by Raven Steele
“They fell out earlier, when you were fighting with the Alpha.”
“When I was letting him kick my ass, you mean?”
“Sometimes we must do things that hurt us, knowing it’s what’s best.”
“Like stepping aside for Luke.”
He nodded, his face serious. “Yes. And respecting your choice.”
I didn’t know if I would ever understand him, but I didn’t dare press for more information, which could further complicate my life. Instead of trying to, I pulled up his shirt and ran my fingers over his rippled stomach to his shoulder checking to make sure his wounds had healed. His skin was silky smooth, as if he’d never been shot. I looked up into his eyes, which watched me intently. I smiled and pulled down his shirt, rising so he could get on the bike.
Without a word, he slid on and I followed behind him. I wrapped my arms around him. He held onto them protectively with one hand while he drove back to Rouen with the other, punching through the darkness.
When we came close to Rouen, he leaned back. “Home or Fire Ridge?”
“Home.”
He pulled up to my house just after four in the morning. I eased off the bike even though my body was mostly healed.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Better. Nothing a little sleep won’t fix.” I started to leave, but stopped. “Hey, thanks for helping me tonight.”
He bowed his head slightly and drove away, the bike’s engine roaring at top speed.
Maybe in another life, if things were different, I could’ve been with Angel. His passion and devotion toward me made something inside me spark, but I could never deny my love for Luke. Besides, shifters didn’t date vampires. Horribly taboo.
Surprisingly, Samira and Lynx were awake when I entered the house. Their voices carried into the living room from the kitchen, along with the heady scents of French toast and blood. Lynx must be cooking, Samira drinking. It felt good to be here after me getting my ass whooped. I never thought I’d have a place that felt like home, but slowly this old house with my two roommates was becoming just that: home.
“Hello, ladies.” I entered the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. “Need some help, Lynx?”
She flipped a slice of egged bread over on a long skillet. “This is the last one. Have a seat.”
She turned around, her eyes widening. “What happened to you?”
Samira also looked up, stiffening at the sight of me.
I reached up and touched my tangled hair, noting blood smeared across my hand. The rest of me probably looked pretty bad, too.
“I got the shit kicked out of me is what happened, but I’m all healed now. Just a little sticky and probably smelly. I’m glad you guys are awake.”
“I’m glad you’re okay!” Lynx gasped and helped me remove my jacket.
I walked to the sink and scrubbed the blood off my hands and face, even wetting down my hair. “It’s been one hell of a night.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Samira clinked her blood thermos to my glass bottle.
I wrinkled my nose. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Feelings. That’s what’s wrong.” She drank a long swig.
“Give me that.” I snatched the thermos from her and sniffed. My mouth fell open. “You sneaky little bitch! How much vodka is in here?”
“Not enough.” She grabbed it back and drank again.
Lynx laughed and set a plate of French toast in the center of the table. “She’s been drinking for the last two hours.”
“No shit?”
I stared at Samira, a smile threatening to break. This might be the only time I could get information out of her. “So Sammie—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“What is with you and Mateo. Did you two used to screw?”
She squished her finger to my lips. “Don’t be vulgar. Our love was so much more.”
My eyes widened, and I looked at Lynx, grinning. “Love?”
Lynx giggled. “I can’t hardly picture it.”
Samira swung her head toward us. “I’ll have you two know that I used be fun. I was wild and carefree. I could out-drink any Irishman, out-swear any sailor, and out-fight anything on four legs or less.”
“What happened?” Lynx sat down, her face eager for more. She placed some French toast on her plate and buttered it. I dropped next to Lynx, just as eager. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Who knew the great emotionless Samira was once a hell-raiser?
“Mateo happened.” She drank again. “His eyes happened. His muscles happened. His,” she paused, “male parts happened.”
“You mean his dick?” I asked.
She sloppily wagged her finger at me. “Vulgar. No-no.” She lowered her head. “Mateo was my life. Our relationship spanned beyond the stars, it created planets, it burned holes through space.” She drank again.
