Ignited

by Desni Dantone

CHAPTER 21

  If the Skotadi thought they had the element of surprise, they were sorely mistaken. Nathan turned on them, let go three thundering shots, and three sets of golden eyes vanished. He was so fast, so practiced, so good...

  It wasn’t enough. As he took one down, two more stepped forward. Three of them took him over, and tackled him to the ground before he could reach the door where I stood watching in horror. They were bigger and faster, and crawled on top of him as they worked him over into a face down position. His gun spun across the floor and disappeared into the shadows.

  His eyes found mine. “Kris, run!”

  My response was automatic, and not at all what Nathan, or I, expected.

  I threw myself on top of the closest Skotadi and encircled my arms around his neck. The move caused enough of a ruckus for Nathan to wriggle the other gun from his waistband. He flipped onto his back, gun ready, and took out the two Skotadi on top of him, then the one I was wrangling.

  The body evaporated from beneath me and I crumbled to the floor. Nathan pulled me to my feet and hooked one arm around me as another wave of Skotadi advanced on us. He popped off two more rounds, finding both targets.

  “I’m almost out of bullets,” he muttered to me between shots. “We’re going to have to run for it.”

  No way. The door was too far. We would never make it and, even if we did, then what? Maybe Nathan could have outrun them, but not with me slowing him down. There were maybe half a dozen of them left. Too many. After all he had done, they would overcome us unless...

  The Mustang. Alec. He was our only chance.

  Before I said anything to Nathan, the remaining sea of flaming eyes charged. This time, they focused on me.

  One of them wrestled me from Nathan’s side. I wasn’t pulled far before Nathan yanked me free, grabbed the Skotadi’s head and twisted. With a sickening snap of the neck, the Skotadi’s eyes flickered out.

  As he let the body drop to the floor, Nathan shot over my head at another, and another. He pulled me to his side as he turned to the next one.

  Now, I have seen Nathan in action a few times, and have come to rely on his always dependable ability to get us out of bad situations. If I had to choose anyone to have my back in any situation, it would have been him. He was good. He was fast. He was effective. And I had never, ever, seen him hesitate.

  Until now.

  He froze with his gun pointed at the head of a woman Skotadi, the barrel grazing the skin between her eyes. Neither of them moved. The remaining Skotadi halted their assault. It was as if the world had stopped turning.

  I was surprised to see a woman, let alone a pretty one. Even though her features were hardened by the permanent scowl standard on all Skotadi, it was obvious she had once been beautiful. Her dark hair was pulled back in a high tight bun and, except for the shiny gold ring, her eyes were black. But whereas most Skotadi were unnaturally pale, she had an olive complexion that softened her features.

  While her appearance had initially caught my attention, what I now noticed above everything else was the way Nathan looked at her.

  He wasn’t blown away by her beauty. He wasn’t sizing up a Skotadi threat. He was in a trance as if, in his eyes, he was looking at a ghost. Her name left his lips as a whisper. “Lil?”

  As in Lillian? As in the tattoo on his arm? As in his girlfriend who was supposed to be dead? I didn’t know how, but seeing the look on his face, I knew it was true.

  She took him in calculatingly, and her lips twisted into a wicked smile. “Hello, sweetie,” she said in a voice as cold as her eyes. She rotated her head slowly to fixate on me. “I see you’ve still got your pet.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what that was supposed to mean, and I didn’t get a chance to find out. Once her focus shifted to me, Nathan sprang to life. He stepped sideways to put himself between her and me. He must have noticed that his dead girlfriend was very much alive, and very evil. It wasn’t hard to miss.

  “Aw, I’m not going to hurt her,” Lillian purred. Her eyes cut into me. “I need her.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that.

  With a sharp nod of her head, the rest of them descended upon us. As a large Skotadi pulled my arms behind my back, I felt the wave of panic seize my body. It threatened to cripple me until I met Nathan’s eyes. He held mine with his, and I drew my strength from him.

  They wanted us alive. I didn’t know why, and didn’t know if I should have been relieved or concerned. I settled with relief for now. I would worry about why they wanted us alive later.

  We were led by Lillian and three beefy escorts farther into the barn and to the real safe house, which, as it turned out, served as a large Skotadi base. And by large, I meant large.

  The compound was built under acres of farmland, and was accessed through a trap door in the floor of the barn. Steep and narrow steps chiseled out of the earth took us down and dumped us into an elaborate network of tunnels. It was cold and smelled of damp dirt and a touch of sulfur that stung my nose. Every fifty yards there was an overhead orange light so obscenely bright I preferred the stretch of darkness between them.

  We walked so long and turned so many times, I lost all sense of direction. There were no signs, no maps. They navigated the tunnels by memory, effectively ensuring that Nathan and I would have no way of figuring our way out if we managed to escape.

  When I saw the brick jail cell looming ahead, all hope of escape vanished. I wanted to panic...again, but even though I couldn’t see his eyes, I felt Nathan’s reassuring presence behind me. He held me together.

  They removed our restraints and threw me in first. I waited for Nathan to spring, and to suddenly find ourselves fighting for our lives again, but he didn’t, and was tossed in behind me. Lillian oversaw the entire process then turned the key in the lock, securing our captivity behind bars. The muscled men retreated, leaving her alone with us.

  Her eyes were on Nathan, hard and unforgiving. “Isn’t it great how I know all your tricks? Let me guess. You parked half a mile back and walked in?”

  He stared straight through her, surprisingly free of emotion. I considered the possibility that he was in shock. Other than to say her name, he hadn’t spoken a word since her return from the dead, and he chose not to acknowledge her with an answer now.

  Rather, he turned his back to her and crossed the length of the cell to where I cowered in the corner. Over his shoulder, I saw Lillian smirk before she withdrew into the tunnel. Positioned mercifully between two overhead spotlights, we were bathed in soft shadows, with just enough light to see each other.

  “You alright?” he asked as he scanned me for any obvious signs of injury.

  “Physically, I’m fine. Emotionally and psychologically, probably not so much. But what else is new?” Really, it was becoming normal, me being screwed up. “How about you?”

  “Fine,” he said hastily, like his well-being didn’t matter.

  “You sure? Was that...” I paused, unsure how to approach the subject. “I mean, is she...”

  “Yeah. And no, I don’t know any more than you do.” His tone made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it.

  I wanted to know how it was possible, if he had known it was possible. There was a lot I still didn’t understand about this new world I belonged to. Based on Nathan’s reaction, switching teams was not something known to happen. We were witnesses to something extraordinary and, from the looks of it, were in the middle of something big, and we didn’t have a clue what it was.

  “You probably should have gone back to Joe’s when you had the chance,” I muttered.

  Nathan’s lips twitch into a reluctant grin. It was the one thing I wanted to see the most at the moment.

  Other than maybe daylight.