People claimed several spots as their own with cardboard boxes or tarps separating the little dwellings. Most ignored them. Some glanced at her and Nik then went back to minding their own business.
Shadow cut Nik another furtive look—and gaped.
Next to her plodded a gaunt man with hunched shoulders, as if life had failed him repeatedly. Even his tatts had disappeared. He radiated the downtrodden.
She stumbled to a halt. “What did you do to yourself?”
“Fitting in.” He cut her a sideways look.
So, he could obviously transform his physical appearance but not those ice-green eyes. They revealed the core of who he was—the sheer coldness and absolute ruthlessness that honed him. No wonder he kept his head lowered.
Raucous male laughter reached them, along with the acrid stench of weed.
“Hey, Shade,” Russ, of the stained teeth, called out from the crate he occupied near a small fire in a sawed-off drum with a few of his equally weed-happy cronies. The miasma of pungent smoke crowding the stale air made her throat itch.
He flashed her a yellowed smile from a pallid, bony face. “You ever get tired of the old fart you bang and want a real man…” He spread his thighs and grabbed his crotch, shaking his wilted noodle. “I’m right here.”
Same crap whenever she came across him.
A low growl erupted at her side. She grabbed Nik’s shirt, keeping him back. “Not in any of my lifetimes,” she snapped at Russ. “Because I will kill you in every one of them if you ever come near me.” Then she hissed at Nik. “You want to blow your cover? I don’t need protection from these people. They’re all yap, nothing more.”
“Don’t let Eddi catch you sneaking in your latest fuck,” Russ yelled again.
Shadow ignored him and continued walking.
“Who’s Eddi?” Nik asked as they took another turn into darkness and away from The Refuge, stepping over old sidings and rusty pipes.
“None of your business.”
“So, he’s a heavyweight. That’s why they leave you alone.”
“All you’ve seen so far is the homeless refuge,” she said, ignoring his comment. “And that’s out of the way. I can’t show you Rough’s hideout just yet. His goons will be all over the place. Early morning’s your best bet.” She slowed at an area littered with debris and chunks of broken concrete. “Find yourself a space and claim it as home.”
“That’s not how this works,” he said, still in the hunched, haggard persona. “I will be with you for the duration I’m here.”
“Hell, no. I’ll meet you out here in the morning.”
“Not happening. Where’s your…base?”
Damn annoying immortal. Mouth tight, Shadow stormed around the corner, climbed over the broken wall and pile of bricks, and slipped through the jagged hole, heading toward her basement. She pulled out a rusty key from her jacket pocket and worked the heavy lock, but the darn thing had jammed again.
Nik brushed her hands aside. With a wave of his, the lock snapped open, and the heavy steel barricade door creaked ajar as if it weighed nothing more than plastic.
Biting back a snort, Shadow stepped into the darkness and threw over her shoulder, “Just make sure to…”
Yup. He’d already locked the door and was now studying the interior, back in his natural appearance. All big, muscly, and oozing sex appeal and peril. And every atom of estrogen she possessed perked up. Stupid libido.
Sheesh, in this cordoned-off basement, he took up even more space, sucking up all the dank air, making her far too aware of him.
So, he could see in the dark, too? Awesome.
Pivoting and trying to get her mind and body under control, she lit a half-burned candle on the old dinged-up filing cabinet. The small flame cast a flickering light, revealing everything.
The place was a craphole, but it was dry and safe. Eddi had made some changes like the partitioning of the area for her privacy.
She arched an eyebrow as Nik studied the watermarked ceiling, moldy brick walls, and the rusty metal sheet separating her side from Eddi’s, probably counting the cobwebs. His attention finally lowered to where she slept.
What, her crate-bed wasn’t good enough for him?
“Sorry if it’s not fitting for your highness’ idea of comfort. You chose to follow me here.”
His gaze met hers, then he slowly prowled closer.
Shadow had to dig her toes in her boots not to take a step back.