“Then what happened?” Lynx took a bite of her French toast. By the look on her face, she didn’t even taste it.
Samira lowered her drink to the table. She slowly looked up, her long dark hair parted on each side. “He broke me.”
The silence in the room was so thick I didn’t dare swallow, the saliva growing in my throat. It explained a lot of Samira’s behavior. My chest ached for her and I rubbed it.
“But I survived,” she said abruptly. “And now I am working with him. Side by side again. And it is splitting me in two.”
She grew quiet and stared into her thermos.
Lynx and I shared a glance. This is what Samira looked like with a broken heart. Ever since I’d met her, I’d wanted to know what really went on in her head. I couldn’t change her circumstance, but I could help her feel better.
“Let’s play a game.” I smacked my hand on the table, startling her.
“Liquor?” Lynx jumped to her feet.
“Absolutely. We need to catch up to Samira.”
Samira shook her head slowly side to side. “I’m done. No more for me.”
“I don’t think so. Where’s your stash? I’ll fill you up.” When she didn’t answer, I poked her in the ribs.
“Don’t do that,” she snapped, her fangs showing.
“Where’s your blood?” I asked again.
After a few seconds, she looked up at me, eyes glazed over but still fierce. “You can’t out drink me. I am Samira Chevoky, leader of the northern realm, bearer of the Kiss of Eternal Night, breaker of men—”
“And world’s biggest bitch if you don’t play with us,” Lynx interrupted.
Samira and I slowly turned and glanced up at Lynx. She was standing near the cupboards, holding a bottle of Jack Daniels in each hand. She’d never spoken like that before.
I met Samira’s gaze, and we burst out laughing. Samira’s uncharacteristic joy had me clutching at my stomach, tears running down my face.
She stopped laughing and slammed her cup down, spilling blood over the edge. “Let’s drink!”
For the next two hours, we played drinking games. Samira came up with the first game where we just stared at each other and whoever blinked had to take a drink. Seeing how Samira was dead and could go days without blinking, she, of course, won. Lynx and I cried foul, but a few drinks later and none of us cared. Soon Lynx and I were just as drunk as Samira.
It was just the night I needed, and by the looks of my roommates, them too. We forgot about our heartaches. We forgot about our plans. And most importantly, we forgot about our fears.
But as the night wore on and our bottles emptied, the fogginess began to lift much too quickly, as it often did for supernaturals. We had retreated to the living room. Samira was sitting in the Queen Anne chair, her legs dropped over the arms. I’d never seen her so relaxed. It made me wonder who she’d been before Mateo broke her heart. It made me want to kick him in the balls. She was such a good person. I wished she’d let her guard down more often.
Lynx lay on her belly across the sofa, her arm reaching the floor where I was splayed out on my back. I stared up
at the white ceiling that was yellowing in places. “You should really paint this place.”
“I know,” Lynx sighed. “Too much to do.”
“We could do it in a day,” Samira added.
“Maybe.”
We fell into comfortable silence. I closed my eyes, feeling at peace. The sensation startled me, and I opened my eyes. The painful hole in my chest that had been as constant as my beating heart had almost disappeared. It hadn’t left when Silas died, or even when I’d killed Dominic. But here, sitting with these two girls, my two friends, the feeling had faded.
And I didn’t want to lose it.
“Something big is coming,” I said. “We need to stop it.”
Samira lowered her gaze to me. “I know.”
“It’s going to be bad, isn’t it?” Lynx whispered.
I nodded. “I think so.”
Lynx sat up and looked at each of us. “I have a feeling though, that if we stick together, us three, we can get through it alive.”
Samira nodded, her expression solemn. “I agree.”
I swallowed the knot in my throat and leapt into the darkness I used to call friendship.
“I’m all in.”
Chapter 12
I spent the next week training with Samira. Our new pact to stick together made me want to work harder. She began to teach me how to use my mental abilities to call upon my Komira powers without needing a near-death experience to incite them.
“The powers aren’t just in your body,” she said. “They are in your mind.”
