“A drug?” I echoed, my mind whirling over the information he provided.
“Da.”
I mulled that over. There was definitely something other about the drugs that, well, Olezka had been peddling. The memory of him stuffing that baggie into the woman’s cleavage flashed through my head, and the warmth of the last few moments dissolved. Instead, I twisted in my seat and grabbed Ana’s hand.
“We are almost to Kallan’s,” Z announced, never taking his eyes from the road. He was no speed demon, but a careful, calm driver. “Once we are there, I will program my phone number in your phone so you can contact me if you need help again.”
“How did you even find me in the first place? I doubt you just happened to be in the neighborhood.”
He snorted. “You live with a para, but you must forget we have better senses. I could hear the voicemails. I followed in case you needed help.”
“But you didn’t think to help me when I was dragging my best friend out of an alley?”
Ana groaned, and my attention snapped to her. Her eyes squinted tightly, reacting to the pain. “Hey, it’s going to be okay, Ana. Promise. We’re getting you help.”
“Not. Effie. You… promised,” she muttered. Z responded with a growl.
I cringed, hoping she hadn’t heard that. “Not Effie,” I reassured her. “Just rest.”
Z slowed down, and I looked out the back window. We were in a modest neighborhood that had a mixture of smaller apartment complexes and cottage-style houses. Ana and I had wanted to move into the area, but the prices were outrageous back when we first moved to the city. I could only imagine what they were now.
“This is where you guys live?”
“Nyet. Kallan lives here. I do not live with him.”
Ignoring that, I faced forward. We stopped at a cottage house that was white with navy blue trim. It looked like the All-American suburban dream.
Kallan opened the navy blue door and stepped out of the house and onto the porch. He was barefoot, wearing slim, fitted jeans that made everything about his attire scream relaxed, but his hand was curled tightly around the porch pillar framing the entrance way to his house. The second Z stopped the car, Kallan was standing outside the driver’s side door.
“Is she alright? What happened?”
Z turned to me. “Yes, Sixx. What happened?” Z asked as if I had all the answers.
I was as much in the dark as him, sort of. But there was no way I would tell him how I only went on the date to get more information about him and his organized crime ring without telling my only form of back-up. Of course, that was because I didn’t know she was about to go out and do something even stupider.
Injecting as much sincerity into my voice, I answered, “I don’t know; Ana just said she was going on patrol and kept me posted with addresses.”
“I told you we should have confronted them sooner about going out on the streets,” Kallan snarled as he gingerly lifted Ana out of the back of the car. He held her carefully, his features softening for a moment before hardening when his gaze settled on me like it was my fault.
It wasn’t, but the blame still sat heavily on my shoulders.
“Back off, Kallan. Sixx was with me tonight. Anastasia should not have gone out alone.”
“As if the human would have been able to help her?” Kallan snapped. A nasty feeling swirled inside me, and I couldn’t help the tears that prickled in my eyes.
“Kallan, be very careful with your words,” Z chastised. “I will repeat this once: Sixx was with me. Do not blame the wrong people.”
Z opened his car door and walked over to my side, waiting for me to get out of the car. Kallan hurriedly carried Ana inside, his footsteps lithe and graceful, while I hovered beside the car, uncertain if I should follow.
“She is your friend, Sixx. She will want to wake up knowing you are there. Kallan is only being a protective male.” Z grabbed my hand and led me inside. The house was charming but sterile with no touches to belie the personality of its owner. It looked like it belonged in a magazine. There weren’t many personal touches to the place. With slate gray walls, dark, hardwood floors covered with a white and blue area rug, and a heavy, wood and iron coffee table, the overall look was farmhouse sleek.
“Come, sit. I will make you some tea. Or do you prefer vodka? Though Kallan does not keep good vodka in stock.”
The attempt at a joke didn’t make me smile. Instead, I twisted my fingers tightly together and tried to peek farther into the house.
“Kallan took her upstairs to the guest room so that he may heal her in peace and allow her to have somewhere to rest. As soon as he is done, I will take you up, da?”
