Last One Standing: Dark Paranormal Tattoo Taboo Romance (The Chronicles of Kerrigan Book 11)

by W. J. May

  Beth’s eyes seemed to glow. “He makes me indescribably happy. I think he has for longer than I even realized…”

  A thousand things danced through Rae’s mind. A thousand different questions, and conflicts, and concerns. A thousand different untold possibilities that filled her with both excitement and dread. Andrew Carter as a step-father? Could the universe really be so strange?

  But one look at her mother’s radiant face silenced them all.

  “In that case…when is the big day?”

  Beth gave a high-pitched shriek and leapt upon her in a huge embrace completely forgetting the recent knife to the stomach. Rae bit her lip with a grimace, but hugged her back just as tight, a sea of happy tears spilling down her cheeks.

  When they finally pulled away, Beth looked down at the ring for the first time, twisting it around thoughtfully with her fingers. “It’s not going to be a big day. Both of us have lived full lives, we don’t need all the fanfare now. Not to mention, this isn’t the time, or place, or situation for it. We don’t even know what Fodder and the Knights are going to decide to do…”

  The soft sound of footsteps echoed from across the courtyard and Rae lifted her eyes in silent resignation.

  “Well on that note…I think we’re about to find out.”

  The two women looked up to see Carter, Devon, and Julian walked towards them, along with Fodder and about half a dozen of the Xavier guards. Before they could get close enough that Rae could even ask, Carter cleared his throat and stepped forward.

  “Well, not only has Commander Fodder come to a decision regarding our situation with Cromfield, but he’s decided to institute a plan as well.” His eyes flickered to Fodder and he added in an undertone, “One which I can hardly condone.”

  Rae shifted nervously, so distracted that for a moment, she didn’t even register the fact that she was talking to her future step-father. “Okay…what is it?”

  Fodder stepped forward as well, standing shoulder to shoulder with Carter as he stared Rae down with the hint of a smile. “How would you feel about going back to your old school?”

  Chapter 5

  “I said I got a real bad feeling about it, right?” Rae lifted her arms as best she could as Devon maneuvered a light sweater over her neck. As of last night, she had been officially discharged from the recovery wing and had been assigned a room in the residential barracks on the other side of the compound.

  The ‘compound’ itself, turned out to be a lot bigger than she’d originally thought. It was well outside London, deep in the countryside in Surrey. Built to look like something vaguely resembling a monastery, it was divided into four parts: living quarters, training rooms, governmental chambers, and the hospital/mess. Although the facility itself was state-of-the-art, most people seemed to spend the bulk of their time outdoors, meeting and training in the endless courtyards and wide, fenced-off fields dotted along the rolling green hills. In a strange way, it actually reminded her a whole lot of Guilder…

  Which brought her back to the problem at hand.

  “I’m serious,” she insisted, trying to stuff her palsied arms through the sleeves. “When Fodder said, ‘how would you feel about going back to your old school,’ I mentioned I thought it was a terrible idea, right?”

  Devon chuckled softly, catching her flailing wrist and easing it through the hole. “You know we have to try.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” she huffed. “You’re not the one having a bit of PTSD here from your last alumni visit to campus…”

  “And whose fault is that?” His eyes flashed, then cooled just as quickly. “Sorry,” he muttered, as he continued to work.

  Rae watched him in silence. Since she’d woken up a few days ago, they’d yet to discuss what had made him miss their fight with the Council in the first place. The huge blow-out they’d had when she found him collapsed in his apartment. Not to mention, his secret meetings with an Oxford scientist and a whole slew of other questionable behavior before that.

  What with the ‘near-dying’ and all, they’d been too distracted to pay it much thought. A knife to her stomach had successful diverted their attention, and from the moment Rae had opened her eyes, they’d been too caught up in the euphoria of both being alive and in love to slow down for even a second.

  But now that the IVs were out and people were waking up, now that she’d been transferred out of the hospital and into regular living quarters, their old problems were starting to circle back.

  “And hey—everything turned out okay, didn’t it?” he continued quickly, half-joking to lighten the mood. “Gabriel woke up. He was the last one. The final casualty.”

  “That’s true…he woke up.” Rae didn’t think she would never get tired of saying those words. “And gave us his blessing, by the way.”

  Devon raised his eyebrows, looking interested. “Really?”

  “Yep,” Rae looked away as he knelt down to help her with her shoes, “said that we made a good fit.”

  No point in telling him about Gabriel’s ambitious plan for an epic affair. The two already didn’t like each other, and it would only throw fuel on the fire.

  He straightened up in surprise, studying her speculatively. “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Gabriel said that?”

  “Yes.”

  “…Really?”

  Rae cocked her hips impatiently. “Yes.”

  Much to her surprise, a strange little grin was playing about his lips, accompanied by a calculating sort of mischief that made her nervous.

  “Not that I even know what us is right now,” she murmured, hurrying to change the subject, no matter the cost. “We haven’t really gotten that far yet…”

  Her voice trailed off and they both fell silent.

  After a moment, Devon grabbed one of her scarves from inside the closet and began carefully winding it around her neck. His fingers grazed her skin as he swept up her hair, and she closed her eyes with a silent sigh.

