Had I not been convinced that between Hawk and Jakob, no physical harm would come to Jules, I would have told her to go. I also truly believed that my love for her was stronger than my desire to rip her throat out and drain her blood. Just the thought made me shudder.
“We need to get started,” Hawk said, glancing at his phone.
I had less than two hours to find a way to control myself in the presence of blood or risk being outed to the clan. “So how do we do this?”
Jakob shook his head when Hawk walked toward the terrace door. “It’s better if we do it out here. Wouldn’t want to ruin the Turkish rug. Besides, we’ll have more room just in case a struggle breaks out.”
“Struggle?” Jules muttered under her breath.
Hawk held his hands out. “Let me see your arms.” He flipped them over and examined the veins running along her wrists before letting go of her right hand. “The left one is better.”
“Got any morphine to kill the pain?” She laughed nervously. “A little Xanax to take the edge off?”
Hawk smiled to put her at ease. “It won’t hurt. You’ll probably enjoy it.”
I groaned and closed my eyes. Jules and I would probably never look at each other the same way again.
“Oh, come on, Morgan. It’s not like we’re having sex.”
“It’s better,” Hawk muttered.
Before it could get any more uncomfortable, Jakob changed the subject. “I’m coming with you tonight. If the Caspians are hungry for Flyers—and bold enough—it could get dangerous out there.”
Samuel must have called him. “I appreciate that, Jakob, but I don’t need your protection.”
“It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s Ethan. He’s still months away from his majority and no match for a Caspian. You’ll have your hands full tonight, so someone has to keep an eye on him. Cabot and Rebecca are on their own.”
“Good luck convincing Cabot to let you join us. He thinks we’re all a bunch of traitors for jumping to Samuel’s side.” There was a mountain of animosity between them, so I doubted Cabot would ever welcome Jakob to hunt with the Circle again.
“Then why has he asked you?” It wasn’t really a question but a warning. “Be very careful tonight, Mora.”
“Don’t worry. I intend to be one of the living at the end of the night.” I’d been questioning Cabot’s motives myself since talking to Samuel earlier in the day. “And don’t worry about Ethan either. I’ll have his back.”
Impatient and ready to get it over with, I looked back at Jules. “You can still change your mind. I won’t hate you for it.”
Without hesitation, she held her wrist out. “Do it fast before I take you up on that.”
Hawk nodded to me, and I took her arm with both hands, cradling her wrist with one and her elbow with the other. My lips began to tingle as my fangs clicked into place. Then I struck. It was like pulling a Band-Aid off as fast as possible. I bit into her soft skin, waiting to see if she’d scream or flinch. She did neither, so I dug a little deeper.
She let out a soft moan, and Hawk caught her when her knees started to give out. “I didn’t know it would be like this,” she whispered as her eyes closed.
I got a flashback of Annie’s face the moment I bit into her at the blood den, something I hadn’t remembered until now.
“That’s enough,” Hawk said as I did exactly what I wasn’t supposed to do. “Let her go.”
The rush of her blood on my tongue was so powerful that my mind exploded in an array of colors that quickly lit up with that same bright light I remembered the night I drank from Annie. But then it all disappeared when Jakob bellowed in my ear. My hands fell from her arm as he pulled me away while Hawk stood in front of her to block me.
“I can’t!” I growled, desperate to feel her silky blood in my mouth again.
Hawk tried to stop her when she stepped to the side and held her bleeding arm out. “It’s me, Morgan! You’re hurting me!”
Her words were jolting. It was Jules standing in front of me, her eyes filled with shock and fear.
I shook my head frantically. “I won’t! I promise!”
The gnawing in my throat had turned into a lump I couldn’t possibly get anything past. Like a switch, my hunger disappeared. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to eat again. I felt sick.
“Morgan?” Hawk was looking at me sideways, suspicion oozing from his eyes.
I moved back when he took a step toward me, the short wall of the terrace stopping my retreat. “I have to go,” I said, lifting myself up to sit on the edge.
Jules screamed when I leaned back and started to fall, but by the time she made it to the wall and looked down, I was fading into the night sky. I was traveling.
Chapter 14
I’d been standing on the stones for nearly an hour, watching the park with a keen sight I’d never had before. Every insect that moved caught my eye, and it was beginning to annoy me that it was a quarter past ten and I hadn’t detected so much as a trace of an immortal presence in the park. No Flyers either. I figured the queen had taken my advice about hiding, or it was too late and they’d all had the life sucked out of them before I got here.
When I turned around to head back to the other side of the park near the Winterborne Building, I spotted someone standing behind a tree on the other side of the circle. “Who’s there?”
Rebecca stepped into the open and walked to the edge of the stones. “Taking a late-night stroll?” She looked me up and down, assessing my clothes. “You’re not dressed for a hunt, and where’s your seal?”
“I didn’t have time to change, and you’ll have to ask your husband about my seal. He took it from me. Remember?” That shut her up. “Where are the others?”
“They’re around.” She stepped into the circle and walked toward me, stopping on the center stone.
I looked at her feet. “I wouldn’t stand on that one if I were you.”