“Please.”
Z nodded and disappeared farther into the house. I realized it was to the kitchen when I heard the whistle and hiss of a tea kettle a few minutes later. I moved into the living room and nervously perched on the edge of a pristine white loveseat, glancing up the stairway and wishing I could be in the room with them.
Z reappeared with two steaming mugs in hand and passed me one. “I did not add anything; I wasn’t sure how you would want it.”
“This is fine.” I cupped my frozen hands around the mug, hoping the heat would unthaw my fingers.
“Drink. Warmth inside will help,” Z said softly. On autopilot, I followed his order, mostly because my thoughts were upstairs. When I heard the creak of floorboards upstairs, I jolted in my seat. Light footsteps padded down the polished wood staircase. Kallan’s hair was mussed as if he had run his hand through it. I didn’t realize they had been upstairs so long but noticed my tea had gone cold.
“You can go up and see her if you want. She must have run into some Dark mages. Because we are Light fae, their magic taints ours. Anastasia does not know how to siphon off their type of magic and was becoming weaker by the minute. Fae cannot absorb that kind of taint for long. Dark mages use magic they siphon from the human realm, from their unnatural materials,” Kallan sneered.
I nodded, not really comprehending what he meant but agreeing so I could go see Ana. Kallan showed me the way to the upstairs guest room and opened the door on silent hinges to reveal Ana lying on the bed with several thick, plush blankets covering her. I entered the room and tugged a comfy looking reading chair beside the bed.
Kallan left, his footsteps retreating down the hall and back down the stairs. I breathed a little easier when he was gone. He obviously didn’t much care for me being there, but Ana was my friend, my sister, and I would stay until we could both return home.
“I’m so sorry, Ana. I am so, so sorry,” I whispered, grasping her hand gently.
I sat there in silence for hours, but as my adrenaline diminished and the events of the day finally caught up to me, sleep pulled me under.
****
Whispered voices in the room roused me from a deep sleep, but I remained curled up on the chair, listening to them and trying to figure out who they belonged to. Ana and I made the decision to keep all male guests away from our place, so I had no idea who they were. My heart rate spiked even though I felt disoriented and cramped. Why am I sleeping in a chair?
“They’re being reckless. We need to put a stop to it.”
“We will.”
“And Ana? She needs to be protected. The human is only a distraction. A weakness.” Ouch. I don’t like the sound of that guy.
“Be very careful how you speak about her,” a darker, deeper voice rumbled, causing a tinge of desire to slip through my barely conscious mind.
I pushed that thought away and tried to focus, and reality started to crash in. I knew those voices. They could only belong to two people.
“So, you truly believe that she is your…”
“I know she is,” Z interrupted. “My kind does not play games.”
“Which side?”
“Both. My parents knew immediately that they were destined for one another. They were lucky to have that. I have to fight for her, but I will do so.”
&nbs
p; Kallan argued, “You know most won’t see her as an equal.”
“And your kind will see Ana as equal? She is part human. You realize how dangerous that is for most paras, but for your kind, they see it as a taint.”
“She is strong. They will see that.”
“And the same is for my priyatel.”
Kallan grunted. They both went quiet. I thought they left when a floorboard creaked closer to me. I forced my breathing to remain steady and calm.
“Zhizn' moya.” Z’s voice whispered over my skin as his hands and arms wrapped around me. He lifted me and cradled me close to his chest. Unable to help myself, I breathed in his smokey scent, loving how it calmed me down once again and lulled me back to sleep. I would look up what the words he said meant tomorrow. For now, I allowed sleep to take me under once again.
Tomorrow would be better. Ana would be healed. We would return home, and I would be armed with more information… as long as we escaped here without these overprotective dudes watching over us. In the place of half-consciousness, I enjoyed the feeling of being safe in his arms, his scent filling my senses.
It would end soon enough.
Chapter 11
“Where the hell is she?”