“I don’t need comfort, as long as I’m here. Yes, wherever you go, I’ll follow…” He stopped mere inches away, close enough that his scent curled around her. Leaning in, his voice dropped to a husky, menacing whisper that made her wariness hike, and her bones melt. “There’s no escaping me, Shadow. Not now.”
Chapter 4
Satisfied he’d left her speechless for once, Nik glanced around the place. It must have been a storage basement at some point.
The candle she lit flickered, casting a dim light over the old mattress set on several crates pushed together. The thing created a dais for the bed, probably to keep the rats from scurrying over her.
He had no idea why she lived like this. She appeared intelligent, could fight like a badass, and spoke well enough when she wasn’t cussing at him. Yeah, he picked up on her light psychic vibe, it was probably how she detected demons, otherworldly beings…and him. He frowned at that.
“Seen enough, or do you need more time?” she drawled, seeming to have recovered. “There’s no bed for you.”
He cast her an amused glance, fascinated by those unusual eyes lined and shaded with black make-up again. “Didn’t ask for one.”
Scowling, she shoved her fingers into her jacket pockets. Nik half expected a dagger to come flying his way, but she marched to the wall and dropped some white bits on the floor.
“Shadow?” A knock rumbled on the metal sheet dividing the basement. “Can I enter?”
At the gruff male voice, Nik stilled. The gang leader? A female who looked like her would be arm candy for the dumb mofo. And he couldn’t give her a better hole to live in?
“Do your magic trick and hide or something,” she hissed at him.
Nik raised an eyebrow at her demand. But he regressed into his glamor of the downtrodden persona he’d assumed earlier. Pointless in stirring up shit when he still had to find out what happened to the missing kids and women.
“We’re together now,” he took pleasure in reminding her, and in the predictable scowl contorting her striking face.
“Shadow?” the human called out, agitation clear in his voice.
“Come on in, Eddi.”
Nik stepped back as the metal sheet dragged away, forming an entrance and revealing a middle-aged, wiry man. Sparse iron-gray hair had receded to the back of his head, and deep lines etched his dark forehead, with finer ones at the corners of worried brown eyes.
Godsdamn female. This was her shield of protection?
A metal sheet and an old man?
After a fleeting glance at the human, Nik lowered his gaze to his old combat boots. The sounds of scuttling drew his attention. A rat inched its way along the wall and attacked the crumbs she’d tossed there.
“Hey, Eddi? What’s up?” she asked in a cheerful tone.
Nik watched them from beneath lowered eyelids.
The old man handed her a plastic container. “Saved you some food. Eat,” he said, cutting Nik a flinty stare. “So, Russ was quite eager to inform me that I had lost out to some slimeball loser. You know you can’t bring anyone here, Shady.”
“Russ is an ass.” She shot him another scowl before setting the food on the cabinet. “And he’s okay. Just an, er, lost soul who needs direction.”
Dickhead was more likely what she wanted to say. Or wet dick. But he doubted she’d ever use that tag again after his taunting comeback.
“He cannot stay, lass. If I allow this, it will draw notice to us.”
“It’s only for a little while,” Nik said, adding
a compulsion to his tone for the man’s agreement. “I’ll find another place in a day or two.”
The old man stared at him blankly, then nodded. “I’m Eddi. I look after this little one.”
About to say he will, too, Nik remembered his frail persona just in time and shut it.
Eddi pivoted to leave, and Nik let the compulsion fall. Eddi stopped, blinked, and shook his head. “I have a mattress. Maybe you’d like to use it?”
Shadow finally dropped her backpack on the bed, folded her arms, and glared.
For him to say no? So, Nik nodded.
Her mouth thinned, making him want to smile.
“Good.” Eddi grinned, revealing nicotine-stained teeth. “But it’ll cost ya.”
“I don’t have much…” Nik stuck to his role, putting his hands into his jeans pocket and pulling out one of the three ten-dollar bills he usually carried. “Will this do?”
