I moved away and let Sammie in, watching him stroke his fingers over her hairline so gently that it made it hard for me to breathe. Watching them together, knowing that if my life wasn’t such a fuck up that maybe I could have that too, it was like having my heart torn out by Monster.
Bobby hadn’t been able to tear his eyes from her. I slapped him on the back. “You’re going to be an awesome mate and Alpha,” I whispered to him, and he frowned at me.
“Where are you going?”
I smiled softly. “Just to check on Milo again and then up to bed. I’m exhausted and one of us needs to be fresh for Carmen when the rest of you collapse.”
He stared at me for a long time, but then gave me a tight nod. “Sleep tight, Fireball.”
I rolled my eyes at the nickname, and slowly crept from the room. I walked out of the medical wing and back towards the dorms. But instead of continuing up the stairs, I walked out the back door. I continued walking until I was walking out the front gates.
I walked until my heart shattered in my chest and headlights bore down on me from the road up ahead. I stopped in the middle of the black asphalt, falling to my knees and hanging my head.
This was for the best. She’d be safe now.
Boots stopped in front of me. A hand grabbed my ear and yanked my head back so I was forced to glare into the face of a demon.
“Flint. I see you got my message.”
40
Carmen
The first thing I became aware of was that every inch of my body hurt. Even my scalp hurt.
I whimpered softly, but then a cool hand ran across my forehead. I tried to take an inventory of my body, what was actually broken and what was just a little banged up. But it all hurt the same, like I was a throbbing ball of screaming nerves. I moaned in pain as I shifted my leg wrong.
“Shh, baby. I’ll get someone with some meds to make you feel better.” I opened my eyes enough to look up into the liquid chocolate of Bobby’s gaze. He looked down at me, dark bags dragging down his face, and worry pinching his features. “Thank god you’re awake.” Then he disappeared. I tried to call him back but my mouth was cottony.
Something pressed to my lips and my eyes flickered around the room. Sammie was there, holding a straw to my lips. “I’ve never been more thankful to see your baby blues, Sweetheart. Drink slow.”
I sucked down the water greedily until he stole it away and I growled. He chuckled low. “Easy baby. You’re just out of surgery and you need to go slow otherwise you’ll puke everywhere or something.” He gave me the straw back and I sipped at it gently. I was in a light yellow room without windows. It smelled sterile.
I was in a hospital room. It was just taking my brain a while to catch up.
“Enit? Christopher?” I choked out on a still dry throat.
“Alive.” I shuddered my relief, a small choked sound crossing my lips. Thank god. Sammie must have known I needed more, because he continued. “Christopher is banged up. A couple of broken bones, but his testy attitude is in one piece. Enit wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, and she got real hurt,” he said softly. “But Stacey says her surgery went well and she’s happy with her condition. They’ve got her in an induced coma, but they’re satisfied with her vitals. They’re okay, baby.”
The door slid open, and Alistair appeared. His smile was relieved. “It’s good to see you awake, Miss Baxter. I’ll give you something for the pain, let your body have the time it needs to heal in this form. We’ll get you to shift in another couple of days.”
I swallowed. I wanted to see Enit and Christopher. No, I needed to see them. Also… “The kid?” I shuddered as I remembered the grey and swollen face of the child wrapped in rags, and tears welled on my cheeks even as my eyes got heavy. He was dead, I’d been sure of it. No one could take that kind of beating and live. I struggled to stay awake as Sammie grabbed my good hand.
“Milo. He’s alive too. He’s been beaten up pretty badly but he’s going to be okay. He hasn’t woken up yet though. Madoc and Attica have been in there, so he isn’t alone. They made Flint identify him.” There was a hint of disapproval in his tone.
“Where’s Flint?” My eyes darted around the room but he wasn’t here. My heart started to race. I needed to see him, to know he wasn’t doing anything stupid.
Sammie made a shushing noise. “He’s gone up to his dorm to rest. We’ve all been here for hours and he was exhausted.”
