“Yeah.” Aethan’s mouth thinned as he flipped a dagger. “Close to the coordinates you gave us. Some casualties.”
Frowning, Nik propped a palm up on the doorjamb and swiped his sweaty face on the sleeve of his damp tee. He hadn’t seen any signs of dissension while there, but who the hell knew with those hoods running the gangs. At least Shadow was out of there, but anger roiled deep in his belly that she’d gotten hurt by some demon scourge.
“We located the portal entry point the horde used. No tears in the mystical veils between realms, so someone must have opened that gateway for them,” Aethan said. “But a short distance away, we found this.” He pitched the dagger over.
Nik caught it midair then ran a finger over the deadly edge of the iron blade—a demon-killing weapon with a leather-wrapped hilt. Frowning at the oddity of the grip, he sniffed the metal, and his gut tensed. Amidst the cloying sulfur on it, a faint floral scent teased his nose. “It’s Shadow’s dagger. She must have dropped it when those fuckers grabbed her.”
“There’s something else,” Blaéz said. “We found a body some distance away from the gang fights. The human took a blow to the head and sported several stab wounds. He carried a scent similar to the blade.” He nodded to the weapon Nik held.
“Description,” he demanded, his gaze pinned on the Celt, heart banging inside his chest.
“Here…” Blaéz pulled out his cell and showed him the picture.
One glance at the dark skin man with cropped gray hair and receding hairline, Nik shut his eyes. Fuck. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know him. Eddi. He keeps—kept the people of The Refuge safe from demons and watched out for Shadow.” He looked up, dark anger whipping through him. “Anything else?”
“Just fading images when I touched him,” Dagan added quietly, his yellow eyes held concern. “He’d been tracking two males. Demons or humans, I’m not sure, but they were dragging a female with them.”
“So the bastards are hunting underground for their fucking abductions,” Týr bit out, expression pissed-off. “Away from our detection.”
Nik stood there, barely hearing them, staring at the dagger in his hand. How the hell did he break the tragic news to Shadow that the man she thought of as her friend—maybe even a father—was dead?
He couldn’t.
Not now, not while she was ill. He wouldn’t put it past her to take off, wanting to avenge Eddi, which would be understandable, but she’d make herself a target for the fucker who’d marked her.
Bright light and a parched throat dragged Shadow to consciousness. Lethargy swamped her, leaving her feeling as if she’d swam through a bog. Everything hurt inside her, even though whatever she laid on cocooned her in incredible warmth and comfort. No poky springs. No hint of the usual darkness or musty air in her chilly basement.
Bright light?
Frowning, Shadow squinted. Late noon sunlight poured through the windows.
She jackknifed up and winced, pain gripping her chest in a crushing force, and it all came surging back. The demons abducting her, Tolvi hurting her—
Eddi! She had to warn him and get to the garage to alert Nate.
Shoving the covers aside, she stumbled out of bed. Her head spun, her knees caved, and she dropped back onto the mattress. Ugh. She rubbed her fuzzy head and blinked at the overlong white t-shirt bunched around her upper thighs.
“Need help?”
Her head snapped up, her gaze clashing with the pale stare of the man sprawled in the armchair near the window. Crap. With all that brightness, no wonder she hadn’t noticed him.
She shook her head. “I have to go—”
“Where?” Nik rose from the chair and strolled near, his face all hard angles and coiled violence. Cognizance prickled through her, the pull of him so intense she hastily dropped her focus to the gray t-shirt he wore, the soft fabric stretching over his muscular chest, revealing his powerful inked arms and strong neck. Did those tatts cover his torso, too?
“Very well.” He stopped a foot from her. “Go on, then. Walk out.”
And that snapped her out of her foolish thoughts. “You’re impossible.”
“You collapsed in my arms, Starshine. So, it’s my call. You stay in bed.”
Frustrated at him taking over her life, Shadow shoved up from the mattress and swayed. Oh, man—
Strong arms swept her off her feet before she face-planted, and she groaned, her achy head not appreciating the sudden movement. Her gaze settled on the snakehead with the macabre smirk inked on his neck when she realized he was walking, with her in his arms. “What are you doing?” she gasped, then gaped as a white door adjacent to the bed magically opened.