I wasn’t the only one that stayed busy. My uncle began to dig into Dominic’s relationships with other packs, which quickly added up. While he was gone, he left either Gerald or me in charge. I only accepted because it was temporary. I hated having everyone rely on me.
Saturday night, my pocket pinged, and I grabbed my phone, hoping it was Luke. He’d come to check in once with Vincent to ask for time off. Vincent gave it to him, and then Luke disappeared again. At that point, I’d stopped texting him.
He needed time. I could give it to him.
The text wasn’t from Luke. Disappointment swelled in my throat. I swallowed it down to deal with Angel, who had asked me to go scope out the Linchen Pack with him again. We needed to figure out the purpose for the Linchen Pack’s huge building. It was too random to be out in the middle of nowhere.
I texted back to meet me at the end of the lane leading to Fire Ridge. It was still pretty early, and I didn’t want to risk being seen with him. I’d never hear the end of it from my pack. Vampires and shifters hanging together was as abhorrent as drinking liquid shit mixed with vodka. Our species just didn’t do it.
“Are you taking off?” Gerald asked me when I pushed away from the kitchen table. We had been playing cards for a few hours.
I snatched my wad of one dollar bills, my winnings, and shoved them into my pocket. I’d lost more than I’d won. “Yup. I might go work at Sinsual tonight. It’s been awhile.”
“Text us if you do,” Jerry said, as he picked at his teeth with a toothpick. “I love your shows.”
Samantha smirked and gathered the cards on the table. “You love anything with tits.”
I smiled and walked away. “See you soon, ladies.”
The air outside was warmer than usual. I removed my jacket and walked down the long lane. Moonlight reflected off white and pink flowers on the trees lining the roadway. A bird chirped in the distance. I wished I could appreciate spring the way most humans did but it was too hard to concentrate with the unknown threat lingering in my mind.
When I reached the end, I only had to wait a few minutes before Angel arrived. Without saying a word, he handed me a helmet and motioned for me to climb on the bike behind him. Slipping my jacket back on, I complied and wrapped my arms around his waist.
Like before, he drove fast, weaving his way through traffic as if it didn’t exist, even running a stop light. When we reached the road leading to the Linchen Pack, we drove past and parked in a different part of the forest. I removed my helmet and set it on the bike.
“Are you okay?” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the deer piss I’d brought from home. “You were driving slightly more chaotic than usual.”
He stared into the woods. “I want to find out who’s been stealing from us. I don’t trust this pack.”
“Neither do I.” I sprayed the piss all over me and handed it to him.
He flinched. “What is that?”
“Deer piss. Put it on. We don’t want to get caught like we did last time.”
“I don’t have a scent.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I don’t.”
I leaned toward him and inhaled deeply. “You smell like a corpse that’s been soaking in wet dirt. Put it on.”
He reluctantly took it from me and sprayed it all over his clothes. “I have never done something so humiliating.”
“Get used to it. You’re with me.”
We became part of the forest, melting into the darkness along with every other nocturnal creature. They scurried away from us, hiding within bushes or burying themselves into holes. It was a powerful feeling to smell their fear. Here, deep in the woods, we were at the top of the food chain.
“Let’s circle around the back,” I whispered. “We can’t risk getting caught again.”
He nodded, and I let him take the lead. We scurried up a small rise and jumped across a narrow ravine. A few minutes later, we approached the rear of the warehouse. It didn’t give a view of the front door but it was a safer location.
Angel pointed at the roof. I studied it, noting the large lip that ran across the outer edge of the building. If we stayed low enough, we could go undetected. Plus, it would give us a better view of who came in and out.
I nodded my head.
Carefully, he crept forward with the stillness of a panther. When he was sure we weren’t being watched, he darted lightning-quick to the building and leapt up to the roof. If I hadn’t been a shifter, I wouldn’t have seen the movement.
Now if only I could be as graceful.
As soon as Angel gave me the all clear, I sprinted forward, just as quiet as he had been, but not as fast. This wasn’t the place for my Komira powers. Not like I could call upon them at will yet though. Hopefully soon, with Samira’s help.
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 h
ours 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.