“Why?” she asked, glancing down.
A grin crossed my face. “No reason.”
Without further chitchat, I headed across the park, sensing her following me. It was probably unwise to keep her at my back, but my senses were suddenly fine-tuned like never before, and I had a feeling I’d detect an attack if she was bold enough to try it.
When I reached the west side of the park, Cabot was standing near the entrance, and he didn’t look happy. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Waiting for you at the queen’s stones.”
“The what?”
Well, what do you know? He wasn’t as intimately connected to the queen as I’d thought. “Nothing. Where are the others?” What I really wondered was if Jakob was joining us so I could find out if Jules was okay. My plunge over the wall must have given her a coronary, but I had to get out of there fast. Not because I didn’t trust myself around her blood, but because I was flooded with feelings that scared the hell out of me. I think I’d experienced my first panic attack.
Ethan and the twins appeared from the bushes before Cabot could answer.
Olivia motioned for me to follow her. “Have you heard from my father?”
“I spoke to him this afternoon. He has the tapes from the pawnshop next door to Foster’s shop, but he hasn’t looked at them yet.”
She was staring at me with a curious expression.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You look… different. Like you drank a case of Red Bull.”
I wouldn’t compare Jules’s blood to an energy drink, but I felt a whole lot different than I had when I drank from Annie the other night. I felt more alive than ever, and I was picking up on the slightest things, like Cabot bad-mouthing me under his breath to his wife twenty feet away.
“Let’s just say I had a little pick-me-up before I left the house.”
She had that I-know-what-you’ve-been-up-to look on her face. “Well, whatever it is, it’s working.”
“Have you seen Jakob?”
She shook her he
ad. “Not since this afternoon. Why?”
“I just thought he might join us tonight.”
A short laugh came out of her mouth. “Like hell Cabot’s letting him hunt with us after he found out he’s working with my father. The only reason he’s tolerating me and James is because he doesn’t want to get his ass killed with just his wife and Ethan backing him up.”
I shook my head. “What is it between those two?”
Cabot whistled, and we headed back toward the others. He glared at Olivia and then gave Rebecca an order. “Head over to the north end with Morgan.”
A laugh snorted out of me. “I’m taking Ethan with me.”
I could almost hear his teeth grinding as his jaw clenched. In fact, I know I heard it.
He kept his mouth shut and gave me a condescending smile before looking at James. “You and Olivia can cover the reservoir.”
Before anyone could move, the sound of rustling got our attention. The sky was suddenly filled with birds silently flocking over our heads. The soft glow of their eyes faded in and out as they landed in the surrounding trees, disappearing against the dark limbs.
“Flyers,” I said. “They’re signaling to us.” I glanced around the park, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. “They’re here.”
Ethan’s brow furrowed. “Who’s here?”
As Cabot turned toward me, I lunged for him and snatched a streak of glistening steel as it made a beeline for his neck. The blade sliced into my skin as I caught it, leaving a pool of blood in my palm. When I opened my hand to see the damage, a second knife came whirling through the air, this one aimed at Rebecca. It flew past her, grazing her neck before embedding into a nearby tree.
They were all gaping at me when I said, “That one was a warning.”
“How can you tell?” James asked with a curious inflection in his voice, still staring at the knife embedded in the tree.
“Because they missed.”
It was nearly impossible to kill an immortal, but just like a vampire, decapitation usually did the trick.
The look on Rebecca’s face was worth every bit of danger the night might bring. Maybe I wouldn’t have to watch my back quite as diligently after all because now she knew what I was capable of.
I wiped the knife on my pants and stuck it in my waistband. I hadn’t had time to grab my weapon before going over the side of the building, so it would come in handy.
“Like I said, they’re here.” I motioned for Ethan to follow me while the others headed to their positions. Tonight was all about surveillance, but since we just got confirmation that the Caspians were in the park, our mission had turned to protecting the Flyers. I had a feeling engagement was imminent, but at least Ethan was with me, so I could keep an eye on him.
“Damn, Morgan,” he said as we walked. “What are you?”
“I’m your sister, what do you think?” My paranoia was getting the best of me. “I’m also your queen, so shut up and follow me.”
He grabbed my arm and whipped me around. “I’m not so sure about that anymore. Throwing people against walls with the flick of a hand, catching knives in midair.” He shook his head. “And there’s something in your eyes.”
Here it comes, I thought. He’s seen the flicker in them. The one Jakob assured me no one would ever notice. “I can explain that.” Actually, I couldn’t.
“Your eyes have turned cold. It’s like you think you’re superior to the rest of us.”
Is that what he saw? “I’m the queen, Ethan. What do you expect? My powers are getting stronger, that’s all. What you’re seeing in my eyes is confidence.”
He stared at me for a few more seconds before nodding. “Good. It’s about time.”
As we continued toward Eighty-Sixth Street, a familiar voice spoke from the trees. It was so faint I wasn’t sure if I’d actually heard it.
“Come to the stones,” Spatza whispered. “Now!”
“Why? What’s happening?”
Ethan gave me a strange look. “Who are you talking to?”