“You need the bathroom, and I’m helping you.”
Oh, Lord. Why? Heat seared her face. “No, put me down!”
“You’ve been feverish and asleep for almost eighteen hours. Of course, you do.”
Nik entered a spacious, elegant cream and bottle-green bathroom and lowered her to her feet. She wobbled and grabbed his arm, trying not to inhale his warm, masculine scent that always turned her mind and bones to mush.
When she didn’t feel as if she would collapse at his feet and could stand on her own, she stepped back. He folded his arms over his chest and waited. Really?
Most would doubtless be scared of his hard stare. Her mouth just ran off. “Jeez, I’m not using the darn thing with you watching. Go away.”
“Since you asked so nicely…” He strolled out, shutting the door behind him.
Infuriating immortal.
Rubbing her burning cheeks, Shadow made her way across the marbled floor. Facilities used, she trudged to the sink. Ignoring her woefully uninspiring reflection in the mirror above, because she couldn’t wave a magic wand and get rid of her wan complexion and sunken eyes, she turned on the faucet.
After a quick wash, she wiped her face with a fluffy white towel then stopped short. Her chest ached way less than it had eighteen hours ago… Hastily, she dropped the towel on the counter and lifted the borrowed t-shirt. Someone had patched her up. Carefully, she eased the tape from one side of her gauzed-covered injury and winced at the sight of the slow-healing lesion. A rush of dizziness swept through her, and she grabbed the counter edge.
When her head didn’t feel as if it would spin off her neck, with shaky hands, she retaped the gauze. Frowning, she pressed the bunched-up shirt to her nose. A faint trace of detergent along with a stomach-curling scent of stormy nights, cedar, and a hint of leather teased her senses. Nik.
Did he put his shirt on her?
Heat flooded her face, and she hurriedly blocked her naked breasts with her arm, which was stupid, considering he’d already seen her boobs. Hopefully, he thought the nodes were body jewelry. Most did so anyway if they ever caught a glimpse of them.
A knock sounded. “Shadow?”
“Give me a minute,” she grumbled. But knowing he waited in the bedroom, her tummy flipped. Man, she wished she didn’t feel this knee-jerk reaction to him every time she saw him. Not only was her attraction pointless, considering what she was, but he didn’t appear affected at all by their too-brief, albeit scorching kiss.
You started it, or he would have never kissed you.
Gah, stupid conscience. Well, she could be mature about this. She simply wouldn’t mention the t-shirt. Or that he saw her boobs. There.
She trudged like a snail to the door—wooziness and her trembling body refusing to cooperate with the purposeful saunter she would have given a kidney to accomplish—and opened it.
Nik turned from the window, his stare going down her body to her bare thighs and back up again. And wouldn’t you know it, her faithless body lit up.
On shaky legs that had nothing to do with being hurt, she lurched over to the bed and collapsed onto the mattress like the invalid she was, breaking her fall with her elbows.
He flashed to her side, reaching out to help her up. “You okay?
She glared at his outstretched palm. Touch him
when she was already so aware of him? Yeah, no.
She pushed up under her own anemic steam and sat. “You’re gonna give me a heart attack with your Casper impersonation, popping up right in front of me,” she grumbled, brushing away the hand he placed on her brow.
“Casper?”
“A cartoon ghost. Never mind.” She smoothed her t-shirt over her thighs.
Shaking his head, Nik crossed to the dresser. Glasses tinkled, then he returned, a tumbler with brownish-green liquid in his hand.
She eyed the goop suspiciously. “What is that?”
“It will aid you.” His stare slowly glided over her face like a caress, and all her nerve endings perked to attention. Boy, oh, boy. “Your temperature’s still high.”
That’s because of the way you look at me.
She hurriedly took the glass and gulped down the thick liquid. “Holy mother—” She choked and coughed, the awful-tasting goo sticking in her throat.
