by Kelly Meding
“A woman let us out,” Peter replied. “She said that you told her we no longer needed to hide.”
An awful, insidious idea slithered into the back of my mind. “What woman?”
“I’m not sure. She was wearing a police uniform, though.”
“Fucking hell. What color were her eyes?”
“Um.” Peter swallowed hard, cowering a bit like a kid who knew he’d messed up and expected punishment. “Blue, I think. She squinted a lot and it was dark.”
I grabbed my phone and dialed.
“Ops,” Rufus said.
“We have a big problem. Amalie tagged along for the ride when Officer Hendrix drove through our barrier spell. She’s inside the Watchtower.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she released the Lupa pups.” My irrational brain started playing the chorus from “Who Let the Dogs Out?” and I nearly laughed. “We need to find Hendrix.”
“No need to look far,” said the object of my ire.
The pups all jumped and scrambled closer to my table. I was around the other side in a flash, inserting myself between her and the others. Hendrix eased into the cafeteria, her right hand raised, gun aimed at my head. Blue fire in her eyes.
Rufus’s voice squawked over my abandoned phone.
“You’re a tricky bitch, aren’t you?” I asked.
“I saw a very intriguing opportunity to observe this Watchtower of yours from the inside,” Amalie replied. “I could not resist it.”
“So you came and you saw. Go away.”
“So soon?”
I resisted the very real urge to growl at her. “You might as well put the gun down. We both know you won’t use it.”
“You’re so certain of that?”
“You’ve said over and over how sprites can’t cause physical harm to other living creatures. That a lie too?”
“Perhaps so.” She shifted several feet to the side, then waved the muzzle of the gun at Milo. “Human. Close and lock these doors.”
Milo glanced at me. Amalie had a gun with enough bullets to kill all five of us. No sense in taking chances. I nodded at him.
We’d installed garage-style doors in case of invasion or emergency, so this section could be cut off and protected. Milo pulled the metal gate down first and it clicked into place. Voices bounced down the corridor toward us, cut off by the second door snapping in. Closing us off from our friends.
“Now what?” I asked. “Pancake breakfast?”
“You will joke until your final death, won’t you, Evangeline?” Amalie asked.
“Probably. Snark keeps me from losing my mind. What do you want?”
“A test.”
“Will this test be multiple choice?”
Milo grunted.
“You are growing tiresome,” Amalie said. “You are also not involved in this test. You, child.” She pointed the gun at John, and every muscle in my body went taut. “Come here.”
Peter growled, and I held up a hand to shush him. Amalie was up to something, but she still hadn’t physically hurt anyone. This was some kind of mind game, I was sure of it. I just didn’t want to risk our lives if it turned out she could actually pull that trigger.
Someone banged on the other side of the door.
John took three steps closer to Amalie, shoulders squared, chin up.
“Closer,” Amalie said.
He stopped an arm’s reach away, which put him about four long steps from me.
“Do you fear me?” she asked.
“I fear your actions,” he replied, voice strong. Not a single tremor, and pride warmed my chest for his bravery. “You’re threatening people I love. People I will fight for.”
“Fascinating. You would fight for that human?” She tilted her chin at me.
“Yes, I would.”
“Even though she participated in the hunt for and murder of your brothers?”
Mark made a soft noise.
John didn’t flinch. “We attacked her loved ones first. She was protecting those she loved from a very real threat. She stood up for us and helped prevent our execution by the Assembly of Clan Elders. I will fight for her.”
“A rational decision.” Amalie smiled, and that was fucking creepy. “I was uncertain how feral Lupa pups would adapt the human world. I admit, I had hoped for more chaos from you seven, but you were briefly useful.”
Milo’s phone rang.
“So you came all this way to chit chat with the boys?” I asked. “You could have saved yourself a trip and called.”
Amalie ignored me in favor of turning the gun so she grasped the barrel. She held the butt out to John. “Take it.”
John didn’t hesitate in grasping the butt of the gun. Amalie’s fingers brushed John’s and in that horrifying moment, I realized what she was doing.