Jolted awake by the sound of Ana’s voice, I sat up. My curls were in a crazy rat’s nest sticking out from my head, and my vision was blurry. I blinked, amazed I slept so well since I normally tossed and turned when I was worried.
My vision remained blurry after a few blinks. I was known for falling asleep with my glasses on, and since I didn’t remember taking my glasses off last night, I assumed they would still be on my face. I reached for where I normally put them, but my hand hit air, and in my half-asleep state, I didn’t have great balance.
I yelped as my center of gravity was thrown off and I fell off the bed in a tumble of arms and legs. Crashing to the ground, I blinked a couple of times until I realized three bodies were standing over me. I squinted. My eyesight got worse every year, but I could still make out two distinctly male figures and one female.
“Uh, hi?”
“What are you doing down there, pchelka?”
“I forgot where I was. Then, I reached for my glasses on my end table that’s not there because I’m not in my apartment,” I snapped. “Can you guys take a step back? ‘Cause quite honestly, my depth perception’s not great. I’m going to need a couple feet.”
“Is she always like this when she wakes up?” a more lyrical, lilting voice asked. If I remembered correctly, that was Kallan, the stern, unforgiving one the night before.
I pressed my lips together, thoroughly irritated. I had no patience for him this morning. “No, I’m cranky because I fell off an unfamiliar bed. I had a very long night. My friend was at death’s door. I got grief from an angry fae guy, and as far as I can see – which admittedly is only about three feet ahead of me – I see no coffee.”
“Yup, that’s my girl,” Ana said with a prideful tone.
“Pchelka, your glasses.” A hand reached out and held them out for me. I took them gratefully.
“’Kay, now that Sixx is awake. We’ll be leaving. Come on, Sixx.” Ana stepped forward and gripped my elbow to help me stand. I climbed to my feet ungracefully and raked my curls back while I mutely glared at Kallan. I liked him up until last night even if my anger was misplaced. I knew where the blame lay, but I wanted to lash out for a second to abate my own guilty thoughts.
“You’re not leaving until we speak with both of you,” Kallan demanded, glancing at Ana but glaring at me.
“That’s okay; we have a lot to do today, so we’ll get out of your hair. Thanks so much for your help last night,” Ana said flippantly like she hadn’t been so beaten up she was unconscious for most of the night. Then, she switched gears. “Sixx, don’t you have to work today?”
I blinked at her, confused since she knew I had an evening shift today. But she nudged me sharply with her elbow.
“Oh, yes. I work this morning. Early, early. I need to go since I went in late yesterday.” I stumbled to put together a plan, obviously not as quick on my feet as Ana was.
“Right. And our friend Paris was planning to stop by early to pick up that thing, remember?” Ana added meaningfully.
Paris was our quick escape plan. We wouldn’t even stop for a potty break. Grab the keys and get gone. Whatever happened before I woke up had her unsettled. Or it might have been waking up in the house of the two guys we suspected were part of a drug ring operation that had caught the attention of humans as well.
Probably that.
Or… Oh, holy heck.
My mouth dried up as I realized for the first time that Z was shirtless. Like, completely shirtless. His hair was disheveled, and it looked like he’d just woken up as well. Then, I glanced over at the bed I just fell out of and noticed it had been slept in on both sides, and I was notorious for sleeping on one side only. My eyes widened.
I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times.
No. I snorted to myself. Nooo. No. He wouldn’t have. He wouldn’t, would he?
Then my gaze dropped to the miles – seriously, how big was this dude? – and miles of tanned flesh and muscles that looked honed to the point of deadly weapons. Shit.
“Paris… Paris… Paris,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth to Ana. She gave me a strange look and flicked her gaze over my para. No, he’s not mine. But that didn’t explain the stroke of jealousy that flared when her gaze turned appreciative.
“Well, we need to go.” Ana grabbed my hand and tugged me between Z and Kallan.
I faced Kallan as we passed by, keeping my gaze studiously averted from Z. I didn’t know what I would have done if I’d been face-to-bare chest with Z. Whom I couldn’t help but notice was hairless. Did he wax? Shave? Then I remembered the night before when he burst into flames. Yup. That would explain the lack of hair.