Grabbing him by the sleeve, I turned around. “Come on. Something’s wrong.”
I ran across the park toward the Upper East Side, with my brother barely keeping up with me. Spatza’s tiny voice had sounded desperate, and I had a feeling our mission had failed.
When we got to the stones, the queen lay in the center with a flock of creatures gathered around her. All I could see were the long feathers that trailed from her head to her feet sticking out from the crowd.
Spatza emerged from the chaos and looked at me with grave eyes. “You were supposed to protect us.”
“Is she dead?”
“Not yet, but her essence is all but gone.”
The Flyers parted, and what lay in the circle before us looked like a half-deflated bag of feathers and bones. Her chest was moving up and down, but barely.
“You were supposed to be in hiding. What happened?”
“You came to the stones and stood at the center. The queen came to the surface to see what you wanted. That’s when he took her. He left her right back here in the center of the circle. It’s like he’s taunting us.”
“Fucking Rebecca,” I hissed under my breath. But I was just as guilty for not stopping her before she stood on the center stone. I hadn’t known it was the equivalent of knocking on the queen’s door. “Who took her? Did you see what he looked like?”
“It was the Reaper,” I heard Cabot say.
I turned around and saw him and the others standing behind me. “The Reaper? How do you know that?”
“Because I was close enough to look him in the eye a few minutes ago, but he vanished before I could touch him.”
“But the Reaper doesn’t—”
Olivia gave me a warning look that shut me up before I said something I’d regret. I had to remind myself that the clan didn’t know the Reaper, a.k.a. my father, was nothing but a legend. The terrifying part was that Cabot had seen Ryker, which meant he’d decided to resurface. Probably to come after me again.
“Doesn’t what?” Rebecca said.
Deciding it was better to ignore her than to come up with a convenient lie, I turned back to the Flyer queen and noticed her breathing had gotten worse. “What will happen to her?” I asked Spatza.
“We wait to see if the gods wish to take her.”
“And if they do?”
There was a brief sparkle in her eyes, and I noticed the gashes on her face were barely healed. I imagined she was conflicted between her loyalty and the relief she must have felt at the prospect of no longer suffering abuse from her queen. “Then we appoint a new one.”
“Just like that?”
“Grief is fleeting in our world.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Our survival lies in the hands of our queen, and right now she’s as good as dead.”
“How can we help?”
She gave me a submissive but sly smile. “You can’t. Now go and leave us to tend to our queen.”
“But they’re here. We can’t leave now.”
The Flyers who had swarmed the sky earlier suddenly flew from the trees and headed straight for the circle. We all stepped back, with me wondering if we’d be engulfed by a sea of talons and feathers, retribution for not protecting them. The center stone began to shift, and then it opened up and swallowed the queen. The Flyers stopped directly over the opening and one by one formed a funnel as they seemed to drain into the earth in a clockwise pull. When the last one was gone, Spatza gave me a look that reminded me of what Hawk had said the night we came here for the first time.
These aren’t cute little furry creatures like sparrows or squirrels.
“The vampires are gone for now,” she said, “but they’ll be back.” She disappeared into the hole just before the center stone moved back into place, sealing the Flyers into their world under the park.
Cabot and Rebecca where already gone when I turned around.
“They left?” I asked Ethan. “Just like that? We need to do better
than this.”
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it right now,” he said. “I’m out of here too. Anyone want to give me a ride?” Not quite immortal, he hadn’t mastered the art of traveling on his own yet.
James offered to get him home. “Anyone else need a ride?”
“I’ll walk.” I needed to clear my head. “Do you know if your father is back yet? I need to talk to him.”
Olivia glanced at her brother. “He might be.”
James let out a cynical laugh. “I wouldn’t count on it. You might as well wait until morning. He usually makes it home before our mother wakes up. That’s the arrangement.”
The confusion on my face prompted Olivia to change the subject. “We should go home and get some sleep.” She flashed me a mischievous grin. “Wouldn’t want to look haggard for the fundraiser.”
I squinted at her. “What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t my father tell you? You’re going to ask Avery’s boyfriend to add an extra guest to the list. I’m going with you to the Whitney tomorrow night. You’re going to need a pro to loosen up all those fat politicians.”
Before I could say anything about it, the three of them disappeared into the ether, and I was left to walk back alone, which was exactly the way I wanted it.
As I headed across the park, I heard something behind me. Or was it above me? The distinct feel of talons wrapping around my shoulder a few seconds later scared the hell out of me. The crow flew back into the air when I spun around and tried to smack it off my shoulder. Of course, I didn’t know it was the crow until I saw it hovering above me. Even then, I didn’t know if it was my crow.
Can I land, or will you attack me again?
Yep. It was my crow all right.
“You can’t just land on me without a warning. Unless you want to get yourself killed. I could have had a weapon in my hand.”
Then consider yourself warned. May I?
“You may.”
He settled on my shoulder again but inched farther away from my ear. It felt strange having him touch me. Not bad, just strange.
I’ve been thinking. You need me more than ever right now, so I’d like to spend more time with you. Stay close.
Savage Sons (House of Winterborne Book 2) Page 12