Even as he said the words, the knowledge that Sammie was wrong thudded into my chest. He hadn’t gone to his room. No, he was running. Fuck. But before I could tell them, I was sucked back down into a drug-induced darkness.
Flint!
I swam back to the surface of consciousness slowly. I felt like I was fighting it, screaming for Flint even as my eyes opened.
“Flint!”
Bobby was there again, his warm palm on my forehead. “Mouse, it’s okay.”
“No. Bobby. Flint, I need Flint.”
His hand felt good on my sweat-soaked skin. “Sammie’s just gone to get him. Monster is gone though, I think he’s gone to find Rook. So did Lucius. I’m a little gleeful about what would happen if those two teamed up.”
A bloodbath.
Bobby’s phone rang, and he grabbed it from the nightstand. “Hey.” He frowned, his eyes shooting to mine. “Okay, yeah no, you come back here. I’ll be right there.” He hit the end button and I knew what he was going to say before the words even left his mouth.
But I asked anyway, that dreadful hope that I was wrong like a bubble in my chest. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”
With a single nod, that bubble popped. “Doesn’t look like he even stepped into his room.”
I knew he wouldn’t. I knew he’d feel like this shit was his fault and he’d do that noble, stupid thing because thats just the kind of person he was. He’d go back to Rook to save me, because he loved me.
I threw back the blankets, ready to get out of this bed, to go and get my mate back. But Bobby was there, pushing me back against the bed. “Don’t be an idiot, Mouse. You have more broken bones than I can count on one hand and you are legit just out of surgery.”
He crowded close, his lips brushing mine. He looked me dead in the eye, his brown eyes shining with determination. “Flint is Pack. I will get him back, one way or another.”
I sucked in a ragged breath as pain shot through my body. I lowered myself back down to the bed. I picked up a pillow, burying my face in it and screamed. I wanted him back. I wanted Rook dead.
Bobby squeezed my good hand again. “It’s hard, I know that baby. I know you want to fucking tear Rook apart with your teeth, to fly in and save your mate, and I know your wolf is riding you. But you have to trust us to get him back.”
Sammie burst into the room, his eyes wild. His hair was messy like he’d spent too many hours combing his fingers through them. Beside him was Cara, and I could see the outline of a gun beneath her shirt.
Sammie was across the room, kissing me probably a little bit too hard. “I’ll get the self-sacrificing dumbass back for us, okay? Trust me.” I sniffed and nodded, because if I tried to speak right now, it would probably come out as a wail. “Cara is going to stay here, mostly so you don’t do anything stupid like climb out of bed on a busted knee and come after us.”
I huffed out a teary laugh, because he already knew me too well.
Bobby paced, his shoulders rolling. “I want to put my mark on you so bad, but I won’t be rushed into it out of fear.” He stopped and kissed me again. “I love you so damn much, Mouse.”
With that, he strode out of the room, Sammie planted a kiss on my lips and followed him out.
Both Cara and I watched the door for a moment longer, before she turned to me.
“Guess this probably isn't the time to ask you if you want to become my platonic life mate? Men, while delightful, are so fucking stupid.”
I huffed out a tortured laugh. Because she wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t think I’d trade them for anything
now. “Too late. I love them.”
She sighed in a very put upon way. “Damn.” She pulled up a chair and sat right beside me, grabbing my hand and threading her fingers through mine. “Nice girls always finish last.”
41
Sammie
There were a dozen people on the lawn, and Bobby paced back and forth like he wanted to claw at them all. I understood his frustration, because I felt it too. Flint was out there, probably getting beaten within an inch of his life for his defiance. I’d sugarcoated it for Mouse, but what they’d done to that kid had been horrendous. There wasn’t an inch of his body that wasn’t bruised, like they’d thrown him from the car.
If I met Rook and his buddies, I was going to send them straight to Hell where they belonged. But the team on the lawn were talking extraction, reconnaissance, and I knew the longer that Flint was there, the worse he would be when we got him back.