He rubbed her back.
Ugh, how would that help? Now she couldn’t breathe with him so close.
Chest heaving, eyes watering, she shoved the crystal at Nik. “What the heck is this? It tastes like tar.”
One corner of his mouth quirked, revealing a single, masculine dimple slashing deep into his left cheek, making her want to reach out and trace it…with her lips. At the devastatingly gorgeous immortal in front of her, her heart tripped painfully in her chest.
Figured it would take something that made her utterly miserable for him to smile.
“It’s a potion to mend injuries like those on your sternum,” he explained, his mirth fading. “The demon marked you to make locating you easy. So, finish the potion, get that wound to heal faster, and the bull’s-eye off you. It’ll take a few days.”
Tolvi had marked her?
Of course, he had. Damn demon.
Well, then she would stay away from the garage, but she had to warn Nate. And Eddi.
Shadow forced herself to drink the rest of the foul potion and grimaced.
Nik took the glass from her, then he nodded to her chest. “How did the wound happen?”
Fear tightened her throat, just remembering. “I don’t know. Everything happened so fast when they grabbed me.” But guilt twisted her insides for not revealing the entire truth. “All I did was pray…” Pray? Right. Like those were ever answered. “Then they let me go. I guess it’s because they knew they could find me.”
“I should have made sure you were protected, instead of taking on those damn demons—”
“Hey, no need for the blame game. They had to be killed. Or too many innocents would have died. I’m just one person—”
“You value your life so little?” he demanded, staring down at her, eyes like green ice. “Those fuckers would have hauled you straight to the Dark Realm.”
“Since when have the homeless ever been important to anyone?” she countered, watching the nerve pulsing on his jaw. “Naturally, we are more expendable.”
His lips thinned, and he prowled to the window as if trying to remain calm, then pivoted. “Those nodes on your chest?”
And there it was.
She brushed her tangled hair away from her face and had to force out words of an attack that still haunted her. “Blood demons attacked me a few years ago. I-I was dying. To save me, I was given blood. The nodes appeared soon after.”
He paced back to the foot of the bed, eyebrows tipping together. “Otherworldly blood?”
Darn, he was persistent.
“How would I know?” She slid her legs on the bed and leaned against the headboard, pulling the covers over her bare thighs. “I was unconscious. When I came to, I was in too much pain to care.” Hell, she’d been so hungry, with no idea why, and she’d attacked Nate. Her stomach heaved at the memory. “Besides, I don’t think us humans would be compatible with something like sharing blood with Otherworldly beings.”
Their saliva can heal you. Recalling him licking the wound on her breast, heat flooded her face, making her warm and twitchy. She wanted to press her thighs together. Nope, not with him watching her like a hawk, as if he could see into her soul for the truth. Shadow drew her knees up.
“No. It has to be Otherworldly…” His brow creased as if trying to work a puzzle, but he didn’t have all the pieces. “If blood demons left you dying, you would be dead. Human plasma wouldn’t save you. It has to be a powerful demon or an angel to counter that effect.”
Crap. He was determined to dig out the truth.
“So what if a demon gave me blood?” she retorted. “He saved me. And not all demons are evil.”
Nik ignored her outburst and said, “Nate.”
Her mouth dropped open, feeling as if she’d been shoved off a cliff. She’d never revealed Nate’s or Aba’s identity to anyone. Not even Eddi. He only knew she’d lost her memories. “H-how do you know his name?”
His gaze swept over her face, lips lifting in a cold imitation of a smile. “You told me.”
She did? Darn. What else did she say while she was out of it?
Shadow tried to think back, but everything had been a feverish haze. Vaguely, she recalled Nik mopping her brow, then giving her water…she’d touched his face…his mouth…
I like your mouth. Oh hell.
She wanted to crawl under the bed.
“The demon won’t find you here even while wounded,” Nik said, pulling her back from her mortification. “The castle is warded against them, against all kinds of evil. And you know Kira, so you won’t feel alone here.”
He said this as if he wouldn’t be around.