  No, they hadn’t really gotten that far yet. Yet in some ways, they were closer now than they’d ever been before.

  For the first time in their entire history, Devon had to care for her. Not just emotionally or logistically. Not by jumping off cliffs, or walking away from his family, or throwing himself into danger. But physically. He actually had to physically care for her.

  She had never been hurt before. Not anything lasting, at least—not since she mimicked Charles’ ability and learned how to heal. Okay, minus the time Kraigan had taken her healing tatù, but then she’d gotten it back again. She had never experienced the extreme vulnerability inherent in letting go of the reins and allowing someone else to take over.

  And although she would rather have done it without the pain, there was an intimacy involved that she would have never imagined.

  Last night, Devon had washed her hair. She had been trying to do it herself, of course. Stubbornly trying to lift her arms up over her head as the hot water beat down upon her. At one point, she cursed aloud in frustration. As usual, Devon heard her and came running.

  At first she’d been embarrassed. No, embarrassed was too mild a word. Mortified was a better fit. Not only that she was physically unable to reach the tiny glob of shampoo she’d managed to fling up onto her scalp, but also by the fact that she was naked. And they were broken up.

  Weren’t they?

  It was getting harder and harder to tell. If two people loved each other—deeply, profoundly loved each other—were they ever really broken up?

  Two seconds after Devon joined her in the shower, she decided that she didn’t care.

  They didn’t speak. Not the entire time. He simple offered her a tender smile, took off his clothes as well, and began working. His fingers combed gently through her hair, working the lavender soap up into a lather. When he was finished, he tilted her back into the water and rinsed it all clean even cupping his hand over her forehead so the water wouldn’t get into her eyes.

  There was no kiss
ing. No ogling. No blushing faces or nervous looks.

  There was just the two of them. As natural and perfect as could be.

  Gabriel had said it well. They were a good fit.

  Of course, that still didn’t excuse anything.

  “No,” Devon said softly, looping the scarf one final time before he took a step away, “I guess we really haven’t.”

  Rae bit her lip, wondering whether or not to proceed. “Now doesn’t really seem like the best time to get into it…”

  There was an entire Knights convoy headed to Guilder in about ten minutes. The Privy Council didn’t know they were coming, and if their reception was anything like the last time, there was going to be hell to pay.

  Devon sighed. “We could talk after…when we get back?” The idea was less than thrilling to the both of them. “Or we could do it now, if you want. I mean, we have a little—”

  The door burst open and Molly stood framed in the doorway, her hair swishing out ahead of her with the momentum of her sudden half. “Rae, can I talk to you for a second? Alone? Hi, Devon,” she added as an afterthought.

  Devon shook his head and turned back to Rae with a faint smile. “Or maybe later?”

  She forced herself to smile too. “Later it is. And thank you,” she added, as he headed out the door, “for helping me get dressed.”

  Without stopping to think, he paced back across the room and kissed her square on the mouth. “I’ll see you out there.” Then he vanished through the door, leaving her confused and breathless in his wake.

  Molly raised her eyebrows slightly as she pulled the door closed. “You two are kissing again? And he’s helping you get dressed?”

  “Yeah…” Rae tucked her hair behind her ears, “it’s a little confusing.”

  Molly snorted. “Not as confusing as if he was helping you get un-dressed, I suppose.”

  “Funny.” Rae shot her a playful glare as she gathered up her phone. “So what’s up?”

  Like flipping a switch, the gorgeous red-head grew suddenly grave. She cleared her throat, and with no preamble or context, abruptly announced: “I want to sell the penthouse.”

  Rae blinked, trying to figure out if she was serious. She certainly looked serious, only what the hell was she talking about?

  “You want to sell the penthouse?” she repeated slowly.

  “Yes, as soon as possible.”

  Rae shook her head. “I don’t understand. We just bought it, barely lived in it, and now you want to sell it?”

  Molly nodded. “Actually, you understand perfectly. That’s exactly what I want to do.”

  “Okay, but where will we live then?”

  “Well we can’t live there anymore, can we?” She tossed her fiery hair back with a touch of frustration. “Everyone knows where it is—everyone who wants to kill us, that is—and so many terrible things have already happened in there, and there’s simply no way to get that blood stain out of the Persian, and…and it’s way too high up! What it all boils down to, is it’s just no place to…”

  Rae looked on incredulously. “It’s no place to what?”

  “I just don’t want to live there anymore, okay?! We can’t. And we need the money. So I want to sell it.” She folded her hands in front of her as if the subject was closed. Then, in typical Molly fashion, she added, “So I put it on the market a few days ago.”

  Of course she already put it on the market.

  Rae shook her head and tried to gather her thoughts. In a vague way, all those reasons made sense. The place had seen more calamity than several nuclear missile silos. But everything Molly was saying was kind of predicated upon the fact that whatever fight was coming next, they weren’t going to be on the winning side. That, and her friend was clearly a manic nut-job.