“Your boots would have been better,” Eddi retorted, “but I’m not in the mood to fight off those who’d want ‘em.” He pocketed the money and disappeared to his side of the basement, then reappeared a moment later with a thin, stained, foam mattress, tossing it at Nik’s feet before sliding the metal sheet back in place.
“Shady?” Eddi rapped his side of the metal, causing the thing to rumble like thunder rolling in the distance. “You need me, holler.”
“You can count on it.” She wheeled away, picked up a black tennis shoe lying under the crate, and it came flying at Nik’s head. Only his quick reflexes saved his face from a hard thump.
“How dare you play with his mind?” she hissed, the claret specks in her eyes flaring in anger.
“It saves time.” He resumed his normal form and glanced at the dingy mattress. Yeah, no, he’d rather lie on the dirt-crusted floor.
Feet shuffled beyond the metal sheet, a door shut, then the footsteps receded. The old man had left.
“Give me a description of the gang leaders,” Nik said. Time to get to work, find those pricks ASAP, before this female became another statistic.
Her delicate features hardened. “Rough’s about six-foot, skull-trimmed black hair. Deeply tanned…” Her gaze skated over his forearms and biceps. “And inked to his eyeballs, too. Acts like he owns the world.”
Nik ignored her goading, strolled to her, and handed her the footwear. “He makes his rounds in The Refuge and these parts?”
“In this filth?” She gave a feminine snort. “He wouldn’t be caught dead here. He has his goons policing the area, even though this isn’t part of his kingdom.”
“And the other leader?”
She shrugged. “Don’t know, never met the jerk.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why so interested in them?”
Nik didn’t sense any falsehood in her response. He shrugged. She might as well know the truth. “Someone’s been abducting homeless children and women and taking them to the Dark Realm—to the demon world.”
Her striking eyes widened. “Oh, dear Lord, Tomas,” she whispered. “He’s a homeless boy. Demons snatched him from right in front of me several months ago. Well, he’d run off after I’d taken him to The Shelter. I gave chase, and that’s when they appeared and grabbed him.”
“He’s safe. Týr, another Guardian, found him,” Nik reassured her.
She nodded, gnawing her lower lip, making Nik want to take over, taste her mouth—hell, he shut off the thought. She suddenly stilled, her gaze rushing to the door at the distant thudding of footfalls.
So, she possessed heightened hearing, too?
What else could she do besides fight demoniis like a pro, parkour like an ace, and knee him in the balls?
Nik watched as she paced back and forth in front of her makeshift bed for a few seconds, then he strolled to the door and halted in front of it.
“Who taught you how to scale drainpipes?”
“Halen, Eddi’s demon partner. Said it was safer to be up on a building, staking out prey, than on the ground.” Her gaze flickered back to the door. “He was killed a few years ago.”
Of course. It had to be through him she learned about the Guardians.
“Did he also teach you how to fight like hell?”
“No, that was Eddi.”
That she answered him without a scathing look or sarcastic comment meant whoever approached scared her. A wave of protectiveness rushed through Nik, making him want to kill the bastards. “Why live here in the underground?” he asked her.
A shrug. “When one doesn’t have any other place, this is as good as it gets.”
Nik frowned at her response.
The heavy pounding on the metal had Shadow stiffening and his sensitive eardrums rebelling. Damn fuckers. Nik scanned outside. Two humans.
“Time’s up,” a voice yelled. “We know the old man’s gone.”
Shadow retrieved the stolen wallet from her jacket pocket, removed the bills, then got out a few more from her backpack. The hammering reverberated harder, and she jumped, making Nik want to break the idiot’s hand.
“Stay out of sight,” she told him, marching across.
“Are these thugs close to the leader?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.”
Nik took on his shadowy form, becoming one with the gloom.
“Jeez, you’re scary as hell,” she muttered before yanking the door open, revealing the two goons.
The bald, thickset one with tattooed cheekbones smirked. His leather jacket stretched across his shoulders as if would burst its seams. The ponytailed, scrawny dick next to him sported piercings on his ears, lip, and a spider-bite on his eyebrow. He stroked the hilt of his switchblade sheathed to his belt under his gaping, too-large coat.