Bobby knew it too. He stepped up to Micah, running his hands through his hair. “We are going out to look, see if we can’t pick up anything through our bond.” What a fucking lie, we weren’t bonded, which was something I knew Bobby regretted right now.
Micah eyed him. “You find them, you call us. You don’t do anything stupid.”
Nodding, Bobby started running toward the car. I stared at Micah, but I didn’t want to lie to him too. We all knew that if we found them, we were getting our Packmate back as soon as possible.
We roared out of the gates of the Academy, driving south. We were silent in the cab. “What if he kills him as an example?”
Bobby looked at me, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel. “This is a lot of effort to go to just to kill him.” He shook his head. “No, he’ll try and break him first. But that’s okay because we are going to get him back before that happens.”
I had options, but they came with permanent consequences. I was keeping them in reserve. Bobby’s phone rang, and he picked it up. He stared at the screen, looking at me. “It says it's Enit, but she’s…” He fumbled the phone answering, putting it on loudspeaker. “Monster?”
“I followed Flint.”
Relief made my stomach turn. “Do you know where he is?”
There was a murmur on the other end of the line. “Lucius says we are at a warehouse on the corner of First and East Preston Street, near the park where Mouse threw up after eating too much cotton candy. He said Bobby will know where that is.”
Bobby nodded. “I know it. Monster?”
“Yeah?”
“Make them hurt.”
The growl that came down the line sent chills down my spine. “He is already dead, he just doesn’t know it yet.”
There was a laugh from close by, and it wasn’t even a little human. When I looked at Bobby, his grin was savage. The line went dead, and Bobby put his foot to the floor, speeding us off into the night.
Rook was as good as dead. I would set fire to his corpse and make sure he went to the very depths of Hell where he belonged.
We were silent all of the way there, each of us lost in our thoughts. Bobby drove with reflexes that weren’t even a little bit human, and the car took the corners way too fast, but I didn’t tell him to slow down. I wished we could go faster.
An eternity later, Bobby was slowing and pulling into a side street. We climbed out, and I pulled my gun. I looked around, too aware of the shadows. Bobby shed his clothes and transformed into a fucking leopard.
“Holy shit, dude,” I hissed, suddenly thankful for those shadows. “How the hell do I explain a leopard at midnight?”
Leopard Bobby just chuffed, slinking into the shadows and blending perfectly. Well, fair enough then. I grabbed my phone, putting it on silent, and shooting Micah a text with our location. I moved toward Bobby, stretching my senses for anything that shouldn’t be there. But in the end, I was just human, so I relied on the actual supernatural creature with the jungle hearing.
I wished I had the rest of Damnation with me. Cara had suggested we call in our dads. If it wouldn’t have taken them too long to get here, I would have called them in a second to get Flint back. But something in me told me he didn’t have twenty-four hours.
We got to the back of a warehouse and it had metal stairs that led up to a door. Bobby chuffed again, bounding up the stairs three at a time. When we got to the landing, the door was locked and bolted with a padlock.
“Score one for the human with the opposable thumbs,” I whispered, and the leopard gave me a droll look. I was worried when there were no guards at the back door, but it was locked so I guess that was a deterrent if you hadn’t been picking locks since you were eight. I grabbed my kit and picked the padlock on the outside and then the deadbolt. It was slow work, and the leopard swirling around my legs only made it worse.
But eventually, the deadlock popped, and I stuffed my picks back into my pocket and pulled my gun. It had a silencer attached to the end, making it nearly as long as my forearm. I pushed the door open, my gun in front of me. I was in a hallway, and either there was no power or the lights were out. Fuck, I was blind in here.
But Bobby wasn’t. We moved slowly through what I assumed were offices, but they were all empty and quiet. I’d have loved some night vision goggles right about now, but I had to hope that this end was just abandoned. We made it out onto a metal walkway. There were stairs that went directly down into more darkness, or a door at the end of the walkway. I stilled as I heard screams from behind the door.
That way it was. We crept along, each creak of metal under our weight had me holding my breath, but this half of the warehouse seemed abandoned.