I gulped. Couldn’t forget to tell Ana about that. Or look up the other nicknames he had been calling me. Along with rarog. My mornings were filled with a bombardment of thoughts and things I needed to get done throughout the day. It pained me, but I considered calling into work.
Instead, I focused on the here and now. Ana tugged us to the stairs and we rushed down.
“Stop!” a commanding voice echoed from the top of the stairs. I cringed and slowed, but Ana just looked over her shoulder and smiled.
“So sorry we have to rush out so quickly, but we really do need to be going. Thanks again for your help!” Ana waved and continued to drag me out of the house.
Z remained at the top of the stairs, and I glanced over my shoulder at him for a moment.
“I’ll see you soon, priyatel,” Z promised. I gulped.
****
“Effie?”
My cheeks burned with shame.
“You went to Effie? The guy we nicknamed, to his face, Effing Asshole?”
“What did you expect me to do? I didn’t have any other options!” I argued as Ana paced in front of me.
I explained how we ended up at Kallan’s on the drive back to our place. When she woke up, she was completely disoriented. She demanded answers from Kallan, but he didn’t know the whole story and couldn’t find Z who could explain, so she demanded to be told where I went. When she opened the door, there I was in the bed with Z. And while logically I knew nothing happened between us, it still made me feel horribly awkward.
Sleeping next to each other felt incredibly intimate. But I ignored that for now. I could only deal with so much drama at once.
Ana stopped her pacing and fixed me with a glare. “I specifically made you promise not to go to him.”
I fidgeted under her steely perusal. “I never promised you I wouldn’t, and you know he would’ve only asked for a pint of blood. He likes us!”
“Yeah, but he likes you a little too much! I don’t trust him with you, especially when you offer up your blood as payment for healing me,” Ana scolded again.
“So, it wasn’t my most bri
lliant plan, but that’s why we plan these things ahead! You know I don’t do my best work under pressure.”
“Where were you, anyway? I had a couple missed phone calls from you, but when I called back, I couldn’t get ahold of you.”
My stomach dropped, and I knew the moment had arrived to come clean about my sort-of date with Z, but then Ana launched into the rest of her story.
“I wanted to tell you I saw something in the bar.” I breathed a sigh of relief at the reprieve, but Ana didn’t notice, as engrossed as she was in her story. “So, Mark, the vampire bartender at the Xibalba, pretty much hired me on the spot. As I headed out, I saw a drug deal go down and I followed. Unfortunately, that’s when the trouble started. A few dark magic mages saw me leaving and followed.”
Ana explained the three mages jumped her, thinking she would be an easy target, but she put up a fight. Ana tried to create an electric shield with her magic to deflect their dark magic, but because hers was more of a natural magic, the Dark mages’ artificial energy weakened her faster. They gave up when a group of people started to pass by, but the damage had been done.
While listening to her story, my thoughts kept returning to the night before. Specifically, the part where Z moved me from the chair and into bed with him. Well, to the bed, at least. I didn’t know for sure he was there with me, but my gut screamed he had been.
“I need to tell you something, Ana.”
She squinted her eyes and gave me a speculative look, picking up on my unease. “What?” she asked carefully.
“I was sort of on a date with Z while all that was going down with you. My phone fell out in my car, and I didn’t have it because I rode with him in his car. As soon as I realized it was missing, I freaked out, and he took me back to my car.” I hung my head guiltily. “I should have called you before I went out and told you what I was doing.”
Ana stopped her pacing and stared at me. Her mouth gaped open as she slowly blinked. “You went on a date with the enemy?”
“He cornered me! I figured I could use the opportunity to do a bit of my own snooping. That’s why I was trying to get ahold of you, but when you didn’t answer, I figured you were working at Xibalba already. I’d hoped to be done and back home before you.”
Sixx and the Hellhound: The Sidekick Chronicles Page 7