Did the Arc seriously think he looked like these dumbasses because of his ink?
“Please say you don’t have it.” Tattooed cheeks grinned. “Rough waits to play with you, and we get a turn, too.” He waggled his tongue as if licking her, his gaze skating down her body.
Nik wanted to yank the organ out and feed it to him.
Harm no human, his Guardian oath reverberated in his skull. Too bad, he cared little when it came to shits like them. And this one moved to the top of his hurt-list.
Shadow slapped the money in the thug’s heavily beringed hand. He counted. “You’re short.”
“I still have a few days. Now get out!”
“I’ll be back, bitch. Count on it.”
She slammed the door and paced the five steps to the metal sheet, her fingers clenching and unclenching. She swiped them down her short skirt.
“I could take care of them—”
“No.” She stomped back again in those heels, dragging her fingers through her heavy fall of hair.
“What was the money for?” Oh, he had a good idea but waited to see if she’d share.
“Rough and his assholes think they own everything underground, and that’s payment for rent.”
“They take money from everyone here?”
“No, just Eddi and me, ‘cause this basement supposedly abuts his territory. I’m going out. I have to find Joyce.” She cut him a terse look, her pale features strained. “Lock up with your voodoo magic when you leave. I don’t want my things missing.” She grabbed her keys and stalked out.
The urge to follow her took hold, but he had a direct link to the gang leader he was after.
Nik locked up and dematerialized in a scatter of molecules. He coasted a short distance behind Shadow as she stormed along the debris-littered ground. Moments later, she stalked into the gloomy Refuge, appearing too ethereal to belong in a doomed place like this.
“Joyce!” She hurried toward a young female with brown skin and black, springy hair, holding a little boy. “I’ve been looking for you.” Her voice lowered. “Rough has his goons looking for you. Go to The Shelter, please. It’s safer.”
“I don’t have much choice, do I?” the woman whispered, clutching her young close, her fear abrading Nik like a steel brush.
“Hey, you’re not alone. I’m here
for you…”
Yeah, the little fighter would be.
Nik coasted past them, tracking the stink of unwashed bodies beneath the cheap cologne of the two who demanded payment from Shadow.
Several turns later, the two slowed in an open area where gang members of both genders hung about, some seated on old armchairs and crates, others making out in dark recesses. Skinny dick rapped on a graffitied metal door. It opened a moment later, revealing a beefy skinhead demon. He tensed as if sensing Nik, dark eyes flashing red as he rapidly scanned around.
As if he were so easy to spot.
Nik followed the thugs into a cavernous, smoke-filled domain of what must have once been a part of the abandoned subway station.
A human and a demon worked a large desk, counting stacks of banknotes. At another massive, wooden table, more thugs labored, weighing and packaging white powder. Drugs. On the opposite side, near the wall, a lean human with dark hair slicked back from an angular bronze face sprawled in an armchair, watching over his kingdom.
Covered in leathers, he slowly rose to his feet with an affable smile.
Everyone went motionless, the acrid stench of fear chafing Nik like claws.
This Rough or whatever the fuck he called himself appeared as if a puff of air would tip him over. Black tattoos ran up his neck to his jaw. Brown eyes hardened, fixing on the two Nik had been tailing. “Why don’t I see her?”
“We c-couldn’t, boss,” tattooed cheeks stuttered, the malevolence he’d used to terrorize Shadow gone, leaving behind a quivering lump of shit. “She paid almost the full amount.”
Rough’s fingers fisted, more ink on them. “You idiots! I want her, get it? It’s why I hiked her rent. Stop her from getting money. Steal it from her if you have to. I want her here.”
“But Eddi—”
“Get the bitch, you fucking maggots!”
“Y-yes, boss.” They both scurried off like rats.
Nik mind-linked with Dagan. Need you to do a mind sweep.
Shattered Dawn (Fallen Guardians Book 5) Page 5