“John, let go!”
Hendrix’s eyes closed and she slumped to the ground with a dull thud. John pivoted neatly, gun barrel pressed to the underside of his chin. His naturally blue eyes now glowed with an unnatural light.
Fuck, fuck, fuck and damn.
“Brother?” Peter asked. “What are you doing?”
“The sprite is in control of him,” I said. A brand-new rage heated my chest and set my heart galloping.
“Yes, she is,” Amalie said, the confirmation an awful thing to hear in John’s voice. “And she will kill this host unless you do as I tell you.”
“She won’t kill him.” I planted myself in between John’s body and his brothers. “She’ll kill herself. It’s an empty threat.”
Blue eyes flashed. “Will you take that risk with your brother’s life? Haven’t you lost enough of your kin to these humans?”
“What do you want us to do?” Peter asked.
Amalie pointed at Hendrix’s prone form. “Bite her.”
Ice water trickled down my spine. The boys had promised to never, ever bite another human being. Their bite would infect Hendrix with the Lupa virus, and it would very likely kill her. Wyatt had barely survived it himself.
“We swore we wouldn’t bite again,” Mark said. “We promised our Alpha.”
“Is that promise worth your brother’s life?” Amalie asked. Her finger shifted from the trigger guard to the trigger itself. “She’s human. Her fear will see your kind destroyed. This city is in chaos. Once the human authorities know of your existence, they’ll have you executed. Or worse, exploited for experimentation.”
The boys’ collective fear filled the room, a palpable thing that rippled over my skin and made my tether to the Break sing.
“You’ll be chained, cut up, mutilated and then, when their scientists have no more use for you, you’ll be killed.”
A long, low growl made goosebumps rise on my neck and shoulders. I glanced over my shoulder.
Oh fuck.
Both Mark and Peter had bi-shifted. Despite their bravado, they were still teenage boys living in a world that hated them, surrounded by other species that feared them, and their kin was being threatened. Their entire existence was being threatened. I needed Wyatt so badly in that moment, and he was lost to me. Fighting another battle set in motion by the queen sprite bitch in front of me.
“She won’t shoot John,” I said in my best Alpha voice. “She can’t kill him.”
Amalie pressed the gun harder into John’s throat. “Bite her.”
“Don’t.”
“Now!”
Peter lunged first.
I tackled him hard, my shoulder digging into his midsection, and we rolled into the serving counter. Plates and dishes rattled. I only caught of flash of Mark dashing past, and then the sound of thudding flesh before Peter’s thrashing sent my head into the cabinet. He snapped at my face without actually biting.
“Stop it now!” I said. “She can’t hurt him! If she could have, she’d have bitten Hendrix herself.”
“Goddamn it,” Milo shouted. “Shit, listen to her.”
Amalie started laughing, a haunting sound that turned
almost freakish with John’s still-changing voice. She sounded so damned pleased with herself that my gut cramped.
Peter tossed me off him, but didn’t attack. He remained in a crouch, his gaze fixed on the other side of the doorway. I rolled to my knees, immediately searching for Hendrix. She still lay on the floor, unconscious, untouched. Past her, Mark had lost his bi-shift, but he had blood on his mouth.
My entire world tilted sideways.
Milo sat on the ground, his right hand clutching his left shoulder, his expression so completely blank I nearly missed the threads of blood on his cheek and fingers.
“No,” I said.
His gaze met mine, and the genuine fear that blossomed in his face brought tears to my eyes.
“Goodbye, Evangeline,” Amalie said.
A rush of magic snapped through the room, and then John fell to his knees. The gun clattered to the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” Mark said. “So sorry.”
I couldn’t move. If I moved, it would be real and I didn’t want it to be real. “Milo?”
Milo nodded as the first pink roses of fever bloomed on his cheeks.
He was infected.