  Rae decided to handle the issues one at a time, starting with the most innocuous one first. “Okay, that’s fine. I think I get everything you’re saying. But don’t you think you’re taking this a little fast? I mean, look at where we are right now?” She gestured around them. “It’s not exactly like we’re in desperate need of money—”

  “Of course we are,” Molly snapped back with a passion that was a bit over the top, even for her. “It’s time to grow up, Rae. We need to start thinking like adults. We can’t just be…I don’t know, buying up penthouses, then not living in them! It’s…” Her face screwed up as she searched her vocabulary for the right word. “It’s fiscally irresponsible!”

  Rae burst out laughing. “Fiscally. Irresponsible. Two words I never, not in a million years, thought I’d hear coming out of your mouth. This is from the girl who shops at Sky Mall.”

  “Well, I’m turning over a new leaf, aren’t I?” Molly bristled. “Not that you had much use for the penthouse anyway. You were always sneaking off to New York, or Scotland, or Devon’s house…or Gabriel’s place—”

  “Hey!” Rae exclaimed. “Bit of a delicate subject, don’t you think?”

  Molly shrugged. “I’m just saying you’re hardly going to notice it’s gone.”

  “It’s our home, Molly.”

  “Which you are hardly going to notice is gone.”

  Rae threw up her hands with an exasperated grimace. “Whatever. We can talk about it more in the car. Should be fun listening in for all the Knights riding with us.” She held open the door, but Molly paused in the frame.

  For a second, she peered frightfully down the hall—before she took a sudden step back into the room. “Actually…I think I’m going to sit this one out.”

  Rae stared at her in shock. In what world would Molly not be coming with them?

  “Molls?”

  But Molly was backing away now, shaking her head quickly back and forth and staring down the hall like at any moment, monsters might appear. “It’s really dangerous and I just can’t…I can’t go back there.”

  When the hell did something get ‘too dangerous’ for Molly Skye?!

  Rae let the door swing gently shut as she walked back towards her friend in concern. “Molls, is everything alright? Ever since we got back, you’ve been acting a little—”

  “I just don’t want to go, okay?” Molly shot back, flushing defensively. “The last time I was there I got a skull fracture, so pardon me if I don’t want to go rushing back into danger. Again.”

  There was an anger in her voice that was fully justified, but it was what lurked just beneath the anger that had Rae so worried. It was fear. Pure unadulterated fear. The kind that she had never before seen in Molly. To be honest, she didn’t think it was in her repertoire.

  “Okay…” she said carefully, taking a little step back. “That’s totally fine. I’ll just…” As she glanced towards the window, a car honked in the drive. “I’ll just see you when I get back?”

  For a split second, a devastating look of indecision flashed across Molly’s face. She actually took half a step towards Rae and the door, opening her mouth to speak, when something even stronger pulled her back. The next moment, it was like the whole thing never happened.

  “Cool. Yeah, I’ll see you when you get back.” She folded her arms across her chest and glanced casually out the window, hiding her face. But as Rae headed out, Molly couldn’t seem to help but add, “But be careful, Kerrigan. No more stabbings.”

  Rae flashed her a grin that didn’t entirely hide her worry, and saluted. “No more stabbings.” She should get that tattooed on her somewhere. Maybe right above the fairy…

  * * *

  The car was already packed by the time Rae got there. News of their previous little suicide mission to Guilder had spread quickly amongst the ranks of young Knights, and it seemed like everyone and their cousin was eager to prove themselves against the infamous Privy Council. Fortunately, most of these go-getters were confined to the training rings or compound patrols. But there were still several of them who had managed to con their way along. They watched Rae with narrowed, probing eyes as she walked past the large carrier truck and vans to slip into the one in the front.


  Carter and Beth, Luke and his dad, and Devon were already waiting there. Julian had flat-out begged to go, but with a broken arm, he wasn’t likely to be of much help if things went sideways.

  “Where’s Molly?” Devon asked as Rae climbed into the seat beside him. The second she was inside, the caravan shot off down the road.

  Rae’s eyes flickered to Luke, before she answered. “She’s not coming.”

  Devon’s eyebrows shot up, while Luke turned a worried face to the window.

  “She’s not coming?” Devon repeated incredulously. “What the hell does that even—”

  “She said it’s too dangerous,” Rae replied, keeping her eyes fixed on Luke.

  He must have felt her watching, but he seemed content to ignore her and stew in his own troubles, frowning out the window as they flew across the English countryside.

  They drove in silence most of the way there. In fact, it wasn’t until the Rae spotted the curved dome of the Oratory through the trees that Fodder finally leaned back to speak to her.

  “The plan is simple,” he said calmly. “We’re going to take what’s left of this hard-drive and present it to the upper members of the Council, along with our case. We’ll leave them to punish Mallins however they see fit, but in the meantime, we’ll be presenting a formal offer to join forces against this Cromfield. If he truly is as dangerous as you say, the sooner we strike the better. I don’t want to wait for him to resurface and come out fighting—I want to make the first move.”

  Rae couldn’t agree more. And in light of how many people of authority had let her down over the last few years, a part of her was thrilled to hear Fodder making the case for her. She nodded briskly hoping she looked professional while trying to ignore the flock of butterflies pounding away in her stomach the nearer they got to the gate. “And what would you like me to do? What would be the most helpful?”