes at the contact, but a moment later he pulled away and began to walk in the direction of the trucks. “Tell me everything you know.”

  We matched his pace, and for the next few minutes, I kept my voice low and told him about our conversation with Mateo and Samira and all of us trying to find out who took the drugs. I also handed him the deer piss to spray himself.

  “And you think the Linchen Pack has something to do with it?” he asked.

  “You were with me when Brutus said he was working with Dominic, so yeah. I think they know something, and I think they’re doing some crazy shit inside that warehouse.”

  As
we drew close to the building, Angel halted. “Be still.” His body became a statue as he surveyed the darkness around us.

  Luke scowled at him. I slowly moved between them to block Luke’s view of Angel. It probably wasn’t the best idea to bring Luke along, but at least I knew where he was.

  Just then I spotted the whites of the semis through the trees. They were parked in front of the warehouse’s closed garage door, their back doors wide open. “Let’s get closer.”

  At least two dozen shifters stood guard in front of the building, so Angel led us around the back of the building, where it was less guarded. Something big was about to happen.

  Angel hunched next to a fallen log. “Think we can make it to the roof?”

  “It would be risky.” I looked around. “Let’s wait for a better opportunity.”

  Several minutes passed. Whether it was intentional or not, Luke brushed against my arm, igniting a pleasurable chill across my skin. I’d like to think it was deliberate, but when I glanced at him, he didn’t return the look. His stormy eyes stared straight ahead towards the shifters. He was probably imagining slitting their throats.

  “Look!” Angel pointed to the small rise just beyond the warehouse.

  A group of men, not part of the pack by the looks of their tailored business suits, walked down the narrow path leading to the front door.

  “Let’s move.” Still crouched over, Angel circled the woods with me and Luke at his back.

  We edged closer to where we would have a better view, but still be well hidden within the shadows. Brutus stood at the front door of the warehouse, keys jangling as he unlocked it. Over a dozen shifters surrounded him, Marge included, all holding some serious weapons. Many of them shifted their weight repeatedly, their eyes darting around with nervous fear.

  I studied the fancy new arrivals. There were six of them, four men and two women. One of them was carrying a briefcase. I narrowed my vision, focusing on the white symbol in the center. It was a figure eight, with two smaller circles inside each loop.

  It looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.