Chapter Fifteen
My ass was numb from being parked on a plastic chair for who knew how long when Astrid knocked on the door frame. I hadn’t seen her since Marcus raced her from the crashed SUV to the infirmary. She looked good as new, except for a big bruise on her forehead and her obvious distress.
Join the club.
“How is he?” she asked.
I glanced at the bed. Dr. Vansis had put Milo into a medically induced coma once the fever began to swing into the danger zone. In the weeks since Wyatt’s infection, Dr. Vansis hadn’t managed to create an antidote for the Lupa virus, but he’d studied it enough to apply certain human anti-virals to fight it. To hopefully keep it from killing Milo.
Wyatt had been lucky to survive his infection and find a way to live with it.
I had no idea if Milo would wake up, or who he’d been if he did.
“He’s alive,” I replied.
“I’m so sorry. I had no idea Amalie had gotten back inside of Officer Hendrix.”
“Not your fault.”
It wasn’t, and I didn’t blame Astrid. I didn’t blame Mark, either, even though Milo’s blood was very literally on his lips. Mark had been goaded into an action he would not have taken if John’s life wasn’t at risk. Mark had been so terrified of my reaction after the initial bite that he’d flatted out on the floor and exposed his throat.
But in those first few minutes, I hadn’t been able to think about the boys. All I could think about was Milo. Getting the doors up so help could get in. Insisting Milo be carried to the infirmary so his heart rate didn’t go up and pump the virus through his system faster. Milo had gone feverish and flu-ish faster than Wyatt had, which scared me. Wyatt had been bitten worse and the wound coated in Lupa blood.
Was the virus somehow more powerful in bi-shift? Or was it because Milo was still physically recovering from all kinds of wounds, and he wasn’t in top shape?
“We haven’t told anyone in the field,” Astrid said.
“Gina doesn’t know?”
“I need her focused on getting the city back under control. There’s nothing she can do for Milo right now, except fight against the chaos Amalie is trying to cause.”
I hated how right she was about that. Kismet would want to return to the Watchtower, and she couldn’t do anything except what I was doing—sitting around worrying over whether my best friend was going to live or die.
“He’s only twenty,” I said. “He’s survived more pain and heartbreak than so many people who live to be a hundred. Milo isn’t allowed to go out like this.”
“He’s survived because he’s a fighter. A warrior. Believe in that strength, Evangeline.”
“I do.” Something else in her expression, something guarded, made me ask, “What else is going on?”
She winced. “We think the Lupa pups’ fear is leaking over to Wyatt somehow. We’re hearing that his actions are becoming more erratic, less controlled.”
“He can sense their emotions, and all of the power inside of him from the Tainted is probably strengthening that bond. The boys are terrified that they’ll be executed for this.”
“That isn’t my call to make.”
“I know. It’s the Assembly’s call.” And Marcus’s cousin was the Felia Clan Elder.
This is going to be bad.
“The boys are safe,” Astrid said. “They went back into lockup willingly, and they’re being guarded by one of the Coni.”
“Safe for now.”
“I know you care about them, but they swore to the Assembly they wouldn’t bite another human. Mark broke that promise. Peter intended to.”
“Tell me something I don’t know!” I reeled my temper back in. Astrid wasn’t a fair target. “I hate everything about this. Amalie tricked them. It isn’t Mark’s fault.”
“Unfortunately, that isn’t your call to make.”
I stood up, ass smarting from being sat on for too damned long. Milo’s cheeks blazed with fever, while the rest of his body was pale. Clammy. His chest rose and fell with the steady hiss of a ventilator—a precaution, Dr. Vansis had said. Another loved one of mine fighting for his life, and I was done.
Done.
“I won’t do this anymore,” I said, more to him than to Astrid. “I won’t sit around and wait for Amalie’s next move. I can’t.”
“What are you going to do?”
“She attacked us in our home. She struck at our heart.” I turned to face Astrid, determination settling deep in my gut. “It’s time we took the fight to her.”
Astrid tilted her head. “How?”