I reached the doorway, and light trickled underneath it. I lifted my gun, and pushed it open. A man whirled, his gun raised, but I shot him between the eyes before he could raise the alarm. Leopard Bobby looked up at me and snarled, and I shrugged. “Bullet is quicker than a giant pussy. It's just science, man. Don’t take it personally.”
He huffed and prowled forward. This side of the door was a mirror of the abandoned warehouse. There were offices, but these ones weren’t empty. They were filled with kids.
“What the actual fuck?”
There were dozens, way more than Flint said. They all looked terrified and dirty. What the fuck do we do? “Bobby, we can’t leave them here.”
Bobby shifted back to human, his eyes taking in all of the children. They seemed to be bunched by age, some as young as four or five, or maybe they were just emaciated. Every single one of them was filthy.
I was at war with myself. I needed to get to Flint, but if I rescued Flint and these guys got taken in exchange, Flint wouldn’t forgive me, and I wouldn’t forgive myself either. “Let’s take them out through the warehouse and down to the truck. Then we’ll take them, fuck! I don’t know where. We can’t just drop them somewhere and come back for them.”
I opened the door to one of the rooms, and looked at a bunch of maybe eight-year-olds? No, younger. “Come on, we are here to rescue you.”
They all shrank away from me. I made a grab for one of the little ones. A tiny ball of black fur ran at me, launching an attack with claws and teeth. It landed a good bite on my shoulder, before Bobby was there, pulling it off.
“Calm,” he growled, and the kitten went limp. It couldn’t have been much bigger than a puppy. All the rest looked at me with big eyes. “We aren’t here to hurt you, I promise. We can take you somewhere safe, where you’ll never be hurt again.”
Their eyes were so haunted and hopeful, and it broke my heart. Then one stepped forward, a little kid with copper hair and huge green eyes. Then another, and another and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Then there was a roar from on the factory floor below and every single one of the kids froze in terror. Shit. Shit fuck shit. There were too many to carry out. I looked at Bobby. “Can you use your Alpha mojo to make them move?”
He shook his head. “Only on the shifters. If any of them are Djinn or any other kind of supe, my call will be useless.”
I looked dow
n at the kid, and then at Bobby. “Do you trust me?”
Bobby frowned, still holding the kitten in his hands. “With the life of my mate. Why?”
I squatted down in front of the kid with the bright green eyes. “What’s your name?”
He looked at me silently and I could see him gathering his courage. “Sean.”
“Okay, Sean, I need you to do something for me. When I leave this room, I need you to say ‘Lucifer, I want to make a deal,’ okay? But you really need to mean it. Put all your intention behind it. You can save all your friends, if you mean it enough. Do you think you can do that?” Sean nodded, and I smiled, squeezing his shoulder. “Good stuff. Now one or two people will appear, and they’ll look scary, but they are really big softies. They’ll take you out of here and they won’t rest until every single one of you is happy.”
Sean nodded, and I stood. “Okay, Sean. You’re up.” I looked at Bobby, moving toward the door at the end of the end of the hall that must lead down to the warehouse floor. “Let’s go.”
Bobby looked back at the kids, and I saw him weighing up if I was crazy or not. I pushed open the door, and it was empty on the other side as well. Whatever was going on down on the warehouse floor must be epic. Bobby stepped out after me, and I shut the door.
I paused, waiting. “Come on, Sean,” I whispered.
“Lucifer, I want to make a deal,” he said in a loud, clear voice. I felt the drop in temperature, and heard surprised screams from the kids.
Then I heard a dark chuckle. “Well played, Sammie. Well played.”
I grinned and moved down the stairs. Bobby looked between me and the door. His eyes were wide. “You going to explain that?”
I shrugged. “My parents are the Four Horsemen. Let’s just say, I know a few tricks when it comes to Hell and the Devil himself.” He just stared. “I’ll explain later. Let’s go save our packmate.”
42
Rebels and Runaways: Eden Academy Book One Page 26