She frowned. “Where will you be?”
“Out on patrol.” He paced back and forth at the end of her bed like some big, restless predator, then glanced at the window, revealing fading daylight. “We still hunt for the demons responsible for abducting the females and young and taking them to the Dark Realm.”
Shadow bit her lip in worry. “Don’t you think the Guardians should watch The Refuge, too, after the demon attack?” she asked. There. It wouldn’t have them trespassing near the hell-jerk, Tolvi’s domain, wherever that was, and the homeless would be safe.
“Already covered.” He rubbed his nape. Something she’d never seen him do…as if he were on edge. “I gotta go.”
“Are you okay?”
His flat stare shifted to her. “Yeah. I’m fine. Rest.” He strode out, the door shutting behind him.
Her spirit deflating, Shadow slumped against the pillows and took in the pretty room with its pale green carpets and elegant cream furniture—the same room she’d occupied five months ago. But everything seemed to be closing in on her.
Trapped here in this luxury, she felt lonelier than ever.
Nik seemed too distant, unlike the man who’d bulldozed his way into her basement. But during the brief time they spent there together, he made her feel alive, if she were honest.
A knock sounded.
The door opened, and a tall, curvy woman with spiral auburn hair strolled inside. Kira.
Their friendship had formed when they bumped into each other a few times at The Shelter last year, in their search for Tomas, a runaway street child. Then, early this year, she’d been grazed in the temple by a bullet in a gang fight and had lost consciousness. She woke up in this castle and had met Nik.
Kira crossed to the bed and gave her a quick once-over.
“Don’t worry, I still breathe,” Shadow said wryly.
“Don’t joke about what happened. I was terrified. You should leave that gang, Shadow—”
“I don’t live with any of those gangs,” she corrected, “but with my friend and mentor, Eddi, on the outskirts of the Hade’s Disciples territory.” She restlessly plucked the covers. “I had no idea Tolvi was a demon until he attacked me.”
“Damn scum. Don’t worry, hun, the guys will find him,” Kira said, straightening the covers then sitting on the bed. “When you’re well, please, would you reconsider staying at my old home? You won’t
be alone. Jaden—the Oracle who treated you—she lives there now. I’m really worried something bad will happen. You’ve already been hurt twice.”
Shadow had no idea what to tell Kira. Her entire life was a mess. With no memories of her past, and no longer able to live—to hide underground—with Tolvi on her backside, she had to find a new place. But not with the Oracle. She didn’t want to put another person in that demon cur’s path. “I’ll think about it.”
“Is there anything you need?” Kira asked.
“A shower.”
Her friend nodded and rose. “Can you manage to walk?”
“I’ll crawl if I have to.”
Kira laughed, revealing twin dimples in her striking, latte toned cheeks. “Okay. I’ll go get you something to wear. And after, if you’re up to some company, I’ll call the girls. They’re fun.”
Not knowing what else to say, Shadow nodded and pushed the covers aside, then she hesitated. She had to call Nate, and also leave a message for Eddi at The Shelter. It was the one place he’d check for her. “Can I borrow your cell? I don’t have mine.”
“Yeah, sure.” She dug out her phone from her jeans pocket and handed it over. “I’ll be back with clothes.”
Nik strode out of his quarters, dressed in his work gear. He headed for the grand staircase, the agitation within him escalating. Fuck, he needed to get back on the street. Find a demonii—find several—and just maybe an all-out fight would stop this restlessness, and he could reel in this urge to go after Shadow every single time she was within breathing distance.
Through the millennia, living with the constant ruckus of the insidious souls scraping and battering his mind, females were not even a thought. Then Shadow stumbled into his life, her chaos soothing his own turmoil—and one he desperately yearned for.
But at what cost?
Her life?
Shadow was mortal and wounded. If she got caught in his backlash, she would suffer a grotesque torture of her own bright soul being consumed by the dark ones.
No mortal would survive that shit, a lesson he’d learned the hard way.
Shattered Dawn (Fallen Guardians Book 5) Page 11