“Amalie has lied to us about a lot of things. What if she lied when she said the Fey were leaving the city? What if they’re still in First Break, holed up in their little rock rooms, laughing at the way we’re running all over the city cleaning up their messes? What if everything going on right now is one giant distraction?”
“It’s possible. But we checked the tunnel you said that you and Wyatt used to return from First Break. It’s gone.”
“That’s not the only way down.”
“Trolls?”
I shook my head. “Me.”
“You?”
“Yes. I’ll teleport the Tainted right to Amalie’s front door.”
I’d used the power of the Sanctuary to teleport myself and Astrid miles away to the mountains north of the city. Months ago during a thunderstorm, Wyatt and I had combined our taps to the Break in order to summon half a Jeep full of weapons into a cabin. Together in the Sanctuary, with the power of the Tainted and our taps to the Break, I knew deep in my bones I could get the four of us to First Break.
First I needed to get Wyatt and Marcus not to kill each other over what went down with Mark and Milo.
I stayed with Milo until I got word from Astrid that our three hosts were being brought back to the Watchtower. We weren’t going to lay the plan on them until they were here. The fewer people who knew, the smaller the chance of the Fey somehow getting wind. As it was, Astrid had only told Rufus, and he was on board.
So instead of pacing Milo’s room, I paced up and down the corridor in front of Ops, alive with nervous energy and adrenaline. Aurora stood nearby with a tranq rifle carefully hidden behind her wings, just in case things got ugly.
I was pretty sure things were going to get ugly.
Mid-pace, the short hairs on the back of my neck prickled with awareness, and I stopped moving. I knew they were coming before the trio of Tainted turned the corner, trailed closely by Kismet and Pike. The three Tainted zeroed in on me right away, and I realized my first mistake in the way Wyatt’s eyes narrowed.
I had some of Milo’s blood on my shirt.
“I’m not hurt,” I said, hoping to put Wyatt’s immediate worry to rest.
Marcus’s nostrils flared. “It’s Milo’s. What ha
ppened?”
“He’s alive, but he is hurt.”
I didn’t protest when Marcus broke from the group and sprinted down the corridor for the infirmary. He was going to scare the hell out of Dr. Vansis. Kismet followed him.
“What happened?” Wyatt asked.
He and Phineas stopped in front of me, and it took everything in me not to cower. They somehow seemed even uglier than before, their purplish skin glistening with flecks of drying blood.
“Amalie got through our barrier spell,” I said. “She tricked the pups into thinking John’s life was in danger. She goaded them into reacting out of fear and instinct, instead of rationally.”
Wyatt’s anger turned to alarm. “One of them bit Milo.”
“Yes.”
“That’s an unfortunate turn of events,” Phineas said.
“You think? Dr. Vansis induced a coma, and he’s trying some anti-virals.”
“But even if he survives,” Wyatt said, “he’ll be changed. And the boys will be to blame.”
“Bingo.”
He gazed down the hall toward the infirmary, seemingly unaware of the occasional terrified look being thrown his way by others going about their business. “Who was it?”
“Does it matter? They’ll all be condemned as one, Wyatt. They’re terrified right now.”
“I know. I sense their fear.”
“You retrieved us from the field to inform us of this?” Phineas asked. “A phone call would have taken less time.”
Hello, Mister Snippy.
“No,” I replied. “I brought you three back so I can use the power of the Sanctuary, as well as Wyatt’s tap to the Break, to teleport us all to First Break.”
“Oh. Why?”
“Because I think that Amalie is still there. It’s her home. It’s the doorway to the world she left behind. And I’m fucking sick of standing around waiting for her to attack. It’s time for us to go on the offensive.”
Wyatt and Phineas exchanged a look, their expressions difficult to read. Wyatt wouldn’t want me to take such a huge risk. Phineas would see that it was the only way. The Tainted in each of them was probably ecstatic over the idea of a little in-person payback.
“I’m not saying we go down there so you guys can rip the wings off every pixie you see,” I added. “But if we can get to Amalie, maybe pluck a few jewels loose to show her how serious we are, it could stop this.”
